Chapter 16: Catastrophe

-- March - Week 12 --

Essco was not pleased.

As Essco had suspected, the committee had decided on Tychy as the next destination. He did not intend to be stuck on Tychy for the next nine to twelve months. He needed to establish contact with the people on Futura. To set up mining of the energy crystals, so they could ship them home.

He planned to be a wealthy man. He intended to live out the rest of his life with a revolving harem of big boobed young girls to look after his every need. He hated it when his plans went awry. This whole bloody trip had tested his patience. Nothing had gone right since he came aboard this ship.

Ben had the cast off his leg at long last, and he was free to move around again. He had assured Essco At their previous meeting, that he had worked out how to swap the jump program at the last minute. They should end up heading to orbit around Futura instead of Tychy.

Ben was anxious since Tyche was on the opposite side of Delta from Futura and they were already heading to Tyche. The jump window for Futura was calculated for when they turned and were heading towards it.

Ben had no idea what would happen if they tried to jump without realigning. He wasn’t a jump expert; he was basically a mechanic with only rudimentary coding skills. As it was, he didn’t think it was going to be a smooth ride this time and told Essco to make sure he had the grav-net down on his bed tonight.

The jump to Tychy was planned for 03:00 hours. As they would have to reverse thrust to slow the ship, to get into orbit around the planet. Most of the crew was happy about the time. They still had a couple of days before orbit was established, as they had to bleed off the excess speed.

The crew planned to spend the next couple of weeks studying the planet before a possible visit. So, it was no big deal if they jumped in the early hours of the morning.

Lee had been on shift for less than an hour. The feeling she was in danger, had intensified significantly. She couldn’t determine what the threat was exactly. But whenever she thought about the next jump, it intensified. She knew there was a threat, and if there was one thing she had learnt, it was to trust her instincts.

Rodger had caught her unaware because he didn’t project his intentions until just before he acted. She knew it had been a spur of the moment thing, and they are nearly impossible to predict. While she had felt bad vibes from the guy, she hadn’t expected the attack, until he had executed it.

However, this time, Lee knew the intent was already there. She just didn’t know who, what or where. She had felt antsy all week, and it had gotten worse as they got close to jump time. “Helm, Lee here.”

“Sung here, Lee.”

“Can you run a quick system check for me, please? Particularly the engines and this may sound weird but hull integrity too?”

“What’s wrong, Lee?” came back, Kyle’s voice.

Lee was relieved to learn that Kyle was the navigator tonight. Somehow, she knew that whatever was going to happen, it wouldn’t be so bad with Kyle being there. “I don’t know Kyle, just one of my weird feelings,” she said, but she wasn’t able to keep the worry out of her voice.

“You got it too, thank fuck. I thought it was just me. Maybe I projected my worry at you or was it you to me?” he asked.

“It’s probably me to you. I’ve felt really bad since I came on shift. It just seems to have been getting worse as we get closer to jump time. I’ve been checking everything down here. But I just can’t find what it is that is wrong,” the worry in Lee’s voice was obvious to Kyle.

“Sung, is the Captain on the bridge?” Lee asked.

“Here Lee,” came back the voice of the Captain.

“Captain Clark I know this going to sound weird. But can we shut all the valves between the bulkheads in the hull, so the water bladders are isolated until after we jump?” she asked.

“Is there an issue with hull integrity Lee? We have no indication of a problem up here,” the Captain came back.

“Yes, no, I don’t know. I’m sorry, Captain, please just trust me, we need to do this. I would also like all non-essential services shut down as well. I can’t tell you why, just that they need to be shut down,” Lee said, just knowing that these actions were required.

“This is not normal procedure especial without an obvious reason,” Nick came back.

Kyle’s voice cut in after the Captains, “Captain, do you trust me?”

“Yes, Kyle,” he answered without hesitation.

“Then, Captain, trust me on this. If Lee says shut the systems down, then shut them down,” Kyle said with conviction.

“And I want everyone strapped in and all the bulkhead doors shut. Levels eight and nine need the air evacuated to the tanks, and they need to be de-pressurised,” Lee added, feeling better as she issued these commands.

“This is highly irregular,” the Captain said into the comm to Lee. Not quite convinced but worried that with Kyle and Lee asking him, he was inclined to comply. They had him feeling anxious now, and he did trust both Kyle and Lee.

“Please, Nick, we have to do this,” Sung added. She had stopped questioning Lee and Kyle a long time ago. Things had always turned out better when they did what they asked. Sung was totally convinced.

The Captain looked at Sung. This was the third ship they had worked on together, and he had always trusted her. She rarely ever used his name when on duty, so this was also telling. The three most intuitive people he knew on this ship were asking him to do something.

He knew he was better off complying, even if it did go against the procedures. He would think up something for the log if it turned out a false alarm. “We have one hundred minutes to jump time. Do it,” he said decisively.

All three of them and Brendan Cole the helm engineer complied. They started shutting the systems down. Lee told them she would shut down the valves by initiating the override program for them from engineering as the auto program would take too long.

She then rattled off the other systems that she wanted the helm crew to shut down or put into standby mode. Futura was a bloody big ship, and you didn’t just shut things down in a hurry if you wanted it to work again.

Lee hit the com code on her minder so she could create an open channel to her team, “Guys, General Lee here, I think something bad is going to happen. I want everything tied down, and you guys must be strapped in before the jump. I need levels eight and nine to be evacuated and de-pressurised.”

She got a lot of ‘K’s’ back. After three months working under Lee, no one argued when she said, ‘do it now’.

Lee hit the next code on her minder. “Magda, General Lee here, get everyone you can find and get hydroponics strapped down before 03:00 hours. Make sure they are not, I repeat NOT, in the dome when we jump and get them strapped in before we jump.”

“Consider it done, Lee,” came back Magda.

Lee’s fingers were busy selecting and operating the shutdown codes on the hull water valves. Then she took the whole water pumping system, potable and waste, down for good measure. She would cop some shit if nothing happened but would consider that a good thing.

If what she thought could happen on this jump, actually did occur, then things could be a lot nastier than a few backed up toilets. Somehow, she knew that she couldn’t stop the jump. She just had to minimise the after-effects.

Lee commed Sean. “Sean, here Lee,” came his sexy baritone over the com.

“Lieutenant, Emergency drill. They have eighty-five minutes to door knock; secure anything they can see as a hazard and then be in the rec-room by 02:50 hours. Notify sickbay too. Make sure they are strapped in for the jump and have sickbay locked down. General Lee out,” she said briskly.

“Done,” Sean said and scrambled out of bed hitting his code for activating his troops. “Emergency Procedure 3 lockdown, Emergency Procedure 3 lockdown. Doorknock and make sure you are strapped down in the rec-room before we jump,” he said to his team while he quickly got dressed.

d

He headed out the door to alert the crew on this level himself. As much as he wanted to find Lee, he knew she would not be happy if he didn’t do as she asked. As he went, he wondered what was wrong but knew by the way Lee had answered him, now was not the time for questions.

Lee’s hands moved at sped over the computer screen. As she worked, she thought about all the labs but knew if she tried to tell the scientists it would only cause more problems. She could only hope they had any potentially hazardous substances appropriately stored.

Lee had initiated a discussion about emergency procedures only a couple of days ago at dinner. She had come out with it out of the blue. Sean knew something had been worrying her, but she couldn’t tell him what just saying it was a feeling she had.

Lee’s friends all agreed that if she called herself ‘General’, she needed them to act without question. If she called Sean ‘Lieutenant’, she needed his team. Like Kyle, Sung and their other friends and her shift crew, Sean didn’t argue, he just jumped.

While Sean trusted his team, he trusted Lee even more. She had gained her nickname in fun, but they all thought of her as the General. Lee was somewhat surprised when Sean’s team simply nodded that they were okay with her directing the show too.

Her friends had all seen and heard of Lee doing random things for no apparent reason until after what she did stopped something grave from happening or caused something good to happen. They had stopped questioning Lee’s suggestions and acted instead. If you did what Lee wanted, it would be all good.

Lee commed Dave, “Dave, General Lee here. Can you get the animals bedded down for a bad jump? If you pile up the straw around them, it should help. Get help if you needed it and strap in for this jump, my friend.”

Dave simply answered, “Yes, Lee.” Then he too scrambled and called Robby and Tina. He even commed Debora and Tony to come to help him and Sandra with the animals on General Lee’s orders.

They all hurried to the holds to help.

Lee’s com beeped.

“Lee here,” she answered distractedly. She still had valves to shut manually and jump time was only ten minutes away. ‘It is going to be close,’ she thought. She had started the shut down around the crew and animal quarters first. She had left the holds to last.

“Procedure 3 enacted. Andre’ and Larina helped Juanita and Penny to get the kitchens tight before they left. Abe and Gary locked down level two. DT, Que, Minnie and Ellen have been locking up the labs and other areas on levels three and four. Abe, James and Joeanne did five, six and seven. We are all in the rec-room,” Sean’s voice came over the com.

“Thanks, Hunky, Lee out.” She kept pushing buttons on the screen. Her com beeped again.

“The animals are secure as we can get them, Lee,” came Dave’s rasping voice. He sounded like he’d just run a marathon.

“Good, you guys, get secure too and be safe, Lee out.” She no sooner closed the connection, and her com beeped again.

“Hydroponics secure as it’s going to be,” said Magda’s huffing voice.

“Thanks, Magda. Get strapped in and remember no one in the dome, Lee out.”

During their spare hours, Lee and her team had set up automatic droppers on the grav-nets in Hydroponics, so Magda just had to hit a button and then they would all drop. Her team then just had to clip them down.

Magda had thought it wasn’t necessary, now that they didn’t get thrown around on a jump. Lee, however, had been insistent that it was a suitable safety procedure. Even if Magda couldn’t get the locking clips on, the magnetic weights would still cling to the metal troughs.

They had also put automatic droppers for the nets in the animal encloses. Dave and his helpers had found them a blessing as it had made the lockdown procedure a lot smoother and very quick to achieve.

Magda had heard from others over the last week that Lee’d had her team doing all sorts of lockdown checks that were only completed occasionally. She had put other safety measures in place, and Ben had even okayed them.

Jim had told Magda that Lee had Anita and Little Bear install extra isolation valves in the potable and wastewater systems. They hadn’t thought that they were necessary, but they had done it to keep Lee happy. She had been agitated about something all week.

Lee’s com beeped once more. “Jim here, we tied down as much as we could and have gone to the rec-room. Terry started the air-evac system and depressurisation of levels eight and nine as soon as Sung said the levels were clear,” he reported to her.

“Thanks, guys, you lot are the best bloody crew a girl could ask for, Lee out.”

The general alarm sounded all over the ship. The alarm told the crews to strap down for jump. There was some confusion as people woke to the alarm. Many of them hadn’t responded to the door knocks, thinking it was a practical joke and some heavy sleepers hadn’t woken at all.

Some didn’t comply with the drop nets order or to strap in, but most did. The veterans knew it was always prudent to abide by any alarm on a spaceship. Lee had reminded the Captain a week before that they hadn’t had a strap down alarm drill for a while, and it was a policy for them to run the training.