Star Fields

Chapter No.2 Reception

Chapter No.2 Reception

The unexpected is always stressful!

The next morning I was on the command deck at the engineering station checking on a list of repair jobs that required my attention. One critical job involved replacing a tungsten iodide lamp on the agricultural deck. These very bright lamps provided artificial sunlight for the plants growing there.

When I heard the tell-tell squeak of walker wheels, I turned around to watch Molly moving slowly into the command deck from the elevator. I stood up and smiled at her. Despite her messy blond hair, her beautiful countenance was definitely much younger looking than her profile picture.

"Welcome to the Explorer X-1. I'm Jason the engineer." I gestured to the android seated at the pilot's station. "And, this is Judy the helmsman."

She briefly glanced at Judy before turning to me with a confused look. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"Ah . . . It appears that you and I are the only humans to survive this mission."

She tilted her head like a dog hearing a high-pitched sound. "What happened?"

"This vessel suffered a power grid failure, taking it out of warp and shutting down the artificial gravity, shielding, and environmental systems. There were only three of the androids activated and their main problem was to restore power. That took them fourteen days, which meant that the stasis chambers failed."

She squinted. "How did we survive this . . . failure?"

"The androids injected their bio-agents into our blood. That produced enough oxygen to prevent cell narcosis."

She lowered her head. "Shit!"

"I know how you feel. You should return to the crew deck and go to your quarters. Your name will be on the door. Your assistants will clean you up and give you nourishments to help your recovery from stasis. When you feel ready, you may come up to the command deck and use the navigation station to determine what sort of a planet this vessel is headed to. We need to take on water before we can go anywhere else. I'm going to be busy with some needed repair jobs. You may join me in my quarters at 1800 hours for supper."

She gave me a frown before turning and shuffling back to the elevator.

When she was gone, I turned to Judy. "I'm going to the agricultural deck and then to Engineering."

Judy nodded.

When I exited the elevator on the agricultural deck, I entered a marvelous mystical land of plants. Down here is where wheat, corn, soy, fruit trees, and various other food plants are grown and tended by gnome-sized robots that walk around on mechanical legs.

The artificial light was dim enough to give everything a shadowy look. I looked up at the sunlamp mounted on the ceiling of the chamber and saw that it was definitely dark. I walked along a path to a geodesic out-building that contained equipment and supplies. I was met by two androids.

Fanny and June looked a lot like Judy and my two assistants. They were blonds with slightly different facial features.

"We have the replacement lamp on the platform unit, Jason," Fanny told me.

I looked over at the unit. It was actually a flying device that used magnetic power motors to defy gravity. I stepped up onto it and June followed me. She used a joystick to fly the unit up to the lamp module mounted on the ceiling of the deck.

I unfastened the latches that held the lamp's transparent cover and swung it open. The expired bulb was held in flexible sockets at both ends. I had to pull the bulb out in one motion and then place it on the floor of the flying unit. Then, I carefully picked up the new bulb with my hands encased in fabric gloves so as to not contaminate it with finger smudges and then plug it back into the sockets. I closed the cover and turned to June. She made the platform descend to the floor of the deck.