Second edit, more to come... Dang! Can't believe I missed that!
Chapter 29: All Quiet
Tracy Island, the office, in something of a desperate flurry-
Jeff Tracy got through at last, managing a mostly private talk with Gene Porter. The harried flight director had chosen to take Jeff's call in a secure, almost featureless cubicle. Against vanilla-bland walls and acoustic tile, Porter's face looked as rumpled and grey as an unwashed sock.
"Jeff," he began, "I don't…"
"Hold on," the senior Tracy snapped, gesturing a newly arrived Lady Penelope out of camera range. Gennine had cleared out, already.
"Before you start stone-walling me again, I want you to know that this is an official communiqué. I'm aware something's gone wrong with the mission, I've got pertinent information for you, and I'm offering Tracy Aerospace's full expertise to help resolve the matter. No questions asked, no price tag. Just tell me what you need."
Frowning distractedly, Gene Porter ran a thin hand through his limp brown hair. His blue eyes held as much confusion as worry, and his coffee-stained 'Pigs in Space' tie hung unknotted at either side of a loosened collar. He said,
"Jeff, I appreciate the offer, and we haven't been stone-walling. Yes, there's been some kind of… comm blackout and system malfunction… but damned if we know what's causing it. I've got our best people from KSC, JPL and the John Glenn Space center on it, though, and there's a chaos expert flying out from Europe. Now, if we could just get that pit-bull female reporter of yours off our backs…"
Jeff leaned closer to the comm screen. He had three minutes remaining till the conference call with his legal team, but he signed every one of their six-figure paychecks, and they could damn well wait.
"Give me the specifics, Gene. You've got my iron-clad promise that nothing you say goes beyond this room, and that Ms. Taylor will find herself another story."
Porter sighed. It had been over twenty years since Jeff Tracy left the space program, but the man's drive and courage were legendary and still very much respected in certain circles. Despite the recent TA computer glitch, his offer mattered. Porter would have to confirm all thiswith the higher-ups, of course, but in the meantime...
"Jeff, I understand your concerns. You've got an old friend, a son and a grandchild on this mission, and…"
Wait a minute…
"Grandchild?" Jeff blurted, half rising from his seat. All at once, he flashed back to John's last call. What had the boy started to tell him? Something about a new system…?
"Gene, what in God's name are you talking about?"
He was too distracted to notice Penelope's sudden stiffness, her startled pallor. Unseen, Penny groped for the back of a chair, one slim hand fluttering upward to cover her soft lips.
Porter blinked. Very badly, he needed caffeine.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to blind-side you like that, Jeff. I assumed you'd been told. Dr. Bennett's expecting, and John's the father. Don't ask me how in the hell they managed it, because I don't know."
For once, Jeff Tracy had absolutely nothing to say. Didn't even know how he felt. 'Shock' was a very small, brittle, insect-shell of a word. But, Gene went on.
"Here're the basics, then: Thorpe and Tracy were finishing up the south tunnel, when they blundered onto some kind of chamber. It turned out to be sealed and mostly scanner-proof, but some of their sonar frequencies returned a partial image. What they saw looked a lot like machinery in a spherical room, with power lines descending toward the planet's core. Strong evidence of previous occupation, to say the least."
Clearly agitated, now, Porter began pacing, rubbing at the back of his stringy neck.
"McCord sent us a barebones message, then joined Tracy and Thorpe at the dig site… at which point it appears that they were attacked. There were casualties, apparently."
Jeff felt the blood drain from his head and limbs, leaving him suddenly very cold. Slowly, he sat down. Fermat had tried to warn them…
In a voice that he firmly willed not to shake, the former astronaut said,
"But they're alive? They're on their way home?"
(There was no way he could recall a similar conversation with the Brains of another timeline.)
Gene stopped his frenzied pacing, but didn't quite meet Jeff's gaze, staring instead at the floor.
"Um… we're working on that, Jeff. The last unambiguous communication we had from Endurance requested a new flight plan. We know for sure that they launched, and that they used a gravitational assist to leave orbit. After the black out, though…"
The flight director spread his hands.
"…their calls began to come in so fast, so out of sequence, that they're almost impossible to decode, or respond to. Faster than light communication shouldn't even be possible under the circumstances, much less physical time travel. Um, beyond that… radiation and hull integrity appear to have become major issues. Otherwise, I don't know what to tell you, except that we'd be glad to accept any help Tracy Aerospace can offer."
Gene Porter gazed out through the comm screen, a deeply troubled man.
"The Ares crew is our family, too, Jeff. We'll do anything at all to bring them home."
On the ornate wooden desk, Jeff's business line beeped. The company lawyers, it appeared, were ready for their audience. To Gene Porter, he said,
"We're agreed, then. I'll put you in touch with Dr. Hackenbacker, my chief engineer, and we'll get this rescue operation off the ground."
Porter nodded, allowing a bit of hope to chase away a few of the shadows.
"Glad to have you aboard again, Jeff. You've been sorely missed."
The elder Tracy signed off, still thinking numbly…'grandchild?'
Behind him, Lady Penelope showed herself slowly, silently to the door. He never even noticed.