“Kibi, would you take us in, please?” the captain asked.
“Whew!” Boro exclaimed and quickly hopped out of the command chair.
However, the captain didn’t immediately let him retreat to the safety of the engineering station. He faced Boro and looked him squarely in the eyes.
“Very good command, Boro. Thank you.”
The fifteen-year-old blinked with embarrassment for a moment, then steadied his gaze and looked back at his captain. “Thanks. I guess . . . it was good for me.”
Ilika smiled and let the younger man get to the comfort of his station.
Kibi was already on the bridge, chatting with Rini and Sata. The docking controller appeared on the main display. “That’s one to make a story out of!
I’ve already heard folks talking about Boro, the monkey-mammal engineer who out-smarted Melorania.”
Boro cringed at his station, and busied himself checking fuel levels.
“So, who’s in the hot seat for docking?” the ursine asked.
“Hi, I’m Kibi, steward and second-in-command.”
“First, Kibi, I have to ask you for your honest and sound judgment, as commander of the ship. Do you need direct station control for docking? It’s a maze in there.”
Kibi looked at Mati, who returned the sternest frown ever seen on the handicapped girl’s face. Then Kibi turned and looked at Ilika. He slowly shook his head.
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 16
“No, thank you,” Kibi said firmly to the controller.
“Okay . . . you know the speed limits. Come to inner marker E and hold. I have a couple of ships waiting to get in.”
“I need those speed limits,” Mati urgently whispered as she located the marker on her chart.
Sata made a console selection and whispered back, “I’m adding them to the station chart.”
Mati saw the area of space closest to the station take on a red tint. “Boro, anti-mass one, maneuvering thrusters.”
A minute later, Mati brought the ship to a stop beside the pulsing blue beacon floating in space. They arrived just in time to see a long, silver ship glide past and enter the dark, circular entrance to the star station. Half a minute later, a small round ship followed, with something gangly and irregular at the front.
“That looks like another deep-space response ship!” Sata announced with excitement, “but what’s it carrying?”
Ilika looked up from the steward’s console. “Planets who are just beginning to explore space often send little robot ships into the interstellar void. After they go dark and silent, we collect them and put them in a museum.”
Rini peered at his display. “It’s so . . . flimsy . . . compared to Nebador ships.”
“Looks like a pile of sticks to me,” Boro added.
“Manessa Kwi,” the docking controller began, “follow the yellow path to sterilization and quarantine.”
“What yellow path?” Mati whispered.
Sata made a selection. “This one!”
Lines in every color of the rainbow appeared on the pilot’s three-D display, all going into the star station’s docking tunnel. Mati took a moment to scan all her visual displays for other ships, then nudged Manessa forward.
Little breathing went on as the new crew approached the yawning dock entrance. Instead of a smooth circle, it appeared to be made of thick, woven strands, reminding the crew of vines or tree roots.
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 17
Sata touched a symbol, and Mati’s chart was replaced by a plan of the docking tunnels. The colored lines continued into the depths of the star station, with one soon following a smaller tunnel to the left, and another entering a large docking area to the right.
“Wow,
it
is a maze,” the pilot mumbled as she continued to follow the yellow line on her chart, deeper and deeper into the darkness.
Just like the outside of the star station, most flat surfaces inside the docking tunnel seemed to be of crystal or glass, like the facets of a jewel.
Between each surface, more roots or branches created an irregular matrix of rooms and spaces, some cozy for just a few small creatures, others roomy enough for hundreds.
“It’s a . . . it’s a big plant, right, Ilika?” Rini asked, looking at his captain.
Ilika smiled and nodded, but put his finger to his lips.
Many of the surfaces glowed with subtle colors. Others were crystal clear, and creatures of all sorts could be seen inside, going about their business or watching the passing ships.
Boro smiled when he noticed water behind some of the clear surfaces, and occasionally a sleek creature swimming by. The small scar on his leg ached for a moment.
Sata glimpsed three pink-faced monkeys hanging by their tails from branches, and realized the resemblance to humans was strong, even though she and her shipmates didn’t have tails.
Mati concentrated on piloting and didn’t speak a word. After several minutes and five turns, only three colored lines remained.
The small ship with the spidery wreckage was still in front of them when suddenly part of the wreckage broke loose and began to drift and tumble silently. “Look out!” Boro boomed, grabbing the sides of his chair.
Mati blinked once. “Docking control, you want me to get that?”
“Hmm. I’m not supposed to ask student pilots to handle unexpected things . . .”
“You didn’t ask, I offered,” Mati said firmly, and started to move the Manessa Kwi toward the drifting junk.
“Hey, I like you! Mati is your name?”
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 18
She nodded, but was concentrating again. “Manessa, you ready to grab that stuff?”
“Yes.”
Kibi glanced back at Ilika, and the sparkle in his eyes told her he was completely happy.
Mati slowed the ship as they neared the debris, placing the Manessa Kwi right in its path. Rini and Boro cringed at the scraping sound that came through the hull as the metal from a distant world made contact.
“Grapple complete,” the ship said.
“Now I see why Melorania likes you guys so much!” the ursine controller declared. “You’re not afraid to jump in with both feet! I’m holding the traffic behind you until we get this junk squared away.”
“Thank you,” Sata said. “Where do you want it?”
“Follow the other ship onto the green path.”
A few minutes later, they waited while the first ship placed its armload of wreckage in a storage bay, then Mati did the same with the rest. A shy reptilian navigator appeared and thanked them with few words.
“It’s important to remember,” Ilika began as they retraced their flight back to the yellow line, “that just because some species aren’t as social as mammals and birds, they are no less sapient. I’ve worked alongside reptiles, and they’re some of the most reliable people in the Nebador Services.”
Boro looked at the captain. “I’d like to meet them. And that bear, the controller.”
At the junction, they had to wait for three ships to pass. First came a round golden ship about three times the size of their own. “That’s a life-monitor, which you already know about,” Ilika explained. “This is heavy cargo,” he said as another long, silver vessel glided by. “Only a small part is habitable.” Finally, a somewhat smaller ship with a shiny blue hull moved slowly past. “About a hundred passengers, plus the crew. Nice big galley, plenty of recreation space, and a little medical bay.”
“Have you worked on all three kinds?” Kibi asked from the command chair.
“Yes, and that exact passenger ship, the Palantia Lisa. Two engineers, and
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 19
I was the junior, at about thirteen, working under an ursine who knew engines better than I ever will.”
Boro
grinned.
Finally they could continue their journey along the yellow line. It soon took them a different way than the other ships.
“We’re all alone in here,” Sata said in a sad voice as they moved along slowly, deeper into the star station, with no other ships ahead or behind.
The ursine controller appeared. “You folks ready for sterilization?”
Ilika grinned. “I haven’t told them about it yet. But they handled star transit . . .”
“Pfff. Then it’ll be easy! Trust Manessa!”
As soon as the controller vanished from the screen, they rounded a corner and beheld a blue sheet of light, pulsing and crackling with energy, that completely filled the tunnel. Mati instinctively brought the ship to a dead stop.
Kibi swallowed. “Is that . . . sterilization?”
Sata looked at the station plan. “Y . . . yes.”
“Am I supposed to go through that thing?” Mati asked with a troubled voice.
“Manessa?” Ilika prompted.
“I will take us through by feel,” the ship explained, “as all sensors must be deactivated. When we emerge, my hull will be clean.”
Mati and Sata looked at each other, then looked at Kibi.
Kibi took a deep breath. “Shut down all sensors, Rini.”
Mati turned back to her console. “I’m approving ship control for sterilization.”
“Inertia straps,” Ilika said. “It can be a little bumpy, as Manessa will be going through blind.”
The crew grinned and giggled as their hair stood on end, their skin tingled, and the air smelled like thunder storms. A few small bumps and a minute later, the ship announced that hull cleaning was complete.
Rini was quick to restore sensors, and Mati gladly took her flight control back in hand.
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 20
The ursine appeared again. “That wasn’t so bad, was it? I’ve assigned you to quarantine dock B-Three, up ahead on your right.”
They moved slowly past two other response ships, both held in place by large, blue and purple docking fingers.
“This is it,” Sata said as they approached the third docking berth, its fingers currently open and empty, like the petals of a flower.
“Your captain will explain docking and quarantine. Congratulations to you all! I have no complaints about your piloting, Mati. I understand there’s a medical surgeon waiting to meet you.”
Mati grinned as she eased the little ship into the docking berth with the alignment display she had already used at the Monuments of Zolko. As soon as they were in position, the blue and purple fingers closed around the ship.
“Manessa says the docking clamps are secure,” Sata reported.
“I’m going off-duty now,” the controller continued, “as my mate has a big, juicy fish she’s been keeping warm, and I’m as hungry as a . . . a monkey mammal!”
Everyone chuckled and thanked the ursine docking controller.
Mati brought the power levels, on both anti-mass and maneuvering thrusters, to zero, waited a moment to make sure the ship stayed in place, and took a long, deep breath.
Suddenly it dawned on her that she had just piloted a starship from her home planet, where she was a crippled slave, through many tests and challenges, to a star station in another solar system. Her hands started shaking and tears threatened to come, but she kept breathing while she reached for her crutch and looked around at her beautiful ship and loyal friends, and especially at one very cute boy at the watch station, who was looking back at her with smiling eyes.
Then, as she stood up, she remembered one last thing she needed to do.
“Boro, finished with engines.”
Deep Learning Notes
What difference in command style (and perhaps experience) do we see
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 21
between Boro, who started by sitting in the command chair, and Kibi, who started by chatting with other crew members?
Speed limits are a natural part of any congested traffic area. Aircraft have to deal with them in the airspaces near airports, just as cars do in cities. Would Mati have been able to successfully follow the docking procedures without a good navigator at her side?
Many people have wondered what will become of our Pioneer and Voyager space probes that are slowly leaving the solar system for interstellar space.
They are not expected to get far before their energy systems fail completely.
This story includes one possible fate.
What would have happened if Mati had yelled and grabbed the sides of her chair, as Boro did, when the wreckage broke free from the other ship? What did she do instead? What does this tell you about pilots?
Ilika mentions that mammals and birds tend to be more social than reptiles.
This appears to be true on Earth, and is usually assumed to be an effect of our longer childhoods. However, some of the most social creatures on our planet happen to be insects, who have very short childhoods.
In the hull sterilization process, “their hair stood on end,” which shows the presence of “static electricity” or isolated, non-flowing ion charges. “The air smelled like thunderstorms” shows the presence of ozone, 3 atoms of oxygen, which usually only occurs during electrical discharges.
The phrase “finished with engines” goes back to our steamship days. It took hours, and dozens of skilled people, to bring the huge boilers from cold to ready, so they were never shut down until the captain was absolutely sure they would not be needed again for days. It was often the last command given when coming to port, after the ship was completely secure at dock.