Chapter No.9. Decision time.

We exited the first igloo and Janet and I went into the second igloo structure. Sharon stayed outside to explore around the area.

The second igloo structure had what appeared to be more equipment designed to plant and grow food. I walked over to a desk and picked up another log. It contained a daily log of attempts to grow Earth plants from seeds they brought along.

Our suits were linked by radio. We both heard Sharon's excited voice.

"Hey, I found something you'll want to see!"

We rushed out of the second igloo and ran to her. She was in what looked like a plot of ground that had been cleared.

"Look!" Sharon said, pointing at what appeared to be stones.

"Oh my God!" I cried. "Those are gravestone markers. There's three of them." I turned to look at Janet and Sharon. "This does not look good. I think we had better get the hell off of this planet as quickly as possible."

"Why?" Sharon asked, her voice broken with fear.

I opened the log and quickly read through the entries, and it didn't take me that long to find a problem. "Shit!"

"What?" Janet asked.

"They talk about a large insect species that can literally suck the blood out of people."

"Holy shit!" Sharon cried. "I saw some large flying creatures buzzing around here."

"Okay, let's get to the shuttle."

I didn't need to do anything more to get them running.

I had them enter first while I stayed with my laser weapon powered up. I saw two of the insects flying toward us. They looked a lot like praying mantises, but the size of parrots. I powered up my hand-held weapon and aimed a shot at one of them. The laser beam hit the insect and caused it to fall. The other one flew away, giving me time to get into the shuttle and close the outer door.

Once inside, I activated the purification cycle, which consisted of a thorough spray of disinfectant, followed by a rinse. We were then subjected to being bathed in strong UV light, which our face shields filtered to prevent us from being blinded. After the UV cycle was complete, the inner door opened, and we were able to remove our bio suits.

I wasted no time in powering up the shuttle's engines and initiating lift off. At full power, it was possible to achieve orbit in twenty minutes.

"What the hell were those things?" Sharon asked.

"I don't know. I suppose they're some sort of insect species indigenous to this planet."

"No wonder the crew that settled here decided to leave," Janet said.

"That's the trouble with trying to inhabit alien planets," I said. "We evolved on Earth in conjunction with all of the other species. Here on this alien world, we're invaders."

"No way I'm going to live on that planet!" Sharon said.

We were all in agreement with that.

After contacting COMA, I was able to adjust the shuttle's velocity to match that of the ship. When we finally caught up to the ship. I slowly maneuvered the shuttle to line up with the hanger door, which opened to invite us in.

"Now comes the most difficult maneuver," I said as I slowly nudged the shuttle into the hanger using guidance jets. Once I got it in the hanger, I had to meticulously position it over the landing strut locks. With the shuttle firmly attached to the hanger floor, the outer door closed, and the hanger pressurized.

Once the air pressure was up to normal, we were able to leave the shuttle in zero gravity and enter the axel tube to the crew deck.

Janet and Sharon went to the bathroom station to relieve themselves. I decided to go to the command station to study the crew logs that we found on the planet. The first thing I realized from studying it was that it had a cryptic galactic location, which according to entries that accompanied it, might be the system they went to, but I would have to allow Janet to figure that out.

The other thing that caught my eye was their engine operations log. I soon realized that they faced the same dilemma that we did, which was that they were in hyperspace when they came out of hibernation.

I heard shoe slaps and an air disturbance and turned to watch the women run past.

I went back to studying the logs, but soon was confused by what I was seeing. I got up and walked back to the crew stations where I found both women minus their crop tops.

"You gals are out of uniform," I said with a mock stern look.

They didn't seem disturbed at all by me looking at them.

"Is there a rule against that?" Sharon asked with a sly smirk.

"Ah . . . I don't make the rules."

She propped her fists into her hips. "Yes, you do! You're in charge."

"Okay, but I didn't make a rule about attire. Let's face it, there are no provisions for modesty on this vessel."

"Okay," Sharon said, "If there were a rule for being out of uniform, what would the punishment be?"

I rubbed my jaw. "I suppose some pushups."

Sharon glanced at Janet before they got down and began pumping up and down. I was both amused and disturbed by their actions. However, it's easy to tease, but hard to get relieved.

"Okay, that's enough," I said. "I think I have a possible location for where the crew went, but I'll need your help."

I turned and walked back to the command station. After a few minutes they joined me, attired in robes and slippers.

"We apologize for acting like idiots," Janet said. "We didn't intend to offend you."

"You didn't offend me," I said, feigning surprise. "I understand."

"Really?"

"Yes, I've seen women do pushups before but not quite like that." I smiled.

They giggled.

I handed Janet the log. "This is a cryptic galactic code. I'm not familiar with it."

She took it and after studying it for a few minutes. "I think this is a dimensional polar coordinate, but it doesn't indicate the reference point. I'll have to try various points to see if they lead to something that's actually out there."

"The other thing that I found has to do with the hyperspace problem. They launched three years after we did and arrived seven years ahead of us, which means that they were only in hibernation for approximately ten years, while we were in there twenty years. Assuming that hyperspace is consistent at any given time, it means that they traveled twice as fast as we did. I think it might have something to do with how fast they were able to accelerate compared to what we could do."

"I doubt we could upgrade our engines to match theirs," Janet said.

"True, but their information might give us a clue as to how we can determine how to travel precise distances."

"Yes, you might be right."

I stood up. "I'll leave the hard work to you." I need to wind down after the fun of going down to the planet."

I was being facetious. They reacted with amused frowns.

I walked back to my bunk, stripped to my skivvies and crashed.

I woke up the next morning, put on my shorts and shoes and ran around the wheel, after which I showered, dressed and grabbed a soy sausage sandwich and coffee before heading to the command station.  I studied the crew's engine operations log to see if I could determine the conditions for entering hyperspace.

I was soon joined by Janet and Sharon.

"I think I might have a possible method to control our use of hyperspace," I said. "If we assume that the distance to the planet is nearly the same as it was when our mission launched, the velocity through hyperspace was twice for them as it was for us. I believe this is related to the acceleration rate before entering hyperspace. If that is the case, it gives us an idea of how long we have to remain in hyperspace to travel a given distance."

"How were they able to accelerate faster?" Janet asked.

"Their engines were upgraded and more powerful than ours."

"What you're suggesting is that they didn't realize that their antimatter process was causing the problem."

"Right."

"Well, I suppose it's up to me to determine where they went."

I smiled. "Yes."

"If we do determine where they went, are we going to go there?" Sharon asked.

"I think we should. . . as long as it's not too far away."

"I wouldn't blame them if they went as far as they could from that hellish planet," she said.

"I agree, but I wouldn't get too excited about finding them alive," I said.

"Why do you say that?" Janet asked.

"Because I believe that they could have been infected with some alien disease and didn't realize it. Their log indicates that some of them came down with a fever that they couldn't mitigate. They hint that this might have been the reason that some of them died. Fortunately, we were wearing bio suits."

"So, it wasn't the insects that did them in," Sharon said.

"That's still possible, but I think the real reason is the disease."

"Why didn't they wear bio suits?" Janet asked.

"They may have at the beginning, but they couldn't live in them. Again, this is the danger of trying to relocate on an alien planet before doing a complete investigation of its biosphere."

"That means that we're probably stuck with living on this ship," she said, sounding despondent.

"I can't predict the future, but for now, that's the case."

They weren't too happy about that prospect, but it was our situation, at least for the immediate future.

I didn't interact with them until an evening supper of soy steak, carrots and a cherry pie.

"I think I might have a location that fits the information in their log," Janet said. "It's about a thousand light years from here in a G5-V class star system."

"That shouldn't take that long to get there," I said. "We'll have to enter hyperspace and hope we don't get lost again."

That didn't help their anxiety, but I always strive to be honest.