“I suggest capturing a small one, sir,” Bill said dryly. “And with the new extraction systems that got installed, I’m not sure that pumping from a gas giant isn’t the better route. We should be able to do it fast enough and clean enough that we won’t have the hydrogen overpressure problem.”
“Duly noted, Astro,” the CO said. “Comet it is. XO, pressure still good?”
“Nominal loss,” the XO replied. “We should be good for at least twenty days with this loss level.”
“No more than fifteen days out we have to stop for ice,” the CO said. “That one I’m never going to get used to saying. Very well. Astro, course?”
“Anti-spinward at one-one-eight mark dot two, sir,” Weaver replied, pointing. “First star to the right…”
“And straight on to morning. XO, make it so. Warp Four and don’t spare the horses. We got a colony to check out.”
“So what now, Two-Gun?” Sergeant Champion asked over the comm. The team leader of Charlie Second was halfway down the compartment so Berg got it over his implant.
“Technically we’re on stand-down until we clear the grav barrier on the system,” Berg said. “Which Top figures means we’re all sleeping or gaming. But I’m guessing that Top’s gonna have one of his drills before that happens. Which, if we don’t work on corridor protocol, is going to be a cluster-grapp. I know I’m not senior here…”
“Two-Gun, Sergeant Norman, mind if I listen in?” Albert Norman had Bravo team of Second Platoon.
“Booster, gimme all the team leaders and senior team members in the compartment,” Berg said, watching lights go green on his video screen. “Champ just asked what I thought was next. We’re supposed to be bunked down until we clear the system. But Top tends to throw drills at us continuously during the early part of a cruise. What grapps us at first is corridor protocol. When the alarm goes off, everybody can’t be dumping out of their bunks. If you want a suggestion, we should get ahead of him as much as we can. Unass the bunks in the prescribed order, form up as if we’re moving out, then do it over and over again until Top calls an actual drill. Or we can just flake out and follow Top’s lead.”
“I’m for getting ahead of Top if we can,” Sergeant Charles Gardner from Bravo Third said.
“We’re in,” Corwin said. “I remember the first time Top called a drill. Cluster-grapp doesn’t begin to cover it.”
“Any objections?” Berg asked. “Right. We’ll start with boarders. First out of the compartment are the Wyvern teams. You’re in skinsuits. The rest don the vacuum rig. We’ll do it slow at first. Get your teams ready.” He switched frequencies to his own team net. “Smitty, Himes, we’re going to start doing drills. I’ll call the teams. If you’re Wyvern, get into your skins and form up to exit the compartment. If you want a hint, might as well put on skins all the time. They fit under the suits and Top won’t gig you for being in skins under your uniform. Casual SOP on the last cruise was ‘just wear the grapping skins, even if they stink.’ ”
“Got it, Sergeant,” Himes replied. “Should we just change into them, now?”
“Well, I’ve already got mine on,” Berg admitted, grinning at the overhead.
The first attempt was a cluster-grapp. One problem was putting the skinsuits on in the bunks was nearly impossible.
“We need to figure out a better way to don these things,” Berg said, huddling with the other team leaders in the corridor. “I tried getting into one in the bunk and it was grapping impossible.”
“Fall out of the bunks by odd teams?” Corporal Loverin asked. The Team Leader of Charlie Third was pretty junior for the slot in Berg’s opinion. But on reflection Berg realized Loverin had more time in the Corps than he did. “Don them with your buddy’s help?”
“Matching team leaders pair up,” Priester expanded. “So I’d pair with Champs or Lover depending on who was going into skins.”
“Can the teams keep that straight?” Berg asked. “The alarms are going to be going off, Top’s going to be shouting…”
“That’s what drills are for,” Loverin pointed out, grinning. “Let’s try it out.”
“Okay, but we go slow,” Berg said. “Have the skin teams fall out of the compartment, first, then we go to donning suits. We’re going to need to be able to do it fast, though. And eventually we’re going to have to figure out how to do it in the bunks. If we depressurize I don’t want to be trying to get my suit on in vacuum.”
After four tries, they worked out a good method to get the suits on, just in time to hear:
“All hands, stand by for system exit!”
“Okay, that cans it,” Berg said. “Everybody in the bunks.”
“We just got our suits on,” Loverin protested.
“We can lie in the bunks in the suits,” Berg pointed out. “It should be a smooth exit, but, personally, I don’t mind having my suit on for it.”
“What’s this?” the first sergeant said from the forward hatch. “Plotting to take over the ship by EVA, Two-Gun?”
“Just… drilling in suit donning, First Sergeant,” Berg replied after a moment.
“And let me guess whose idea that was,” Top said, looking around the compartment balefully. “How fast are you?”
“Slow, Top,” Berg admitted.
“Not as slow as I’d expected,” the first sergeant admitted. “But climb in your bunks and seal up. Berg, did you cover system exit?”
“Not in any detail, Top,” Berg admitted. “But it was covered in training.”
“And for those of you who don’t recall that five minutes of training,” the first sergeant said, raising his voice. “We’re about to exit the Sol system. There’s a gravitational distortion wave surrounding the system. Why it’s there was covered in training and I won’t cover it again. But it’s like going through a bumpy ride at sea. This one we’ve pretty much got worked out so it should be smooth. If anything untoward happens, however, you just seal your bunks and hunker down. It hasn’t killed us, yet. That’s all.”
“Methinks Top was a bit put out,” Corwin said, grinning.
“Oh, he’ll get us back,” Berg said. “But in the meantime, let’s bunk up.”
“Approaching system disturbance zone,” the pilot reported.
“Slow to normal space drive,” the CO said. “Astro?”
“Getting my readings on the waves, sir,” Bill replied, looking at the newly installed gravitometer. They were really in the outer fringes and he could feel the waves, like strange ripples of power, coursing through his body. Fortunately, they hadn’t stopped farther in. “Entry point should work in one hundred seven seconds, Warp Two Dot Three.”
The Blade had previously discovered that gravity between stars acted in a different way than within the star’s gravity well. At the edge, the two different gravitational forms clashed, creating standing gravitational waves that stretched for millions of kilometers. By timing the waves, it was possible to, in effect, “surf” them. But like any surfing, it took reading the waves just right. Fortunately, because they could be analyzed and were fairly steady state, it was science rather than art.
“Start the countdown,” the CO ordered as a clock on the forward viewscreen came on. “Any worse than usual?”
“Not apparently, sir,” Bill replied, watching the display show the rise and fall of the standing gravity waves. “We’ll have to do the usual jump in warp about halfway through, but it should be a smooth exit. Well, as smooth as it ever is.”