Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 (12 page)

“Make the ship into an
aeroshell?”
Mbaka chuckled.
“
That
’
s the good kind of
crazy. The kind I like. You could almost fly the ship on
descent.
”

“That would be a bad
idea.
”

“You
’
ve run
simulations?
”

“Yeah. I wanted you to
take a look before I suggested it to
anybody.
”

Mbaka leaned forward to
one of his consoles.
“
I like
it already. Where
’
s the
file?
”

Lucian
Koriminksi was a horticulturalist and had been silently suffering
from the long journey for many years.
He
’
d been to see Elana almost
weekly for more than a decade. His dreams of finding alien worlds
and alien life forms had been swept away quickly in the
mind-numbing routine of their tiny bubble of life in the cold void
of space. Discoveries, when they came, came after weeks or months
of claustrophobic tedium.

As the years progressed, his boredom
and dislike for space had grown steadily into a gnawing hatred of
everything around him and an almost obsessive need to criticize
Pilton, whose unwillingness to turn around he perceived as the main
obstacle to his happiness.

In her role as Dr. Alder,
Elana had twice requested to have Koriminsksi placed on extended
leaves from duty. It was difficult to balance the need to keep him
busy with Koriminski
’
s
negative impact on the staff around him. He was in furious tears
now.

“It
doesn
’
t make any sense, Dr.
Alder. Why won
’
t Pilton send
out a communications pony? We
’
re thirty light years from where we sent the last one. How is
anyone supposed to know where we are?
”

Elana frowned.
“
It was my understanding that none
of the ponies survived the blast.
”

“Well then we should build
a new one. We can
’
t just sit
here.
”

“I
don
’
t understand. Are you
concerned that no one will be able to find us?”
Elana had to be careful. With the tensions on the ship,
Lucian
’
s borderline
delusional state could easily get out of control.

“Yes.
”

“We are broadcasting in
radio.
”

“Radio
won
’
t
help!
”
Lucian
’
s voice was high
with stress.
“
Radio waves
travel at light speed. It
’
ll
be thirty years before they even get to our last known
position.
”

“Help me understand
Lucian. You seem very upset. Knowing that
we
’
re years from rescue
either way, I think the feeling on the ship is that we need to make
sure we survive the landing first and then worry about contact
later.
”

Lucian went eerily still
and quiet.
“
What if
it
’
s too
late?
”

“Pardon?
”

“I
’
ve been watching the
sparks on shields. You can see them all night in the bio-dome.
It
’
s not specks of dust,
it
’
s a moon; a solid moon
filling in around us.”
Goose flesh rose on
Elana
’
s arms.
Koriminski
’
s voice had the
cold edge of nightmare in it.
“
This isn
’
t a ship.
It
’
s a glass and steel coffin
and those sparks are the concrete pouring in. When the rescue
comes, if it comes, they
’
ll
fly right by, just another dead rock in space. It
won
’
t matter if
we
’
re still gasping. The only
way they
’
ll notice us is if
they get that chill from walking on
someone
’
s grave.

Against her will, Elana
shivered.
“
Well,
”
she said, in a
tone unconvincing even to herself.
“
I guess our escape plan better
work.”

“It
will work.”
Mbaka was saying.
“
Better than anything
we
’
ve looked at so
far.
”

Pilton along with most of
the rest of the command crew seemed unconvinced.
“
It seems like a bad idea to me to
eliminate half of our living space and the entire science bay.
There
’
s a lot of equipment
that we
’
re likely to need
when we land.

“If. If we land.
That
’
s the point.”
Mbaka was emphatic.
“
Our whole plan depends on the
computer being able to keep the ship upright during landing.
That
’
s where we fail.
That
’
s where this plan saves
us.
”

“I
don
’
t understand.”
Pilton was querulous.

“Look.”
Mbaka pushed a button and the
ship
’
s wireframe schematic
leapt into existence in the middle of the table, this time with red
clouds pouring out from points all around the hull.
“
The shields will withstand
atmospheric entry. They
’
ll
even keep us alive during the landing, although it will burn most
of them out. What they can
’
t
do is keep us from tumbling.”
He touched
the table in front of him and the ship began to pitch back and
forth.
“
This hull was never
meant to enter an atmosphere. It
’
s lumpy and hard to keep balanced once it starts to
experience drag.”
The floating ship began
do sway dangerously.
“
In the
simulations, the failure always comes at the maximum stress point
about eight minutes before impact.”
The
image pitched forward suddenly and began spinning unevenly. After a
few seconds, it shattered in a spray of pixels and parts that flew
out of the range of the hologram and vanished. Mbaka paused and let
the tension hang in the room.

“Now.
Alder
’
s suggestion, that we
cut loose the habitation and science modules, gives us a ship that
looks like this.”
A new version of the
ship popped up. Now the broad, flat bottom of the engineering deck
and the outer edges of the ring were all that were visible across
the bottom of the ship. The halo of shields spread evenly across
them.
“
This configuration is
basically the same aeroshell design humans have been using for
hundreds of years. Think of it as a giant grav pod.”
The hologram buffeted and rocked in the
simulation of atmospheric entry but stayed upright.

“When I spoke to Muuk
about coding entry for this configuration, she about cried.”
Wei added in. As systems officer, programming the
entry codes fell to his crew.
“
She didn
’
t feel like
the other configuration had much of a chance. She feels this is the
way to go.
”

Dr. Shirimi,
Alder
’
s number two since
Lowen had died in the blast, cleared her throat.
“
This makes me happy too because it
will force us to delay the landing.
I
’
ve had a look at the knots
of plasma rising off the planet.
There
’
s something in them.
I
’
d like to have a chance to
get a better look.
”

The room fell silent. Weeks of crisis,
funerals, and overwork behind them coupled with more work,
exploding starships, and mysterious aliens in the future left a
heavy pall that, for a moment, seemed greater than the collected
will gathered around the table.

Pilton laughed a sudden,
high pitched giggle.
“
I like
it.”
He announced, slapping his meaty hand
on the table.
“
Let
’
s do
it.
”

“What!
”
Tallen
exploded, just as vigorously.
“
You can
’
t throw away
half the ship on your own authority.
”

Pilton wheeled on him and
shot out an accusing finger.
“
Mr. Tallen. That is enough. For more than ten
years
…”

“Yes.” Tallen cut him
off.
“
Almost fifteen years.
Far longer than anyone but you meant for us to be out here.”
Pilton sputtered but Tallen pushed
forward.
“
Now instead of
being home where we belong, you are trying to get us stranded on
your little planet. The ship is dying. Now what will you be? King
Pilton?”
Tallen sneered.
“
You say that you are trying to save
the crew. Save it from what? From ever being able to get back off
the planet? From ever being able to get out from under your thumb?
I will not follow you.
”

“Shalim.
I
’
m confused.”
Alder interjected.
“
I
’
m the one who suggested cutting the
ship.
”

“That
’
s right. And who
do you work for?
”

Alder glanced at Elana who
was sitting pensively to his left.
“
I work for my crewmates I
guess.
”

“No!
”
Tallen
’
s
huge voice filled the room.
“
You work for him.”
He gestured at
the suddenly very small Pilton.
“
How many times has he said it? This is not a democracy. This
is not a democracy. It couldn
’
t be a democracy because we would have voted to turn around
years ago, when we should have.”
He rose
to his feet, leaning menacingly in on Pilton.
“
Maybe you will get us down alive.
Maybe you will not. Either way, I think your days in command are
numbered.”
He turned and stormed out of
the room. Quietly, D
’
Ray
Fisher and Covar, the 2
^nd
in command of systems
followed.

Pilton stood as if to
speak to the backs of the departing men, closed his mouth and then
sat again.
“
Well,
”
he said into the
silence,
“
let
’
s see how long this
will take.
”

One of
the
‘
old married
couple
’
things that Elana and
Sam did was make meals together. They did it quietly,
unconsciously. After the awkward way the meeting had ended, they
made their way almost silently down through the heart of the ship
to their cabin in the hab module. Sam took vegetables and a block
of tofu from their small refrigerator while Elana filled the noodle
steamer with water. He cut the tofu into strips and then started in
on the vegetables while Elana set the tofu sizzling in an open pan.
Sam prepared the sauces while the noodles boiled and Elana stirred
the vegetables in with the tofu. In the past they had used the same
sauce, but Sam
’
s stomach was
growing increasingly intolerant of spice.

They sat side by side at their small
table with their bowls of noodles in front of them. They used
chopsticks to quietly fish vegetable and tofu out of the pan. For
long minutes they alternated between bites of vegetable dipped in
sauce and the noodles before Alder spoke.

“Pilton really seems to
have fallen down.
”

“He
’
s
struggling.”
Elana agreed.
“
His personality is based on glory
seeking. There
’
s no glory in
this.
”