Solar Star

O’realian sat back and closed his eyes for a few moments. He was dreadfully tired having not slept more than a couple of hours since Kassina had left. The few precious moments alone in total peace and quiet were to be savoured as in the next few hours there would be no time to think. He sighed and opened his eyes reluctantly, for even now he couldn’t relax as there was still so much to be done so he shut down the Andromedian device, packed it carefully in its metal carrying case and left the small round room for the last time. As he walked the empty corridor he still couldn’t believe they were leaving, never again would he sit at the amphitheatre and watch a play put on by the children or ride the rolling hills with his impetuous daughter. He touched the walls and silently thanked them for their shelter and protection over the past sixty years.

‘Could Ieesha ever be as loving,’ he wondered.

He shook his head to clear out such thoughts as he knew they were doing the right thing, but it didn’t make leaving any easier.

‘Parting is such sweet sorrow,’ he said softly and made his way to the meeting point.

Kate blew out her cheeks and pushed her hair out of her eyes, so she could see what she was doing as she manoeuvred the third shuttle craft into the small space left at the back end of the hanger. The shuttle craft bay was at the back of the Solar Star and she had parked them in a neat row behind the ship so that Solar Star could roll out of the other end to take off. It had the capacity to take off like an aircraft, albeit a lumbering one, or vertically using its rotating thrusters to go straight up into the sky. It had been designed on two levels, so it could operate in the atmosphere with great manoeuvrability or climb out of the gravitational pull of the Earth and become a true spacecraft. Its versatility came with its age and design as it was an old ship, more than thirty years of age, which made it older than its Captain. When it was designed there was a need for ships to be able to land anywhere and get themselves into orbit without the need for huge rocket launchers, which cost too much and were not reusable. The ship was used as a cargo vessel carrying both goods and people between Earth, the moon base and the space station as it had done until five years ago, when Ty bought her and started all the work that had only just been completed.

Kate smiled at her first memory of Ty and Maclyn at Space Corp. Although her course was mostly engineering she still found herself in the same class as them for physical fitness, and emergency training. Her good looks made it impossible for Ty not to notice her and she had to laugh at his attempts to impress her; the best was when she was partnered with him in the judo class. He was unaware of her experience in the martial art, having been taught by her anxious father to protect herself, so he was careless and found himself flat on his back, looking up into a highly amused pair of blue eyes. He had taken it well and from then on the three of them became friends and four years later after completing her training and spending several years servicing old spacecraft, she became bored and was looking for a new challenge. The ‘Maybe’ was in the hanger next to the one she had been assigned to and in a lunch break she had walked over to inspect her. On first sight she was a bit of a wreck with her engines taken out and the top panels removed and this had puzzled her at the time because she couldn’t see what the idiot who had bought her was up to. She was so engrossed in her speculation that she walked right into the man who had just climbed out of the empty engine space. It was Maclyn, who was delighted to see her again. After that she had spent a lot of time going over the plans for the new ship with them both and it really excited her, unlike her own job. She knew the project was what she wanted to get involved with, so she quit the Space Corp. and joined the boys, trying to get the ship flying again. The pay wasn’t very good to start with, non-existent in fact, but she didn’t care as the work was fascinating and she felt she was making a difference. Then with Samuel Dayton, who also left Space Corp. and who was a man of immense engineering skills and invention they had redesigned the engine system making it more efficient and much easier to eject an engine in case of overload, (a common problem), they could even fit a new one whilst flying in space. They had also redesigned the shuttlecraft and worker pods so that they could be used to repair any damage to the ship’s structure without having to land. It had taken five years to get the finance to finish all the improvements, and they had had to work hard in-between refits, but it was worth it. She was now a ship to be proud of with a lot of very ingenious solutions to space travel problems that they had discovered on their previous voyages. She was sure they would find new problems that need a solution, but with the team they now had assembled, she believed they could solve them easily. Her problem now was finding room to land the last shuttlecraft as she still had two work bees and Ty’s trial bikes to park somewhere.

‘A little more left,’ she said to herself and slotted it neatly between the wall and shuttle number two.

She shut down the engine and sighed with relief as it was a tight fit, but she’d done it and felt really good. In fact she couldn’t stop smiling; she only wished someone had been around to see it.

‘Oh well, I know I’m good,’ she told herself, as she unbuckled her safety harness and prepared to open the hatch.

There were still two work bees to extract and as she climbed the ramp back into the shuttle bay, she heard raised voices coming from the neighbouring cargo deck and went to investigate. She peered around the open door and was surprised to see how clear it had become. Usually it was arranged in lines of huge boxes and crates so the anti-gravity loading trolley could easily move between them and extract the required crate without difficulty, but now the middle of the bay was almost completely clear and the crates were closely packed around the edges. Just one problem remained and that was causing the commotion. A crate had broken open, spilling its contents of food packs all over the floor and arguing over the mess was Maclyn and Pete Morgan, a tall, lanky Texan who was an engineer with Kate.

‘I told you to double check that line,’ Maclyn shouted.

‘I did and it was just fine and dandy,’ Pete replied.

‘How could it be fine?’ Maclyn shouted and pointed to the strewn packages all around them. ‘This isn’t fine.’

Pete was about to shout back when Kate decided a cooler head was needed.

‘Gentlemen,’ she shouted from the door.

Both men stopped open mouthed and looked in her direction. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at them.

‘Gentlemen please,’ she said in a manner of a disappointed parent.

Maclyn snapped his mouth shut and reddened with embarrassment while Pete just sighed and looked suitably admonished.

‘Come on guys,’ she said, walking towards them. ‘We don’t have time to argue. This ship will be leaving in less than forty-five minutes, with or without a tidy cargo bay.’

Maclyn nodded and looked at his feet.

‘You’re right Kate, I’m sorry,’ he muttered and fled the bay, clipboard in hand.

Kate smiled at his fast retreat, then turned to Pete and raised her eyebrows and looked from him to the packets on the floor. He got the message and as she left, she looked back to see him packing them back into a fresh crate. With her mission accomplished she got into the first work bee and started it up, after all she had her own deadline to meet.

‘Bridge to Engineering.’

Ty waited for a reply.

‘Engineering here Captain,’ came the deep tone of the Chief Engineer.

‘How’s it going Chief?’

‘Engines are warming up now Captain. We’ll be ready to fire up the thrusters in ten minutes.’

‘Excellent,’ he said and looked at the time.

It was 5.25am and things were just about on schedule.

‘I’m hoping to leave in fifteen minutes, so stand by.’

‘No problem Captain. Dayton out.’

Ty nodded, he had just a few more items on his mental checklist to check up on, and then it would be all systems go and the start of the rescue mission. He felt his stomach muscles clench and his heart beat that little bit faster at the thought of the approaching action, and smiled. He couldn’t deny that he loved the challenge of putting his skills and ingenuity against another, be it one to one or on the battlefield. It had been the lack of action in Space Corp. that had driven him to buy his own ship, and travel to planets no one else had been to before. This venture was a dream come true for him and he’d have gone even if he had to pack the colonists on top of each other. Only Maclyn knew how much he’d longed for a chance like this, as often over the years they had discussed what might lay out there, beyond the known space routes. What life forms, what civilisations, what knowledge? In a universe so big there had to be many thousands of other beings and Ty had always dreamed of meeting them. Sarrin had been a bit of a disappointment to him, as he looked, at first glance, so human but after a while he had begun to notice the differences; the shape of his eyes, the angle of the cheekbones and narrowness of his lips. The triangular shape of his face, wide across the forehead and much narrower at his rather pointed chin; his colouring also gave him away; his rather spiky hair was almost white in colour and his skin a golden tone with a kind of lustre to it. Ty glanced over at the alien, musing how he looked right sitting at the science station, working the sensory board as if he’d been doing it all his life. Their security officer, Matt O’Neil, who hadn’t reported back yet, left a space so for this trip Sarrin was to take his place. Ty grinned; he knew O’Neil well and could imagine the Irish man still trying to remember where they left the ship after one last night out.

The doors to the bridge opened and Maclyn strode in and went straight to Ty.

‘How’s it looking down there?’ Ty asked, noting the dirt on his friend’s face.

Maclyn smiled rather wearily as it had been a struggle but he’d done it, with a little help.

‘The cargo deck is ready. We stacked all our stores around the edge so the middle is empty. I didn’t want to unload as we still have to pick up the last provisions when we get back and put the shuttles back on.’

Ty nodded and asked,

‘But there’s enough room for a hundred people?’

Maclyn nodded and smiled.

‘Yes, it won’t be comfy but for twenty five minutes it doesn’t need to be and the shuttle bay is clear so we can put down the ramps for loading and they can keep going on into the cargo bay.’

Ty agreed.

‘I’ll station Elena and a couple of others down there to get them moving quickly.’

‘What do you want me to do now?’ Maclyn asked.

“Well you will need to talk to Armin on the Rocket and then I think you had better stay here with a few others to meet them on our return. I’ll land outside the hanger, turn around, open the ramp and then Elena can lead them to you and you can sort them out. I want to be unloaded and ready to go in ten minutes.’

Maclyn sighed.

‘We’ll give it a go,’ he said. ’Good luck my friend. Then he leant forward and whispered. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

Ty laughed as it was a standing joke between them, because Ty always did what Maclyn would never dream of doing. Maclyn grinned at his friend and left the bridge.

Kassina watched their exchange with interest, it had become abundantly clear to her that Maclyn and Ty were like brothers albeit very different ones. The way they didn’t need to talk to know what the other was thinking and how relaxed they were in each other’s company was more apparent now. She was impressed with how quickly everyone had got the ship ready and had worked without complaint through the night on the request of this man. She conceded she may have to re-evaluate him, but she still found him too sure of himself for her liking.

As time sped by, Ty made the decision to give the order to leave. He pressed his intercom button and made the announcement to the crew.

‘This is the Captain. In five minutes we will be leaving for Sakkara. All personnel who are staying here must leave the ship now. Dr Roedensky and party please proceed to the cargo deck to see to our guests. ETA Sakkara is twenty five minutes. Captain out.’

On hearing this Sarrin moved to Kassina’s side.

‘I think you should stay here,’ he said softly.

She glared at him.

‘No, I have told you before, I’m going. Sakkara is my home and I want to say goodbye to it...’

She paused before adding.

‘Surely you understand that.’

He did very well, as he remembered how he felt leaving his home world to come to Earth, but he was worried about her too. She had become very quiet over the past couple of hours, too quiet, especially for her and he wondered why. All he had managed to pick up from her telepathy was a confused set of images and memories intercepted with angry feelings and anxiety. He felt she was planning something, something dangerous either to herself or the mission itself, and he hoped to persuade her to stay behind but her demeanour when he had asked her before had not changed and he knew she was going, he only hoped he was wrong and that her actions wouldn’t cause trouble for them all. He moved back to the Science Station without another word and activated the safety harness ready for take-off.

As the first pale strikes of light came over the horizon, the roar of the engines brought the Solar Star out of the hanger into the world. Her first mission with her new name and somehow she seemed to know how special this trip was going to be and how important she was to those inside her and who awaited her arrival. Maclyn, Kate and three other crewmates watched her move slowly into the apricot light that lit the runway and as she gathered herself to leap into the sky, she seemed to glow as there was a ring of golden light encircling her black elliptical body.

‘Isn’t she beautiful,’ Kate said in a whisper.

Maclyn nodded without taking his eyes off her as she slowly left the runway and entered her domain, where she was truly graceful.

‘Yes she is,’ he said.

They stood together watching her grow smaller and smaller.