Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

19 - The Hesperian

"Okay, even more reason for me to get to control room. How's Stephen doing, Foxy?"

"First Officer Stephen Redcliff has just exited his cryonic storage pod."

"Good, tell him to meet me in the control room as soon as he can."

"Yes, Commander."

Ria knew that climbing four decks and opening four more pressure hatches was going to be a challenge for her weakened muscles but she could not delay it any longer.

* * *

"Foxy, while we're waiting for Stephen, you might as well do a detailed check of all systems," Ria groaned as she slumped into her command chair in the Control Room.

"Do you mean a level two or level three check, Commander?"

"How long do they take?"

"Level two would take approximately seven minutes. Level three would take approximately twenty-four."

"Better make it a level two then. Start it now. And activate all the consoles in here. Any transmissions from the Elysian, apart from the automated distress calls?"

"No, Commander," Foxy replied.

"Okay, Foxy, use the U.L.R. system to send two requests for more information from Control. First one, what happened with the Uranian and was anyone hurt? Second one, are they aware that contact has been lost with the Arcadian?"

The Ultra Long Range communication system was the only way to communicate with Earth without a decade-long delay in each direction. The technology relied on a pair of machines, each with one half of a pair of quantum entangled particles, locked together regardless of distance. When one particle was moved, the paired particle in the other machine instantaneously moved in perfect unison. By using the state of the particle, like a crude telegraph, it was possible to send messages over interstellar distances with no transmission delay.

The system had two weaknesses. Firstly, communication could only be performed in one direction at a time. Secondly, the transmission speed was very slow, only able to send a few characters per second.

"I will send those requests now, Commander."

She pulled herself further into the seat and then slumped, finally letting exhaustion get the better of her. She remained like that for a couple of minutes willing her muscles to recover until she heard someone struggling up the ladder below.

"How are you coping with being defrosted, Stephen?" she called, slowly pulling herself into a more upright position.

"I've got a splitting headache," replied Stephen's familiar voice through the hatch in the floor.

"You okay otherwise?"

"As far as I know. This all feels like a vivid dream. Nothing seems quite real. Have you found out any more about the Elysian's situation? Foxy told me about the distress calls."

"No," she replied. "But we need to decide how we are going to react."

"We don't have many options," he grumbled. "What do you want to do?"

"It comes down to ignoring it and getting on with our mission or redirecting to Proxima C. The best option should be letting Arcadian and Uranian deal with it. They were supposed to be going to Proxima C anyway."

"Were?" he queried, pulling himself up through the hatch and sitting on the edge of the deck to rest for a while.

"Uranian isn't coming and we've lost contact with the Arcadian. We have no way of knowing if they made it this far," she sighed as she rubbed her own sore neck muscles. "The way I see it, we have no choice but to redirect."