Jeopardy Chap 6

Quixote shifted on the bench from one uncomfortable position to another while the humans, and Rianya, discussed the dilemma with the other ship.

“Sorry, Quixote. Why don’t you make a chair that you can sit in?” Jackson said. “I’m more than happy to sign off on the materials.”

“I have one, sir, but it’s in the propulsion room where I need it the most often.”

“Where you do the most loafing around?”

“Sir?” Jackson smiled and shook his head, nodded, and took a sip of coffee.

“So, Wagner or Bowen will accompany them at all times. We’ll hook them to the stern with the 100-meter anchor cable, and the planet they have in mind is about 2 hours at ISS. We’ll leave them in orbit and be on our way. It’s a small price to pay so they don’t try to hijack us again.”

“Captain, if I may say,” Quixote said, hesitating, “humans are known in the Orion Spur to be suspicious of new species. This information is spread by the Draconians because of the way we were greeted when we arrived on Earth. It’s more often than not an unwarranted fear of the unknown.”

“You think we should let the Zlōgers come aboard? Is there something here they need?”

Quixote looked at each member around the table, tucked his chin and looked away.

“We will provide help, but I don’t need to get chummy with them.”

“Captain, you surprise me. It’s not like you.” He eyeballed the reptile.

“Something’s just not right about this and we have someplace else to be, yesterday. I don’t trust them one meter.”

“Very well, sir.”

“What’s our status from their damage?”

“The hull damages are repaired. My engine is another story.”

“How much longer?”

“Maybe another 8 hours, Captain.”

Jackson looked down at the table to block his vision from the others. Eight more hours was going to be difficult to explain without revealing their vulnerability.

“If you need anyone else to help, engineering is top priority right now.”

“The reaction is the reaction, Captain. This is nuclear, not chemical. Coulomb's Law still applies, sir. We had to repair and ensure the pressure chamber was uncompromised. It has to heat to 15 million just to start the hydrogen, 100 million--” Jackson held up one hand and nodded.

“For the D-T. * Notify the lieutenant when we’re secured and ready to depart. Dismissed.”

Adams, Lee, Quixote, Wagner, and Rianya all stood up.

“Rianya,” he called before she left the room. “What do you think?”

“About what?”

“The Zlōgers. Am I being unreasonable?”

“You’re the captain.”

“You’re the alien.”

“Quixote is also not a human.” Her tone changed to reflect Jackson’s use of the word ‘alien’. He felt the chill from a meter away.

“I don’t think of you as an alien, just as my wife. I don’t think I could fall for a mottled blue octopus and they are very alien to me. So is Quixote.” He seemed to be digging his hole deeper. Distraction, he had to distract her from his faux pas.

“Why is your hair is changing color,” she said suddenly, stepping a little closer and reaching out toward his temple. “Are you sick?”

“No, just being the captain,” he muttered. At least he still had hair, even if some of it was getting a little grey.

“You weird aliens. Your hair changes colors.”

“You got me, I’m sorry,” he said, pulling her by the hand into his lap. She fell on him comfortably.

“And these alien ears,” she reminded him, “grey hair, big ears…” her hand touched both at the same time.

“And you love them.”

“Maybe the blue crew look funny to you but--”

“Don’t tell me about funny looking people. They attacked us when we didn’t respond to their distress call. That’s not a way to make friends.”

“Are you sure it was an attack?”

“Our engines are damaged, our hull impaired; there are better ways to get our attention. Flares, answering hails, not lobbing a torpedo, perhaps?”

“What do you think is wrong?”

“They’re more interested in a tow than the medical supplies they kept insisting they needed. They could rob us, try to take the ship, capture us as slaves, I know nothing about them!” The two of them stared at each other, intently, playfully. “I captured you.” He lifted her off, gave his thighs a few moments to refill with blood, and he was off to the bridge.

“Captain on deck!” Lee called. Watson and Rougeau stood up; Jackson dismissed them promptly. He sat down in his single chair and leaned over to Rianya who stood adjacent.

“I wish they wouldn’t do that,” She blinked slowly and allowed a smirk to appear.

“No, you don’t.” She squeezed his arm and left him to his métier. Outside the bow window the Zlōgers’ ship hovered, filling the view with a dull golden shimmer.

“Lieutenant, we’re going to need a few hours to prepare the reaction chamber and we need all the power we have for that. Quixote will let you know when power is available to get started with the tow.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Watson, can you hail them now?” Jackson put the translation box which the Zlōgers had given him on Watson’s dashboard. “Rougeau, time to reach the planet, including the extra tonnage?”

“Without our main propulsion, on auxiliary, seven hours, twenty minutes, Captain.”

“I have Commander Gugnichacrik, sir.”

“Commander?” Jackson said in the direction of the com station.

“Captain Thomas Jackson. We prepared here to receive your taxi line.”

“It will be a few hours, Commander. Your torpedo damaged our engine’s reactor core and we need additional time to repair it. We will contact you in approximately ten hours.” Jackson wondered if standing was their normal resting mode like a horse or if they slept in tubs of water as he suspected amphibians did, although, he wasn’t certain. Rianya would know; she was the veterinarian. He’d ask her later, if he remembered.

“Ten hours?”

Jackson had only one way to describe time to an alien. He stepped to the navigator’s helm and played with a few buttons and a number appeared: c 0.00114 . He moved toward the com box.

“Zero point zero, zero, one, one, four, of light speed.”

“I understand. Contact us when you ready. Gugnichacrik out.”

“Will they be spending the entire tow in their vessel?” Rougeau asked.

“I wasn’t going to offer a tour. I’m waiting for them to ask.”

The ensign and lieutenant looked at each other, then at the chief petty officer, and back at the captain.

“I haven’t known you to treat a new species contact with such caution, before, sir,” Lee said.

“Carry on, gentlemen.” Jackson stood. “I’ll see you at 07:00.”

þ

“Quixote to bridge. We’re ready to connect.”

“Very well, thank you. Watson, notify the Zlōgers. Engineering, stand by.”

The Maria Mitchell was the smaller ship, but Jackson suspected she was better designed and equipped. The Zlōger vessel seemed…antiquated, for lack of a better word. He was determined, however, not to underestimate them. His palms grew sticky almost instantly.

“Anchor aweigh, Captain. We have capture.”

“That’s what I want to hear. Prepare to adjust engine torque for speed and propulsion, compensate for the additional weight.” He closed the com. “Lieutenant, let’s launch.” Jackson watched as they began to turn away from the Zlōger prism. It took up a place ventral to the ship and out of sight from the bow windows. “Viewers on,” he said to Watson. The monitors displayed the ventral view of the Zlōger ship as it lurched against the taught, carbon-tube cable. A moment later it glided at the end of the anchor.

“All secure, Captain,” Rougeau said. He touched several buttons on his dashboard and kept one eye on the monitor at the same time. Jackson looked at several station readouts, walked in and out of the bow, then had a long look at the ship being towed.

“It’s going to be a long day, men. Carry on.”

Jackson left the bridge and headed to his quarters where he suddenly realized the pinch and rumble in his stomach was right on schedule: 08:00.

“You missed breakfast.”

“I know, but I don’t leave the bridge unless all is secure. Where are the girls? It’s awfully quiet in here.”

“Zoe offered to watch them today, then Bailey and Keith are taking them later.” Tom wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed or pleased that the crew spent more time with his daughter than he did. “They ate early; they’re in the gym. I’m starving.”

“Zoe offering to take them, when did that happen?” he called from the lavatory.

“This morning. She’s been very helpful the last few weeks, have you noticed? She was different when we left Earth.” Tom changed into a white shirt.

“She’s a year older and wiser,” he called. He also wondered what she was up to. Being Admiral Wallace’s daughter, he thought she’d have come better prepared for a long space journey, and be less flirty with officers, particularly himself. Tom buzzed the morning shadow off his face and finally looked into the mirror. Rianya was right. He had grey hair above his ears. He hadn’t noticed it until now.

“We’re all a year older and wiser,” she called to him. Indeed. “You look like you’re going to work again.”

“Yes, after breakfast. Come on, pretty lady.” He offered her an arm and they headed for the mess hall.

“So, Zlōgers?”

“You were at the briefing. There’s not much else to tell. Big heads, lots of arms and legs, several different shades of blue and all different heights.”

“Not their physical forms. What about them as life forms? Are they social? Cerebral? Excitable? Artistic?”

“I wasn’t there even an hour.”

“My point, Tom. Don’t you need to find out who they are before you draw a conclusion on their integrity?”

Tom stopped mid-stride and gazed at Rianya. He reached out and caressed her chin.

“Your vocabulary and syntax have dramatically improved. I’m speechless.”

“That’s a first. I don’t know, perhaps Quixote’s education is osmosing to me. I thought perhaps I should be more thoughtful since the girls were starting to mimic my pidgin.”

Tom resumed their walk to the mess.

“I like your pidgin. It’s cute.”

“It’s not scientific and I need to expand my medical terminology before I make another huge mistake and someone gets hurt, or killed. You’ll tell me if I slide into my old tongue?” Tom kept walking but forgot about the Zlōgers. His mind chuckled as he played with her words.

“What are you going to do when we get to Kinnae?”

“I haven’t forgotten how to talk to my own people.”

“I didn’t get any report that indicated the science team has learned Kinnae, or integrated with your village. All reports are just about geology, zoology, botany, oceanography, I think some chemistry. Nothing about people biology that I remember.”

“I just want to see my family,” Rianya said. Tom filled a cup with coffee and handed it to her before refilling his own.

“We will, Love. We will. You have my word.”

“I think we should have gone straight to Kinnae.”

“Rianya, there’s going to be problems when we get there. Whether we get there in three days instead of four isn’t going to make a difference.”

“Then why did we increase speed when the message came in?”

“Scott hadn’t worked out the actual logistics until later. It seemed like the right thing to do, to get there as fast as possible.”

“What kind of problems, exactly, are you expecting?” She took a small bowel filled with waffle bites and sat at the nearest table. Tom heaped scrambled eggs and shredded potatoes on a plate before joining her.

“It depends if we can divert the thing and where it hits. We should expect a compromised atmosphere, to some degree. There’ll be damage to the beaches or lowlands, like a bomb going off. It is a bomb, a natural bomb. The starlight will be obstructed from the debris in the atmosphere, and the planet will be somewhat darkened.”

“What else?”

“If it’s significant, sun-loving plants and crops will begin to die in a few weeks. Fallout will affect most of the planet, if not all of it, for years.”

“Fallout?”

“Radiation damage.”

“Will this delay mean the difference between life and death?”

“It’s only for a few hours. I’d like to think we can still make a difference even if it takes a little longer to arrive. There are certain… inevitabilities with an asteroid strike. I said before, at this point, it’s a only matter of degrees.”

*Nuclear fusion with Deuterium-Tritium requires 40 million Kelvins to break the Coulomb barrier.