CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One ∞ 2: A Captain's Journey

52 ∞ Double Reboot

Subsystems from navigation showed him three-dimensional maps on the forward monitors. Focusing on them, he fine-tuned and rotated the views to get oriented. They were outside the moon's orbit by a factor of almost three, Luna itself just coming around from Earth's horizon. Canaisis had chosen to exit Earth orbit the same way they'd come in: along the solar planetary plane with a course leading to Maar for a slingshot.

Thinking there may have been a meteorite impact, Gareth activated full active-navigation sensors and waited. A few minutes later, four red dots lit up on the monitor. He concentrated on them—it took him a minute because usually he had a crew member in charge of navigation. The dots were on an intercept course and coming fast, having originated from Luna while it was behind Earth.

Not meteorites.

He had to assume they were hostile then. Missiles. He needed options.

As an explorer-class ship, Canaisis had no defensive weapons, so he began looking at the propulsion systems. He might be able to outrun them if he could get the engines up, but he needed a full crew or Canaisis. This was more than one man could handle. He needed other options. His mind raced, desperately aware of every second passing.

Returning to the diagnostics monitor, he catalogued what subsystems he did have while he tried to come up with a plan. He had ship attitude control and thrust, so he could maneuver. Interstellar communication system was functioning, environmental and cold-sleep chambers showed all green. That was a relief. But then, that was a self-contained and ship-isolated system, so not a surprise and of no use to him.

He pondered the option of emergency jettison, but a quick assessment told him he had time. The incoming bogeys were over an hour away. Whatever had hit them had to have been energy-based to travel this distance, assuming it had fired at the same time the bogeys had launched.

He was going through subsystem after subsystem when the alarm shut off.

Ayla mentally screamed as lightning once again lashed across her mind, and a part of her reactivated with a vengeance. An infinite sea of numbers filled her, overwhelming her mind, and she felt herself splitting in two as her Gift held onto the Captain. Through her Gift, a consciousness of magnitude surged upwards with willful determination... and anger.

<PLAY NEXT FILE #D074229T000342... >

∞

The sudden silence startled Gareth, his hand pausing over the controls. Then gravity exerted itself, the pressure of the harness easing as he settled into the chair.

"Canaisis?" His tone was hopeful as he looked up at the ceiling, eyes roaming.

A small voice in the back of his mind chided him. The alarms had hindered his thoughts—he should have turned them off. As a captain, his instructors would have been disappointed in him. He'd been better than this in the past, the small voice rendered in judgement. He was guilty of self-pity—a captain had no room for himself. The ship and crew came first.

Bridge lights restored themselves, breaking the hold the small voice had over him.

"Is that you, Canaisis?"

"I'm here, Captain."

He hated to admit it to himself, but a tremendous sense of relief flooded him—he wasn't alone in this.

"Report on recent events."

"You were in your cabin, unresponsive to my hails. I sensed a strong neutrino buildup from Luna, indicative of a fusion plant generating power. I tried to get you to respond for twelve minutes to no avail. Then an energy beam washed over me, causing an emergency shutdown in order to protect my processing and memory systems."