Been keeping busy (non-TUG story)

Postby slider40337 » Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:27 am

I haven't been on here much because travel and work...but also a new writing project in the science fiction category. Posting the first section here for those who may be curious!

"Where Were You?"

Molly Okada reclined in her bunk in one of the two rotating gravity rooms on the Earth Defense Force warp-ship Churchill. She’d programmed the screen above the bed to show a live view of the Earth below. The wispy clouds, the blue oceans, the nighttime lights above, and all the other lovely details of the planet always helped her relax and meditate. Her ship had just brought a load of samples back from Damon Base on Mars and was awaiting the return of the spaceplane with a fresh load of supplies for the remote station.

She didn’t mind her ship essentially being the transporter of supplies from Earth to Mars, since the supplies had to get there. The EDF only had three warp-ships, and the Churchill had been designed with transport in mind. The Bismarck was an interceptor, fitted with high gee engines to out-accelerate anything else currently in space and limited landing ability with only a pair of light landers. The EDF Patton could reasonably run supplies, but that ship’s advanced sensors were being put to use doing surveys of asteroids in the belt at the moment.

Starting as a dot on the screen, but growing slowly, Molly smiled to see her ship’s spaceplane approach from below on orbital intercept. A few minutes later, the sounds of docking reverberated through the hull of the Churchill, signaling that it was almost time to get underway back to Mars for another supply run.

Rising from the bed, Molly keyed off the screen and began climbing the ladder into the ship’s main set of crew modules. Sofia Spiros, the spaceplane’s pilot, would be expecting to deliver a report and then get some rest while the ship’s navigator, Chris Neal, aligned the ship for its warp jump to Mars. The Churchill generally spent more time in orbit of one of the two planets than anywhere else, with the rare exception of a less common supply run to Ceres or Pluto.
The ship’s RCS thrusters sent their normal “thrum” through the hull as the ship began a lazy turn to eventually point at Mars. Molly drifted, now out of the rotating module and into null-g again, into the ship’s command center where Chris worked alongside Jens Schmidt, the ship’s engineer. Jens was currently ramping up the Churchill’s fusion reactor, kick-starting it with power from the fission plant, in order to prepare to power up the warp drive. “Green across the board,” Neal said, “You know, we seem to spend longer waiting for them to send the plane back up than we do getting it to Mars.”

Jens and Molly chuckled. Configuring and packing the plane on Earth was by far the longest part of the process, sometimes leaving Churchill in orbit for weeks before it returned. Sometimes Molly sent one of the other crew members down in the plane’s second seat so that time in Earth gravity could be provided to get muscles worked back out properly, but this one was a short refill and resupply. Mars needed the foodstuffs and seeds currently in the plane too quickly to plan for a break on this leg, and the fifty people there outweighed the recreation of a single crew member.

Molly thought about ordering Chris to raise the ship’s orbit before warping, but the crew knew what they were doing so Molly instead drifted toward the hatch that led to the spaceplane’s docking airlock. Before she reached the hatch, however, about six alarms started squealing at once. “Report!” Molly shouted, turning and slipping into one of the two empty chairs left in the command center.

“Multiple collision warnings,” Chris said, “Engaging emergency evasive burn in ten seconds.”

“We’re negative on telemetry from any of the ground stations,” Jens added, “Half the satellites are down and more keep dropping.”

“More incoming objects,” Chris said, “Negative on burn solutions.”

“Emergency warp, distance two hundred thousand kilometers,” Molly ordered, tapping her board to try and bring up external camera on the monitors.

“Fusion plant is still warming,” Jens said, “We’ll burn out the relays on the…”

“Warp now,” Molly said, “No time to warm up.”

The ship didn’t feel any different, except the warnings changed from many to a single one. Molly knew that one too well. “Jump complete, we’re clear of objects,” Chris said.

“Fusion plant didn’t reach operating temperature,” Jens added softly, “Fission reactor is burned out and fuel rods need to be ejected so they don’t overheat the ship.”

Molly nodded soberly. The Churchill was now essentially a big rocket, relying on auxiliary engines with limited delta-V and power from emergency solar panels that were likely already deploying. “What the hell was that all about?” Sofia asked, opening the spaceplane hatch and drifting up into the command center.

“Take your seat,” Molly said, “We need options here. Can we raise Earth Defense on comms?”

Sofia slid into the last empty seat and configured her panel for communications. “Nothing,” she replied, “I’m not getting anything from earth ground or orbit here.”

Before anybody else could ask a question, Molly successfully pointed a telescopic camera behind them and activated the main screen in the front of the room. Nobody spoke for several minutes. Instead of the expected blue/green world, a sickening debris cloud of rock, molten metal, and water floating in null-g existed in its place.

“No…” Chris began, “The camera has to be…”

“I’ve checked more cameras, and the radar, and had the laser rangefinder bounce some beams,” Molly interrupted, “It’s real.”

Jens unbuckled his harness and launched himself aft toward one of the two ship’s heads. At least he’d thought to turn on the suction before the sound of his retching could be heard. Molly keyed her console to activate the ship’s emergency protocol. “In the event…” Molly began, her voice wavering, “In the event of serious compromise of earth, all ships are to rendezvous in lunar-stationary orbit over Jackson base on the moon.”

After checking some more displays, Molly continued, “As our ship does not have the fuel for that journey, and the spaceplane cannot land on the moon, it is my decision that our escape lander will take us there. If we use all the fuel for intercept and then landing, we can be there in twelve hours.”

Nobody replied, nobody moved. The sound of the air circulators became deafening as silence and stillness held the crew. Even Jens eventually returned to his seat so sit silently. “Chris,” Molly said after another few minutes, “I need you to go prep the lander. Sofia, get as many ready-to-eat supplies as you can from the plane. We don’t know what situation we’ll have upon landing. Jens, go eject the fuel rods so the ship doesn’t melt down. Maybe we or someone else can eventually salvage her and get it up and running.”

Molly moved into the emergency lander and prepared to abandon one of four warp-ships in existence. If time permitted, another warp-ship could come alongside and provide power to get the fusion plant running, giving Churchill another six months of active use, but the ship currently was fated to drift on escape velocity from earth’s debris cloud and end up in orbit around the sun.