The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [4]
“I have no doubt,” Magodin said with a smile.
Eager to leave the bridge and filled with a feeling of unease that was not likely to leave him soon, Thomas led the way to the aft turboshaft entrance. Although the five of them would just fit into one elevator cab, it wouldn’t be a comfortable journey, so Admiral Patterson took the lead, guiding Magodin and Quinn into the waiting cab. At that, Thomas winced inwardly, since it meant that he would have to travel with Satie. She was a person who had earned his respect and admiration, and that made what he had to do even more difficult.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to postpone it. Tomorrow was no worse a day for it than today, after all.
What followed was—thankfully—a very short trip, interrupted only by Satie’s remark about the almost ostentatious use of interior space that bordered, in her opinion at least, on wastefulness. Thomas had no choice but to counter her claim and assure her that it only appeared that way. In reality, the Enterprise’s corridors, quarters, and laboratories were not significantly wider, longer, or generally bigger than on any other ship in the fleet, not even on those built in the previous century. Perhaps, he suggested, the Enterprise’s size was misleading? People might be tempted to assume that simply because the ship itself was bigger than others, its rooms might be bigger than those of other ships as well.
Eventually, the doors opened onto the largest single inhabitable space on a Galaxy-class vessel, the main shuttlebay on Deck 4, where the other three members of their little group were already waiting.
Ahead of them, the Enterprise’s entire fleet of shuttles had been positioned meticulously on either side of the shuttle maintenance bay, at an angle that had their bow pointing toward the large doors at the far end. There were more small craft present than would be necessary once the ship’s first mission had begun, but Thomas knew that they had been put there to make an impression on the guests. It had been Patterson’s idea from the beginning to make this visit a part of their tour.
Thomas addressed the group. “Admirals, Madam Secretary, let us have a view of Mars so rare that you will be sure to treasure it forever. If you would follow me…”
They did so, and moments later they had arrived at the bay door, ready for the experience that awaited them. Thomas pressed a button on a console near the left wall. Immediately the door began to open, and he experienced a short pang of irrational fear as the entire shuttlebay was seemingly exposed to raw space, with only an invisible force field between them and the cold darkness that waited out there.
The view certainly was awe-inspiring, since the ship had been angled away from Mars—a maneuver that now gave them the opportunity of a lifetime to look down on the dusty-brown planet from the aft-facing shuttlebay without any noticeable barrier obstructing their view. They were able to see not only the work pods of various types flitting about between the ships and space-borne installations that belonged to Utopia Planitia Orbital but also the sloping drive section of the Enterprise herself. Fortunately, the neck of the ship prevented them from having a good view of the—
“Captain Halloway, wasn’t there a dreadful accident earlier this year? Something to do with a torpedo launcher, I believe,” said Satie, her face and voice seeming innocent but her intent betrayed by the fact that Satie was the chief of Starfleet Operations and had to know these things. As it was, however, he knew that she was perfectly aware of what had happened, and she was asking about it only to hear him explain—once again—how everything went down, and how it was not really his fault but was still his fault because he had been the man in charge.
There was no point in avoiding the topic, as it would certainly have come up—no doubt ably assisted by the good admiral—in a later discussion, and so Thomas had no choice but to go over all