Aurorae Iii

By Maggi O'Mally

The Liberty is lost with four men, including T.M. The Aurorae has less than four months to find them in the vastness of space before theyre declared dead. Mouse engages the help of the new Ops officer but soon finds her heart divided. Unsure of whom to trust, she gathers a small team to sift through the pieces of the puzzle to find the shuttle. Can they find it in time with so few clues? If they dowill the occupants still be alive? Or are they looking for a coffin?

Due to graphic content, for mature readers 18 and over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493199709

Maggi O'Mally

Ms. O’Mally grew up an avid reader. She didn’t care if the books she read taught her something or just took her away on flights of fancy. As a teen, she would read to her younger brother or make up stories to make him giggle. When she had children, she read to them to instill the love of reading to the next generation. As her eyesight declined, she decided to try writing poetry and prose and has found it as enjoyable as reading. She enjoys it so much she’s been encouraging her sister and son to try it. (Without success…yet.)

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Maggi O’Mally.

Cover art by C Mike Williams.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014906750

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4931-9971-6

Softcover 978-1-4931-9972-3

eBook 978-1-4931-9970-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning:

This novel contains graphic language, explicit sex, violence, and adult situations.

It is not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

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.

Rev. date: 04/14/2014

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CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

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

PREVIEW

CREW ROSTER

For my beloved family

Thank you for being there in my joys and sorrows.

It made the joys more joyful and the sorrows less sorrowful.

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

I’m the author. I’m in control. I can press ‘save’ or ‘delete’. I write the story. And if I say that often enough and loud enough, maybe the characters will believe me. Quite a few times I’ve told them I’m going to bed and actually got into bed. I stay there for an hour, being my stubborn self, until I finally get tired of their yapping and get up and go back to the computer. If I’m lucky, I can get back to bed as the sun comes up. Oh, well. I’m an insomniac anyway. I’ve been up for longer with less to do. Many times I’ve fallen into bed and realized I was so occupied by their stories that I’d forgotten to eat. It’s not that I don’t have food. I do. Somewhere. I think it’s in the kitchen. At least, I think that’s where I was the last time I found it. Last week I woke up and thought I had the flu. It turns out my stomach hurt because I hadn’t eaten for three days. That’s why I don’t have any pets or plants. If I can’t remember to feed me, how in the heck am I going to remember to feed them?

However, I really do appreciate the times the characters and I spend together in the wee hours of the morning. It seems they get just as silly as I do when we’re sleep deprived. I do have to clean up the stories a bit the next day, but I’d never delete them. Those are the stories I can laugh at even after reading them ten times during editing and proofing. When I’m tired, I can get a whole room rolling. I love telling jokes and being silly. My favorites are the long ones that sound like real stories and have the funny twist at the end. Maybe that’s why I like listening to my characters. I never know when they’re going to throw a twist in. SPOILER ALERT! Chapter two has one I didn’t see coming. I was blown out of my shoes. (Okay. I only spoiled where it was, not what it was. And there’s another one or two farther on.) However, reading about it doesn’t have the full effect of telling it. When you tell a story, it’s enhanced by facial expressions and vocal intensity. Books don’t have that. Books depend upon the reader’s imaginations. We give you the story and you play it out in your head. Kind of like authors. Except, we pull it out of our heads and you put it into yours.

Please don’t read my books if you like just the serious stuff. One reader told me I was grammatically incorrect, and had run-on sentences, and used too many commas, and they couldn’t get past my misuse of words, and my characters didn’t always concur with each other, and… (pant, pant), whatever. I try to write like people speak. Regular people. If I was looking for literary kudos, I’d use the pseudonym ‘Shakespeare’. Really? It’s an erotic space opera… a fiction book set in space that has sex in it. (It’s not a science fiction book, though it is in space and does have some science in it. It’s a book about life, lust, and love.) It has two rules. The sex has to be good and the plot has to be halfway believable. Nowhere does it say I have to use words longer than six letters. Or that I’d have to get a passing grade if I turned it into an college English professor. I try to make it so everyone can read it. I hate it when you’re reading and you come across a word you don’t know and have to look it up. (Though I may have put a few of those in here… depending upon the size of your vocabulary.) That’s like watching a movie and having to pause it to pee. If you’re reading this and come across a word you don’t know, it probably doesn’t exist. Just figure it out from the story around it. (Or skip it… it probably won’t make that much difference anyway.) And, BTW… characters not concurring means they have their own views and opinions… duh. That’s why there’s not just one character and one view. I should’ve thought that one through a little better. The last two books weren’t bad. They had two main characters. This one has three. Trying to stay in touch with one character at a time while keeping all three separate was a headache at times.

Of course, if you’re reading this and still complaining, you’re a secret sexer. Yup. That’s not a word. But I’m using it. If you’re a ‘secret sexer’ you thumb your nose at it in public but have a copy stashed under your pillow. I don’t mind. But I do applaud the people who can read sex books in public (without leering). Those people are people I’d like to know. They’re more open and less inhibited. Like me. Be aware, though, Mouse’s love life gets less and less mainstream as she experiences and experiments with lust and love. Some of it may be beyond your comfort zone. I probably should’ve warned you of that before the last book. Sorry. I don’t always think mainstream.

I was told I should use a fake name because of the nature of the books. I said, No. If you’re proud of what you’ve made you should put your name on it. If you can’t, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. (Apologies to all the authors who use pseudonyms to ward away stalkers.) Using my name has had some sad consequences. Some of my friends now avoid me. My apologies. I understand that you should have people in your life who make you feel comfortable. I have caused you discomfort and bow out amicably with no hard feelings.

Anyway, as I said in a previous book… who wants to hear an author yammer on. So… on with the story.

FYI: I switched the crew roster at the end of the book to alphabetically by first names or common nicknames because it was hard to find people by their last names since they’re called by their first names or nicknames in the book.

P.S.

If you’re wondering why I took so much time on Mouse’s attack in book 2…

Rape is a very traumatic experience. It colors everything from that point forward. Every person who has suffered rape has PTSD. It affects your professional, personal and intimate lives. I had to deal with the rape and bring it to a conclusion that would remove it from her psyche. Otherwise, everything she did would also include elements of the rape. I wanted to deal with other subjects cleanly. It had to be erased from her memory to do that. If you know someone who has been raped, it is a part of them. Bear that in mind. We don’t have the capability to remove it from their memories. At least, not yet.

PROLOGUE

(CHAPTER 23, BOOK 2)

*Ship Logs*

Lt. Cdr. Sriza had ordered the Aurorae into a sunward orbit of the asteroid belt due to anomalies discovered in the asteroids. Continuous scans were being made of the area which had prompted the decision. Navcons had noted what appeared to be unnatural shearing of some of the asteroids in the belt. The area which drew concern had a higher percentage of anomalies per asteroid than they had previously encountered. Lt. Cdr. Sriza wanted the area to be studied by the scientists when first shift began.

The Aurorae had three days left before Deep Jump. From their present position, it would take just under one day to reach a point from which they could initiate the Jump. That left little time to observe and scan the anomalies and prepare for Jump. However, since the Aurorae had already encountered and studied similar anomalies earlier in their scan of the belt, the time taken off from examination of the area was not considered wasted. Instead, it would allow them to rest and look at the information with fresh eyes.

*T.M.*

Just before first shift began, I looked over the scans from the night before. It was more of the same. Asteroids with sheared sides, usually concave. The scientists have been studying this phenomenon and haven’t come up with a theory for it. I looked over the flight plan and adjusted it. We’d stay and observe the anomalies and scan in-depth so we could return to Earth and allow them to decide how to proceed. It appears our equipment may be insufficient to render a conclusion about why the asteroids seem to be carved out. Still, we need to get as much information as possible. The adjustment in the flight plan will have us leaving the belt close enough to the final planet in the system to complete this system search before Jumping home.

Today, Doc was going to put Mitzy in her sleeper to ensure it was working properly before we Jumped. I’d have to check with Mouse to see if she’d like to be present for that. Most likely she would. She’d be there to support Abi. If the sleeper supported Mitzy, Abi would be following her shortly after. Doc had rigged an extra system to pump milk from Abi in her sleep and feed it to Mitzy, or, at least, the elements of it. It couldn’t be ingested orally because then the baby would have bowel movements during sleep. That’d make for a nasty and inhospitable environment for the trip home. But he had to make sure the sleeper would care for Mitzy in case the new system failed.

After confirming with Mouse that she’d take Medical for the day, I headed for the science lab. I wanted to get as much information as possible on the anomalies before heading to Earth. I didn’t think we’d be able to solve the mystery before our Jump, but Earth would need all the info we could gather to decide if they’d send a ship to specifically observe the phenomenon.

As I entered the lab, Jer was setting the division of labor for the day. Good morning, sir. I’ve checked the scans from yesterday. It seems the area we encountered yesterday evening has five times the strikes as the other areas. I was hoping you’d allow us to get some samples and take an up close look at some of the sheared areas.

Do you have any idea what causes the shearing effect?

Not yet, sir.

I’d like some idea of the risk involved before I send someone out like that.

Aye, sir. He sounded a bit dejected, as though he knew he wouldn’t be able to ascertain the amount of risk involved in his request. But I couldn’t send someone out without knowing if whatever it was would hit at that time. Or, if it might hit the same place twice.

*Mouse*

As T.M. headed off for the lab, I made my way to Medical. I knew this was going to be hard on Abi. Mitzy had gone through surgery just last week to install her ports. Abi was a wreck then. I wasn’t sure how she’d hold up for this. I arrived as the medtechs were prepping the sleeper equipment.

Hi Doc. How’s the setup look for today?

All the workup’s been done. I’m fairly positive the sleeper will adjust to Mitzy’s size and needs perfectly well. It’s the new system I’m worried about. Abi’s milk would be best for her, but it also has to be broken down. I’ll have Mitzy in for a few hours before I add Abi to the system. Hopefully, these next two days will provide evidence that the new system will work in practice.

So, this new system pumps Abi’s milk and breaks it down for Mitzy?

That’s our hope.

If it doesn’t work, what’ll happen?

The sleeper system should kick over to main supply and feed Mitzy from the same stores we’ll be fed from. However, Abi’s milk would then dry up and Mitzy will have to go on a substitute when she emerges from the sleeper.

I sighed. That wasn’t good news. We just had to pray it worked like Doc hoped it would. Well, let’s hope the gods look with favor on Abi and Mitzy. That’d be one less expense for her to worry about. She’s going to have enough to overcome already.

Let’s hope the gods look with favor on all babies. If this works, the colony ships will be able to reach their destinations much faster. It might open more opportunities for more people. Babies aren’t given ports because they grow so fast that they outgrow them and the sites can become infected. The sleeper responds by adding antibiotics. But, in trials it consistently added too much and the babies became very ill. In a Deep Jump, they would’ve died.

I couldn’t believe Doc wasn’t worried about Mitzy becoming sick. The colony ships still use nuclear propulsion because of the infants and it takes a very long time to reach the colony. But you think Mitzy will make the Jump okay?

I’ve adjusted the growth rate. When Mitzy exits the sleeper, she’ll be considered a ‘failure to thrive’ baby. Usually a baby like that has a medical problem or has a depressed caregiver. This time, though, I’ll program the sleeper to feed her less than what she needs to grow. This could present future problems, such as developmental difficulties physically, mentally and socially. Mitzy will be exposed to it for six weeks. She should be able to spring back from it with little difficulty. As long as Abi keeps her food intake high and works with her to promote body movement and stimulates her visually and audially. The only other course we have would be death. Abi says that’s not an option.

I knew he was trying to lighten the mood with his final quip, but I was still concerned. When we’re in the sleepers, our aging slows. Doesn’t it do the same with babies? I mean, shouldn’t they grow slower in there as well?

You’d think so. But, their bodies run on a higher metabolism and are programmed to grow quickly for the first few years. The sleeper will try to slow it, but it won’t be as effective as it is for us.

Aren’t there some people who have higher metabolisms? Aren’t the sleepers already able to slow them?

Yes. But babies still have the highest metabolic rate and even adults with high metabolisms don’t have the growth rate of babies.

Doc. We’re ready.

Okay. I’ll be right there. Now we’d find out if his adjustments would work. If they did, it would mean a lot for colonization. However, up until now, many doctors were hesitant to port a baby and put it in a sleeper because of the risk of infection and ‘failure to thrive’. It was best to ensure a baby didn’t have ‘failure to thrive’, but if they did have it and it was caught early, they could rebound quickly. Abi would already know and not have to watch for signs of sluggishness and slow responses. She’d have to work with Mitzy to bring her back to the level she needed to be at.

‘Failure to thrive’ was why colonization ships were slow. The doctors had a ‘do no harm’ rule that inducing ‘failure to thrive’ on a child would violate. However, in this case, the only other option was worse.

I’m going to put Mitzy in for ten to twelve hours to make sure the sleeper slows her down. Then I’ll add Abi and make sure the new connections work. Then I’ll take Abi off Mitzy’s line to make sure the sleeper kicks back in. Then we’ll put them both down and watch until we Jump. If everything goes as planned, they should both come out alive at Earth. If not, we’ll probably lose Mitzy. He turned and started off to attach Mitzy to the sleeper. I’d hoped to be out of the belt to begin this, but Sheri tells me we’ll be here for awhile.

I’ll tell them to take it easy. He smiled and disappeared through the door. I knew he’d call to let me know how things went, so I went to the lab.

*T.M.*

We were getting quite a bit of information from the scanners, but some of it was disparate. When we tried using more scanners on the same places, they also came back with different readings. We need to run a diagnostic on the scanners. They should be reading identically. We need to know why they’re not. And, while you’re at it, run a diagnostic on the basic system so we don’t have to shut down again to do that.

We’d just begun the diagnostic when Mouse arrived. How’s Abi and Mitzy?

Doc seems to think he’s worked out the kinks. They’ll be switching them in and out of the system today and, if it goes well, have them both in sleepers by third shift. Then, it’s just waiting and watching. If it doesn’t work, we might lose Mitzy.

Doc can’t get a hundred percent?

No. But it’s a lot better than anyone had hoped. He’s going to induce slow growth for Mitzy. It’s not good for her, but it’s better than the alternative. The doctors on Terra wouldn’t induce ‘failure to thrive’ on the babies they tested because they had other alternatives. But we don’t. It’s that or die.

But, if it works, the Council may start ordering it to save on travel expense for colonies.

That’s what Doc thinks. He hopes it works for Mitzy. But, also for colonization.

Well, I hope it works for Mitzy. After everything Abi’s been through for this baby, if it doesn’t work, she won’t be able to handle it.

She’s already a wreck. It’s going to put stress on her sleeper. But, Doc’ll keep us informed. What’s happening here?

We’re running diagnostics at the moment. Our readings keep coming back dissimilar. We’re running them on all the scanners, but, it’s unlikely that they all went haywire at the same time. That’s why I’m having them run a base diagnostic, too. There’s something…

Mouse looked at me with a question in her eyes. When I didn’t continue, she urged me on. There’s something? What is it?

There was something niggling at the back of my mind. Like we’d seen this before. Just not so much of it. Maybe it’d been just one and we put it down to cleavage. I didn’t know. I don’t know, Mouse. This just looks familiar somehow.

I can’t recall having seen this. I mean, it looks like something came in here and started chewing up the asteroids. That would’ve been memorable.

No. I think it was just one or two and we, or the scientists, thought it was fractures from being hit at just the right angle. It’s not uncommon, but this certainly is. There’s no way all the asteroids in this area could hit each other at just the right angle and not demolish or meld with each other. Yes, I know it’s possible. But the odds of it happening are so high it’s in the improbable range. And all these fractures are smooth and somewhat concave. That pushes it to nearly impossible.

*Mouse*

As T.M. and I discussed the possibility of the fractures being natural or not, the diagnostic results cane back. Everything was working normally. If they were working normally, then something in the asteroids must be throwing our scan results off. We needed concrete information, not a jumbled mess of conflicting scans. I needed to talk to Chief.

When I got to engineering, Chief was there. He was always there. Sometimes I wondered if he slept there. It was strange not to see Abi, though. She had become a constant in engineering as well. And, for the last couple of weeks, so had Mitzy. I was sure Chief would put his foot down on having a baby in engineering, but then, he’d initially refused to have Abi there. Instead of putting his foot down, he’d cooed over her and taken her around showing her all the instruments.

Lt. Cdr. How’re Abi and Mitzy?

Fine, Chief. Doc’s running them through practice jump now. So far he hasn’t called to say anything’s wrong. But, I have a question for you.

Yes, sir. What do you need to know?

The anomalous conditions of the asteroids are affecting the scanners. Is there any way we can get better readings from them? The diagnostics came back good. But they give different readings, even from the same scanner.

He thought for a minute. You could try boosting the signals.

We’ve tried that.

Not from the scanners themselves, but a booster scanner. Send a shuttle to the other side of the asteroid you’re scanning. The scan parameters will have to be synchronized. When the ship scanner sends out the signal, the shuttle scanner would be laid atop it as it returned. That would strengthen it. If that doesn’t get constant readings, I don’t know what else to try. Even that might be a long-shot.

Thanks, Chief. T.M., wasn’t going to like this. He preferred not to send people out without reasonable knowledge of what they were getting into. This one had questions all over it.

*Ship Logs*

When Lt. Cdr. Sriza reported to Cpt. Muscovich what Chief Heresford relayed to her, he wasn’t pleased. He didn’t like to send crew members out without at least a basic knowledge of what they were approaching. However, in this case, there was no other option. The only way to get the information was to leave the Aurorae.

Mouse, get Darrell, Ralph and Ebi ready on the Liberty. I need to find out from Jer what we’ll need. I’ll be there in ten.

Yes, sir. Mouse called Darrell, their computer expert, and Ebi, an engineer, to the Liberty. She motioned to Ralph, who was still in the lab, to accompany her to the shuttle.

When they arrived, Ebi and Darrell were already waiting. She briefed them on their mission. T.M.’s going to want you in vacsuits, just in case. Leave the gloves and head gear off unless warranted. You’ll be boosting the scan signals from the Aurorae. Ebi, you’ll be in charge of making sure the signals are synced. Ralph, you’ll check the scans as they come in and record them. When you return we’ll be able to compare them. Darrell, you’ll be assisting both Ralph and Ebi, mostly Ebi. T.M. will pilot. Do any of you need anything not already on the shuttle?

All three responded, No, sir. in unison.

Alright. Get on board and start prepping. T.M.’s going to want this to go as quickly as possible. We don’t know what’s out there. We don’t know what’s causing the anomalies. Everything we have is nonsense. Be careful.

T.M. arrived soon after they had traversed the causeway. Are we ready?

They’ve been briefed and are prepping. So, by the time you get there, they’ll be ready to start the mission and get back as quickly as possible.

Thanks, Mouse.

Be careful, T.M.

I will. He kissed her forehead and headed for the shuttle.

The Liberty took off with no problems and maneuvered its way to the far side of the chosen asteroid. It was chosen because it had only two shears and yet had some of the most varied readings. When they arrived at the far side, Ebi began syncing the scanners with those from the Aurorae. That way the scan would ‘piggy-back’ onto the incoming scan, boost its cohesion and strength, and send it back to the Aurorae with better accuracy.

As the first scan wave came in, Ralph became agitated. Cap, you won’t believe this. The asteroid is hollow.

Ralph, with all these anomalous readings, nothing would surprise me. How much longer before we can head back?

Just a few more minutes, sir.

On the bridge of the Aurorae, the navcons were also getting nervous. Sir, we’re reading fluctuations in our energy levels.

Mouse tapped the com. Chief, how are the engines?

Sir, they’re losing power somewhere. We can’t pinpoint it.

What’s causing it?

Until we can pinpoint it, we won’t know.

Keep trying. We don’t want to be a floater in the field.

We’re on it, sir.

Sean, raise the Liberty and let them know they need to come back now.

Aye, sir. Liberty? We’re experiencing problems. Request your immediate return.

Hav… the pow… tions… read… back.

Sir, we’re having trouble reading them. They may or may not have received us.

I know the scans aren’t reliable right now, but, does it look like they’re returning?

It appears so, sir.

Mouse was standing next to the captain’s chair on the bridge, awaiting the reappearance of the shuttle. It appeared at the far end of the asteroid. She breathed a sigh of relief. Any time an anomaly was inspected the crew was concerned. Anything could happen and often did.

Mouse, I’ve lost the engines.

Damn. She slapped the com button. Chief, what’s happening down there?

I don’t know, sir. The power fluctuations are getting worse and we can’t keep the engines up.

Find the problem and get it fixed. Do we still have our thrusters?

Aye, sir, but not much longer at this rate.

Get someone on them. Without them we’re target practice for these asteroids.

Aye, sir.

She looked back at the navcons. Mercy, plot a course for the closest edge of the belt. I want us clear until we have full power. Can we manage to make it with just our maneuvering thrusters?

I think so, sir.

Fine. Sean, Reestablish comlink with the shuttle. I want them…

Sir! Mercy interrupted her, There’s something near the shuttle. It’s making a ripple in the space near them.

Where? Enlarge the area.

There. Mercy indicated an area of space not far from the shuttle. She enlarged the view of the area. There was a ripple in space.

Can you tell what it is?

No, sir.

Sean, contact the shuttle and get them back here. I want all scans on that spot. I want to know what it is.

Sir, I can’t raise the shuttle. I can’t get anything on any frequency.

The entire bridge crew watched in horror as the shuttle elongated and slipped into the anomaly and disappeared. Follow them, Mercy. Her voice held a pleading note in the order.

I can’t, sir, the ripple is gone.

Oh, gods. Mouse stumbled and grabbed the captain’s chair to remain upright. Where did they go? What the hell was that? Somebody talk to me. I want every scientist up here. I want to know what the hell that was. I want to know where that shuttle went!

*Mouse*

When the shuttle disappeared, my heart felt like it stopped. Time stood still. This couldn’t be happening. We had less than three days to Jump. One of them would be running for the edge of the system with every crew member prepping us for Jump. Less than two days. That’s all I had. I needed answers we didn’t have. Suddenly, time was flying by.

I want to know where that shuttle went. I want answers. Maybe with the new information we received by examining this asteroid we could find out what happened. I needed every scientist we had working on it. Sean, call all the scientists and assistants and get them up here. Then get all non-essential personnel started on Jump prep. I don’t want to have to pull anyone off this to do a rush prep. And start doing full scans for distress signals and scan the entire system for the shuttle. Amend the first order. I want all the scientists in the lab. Mercy, as long as we have thrusters, keep us here. If they start acting up, get us to the nearest edge as quickly as possible. If you see the ripple again, try to follow them. I turned to Jer and Colin. Jer, Colin. They followed me to the lift.

Sir?

Yes, Mercy?

If the engines come back online?

Don’t rely on them. Stay with the thrusters. We don’t know if the engines will go out again.

Aye, sir. I turned back to the lift.

I was trembling as we headed for the lab. This new anomaly must have something to do with the phenomenon we’d been observing. It was too coincidental not to be. Maybe we could find some answers. We needed to find them soon.

Jer, Colin and I were the last ones to the lab. I need to know where that shuttle went, what that thing was and how we can get to them before the ship takes over and drops us into Jump. As the scientists began reexamining the information, I walked to the com. Obi, come to the lab.

When Obi arrived, I grilled him. Obi, what are their chances? How much air do they have? How long will their food last? What kind of time are we looking at to find them?

He thought for a moment. It depends on their actions. If they toss the food in the sleep mechanism, they’ll get the best use of the stores… if they get in the sleepers right away. If they stay up, the air… it should last a week, maybe two with the oxygen on low pulse and the scrubbers on full. If they ration food, it’ll last maybe a month. Worst case, if they didn’t have a hull breach or crash into something, two, two and a half weeks, awake. Best case, if they drop all the food and water in the sleepers and sleep, two and a half, maybe three months. He must have seen my despair because he continued. People have been known to survive longer than any expectations. The threes rule has been broken many times.

I knew the threes rule. Three minutes without air, three days without water and three weeks without food. And now, apparently, three months in a sleeper on a missing shuttle. He was right, it had been broken many times. Many people could hold their breath more than three minutes. People who had been lost had survived up to two months and longer without supplies. But that was because of their will to survive. The best case scenario was for T.M. and the rest to get in the sleepers. In the sleepers, their will wouldn’t help. A thought hit me. Is that for a full crew? Only four went.

No, sir. He brightened. You can doub…

Tungsten.

I turned. What?

Todd repeated himself. Tungsten. That’s what all the anomalies have in common. Tungsten. I’ve identified all the elements that have left residual trace on the shear faces and the only one which all of them have is tungsten. That points to the phenomenon being created by an unknown intelligence. Most likely the species of the ‘mother world’ we’ve been looking for. However, it doesn’t completely rule out it being natural. There could be some phenomenon that targets tungsten, but it’s highly unlikely.

Does it help us answer where they are or how to get them back?

Not yet. But at least it gives us a starting point.

Good. Keep at it. We have one day to find them and one day to rescue them. I didn’t add that if we had to jump to rescue them, the ship would force us into Deep Jump rendering a rescue impossible. I didn’t even want to think of that possibility. But, if we knew where they were, we could send a message to Earth to have another springer get to them. If one was available. If not, it would be a close call. If we didn’t know where they were, we’d be pressed for time to find them when we returned. And it would be us. The Council wouldn’t send a rescue ship without rescue parameters.

As the scientists continued with their work trying to understand what happened so we could find the shuttle, a thought crossed my mind. T.M. had mentioned thinking we’d seen an asteroid with similar shearing earlier in our mission. I pondered the implication of that. If we had, why did it not show up under similar anomalous readings? Had we figured out what had caused it and therefore it was no longer an anomaly? Did it really prove to be angle of cleavage like he said? If so, why couldn’t we figure it out now?

Lieutenant Commander.

Go ahead, Chief.

I have something you may want to see.

I’ll be right there. I could feel the vibrations of the deck and hear the droning in the bulkhead. He’d gotten the engines operational. I hurried to engineering.

As I entered engineering, Chief looked up and approached me. Sir. Look at this. He held out a tablet with charts on it. This fluctuation today… I didn’t realize at the time, but I’ve seen this before.

You’ve seen this before? When?

Remember when we were hit by the asteroid? I remembered. That was a very busy and stressful day. I didn’t recognize it because this time we lost power. It wasn’t stretched away, but it was. But, instead of being pushed into us, it was sucked out and away. So the power actually was lost, not just pushed away from our ability to use it. But when I looked at the graphs, it looks the same… only inverted.

So, last time it pushed at us and this time it pulled. Chief started to acknowledge my assessment of his information and I held up my hand. I was thinking and didn’t want disturbed. Last time, were there sheared asteroids?

I don’t know, sir. I was busy with the engines.

Somehow, I thought I remembered that there were. I walked to the com. Sheri.

Aye, sir?

Do you remember the asteroid that hit us?

That’s not something I’ll forget, sir. It was in system twelve nine six two red. It came out of nowhere. It wasn’t there. I didn’t miss it. It just appeared and flew at us, in the wrong direction.

Were there sheared asteroids in the same system?

Aye, sir. I believe so.

Dig up the records and get them to the scientists. I turned back to Chief. Chief, get these records and the records from the previous anomaly in system twelve nine six two red to the lab.

Aye, sir.

I tried to think. Was there anything else about that system that would help us now? Then I recalled the circumstances around that incident. That was the system with the rock monster planet. We thought it was strange that there was technology there that the inhabitants of the planet couldn’t possibly have created. They’d figured out how to use a few pieces of it. But I was willing to bet we’d’ve found a lot more of it had we stayed and investigated.

There was also the planet where Cap disappeared. The intelligent species there was quite advanced. Advanced enough to not need technology anymore. But, I couldn’t bring that up unless an obvious link to them presented itself.

And then there was the beacon. Chief.

Aye, sir?

I want you to tear the equipment we got from the abandoned outposts apart and remove any and all information you can find. Get Marc and Lees to help. Get it all to the scientists. I think someone was messing around in this area of space and they’ve disappeared. I need to know why and what they could do before they disappeared. Most of all, I want to know where they lived.

Tear it apart, sir?

Rip it apart if you have to. I want everything out of it. Now.

Aye, sir.

*Ship Logs*

Lieutenant Commander Sriza did not log the disappearance of the shuttle Liberty. She was concerned that the computer would then register her as acting captain and, having less than two Command on board, would force the Aurorae into a Deep Jump. She had two days left and wanted every minute of them to search for the shuttle. With that in mind, she also did not report the missing shuttle to the Council. Reporting to the Council may or may not get a springer on its way to this sector to search for the shuttle. But, it would definitely mean recording the loss of the second Command officer. They would not get the message for almost a week but the computer would automatically and immediately force the Aurorae to Deep Jump home.

She decided the last action before committing to Deep Jump would be to register the shuttle and its occupants as missing and take acting captaincy at that time. She hoped the fact she was registered as acting captain would give her a better chance of receiving full captaincy for Aurorae’s return to this section of space. If there was not another springer to deploy here, it would be three months before they returned. The Council would assume the shuttle crew were dead and refuse to allow the new captain to make a search for them the priority mission. If she was Captain, she could subtly alter how the mission was performed and possibly find them. Until they were found and could be declared alive or dead, she wouldn’t give up hope.

*Mouse*

The computer has begun countdown to Jump. All our efforts have come to nothing. I know T.M.’s still out there. I know he’s still alive. I’m sending a message to the Council but it won’t arrive for a week. That only leaves a five week window before we get there and are