by Bob Mauldin
“What I would rather have is a long, long soak in a hot tub, Rob. But, thanks. I just might do that.”
As they sat there, the rest of her team began to filter in, led by Virginia Wade, who peeled off, grabbed a couple of pots of coffee from the food processor, now regularly producing a variety of beverages thanks to the science-types, and poured all around before landing in a chair of her own. “Thanks, Ginny,” Lucy said gratefully. Then she turned back to the group as a whole. “Okay, team. We have business to discuss. This came up at the last staff meeting, and the Captain would like all the input he can get. We didn’t have much time for it to become a problem with the fuel station, but we’re going to be here for six months or so, trapped in an over-sized tin can. What can we do to keep from going stir crazy?”
“How about some kind of sports?” This from Helm, David Sipes.
“Sure, Dave,” Virginia mocked. “Just tell us, what sport do you know that fits our space ... no pun intended ... limitations? We want something that requires teams so that we can involve as many people as we can, don’t we?”
Dave look hesitant. “Well, I managed to bring a basketball aboard, so we could build a few nets. We’ve got enough height down on deck eighteen, but that won’t give enough people something to do. A lot of folks don’t like basketball for some strange reason. How about something that uses the ball with new rules for our particular circumstances?”
“Let’s hear what Rob has to say. He’s sitting there with a mile-wide grin on his face and not one word coming out of his mouth,” commented Mustafa Morgan, third shift Weapons Officer. “He sure looks like the cat that got into the cream to me.”
Lucy set her cup down and slowly turned her chair around to face her shift second. Draping her legs over one arm, she stared pointedly at her Second Officer. “If you’ve got something, you’d better spill it. I’d hate to send you back to ‘Chiko in little pieces, Rob.”
As everyone’s attention turned toward him, Rob raised his hands in defeat. “Okay! I give up. It was Dave’s comment about height that helped me put some things together. ‘Chiko and I spent a lot of time exploring the ship early on. We’ve got a place to go play, people. And I’m about to give it the old Greene twist. Come with me and don’t ask any questions.”
No amount of threatening could get him to open up. Lucy sighed and climbed out of her chair. “This better be good, Rob. If this turns out to be a joke, you will wish you’d kept your mouth shut, I promise you!”
A crooked grin split his face. “Trust me. If this doesn’t get your imaginations going, then you’re all dead from the neck up! Besides,” he said in a mock-hurt voice, “you insisted, so don’t blame me if you don’t like it.” He stood in the doorway and looked back. “Motivate yourselves for ten minutes. We will either be heroes to the crew or Captain Hawke and Commander Kitty will have our heads for trophies. You, too, ‘Stafa. We’ve got to stay together on this. United front and all that. A team, remember?” A mysterious glint in his eye, he headed for the elevator, the rest strung out behind.
Deck eighteen. An open space twenty-six feet high, eight hundred feet wide and twenty-seven hundred feet long, starting at the nose of the ship and running all the way back to the forward engine room bulkhead. Most people thought the over-sized deck was for storage of parts waiting to be taken to another location. The five hundred feet beneath deck seventeen shared a bulkhead with the habitat section above, effectively making two rooms out of the space. It was to the smaller section that Rob Greene led his shift mates. “This place is almost ten and a half million cubic feet, guys,” Robert said. “And I know how to use it. Just follow your Uncle Rob, and you won’t regret it. I hope.”
They trooped out of the elevator and Rob shepherded them to the center of the huge room. Their voices echoed in the cavernous emptiness. “Just stand there. I’ll be right back.” Raising his voice as he headed to a far wall, he explained, “‘Chiko and I use this level for jogging. Totally empty. We figure it was used for storage of manufactured parts by the aliens. Anyway, on to part two.” At this point, he reached the wall. The distance was too great for anyone to see what he did, but a panel popped open revealing a control board with glowing status lights.
“Let your imaginations fly, guys. And why don’t you fly, too?” With this comment, the gravity cut off like a light bulb and he twisted in the air, braced his feet on the wall, and pushed off straight toward them. He glided along about a foot above the deck. At the last second, he tucked his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around his lower legs and did a creditable imitation of a bowling ball picking up a spare. Bodies scattered haphazardly, and he drifted to the opposite wall amid loud and inventive curses. “Think about the possibilities. Zero-G sports! Get creative!” He used his arms and legs to absorb the shock of hitting the wall and spun around floating about a foot from the wall. Watching his teammates founder around, he laughed, “Been there. Done that!”
Reactions were varied. ‘Stafa sat Buddha-style, floating upside-down in relation to the deck, while Velma tried to swim fruitlessly. David reached the ceiling, tried to grab a projection, missed, and drifted off at a new angle. Virginia groaned, “I think I’m gonna be sick!”
Lucy finally yelled, “Aha! Thank you, Professor Weston!” Those who could, looked her way in alarm. Their eyes widened as she turned her back to the wall with the open panel, took off one shoe and threw it away from her. This gave her a small amount of momentum toward the wall panel. That shoe was followed by the rest of her clothes, one piece at a time.
It was a totally naked Lucy Grimes who finally reached the panel “Uncle Rob” had opened. Studying it for a moment, she pressed a button and slowly slid a lever about half way from the bottom to the top. As she did, her team, and her widely scattered clothes, slowly drifted to the floor as weight returned. As everyone was getting to their feet, they were startled by the sound of clapping. Velma, closest to the elevator, saw who was standing there. “Oh, my God! Captain on deck!”
Everyone, including a very red, very naked, Lucy Grimes, came to attention. Simon and Kitty stood just outside the elevator door, Simon’s back to the room as he inspected the call panel. “At ease people,” Kitty ordered, a grin plastered on her face. “Get your clothes on, Commander. Some of you help her get them together. By the way, who is Professor Weston?”
Lucy began to get her clothes on, aided by her team. “Ma’am, he was my physics professor. One of the laws of thermodynamics. I forget which number. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Or something like that. It just made sense.” Shirt and pants on, shoes in hand, she stood there, head down.
Kitty tapped Simon on the arm and he turned around. “That was quick thinking on your part, Commander,” Simon said carefully. “No one else on your team thought of that. I think posting you to commander of third shift was a good idea. Now, how did you people figure this out?”
Rob Greene stepped forward, intentionally trying to deflect attention away from Lucy. “Sir, my wife and I thought the area would be ideal for jogging. To keep in shape. One off-shift, we saw one of the little service robots open the panel and check the settings or something. After it left, we looked at the panel and figured out what it was for. It was a remark by Commander Grimes that made me put it together. She said we needed to figure out something to keep people from going nuts out here. I brought the team down and showed them. I had an idea that we could come up with some kind of Zero-G sport for the crew to get involved in helping prevent boredom. I was just starting to tell ‘em my idea when you showed up. May I ask, sir, how you happened to be here?”
Simon answered, “It’s not anything supernatural, Commander Greene. Commander Hawke and I happened to be on the bridge going through some ship schematics when the gravity went off down here. If we had been looking at something other than the habitat section, we’d never have known anything was going on. We came to see what the problem was. We got here just in time to hear Commander Gre
en thank her professor. That’s all.”
Kitty got a thoughtful look on her face. “I think you have something there, Commander Greene. Personally, I like it. Why don’t you go brainstorm it and see what you can come up with? Involve the other shifts and departments, too. The more the merrier. Submit your proposals to your shift commanders, and they can pass them on to us.” She glanced at Simon before continuing. “We’ll offer a prize for best idea, or something. We can get more people involved that way, I think.” She laid a hand on Simon’s arm and started to turn to go, but spun back as another thought struck her. “And, Commander, any more discoveries of this magnitude are to be reported immediately. “Understood?” Rob nodded vigorously as Simon and Kitty disappeared behind an elevator door.
Stephen leaned back in his chair, regarding Simon and Kitty almost gleefully. “This looks to be very interesting. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll submit a proposal of my own.”
Kitty made a face at him. “I’m coming to know you pretty well, Stephen. But, for the life of me, I don’t have a clue. What do you have in mind?”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Just putting some things together. One of the engineering teams found a weapons locker yesterday. Hand weapons and longer-range, rifle-shaped ones as well as a few heavier weapons. Those come with a backpack power supply and I suspect that they are some type of portable plasma cannon or particle beam.”
Stephen shifted in his chair as two sets of eyes gazed at him unpleasantly. He went on quickly, “The find was on the docket for tomorrow morning’s briefing. I did have time to check out the weapons and put them under a security lock. The pistols and rifles are variable-strength lasers. Those we tested. Very carefully, I might add. We’ll wait awhile before we test the ones with the backpacks.” He doodled unconsciously. “The rifles and pistols have internal power sources. If we make a few dozen pistols that can’t do anything more than emit a harmless beam of light and add some body sensors, we can have something like Laser Tag of a few years back. Throw in some large balloons that will drift in the air currents of a Zero-G environment, and there you have it. Teams of four or five, the winner being the team that kills all the rest. Eliminations, play-offs, trophies for the winners, all that.”
Kitty clapped her hands. “I love it! If one of the crew can come up with that, let’s give them the credit, though. I think it would be good for morale. Maybe have a competition for the best ideas. Eventually, after we get more ships, we can have an all-ships competition. What do you think, Simon?”
He made a gun out of his thumb and forefinger. “I think you and I better be on the same team. I know how good a shot you are. Does that answer your question?”
A week later, game fever had taken full control. During that same time, long range scans reported receiving Sundiver’s return signal. Stephen, as Ops Officer, ordered a recon flight to oversee the docking. From a safe distance, of course. The flight was scheduled to leave in a week, and, as the shuttles were all involved with factory supply, it would be the fighters making the first extended trip away from the Galileo. Simon was spending a part of each shift training for the flight. He had put himself under the same regimen as the rest of the hopefuls and would have to qualify in the top three to get assigned to the mission.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After the incident with the gravity control, Simon sat down with his inner circle and had a talk. The two months building the fuel depot had been the shake-down cruise for the fledgling spacemen, and at first it seemed like things got done more by accident than on purpose. As time went by and nothing blew up in their faces, the various members of the crew began to mesh as teams worked toward a common goal. The newness of their situation, combined with having to learn new skills, rescuing idiots from their own folly, and coming to grips with the fact that this was no science-fiction show took almost all the time and energy anyone had to spare.
Television and movies pirated from Earth satellites and beamed to the huge construction vessel helped fill the few empty spaces, but now that the ship had reached its final destination, more people were going to have a lot more spare time on their hands. “That’s what I want to avoid,” Simon opined as he took his seat at the table. “Spare time is not a good thing when so many people live so closely together. We need to find something that will redirect the excess energy that comes with hand-to-hand combat to something more suitable to spare time.”
Kitty nodded her agreement. “I’ve got an idea that this thing with Zero-G will figure in very prominently. But whatever it turns out to be in the end, a diversion of some kind is going to be needed.”
Stephen picked up a pen and scratched it over the pad in front of him aimlessly. “I think we need to go a step farther than that, Simon,” he said hesitantly. When Simon faced his way, Stephen continued. “I think these engineering updates should be released to the crew in general. At least part of ‘em,” he said before Simon could voice a protest. “Maybe not the technical details, but the fact of their existence. I think we need the imaginations of everyone on board to come up with the innovations we need to make this a going concern for humans.”
Stephen leaned forward, body language conveying his intense interest in the subject. “For example, just last week one of the groups I’m overseeing came up with a way to manipulate the capture fields. I know, we can do that already. The shuttles, and to a lesser degree, the fighters, can pick up asteroids and drop them off at the converter, and it grabs them and pulls them into itself. What this bunch did was to find a way to use them inside the lower deck. Now a shuttle can enter the main hold and load or unload anywhere without the necessity of maneuvering on its own. We can have a field operator pick it up and move it to whatever position we want.”
“That’s a good use of resources, Stephen,” Simon said, “but I don’t see how that applies to allowing the junior staff and, in general, the rest of the crew in on what gets found or discovered.”
Stephen shook his head. “You don’t have the whole story, yet. Two days later, these guys are playing around with the effects of their research, moving this and that from here to there, and one of the crew, down on eighteen for whatever reason stopped to watch. It was her comment that got the guys off on another tangent. She asked why it wasn’t possible to turn the field sideways and use it for see-through doors over the exterior hatches. Forty-eight hours later, there are several generators down on eighteen, and they’ve shut off a section of the deck.” He went into lecture mode. “The procedure we follow right now is to move equipment ready to be incorporated into the dock down to eighteen, close off the deck and pump the air out. Then we can open the hatches and the construction pods come in and haul all the stuff out. We reseal the hatches, pump the air back and start all over.”
Simon waved his hand dismissively. “I know all that. Where is this going?”
“It’s going to man’s basic nature to do things the easy way, Simon,” Stephen said. “We, and I say we because by this time I was as involved as anyone else, can make that field selectively permeable. We can get it to pass metal, but not air molecules. Glass, or what passes for glass, but not anything else. Or just program it not to pass just two items, like, say, air, or a body, which is really several different items, and we can push all that equipment out the side of the ship and the pods can pick it up there, without depressurizing the hold at all.”
“That’s a lot of time and effort saved,” Kitty said appreciatively. “I wonder why the original builders never thought of it?”
“We may never know, Kitty,” Stephen admitted. “But the point is that we can use the input of everybody to find new uses for some of the things we see around us. Restrict the information to too small a group, and we’re bound to miss a lot.”
“Agreed,” Simon said after listening to Kitty and Stephen for a bit. “Let’s start easy, though. We already have morning staff meetings to lay out the day’s general orders.” He had finally embraced the full concept of making Galileo
a quasi-military organization, knowing Kitty’s reservations about any military in general, and had adopted as much of the military lexicon as would fit their situation. Where necessary he innovated. “We also have weekly staff meetings to discuss progress and problems. Let’s set up a site on the computer where people can go see what we’ve discovered so far and how we use it and allow them to make suggestions for other uses. A bulletin board that gets looked at on a regular basis. Stephen, it’s your job to oversee setting up the site. You can conscript anyone you need to help with data input. That will help ease the boredom problem a little. Ladies and gentlemen,” Simon said to the various department heads, standing up to signal the end of the meeting, “let each of your people know about this. I want everyone looking for new ways to enhance our capabilities.”
The chain of command that had developed almost of its own accord surprised Simon when he mapped it out one night. Effectively, there were two distinct and separate crews aboard the great ship. One was the operations crew, responsible for the daily operation of the ship in flight mode. The other was the construction crew, responsible for getting the factory section running and the completed parts funneled out to the construction site where the pod jockeys assembled them into a functioning fuel plant, space dock, or whatever.