Jupiter and its moon Callisto.
CHAPTER 3 – DEPARTURE
20:13 (Universal Time)
Monday, April 19, 2320
Official residence of Governor Janet Robeson
Callisto Prime, Callisto
Jovian System
‘’Your Veal Marsala was truly delicious, Gerald. You should make it more often.’’
‘’Thank you, Janet. However, finding bottles of genuine Marsala red wine is not evident, so far from Earth.’’ replied Janet Robeson’s husband, making his wife, the governor of the Jovian System and current chairman of the Spacers League Council, smile and pat gently his left shoulder.
‘’I am sure that you will be able to find a few more bottles somewhere, dear.’’
Janet was about to speak more but was interrupted by the beeping of her wrist videophone. Looking at the miniature viewing screen of her videophone, Janet frowned on seeing the source of the call.
‘’Damn! The Government’s Central Operations Center is calling. I hope that this is not about some sudden disaster.’’
Taking a few steps away from her husband in order to cut some of the noise of his cleaning work in their kitchen, Janet then opened the video link and saw the face of an operations dispatcher appear on the mini screen.
‘’Yes, miss?’’
‘’I am sorry to disturb you in your home at this hour, Madam Governor, but Fleet Captain Forster, aboard the KOSTROMA, says that she has an urgent and important message for you. Do you want me to patch her with you, Madam Governor?’’
‘’Please do, miss!’’
Janet smiled on seeing Tina Forster’s face appear next on the screen: she genuinely liked and admired the young and adventurous cargo ship captain.
‘’Captain Forster, it is always a pleasure to speak with you. I am told that you have an urgent and important message for me.’’
‘’That’s right, Madam Governor. I am now announcing to you that my KOSTROMA is about to leave on a long trip of still indeterminate duration…outside the Solar System. Thanks to a recent invention by a Koorivar scientist, my ship is now capable of interstellar travel and I am leaving on a search and rescue mission, in order to find and save the two Koorivar refugee ships which left Shouria with the VEON SHOURIA just before their home world’s destruction.’’
‘’WHAT?’’ shouted the governor in disbelief, making her husband snap his head towards her. ‘’This isn’t some kind of bad joke, isn’t it?’’
‘’I was never more serious, Madam Governor. My first destination will be Gliese 667C, Shouria’s solar system, 22 light years away, where we will first search for any possible Koorivar survivors of the catastrophe. From there, we will then retrace the planned flight paths of the SHUNDAR and SHANIZAR and try to find them before they suffer the kinds of systems degradations that crippled the VEON SHOURIA and forced it to land on Eris.’’
‘’But…what if your ship gets lost among the stars, or suffers a catastrophic breakdown? Nobody will then be able to rescue you and your ship.’’
‘’Me and my whole crew have already accepted those risks, but we are firmly intent on finding and rescuing those two Koorivar ships, Madam Governor. If this could reassure you, I am now going to download a sealed data file in your name, which I will send to your government’s operations center. That data file will contain the technical details concerning the Koomak Interstellar Drive, plus our planned itinerary outside of the Solar System. For your information, my ship was refitted for interstellar travel at the Avalon Space Yards, in Earth orbit. Gustav Shomberg, the owner and chief designer of the Avalon Space Yards, holds the detailed schematics of the Koomak Drive and has agreed with me to provide you all possible assistance to you and your officials if you decide to equip more ships for interstellar travel. Consider this as a gift from the Koorivars to thank us for saving them on Eris and for attempting to rescue their two other ships. However, I must plead with you to only use this new ship drive for peaceful purposes. Humanity’s history has seen already too many ‘exploration’ voyages turning into missions of conquest. I myself will document the various worlds I will pass by, but I have no intention to claim those worlds for myself or for Humanity and will do my best to avoid hostilities, unless directly attacked without cause.’’
Janet Robeson was silent for a couple of seconds, as her mind digested all that incredible information. She finally found back her voice and spoke up in an urgent tone.
‘’Wait! Don’t go yet! Would you let aboard your ship a representative and observer sent by me to officially record your trip?’’
It was the turn of Tina Forster to hesitate a short moment.
‘’Hum, one government observer will be fine with me, Madam Governor, but understand that I will not take orders from that observer, even if he is sent by you. This will be a purely private enterprise directed by me and by the leadership of the Koorivar colony on Earth. You may send one person who you have complete confidence in, but do it quickly: I will not stay more than a few hours in Callisto orbit before leaving.’’
‘’I will send you that observer within three hours, I promise.’’
‘’Thank you for your comprehension, Madam Governor. We will be waiting for your representative. KOSTROMA out!’’
Janet looked for a moment at her now dark videophone screen, then looked and smiled at her husband, who had frozen behind the kitchen counter while listening to her half of the conversation.
‘’Gerald, my dear, how would you like to go on a nice trip in space aboard the KOSTROMA?’’
22:50 (Universal Time)
Craft Hangar # 2, Hangar Deck (Level 7)
A.M.S. KOSTROMA, low Callisto orbit
Gerald Holmes-Robeson, dragging his two wheeled suitcases by their telescopic handles, stopped once at the foot of the exit ramp of the government shuttle which had just carried him to the KOSTROMA and smiled to the two women waiting to greet him.
‘’Well, I hope that this is not some elaborate scheme by my wife to get rid of me.’’
His remark made both Tina Forster and Natalia Vasilyeva giggle briefly before Tina replied to him.
‘’Well, she is a politician, after all. Welcome aboard the KOSTROMA, Mister Holmes. I am Tina Forster, Captain of this ship, and this is Natalia Vasilyeva, our ship’s head hostess. She will be escorting you to your assigned apartment on the outer ring of the ship’s bow section. There, you will be able to see that our crew and passengers accommodations are quite above the usual norms for a cargo ship, or even a cruise ship.’’
‘’I did hear many nice things about your ship in the past, Captain. I however have two questions for you before I follow Miss Vasilyeva. First, what will be our first destination outside the Solar System?’’
Tina’s expression sobered up noticeably at that question.
‘’The subject of our itinerary for our search and rescue mission was debated quite a lot before me, my ship staff and the Koorivars agreed on a plan. In this, the Koorivars’ words had primacy: after all, we are talking about their old world and their ships. First, we will go to Gliese 667C, the original home world of the Koorivars until the planet Shouria was destroyed some 361 years ago by a wandering brown dwarf. While there are about zero chances of finding any survivors in that system so long after its destruction, we still cannot avoid checking it out. It will also be a chance for the Koorivars traveling with us to say goodbye to their old home world. Once that is done, we will start our search for the two Koorivar ships. Next question!’’
‘’Well, while I was sent here as an official government observer, I would hate to be doing nothing during our trip but lounge around and try your various restaurants. I would like to make myself useful in some way while on your ship, Captain Forster.’’
‘’A commendable attitude indeed, Mister Holmes. Do you have any technical, scientific or professional qualifications that we could use on the KOSTROMA?’’
‘’Without bragging, I would call myself a qualified chef, Captain. Before marrying, I was the executive chef at one of the top restaurants on Callisto Prime. Even now, I am still a culinary critique and write on occasions articles for the Jovian Travel Net.’’
His last sentence made Natalia Vasilyeva’s eyes open wide with interest.
‘’Really? We have tried a number of times in the past to get known culinary experts to visit our ship and rate our restaurants and dining rooms. However, we got many promises, but not a single visit. We also grow our own foodstuff and even have a brewery, a distillery and a winery. You could use your spare time aboard to visit our installations and our restaurants and rate our facilities, then publish an article about the KOSTROMA on the Jovian Travel Net.’’
Both Gerard and Tina grinned at once on hearing that.
‘’Hell, that sounds like a great idea! We have a deal, Miss Vasilyeva. However, don’t expect me to be partial in my judgment: you will get the star rating that you truly deserve, no more, no less.’’
‘’That is plenty good with me, Mister Holmes.’’ said Tina while smiling to Gerald. ‘’Well, with this said, I believe that Natalia can now guide you to your apartment. She has a scooter nearby for you and your luggage. I will however ask you to be on the bridge in one hour for our departure from the Solar System: we were only waiting for your arrival before leaving.’’
‘’Uh, how long will be our trip to Gliese 667C?’’
‘’Nearly instantaneous, if we can go by the clocks inside our prototype test ship.’’
‘’Then, I promise to make it quick, Captain Forster.’’ said Gerald before following Natalia to her scooter, his suitcases still in tow.
Some 51 minutes later, still guided by Natalia, Gerald Holmes was stepping inside the bridge complex. The bridge was actually a succession of three concentric, elevated platforms contained at the center of a hollow sphere whose internal surface was entirely covered with a holographic 3D display screen. Such a bridge arrangement was actually common among existing Human spaceships, as it provided to their command crews an instant, all-around picture of the space surrounding their ship, with sensors data being superimposed at the appropriate points on the holographic image. Still, the super-high definition view given by the holographic sphere impressed Gerald, who could nearly think that he was standing on an open platform floating in space. Tina, sitting in her command chair on the highest platform, then called for him.
‘’Please come up here, Mister Holmes: there are two V.I.P. chairs flanking my command chair on this level.’’
‘’Coming!’’ replied Gerald before nearly running up the stairs to the top platform. Tina smiled to him as he sat in the V.I.P. padded chair situated slightly behind and to the right of her chair.
‘’You seem to be still in good physical shape, Mister Holmes: you are barely breathing faster than normal after running up those stairs.’’
‘’I actually play a mean game of squash, Captain.’’
‘’Please, you can simply call me ‘Tina’ instead of ‘Captain’.’’
‘’Only if you call me ‘Gerald’ rather than ‘Mister Holmes’.’’
‘’Deal! We are now going to start our jump procedures.’’
‘’Uh, you said that you tested a prototype ship over interstellar distances. How often have you tested this ship?’’
Tina gave him a disarming smile before answering.
‘’Never! Anything could thus happen on this jump.’’
Gerald swallowed hard as Tina turned her head to speak to Dana Durning, who sat in her navigator’s chair in front and one level below Tina’s chair.
‘’Start the jump procedures to Gliese 667C, Dana. I want a reemergence point just outside the system proper: with the damage caused by that wandering dwarf, the system is liable to be a chaotic place full of debris flying in all directions.’’
‘’Understood! We will reemerge some fifteen Astronomical Units2away from Gliese 667C. This should be enough to give us time to react to any debris or asteroids field inside the system.’’
‘’Good! Mister Duharto, put all our sensors and emitters on strict passive mode. I want our ship to be electronically silent when we will reemerge. At the same time, be ready to scan immediately for any possible distress signal, be it electronic or visual.’’
‘’The ship is now on electronic silence mode, Captain.’’ replied the ethnic Indonesian man after punching a few buttons on his sensors station. Next, Tina looked at both Frida Skarsgard and Shanandar, who were respectively sitting at the pilot and copilot stations.
‘’Once reemerged, we will proceed on gravity sail propulsion alone. As long as we won’t know what is waiting for us in the Gliese 667C system, we will not advertise visually our presence by lighting up our fusion or anti-matter engines.’’
‘’Controls switched to gravity sails propulsion. We are ready to jump on your command, Captain.’’
‘’Then, initiate final countdown.’’
‘’Initiating final jump countdown!’’ said Frida,r switching her microphone to ship-wide mode. ‘’Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…Jumping now!’’
Gerald, who was nervously watching all this, saw an orange flash which temporarily blinded him, while a strange, indescribable feeling surged through his whole body for a fraction of a second. When he regained his normal vision after a couple of seconds, it was to find himself still sitting in his padded chair and with the bridge unchanged. However, there was one big change that was impossible not to notice: the giant planet Jupiter and its moon Callisto were now nowhere in sight. Scanning anxiously the surface of the holographic display sphere, he couldn’t see either the small bright dot that was the Sun as visible from the Jovian System. What he saw instead were three luminous dots in space: two of them of yellow-orange color and a third one, apparently the nearest of the three, of reddish color. Dana Durning then spoke from her station.
‘’Position confirmed as being at sixteen AU from the visible red dwarf star. The red star’s spectral signature corresponds to Gliese 667C down to seven figures, with Gliese 667A and 667B also identified.’’
‘’Home…’’ said softly Shanandar, tears rolling down on his cheeks.