Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space (The Henry Gallant Saga) (20 page)

“Look at this, Henry,” she said, offering a solution that was clearly better than any from the AI.

As he studied the route, he asked, “Why did you pick this leg here toward Ceres?”

“It’s near the center of the asteroid field and has a very large cluster of assorted asteroids that should provide excellent radar shelter. By moving toward that cluster, we have the best probability of stealth. I’ve searched my mind for any critical detail I might’ve overlooked, but this is the best path I could find.”

Gallant knew he had to make up his mind about what course to follow. All the manifold details of traveling toward their goal, no matter how petty and temporary, were important to him. With a hint of admiration in his voice because he felt lucky to have her with him, he said, "Excellent, let’s do it."

He felt a strange contentment as they made their way forward with the stars to guide them.

That night, Gallant awoke with a start. He lay in the bunk, wondering what had roused him. After a moment, he realized the communications center was bleeping with an incoming message. His heart pounded as he shifted his position, stretching to activate the decoding equipment. He got out of the sleeping bunk and took his seat in the pilot chair.

It had been utterly maddening to spend the last day without any communication signals from the Jupiter Fleet. Gallant choked with excitement as his imagination filled with the possibilities of what the communication held. He leaned forward, peering into the screen to read the message. He felt Kelsey's breath as she leaned forward over his shoulder.

Gallant let his shoulders relax, relieved to see the signal from the
Repulse
was addressed directly to him. He noted with interest that it was Chief Howard who had transmitted the information.

The message started with a personal note that Red and Neumann were alive in the Jupiter Station hospital. Then it listed the names of those who had not survived. There were too many. He gave a silent mental salute. Kelsey squeezed his shoulder, and he knew she was doing the same. He was relieved that some of his comrades had survived, even though others had not.

Included with the general message was a
family-gram
for Kelsey. Family grams were important to space personnel. They were three- or four-line messages that their families were allowed to forward a few times during each deployment. It was from her parents, and she read it aloud, “Everyone here is fine and praying for you. Stay safe. Much love, Mom and Dad.”

Gallant felt a twinge of envy, but it passed quickly.

The rest of the transmission provided an update on the status of the Jupiter Fleet, the marines on Ganymede, and the information that was available on the Titan fleet’s condition. Apparently, the battle cruisers were badly damaged but under repair. The marines were holding their position near the Titan landing zones. The entire situation seemed to be in a gridlock, with neither side strong enough to dislodge the other.

“Isn’t it odd that the Titans aren’t following up their attack on the Jupiter Fleet?” asked Kelsey.

Gallant said, "The entire Titan strategy for this war doesn’t make sense. They attacked Jupiter with a force too small for sustained follow-through. Even if they had been successful in destroying the Jupiter Fleet and occupying Ganymede, they weren’t strong enough to withstand a counterattack from Mars. The Mars Fleet could easily brush it aside. I've played enough chess against Red to learn that the opening moves of a conflict are not necessarily designed to bring about an immediate decisive win. They should set up for a favorable position from which a decisive advantage can be gained. We’re missing something. There has to be more to the Titans’ plan."

The Eagle was making slow but steady progress through the asteroid field. Jupiter was receding in the distance. Gallant found Kelsey to be a supportive companion, willing to share hazards and deprivations without complaint. Occasionally, she spoke of pleasant events of years gone by, and that normalcy distracted them from their lost comrades. As they worked together, their isolation fashioned an intimate bond.

The physical burden of their reduced environmental conditions, however, was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Several days’ buildup of perspiration caused Gallant’s pressure suit to cling to his skin. He washed and shaved as best as he could with the tiny hand basin that was available. His bandaged arm hampered him as he tried to splash water and cleanser over his face and neck. He yearned for a brisk shower, but that was only available on the distant
Repulse
. His head throbbed from the reduced oxygen and excessive carbon dioxide. He imagined that he made quite an unpleasant sight.

The embarrassment and restlessness weren’t very helpful either. He said, “I’ve got to do something to stop this itching; it’s driving me crazy.” He moved to scratch at his bandages.

Kelsey said, "Don’t you dare touch that bandage. I did a very nice job stitching that wound, if I do say so myself, and I don’t want you introducing an infection."

Gallant opened the lockers containing the fighter’s food supply and removed a package of synthetic food and a water bottle. He split the provisions into two portions and poured some water into cups. Their rations restricted them to two small meals each day, and each was anticipated more than the last. Kelsey joined him in the forward portion of the ship, and they shared the simple meal. They fell into casual conversation, forgetting their difficult circumstance.

Turning to Kelsey with a sour look on his face, Gallant said, "I’m afraid we’ll be eating these unappealing synthetic concentrates for the rest of the trip. They taste like chalk." Though he started to eat without relish, his appetite drove him to finish the sparse meal.

Kelsey nodded, "My mouth is watering for a sugary dessert right now." They remained quiet for a while, enjoying simple recollections of better meals. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to share more and more of their personal stories with each other.

For the most part, navigating through the asteroid fields had kept them busy enough. They constantly checked radar sightings as they caught glances of ships from time to time. However, they enjoyed the silent expanse of space itself when they could disregard the constant collision warnings that intruded upon them. Once in a while, the ultimate beauty of space surprised them and intruded upon their thoughts.

Kelsey chattered about her home life and her friends on the
Repulse
. Gallant learned to listen without a twinge of envy for her comfortable family background, and he, in turn, spoke of his own experience growing up as a colonist on Mars. The hours and days seemed almost cheerful.

As Gallant became less self-conscious, he told her of his ambitions and daydreams. She listened to all of his stories without a trace of skepticism. Her calm voice soothed the tensions of the day as they traveled. When she slept, he missed her, despite her nearness.

He hardly knew what he wanted to say to her sometimes. Yet, sometimes she halted their conversation abruptly, as if she wanted to add something important but couldn’t find the right words. During those moments, they just looked at each other, waiting patiently for inspiration.

They talked about the books they had read and the poems they enjoyed. Their conversations always ended the same way, talking about their shipmates and their feelings of loss.

One day, after a rather long silence, Gallant was compelled to look around the compartment for a diversion. Finally, he plunged into a conversation to distract them both.

“How about examining the Titan’s AI CPU unit?” he offered.

Kelsey nodded enthusiastically. Gallant opened the lower storage locker and pulled out the alien device. He began turning it over and over again to examine every aspect of it. He looked at the connection fittings, the structural material, and the circuit chips that were exposed. He pointed out some interesting features to Kelsey who likewise made a few brief observations.

“I took this unit from the Titan ship because of its integration into the main Titan computer and my guess that it includes some parts of the AI CPU, but it’s quite different from anything I’ve had experience with. What do you think?” asked Gallant.

“I’ve seen some schematics for our own AI equipment, but why don’t we just look at the Eagle’s AI interface unit for comparison?”

"The aliens must work together collectively to drive the Titan destroyer. I think the Titan AI unit is able to send commands to the aliens and vice versa. It would be necessary for many aliens to be connected through the neural interface at the same time to manipulate the various ship controls in a coordinated fashion."

"Do you mean some kind of limited telepathy?"

“Well, suppose the Titans were partially telepathic. They could communicate among themselves to some degree and use the AI as a kibitzer. An individual Titan would order the AI to obey an order, but then a group of Titans could communicate telepathically and decide something else. Or they could collaborate with the AI to reach a conclusion and then carry out the operations.”

“That’s too complex for us to evaluate on our own,” concluded Kelsey.

The asteroids Ceres and Pallas were originally thought to be fragments of a planet that had once occupied the orbit around the sun between Mars and Jupiter. This conjecture was overturned when scientists concluded that the asteroid belt was fashioned from material that had never formed a planet at all. Individual asteroids were composed of either a carbonaceous, silicate, or metal-rich rocky core covered by an icy mantle. Over the eons, the ice melted from internal heating, bombarding radiation, and meteorite collisions. Over time, the melting and refreezing of the ice produced deep canyons and crevasses in the surface mountains. Occasionally, icy comets passed through the asteroid belt contributing to its abundance.

The four largest asteroids, Ceres, Vista, Pallas, and Hygiea make up about half the mass of the belt. Ceres’s 950-kilometer diameter makes it the belt's only dwarf planet. While collisions between large asteroids occur frequently, the remaining bodies range down in size to as small as dust particles. In general, the belt is thinly distributed, but there are enough clusters of obstructions to produce radar shadows for ships to hide behind.

These shadows, along with solar flares and meteorite showers obscured Gallant’s passage. As the Eagle thrashed along magnificently, they remained vigilant against the possibility that at any minute they could be subject to an asteroid collision or an attack from alien ships.

Gallant congratulated himself on getting this far. He appreciated Kelsey’s course calculations through the areas of highest meteor density. Their existence was turning into a rhythm of alternating six-hour watch cycles, followed by six hours of equipment repair or whatever sleep they could squeeze in.

Gallant's mind began to run back through his recent calculations of the ship's position and course. He was satisfied with their progress through the debris field, but he was concerned about the constant adjustments to the life-support system.

He didn’t recognize it at first, but for some time, Gallant had not been troubled by headaches due to the neural interface. On the other hand, the low oxygen and high carbon dioxide atmosphere were giving him a distinct migraine. He also found it a horrible nuisance when he had to gasp for breath. He resorted to rubbing his forehead, trying to erase the annoyance. But his biggest headache was the fuel gauge and food supply. Shaking his head, he tried to figure out how he could squeeze his resources a little further. With that thought in mind, he smiled to himself and continued working out what was needed next.

Each day when he woke, he smoothed his sadly crumpled uniform and performed isometric exercises while lying in the tiny sleeping compartment. He stretched out as much as was practical to relieve his stiff muscles. While the limited space was a source of irritation, it did not dampen his spirits.

Absentmindedly, he tapped his finger on a cup of synthetic coffee and took a few sips along with a bite of the food substance for breakfast. He forced himself to keep his train of thought focused as he piloted the Eagle. A piece of the information that he was mentally evaluating pleased him. He asked, "What are the chances of us stopping at one of the mining colonies somewhere in the belt to get some additional fuel and supplies?"

Kelsey didn't reply right away. She looked up, lost in thought. Finally, she said, "Even if we found a convenient mining facility to stop at, the odds are they wouldn't have any fuel or resources to spare. Besides, prolonging our transit will increase the chances of running into a Titan scout ship."

She examined their flight trajectory against the AI system’s colony information. She said, "Unfortunately, this sector is very sparsely settled. There is one mining colony, however, on the far side of Ceres that has some possibilities. It's very small, but it’s right along our route. It wouldn't cause much of a delay."

Gallant looked at what she had suggested. “Perhaps, we’ll look in, as we pass.”

Kelsey said, "Our options are limited.”

Then, distracted, he said, "Kelsey, look at the pattern of Titan ships scouting the area. There is a distinct concentration as we approach Ceres. Even though we've been keeping our radar profile very small, it is possible that the Titans have caught a whiff of us and are sending extra ships to look. However, I can't see that a lone fighter limping through the asteroid belt would be worth their time."

Kelsey said, "Something strange is going on. Perhaps, they are looking for our convoys to disrupt our commerce. However, it seems to me that they should be concentrating on Jupiter."

Some days later, Gallant’s Eagle approached the dwarf planet, Ceres. Its family asteroid cluster consisted of thousands of various-sized asteroids sharing an orbit. The asteroids were covered with irregular mountains in shades of gray, green, and black, pockmarked with glittering white ice pockets.