Chapter 12: Chapter Part 3, Chapters 1-2

Entering the Helvetios system “Copilot Preflight checks complete, we are ready to launch,” Dianna Rose said with authority. It was her first flight as a copilot; she was one of the new pilots who had recently been trained.

After the better part of a year, Roger was piloting a boat again, ready to do something that could easily get him killed.

Normally, when approaching an unmapped system, the Erikson would slow to a crawl. Then they would turn off the torch, and launch the VLA and maybe a few probes. But that required time they did not have, not to mention that no probe could slow down from five percent C.

“Engineering Officer preflight complete. Laser is retracted and rail gun is buttoned up. We’re ready to rock and roll,” Thomas Rhentt said.

Roger was still a bit uneasy about the weapons, but with what was at stake, he could understand having them.

As pilot, Roger spoke last. “Pilot checks are complete. We are ready to burn.”

“Ten-four, that Alice, hold for throttle down and ejection.” He heard from C&C.

Roger looked out through the screens and imaged he could see the redshift on the stars ahead. He knew he couldn’t, they were only traveling at five and a half percent the speed of light.

Still, he could have sworn they were slightly more red than normal.

Thomas spoke up, “Ready to make history? I doubt any civilian ship has entered a system going faster than point zero five C.”

“I just hope we survive making history,” Roger said.

For the first time in weeks, Roger felt less than one G as the torch was cut to one-fifth normal, just enough to keep it burning.

“Prepare for ejection.” The captain spoke, “Godspeed, and thank you for your service.”

They felt what Roger knew to be more than ten G’s briefly as the Alice was pneumatically pushed out of the docking ring.

As soon as they were clear, Roger turned the ship, so the engines were facing the Erikson. To shield them from it.

They spent the next hour double-checking every instrument while the Erikson receded in the distance.

---

Thomas spoke, “Probe data is...”

“Hang on,” Roger called out for the fifth time in two days as he saw a blip on the mass detector.

He quickly turned the ship and did a brief four G burn. They were clear in less than ten seconds.

Hardly missing a step, Thomas repeated himself, “The probe data is compressed and probes one through three are ready to go.”

“Bringing us about,” Roger said as he turned them around, facing the dot that was the Erikson.

“Flushing tube now.

“Railgun capacitor charged.” Dianna finished.

“We’re aimed as close as we’re going to get, launch when ready,” Roger instructed.

Thomas said, “Launching probe one.

“Receiving telemetry. Launch was good; looks like it handled the increased G’s well. Computer is crunching the data now, we should have enough to send the Erikson soon.”

The next probe launched with no problem, but the third was dead after launch. Two out of three was good enough.

“Last chance to use the real bathroom before the long burn,” Roger said as he prepared for the burn.

“It’s only three days, how hard can it be?” Thomas popped off whimsically.

Roger murmured, “You won’t be saying that in a day.”

“We’ve both been through worse.”

Three days at three G’s and one at six was going to be hard.

“It needs to be done; we can hardly stay in system at point five C. Worrying about it accomplishes nothing.” Diana said.

---

As he was pushed back into his chair with triple his body weight, Roger thought back to four nights before.

There was a party on the Erikson to see him, Thomas, and Dianna off. Everyone knew the risk they were taking and wanted to show how much it was appreciated.

---

The party was being held in an unused storeroom. They were burning, so the normal compartments in the rings were facing the wrong way.

Roger saw the suit he was wearing for the first time just an hour before when Kyle presented it to him. It looked exactly like one of his father’s suits.

“How?”

“You gave Kat access to part of your database. She gave me a few pictures. I thought it might make you comfortable.”

“Thanks, it does.” He hugged Kyle briefly.

“Don’t thank me until you see what I made Kat.

“In my defense, it was her idea, not mine. She had a very specific idea of what she wanted.”

“You wanted to make her a ball gown,” Nadica piped up. She said that even though she was, in fact, wearing a ball gown.

“I’m a fan of the classics and also of not seeing any more of my sister’s cleavage than I have to.”

“Prude.”

Nadica had grown so much in the time Roger had known her. She was more outgoing and was looking more like Kat every day. Although, shorter, but there was no mistaking that they were sisters. She was training under one of the quantum computer programmers and apparently making great progress. She might become a full programmer within a year.

Kat hadn’t wanted Roger to see her dress before the party, so she changed in a friend’s quarters. She was waiting just inside when Roger opened the door.

Kat normally wore pants, maybe leggings or skirts if she was going to be under gravity. She liked to move around and tried not to wear things that would slow her down.

Roger was expecting a fancier version of a normal dress, not what made him stand slack-jawed in awe.

The dress was long, and left a trail on the deck behind her. It was split mid-thigh and showed a lot of leg. Her right arm and bust were covered, but her left breast was all but uncovered. It had a small triangle of fabric, and that was it.

She looked radiant. He would never be able to paint her beauty if he lived a thousand years.

He took her hand and kissed it, saying, “You are the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, Katrina.”

If possible, she glowed brighter as she jumped at Roger and hugged him.

Entering the party, they talked about everything except him leaving two days later, for which he was grateful. He didn’t want to dwell on it; he just wanted to enjoy the night. All the way there, he had his arm around her waist.

For once, Roger ordered a beer. He normally didn’t drink, but he decided to make an exception.

The night passed in a blur, and it felt like everyone there wanted to thank him for his service. If he drank half of what he was given, he might still have a hangover.

What he remembered most was Kat holding him tight; he didn’t think she ever wanted to let him go.

He never felt a twinge of anxiety or panic. It was...liberating.

That night was the first time they had made love. He had never felt as much at peace, or as complete, as he had that night.

---

“Total engine shut down confirmed, no malfunctions I can see,” Thomas said back on the Alice.

Between the drugs and the G’s, Roger wanted to crawl in bed and never wake up, but they had things to do. They were about a day out from their flyby and had to get ready.

Roger got the radio dish ready to send their greeting when Thomas loudly said, “Yeehaw! I can’t believe we did that!”

Dianna looked how Roger felt, drained and exhausted. Thomas, however, looked more alive than ever.

But they were far from done.

Deciding to leave the enigma of Thomas to another day, Roger checked on the Erikson. The computer said it was on track, or at least close enough. Once the Alice sent the second set of probes, after the slingshot, the Erikson should be able to enter orbit safely.

“Dianna, if you want, you can sleep first. I can handle the boat by myself for six hours. I want all of us as fresh as possible when we do the close orbit to make the gas giant’s space.”

“Thanks,” she said as she pushed herself out and headed back to the small cabins. While they were burning, they had been stuck in the cockpit.

“Really? Couldn’t even ask me first? You want to get in her pants or something?” Thomas may have sounded snarky, but he had a big smile on his face.

“Just get to work. Send that radar pulse and I’ll get the overwatch sat’s sent around the gas giant.”

Once they were sent, he aimed the dish at the fourth planet, as well as every other EM emitter that he could detect. He sent the greeting the Erikson had devised. The Erikson was already visible to the naked eye to everyone in the system; hiding was not an option.

---

While on the far side of the gas giant, Roger could see a large station of some kind.

It was just visible on the camera. It was huge and had dozens of small ships docking and undocking continuously. “The projected course is clear. We should be fine to go ballistic,” Dianna said.

“Any response from the station?” he asked Thomas.

“Nothing. Well, nothing that looks like it was meant for us.”

They’d passed one other station, which must have been able to receive their signals. For that matter, they should be able to see the Alice, but so far, there had been no response. Roger was really hoping the locals didn’t think they were a military incursion. The Erikson had enough problems without starting a war.

---

“Flushing tube now.

“Railgun capacitor charged.”

“Last probe is away,” Roger said as the boat shuddered with the launch.

Thomas asked, “Well, I was right— we survived. The Erikson should be able to park herself easily now.”

Thomas put his hands behind his head and relaxed as Roger said, “Think they will make any more sense of the locals than we did?”

“I find it doubtful. They will shortly have the same information we do, and there is no good reason to have a few stations in the gas giant and almost no colonies elsewhere. There is no practical reason they should not have hundreds of stations and thousands of ships, let alone a halo around their planet. It must be cultural. We will not learn more until they decide to talk with us,” Dianna said.

Thomas added, “They’re a dark colony; who knows why they left, or for that matter how they could leave and not be seen. I’m sure it’ll be a good story though.”

Looking out, Roger could see the Erikson, or at least her fusion fire. In less than two weeks, it would be in orbit and they could dock. Until then, they were to hang in orbit and keep sending greetings to the four large stations in close orbit of the gas giant. For all the good that had done so far.

After several hours of quiet, Dianna swiped a composite sensor image to one of the large screens and said, “Look at this.” It was several hundred meters long and looked to be all angles, not rounded like an asteroid.

It dawned on him. “A ship?”

“It was one anyway. It could be very old too; it’s in a high, stable orbit far away from anything else. It could have been there for hundreds of years.”

Thomas paged through a few screens. He said, “We should see what we can find on it. It could answer some questions. It won’t even take much delta-V to get there this far up the well.”

Technically, they should not do an EVA with only three people on the boat, but Roger thought it was worth it. “You’ll both go. I’ll get us into position.”

---

It took them more than an hour to get into position. Both Dianna and Thomas were in suits at the cargo lock when Roger got as close as he dared to the ship.

It looked less like a ship and more like a pile of scrap from close-up. It was all angles and holes, pitted and scarred all over. He could not even get a sense of it being whole or part of a larger ship.

The light from the Alice made the ship seem otherworldly.

Roger used the jets to bring them to zero relative velocity. When the Alice was thirty meters abeam, he said, “We’re as close as we’re going to get. Don’t be long.”

Thomas said, “Aye, aye, Captain.,” Roger imagined the fake salute Thomas was undoubtedly doing.

Roger turned to their camera feeds as they went through the wreck. Dianna went slow and making sure to get records of everything, Thomas going as fast as he could safely go.

As excited as Thomas was, they were not able to pull much from it. Thomas walked in with a few hull samples that looked like they would snap in half under any gravity. Dianna had an old-style circuit board that looked like it belonged in a museum if it were better maintained.