The Pathfinder Project (6 page)

Kaufield thought for a moment,
then looked to Mary for additional comments.

“The Garden and Livestock wings
are fully operational,” she pointed out. “We’re built for an extremely
long-term exploration of the surrounding galaxies, so we won’t run low on
supplies. The only question is whether or not we can get the CAS Drive
working.”

“What
is
a CAS Drive?”
Corporal Henderson asked. Dr. Simmons was placing the finishing touches on the
new cast surrounding his broken arm as he spoke. “You’ve all been here for
several years, but I’ve been stationed at Khyber Base for only a month. All
I’ve heard is rumors that you’ve got something that can beat standard
Point-To-Point transit.”

“It’s a
modified
Point-to-Point,”
Adam replied. “The project requires lots of hardware and a sophisticated new array
of navigation software…” he paused to shoot a dirty look at his brother, “…all
working together in order to extend the range of PTP.”

“CAS stands for
Controlled
Artificial Singularity
,” said Thomas. “Basically, the landing bay on the
bottom of this ship has a large amount of extra shielding. Once we finish our
final set of tests…” he looked confidently back at Adam, “… we’ll be able to
generate a small, powerful artificial singularity beneath the ship using
enhanced PTP technology. Instead of just carving out a temporary wormhole
between points the usual way, we’re creating a temporary power source capable
of supplying us with more energy than liquid fuel alone ever could. That’s why
we have a sophisticated Observatory built onto one of the lower wings – because
we will now have the capability to literally transit farther than we can see
.”

“Just because we
can
doesn’t mean we will,” Kaufield responded. “The
Pathfinder
was built to
take us to other galaxies and to also provide for our long-term needs in case
the engines are damaged or become temporarily inoperable. But we’d still have
to use Thomas’ previous suggestion during exploratory situations as well. The
hull is well shielded… but we want to make sure there’s absolutely nothing dangerous
in the area we travel to. Our plans are to approach galaxies, survey the area
from the Observatory wing, then transit further from there.”

“Light from distant galaxies
and other astronomical phenomena takes so long to reach our telescopes,” Thomas
continued, “that we have no way of knowing how much things have changed in the
vicinity of the really far away objects. For example, our universe seems to
confirm the un-provable – but widely accepted – theory that everything began
with some sort of massive ‘Big Bang’. Most of us accept this because if you
study them closely – the galaxies in our local cluster are primarily flying
apart as if from the result of a huge explosion.”

“Sounds like a
looong
way to travel to me,” the Corporal replied. He rubbed the new cast on his left
arm, took a deep breath and then flashed a grateful smile at Dr. Simmons. “I’m
no astronomy expert,” he admitted, “but I do know that the number of stars
right here in our own galaxy is pretty astonishing.”

“There are billions,” Thomas
noted proudly. “Most of them move in a very lengthy orbit around the center of
our galaxy. Years of study has revealed that most – but not all – galaxies are
basically spiral helixes like ours and contain a large number of cooling Red
Giant stars. Hotter, younger stars like our own sun are much harder to find.”

“There are plenty of them out
there,” Adam interrupted, “Amongst all those billions.”

“Well, with so much area to
explore in our own galaxy… why go so far out?” Colonel Neeland wondered. “I
knew you folks were planning a long journey as part of your project – probably
one that left the general area surrounding our solar system – but I had no idea
you were planning to explore other
galaxies
.”

“Exploration on that scale is
pretty much impossible with a single ship. We’re more interested in beginning
to map out a small section of the known universe,” decided Thomas. “We want to
eventually take a look at what’s
WAY
out there – as far as we can see.
That’s why we can’t PTP too far at once. Some of the most distant pictures we
have are of gaseous clouds and nebulae… much of which is what we’d expect to
find as a result of the explosion that created our universe.”

“However,” Mary pointed out,
“Some of the galaxies we’ve studied are over 300 million light years away. And
those gaseous nebulae that Thomas spoke of are closer to a billion light years
distant. By the time their light reaches our telescopes, we have absolutely no
way of knowing if they’re still just dust and debris or whether galaxies with
stars and planets eventually formed. So it’s not wise to look before we leap –
not without knowing for certain whether the destination is vacant or currently
occupied by something.”

“This sounds unbelievable,”
Colonel Neeland commented. “For God’s sake, how long would it take for a
mission like that? You could explore for years and barely scratch the surface
of what’s out there.”

“That’s why
Pathfinder
has been designed as a colony ship,” Kaufield responded. “We’re capable of
leaving… quite literally… for a lifetime if necessary. The ship that was to
return from our first mission would quite possibly have to be crewed by a whole
new generation of our descendants.”

“We’ve worked
so
hard on
this,” Thomas said, frustration apparent in his tone. “Now everything has
changed and we’re probably going to be put on indefinite hold. The government
is going to need every ship available to help the survivors from the attack.”

“
If
there are
survivors,” Kaufield pointed out. “It’s quite probable there will be, but we
need to determine specifically how many.” The Captain thought for another
moment and came to a decision. “Thomas, please plot a standard PTP transit to
an area of your choosing. It should be well outside our solar system and make
certain that there is absolutely
nothing
of any significance nearby.” He
noted the young man’s innocent smirk with satisfaction.

Dr. Simmons was packing up her
medical kit, but she had been listening. “If you don’t mind my asking, sir…
then
what?”

“
Then
we launch a
shuttle patrol back into our system to see who survived,” Kaufield said firmly.
“We need to know if there are surviving ships we can rendezvous with, and we
also need to determine how many refugees on Earth are in need of food and
medical supplies.”

“If you need me, Captain, I’ll
be in the Medical Ward,” Colonel Neeland said. “I’d appreciate it if the good
Doctor here will take a look at my collar bone. If it’s not broken, it’s
certainly bruised.”

“Follow me, sir,” Karen
replied. She glanced at Benjamin – her first patient. “I think you should come,
too.” She requested. “I need to run some additional tests on that arm, just to
be safe.”

Flanked by the two Marines,
Karen left the Command Dome. The Roh brothers watched them leave, with Adam
shaking his head once again as his thoughts drifted back to the suddenness of
the unbelievable situation facing them. Thomas was thinking about a lot of
things too, but he busied himself with coordinate calculation for the ordered
PTP transit.

*    
* * *     *

Thomas Roh stood next to one of
the shuttles in the
Pathfinder
’s launch bay. He could barely contain his
frustration. He detached the wireless transceiver from his belt and activated
it, noting that several equally irritated deckhands also stood nearby.

“Captain Kaufield, I think I’ve
figured out how the Brotherhood shut down the military’s defensive systems,” he
said simply into the transmitter.

“
Really
,” the Captain’s
voice erupted out of a small speaker on the handheld unit. “
How
?”

“None of the computer systems
in the shuttles or fighters down here will activate,” he replied, clearly
intrigued. “There’s got to be some sort of ‘back door’ or system virus concealed
in the software. When that warship bombed our base, they also shut down all of
our support ships. I’m getting all kinds of conflicting diagnostic error
messages… reports of environmental malfunctions mostly, even though that system
is currently idle.” He laughed darkly and shook his head with disgust. “Our
enemy probably had the military crews all worked up about losing air and heat,
then popped out of transit and opened fire.”

“
Why haven’t we noticed
anything with the
Pathfinder
’s systems?
”

“Because, sir, to put things
simply… we’re using a completely different type of hardware and software than
the rest of our fleet. It’s one-of-a-kind, and specifically developed to
integrate PTP with the new CAS technology. We manufactured and programmed
everything ourselves at Khyber Base. The Brotherhood apparently couldn’t get to
us.”

“
So how long will it take to
get the shuttles working?
”

“Unknown, sir. At least one
part of their hidden program is using a randomizer. Instead of our software
executing its machine code in the correct sequence, everything is being
scrambled like the proverbial egg. It’s
brilliant
– I would never have
found it without a deliberate search if they hadn’t activated it.” There was a
long pause as the Captain silently weighed available options. Thomas gave him a
minute or two before continuing. “I also have some additional bad news,
Captain.” His expression betrayed the deep concern he felt. “When we turned on
one of the shuttle’s systems, it immediately accessed the communications
system. Not
all
of the onboard functions are completely useless –
there’s a background program running that’s using the shuttle’s PTP computer to
determine our location. Those coordinates are being fed directly into the
onboard transmitter and broadcast on a frequency we’ve never used.”

“
Thomas, shut down all of
those ships immediately
,” the Captain ordered, “
Then let your support
staff work on the shuttle and fighter systems. I need you
to get to the
engine room. I know it will be difficult without setting down on the lunar
surface, but I want you to finish calibrating the CAS Drive. I’m going to transit
at least one more time and then we’ll try our best to hold still out here as
long as possible. I want to be ready to ‘outrun’ the Brotherhood if the need
arises. They know about us and will continue to try and pinpoint our location
.”

“Understood,” replied Thomas
grimly. He turned to one of the assistants standing next to him. “Your best bet
for now is to purge the entire software package from each shuttle,” he said.
“Install the CAS software in its place, and I’ll calibrate everything to
fine-tune everything for the smaller vessels when I get back.” The noticeably
agitated assistant nodded and motioned to the other nearby deckhands. “I know
it’s a big project,” Thomas continued, “but once we’re done, all we have to do
is disable the CAS options and that should allow the shuttles to maneuver using
standard PTP.”

“What about the fighters?”

“They’ll have to wait until I
can take a closer look at their current software. I can’t say for certain
without looking, but we’re probably going to end up flushing their memories
too.” Satisfied, he gathered up his laptop and tool kit before heading for a nearby
lift that would take him back up into the main body of the
Pathfinder
.

*    
* * *     *

“Motion sensors have detected
contacts, sir,” Mary reported. “I have a large target that’s probably a
Brotherhood warship and a dozen smaller signals. None of them has responded to
my attempts at communication.” Her expression soured. “I think they’ve found
us.”

“Any of those ships could be
carrying missiles,” Kaufield noted. “Probably all of them are.” He paused for a
moment and then pointed at Mary. “Shut down the scanning computer for now. You
were using it at Khyber Base right before they started bombing us.” He sat down
at Thomas Roh’s station and began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?” Adam
asked curiously.

“Plotting a transit out of
here!” the Captain replied. “Get us underway. We’re not built for major combat
and I’m
not
going to just hand this ship and its people over to the
Brotherhood. They’ve got enough of an advantage as things stand now!”

“PTP computer is ready, sir.”
Adam reported. “May I ask where we’re going?”

“Where I was going to send the
shuttles,” Kaufield said fiercely. “We’re going to see who’s waiting for us at
Neptune.”

*    
* * *     *

The reddish-hued radiation
cloud that surrounded Neptune was supposedly a temporary presence. Dennis
Kaufield had once seen the planet from a distance while on a passenger liner as
a child. He remembered looking out the window next to his seat at its curved,
sunlit crescent edge and wondering if it would be possible to walk on the
surface of a gas giant. Everyone knew the area was rumored to be an official
base and probably had at least one colony hidden on a moon somewhere, controlled
by the American military.

The
Pathfinder
completed
its faster than light wormhole transit a fair distance away, but still close
enough so that telescopes in the Observatory wing could transmit the image to
the Command Dome’s monitors. Everything looked peaceful and quiet.

“Mary, please reactivate our
motion sensors,” the Captain ordered. “Tell us what you see.” There was a long
pause, and – from her position across from Adam, he could see Mary working
hurriedly to comply.

“I’ve got lots of targets
circling the nebula, none of which are transmitting friendly IDs,” she reported
a moment later. “There are at least two large warships and twenty or so of the
smaller fighters surrounding them. I’m also getting intermittent signals from
within the radiation cloud itself. It’s quite possible that they are additional
enemy ships, but they could just as easily be friendlies too. I have no way to
determine who is who unless we move in closer. There’s too much interference
caused by the radiation in that cloud.”