20.
The Toormonda ship appeared right on schedule. It appeared directly in front of the flagship, which had one of the Seeker ’s telescopes focused on it, and after the meeting broke up many of the crew members reviewed the video of its appearance. To begin with a bank of fog appeared in space. The fog built up for moments, and then suddenly the egg-shaped spaceship simply appeared inside of the condensation, which then quickly vanished again.
“What causes the mist?” one of the techs asked.
“Beats me,” came the reply. “Ask the Yonohoans.”
“I don’t have permission to talk to them yet,” the first complained.
Captain Moon cleared her throat, and then pointedly touched the microphone of her headset. “Renosa, my crew is wondering what causes the mist that appeared prior to the Toormonda ship’s appearance.”
“It is a very common phenomena that occurs with that method of FTL transport,” came a prompt explanation. Captain Moon had switched the speakers in the room to broadcast the answer for her. “What you’re seeing of mist is not the reflection of liquids, gasses, or frozen solids, but instead a type of protomatter which is unstable in this universe. They are effectively particles from another universe that leak through into ours when the drive on the Toormonda is engaged. They exist in this reality for only a few seconds before decaying and returning to the hyperatomic plain from which they came.”
“Thank you Renosa,” Captain Moon said.
“You are welcome, Captain Moon. We are presently updating the ship so that you may control it remotely using the protocols established using the drones and Sergeant Cruz’s shuttle,” Renosa said.
“Is there a pilot aboard the ship in case we lose control of it?” Captain Moon inquired.
“A Toormonda is more than capable of flying itself. They have the very best safety controls and would both detect and steer out of the way of even micrometeors the size of a grain of sand,” Renosa assured her. “We are encouraging you to take control of it using your own software, but if you prefer we can direct it for you.”
“So even if we file a bad flightplan, the ship is smart enough to avoid crashing into the Seeker ?” Captain Moon clarified.
“Yes. To be honest, we could give the ship verbal instructions to place it approximately where you wanted it in order for your crew to make their spacewalk and it would probably get close enough,” Renosa assured her. “This ship is designed to be as smart as the children who fly them hope to one day become.”
“My world puts great effort into child proofing and idiot proofing many products,” Captain Moon said. “Every time someone succeeds in idiot proofing a product, they invent a better idiot.”
Renosa’s melodious laughter filled the bridge. “I assure you that this isn’t the first time a Toormonda has received light-speed instructions from an experimental software, hardware, and interface protocol. In fact, one of the experiments that one member of our fleet performed while on their own Toormonda was to try to control the ship while spacewalking using only a Rocktala that they wired themselves strapped to his wrist. As I said, they are very clever ships, and it has been centuries since the last time one has made a navigation mistake.”
“I suppose we will have to take your word for it,” Captain Moon said. She turned to her crew. “Can we do what they’re asking us to?”
“I’m bringing up the flight plan software now. It will take me some time to adjust the variables,” Rebecca said. The room felt empty, missing both Antoine and Anders. “It would be easier if we had Diego here; he’s the best at controlling the drones.”
“You’re his backup, and you’ve successfully guided home a dozen probes by now,” Captain Moon reminded her.
“I know. Just jitters. I got this,” Rebecca said.
“Take your time. Do a shakedown to make certain that you have control of the Toormonda before you bring it into position for the EVA,” Captain Moon instructed.
“Okay. I’ve got the locations locked in. I’m going to treat it just like one of their dancing probes for now and see how it responds,” Rebecca declared.
She switched back and forth between typing on her keyboard and using the controls which were attached to the station she was sitting at, consisting of a number of dials, joysticks, levers and switches. Finally she typed in the final command, and everyone turned to watch the main screen as the image from the telescope showed the Toormonda responding to the input.
To everyone’s surprise, it didn’t move.
“We’re getting a signal from the ship,” the officer filling in at the communications station said. “Sorting it now. The computer thinks that it’s confirming the flight path. I think we need to plug it into the software that the aliens used to invite Diego to come aboard.”
“Get on it,” Captain Moon said.
“Forwarding now,” he said as Rebecca changed from one set of software to another.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Okay, putting the data in,” she said, typing furiously at her computer. A few minutes passed and she studied the data and the computer’s rendition of the scheduled flightpath. “Yeah, that’s almost exactly what I told it to do. Wow.”
“How almost are we talking about? This is rocket science after all,” Captain Moon said.
“Are you certain?” Rebecca asked. “I’m not seeing a rocket anywhere on that ship. How does it fly?”
“Good question. I’ll ask after we test your flightpath. Send the confirmation that it’s good to go and see what happens,” Captain Moon instructed.
Rebecca entered a few keystrokes, and a moment later the Toormonda began to move. It did a forward roll towards them, then accelerated to their left, then changed to a diagonal role and shifted to moving upwards and to the right. It accelerated until it was moving quite fast, then abruptly slowed at a rate of about two G. It did an end over end flip, and then returned to its starting orientation.
“Wow,” Rebecca said. “According to our software, it’s only fifty meters away from where both the flight path software and the drone-control software say it should be.”
“Fifty meters doesn’t sound like much, but it’s too much of a margin of error for my tastes,” Captain Moon said. “Tell the away team to stand down for now. Let’s spend a few hours tuning it in. I want us to be within ten meters before we bring that thing in for a closer look.”
~~~~~~
“So apparently, even if we miss on our jump, the Toormonda ship will suck us into the airlock on its own,” Takeshi said. “And according to the Yonohoan who told me this, it will in fact be using the same engines that it uses to move without thrusters to do that! It works by bending space to create an artificial gravity field! He says that he doesn’t have the english words to explain how it works, but that perhaps by reviewing the information on the computers of the Toormonda I will be able to bridge the gap in our understandings!”
“That’s awesome Takeshi, but you’re supposed to be checking my seams,” Antoine said.
“I am checking them,” Takeshi protested.
“Considering that if you miss even a slight tear I could die to freezer burn I’d like you to check them again while you’re not gushing about how awesome the Toormonda is like a thirteen year old Yonohoan space nerd.”
“I am a thirty-four year old Japanese space nerd. And a small part of me wishes that I was Yonohoan so that I would have been able to do this at age thirteen instead of waiting all of my life to meet such a wonderful ship!” Takeshi explained.
“The ship will not be your waifu, Takeshi.”
“Oh shut up.”
The pair continued to check their suits to make sure that they were in good condition, fitted properly, and completely sealed. It had been a few hours, but Rebecca and the bridge crew had finally calibrated the layers of software to be precise enough that Captain Moon gave the approval to bring the Toormonda ship in close enough for the away team to board it.
It was currently parked one hundred meters off of the port side number six airlock. They would have to jump. They were each carrying a small device which used compressed air for reaction mass which would allow them to adjust their trajectory if they were inaccurate, but according to the Yonohoans such a thing shouldn’t be necessary for the reasons that Takeshi had been so excited about.
“You sure it’s safe for the Toormonda to use its main drives on us?” Liu Wei inquired, who was paired up with Rajesh, and the two of them were also working on putting their suits on.
“The Yonohoans allow their children to take spacewalks around a Toormonda without even a Manned Maneuvering Unit,” Takeshi protested. “If it was dangerous or harmful, they would know it and not allow it near their children. They are very protective and loving of their children, after all.”
“If the effect is just the bending of space and not one of ionizing radiation, then it shouldn’t have any deleterious effect on the human body,” Liu pointed out. “We are carrying Geiger counters and exposure badges, so if the ship is radioactive or has radioactive parts, we should get some warning before we enter any hot zones.”
“If there are any hot zones on the ship, I doubt that we will be able to access them without bypassing several safety measures,” Takeshi reminded her. “This is a children’s ship, after all.”
“As you say,” Liu agreed.
“Okay, it’s mission time,” Anders said. “I realize most of you are civilians. That’s fine. I’m going to clear the ship for you, so I jump first. Wait until I give the all clear before jumping, because once you leave the airlock there’s no going back. Not without jumping from the other side.”
“We know,” Antoine said.
“The ship is rather large. Depending on the number of rooms inside it might take me a while to clear. Do not get impatient and decide that it’s good enough . The Yonohoans promised us that nobody’s been inside the ship except for the automated assembly drones, but if they planned any surprises for us I do not want to have to cover the escape of a civilian,” Anders continued.
“We know. We’ll wait our turns like good boys and girls,” Takeshi said.
“I’ve been studying the images of the floorplan that the aliens have designed for us while we were waiting,” Anders continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “If they’re accurate, I estimate it will be at least a thirty minute wait.”
“We know,” Antoine said.
“I am cycling the airlock now,” Anders said, and he pressed the red button on the wall.