“Two kilometers,” Cameron updated. Nathan could sense the satisfaction in her statement.
“Collision Alert. Collision Alert.”
Nathan’s optimism was almost gone. It’s not going to work.
“Message from the station,” she reported. “There hull temp is critical. They report structural failure in thirty seconds.”
It felt to Nathan as if Cameron were saying ‘I told you so.’
“One kilometer, one hundred closure.”
“All hands! Brace for impact!” Nathan resigned.
“Eight hundred meters, fifty closure,” she updated.
Nathan expected the computer voice to remind him of the impending collision, but it did not. They were going to strike the station, but there was a chance it might only be a bump.”
“Five hundred meters,” Cameron announced, pausing for a moment before continuing. She couldn’t believe what her instruments were showing her. “Zero closure,” she added. She felt like she had been betrayed at the last second, just as she was about to witness another crushing blow to her adversary.
“Kill the mains!” he ordered. “All stop!”
“Mains are offline,” she announced as she shutdown all maneuvering and propulsion systems. “All systems reporting all stop.”
Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. “Damn, that was close.”
“Attention. All hands secure from collision alert,” Cameron announced. “Repeat, secure from collision alert.”
Nathan should’ve thought of that one too, but at the moment he didn’t care. He was just relieved that he hadn’t destroyed the station.
“We are still rolling slightly,” she pointed out to him, making sure that he realized it was not a complete victory.
Suddenly, the lights in the room brightened, the projection screens surrounding them turned blue, and the back half of the room swung open.
Nathan nearly leapt from his seat as he left the simulator, not waiting for any critique.
“Fifteen minutes!” the sim controller called out to Nathan as he passed by.
Nathan waived acknowledgment as he exited the simulation center and headed down the corridor.
“You’re at the helm on the next one, Ensign Taylor,” the technician informed Cameron as she calmly got up and stretched her muscles. They had been sitting in the simulator for more than three hours.
“No problem,” she smiled on her way out.
The sim controller sitting behind his console above and behind the simulator bay just shook his head in disbelief. “That is one icy bitch,” he commented to the floor tech after Cameron had left the room.
Just then, the comm system buzzed. “Flight Simulations, Lieutenant Jacobs,” the controller answered after pushing the speaker button to take the call.
“Work Taylor just as hard,” the captain’s voice announced.
“Yes Sir,” the controller answered as the line went dead.
“Damn, he was watching that?” the floor tech asked.
“The old man sees everything.”
Vladimir stood at the monitoring station in the reactor control room. Located just aft of amidships inside the forward edge of the propulsion section, it was directly aft of the ships four antimatter reactor plants. From here, every detail of each of the Aurora’s powerful antimatter reactors could be monitored and adjusted. Vladimir was busy taking readings as he made some adjustments to one of the reactor’s electromagnetic containment bottles when the chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Patel entered the room and approached him.
The chief was an older man from India, in his early fifties, with a deeply receding hairline. He was heavy set, and like Vladimir had a passion for his work. He had quickly come to favor the Russian, taking him under his wing and bestowing more trust in him than any of the others on his team.
Accompanying the chief was a tall, distinguished, elderly gentleman, with stark white hair and dark eyes. He was also a civilian, as evidenced by his lack of uniform as well as the way he carried himself. Vladimir instantly pegged him as a scientist, undoubtedly coming to admire the Aurora’s advanced systems. There had been more than a few of them coming by lately.
“Vladimir,” the chief greeted, gesturing him to step aside for a private conversation. “One moment, sir,” the chief told the elderly visitor. He led Vladimir away from the elderly gentlemen to speak privately. “I have a favor to ask of you,” the chief said in hushed tones.
“Anything, sir.” Vladimir had great respect for the chief. He had been a wealth of information and support as Vladimir learned his way around the Aurora’s many systems.
“This man is from Special Projects. He has a team coming aboard as we speak. He has instructions to install and test some very important equipment on board this ship.”
“What kind of equipment?”
“It’s classified. All I know is that we are to give them everything they need, without question. These orders come directly from Fleet Command.”
Vladimir looked puzzled. “What would you like me to do, Sir?”
“I need someone to take care of this team, to be the liaison between them and the Engineering department.”
Vladimir did not like where this was going, as it sounded like he was going to be taken away from the work he loved in order to baby sit a bunch of scientists. “You want me to do this? Vladimir asked. He wasn’t asking a question as much as he was pleading for a way out of the assignment.
“Please, Vladimir,” the chief begged, do it for me. I have so much to oversee already. I need someone I can trust to make decisions on their own.”
“But sir…” Vladimir stopped in mid sentence as the rest of the Special Projects team entered the room, led by a stunning blonde woman. Vladimir’s concentration was suddenly lost.
“Don’t make me order you, Ensign,” the chief smiled, knowing full well that Vladimir would take the assignment willingly, especially after seeing the woman.
“Of course, Sir. It would be my honor,” Vladimir insisted, straightening his uniform.
“Good.” The chief turned back toward the elderly gentleman as the rest of his team gathered beside him.
“I’d like you all to meet Ensign Kamenetskiy. He is my most trusted engineer. He knows almost as much about this ship as I do. I have given him orders to provide you with whatever you need. Vladimir, this is Doctor Karlsen, the project leader.”
Vladimir immediately shook the elderly gentleman’s hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
“And this is his daughter, Doctor Sorenson,” the chief continued.
Vladimir took the woman’s hand, albeit with far more interest. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ma’am. If there is anything I can do for you, please, do not hesitate to ask.”
Unimpressed by Vladimir’s charm, Doctor Sorenson wasted no time getting started. “You have two unoccupied spaces on either side of the main engineering section, do you not?”
“Yes ma’am. They are to hold the shield generators. They are due to be installed in a few days.”
“Not any more, Ensign,” she advised coldly. “There has been a change in plans. Loading ramps have already been attached to these compartments. Please unlock their exterior maintenance doors so that we may begin loading our equipment as soon as possible. And see to it that no one is allowed into either of these sections without clearance from us.”
“Yes ma’am,” Vladimir relented, a bit confused.
“Also, we will need isolated and exclusive access to two of your reactors. The ones that were to power the shielding systems and energy weapons should work nicely.”
Vladimir was shocked. She was asking to take one half of the ships power generation capacity offline, to be used solely by their little project? He looked to the chief, who simply nodded his approval. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” he relented.
Doctor Sorenson looked at him for a moment before handing him a list. “This should cover it, Ensign.”
Vladimir looked at the list, his eyes widening and his mouth agape. “May I ask what experiments you are doing that would require all of this?”