ISS Artemis 24 parked at jump point 115d from planet 6 system 612-744
Date 1184-268 Imperial Standard
Time 0824 Shipboard
"Daryl your ship can move," Vrain announced entering the crew area followed by his assistant.
Ishyn looked dubious, "For real?"
"Positively," Vrain assured him. "Of course at this time, old Artemis has only heard of Einstein; she has not heard of Miyata, Roshenka and has absolutely no idea of Lukallemerii. Therefor I would not try to exceed the speed of light nor even approach a reasonable percentage of light speed."
"Very funny Chief Engineer." Mel dropped a half meter square component in front of the commander. "OK, what am I looking at?"
"It's the verdomme stuk stront jump regulator that is as useful as a kankerhoer," Mel spat.
"Do I want to know what she just said?"
"No," Vrain answered. "A summary would be that our main regulator can be recycled as scrap. And before you ask, no that is not a spare we have on board."
"Bad?"
"Very. A huega-fruit counter decided that we could always requisition the part from a depot or way-station, rather than every ship carry an extra, as we used to. Accounting did not think that an exploration ship would find itself unable to use the X-boat network."
Val looked puzzled, "No one is that stupid are they captain?"
Ishyn shook his head, "You have much to learn boy. It doesn't even surprise me. So Mr. what are we going to do to pass the time until an X-boat arrives in forty or fifty years?"
"One option is to bypass to the ship's main computer."
"I smell a but."
"I estimate that would add fifty-four nanoseconds to the cycle. Our safety buffer is fifteen nanoseconds."
"Is that a big deal," Val asked.
Vrain smiled, "Jump mechanics 101- Einstein discovered a temporal distortion as an object approaches the speed of light; to avoid that, we need to use jump space. We travel in an alternate universe, dimension, realty. No one is completely sure, but it works.
"Mechanics 102- our jump drives produce a field allowing us to enter j-pace and travel a predetermined distance, not to exceed six parsecs in a variable but standard median time of one hundred sixty-eight hours."
"I'm with you so far. Pilots get the jump courses too.
"Mechanics 103- Matter," he tapped the bulkhead, "cannot exist in j-space. The drives burn an enormous amount of fuel to drop us into j-space but the greater amount of our fuel is used to form a protective ablative bubble around the ship. The regulator keeps the field stable and provides a shield for the hydrogen similar to the way nuclear dampers work.
"Now I won't bore you with the formulas but in round figures the bubble extends four meters out from the hull. That gives the regulator around fifteen nanoseconds to correct any shifts. The main computer would take about fifty-four nanoseconds due to the distance it sits from the drives."
"How far could the bubble shift in fifty-four nanoseconds?"
"About sixteen meters."
"And that would not be good for us?"
Vrain walked over and placed a friendly hand on the pilot's shoulder, "You would become the Imperium's foremost authority on quantum physics and leading expert on jump space theory. Of course your brain may not even have time to register that fact or maybe your last heartbeat would last a subjective thousand years."
Val paled at the thought, "I don't think I like that."
"Nor do I," Ishyn added.
"There is a chance," Mel started.
"Speak up, I'm listening."
"The derelict"
"It only has jump one capability," Vrain cut her off, "their regulator would be incompatible."
"NO, remember they upgraded the engines to jump two."
"That series merchant has Leukin drives. All proprietary components."
"True they start that way but the most common on the used market would be Ling-Standard, Trin Yards or Deneb Industries drives. Ling-Standard are compatible with our drives, and the others would most likely use Naasirka or Ichiyama J-Synch regulators. Both of those are user programmable."
Vrain thought it over, "You may be right, likely the Ichiyama but they would have the 242 model we would use 212." He picked a set of repair goggles out of a storage bin. They magnified the users vision while projecting technical manual pages direct to the user's eye like a pilot's heads up display. A couple taps on the control and he found the pages he sought. "We could recalibrate our sub units to account for that difference... it just may work."
"Are you saying," the commander inquired, "that Elli's Chance has the part we need?"
"I would say a two in three chance."
"I like those odds better than the opportunity to spread my molecules across time and space. If only we had more data on those things aboard."
"I may have something," Mel offered.
"What do you have?"
She ran to her quarters and came back with the data cube and sample jar. "I grabbed these from the chemist's office. Something he was working on. I think it has to do with those creatures."
"And you did not think to report this?" Ishyn asked softly.
"Well no," was as far as she got.
"Engineer Apprentice have you lost you mind?" Ishyn shouted. "You take a sample biomass off a ship that is infested with hostile organisms and bring it on board my ship!"
"Yes but.."
"Be silent! You have violated at least eight quarantine regulations I can think of off the top of my head, how many other standing orders, I can't even think. You could be court-martialed for this. In wet navy days I could have you keelhauled. This ship has an internal keel so I do not know how that would work but the fourth planet has liquid methane oceans so I have not ruled out giving it a try. You now have the opportunity to explain yourself in ten words or less."
"I...I..."
"Eight left!"
"I didn't think sir!"
"Made it in six, you may have that many functioning brain cells left! What is on the cube?"
"I have not looked," Mel was too shocked to even have tears.
"Listen to my orders and follow them precisely, all of you!"
"Yes sir!" a chorus reply.
"Pilot set a course back to Elli's Chance. Approach no closer than five hundred meters."
"Aye, aye sir."
"Chief Engineer."
"Sir?"
"Do the impossible and fix this damned device," he pointed at the regulator.
"That is..."
"I don't care, do it anyway. That Solomani mechanic always fixes the stinking submersible on those old Underseas Trek holos with a broken spanner and his own fingernail clippings! I expect no less of you!"
"Yes sir."
His voice dropped to a whisper, "Apprentice?"
"Yes sir?" Mel squeaked.
"You are to consider yourself under arrest and confined to quarters. During your time you will study all data on the cube. I will come to you in exactly thirty-six hours for you to inform me what you have learned. In that time you will neither leave your quarters nor utter a word. Take enough survival rations to feed yourself so you do not have to come out."
"Yes sir."
"I believe I ordered you to not speak."
Mel began to rise but Ishyn stopped her with a pointed finger. "In one syllable tell me, did you ever open that container?"
"No"
"Prior to executing my previous orders, you will don a vacc suit then take that to the main airlock. Place it centered on the outer hatch, exactly two point five millimeters from said hatch. Then close and lock the internal hatch and post a bio-hazard warning on the interior hatch. You will then fulled decontaminate yourself. The time you take counts against your thirty-six hours."
He looked at his crew, "I will be in my quarters working up a real rage. Move people!"