Chapter Eleven

 

They moved Quest to a safe distance, away from the Sirius-Sirius B flux region and began preparations to leave for Earth. The hydrogen transfer to the ship’s tanks, when completed, would tell them where they stood on fuel. Cramer calculated, based on the number of cylinders, what their total hydrogen might amount to. The calculation’s accuracy depended on the efficiency of the transfer from the small tanks to the large fuel tanks. Finally, he could make use of basic physical chemistry principles he’d learned from his professor.

“It’s the old p-chem problem of two gas flasks hooked together by a stopcock. You know the volume, temperature, and pressure of both flasks while the stopcock is closed. Open the stopcock between the two, then figure out what the final pressure is. Our problem is we have a huge flask attached to a tiny flask. The delivery of hydrogen from the small to the large flask isn’t going to be very efficient.”

“So what’s the answer?” Mona asked.

“I see two solutions. We could heat Keldahl’s tanks to make the transfer a bit more efficient. I don’t like that option. Heating the tanks is dangerous, and it still doesn’t get the last dregs out of the small tanks. The other solution is going to take a lot of extra work but will allow more hydrogen to get into the fuel tanks.”

“Would that involve venting the small tanks into a large vacuum chamber, then from there into the fuel tanks?” Lila asked.

“Yes. As always Lila, you seem to be ahead of me. We can use the hard vacuum of space to evacuate our intermediate chamber,” he said.

“What can I do to help?” Witherspoon asked.

“Do you feel strong enough to work?” Cramer asked.

“Yes.”

“If you don’t mind, the two of us will start on constructing the gas manifold. It will be time consuming, can be frustrating, but will be an important part of replenishing the fuel. I hope we have the proper fittings.”

“If not, I can fabricate them,” Witherspoon said.

“Really?”

“Surprised I know something besides money dealings?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“That’s okay. I’d welcome using the machining equipment and brass round stock I brought along.”

“You thought of everything,” Cramer said.

He and Witherspoon worked on the gas manifold. Lila and Mona checked all the electronics on the ship and located the home sun for coordinates when the ship fired its drive engines. They also made a projection on how far their supply of hydrogen would take them. Foremost, the problem of inadequate hydrogen supply must be addressed. Would they be able to reach the Oort Cloud? If so, then they could feed on the comets for hydrogen. Lila and the ship’s computers on board would figure out acceleration, coasting, deceleration, and the effects of gravity from large bodies on the way.

During a break, Cramer stood alone in the observation deck of the pilot’s sphere. Sirius and Sirius B glared at him among the backdrop of other stars. The piercing distant suns defied the blackness of their roomy abode. Somewhere out there, old Sol shined, inviting them to return. Between them and Sol, the Oort Cloud flaunted its storehouse of frozen bodies. The sphere surrounding the home system presented a difficult path no matter what part of the ecliptic they approached the solar system from. He didn’t know the amount of time that elapsed back on Earth. Unfortunately, like man’s daily work schedule, their flight plans went awry early.

“Thinking of the trip home?” Lila startled him out of his speculation.

“Wondering if we’ll even make it home. Our hydrogen fuel won’t carry us halfway, let alone to the Oort Cloud.”

“We’ll make it somehow, Joe. You’ll be united with your daughter again.” She put her hand gently around his neck, lightly caressing his graying hairline.

Her touch electrified him, and he fought against the arousal it brought about in him. Her nearness rekindled memories of those times with Rita just before their intimacy. He missed those sessions of love. He looked at Lila and somehow felt she would more than fulfill that need. She recognized that urge, but would she yield herself just because it would help their mission? He chastised himself for his erotic thoughts. His weakness toward Lila and toward Mona, being so close to these two females out here in space, far away from home, threatened to undo him.

“I have to get back to that gas manifold. Brad and I almost have it completed.” Cramer swallowed hard, looking at Lila, then taking a deep breath. He turned on his heel to leave. He met Mona at the door.

“What’s wrong, Joe? The expression on your face. You seem…”

“About to come unglued. Would that be an appropriate description? I have to keep busy.” He didn’t linger. Mona glanced at Lila before he exited.

Yes, keeping his mind and body occupied would prevent his carnal side from taking over. He adamantly refused to rationalize feeling these basic, animalistic needs. He met Witherspoon, who joined him as he walked back to the work area. Cramer was glad for Witherspoon’s good health, despite being abducted by him years earlier. He didn’t carry a grudge; that would just eat him alive.

With the manifold completed, Cramer pressure tested it to check for leaks. Satisfied, they started the hydrogen transfer from Keldahl’s cylinders through an external chamber into the engine fuel tanks by way of the complex manifold system, courtesy of one of the hydrogen scoops.

An old fashioned dial gauge, large in diameter with black numbers on a white face and a slender indicator needle, gave the pressure reading for the engine fuel tanks. The construction engineer had assured Witherspoon the electronic pressure transducers for a large volume tank with hydrogen wouldn’t respond quickly or accurately. The final reading was forty-seven percent, a bit higher than he expected.

“This has sapped both my mind and body. If you all don’t mind, I’d like to turn in for the day,” he said.

“Same here,” Witherspoon echoed.

“How about we all get a bite to eat before doing that,” Mona suggested.

“I’ll pass. I’m going to make some last minute checks and new calculations from our fuel supply,” Lila said.

“Me too. I’m supposed to rest, anyway,” Witherspoon said, then headed for his room. She headed for the control sphere.

“Joe?” Mona asked.

“Sure, I’ll join you,” he replied.

They walked to the dining area, raided the refrigerator, then sat down facing each other. Cramer unwrapped a granola bar and popped open the orange juice bottle. He took a long draw from the bottle before biting into the bar. She fingered her pastry and sipped on a bottle of apple juice.

“Something is bothering you. What did you mean you were coming unglued?” she asked.

“I’d rather not discuss it,” he answered, shifting uneasily in the straight hard backed chair. He kept his eyes on his snack bar. Then he met her gaze and tried to swallow inconspicuously. Her expression changed. She stretched her lips thin and smirked at him. He dropped his gaze again.

“You’re having trouble controlling yourself.”

“What?” he asked, trying to dodge her statement.

“On Iapetus you used your age as an excuse to convince me you could control yourself when you saw a woman dressed in a provocative way. Of course I didn’t buy it,” Mona said.

“You have a steel trap mind to remember something like that,” he said.

“I also concluded, correctly I might add, you needed a woman.”

“And I said on that occasion for you not to line me up with those pigs from the restaurant, since you’re intent on bringing up ancient history.”

“Of course, you had to know I wasn’t doing that. Maybe you should discuss your feelings—or problems, if you prefer that term.”

Cramer took another sizable swig from his orange juice then decided to concentrate on finishing the snack bar. He squirmed in his chair. “My relationship with you and Lila needs to be professional. Let’s concentrate on ship computer operation, how far the hydrogen we have will take us, and avoiding any disasters along the way.” He chomped the last bit of granola bar.

“To be able to concentrate on those things you have to get anything bothering you off your chest. As I said long ago, you can’t let something remain bottled up. Doing that will affect your judgment.” Mona consumed the last of her pastry and washed it down with the rest of her apple juice.

“All right, I find you and Lila attractive, and although your personalities are quite different, that turns me on too.” Cramer downed the remaining orange juice in two powerful gulps, then, disgusted with his outburst, he threw the glass bottle into the recycling chute. “Oh, there goes my resolve to stay professional. I can’t believe I said that. You always had a knack for dragging stuff out of me.”

“You got it off your chest. You feel better now, don’t you?”

“No. I feel worse than ever.” He tilted his head at Mona, then continued, “I’m sorry. I’m not going to attack you. Besides, I’ve seen you fight. You’d clobber me before I took two steps toward you.”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t bring the flimsy dress I had on Iapetus. Not too practical for a star ship voyage.” She smiled, then couldn’t stifle her giggle. They both burst out laughing.

“Thank you, Mona.”

“For what?”

“For relieving my tension.”

“Joe, before we leave for the conference room… Keldahl told me if you hadn’t gotten me to the healing chamber after my head injury, I wouldn’t have survived. You saved my life.” She took Cramer’s hands and squeezed them.

“I was so worried about you. I don’t know what I’d do if you…”

“You don’t need to finish that statement,” she said.

He squeezed her hands in return.

They gathered in the conference room to hear Lila’s projections on their fuel load. “The news is not good.”

His spirits fell, and he could see that in Mona and Witherspoon’s expressions too. Lila stared directly at Cramer with an apologetic expression.

“We needed eighty-five percent to make it back. What we have won’t carry us more than one fourth of the way,” she said.

“What will our speed be when we run out?” he asked.

“Figuring we’d be holding a small amount of hydrogen in reserve for maneuvering, we would be at one quarter light speed.”

“Won’t we be able to coast to the Oort Cloud?” Mona asked.

“No, we’ll be dead in space before then.”

“Will it help if we leave part of the ship behind?” Witherspoon asked. “Just take what we need?”

“Yes. I was about to suggest detaching some of the spheres. We could move what we need into a few of the spheres and leave the others behind,” Lila said.

After a long discussion, they decided to set two of their space taxis afloat, keep the taxi with the mech arm, and move the hull plating into the taxi bay. The living quarters sphere could be eliminated by moving their belongings to command and by combining the backup systems and storage which would eliminate three of the ten spheres.

They rearranged the contents of all the affected spheres. The modular construction of the ship made disconnection of the three discarded spheres easy. Cramer and Mona used the two excess space taxis to move the three spheres out of the line of the others and shove them to one side. They each manned a taxi and fired the backup chemical thrusters to nudge the spheres. Bringing the fragmented ship together proved a nightmare. This left it in three pieces. Those pieces began to drift apart and misalign themselves. The taxi sphere and deep sleep sphere floated by themselves. Cramer and Mona nudged them together with their taxis to make the connection. At this point, one end of the connected pair needed to hook up with the engine and fuel spheres on one end and the front three spheres on the other end.

“Mona, I didn’t think this out,” he said over the radio. “How are we going to bring these three pieces together? They’re drifting apart.”

“These taxis are equipped with tether lines. Let’s try to attach them to the three pieces. At least they won’t separate any farther apart,” she said.

“Okay, you take the front spheres, and I’ll take the back spheres. First order of business is to attach one to the taxi and deep sleep pair, one on each end.”

“Right. We must be careful not to work against each other when we attach our second tether to the other cluster of spheres,” she said.

He nodded. “Okay. With our tether to the other spheres we can reel it in. The strength of the lines and taxi wench will be pushed to their limits.”

“The secret is to not rush. That way if the connecting clamps are misaligned we can adjust the angle of tension to get them aligned. As soon as that happens, Lila will activate the clamps. Thank goodness each sphere has its own power system for the clamps.”

He could hear his second tether line straining as it pulled on the engine and fuel sphere pair. Mona probably experienced the same thing. Closer the two spheres came, but very slow, dragging enough he wondered from his vantage point in the taxi’s pilot cabin if they moved at all. He noted a slight misalignment and compensated. She informed him of her progress.

“Let up on your end. I’m on the verge of a connection here. I’ll tell you when that happens, then, if you need help, I’ll come over to your side,” he said.

Relieved, he witnessed the big clamps close. Finally, the engine and fuel spheres were attached to the deep sleep and taxi spheres. “I have a connection here. Do you need any help?”

“No. I can handle it.”

Cramer noted an abruptness in her voice. That sounded like the old Mona returning full force. She might have trouble with the added weight on his end, but he knew better than to push it. He lifted his taxi to a high vantage point behind her position so she couldn’t see him. She focused on moving the front three spheres, compensating, then sending another tether line caught on one of the sturdy antennas and held. His respect for her ability reached a new level as he observed her working with three lines at once. She kept the back line taut and tightened and loosened the two lines secured on the front spheres. The two halves of the ship closed, and Cramer could see the big clamps in Mona’s taxi flood lamp slam home.

“Good work, Mona.”

“Watching, huh? Thanks. That foul up I made back at Saturn has nagged me all this time,” she said.

“Well, you didn’t need to prove anything to me.”

“I know, but I wanted to prove it to myself. If you don’t believe in yourself how can you expect anybody else to believe in you?”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve believed in you ever since our first job together mining the hot rocks from Cassini’s at Saturn,” he said. She gave no reply.

The two of them headed toward the airlock, left their taxis floating near the ship, then donned their space suits with jet packs and left the taxis, speeding toward the open hatch. The taxis floated away into deep space, having served their last duty well. Afterward they met with Lila and Witherspoon in the command center.

“Getting rid of the three spheres gained us some more distance but we are still short of coasting to the Oort Cloud,” Lila said.

“What are we going to do?” Witherspoon asked.

“Hope for some stray comets to provide us fuel along the way,” she answered.

“That’s a lot to hope for,” Cramer said.

“We’ll be pretty close to the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud when we stop. Maybe there will be some comets scattered on the outer fringe of the Cloud.”

“We might as well fire up the big engines and get started,” Mona said.