Chapter No.2 Reception

The unexpected is always stressful!

The next morning I was on the command deck at the engineering station checking on a list of repair jobs that required my attention. One critical job involved replacing a tungsten iodide lamp on the agricultural deck. These very bright lamps provided artificial sunlight for the plants growing there.

When I heard the tell-tell squeak of walker wheels, I turned around to watch Molly moving slowly into the command deck from the elevator. I stood up and smiled at her. Despite her messy blond hair, her beautiful countenance was definitely much younger looking than her profile picture.

"Welcome to the Explorer X-1. I'm Jason the engineer." I gestured to the android seated at the pilot's station. "And, this is Judy the helmsman."

She briefly glanced at Judy before turning to me with a confused look. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"Ah . . . It appears that you and I are the only humans to survive this mission."

She tilted her head like a dog hearing a high-pitched sound. "What happened?"

"This vessel suffered a power grid failure, taking it out of warp and shutting down the artificial gravity, shielding, and environmental systems. There were only three of the androids activated and their main problem was to restore power. That took them fourteen days, which meant that the stasis chambers failed."

She squinted. "How did we survive this . . . failure?"

"The androids injected their bio-agents into our blood. That produced enough oxygen to prevent cell narcosis."

She lowered her head. "Shit!"

"I know how you feel. You should return to the crew deck and go to your quarters. Your name will be on the door. Your assistants will clean you up and give you nourishments to help your recovery from stasis. When you feel ready, you may come up to the command deck and use the navigation station to determine what sort of a planet this vessel is headed to. We need to take on water before we can go anywhere else. I'm going to be busy with some needed repair jobs. You may join me in my quarters at 1800 hours for supper."

She gave me a frown before turning and shuffling back to the elevator.

When she was gone, I turned to Judy. "I'm going to the agricultural deck and then to Engineering."

Judy nodded.

When I exited the elevator on the agricultural deck, I entered a marvelous mystical land of plants. Down here is where wheat, corn, soy, fruit trees, and various other food plants are grown and tended by gnome-sized robots that walk around on mechanical legs.

The artificial light was dim enough to give everything a shadowy look. I looked up at the sunlamp mounted on the ceiling of the chamber and saw that it was definitely dark. I walked along a path to a geodesic out-building that contained equipment and supplies. I was met by two androids.

Fanny and June looked a lot like Judy and my two assistants. They were blonds with slightly different facial features.

"We have the replacement lamp on the platform unit, Jason," Fanny told me.

I looked over at the unit. It was actually a flying device that used magnetic power motors to defy gravity. I stepped up onto it and June followed me. She used a joystick to fly the unit up to the lamp module mounted on the ceiling of the deck.

I unfastened the latches that held the lamp's transparent cover and swung it open. The expired bulb was held in flexible sockets at both ends. I had to pull the bulb out in one motion and then place it on the floor of the flying unit. Then, I carefully picked up the new bulb with my hands encased in fabric gloves so as to not contaminate it with finger smudges and then plug it back into the sockets. I closed the cover and turned to June. She made the platform descend to the floor of the deck.

Fanny went to the control module in a small arch and pressed the button to activate the lamp. The sudden blast of light startled me, but it proved that the bulb was working properly.

"Thank you," I told them.

They smiled.

I glanced over at three robots that were not moving. I turned to the two androids.

"I assume they need repair."

"Yes, Jason." June said.

I went to the first robot, which was still able to turn its minimally structured head to look at me. I opened a plastic plate on its chest and peered inside. It was immediately obvious that one of the main circuits that control its legs had shorted.

Fanny wheeled a small cart with replacement parts over to me. I removed the damaged circuit board and replaced it with a new one. The robot immediately began beeping and took off walking.

I smiled. "You're welcome."

The two androids giggled, a reaction I considered to be incongruous for artificial intelligent creatures.

After repairing the other two robots, I was ready for a new project.

"Thank you," I told Fanny and June. "I'll be down in Engineering if you need me."

They awarded me with teasing smiles.

I left the agricultural deck and descended to Engineering where the main computer and control units are located. This is the true guts of the vessel and it was manned by three female androids; Vanessa, Queen and Lori.

"I have a project for you," I told them. "I've been working on an idea that could increase this vessel's warp number. I'd like to get it up to at least seven. I think that one of the reasons we can only get up to warp four is because of the antimatter mix chamber's topological geometry. I've visualized it as a torus but with some Hausdorff modifications. I'd appreciate it if you would check over my math and do some simulations. I've added my work in a file titled; 'Jason's Theory'"

"We will do it, Jason," Vanessa replied with a polite smile.

I smiled. "Good."

I sat down at one of the stations and called up a status report. I was right about the water supply. We were down to less than twenty percent. Part of the reason for this is that they had used the ion drives to achieve near light speed after the power grid failure. That's why it took over fifty years to arrive at our destination. Adding a previous seven years at warp speed meant that I had been in stasis for fifty-seven years, at least thirty years over the acceptable safe duration.

I turned to Queen in an adjacent seat. "Did we receive any transmission from Space Command?"

"Yes, Jason."

I turned to my station and found three recordings. The first was from a hundred days after departure. Even though we had gone to warp speed by then, the message still arrived because of the quantum entanglement communication system.

The screen displayed a woman at a communication station at Space Command Headquarters on the Space Station Hero-1. The nametag revealed that she was Avery Wilson, First Class. She was a young cadet with beautiful green eyes and short cropped purple hair, and seemed cordial as suggested by her subtle smile.

"We hope that you are safe on your journey. Everything is running smoothly here. Plans are underway to staff the new Helios station when it arrives at the proper Lagrange point with the Sun. We will send a status report next month."

The recording ended abruptly.

The next message arrived after thirty-four days. The same cadet did not look as happy as she was in the first message.

"We have detected a large asteroid on a possible collision course with Earth in 121 days. A mission has been sent to alter its course. It's headed by Commander Victor Stevens. We will send a message as soon as we know the outcome."

The message ended, and I was immediately struck by the incongruity of her report. First of all, a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth would have been detected a long time before that. The only possible reason for this obvious salvation mission is that the asteroid's course had been unexpectedly altered. I know Victor. He's a good commander and has had plenty of experience, but this sudden urgency disturbed me.

The third and last message arrived 121 days later, which told me something was wrong. The same cadet had a grim look on her face. It was the look of defeat.

"The mission to alter the asteroid's course has failed. I will transmit the outer camera view of the asteroid's arrival."

The view was that of the Earth from 120 miles up. The asteroid was already plunging into Earth's atmosphere at forty thousand miles per hour, trailing a blazing tail. It collided in the middle of Siberia and produced a humongous fireball that sent flaming debris high into the atmosphere. I cringed when I saw glowing rocks headed for the space station.

The transmission ended. I assumed that the space station had been hit and damaged, but there was no way to verify that. All that I know was that this asteroid was huge, probably several miles wide. This was a collision event much like the one that killed off the dinosaurs.

I attempted to establish contact with Space Command but the entanglement link had been broken. Once that happens, there is no way to reestablish it. We were on our own.

I suddenly felt alone like never before.