Our story thus far: the Terran Confederation starship has arrived at a black hole. Dropping below lightspeed, the run into some rubble, and there’s a casualty, but the damage is contained.
The series of posts begins at https://mrw.5-cent.us/?p=387
And now, #2
In the next compartment there was a crash, and a stream of blazing dust shot through the compartment where Jessup, an astrochemistry grad student, had been sitting with Donovan, one of the senior astrochemists. Donovan screamed as the edge of the stream hit his ankle. Jessup released his harness and leapt to help Donovan out of his, and hopped him through the door which closed behind them. Laying Donovan on the deck, the younger man saw blood starting to spurt out of Donovan’s ankle through the holed ship-suit. Jessup pulled down the top of his ship-suit and yanked off his undershirt, unfastened and pulled off the boot of Donovan’s shipsuit, and bent to tie it around the wound as tight as he could to staunch the flow of blood. Just then Davida and Yusef looked out of their compartment, and seeing what was happening, Davida meshed Ken, the ship’s doctor.
While Phelan heard Yusef’s report on the status of the compartment and that medical was on their way for Donovan, he had Ghadi turn up the defense field to max, and they waited. “How severe was the damage?”
“Not too bad. Without the extra metallo-ceramic armor that they added onto the ship in preparation for this mission, this would have been a lot more serious.”
When no new surprises appeared, he finally dropped down from deep mesh again and announced on the general mesh, “Crew and researchers of the Hawking, this is your captain. We’ve arrived. We hit a small fast-moving asteroid, but there was only minor damage. There’s been one injury, but nothing serious, and it’s being dealt with. It will be several days before we achieve a stable initial orbit, so other than those professor Wang has designated to begin observations of the black hole and the companion star, you may stand down. Please, however, stay in your shipsuits until we have a better feel for the safety of the neighborhood.”
Opening his eyes, Phelan had the usual slight muzzyness and disorientation after he had been in deep mesh for a while, especially when he had bounced in and out in a short time. Looking around, he saw Guoli and his senior people still clutching their seats and looking at him.
Guoli saw the mesh net irising down from over Phelan’s head into his headband and asked, “Who’s been hurt?”
“Donovan, one of Ruth’s chemists, has an injured ankle, but otherwise everyone’s okay,” Phelan answered.
“How is he?” asked Ruth Alvarez, the astrochemistry chief.
“The med scanner on the gurney reports that he’s lost some skin and some muscle, maybe some bone, but he’ll be all right, though he won’t be moving that ankle for a while. I’ve got a question, though.”
Ruth looked at the tall, slender dark-haired captain, “Yes?”
“The call for assistance was from one of my crew members who came out of the next compartment. Why didn’t,” he looked aside into mesh for a second, “Jessup call?”
“He doesn’t have meshecytes in his bloodstream. He refused them for religious reasons, if I remember,” she said. Phelan nodded at her. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Guoli,” she said, brushing her short auburn hair back with her fingers. “I should go see him.”
The captain held up a finger. “You’d better wait until they’ve stabilized him, and set him up.”
“He’s right, Ruth. Let them take care of him first,” Guoli said. Turning back to the captain, he said, “Our thanks to you and your crew, Phelan. It will be good to finally get to work.” Looking at the monitor, he slowly shook his head. “We’re a long way from home.”
“That we are.” Phelan looked aside for a minute to the mesh. “We’re beginning the reconfiguration, so you and your people should have access to all your instruments and probes soon.” He paused for a moment, then added, “I think I need some coffee. Ruth, care to join me?” Her face still showed concern for Donovan, but she nodded. He turned and said, in his high baritone, “Ghadi, you have the bridge. I am going to have coffee.”
Ghadi, darkly bearded and tall, not as tall as his captain but a bit heavier, turned at his station to look at Phelan. “I have the bridge.”
The two walked into the refectory. Other than some of the cargo bays, it was the largest room in the ship, twenty meters by ten, tables down the long way, with seats on slides on the deck, yellow walls and gray floors and the ceiling black to partly mask the pipes and cabling. The far wall was lined with food printers and dispensers, and since arrival had been planned for mid-day, everyone who could take a break was at lunch. The aromas were an agglomeration of Terra: spices from India and China, savory from Europe, breads from the Middle East, and lighter flavors from the Americas. They got their coffee, then walking towards a couple of free seats passed Chen Hsu, Vlad’s Second in engineering, talking to Iziegbe Oyegun, one of the Nigerians, about how much he wished that his wife and son could have come.
Iziegbe smiled, bright teeth in her dark face. “I do not think your son would ‘ave really understood, since ‘e is only two. It must have been hard, leaving them behind for a voyage this long,” she said in her pleasant French-African lilt.
“Very much so, but an opportunity like this is rare,” Chen answered, “And working on a research vessel is a wonderful learning experience.”
Phelan and Ruth tuned that conversation out, having heard Chen talk about his family enough times on the voyage out. “Shall we have dinner together tonight?” he asked.
“Not tonight, I think. I’ll probably be eating at my workstation, meshing with the probes.”
“Well, let’s find time for it.”
“I promise, just as soon as it’s down to a dull roar, or at least after the prelims are done and we start the intensive scans.”
He drank the last of his coffee and stared into the empty cup. “Speaking of work, I should probably get back to the bridge.”
“And by now, I should go to sick bay.” They said their goodbyes, and headed off.
*******************
11,000 Years, copyright mark roth, 2021, 2023