A new light showed in Kibi’s eyes as she worked at her console, checking everything on the ship that was her responsibility, and at the same time listening to her captain.
“There are no mathematical solutions to the positions of the planets through time. We can make rough calculations, as Sata and Boro have done, but the universe is too complex for those calculations to remain good for very long. Rini, with Manessa’s help, is about to find Sonmatia Three, compare it’s position to where we thought it would be, and propose course adjustments for Mati’s approval.”
“No problem!” Rini announced. “It’s right where it’s supposed to be.”
Kibi spotted the slight smile on Ilika’s face as he turned to look at Rini.
“Are you sure?” the captain asked. “Compare the numbers.”
Rini worked silently for a moment. “Well . . . it’s not exactly where it’s supposed to be. It’s off by . . . just forty kilometers.”
“Not very far considering the planet is sixty thousand kilometers across
. . .” Ilika began.
Mati’s eyes snapped open wide. “There’s no way I’d approve a freeloading pass at fifty kilometers altitude if we could be off by forty! We’d be smashing into mountains!”
“Everyone see Mati’s point?”
Boro nodded. “And we can’t just miss the mountains. We have to miss most of the air. We’re trying to speed up, not slow down!”
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“Exactly,
Boro.”
“Now I see why Mati has to approve each thing Manessa does,” Kibi said with a serious frown. “I didn’t get that before.”
Ilika nodded. “Now the process moves to Sata. Take the new position of the planet, and have Manessa do the math.”
“Will I be able to do this kind of fancy math someday?” she asked as she selected the right function on her console.
“Yes, but when you see how tedious it is, you’ll be very glad Manessa can do it for you.”
“Okay,” Sata began, studying the results on her screen, “our wonderful ship wants to do a tiny little thruster burn.”
Mati looked it over when it flashed onto her screen. “It’s in three minutes.
Hardly any inertia. Any reason not to?” the pilot asked as she swiveled around in a complete circle.
“Wait!” Kibi said suddenly. “There’s something I should practice.” She touched a symbol on her console. “All passengers,” she began, her voice slightly amplified, “please be seated for a minor course correction. Inertia straps are not necessary.”
The rest of the crew looked at her and smiled, then glanced at the fourteen empty seats behind her.
“Okay,” Ilika said, “Mati will approve the burn, and Boro will provide the engines.”
The engineer tapped at his large flow-control panel. “Warming up. It looks like Manessa saved enough to squeeze the adjustment into those twelve point three kilograms. Thrusters are green.”
“Burn is approved,” Mati said.
They waited in silence. Less than a minute later, they all felt a slight lurch.
“Shall we run the numbers again?” Ilika suggested.
Rini checked the planet’s position. Sata requested another calculation, then turned around with a grin. “No adjustment needed!”
Boro’s pot pie was not perfect, but with excitement high, no one complained.
Even though six hours separated the approach adjustments from the
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freeloading pass, no one could sleep. Ilika might have been tempted to try, but question after question came at him about what they would see and feel as they swished by their home planet.
With a defiant glance at Ilika, Kibi went to her console and announced she was adding six hours to that ship-day.
Ilika laughed. “We’ll be close to the equator, and might see some places we’ve been, but they’ll flash by very quickly. Kibi has command,” he said, and slipped into the galley.
About an hour later, two exciting things happened. With Rini magnifying the image, they began to see the continents and oceans of their home world.
Also, the aroma of sweet biscuits started to fill the ship.
Boro dragged himself away from his display and made tea. Kibi, still in the command chair, asked Rini and Sata to double-check the approach. Again, no adjustment was needed.
As the image of the blue planet with white clouds grew larger on their screens, they gazed in longing, remembering their journey on foot and donkeyback.
As the third hour passed, Kibi mumbled something about another approach check, then turned red with embarrassment and cancelled the request.
“It’s okay,” Ilika said, appearing behind her and massaging her shoulders.
“You can ask for as many checks as you want. Manessa has to earn your trust, just as I once did.”
Kibi took a deep breath and made the request. Rini and Sata quickly announced that they were right on.
During the hour before the scheduled freeloading pass, all five crew members were glued to their screens, searching for land shapes they recognized. Their own kingdom was hiding under a large cloud, far to the north of the flight path. From the command chair, Kibi gazed at the large display in front of her and spotted the tropical land where they had explored jungle, waterfall, and cave.
Sata smiled to herself, remembering her fear of deep, dark places. She
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reached over and touched Mati on the arm, a look of gratitude in her eyes.
Mati
smiled.
As the white, blue, green, and brown planet began to completely fill their screens, Ilika sat down at the steward’s station. “Sata should be able to project our course around the planet now. That will give us another check on the calculations.”
Kibi looked at the navigator and nodded.
Sata quickly sent the course projection to all stations. “We’re only going about three-eights of the way around, then we head off into space again.”
Boro stared at the projection. “That’s . . . close! No wonder the course has to be exact.”
“Freeloading in three minutes,” Sata announced.
“Inertia straps,” Mati said.
Kibi smiled, experiencing the joy of commanding crew members who knew what they were doing.
Ilika touched some controls on the steward’s console, spoke a word softly, and all the display screens went blank.
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Deep Learning Notes
People argue all the time about whether the universe is a huge machine, or something less predictable. One theory is that if we knew the positions and motions of every bit of matter and energy in the universe, we could reconstruct all past history, and accurately predict all future events. This theory does not leave any room for randomness or free will. In any case, we humans on Earth cannot predict the future positions of planets with a high degree of accuracy, and the author proposes that the Manessa Kwi and her crew could not either. Course corrections, for us mere mortals, in any task, are necessary.
