Jeopardy Chap 2

“Bridge to Captain Jackson,” the intercom squawked. Rianya looked at the ceiling; Tom blew air from his cheeks, then answered.

“Sir, we just received a communication from the BH4 science team. It’s marked urgent.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant, I’ll be right there.”

“Can I come along?” Rianya asked. Tom hooked his head to one side for her to join him.

Jackson stepped onto the bridge, tossed his jacket over the back of his chair then stepped to the communication station, loosening his necktie. Mr. May looked up and indicated a file marker on the dashboard. The captain nodded.

“Science Ship Maria Mitchell, this is Dr. Thompson from Beta Hydri Four Science Expedition. I realize you will be arriving in a few weeks, but we have an emergency. A small space body is on a collision course with BH4. We’re a biological panel; our astronomical equipment is limited so I can’t give you much more information.

“I am requesting you arrive as soon as possible to evaluate our vulnerability to the space object, as well as identify a time line and possible effects of the impact based on those calculations.

Many thanks. Please reply as soon as possible. We will be watching for it. Thompson out.”

Jackson felt his heart jump through his ribcage.

“When did they send that message?”

“Eight days ago, Captain.” Jackson turned from the lieutenant to Rianya. Her face reflected his concern back at him, her brows arched and her dusky pink lips fit together in a straight line.

“Best speed to Beta Hydri, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Tom?”

“Come with me.”

Jackson snagged his jacket and headed for the doyen’s office, Rianya on his heels, her gold sateen gown fluttering at her heels. He secured the door and called Watson to join them.

“What does that mean?” she asked him. “What’s a space body?”

“Kinnae is a space body. So are the three moons, Beta Hydri, comets, asteroids, planetoids—”

“Okay,” she said holding up her hand to stop his rambling. “Your face is white.”

“It’s been a week since they sent the message. Kinnae could have been hit by an asteroid or rogue moon. They know something’s on a trajectory but they don’t know what or how long it might take to get there, or what damage it will do.”

“A planet will fall out of the sky?”

“Love, this ‘planet’ could be the size of a house or it could be the size of a city. It’s large enough that a biology team detected it. And that’s bad news.”

“So, it makes a really big hole in the ground?”

“Did you sleep through the dinosaur lecture?” Tom jerked at the flat, black noose around his neck and flung it on the table, unbuttoning his collar with the other hand. “Sixty-five million years ago a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, wiped out every large reptile in a few centuries.”

“I remember something about it. Earth history isn’t my specialty.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Radiation, an impact crater, dust in the atmosphere. Blocks out the sun, kills the plants, plant eaters die, then the predators.”

“That could happen on Kinnae?” Tom sat in his desk chair and motioned Rianya to sit.

“Possibly.” Jackson opened the intercom and shut if off again. “Damn, I need to talk to Scott and he’s in sick bay.” The doorbell chirped. “Come.”

Chief Petty Officer Stuart Watson entered, already changed into a duty uniform.

“Mr. Watson. I need you to listen to this com, and prepare a status message to Space Admin. We’ll be heading directly to Beta Hydri Four at best possible speed. Send a message to the science team, too, let them know we’re on our way asap. Check with May and give them our ETA. Wish we had that quantum technology to send, not just receive from Earth. Thank you. And send Byrd up here. Dismissed.”

“Could my family be dead like Earth dinosaurs?”

“I don’t think so, Love, it would have to be a big one that hit very close to Waiso-town. Otherwise it would take a couple of years for the fallout to initiate an extinction.”

“Fall out? I not hear you talk these words in past,” she said. Her pidgin prompted Tom to reach across his desk and cover her hand.

“It’s serious, and I don’t have enough information to make any conclusions. I hate being in the dark.” He paced around the table then sat down. Behind the door chirp it was Engineer’s mate Kym Byrd, still in her dress uniform from the ceremony.

“Reporting as ordered, Captain.”

“Sit down, Kym.”

“What’s wrong, sir?”

Jackson didn’t speak but simply replayed the communication from Thompson.

“Oh, crap! That’s not good. I’ll get down to Astrometrics right away and see what I can find out.” She turned to go but then stopped and looked at Rianya. “If there’s anything we can do, we’ll do it.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s go get some coffee,” Tom said.

“I’m scared.”

The captain sat down again. He didn’t know what to do with his fingers; they seemed to keep tapping the table without his permission. Rianya’s amethyst eyes had turned nearly black; her frilled pupils had grown large and round. His chest tight and still, he realized he’d been holding his breath and released it in a controlled, measured stream.

“Let’s wait until Kym gives us the word before we start worrying about something we have no control over.” If only he believed his own words, maybe he’d stop shivering inside. “I know it’s hard but we can do something, take our minds off it for a little while.”

Rianya’s eyes narrowed and the pupils shrank to little asterisks again. She shot a poison tipped arrow at his chest.

“Let’s get some coffee and see what’s left over from the ceremony, to eat. Keeping busy and focused is important.”

“This no time for play,” she verily growled.

“Play?” he asked. He closed his eyes as her words caught up to his brain. “That’s not what I meant,” he chuckled. “I wasn’t even thinking of that.”

“You always thinking of that.”

“No, usually I’m thinking about my ship. And you. Which leads to that. But not now.” He stood and took her hand, pulling her out of the chair to take her with him on a ‘left overs’ run.

“Lieutenant May,” he called before going to the elevator. “What’s our new estimated arrival time?”

“We should arrive in the system in 4.1 days at a fuel cost of 17.2 gigajoules.

“Don’t worry about fuel. Let’s just get there as soon as possible.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Tom and Rianya walked in silence. His sight turned inside where he hoped to find that fearlessness he knew was there, if he could just dredge it up. He’d done it a hundred times before. For one reason or another, no matter how many successful missions to his credit, every time he was faced with a life or death situation, when the responsibility fell on his shoulders, he doubted his courage. Not his smarts, not his fortitude, but would he make the right choice, stand up to the threat, and be the hero everyone else believed he was.

“Where are you?” he heard. It wasn’t an angry question, but a heartfelt one. He looked down at Rianya’s empathetic face, holding her heart out to him for assurance.

“Don’t worry. I’m still here.”

“You don’t like the crew to know you are a real person, do you?” He didn’t answer her, but glanced away so she couldn’t read his face. “But they know.”

“No, they don’t. The captain is never a real person. He, or she, doesn’t get that luxury,” he muttered. They entered the mess and found some remaining sushi, chocolate cake, and the most importantly, coffee.

“You told me once that it takes strong to be weak.”

“It takes courage to be vulnerable. You’re the only one I can do that with. To everyone else I am The Anchor, their Glue.” Rianya smiled despite the crisis in the air.

They took their edible treasures to the captain’s mess and settled down at the table. Bailey’s cheerful face popped in the doorway.

“I don’t have a lot of options right now but I have some salmon with zucchini or some chicken tetrazzini with pasta.”

“We have salmon?”

“Captain, for you I have specials that I have been meting out all year. You don’t want to eat all the salmon and steak the first month and have nothing but tuna and celery the rest of the trip.” She winked and raised one eyebrow before darting out.

“This is what I meant by a distraction,” Tom said, spreading his arms across the table.

“I can’t help but wonder if everything is okay at home.” 

“Wonder is okay, worry is not. Let me do the worrying, you take care of my girls and support the med staff.”

“I can do that. But four days before we know?”

“Four days before we arrive. Scott and Kym will have some information for us in a few hours. She’ll use the hull sensors to locate the objects around Kinnae and determine what the ground crew couldn’t.”

“What’s wrong with Dr. Gregory?”

“Too much party.” She cocked her head. “Too much alcohol.” She raised her brows. “I don’t know why he got himself drunk, but he is, and I’ll find out later and then bring the gossip to you first.”

“From four days away, they can see what the people on the planet cannot see?”

“With the right equipment and knowledge, yes.”

“I didn’t think I could still be impressed by this group of people and this ship but it seems so.” She shook out her napkin and filled their glasses with water from the pitcher Bailey had brought in. Tom watched the ice cubes bob in the water and pondered the years they’d spent marooned on Kinnae, er, Beta Hyrdi Four, with no ice, and no coffee, but discovering Rianya more than made up for it. He watched her across the table, placing her napkin under the carafe to catch the condensation forming on the outside, arranging the flatware neatly beside the charger plate, then folding her petite hands to keep her fingers from drumming the table.

“Here you are, Captain, Rianya,” Bailey said, entering with two plates.

“You plan, cook, and serve. I think you should get a raise,” Jackson teased. Bailey nodded and left them to enjoy their midway-mission dinner.

“I’m going down to Astrometrics,” Tom said, standing.

“I’ll go catch up with two little girls,” Rianya said, pushing her dishes to the center of the table.

“You’ll let me know about the ass-roid?” Tom halted on the spot and bit his lip nearly to split, but the harder he tried to maintain a straight face the closer he came to a full-fledged sputtering jag of laughter.

“Yes,” he managed to get out. “I’ll let you know. And it’s pronounced az ter oid.” His chest heaved and he leaned his head against the wall, unable to keep the lid on.

“Tom?”

“But I like your… your word better!” He gulped for air and turned to face her. He physically could not stop the seizures; he couldn’t stop hearing her voice: ass-roid. “It’s perfect!”

“You make fun on my Human words. I not say it more.”

“I’m sorry,” he gagged, wiping the hint of a tear from the corner of one eye. He stumbled out of the captain’s mess and stopped to composed himself before going to the astrometric lab. He had one more snort of laughter in the elevator and the compulsion finally subsided. With the smile still on his face, he then remembered why he’d come to the lab. His longtime friend glanced up when he entered. His face might have been as stoic and serious as he’d seen in twenty years.

“Tom, you need to see this.”

“You should be in sick bay.”

"I should be here." Astrometrics was a windowless room made for three or four people to work inside at one time. A three-meter by three-meter flat monitor was built into one wall, and at the opposite end a holographic projector could display any object the user selected that appeared on the flat screen. In this case, Scott had the Beta Hydri system up on the wall, and the fourth planet of the system and the space body floating in the projector.

“Trajectory?” Tom asked. Scott tapped a key and a crimson line appeared in the hologram. It began outside the image, ran nearly straight through the center of the space body, then ended abruptly on the planet, about halfway between the equator and the southern pole. Actually, it was the northern pole, but everything about Kinnae was upside down and backward.

“Size?”

“About three kilometers, an M type.” Tom swallowed hard and sat down. His stomach had turned from hard with laughter to septic with nausea.

“How long?” he asked. Scott grimaced and folded his arms, a noisy exhale adding emphasis.

“At most 200 hours, give or take an hour; likely less.”

Captain Jackson clapped his face with one hand, pushing at his temples until they begged for mercy. Both men stared at the hologram in silence. An eternal minute ticked by.

“I’m reading most of the infrared on the northern hemisphere. Population?” Scott asked.

“Most likely. We didn’t explore much beyond the beach. I don’t know what kind of population might be on the southern hemisphere.” Tom leaned forward in the chair and rested his chin in one hand. His elbow made a small divot in his thigh. “We didn’t explore much beyond the beach. All that time and—I’ll see what Rianya knows.”

“Tom, it’s unlikely, but possible that it will break up into a few pieces in the atmosphere. Three big craters instead of one gigantic crater. It’s not real clear from this distance. I’ll know more when we cross the heliopause. The trajectory is clear. It’s headed in at 49 degrees.”

“One piece or three won’t make much difference in the long run as far as radiation.” He stared at the flat monitor, then he snapped his attention to Scott. “The beach. If the asteroid hits the ocean, a tsunami will hit the beach.”

“For now, let’s just get there. We can try to knock in a degree or two and have it skip the atmosphere, we can break it up, perhaps, but this is a done deal. Beta Hydri Four is going to be hit by this asteroid in 8-9 days, and we can’t stop it. The catastrophe will be just a matter of degrees.”