Breaking Interstellar: Android Lives Matter

by Michael Tobin

  Chapter Seventeen: Gravity waves

  Ahead, and at about 1,000-miles-altitude above the surface of Mars, four recently rescued astronauts watch the monitor as they quickly approach two large skeletal frameworks in geostationary orbit. Although illuminated in much the same fashion as the starships during their construction, these two future vessels are being assembled in near anonymity on the opposite side of the planet, from where most of the populace works and lives. While some things are impossible to actually keep secret, a policy of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ seems to work adequately enough in this case. Doctor Sohn wishes to keep their existence as low-profile as possible, and for as long as possible. Hopefully, keeping the haters at bay.

  While the existing starships have a tremendous amount of logistical supplies onboard, there will come a time after they arrive at their destinations, when a re-supply ship will be most welcome. These two ships will carry more food and equipment than all four of the starships combined, and will each travel to one of the targeted new home worlds. Without the need for carrying human genetic materials and associated equipment, there will be room in each ship to accommodate 50 android astronauts, supplies, and the makings for a space elevator.

  Nyla and Wil watch with fascination as they approach the first of the two giant frameworks. They had heard the doctor mention these projects, but he had never really elaborated on them. And, with so much more going on, it was easy to forget about these future ventures. At a size that dwarfs the existing starships, these behemoths won’t even be ready for another 9-years. There’s a good chance that it’ll be the doctor’s successor, who sees them depart Martian space.

  “I never imagined that these ships were going to be so large!” Nyla exclaims, with astonishment. “I mean, seeing is believing, but wow! Our motherships could easily fit inside one of these. They’ll surely be welcome, when they arrive.”

  “Max pulled out all the stops on these projects.” Wil states with true astonishment and long whistle. “How long have you boys been working on these?” He asks.

  “I’ve been out here on and off for about 15-years now,” Tommy says, adding, “and Johnny here just began his first 2-year-tour.” He leans closer, as if to divulge a great secret, but doesn’t whisper. “The Poor kid, is just a rookie!” He says jocularly, in a condescending fashion. Johnny’s face turns red, as he hopes Nyla and Amy won’t hold that against him.

  Tommy allows the transport to continue along the entire length of the framework, before turning towards the space station to return the hero’s. The gargantuan vessel stretches for almost 3,000-feet. It can be easily seen that this ship will have a double hull, like the other starships. With a basic shape of an oblong lozenge. The final dimensions of the outer hull will be approximately 3,000-feet-long, 1,000-feet-wide, and nearly 500-feet-thick.

  Also, there’s no large spaceship inside to take up precious room. Ninety-percent of useable interior space, is reserved for the space elevator system. The current missions to Oberon Prime and Titania Alpha will not focus any logistics on such a towering endeavor. However, much of the hull and ice-mass from the first motherships, will help act as the counterweights that are so crucial for this type of lifting system to exist and function. Tommy and Johnny dock with the injured space station, bidding farewell and good luck to their new friends.

  The stations common area, and the adjacent cafeteria are packed with people and smiley faces, as the quad of celebrities exit the elevator. Now it’s Nyla’s turn to be bowled over, as she has never before had so much attention poured on her like this. The station manager gives Magnus a symbolic key to the station, in show of gratitude. And Doctor Sohn informs him via video, that he’s purchased a freshly refurbished harpoon-class asteroid hunter for him from a group of technicians at the station. They had worked for several years to bring it back to showroom quality, and are proud to see it go to a good person. Also, the medical department is donating one of their spare chambers for the savior of the station, and their lives. For at least a half-hour, the crowd neither dissipates nor quiets down from the celebratory clamor of the gathering. The air seems electrified, as the two androids enjoy an excitement from the group of humans like they have never experienced.

  However, all good things must come to an end, and the station manager quietly and politely asks the gathering to disperse. The combined mass of the crowd on one part of the rotating station is putting unnecessary stress on the already damaged structure. Even though there’s a balancing mechanism in the hub, it too can become overburdened. Like a finely tuned Swiss watch, the balance of the station is paramount. It wouldn’t pay to have the place saved from disaster, only to have the celebration do the job instead.

  The next several days pass without additional excitement. However, the doctor calls for an extra push, as he did for the rocket launches after the attempted nuclear attack on Higgs-Field. Even many of the androids get into the act, donning space suits to assist in any way they can. Mostly it’s the Isaac Newton that needs the greatest amount of attention, but soon even that vessel is ready for the journey. The next day will be the sendoff of humanity’s best hopes for long-term survival.

  That day arrives quickly, and 208 android pioneers ready themselves on their respective vessels. Doctor Max sends a heartfelt video bidding bon voyage to his mechanical hero’s. After the many are situated within the crowded bridge compartments on all four motherships, doctor Sohn’s video begins to play on the circular monitor.

  Not wanting to cause undue homesickness, the doctor makes the video inside of the Crane’s family room in Belize, instead of outside in the spacious, sunny world. He, Shirley, Tina and Carter along with the gang of retired asteroid hunters, bid a heartfelt farewell and best wishes for a safe and successful journey to Oberon Prime and Titania Alpha. Nyla and Wil also send a farewell video to their friends and family with news that they’ve decided to enter hibernation mode shortly after departure, as did all the rest of the android pioneers.

  The journey from Earth to Mars was long enough for the androids to learn how stressful it truly is to be so confined and inactive. Hibernation is going to be the rule, rather than the exception. Teams of four will wake periodically, to check on the ships systems, and get the required amount of exercise to stave off deterioration. While Max anticipated this natural reaction, it’s still hard for him to get a grip on the fact that he is probably looking at the last video from his two loved ones. While in transit, communication will be for emergency only.

  “Operations, this is SPS Albert Einstein; over.” Talia calls for permission to depart from Martian orbit.

  “SPS Albert Einstein, this is operations. Go ahead; over.” Myles Nolan answers.

  “Good day to you sir; we request permission to depart from orbit; over.” She asks nonchalantly, as if asking for the time of day.

  “Good day to you also, young lady.” Myles returns a warm greeting to the pretty face on his monitor. “Permission granted; have a safe and prosperous journey.” He says, sincerely. Not wishing to endure a long goodbye.

  Onboard the Einstein, most of the androids are saying farewell to their shipmates and settling into their hibernation chambers. Nyla and Wil’s team volunteer for departure, and will see the vessel safely beyond Martian gravitational influence, before entering their own chambers. Outside the huge vessel, monstrous scaffolding and support structures split into separate sections. Each, is then towed from the area by powerful space-tugs. This is the first time the mothership has been free from captivity during her entire 43-years of construction.

  Talia floats from the communications console and straps herself into a seat next to Nyla at navigation. After hearing that they have permission to leave orbit, and verifying that the vessel is clear of all construction equipment, Nyla reaches for the engines control panel. She looks to her friends. “Well gang, this is what we came here for, is everyone ready?” She inquires excitedly.

  Wil, who is proudly seated in the command chair, says in unison with Ta
lia and Omari, that they’re ready. Nyla carefully enters the necessary codes into mother’s computers, and after Talia verifies their accuracy, she smilingly removes a tiny note that was taped to the execute-button, and pushes it good. The note was simple; ‘Bon voyage, and good luck! Love, Amy’. She puts it in a pocket, hoping to give it to a future Amy, someday. She focuses on the flight-data readings, as 100 fusion-engines, mounted on two arrays, spool up from an idle configuration and begin producing thrust. Long streams of plasma, exiting each nozzle. Thrusters working hard, to keep the trajectory of the great behemoth fine-tuned and on course.

  It takes almost an hour, before the big mothership is noticeably moving forward. Even though the array of heavy-duty engines is pushing with millions-of-pounds of force, it pales in comparison to the weight of the vessel, which is in the millions-of-tons range. The others on the three remaining motherships, wait patiently for the Einstein to build momentum. Soon it’s the SPS Isaac Newton that takes center stage, as the crew obtains departure approval and the large array of fusion engines, come to life.

  With each passing second, the Einstein accelerates. Over time, the vessel will achieve fantastic speeds in relation to human or android experience, but still excruciatingly slow for interstellar distances. Nyla and her three shipmates monitor the many systems involved with this delicate and crucial part of the departure. Once the vessel begins to move, massive amounts of inertial energies build within the structure and maneuvering is a slow and heavily calculated process.

  So, it’s very important to make sure that the ships heading is accurate from the get-go. If their trajectory were monitored by a novice, it would seem as if they are starting off in the wrong direction. However, just as one would lead a fast-moving target, the starships must also lead the star systems they wish to meet up with, in the distant future. The math involved is mind-boggling! It would have given Isaac Newton, the father of celestial mechanics, a nosebleed to calculate without powerful modern-day computers. Luckily, astrophysicists had fine-tuned that aspect of their journey long before Nyla ever pushed that execute button.

  The Einstein and Newton are first to leave Martian orbit. They’ll travel relatively close together during their long journey to Oberon Prime, which is the most distant of the two worlds chosen for the missions. However, for the interest of safety and security, the vessels traveling to each planet will maintain a separation of about one-million-miles. This will help insure that encounters with space debris or other unforeseen dangers won’t affect both ships equally. And yet the distance is not so great as to prohibit assistance in the event of an emergency.

  At the space station, everyone is having a long day, as the push to get all the ships out of Martian orbit, becomes a long drawn out affair. While this day has come with great anticipation, few of the humans directly involved with the departure, have time to contemplate the momentous occasion. When the last mothership leaves orbit, a combination of emotions will envelope the entire Martian community. There will be joy, and a sense of extreme accomplishment. But mixed in will be a sadness, a malaise of sorts. Perhaps not unlike when parents see their last offspring out of the nest. It will take months for the lethargy to run its course. Efforts will swing to the new re-supply ships. Once again, everyone will become attached to the new babies being built. Life will be good, once again.... yet temporarily so.

  By the end of the day, there are four coordinates in Martian space that seem rather empty, as the SPS Cecilia Payne is the last of the interstellar spacecraft to gain measurable momentum, and head into the infinite void of deep space. At the end of his long shift, Myles watches with more than a little sadness, as the array of fusion engines on the Payne is the only visible sign that the four big starships, were ever actually there. Suddenly, the last 5-years of his busy life seems to have evaporated into a misty memory, that only the next challenge can remedy.

  Onboard the Einstein, all except for Nyla, Talia, Omari and Wil, have entered hibernation-mode. There they’ll remain, until it’s either time for exercise, or an emergency causes them to re-animate. It’s only been 4-weeks since leaving Martian space, and boredom is already rearing its ugly head. The vessel is rapidly building speed. Allowing the main engines to use their immense power for acceleration, instead of just overcoming massive inertial forces. Already, artificial gravity due to acceleration, is nearing 25-percent-g. Over time, it will inch higher and higher.

  To ward off boredom, the four androids make do with the weak gravity, and comically attempt playing handball. They cause the first substantial dents inside the sports compartment. But as time slips past, they can’t put off hibernation for much longer. They make one final assessment of the many systems operating onboard. Talia, notices an approaching anomaly on long-range sensors. “Hey! There’s something headed our way from deep space!”

  Omari moves closer, inspecting the radar signature. “Wow! Whatever it is, it’s speeding right along!” Before the astronauts, or ships computers can properly analyze the object, it passes closely, at nearly 5-percent the speed of light, and heading in the general direction of Earth.

  “It’s gone!” Nyla exclaims of the phantom, that passed so speedily in the night.

  “Well, whatever it was, it didn’t stick around to cause us trouble. I like that part!” Wil exclaims, as the Einstein continues on its lonely path.

  “Wait!” Talia exclaims. “Whatever that is, its swung around and coming back fast!”

  The object wastes no time accelerating back to the lumbering earth ship. Nyla and her friends can only gaze dumb-struck at the main monitor as a ghostly saucer-shaped spaceship gracefully passes. Like a wondrous apparition, the hull of the saucer is bathed in a layer of illuminate fog that clings nakedly to her skin. At about 200-feet-in-diameter, the intruder sails past at only 100-meters distance, wobbling in a way that foretold of a salutation of sorts. Almost as if the pilot and crew of the mysterious disk, knew about the earth vessel.

  “Wil.... I’m getting goose-bumps!” Nyla jokes, as she keeps her eyes on the visitor.

  “I can’t believe my circuits!” He quips, adding. “I think they know who we are, but that’s impossible! Whoever built that ship, didn’t come from Earth!” He surmises correctly.

  “Well, she’s a beautiful ship all right. Let’s hope they remain friendly.” Omari responds, as the ghost-ship sails into the dark void. At a speed of 100-mph faster than the Einstein, it’s seemingly gone in a flash, leaving the four androids wondering if it wasn’t just a space-induced hallucination.

  With the excitement of the moment past, they find all is still running smoothly with the ships systems. Before leaving the bridge, each looks at the tiny dots on the large monitor that are not stars. One is red, and the other is blue. It will be another 40-years before they even get close to the edge of the solar system. Time to hibernate....

  “Wil, as much as I’m going to miss your funny looking face, I think we should call it a night and head off to dreamland.” She admits, defeatedly.

  “I agree, wholeheartedly my dear. In fact, I do believe that you could use some beauty sleep in a bad way.” He jokes, and gets the look for his effort.

  “We’re ready too.” Talia agrees. “We’re of no more use here, anyway. Everything is set to automatic.” One look at Omari, and it’s easy to tell that he’s as ready as everyone else.

  After one last check with the life-support console, they see that everything is nominal and set to automatic; there’s truly nothing more to do. The ships air temperature is regulated to 50-degrees-F to save energy, and the cryo-chambers are holding steady at near absolute zero. After making sure the security system is armed and ready, they head off to the chambers and dreamland.

  “Now don’t you go and get emotional on me.” She teases, fighting the dread of forever-sleep.

  “Oh, I’m just wondering if you need me to keep the night-light on for you.” He jokes, while trying to hide his emotions.

  “I’ll be just fine, Wil. I’ll try to dream ab
out you, if you do the same about me.” She promises, and activates the networking system that will allow them to join into each other’s dream-states and possibly interact; albeit at an extremely low level of sub-consciousness, as where most dreams abide. It’s a newly developed system that’s being used on the starship hibernation chambers for the first time. Testing on Earth seemed to show a much higher level of comfort during long term sleep. It always helps to not be lonely, even if it is only a virtual companionship....

  “I’ll try young lady .... I’ll try .... Oh yes, and by the way .... I love you.” He says with a smile, leans over the edge of the chamber and kisses her on the lips for the first time ever. She kisses him back, and will dream about more, as time passes like an endless river.

  “I love you too, Wil.” She replies in kind, all the while lovingly gazing into his big blue eyes. Then, he helps her into the chamber, and sadly closes the lid, before turning to his own.

  The Einstein and Newton, continue diverging from the trajectory of the Payne and Faraday, as they get farther from their point of origin. Each set of motherships, goes quietly into the night. Beyond the safety of mother’s outer hull; dark, cold loneliness prevails. The endless void, swallows the large vessels as if they’re nothing at all. Just the tiniest of habitable islands, in the grand inhospitable void of deep space. Each, at the mercy of the harsh and cruel laws of nature.

  For the next 5-years, the starships will be traversing the section of our solar system where the majority of the metal came from for their construction. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is nearly 200-million-miles-wide. As noted earlier, this region of space has been depicted as a crowded and dangerous place, with big asteroids zooming this way and that. However, the four starships don’t encounter those fanciful conditions at all, and pass through the belt without any problems, or even close calls.

  It will take nearly 40-years for them to reach the beginning of the solar systems heliopause where they’ll first begin to encounter interstellar space, and much more energetic cosmic rays. After that, they pass through a very wide region surrounding our sun and planets, in a spherically shaped collection of comets. This area is known as the Oort cloud, extending approximately half the distance to our nearest solar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. Travel time for our intrepid pioneers to the outer reaches of this last vestige of our solar system, is approximately 8,000-years, using 23rd century human technology.

  Like the asteroid belt, any random encounters with resident objects, are rarer than getting hit by space lightning. However, the interstellar cosmic radiations increase dramatically once past the Heliopause, and it’s not easy hiding from those critters. But, the ice-filled double-hull of the mothership, keeps everything within, safe and sound.

  Time marches on.... at the tune of 11,000-years! Which, considering the entire voyage, is just getting started! Each of the lonely motherships, continues through the fabric of space-time. But suddenly.... and without warning, bumps in the road begin to buffet the two starships that are traveling to Oberon Prime. These bumps are almost imperceptible to the navigational computers onboard Einstein and Newton, as they pass through some powerful gravity waves. These forces, emanate from a point in space somewhere in front of them, but far off to the side of their intended path. The groups of hibernating pioneers on both vessels, never even notice these anomalies, while thrusters on each vessel easily keep them on coarse.... Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!

  However .... the other two starships that’ve diverged from them by more than 5-billion-miles on their way to Titania Alpha, are not so lucky with these same-source gravity waves. The phenomenon dominates an area of space nearly 3-billion miles-in-diameter. Faraday and Payne are buffeted in a much more forceful manner. Faraday more so, as it seems to be closer to the source. Their navigational computers and thrusters are having a difficult time dealing with them. The frequency and intensity of each succeeding wave, comes faster and stronger, as they approach an unseen menace. Faraday and Payne, speed into the void at an ever-increasing rate of trajectory change, that’s now overtaxing the thrusters and starting to win the battle to take them off course. With no other options left in its limited authority over the ships course through space, mother’s main computers are forced to re-animate the next scheduled group of androids, so the problem can be addressed more thoroughly.

  Onboard the Faraday, four hibernation chambers evacuate and save the precious neutral gasses from inside. Soft lights, illuminate around the edge of the transparent covers. Bodies within each one begin to stir, as higher thought functions quickly come online. Climbing from the chambers under a pseudo gravitational pull of 80-percent, is nearly effortless. Soon, Kimora, Jace, Shira and Kyle, make their way to the bridge. Kimora naturally takes the command chair, while Jace comes up to speed on the navigation console. Shira and Kyle, look for discrepancies within the life-support systems.

  Kimora and Jace, quickly deduce the discrepancy that had awakened them from their beauty sleep. “We seem to be moving off course,” Jace reports, unbelievingly, “and the thrusters are unable to correct the drift.” He states the most simplistic analysis, due to lack of data. Another healthy bump sends a strong vibration throughout the structure. Kimora wonders what could be in the vicinity, to cause such disturbances in the fabric of space-time. “Kyle, you and Shira analyze the long-range sensors. Jace, see what you can do about reducing the output of the thruster systems. There’s no point in having them waste fuel, if we’re getting nothing in return.”

  Another alarm, illuminates a warning on the navigational console. The starship slides even farther off course. Kimora cancels the audio portion of the alarm from her command chair, waiting for the data from sensors to come in. There’s a lot of space in outer space, and the sensors, sweep methodically through a grid-like pattern as they try to detect anomalies. Analyzing from high to low probability regions in front of them, it doesn’t take long, before the quad of astronauts notice that their situation has rapidly morphed ..... into a predicament!

  “Kimora.... sensors are picking up an incredibly dense mass, crossing our path.” Jace reports. “In fact, it’s almost blocking our forward progress. It’s not on any of the star maps, and it’s also not producing any steady electromagnetic radiations; only various scattered radiations and neutrinos, seem to be coming out of that region.” He informs, worriedly.

  “Can you ascertain the distance between us and this object?” Kimora inquires. She notices her two shipmates calculating, inputting numbers into a data keyboard, waiting for replies. Kimora looks above, soaking in the beautiful universe that surrounds them. The tall high-definition monitor circumnavigating the compartment, offers a view that causes a feeling of euphoria. The beautiful, star filled panoramic view is breathtaking. It’s, as if there’s no thick ice-pack and metal-hull between her and the cold vacuum of space. As the emergency plays out, there’s no noticeable movement of the background lights that are the Milky Way Galaxy. Even at a little more than 200,000-mph, the background lights never seem perturbed. It’s as if they’re not moving at all .... The surrealism is not lost on Kimora’s circuits, as she waits patiently.

  After a few minutes of number crunching, a better picture of their predicament immerges from the dark shadows. “Without a major analysis,” Jace begins with a disclaimer, “preliminary data is telling me that there’s a rogue stellar-mass singularity moving through the region between us and Titania Alpha. It’s at a distant of approximately 400-million-miles, and moving at a right-angle to our trajectory at nearly 1.5-million-mph. It’s even perturbing Alpha Centauri and its planets, as it passes. It’s too soon to tell if it has us locked in its event horizon, but if this drift continues for much longer, I wouldn’t bet a wooden nickel on our chances. Also, it’s pushing a massive shockwave of space, time, and dark matter, ahead of the event horizon! We’re feeling that warping of space; as gravity-waves.” This news, while most unwelcome, is very intriguing to Kimora.

  “A rogue stellar-mass
black hole! .... Now, there’s one for the record books!” She states an unarguable fact, as she contemplates the powerful menace that’s lurking ahead in the darkness. She knows, many scientists estimate that there are billions of these homeless, stellar-mass-singularities, roaming the galaxy. Even, extragalactic vagabonds too! Kimora’s circuits practically vibrate, at the thought of coming face to face with a true monster. She must find a way to survive the encounter.... Her options are limited.

  These homeless stellar-mass wonderers are tiny in physical size, but have enormous gravitational influence on anything that comes too close. With a mass, that’s often just a few multiples that of our own star, it lost the fight with gravity. Its core, crush to the size of a grain of sand, while its event horizon, extends a hundred-millions-miles or more. This dense concentration of gravity is so fierce, it eats space, time, and even light. At any size, they are the 800-pound-gorilla in the room, that loves eating anything that gets in their way. Other stars and planets, are tasty delights for these insatiable monsters. Starships, won’t even make a smudge!

  After reviewing the data, Kimora introduces for consideration, a plan of action that might mitigate further deterioration of their course, while a more comprehensive approach can be determined. “The course deviation is becoming critical at an astounding rate. We must do something soon, or risk becoming trapped inside the event horizon .... if we’re not already there.” She states one of the most feared of all things in the universe.

  Kimora continues. “I propose, we override the main-engines gimballing-lock, and turn mother to a 90-degree angle-of-attack, away from the singularity. Then, we increase thrust beyond the maximum-dynamic-pressure recommended by engineering specifications.” Kimora, offers her best advice, adding. “The singularity seems to have passed our original path, and it’s moving away from us. So, if we push against the gravity waves, we’ll hopefully slingshot around the black hole. Now, this will add velocity, causing us to be late for our rendezvous with Titania Alpha.” Increased velocity must be overcome, at the expense of overshooting Titania Alpha, while the brakes are applied. With no friction is space, slowing or stopping is not easy.

  SPS Cecilia Payne, which is traveling approximately 900,000-miles behind the Faraday, won’t feel any noticeable gravity waves for another 3-hours. That, will allow them to begin the slingshot maneuver that much sooner, mitigating the problem of tardiness; or worse, being sloppily swallowed up like a string of spaghetti.

  “Jace, contact the Payne. Alert their computers to our predicament. Request they wake the next scheduled group and have them contact me as soon as they’re able.” She requests, firmly.

  “Copy that Kimora, I’m on it!”

  Shira and Kyle, finish their assessment of Kimora’s slingshot maneuver. “Kimora, we’ve run the equations and it seems that changing course in the fashion you mentioned is the only viable way to survive. The sooner we make the maneuver, the better.” Chana lays the bad news out, for all to digest. It isn’t pretty, but it’s better than becoming spaghettified and destroyed.

  “Well, I’m sure the doctor would say ‘better late, than never’.” Kimora responds, optimistically. “Besides, we were originally set to arrive at Titania sooner than the ships traveling to Oberon Prime; so now we might each get to our planets at about the same time.” Kimora presents a weak positive-spin on the dire situation. “However, the slingshot will not affect the Payne as much as us, so they’ll undoubtedly get to Titania before us.”

  Chana and Kyle, enter an override code into the navigation system. Outside, on mothers aft-end, 50-fusion engine nozzles on each of the two arrays are now free to swivel on command. It’s the first time they’ve had to shift their position in over 11,000-years. And like an old human, trying to stand tall after bending for too long, the grand old machinery strains before grudgingly giving way. As the actuators begin to move, accumulated space-dust breaks loose in great clouds and is pulled into the hot streams of exhaust plasmas.

  The four astronauts feel a change in the direction and intensity of pseudo-gravity, as the huge vessel slowly turns to the new heading. The inertia that had built up in their bodies, coupled with the pull from the singularity, will make normal movement a thing of the past. Now mother will fly sideways, with much more than full thrust being applied in a direction that will hopefully take them around the event horizon.

  Jace reports that he’s successfully contacted the Payne and that her computers are waking four astronauts. “It’ll take a few minutes for them to get back to us, Kimora,” he reports.

  “Copy that, Jace. Good work.” Kimora praises, as she monitors the change of course and wonders if she should wake up the rest of the crew and inform them of the situation. She consults with her three shipmates about it, and the consensus is ‘yes’! They feel that if they were the ones sleeping, they would want to be updated with such important information.

  Kimora enters the command to re-animate the entire crew, and lay the cards on the table. It takes longer than expected for the other 48 androids to make their way to the bridge. The pull of gravity on the vessel is now completely catawampus from what’s expected. Only a handful of the crew can safely enter the bridge with the direction of g’s so out of whack, so the rest must wait in the passageway, monitoring audiovisual feed from their linked internal video systems.

  “Kimora, we have contact with Bryce on the Payne.” He transfers the video to the large monitor and the ships network feed.

  An image of a very concerned astronaut, illuminates the monitor. “Hello, Faraday.” Then, he recognizes Kimora. “And to what do I have to thank, for waking up to the pretty face of Kimora?” He inquires humorously.

  “Hello Bryce. Sorry to wake you like this, but in another 3-hours your navigational computers would have, and then you’d be in the same trouble we’re in right now.” She quickly peaks his curiosity. “I’m sending you data concerning a rogue singularity that’s crossing our path at a distance of approximately 400-million-miles. We’re hoping, that if you act against it now, you can perhaps avoid the worse of it.”

  Live communication between the two vessels is not possible; however, it is workable, as the delay for round trip transmission is about 10-seconds. Kimora is happy that there’ll be no conflict about how to deal with this emergency. She transmits back to Bryce that she’ll be late arriving to the planet, and that the details are still undetermined. This is because the gravitational variances they experience during the slingshot maneuver will cause their velocity to constantly fluctuate.

  Bryce responds. “Copy that Kimora, the ships navigation computers will stay linked, and the data they compile throughout this deviation will give us a more accurate picture when we come out the other side.”

  “We’ll be arriving at destination after you, Bryce.” Kimora informs. “This slingshot move is going to hit us harder than you. Consequently, we’ll shoot farther past Titania Alpha.”

  “Well my dear, we’ll keep a light on for you.” He promises graciously.

  “Thanks Bryce. Let’s just hope this problem is the only serious one we encounter.”

  “That’s all we can hope for Kimora. We are truly at the mercy of a whimsical universe, and can only hang in there, hoping to make it.” He offers his best analysis, of a bad situation.

  “Well, good luck my friend. And, as much as I love chatting with you Bryce, we better stop radiating at each other. You never know who’s listening out there.”

  “Alright Kimora ..... Sweet dreams.”

  Kimora’s glad that everything went smoothly with the Payne, and that they’ll have no problem maneuvering well ahead of the singularities ripples in the fabric of space-time. But the deviation will still affect them in additional fuel and energy consumption, along with the extra time spent inside a speeding tin can. She takes Bryce’s advice, trying to just hand in there, as the others arrive at the bridge seeking information.

  There’s lots of questions from the 48 others. She answers them as best she c
an, but knows they can also access the data from the main computers. The consensus, is that they are all satisfied with Kimora’s handling of the emergency, and that waking them was prudent. After all; their lives matter too! Soon, most of the hibernation chambers are sealed once again, and all that can be heard or felt inside the compartment, is the soothing rhythmic-hum from the many fusion reactors, permeating the starship’s structure with sleepy vibrations.

  Mother speeds into the darkness with a sideways attitude, and the bumps in the road become more intense as they travel closer to the singularity. Thankfully, the hibernation chambers and the cryo-preservation freezers were designed with robust shock absorption systems, so the perceived force of the gravity-waves is reduced by a substantial amount ..... Into the cold night, mother speeds sideways ...... Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!