Kelly brought up a window on the classified system and searched for any classified reports on the fire. He pulled up two agent reports from a team sent in to coordinate with the local authorities on Secundus. They didn’t have much more information than the news reports.
Kelly spent the rest of the afternoon researching all he could find on the Indigo Consortium and its board of directors. After several hours, he looked up and saw that it was late and he should probably hit the rack. He checked his schedule for tomorrow. It would be a light day, with only one outside meeting at Scout Force HQ at 1300. He called up the agenda, saw it was a logistics meeting for all ship execs. He checked the Vigilant’s log status, closed down his terminal, and took a walk around the ship. Kelly then turned in for the night.
The next morning, Kelly reviewed the night watch log and saw nothing of interest. He headed over to the dining facility and had breakfast. Kelly was hoping that today would be boring. Boring was good when you were the acting commander.
Kelly spent the morning reviewing the manuals on the sensor systems. He was looking for new tricks to use when out on patrol. He was especially interested in applications he could run on his monitor on the bridge. It was a shame that Chief B had the duty last night and was sleeping. She could have helped him in his research.
Kelly checked messages. He had a reminder message about the 1300 meeting. He had a message from his bank, giving his balance and including his most recent purchases. He had made a small hole in his account. Fortunately, his expenses were minimal. His quarters were free. His meals were free. His uniforms were subsidized. Life in the Fleet wasn’t bad.
Kelly went to the 1300 meeting. It was one of the interminable meetings by the base admin and logistics folks about the latest regulations on requisitions, personnel actions, and yard procedures. Kelly knew it was going to result in more paperwork for him that evening.
Of course, one of the things that was bad about the Fleet was the paperwork. Technically, it wasn’t really paperwork, because all of it was handled electronically. Electronic or paper, it still took a long time to complete. By the time he was finished, it was well past the time the dining facility closed for the evening. He called his parents and invited himself over for dinner. He owed Arnold a chance to cook him a meal.
Kelly cleaned up and changed out of his coveralls and into his duty uniform. Officers living on ship generally wore their duty or work uniform while on base. Kelly caught a shuttle and wound up at his parents door.
Arnold met him at the door, beaming. “LT Blake, welcome. Your parents are in the outdoor room. Your dinner will be ready shortly. Kelly thanked Arnold for cooking up something for him this late, and went out to see his folks.
Kelly’s folks were having a heated argument about digitizing living tissue. Kelly poured a glass of wine from a waiting bottle and sat down. He listened for a few minutes, decided he didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, and tuned them out. When they realized he wasn’t listening, they stopped.
Moira said, “Kelly, are we boring you?”
No, Mom, I just haven’t a clue what you are talking about. You two are using terms I never heard in college.”
“Son, I never knew your education was so deficient. We paid good money for you to be an engineer. Obviously, it didn’t take.”
Kelly’s folks broke out laughing. Moira said, “Of course you didn’t understand any of it. We invented it. We are talking about transporting human beings and cargo through the ether like radio waves. It does what our FTL transport system does, but with no receiver on the other end. We’ve done it with inanimate objects over short distances. We are trying to extend our range to hundreds of kilometers…”
Kelly broke in, “Are you telling me you are working on a transporter beam?”
Andrew said, “Well, son, that’s not what we call it, but that sums it up succinctly. In fact, that is what we’ll call it from now on. We feel we are a couple of years away from perfecting it, but it shows great promise.”
Kelly shook his head and laughed, “Mom, Dad, do you get all your ideas from old science fiction works?”
All three were laughing when Arnold came in and said dinner was ready. Moira and Andrew had eaten earlier, but they went in with Kelly to keep him company.
Kelly sat down and Arnold brought in a local fowl, sort of like a cornish game hen, wild rice, apple relish, and a shredded vegetable salad from local greens. Kelly ate very well.
After dinner, Kelly went back out to the outdoor room with his parents and a bottle of wine. Andrew took a long sip and said, “Son, I understand that Tom has already spoken to you about why we are here. He didn’t tell you everything, though. Our transporter gate will be here in two weeks. It was fabricated at Fleet Base 14 in the Tau Ceti system. When it gets here, it will have taken the space tug two weeks to pull it here at power 2 light speed. Once we have it set up and functioning, that tug will make the trip back in seconds.”
“Dad, how safe will it be?”
“It will be safe enough that your mom and I will make the return trip using it. In fact we are so confident, that we will ask Tom to loan us your ship to take us back.”
Kelly almost dropped his glass of wine when he heard this. He said, “You want to use the Vigilant and my crew as guinea pigs?”
“Exactly, except they won’t be guinea pigs. The only thing they will be testing is the long distance transmission capability. We’ll do a number of tests before we send your ship through. It will be very safe.”
Andrew mentioned that he and Moira had made scores of trips through the gates at their lab at Tau Ceti and the two prototype gates within the Tau Ceti system. “This will be the first operational test over realistic interstellar distances.”
“But why the Vigilant?”
“Well, the Admiralty is not completely sold on the idea. We need a test they can’t ignore. They need to see a Fleet ship come through the gate unscathed to convince them. They also need to know that we have no reservations, no fears that our technology won’t work. The most convincing test we could think of was to use your ship in the first operational test. I hope you understand the importance and significance of this test.”
“Dad, are you absolutely sure this technology is safe?”
Moira spoke up. “Son, if we weren’t sure, we would never risk all of our lives at once. We have months of successful tests over short, intrastellar distances. We wouldn’t ask anyone to chance what we won’t chance ourselves. Trust us, it will be fine.”
“Well, I always have trusted you. Why should I stop now? I have a request, though. When we do the test, only one of you is to be on the ship at a time. If anything should go wrong, it won’t be a good idea to have the only two people in the galaxy that understand it to disappear. We’ll need one of you to help get us back if something goes wrong.”
“You make a good point, son. Your mother and I will consider your concerns.”
Kelly had to get back to the ship. He said goodbye to his folks, thanked Arnold for a wonderful meal, and caught a shuttle.
Upon his return to the ship, he did a quick walk around inspection and retired to his quarters. He turned in, but it was a while before he could get to sleep. Tomorrow, he’d have to tell LCDR Timmons about his parents’ plans. Together, they’d have to tell the crew.
Kelly woke up early the next day. He wanted to give the ship a thorough going over before the captain got back. Chief Watson met him in the galley with a cup of coffee. Together, they divided up the ship and put the crew to work making the Vigilant shipshape. After noon chow, Kelly took the helmsmen and ran them all through simulations on board. He remembered the slow response when they lifted off the asteroid. He ran them through several drills of landing in zero-G and making quick lift offs. He wanted them to bring the ship down quickly and safely and get them up and away in a smooth easy movement. After four or five drills he had all the helmsmen much more confident at the controls. It would still require actual practice to get it fully ingrained in them, but it would do for now.