When Rashi entered engineering the next morning, the place was buzzing. She stood in the doorway, watching the growing excitement and trying to figure out what was going on.
Alice gave her a wave and came over. “What’s happening?” Rashi asked.
"Didn't you hear? Birk worked out the resonance problem!"
"Already?" Rashi replied without thinking. Fortunately, Alice just looked at her strangely for a second before saying, "Anyway, the Chief has called for an all-hands meeting in just a few minutes. Apparently, she wants all projects to finish up whatever they are doing ASAP!"
Walking over to her desk, Rashi called up her messages on her mindpal. Sure, there was the invite for an all-hands meeting, and also... Rashi swallowed. A message with the subject "Test Flight Crew Roster" was blinking and marked as urgent. When she looked at the recipient list, all the other recipients were department heads. They must have added me because of all the emails I always send them, Rashi thought.
She briefly considered being a good girl and deleting the message, but knew that wasn’t happening even before the thought had finished. Opening the message, she quickly scanned the text. Coming from Flight Chief Torgrimmson, it read:
All Department Heads:
Re confirmation from engineering that recent experiment confirmed resonance effect within acceptable limits, we aim for a test flight as soon as possible. Modulation of Pegasus plasma propulsion engine estimated to take two days to implement and test. Flight targeted for Friday 13:00.
Find crew roster for test flight attached. As per previously agreed principles, a minimum viable crew in number and qualifications has been established. Enough to operate the vessel and handle unforeseen situations, but no resources that are irreplaceable in the event of an unscheduled disassembly event.
As per previous assessment, the crew complement will be as follows. Total 245. Bridge and bridge support; 25. Life support functions; 17. Engineering; 18…
Seeing engineering listed, Rashi couldn’t wait any longer and opened the attachment. Sorted by department, she quickly found engineering on the list, and… Wow! She sat back in her chair and hoped no one was watching her. She couldn’t keep a straight face as she saw her name. Right there! Rachel Patel, drive engineer second class.
What? She needed to ask the Chief, only... she wasn't supposed to have the crew list. She was going to have to wait until the Chief shared it with her 'officially'. Still, that was so exciting! And scary! And drive engineering?! The butterflies threatened a full assault on her stomach when she realised she would be responsible for the plasma drive underway!
But what about… Oh… Wow!
For the second time in a minute, Rashi couldn’t keep the amazement from her face as she found Nick on the bridge crew! Noah Aaron; 6Astrogation Officer, the text said! How in the Universe had Nick managed that? That was… that was a position directly reporting to the captain!
Her face flushed with excitement. When she found Sae further down the list, she wasn’t as surprised, but the position still impressed her; Susan Aaron, Computer Analyst First Class.
Rashi didn't know what feeling was strongest; impressed at Nick and Sae's assignments, or wonder at her own assignment to drive engineering. Which she had absolutely no previous experience with.
Not irreplaceable, Rashi noticed again in the crew assignment message, and noticed that Birk was nowhere to be seen. Of course, they wouldn’t risk golden boy Birk, who solved the resonance problem, on the first flight. Newbie Rachel Patel, who had been in charge of communication of all things, was apparently disposable.
It was a good thing Rashi had taken the time to read up on the plasma drive in case Birk had quizzed her harder. She actually had a pretty good understanding of how the thing worked now.
They heard the Chief's voice clearly over the din of the engineering workshop, calling for everyone to gather. “Well done, all!” her voice boomed. “This has been a marathon, but we’ve made it!”
As Chief Greta congratulated Birk and his team for finally solving the final problem that the Pegasus Project had been struggling with, Rashi put together a quick message and fired it off to Nick and Sae. Guys! Resonance=solved. Trip is a GO for Friday! We are all on the flight!
Nick was the first to reply. They are announcing it here now too. Didn’t know we are on the roster… how do you know?
Sae’s response came a few seconds later. Announcement here as well. Have… access to the flight roster. Can confirm, we are all on it!
Hold on! Nick messaged. They are saying… Wow!
What is it? Rashi messaged back.
They’ve picked a destination. If the plasma drive works, they’ll test out the wormhole drive on the flight! We’re going to TOI 700!
We are going where?? Sae asked.
TOI 700. Star about a hundred light years away, with an excellent candidate for a habitable planet, TOI 700-D is almost Earth-sized, rocky, and orbiting in the habitable zone!
As the various departments continued their briefings, Nick, Rashi and Sae continued to share information as quickly as they announced it.
TOI 700 was indeed their target.. Besides confirming the viability of both plasma and wormhole drive, their mission was to gather observational data from the destination star system, and in particular the Earth-like planet. They would keep the flight as short as possible, but that would still take a while: They would fire the plasma drive to reach cruising speed at 0.3c, then jump through with the wormhole drive, go around the star in a careful loop to point back towards Sol, and jump home. If all went to plan, the round trip should take them around 90 days.
After the all-hands meeting, Chief Greta called Rashi over. "Miss Patel," she started, and gave Rashi what must have been the first smile she had seen on the woman. "I've spoken to Birk, and he told me about your suggestion to reverse the polarity on the first propellant magnet. That was simply inspired! So simple, and yet it solved all our problems. How did you come up with that?"
Rashi almost blushed. Fortunately, she had prepared a response to this question. "Well, as you know, I was curious about the drive from the beginning." The Chief nodded. "So I've been experimenting with various alternative models - in my spare time, of course!” She rushed to add. “The other day, I accidentally marked the first magnet with...."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
As Rashi explained, the Chief got more and more enthusiastic. As Rachel finished, the Chief gave her a big pat on the back and said, "That is simply great work, Miss Patel." This time Rashi did blush, and the Chief continued. “That just confirms I’ve made the right call.”
“What do you mean, Chief?” Rashi asked.
“I’ve put your name in for the crew on the maiden flight. You have proven over the past few weeks you can think on your feet and come up with novel solutions. Those are exactly the attributes we need on the crew. Out there, we have to manage with the tools and materials we bring with us.”
Rashi remembered to look surprised, and the excitement came naturally. "That is so great, Chief. Thank you, thank you thank you!", and before she caught herself, she had put her arms around the Chief and gave her a big hug of thanks.
The Chief tolerated the hug for a moment before she gently pushed Rashi away. “Now Miss Patel. Before you get too excited, I should also mention that I will join the flight myself. And I expect only the absolute best from everyone in my department!”
Rashi’s smile just grew wider. “Sure thing, Chief!”.
-
A few hours later. Rashi was sitting at her desk, idly stroking the cat who had jumped into her lap. Where did the cat come from? She didn't know, but she suspected the Chief would not be happy if she saw it. The cat only purred louder as she turned her back to the rest of the room to shield it from view.
She had just written and posted her last report as Head of Communication. Now she was Rachel Patel, drive engineer - second class. She wanted to dive into the technical schematics and fill her head with as much information as she could before departure, but she knew she needed a break. Mission training was about to begin in an hour, and after the last days and weeks, she felt stretched out and disconnected from herself. She needed a few minutes to clear out her head.
Nick, she thought. Everything was centred on him. He, and his discovery, had come into her life like a wave, washing with it absolutely everything else. Her thoughts, her emotions, her career, her home... If it wasn’t for Nick, she would still be answering the phone and trying to help old ladies turn on their TV, getting back to an empty apartment and spending her nights alone. She had actually loved that job. It made good money; she got to speak with - and help! - fascinating people all day. And it kept her life predictable, calm, and almost boring. After the last few years with her parents hounding her constantly “to find a nice boy and move back with us to Earth”, it had been a blessing to move into her own place and set her own schedule.
Rashi wondered what her father and mother were up to right now. She hadn't been particularly close to them since they moved back to Earth last year. With their retirement last year, they had pulled up what roots they had established in orbit around Saturn and moved back to their old neighbourhood outside London on Earth. Since then she had hardly spoken with them - only some frustratingly time-lagged calls that always left her with the familiar feeling that her parents considered her a failure.
Mostly she missed little Ivaan, her baby brother. It had been a surprise when her mother suddenly got pregnant again, over 10 years after Rashi was born. Her parents had expected Rashi to ignore the small boy to focus on school and friends when he was born, but Rashi had fallen for him from the beginning. Watching the little creature develop thoughts and consciousness had been one of her life’s greatest pleasures so far. She remembered days in school when she couldn’t wait to get back home to play with Ivaan, to teach him new words and show him their little world.
She had really missed Ivaan the last year alone on the Enceladus hab. Thinking about it now, Rashi was struck by sudden sadness at how the physical distance had messed with her relationship with her brother. Maybe she should have moved with her family to Earth? But then, this adventure would never have happened.
Living alone had been a relief, but it had also made her feel lonely for the first time in her life. Connecting with Nick and Sae had forced Rashi to face the fact that she needed friends and people she connected with in her life in order to be properly happy. Realising this need in herself had been scary; it meant she could expect the loneliness to come back if she ever found herself alone again. It was also confusing, as it didn’t fit her self image, where she saw herself as a strong and independent person.
Finding Nick had been a revelation; he was an exceptional person. His way of almost absentmindedly pointing out all the things about her he loved - many of which were the same things her parents had kept criticising - had even made Rashi see herself in a new light. The person she saw when she observed herself through Nick’s eyes fascinated her.
Looking at the story of how they had met and embarked on this adventure together almost made her laugh out loud. How every step seen by itself might have seemed rational and logical at the time, but when you put them together in a sequence, you got this weird tapestry of madness. Rashi, helping an alien rescue its entire species? Madness.
Rashi was just about to head off for training when that thought triggered something in the back of her brain. She couldn't quite catch it, but knew that it was important... Something they hadn't really considered as they wove the magical crazy carpet on the wave of madness. She wanted to jog her memory to catch the stray thought, but Rashi was intimately familiar with the workings of her thoughts, and instead she turned her brain to idle. She looked down at the cat in her lap and scratched it behind the ear, letting her attention lightly skim across her thoughts, teasing it out. Carefully….
There. And Rashi gasped when she caught the stray thought. How had they not spent more time wondering about... If Goose was to be believed, his very existence implied a catastrophic event able to wipe out a civilization that had spread across their solar system? Assuming the emergency-Goose-signal had not been triggered by accident... Whatever awaited them at the end of their quest could destroy planets so fast the victims couldn’t prepare or even see what was happening!
What could cause something like that to happen?
-
The mood was jubilant when Rashi walked into the bar after the first training session ended. The cat was now following close on her heels. Looks like I've adopted her, Rashi thought and bent down to stroke the cat. Or, more correctly, she has adopted me.
Everywhere, people were laughing and smiling, talking and boasting and drinking. Rashi picked up parts of conversations, and most were trying to guess what might happen on the flight. Would they explode? Would they find aliens? How about the target solar system - would the planet support life? Could they start a human colony?
This was the beginning, Rashi thought. This room. Tonight, right now. This is where humanity changes. This is the day when the doors open - who can predict what the future holds, now that they can travel anywhere in the blink of an eye? She feels like she is standing on a precipice - there was humanity before this moment, and humanity after. And it is impossible to predict where the journey will go from here. Here be dragons. Rashi shivered.
Noticing Tord waving at her, Rashi walked over to the table and leaned down to give Nick a kiss. His face was alight with excitement and she could taste the beer as he held the kiss longer than he normally would in a crowd. Someone is getting over their shyness, she thought.
"So that's where you are, Lotte!" Tord said, apparently to the cat. And seeing Rashi's questioning expression, added, "She's usually around in astrogation, but I haven't seen her all day." The cat - Lotte - jumped into Tord's lap and demanded a scratch, twisting her neck to make sure he found the right spot, as Rashi found a seat next to the boys.
"Are you on the roster, Tord?" Rashi asked. She already knew that he was, but explaining that she had memorised all the names on the list would be a kind of awkward.
"Yep. I'm backup to Noah here, ” and with a wink, he added, “If all goes to plan tonight, Noah will miss tomorrow's training with his massive hangover, so that I can take the bridge seat".
Nick’s smile faded into a frown. "Have you seen Sae?" He asked. "I tried sending her a message, but she hasn't even opened it yet."
"Not since early this morning, " Rashi replied. "But I heard they gave the computer geeks a super urgent super secret task right as the shift ended today." Casting an uncertain look at Nick, she added quietly. "I hear it's got something to do with those suits from security who were walking around yesterday".
"Yeah, that's just so weird," Tord said. "I wonder what's going on. Normally, those security guys only come out to sort out drunk fights or assist HR if they throw people off the project." Tord took a sip from his glass. “Did I tell you about everyone getting absolutely smashed over Christmas?”
Nick put his arm behind Rashi’s shoulders as they both sat back to listen. Tord had been around on the project for more than a year, and was full of stories and lessons that were both useful and entertaining to newcomers like Rashi. As Tord told his story, Rashi was thinking about how he didn’t seem at all slighted by Nick getting the coveted bridge spot ahead of him, even if he had been there for ages. He’s one of the good guys, she thought, happy that Nick had found a friend like him.