When Nothing is Something

Following is a piece of short fiction by Stuart Elle originally featured in Exo 1.1

Nothing can compare to this.

That was always the first thought in Michael's mind whenever he entered the observation bubble of the ISS Roaming Spirit. The long, narrow rows of cargo containers (called CC's for short) attached around the 400 meter spine of the Roaming Spirit spread out behind the command section of the ship. At the far end lay the cluster of four plasma engines, silent until the time of departure. But this sight was not what Michael came here for. It lay beneath them not caring what they did . . . Jupiter.

The swirling gas giant always made Michael's pulse quicken. The Great Red Spot. The swirling bands of orange, red, and white gases that circled the planet. He always came here to look at this awe inspiring sight before the ship left for its next destination. He wanted to make sure that this was the last image in his mind when the engines came to life; he would be too busy piloting the ship to get another look. If for some reason he did not return to Jupiter at the end of the voyage, he would die contented. Glancing at his watch Michael took one last quick look before heading to the Spirit's bridge.

Floating 'up' to observation bubble hatch Michael continued straight through closing it behind him. Continuing in the same direction and through another hatch was the intersection with the corridor that lead aft through the ship's spine to the engines and forward to the bridge. Michael pushed himself in the direction of the bridge, and grabbed the bridge hatch handle when he arrived. Opening the hatch and stepping through Michael was greeted by the captain.

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Benjamin."

"Thank you, sir," Michael replied to the captain, Vince Nichols, as he settled in the acceleration couch and strapped in. Nichols had been working on spacecraft for most of his life, so he understood the little rituals that his crew needed to do before they headed out for the long journey.

"All stations report your status."

"Communications and sensors green," replied Kim Franks.

"Engineering green. Engines are warmed up and ready to go," replied Kasei Horiko.

"Navigation green. Course loaded and ready to execute," replied Michael.

"Miss Franks, please inform Jovian Space Traffic Control that we are on schedule to burn for Titan."

"Aye, Captain," came the reply from the Kim.

"Mr. Benjamin, by the numbers."

"Aye, Captain." He didn't actually have to 'fly' the Spirit. He just had to press a couple of buttons to get things moving after he had the course plotted and entered in the computer. He made a last check of all the panels, and entered the command to start the countdown to the start of the engines. "Course entered. Navigation program for course to Titan is running."

The Spirit started to realign itself to slingshot clockwise around Jupiter for a gravity-assist back toward Saturn; it currently trailed behind Jupiter. He could have plotted a direct course from Jovian orbit, but the maneuver would save them a lot of reaction mass at the cost of a few more hours to get to Titan. A thirty second countdown began on one of his screen, and he counted down the last ten seconds.

"Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . ." He could feel the slight tremble and gentle push into the couch as the engine power started to increase. "Two . . . one," and the engines quickly increased power to the required thrust. It felt like one of those lovely ladies in the bar was sitting in his lap and leaning back against him. He smiled to himself at that thought.

"The engines are running smooth at 47 percent maximum," reported Kasei. And they were on their way.

Nobody on the bridge moved to leave. They would sit here until they had left Jupiter behind. For all the reliability that the Spirit had exhibited in his four years onboard, things could still go wrong while they were whipping around Jupiter. Michael checked his screens to make sure everything was running smoothly.

"Position and course on profile," turning to look at the Nichols who nodded to acknowledge the report. The lady sitting in his lap had gotten up and been replaced by a well built man. As they approached the halfway point of the maneuver the acceleration reached its maximum, and would now remain steady until they had gone beyond Jupiter by several million kilometers. The Spirit's engines would continue to accelerate the ship to that point in space where they would then return to an idle. Again, a countdown appeared on his screen. He watched silently until zero when a barely perceptible nudge from the engines made sure they were on their way to Titan. A quick check of the screens.

"We are on the outbound leg. On course and on time."

And that was it more or less. No surprises was the way you wanted it. In nineteen days they would be entering into orbit around Titan. They would unload the all the foodstuffs, equipment, and other miscellaneous items at the Demeter processing facility in orbit, and load up on volatiles and synthesized organic compounds before the return to Jupiter. A problem with the previous supply shipment had the station critically short of some supplies, and now the above-average sized freighter Spirit was helping to relieve the problem.

* * *

The previous twelve days passed uneventfully for the Michael and rest of the twenty five crew members of the Roaming Spirit. If he had been superstitious Michael wouldn't like today very much. It like any other day. His day started with bland food and over-strength coffee before spending time in the centrifuge to workout. Next it was up to the bridge to run checks on the instruments and check the ship's course. Kim was already on the bridge working on the sensors. Everything looked normal.

"What's up, Kim?"

"Not much. The usual news and information packages are incoming. I'm working on some stuff I need to finish for my astronomy course."

"Your still taking those courses?"

"Yeah. It takes a little longer when you're always some where in the solar system other than the classroom." The console beeped at Kim, so she returned to her work while Michael moved to the pilot station and strapped in so he wouldn't float away. He had just finished his system checks when Kim huffed at something on her screens.

"Problem?"

"The computer has an object alert on the astrogation sensors, but I don't read anything."

"You checked all the instruments?"

"Twice."

"Can you get a visual on it with the telescopes?"

Kim punched some keys to bring up the object the computer said was out there. She turned and gave him a quizzical look. "There's nothing there."

"What?" Michael unstrapped and floated over to Kim's station.

"There's nothing in the telescope image."

"Malfunction?"

"I'll get one of the maintenance guys to have a look at the 'scopes." He looked at the screen for moment then turned to go back to his station. Something caught his eye on the screen, and he turn his head back so fast he started to spin away from Kim. Later Michael would wonder how he had ever noticed it while paying only half attention to the screen.

"What's that? Or more correctly, what isn't that?" he said as got the image zoomed in on a spot of blackness.

"There's nothing there. What could be blocking the stars?"

"Nothing that I know of."

"How did the computer pick up nonexistent stars?" Kim asked as he got back into his seat. Something in the back of his mind made him page the captain without realizing he did it. He called up the navigational data on his screen and got the computer to overlay the reference stars it was using to check the ship's course. There was a red triangle in the middle of the spot where a blue square with the star inside should be.

"There's something out there occluding a star the navigation program uses. Let's setup the computer to track the change in occluded stars. Maybe we can figure out where it's going."

This was easier said than done is many ways. First of all the change in the visibility of stars can be very slow. In the this case, it was. Secondly without some idea of its size it's hard to get a very accurate plot of its course. Of course the change in the size of the occluded area helped to determine the aspect.

"Which way is the 'scope pointed?"

"Just a few degrees off ship centerline."

The captain arrived to answer the page. The crew didn't page him for trivial matters. He knew his crew was good at what they did. This had to be something 'difficult'.

"What's up?"

"There's something out there. Possibly crossing our course."

"Have you plotted its course?"

"That's what we're working on now. We almost didn't notice it. There is something out there that blocked a star the navigational program is using as a reference. We have to track it by changes in occluded stars." Michael showed the captain the telescope screen.

"What? There's nothing out there that should behave like." Then he just floated there looking at the screen for a very long moment. "How long have you be tracking the object?" It wasn't a matter of 'if' it was there, but whether is could pose a danger to the Spirit.

"Just a few minutes. I didn't realize I'd paged you until you came in."

"That's OK. Keep working on plotting its course. Let me know when you've firmed things up. I'm going to run a quick inspection of the ship. If that thing is any trouble we need to be ready to go. I'll be back within an hour. Let me know of any changes," as he floated off the bridge. He wasn't gone ten minutes, and the captain was back with Kasei.

"This doesn't strike me as being good news."

"It's coming toward us."

"You're sure? Double checked the data?" This was serious. "No transverse occlusion and an expansion of the occluded area."

"Great. Range? Speed? Size?"

"We can't really answer the first two question without an idea of the third. For all we know we could smack into it when I finish this sentence." Not a good conjecture to make in the current situation, but nothing happened either.

"We assumed it was bigger than the particle screens and lasers could handle. It can't be a comet in this orbit, so it would have to be an asteroid. A small one, say one hundred meters would be easy to maneuver around with a minimal effect on time and fuel. No problem at all. But it's not a little one. It's big! We had to change the magnification twice to keep it all on the screen. The best estimates give us another six to twelve hours. The worst estimates say we should be dead."

"Possible changes in course?"

"Nothing good I'm afraid. Our current course is planned to take us from the gravity whip to an aerobrake maneuver around Saturn into orbit above Titan. Any maneuver we make will put us to far off course to get back on course. If it was possible I would have initiated a course change already." His next words would not be welcome news to the captain. "We need to eject most of the cargo pods to have a chance at clearing the object."

"What!" came the trio of exclamations. He hadn't mention this idea to Kim since she'd been busy with tracking the object.

"If we ditch the extra mass we should have enough fuel to produce enough delta-V to ensure we get out of the way, and get to Titan." It felt like a knife in his stomach. The people on Titan really needed the supplies.

"That would not make our employers very happy, not to mention the people on Titan when we get there."

"Captain, I realize the situation on Titan is reaching a critical point, but I don't see another way. If we end up splattered on that 'thing' the people on Titan will go without anyway."

Kasei was the next to speak. "If we need to do any aggressive maneuvering with the load, it will snap the ship's spine. If we don't balance the CCs along the spine, it could snap."

"Can you get rid of the CCs containing non-essentials and keep the load balanced?"

"I went through the manifests before we loaded. Everything is mixed together." Michael was getting nervous, but Kim was showing it. She kept glancing at the external cameras wondering if they were about to die. The telescope was close to being unable to keep the object entirely in its field of view. The captain looked deep in thought for a moment.

"Eject half the containers, Kasei. I don't care which ones. Michael, start your maneuver based on a half-load. Kim, communicate the objects path and our course of action to anyone who might be listening. We may need help."

Almost twenty minutes had passed since the object had been spotted. Michael picked one of the computer generated evasive maneuvers, and quickly modified it for a progressive change in course while Kasei ejected the CCs. A quick double check, and the program was active with the first pod. Watching the screens and the computer projections it would be close. Twenty five minutes after the object was detected, the last pod was ejected, and the engines and verniers went to full thrust. Michael clamped his eyes shut and saw Jupiter in his mind. He felt the jolt of collision. At the same moment warning klaxons began to sound. It hadn't been enough. To be more accurate the last CC wasn't ejected soon enough. The last CC ejected, cleared the engine housing, struck the object, and 'bounced'.

The container clipped the lower engine housing, crushing structural elements and the thrust louvers. The computer quickly shut down the damaged engine, but not before the unbalanced thrust and impact started the Roaming Spirit into a cartwheel spin, end over end. It was a fairly graceful looking spin, but to the occupants of the Spirit it was anything but.

The ship's frame groaned with the sudden rotation as unsecured crew and gear were thrown about. The computer finally shut down the remaining engines in a panic move to ease the structural overload. The spin put the gravity inside the opposite ends of the Spirit at about a half normal gravity. Not crippling, but enough to make damage control and other tasks just a bit more difficult. It was easier to move things in zero gravity. Michael quickly went to work on stabilizing the ship's spin as soon as he could be sure he could hit the right controls. Between the impact, vibrations, and general confusion following the impact, it took several minutes to get the Spirit stabilized.

Kasei was frantically working to coordinate the damage control teams and assess the damage to Spirit. Several times he shouted at Michael, "Take it easy!" Kim was busy trying to contact any ship that might be in the area for assistance, and let other ships know what was out there. They knew how big it was now. Once the ship was stabilized, Michael set to work figuring out where they were with respect to their destination and desired course. Can we even get back on course? Where the heck did it come from? Where's it going? Michael had chosen an evasion course that took them out of the plane of the elliptic. They were spun in the direction of the ship's last velocity vector at engine shutdown, about thirty eight degrees off their original course. Already moving at a good pace, and using maximum thrust to evade, the ship continued off it's course quite quickly. With the each minute the engines were shutdown, the longer and more difficult it would be to get back on course.

"What's our status, Michael?" the captain finally asked.

"Getting worse the longer we're without the engines online." He took a deep breath and continued, "And we used a lot of reaction mass evading. We lost a lot of re-mass to the impact too." Kasei nodded.

"Any responses to our request for assistance, Kim?"

"No responses. It looks like the long-range communications gear shorted out. It may require a complete refit. Short-range tight beam is all that's operational."

"Kasei?"

"We've managed to maintain atmospheric integrity in the hull so far. That doesn't mean that a stressed bulkhead won't blow any moment though. The number four engine is pretty mangled from a remote visual inspection--lots of twisted and crushed structural members. And, of course, we lost a lot of re-mass from the tanks around the engine. It will take almost another hour to make sure that the other engines weren't damaged in any way and restart them."

"We won't have enough re-mass to make it to Saturn if it takes that long," stated Michael. Kasei's face twitched then snapped.

"And when the other engines explode!?"

"Kasei!" It was the captains turn to bellow. Kasei's features quickly blanked.

"I think Michael realizes that you don't want to jeopardize the ship if there is other damage, nor does he. But the fact remains that we won't make it to Saturn." He turned to Michael.

"Any other options?"

"The Trojans are out; we've passed them. The asteroids are further away than Saturn, and we still wouldn't have the reaction mass. If we eject the last CCs it would be possible to make a hard burn to get us back on course to Saturn, but we'd have to aerobrake pretty hard to make sure we stay in orbit."

"Most of the CC attachment locks have been twisted or damage by the impact or sudden rotation. We'd need to cut them loose. At the very least we need a visual inspection to see if any of the CCs could be ejected automatically."

"How long will that take?"

"At least an hour. Maybe two."

"I can go outside," Michael volunteered.

"No. You stay here and work the computer to optimize the course back for as little re-mass as possible. I'll go outside with any one you can spare, Kasei." Nichols looked at Michael again.

"You're the one getting us home. I want your undivided attention to the problem of saving our butts."

"Yessir!"

* * *

Almost two and a half hours later, the engines were online, and the CCs ejected or cut free. Michael waited for the airlock hatch status to turn from red to green.

Blink.

The engines came to life like with the invisible big guy sitting in his lap again. Captain Nichols had tried to contact him to tell him to get them moving, but his call was cut short by the sudden acceleration knocking him, and the rest of the crew members in the airlock, into the airlock's wall. Almost six hours later the computer cut the engines, and the Spirit was coasting toward Saturn.

* * *

A week later the Roaming Spirit had arrived at Saturn. What little reaction mass left in the tanks was used to make minute correction to ensure they didn't burn up during the aerobrake maneuver. Michael had said it was going to be a hard brake, but he never mentioned exactly how hard until the day before they were to arrive.

Saturn was quickly growing on the view screens.

"Three and a half g's!" was Nichols shouted exclamation up finding this out.

Kasei was only slightly quieter. "You're going to get us all killed!"

After the initial reaction of loud curses and derogatory statements directed at Michael, they calmed down . . . a little.

"The ship could very well fall apart under that kind of stress! Maybe if we hadn't torqued so badly from the impact." Kasei shook his head. "But three and a half g's!"

"I said you should save our butts, not fry them in Saturn's atmosphere."

"It was the only way. If we could have burned sooner it would have meant almost a full g less on deceleration. There's not much I could do."

"Kasei. See what you can do to reinforce any weak spots in the hull. Michael. Kim. Make sure everything is locked down tight."

The inspection and preparations finished, they were at yet another countdown. This one to life or death in the atmosphere of Saturn.

"Four . . . three . . . two . . . one." The Spirit began skimming the upper atmosphere, starting with a faint vibration and quickly building to a almost violent tremor. The noise the ship was making was less than comforting--rattling objects, the occasional screech of metal. The crush of three and a half times normal Terra gravity was almost painful as Michael was pushed into his acceleration couch. Looking at the screens that showed the outside of the ship, it looked like the Spirit was on fire. The friction of hull against atmosphere was heating the hull quickly, turning it bright orange-red.

Viewed from a distance the Spirit would look like a fireball circling Saturn. Even though the actual temperature on the bridge hadn't risen since they started aerobraking, Michael felt hot and sweaty just looking at the screens. It was so noisy that Michael had to yell, "THIRTY SECONDS!"

And the noise and tremors began to subside in the reverse of how it all started. Finally it all stopped. Michael hadn't realized he'd closed his eyes, hoping that thirty seconds was all that was left. For the second time on the journey Michael saw Jupiter in his mind. Opening them slowly he looked at the screen and then checked the navigational readouts. "We are in orbit around Titan and completely out of re-mass."

"Miss Franks, please contact Demeter station. Tell them we could use a tow."

"Aye, captain."

"Captain? I believe we need to contact Jovian officials as well."

"And why would that be, Mr. Benjamin?" He'd been pretty busy in the week after the collision. He'd finally had the chance to run the data on the object through the computer before the aerobrake maneuver. It came out with an answer just before they started around Saturn.

"The object is headed directly for Jupiter."