| |
A day later Ellen sat in her command chair as the Einstein’s various department heads reported their readiness for departure. The evacuation of the Titan space station had been a classic case of time pressures pushing through the necessary effort and had been completed within the last hour. Lengthy discussions as to the sustainability of pulling the station into the warp bubble zone had ended with the decision to scuttle it and as a final move it was being towed into an unstable orbit which would decay and end with the station falling into Saturn’s atmosphere. The IP craft towing it would then chase Einstein catching the starship after a few hours.
Commander Lees turned to Ellen. “Captain, we are ready.”
“Thank you, Commander. Helm, take us out.”
The great ship started to move away from Titan, slowly at first but gradually its momentum increased. Ellen could visualise that everyone, who could, would be taking a last look at Saturn and its rings. Before giving the order for departure she had instructed her communications officer to ensure that the rear view was being broadcast to all video screens.
A few moments later there was a gasp of delight from a young woman. “That’s it, we’ve got it.”
Ellen turned her head towards the sound. “Might I know what we have got?”
“Sorry, Captain. We have located the star probe. It’s exactly where Ensign Piper calculated it should be. It is still under power, albeit at quarter speed, and has crossed Saturn’s orbit.”
“Excellent, well done tracking. Communications, its Lieutenant Jaeger isn’t it? Do we have the codes ready to signal the probe?”
“Yes, Captain. I’m not sure why but they were sent to me at the same time as your last message from command.”
“Send an instruction to the probe to align itself with Proxima Centauri and then to engage its warp drives. Message should include an instruction to await further instructions at its destination. Can that be done?”
“It can Captain, I will need to check exact positioning with tracking to allow for transmission time. I assume that we will want the transmission to be on as narrow a beam as possible.”
“Do it. Let me know when the probe acknowledges. Commander, would you join me in the ready room, please.” Turning to the officer who had announced the probe find, “Lieutenant, please join us once comms has the data they need.”
“Yes Captain.” Both Lees and the lieutenant responded together, the commander continuing. “Lieutenant Cheung, you have the com.”
“Yes, sir”
Cheung moved to the command chair and a second officer took her place at the helm as Ellen led the way into her command room just off the bridge.
Before she and John were joined by the Lieutenant, Ellen spoke, “John, please make sure Miss Piper gets the plaudits she deserves. I would do so but given she is a relative I feel I should keep a little distance. I don’t want to hear mumblings of favouritism.
Her first officer smiled. “Not to worry, I can manage that. I can say, already, that Judy has the makings of a good officer. In better times I believe she would have completed her degree at the same time as she completed officer training at Lunar base. She is modest and well liked. I have already been working with the rest of the command team on a way in which we could put in place a formal officer-training process in place for those Ensigns with promise. We planned to put it forward to you once we have it drafted.”
“Excellent. Once we are out of immediate danger, I will be eager to contribute. Now where is Lieutenant Smythe?”
At that moment the door opened and the young officer entered. “Sorry, Captain, it took a few minutes to provide communications with the information they needed.”
“Not a problem. Now we are underway I need you and your team on full alert watching those alien ships as they approach Saturn and I want to know if anything happens to change their current ETA of around three weeks. You must contact both me and the Commander if there is any change – whatever the time and whoever is on-duty. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now. Do we have enough trained personnel available to ensure tracking is fully manned at all times including during the twilight shifts, from now until we can engage warp?”
“I believe so, Captain. The lieutenant and I will check current duty rotas to ensure that is done. Come on Smythe, let’s get on that.”
The two officers left her ready room and Ellen settled back in her seat to go over their position. Had she managed to cover everything she could? In the event she could think of nothing she might have missed and in due course took over from her first officer in the command seat.
Ship routine settled down on the bridge as the Einstein cruised out towards the safe warp zone.
