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"I make it closer to 44," said Talia Winters. She was, Ben noted, one of the few people shaking off shock to investigate matters. "And now that we don't have to correct for relativity anymore, I think the reading's pretty solid."
"How does it look for planets?" said Nightgazer. "From here we ought to be able to detect something."
Winters shook her head. "Two big ones, nothing useful. Oh, wait!---a little guy, but it's 2-3 A.U. out if the scale's accurate, and that's not necessarily the limb; even with our own sun that's deep freeze, and this one's dimmer."
"You mean we drew a blank?" Odessa's tone was shocked.
"Not really," Sisko said. "What we want might be too near the star right now, from our angle, to get definition." Moving to the master console he took some sightings of his own. No comfort; in the matter of distance yet to go, Talia was as near correct as made no difference.
What in God's name had gone wrong? Before he could ask for ideas, J.M. said, "Here's something. In the log Beverly says the mass detectors showed us as being closer than we should have been at that point. Just about as much too close as we actually fell short."
Slaving an aux telescreen to J.M.'s terminal, Ben read the same text. "Confirmed. The masser contradicted our reckoning in the settings, and she went with it." He shook his head. "I can't blame her for that. But the reality is, she guessed wrong."
Why? Ben pulled up the sensor scans, starting from the advance team's ingating, and set up warp-speed viewing. "Talia? Would you bird-dog this one for me, see if it gives any idea what caused the error? I need to call council. Down in the lounge, assuming the belt's up to speed. So let me know, there, if anything useful shows up." Because control was too crowded for quiet confab, and no one seemed ready to leave.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKuLfoNN3o
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Talia was busy at the monitors and most of the others were making more sound than sense, so when Ben and Marlena cut Nyota and Nightgazer out of the herd, Jacqueline followed. Along the corridor, into the transfer ring, and onto the lounge. Actually she'd been in this place less than 1 hour ago by her own subjective time, but the barely noticeable film of dust on things made a liar out of that perception. Though actually, now that she thought about it, Arrowprize had been left uninhabited for just about ten weeks, ship time.
Ben drowned two ice cubes in sour mash bourbon and no bones about it. "All right, folks. Before we tell Earth we've screwed up, however that happened, let's figure hour to fix it." He cleared his throat. "We're an awkward distance out from destination. Nearly 10 times the Deployment Modules round trip range. But for the ship, only about 30 days under accel and then the same on decel, assuming that we use one gee throughout. The trouble with that is, Arrowprize's not designed for occupancy under thrust. The earlier ships were, but not us."
"Then how were we supposed to get into orbit?" Nick Leger sounded argumentative. "Nobody could come out of decel right on the money; there'd have to be some jockeying, a few million miles here and there, getting up speed and then stopping."
"But that's all short-term," Marlena said. "Swinging ship, hitting drive briefly, coasting, then slow again. Most of it's in 0G; everyone straps in for thrust. And we'd feed out of the daily supplies stores on this deck, nothing that would need cooking. No real problem for only a few days of maneuvering, overall. Not two months, though, we couldn't deal with that."
Sisko made a grimace. "Yes, we could. We can do anything if we have to. But running ship for that long, in a 1G field sideways to our entire layout's orientation---well, it's not my cup of tea."
Frowning, he looked around. "Anyone got any good thoughts?"
Nyota raised a peremptory hand. "The emergency plan."
As Jacqueline saw J.M.'s eyes widen in recognition, Ben shook his head. "Tell me!"
"The modification they proposed," Nyota said, "while we were about halfway through training. In a fix like this we don't live in the ship proper. We slave the major controls to the DM and camp there while we home in to make orbit." She shrugged. "Strapping all those circuits will take some time, but...."
"Oh, shit!" said Ben Sisko. "I knew I missed a few things, coming in late. But I didn't know it was this bad."
Then he grinned. "Okay, where do we start?"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFTVTlvGKj
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Relief barely had time to replace Jacqueline's anxiety when the intercraft brought Talia's voice. "The bugger factor just showed, captain. Wanna come see?"
So they traipsed back upcraft, to the bridge. It wasn't so crowded now; Talia explained that Nick Leger had press-ganged some people to go down and put the galley back in order. "Enough to get away with," she said. "Anyway, here's our problem."
Along with the rest, Jacqueline looked. Frozen onscreen was the destination star, smaller than in present view; dimly visible alongside it in a smaller object. "There's our glitch," Talia said. "I've got some tentative figures."
The findings were clear enough. This big, dim hunk of stuff, about 1/16 of the sun's mass and correspondingly lacking in luminosity, lay about 14 light-days this side of the destination star. "Right in front of it, as we approached?" said J.M. "That's an unlikely coincidence."
No. Not directly in line, but too near to be distinguished separately, from where Arrowprize rode when Beverly had to make her choice. And the combined mass reading, taking to be the star's true mass as determined form its luminosity, brought destination an apparent forty-four billion miles closer. Which, out of the overall 566 indicated by dead reckoning, seemed plausible enough. "She did the right thing," Ben said. "Even if it turned out wrong."
"Something else," said Talia. "Let me run the view ahead to now, warp speed." And as the star ahead grew in size and its companion, more than 200 billion miles nearer, slid off the side of the screen, another change occurred.
"The damn thing bent our course," Ben complained. "Even if we weren't short, we'd be off by a bundle."
"Well," said Hikaru Sulu, from this far out, there's no problem correcting."
"So like you said before," Alfred Nightgazer put in, "where do we begin?"
"Well, for one thing," Ben said, "we're still pointed bassackwards, looking through our rear sensors." He gestured to Nyota. "You want to crank up the yaw thrusters and swing ship? At this stage our heading doesn't have to pinpoint; just stay in the regional ecliptic and aim---oh, ten to twelve minutes of arc off one side of the star. The right, make it, so we go with planetary motion, not against it." Because every system they'd seen spun the same way Earth's did. "We can tune finer at turnover. I'm going to quarters now and get the manual onscreen, study up on how we haywire the DM to run piggyback."
It took Nyota quite a while to get Arrowprize lined up and not drifting in yaw. When Jacqueline got tired of watching, she went to see if the galley was online yet. She settled for sandwiches.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7F9GK7Dla
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Nothing, thought Ben, was ever as easy as it looked at first. Thrust mode emergency operation for Arrowprize class ships had indeed been a Jonny-come-lately modification. The manual's Controls chapter said the adaptation package was in place, its circuitry installed to permit operation from the DM by flipping some switches; tests said it wasn't. "Usually it's the paperwork that arrives late," Sisko grumbled, "and I like it better that way."
So they'd have to improvise. The schematics in the manual's Appendix D were of some help; at least they showed what was supposed to be connected to which, between ship and Module. They also showed an ample number of trunks which did not in fact exist; Ben found a mere 6 spares, with maybe as many more available if nonessential telemetry functions were shut down.
His key personnel here were Nick Leger as ship's service maintenance expert and Talia Winters who'd done considerable installation work, learning her way around macro-C-Gate circuitry. "Routine stuff, that was," she downplayed it. "Just hook up the right colors where the drawing says to."
Still, it was her suggestion to dig out a telemetry carrier system, one terminal for each end, and multiplex it into one of the screen feeder cables just below the video band: instant trunks!
On the other hand, if it hadn't been for Odessa Vangelos knowing Supplies backwards and forwards, the others could have searched for days without finding those terminals; it took her 20 minutes.
Not for the first time, Sisko blessed whoever had picked this crew. Well, mostly....337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qpLlfMVTD
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Enough tools and paper were spread around to look like a real installation job by the time anyone thought to check for mail from Earth. Dear God, there could be nearly a 2-year pileup! What Ben was called upon to see distressed him even more: a stack of big crates, complete with bracing to prevent movement, nearly filled the Ass recess.
By intercraft to the bridge and galley he rounded up enough muscle to starting clearing the C-Gate terminal, securing the containers to bulkheads with Stiktite-equipped lines. But, no sooner did they empty it than the fields flared and another had appeared.
There were five in all. And so far he had no idea what they were fore. But with the final batch came a pile of papers, not as bad as his original expectations, yet more than he liked to see.
He took the stack back to quarters and started sorting: one routine, the next nonessential, one needing answer but no hurry, a misroute, item too late for action, comment on a recommendation that he'd nearly forgotten. Was it C-Gate-lag that trivialized all these things to him?
And then he hit the jackpot.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79b5kYFLBp
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"Obviously," said J.M., "they hoped to get things here in time to be installed prior to decel. Maybe Beverly starting early threw the plan off." She'd heard Ben wind down from defaming the genetic inheritance and ancestral morality of whoever dumped this load upon the crew so late in the game; it was time to tune in his constructive mode.
He wasn't quite ready for that. "She hit the button less than 3 hours early , out time. How could....?"
Then he shrugged. "Never mind. Someone misfigured the schedule; it happens a lot. Anyway, we're supposed to clear some space in one of the lower DM holds---one of three that outload directly, using the landing legs for as ladders when the Module's grounded---and install this pair of Earthgates. I don't know what Bolt Park expected; I do know what they're gonna get. Delay." Because all this gear couldn't be moved and put in place with Arrowprize still under thrust. So heading in towards observation orbit would have to wait until after the new chore was done.
"Would you like me to ride shotgun on this one?" Marlena asked, knowing J.M. had thrust an enormous task into his hands, that of planning the approach to the system, collecting data, and making out reports to go to Earth. "Nyota's busy with the controls-switching protocol. If she can take some time out to show me where things should go in that hold, I should be able to take it from there." After all, who was the C-Gates expert around here?
He nodded. "Yeah, that'll be fine; thanks. Pick whoever you need for the heavy hauling, myself included. After I get the one report in, a little mindless labor sounds like a nice break!"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyo6BWzNVqq
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Jacqueline got the clipobard with the shipping checklist on it and the job of keeping track of what was to be moved when, so at first her time was spend near Earth Ass, pointing out which items should go next. "Pretty soft," said Nightgazer, as he and Ben released a set of Stiktites and began maneuvering another large crate over to the longitudinal corridor before moving it forward to the nearest major cargo hatch.
He was grinning, though; Jacqueline said, "We all have our specialties. Yours is muscle." Both men laughed.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkxGBIRVraZ
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Someone back home, and more likely several, had done their homework. Cargo Bay 18, the specified installation site, contained a fair amount of boxes small enough to be transferred to the ship proper through the rear entrance. Those were fastened safely to the forward side of the major cargo bay bulkhead, and in the space thus The cleared out. J.M. personally oversaw the unpacking of the hab-C-Gate components.
The takedown modules were well designed; once a few fast welds had the bases in place, assembly was like solving a rather simple jigsaw puzzle. Sooner than he or Ben expected, the units sat alongside their power unit, ready for acceleration.
"These are the new type," J.M. explained. "Once the Ass is on line there's no 2-year wait before anything outgates, because that part was done back on Earth. Then the C-Gates were dismantled for shipping. So once we fire it up, it produces."
He put that step on hold; first, Ben wanted to make sure the ship's controls were fully multiplied to the DM. At either end, master cutover switches determined the configuration. In the alternate mode, Arrowprize could be controlled from either its own main console or the DM's, the latter being disconnected from its usual functions. Reversing the switches put everything back to standard. At the DM controls Marlena watched as Nyota in chief pilot's seat operated her controls according to Ben's intercrafted instructions. After a few minutes he said, "Looks fine from here. Can you call up all the sensor data you need?"
'Everything that I can think of. Would you like to come check it out, just in case I'm missing something?"
And so Ben did, and then put the console inactive, "to avoid any accidental use until we're ready to move up here." He turned to Nyota and her team. "Bravo, folks, bravo!"
So then it was time to do something about the Earth-C-Gates. Everyone at hand trooped down to Cargo Bay 18.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2gXPl9oYN
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Putting his personal thoughts in order, more than telling Marlena and the others anything they didn't already know, Sisko began: "At Bolt Park they've had their end on the line ever since they sent this, probably---and a test object sitting there in the Mouth. So once we activate the Ass, we start receiving. And we can't have that, stuff piling in here, until after the Module lands. We can fire up our Mouth and send them something, but no message that could be useful in time."
Odessa Vangelos, delivering an extras toolkit Ben ha d requested, said, "Two months round trip; no, that wouldn't be soon enough."
Before Sisko could correct her, Nyota did. "It's not 2 months anymore, Odessa. We're down to 0V or near it; there's no time difference now. Four years there is four years here, too." And Ben saw the reminder jar more than one of Nyota's audience. It's easy to forget such things.
Enough for today's lesson; he cut in, saying, "So anyway, either we hold activation on the Ass until the DM is sitting groundside, or...."
"....we could let them send the first load and then just leave it there to plug the C-Gate," Marlena finished. But then she smiled. "As a matter of fact, though, I've got a better idea."
Along with everyone else Ben waited, until she said: "It's out of the question to ice any of us in the local C-Gates. Too wasteful of personnel. But with all ten living on the DM bridge, privacy's going to be hard to come by, even with plastic curtains hung to screen off pairs of bunks. And over a 2-month period, that could get tiring."
"So?" Hikaru Sulu looked and sounded totally baffled.
"So we've got bunks for how many? 2 dozen? Intended for the first exploration teams, when they show up. Except that now it appears some will C-Gate directly to the surface. Anyway---to repeat, we have very little privacy. I move we pre-empt the Ass with two of the extra mattresses and a beside stand...."
She waved a hand. "....with a bar console right alongside. Some plumbing would be nice but I'm not sure it's feasible."
Alfred Nightgazer laughed. "Our very own motel room? I like it." And, he went on, they could have a symbolic room key hanging alongside the main telescreen; if it wasn't there, the room was currently taken. No problems...
Assured that crew-usage water was stored forward and thus "above" Cargo Bay 18, Hikaru said, "Don't worry about the plumbing. And I'll highgrade some 0G fixtures from one of the maintenance relief stations on the equipment decks."
0G? Then Sisko nodded. Yes, they'd be under thrust most of the time, but what about when they reached orbit? Or during turnover, for that matter? And he was fairly certain Supplies didn't stock just any spare convertible units. Safety always came first.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Z6cJbyxUJ
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The Mouth flared and vanished its test object the moment activating power was applied; the Ass remained safely blocked by its installed furnishings.
Another 2 days' work and everyone could move into the DM. Button everything down, make sure the Module's larder was stocked sufficiently, everybody pack for 2 months of camping out, and what do you think we forgot? But before the residential belt was brought to rest, there had to be one final party. Mild, but festive. After which, the belt was secured for thrust mode and all ten of the advance team abandoned ship for life in the DM. Almost 3 weeks after they'd outgated.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIrQwahMJ7K
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Ben looked nervous, Jacqueline thought, as he prepared to commence accel. For one thing, this wasn't his familiar control console; the pilot's display here differed in more ways than she liked to think about. But she saw him shrug and knew what he must be thinking: All right, let's do it.
On the console's keyboard and switch field his hands moved; Jacqueline felt the drive's hum, then a slow push building from the deck below until it seemed like she stood on Earth. For the next month, Velcro shoes would be superfluous; Arrowprize had begun to move, to build itself enough V to pay attention to.
About 1 month's worth. Then it would be swing ship and slow again, to see if they'd come more than 70 Earth years to discover anything worth the finding.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjA8ks9rp84
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Arrowprize's unwanted course change and residual drift velocity had little effect on the ship's schedule. A few hours under drive thrust corrected those aberrations. The only true delays---hooking up the DM remotes and installing the new C-Gates----were straight out of Earth via Bolt Park.
Marlena wished Ben would look at it that way.
Living up to Earth's expectations didn't bother her a bit. If they wanted to make changes they could take the consequences. But Sisko tended to shoulder the burden of other people's responsibilities; it wasn't easy to talk him out of it.
It wouldn't be so bad, she thought, sitting chief pilot and halfway through her watch, if they had more chance to relax in private. It was lucky she'd thought of the C-Gates Motel; that refuge was a real life-saver. But with only a crew of 10 available to keep the ship functioning 'round-the-clock while largely barred from most of it, no pair could duck out and hide for very long at a time. Maybe 1 hour, tops. Nobody pushed you to cut your privacy breaks short; your sense of obligation took care of that. Or else Ben's would. But the haywired intercraft link was only used if someone was really needed topside; and such occasions were rare. Even then, usually it was just the buzzer, which also brought up a red light. Meaning, "...when you're ready to talk."
So most of everyone's time was spent right here on the control duck. To each side, four of the five lower bunks had been deployed: all the outside pairs, leaving the middle spaces clear. The resulting quartet of 2-bed enclosures---and also the single lower bunks, one on each side of the latrines-shower complex, assigned to Talia and Jacqueline---were screened off by plastic curtains. At least they were opaque enough to dim the lighting for sleepers.
But still, Marlena thought, this was just like---what?
Unexpectedly, from beside the pilot's console Jacqueline said, "You know what this arrangement reminds me of? Summer camp. I haven't felt this jammed since Dolores sent me off there when I was ten." As Marlena looked around to her, Jacqueline gave a muffled laugh. "Only then it was just girls."
"Yes." Before Moreau could say more, the young lady turned away, leaving Marlena to her own thoughts. Such as that her comparison would have been to camping out on a phone booth.
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Decision to essay additional communication in the sub-plenum cannot implement itself at a current chronal juncture unless a different volitional is approached, for which acclimatization must again proceed from starting stages. The volitional previously encountered has become tough to engage due to the onset of varyings in its spatial/chronal parameters, previously constant though extreme. Lack of constancy renders dimensional synchronicity unsure; although a tentative contact attempt is made, no affirmative result ensues.
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Jacqueline didn't really mind living with a bunch of people, guys and all, running around not too careful about wearing enough clothes; it took a little getting used to, was all. And the fact was, the shower cubicle provided no place to hang clothing, not even a robe. So you left your clothes by your bunk and came out of your curtained area wearing a towel; once inside the shower stall, you could reach out and hang it on the door handle. Not quite the last word in convenience, but the system worked. If you weren't too prissy about coverage when a towel slipped. And after the 1st two or 3 days, seeing that no one else seemed to care much about them, neither did she.
Except to keep from having any of her own.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMe4LtLpcff
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With everyone on hand if needed, immediately available at all times save when taking a C-Gates Motel break, Ben had simplified the watch assignments: four six-hour shifts of 2 people each, exempting Nick Leger and Odessa Vangelos, who shared the responsibility of setting up four meals a day and took care of a few other housekeeping chores, though minor ones.
Ben and Marlena and Nyota sat chief pilot; the fourth, Jacqueline knew, would have been Charles Tucker as assigned DM backup, but his pairing with Yasmin put him with the decel group. When Ben left it to Nyota to choose a new backup, Jacqueline expected her to name Talia; instead she got the nod herself. "Jacqueline's worked at it longer, practices at every opportunity," Jacqueline explained. "I think she deserves the chance."
So, six hours out of every day, Jacqueline took over at the chief pilot's console. A figurehead, yeah: if anything significant came up she was expected to holler for one of her seniors. But still it felt good. Except that only 1/4 of each day were she and Ben and Marlena all off duty at once, and the odds had it that at least one of them would be sleeping.
Jacqueline's watch partner was Hikaru Sulu, Virginia Ulam rode shotgun for Ben, Alfred for Marlena, and Talia for Nyota, each sitting co-pilot although that console now handled just navigational and other sensory data. The communicator's seat sat vacant except for visiting purposes, as none was out there to communicate with.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD5zXp0CYP6
It all went pretty smooth, Jacqueline felt, except that she could have used a little solitude now and then, or even the chance to talk alone with just one or two others. It took her a time to notice that some of the crew tended to go down to the C-Gates Motel a lot more often, and stay longer, than the wish for sexual privacy could possibly require. Never more than an hour or so, but still and all.....
Further, it wasn't always paired couples or even just two people, and yet Jacqueline sensed no feel of intrigue or excitement. So the next time Ben and Virginia relieved her and Hikaru Sulu, Jacqueline picked up the "room key" and went over and woke Talia up.
"Let's go down, have some java, and talk."
Talia blinked. "You mean, down to the Motel."
"Yup."
"Us? What's everyone gonna think?"
"That we can use a little privacy just like anyone else. What would you expect?" And once she got over looking shocked, Talia grinned and nodded.
Following nearly 1 week cooped up with nine (usually) other people each day, the quiet hour Jacqueline and Talia talked together seemed just like a true vacation. After that she let no day go by without taking a respite period: either alone or with Talia or whoever was free that she felt like inviting.
One of the first was Ben, who expressed chagrin that he hadn't thought to ask her. "Sorry, Jackie; somehow it just didn't cross my mind." Then he smiled. "Well, y'know what they say. The first billion miles are the toughest."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuV4JqhVoei
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And of course, the slowest, occupying the initial six days and 15 hours under threat. By contrast, Sisko told her now, "...in just the last day before turnover we'll cover roughly 1.4 billion."
"That's the t-squared in the constant-accel equation, right? Really builds up fast." Another question surfaced. "How much more dilation do we get, this time? At peak V, that is."
His brows lifted. "Come on, now; you can figure that out yourself. 1G for---oh, call it 31 days."
Well, sure she could. "All right; I make it just about point-oh-double-eight c." And switching functions on her hand calc, "Now that square root, of one minus the square...."
But her father stopped her. "You want the easy way?"
"Is there one?"
"Hit your trig tables." She did. "Find V in the sine column." Jacqueline nodded. "Time ratio's the secant."
"Straight across, just like that?"
"Rrrrrrright!"
Jacqueline felt her frown build. "Why don't any of the books tell it that way?"
"Because it's not dimensionally correct according to Einstein; he used some imaginary values the calcs can't handle. But for our purposes, it gives the proper numbers."
She checked her reading. "And this one's less than 4 parts in a thousand. Not enough to bother with."
"The computer will, though. The difference isn't much for time, but distance is affected as well. At midpoint of this run, I put the possible error at up to 85 million., Which cuts no ice at that stage, but could consume time at the slow end."
Ben stood up and stretched. "We've held this place down about long enough. Someone else probably needs a getaway by now." He moved toward the door. "Sorry, hon."
Jacqueline followed. "It's okay; I'm ready." Out in the central well, as Sisko began the long ascent, she said, "Hey, I like it out here. And everybody aboard, too. It's just..."
"All the time," his voice came from up above."
"That's right." Then she needed her breath for climbing.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqvdaQbpFUW
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As Arrowprize neared the end of acceleration and approached peak velocity for this leg of the voyage, relativistic sensor error began building up. Just as Sisko had previously told Jacqueline. But from the DM, he found, computer correction wasn't all that easy to come by; under normal conditions the Module wouldn't need it. But the fact was, as he said louder than he intended, "Those jerks at Bolt Park didn't give us that part of the hookup!"
What a guy really hates at such times is the calm voice of reason. As, how could they guess there'd be an error so huge that we'd require that kind of thing? You need to keep in mind....
"The hell I do! All I need is to get the goddamn readings!"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcbUeXaftn2
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He could have taken them during the 0G period at turnover, yes. But that would use up time, not only the readings themselves, but clambering to and fro to get them. And whipping along at more than 16 K miles per second, 1 hour's delay could screw up his distance accel calculation.
So, taking Talia Winters along because with Kynon long since invalided home and Elyse Cawthorn heading the decel team, Talia was the group's remaining instrument specialist and Jet Ducote because he was an all-around capable tech and in top physical shape to boot. Ben headed down the ship's trust-begotten gravity well to its normal control room.
Even with the sturdy and well-designed lifelines he'd had installed, the job bore no resemblance to fun. Neither getting to control nor working there.
If anything, the latter was the worse. Effectively, acceleration had tipped control over on its butt, with the local C-Gates at the gravitational bottom. "Seated" at the control console Sisko was actually lying on his back, facing straight up without support for head or shoulders and a difficult reach to most of his knobs and switches. Not a situation, he found, for doing good work at any length.
So he did the job in short bursts, pausing between to sit up on the seat back and lean against the console top. Talia, he noticed, did likewise. But Alfred Nightgazer, always the free thinker, sprawled across two adjacent seatbacks with his upper body slanting up to his console, held by a sling of line under one arm and across his neck to loop over the console casing.
When Ben was do ne, he found he could just as well have gone with his horseback guess in the first place.
The climb back made the rest of it seem easy.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAf8I776HnS
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Turnover came on Jacqueline's watch, but she had zero expectation of doing the job herself and she was right. Ben didn't take over until he needed to, though. Standing beside chief pilot's position, first he said, "Mark your heading, Hikaru; enter azimuth and declination for three reference stars, besides destination, of course."
Jacqueline stared; he was surely taking this ship reversal more seriously than the earlier one. Well, he'd have to; that time they'd floated almost at rest. Here at more than 16,000 miles per second, things would be a lot more critical.
When Hikaru signaled "okay," the captain said, "Everybody not shot in Velcro, grab yourselves a handhold." Then he turned to Jacqueline. "Start cutting drive. Bring it down slow, about 1% per second. You don't need to be exact; close is fine."
Checking the thrust indicators against the sweep second hand on her watch, she ran the cut just a few seconds over Ben's nominal figure. He said, "Thank you, pilot. My turn now." And she moved to a position beside the seat, using her Velcros and a handhold for stability.
Hikaru clambered over to the communicator's position, making way for Nyota Uhura to co-pilot on this maneuver, apparently, topo skills were indicated. When Nyota was seated in, Ben said, "All right. Just so everybody gets to learn something this time, I'll tell it as we go. First I open up one pair of yaw drivers; they start us pivoting and the opposing pair stops us. Nyota---tell 'em what you're watching for."
As Uhura began, Jacqueline felt a slight sidewise push and saw the starfield onscreen starting to move accordingly. "What I have is a gyrocompass reading that has to do a 1-80 degree swing. First our rotation speed builds up, pivoting---uh, that should be enough, captain." The push stopped. "Okay; you can thrust at about 20 degrees, so..."
"So now our swing is just coasting," Sisko said, "and we wait. When we have that same angle left to go, I use the other pair to leave us riding steady but pointing backwards."
It seemed longer than it likely was, before Nyota called, "Now!" and the deck pushed the other way. After a time she said, "5 degrees," then "four," three and slowing," a pause, "ease to half," and finally, "cut!"
"Switching main screen to rear view," Ben said, and the view changed. "How do those reference stars line up?"
Close, but not quite, and the view still inched sideways a little. "Well, I want our star about 22 minutes of arc off our course, anyway. Putting us off to the side about Mars distance, heading in." By cut-and-try, a nudge one way and a smaller one the other, over the next minutes Sisko refined the ship's attitude until he was satisfied.
He freed himself and got out of the seat, gesturing to Jacqueline. "Crank up your drive, pilot. Same rate as before."
So, gauging her thrust building the same way she'd done the shutdown, this time she came in within a second. "Well, we're halfway home," said Ben. "The rest is all downhill."
Jacqueline hoped he was right.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3JL56Prsy
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His people must have been more worried about turnover, Ben thought, than anyone had let on. Or maybe they didn't realize it themselves until after; he surely hadn't. Yet now that it was all over, he had to admit he felt more relaxed.
Maybe it was that on any trip the turnover maneuver was supposed to happen just once. That's how it'd been with Stargazer and Yamato. Sisko had no clear idea where the next ships had been sent---Potemkin, Exeter and Nomad---nor whether they'd got there yet. And after those he'd purely lost track. According to the projected skeds, by now there should be close to 20 starships launched, maybe even some of the rumored Boomerang or Bootstrap versions, whatever the hell those labels meant. But one way or another he'd missed seeing those reports.
Well, now it was a month to destination. Also it was over an hour before he was due to relieve Jacqueline as chief pilot.
He caught Marlena's attention. At her nod, he reached over and picked up the C-Gates Motel room key.
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Although subject volitional's degree of spatial/chronal interdependency continues to alter, that relationship itself becomes of lesser magnitude and impediment, perhaps approaching a level at which contact may be possible previous to volitional's full return to parameters of spatial/chronal consistancy.
For this venture, it's hoped, greater similitude may be achieved between the volitional and the sensory extension presented to it. Preparation accretes.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8cplAGcyo
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As the Arrowprize approached her destination, daily routine scan of the sensor view began to confirm, with increasing assurance, the identity of dots on the screen as planets rather than something else. Size and apparent mass Ben found not too hard to peg; orbital distance and sidereal period needed longer observation.
At luminosity about point-nine of the Sun's, the star massed slightly less than point-nine-seven on the same scale. Apparent size wouldn't be all that different even at close range, but this sun's light was definitely softer, more yellowish.
Following a flip remark of Nightgazer's people began referring to it as Sol-junior. Or just plain Junior. Ben had thought of calling it Target. But he hadn't spoken up soon enough; the bandwagon got away from him. So he went along. In his next report to Earth he stopped using "destination" in preference to the star's numerical designation, and just wrote "Junior."
What the hell; he had four solid years before anyone could tell him not to.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAfHLezk0a
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"Well, just where do we want to find a world?" Close to midpoint of a watch trick, Jacqueline put the question to Hikaru Sulu.
"Good question." He was stalling, she could see, while he ran some numbers on his aux screen. "For the same incident energy that Earth gets, it should ride at none quite point-nine-five A.U." He paused; she nodded. "Something, not a whole lot, over 88 million miles."
"How tight is the figure?"
"There would be leeway; after all, parts of Earth are more hospitable than others. How much margin depends on a number of factors: depth of atmosphere, assuming we're lucky enough to find one that supports life. Axial tilt. Lots of things."
"But so far, nothing's showing?"
"Not that's suitable," said Talia. Lounging back in the communicator's couch, she recited the list to date. The two biggies, one heavily ringed and both well supplied with smallish moons, ridging at roughly five and eight A.U. The smaller one, first spotted by Talia herself, at the vicinity of two-point-six A.U. and receiving less than a seventh of Earth's incident energy flux. "Of course it's big enough to grow itself some internal heat." Since the speedy orbit of one of its closer satellites indicated its pull at nearly two gees.
"There's a couple more in tighter," she added, "but from here we can't tell how tight. On our closer approach, as our angle shifts we'll get a better idea."
Jacqueline frowned. "How come both the earlier ships had their planets nailed down from a lot farther out?"
"I'm not sure," said Hikaru. "I think it's because they could run crewed all through deceleration. There are a lot more kinds of test observation than we have rear sensors; they could switch instruments and check whatever they wanted to, change to catch whatever they needed at any time. And over a full year, too, coming in from half a light-year. We, though---we pretty much have to set up the more obvious choices and let them ride."
With only ten days and roughly two and a quarter billion miles remaining until the end of scheduled decel. Jacqueline hoped something turned up before too much longer.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ50dl57dJ8X
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One Week Later...337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4sTdistygJ
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With Junior about a quarter billion miles away and 34 degrees off the port bow, Ben got up to find Talia waiting with some figures for him to look at. She was patient, though, allowing him time to start on his coffee. Then, "I finally got sufficient readings to pin down orbital data, and we're about as lucky as anyone could get. Look here." She pointed. "The little world's much too far in, but this next one..."
Looking, he felt his brows raise in pleased, unbelieving shock. Orbital distance nearly point-nine-four A.U., a year of something like 43 Earth days, maybe 270 of its own which seemed to be roughly 30 hours.
Okay then: incident energy level maybe 2% above Earth's; definitely favorable for H20 to exist in liquid phase. And the distance/period ratio of the major moon gave the planet close to 3/4 Earth mass.
As Jacqueline came to look, too, his own muttered calculations took over. Triangulating from their slantwise approach gave him fairly accurate distance and thus the planet's real diameter. When he put all quantities in terms of Earth = one, surface gravity came in at just under .85. "Or in that ballpark," he added.
"And one more thing," said Talia. "You see....."
"Damn right I do. Atmosphere! And hi-mag shows whirly streaks, like Earth's. I think we're looking at breathable."
"What do you want to name it?" Jacqueline asked.
He thought of the odds. "Jackpot."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHmmbndQDd
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It didn't surprise Jacqueline that her father took a leisurely breakfast and began his and Virginia's watch shift before he moved to the communicator seat and put the latest findings into a report for Earth. When he finished, he called her over. "You want to run this down to the Motel and C-Gate it off?"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0dSZevziW
"Sure. But Nyota and Alfred are there right now." She checked her timepiece. "Should be out in a little while."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn5Dlh3Y63q
Ben nodded. "Yes. There's not that much hurry." He moved to his normal chief pilot's position.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPijO8Ee8UF
Jacqueline slid into the communicator seat. "Do we know much of anything about conditions on this planet?"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlyKL99IRF
"Some guesses. From spectral and thermal readings, among others, we think that the planet has lots of water and not much axial tilt. Which could make things interesting, living there."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnyDMNFAUGD
"Interesting, like in the Chinese curse?"337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSIm2hHo5qm
He grinned. "Could be. At 2% over Earth's incident energy, anything near the equator's going to be hothouse country, if not oven. And a light tilt means no polar ice caps, possibly seas there instead. So..."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjvFOSNqFO
After 1 moment, she saw it. "There better be some land masses around the middle latitudes, or we in deep shit."337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepC4Xht99n
His answer was cut off by the shriek from the central tunnel: Nyota's. And then the sickening thud.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfdJPUDynj
Lunging to the guard railing, Jacqueline looked over. About halfway down the shaft, Alfred Nightgazer seemed frozen to the climbing handholds as he stared upward. And at the bottom, Nyota lay crumpled; whether she breathed or not, Jacqueline couldn't tell. 337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnEd9LvqDKL
But it took her a moment to notice any of those details. Because what Alfred was gazing at, the thing that had probably startled Nyota into losing her hold, was a human figure floating in air as if the full G of decel didn't exist.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp39Gcew1ug
And looking all the world like Jacqueline herself!337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1OI0wnWA6
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