Chapter No.12. Union.

The next morning, I went to the command station. Janet and Sharon were already there. Bridget and Natale soon joined us.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"I don't like this galaxy," Janet said, frowning. "It doesn't seem to have very many habitable systems."

"What other choices do we have?" I asked.

"I think we should try to go to another nearby galaxy, one that I believe should have more habitable systems. The galaxy we're in now has a large central bar and a supermassive black hole that's too active. It's shooting out quasars. The one I think would be a better choice is about five million light years away. It's larger and doesn't have a well-defined bar. Besides, it's five million light years closer to Earth."

I leaned back in my chair. "I think we might be able to go that distance without too much trouble. One of the problems that the second crew had with the antimatter production process is that they ended up using electromagnetic storage bottles instead of the natural magnetic ones we use. The problem with electromagnetism is that a power failure would result in the antimatter escaping."

"So, what does that mean as far as what we can do?" Janet asked.

"We have some extra magnetic storage bottles. If we can hook them up to the fusion engine module, we could store more antimatter, allowing us to accelerate longer before entering hyperspace. My calculations indicate that we could travel five million light years in maybe two weeks if we do that."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Janet said. "How long would it take to connect more magnetic bottles?"

"About a day, maybe," I said.

"Okay, I'll try to refine the distance calculation to that galaxy and attempt to find a location in it that could contain habitable systems."

I smiled. "Good idea. The more accurate the distance, the better chance we have of arriving closer to our destination." I stood up. "I'll get busy on getting extra antimatter storage bottles attached to the fusion drive."

"May I accompany you?" Bridget asked.

I smiled. "Sure."

She and I went to the embedded ladder, which I activated before we climbed up to the iris portal to the axel tube and entered it to go down to the agricultural deck wheel.

"Oh my goodness!" Bridget exclaimed with her eyes wide with wonder. "Look at all of the plants!"

I pointed. "This is where those little robots grow our food. I just found out that they can brew beer."

Both of her eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yes, and it tastes wonderful."

She laughed. "Who would ever imagine that they would allow beer on a spaceship."

"It's even better. They can make wine too."

She shook her head. "That's wild!"

We continued our journey down to the engineering wheel deck. However, the part we were interested in wasn't in the wheel. It was down a long tube to the engine compartment, a location that was always at zero gravity, which meant that we had to float around to wherever we wanted to go.

We found the extra magnetic bottles in a storage bin. The problem we had was that we couldn't have anything affected by magnetism on our persons when we handled them. The magnetic strength was just too strong. It would have ripped anything ferro from us. Another problem was with moving them. Despite being in zero gravity, they still had appreciable mass, and that made it difficult to move them around and avoiding smashing them into critical equipment.

Bridget helped me move two magnetic bottles to the antimatter production equipment. It took some time to attach them to magnetically inner encased pipes that stuck out from the device and then secure them in place using a ceramic wrench. After making sure that everything was as it should be, we went back to the engineering wheel deck.

I sat down at the engineering command station and added the magnetic bottles that we installed to the coding that operated the antimatter production and the fusion module.

Bridget was alarmed by the sudden appearance of a robot. It moved on silent wheels and it sneaked up on us. Apparently, the robot was programmed to investigate any interference with the systems.

I turned to it. "We have attached extra magnetic bottles to the antimatter production module. I changed the coding to recognize them."

"We will verify your installation," it said in a mechanical computer voice.

I stood up. "Thank you. We wish to accumulate antimatter in the extra storage bottles."

"We will accommodate your wish."

Bridget and I left the engineering wheel deck and headed to the agricultural deck. While there, I showed Bridget the robot's beer brewing setup.

"I wonder why the people that planned this mission would add this capability."

I smiled. "I believe it had something to do with the idea that we would have found a habitable planet. Alcoholic beverages are much safer to drink than water, especially in an alien biosphere."

She smiled back. "How convenient."

I chuckled.

When we got back up the crew wheel deck, we found the others hard at work at the command station.

"Found anything yet?" I asked.

"Not yet," Janet said. "We've narrowed the search down to the main arm of the galaxy. It should contain habitable systems."

"I'm going for a run," I said. "We managed to attach two more antimatter storage bottles to the fusion drive. It'll require three days to fill them."

Janet nodded before turning back to her main screen.

"I'd like to join you," Bridget said, but I probably won't keep up with you."

Natale stood up. "We can try," she said with a subtle grin.

They didn't keep up, but that was expected for just coming out of hibernation. After five circles around the wheel, they gave up and sat down in chairs at the food module. I kept running for another five before I joined them.

"We're not up to it yet," Natale said.

"I fully understand," I said, sitting down next to them. "I felt like shit when I came out of it after twenty years."

Both of their eyebrows shot up momentarily.

"Why so long?"

"It's because our vessel went into hyperspace not long after we launched. Since the COMA unit couldn't determine our velocity or location, it became confused and decided to do nothing until it became concerned that the vessel would stop functioning."

"I don't know how long we were in hibernation," Natale said.

"I believe it was ten years plus how much time it took to go the system you were revived in."

Bridget pouted. "This situation is horrible. We didn't go to where we were supposed to go, and now we're essentially lost in space with no way to get back to Earth. What the hell are we going to do now?"

"We're going to continue searching for a habitable planet," I said. "We're relatively safe living on this vessel. Other than that, I don't know."

Bridget looked around before turning to me with a serious expression. "I'm sure you realize how awkward this situation is."

I shook my head in affirmation. "Yes, I am aware of it, but I can't do anything about it."

"How long have you and the two women been together?" Natale asked.

"I think it's a couple of months now. I don't know. I don't keep track of it."

"Have you . . . been intimate with them?"

I shook my head. "No. We've been too busy for . . . for that."

"Oh, come on now," she said, grinning. "You've been stuck on this bird cage for that long with them and you're telling us nothing happened?"

I shrugged. "I didn't wish to cause a personal problem while we're stuck in this situation. I need their expertise to help us get out of this mess." I smiled. "And that includes you two."

Natale gave me smirk. "You are functional, aren't you?"

I gave her a subtle smile back. "Of course."

What she said next was not what I had expected.