Opportunity Found

By David Mullins

Humans have expanded out into their solar system and the Off Earth Settlers have created a truly free society. Independent people living the life they want with no interference. But this life hangs in the balance. Living off Earth requires a great deal of energy which means a great deal of methane is needed. Luckily a ready supply is laying right here on the surface of Pluto, an icy rock at the edge of mankind’s space. Timothy Krane and his crew are here, struggling constantly against the unforgiving environment and the unrelenting cold, to keep the supply line running. Everything changes when they discover a murderer among them. This is followed by a series of seemingly pointless and increasingly deadly acts of sabotage which crank up the pressure cooker they are living in.

Thrust into a role he is ill prepared for, Krane must work to uncover those responsible as he tries to prevent his crew and the miners from splitting into warring factions and, as always, to keep the methane moving.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Aug 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483436074

Book preview

OPPORTUNITY

FOUND

DAVID MULLINS

Copyright © 2015 David Mullins.

The cover art is the copyrighted work of artist David A Hardy.

You can see more of his work at www.astroart.org

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3608-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3607-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015912358

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 09/11/2015

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

This book is for my darling daughter, Dagny Erin, sometimes known as Baby D. You fill my life with joy.

CHAPTER 1

F ive valves opened as the magnetic containment fields reshaped themselves. Each one sent a dense stream of antiprotons racing through two kilometers of conduit spiraled around and through the ship’s main body. The magnetic fields now were guiding the particles and accelerating them to one-quarter light speed.

Another five valves opened in the reaction chamber, filling it with high-pressure methane gas. The collisions between the methane molecules and the antiprotons produced highly intense explosions as each annihilated the other and both became pure energy. Billions of particle-sized explosions added together to produce one tremendous explosion as the rocket roared to life.

The rocket’s engines fired, ejecting a golden plume of superheated plasma that glowed brightly in the darkness. The vehicle’s speed fell as the rocket dropped into orbit. The ship’s position was measured, and a series of small maneuvering rockets were fired to correct the trajectory so that orbit could be maintained easily.

Five arms swung out from the ship’s main body and locked into place. The arms extended out to their full length with more locks falling into place. A large module at the end of each arm rotated into position and was locked down. These modules, which would provide living and working space for this mission’s crew, now formed segments of a ring around the ship’s main body. Small rockets fired, causing the arms to begin spinning, which produced artificial gravity. This gravity pulled Captain Timothy Krane down into the padding of his suspended animation chamber, his sleep unit, as it was called.

Krane began to emerge from his deep sleep, coming back to life. The chamber raised his temperature slowly. The cocktail of gases—hydrogen-sulfide compounds mostly—were pumped out, and then the chamber was over pressurized with pure oxygen. At the same time, a similar cocktail of liquids was rapidly pulled out of his blood vessels and replaced with his own oxygen-rich blood. At the right moment, the chamber stimulated his heart and nervous system. As his vital signs reached their normal levels, he went through the rapid-eye-movement stage in the process of waking up.

Krane woke as the tinted lid moved past his face, just in time to fill his eyes with the starkly white light that filled his room.

Damn! He sat up, shielding his eyes, holding on to the side of his chamber to steady himself. Not being able to see made the dizziness worse.

Computer, lower the light level.

Please specify the amount of decrease desired. The ship’s computer had the usual feminine voice, a little bit sultry when talking to males and very not sultry when addressing females.

A lot.

The white glare in Krane’s eyes softened and began taking on shapes. When he could see his socks clearly, he ordered, Stop there. He disconnected the probes and tubes and slowly stood up, saying, I wonder what else the idiots forgot.

Please specify who is meant by ‘idiots.’

You know, the people who programmed this mission and whose work my life depends upon.

It is impossible to determine what has been forgotten by—

Forget it. Computer, respond only when addressed directly. That is the second thing they forgot.

Krane’s dizziness kept him close to his sleep unit. The stark white and brushed stainless-steel decor did not help. Despite what the doctors told everyone, suspended animation did have lingering side effects. His head felt light, his balance was gone, and his body was very stiff. He felt as though he were freezing but only on the inside. That was a strange feeling indeed. He had to concentrate on flexing and relaxing each body part as he stretched and twisted the kinks out. In the low gravity and with his uncoordinated state, he supposed this all looked bizarre. But he was alone and had no audience. He always said waking first was a captain’s perk.

When he felt steady enough, he moved to his desk and switched on the view screen. Computer, display ship’s position, trajectory, and estimated time of arrival. After a quick check of the numbers, he said, Ugh, so much to do and so little time.

He began walking in circles around his quarters to get the blood flowing. He still felt cold, slow, and, well, heavy. Computer, has there been any damage to the ship’s exterior en route?

There is slight damage to the ship’s skin on arm four, caused by a meteor impact.

Computer, has there been any loss of air pressure there or anywhere else?

There was no abnormal loss of air pressure occurred during flight.

Computer, are any of the crew members’ or passengers’ vital signs out of their normal ranges?

All persons’ vital signs are within acceptable ranges.

Krane stopped at his window. Move the window cover, please.

Expecting an instantaneous response, he waited only a moment. Open the win—. Oh, Computer, disregard my instruction about answering only when addressed directly.

The heavy window cover slid aside. Krane looked into the blackness. He could see the planet below him. Stepping close to the window and looking left, he saw Pluto and Charon slide into view. The planet was a dimly lit, pure-white ball. Its primary moon, more of an off-white, was slightly smaller. From his window, they sat one just behind the other, looking like the base of a snowman.

Krane relaxed. After being put to sleep, he always tried to think of the suspended animation process in benign euphemisms. Being shot across the solar system invariably made a person nervous upon waking. But the same people who could not set the light level properly had managed to place him within a few thousand kilometers of Pluto. Remarkable. How could this be? The answer was … well, he did not know.

Computer, display a message on all terminals at first power on.

Ready for message.

Position okay. Captain TK.

Message ready.

Krane took one last look at his decapitated, or perhaps merely incomplete, snowman and moved through the doorway, down the hallway, and out onto the landing. The landing was at the bottom of the access tube that ran through the module and up the arm to the ship’s main body. A ladder ran up both sides of this tube. He was on the bottom, outermost level so the landing was really just a clear spot on the floor, painted red to remind people to be careful. When he looked up, he could see straight through the tube to the ship’s hub. The uniformity of the long tube and the blank wall at the hub created a mixed illusion. At one moment, it seemed he could reach out and touch the other end. The next moment, the tube seemed incredibly long. This brought his dizziness back, and he stumbled across and into the sickbay.

He was steady again when he reached Dr. Rose Acklin’s quarters. He found her sleeping peacefully in the SA chamber that would also serve as her bed. It lay in the back of what would become her quarters, office, and the ship’s sickbay for the long stay ahead of them. The control panel lit up when he touched it, showing the usual medical readout. Most of her vital signs were setting at a flat zero. The chemical mixtures in the chamber and inside her were normal.

He sat down at the control panel. Using a set of pass codes he was not supposed to know, he adjusted the doctor’s waking schedule back a bit. He brought the crew’s wake time forward and moved the mining group’s wake time back as far as he thought he could get away with. The scientists’ waking program was put on hold. He would deal with them later—much later. When this was complete, he set Dr. Acklin’s light level lower and set an instruction for her window cover to open just before she woke. She would like that, he thought.

He stood to leave but had to stop. Lying there motionless, just a whisper from death, she still was stunning. She obviously had some recent Hispanic ancestors. She had that long black hair, and her skin held a permanent light tan. Her stillness invited a longer look, and the plainness around her almost required it. He gave a heavy sigh.

Krane pulled himself away and left quickly.

Back in the access tube, he looked up again, but this time only partway. One giant leap and several strong pulls on the ladder sent him flying up the tube. The gravity decreased as he went so this carried him all the way to the hub. Practice had made him good at this move.

Entering the hub area, which everyone called the joint, he rolled over and landed across from the crew’s arm. The other four arms were closed off. To his right was the ship’s bridge on top, with a zero-gravity, R & R room underneath. To the left were the two passageways leading down the ship’s body.

Pull the window covers back, please.

The protective covers slid back as he jumped over the nearest window, a magnetic field and his metallic boot soles providing the illusion of gravity. The clank he made when landing rang around and around him. It was a nice clear sound, a clean sound. He had known he would love the view from this area. The joint was the largest open space on this ship. And this ship, his ship, was the largest ship ever constructed. With the arms spread out, the windows opened wide, and all that empty space around, this fact was finally sinking in. As it was designed, the joint area was the hub of a wheel. Standing there was like being on the inside of an enormous ball, one surface curving away in all directions and coming right back to you. Living and working in space meant you rarely had much space. Krane had never thought of that, and now it seemed funny. But the big space in there and his lightness made him want to jump and fly.

Circling the joint, he had his clanking steps as the only distraction. He stopped to enjoy the total silence for a few seconds. Then he moved into the bridge area. Computer, I want a complete level-one system’s status summary. Display everything that is undergoing testing.

Level-one system status ready now.

Have you sent back the latest update?

Yes. This report included the fact that you were waking as scheduled.

Good. Contact the station and get a sample of the surface data for, oh, just the last three weeks. Hold on to that. I will look at it later.

The bridge was a semicircle-shaped control room lined with the necessary equipment and monitors to run everything on board. Above all of this and stretching to the ceiling was one long and incredibly expensive window. All of the equipment, the monitors and other displays, was lit up and running like a casino show room, but Krane walked by without noticing. Stopping at the front of the room, he could see Pluto and Charon below. He thought he could see the station lights, but a few stars in the background made him doubt it.

Have the station turn on all its lights for a minute.

The station lit up, and he could see it clearly. It was not very big, and even so, most of it was just a warehouse of sorts. Its primary purpose was to store the mining equipment left behind by the previous missions, in particular, the gigantic surface crawlers. The station addition they had brought would increase the work and the storage space quite a lot. Krane considered this still too small. He had said so many times, but no one had listened.

The computer interrupted his thoughts. A course correction is needed to dock with the station.

Of course. Project a 3-D for me—Pluto, Charon, the station, and our ship.

He turned as the hologram appeared in the center of the room. Each object was shown with its coordinates floating nearby. Krane walked a full circle around the image, studying the space and each image’s relationship to the others.

Recommendation for course correction is shown, the computer said. A second image of the ship moved away from the first. It slowed significantly, spun around, and floated closer to the station. It slowed down again, made another turn, slowed some more, and then made a final twist and docked with the station.

Krane shook his head. No. Wait. He closed his eyes, and the image reappeared in his head. A second ship image slipped away from the first and moved quickly to the station.

Got it. He began entering instructions for this maneuver. Use this docking path.

Navigation system recommends for maximum safety— the computer began.

Yes, I know. But we are going to use my docking path. It’s better.

Navigation system’s path will achieve docking with minimal risk.

Yes, and with maximal maneuvering and maximum slowness. Those software writers should use all three dimensions when they work out these path projections.

The navigator system computes trajectories in three dimensions.

That is what they tell us. But the people who wrote that stuff actually think in two dimensions and then stick on the third one afterward. We will use my path. Begin now.

Krane waited as the many maneuvering rockets fired. Pluto, Charon, and the station slid up and to his right and on out of view. When the maneuver was complete, Krane started back to the spacer arm. Oh. And my path allows for more arm speed. Increase arm speed by thirty percent. I am going to eat, and a little more gravity will be nice.

Krane stayed in the joint area while the arm speed increased. By the time he reached the bottom floor, the headache and the hunger pains were sounding loud and clear. People called it the sleep sickness, and its effects varied wildly. This was a natural reaction to the long sleep during the trip out. He took two food trays, several drink bottles, and a handful of aspirin. He did this to head off the waves of nausea that typically followed.

The doctors on Mars counseled against this, saying it couldn’t work, but his experience told him differently. After all, these same doctors could not explain the illness and had decided it was psychosomatic. All in our heads. Yep.

Absolutely nothing interfered with the first food tray, the first two drinks, or the aspirin. The second tray was disappearing more slowly when he called up the data from the ship’s self-tests. It was the ship’s maiden voyage, which meant there was extra monitoring and testing equipment loaded on board, on almost everything imaginable, it seemed. This created more work for everyone, but looking through the list of faults and errors wasn’t too depressing. Nothing big jumped out at him. Sam, his chief engineer, would soon be up to his armpits, but it was mostly making adjustments and some realignments. Easy for Sam.

Krane finished the second meal tray and had a snack while making a to-do list. He felt full but kept eating. He always did this. His best guess was that at some level, way down there in the almost-dead zone, the mind knew you hadn’t eaten in a very long time so when you woke, it tried to play catch up.

Computer, have you received the Pluto surface data?

Yes, Captain Krane.

Please display the first portion of it in chronological order. Krane worked through the snack, more aspirin, and the surface data quickly. He thought about going up to the ship and then considered all the food and so on in him and decided to stay there in all that gravity. Checking the time, he said, Computer, delay the next update transmission. I am going to include a message. Oh, and I need to check some things first.

An hour later, he had very little to show for his effort. It wasn’t much of a message, but he realized not much had happened. The company brass back on Mars would be glad to get something—anything—from him. He had a reputation for forgetting this sort of drudgery. But it was part of the job. Computer, add this to the update and send it.

Krane stood up and stretched and then belched as loudly as he could. He listened quietly to the ringing echo. Okay, I’m ready. Computer, time is?

Ship time is eight thirty-two.

And the doctor should wake, when?

Approximately thirty-three hours.

This time, he climbed the tube slowly. At the joint, he stopped to enjoy the empty bigness of the space around him. He turned down the ship’s main body, entering the bottom corridor. Picking his way along, he wasn’t surprised to see it was crammed nearly full with the extra stuff brought on board just before takeoff. At the first set of windows, he remembered the meteorite. Computer, where was that external damage?

There is damage is along module four toward the outer end. It will be toward the right of the arm from your present point of view.

Krane could not make out the damage. Computer, turn off all lights and then turn on the exterior lights that will illuminate the damaged area.

When the lights went out, it was suddenly as dark inside as outside. For a moment, Krane felt disoriented, as it seemed he was free-floating in space. The outside lights came up, and he could see a long, dark—disturbingly dark—scorch mark running down the middle of that arm. The mark ran across the covers of several windows.

Wow! Krane was worried now. Are any of those windows broken?

The air pressure in that area has remained constant. This would indicate that no windows were damaged. However, an absolute determination cannot be made.

That was a rather hard hit. It’s a good thing I put off waking the scientists.

Krane continued down the corridor. The clank of his shoes sounded loud, and the metallic ring made the sound seem long. He passed more storage areas, more food and creature comforts. He eventually passed the point where the arms ended when they were folded in. This part of the ship was surrounded by water storage tanks. There were three rings of these tanks with several of the robotic fly-back vehicles bolted on where the tanks joined end to end.

Further down, he stopped at the antimatter control system. He switched on the main control panel and scanned the status review. He saw that there was much to do there, which reminded him of his list.

Computer, show me my to-do list. One quick look and he turned the panel off. First, the generator. The ship’s generator was on the top level. As he climbed the ladder, he began singing. The next several hours passed quickly.

Krane set a large crate down and checked the time. Good. I am hungry. But first …

Krane entered the bridge and studied the 3-D image floating in front of him. When his mind’s eye could see the ship and station clearly, the small but necessary trajectory adjustment was easy to see also. He entered the instructions and then waited through the slow motor burn as the ship changed its direction, speed, and orientation.

Fine. Display the status of Doctor Acklin. Her waking was on schedule. And an overview of the ship’s crew. The same with the crew.

Back in the hub, he decided to practice a few spins. He felt he should be the spin champion on this mission so that everyone would know who was in charge. Launching himself from the wall, or floor, depending on his choice, he kicked, curled, and slid into place. Arms and legs straight out, spinning like an X in sync with the ship’s rotation was good. He flipped back to the wall and then did a few of his favorite tricks. Whew, he was rusty. More work for the captain.

He dropped down the spacer arm for another meal or two.

CHAPTER 2

D uncan Krane, Timothy’s grandfather, had gone to work in space intending to make a fortune, come home, and live well. He had begun by working construction projects on the Moon mostly and then Mars. When he had a small fortune, he bought himself a ship and began mining the asteroid belt for various metals. As the years went by, he had become part of the new society, which was rapidly evolving around him. Working and doing business in the exploding economy as well as the pride that comes from standing on your own two feet, being whom and what you wanted, was addictive. So later in life, with his fortune in hand, he went home. But by this time, home had meant Mars. The Krane family had lived there ever since.

Timothy, like all off-Earth children, had grown up mostly on one of the huge space stations circling Mars. These stations were a fully enclosed spinning ring, which provided a one-standard gravity environment. This allowed the children to grow and develop naturally. Adults spent time on these stations to keep themselves strong. These stations, the largest human-made objects ever built, were the central hub for life off Earth. Everyone passed through one or both fairly often. A large portion of off-Earth business was transacted on these stations, and they were the cultural centers as well.

Timothy’s childhood had been typical. The family business consisted mostly of trading in metals with the independent prospectors and running the power company started by old Duncan. His mother had worked in the business and taught at his school so she was around a lot. She doted on all three of her children and loved doing it. Timothy’s father worked in the business only as a sideline. He was primarily a ship’s pilot and then later captain. He worked on many long voyages, trips to the outer planets. His stories of these trips had filled young Timmy’s head with the desire to do the same. Timothy had a natural taste for adventure, so it didn’t take much to get his mind and pulse racing.

Young Timothy’s life had revolved around school and playing with friends. This changed to school and sports as he grew up. He did particularly well in games played in low-gravity or no-gravity settings. His ability to visualize a three-dimensional space and how to move about in it was apparent even at a young age. The people living off Earth had modified many familiar games for their new environments. Timothy had excelled at a popular ball game called Ricochet, a rough combination of soccer and basketball played in zero gravity.

When he was grown up enough and his family felt he was ready, Timothy had been given a vacation on Earth. He and two friends had spent time in the American west and traveled around the Fjords of Norway. The mountains and the ocean, the big blue sky, and the cold, wet wind had been unbelievable. He was still struck speechless when watching the videos he had taken. Off-Earthers were counseled to avoid the crowded cities, so naturally, the three boys had slipped off to London for a weekend. They had spent hours just wandering the crowded streets and riding the famous Tube. The infinite variety and the never-ending hurry had been mesmerizing. And the people’s total disregard for being so crowded had been weird.

Timothy Krane had studied and was still studying a little of everything in a long college career. Working and studying as he wanted, he had hopped from subject to subject as his interests had changed. He had received a degree in mathematics and one in three-dimensional dynamics. But both accomplishments had been rather accidental. He had only focused on them when he realized he was almost through with the required course work. He had taken the required year off from everything to become an astronaut, of course. His one constant love was flying. Being a pilot was really all he had wanted. Hard work and excellent performance had moved him up to the captain level quickly. That was where the big money was, so he stayed. He still enjoyed just piloting a ship when and where he could.

His love for Pluto had started when his father returned from the very first exploratory visit. Timothy’s first long voyage had been out there as a young pilot aide with his father as captain. He had applied for and been on every trip to Pluto since. So here he was just twenty years later, captaining his first mining mission to this outermost iceberg, on the maiden voyage of a colossal new ship. It all surprised even him at times. But he still felt the excitement and the thrill of being on the very fringe of the solar system, the edge of humankind’s space.

Leaning back to finish his drink, he just sat still and enjoyed the view of stars stretching out in all directions. This was another perk for the captain. Her reflection appeared in the window in front of him. Dr. Rose Acklin stood in the doorway for a few moments. He stayed quiet and continued admiring the view until she came into the room.

Good morning, Doctor Acklin.

It’s evening for you, Captain Krane.

And how are you?

I am well, considering. She walked to him. And I am wondering how you are? She cut off his reply with a firm, Be still. She placed the med scanner against his neck. He sat still and silent. This says you are fine. How do you feel?

Krane nodded in agreement. I’m okay. Have a seat, and I will get you something to eat.

She sat down. I am not hungry just yet. I’ll have some tea and a few aspirin please. Mostly, I am still a little dizzy.

Krane filled the order and rejoined her. I’m sorry. I meant to be there when you woke, but the time slipped by.

Actually, I went through the last stage more quickly than usual. And I see you woke early yourself.

Yes.

Earlier than scheduled.

Ah.

You know how dangerous that is. If you had been sick, very sick, you would have been alone. People have died in that situation.

I really don’t get that sick anymore. I used to, but not now. It is really just a bad headache for me. He paused. She waited. I guess you get better at the long sleep with practice. And I have had plenty of that.

I also see you changed the crew’s and the miners’ wake times. She waited, but he did not respond. You need my access codes for that, or so I thought.

Apparently, I have my own codes.

And apparently your codes have locked me out of the system.

Oh … I will fix that.

She considered this while she sipped the tea. You are the boss here. But you have already broken several company regulations. I know that out here, those regs are more like strong suggestions but still … She took another sip. From a medical point of view, which is what dictated those regulations, by the way, it is better for the captain and doctor to wake together, then have everyone else waking at different times so that I can give each one my full attention.

That takes too long.

I can’t handle all these people waking at once; it’s impossible. We must readjust those wake times.

I will help you with my crew, and my crew will help you with the miners.

That won’t be good— She stopped. She realized that he had set this all in motion and obviously planned it way in advance. It was too late to change any of it anyway, so arguing was pointless. She accepted it. I will have to report this. A pointless act but I feel I must.

Of course.

May I ask why you did all this?

The old work schedule was slow and uncoordinated. It was written by a committee. Schedules, with a time scale on them, are useless out here. I have an event-driven work plan. It is much better and can actually be helpful at times.

Rose let it stop there. She retrieved a meal tray and some more aspirin. These headaches are incredible. People used to complain about crossing a few time zones and getting jet lag. They should have tried lying in suspended animation for a few months. You know, I would almost swear I can feel the blood flowing through every tiny blood vessel in my body.

Krane nodded in agreement. They sat in silence for a time. Rose ate slowly, and he sat still, looking at the stars. His gaze kept stopping on her reflection. He hoped she didn’t notice, but he suspected she did.

How is the crew coming? he asked.

As expected at this point. They should all wake together, as you know, right on time, your time.

Do you expect any difficulties?

The usual symptoms, especially among the … umm, less experienced. I would guess that Miss Booth may be very sick. She is young and hasn’t had all the practice with the SA chamber like we have.

She’ll be fine. She’s tough. I had a hand in picking her myself.

When they wake, I am sure several will be very ill. I will need your help.

Of course. That is in my event driven work plan.

Rose Acklin leaned back and sat still for a moment. She turned pale and felt rather hot. She hurried over to the bathroom. She was in there for quite some time, making strange noises. She managed to fight