CHAPTER 25 – Scientific Principles

"How close was I to being jettisoned and dying?" Elizabeth asked.

She and Jack were sitting on pillows which they had stolen from their room and placed on the floor in one of their favorite places on the transporter. Level 3 with its floor-to-ceiling, 8-foot wide windows. The couple only had one week left on the transporter until they landed on Planet Assaymark and began their sixteen-month assignments at the colony of Coal Valley.

It had been two days since Abayomi Nneki Oyeyemowa, Carl's girlfriend and better known as Union Jack Girl due to her penchant for wearing a tee-shirt designed with the British flag, had trapped Elizabeth in the mini-transporter and caused a harrowing fifteen minutes.

In the time since Elizabeth had saved herself from almost being jettisoned into space to die a slow death, Jack had learned that Abayomi had been driven to damage the ship by three of the strongest motivators. Anger, revenge, and money. Anger over hearing the news of the death of her best friend, and cousin, in the explosion in Coal Valley's biosphere had been supplemented with the idea of revenge upon hearing that the accidental explosion could have been easily prevented.

When a company competing for government contracts to build transporters had approached Abayomi with an offer for her skills in engineering, it had been too perfect to turn down. And their added financial bonus for her to do some corporate sabotage had more than made up for any guilt. Her plan was quite simple. Cause enough damage to transporters to slow down colonization of Coal Valley and ruin the company responsible for the explosion and deaths. It was nothing personal against Thatcher Industries – it just happened to be the company ferrying people to the new colony. The death of the transporter crewmember, who had been paid to aid her, had been unintentional. At least according the woman.

Abayomi's plan would have succeeded if it hadn't been for Jack. She had never anticipated that a North American Defense Officer would be added to the transporter's manifest the week before launch, or that he would grow suspicious of the number of malfunctions on the ship, and begin questioning people and checking into financial accounts.

Over the past two days, Jack had filled Elizabeth in on everything. Except how close he had been to losing her.

Jack sat with Elizabeth between his bent legs. His feet planted on the floor on either side of hers. Her back lay against his chest and her head leaned back touching his shoulder.

"Why are you thinking about that? It's over with. Just keep it out of your mind", he said into her hair as he kept his arms around hers.

"I just – I just need to know. It happened so fast that I barely had to time to breathe. And I guess I need to know what was going on with everyone else. Those of you on the other side of the door."

"You know what we were doing. We were talking you through everything."

"But you knew more than me."

Jack chuckled softly. "Do you always have to know what's going on? To know as much as everyone else?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm a teacher. We're always wanting to learn more."

"There's nothing left to learn. The ensign talked you through the steps. You saved yourself."

"I need to know about what else was happening when I was locked in. What was going on outside the mini-transporter? On the other side of the door. Please."

Jack took a deep sigh before replying. "It was scary and tense and hectic on the other side of the door."

"How long did I have until I was to going to be – you know – jettisoned and unavoidably dying?"

"Define dying." Jack instructed as he wondered if he could avoid answering her question.

"Expiring. Fading away. Ceasing to exist. No longer able to do this."

Jack paused before replying soberly. "Very close. You were very close to dying."

"Define very close," she said.

"Ten seconds."

"Ten seconds?!"

Jack shrugged. "Maybe eight."

"I had only eight to ten seconds to live?!" Elizabeth exclaimed in horror.

"Yeah," he replied glumly. "Well, actually eight seconds and three days. You probably would have survived on the mini-transporter for three days until it ran out of energy and you quickly froze to death and suffocated from a lack of oxygen."

"Stop! I don't want to hear it!" she ordered.

They sat quietly. Neither one speaking as they each became lost in their thoughts.

After a minute, Elizabeth tilted her head to look at his handsome face. "And you were right there. On the other side of the door. You never left," she said in awe. "You spent the last minutes you thought I was going to die telling me that you loved me. "

"And saving your life. Don't forget that part", he reminded her with a smile.

"Jack, be serious. I was almost dead and you thought to tell me that you love me. That is so romantic."

"You didn't think it was romantic when I said it. If I remember correctly, you freaked out. Practically accused me of lying about it. Or of being very slow and late in telling you. Kind of hurt my feelings now that I think about it," he teased.

"Hurt your feelings? I was the one about to die." Her eyebrows raised in scorn.

"How about we don't talk about dying any more. It kinds of puts a damper on romance, and I was hoping to get lucky tonight."

Elizabeth punched him the arm at his last comment and then snuggled her back closer against his again. "Now that I am safe and sound, I think it was terribly romantic."

"I can be much more romantic than that," he bragged.

Elizabeth grinned. "Oh really?"

"Yep."

"Prove it."

"See all those stars out there?" he asked as he nodded to the window in front of them.

"Yes."

"I put every one out there just to make the night shine for you."

"There's no night. It's always dark here. We're not near a sun", she reminded him, but she smiled at the idea of him filling the sky with stars for her.

"Smart Alec. I'm trying to be romantic and you're correcting me."

"Where did you get all of them? All those stars you put out there for me," she challenged.

"That part was easy. It was Ero's principle of Amor."

"I think you're mixing Latin and Greek there, but you've piqued my curiosity. What's Ero's Principle?"

"For a school teacher, there's a lot you don't know. Are you sure you're qualified for this space travel?"

Jack snickered when Elizabeth gently punched him again.

"What is it? This principle that I'm apparently too uneducated to know about", she asked again.

"It's very scientific", he warned.

"I think I can handle it."

"Part one of the principle is that a person can only see the stars made for them."

"And part two?"

"For every time you think about someone you adore, a star is formed. Every time you think about talking to that person, two stars are formed. Every time you think about kissing that person, three stars are formed. And so on and so on."

Elizabeth was silent as she looked out the large window at the galaxy in front of her and contemplated Jack's words.

The blackness of space was dotted with infinite specks of shining lights as far as she could see.

Endless miles of shimmering that reminded her of strings of tiny twinkling Christmas lights.

"That's an awful lot of stars out there," she finally whispered in awe.

"Millions of millions," he said quietly as he moved in for a kiss.

Up next: Chapter 26