Diamond in the Dark: The End and Afterwards, #2

By Andy Cooke

"It was seven months since the world had ended, and it was her birthday"

Endeavour, the Earth's first starship, carrying the refugees from the ruined Earth to the stars, with a murderer on the loose on an ailing starship...

The few survivors on Earth, fighting to survive long enough to be rescued by the under-construction second starship - which will be doomed in any case if Endeavour fails in its mission... The world might have ended, but the struggle to survive has not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sea Lion Press
• Release date: Jul 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386744214

Book preview

Chapter 1

Endeavour Turnover -1 year, 3 months, 14 days

(Days since start of journey: 185 on Endeavour; 193 on Earth)

––––––––

Accommodation Module B-3, Starship Endeavour

It was just over seven months since the world had ended, and it was her birthday.

Erica Allen stared into the mirror. Seven months almost to the day since the Star Pioneer had slammed into the Earth with the force of twenty Dinosaur-Killer asteroids. Seven months since the stunned realization that more than eight billion people were dead, dying, or doomed on a world that would not be able to support life again for decades. Since the near-suicidal despair on Endeavour as they'd grasped the fact that their starship, returning from its months-long shakedown cruise of the Outer Solar System, would not be taking on board the rest of the colonists and crew. Who had died in the heat flash from the Star Pioneer's impact.

She blinked, forcing herself to focus on her reflection. Dark hair, dark eyes. She still hadn’t had the much-awaited growth spurt her Mum had promised she would. Jamie still called her Pixie at times – didn’t he know how much that annoyed her? She’d had to grow her hair out from her favoured close-cropped look because of it. She focused on her eyes. Strange, that eyes which had seen the death of a planet could look so normal. The guests would be here soon. She stared through her own image again, looking far into the distance. Or the past.

Six-and-a-half months since Endeavour's drive had fired to break orbit from the Earth and start them on the long, long voyage through the cold dark between the stars. They had left behind their original Captain and over a hundred of the crew. Left them striving to finish the half-built second starship, to rescue as many survivors as possible from the dying world. Well, once it was possible to land safely on Earth again, anyway. Her brother, Pip, had nearly been lost in a desperate rescue mission, the whirling debris currently filling low orbits around the Earth destroying one of Endeavour's shuttles and killing their top pilot – but the mission had somehow, impossibly, turned into a triumph. Rescuing more than sixteen hundred survivors from North Dakota and cramming Endeavour full to bursting.

Erica had celebrated one birthday on board the starship already, during the shakedown cruise. That had been a day of happiness and hope, where a party had not been out of place. This year, however... this year, she couldn't face a proper celebration. She would mark her seventeenth birthday with a simple meal with her family and a few friends.

Mum and Pip would be joined by Sam, Pip's girlfriend. Erica had invited Lucy, the Falkland Islander who had befriended her on the first day on board. Jamie would come, of course – he might have simply been Pip's friend once, but he'd become a friend of the family over the years. Oh, and Diana would have to be there.

Erica suppressed a brief twinge of guilt at putting Diana last, as if begrudgingly. The North Dakotan girl had been placed with them shortly after the refugees had arrived on board; the Allens had possessed a spare room in their family quarters. With living space suddenly being at a premium, they couldn't have kept things that way while so many had been crammed into the few barracks-like Dormitory Modules. Captain Kinane had allocated space as he'd seen fit; Diana, a year younger than Erica and with no family of her own on board, had been a logical placement. It was just... the girl hardly ever spoke. Which rather brought down the atmosphere, at times.

But she couldn’t begrudge the girl her fortune at getting a room in one of the proper accommodation modules. Like Erica, Diana had her own room, even if it wasn’t much larger than the bed (which conveniently transformed into a desk when not in use). They even had their own bathrooms, rather than having to share communal ablutions. Unlike the people crammed into the Dormitory Modules. Erica glanced around. Well, they were practically micro-bathrooms, but they worked. It was true the bathroom wasn’t much larger than the shower itself, the toilet and sink folding into the wall when not in use, but for all that it was surprisingly sturdy and comfortable. Erica still counted her blessings.

She stared back at her reflection for another long moment. How could she still look so similar to the innocent girl who’d first boarded the starship? Back when billions of people lived on the Earth and the future was so full of possibilities? How could... Never mind. They’d be here soon.

***

"But you’ve got nothing to worry about," said Lucy.

Pip shrugged. I’m not taking anything for granted. Everyone seems to want a place in the Explorer Corps. He blinked – the solar analogue lighting in the living room-cum-diner seemed a bit brighter than usual today. The feeling of eating a meal in a well-ventilated conservatory in the middle of summer was one he'd had to get used to. The need for everyone to experience regular sunshine – or a close facsimile of it, at least – was great enough to justify the minor need to adjust. The table, which conveniently pulled out of the wall, stretched more than half-way across the room, with the sofas folded away. Sometimes it seemed to Pip that everything in the living areas of the starship either folded away or slid into the walls in order to make the most of what was undeniably a limited space. Then again, complaining that he was used to being able to stretch out a bit more would be an incredible ingratitude, considering that he was being conveyed in comparative comfort away from the ruins of Earth to the potential of a new life on a new world.

But not everyone scored best in all the piloting drills, got picked to fly reconnaissance to Earth, crash-landed, rescued thousands and got back to the ship, Erica pointed out.

Sam and Jamie were just behind me on the scoring. And, unlike me, Sam managed to fly safely all the way down to Earth through the rubble and debris and back up again, said Pip, shooting Sam a smile. Mum had popped out to get the frozen cheesecake that she’d managed to acquire from stores. Pip wondered briefly if they could still make cheesecakes – he didn't know how they were produced. Hopefully it was quite simple, otherwise – well, there would be only a finite number of them left in the universe now. Surely they had to be fairly simple to make? He supposed he’d better enjoy this one as much as possible, just on the off-chance. He dragged his thoughts back to the conversation.

Remember that piloting is just one skill among many, Jamie had just said. It seems like half the adults on board want to explore when we get to Alpha.

It’s understandable, said Lucy, nodding. After all, most of us came on board because we wanted to explore a new star system.

That’s not entirely true.

Diana’s uncharacteristic interjection stopped the conversation dead for a long moment. The younger girl was still staring into her soup rather than looking any of them in the eye, but at last her head came up, an expression of challenge on her face.

Pip felt a shaft of embarrassment. Of course the North Dakotans hadn’t been among the eager explorers – and they made up nearly half of the ship’s complement.

Diana didn’t seem to want to continue, so, feeling awkward, Pip tried to restart the conversation.

Well, there’ll be plenty of other roles, of course, he said.

Lucy nodded. Yeah. When Erica was doing those four months with Mr Childs, she kept on and on about economics and how the system would work at Alpha – the four Corps and an ever-growing field of independents providing food, materials, manufacturing and services, and then on and on about the expansion of the credits system. Bored the ever-living...

Hey, it was interesting, okay? Erica stuck her tongue out at her.

Pip watched Diana out of the corner of his eye. Although everyone on board had been briefed on the expected way things would be set up at Alpha, he younger girl could easily have missed all these details in her depression. Could they keep steering the conversation in this direction without it sounding like a lecture?

Pip snorted. "Erica, the normal reaction to days upon days of going through economics isn’t ‘Hey, this is interesting’, you know? More like, ‘Oh God, not more of this, please stop, please stop, please stop’. "

That should do it, he thought. They’d be on this subject for at least another five minutes now.

As Erica took a deep breath, Jamie said, Much though I hate to boost his ego by agreeing with him in public, Pip’s got a point, here. Derek Childs is a nice guy and he does try to make it all interesting, but when you kept on about it all, I figured you’d go for the Admin Corps for sure.

Diana interjected again. ‘Admin Corps’. Why mess about with the names like that? They should just call it the Government and be done with it.

This time, Pip immediately responded to her statement, trying to draw her in to the conversation.

Maybe, but I sort of like it this way. It also implies a bit of flexibility – that people could move between the various Corps. Explorer, Admin, Infrastructure, Support – or just become independent of the entire structure as long as you’re contributing in some other way.

"Contributing enough to get paid – based on whatever the Government – sorry, Admin Corps – decide is important. Sure." Diana rolled her eyes.

There was another awkward silence.

Diana seemed to belatedly realise she might have crossed a line and bit her lip. Look, I’m sorry, Erica. This is your birthday and I’m ruining it. Maybe I should go.

She started to rise from the table.

Erica lifted her hand. No. Don’t go. Please.

Diana looked doubtful.

I mean it, said Erica. It’s true that we keep forgetting what you and your... um... people went through.

Erica winced, as if she thought she’d said the wrong thing. Diana sat down, however, apparently mollified.

"So – what do you want to do when we get to Alpha?" asked Sam.

Diana shrugged. I don’t know. I guess I’ve got a good couple of years and more to think about it. I... She trailed off.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a long moment. She let it out with a sigh and opened them again. I wanted to work in the film industry. Something in comedy, I guess. Scriptwriting, or something like that. Dad thought I was nuts, but he said he’d give me every chance to prove...

She stopped, swallowing. Pip realised that Diana had never told them what exactly had happened to her parents, only that they had died.

... prove that I could... anyway. He threw me under the table, you know.

Under the table? Pip had a suspicion of what she meant.

When the earthquake hit us. Mum was in the kitchen with Jack and the ceiling started to fall in and I froze and Dad grabbed me and shoved me under the dining table and the wall fell inwards and Mum was screaming in the kitchen... She stopped, swallowing. Her voice was light. Almost detached from what she was saying. Pip shared a glance with Sam. Her eyes were full of compassion.

Anyway, Diana finally continued, blinking rapidly. About an hour later, someone dug me out and I was put with Mrs Evans. Then we had that meeting at the Church Hall and, well, you know the rest.

Pip certainly did.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful – we’re all grateful – for being saved. From the planet-killing crash of the Starship Foundation’s probe.

Pip winced. Maybe he should say something, but anything he could say would sound like a weak excuse.

Diana continued before he could decide what to say. Anyway, we’re alive when billions aren’t, and we all know just how bad it could have been for us, and despite what I just said, we know it wasn’t your fault. Sorry about that – sometimes it’s easy to just try to blame someone and strike out.

She glanced around, apologetically. So there’s no use crying over what could have been, I guess. It won’t ever be like that now, and I guess I’ve got to adapt. Right?

Erica reached out and squeezed her hand. We’ll do our best to help.

Diana gave a wan smile. Yeah. I really should re-engage with the world. Well, whatever's left, right?

Pip shrugged, not wanting to reopen any wounds.

Anyway, I haven't been paying any attention at all. Have they decided where we're going first? At Alpha, I mean? she asked.

No. At the moment, we're heading for Sulis rather than Belenos, but that could change, based on the data they're crunching through, said Jamie.

Mr Childs told me something about the naming process... said Erica, but before she could continue, Diana interrupted again.

Yeah, why haven't we got names for the planets yet? I remember you guys discussing it a few months ago but... she shrugged. ...I sort of wasn't paying much attention.

It's because they decided it'd be a good idea if we actually got to see them before we named them. You know, so we could feel if the name was a good fit, said Erica.

But you got all that data just before impact, right? Diana looked around at them. I mean, I definitely remember being told that.

Pip spoke up. "True, but you've got to remember that the data was intended for the people at the JPL. You see, the main dataset from Star Pioneer was headed by a heavily compression-encoded stream containing all the video and a lot of the imagery – all the stuff that takes up the most bandwidth. We got plenty of other data, sure, but the bulk of the dataset we got before it was cut off was that video stream."

So...? Diana looked a little overwhelmed. In English, that means...?

So with all the quantum encoding compressing the data an insane amount, it would take even the supercomputers at JPL two to five days to extract the video and imagery. It'll take the systems on board anything up to a thousand times longer to do the job – by which time we could well be there, anyway, said Pip.

"But – in the first briefing we got, I know they said that Endeavour has really powerful computers on board. And loads of them," said Diana, looking puzzled.

Yes, but they're being used to keep the ship running safely, said Pip.

Sam leaned back. "Actually, that's not entirely true, but it's true in practice."

Diana blinked. Wait, what?

We've got six separate computer hubs on board, each of which is pretty powerful – probably powerful enough to run the entire ship. Oh, it would still take one of them months-to-years to process the extraction, but if we devoted two or three of them to the job, we could get it done by Turnover, said Sam.

Before Diana could ask the obvious question, Pip broke in again. But three of them are being used to run all the systems on board. They call it 'tell me twice and it's the truth'.

He knew he was slipping into lecture mode, but he couldn’t help it. "You see, in order to make sure there aren't any errors – and given that a couple of seconds of problems in controlling the drive could easily kill us all, we really don't want any errors – each of the three does the same thing and compares answers. In theory, any disagreement will be one of them making an error or developing a fault, because it's so unlikely that two of them would develop exactly the same fault at the same time. Then they can direct resources to repairing the faulty one."

Diana was looking overwhelmed. Jamie chipped in, Don’t worry. There won’t be a test on all this. They’re just showing off how much they know.

Sam shot him a mock glare on Pip’s behalf.

Diana grinned at him. It’s okay. I think I was keeping up. That all means there’s still three computers spare all the time, doesn’t it? she pointed out.

They're used for the B-side, said Sam. All systems on board have complete redundancy. If the A-side, which runs everything, ever goes down for any reason, even with all the failsoft and failsafe precautions we've got, the B-side could just take over.

Diana looked sceptical. Come on. How much redundancy do we really need?

Pip's Mum had come in quietly with the cheesecake while they'd been talking and had overheard the tail end of the conversation. He thought he could see a tinge of relief in her expression as she saw Diana talking so animatedly with the rest of them. She put the cheesecake down and said, I’m happy with too much rather than not enough. We'll have plenty of time to see the new worlds.

Diana shot her a smile. Maybe, but wouldn't it be better for us all – you know, psychologically – to be able to see where we're going?

That's a good point, conceded Mum, But I still think we'd be better safe than sorry.

Diana shrugged. Pip leaned back. She seemed fully engaged now. He traded smiles with Sam, who seemed to have picked up on what he was doing. They sometimes seemed to have a near-psychic link.

Diana tilted her head and started on a new line of conversation. Oh, Erica – you were saying something about how things were being named? I'm still fuzzy on why it's 'Sulis' and 'Belenos', to be honest; let alone how they're going to choose the names for the new worlds.

The names go up to the Captain, and he's advised by Mr Childs and the Colonel, said Erica. The Ship’s Council has an advisory role on it, but they usually leave it to the three of them. Out of them, Mr Childs is really leading on it and he laid down the rules: Names have to come from an Earth mythology, preferably related in some way to what they're naming; they have to be easily pronounceable, not sound obscene, and not be too long if they're for something major. Anyone can propose a name for a given star, planet, moon, or geological feature and the Committee will make a provisional choice and see how everyone likes it.

She paused for a sip of her drink. That's how they named the suns. Alpha Centauri A became 'Sulis', after some ancient Celtic British god who probably was associated with the Sun, but 'just sounded right', and Alpha Centauri B became 'Belenos' after a Celtic god who was definitely associated with the Sun, but was someone else entirely. She gave a wry smile. I’ll admit I’m not really up to speed on Celtic mythology.

That's all sensible enough, but not much of a story, observed Diana. You said you'd been told something about it. I thought you meant something interesting or funny.

"Well, it's not that funny; it just made me smile when he told me. You see, the Captain suggested putting the names out to the public, who could propose and vote on them," said Erica.

Diana looked unimpressed. Sounds boringly sensible to me.

Yeah, well, Mr Childs was very much against that. He said he remembered something from his childhood, when something like that happened, and said he'd be damned if he was going to live out his life on a planet called 'Worldy McWorldface', and he'd not let that sort of thing happen on his watch.

Diana snorted, but before she could respond, all the lights went out. The floor jerked under them. Pip felt himself rise into the air for a split second before the lights came on again and his chair slammed back into the floor, nearly winding him. They stared at each other in stunned silence.

Chapter 2

Administration Module-B-1, Main Bridge

Charlie had been just about to log off his terminal in Command at the end of his shift covering for Olivia Lawson when it happened. The lights went out and the gravity vanished. It had only lasted for an instant before everything returned to normal.

After a brief moment where everyone appeared frozen in disbelief, there was uproar as everyone seemed to try to report to him at once.

Sensors didn't indicate anything in front of us...

Are you sure? A cut in the drive to avoid...

Life support's working fine, but we're on the B-side...

Drive's nominal at the moment; got to work out what the hiccup was...

No commanded fluctuation from any automated system. Looks like something in computing...

Confirm that. Definitely an ARM event, but no clue yet as to...

It was no good, he couldn't follow any one of them. Charlie stood up and shouted, "Enough! One at a time, please!"

He glared around the room. Drive first, please.

Fortunately, Paul Jefferson, the senior Drive Engineer on board the Endeavour, was on duty. His didactic tones could be irritating, but in this situation they were reassuring. Of course. Well, as of this moment, all indications are of nominal operation – with one proviso – but there was definitely some sort of anomalous event. We did wonder if the forward sensors had spotted something crossing our path and cut the power for an instant to allow it to pass, but we’ve already cross-correlated with sensors and command and can confirm that didn’t happen. The cut-out seems to have lasted for about half a second, and... yes, correlated perfectly with the lights being out. That one proviso I mentioned is that we are currently on the B-side controls for all systems, indicating a possible ARM event.

Charlie nodded. An ARM event – Automatic Redundancy Mode – meant that the internal logic of the Endeavour's control systems must have registered a malfunction large enough that it could not be absorbed by the normal fail-safe systems and triggered the emergency option of switching all systems to the backup B side.

He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. An ARM was theoretically a last-ditch emergency scenario. It wasn't projected to occur in centuries of normal operations, if that.

Okay, it wasn’t an automatic avoidance manoeuvre – something happened to cut shipwide power for half a second and throw us off of the primary computer control to the backup B-side. I want us to try to trace the cause, said Charlie. But first, confirmation that we’re okay. Starting with life support and power, and going forwards from there. Life support?

All working at 100% – but we're on the B-side as well.

Charlie nodded. Good. Power?

All nominal apart from that fluctuation – and it was across the board for that half-second. Confirm we’re on the B-side, and looking stable.

So, life support, power and the drive are working fine. So, as of right now, we don't seem in immediate danger, but we've got to find out what caused the ARM. Computing and control, please. Charlie turned towards the computing desk.

Dr Chapman, the deputy head of the computing team, looked unhappy. "All I can say is that something caused Bob to go offline catastrophically and looked suspicious enough that Alfie and Chuck waved the white flag. Derek, Elena and Frank are shouldering the load without any distress, though, and they check out green across the board."

Charlie had long got used to the computing team's tendency to give names and characters to their systems, even if he felt they were less than imaginative. Then again, he supposed that even an instant's hesitation at knowing which name corresponded to which system out of their A,B,C and D,E,F machines could be a bad thing, so maybe it was for the best that they didn't get too creative.

He summarised, as much for his own benefit as anyone else’s. So we lost B. Then A and C triggered the Automatic Redundancy Mode protocol. Do we have any indication yet as to what caused it? We can’t switch back across until we know that. And I thought each system was rated for reliability so high we'd not expect anything like this for decades or more.

Dr Chapman spread his hands, helplessly. I've got no clue; not until we trawl through the logs. I've already keyed up the team to get started.

Good. We can't afford...

Commander Kinane burst into the room, out of breath. What in God's name just happened? he demanded.

***

Two hours later, Charlie was simultaneously drained and on edge. Commander Kinane, Colonel Bell and Derek Childs were the other three people at the table in the small conference room. And they were still almost as bewildered as they had been at the start of the meeting.

"So – all we really know is the control systems decided to switch to the redundant systems en masse, despite all pre-flight projections estimating something like this would only happen once every thousand years of runtime," said Colonel Bell, leaning back with a sigh.

Commander Kinane looked for a moment as if he was considering taking the unexpected failure of Endeavour personally, but nodded, his face sombre.

Derek Childs chewed his bottom lip and said, If it’s that improbable that this event would happen by accident, should we consider...

Bell interrupted. What? That someone did it on purpose? He shook his head. Everyone on board is reliant on the ship working as well as possible. Breaking the damned thing would hardly be high on anyone’s priority list, would it?

Anyone rational, yes, said Childs. Or as long as they...

So we’re postulating a madman now, are we? The Colonel looked unimpressed.

Then again, so did Childs, finally showing a hint of annoyance at the interruptions. Or as long as they knew the effects of their actions, he said.

Colonel Bell’s eyes went hard. That seems to imply someone from Minot or River Butte, he said, staring at Childs. Because, as I’ve no doubt, you’ll both insist that anyone on board prior to the rescue was trained sufficiently to know the full effects of whatever they did.

Kinane spoke up. No-one’s accusing anyone here, Dan. Although it’s true that the original crew would be less likely to make such an error.

Charlie felt he should say something, as Bell’s expression darkened further. "Sir, Colonel – I’d recommend that we first take measures to ensure that we can operate on just the B-Side. I know we’re rated for indefinite use on either A-side or B-side, but we have to make sure that whatever caused the event didn’t damage the B-side in any way."

Good point, Jennings, said Kinane. We’ve been getting off-topic, again.

Derek Childs leaned forwards. "Whatever else we do, we’re going to have to tell everyone on board, and do it quickly.

***

Northside Park Module, B-Ring

Erica looked around, but couldn't see Lucy yet. Diana had come with her. At least the shock of what Jamie had christened The Massive Hiccup hadn't shocked her back into her shell. Erica turned her focus back to the front. Captain Kinane had chosen to set up on the same small rise that had been used for the fateful gathering over seven months ago. The gathering in which they'd been told just how bad the situation was on Earth, that over eight billion people had just died. Hopefully it wasn’t an omen.

Erica!

She turned. Lucy was there, pushing through the crowd, her family trailing behind like a vaguely embarrassed cometary tail. Her father was muttering apologies to people offended at being pushed aside.

The clump around Erica was now getting quite large. As well as her mother and brother, Jamie, Sam, Diana, and Lucy, Lucy's parents and two younger brothers were now present.

Not everyone's here, said Pip, quietly. Not by a long chalk.

Erica glanced around again, trying to estimate the crowd. If that clump was about ten people, then a group about that size would be a hundred, so... Pip was right. There were maybe fifteen hundred people here. Even with the requirement for essential personnel to keep working, they weren't nearly at the limits of what the park could hold.

It's mainly the original crew, murmured Jamie. Only about a quarter of the crowd are North Dakotans.

Do you think... began Lucy, but she was hushed by her mother as Captain Kinane stepped forward and started to speak.

Hello, everyone, he said, his amplified voice carrying across the artificial park. I'm sorry to have to call you all here, and thank you for turning up so promptly...

Erica wondered if he'd noticed that significant numbers had decidedly not turned up. Of course he has, she thought. Colonel Bell will have noticed as well; he's looking really pissed off.

...I thought it best to let you all know directly about the momentary disruption that occurred yesterday, Kinane continued. I don't want rumours starting or panic spreading.

A bit late for that, though Erica. She'd heard stories ranging from deliberate near-sabotage by a suicidal North Dakotan to an impact with a meteorite. She'd discounted all of them as blatantly stupid – especially the meteorite one. Anything that could get through the particle shield leading the starship and be large enough to cause any damage at all would have annihilated them in an instant.

In short, said Kinane, There was an unexpected shutdown of one of the computers controlling a number of essential services.

There was a susurrus of noise from the crowd, which had been quiet up until now. Kinane raised his hand for silence.

"It was not a dangerous event. We have no fewer than six such computers on board, any one of which can run the entire system. The control systems of the ship simply switched to an alternate computer. This caused an interruption in certain commands for a fraction of a second as the computer systems ensured that all commands were valid and so forth – standard safety protocols."

Someone was pushing themselves forwards from the crowd. Erica didn't recognise him. "Captain – are you saying that Endeavour is running on the backup side? So we went through an ARM event."

An expression that might have been a flash of annoyance crossed Kinane's face. Yes, we ARM-ed.

He raised his voice. For those who don't know, an ARM is an Automatic Redundancy Mode event. As I summarised earlier, it means the ship's systems switch to an alternate control and sensing process. That's all.

He turned slightly away as if to call on someone else who wanted to ask a question, but the man doggedly continued. "An ARM can't be dismissed that lightly, sir. You know that. It's like – I don't know – going parachuting and having to use the reserve. Something must have caused it – we're supposed to be able to run for hundreds of years before ever seeing something like this."

Lucy murmured in Erica's ear, He's right, I think. I seem to remember them saying something like that during Orientation, at Ascension Island.

Someone else broke in, with a harsh voice that sounded like a burr rubbing on steel. I'd say an important question is: can we get the systems back over to the A-side? Otherwise, to use Luke's analogy, we're going on several more parachute jumps knowing that we're only using the reserve. And without knowing whether whatever took out the A-side will take out the B-side and then... well, we're all dead, aren't we?

The complete silence that greeted this statement was more unnerving than any shouting. Captain Kinane didn't seem to have a ready answer. Erica recognised Charlie Jennings, standing just behind the Captain.

Charlie stepped forward and called out, It's not quite that stark, fortunately. Will Parker's team have initiated a further backup programme; the three computers working on the B-side will be checking each other more regularly and will accept a loss of up to two of them. We're not on our last chance. In effect, we’ve bolted on a spare reserve parachute, if you will.

Erica let out a breath. She hadn't realised she was holding it. Still, the situation had really brought home how fragile they were: a cargo of precious humanity, crossing a vast and hostile void, wholly dependent for their lives, every second, on the workings of the intricate machinery carrying them.

But can we get back to the A-side controls? persisted the questioner.

Charlie looked uncomfortable. Not without a complete shutdown and full set of diagnostics before restart. It'd take about a week with the drive shutdown at least, and maybe life support as well.

Could we find out more about that? The questioner sounded forlorn. "See if we