Chameleon Ch 19

“I don’t choose my missions,” Jackson said. “Even with as much planning and plotting as Space Admin and I do, they choose me.”

“I’ve never heard it put quite like that before,” Lieutenant May chuckled.

“How long do we have? I’ve lost track of time.”

“Four more days, Captain. Half a light year, give or take.”

Tau Ceti D wasn’t visible without a telescope, but Tau Ceti had grown quietly brighter as they neared.

“We’re all ready to get off and walk around in real gravity.”

“It’s just slighter of Earth’s, point nine six Gs.”

“I haven’t been here since 2157,” Jackson mused. Nine years since the nuclear accident, since he’d last seen Quinaal, her husband, her son. “First time I came I brought some gemologists and mineralogists looking for resources, primarily gold. I’d just gotten the Linus Pauling.”

“A little nostalgia, sir?”

“Something like that.” Jackson pushed the memories away and took his seat accompanied by his afternoon cup of ambition.

“Captain, I just received a message from Admiral Wallace,” Ms. Stone said from her post at the communication dashboard. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“To my office.” He took his coffee with him and employed the door lock. This was not going to be pretty. He called the message to his hologram emitter. Admiral Wallace’s head appeared, disturbingly, detached from his body. The word “Confidential” blinked at the base of the emitter. He tapped it.

“Alpha, Red, One, Yellow, Omega, Blue.” The message began its playback.

“Tom. I had to wait a couple days before responding to your last message. This situation has come to an impasse. I’m aware that the hijinks on Novissimus aren’t your fault. Forget I mentioned those. They hit a little too close to home.

“Anne’s mother and I had a long talk. She finally, reluctantly, submitted to a DNA test, and after that, she admitted you weren’t the party involved. She won’t reveal the identity of the male partner, and the DNA doesn’t match anyone assigned to your ship.

“We’ve known each other a long time, and I’ve known you to be an honorable man. It’s hard to mistrust a child’s word when the consequences are dire. Believe me when I say you were going to lose your commission. I don’t allow such conduct in my fleet.

“I owe you an apology, and a sincere one at that. When you get back to Novissimus, let me buy you a beer. Or, a cup of coffee. This has been distressing for us, and I’m sure you as well. Give my apologies to your wife, as well, if appropriate.

“Have a good trip to Tau Ceti D. I appreciate your understanding. Wallace out.”

 Jackson leaned back in his chair feeling five kilos lighter than five minutes before. It was done. Anne was officially out of his hair. He was beginning to wonder if there was something in the water aboard Maria Mitchell. Seems women were getting pregnant all over the ship, and that just wasn’t normal. He made a mental note to discuss the situation with Adams and find out what kind of fertility fairy had crept onboard.

“Captain,” Cerebrus greeted as they met between Jackson’s chair and the operations alcove. “I’m taking over for Ms. Stone.”

“Is there anything you need to know about the communication station?”

“There’s everything to know.”

“I’m going to brief him, sir, before he takes the dash,” Stone piped up from a couple meters away. The android stepped down to take the seat she vacated. “We have some files to transmit; I save them for him to learn on.”

“Is it Pony Express day?” he asked.

“Every ten days, sir. Anything for Admiral Wallace?”

“No, nothing this time.” Jackson rounded the railing and took his position. His cherished coffee cup was empty but he didn’t care. The relief over Anne’s accusation coming to naught was palpable. It wasn’t that he doubted himself, but thinking of Zalara, and the soon to be daughter, and even Honey, he empathized with Wallace. If a man had forced himself on one of his girls, or Neptune's Ire, Rianya, he could see himself imprisoned for murder. And that thought raised the hair on his neck. Suddenly, he ached to get to his quarters.

“Cerebrus, when you’ve mastered the comm station, you’ll be learning Operations. That’s weapons, external sensors and scans, systems status', and the like. You seem to be picking things up quickly.”

“I am, Captain.” Jackson nodded and headed for the elevator. “Sir, Dr. Adams has said I’m no longer needed to train in the medical emergency role. Is that correct?”

“Yes. He has enough people down there, and I need more up here. After Ops, I’ll have you back in the Astrometrics lab and up here for relief. No sense in spreading yourself thin all over the ship.”

“I understand.  Thank you, Captain.”

“Call Quixote if anything comes up. Lieutenant May, you have the con.”

When the captain had left, Lieutenant May checked his auto pilot with the navigation course, then took the command chair. He needed one person at the helm, not two at the com. He knew better than to call Rougeau for a night shift, and Watson was due in a few hours anyway.

“Cerebrus, take the helm as soon as you’re finished with the immediate training task.”

“Aye, Lieutenant.”

May shifted a little in the center chair. It wasn’t his favorite place on the ship. He could stay at the helm, but with Cerebrus on the bridge, leaving the center seat empty might be a mistake. He didn’t expect the android to sit there, but orders originating there, and not at the helm, were quickly obeyed, not debated.

He did appreciate the overlapping shifts, however, with Cerebrus able to take any station any time. It offered all bridge officers more flexibility and time off. He was growing fond of the glossy white android. The more they worked together, the easier it was to understand him, read his quirks, and allow for flexibility in his training and progress.

He stared out the windows as the lighthouse that was Tau Ceti, a slightly smaller version of Sol, drew them to their destination. The shining pale dot of nuclear fusion, having burned for six billion years, would, in four billion years, leave the main sequence, changing colors, size, and even its content. When its life as a red giant ended, Tau Ceti would become a planetary nebula of helium and oxygen with nothing but a white dwarf of compact carbon, iron, and a few trace minerals in the center.

Cerebrus moved to the helm and reviewed the information on his display projectors. His fingers tapped controls that human eyes would normally activate using a precise focus.

“Lieutenant,” he called behind him. “What would you make of this spectacle? I’ve not seen these readings before now.” May stepped down to see what Cerebrus needed help with. “This spike in amperage in the power cell array.”

May stepped back into the operations alcove to examine the status of the batteries. The normal five-amp measurement had spiked to fifty on all banks, with one bank registering off the scale at more than seventy-five amps. He called engineering.

“Engineering, Byrd.”

“Ms. Byrd, check the power cell banks. We noted a spike over seventy-five amps in one of the cells, and near fifty in the remaining.”

“Aye, sir, stand by.” 

“Uh-oh,” May said. His feet left the floor when a thump and a buck from the aft of Maria Mitchell must have stopped the rotation of the gravity torus, momentarily. A second later, he drifted back to standing on the deck, stumbling in surprise.

“Bridge, we’ve had an explosion, a battery casing burst, likely a gas buildup. We’re venting the array. I’ll bypass that unit. We won’t have emergency back up power for at least an hour.”

“Thank you. Bridge out.” May remained in the operations area to examine other readings and statuses. “Anything else Cerebrus?” He called. Oxygen, nitrogen, cabin pressure, temperature, conduit health, carbon dioxide, monoxide, lithium hydroxide filters, hydrogen intake – all other critical systems appeared to be in order. He pulled up a readout of the crew.

“Chen Lee, please report to the bridge.” May turned back to Cerebrus. “Good catch. One more bad battery could have led to the entire array being compromised.” The android blinked slowly. May was grateful; that could have been much, much worse. He returned to the chair in the middle of the bridge. “Cerebrus, take over in Ops when Lee arrives.”

“Aye, Lieutenant.”

When the two had taken their places, Lee took stock of the status, and Cerebrus checked all systems reported in the operations systems. May signaled the galley to bring coffee. Despite being used to the off shift, it didn’t hurt to have help, at least in the form of coffee.

“Lieutenant May, coming from coordinates three-twenty, ninety-one, a coronal mass ejection, particles traveling at three hundred thousand kilometers per second. It will cross in front of us in approximately forty-two minutes.” Cerebrus stared, for lack of a more accurate word, at the data.

“What’s on that trajectory?” May demanded. His skin shivered at the thought of gamma rays piercing the hull and burning not only the control of the ship but every person aboard.

“It appears as if it originated near Eridian 82, nine point two light years ago.”

“How big is it?” May swallowed hard. Mr. Lee and Ms. Stone had both turned to concentrate on the words from the android.

“Measuring.” Tension gripped the bridge like a fog. “It has expanded, over the years, to eighty eight astronomical units, and the leading edge is continuing to spread.”

Lieutenant May pounced on the intercom button.

“Engineering, Byrd.”

“Kym, put Quixote on!” While he waited, he pressed one hand against his knee to stop his leg bouncing at immeasurable speeds.

“Mr. May, how can I help you this evening?”

“I need you on the bridge, now.”