The Pathfinder Project (21 page)

“
Copy that
,” Bruce
replied. “
If there’s anybody in this system, they haven’t built anything
that generates a whole lot of electricity yet
.”

“
Then why don’t you two fellas
make a quick transit back to the
Pathfinder
for us
,” Nori suggested.
“
And let them know it’s safe to approach the star system and set up shop
.”

“
Acknowledged
,” Walt
replied. “
We’ll be back in a flash… pun intended
.”

*    
* * *     *

Thomas was very cold this
time. The people that were most angry with him had come up with a new idea. He
was still encased in metal, but this time rather than bury him deep in the
heated center of some miscellaneous planet they had decided to shoot him out
into deep space. He was drifting free amongst the stars, watching them slowly
but surely fall farther and farther behind him as he headed relentlessly on his
way out of the Galaxy.

Time was not an issue here
.

In fact, he decided, it no
longer mattered at all. That’s why they had chosen this form of punishment for
him.
It was very cold, he was moving rapidly away from everyone he had
known, and he was completely alone
. The years, then decades, then centuries
would pass and he would still be stuck – encased in a metallic body and
drifting through the heavens for all time. Soon he would be so lonely that it
would be unbearable, Thomas could already feel the pressure starting to build
in his head.

There was only one thing
different than before
.

This time he was vaguely
aware that it was all some sort of hallucination brought on by the medication
that he had been given.

How did he know
?

Well, for one thing he could
still remember the people in the hall that had quickly grabbed him the last
time he had awakened and begun wandering around in the corridor.

If it’s all a dream, he
reasoned, then all I should have to do is wake myself up. He tried as hard as
he could, several times, but nothing changed. He was traveling farther and
farther out into the depths of space, drifting away toward a lonely place where
no one else existed. He felt panic and tried again but still nothing changed.
It was cold and he couldn’t move inside his metal shell. From a distance he
thought he heard voices, one of which sounded like the Captain.

“
I’m telling you
,”
the Captain was saying tersely,“
This is the
last
time we waste our time
welding that SOB back together again
!” Another wave of panic shook him… they
were talking about
him!
He tried to tell them that this was all just
some sort of weird, medication reaction and nothing to be concerned about. But
there was still no one there, and he wondered if the voice he had heard was
real or if it had only been part of his imagination.

Then he sensed the evil again
and wondered where it was this time
.

He was just a small floating
object in the heavens and yet he suddenly realized that it was angrily pursuing
him, struggling to catch up. His brain filled with frustration as he
simultaneously tried to wake himself up and will himself to go faster. What was
different this time was that not only could he sense the evil that was
approaching, but he
knew
what it planned to do.

Water
was the source of all biological
life in the universe. It filled the lakes and oceans, played a crucial role in
weather, and helped newly sprouted plants to grow as they poked through the
dirt in their newfound journey toward sunlight. It was also something that
could be taken away, and
that
was what the evil force behind him was up
to this time. It had found him again and this time its goal was to eradicate
water, not just from all planetary bodies,
but to destroy every drop of
water in the entire universe
.

Thomas felt panicked, and he
tried to move, to do anything to stop the evil. He felt the frustration begin
pounding in his head again and he fought for consciousness, struggling to do
anything to stop the terrible plan from unfolding. It was something that was
still beyond him, and he could feel the pressure building inside of his brain.

“Stop it, stop it, just STOP!
”
he tried to scream. Without water there would be no chance for life to survive
anywhere in the universe, and he was determined that the metal coffin
surrounding him would break. But its walls held and he continued to drift along
in space with the evil coming closer and closer with each passing second. He
screamed again, because it wasn’t just evil that he sensed this time, but
something
supernatural
as well. MAGIC could do things, evil things, to
his very soul if it wanted to while he lay – completely trapped – in his metal
coffin.

“
No!!!!
” he screamed
inside his dream as loud as he could. The pressure inside his head had built to
the breaking point and he was sure that this was the end of him and everyone
else. It was their fault, after all, because they had sent him drifting away
into the heavens and now he was helpless to do anything but wait and hope to be
found.

That was when he began to first
sense the pressure easing
.

He wasn’t sure if the evil
had lost some of its strength or if something positive had joined the picture –
but he knew that the force that had begun to spread across the heavens to
search and destroy all water was suddenly fighting for its very life. He
smiled
,
glad that someone or something had decided to help him win the fight, because
he still floated onward, trapped and unable to contribute. The evil presence
continued to dwindle away until finally he couldn’t detect it at all anymore,
and a newfound sense of happiness and satisfaction settled over him. It was
better this way, him spending eternity among the heavens, as long as everyone
else was okay and could go on with their lives.

Abruptly Thomas Roh snapped awake,
his eyes flickering quickly to focus on their usual spot on the ceiling. This
time though the view was vastly different – they had moved him to the Medical
Ward at some point during the past several days. He felt a very cool breeze
brushing his cheek and he took a deep breath as he sat up to stretch his arms
and legs.

On the table next to him was a
glass of ice water. He grabbed it and quickly drank all the liquid, feeling
much better as he did so. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed but didn’t
quite feel like getting up yet, so he sat there for a while and chewed on the
ice bits in the glass.

“How are you feeling?” Dr.
Simmons asked, entering the room. She held a tray of food in one hand and came
over to his bedside and placed her other hand on his forehead. “You feel kind
of clammy kiddo.”

“I’m okay,” Thomas insisted,
handing her the glass. Karen set the tray of food down next to his bed and
pointed, but he quickly shook his head. “I guess I’m not that hungry,” he said
softly. “Although if you could get me another glass of ice water that would be
great!”

“Okay,” she said, moving toward
a nearby sink. She refilled the cup and handed it back to him. “Sip it slower
this time, would you please?”

“Yes, Doctor,” he replied
slowly. “Am I going to be okay?”

“In time,” she said firmly.
“The shots we’ve been giving you have helped us to bring your anxiety under
control. So now we can try prescribing some pills – which – if you take the
correct dosage at the proper time – will eventually allow you to return to
duty.”

“
Pills?
” he said, almost
spitting the word. “How long do I have to take
those?
” A chill went
through him as the Doctor turned to give him a dirty look.

“You can either do as you’re
told, Thomas, or we’ll let your body work itself back into its anxious state.
If that happens we’ll have no choice but to start giving you shots again to
settle you back down.” He looked at the expression on her face and suddenly
decided that pills didn’t really seem so bad after all.

“Who knows about me?” he asked
cautiously. “Is the whole ship laughing by now?”

“Only the people who need to
know have been told,” said Karen. “And
no one
is laughing at your
misfortune, I’m happy to say. So I think that you should behave yourself so we
can help you adjust to this new stage of your life. Things are going to change,
and you’d better prepare yourself for that.”

“What if I don’t want them to?”
he asked.

“Trust me,” she said. “I’ve
spoken with the Captain and your brother. I’ll let Adam know you’re awake –
he’s been asking when he can stop by to see you. Things are going to be just
fine
,
Thomas. Remember, there are others going through this, too. It is an illness
caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain… the same kind of treatable
condition a broken leg would be.” She grabbed him by the chin with one hand and
stared into his fatigued eyes. “It is also something that is most certainly
NOT
your fault, young man, no matter what you might hear or
imagine
you hear
other people say.”

*    
* * *     *

Three full weeks had now passed
since the Brotherhood’s attack on Earth and Kaufield was beginning to feel a
lot better. He stood next to one of the technicians in the hangar bay’s control
room, watching one of their two larger shuttles, the
Ranger
, cruise
slowly in for a soft landing. The vessel carried yet another full load of ore
mined from one of the asteroids in the star system they had found, and he
estimated that their supplies of the valuable mineral, when converted to its
liquid fuel counterpart, would be back to near 100 percent. The ore that was
not immediately refined into usable fuel would be stored in the cargo areas…
all of which were located around the edges of the hangar bay. With their
standard PTP engine shut down and the CAS Drive in use on a full-time basis,
this meant that their supply of fuel was now virtually unlimited.

The shuttle eased to a slow
stop and was immediately surrounded by Andy ‘Mad Dog’ Wolf and his hangar crew.
All of them wore specially reinforced pressure suits and quickly opened the
side and rear hatches of the shuttle – they expertly began to unload the ore
fragments and other items that the survey teams had found. The shuttles were
designed for multiple uses, one of which was to transport newfound supplies
discovered on strange worlds. During those missions special flaps would open
and all areas except for the cockpit would depressurize. This was the
first
level of their quarantine precautions to prevent strange bacteria or viruses
from entering the
Pathfinder
’s sensitively-balanced eco-system – expose
the material to the cold vacuum of space. Naturally each shuttle’s flaps could
also remain closed when necessary in order to maintain a pressurized
environment while carrying human passengers.

The ore was either stored in
the hangar or moved to the rear of the bay and poured down a series of chutes
into a carefully monitored furnace in the ship’s Lab wing. The ore thereby
never reached a pressurized environment – it was stored for future use or else
dumped into the furnace, melted, and promptly refined into usable fuel. Other
raw materials gathered during supply runs would be treated in the same manner…
super-heated before use. This was the
second
level of the
Pathfinder
’s
quarantine process.

Although
technically
they could recycle water indefinitely, it had been Kaufield’s experience that
the process of living, breathing and working in a human society inevitably
created some rather disgusting substances and chemicals. He was relieved that
their exploration of the new star system had also yielded a large supply of
ice. That gave him the opportunity to dump much of the normal waste material
they had accumulated on their journey thus far without having to ask their
technicians to reclaim the water from it first. The members of his crew were
specially trained to do the difficult tasks whenever necessary but sometimes it
was better for morale if they simply jettisoned the nastier stuff. All they had
to do was make sure they had a matching supply of easier-to-obtain resources
first. As with the fuel ore, the ice was heated into steam, then condensed and
finally filtered into usable water before any of it was transferred to the
upper areas of the ship.

If an emergency occurred, the
large starship was also capable of landing directly on a planet, moon or
asteroid to directly gather resources. Having the
Pathfinder
immediately
available on site would greatly speed up the process of mining, gathering, and
transporting supplies to the ship. That was an option that the Captain was glad
they didn’t need, presently. He had heard through the grapevine that everyone
on the ship – except for Julie and her Observatory staff – was currently
referring to the star system they had found as the “
Atomic Nightmare
”.
And it most certainly was that, according to several of the pilots who had
found lots of surprises amidst the various pockets of unpredictable gravity
that one would expect in such a cluttered star system. Keeping the re-supply
effort limited to fighters and shuttles was definitely preferable and a
positive for them this time.

So far they hadn’t truly needed
anything except for water in order to supplement supplies for the Garden and
Livestock wings. That was also a positive, because any soil, plants, or other
living things that they might need above the hangar deck would have to pass
quarantine level
three
… a precise, methodical analysis and review by the
botanist, medical, and veterinary teams on board. Anything other than unanimous
approval from those specialists would prompt Dennis to restrict the resource
from moving above the hangar bay. No set of precautionary procedures was ever
perfect, but on a ship like the
Pathfinder
– filled with all sorts of
living people, plants, and animals – they had to do the best that they could.
One unknown bacteria or virus slipping aboard undetected could quickly infect vital
personnel and interfere with ship functions before they even had a chance to
respond. Especially in this case they were being extra cautious since the
patrol team, led by Noriana Andrews, had found traces of what might have once
been biological life on several of the planets. Only a science team could tell
for certain.