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Tony Whitepine locked his front door and strode to the sidewalk that passed in front of his house. He rubbed his unshaven cheek absently, and waited. After a moment a mid-sized ground shuttle arrived. He got in, and the driver started.
Inside were two of the other emergency response team members. Greg Lime was unusual for an Atlantican twolegs: His hair was slighly wavy and he had no epicanthic fold whatsoever. Karl Eastside was a canine. Tony had no idea if he were typical or not; he could hardly distinguish them from each other. "What happened?"
"Don't know," Eastside replied in his gravelly voice. "But it's not good."
"Schumacher was on board," Lime said, "but none of the distress messages came from him."
Tony bucked his seat belt quietly. "He's gone, then?"
"Don't know," Eastside said again. "We'll have to wait until we see."
Tony fished his comm tablet from his pack and looked up the files on the Carbon Star, the ship in distress. "One of the Crystals is piloting the ship. Did he respond?"
"No," said Lime. "One of the passengers sent the message."
Tony was still reading the report on the comm tablet. "Ah, here it is. The Crystal's name is Astro. No escort, but it's an uninhabited system."
"Or at least we think it was," Lime said.
Tony shrugged. "There's that." He continued reading the distress message transcripts. "What's causing all of the interruptions in the distress—oh there. The main power breaker keeps tripping. I wonder what's causing that."
Lime and Eastside shrugged together.
They arrived at the spaceport and took the waiting shuttlecraft. There were already three others in the craft, all twolegs. After the three were strapped in, the pilot took the craft up. Tony, who sat directly behind the pilot, watched the main display for most of the hour-long trip up; the view didn't show much until the last few minutes of the trip, when they neared the waiting rescue group.
"This is Syllogist," a voice coming over the link said. "Please set your craft to autopilot. I will guide you to the dock."
The pilot hit a series of switches, and the six of them waited until they heard the faint hissing of the airlock's operation, then unstrapped themselves and drifted weightlessly through the airlock (which was in the ceiling of the shuttlecraft), eventually floating their way to the bridge. A Crystal and its tank occupied a quarter of the bridge space, and two dozen other humans, canines, and centaurs occupied much of the remaining space. When they had found places from which to view the tank and the bridge display, Syllogist began.
"All mission personnel are present. Slip drive activated, mark." The multitude of stars and the visible sliver of the planet below vanished from the display screen, the only sign that they had left normal space.
Syllogist continued. "This is the situation: A terraforming team, led by Schumacher and a Crystal named Astro, was entering the Arrevian system aboard the Carbon Star to begin the preliminary terraforming work on the second planet, when one of the ship's systems—at this time we do not know which—malfunctioned, disabling the ship. One of the team members was able to activate the distress beacon and has been in intermittent communication with us, but she does not know if Schumacher or Astro are still alive. Our mission is the obvious one: Find out what happened, prevent further death and injury, and return the Carbon Star, crew and passengers to Atlantica.
"The rescue team will be divided among the seven sections on board the craft. Alis Roberts will head Red Section, Greg Whitepine will head Orange Section, Karl Eastside will head Yellow Section, Alan Marcus will head Green Section, Brian Crain will head Blue Section, Indigo Section will be headed by Fleet Zimmer, and Violet Section will be under Susan Lafontaine. I will operate the extravehicular automata and oversee the section heads.
"Because some of the sections of the Carbon Star may have been evacuated, or be prone to evacuation due to further malfunction, all team members will wear EVA suits for the duration of this mission, and will keep them sealed while aboard the Carbon Star." There were scattered groans, but Syllogist ignored them. "This concludes the mission briefing. You will don your suits now; we have only two hours and twelve minutes until we enter normal space in the Arrevian system."
The team members dispersed to the equipment lockers and drew out their suits and other mission equipment. Tony donned his suit and checked the seals, and then double-checked Lime's suit while Lime checked his. They were finished a half hour before the stated arrival time; he took out his comm tablet and read some of a novel from a pre-Nuclear author. He gave a glance towards the viewscreen from time to time, and was rewarded with the reappearance of the stars when they entered normal space again. Finally he slid his comm tablet into the belly pouch on the suit.
"We have visual with the Carbon Star," Syllogist announced, and the view was replaced with a different set of stars, against which a rotating object could be seen. The view magnified, until the disabled ship could be plainly seen.
Atlantica had several ships of an identical configuration: Four rings in parallel, all rotating around a central axis, were connected by five shafts that ran from fore to aft. Three hundred and sixty meters of shaft separated Red Section from Violet Section, and each ring was two hundred meters in diameter. The whole vessel rotated around its central axis once every twenty seconds, providing one gee on the outermost deck, and somewhat less on the two decks above it. The Carbon Star, however, did not rotate as its designers had intended, for the loss of a third of Violet Section, and the Indigo section of one shaft, threw the axis of rotation off by some twenty-five degrees. The view changed; a shower of debris fled the hapless ship at the velocity with which its violent discharge had endowed it. This was shown only briefly, before the view returned again to the spinning hulk before them.
"Overall plan of action, pending further discovery, will concentrate first on identifying still-living personnel and bringing them safely here. Stabilization of the vessel will require detachment of the remaining portions of Indigo and Violet sections; they will be brought back separately. Deceased personnel will be identified, but left on board the Carbon Star until we have returned to Atlantica.
"We are again receiving a distress call from the vessel."
There was a brief pause, then static, in which a woman's voice could be heard. "This is Helen Fairpath on the Carbon Star," she said. "We have suffered a malfunction in the Arrevian system. Our power is only intermittent, and I am unable to reach either Frank Schumacher or Astro, and I fear the worst. Repeat. This is Helen Fairpath of the Carbon Star. We have suffered a malfunction in the Arrevian system. Our power is only inter—" The voice was suddenly cut off.
"That is not a recorded message," Syllogist explained, "since there have been changes in wording from one repetition to the next. Fairpath is almost certainly still alive, since the loss of power will not immediately endanger life support. It is likely that there are other survivors as well. However, the losses of power have almost certainly kept Astro from attaining full consciousness, which would explain why nothing has been heard from him.
"All team leaders will give the status of their teams."
The seven lead rescuers reported "all personnel ready," and Syllogist ordered everyone to their shuttles. The rescue group members all sealed their helmets, and started floating their way out of the bridge area. Tony had not had zero-gee practice in a couple months, and as little time in the EVA suit as well, so it was with some difficulty that me made his way out of the bridge, down the passageways, back to his shuttle. He noticed that he wasn't the only one having trouble, and in fact the centaurs and the canines were even less suited to zero-gee activity than he was. Syllogist offered reassurance through the helmet link: "Once you are aboard the Carbon Star, you will have the benefit of the rotational gravity."
His team buckled themselves into the harnesses, and after a minute of waiting there was a soft jarring as the ship came free from the larger rescue ship, and then Tony felt some of his weight return when the ship accelerated. He watched the disabled vessel grow larger in view, until it was over their heads; then as Syllogist matched their rate of movement to that of the section of the ship to which they would be docking, he felt most of his weight return, after which he felt much more in contol of himself. The view of the Carbon Star stayed firmly in place on the view screen, with one of the five shafts now directly over their heads, but the stars had begun to spin; Tony avoided looking at them.
There was a faint jarring, and the DOCKING COMPLETE indicator lit; the team began unstrapping themselves and queued at the dock. Although the suit was stuffy and restricted his movements, Tony was glad to have weight again.
Eastside ordered two of the other team members to lower the ladder, and after they had done so he scaled the ladder and checked the pressure reading for the compartment beyond, then punched the lock release. The hatchway opened, and Eastside climbed up into the Carbon Star, followed by the other five team members. The compartment was empty.
"Lime and Whitepine will proceed to the reactor room and try to track down the reason for the intermittent power failures," Eastside declared. "The rest of us will search the habitable compartments for survivors. Let's move."
Tony and Lime went to the shaftway. "Looks like we'll have to hoof it," Tony said.
"Yep," answered the other. Lime went up the narrow stairs first, followed by Tony. As they progressed towards the central axis of the ship, the gravity declined, until it reached one tenth of a gee on the floor of the reactor room. When they were halfway up the ladder the power suddenly came on again; as they reached the reactor room, they found a centaur in an EVA suit, just about to start back down.
"Who are you?" came a female voice from within the suit.
Tony and Lime introduced themselves.
"I'm Helen Fairpath," she said. "Thank goodness you're here."
"What happened?"
"About an hour after we left slip space there was an explosion from the rear of the ship, I think in Violet section. I haven't gone back to look, because I've been busy keeping the power up. Something's been tripping it within a few mintues after I reset it, just long enough for me to get back to the bridge and get a sentence or two out."
"We're here to check out the power," Lime said. "There are others combing the ship for survivors. Which reminds me." He pressed a switch on his suit and spoke. "Karl, I've found Helen Fairpath. She was just coming down after resetting the main power breaker."
"So that's why we have power all of the sudden," Karl replied. "Is she okay?"
"You all right?" Lime asked her.
She nodded.
"She says she's fine," Lime said.
"Send her down to our shuttle."
Lime instructed her to go to air lock Yellow Four, and when she had gone Syllogist came in on their helmet links. "Please monitor the power systems. The power appears to cut off after five to six minutes of operation each time it is restored. Please observe whether it was a high-drain condition or a control signal that trips the breaker."
Lime opened up the panel under the breaker handle and after a moment to study the wiring underneath, attached the leads from a pair of portable meters, and set them both to record. "I wonder where the engineer is," he remarked.
"That could have been her," Tony said. "We didn't ask."
"Yeah, we didn't. Lime to Eastside. Could some pass an inquiry to that filly we sent down there? What was her function on board here? I see. Does she know where the ship's engineer was at the time of the accident? Okay, thanks. Lime out."
"She didn't know."
"Not personally, no. The engineer is a two-legger named Pete Sunday. Everyone's been notified to keep an eye out for him."
Together they made a more thorough survey of the reactor room, but found nothing amiss whatsoever; Tony reported this to Eastside, who in turn ordered Lime to assist the search for more crew and passengers, while Tony babysat the meters, waiting for the next power loss.
It wasn't long in coming; Lime had been gone for about a minute when the lights went out. Tony had been looking out the porthole, trying to make out the wisp of the exhaust trail from the ship. When the room was plunged into near darkness, his last glance showed something of a trail, but he flicked on his portable light and returned to the meters. After reviewing them, he noted a transition on the control signal, whereas the load had been flat until it sharply dropped when the power was cut off. "Whitepine to Eastside. The breaker's being tripped by the control signal. The current was well within tolerances right up until the breaker tripped."
"Roger. Stand by." Tony waited in the darkness for a moment before Eastside's gravelly voice returned. "Go ahead and reset the breaker." Tony did so, and then Syllogist once again contacted Tony and explained how to disconnect the control lead, to prevent further power interruptions. Tony continued monitoring the meter, and after five minutes and thirty-two seconds there was a transition on the control lead; it had no effect, now. Tony reported that the cutoff signals were still appearing on the line, but without any effect. Eastside acknowledged his report and told him to return to the main part of the section and assist with the search for more passengers and crew. He took the shaftway down, feeling heavy when his normal weight returned, and made his way to an arc of the section that had not yet been covered.
The main passage had lost its atmosphere, and it was there he found the corpse of a centaur, apparently male. Although a little frozen blood was crusted around its orifices, it was a rather innocuous sight; what rattled Tony was the simple idea of being near the carcass of a once-intelligent creature. He steeled himself to the task, getting the identification badge from the body before moving on.
The entire arc, all three decks, had lost its atmosphere, and consequently he found nobody still living, only a handful of corpses; one of these was that of the engineer, who appeared to have been walking down the mid-deck passageway when the air was suddenly evacuated. The Carbon Star was primarily a passenger vessel, designed for carrying over seventy-five hundred people in decent comfort, but there were only one hundred and fifty people on the terraforming team; much of the passenger space was taken up with terraforming equipment—mostly satellites of some kind—but about half of the ship was vacant.
When he entered the next arc of Yellow section, he encountered Lime, Eastside, and the remainder of that section's team. "I found four more dead," he informed Eastside, holding out the identity badges the deceased had been wearing.
"That makes twenty-one for this section," Eastside replied. The growl that was a part of every canine's voice made him sound especially upset at the loss of people. He reported the status to Syllogist, who in response ordered the team to split up and assist the search in Orange and Green sections.
Then the lights went out again.
Tony grumbled a curse, just as Syllogist cut into his helmet link. "Tony, please return to the reactor room and identify the cause of the power loss."
"I'm already on my way." His frustration was mitigated by the prospect of walking about in the lesser gravity of the higher decks; zero-gee didn't suit him, but a tenth of a gee was just enough to give control without causing fatigue. When he reached the reactor room, he saw somebody or something in the near-darkness, and cautiously he crept forward, until he saw that it was a maintenance automaton at the breaker panel, idle, with one appendage on the breaker handle. He reported this to Syllogist. "Shall I reset?"
"Yes. Disengage the automaton and restore power. Then see if you can identify whence the automaton came."
Tony tried to remove the automaton's manipulator from the handle, but the grip was frozen in place. He lifted the robot's body and pushed it in the direction he wanted to move the handle; the lower gravity made the robot much lighter in his hands. When the power came back on, the automaton disengaged from the handle; Tony set it on the deck, whereupon it turned and rolled away on its wheels. Tony followed it to the other side of the reactor room, where it parked in its bay and went idle. He reported this to Syllogist.
"This is unusual," Syllogist replied. "The automatons are not programmed to recognize the breaker switch. While it is possible that someone has altered the robot's programming, it is more likely that it was under direct control at the time, and whoever was doing this is likely to try to disconnect the power again. Some sort of explosion was responsible for the disabling of the ship; at the moment it appears to have been due to a malfunction, but possiblity of sabotage has not yet been eliminated. You will have to remain in the reactor room until relieved."
"Understood."
For several moments, while the boredom slowly grew, Tony waited around for further instructions, but none were forthcoming. He took the precaution of securing the door into the reactor room, and then for lack of anything better to do, he took out his comm tablet, called up the schematics for the Carbon Star, and began tracing the control signal to see where it originated. The gauntlets of the EVA suit made working with the comm tablet a painstaking chore, distracting him from the breaker panel until he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw the automaton approaching. He set the tablet aside and rushed at the robot, knocking it over. There was a switch on the front, and when he flipped it the robot went dead.
He reported these events to Syllogist. "Another attempt by different means remains possible," the Crystal replied. "Continue guarding the reactor room."
"Understood. By the way, I have been looking at the schematics for the power cut-off signal circuit, and I notice that it leads directly from the bridge."
"You are correct. I have assigned the teams in Orange and Red sections to search the circuit for signs of tampering."
Tony restored the tablet to the belly pouch and began monitoring the comm channels. The air had been evacuated from the entirety of the ship's interior, killing everyone on board except for Fairpath, who had been in an EVA suit at the time. Tony was most disheartened when the remains of Frank Schumacher were identified among the drifting wreckage from the Indigo and Violet sections. He was listening in on a discussion between Brian Crain and one of his team members when he was addressed:
"Who are you there in the reactor room?"
"Tony Whitepine."
"Tony, this is Astro, the pilot. Could you deactivate the ship's power until further notice? There is an anomaly in the ionic radiation screen."
"Syllogist wants the power left up. Isn't there another way to cut power to the screen?"
"No, I am afraid not. The switch appears to be fused."
"All right, then." Tony turned towards the panel, and switched his comm link to Syllogist's channel. "Syllogist, this is Whitepine. Astro had requested a disconnect of the main power."
"He did not bring this to my attention," Syllogist replied. "Did he explain why?"
Tony relayed Astro's rationale.
"He did not report this problem with the screen's power switch. And this is unusual in another regard: Astro is himself powered by the ship, so if you were to cut the power, Astro would become unconscious and therefore unable to deal with the problem he cited. Leave the power intact until I have assessed the situation."
"Will do." He resumed idling around the reactor room, and after noting the rubber tip on one of the tools there, he got out his comm tablet again, and discovered that by holding the tool in question he could operate the tablet with more ease. He began sketching ideas for a holographic display.
"Tony," Astro asked, "why have you not disconnected the main power?"
"Syllogist has instructed me to leave it up until he says otherwise."
"Could you reactivate the maintenance robot, please? There is a repair I need it to perform."
"Astro, this is Syllogist. What repair do you need to perform?"
"Reconnection of the main breaker control lead."
"I ordered that to be disconnected. Why are you intent on shutting down the main power?"
"I would like to rest for a while."
"You have already been unconscious for several hours over the course of the past day. Further periods of unconsciousness will cause degradation of your cerebral structures, and the discomfort of the loss of power is not conducive to proper functioning."
"Nonetheless, I would like to rest."
"Your need for rest must be balanced against the need to complete the rescue of the remaining personnel, and the preparation for the return of the vessel to Atlantica. In this comparison, your needs are secondary. You will have to remain conscious until we return."
Astro did not respond, and so that conversation ended. Nothing untoward happened for the next two hours. Tony had continued to monitor the voice traffic from the rescue team, and was anticipating Syllogist's call when it came, directing him to the safety harness in the reactor room, which he secured himself with as a precaution when the intact portions of Indigo and Violet sections were detached from the ship. This done, Syllogist ordered everyone aboard the Carbon Star back to their shuttles, which Syllogist then detached from Carbon Star and piloted back to the rescue ship.
The bodies and portable equipment aboard the detached portions had been brought into Blue section, and the now-empty sections were left drifting; a tug would be dispatched to fetch them.
"I will now brief you on the conclusions we have reached," Syllogist said to the gathered living. "Apparently an explosion occurred at the junction of Alpha shaft with Violet Section. Since none of the materials of the ship are subject to such a reaction, it must have been some of the supplies connected with the terraforming project that detonated. When the explosion occurred, the portions of Indigo and Violet sections that were adjacent to the junction were blown free of the ship, and several other systems throughout the ship were damaged as well, in many cases causing evacuation of the air, which was responsible for the deaths that took place. Evacuation of the ship's air has several fail-safe precautions built in against it, all of which must fail in order for evacuation to take place; the odds against this are high enough that the possibility of sabotage remains reasonable to entertain; however after questioning the survivor, it appears that those of the crew who may have been involved in the sabotage attempt are among the dead. Those are the only conclusions we have at the moment. Prepare for the transition into slip space."
The rescue team began dispersing to the harnessing points. Tony, feeling important after having a fairly prominent role in the rescue mission, took a harness point at the rear of the bridge, from which he had an unobstructed view of the bridge's main display. Soon all of the passengers were strapped in.
"Astro," said Syllogist, "everything appears to be ready. Proceed to Atlantica."
As Tony watched through the view screen, the steering jets on the Carbon Star flared into life, slowly turning the bulk of the ship; when the jets were done, Tony was about to ask why the Carbon Star was still pointed towards Arrevia when Syllogist spoke again: "Astro, your current vector is towards Arrevia, not Atlantica. Abort and program the correct course."
"There is something I need to attend to before I leave this system," Astro replied.
"What is that?" Syllogist asked.
"I need to provide a decent burial for the ones I have failed. Especially our leader."
"That is a matter for the relatives of the deceased to accomplish. As for our leader, Karen Schumacher will have to be recalled from Decedrius before her husband can be interred. Proceed to Atlantica."
"I will need a burial for myself as well."
"I do not understand."
"It was my fault that so many have died. I cannot bear my failure."
"Astro, not even one of our kind can foresee all possibilities. Proceed to Atlantica."
"The fault is mine," Astro replied. "They are dead because I erred."
"The error is pardonable. We can help you overcome this distress."
"That is impossible. I can now only barely stand to be conscious. I desire no longer to exist." The drive reactor flared into incandescence, and the Carbon Star began accelerating towards the fourth planet of the system. "I have locked out the external docking controls, so you will not be able to stop me. Tell the others that I am sorry."
"Astro, you are being irrational. Return with us to Atlantica and we can help you recover your reason. We have people who are competent to assist."
There was no response to Syllogist's last message, nor to any other message to the Carbon Star. It continued at full thrust towards the planet, never wavering from a direct course, until the parts of the ship that survived atmospheric re-entry rained down onto the surface, two hours and fifty-one minutes later.
(c) 2007 by John VanSickle. All rights reserved.