Chapter 7. Separation

The time came for returning to Earth. After securing anything that could become a possible hazard, the crew climbed into jet pilot seats that were mounted on the aft wall of the crew deck. After strapping in, they waited for the three deck wheels to stop spinning and be locked down before the engines fired up to move the ship out of orbit and then accelerate on a course that would get them back to Earth.

Jack's cat decided that it wanted to go with him on the trip back. He petted it and received a thankful meow while it snuggled up on his lap.
After stopping the two decks from spinning, the main engines were activated to begin the return to Earth. The G-forces were not all that stressful. What made the process annoying was the constant low G-force and hissing noise that continued for hours.

The cat didn't seem to mind it. Maybe it realized that it would eventually end after the ship had acquired the necessary velocity to return home.

The crew took the opportunity to get some needed sleep, despite the physical annoyances.

Many hours later when the proper velocity had been achieved, the engines were shut down, which allowed the crew to unstrap from their seats and float in free fall to the floor of the crew deck and then go to the command center and sit in chairs so that the rotation of the deck could begin without anyone getting injured.

The cat followed Jack and settled on his lap before the rotation began.

With the decks rotating at their proper velocity, the crew members could now go back to the mess hall center to enjoy a proper meal.
"Well, that went well," Lorrie said after taking a sip of coffee. "I thought it would be much worse than that."

"I'll take it over being in a hibernation capsule," Jack said using a fork to capture some noodles. "At least you can be awake during the engine burn."

Natalie wasn't convinced." The return trip will be totally boring."

"That's true," Jack said. "But all of those samples from the planet need to be analyzed, which should keep you busy for quite some time."

Her eyes grew larger. "Do we have the equipment to do that?"

Jack pointed down, even though that wasn't the correct direction. "It's in the lower deck wheel. I will go up to the hanger deck and retrieve all the samples that were extracted from the planet. It'll take some time to get them down to the lower deck."

"I'll help," Jessica told him.

"Thanks," he replied with a subtle smile.

Natalie and Lorrie headed to the ladder that they needed to climb to enter the tube that led to the lower deck. While in the tube, they would be in free fall. Once they arrived at the tube entrance to the lower wheel deck, they climbed down the embedded ladder to the deck's floor, which provided artificial gravity due to its rotation.

"Where's the lab?" Natalie asked, looking in all directions as if she were lost.

"I think it's that way," Lorrie said while pointing to the left. "There's a section that looks blocked."

They walked down to a walled in section that had an entrance door in the middle of the corridor.

Lorrie opened the door and she and Natalie entered a room that contained lots of science equipment.

"Wow!" Natalie exclaimed, pointing to a large L-shaped bench with complicated metal tubes leading to a large oven. The shiny metal tubes and associated equipment were connected to the oven. "That's a thermal ionization mass spectrometer."

"I guess they assumed we would be measuring the radio isotope ratios from samples," Lorrie said. "Hopefully, we can figure out how to use this equipment."

"I'm sure that the instructions are in the system," Natalie said.

"We're going to need a grinder so that we can reduce the rock samples to fine dust before we can process them."
"I don't know where that would be stored," Lorrie said, looking around.

A cat like the one that hangs around Jack entered the lab and went to a cabinet under a nearby table. It raised its right leg in the direction of a drawer and meowed.

"What?" Natalie exclaimed. "The cat knows where things are?"

Lorrie walked over to the cabinet and opened the drawer. "Yep, it's here."

"That's ridiculous!" Natalie blurted.

They laughed.

Lorrie sighed. "We may as well get busy studying the manuals before we get fired."

Natalie smiled. "I'd prefer a more satisfying discipline."

Lorrie giggled. "I'll bet you would!"

Natalie gave her a smile.

Jack and Jessica were busy trying to retrieve the samples that were obtained from the planet. They had to disassemble the sample collection bins and then remove the material without contaminating it. One method was to use a transparent plastic sheet that could be sealed around the sample bin and then use suction to collect the sample in a clean glass tube.

"This is going to take some time," Jessica said.

"We have plenty of that," Jack replied.

"Yes. We don't have to collect all the samples at one time. It'll take plenty of time to analyze them."

He gave her a reassuring smile.

Down on the lower deck, Natale and Lorrie were busy studying the instructions for the mass spectrometer.

"They must have assumed that we would need this equipment," Natale said. "I think they knew we would find the planet."

"I would bet that the commander and his cronies realized that there could be a danger in coming here."

"I agree. They chickened out on purpose."

Lorrie activated the computer station and searched for the lab equipment's manuals. After three hours of studying them, they felt ready to attempt measuring the radioisotopes of samples from the planet's surface.

Jessica arrived with two sample containers that she and Jack had removed from a probe.

"You're just in time," Natalie told her. "We just got the mass spectrometer up and running."

"This is only the first samples we've retrieved from a probe," Jessica said. "There's plenty more."

Lorrie opened a sample container and handled the rocks with gloves to avoid contaminating it. "We'll need to take showers after working with these samples."

"Speaking of showers," Jessica said. "I see that Jack has a shower door in his quarters."

Both Natalie and Lorrie stared at her with surprised expressions.

"I haven't seen him looking at us when we take showers," Natalie said. "That means he respects us."

"It looks like we got lucky," Natalie said. "He's the commander and could do as he pleases."

"Did he say anything about it?" Lorrie asked.

"Nope," Jessica replied. "We stopped at his quarters so that he could change his clothes and take a shower because he accidently got some of the sample on them."

"How did you find out that he can see the shower from a door?" Lorrie asked her, a subtle smile on her lips.

"I saw that when I was in his quarters when he took a shower," she replied with a smug grin.

Lorrie squinted. "He allowed you to watch him shower?"

"Yes," she replied with a more serious expression.

Lorrie turned to Natalie. "Looks like we missed the big show."

"I agree," she replied with a sour expression.

Lorrie sighed. "Well, we had better get busy testing these samples before we get disciplined for goofing off."

"I wouldn't mind getting disciplined," Natalie said with an ornery grin.

Lorrie smiled. "You would!"

They laughed.