Читать книгу Star Map - Fabienne Gschwind - Страница 10

But exactly ten days later, this peaceful atmosphere was over. It was just before dinner. Milo was still working, Jay was training on his punching bag. Nemo was helping the cooking robot prepare a goulash. Lex was sitting on the sofa with Joe, and they were looking at a pattern catalog.

Just in this peaceful mood, Milo entered. "Okay guys, we're in a vortex... Has anyone seen my handheld computer?" He began quietly searching among the seat cushions. At the same time, the alarm bell rang. "Vortex, vortex, vortex," Kiki screamed.

Jay threw his boxing gloves into a corner and turned off the wailing alarm. Loudly, he shouted to Kiki, "Emergency maneuver! Everyone in space suits! Brace for impact!"

But Kiki only said, "We're already in the maelstrom, there's nothing I can do. We will reach the abyss in 14 minutes."

Pale, everyone looked at each other.

"So, this is how it ends?" Nemo raised his soup spoon and pointed to the goulash. "How about the last meal?”

Silently, everyone sat down. Fourteen minutes was an awfully long time to wait for death, and far too short to do anything else. "This is not how I imagined death would be. It feels so absurd." Lex sighed and seemed close to tears.

Then Milo returned with his handheld computer in hand. He seemed completely normal and not at all as if his last hour was about to strike. "What are you doing? We don't have time to eat, we have to get everything ready for the transfer!" he shouted excitedly.

"We're all about to die, there's nothing we can do," Joe explained, she walked restlessly back and forth and seemed unable to grasp the whole situation.

But Milo just shook his head. "Why are you all talking about death? We're not dying, but we have to point the ship accurately or we won't be able to pass the vortex tube. Jay, I need you to be the pilot! Lex, you need to talk to Kiki. Joe and Nemo, you need to go to the engine room to shut everything down! Come on!" Milo was totally excited and got confused several times. "Didn't you read my paper on subspace vortices that I wrote six years ago? I wrote down the procedure exactly!"

"Wait a minute! Milo, hold your breath and explain it all again! But in a way that we mortals can understand!" Jay stood up and spoke in a sharp, commanding voice.

Milo had obediently held his breath and explained in simple terms what he had discovered.

Over the last twenty years, he had frequently received signals from a vortex-like singularity in sensor data. Enough to compute a model, he had found that the vortices were, as suspected, strong subduction in the Abyss. Once deep down in the curvature, they would span perhaps thousands of light-years in a few minutes. And emerge somewhere else in the galaxy. But only if the ship was properly immersed in the vortex tube. Otherwise, it would be torn apart by the gravitational distortions along the tube.

If they aligned the Abhysal properly, it would slip through the vortex and appear elsewhere in the galaxy. But Milo thought he understood from his calculations that it had strong electrodynamic distortions creeping upward from the tube.

Milo, therefore, recommended turning off all sensitive equipment, or preferably anything that required electricity. "That way we're on the safe side."

Jay quickly understood what was at stake, and took command with a practiced hand, "Black alert! Everyone to their posts! Milo will explain everything steps by step!"

Alert black was only used when a life-threatening situation was imminent. The crew donned emergency spacesuits and took a dose of the high-tech drug called soslinum. This stimulant would dampen anxiety, keep them awake for 48 hours and help them stay focused. They also tore open the bags of "Liquizy" and drank the mixture. Liquizy was a food paste that completely filled the stomach and slowly released glucose, supposedly keeping you from feeling hungry for four days and giving you enough energy to work through it.

This procedure was well-rehearsed, and within a minute everyone was ready. There was hope, immediately the crew was in survival mode and everyone started working efficiently and quietly. Nemo and Joe began shutting down the ship's systems while the others gathered in the astrolab. Jay held his hands over the control panel, waiting for Milo's orders. Milo stood in front of the screen showing the raw subspace data, interpreting it. Lex was coupled with the AI and coordinated the targeted shutdown of the ship's systems. Milo was giving Jay the instructions. Jay was almost blind because he couldn't interpret the raw data and the chart Kiki calculated in advance was always a few minutes late. He had navigated with Milo several times in tricky situations like this and was fully focused on the instructions.

"Jay, turn the bow two degrees to port. Very good. We are now sliding diagonally into a laminar flow, then we need to turn the stern so we are orthogonal to it... Attention and now."

Jay performed the maneuvers. In the meantime, Joe and Nemo had shut down everything possible without turning off navigation and the onboard computer.

"It will take at least two weeks to get all the systems working again," Nemo growled unhappily. "Uh, I'll be glad if we ever get around to rebooting anything," Joe countered tensely.

"Nemo, Joe, you can shut everything down now," Milo's voice sounded through the radio.

With a full five minutes left, Lex wordlessly said goodbye to Kiki and her baby and disengaged just as the on-board computer shut down. She felt completely empty without Kiki. With trembling hands, she retrieved her necklace from under the spacesuit, from which hung a simple wooden cross. Then she locked the helmet and began to pray silently.

Jay quickly tied a first aid kit around his waist and tucked a large flashlight into the harness before fastening the seat belt.

By now, only the emergency lights were on and through the dim light, Joe and Nemo also entered the astrophysics lab.

They folded down the wall chairs and strapped themselves in. They both had tool bags with them, so they could run right out and seal a leak. The capacitors on the gravity plates subsided and zero gravity set in. "Two minutes to go," Jay said. "Wait a minute, where's Milo?"

He had left the astrolab and everyone looked around. Suddenly, Milo floated in through the door, holding a bag of goulash. "I'm hungry," he said and began to spoon.

"Milo, you can't eat anything now!" exclaimed Joe in consternation. "Why not?" came the question.

Nemo invented something. "It'll shake and rattle and you'll choke."

"Oh, nonsense. Nothing will happen."

"Milo, close your helmet and buckle up!"

Again, an endless minute passed. "Nemo, can I hold your hand?" asked Joe almost shyly.

Nemo held out his hand to her. Jay didn't know where to put himself, and he kept turning his flashlight in his hands. Lex was deep in prayer, Milo had grabbed his pad and was doing some math.

Still, nothing happened. Joe had her eyes squeezed tightly shut and Nemo was holding her hand.

Everyone was waiting for a thud or something, but still, nothing happened.

"Are the two minutes up or not?"

Finally, Jay couldn't take it anymore and looked questioningly at Milo, who had been scribbling on several pages.

"Milo, are you sure about your calculations? Milo?"

Milo winced and looked at Jay questioningly. "Oh yeah, we've been back up for a long time, didn't you feel it?"

If Milo said it, it had to be true. He could feel intuitively subspace, so he knew exactly when he was in subspace or not.

Finally, they all unfastened their belts and went to a viewing hatch to look outside and find certainty. Hatches were scattered all over the hull, so they could see the sensor systems and also follow a spacewalk. Finally, they came to a hatch, and Jay wound up the shutter.

Sure enough, the black universe with its cold stars opened up before them in all its glory.

"Congratulations, we survived a vortex!" Nemo grinned and laughed.