Isaac ascended the lift to the bridge. As the doors parted, a conversation between commanding officer Sola and the navigator Heron could be heard.
Sola wore a white officer’s uniform with a flat-top cap. His well-kept, long black beard stretched the length of his neck. The voyage took its toll on him hard. Deep grooves etched into his face; the stress aged him by years in only weeks. He was a Junior Class Lieutenant visiting his father’s memorial site on Deck 9 when the Endurant broke up. The council for the section was away, meeting with the Endurant’s captain. They were never heard from again, which left Sola the only qualified officer left to lead, despite his rank.
Isaac didn’t know much about Heron. He came from a separate lifeboat that was abandoned. Sola trusted him fully, and Isaac had no reason to doubt his abilities otherwise. The navigator was a red head with deep green eyes and an unnatural pale complexion. Perhaps he was just being overworked and didn’t get enough time under a sun lamp. Isaac regretted being in the same position.
“Explain this to me again. I don’t understand.” Sola spoke, bewildered.
“I’ve had to reboot the system a dozen times since starting my post. Something strange is going on with the nav planner. At one point I thought we lost track of our current destination." Heron spoke in a hushed tone, the two tucked away in a corner of the bridge near the lift.
“Could it be raider activity?” Sola cocked his head, suspicious. “Why would our entire navigation system go dark all of a sudden?”
“I don’t think so. We would have picked up something on radar if so. There isn’t anything around us.” Heron shook his head.
Sola looked around the navigator and spotted Isaac standing near the lift. The C.O. crossed his arms. “Keep working on it, let me know if you find anything.”
With a quick look over his shoulder, Heron spotted Isaac and then gave Sola a firm nod before departing back to a large table at the far end of the bridge. The control center of the lifeboat lacked any sort of flair. It wasn’t much bigger than a double-sized supply closet. Located in the exact center of the lifeboat, it was safe but inconvenient to access.
The captain’s chair was situated only a few steps in front of the lift. Just beyond that, the helmsman’s seat was a step or two farther. On the far wall was a projection of multiple images. The outer groups monitored the perimeter of the ship with multiple camera feeds. The center was the local star map with various bits of data flanking the bottom of the image, such as bearing, velocity, and core ship parameters such as power.
“No chance you came here to deliver good news.” Sola looked at Isaac with a mild sheepishness that broke through his otherwise stern demeanor.
“Oh, I have plenty of good news.” Isaac folded his hands in front of him. “For one, the new core was installed on time and under budget.”
Sola motioned for him to continue, suspicious.
“But that same core is threatening to turn this ship into a molten hunk of metal.”
“And that’s why you’re standing here right now.” Sola pursed his lips, frustrated.
“When we broke away, most of our coolant had been sent out for recycling.” Isaac started. “We were lucky, there was enough in the transmission lines to keep us going.”
A mild clamor rose from deeper in the bridge, near the navigation terminal.
“We need to find a ship to scavenge coolant from or there is a good chance that within the next six to eight weeks we could have a meltdown, in the worst case.” Isaac knew there were other worst cases, but those didn’t involve coolant and decided to omit them from his report. Particularly where if the new core wasn’t put under load, it would sap the lifeboat’s batteries, threatening to turn it into a sterile, icy tomb.
“We have a severe lack of capable manpower right now. Going on any sort of excursion is a risk we can’t take.” Sola’s stone-faced expression began to waver, revealing nervousness. “Maybe we can—”
“Sola.” Heron called out across the bridge.
The C.O. pivoted in the direction of the navigation terminal. Most of the bridge crew were standing around it. Without another word, Sola broke away from Isaac and approached the group.
“This is bad.” Heron shook his head, distraught. “It’s gone haywire.”
Sola looked over the shoulder-high display with hardware directional controls on one side. “How so?”
Heron pointed to the star map displayed on the navigation terminal. “This isn’t our original destination.” It showed a series of waypoints strewn together, curving toward a particular point labeled ‘Argo – Unknown Contact’. “We were on a direct intercept with the G-109 Firebird, the only ship within range that might have space for all on board this lifeboat.”
Looking around confused, Sola shook his head. “Where’s the Firebird in relation to our current destination?”
Heron pressed the directional buttons in a panic, to no effect. “I can’t show you; this thing is unresponsive.” He pointed to the floor, in the opposite direction of the series of waypoints. “But it would be that way.”
“Can’t you reboot it?” Isaac piped up.
Heron shook his head and pressed the power button next to the directional pad multiple times, in demonstration.
Isaac pursed his lips, mildly frustrated. “Just pull the hardwire.”
The navigation officer reached behind the display and produced the plug dislodged from the hull power connector.
“So the display is frozen then. Call someone from I.T. to—”
Heron pointed at the travel ETA timer counting down, about four weeks to destination.
“You’re telling me this thing is somehow running on its own? What about the network connection, maybe that’s providing power?” Isaac cocked his head, bewildered.
The navigation officer produced the disconnected network wire. Isaac swallowed hard, the thought of the phone call with the woman of the reactor core crossed his mind. Was this her doing? His eye twitched, nervous.
“Then we do it as the first navigators once did. Draw a paper map, calculate the route manually and once we get closer—” Sola started but was interrupted by the navigator.
“We just lost control of the ship.” Heron spoke up for the helmsman. “Whatever is doing this to the navigation system is using it to steer us toward this unknown target.”
Sola looked to the small server closet on the other side of the room. “Then shut down everything, reboot it. There must have been a virus uploaded from Alucar contact.”
“We already did that. Everything in this room is air gapped. The control servers are shut down. Inbound and outbound network connections have been severed.” Heron spoke, fear filled his voice. “Whatever is causing this has full control of the ship.”
The C.O. looked around, resolute. I want all hands working on getting this boat back under control. Then Sola turned and pointed to Isaac and motioned for him to follow back toward the lift. The C.O. spoke in a hushed tone. “You said worst case that we had six weeks until this coolant issue becomes critical.”
“It’s alre—” Isaac caught himself as he glanced at the frantic movement on the bridge. “Yes, six weeks, worst case.”
Sola let off a stressed sigh. “Then for the next four, your job is to keep it under control.”
Isaac immediately understood that the issue with the navigation was a higher priority than the coolant problem. He lamented more over-long days monitoring the reactor again, but who knows what awaited them at the end of this imposed trek. He turned and pressed the button to call the lift.
“Oh.” Sola called out. “Good news for good news.” The C.O. forced a smirk. “Bio processing reported they’re now running at full capacity. The canteens should be opening again soon.” He plucked at Isaac’s baggy jumpsuit arm. “You look like death. Make sure you get something on the way back.” As the lift arrived, Sola motioned with his head for Isaac to get a move on. “It’s in no small part thanks to you.” The C.O.’s voice grew solemn. “Good work. And good luck.”
After a silent farewell, Isaac returned to the reactor bay. As he plodded along the narrow halls, he passed by several canteens, all mired in chaos as the facilities opened again. Starving people clamored for the food that was being put out in long metal trays. Isaac contemplated abiding by Sola’s command and braving the rush. But the bite from the reactor fruit kept him sated. Yet another bad choice which weighed on Isaac’s mind.
Returning to the maintenance bay, he sat down and looked over the reactor stats display. Everything was still running hot, but not as much as before. Maybe he was tired and blew the whole issue out of proportion. Pressing two fingers against the bridge of his nose he suddenly needed to take a walk, to clear his mind. He felt like a fool for not giving the system time to adjust to the new reactor. After reaching the door, a rumble in his chest, like something rattled his heart halted his motion.
Isaac looked up and spotted the floral-figured woman towering before the reactor’s oak. Anger welled within his belly and without thinking, Isaac leaped onto the four-wheeler and peeled out, rushing for the reactor’s entryway. He was going to get answers out of this thing. Even if it meant taking an axe to everything within the core.
