Alpha One - Chris Burton [107]
The meticulous attention to detail reminded Jake of Carla. So often in the past, he or Steve ventured into something ill prepared and Carla stepped in to save the day. This was typical of Carla. What forced her to do something so out of character?
Winterburn had a lot to answer for. Jake secured the space yacht and headed to his apartment for some rest. He was ready to go, but needed sleep. It was a long day.
* * * *
Jake awoke at 8 a.m., took a shower, and ate a light breakfast of cereal and orange juice. He dressed and spent a few minutes transferring his server and comm link connections to his portable comm link. He then headed for the space yacht. He entered and set about the pre-flight checks so critical to any journey, but none more so than this one. Jake was about to make a log entry in the ships records, when an instantly recognizable voice came from behind him.
“You didn’t expect me to miss the party, did you?”
Steve Costello sat bold as brass at the navigation console. He wore blue standard Alpha pilot fatigues and appeared in a state of readiness for a mission.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Same thing as you. I couldn’t let on that I was just as worried about Carla as you were. The Top Gun was at stake. I needed us to hang on until that was over.”
“What if I decided to leave earlier?”
“I would have stopped you.”
“Steve, I have Academy clearance for one month’s leave of absence. Have you spoken to our tutor?”
“I have just left him a long message. The bottom line is the Carla thing is unavoidable and I will return.”
“They won’t be happy with the way you have done this. If we don’t come back with a good result, you are going to be in big trouble.”
“I know, but what choice do I have. Anyway why is my way so different to yours?”
Jake ignored Steve. He knew he had no choice. He didn’t want Steve to come along, but it was clear, save from physically evicting him, that Steve was coming.
“So, we go together then,” said Jake.
“Yes, together. Though God only knows what we are letting ourselves in for.”
* * * *
Three days later, the space yacht cleared the Kuiper Belt and headed out beyond the Oort Cloud. The ship was about to cross the boundaries of the solar system into deep space. Traditionally, this was seen as the point where a rookie became a full-fledged pilot, in much the same way as crossing the equator for the first time by a sailor was seen.
Neither Jake nor Steve had ever ventured beyond the solar systems limits and today, albeit without the pomp and ceremony of a larger ship with experienced space farers to make the most of the moment, they were determined to mark the ‘special’ moment. Steve took the stellar drive offline and Jake got ready to plot the official mark by making a log entry as the ship’s master.
The journey to date was insignificant. Both men began to experience real space travel, long-distance travel where nothing happened for days on end, and where the view remained the same endlessly with only the most observant noting the variation in the star constellations. They talked, but Jake managed to keep the subject of his ‘new’ relationship with Carla off the agenda.
* * * *
The Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt gave variation to their journey. Jake and Steve took the opportunity to assume manual control through the cloud. This was a difficult navigational challenge, with the fabric of the cloud ever-changing, with pockets of plasma and space debris scattered throughout its sprawling mass.
Then there was nothing again. Nothing visible to mark their own personal landmark. This was a distraction. An important one, because even after two hundred fifty years of space travel, a very few experienced life beyond the Solar system. It was an ironic privilege, given their current circumstances.