Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

In space, on route to SEG002

Ginny manoeuvred her suit around the slowly spinning Ramstat motor. She was aligning herself with the motor’s slow spin. The spacesuits had miniature Ramstat boosters attached, enabling them to manoeuvre slowly but very precisely in space. Vicky had explained what was required, and she was more than happy to assist. In fact, she was really enjoying it. Who would have believed that she would be walking in space? The experience was truly incredible.

She looked over at Gabriel. He was attempting the same manoeuvre, but his actions were far clumsier. She realised that her time spent learning to fly the starship was paying off now. She had learnt how to ease the starship through intricate motions with just the finest of thrusts from the starship’s main and auxiliary thrusters. And the space suits worked in exactly the same manner. The key was to use very small, very tight bursts of energy.

Vicky had explained that they would both need to get themselves to a precise location on the motor. They would then use the combined force of their suit thrusters to slow and then stop the motor’s spin. Too much would cause the motor to start spinning in the opposite direction. And if they attached themselves to the wrong location on the motor, they might even start it spinning in a more complex manner, which would possibly make it even more difficult to stabilise.

So, they both needed to attach themselves to the correct location on the motor.

Ginny watched Gabriel as he jerked backwards and forwards through space. Taking a decision, she nudged herself over in his direction.

“I’ll come and get you, Gabriel,” she said.

Their suits had a comms-link, so they could hear each other perfectly well.

“I’ll be, er, fine,” Gabriel said, but Ginny could hear the tension in his voice.

Ginny edged alongside Gabriel. She grasped his hand.

“Ok, Gabriel. Just relax,” she said. “Just use small thrusts. It gives you more control,” she advised.

“Didn’t know you’d being reading books on sex techniques,” Gabriel said, unable to contain his chuckles.

“Ok, ok ... time and place,” Ginny chuckled back.

Gabriel shut down the thrusters on his suit and allowed Ginny to guide their path. He saw her delicate use of the thruster controls; he felt the resulting steady and precise movements. He was very proud of her.

Ginny manoeuvred them alongside the Ramstat motor, closing in on the location specified by Vicky.

“Alright, guys,” Vicky said. “If you can both lock your arms around the stanchions protruding from the motor, just there in front of you.”

Ginny and Gabriel both locked their arms as directed.

“If we are holding on like this, how are we going to activate our suit thrusters?” Ginny asked.

“Not to worry, Ginny. We will control them remotely,” Vicky replied.

Ginny smiled to herself.

“Ok, Ship,” Vicky said. “Now that they are in position, can you initiate their boosters to slow the motor’s spin?”

Ginny felt the small thrusters on her suit fire up. Slowly but slowly she could see the Ramstat motor’s rate of spin begin to slow.

“Hey, Vicky. Does that mean that you could have controlled our movements from the start, to get us to this position alongside the motor in the first place?” Gabriel said.

“Well, yes, that is true,” conceded Vicky.

“And I’m guessing that you were planning to control our suit thrusters for the final step anyway,” said Ginny.

“How do you mean, Ginny,” Vicky replied.

“You know, the bit after we were holding on to the motor.”

“Well, yes, that is true, Ginny,” replied Vicky. “That’s because slowing the motor’s spin needed very fine control of the thrusters, and the Ship and I thought it would be better to control the thrusters remotely.”

“So, why did you bother letting us fly the suits out here manually at all?” Ginny said, with a strong suspicion of what the answer would be.

“Hey guys. I thought you would have fun doing it,” Vicky said, chuckling. “After all, you’ve had nothing to do for 43 years.”

“That’s a fair point,” said Gabriel.

“I thought flying around out here was marvellous, Vicky,” said Ginny, “so thank you for giving us the opportunity.”

“Yeah, from me too,” Gabriel said, but with less obvious sincerity.

As they were speaking, the starship was edging slowly closer to the rocket motor. Ginny felt an almost imperceptible shudder as the two came together. She saw clamps on the starship close firmly onto brackets protruding from the rocket motor.

“We are re-attached,” said the Ship. “You guys can come back on board, if you so wish.”

“Ok,” said Ginny, somewhat reluctantly.