The Chronicles of Aallandranon - Episode One - Ant-Lion (2 page)

He showered in his personal bathroom and
dressed in his uniform with the red armband. In two hours, the
Enigma would be leaving Pluto Station for Alpha Centauri. Jonathan
had been waiting for this day for the last twenty-years. He slid
his sleeve back and clipped the bronze Manica-Band onto his wrist.
The holographic interface on the bracer glowed to life as it
synchronized with his vital signs.

His
room door slid apart as he walked under the sensor and
then it closed and locked after he
entered the dimly-lit corridor leading to the Bridge. Juan
Langston
’
s door was open so Jonathan could see him meditating on a
red carpet with his neighbor, Rick Daniels, seated at his side. The
use of meditation had been promoted by the military throughout the
last hundred years as it was proven to steady the mind and body.
Since they were about to embark on a journey that could easily take
the lives of the 5,000 people aboard the ship, a little relaxation
couldn
’t hurt.

Jonathan took the stairs leading to the Primary Life
Support Hall. He stepped off the bottom stair to the rubber path
leading through the bright green grove beneath the artificial sun
on the ceiling high above. He walked between the large genetically
engineered evergreen oak trees that filled the room. He saw
Stephanie Rawi, the head of the ship
’
s environmental control
department, typing on a touch-pad as she observed a tree that was
yellower than the others. She had long red hair, brilliant blue
eyes, and a naturally fair complexion.

“
Good morning, Doctor Tabith.
”
She smiled at
him.

“
Morning, Doctor Rawi.
”
He nodded, looking at the tree-limbs
swaying with the steady stream of wind that pumped through the room
periodically throughout the day as Rawi surveyed her notes.
“
Is there any way I can be of assistance?
”

“
Not
unless you can explain why this tree grew with an imbalanced
cytokinin to auxin ratio.
”
Rawi cocked her brow at the clueless
expression on his face. She smiled.
“
I’
ll be fine, thanks for asking.
”

“
Sorry, my botany skills were subpar at
best.
”
Jonathan laughed.
“
Hard to grow anything
on Venus.
”
He started toward the lift nearby.

“
Good luck if I don
’
t see you again before
the launch.
”
She called as he turned around on the
lift.

“
Thanks, good luck with the tree.
”
He said. She adjusted
her glasses and nodded. The lift doors closed and he descended to
the Engineering Hall.

In
the Engineering Hall, hundreds of uniformed people hurried through
the many corridors between the reactors and computer terminals.
Jonathan made his way around the cat-walk and entered the
foreman
’
s office.

Chance Trillian sat at the desk looking uncomfortable as he
scratched the collar of his suit. He met
Jonathan
’
s eyes.
“
Morning, Doctor
Tabith. I hate going through Life-Support to get here. That
artificial sun always makes me itchy.
”
He had short, brown
hair and blue eyes. Chance had been born with a rare skin disease
that made him more susceptible to the sun
’
s UV rays. Before
leaving Earth, he had undergone a skin transplant that was supposed
to permanently cure his disease. After getting his PhD in
Aeronautical Engineering, Chance was one of the first engineers to
sign on with the Enigma.

“
Sam’
s putting out
fires,
”
said Chance.
“
Captain Joyce told
him he
’
d be off the ship if he didn
’
t have the reports on
his desk by five this morning. Sam forgot, even though he had the
reports ready on the desk when I got here. Hope the
captain
’
s in a good mood.
”

“
Where
’
s William? I need to go over a few points before
launch.
”
Jonathan said.

“
Really? You
’
re being anal-retentive. Everything is just as perfect
as it
’
s been for the last three months. There
’
s no point you could
cover that he hasn
’t.”

“
You
’
re probably right, and I briefed him and Sam Hartigan
already so it should be fine.
”

“
Engineering is covered.
”
Chance assured him.
“
Go enjoy the launch from the Bridge.
”

Jonathan took a deep breath.
“
Fine. Carry
on.
”
He continued to the other side of the Engineering Hall and
rode the tram to the Core and Observation Deck. The doors opened to
the massive neon purple core that consumed the center of the Core
room. Terminals surrounded the base where twenty engineers were
crowded for last-minute checks and tweaks. Jonathan had spent most
of the last few days in this room, calibrating the core for the
level of energy that the ship would need in order to get out of the
solar system.

He
followed the path that wound around the room and core. He
couldn
’
t help thinking about the amount of power the core
held
–
enough to destroy half the solar system if it were to
destabilize. Both the ship and the Pluto Space Station had crippled
him financially, but it was necessary to see all of this come to
fruition.

Jonathan entered the Observation Deck, a long domed-glass
corridor leading from the Primary Functions part of the ship to the
Operations. The corridor was filled with people moving from one
part of the ship to the other. Everyone from the Primary Functions
had a green armband. Each person Jonathan passed once he exited the
Observation Deck was wearing a red band for Operations.
The captain and the executive
officer had blue armbands.
The
medical officers
’
armbands were white, and the maintenance and flight
officers
’
armbands were orange. He walked past the Medical office and
entered the Bridge.

The
Bridge was a large room with three stories beneath the massive
front window of the Enigma. The bottom story was for flight
controls and basic ship operations where Ryan Thompson and Clara
Wallace were positioned in the pilot and co-pilot seats. Patrick
Spalding was seated at the operations terminal going over
diagnostics. The second story was for Tactical and Defense. George
Freeman sat at the defense terminal, monitoring the
ship
’
s
defense system. The third story was information. Gene Sherri ran
the Information Center, so everyone was used to hearing her voice
when it came to interacting with the Enigma Network. At the podium
on the third story, Executive Officer Stephen Adams stood at
Captain Richard Joyce
’s
side.

“
Finally rolled out of bed, Doctor
Tabith?
”
Captain Joyce smiled. He had thin, graying hair and the
confident charisma of a military leader.

“
Just nervous about today.
”
Jonathan said.

“
Don
’
t be. Everything is running smoothly.
”
Joyce
replied.

“
Everyone keeps saying that,
”
Jonathan said, approaching the
weapons terminal,
“
though
I
’
m
sure there
’
s something someone
’
s forgotten, something
that got neglected or slipped between the cracks, like the weapons
being shut off. What if we had entered the Oort Cloud without the
weapons being online?
”
He turned the weapons support
on.

“
That wouldn
’
t have happened,
”
said Captain Joyce.
“
Have a little faith in Mr. Freeman
’
s
capability.
”

“
Thanks for the support, Doctor Tabith.
”
Freeman said
sarcastically without looking away from his
terminal.

Jonathan checked the shields, making sure they were keeping
the ship protected from radiation as well as small space debris.
All was as it had been throughout the last year since the
Enigma
’
s initial launch. The power, the conundrum Jonathan had
fretted over for years, had remained at a constant flow from the
core. He could hardly believe they were an hour from launch without
a single problem. He had created the Enigma to be
flawless.

“
Since you have nothing else to do, Tabith, go down to the
Flight Dock and give this to the new recruit.
”
Adams slipped a
touch-pad into Jonathan
’s
hands.

Jonathan took the pad through the doors nearby. The Flight
Dock was directly under the Bridge, so he wouldn't have to go far.
He took an elevator to the level below where dozens of large
aircraft were stored. The Hawks, which lined the docks to the left
of the pathway, were small fighter aircraft whose purpose was to
clear away asteroids or scout questionable regions of space. There
were a number of Falcons
–
a five-man surveillance
aircraft
–
on the level beneath the Hawks. The larger Freighters were
for transports, and they could hold close to a thousand people in
the event that they needed to disperse a small populace from the
Enigma. The ultimate goal was to find a habitable planet while
maintaining a space station in that planet
’
s orbit. Within the
transport Freighters were all the means necessary to do just that,
including terraform technology.

The lift lowered to the bottom floor. It took
a minute as the room was so large. Below, men in mechanized cargo
loader suits moved large boxes of equipment from the loading docks
to the climate-controlled storage units. Jonathan approached the
recent arrivals line, which currently contained only one transport
Freighter. A group of officers exited and started down the ramp.
The last was a young woman with long, curly brown hair and blue
eyes. She was still wearing her black academy uniform with the gold
trim, which meant she had been pulled straight out of
class.

“
Janice
Temps.”
Jonathan approached.
When Janice saw Jonathan, her face went two shades
lighter.

“
You
’
re....
”

“
Jonathan
Tabith.”
He shook her
hand.
“
You did graduate, right?
”

“
I
was rushed, but I was at the top of my class for ninety-five
percent of the course before they told me they needed to draft me
an hour ago. I know how to run this ship all by myself, so you
don
’
t
have to worry about that.
”
Janice said.

“
Confidence: I like it, but I like experience a lot more.
Get familiar with the flight crew and get started on rotation.
Here
’
s
your debriefing.
”
He gave her the touch-pad.

“
Hey
Tabith, I have a bone to pick with you!
”
A familiar
woman
’
s voice called from one of the catwalks surrounding one of
the transports being worked on by the maintenance crew. She stepped
onto one of the lifts and descended. Elizabeth Newman glared at
Jonathan as the lift dropped to the floor. She had long blond hair
and hazel eyes. Her armband was orange for maintenance.
“
A chance to one-up my old science partner on his own
creation
–don’
t mind if I do! I believe you owe me about a hundred and
twenty grand.
”

“
I’
m afraid
you
’
re
standing on everything I own.
”
Jonathan chuckled.

Elizabeth crossed her arms and looked Janice up and
down.
“
Fresh meat? There should be some extra uniforms in the
Lock-up. Get changed before someone sees you and thinks
you
’
re
on the wrong ship.
”
She pointed to an open doorway across the Flight
Dock.