A Close Encounter
28 Nov 2016Dewarinversion
Where to begin. Surely there is method. Method or madness, Gaet could not fathom. He pushed on a leaver adjacent the pilot seat, leather black with white and cotton weaving, a present from his girlfriend. He physically heaved against it, a resistance provided by the ship, a warning perhaps, a defiance to Gaets actions, the pilot would break the ship, the ship didn’t want to break so it pushed back on him. He strained on the leaver like a rubber band held at one end. The lever finally clicked, motors now spinning up a main drive, thrusting fuel to a chamber with a rumble at the back of the ship. A second past, then a lurch forward, Gaet suppressed into the leather weave. His head felt twice heavy as the ship jumped into hyperspace.“Ha!” Gaet exclaimed. He searched his instruments for a sign. A blimp or wave or flashing light to tell him the pursuer joined him in hyperspace. “Ha!” Gaet said, louder this time. A second passed. Then a blimp. A wave, and a flashing.
“Hyperspace signal detected,” said the ship.
“Ah,” said Gaet. “I thought we lost them. Distance?”
“Close enough commander. Weapons range in three minutes. You have broken the jump start mechanism. I will need to make repairs.”
“If we get blown up out here, you wont be making anything. Can we sustain this acceleration?” Gaet knew this to be set at max. He’d set the controls before heaving the jump lever.
“For a while, with current fuel stocks at quarter full.”
“Yes, but how long, ship, how long can I keep this delta C?”
“Seventeen minutes and thirty two seconds, or there abouts. The Hepton destroyer will be in weapons range in two minutes forty one seconds. Less if the Hepton uses Hyperspace drive disrupts.”
“I’m sure if our pursuers had a disrupter, they would have used it by now. Let me see,” Gaet pushed at the console in front of him, a galaxy map drawing vector lines and distance plots. Systems and lone stars faded up along the route. “Ship, recalculate our course to Lacaille 9352. Keep our delta C, we will drive break when in system. Should give us a few more minutes.”
“Understood. Gupta City a Coriolis orbital is 74 light seconds from the M8 class star. We can refuel here.” Gaet thought the remark made by the ship as unusual. An AI normally makes use of a proper noun, instead, the ships mind used the term ‘here’. He wondered what other tricks the ship mind could magic up. Where does the ships capable language end to surprise him? This is something pilot training doesn’t teach.
“Commander,” the ship continued, “the drive break will put us impossibly close to the planet. The shields can take much of the heat, but not for long. We need to move away from orbit at the earliest possible moment. Or I recommend heat sinks.” Gaet brought up his console menu and loaded in a series of three heat sinks ready to eject at a moments notice. The ship started a count down to real space, 3, 2, 1, the ship shook, Gaet jolted like a rattle, the seat harness buckles sang with the motion. The shacking finally receded, a planet, brown grey in colour filled the screen. Gaet made more console requests, and locked the ship navigation computer to an outpost on the planet; Rasch Hub. The computer drew a neat approach line on the orbit. An audio single alerted him to the hyper jump drive overheat. Gaet quickly ejected a heat sink and watched the temperature gauge. When it settled, Gaet rested back into the leather seat, clasping his gloved hands then stretching them to relive some tension.
“Any sign of the destroyer. Have we lost it?”
“No space distortions thus far. We are the only ship in a hundred light seconds. Widening the scan range now.”
“Ok, keep me informed.” Gaet opened up a channel to Rasch Hub and requested a landing permit. He tapped lightly on his thrust control stick waiting for a reply.
“Landing permitted, pad eleven. Approach on your chosen vector. Weather is mild westerly winds and light rain. Cloud base at two thousand, visibility good. Safe landing commander.” Gaet turned the ship nose and made for a descending orbit, the planet to soon eclipse the light from Lacaille. The ship buffeted into the upper atmosphere, a gentle bounce at first, rising to a drumming and occasional thud. He opened the air brakes and engaged the stabilising computer. The buffeting receded into a low rumbling just as the light faded, the cockpit turning from a grey to dark black. The instruments glowed and lit the panels in a multitude of colours. Gaet leaned forwards and rested his hand on the glide leaver, watching the airspeed as it decreased, tumbling numbers spinning down as the seconds passed. Gaet put on the cockpit sound system and listened to Primavera by Esquivel from his More Of Other Worlds album. Below, he could see white lights glowing, settlements, structures, factories. No cities. Just townships clumped in little rings connected by worn tracks Gaet remembered from his travels on the planet some years previously.
“Hyperspace distortion detected,” the ships AI sang. Gaet cursed. “Object appearing behind us commander. It’s close.” Close? How could be close? How could a ship so large be that accurate? “It’s the destroyer and within weapons range.” Gaet waited for the crackling sound a ship makes when beam lasers tear at a the shields a few seconds before peeling open the hull, turning every thing into molten meteorite debris. The sound never came. Instead Graet watched overhead as a Cutter filled the canopy screaming past in microseconds. With the Cutter to the front, ahead, he watched it roll the wings left and right. Gaet listened as his communications bleeped into life.
“Hey Gaet, how do you like my new Frame Drives?” came a familiar voice.
“Ah, man, I thought you were a destroyer,” Gaet said.