Ancient Birthright (25 page)

“I go?”

Saigg jerked to a stop and stared at his daughter. “What do you mean you’ll go? You’re only four and a half thirty-cycles old.”

“I know, old lady. I fit airlock.”

“But, you’d be alone on that ship for cycles then you’d have to dock it to
Nauka 7
and get inside that ship.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know how to fly a space ship.”

“I learn, soon,” Dantee said with the confidence of the young. “I start now. We go to launch bay and start.”

“Hold on a minute, I need to call your mother and grandparents. I’m not saying you can go, just that we need to talk it over.”

The four adults converged on the team conference room, and Saigg told them what Dantee proposed.

“Absolutely positively unreservedly, NO,” was Renna’s response.

“Are you out of you mind?” was his mother’s.

“Let’s talk about this,” his father said. “If she can pull this off, it could mean salvation for the
Universe Explorer
.”

“Where is the little tadpole?” asked his mother.

Saigg looked around the room but couldn’t find his daughter. She’d been with him when he entered. “I have a feeling she’s already in the launch bay, talking one of the pilots into training her.”

“They wouldn’t...okay, sure they would,” Renna said. “That kid could talk a bulkhead into showing her how it grows. I found her in the growthbay the other day flying on Baany’s back. One of the fabricators had made her a harness and saddle with handholds and a seatbelt. I didn’t have the heart to take her away from her fun. They were evidently having a great time from the volume of laughter coming from the two. Don’t tell Kaas and Karonna but Tuuan was there taking a turn, too.”

“Where was Reedn?” Saigg asked.

“Oh, he was playing with...Tuuan… Damn I’ll bet he was with them, and I just didn’t see him,” Renna said.

“I’m not sure what’s happening to Tuuan and Reedn but it’s as if exposure to Dantee is pulling them along to her mental level. Have you noticed they aren’t having much trouble keeping up with her discoveries and antics? It’s as if she’s tailoring what she does to their abilities,” Saigg told the group.

“We’d better go find her and see what she’s getting into,” his father said.

They found Dantee where Saigg had suggested, in the launch bay sitting on a pilot’s lap as he explained the ship controls to her at a simulator console. She wasn’t alone. Tuuan and Reedn were perched on each of the pilot’s shoulders following along.

The launch bay of the
Universe Explorer
was located next to the central main engine tube. The other main reaction mass engines encircled the central engine but were 150 feet shorter. This gave the crew access to the central engine tube through a set of launch doors large enough to accept a fully-grown Ptero and load-pod or any of the PTO ships.

The engineers had designed the
UE
with its main engines pointing out the nose and the tail. This permitted the crew to launch maintenance craft, Ptero loads or ships like the one Dantee and the others were learning to fly, from the unused central engine tube. Launching from any other tube would have required stopping the ship’s spin.

“Ok Dantee, you try it. The program is going to start at the point where your ship is in the engine tube ready for launch. Watch the console for any problems and deal with them as quickly as possible.” The pilot instructed her.

The simulation program started, and Dantee watched intently as the PTO ship was pushed out of the engine tube with a puff of steam. Once in open space she carefully manipulated the controls to bring the little ship to the correct heading and attitude then went through the engine start sequence. When the engine was primed and ready, she advanced the throttle and accelerated toward her imaginary goal. The goal was a simulated cylinder that approximated the shape and size of the Russian spacecraft. After a few truebeats of flight, “Half way, starting deceleration,” she said as she looked over her shoulder at the pilot for confirmation.

“That’s right. Remember, with this little ship, you need to turn the ship one-hundred-eighty degrees to point the engine in the direction you want the thrust. So point it at the other ship and feed in power slowly. Watch the closing rate meter and as you approach zero bring the ship to a full stop before you try using the attitude thrusters to maneuver,” the pilot explained patiently.

Dantee closed on the simulated missile and came to a stop about two miles away. Then using the attitude thrusters, she maneuvered her ship in a complete three hundred and sixty-degree pattern around the other craft, stopped with her airlock facing the target craft’s airlock. The two airlocks were separated by twenty-five feet of space. With a few light taps of the attitude controls, she kissed the two airlocks together.

“Beautiful. We have pilots that have been flying these ships their entire career that couldn’t have done it better. Okay, disengage and come back to the
Universe Explorer
. Remember you want to set your course so that you will arrive where the
UE
will be when you get here, not where she is now.”

Dantee’s hands flew across the computer input as she entered the parameters to calculate the return course. The instructor pilot nodded to another pilot at a similar control console to run the calculation at the same time so he could check her answer.

Dantee finished and looked to the pilot for confirmation of her calculations. It was a full two truebeats before the instructor pilot at the command console presented his answer. They matched to the fourth decimal place where the instructor had stopped his calculation. Dantee had carried hers out to ten decimal places.

“Very good, your calculations are right on. Go ahead and align your ship’s attitude with the datum you just calculated and return to the
Explorer
.”

She made it back to the
UE
without problems. However, when she entered the main engine tube to return to the launch bay she forgot that the
Universe Explorer
was decelerating at full power. The slight speed difference at the opening of the engine tube had become a significant speed difference by the time her ship drifted to the bay doors. She ended up using her main engine to stop the potential collision and overshot the matching velocity, which launched her ship back out of the
UE
’s engine tube. She stopped her forward progress and eased off the engine power to let the
UE
’s deceleration move her into the landing position.

The pilot turned to Tuuan and Reedn. “You two want to give it a try?”

Tuuan and Dantee traded places.

“You’re ready for launch, let the pulse from the
UE
’s engine push you clear of the tube before you do anything.”

Tuuan watched closely and picked up some good instructions while Dantee was at the controls. She was a little heavier-handed with the attitude thrusters than Dantee, and had to correct several times after overshooting the airlock alignment. She got lost trying to do the calculations for the return flight, and Dantee jumped down beside her and demonstrated how to break the calculation into small segments. Tuuan’s return flight and landing were smooth and precise. She had learned from Dantee’s mistake and settled in the landing cradle as light as a feather.

Reedn was nervous during his first attempt, and it showed. His attitude thruster control was too abrupt and jerky. The instructor pilot backed the simulation off and had him practice using the attitude controls several more times before he let him complete the mission.

“Okay kids, let’s take a walk and look at the real thing. The cabin is tiny and the airlock even smaller. So if you are claustrophobic this job is not something you want to do.” He opened the main access hatch and let the three jump inside. Dantee maneuvered to the airlock and pressed the actiplate that opened the inner door. She then crawled inside and reached around to press the actiplate that closed the inner door and sequenced the outer door. When the outer door retracted, she poked her head out and found her parents and grandparents watching her. She waved and said, “See. I fits.”

The instructor pilot heard her and snapped his head around to see to whom she was talking. “Oh...Command Prime, I didn’t see you come in. The kids just wanted to know what it was like to be a ship’s pilot. I gave them a demonstration on the simulator and was giving them a tour of the real thing.”

“Yes Pilot Jannz, we were watching. When Dantee came up with the idea that she should be the one to fly the rescue mission to
Nauka 7
and then disappeared, we figured, we would find her here. We didn’t expect to find her brother and cousin, too. So, Lead Pilot Jannz, what can you tell me about the abilities of my grandchildren?” Command Prime Garuu asked.

“These three are your grandchildren? I didn’t know. Dantee was the quickest to pick up the calculations, and she has an exceptional touch with the controls. Most pilots take years to learn the finesse she’s demonstrated. Tuuan is almost as good on the controls but needs more work with course calculations. Reedn is the type of student we call ‘learn-by-doing,’ he needs to actually get in a ship and feel it around him to know what’s going on. The simulator is good for an initial training tool but he would do best one on one with an instructor in a real ship. All three have demonstrated more ability and potential in the last hour than many of the older second and third-year student pilots.”

“Why do you think that might be?” Ops Prime Garuu asked.

“Probably distractions. At their age, they don’t have the physical and mental distractions of the older students. They don’t have to prove anything to the opposite sex, and their egos don’t get in the way of learning. Their brains are like a dry sponge laid on a puddle of water. They will soak it up and still have room for more,” returned the instructor.

“How long would it take to train them to truly handle a PTO ship safely?” Command Prime Garuu asked.

“Dantee, less than a seven cycle, Tuuan, maybe a cycle or two more to get her comfortable with the course calculations, Reedn, we’d have to get into a ship and evaluate from there. Then all three would have to be tested in zero gee to see how they function without gravity.”

“Let me know in three cycles how they are progressing.
Nauka 7
is developing a crack in her pressure hull, and they are out of sealant. We need to send a rescue mission with medicine and patching materials as soon as we can. These three are the only ones who can fit through the equipment airlock on the small service PTO to transfer the materials. Dantee wanted to go alone, but at her age, a thirty-cycle without others around might be enough to cause mental problems for life. If we send all three, they will have the company they need and still be able to complete the mission.”

“Just how old are they?” asked the instructor.

“They’ll be five thirty-cycles shortly,” Command Prime said with a worried frown.

“Five thirty-cycles and they are all your grandchildren?”

“Yes, so make sure they know enough to get back to me safely.”

“Yes, sir.”

Saigg started to object, but one look at his daughter changed his mind. He saw determination and spirit shining from the young face.

Chapter-29

Beldon held his breath as he double clicked the icon for the Internet. Striker was again in conference with the pilots.

Cindy kept an eye on the command deck while she used the exercise machine to keep up her muscle tone.

Beldon logged into the three blogs he was maintaining and added the latest developments. The large news feeds only reported the official NASA news releases. The inside information he’d been adding to the blog for the last twenty-five days didn’t seem to be making it onto the mainstream Internet sites. This latest upload contained the details on the relief mission launched from the
Universe Explorer,
and the discovery of the bulkhead stress crack in
Nauka 7
.

He took a chance and sent an email to one of the secret email addresses he and his dad had set up before the shuttle mission launched. So far, Striker had not let Cindy or Beldon near the radio to talk to their parents. He must think there was a possibility they would broadcast details that the government didn’t want known. Beldon couldn’t figure out what the secret meetings on the command deck were about. He wondered if Striker was developing feelings for Becca Jollye, and some of the meetings were to give him a chance to be near her.

“Beldon, do you want to use the machine when I’m done, or should I put it away?” Cindy called, emphasizing the ‘put it away.’ This signaled the meeting was over and the flight crew would be coming back into the crew compartment. He quickly finished his email and clicked send, and then closed out the email system and the Internet.

When Striker floated through the hatch, Bel was floating with his little toe hooked to a handhold, one arm behind his head and a book in his other hand.

Becca followed Striker. She was dressed in the one-piece jump suits they all wore. Either hers was tailored to fit her form, or she’d been the model used to design the original version. The suits he and Cindy wore were oversized and baggy.

Cindy finished with the exercise machine and asked Striker and Becca if they wanted to use it. No, they just wanted to unwind and stretch their limbs for a while.

“Why don’t you two go talk to Major Rishly? You must be getting sick of this cabin?” This was the first time during the mission they were given the chance to go to the command deck.

Beldon looked at Cindy and winked. She returned a small smirk as she pushed off toward the hatch to the command deck. Beldon followed and took the indicated position. When Beldon looked over his shoulder back into the crew cabin, no one was visible. They could hear groans and an occasional gasp, as the two below tried to keep what they were doing as quiet as possible. Major Rishly got their attention and began pointing out the various systems arrayed around the cockpit.

“Major, since we’re up here could we contact our parents? We haven’t had a chance to talk to them this entire mission,” Beldon asked.