Chapter 18
Watanabe met me outside the conference room. She was not happy.
“I look bad when you show up late to meetings,” Watanabe said. “Do you require me to increase my level of influence?”
“Um, maybe,” I said. “Till I get use to things.”
Watanabe nodded. “Very well,” she said. “Go on. You’re late.”
I entered the conference room, with Watanabe following. Everyone stood. It was more than my Command Staff. Department heads were also present. All the chairs were taken but mine, and there were folks that were standing. I had seen a few them in passing, but still had yet to learn everyone’s names. The ones that were standing went to attention.
“Whoa,” I said. “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s custom and we will honor this,” Loxy said.
“She’s right,” Tesla said.
“Very well, at ease,” I said. I went to the head of the table. “Anything special on the agenda.”
“The Brains are ready for us to launch,” Loxy said.
“Are we ready?” I asked.
“I have a green light from all the department heads,” Loxy said. “I believe all concerns have been shared and are just general, reasonable concerns that come with the unknowns presently confronting us.”
“Let me guess. Who are we, why are we here, where are we going, what’s happened to our families,” I said. “In any other arena, they would be profound esoteric question, but I get the sense it’s more practical here. Jung?”
Jung reflected moment, took a hit on electronic cig. “As ready as we will be. We all seem to know what we need to know, but my department’s survey show some consistent knowledge threads. We are in statistical agreement that we can’t go back. At least, not the way we came. I’ve always recommended diving in. I say it’s time we proceed forwards.”
Everyone present seemed in agreement.
“Do you think we should change the name of our ship?” I asked.
That got a surprise look.
“No, really. Enterprise means something special, and I love the name, but, because it means something, and we aren’t that…”
“We aren’t not that,” Loxy said.
“True enough,” I said.
“What name were you thinking?” Uhura asked.
“I don’t know. Xanadu?” I asked.
“We named the bar Xanadu,” Tyson said. I nearly stood up. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was here. Yay! Everyone looked at him. “We couldn’t keep calling it Ten Forwards. It’s not on deck ten.”
Oh, we are so going to get along!
“What about Eriene?” I asked.
Isis chuckled. “You want to name her after the Greek goddess of peace?” she asked. “Why don’t we just go with Aquarius Rising?”
“Oh, I like that, too,” I said.
“How about Venture,” Sacagawea offered. “It’s kind of like Enterprise, and we’re all venturers. Is that a word?”
“I like that, too,” I said.
“I vote we just keep the name Enterprise,” Uhura said.
“I second it,” Chan said.
“Aye,” came from everyone in attendance.
I nodded. “We have a huge name to live up to, then.”
“It’s good to have a benchmark,” Loxy said.
“Very well,” I said. “Should we wait for a special time frame to launch, like, 13:13?”
“Do you remember how the Apollo 13 mission turned out?” Tyson asked.
“Point taken,” I said, then reconsidered. “Wait a minute. They survived. And for a whole moment, everyone in the world was tuned in, and praying, and, again, they survived. Not a bad thing to emulate.”
Tyson offered hands of surrendered to communicate I had a fair point.
“But, you’re right. We should just go. Stations, everyone. We launch in twenty minutes.”
“Why not right now?” Loxy said.
“Because, I need to use the restroom, wash my hands, and, I don’t know, I am kind of feeling hungry. Anyone want to go in on pizza? No, alright. Well, twenty minutes. Dismissed.”
Being on the Bridge for the first launch was a big deal, and so there were a few more people than warranted, and many of them were holding their Iphones, recording. I was announced, “Captain on the Bridge,” and Loxy stood from the command chair. Uhura was at her station. Isis was on the rail just behind the helm. Sacagawea was at the helm. Captain Ryuu Furata was beside Sac, in charge of tactical. Chan has a station next to Uhura. Loxy stood to my right, and had a work station that blended into the railing that went around the center of the bridge, containing helm, tactical, engineering, and ops stations. Tesla was with us on the Bridge, due to its first launch, trusting he didn’t have to be in Engineer directly, but I could see he really wanted to be down there. I bet he also wanted to be near the star drive when it was engaged. Tyson and Mainzer were on the Bridge. House had a station on my left that mirrored Loxy’s station, molded seamlessly with the rail on the left. Jung was present. Midori was physically present.
I drew closer to Loxy and whispered, “I don’t have a speech.”
“Good, you talk too much anyway,” Loxy said.
“Forward view on screen,” I said. And the view changed. “Helm, take us out of orbit, quarter impulse.”
The ship was moving that quickly. You could feel the difference in the deck plate. But once the planet and the space station was gone, there was little indication of movement.
“Plot a course out of this system, and give us a flyby if it’s convenient,” I said. “Show course on secondary screen,” I said.
Sacagawea announced the course was plotted, bringing us next to a gas giant, over its rings, and past several moons harboring life under domes, and a line showed where the Enterprise would leave the heliosphere.
“Take us there, helm. Maximum impulse,” I said.
The change in the vibration through the floor was palpable.
“Should we be feeling that?” House asked.
“It’s normal,” Tesla assured us. “Tactile feedback is built into all the systems, including deck plating, walls, chairs, rails. Humans operate better when they are given direct feedback.”
“Sacagawea, go ahead and plot a course to our target star and show the course on secondary viewer,” I said.
Furata pointed out the planet was now visible. It was hardly a star, but it was growing quickly. We’d be going by it so fast, it would hardly register as a visit. But the course Sacagawea plotted would take us a hair closer than people expected, which irritated House, as he thought for sure we going to punch through the upper cloud layer.
“Nice,” Loxy said.
“Let me know if you ever want me to thread a needle,” Sacagawea said. “Captain, the course is laid in, we’re ready for warp.”
I really wanted something all unique and mine, but I really didn’t have anything. Or maybe I couldn’t think of anything because I was happy. How many people are happy these days? Even in the latest Trek movie, everyone is unhappy and disgruntled and wanting to quit. How can you quit? It’s like, quitting the human race. You can’t quit, you just keep going on, until you can’t. And that one thing irritated me more about the reboot of Trek than any other feature. Roddenberry had been clear, the future is a utopia. The future was a utopia? It will be again? Loxy took my hand. I met her eyes. She, too, seemed happy.
“Captain, we’re approaching the heliosphere,” Sacagawea said. What she really was asking, ‘can I hit it?’
“Kill the impulse engines, take us to warp one,” I said.
“Powering down impulse engines. Engaging warp drive,” Sacagawea announced. “Warp field established, .1, .5, warp one and holding.”
The sensation in the floor was a totally different sensation. The forward views was anticlimactic. Unlike the Trek movies, and unlike Star Wars, going to warp was fairly unexciting. All the stars that had been on the viewer grew together to form one, blurry blob of bluish light. The only exciting thing to happen was that a particle of dust hit the warp bubble or the deflector screen flashed, and it was followed by a terrific display of lights. Tesla was going over his screens and confirming his readouts with engineering.
“All systems green. All decks reporting in, green,” Tesla announced.
“I was expecting something more dynamic,” Sacagawea said.
“Everything blue shifted?” I asked.
“Doppler effect,” Mainzer said.
“And at this speed, star light would be shifted to the x-ray frequency,” Tyson said. “This view is consistent with the math”
“Give me fiction,” Sacagawea said.
“Sacagawea, take us to warp six, please,” I said.
“Warp six, aye,” Sacagawea said.
The blob of light condensed on the viewer and the frequency under our feet changed. And from here, well, this is the boring part where I started to zone out. We were going to maintain this speed for two weeks. Two weeks, encapsulated in a warp bubble. Not that we would be bored. There was lots to do. But I specifically had nothing to do. “Loxy, you have the Bridge. I will be in my ready room. I started to walk away, but paused.
“Captain?” Loxy asked.
“Thank you, everyone,” I said. “Good job.”