Space Corps - Explorer (Book 1) (3 page)

Chapter 5

Breath of Life

“Admiral, we’ll be boarding the US Space Corps exploration vessel in just a few hours.”

“Does it have a name?”

“No, sir. Naming the first of a new class of ships is your right as admiral.”

Ashley smiled and looked around. The cramped cockpit of the space shuttle quickly grew old. The window made the small space bearable. Looking out, she saw the sun rising on Earth’s horizon.

The pilot craned his neck. “It’s a beautiful sight. During normal orbit, you’ll see the sun rise and set sixteen times a day.”

“Does it ever get boring?” Ashley asked.

“I’ve been on more than a dozen missions,” said the pilot, making a minor course correction, “and I can promise you it doesn’t.”

Straining, the new admiral could see a small speck in the distance. She didn’t need anyone to tell her what it was. She recognized it as the International Space Station. Just to the side sat a considerably larger craft.

“We’ll need to make two more complete orbits around the planet, and then we can dock with the station,” said the pilot.

Turning to the commanding officer of the shuttle, Ashley asked, “Would you mind if I asked you a question?”

“Of course not.”

“I heard you had the chance to spend some time onboard the station. Why didn’t you take it?”

“Family, sir. My wife doesn’t like me to leave for too long, and I don’t like to leave her. The relationship works well that way.”

“Is living on the station all they make it out to be?”

“I would imagine it’s pretty miserable. The station is just about as cramped as can be. There’s barely enough room to stretch out.”

“I saw a million pictures of the station when I was growing up. I always wondered what it would feel like to live inside for more than just a day or so.” Ashley sighed. “I know there are many downsides, but I can’t help thinking that sitting so high above the Earth is worth it.”

“There certainly are,” the captain said, “but your ship is much better. The construction for the International Space Station started in 1998. The plans are even older than that. Your ship is much newer and much better.”

With one orbit around the Earth complete, Ashley couldn’t help but grow excited. She knew she would walk on her ship in just a few hours.

Floating through the airlock and into the Space Corps vessel, Ashley heard a loud but gentle whistle announce her presence.

“Admiral on deck!” shouted a lieutenant.

Everyone in sight jumped to attention as well as they could. To set themselves up to give a salute, men and women in blue jumpsuits pushed off metal and held themselves in place with their free hand.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. The people surrounding her all looked older than her, but showed respect. Ashley heard crewmen of the Space Corps call her admiral before, but hadn’t grown used to the title.

“As you were.”

With three words from Ashley, the crew hurried back to work. Everyone rushed with tools or supplies to their destination. Ashley didn’t know where each person went, but knew they were the engineers building her vessel.

Only one woman remained. She pushed off the wall to meet Ashley. Reaching down to her feet, she hit a button on the side of her unusually bulky boots.

“What are those?” Ashley asked.

“Magnetic boots, sir. It’s great to feel weightless and it’s great to float everywhere, but it does look a bit ridiculous. There’s a pair waiting for you in your quarters if you would like to see them.”

“My quarters? I was told we would use barracks because of the lack of available space.”

The Lieutenant smiled. “It’s a surprise for you. All crewmen will bunk in the barracks. Because you’re an admiral, you get a special treat. They’ve set aside some space for some quarters. It’s nothing large, and it’s nothing amazing, but it’s your own space.”

Smiling, Ashley looked around. While small, the hall connecting to the airlock bore clean lines. Not an ounce of space went to waste. In the corners, cables and pipes ran, protected by a thin casing.

“If I’m going to help start this thing up, I need to change into my static suit,” Ashley said. “Would you mind taking me to my quarters, Lieutenant…?”

“Lieutenant Card, sir. I’m the communications officer on this ship. Speaking of which, I was wondering if you had a name picked out.”

As they walked, Ashley looked around in amazement. She saw every detail drawn out in paper. Seeing it in person felt completely different. “What kind of ship is this, Card?”

“Exploration and colonization.”

“And after we colonize Mars, this will still be an exploration vessel. I thought the name Explorer sounded good. What do you think?”

“I think it sounds wonderful. Although, if I can be completely honest, you could call it anything you want. I’m just excited to serve on it.”

“That makes two of us.”

After changing into a static jumpsuit and working in the engineering portion of the ship, Ashley made two final adjustments to the panel she worked on. Looking around, she saw others standing or floating without any more work to do.

From deep in the engine of the vessel came a loud shout. A man and several crewmen shot out of a maintenance shaft and into the main engineering room.

“That’s it, people! Construction is complete. We’re ready to light this candle.”

Looking around, the man noticed Ashley. Pushing off a piece of pipe, he shot down to the admiral.

“Sir, I’m so sorry, but I wasn’t aware you would be down here.”

Covered in sweat, the man struggled to catch his breath before continuing. “I can’t tell you what an honor it is. I’ve worked for months building this engine. Before that, I spent months going over the designs. Is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“Did you really design the engine yourself?”

Smiling, Ashley said, “I did. Of course, men like you helped adapt it for this particular ship.”

The man’s face filled with dread. “Sir, I’m so sorry.” Snapping into a salute, the man said, “Commander and Chief Engineer Thomas Reynolds, at your service.”

“Introductions can wait,” Ashley said. “What do you say we get this thing turned on?”

Ashley, the chief engineer, and the comm. officer turned on their magnetic boots and walked to the bridge. The trek took a long time, but they savored every step.

The bridge glistened. All over sat brightly polished metal consoles. Every single one held at least two monitors, but none displayed anything. Only emergency lighting lit the room.

In the very center of the room sat a large chair with several monitors and smaller consoles surrounding it. Without asking, Ashley recognized it as the command chair. She lost all reserve and ran over to it.

Before sitting down, Ashley ran her hands over the stitching of the leather seat. The call of the chair grew too loud to ignore, so Ashley sat down.

Reaching for a small microphone, Ashley cleared her throat.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Card said, “there’s one more thing before we begin.”

In her arms, the lieutenant held a brass plaque.

“Back home, it’s customary to christen a ship with a bottle of champagne. We obviously can’t break a glass bottle over the hull, so we figured we’d start a new tradition. We figured we would have the first commanding officer of a new ship mount a nameplate on the wall.”

Ashley stood. She didn’t know what to say.

Looking at the plaque with a worried face, Card said, “You said you wanted to call it the Explorer, is that right?”

Wanting to cry and shout with joy, Ashley fought it all. Her officer’s reserve wouldn’t allow such emotions to show. “That’s exactly right, Lieutenant.”

Handed a drill and the nameplate, Ashley found an empty spot at the back of the command bridge. After fixing the plate in place, she polished it with the cuff of her jumpsuit.

“The USSC Explorer,” Ashley whispered.

“It’s official now, sir,” Reynolds said. “We’ll have someone paint the name on the hull in the next couple of days.”

“For now, let’s turn it on,” Ashley said with a slight tremble in her voice.

Slamming into her chair, Ashley grabbed the microphone once more. “All hands, prepare for activation of ship power.”

Card ran over to her console to accept transmissions from key areas of the ship. “We have the all-clear, Admiral.”

“Begin introduction of the fuel.”

Card nodded.

“Activate main power generators.”

Slowly, the lights across the ship came to life and lit the halls and hull of the Explorer. One by one, the monitors on the bridge turned on and began to transmit information.

“Activate back-up power generators.”

“It’s done,” Card said.

Ashley couldn’t hide her pride and fear. “Activate primary engines.”

A rumble came from the back of the ship. In a matter of moments, it dulled to a quiet pulse.

“That’s it,” Reynolds said. “The Explorer has officially taken its first breath.”

“Comm.,” Ashley said, “contact Central Command. We’re ready to begin testing. Ask them to send the rest of the crew.”

Chapter 6

A Change of Plans

For a month, Admiral Ashley and her crew made their way toward Mars. In just another two weeks, they were hoping to land on the surface. Things went smoothly, and everyone on the Explorer was glowing with excitement.

The crew had almost forgotten that they were trying to beat the Chinese Space Agency’s ship to the planet. When they remembered, it was under dire circumstances.

The communications officer to Ashley’s right, Elizabeth Card, focused on the screen in front of her. Several lights flashed on her monitor that told her that she had received a transmission. She worked quickly to accept it and prepare it for her commanding officer.

“Admiral,” Card said, “there’s something you need to hear.”

Ashley could hear the stress in the officer’s voice. “Play it on monitor one.”

At the front of the command bridge, there were two large monitors. One on the left of the viewport, and one on the right. On her command, Card began playing the message on the monitor to her left.

On the monitor flashed the symbol of the US Space Corps. After several seconds, the symbol faded away and showed a video of the President of the United States sitting next to the Chinese Ambassador.

The President cleared his throat and nodded to the ambassador before he began. “Admiral, I trust this message will find you well. We have read all your daily status reports with great pleasure. Sadly, this is not a message of glad tidings. At roughly seven this morning, the Chinese Space Agency received a distress signal from their ship, the Fu Zing. We don’t know what has happened to them, but we do know that something caused a lot of damage to their vessel.

“More importantly, we know there are survivors from whatever happened. We don’t know their status. We know that if they don’t get help soon, they will not survive. The Chinese government says they have no rescue capabilities and cannot provide another ship for relief. The survivors don’t have long.

“You know as well as I do that the Chinese wouldn’t ask for help unless they really needed it. Therefore, when their ambassador approached me, I knew I couldn’t turn them down with you and your crew so close to the area of the incident.

“Your mission has changed. You are to locate the Fu Zing and provide help to the survivors as best you can. As soon as you are able, you are to report to us with what you find. The flight path for the Martian lander will be transmitted at the end of this message. Good luck, Admiral.”

Commander Ryan Gibbs rose to his feet, held in place by magnetic boots to the metal floor.

“Admiral, if I may, I’d like to take the Protector out to investigate the ship.”

“And why is that, Commander?”

“Well, sir, the Protector can get there a bit faster than the Explorer. And, until we know what we’re dealing with, I feel it would be in our best interests to keep the Explorer from harm.”

Ashley looked back and forth between the Commander and the screen that still bore the image of the President.

“While I understand that, you realize that they were more than likely struck by a stray asteroid? There would be very little danger involved if that’s the case.”

Chief Engineer Thomas Reynolds took his chance to jump in the conversation. “Admiral, Commander, there may indeed be a risk of damage to the Explorer even if it was just an asteroid that caused the damage to the Fu Zing.”

Taken back, Ashley was interested to hear more.

“You see, even a small asteroid could cause a considerable amount of damage to a vessel. It isn’t unusual at all to see them traveling at a high rate of speed. While the asteroid itself may not pose much of a threat anymore, there’s a good chance that it may have knocked chunks of metal off the Martian lander. If that’s the case, there will be a lot of debris in the area. The Protector, being so much smaller than the Explorer, would stand a much better chance of avoiding any of the debris.”

In no way, after hearing such a solid argument, would Ashley not allow her first officer to take out the Protector. With a nod, she motioned to one of the two exits at the back of the command bridge.

“Be my guest. However, I want you to stay in constant contact with the Explorer, is that clear?”

Commander Gibbs nodded his head in appreciation before rushing out the door. He couldn’t help but feel a little crushed that the nature of their mission had changed, but being a military man, he intended to complete his mission.

When he reached the docking bay of the Explorer, he turned immediately to a man inside a small booth.

“Crewman, I need you to call together the crew of the Protector. I want them suited up and ready to go in no more than fifteen minutes.”

The crewman gave his salute and went about his work of calling together the ten-man crew.

Large for the size of the Explorer, the docking bay wasted very little space. From there, the crews could board their ships. One, the Guardian, the other, Protector. While the Explorer had an imposing array of weaponry, Guardian and Protector displayed an impressive setup as well. Though the military didn’t expect to need them for anything specific, they were perfectly suited to taking out asteroids or other threats.

Guardian was the slower of the two, but it had a stronger hull. Protector gained speed at the cost of security. Both ships could hold a ten-man crew, and not one of the two could be away from their mother ship for more than a week or two.

“Gentlemen, I’m glad to see you,” said the commander to his newly arrived crew. They kept him waiting no more than five minutes.

The nine men that assembled on the deck of the docking bay looked striking. They bore large, white suits with military markings. Bulky magnetic shoes held them to the floor, but the men showed great skill in walking with them. If he didn't know better, Gibbs would have thought they were walking on Earth.

Without wasting any more time, the men climbed into the Protector and took their posts. They had gone through many drills in the simulators back at home, but none ever took the Protector out for a flight. Excitement was high in the air, and all the men were eager to prove they deserved to be there.

After the ship closed up, the commander took to his seat. “This is Commander Gibbs to the Explorer, requesting permission to depart with the Protector.”

“Copy that,” came a voice over the radio. “We’ll clear the way.”

Though the crewmen busied themselves performing various tasks in the area, the docking bay underwent evacuation.

“Protector, prepare for release.”

Commander Gibbs replied, “Copy that. We’re ready when you are.”

“Disconnect in three, two, and one.”

The docking clamps released its hold on the smaller ship. Two mechanical arms pushed the Protector into space. A loud hiss ran through the ship as the arms released their hold on the vessel. Around it, a cloud of water vapor instantly turned into a cloud of tiny particles of ice. The arms then returned to their home in the docking bay.

“Protector, you are clear to depart. Good luck and good flying.”

“Thank you,” Gibbs replied. “Pilot, you have the course of the Fu Zing. Please lead us out at maximum speed. Diagnostics, keep an eye on the scanners. We don’t know what took out the Lander, but we don’t want to be caught off guard by it either.”

From the bridge of the Explorer, Ashley watched as the Protector shot off into the unknown. As much as she trusted her first officer to handle the job of ensuring the safety of the area, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something big would happen.

“Card,” the admiral said to the communications officer, “report our response to the distress signal back to headquarters. I’m sure they’ll be interested to see how this pans out.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tactical, I need you to keep weapon systems at the ready. If any kind of debris gets too close to the ship, you have my permission to fire at will.”

Tactical officers Holt and Tran nodded and set about arming the systems. After working with her many times during their training, the two men knew they could trust the admiral without question, and knew she shared a similar trust with them. They didn’t intend to let her down.

Ashley turned to her Chief Engineer. “Reynolds, I need your team to keep a constant eye for anything that may pose a threat to us. If they see anything that justifies it, they are to inform the pilot of the threat immediately so he can respond.”

“Harris,” Ashley turned to the pilot, “I trust that you’re bringing Gonzales up to speed on controlling the ship?”

“Absolutely, sir. She’ll match my skills in no time at this rate.”

“Fantastic. Reynolds, I want you to join me in the conference room. We need to start developing a plan for bringing survivors onboard. I don’t know how many there will be, but I intend to be ready for them.”