Endeavors: One Small Step

Part 1

"Okay, Houston. Let's make Einstein our bitch."

"Mason, you do realize we're recording all of this?"

"Yes?"

"And you know it's going to get played in middle schools and high schools for the next five hundred years, right? You know that?"

"Right... gotta keep it nice and clean for the future great-grandchildren. Okay, kids... Vanguard-3 is going to take its magic engine and go to Saturn and take some pictures, drop off some friends, and come right back home."

"Funny... You're field testing the ship's hyperdrive and delivering a payload of probes and satellites, Mason."

"I know. Just a quick drive around the block. Hey, Doctor, how's the 'drive looking?"

Amira's voice buzzed in Mason's ear as she said, "All systems green. Hyperdrive is charging normally. Jump calculations are set."

"Excellent, Doctor," Mason said. "Houston, did you copy?"

"Copy, Mason. Running final check-up down here."

Mason flexed her fingers and took her hands off the controls as Earth moved into view outside. The maneuver sequence was preprogrammed. She had little to do except watch the controls and make sure everything went according to plan. Years of training let her hide the excitement she felt in her bones as the controls counted down the last few minutes to the first maneuver. The ship's cockpit was practically luxurious compared to a fighter jet's and was set within the ship's habitat module. More than four meters wide and twice long, the module housed bunks and living areas for the ship's eventual full crew. The four modules making up the ship's bulk connected end to end like a titanium caterpillar and ended in the ship's massive web-like funnel lattice of magnetic field generators to channel the fusion drive's exhaust. A pair of radiators extended out from the ship's engine module like wings as the sun came over the horizon and made them gleam.

Mason allowed herself a grin at the thought of what she was about to do.

#

Amira looked over the hyperdrive core. A sphere of cables and radiation shielding that looked like a mechanical octopus, the machine took up most of the module and barely allowed enough space for the diagnostic stations, tools, printers, and other equipment needed to maintain it. Next to it lay the two bulkheads that led to the fusion reactor and the capacitor banks further in the ship's rear.

Mason floated into the engine room and smiled at the engineer as she checked all the consoles and controls on the hyperdrive.

"All green on my end, Doctor," Mason said. "How's your part coming along?"

Amira looked over the green lights on every board and said, "We could just have programmed the jump sequences. Most of this trip is automated anyway. And you could have just used the comms instead of coming back here."

"I like to check visually, too. And the reason you're coming along is because we need a human failsafe," Mason said. "I can fly this thing, even if she handles like a pregnant whale, but I know jack about how that thing works."

Amira sighed and said, "Well, you have a state-of-the art navcom. Just input your destination and you'll get possible courses."

"Yeah, but a computer doesn't have instincts. Or imagination. That's what we need on these flights."

Amira stopped working and said, "I just don't know why I got chosen for this mission. The project has dozens of people working on the hyperdrives."