Chapter 10
Carter
Carter Jess tethered his propulsion platform near a large opening in the Alcubierre/Fulton drive ring. He loosened the cowling fasteners to expose the primary transformer windings of the number four negative generator. The starship’s main systems panel, in the engineering section, had indicated a no-go response during a startup sequence when they had tried to bring number four online.
“Man, I hope this isn’t a dead short in the winding coils,” he said into the com system built into his helmet.
He heard the occasional hiss as the regulator in his helmet compensated for the increase and decrease in air pressure as he breathed in and out.
“Well, if it is, that will mean another six months delay before GE can build another. You know these are specially ordered, not something you can pick off the shelf,” said Dan Barr, the starship’s electrician.
Laughing, Carter replied, “You're a man of many talents, Dan. I bet you could whip one up with no problem.”
“Uh, huh,” came the sarcastic reply.
Carter pried open the hinged cowling and shined his helmet light inside. He followed the massive coils of superconducting wire and the central junction box to the left. “Hold on a minute, and I’ll give you a video feed Dan,” Carter said into his helmet. " Are you getting this?” he asked.
“Yeah, pan to your right a bit.”
Carter moved his head to the right and adjusted his light to illuminate the interior of the cramped space. Back in the engineering bay, Dan began to match the cabling on a schematic display with those on Carter’s video feed.
“Those cables all check out,” he said. "Now, if you can, Carter, pop the cover of that largest junction box to the left.”
Carter took a screwdriver from the tool chest on his platform and undid the fasteners on the junction box. He lifted the lid to the side leaving it to float by a safety chain welded to the case then directed his helmet camera and light into the interior again.
“There it is!” said Dan with relief. “They forgot to connect the ground cable to the frame.”
“I see it,” said Carter and selected the correct tool to attach the ground lead.
When Carter finished, Dan asked him to stand by while he tested the conductivity to the coil again.
“Ready to test when you're clear,” said Dan.
“CLEAR,” called Carter as he stood back from the cowling and put his hands up in front of the helmet camera so Dan could see that he was in a safe position.
“Okay, I have a green light for number four now. You can button it up, and I’ll meet you back inside.”
“Roger that!” said Carter and began replacing the covers.
Carter looked around at the massive starship as he maneuvered the propulsion platform back into the maintenance bay of the central core. He felt a sense of pride knowing that he was going to be a part of history. Someday his kids were going to read about the great Cosmos Project and humanity’s first step into the galaxy. He wondered if it was the right time to bring up the issue of starting a family with Lydia. It might not be the opportune moment this early in the project. Perhaps he could talk her into becoming the first woman to give birth outside the solar system.
That would be an excellent title for his firstborn, First Person Born Aboard the Cosmos!
“That certainly would put the kid in the history books,” he thought to himself.
Besides, the ship’s sickbay could handle anything, including pregnancy. In fact, unlike earlier space missions, the crew of the starship was being populated with married couples and eligible singles. It even had school and daycare facilities in one of the habitat rings. The first trip out wouldn’t include any children, but the ship's staffing planned for science-oriented families to make up the crew.
Knowing that Lydia would have to carry the most significant burden of pregnancy, Carter had been reluctant to bring the prospect of children up with his wife. He was hoping she would broach the subject soon though. He looked forward to being a father.
He brought the platform skillfully to a stop beside a line of other platforms and activated the magnetic pads beneath it. The platform snapped securely to the bay floor.
From a panel on his sleeve, he selected the airlock as a destination, and the thrusters on his suit did the rest.
Back in the central core, Carter put on his lowgrav vest and headed to the engineering command center.
The command center was a smaller ring that nestled inside the stationary A/F drive ring. It rotated at a higher RPM to produce one Earth gravity, unlike the slower habitat rings.
Carter waited until the lift doors hissed open, then made his way to the chief engineer's chair. The station was a copy of the Captain’s command chair on the bridge. The chief engineer could operate the entire ship from this post in the event the bridge became disabled.
Seating himself, he looked over to Jimmy Burgess at the Fusion Generator console.
“Okay, Jimmy, ready to try it again?”
“You bet Boss,” said Jimmy.
Jimmy Burgess was a wunderkind. Although he had a Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT, there wasn’t anything that Carter asked of him that he couldn’t do. To look at him, you would think he was a shade tree mechanic. His hands had the permanent stain of grease or grime beat into them by his propensity to delve right into the dirtiest jobs that others would have assigned to a maintenance robot. There wasn’t a part of the A/F drive that didn’t have his fingerprints on it somewhere. He knew this ship. He knew it like a lover. There wasn’t a crease or crevice he hadn’t explored. Once a coworker asked if he knew what the ship’s asshole looked like and he’d replied, “I do, she has three freckles there!”
Carter looked across Jimmy to Dan, seated at the power center. Dan Newman was a short, barrel-chested man, whose hairy muscular forearms had a permanent tan due to the habit of rolling the sleeves of his blue electricians uniform to just below the elbow. He wore his signature bifocals, with the massive plastic frames. These, fitted with green-tinted pieces of plastic fastened to the sides, functioned as safety glasses too.
Carter activated his holographic monitor and said, “Whenever you’re ready Dan!”
Pulling up a checklist on his monitor, Dan waited until Carter and Jimmy had the same list appear on theirs.
“Warp drives locked out,” said Dan as he began reading his list.
Locking out the drives was a critical step because they did not want to create a warp bubble inside the spacedock by diverting negative energy to the Alcubierre/Fulton drives.
“Warp drives locked out,” replied Jimmy. Carter confirmed as well.
“Number one fusion generator at fifty percent,” said Dan.
Jimmy and Carter confirmed.
They repeated this until all six fusion generators were running at fifty percent of their power output.
“Number one Neg-Gen coming online,” said Dan.
Jimmy and Carter confirmed green lights as the Negative Energy Generator came to life.
“Number two Neg-Gen coming up,” said Dan.
Jimmy and Carter confirmed all four Negative energy Generators where powered up.
“Bridge console locked out,” said Dan.
Jimmy and Carter confirmed this too.
They didn’t want someone with an access code for the Captain’s chair to interfere with the test inadvertently.
“Okay,” said Dan. “Chief engineering console is going active now,” and he pointed to Carter.
The panels in the Chief’s chair lit up and prompted for a security code. The holographic monitor changed to the primary engine display as Carter typed in his security code and switched menus. “Okay, guys let’s open them up a little,” said Carter.
There were three components to the starship’s warp drives. First were the six fusion generators that produced electricity in the petawatt range by fusing hydrogen atoms into heavier elements. The second was the four Negative Energy Generators that converted this electrical power into negative energy. They did this by using a series of parallel plates made of an exotic matter developed by the GE materials engineers. Then there were the three warp drives themselves. These used the negative energy to configure and direct a negative density field that was lower than that of the space around the starship. The result was a controllable warp bubble that surrounded the ship. The bubble isolated Cosmos from two-dimensional space. By directing the intensity of the negative density field, the starship would fly through the void of space at superluminal speed.
Carter selected the synchronization menu and eased up on the fusion generators. He set them to sixty-five percent power.
Dan switched to steam gauge mode on his monitor. He liked the old school readouts.
Jimmy monitored the temperature readings as they stabilized well into the green range marked on his digital display.
“Okay guys,” he said, “I’m going to increase power by ten percent on each negative energy generator. Jimmy, tell me when they stabilize at each power setting. Dan, watch for anything out of the ordinary. I’ll go up ten percent each interval then wait until they are stable before we continue.
Let's try to get to at least ninety percent of the required power for light speed, more if everything looks good.”
Carter advanced the power on the fusion generators to one hundred percent, then when they stabilized, started feeding the electrical power to the Neg-Gens.
During the next four hours, Carter exercised the series of parallel plates in each Negative Generator. The test confirmed that the Casimir effect that produced the negative energy was functioning correctly.
For the next four days, they would continue their testing until they were able to bring the generators up to 999% of light speed and maintain that superluminal potential for a 12-hour run. Then they would shut down the generators and remove the inspection panels to verify the integrity of the systems.
Lydia called a halt to the workday about 16:45 and gathered her people together to go over their progress. She made notes of a few issues that couldn’t be fixed by her staff and would need help from maintenance, then with smiles and encouragement to her co-workers dismissed the meeting and excused herself.
She noticed a few new faces wandering about the corridors. “They must have arrived from Houston today,” she thought.
Lydia ran into a few people she recognized from the training classes and confirmed that they had indeed just arrived today. The Cosmos would soon have its entire crew aboard.
The first thing she noticed when she walked in was the lack of clutter she and Carter had left this morning. The maidbot had tidied the kitchen and made the bed. There were fresh towels draped on the rack within reach of the shower.
“Kitchen,” she said.
“Tweetle.”
“Four ounces of red wine the way I like it,” she said.
“Tweetle deetle.”
The Molecular Assembler hummed, and a small audible chime sounded when her wine appeared. She took the glass into the bedroom and stripped out of her dirty uniform. Dumping the used garment into a recycling slot, she headed into the shower.
“Honey, I’m home!” she heard Carter call from the kitchen.
“I’m in here,” she called stepping into the spacious shower.
A menu appeared on the wall, and she selected Spring Shower from a list. Warm droplets began falling from the ceiling, and she heard distant thunder over the soothing sound of Pan Flutes.
“Wow,” she thought to herself, “this is too cool.”
“Hey sweetie,” Carter said walking into the spacious bathroom with a glass of wine in his hand. He leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek.
“Oh, you’re filthy,” said Lydia. “Get out of those dirty clothes and get in here with me.”
Carter grinned wolfishly and said, “I’ll be right back!” He stripped down in the bedroom and stuffed his dirty uniform into the recycler. When he stepped into the shower, a flash of blue light lit up the area, and the sound of thunder followed soon after. Warm drops of water simulating a light rain shower hit his shoulders.
Moving into his arms, Lydia leaned back to smile up at him. Taking a scented bar of soap in her hand she lathered the hair on his broad chest. She loved the way her husband kept himself in shape. His broad shoulders and well-defined pectorals segued into the thinner growth of hair on his upper abdominals. Deep curves outlined his muscular hips, rippling abs disappeared into the crease of his inner thighs.
“How was your day?” she asked grabbing a loofah sponge from the ledge.
“It was very productive. We had a few issues at first, but by tomorrow you’ll be able to feel the heartbeat of Cosmos,” he said.
He was referring to the hum of the Neg-Gens at warp power.
Lydia began to make gentle circular motions over his chest with the loofah.
A flash of lightning and the sound of thunder created the illusion of the storm getting closer. A puff of cold air reinforced the effect.
“How much did your crew get accomplished?” he asked.
“Oh, we have so much to do, I think we just scratched the surface.”
She dropped the sponge, and her hands lathered through his pubic hair. He gasped when she cupped him in one hand and began to gently stroke him with the other. Lydia coordinated her hand motions like he had shown her when they were new lovers in college and still discovering what each enjoyed sexually. Carter was groaning with pleasure when she stopped and handed him the soap and sponge.
He stared at her, disappointed.
Lydia turned her back to him and gathered her red hair to the side with one hand smiled back at him and said, “My turn.”
Carter lathered her shoulders and used the loofah to make soapy circles along her back and shoulders. He reached around and handed her the soap.
With the scrubber, he began to rub her back and buttocks then dropped it to use his slippery hands. He hugged her back to his chest and moved his soapy hands over her breast and tight tummy. She gasped every time his rough hand passed over her hard nipples. She didn’t resist when he coaxed her thighs apart and slid his hand down the cleft of her buttocks. His slippery fingers found the delicate areas through her parted legs, and a shiver passed up her spine as he made circles with a finger around the erect tissue he discovered there.
The thunder and lightning increased, and the gentle shower became heavier and heavier. Carter and Lydia held each other as a raging storm deluged their bodies with heavy droplets that rinsed away all the remaining suds. As quick as it began, the shower slowed and was replaced with a soft, gentle mist as if the storm had passed.
Lydia turned and looked over her shoulder at him. She held up the bar of soap and said, “Oh, dear, I dropped the soap.”
Opening her hand, she let the bar fall to the shower floor.
She smiled wickedly then turned, bent over, and presented her cute little bottom to him.
He smiled at his beguiling wife then placing his hands on her hips pulled her onto him.
Thanks for reading Chapter Ten
in my first attempt at
Science Fiction
Read Chapter One here