Read Online A Planned Improvisation by Jonathan Edward Feinstein - Free Book Online Page B

probe from the cargo bay. It was   now floating outside Phoenix Child waiting for the launch command. “Less radio noise to possibly obscure the break-out signal. If only Uranus were on the other side of the sky as well, but it can’t be helped and it’s not like we’re aiming at the planet. All systems are on line, trajectory is set and all I need is clearance to launch, Skipper.”
    “Fire at will,” Park replied.
    “Launch in ten seconds,” Ronnie reported and paused, “Five, four, three, two, one, launch.” There was no special excitement in her voice that time. They had all been through this before. She brought her finger down on the button that would send the final activation signal and the probe would either do the rest or not.
    They all watched as the probe streaked away from the ship and then, with a dim flash of light, disappeared from this universe. If the probe worked, it would reappear almost instantaneously one astronomical unit, the distance from the Sun to Earth, beyond Uranus’ orbit. The radio signal that accompanied that emergence was known as the “breakout noise.” It would take almost an hour and a half for that noise to reach them.
    The wait seemed interminable, but when Park suggested they all break for lunch, no one was willing to leave their station and the vigil continued. Finally, they heard it; a sudden burst of static precisely when it should have arrived. A great cheer went up as everyone on board rushed to congratulate Ronnie.
    “Don’t break out the champagne yet, kids,” she told them once she was allowed to get a word in. “I need to see what condition that probe is in.”
    “Tina,” Park told his pilot, “Take us out at the highest acceleration we can achieve without overcoming the artificial gravity.”
    “Aye aye, sir” Tina responded. “Three gees it is.”
    “Estimated time of arrival?” Park asked.
    “ETA in twenty-three hours and seventeen minutes, sir,” Tina replied.
    “One day then,” Park nodded. “Let’s go back to standard shifts then. See you all in a few hours.”
    Of the entire crew only Park got a full night’s worth of sleep while chasing down the probe. Excitement was too high and most stayed up on the Engineering deck, chatting about the breakthrough and what it all meant for them and Earth. In spite of Ronnie’s protests, someone did break out a bottle of sparkling wine that had come from the Twenty-first Century in stasis with the rest of Project Van Winkle which was a novelty to Marisea and the other Mer crew people. The Mer did make wine, but none of their wines had bubbles. The Atackack could not tolerate the alcohol, but they had a celebratory drink of nectar they had brought from their tribal lands.
    By the time Phoenix Child rendezvoused with the star drive probe, half the crew was sleep deprived but all were at their stations when Ronnie and her engineers brought it   back into the cargo hold and then, finally onto the Engineering deck in order to begin their careful examination. They had just barely gotten the device strapped down securely when Marisea reported, “I’m picking up a distress beacon, skipper.”
    “Can you give Tina a heading?” Park asked.
    “Feeding it to the Pilot’s station now, Park,” Marisea replied.
    “It’s coming from Neptune,” Tina noted, “well, more likely one of Neptune’s moons, of course. Setting a course, skipper. Should I lock it in?”
    “Lock and load, Tina,” Park replied. “Now what’s our ETA?”
    “Roughly a week,” Tina replied. “Neptune is about as far from us as we are from Earth. We can make it in three days, but it won’t be a comfortable ride with an hour of high acceleration every third hour.”
    “This just became a mission of mercy,” Park replied. “All hands, we will be under full acceleration as soon as all departments signal their readiness. Get into your acceleration chairs immediately. High acceleration will last one hour and be followed by two hours