Across The Universe With A Giant Housecat (The Blue) (8 page)

During the tour, I hadn’t seen a trace of Samantha Selburn, my training partner and fellow Space Reader.
 

Paczoranni showed me the training room they had set up for the two of us. It was not nearly as large as the science labs, but it awed me nonetheless. Star charts and diagrams were pasted to the walls and there were several monitors that Paczoranni explained held a massive stellar database for our use.

A huge concave screen covered one wall and part of the ceiling.
 

“That’s what you’ll use the most, I’m sure,” said Paczoranni, gesturing towards it. “It’s a three-dimensional screen that can simulate—very realistically, I might add—anything in space. Just load a program and you’ll feel like you’re out there among the stars.” He smiled. “I’ve tried it out. You’re going to love it.”

“That sounds great,” I ventured. Leo stared at the screen, bristling as if he expected the thing to swallow him whole.

“Only a few of us aboard know what you are and why you are here. We’d appreciate it if you keep it that way, at least for now. I don’t want to stir anything up, and as you have probably know, Blue Star is a somewhat volatile topic.”

I nodded. I knew well how volatile Blue Star was—having a ship stuffed full of the stuff had gotten me Trilloque’s wrath and had nearly gotten me killed.

“Training you and Dr. Selburn is going to be mostly guesswork. You have a certain amount of hours per day that you will spend here, browsing star libraries and making use of this facility. Beyond that, you will learn about the workings of this ship and spend a little time with every department, so that your education is well-rounded.”

I nodded.

“Very good,” said Paczoranni. “The rest of today is yours to do with as you please. I suggest acquainting yourself with the layout of the ship. Your schedule for each day after that will be given to you via the monitor in your quarters every morning.”

“You’ll be casting off soon, right?” I ask. “Can I watch from the bridge as we navigate out of the base and into hyperspace?”

Paczoranni looked amused. “We’ve been in hyperspace for over an hour. We left the base as soon as everyone was aboard.”

“But… I didn’t feel anything! My stomach normally does a flip when I enter hyperspace!” I looked around for a window so that I could confirm what he had said, but there was none. We were deep in the interior of the ship.

“The
Indomitable
has the very latest in environment-stabilizing technology. You won’t feel a thing,” he announced proudly, patting a bulkhead affectionately. “She’s a smooth ride.”

I nodded agreement.

“One more thing,” he said, producing a small chip attached to a strap. He handed it to me. “It’s a wrist communicator. Everyone has one. Standing Admiral Northe said you didn’t have one on the base and were a bit hard to find at times because of it.”

“Thanks,” I said, accepting the device and buckling it onto my wrist.

“You can use it to contact people privately and they can contact you. Don’t lose it.”

“I won’t.”

He nodded. “I have duties to perform, so I’ll leave you on your own for now. See you tomorrow.”

“Thank you for the tour.”

“My pleasure,” he said as he headed for the elevator.

Since I hadn’t eaten yet that day, I headed to the cafeteria to get some food for Leo and me.

The cafeteria food wasn’t nearly as good as the food we’d eaten on base, but we managed. I was hungry, so that made everything delicious. And if Leo had any complaints about the food, he kept them to himself, while devouring two platefuls and licking the plates clean.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the ship. Though it was much bigger than the
Dragontooth
, it had a fairly straightforward layout.

There were crew quarters, the cafeteria/mess hall, bathroom facilities, a recreation deck, several science labs, the bridge, a medical bay, and a training area for us Space Readers, all connected by a series of hallways.

The training area that had been constructed for Samantha and me was far aft, converted from what used to be the reinforced cargo area. That made sense—the
Indomitable
wasn’t planning to transport any heavy duty cargo, just us. There probably hadn’t been the space to build our training room anywhere else.

After I had satisfied myself learning the layout of the ship, I relaxed in my bunk for the rest of the day and composed a message to Katelyn. I hoped she was fitting into her program at the academy nicely. Something told me that she was, and that she had already begun to love it.

#

I didn’t see Samantha until the next day.

I woke up after a restful sleep in my bunk, Leo curled up near my feet. My roommate, an engineer named Taylor, had already left.
 

As promised, First Officer Paczoranni had provided us with a schedule for the day. After breakfast, I (with Leo, of course) was to report to the training room.

I found Samantha there, already leafing through files and star charts.

“Hey,” I said. “Ready for this?”

“As ready as I will ever be,” she said determinedly. “What are we even supposed to do here? I was told we are pretty much on our own in here.”

“Me, too. They don’t know how to train us, so they’re just giving us everything we need and hoping we learn stuff ourselves.”

Sliding a star chart disk into one of the ports, I turned on the huge screen. Immediately it flashed to life as the room’s lights automatically dimmed.
 

Before us was an impressive display of stars. They looked three dimensional and real enough to reach out and touch. In fact, I saw Samantha trying to do just that.

“Wow,” she said. “It’s like we’re actually out there, in space.”

“This is the star field by Hardlove Colony, isn’t it?” I asked, tilting my head as I stared at the stars.

“Yes! And that way is Bayleaf Colony.” Samantha picked up a remote control of some kind and pressed a button, causing the screen to zoom in on one area of the star field.
 

“Go that way!” I pointed. “I want to see if you’re right.”

She followed my directions, and together we navigated manually from Hardlove Colony to Bayleaf Colony, using only the patterns our minds saw in the stars. Her abilities were similar to my own.

We spent the next several hours repeating the process with other star fields, navigating from place to place, each time increasing the difficulty. But it didn’t matter—we succeeded every time.
 

“I think the
Indomitable’s
training of us is going to be easier than they expected,” declared Samantha after we had navigated from one end of the known galaxy to the other without making a mistake.

“You could be right.” I felt very pleased with myself. I hadn’t really expected it to be this easy.

A monitor behind us beeped. Glancing over, I noticed that the next thing on our schedule was to have lunch with the science team, where they would explain a little about their fields and the work they would be doing on this mission.

Samantha rolled her eyes. “I’m sure they scheduled that one with you in mind, not me.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Sorry. Scientist superiority complex. I know their team, and I’ve had
years
more schooling than any one of them.”

“Still, maybe they could teach you something. I learn stuff all the time from my sister, and she’s only thirteen.”

She made a face. “I suppose.”

We headed down to the cafeteria to join the scientists. I listened intently to what they had to say, but understood very little of it. After a while, it was so far beyond me that all I could do was nod and smile. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that their talk was lost on me; they were very excited and enjoying themselves too much. Whatever their work was, I could tell they loved it.

Samantha, on the other hand, ate two plates of food and promptly fell asleep at the table. Leo did the exact same thing.

The scientists didn’t seem to notice.
 

It was going to be a long night.

 
Chapter 12

Five weeks. That was how long the journey into deep space was. Five weeks of zooming further and further from civilization, the
Indomitable
entirely on its own. It was a little scary to think about, so I tried not to think about it.

Samantha had proved to be easy to get along with. Every day, she and I spent hours going over the star field charts. We had learned that our Space Reader abilities were about equal and that we could navigate just about anywhere. We took turns trying to trick each other with the most confusing space charts, but it never worked.
 

We learned the ins and outs of the ship completely. By the time we were nearing the planet Coriolanus, our destination, we had been given tours and worked with every department in the ship, from the bridge crew to the engine mechanics. I had a new understanding of the workings of any smoothly-run spaceship.
 

Everyone tolerated Leo, who had adapted to life aboard the
Indomitable
well. He even made a few friends among the crew and he handled our schedule well. If he was ever bored during a task Samantha and I had to perform, he would simply curl up and sleep wherever he was. Thankfully, the number of times people had tripped over him had remained firmly under ten.

I was deliriously happy with everything. After the accident, my dreams had taken a devastating blow, yet here I was. I was living my dream: traveling with the elite of the Stellar Intrepid to explore the untold reaches of space. Every night, I collapsed into my bunk with a smile on my face.

#

“We need to focus,” Samantha said firmly.

I nodded, but my heart wasn’t in it. We were nearing the planet at least. The end of our journey. After five weeks in space, we had arrived.

And, because I was a supernumerary and not an essential part of the crew, I wasn’t allowed to watch the landing from the bridge. Paczoranni had told Samantha and me in no uncertain terms that we were only going to be in the way up there, then banished us from the bridge for the time being. He said that we would see plenty of the planet when it landed.

So, disheartened at missing the excitement of landing, here we were in the windowless training room. I realized I had been spoiled by the wonderful views I always enjoyed from the pilot’s chair of the
Dragontooth
.

The ship bucked again as it entered the atmosphere. Or so I thought…there were no windows in our training room.
 

The ride was getting rougher. Samantha groaned.

A polite voice boomed over the comm. “A landing is in progress. All passengers are instructed to be seated and strap themselves in.”

“Really?” I muttered as Samantha and I strapped ourselves into our chairs. I was still annoyed at being thrown off the bridge. “My sister has made smoother landings than this.” Grabbing Leo, I pulled him onto my lap before he could protest.

The ship bucked again, more violently this time. Immediately, my annoyance turned to concern. This could be serious. What if the pilot was losing control? Was something wrong up on the bridge?
 

“Are all landings this unpleasant?” asked Samantha levelly as she gripped the armrests of her chair.

I shook my head. “Never. But maybe there’s something in the atmosphere that is making it harder to land. Every planet is different.” I unbuckled myself. “I’m going to see what’s wrong. I’ll go find a window.”

I stood up—and another jolt immediately threw me back down again. All right, then. No going anywhere for me. I buckled myself back in and gathered up Leo again.

The polite voice spoke on the comm. again. “We are experiencing landing issues. Please make sure you are secured in your seats with your seat belts fastened.”

“Oh no,” said Samantha, her face going white. “This is bad. We’re going down. We’re crashing. Oh no! This has never happened to me before. What do I do? I’m a scientist! I’m not prepared for this!” Her eyes darting wildly, she began to hyperventilate.

No. I couldn’t let her panic.

“Samantha, listen to me!” I said firmly, placing a hand on her arm. “We’re in the safest part of the ship. This room was built into the reinforced hull for carrying heavy duty cargo.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They needed Space Readers more than heavy cargo.”

That seemed to calm her.

I got up and scrambled towards the door. I had to shut it—that was standard procedure in a crash. Shut all doors in the hopes that they help strengthen the bulkheads around you, in case the ship collides with something.

We were already towards the stern of the ship, so that was good. The stern was the best place to be in the event of a bow-first collision, like this one looked to be.

Reaching the door, I shoved it closed then reached for the emergency air mask cabinet next to it. I flung it open and grabbed for two—no, three air masks. Then, as the deck tilted at an increasingly uncomfortable angle, I started for one of the chairs.

Some of the equipment that we had been using slid off the table—thankfully the table was bolted down—and slid towards me. I dodged it, lunging for my chair.

Grabbing the arm of the chair, I shoved myself into it and buckled both buckles.

The deck tilted further and I saw our third companion come hurtling towards my chair in a flurry of orange fur, claws, and outraged yowls.

“Leo!” I caught him as he hurtled by, pulling him onto my lap. “It’s going to be ok. Stay with me!” Unbuckling one of the belts around me, I re-buckled it, this time with him firmly buckled beside me. The belt could barely hold us both. Leo was trembling.

The ship continued to tilt and bounce. The monitors were too far away for me to access without getting up, but I guessed we were somewhere in the lower atmosphere.

I remembered my wrist communicator.

“Paczoranni!” I yelled into it as the lights flickered. “This is Alan Michael Wolf! What’s going on? Do we abandon ship?”

There was no reply.

Samantha was hyperventilating again, but at least she wasn’t crying out. The same could not be said for Leo, who was increasingly close to making me deaf in the ear closest to his mouth.