Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (7 page)

As
Mary and Tidwell stared out of the canopy, trying to figure out where they were, bright lights revealed the ship had landed in a gigantic landing bay. Overhead, massive doors were slowly closing.

“Captain Bowser, this is Admiral Corbin,” Mary heard through her flight helmet speakers. “I apologize for not letting you know about the assault landing and the holographic surface. It was necessary and will be explained to you shortly. Please remain in your ship until the landing bay has pressurized.”

Mary
selected the ship’s intercom. “We’ve landed. Remain seated until the landing bay has pressurized.”

***

A few minutes later they disembarked. Still in their white jumpsuits with duffel bags strapped to their shoulders, they looked around at the enormous landing bay.

“
Welcome to Phobos Naval Station!”
a voice boomed several meters away, getting the crew’s attention. An admiral dressed in a navy-blue jumpsuit and two marines dressed in combat armor approached the group. The crew snapped to attention and saluted the admiral. The admiral returned their salutes as he continued walking toward them.

“
Captain Bowser?” the admiral asked, searching the gang of unmarked white jumpsuits.

“
Yes, sir,” Mary said as she stepped out of the crowd and approached him.

“
It’s great to meet you,” he said as he extended his hand for her to shake.

“
Thank you, sir. I’m happy to be here in…in one piece.”

“
Again I apologize for the assault landing. It’s a mandatory security precaution when a ship lands directly here from orbit. There may be stealth spy satellites out there that might try and record your descent vector or may have cracked our hyperchannel communications. That’s why we didn’t let you know you’d be coming down so fast. Now let’s get you and your crew out of the landing bay and get some breakfast,” he added with enthusiasm.

Part Three:
Starship Stephen Hawking

Briefing Room D4,
Phobos Naval Station

1030
—February 15, 2372

After breakfast, the entire Mission Origin View crew was escorted to a briefing room. The size of the room was adequate
, though some of the marines had to stand due to lack of seating. Admiral Corbin and Mary stood in front of the room with a communications holographic display system mounted on the wall behind them.

A sudden momentar
ily loud sound of static filled the room as the holographic display system came to life, projecting Senator Rimms and Admiral Frank. They were seated at a table in the Mount Mitchell USECC facility. Conversations among the crew stopped, and all eyes were fixed on the hologram.

“
Glad to see you’ve all made it to Phobos,” Senator Rimms said. “I hope you had a good trip. The admiral and I want to speak to all of you for a few moments before you begin your three days of intensive training. As you were told here at Mount Mitchell, each of you was picked specifically for this mission because of your skills and experience. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of this mission and the impact it’ll have on mankind for many years to come. Admiral Frank, anything you’d like to add?”

“
If there’s anything you need, please let Admiral Corbin know,” Admiral Frank said. “He’s there to make sure you complete your training on schedule. If anything comes up that might delay the schedule, or if you discover something that you might need on the mission while training, let him know. He and Captain Bowser will go over the training schedule in a moment.” Admiral Frank paused and, with a smile on his face, continued. “Also, when the meeting is over, get aboard the
Stephen Hawking
, get out of those white jumpsuits, and put on your mission uniforms. Good luck!”

Hand
claps and cheers erupted as the hologram disappeared.

After a few seconds
, Admiral Corbin and Mary began briefing the crew on the training schedule.

SRS
Stephen Hawking
Docking Bay,
Phobos Naval Station

1300
—February 15, 2372

The crew, escorted by Admiral Corbin, entered another enormous docking bay and saw the
SRS
Stephen Hawking
for the first time.

Colored black and
about the size of a small frigate-class vessel, the ship sat on its massive landing gear. It was rectangular shaped with sharp angles on its sides, ends, top, and bottom to make it stealthy. Other than the landing gear, only the BHP pyramid on top protruded from its sleek surface.

“
Not as big as I thought it would be,” Gault commented to no one in particular. The rest of the crew just stared at the uniquely shaped ship and smiled at his remark.

The crew was allowed to walk around the ship for a few minutes
, familiarizing themselves with the external locations of escape hatches, docking bay doors, communications-access panels— anything they might need to know if they ever found themselves outside the ship in space.

Eventually, the maintenance crew, already aboard, opened the ship
’s rear-access door and lowered a ramp. Hydraulic motors and pistons whined until the ramp touched the docking bay floor with a metal clank.

A senior maintenance officer walked through the open access doors and halted
at the bottom of the ramp. He acted as the officer of the deck and began the traditional boarding of a US naval vessel crew.

Mary
led the officers, enlisted crew, and scientists to the ramp. She stopped, saluted the flag of the United States of America stenciled on one of the open ramp access doors, and then turned to the acting officer on the deck, saluted him, and asked, “Permission to come aboard, sir?”

“
Come aboard,” the acting officer on the deck said, returning her salute. The rest of the crew followed and used the same protocol.

Once
they were aboard, maintenance personnel escorted the crew to their quarters so they could change into their mission uniforms and attach their Anna to their forearms. As expected, the sailors and scientists followed an escort in one direction while the marines followed an escort in another.

The enlisted
marine’s quarters was a large bay, which could easily accommodate thirty marines.

“
Gunny, take charge. Have the men change, stow their gear, and stand by,” Captain
Neubauer
ordered.

“
Aye, aye, sir,” Xia said.

Captain
Neubauer and Gideon followed their escort down the same passageway and were shown their individual quarters.

“
Lieutenant, after you’ve changed and are squared away, report to my office in the armory.”

“
Aye, aye, sir
,” Gideon said.

***

Gideon’s quarters contained three bunks, three closets, a large desk, a chair, and a latrine. He unpacked his duffel bag, stowed his clothes and toiletries in a closet, changed out of the white jumpsuit, and put one of his new green mission uniforms. Finally he attached his Anna to the left forearm of his uniform using the micrometal velcro and turned Anna on.

“
Welcome to SRS
Stephen Hawking
, Gideon,
”
Anna said into his implant.

“
Thank you, Anna.”

“
I have access to the ship’s main computer. Let me know if I can be of assistance.”

“
Can you direct me to the marine armory?” Gideon asked.

“
Sure, Gideon.”

Anna guided
him through the maze of passages and bulkheads. Gideon memorized everything he saw, read, or heard so he wouldn’t have to ask for directions to get back to his quarters.

As he walked
, he noted that everything was colored navy standard gray. Nothing was painted; instead the manufacturer had added the gray color to the plastanium as it was being produced. It looked as if everything was constructed of plastanium. If so, the cost of the ship had to be astronomical.

Plastanium was state
-of-the-art spacecraft building material. It was lightweight, strong, durable, and nonconductive. And if a small projectile nicked or punctured it, it would self-seal.

Biochem l
ight panels were mounted and used throughout the ship to supply visual lighting for the crew. Automatic detectors and configuration settings on the panels turned lights on or off and adjusted the intensity of light when necessary. The panels were constructed of
bioluminescent
materials, which copied the chemical reactions used by certain insects and fish to produce light. The biochem lights were another costly feature.

A few minutes later Gideon arrived at the ship
’s marine armory and reported to
Captain
Neubauer.

“
Since you’re my exec, we’ll be on a first-name basis when we’re alone. That okay with you?” Captain Neubauer asked as he motioned Gideon to take a seat in front of his desk.

“
That’s fine,
Rezin
,” Gideon said.

“
Okay, first things first, Gideon. Have you talked to your Anna yet?” Neubauer asked with a smile.

“
I have.”

“
Is it bizarre, or is it just me? You know, talking to it like it’s alive?”

“
It’s certainly going to take some getting used to.”

“
Yes it will. Anyway, let’s review our training schedule before we brief the men.”

Neubauer pulled up the training schedule on his desk
’s holographic display, and they reviewed the schedule in detail for a couple of hours, discussing specific plans and making minor modifications.

Captain’s Quarters,
SRS
Stephen Hawking

1345
—February 15, 2372

Mary
sat at her desk familiarizing herself with the sailors, marines, and scientists aboard the
Stephen
Hawking.
Mary read personnel file after personnel file. Every file she read surprised her. The men and women aboard her ship were indeed amazing people with one exception:
Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Sipes. While everyone else had special skills or above-average intelligence, Sipes was just an average sailor with only one skill specialty. She would ask Admiral Frank about him during their next private communication.

Meanwhile she decided to meet
each of the crew in her quarters and have an informal conversation just to get to know them personally. She’d discovered that talking with her crew one-on-one about their homes, family, dreams, and so forth…helped her know exactly what she could expect from them.

She pulled up a list of her crew on a holographic display and looked at it.

Navy Crew

              Officers

             
Captain Mary Bowser, Captain SRS
Stephen Hawking

Commander Nebo Steward, Executive Officer

Ensign Matthew Young, Communications Officer

             
              Lieutenant Temani LaPalm, Navigation Officer

             
Lieutenant Commander Buz Vanderver, Engineering Officer

             
Commander Abilene Pettway, MD Ship’s Surgeon

Enlisted

             
Master Chief Petty Officer Andrew Ostrow, Ship’s MCPO

             
Hospital Corpsman 1
st
Class, Thomas Wong, Medical

             
Petty Officer 1
st
Class Hiel Zettler, Electronic Repairman

             
Petty Officer 1
st
Class Candace Roe, Weapon Systems

             
Petty Officer 2
nd
Class Jesca Pezant, Propulsion

      
Petty Officer 2
nd
Class Tarah Afriday, Life Support

Petty Officer 2
nd
Class Joel West, Electrical/Hydraulics

             
Petty Officer 3
rd
Class Joseph Sipes, Hull Maintenance

Marines Contingent

             
Officers             

Marine Captain Rezin
Neubauer
, Contingent Commander

Marine Second Lieutenant Gideon Klaxton, Platoon Leader

Enlisted

Staff Sergeant Bartholomew Manelly, Green OPS NCOIC

Sergeant Peter Kindle, Green OPS / VTOL Crew Chief

Corporal Jesse Gault, Green OPS

Gunnery Sergeant Michael Xia, Black OPS NCOIC

Staff Sergeant Reuben Mucha, Black OPS

Sergeant John Tidwell, Black OPS / VTOL Pilot

Scientists

Seth Harper, Physics, Lead Mission Scientist

Heli Jones, Astrophysics

Aaron Kastriva, Quantum Physics (pending assignment)

Rachel Bailey, Cosmic Biology (
pending assignment)

Vashni Qasim, Computer Engineering (
pending assignment)

After reviewing the list, she began scheduling individual meetings, starting with Petty Officer Sipes at 1900 that evening.

Halfway through her scheduling, her desk communication holographic display appeared
, requesting her to answer a communications request in the ship’s Triple C. She closed her display and stood there for a second.

“
Anna?” Mary asked.

Anna
’s voice responded. “Yes, Captain.”

“
Please direct me to the Triple C,” Mary said.

“
Yes, sir. When you leave your cabin, turn left and…”

Mary followed Anna
’s directions and in a few minutes was at the Triple C. The Triple C, like all combat control centers aboard US naval ships, was located in the center of the ship because in theory it was the safest place aboard the ship during a battle.

She entered the
Triple C and authenticated her identity using her ID card and a DNA scan. No one was there, so she sat at the nearest command console and pulled up a communications interface. She selected “Accept Transmission” from the communications display, and Admiral Frank appeared.