(Short chapter, but hey, I'm writing again!)
It was a further six days before the work crews, even augmented by the scientists and engineers from Earth, were able to repair all of the major leaks to the conduits. Even with that done, the area was still open to space and Rush's latest report to Young was not positive. Young sat staring at it, open on the laptop screen in front of him. Rush was clear that whilst they had sufficient hull panels to at least stabilise the hull, if not fill the whole of the rents in the hull caused by the exploding conduit, the shield emitters were a completely different matter.
He had a series of reports all on various issues in front of him. Rush's was an overview report, with suggestions for priority issues to focus on, it was accompanied by a concise report about the star system they had finally arrived in from Volker, a very professional report from Brody about the structural integrity of the damaged area and a rather less professional but very expressive report from Eli about shield strength.
Young was aware that there were burned out shield emitters across the hull, meaning that most of Destiny's shields were stretched thinner than they should have been. With the damage incurred recently, Eli's report, backed up by Brody and Rush's reports, was that should they meet an aggressive space-faring race or even a large dust cloud, they "were toast". Eli may not be Hemingway or Whitman but his written word did still give one a very good mental image of the likely outcome of such an encounter.
Young sighed and sat back in his chair. The reports together all made it clear, that until they could get the shields to a safe condition, they were going nowhere. He checked the latest food report from Becker. The situation wasn't bad, not enough that he needed to consider rationing yet, particularly not now they had two hydroponic areas up and running, still he was keeping a close eye on consumption.
They never quite got a break, he reflected. Two steps forward and three back again. He signed off on Rush's plan for hull repairs while further investigation was done on the shields, agreed Volker's plan for more detailed scans of the system they were in with a view to asteroid mining, and sent an email to Becker, telling him to cut the meat rations down to minimum levels. There, now all he had to do was talk to Telford.
Telford was in the gate room, looking at the only gate that was within range, right at the extent of Destiny's gate connection range. It was locked out.
"David." Young greeted him.
"If we unlocked this gate that Destiny's made unavailable," Telford said, "we've got a chance it's in range of other gate which might be more useful."
"Destiny locks out gates that are dangerous." Young replied, watching as Telford scrolled through the details available.
"I know." Telford lifted a kino. "But it can't hurt to take a look."
Young considered a moment. "Fine. I'll get Rush to unlock it and you can send a kino through and see what's on the other side, but I'm actually here for something else."
Telford finally looked up from the screen.
"I need a pilot to accompany Volker. He's taking one of the shuttles out to survey the system. We need to know what's retrievable. He says there's some minerals and metals which are in quantities and places too small and inconvenient for the seed ship to pick up. He needs a co-pilot for the surveying. With any luck, we'll pick up some of the rarer resources the science team are saying they need."
Telford stepped away from the console. "What's the final aim of this?"
"Ideally, fixing up our access to the computer systems." Young replied, wishing Telford would just shut up and get on with it. "At the moment, we don't have ideal access to Destiny's major control systems, short of using the chair. Rush and Brody are theorising that if we can get the computer systems they've identified around the cold area back up and running, we'll gain more control over Destiny."
Telford nodded, his face thoughtful. No real surprise there, Young thought.
"It has the additional benefit of allowing us to identify any water and atmosphere resources." Young continued. "We're in a good situation at the moment, but Destiny and the seed ship have capacity to store more, so while we're stuck here I want us to pick up as much as we can, give us a wide margin of environmental security."
Telford nodded. "Fine. When is Volker scheduled to go out?"
"Four hours." Young replied, relieved the other man wasn't going to argue. "You've got time to send an exploratory kino through first." The concession wouldn't cost him anything.
Telford looked surprised. "Good. Very good. I'll find Rush."
Young snorted. "Best you find Eli, he's on break from repair work and he's the handiest with a kino. I'll get Rush to unlock your gate."
He turned and left before Telford could get another word in.
xxxoooxxx
Rush was glad that Olatunde and Wilson had turned out to be at least reasonably trustworthy and that they both got on well with Brody. Wilson had worked with Carter on a number of projects and had a knack for problem solving that worked well with Olatunde and Brody's practical skills and knowledge. Consequently, he had been able to turn over the hull repairs to them, whilst he, Eli and Chloe went through the shield systems and tried to identify the components that made up each shield emitter.
After the best part of a week, they had a working schematic that he was reasonably confident about. Chloe and Eli were currently going through the boxes of spare components from the storage, trying to identify what they had spares of and find any reference codes, names or parts labels that might help him identify the parts in the manufactory's list of components. Even once he had worked out what to ask the manufactory for, it was hit or miss as to whether they had, or had access to in this star system, the minerals needed in order to make them.
Finally, a real use for Volker, surveying the star system and its planetary bodies. It had only taken a few years.
He looked up as the door hatch hissed open and Young walked in.
"I've got Telford to go surveying with Volker." Young said without greeting him.
"I can't think of a better person to get off my ship and confine in a small environment with Volker." Rush muttered, turning back to the screen.
"But I need you to unlock the locked out gate."
Rush looked back up at him again with a scowl. Young just raised an eyebrow.
"Telford wants to send a kino through."
"Even though Destiny thinks it's a bad idea."
Young nodded in agreement. "He has an idea that though the planet itself might be unsuitable, it may give us access to better planets if we're stuck here for any amount of time."
Rush snorted.
"He has a point." Young replied. "Enough of one I'm willing to humour him."
Rush gave a one shouldered shrug and turned back to the screen. HIs long fingers moved over the screen.
"Done." He said.
"You never know." Young said, resting his hand on Rush's shoulder. "He might find something useful."
The look on his face didn't look confident of that fact though.
xxxoooxxx
Rush was already half asleep when Young slid into bed next to him, but the press of Young's icy cold feet against his ankle woke him with a grumble.
"What has Volker found so far?" He asked.
"Rhodium." Young replied.
Rush looked interested.
"I thought that would get your attention." Young said. "He think's it's retrievable, and there's a good amount of it."
Rush nodded.
"Volker says he's also found chromite and a decent and reasonably abundant source of copper."
That made Rush smile and Young smiled back.
"What's the seed ship doing since it left the gas giant?"
"Mining olivine."
"Olivine?" He queried.
"It's a mineral which can be used to sequester CO2," Rush said, "which is always a good thing for us to have."
Young nodded, feeling reassured by this. Since their early problems with lack of good air, CO2 sequestration was an area of science he had deliberately paid attention to when it came up, for obvious reasons.
"It's also useful for casting metals." Rush added. "But I suspect Destiny is more interested in its ability to potentially support our environmental systems."
"So," Young tucked the covers up around them both, "I get the rhodium, you've all been talking about needing platinum group metals, and the copper is obvious, but why is the chromite so important?"
"It's a source of chromium. Destiny uses chromium in alloys for a variety of things, alloying steel, refractory materials in high temperature situations, it's used in the power conduit systems. The seed ship will probably need to use it once I've worked out which components to ask it for to replace the high tension conduit systems."
Young settled down against Rush.
"Good." He said.
Rush wrapped an arm around his waist. "This is what Destiny's crew is meant to be doing." He said quietly. "Surveying, investigating, retrieving, testing, rebuilding, repairing."
"We'll get there." Young said, and reached out and turned out the light.
xxxoooxxx
"So, what do we know?"
Telford leaned forward over the table. "The planet has a hazardous level of solar radiation. It's got some vegetation which looks adapted for hot, dry exposed environments, but very little shade." He said, pulling up the data the kino had sent back to them. "However, a half hour period of exposure, suitably protected from the sun shouldn't prove dangerous long term. That's long enough to go through and see if there are any other planets within range of the stargate there."
Young looked at the figures quickly before Telford brought up the kino footage. The planet was incredibly bright, with plants bearing a strong similarity to cacti, mosses or lichens and what he remembered his grandmother keeping and calling "living stones".
Young nodded. "Fine. Take Barnes and Volker and a security team. Take samples of the vegetation for Doctor Inman and Doctor Park's hydroponics team."
Telford nodded and left.
xxxoooxxx
"There are two other gates in range of the stargate." Volker said. "One has a gate on a very low lying island, which appears to be part of a chain of similar small islands. We'd have to do further investigation to see what there is in the seas, but the islands are just rock and black sand."
Young sat back in his chair. "And the other?"
"Has sparse vegetation, scrub type environment, some kind of animal life, although it was a way off and we didn't get a good look." Telford said.
"More importantly," Volker added, "the kino picked up some kind of electromagnetic emission."
"Originating from what?" Young asked.
Volker shrugged awkwardly. "We don't know." He waved the kino remote a little vaguely. "Not without further investigation and readings."
"But?" Young pressed.
"It might mean the planet is inhabited." Volker said. "Thought whatever it is is a long way from the gate."
Young looked at them both, then took the kino remote to look at the information on the planets.
"Fine. We'll send a team to investigate both planets." He looked at the data on the screen in front of him. "I need Brody, Olatunde and Wilson to keep working on the hull, Eli, Chloe and Calvos can keep running the sensor readings on the system. Telford, you and Volker and your team can take the ocean planet. I'll take Rush, Greer and a team to take some readings on the scrub planet. Scott will take command of Destiny."
"You're leaving the ship?" Telford asked.
"Yes." Young said bluntly. "I'm ready to actually see a sky. If either planet proves safe and suitable we'll be sending all the crew in shifts for shore leave. I've had it impressed on me by Lieutenant Johansen and Doctor Macarthur that all of the crew need time on planet, including myself, to ensure sufficient vitamin D and promote good mental health."
Telford nodded. Young pulled his radio out.
"Rush."
There was a brief pause.
"What is it Colonel?" Rush's voice was typically irritated.
"Get ready for a trip to a planet. Volker has discovered some electromagnetic radiation readings which might indicate potential inhabitants."