Chapter 15. Diversion.

When the crew assembled at the food station for supper, Jack decided to reveal his plan. "I searched through this ship's reserves and discovered that we're way overstocked."

"What do you mean?" Jessica asked, squinting.

"Even when I indicated that the ship would have twelve people, the system proclaimed that the reserves are high enough to support all for at least five years and probably much longer."

She stared at him with a confused expression. "Why would they go to the expense of doing that?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but we don't have to be concerned about supplies and resources. I even discovered that there is plenty of women's clothing stored down in the lower deck, including some questionable costumes."

Natale huffed. "That would suggest that the original commander and his cronies were more interested in salacious entertainment than repairing the probe."

"I don't think that the probe repair was on the schedule," Jack said. "I believe they wanted to escape from an alien invasion of Earth."

"If that were the case, why didn't they come on this mission?"

"Something happened, something that diverted them from coming on this trip. Maybe they went on a mission in the Far-Scape vessel."

"I thought that was just a rumor," Lorrie said. "It was supposed to carry a large crew to Titan."

"Maybe they activated it before we launched," Jack said. "If that's the case we may find them when we get to Saturn."

"So, what are we going to do in the meantime?" Natalie asked.

"We're going to continue on course to Saturn and then hang out there," Jack said. "It turns out that we have plenty of fuel to do that and still return to Earth. Hopefully the aliens will ignore us."

"I can't imagine why they would attack us," Jessica said. "We're not a threat to them."

Jack turned to Tog. "Have you received any new information from Houston?"

"No."

"That's not a good sign, but there's nothing we can do about it way out here."

"We can't even get a good view of Earth from here," Jessica said. "Maybe when we get to Saturn we might see it better."

"Yes, but for now all we can do is hope that the aliens leave us alone," Jack said.

Later that night, Jack received a signal from Tog. It didn't contain any information, so he decided to go to the command center and check it out.

He arrived at the command center and sat down next to Tog. "What's happening?"

"I received a message from Houston. It said that they approve our stopping at Saturn."

"Did they mention anything about the aliens?"

"No."

Jack turned to watch Jessica walk up to the command center and take a seat next to him.

"What's up?" she asked with a smile.

"I got a notice from Tog that he had a message from Houston."

Her expression changed to a serious frown. "Now what?"

"They approved our hanging around Saturn."

She let out a relieved breath. "At least we know they're ok. However, I don't understand why they would think it's all right for us to hang around Saturn."

"Yes," he said, looking away. "It could mean that they are aware of the aliens but don't want to say anything that the aliens could detect." He stood up.

She scanned her eyes over his body before standing up and smiling. "I found something that you might be interested in."

He tilted his head and presented a quizzical expression. "What?"

"Come, and I'll show you," she said, gesturing with her hand to the direction opposite to the way back to their quarters.

He stared at her to ascertain what she was up to, but he decided to acquiesce. He followed her to a door that he had never noticed. She opened it and he looked inside a chamber that contained six chairs arranged in a semicircle around an elevated platform. She pressed a button on the wall to activate a bright light directly over the platform.

"What do you think this was for?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea."

She smiled. "I'll let you think about it."

He watched her walk away. He realized what it suggested, but he was not about to say anything that could get him in trouble, However, it changed his theory about why he and the three women ended up on this mission.

It wasn't until the next evening while he was in his bunk trying to go through the ship's logs to find something that could explain why they were out here in the space boonies that he got a clue as to what was going on.

His cat jumped up on his bunk and settled down next to him. While pursing through the ship's logs, the cat used its paw to point to the screen at a word in the log. Jack stared at it and tried to understand why it was there. Quixotic means something that's not practical or doesn't make sense. Why would it even be in a ship's log.

He asked for a list of where the term appeared, and that's when he found something that blew him away. It was hidden in a separate file that was connected to the mission and it was absolutely ridiculous.