Read Online This Corner of the Universe by Britt Ringel - Free Book Online Page A

was sailing
past the RALF en route to the section of the Beta Field that Renard ore
extractors were exploiting when Heskan’s cabin chime sounded. 
    “Enter.”
    The
door slid open silently and Ensign Truesworth came in.  “Sir, we’ve finished
looking at the Skoll buoy.  You’ll receive a full report tomorrow but I can
give you a preliminary one now if you want.”
    Heskan
placed his datapad on his desktop and arched his back as he stretched.  “Go
ahead, Jack.  What’d you find?”
    The
junior officer glanced at his own datapad before speaking.  “This one looks like
a good old-fashioned malfunction.  The buoy’s casing was clean with no
penetrations so we broke her apart.”  Truesworth walked over to Heskan and
showed him the information on his datapad.  “As you can see, the power relays
have fused themselves shut.  It happens, especially in high rad environments.”
    “Nothing
sinister, then?” Heskan asked.
    “No,
sir.  This is a common malfunction.  I haven’t run the numbers, and I will if
you want them, but this is probably one of the most common reasons for a buoy
to cease functioning.”  Truesworth waited for his captain to ask any questions
and then resumed when Heskan stayed silent.  “I guess it’s a little unusual to
fuse after just a few years of operation but with the radiation coming out from
the star plus the Beta Field, plus the Alpha Field, it’s understandable.”
    “Then
I guess that’s that,” Heskan mused.  Why do I get this nagging feeling that
we’re missing something?  We’ve done diagnostics and we’ve done our due
diligence but I just don’t like these results and I’m not sure why.  “Can
you recommend any further action, Ensign?”
    Truesworth
was taken slightly aback at this.  He considered carefully and then responded,
“Well, sir, I’m not sure what’s left to do.  We can run another analysis to see
if we come up with something else but the malfunction is pretty apparent.”
    “Right,
a fused power relay,” Heskan finished for him and scratched his chin.  “Okay,
Jack.  You and your section have done good work.  I need you to do one more
thing for me though.  Take the power relay out and really dig into it.  I’d
like to know exactly where it fused, how long ago it fused and so on.  Hell, if
you can tell me how much radiation it absorbed before it died, I’d want to know
that too.”
    “Yes,
sir,” Truesworth answered back as Heskan hid his smile.
    Your
mouth says “yes, sir” but your eyes say “wild goose chase,” Ensign .  Heskan smiled after Truesworth
left his quarters.  I guess I can’t blame you but you might as well learn
sooner than later that superior officers want overkill on projects like this.  Well,
good superior officers do.

Chapter
6
    Anelace spent the next two weeks
loitering around the edge of the Beta Field, monitoring the ore extractors.  If
an ore extractor suffered an accident, the intent was to move Anelace in
quickly and then lend support to the distressed craft.  During this downtime,
the crew settled into a standard routine.  Most watched the latest Slamball
sporting games that had been transmitted to Anelace from Nomad when their standard data computers synchronized.  Since news traveled only at
the speed of light, it was standard practice to have passing ships exchange
information.
    Not
long after the discovery of tunnel points, this exchange custom was made
automatic and instant with the use of specialized computers that swapped and
updated news, sporting events, movies, books and anything else placed into the
collective information database known as the “standata.”  As soon as a ship,
buoy, or orbital station was identified as friendly, standata was synchronized
so that each party had the latest information available.   Nomad’s standata, like most civilian cargo ships, had significant updates for Anelace .
    In
the ship’s mess hall, which also served as a recreation area, Heskan