Chapter Seventy-Two

“Team, what exactly is the problem?” the commander asked.

“Deuterium, sir. There is not enough to get everything to HH190. We have six arks under construction now, not one. Four humans, one oceanic, and one terrarium-based. Oh, and the flagship, by the way. It’s ridiculous; there are too many.”

“Also, the deuterium consumption requirements are far different from simple propulsion, since we are instead powering quantum plasma electromagnets. And we have that problem, times seven,” the engineer said, examining the meters that showed they were low on supplies and had somehow managed to under prepare for the travel, hence creating another problem.

“So, we are coming up short on fuel, is really what you are saying?”

“Incredibly short. And to compound the issue, we are noticing fluctuations in the Spectrum web as it morphs along with the ebb and flow of their respective paths. As the galaxies in motion twist, contract, and expand—this directly influences the plasma web and the length of the corridors,” an engineer explained.

Another joined in. “It is not as though a superhighway has been laid out from point A to B. The corridors will be varied based on the state of the interconnecting web segments.”

The man furrowed his brows as he moved away from the computer and back to the deuterium readings. He pressed his thumb and index finger against his forehead, suppressing the urge to curse.

“It seems asinine that we are even allowing a strange teenage girl to dictate the number of vessels that we will require for the journey to save humanity, anyway,” an engineer said from the standing console.

A colleague stood up. “Don’t you ever speak ill of Viktoriya Kuzland in my presence, ever,” he spat back, pointing his finger into his peer’s face.

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“What results from this behavior?” the commander asked, pulling the discussion back to his concerns.

“We need the nuclear drives to serve both purposes: short-term legacy nuclear propulsion over shorter distances and nuclear-powered quantum electromagnetic drives for the extreme distance portions of the journey along the quantum web.”

“So, not only are we short on fuel, but we require two types of engines on each ark?”

“Yes, well, actually only one nuclear drive, providing for the two different use cases.”

“We have enough deuterium to get one ark to this location, a K-Class planet with multiple confirmed sites of dense, mineable deuterium. Once there, we will harvest enough for all the arks, many trips worth. Then make the return trip to Earth, to provision the other arks with deuterium,” he said, pointing through different areas of the holo-map.

“What do the legacy portions of our journey to HH190 look like?”

The man turned to another of the team members sitting at the far end of the room, motioning for him to explain.

“Currently, Earth is fully enclosed in the Spectrum corridor, providing the proper exit from our solar system. At this time, we require no extra legacy travel to leave Earth.

“What does the Spectrum trip to HH190 look like?” he asked, pointing to the hologram after carefully studying the chart.

“Currently, eight hundred and twenty days; about two-point two-five years.”

“And the girl? What happens when the path of the quantum web no longer surrounds her. When she is outside of it?” another engineer questioned.

Everything went silent for a moment.

Several of the scientists turned to look at him, perplexed why he wanted to know such a thing.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean?” the first engineer replied, tilting his head and raising his eyebrow.

The commander turned toward the engineers, then back to the chart, studying it for a few heartbeats, then strode away to his chambers. His expression was still as blank as when he had come in. He had expected there would be setbacks to their departure, but had not expected that much. There was no way anyone could have expected anything like it.

“We must formulate a plan to make all the human arks inhabitable as soon as possible; then we must complete the rest of the work while we relocate everyone aboard as the final construction is finished. We’re running out of time and running out of options.”

“We only get one chance to make this right. We have a path ahead of us, but we cannot afford any missteps, none at all.”

“Not one.”