Chapter two

Chapter two

The very next day arrived, and the ship was just flurry of activity. People were rushing everywhere to get things done for their departure in two days. Most people were excited and others were concerned but all in all it was a positive sign. In the Mess hall, Tammy and Ryan were eating breakfast together and talking.

"So, what did Dad want to talk to you about?" asked Tammy in between bites of her hash browns.

"Same old thing, why is my room not clean yet?" mumbled Ryan as he shoved in another fork full of eggs in his mouth.

"Ryan, please don't talk with your mouth full. You're room is decent but just not to dad's standards. Don't worry about it; he did the same to me yesterday morning before I left for school." Tammy rolled her eyes.

Ryan gulped down his food before replying, "Sorry Tammy. But you are right, dad is dad. I did talk to mom though before I came back. She's okay with us going this time. At least our parents have come to terms with our extra responsibility now. In fact, from what I heard, most parents are okay with it."

"I know, I've heard a few people having problems but it wasn't as explosive as it was months ago. Although, this time, our mission is different and not as near death defying as the last one was." Tammy simply stated.

"May I join you guys?" asked Tressa softly as she appeared behind Ryan.

Ryan turned around and smiled at her and gestured towards the empty seat to his left. Tressa nodded her thanks and took the seat that he gestured to. Once she sat her tray down and sat down. She looked at them and shook her head.

"What is it Tressa?" asked Tammy.

"I'm sorry; I was making an observation based on the two of you. 5 months ago, you guys were starting to settle into your roles but now, it has changed since then. You're more relaxed with each other than most officers would be." Tressa explained.

Ryan looked at Tammy and then back at Tressa before he piped up, "I haven't thought of it that way Tressa but thanks for pointing that out to us. It took me awhile to accept that my older sister is a part of the senior staff and that in most cases, I out rank her even though I'm her younger brother. It was a weird concept but I think we worked it out over the summer training period. It just feels strange now; we act like we're really good friends and not really acting very family like."

"That's good though Ryan, the both of you have figured out a way to keep your personal life and your professional life separate when the situation warrants it. Other than that, you found a very good balance between it all. There are still some crew members who are struggling with that on a daily basis and it's not easy as I have observed. Makes me glad I was an only child!" smiled Tressa.

"All senior officers, report to the observation lounge."

Tammy put down her fork and sighed, "Looks like duty calls. I wonder what is going on now?" as she got up from her chair and put the napkin on top of her plate. She looked at Tressa who was looking dismayed to know that her breakfast will have to be put on hold.

Ryan was grumbling about horrible timing goes with the rank of command. Tressa overheard it and she couldn't agree more with him at that moment. She too sighed and proceeded to get up from her seat to follow Tammy while Ryan slammed his fork down and noisily pushed his chair back to follow them.

Jaret meanwhile was waiting for his staff in the observation lounge. He was focusing on the information that was displayed on the monitor. He hoped that Tressa would agree with his assessment and he hoped that John had a game plan when they get to Aldrea. He heard the door swished open and saw that David and John had finally arrived.

"Good morning David, John, I hope you had a good sleep last night." Jaret nodded to them both.

David too his seat down and slumped down in his chair, rubbing his eyes in the effort to wake up a bit more while John just shook his head and took his seat next to him and placed his data padd down on the table.

"I had a good sleep last night, but I was up early this morning, had a sudden inspiration and well, ended up dragging poor David out of bed to help me." John grinned.

"Yeah, that was really nice of you by the way, like I wanted to be up at five in the morning!" growled David.

All Jaret could do was laugh but before he could say anything, the door swished opened and Tressa, Tammy and Ryan finally walked in, "Good morning to you guys!"

"Jaret, really, you need to let me eat some food before you call a meeting this early!" scolded Tressa as she sat down in her spot.

Jaret looked at Tammy for an explanation and Tammy spoke up, "She just sat down with us at the mess hall when you called. She didn't get a chance to eat anything. So don't blame me for her mood."

Jaret cringed as he realized that he may have been over zealous in wanting a meeting this early in the morning, "Sorry Tressa, I hadn't realized that and I'll make this quick for you so you can get some food after."

Ryan sat down next to Jaret while Tammy sat opposite of him, "So, what's up Jaret? This is the first we had a meeting at eight in the morning."

Jaret turned to Ryan and smiled, "Yes, I know, and my apologies. I hadn't realized that many of you would be eating at this time of the day since your shifts don't start till ten. No matter, let's get this going. Tressa, I think you might be interested in this. First off, I've looked over the sensors logs about the Tau System and there are two planets that could be a possible location for re colonization. That is where your team comes in Tressa. One of them has to be suitable, but we need to be sure that there isn't anything that can be life threatening to them. Last thing I want to do is put them there where there could be trouble down the road and have to do all of this all over again. If none of these two planets are suitable there is another one in the Callia system. But we will do this one first, since we are on a time constraint as it is. I've talked to James last night, Lisa will be returning with us as her people has scientist that will be handing some more information for us. John has already got some of them last night. So John, tell us how we can put Aldrea's destruction on hold while we check out the Tau system?" asked Jaret as he handed Tressa the data padd he made for her.

Tressa took it and read it over, tuning out John's reply. John got up and went to the wall monitor and punched in a diagram for everyone else to see and motioned for David to join him. David begrudgingly got up too and joined John at the front. Tammy couldn't keep the smile of her face as she watched David give John a glare while John chuckled a bit before he cleared his throat to begin explaining his idea.

"Jaret, you're ideas were good, but I took some of them and refined them with a bit of help from David. We are still going to release pressure from the mantle but to do that; we need to relieve it in several crucial areas. By using our phasers that has different power levels pre programmed, we will be drilling holes in these areas…" John pointed to the diagram of certain points that will be drilled, "we can relieve the stress. Another thing we want to do is to send down five altered torpedo drones down into the holes we've made to monitor things. I've already altered them to include various instruments. Torpedoes are better because they have a hardier casing than our regular probes and can withstand the intense heat of the lava tubes. With all this in place, the volcanic eruptions and the earthquakes should cease. The other part will decrease too, but not instantly. I don't know how long it will last but we do have an idea on how to make sure our timing isn't in the bad zone. Around Aldrea's orbit, we will have a sensor monitoring station so the Aldreans and I can see how things are going. We will know when our stop gap measure has stopped working and when we need to transfer these people off the surface and get the hell out of doge before we get caught in the gravity well of Aldrea's explosion."

David piped up, "The altered torpedoes will be sending out various harmonics waves to counter the stress fractures that are occurring within the planet's core, with that, it will make the situation a bit more calmer for the Aldreans. Once the volcanic eruptions stops, the earthquakes will follow too. The massive ionic storms are the results of the core being unstable, so with the harmonic waves, that too should dissipate as well. John and I have estimated, and note that this is only an estimate; we could delay Aldrea's death for about four days to a week or so. Two weeks would be lucky but I wouldn't advise it. The other planets in Aldrea's System will be going at different times, but they're not as far along as Aldrea is. I think that when Aldrea goes, it will be a chain event that will trigger the other planets and the Sun to go as well. If we're caught in the shock wave, we won't be able to use warp drives, too much interference but I would recommend that we beef up the shields either way. The hulls will be taking a lot of the beating but the shields should keep up in one piece."

Jaret was impressed with John and David's plans. He didn't plan as far as using the ships weapons as a tool to help Aldrea, "Good thinking John and David. I assume that your simulations worked if you're going ahead with this?"

"Yes sir, but simulations can go so far, there's no counting the countless variables in the real world. It's going to be a fly on the seat of your pants thing. I will do my best and so will David. Just leave it up to us. The engines should be ready tomorrow night for us to leave Monday morning. Jaret, I will warn you though, once we get them settled wherever, we are not going to be using warp drive for a week. If we end up blowing the engines up, we're screwed. Sure it will be a bit longer before we can go home, but I would like us to get there in one piece!" mentioned John.

Jaret nodded his understanding and turned around and saw that Tressa had already finished reading the data padd he had given her a few minutes ago, "Do you have any idea which planet we should start with?"

"A few ideas, they are both promising, but I will know more once we go over the reports some more. We will have an idea before we leave for the Tau system." Tressa replied.

"How many planets does the Tau System have?" asked Tammy.

"There are six planets, but the two that Jaret had mentioned, are the fourth and fifth planet. The fifth planet is promising, but I will know more at a later time as more information comes in. May I be excused; I like to get my team together in the stellar cartography lab and the astrometrics lab as well. I will be in those two labs from time to time. So if you need to reach me, I'll be there." Tressa informed Jaret and the rest of the group.

"You go ahead Tressa. John and David, you're also excused; I want things ready for when we get there." Jaret nodded to them. John and David looked at each other and nodded back. John turned off his display and took his data padd with him and followed David out onto the bridge. Tammy looked at Jaret and Ryan before she could say anything Jaret interrupted, "How is the crew medically wise?"

Tammy rolled her eyes for she was just going to mention that fact and sighed, "The crew is in top shape. No major issues to be worried about. I had one of the officers yesterday with a cast on his arm, after I got permission from his family's doctor to remove it and heal it our way, it was all good. He's back on duty but he will be needing therapy for awhile, he did lose some muscle tone to it but after a day or two of using it, I'm sure he'll be back to normal in no time. He's on your team Ryan, so I've put in a note in his file so you can arrange his shifts around the therapy time I've scheduled for him."

Jaret looked at Ryan and Tammy, "Okay, I see that things are taken care of quite well. Very well, you're both dismissed."

Ryan thanked Jaret and gestured to Tammy to join him as they both left the observation lounge. Jaret leaned back and rubbed his eyes too, he yawned a bit and he realized that the day was just beginning and it wasn't over by a long shot. He finally got up from his chair and walked out onto the bridge. He was shocked to see that David and John were in the middle of an argument and Ryan was looking very helpless to stop them from arguing. He strode up to Ryan and whispered to him, "What are they arguing about now?"

Ryan jumped a little and whispered back, "Well, David brought up the fact that in order to transport the Aldreans off Aldrea, they need to take the warp drive off to divert power to the transporters. John is saying that he's not going to do that because he doesn't want to get caught when the planet goes."

"I agree with John but I also think David has a point though too. Either way, they should worry about that when we leave Aldrea after we get one situation dealt with before adding more to it." Jaret agreed.

"Try telling them that, I'm so embarrassed right now!" groaned Ryan as he covered his eyes in dismay.

"Let them argue, it will get whatever out of their system and it's not the end of the world if they do argue. I am going to head back to home; I have to talk to my parents anyway. I have some issues to take care of and then some. You have the bridge till then. I'll be back to take over and you can take a break till tomorrow." Jaret laughed as he slapped his back before leaving the bridge. The last sound he hears is Ryan attempting to diffuse the situation. He laughed quietly to himself.

Meanwhile, Tressa ended up joining Tammy in Medic Bay. She was eating in Tammy's office in the hopes that she won't be disturbed while she was talking to Tammy about her ideas about what she should plan for the Tau planet.

"Plant life is a major important thing to watch out for, since the Aldreans have some livestock that is native to Aldrea, I like to see if it will be compatible for the new home. I don't think we will have issues but you never know. If we can't bring their livestock on board, maybe we can in the future bring some to them from earth? There are options to think about." Tammy suggested.

"All of your ideas are good Tammy, and I agree with you on them. I guess I want to do a good job. This is exciting for me, actually doing something with the mission and not sitting back." Tressa smiled.

"You never sit back Tressa, you're important to us, never forget that!" retorted Tammy.

"I know but I sometime get the feeling that I'm not as nearly wanted as you guys are. You're profession demands things while mine really isn't all that welcomed." Tressa replied while she put down her fork on her plate of food.

Tammy sighed and took another drink of ice tea before speaking again, "Okay, you're right, but I think your job is more important than mine anyway, you keep tabs on all of us. You have a knack for saying something that we needed to hear. I just take care of the physical body while you take care of the mental part. Our job works well in tandem."

"Well, thank you for that Tammy; it's very nice to have good friends on board here." Tressa smiled.

"Now, are you done your breakfast? I have to go and make sure we have enough medical supplies for us and for the Aldreans. I have to be prepared for anything!" asked Tammy as she got up from her seat and waited for Tressa's reply.

"Sure, I'm done with breakfast. Thanks for the offer Tammy. I'm going to go too, its time I meet my team and have a big discussion with my ideas and their ideas. From there, we can figure out what is the next step. I wish we had more of an accurate time frame to go by since I hate to rush into anything." Tressa nodded as she too got up from her seat and took her data padd off the desk before looking at Tammy, "I will see you tonight then? We are still on for a game of Poker with Ryan and the boys?"

Tammy froze and looked at Tressa before she admitted, "I completely forgot about that! I'll contact Ryan to see if we're still on for it, I know it's his turn to host the game and I will let you know what's going on. I hope it won't be delayed but with David and John busy with their projects, who knows?"

Tressa laughed, "That is true but find out okay?"

"I will, thanks Tressa for reminding me! I can't believe I forgot about it!" laughed Tammy as she picked up the dishes and walked to the food replicator and put them inside. She heard Tressa still laughing as she left Medic Bay. Tammy shook her head and wondered where had her memory have gone!