Chapter No.3 Experiment.

The next day I was at the command station when Janet and Sharon sat down next to me. They were attired much like me, in shorts and athletic shoes; although, they were wearing crop tops instead of tees. I assumed that the project designers decided that we didn't need to wear anything more complicated, and it was obvious that they had opted for minimalism.

"What's our status?" Janet asked.

"Boring," I said, sounding depressed.

"Maybe you should check the engines from outside," she said. "Maybe something happened that the system can't detect."

"I've looked at the camera displays but they don't give me a view from out away from the engines. I'd have to launch a probe to do that."

"That might not be a bad idea."

"COMA, launch an inspection probe and move it to the engine modules."

We watched the small probe move out to a position at the starboard side of the vessel near the front. Then it ignited propulsion rockets to move back to the main engine array, which was mounted on a long extension to keep them from radiating the crew and agricultural areas.

But what we saw made us gasp.

"Holy hell!" I exclaimed. "It just disappeared!"

"Why would it do that?" Sharon asked.

"COMA, display the video recording of the probe in slowest possible motion."

We watched the probe fire its engines and then instantly disappear even in slow motion.

"I think this is evidence that we're at light speed," Janet said.

I looked at her. "How so?"

"Evidently, being at light speed is like being in a different quantum reality. Anything slower can't exist in it."

"If we are at light speed, wouldn't we see something?" I asked. "Why is everything dark?"

Janet stared at me for a moment before replying. "I'm not sure. No one has ever gone that fast."

"What I would like to know is how we achieved this impossible velocity," Sharon asked.

"I'll have to go through the documentation that led up to the engine design for this vessel," Janet said. "Maybe I can find something they missed."

"I hope we can determine what happened," I said. "Unfortunately, if we do drop out of light speed, we have no idea where we'll be."

"If there is a clue in the engine info as to how we obtained light speed, we might be able to enter it at will," she said. "That could make it possible to go long distances."

"Even if we could, it would take us years to get back to Earth."

"Yeah," she said. "I doubt we'll ever see Earth again."

"What does that mean?" Sharon said. "Could we locate a habitable planet, or will we end up living out our lives on this vessel?"

"Good question," I said. "I guess we should have considered that before we signed up for this insane mission."

"Maybe the crew members that died are better off," Sharon said, sounding depressed.

"They're dead," I said. "They can't offer an opinion. We, on the other hand, are alive, and we have a responsibility to continue this mission to find a habitable Earth-like planet." I smiled. "Look, it's not that bad. We have plenty of food and water and we have artificial gravity. At least we're still in good shape after a twenty-year snooze."

Sharon sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Excuse me for being so negative."

Janet placed her hand on Sharon's shoulder, "At least we're not alone. That would have been horrible."

Sharon sighed again. "Right." She offered a smile to Janet, who returned it with interest.

I stood up. "I'm going to go to the engineering deck to see if I can find any clues there."

I went to the embedded ladder, activated it, climbed up to the center opening and pulled myself into the wheel axel tube. After propelling myself in zero gravity through the tube to the agricultural wheel center, I climbed down the ladder to the floor of the wheel and made my way to the opposite side through an apple tree grove. I activated the ladder there to climb up to the center opening and pulled myself into the tube that led to the engineering wheel.

After arriving there, I climbed down the ladder and began walking around the wheel to see if I could locate anything amiss. Robots not all that different than the ones on the agricultural deck, were busy checking systems and equipment. They ignored me. I found a command station and sat down at it to activate a screen. This was one place that COMA wasn't operational. I was able to make inquiries manually.

After several tries, I found a description of a component of the fusion system that I didn't know about. It discussed several quantum situations that dealt with the engine propulsion. I was able to send the data to the command station on the crew wheel. I assumed that Janet could decipher it.

What she found was astounding.