“This kind of flight plan,” Ilika explained from the command chair after everyone had completed basic pre-flight preparations, “is not possible manually. As Mati can see on her screen, all the timings are in thousandths of a second. Even so, Manessa will need to make further adjustments as we approach your home planet for freeloading, and the fourth planet for braking.”
“So we just have to . . . trust Manessa?” Mati asked with a slightly worried look.
“Trust with knowledge. Sata and Boro have simulated the entire flight.
With time, you’ll be able to do that too, Mati. Manessa’s contribution is the split-second timing, not the wisdom necessary to oversee the process. We’re all on duty during the freeloading pass, and during braking orbits. Someone will be at or near the watch station for the next eleven days.”
Rini sighed, but his eyes sparkled with a hint of pride.
“Orbital departure in four minutes,” Sata announced.
“Even though you will not be handling the controls directly,” Ilika continued, “you are still the pilot, Mati. You must approve each step before Manessa can carry it out. The first step is our orbital departure burn, then you have six days before the next step. But keep in mind that if you don’t approve any part of the plan before its scheduled time, the entire plan is canceled.”
“That would be terrible!” Boro complained.
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“Remember, Boro, this is training. I’m going to do little things to force you and Sata to modify the plan at least once.”
Boro moaned under his breath.
Sata rolled her eyes. “One minute.”
Mati grinned, turned to her console, and approved the departure burn.
“Up to three gravities of acceleration,” she said, studying a graph on her screen. “We’ll need inertia straps for a few minutes.”
Everyone secured their straps.
“Watch station update?” Ilika requested.
“Nothing on the screen. Solar wind is on channel four, nothing unusual.
“Eight seconds,” Sata said.
Remembering the space thruster burn that had saved them from falling into the sun, Boro, Sata, and Kibi gripped their chairs with white knuckles. As soon as the gentle departure burn was complete, they looked around sheepishly.
For the next few hours, everyone got comfortable with the new routine.
Sata disappeared into the galley, and Kibi sat down with Mati to start a list of videos they wanted to watch during the slow transit to Sonmatia Four. Boro went down to the lower deck, one of his strange tools with blinking lights in hand.
Rini found himself alone on the bridge, the only crew member on-duty, so he selected one of the advanced lessons about his station and got comfortable in his chair. Most of his screen, however, contained the displays and graphs he had to keep an eye on, everything from magnetic fields to wandering chunks of rock and ice.
Ilika had his nose in a knowledge pad, pondering all the things he had to teach his crew before they arrived at Satamia Star Station. He wore a slight smile, remembering his own interplanetary training at age eleven.
Kibi and Mati wandered the ship, getting ideas from everyone about videos. Boro was on his back in the engineering ring, adjusting a mysterious glowing machine, when he asked for a video about old sea-going ships, the kind they once imagined Ilika having. Sata was spicing and tasting her soup when she requested a video about the birds in the Nebador Services.
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Back at the big table in the passenger area, Ilika transferred a list of about a dozen videos from his knowledge pad to Kibi’s. She and Mati looked at each other with knowing smiles — they were all about star stations.
The following morning, Ilika explained that a “day” on a ship in space was completely artificial, and always subject to change. If the crew felt plenty of energy, the steward could add a few hours. If they were exhausted from some trying mission, hours could just as easily be removed.
Kibi smiled for a moment, then took on a more serious look. “What do I do if some people have extra energy, but others are tired and want to go to bed?”
Ilika shrugged. “Life is full of tough choices. Of course, absolute Nebador time is the same everywhere in the local universe. Sometimes we’ll have important things to do in the middle of our night.”
Kibi yawned, but had a twinkle in her eyes.
After dishes were done, the captain began a series of advanced language lessons that focused on words needed at star stations. Every crew member received a list tailored to their jobs. Approach and docking terminology went to Sata and Mati. Rini and Boro learned the names of instruments and tools only available at a star station. Kibi received a short list about restocking supplies, and a much longer list related to passengers.
With plenty of breaks for meals, videos, and just plain fun, for the next two ship-days Ilika engaged each student in conversations when they least expected it, always emphasizing the new words they were supposed to know.
Rini noticed that something was bugging Kibi. Whenever she was not distracted by a tasty meal, an interesting video, or an intense lesson, she sat gazing at the walls and ceiling with a slight frown.
With many new words at their fingertips, Ilika began to introduce them to the procedures and customs of star stations.
Rini would locate the artificial world, in its own orbit around a star. Sata would begin communicating with the station long before they could see it.
Mati would use an assigned approach path to come to a complete stop near the station, then follow color-coded flight corridors both outside and inside.
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Manessa had simulations for each of them.
Boro, as always, was the crew member who would need to speak the least, but whose services would be absolutely essential. Kibi would have little to do until they arrived at the assigned space dock. At that point, Ilika assured her, she would wish for a twin sister.
Ilika shared one last thought. “As a deep-space response ship, we have an additional burden. We are the most maneuverable and flexible ship in space, so we have the lowest priority. If there is ever an overload, conflict, or emergency, we will be the ones to wait, move out of the way, or be called in to help.”
Several crew members went off to try their simulations, and Boro entered the galley to work on the next meal. Ilika noticed Kibi staring at the main hatch for a long time.
The following day, their fifth in space since leaving the second planet, everyone gathered for meals and videos, then went their separate ways for simulations and study. Ilika carefully watched all his crew members, looking for signs of cabin fever.
Boro seemed most happy spending time alone in the engineering ring, getting more familiar with all his engines. Ilika would occasionally wander through, and hear his student engineer asking the ship question after question about the pros and cons of the different fuels, or the difference between the electrical and magnetic fields of the anti-mass drive.
Sata liked to rerun the simulations of the freeloading pass and the braking orbits. She would try to guess what Ilika might do to make the trip to Sonmatia Four more challenging. None of her fellow crew members, nor the ship itself, cared to speculate.
Mati wasn’t too concerned about the trip to Sonmatia Four, but her eyes sparkled every time she simulated the approach and docking at Satamia Star Station. She knew from the videos that student pilots could request automatic guidance through the color-coded maze, and if their piloting looked even a little dangerous, the station controller would require it. She intended to go from the outer system marker to space dock without giving them any reason to remember she was a student.
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Rini discovered a new passion when he was on-duty at his station and not studying. While Sata’s star charts were technical and not very pretty, Manessa also had countless pictures of planets, star clusters, nebulas, galaxies, and even stranger things Rini didn’t yet understand. He would gaze at each one for a minute or more, and imagine himself flying among them like a creature of light who had no need of wings or a space suit.
Kibi dutifully studied her word lists and watched the videos that showed how busy a steward could be when passengers departed, supplies needed restocking, and new passengers came on board, sometimes all in just a few hours. She genuinely looked forward to those tasks, but right now she couldn’t help but glance at the walls and ceiling every few minutes.
At one point late in the day, when Ilika was on the bridge talking to Mati, Kibi slipped away from her station, down the lift, and into the utility room.
“Manessa, it seems to me the walls of the ship are getting closer, and the ceiling lower. I don’t really understand all the stuff about dimensional shifting that lets the inside of the ship be a different size and shape from the outside, but is there any possibility the ship’s getting smaller on the inside?”
“No, Kibi, the inside of the ship is always the exact same size and shape.”
Deep Learning Notes
Working with a non-sapient ship like the Manessa Kwi is similar to working with a simple animal or machine. I can “trust” a wasp to be a wasp, to sting me if I bother its nest, to watch me if I’m between 1 and 6 feet away, and to ignore me otherwise. (Don’t forget that each kind of wasp is different.) I cannot “trust” a wasp to do what I think it should do, or what I sweetly ask it to do. Working near wasps requires ME to be the one who understands them and adjusts my behavior. In a similar way, some of my computer applications have “bugs,” and I have to “work around” them. Those computer bugs won’t
“heal” themselves with time, nor go away if I pound on the keyboard. One of the tasks of all sapient (understanding, self-reflective, soul-growing, wisdom-capable) creatures is to be the ones who truly understand and take into account the limitations of every object, machine, and simple creature
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they encounter.
Our minds and bodies are very used to a daily cycle of sleep and activities.
This is especially true for us because we are one of many creatures who cannot defend themselves very well at night, so we like to find a safe “cave,” or climb a tree, and wait for morning light. Large grazing animals like cattle can’t use caves or trees, so they rarely sleep, and can defend themselves almost as well at night as during the day.
Scientists have used caves to see if we naturally stick with a 24-hour day when we have no way of knowing if it is day or night. The people in the experiment shifted to a 25-hour day. This implies that a day may have been longer in the past.
What would happen if Kibi abused the power she had, as steward, to set the length of their ship-day?
The same priority rules apply in aviation on Earth. The most flexible aircraft, helicopters, have lowest priority because they can most easily move out of the way, wait, or land just about anywhere. Blimps and balloons have first priority because they are the least flexible.
Why do you think Kibi experienced “cabin fever” but Sata did not?