The Pathfinder Project (44 page)

“
Pardon me
?”

“As I understand it, the CAS
systems will only accept commands from dedicated work stations in the Lab wing
or from my Delta console. Each work station logs a
specific
security
code for all commands as they are received and processed by our network. So
look at the log and please tell me which work station changed the destination coordinates
on us.”

“
Stand by Captain
,” Glen
said quickly.

“This is
not
good,” Adam
noted, clearly frustrated. “If we can’t restore the CAS systems to full
operation we’re a long way from anyplace safe right now…”

“Don’t begin worrying
prematurely,” replied Dennis firmly. “The ship is intact and simply drifting
calmly in a gravity river at this point… that’s all. The only problem that we
need to address is how to get safely out again. We have food, water, and a lot
of resources out there – drifting right along with us. If we require additional
fuel then at least we have plenty of material nearby to search through using
shuttles.”

“Do you know how
long
it
will take, using only standard PTP, to return to normal space?” queried Adam.
“We’re not talking a short-term crisis here. Our maximum range for transit just
decreased to a fraction of our previous capability. Standard Point-to-Point is
usually meant for travel within our
solar
system.”

“
I’m sending a copy of
today’s activity log to Adam’s screen
,” Glen’s voice crackled through the
Comm-link speaker. “
All commands are prefixed by a location code: ‘COM’ for
Command Dome or ‘LAB’ for the Lab wing. This location is followed by a work
station number, command sequence ID, and a date/time stamp. Together these
items comprise a unique key that is assigned to each computer instruction
processed by our systems
.”

“The command that changed the
transit coordinates will be near the end of the list,” Dennis commented,
pointing at the information appearing on Adam’s screen. “It will be the
instruction received just prior to CAS PTP activation.”

“There,” Adam said, pointing at
the screen. “What the devil…?”

They stared in awe at the
command log list. Each instruction began with the proper security code prefixed
by ‘COM’ or ‘LAB’
except
for the one they were looking for. The command
that issued the change in coordinates
was
there, but listed with a
security code beginning with the word…

“
Trust
,” Kaufield said,
dumbfounded. “No work station ID, no sequence number, no date or time received.
Just the one word: ‘Trust’.”

“Who could
do
that?”
Mary asked. “Not even our top-level command staff can bypass the dedicated
systems and plant a command like that. It would take…”

“...Much more technical
knowledge than anyone on this ship has,” the Captain decided. “It
must
be our unknown friends again – the ones who sent us the ‘universe diagram’.
Whatever their ultimate agenda for us is, we’ve just moved another step closer
to it.”

“They forced the
Pathfinder
to come here and crashed our CAS systems in the process,” Adam growled. “And
now they’re asking – at least I think they’re asking – for our unconditional
trust? That would be a hell of a lot easier if we had been allowed a
choice
in the matter.”

“Mary, please keep our motion
sensors active and scanning,” Kaufield decided. “I’m going to go and have a
chat with Dr. Markham in the Observatory. It looks as though we’re going to
have the chance to spend some time directly exploring the Poseidon gravity
river from within its boundaries after all.”

THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

On the 142
^nd
day
since the
Pathfinder
first dared to venture out of the Milky Way, Thomas
Roh spent the entire day – and a good part of his evening – down in the Lab
wing working side by side with his good friend Glen Fredericks. Their goal was
still a simple one: restore the CAS Drive systems to full operation so that the
ship could exit from the gravity river surrounding them. He had lost count of
the number of weeks that they had been drifting, but was certain that someone
somewhere was keeping track. The young scientist had simply made it a priority
not to worry about the things he was temporarily unable to change.

Dr. Markham was quite pleased
with their predicament – she continued to reassure him that she and her staff
were learning a great deal by having the opportunity to directly view objects
captured by the immense gravity field. There was only so much they could learn,
she pointed out, during the time that the
Pathfinder
had been stationed
many light years distant. Still, it bothered Thomas – a lot – that the CAS
systems were off-line… the idea of being trapped in the gravity river for any
length of time was an extremely unappealing one both to him and to the rest of
the crew as well. The feeling of helplessness weighed on everyone
psychologically, even if no immediate danger presented itself.

It was well past dinner time
when he and Glen mutually agreed to suspend operations for yet another day.
They were still busy with the huge task of identifying and replacing burnt out
circuit boards and other computer components, but fortunately for them the
electronics division of their Lab wing had kicked its hardware production into
overdrive. Normally this was Adam’s department, but Kaufield had decided to
keep him busy steering the ship in the Command Dome. They no longer needed his
innovative hardware design skills since the original schematics for the CAS
systems were stored in their central mainframe. The electronics production this
time around was geared toward
replacement
– specifically the equipment
that had been damaged or destroyed during their unplanned transit into the
gravity river.

Thomas entered his quarters
tired, hungry and slightly dejected. They had gotten so used to having the CAS
singularity available for the
Pathfinder
’s power needs that the comment
he had recently made to Julie about her being spoiled by its capabilities now
seemed like a nasty omen. He was reaching for the light switch when he suddenly
heard snoring. Grinning to himself he decided to leave the lights off and not
disturb Kari. Dressed in cut-off jeans shorts and a T-shirt, his girlfriend
from the Observatory was sacked out comfortably on his couch, sound asleep. He
noticed that George was curled up and tucked comfortably between her ankles,
purring as he enjoyed the warmth from her legs on both sides of his fur-lined
body.

“Lucky you,” he whispered to
the cat and moved to the kitchen area. He opened his refrigerator and began
looking for something to make a sandwich with. Since he still lived by himself
– except when Kari was around – there weren’t a lot of choices available. He
was still rummaging through his meager choices when he heard her soft voice
from behind him.

“Late night, huh?” she asked,
sitting up carefully. George also got up as she moved her legs and hopped down
to the carpet. The cat yawned slowly and then stretched out his front paws,
doing his best to wake up. Kari reached a hand down and stroked his fluffy fur
as he walked by, causing George to roll onto his back and playfully paw at her
fingers.

“I guess so… it’s not too often
that I knock off for the day later than you do,” Thomas commented. “There’s
nothing in my fridge. Madame, would you
please
do me the honor of
accompanying me to one of the restaurants for a late supper?”

“Maybe,” she said, reaching
down with both hands to rub George’s tummy. The cat decided to escalate the
encounter, wrapping all four paws around her hands and starting to gnaw on her
knuckles. She continued to tickle him and George suddenly decided enough was
enough and leaped to his feet. The black and white furred cat scrambled quickly
all the way into the kitchen before pausing alertly by Thomas’ feet, his tail
curled high into the air.

“
Maybe
?” Thomas asked
curiously. “Woman, I’m hungry enough to eat one of those cows up in the
Livestock wing all by myself. After looking at computer components all day, I
was seriously thinking about using up one of my steak rations.”

“Sit down on the couch,” she
said coyly, motioning to the opposite side of the sofa.

“Well… maybe I want to sit
next
to you,” grinned Thomas, winking at her.

“Nope, you’ve been working
really hard so I’m going to teach you a new stress relief game, but it requires
you to sit
across
from me,” Kari decided. She continued to sit against
one side of the sofa with her legs stretched attractively along its length.
Realizing he wanted to eat dinner within the next millennium, Thomas decided to
humor her and sat down where she indicated. He swung his legs up onto the couch
and she carefully curled at the knees so that he had room to place the bottom
of his feet against hers. The material in his socks was all that separated
their feet – he noticed she had left both her shoes and stockings sitting next
to the doorway. Things were getting interesting, he mused silently.

“A new stress relief game,
huh?” Thomas asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at her.

“It’s a piece of cake and
really easy to learn,” she countered, smirking at him. “I ask you questions and
you answer them. If I like your answers you get a positive response.”

“That sounds a lot like you
have most of the power and control over this game,” he noted with amusement.

“Exactly,” Kari said, rubbing
one of her feet along the inside of his shin. She ignored the puzzled look he
gave her, noting that he didn’t exactly yank his leg away from her probing
foot. “How long have we been going together, Thomas?”

“95 days,” he replied. “That
one is easy, because our first date was back on the Fourth of July. We went to
the party in the Garden wing together and you captured my heart that night.”

“Ooh, good answer,” Kari
smiled, moving her foot up to the inside of his thigh. She slowly rubbed her
toes back and forth across his leg and watched the young scientist begin to
grow steadily uncomfortable. In her off duty hours she spent a lot of time
walking with Mary, Julie, and Nori in the Garden wing. The lovely tan on her
legs that this exposure gave her was not lost on Thomas as he struggled to
maintain his composure.

“Do you want to work toward a
positive, long-term relationship with me and me only?” She blinked her eyelids
at him and blew him a kiss.

“Absolutely,” Thomas said,
continuing to grow more and more uncomfortable as her foot continued to wind
its way around the inside of his legs. He had to carefully sit up and shift
position slightly as her foot worked its way under his shirt and onto his bare
stomach beneath. “I’m a scientist. Do you realize how heavily the odds are against
another female of any sort ever being attracted to me?”

“Do you want to have children
with me?” she asked. He noticed her tone of voice had a distinctly serious
flavor to it.

“As long as they don’t turn out
like Adam,” he chuckled, laughing gleefully at his own joke. Kari’s foot
suddenly withdrew quickly from beneath his shirt and kicked him smartly on the
shin. “Ouch!” he growled and then grew serious as he saw the expression on her
face.

“Do you
want
to have
children with me?” she repeated. “Do you want to start a family regardless of
where we end up on this trek through the universe of ours?”

“As long as it’s with
you
,
Kari Hansen,” Thomas said sincerely. “After what happened to me emotionally as
a result of the attack on Earth, I never expected a girl to ever look at me
seriously again, much less a beautiful person like you.” Both of her bare feet
slipped under his shirt and he struggled mightily to maintain his dignified
posture. He mentally forced himself to take large, deep breaths and cautioned
himself to ignore the sight of her lovely bare legs. He was successful with the
deep breaths, but found that he inexplicably couldn’t remember what the second
part of his plan had been.

“Do you like me?” she asked,
fluttering her eyelids at him again. “Do you really like me, Thomas Roh?” He
looked into her dark brown eyes and smiled.

“I
love
you, Kari, and
I’m not afraid to say it. I don’t care where we end up or what obstacles we
have to overcome, as long as I spend the time with you…” He watched her face
begin to glow with embarrassment and was pleased to discover that she could
grow somewhat uncomfortable as well. “If it’s a commitment you’re looking for,
you’ve got it. Don’t worry about silly little things like that.”

“Are you proposing to me?” she
wondered out loud.

“Hell no. You’ll
know
when I’m proposing to you because it’ll be a complete surprise and I’ll do the
deed properly.” He was a bit puzzled and risked a quick look toward the kitchen
where George sat carefully washing his face with one paw. “I thought you said
this was a stress relief game. So far it’s been more of a heart to heart…”

Her T-Shirt hit him squarely in
the face, leaving him temporarily unable to see and beginning to realize that
everything his friends had told him about women over the years was pretty much
true. “What do you think happens next?” she asked.

“I’ll tell you what,” Thomas
decided, tossing the shirt aside. “I may not be the toughest, most physical guy
on the ship but I
am
a guy.” He got up off of the couch and watched her
playfully stand up on it, her feet sinking deep into its cushions. He walked
over and stood next to her with his mouth inches from her bare stomach. She was
a knockout anyway you looked at her… so having her stand there in short shorts
with only a bra on was just about more than Thomas could take. “Okay, now I get
it,” he grinned, “You’re in control of the questions, and it’s
my
job to
take care of the stress relief part.” He kissed her bare stomach several times,
focusing particularly on her navel area. He finally couldn’t resist and grabbed
her firmly around the waist with both hands and lifted her gently to the
carpeted floor.