(a short story)

In Time (a short story)

Chapter 1.

Sitting in the cock pit of his small transport ship, Liam was relaxed about his current job, it was just a routine trip from the planet Zenith to the planet Tonemore.  It was a trip he had done many times, not really on the main trade route but not exactly off the beaten track either. He was carrying a load of androids for the mining company, Exon Mining co.

Liam was in his late thirties, old for a transport pilot, like most in his job, he had no close relives, and the life style was not conducive to having a family. He had a reputation for being a ladies man, a girl in every port, but in reality, it was the opposite. He put it about that he was a ladies man so as to enhance his reputation amongst his fellow pilots. But the real reason was so that everyone in his circle did not endlessly try to match make him with their sister or wife’s best friend.    

The route did take him close to Airon Space but not so closed that he had any concerns about any danger. There had not been any problems in the area for many years but Liam always felt uneasy in this part of space. The trip would take him about four week running on two thirds power.

Airon Space was a complete mystery, completely uncharted as no one had ever crossed the buffer zone and returned. Over a hundred year ago the Airon’s and a coalition of Zenith and Tonemore had fort a brief war, which had resulted in a peace treaty. The buffer zone was set up as part of that peace treaty and no one had seen an Airon ship since. In fact no one had ever seen an Airon, the treaty was negotiated via radio messages.

Wrecks of old war ships destroyed in the war were used as beacons outlining the border of the buffer zone. It is against the law to go anywhere near these wrecks but space adventures break these laws for some sort of thrill. They do this at great risk, as the ships contain large amounts of old decaying armaments.

For most of Liam’s flight path he would be keeping a health distance from the buffer zone but for a short period he would come a bit closer. For the most part, the buffer zone follows a gentle ark in space, but at one point it bulges out, so as to encompass the Stell Asteroid. This was the location of a pivotal battle in the war and is now a dedicated war graves site.

Liam’s flight path would bring his into sensor range of the Stell Asteroid, this point would be the closest he would come to the buffer zone during his trip. Liam always made sure he was in the cock pit during any transit past the Stell Asteroid, not so much because of any danger, but because he found it fascinating to read the sensor data coming from the Asteroid.

As he read the sensor data he could see that there was a small ship in orbit around the Stell Asteroid, it was a high performance pleasure ship, ‘adventurers,’ Liam thought to himself, he logged it in his ships log.

Being a pilot of a long haul transport ship was not hard work, other than landing and taking off there was not a lot for Liam to do, the ship looked after itself for  most of the trip. Liam spent most of his time reading and trying to keep fit by working out, mostly jogging on a running machine.

Liam was sitting in the galley when the ship shuddered, lurched sideways, and turn ninety degrees to starboard, knocking Liam from his seat. It felt like the ship had increased in speed and it was vibrating as if something was out of balance. Liam managed to get to his feet and make his way to the flight deck, as he did he kept asking the computer, “what happened?” but the computer did not respond.

Arriving at the flight deck, Liam strapped himself into the cock pit and again asked the computer to, “report on what had happened?” But he got no response, so he activated the backup computer and again asked, “what happened?”                

The computer responded with, “the ship has hit a mine, more than likely a left over from the war.”

“Damage report,” said Liam.

“There is a two meter hole in the ships starboard side, that compartment is open to space, the main computer has been destroyed, the link to the engines has been severed, engine number one has been dislodged from its mounts, which is coursing a vibration, we only have limited sensors and we have no way to change direction,” replied the computer.

“What is our speed and course?” asked Liam.

A loud warning sounded, “warning, the ship is crossing into the Airon buffer zone, change course immediately,” the warning repeated while Liam tried to deactivate it.

“Shut up,” said Liam as he deactivated the warning alarm.

“What’s our speed and course?” asked Liam again.

“The ship just crossed into the Airon buffer zone, in six minutes we will cross the border into Airon Space, we are in uncharted space, no course can be given, we are running at full power,” said the computer.

“Activate one maintenance Android and assign it to re-establishing the link to the engines, we need to stop this ship,” ordered Liam.

The ship carried four maintenance Androids which were human in appearance and operated independently to the ships computer, but they did receive instructions from the ships computer. Their main function was maintenance and repairs. The Androids could only communicate via the computer, which Liam would sometimes forget. He would start telling them what to do but would get no response before realising is mistake. The Androids he was carrying in his hold were a later model and did have the ability to communicate.

“How long can the ship take this vibration?” asked Liam.

“Approximately two weeks,” replied the computer.

“Send an emergency distress signal,” ordered Liam, he paused for a brief moment and then continued, “no, belay that order, we don’t want to give away our position.”

A loud warning sounded, “warning, the ship is crossing the border into Airon Space, stop or change course immediately,” the warning repeated while Liam tried to deactivate it.

“Shut up,” said Liam, his voice betraying the level of stress he was feeling. He deactivated the warning alarm, and then added, “if the ship doesn’t blow up the Airon’s will destroy it.”

“The only way for the maintenance Android to repair the link between the computer and the engines is for it to go outside the ship, along the hull, and re-enter the ship through the hole in its side,” said the computer.

“Well get on with it then,” said Liam.

The maintenance Android made its way out of the air lock and very slowly crawled along the hull until it got to the damaged area. It climbed through the hole in the hull, back into the ship, the damage was extensive, most of the main computer was gone and the rest was damaged beyond repair. It took some time for the maintenance Android to establish a link between the engines and the backup computer but eventually after two days, both engines shut down.

With the engines shut down the vibration stopped, much to Liam’s relieve, but the ship was still travelling at high speed through uncharted Airon Space, with no way to stop or change direction.

“Prioritise thrusters,” ordered Liam, he then added, “we need to stop this ship.”

Liam could do nothing but wait, there was not enough room in the compartment for more than one maintenance Android to work, so there was no point activating a second one. All he could do was wait and hope, hope that they did not hit anything as they were travelling blind and even if they had long range sensors, they could not change direction to avoid anything in their path.

It was another day before the computer said, “thrusters have been restored.”

Liam made his way to the flight deck and strapped himself in.

“Fire thrusters, bring this ship to a complete stop,” ordered Liam.

The ship shuddered as the thrusters fired and the ship came to a stop.

“Long range sensors are back on line,” said the computer.

“Put our position on the screen, show any objects within sensor range,” ordered Liam.

The view screen came on, it showed the ship and all nearby objects, there was a small star at the edge of sensor range with the only other object of interest was a planet dead ahead. The ship was only an hour away from crashing into the planet if it had not stopped when it did.

“The maintenance Android has returned with an updated report of the ships damage,” said the computer.

“Report on damage?” said Liam.

“The ship’s hull has developed stress cracks, starting from the hole in the starboard side, catastrophic failure in immanent, abandon ship is recommended,” said the computer.

“Set course for that planet, thrusters only,” ordered Liam, he then continued, “launch a probe towards that planet.”

The ship shuddered as the probe launch and the thrusters fired, and the ship slowly moved toward the planet.

“How long to the planet at this speed?” asked Liam.

“Two hours,” replied the computer.

“Will the ship survive landing on that planet?” asked Liam.

“Unlikely,” replied the computer.

“Give it to me as a percentage,” ordered Liam.

“Twenty five percent chance of a successful landing,” replied the computer.

“How long before we get information from the probe?” asked Liam.

“Four minutes,” replied the computer.

“Can the ship land on automatics?” asked Liam.

“Yes, but only with a ten percent chance of a successful landing,” replied the computer.

Liam just watched the view screen as the ship slowly edged its way towards the planet, when data started arriving from the probe.

“Can the planet support life?” asked Liam.

“Yes, it has a breathable atmosphere, but most of it is cold, snow and ice, only within a small area around its equator, where it’s more temperate, there are human type life forms, in their iron age,” reported the computer.

“Scan for a landing site, somewhere away from high population,” ordered Liam.

After a few minutes the computer replied, “there’s a site in the north of a large island with a small population nearby, it looks like some sort of abandoned building, which would offer some protection.”

“How small a population?” asked Liam.

“Fifty two,” replied the computer.

“How far from the landing site?” asked Liam.

“Five km’s,” replied the computer.

“That will have to do,” said Liam, he then ordered, “start preparing the ship for a landing using automatics.”

Liam unbuckled himself from the cock pit and made his way down to the lower deck, where he checked the escape pods, all four were operational.

“Computer,” said Liam, he then continued, “activate the three remaining maintenance Androids and send them down to the lower deck, to the escape pods, and computer, load the Androids program onto a portable computer so I can control them away from the ship as well as the defence app.”

Maintenance Androids are very much that, designed to perform maintenance and repairs but they can also be used for defence, by an app in their programming. It does not turn them into solder Androids but it does give them some defence abilities, it was introduced to help defend ships against pirate attacks.

With all three maintenance Androids strapped into the escape pods, Liam programmed the three escape pods to follow his escape pod in formation, he would be controlling the four pod himself.

Liam made his way back to the flight deck and searched for the portable computer, “computer, where is the portable computer?” asked Liam.

“In storage compartment J3,” said the computer.

“Have you loaded the maintenance Androids program as well as the defence app?” asked Liam.

“Yes,” replied the computer.

“How long before the ship enters the atmosphere?” asked Liam.

“Five minutes,” replied the computer.

“Is the ship fully configured for automatic landing?” asked Liam.

“Yes,” replied the computer.

“How long before the escape pods launch?” asked Liam.

“Two minutes,” replied the computer.

Liam hurried down to the lower deck, climbed into his escape pod, strapped in and waited. A few moments later, the outer doors opened and the escape pods launched.

There was a few minutes of peace and quiet as the escape pods just drifted in space, Liam could see the ship moving away, he watched as it started to enter the atmosphere. There was a sudden jolt as the thrusters fired, Liam took the controls and followed the ship into the atmosphere.

The escape pod shook and vibrated at it passed into the atmosphere, once in the atmosphere, Liam found himself in thick cloud, his instruments told him that the ship was well ahead of him and moving away. Liam tried to stay with the ship but the pod did not respond, the pods were not really designed to manoeuvre. The ground was coming up fast so Liam fired the thrusters to slow his descent, the parachute deployed and the pod floated to the ground.

The pod hit the ground with a gentle thud but then started rolling as the parachute dragged it along before the parachute detached. Liam open the hatch and climbed out of the pod, he looked around, the landscape was open grass country with a few trees here and there. Liam could see the other three pods, they were all close by, Liam reached back into the pod and retrieved the portable computer.

With all three maintenance Androids operating in automatic and defence mode, Liam and the Androids started walking in the direction of the landing site. According to the portable computer the landing site was just on fifteen km’s away so they needed to move quickly if they were going to get there before night.

As they made their way towards the landing site the portable computer continually warned them of life forms nearby, but none of them seemed hostile, most were small herbivores. After walking about five km’s the ships computer made contact with the portable computer and reported that the ship had landed safely.    

With full communication established with the ships computer Liam ordered the computer to launch a surveillance drone to reconnoitre their route to the landing site. After a short period of time the ships computer reported that there was a small village of humanoids between them and the landing site. The ships computer recommended an alternate route around the village which would add some five km’s to their trip.

Liam and the maintenance Androids found themselves moving through farm type land with crops being grown in fenced in areas. Trying their best to keep out of sight they continued, but then the portable computer warned of a humanoid nearby. They took cover but not quick enough as the humanoid saw them and ran off, Liam and the maintenance Androids continued with haste.           

After a few more km’s Liam could see their destination on a small rise in the ground, it looked like an abandoned fortified building, it looked like a stone age castle from his own history, surrounded by ditches, with high stone walls, it was quite a site.

Liam and the maintenance Androids made their way along the castle’s entry road and through the entry archway and much to Liam’s relieve, he saw the ship sitting in the castle court yard.

Liam entered the ship, closed the hatch and for the first time since leaving the ship he could relax.

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