The Stars Came Back (15 page)

● 
Quinn is sitting in a very small industrial-looking cubbyhole seemingly no more than a square meter, looking at a screen, on which there are words and pictures and a pretty schoolmarm teacher figure in what looks like a reading program, with letters and words in English, Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, Kanji, and what looks like runes. He is smiling happily. There are a dozen empty but covered “sockets” that something could be inserted into, about 2x5cm, next to the screen. As the camera pulls back and zooms out, we see he is sitting far back at the end of a small, dark, access tunnel, well away from the other people. Barely visible on the wall is painted a number “5”.

● 
A soldier uses a pressure washer to clean graffiti and crud off the side of the ship. The difference between the cleaned and uncleaned is stark; smooth grayish metal vs. a century of accumulated layers of the colorful wisdom of youth and drab dust.

● 
Stenson, now wearing a helmet and body armor, looks cautiously across the engine room, then carefully flips the switch. Nothing happens for a few moments, and he starts to smile and relax. After a moment a part across the room blows up and sends debris flying by.

● 
Zoomed in view down a midlevel passageway with all the hatch doors open. Harbin stands next to a line of soldiers with CPL Kaminski in the front, wearing light armor and carrying a rifle at port arms. Harbin slaps him on the shoulder, and Kaminski runs down the passageway, deftly jumping the threshold of each hatch while ducking and transitioning his gun from port arms (where it would run into the hatch sides) to running at “present arms” and back, so the vertical rifle doesn’t hit the hatches. As he gets very near the camera, he turns off to the side. Harbin slaps the next soldier, a recruit in uniform and helmet, but no armor, and with an obviously fake training rifle. He runs forward following Kaminski’s example, makes the first hatch with the jump-duck-present-arms, but doesn’t make the second, and with dummy rifle still across his chest he tries to jump through the hatch, and clotheslines himself across the chest with the rifle, falling heavily backward onto the deck. Harbin just looks at him, closes his eyes and shakes his head, then watches the recruit stand up unsteadily and try again, much more carefully and slower.

● 
Allonia in the hydroponics room looking at large racks of newly growing greens. She’s adjusting the lighting on a rack. The place looks cheery, bright, warm, and wholesome, as does she. Her clothes and style are simple, practical, and comfortable. Quinn is playing in the dirt off to one side, and it looks like he is both filling small pots and building a small dirt castle in a larger tray.

● 
Helton trying to move one of the heavy airlock door hatches that is three-fourths open, and it isn’t budging. He shoves at it for a moment, and it doesn’t move. He puts a squirt of oil/de-ruster from a can on its hinges, and as he sets the can aside, Allonia comes past, and with a seemingly simple leaning-into-it shove swings the hatch the rest of the way open, then back again. She nods in satisfaction and moves on. Helton looks at her in surprise, then looks at the oil can, and back at her, then the hatch, curiosity on his face.

● 
Helton is in the bridge. He pulls out the chair at the command position from under the console, gently takes a seat, sits back, flips a switch off to one side, watches some screens light up, and gets a kid-in-a-candy-store grin.

FADE TO BLACK

F
ADE IN

INT -
DAY - Engineering

The Engineering Command Center
is a long, cramped-feeling, machinery- and control-panel filled room on the top deck over the cargo bay. Stenson is looking at several screens full of readouts. There are toolboxes and a generally crowded-but-organized appearance to the room. Helton walks in.

Helton: So, how’s progress?

Stenson: Ah, just the person I wanted to see. You know what? I think, thanks to a few local geniuses and things not being quite as bad they first looked, we might just get this thing flying again.

Helton: Really? You’re sure?

Stenson: I’m not
sure
about anything here, but-

Helton: How long?

Stenson: Good question.

Helton:
…So, do you have a good answer?

Stenson: Well, there are some things about it I still don’t get, like what
that
thing is (points to a nearly featureless black metal protrusion from the ceiling), other than an analog 200 amp engine part that seems to be important but isn’t on
any
of the schematics and doesn’t fit with anything I know about on a theoretical basis, but what I
have
determined is that a lot of these systems are in usable, or least fixable, condition. A lot of the peripheral stuff just needed oil, new gaskets, cleaning, replacement chemicals, and so forth. Even the drive cores seem to still be mostly balanced and in surprisingly good shape for their age. Lots of little widgets we can just print out and replace worn parts with. With a couple of parts that are very hard to get around here, I believe I can get her in the air again. Can’t promise anything on performance, though.

Helton: What sort of parts?

Stenson: (Hands him an e-reader) Here’s the list. At least one pair of mil-spec turbo encabulators so we can get two drives up; preferably three matched pairs, or an impossible matched six-pack, and some other things. I’m pretty sure they could be found at the big boneyard at Eridani II. Not very expensive ‘cause they are an old style, just hard to find.

Helton: Hmmm… That’s not
too far from here. Maybe a ten day round trip. I’ll see if I can find someone to head over that way and pick them up.

Stenson: Outstanding. Still a lot to do even without them, so no hurry. I’m hoping to get the landing struts functioning soon, so we can raise her up and get at some under-side systems.

Helton: Any other major items on the front burner?

Stenson: Major? Not really. Until we can
fly nothing is major. Some parts of the ship are still inaccessible, but they don’t appear to have any critical systems or things needed to train people on. Got a lot of oddball parts that we’re just pushing around until we know where they go, like those (points to a dark, squat mystery cylinder with a lit-candle logo, like those seen in the cargo bay earlier).

Helton: So, everything’s copacetic?

Stenson: From a mil-spec view, this stuff is about as kosher as a Christmas ham for Pongal during Ramadan, but they sort’a seem like they
want
to work. Hell, someone even tried to mount a Sokolov drive
and
a Harmon drive on each drive core. One on each end, with a bizarre helical twist on things between; I’ve seen theoretical studies on such an idea, but didn’t know of any that ever got field tested. Be sweet if that whole set could get spun up and synced.

Helton: Both on a single drive core? I
thought they’d set up a constructive interference pattern in the resonance core and-

Stenson: -convert everything in the drive field into energy? Yes, that’s the theory. Well, one theory among several. But it’s there, and the ship is still solid, so it’s worth checking out. Best challenge I’ve had since I first met my wife.

Helton: Sounds good.

Stenson: Mostly it is, except for a few replacement parts that I’m sure need to be manufactured.
They will be bloody expensive, the specs and tolerances given are so damned high.

Helton: Well, don’t forget to train the new guys for standard systems, too.

Stenson: I won’t, don’t worry! Lag wouldn’t keep me around if I didn’t. Allonia is doing amazing things with plants in her garden; the air system was rebuilt to circulate through that room, so even if we lose the normal scrubbers, as long as we have power for light, all those little photosynthesizers she’s growing for us to eat will keep the air good. That’s why it smells so nice. Some of the guys are learning a lot from her about the air systems. For some reason they listen to her more intently than me.

Helton: I’m shocked.
But plants only make a difference if we get out of atmo, though. Keep me informed.

FADE TO WHITE

Frosty

F
ADE IN

INT - DAY
- Stern port middeck passageway

Kaminski,
Stenson, and Helton look over a welded shut access hatch.

Kaminski: Nothing a half-kilo of Universal Key can’t open.

Helton: We don’t know what’s inside. We don’t want to damage anything sensitive.

Stenson: I’ve already located all the critical drive, life support, and power systems, and none of them appear to be in there.

Helton: So your best guess on what’s there is still
not a clue
?

Stenson: Yup.

Kaminski: I say we blow it.

Helton: You just want to blow something up.

Kaminski: Well,
yeah
. Doesn’t everybody?

Helton: Good point. And, in this case, it might be the right approach.

Kaminski: Oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-BOY! Thank you. Back in a minute or three.

Kaminski trots off to get the needed supplies.

Stenson: The man
does
like his work.

DISSOLVE TO

Same
passageway. Kaminski is finishing placing a line of plastic explosives along the weld line on the hatch. He inserts a pair of blasting caps, one at each end, and hooks up the wires. He starts walking back down the passageway, around the corner and into a berth room where Stenson and Helton stand.

CUT TO

Close
-up view of the hatch

The line of explosives looks ready to go.
Gradually the metal around the hatch changes, becoming more pale. It goes white and is rapidly covered with a slight layer of frost, which also forms on the explosives.

Cut back to Kaminski, Helton, and Stenson

Kaminski hooks up the wires to the detonator switch. Helton thumbs the wall com unit.

Helton: We will be setting off a small explosive charge in a moment or two, port stern B Deck. You might want to NOT BE there, or cover your ears. Don’t worry, I’m letting the professionals do it.

Helton releases the com button.

Helton:
Tajemnica
, anyone but us three in the area?

Ship AI: No.

Kaminski grins at Helton. Kaminski flicks the protective toggle up from the switch. He touches his ear plugs.

Kaminski: Plug your ears. FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE!

He thumbs the fire button on the detonator. There is a very underwhelming
bang
. Kaminski’s face immediately reflects concern and slight confusion. He thumbs the detonate button again. Nothing. He pushes another button on the detonator, and it lights up green.

Kaminski: Got power.
Some
thing went off. Stay here.

He cautiously goes around the corner and pulls back the wires a ways. He can see there are no
more blasting caps on the ends, so he reels it up while walking slowly toward the hatch. When he gets there, the explosives looks made of clay, and it just got splattered a bit by the blasting caps, but not initiated. He reaches out and touches it, feels it between his fingers. Feels the metal next to it, examines his fingers closely.

Kaminski: (
Quietly to himself) Cold and wet?

Stenson and Helton join him.

Kaminski: What would make it cold and wet? Any plumbing around here?

Stenson: Head next door, but nothing in the passageway. Why?

Kaminski: This explosive won’t detonate if it’s too cold. The metal is cold and feels wet. So does the charge. Caps went OK, but they didn’t set it off. Either it got flash frozen while I hooked up the detonator, which seems unlikely, or we have a bad batch or something. If we had any cataclysmite I’d try a charge of that. Huh. Got some testing to do, I guess. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to try opening it up again.

FADE TO BLACK

Three Rules

F
ADE IN

INT -
NIGHT - Cramped ship-board cabin

LT
Kat sits at her desk, leaning back in her chair, reading, door open.

Allonia steps up to the door.

Allonia: Knock knock.

Kat:
Evening.

She waves Allonia in.
Allonia steps in and sits down, dressed in a red sort-of ship’s uniform; it’s sharp looking, professional, functional, and shows her figure nicely.

Kat: (
Nodding and smiling in approval) Looks good on you.

Allonia: Thanks. I thought everyone else was in uniform, well, except Helton, so I should make something for myself.