The End of Winter -- Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Awakenings

 

July 17^th, 2808

When the crew returned, they were pleasantly surprised to find Cygnus awake and functional, although still weak. Chimera gave one of her usual cheerful greetings. “What a dipshit pilot! Can’t you land anything without breaking it?” Cygnus gave the universal one finger salute that seems to be recognized throughout the galaxy…

Chimera said, “Commander, that small chamber was an easy fix, just some ripped connections. It’s ready to go at your convenience.”

“Excellent. Put Misha in there now, and then get to work on the cabling. Amazona will follow after she gets the cable moved. Shouldn’t be more than another half hour.”

Curt walked up to introduce himself to Cygnus, who was at the workbench. “Dude!” Cygnus said. “You saved my life! I owe you free drinks forever!” An instant relationship, talking shop, flying techniques, spacecraft types, and a wide range of engineering issues.

After a bit, Curt went over to speak to Chimera, who was hooking up the first stretch of cabling to the TriStar, and said:

“The legend is that Cygnus can sense and feel the condition of a spacecraft almost supernaturally. Like he bonds with it. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe this?”

“Sir, it’s more than belief. I’ve seen it. It’s spooky. And this from someone who moves at the speed of light!” Chimera grinned evilly.

“Chimera…I want no one but Cygnus controlling that TriStar engine system during the test. No one. Are we clear?”

“Understood, sir.”

“Very well. Alert me when the engine is ready for the test.”

Amazona set the final length of cable on the ground, and looked around for something else to do. The Commander was standing there waiting for her, and just shook his head. “You’re done, officer. You are ordered to the large regeneration chamber without delay. Move out.”

“But sir, there’s still more preparation for the test, I could…” The Commander shook his head “Forget it, officer. You are so tired even I could probably knock you over. You are immediately ordered to the large regeneration chamber in MedLab. I’ll escort you there.”

“You think I might try to sneak off to get something else done?”

“Yup.”

There had been so much going on that Amazona and Chimera hadn’t seen each other for a while. “Well, you sure look like Hell,” Chimera said. “I’m going to have to write up your senior officer for abusive behavior.” Amazona laughed, and then coughed, and said, “That would make the whole trip worthwhile, Doc!”

“The regeneration chamber is fully buffered,” Chimera explained. “So you’ll feel no discomfort during the process. Once the power is stable, you will be induced into a light sleep, your organs will be re-generated, and your power levels will be ramped up…once we get the power. This first shot will just be a quickie, to give you another day. To be honest, we don’t know how long we can keep charging you even after the power comes on, given the overall ship power needs. Eventually, you’ll be back to full power.”

The Commander leaned over to Amazona and said, “Lieutenant, serving with you for the last thirty-six hours has been one of the greatest honors of my career. Sleep well, my friend.”

The drugs took effect, and the Commander and the Doctor moved on to other things. But before they left, the Commander said:

“Doctor, I will personally shoot anyone who wakes that young lady without cause for the next two days.”

To which Chimera responded, “Not if I get to him first.”

 

July 18^th, 2808

“Attention, crew. We are about to begin the main power connection test. The Doc, our lifeline, is in great shape, although still at low power levels. Cygnus is recovering well. Amazona is waiting for power. Behemoth will probably do handsprings if this test works. Misha, sadly, is dying. There’s no good way to say that, but if you think I’m giving up on her, you don’t know me very well yet.

Lieutenant Cygnus will be in charge of this test. Lieutenant Cygnus, you have one top priority instruction: DO NOT turn that engine off, under any condition.”

“Yes sir.”

“Very well. Please begin now.”

The engine had been idling for over two days. Cygnus tuned himself into the power system, and it seemed stable. He gradually increased the power, until, at 22MW, there was an odd instability. Vague. Squirrely, unidentifiable, but definitely there. He throttled back.

“What’s the issue, Lieutenant?”

“I don’t know sir. It just doesn’t …feel right. I recommend we restrict operation to 20 MW until we can do a full inspection of the system.”

“Very well. Set the controls to 20MW. Good job!”

As predicted, although quietly, Behemoth was indeed doing virtual handsprings. The batteries were now being charged!

When all calmed down, Cygnus called the Commander over for a private conversation.

“Sir?”

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

“You were completely right about that engine. If you had shut it down, we’d never have gotten it started again in 100 years without major work. Just thought you might want to know….”

 

July 19^th, 2808

 

Curt kicked off the meeting, “OK, so we didn’t get all the power we wanted, but we’re a hell of a lot better off than we were. Behemoth, what do you use for sub-light fuel and power?”

“Deuterium fusion, Sir.”

“Thank God. So do we. So we have fuel for the TriStar for the next 1000 years if we need it. But, we won’t have the time for that anyhow. I can’t really tell you much about it, but we have a very serious political problem. I guess I should say I have a serious political problem. My people will return in about 6 weeks. Unfortunately, they can not be trusted with this level of advanced technology. There are some first class folks, to be sure, but the political infighting at the upper levels is brutal. The Earth Space Force must not under any circumstance, be allowed to take control of this vessel. Self destruction would be a better option, and personally, I think that option sucks.”

 A huge sigh from Amazona. Her shoulders must have dropped half a foot. “We knew that. We didn’t know if you knew that.”

“Well, I do. There’s only one answer for this.”

Amazona whispered “I don’t like the sound of this.”

Behemoth replied “It’s even worse than you think.”

“Behemoth must be fully space worthy and battle ready within a month. I know that engine #3 is hopeless. But everything else has got to work. Start drawing up the plans.”

Chimera just rolled her eyes.

“Behemoth?”

“Sir!”

“You are going to lose that bet with Chimera about getting into space again!”

Late in the evening, The Commander went in to MedLab to talk to the Doc, and to see how Misha was doing.

“Chimera, you know this conversation never happened, yes?”

“Yes.”

“What’s her status?”

“Commander, she’s dying. I don’t know how else to say it. We don’t have the energy, we don’t have the technology, we don’t have the knowledge…we don’t know what to do, sir.”

“Well, hold on a minute, and think out of the box here with me,” the Commander said. “I’ve been doing a lot of reading about this in the last day or so. It seems the problem is NOT that the recipient dies in life power transfers, but that the DONOR dies. We need to constrain the energy flow from the donor to the recipient. And, significant external energy flow needs to be added to make it work. At 20MW, we’re a little anemic, but it should still work. Is all that about right?”

“Yes.”

“Doc, they tell me you are a wizard when it comes to building things. Can you build a regulator to constrain the flow of power from me to Misha?”

“Well, in theory, yes. It’s never been done. But it should work.”

“Can you build a regulator to constrain the flow of power from the ship to Misha?”

“That, I can certainly do….wait a minute…I see where this is going, and I don’t like it one little bit!”

“Too bad, Doc. I want that system up and running in an hour. And you let her take whatever energy she needs from me, until my life signs start to waver. You got it?”

“Yes sir!”

On his way to bed for a quick nap, the Commander stopped at the power control station.

He said:

“Lieutenant Cygnus, I need you for a special assignment. We are doing a classified experiment. In about two hours, the available power output from the engine that will be usable outside MedLab will drop significantly, almost to zero. This is part of the test, and is not a concern. It should last until dawn.

“And Lieutenant, that power drop never happened, and I was never here. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir!”

 

July 20^th, 2808

Well, so much for the discreet option. The next morning, Curt woke up to a screaming banshee. Blood was everywhere (his, he feared). There was an odd blue light, and everything was outside of the blue bubble…except him and Misha.

“Who the hell do you think you are, endangering the Commander of an Ancient ship to save one crew member?” Misha yelled. Slash….more blood. “Do you know how much power you used for your little scheme to jump start me? Full ship power output for two hours!” Slice. “I should shred you here where you lie!”

After considering many responses, the Commander said, “Good morning, ma’am. My name is Commander Curt Jackson, Earth Space Force. You must be Misha. I trust you slept well?”

A pause. A relax. Then, Misha curled around Curt’s neck, and the two of them slept for two days and two nights.