Supernal

Chapter 38

11:00 a.m. Thursday, 12th July 2029

Flight Deck on 'The Blimp'

Toby, Jayal and Charlie sat on the flight deck discussing ways to fill the containers. The only practical idea proposed was to take everything to the OCF, fill them in the gravity of the accommodation module, and then bring them back to the blimp.

Toby was reluctant to do that. He didn't want to contaminate the OCF with the bacterium if anything went wrong.

"Why don't you show Charlie your magic trick while I think about it?" he suggested to Jayal.

Jayal advised an intrigued Charlie to strap in and then flicked the switch for the viewscreen. The universe appeared all around them and Charlie shrieked in surprise. She stared incredulously at the stars and planets she had spent a lifetime studying but had only ever seen through a telescope.

When she was over the initial shock she flew from one side of the flight deck to the other, excitedly naming the celestial bodies and constellations she recognized. Toby had to smile. It was obvious she was in astrophysicist heaven. Then, as she gazed at the OCF suspended in space next to them she turned to Toby and Jayal.

"I've got an idea of how we can get ourselves some gravity," she announced.

#

"Are you sure you can do this?" Toby asked Jayal for the third time as they loaded everything they needed into the pod.

"I think so. If you both help guide me."

Jayal gave the intelligence unit instructions to leave the pod compartment and move in the direction of the OCF's gigantic cartwheel.

"Okay," Jayal said when the cartwheel filled the pod's forward viewscreen. "The intelligence unit knows which way the pod is orientated, so it understands left, right, up, down, forward and back. I can only give it simple commands."

Toby and Charlie watched the side viewscreens in the pod and directed Jayal as she manoeuvred the tiny craft alongside the huge rotating spokes.

Jayal stopped the pod and gently lowered it until she judged they were a few feet above the flat inner circumference of the accommodation module. This close to the wheel, the curve of the surface was hardly noticeable, and it looked about as wide as a tennis court.

"As soon as another spoke passes I'm going forward and then I'll try and match our sideways speed to the rotation before landing."

She didn't need to explain that they had to land before the following spoke arrived and collided with the tiny pod.

They watched as a spoke swept slowly past the front of the pod and Toby shouted, "Go!"

Jayal edged the pod forward and then instructed it to stop and move sideways. She increased the speed until the surface appeared stationary and gave the command "down."

The pod settled with a bounce of its extended landing gear legs, rocked a few times and then was still.

Jayal sat back with a sigh and wiped her brow.

"Well done Jayal!" Charlie congratulated her while demonstrating that she could now stand normally. "You see? We've got centrifugal force. The next best thing to gravity!"

#

Toby selected a level part of the floor to position the containers, then insisted that they all put on their facemasks and gloves before starting.

This time the saline went in easily and Toby shared the remaining two bottles of bacterium between the three containers. When he closed and locked the lids a small amount of liquid squeezed out, indicating they were completely full.

"Do you think it will be enough?" Charlie asked.

"Should be. With any luck, the bacterium might even multiply during the three-day journey. They have plenty of brain tissue to feed on."

#

Jayal steered the pod back to the blimp and they unloaded the containers in the pod compartment. Toby slid them into the courier nearest to the outer door before Jayal closed the end cap and connected the gel hose. The pump operated until the courier was completely full, then switched itself off.

"That's it," Jayal told them, removing the hose. "We launch it from the flight deck."

"Can we take our masks and coveralls off now?" Charlie asked.

"I'll check, there's a handheld pathogen detector in the pod."

She pushed herself across the compartment to the pod and emerged with the same instrument Toby had seen Velan use on their first visit to the OCF.

"The inside of that pod is contaminated," she said, "but we can use one of the others to get back to the OCF."

Only their gloves showed signs of contamination so all three stripped off their protective gear and threw it inside the pod.

"The air filtration system will take out anything hanging around in here, or in the medical bay," she reassured them. "We should be quite safe."

#

At 3:45 pm exactly, Jayal was ready to launch the courier. After she had given the flight-deck intelligence unit the correct code words and instructions, they gathered on the left side of the deck where they could see the launcher arm extend. One second the courier was there, the next it had vanished.

"It will arrive in Caranal on Sunday evening," Jayal said confidently.

"How will we know?"

"The receiving launcher will automatically send a photon packet message to confirm its arrival," Jayal explained.

"In that case," Toby noted, "all we can do now is wait."

#

Before leaving for the OCF, Jayal said she'd like to take advantage of the blimp's shower facilities and change into a clean tunic from the dormitory she'd used for the journey to Earth. Charlie and Toby said that they'd also like to take a shower. Although the pathogen detector hadn't registered any bacteria on them, they all felt tainted by their day's work.

Before going to the shower compartment Jayal suggested they send a message to the praesidium to give the illusion that the Manitan delegation had achieved their objective and a courier was in transit. Toby agreed and they drafted a short statement to that effect.

After taking his turn in the shower, Toby returned to the flight deck and found Jayal and Charlie poring over the communicator. Jayal looked up as he entered.

"The Atikas replied immediately," she told him. "It translates as; 'Message received. Await further instructions'."