Chapter No.37. Newbie.

We were approaching Gliese 581-b when we spotted an object approaching at a relatively slow velocity. Janet had just increased the magnification of the main astronomy telescope to scope it out.

"I don't believe this!" I exclaimed. "That's a frigging escape pod."

"What? You mean from a ship like ours?" Janet asked.

"Actually, we don't have them. They were designed for military space craft."

"Are we going to capture it?" Natale asked.

"If we do, it's not going to be easy. Hopefully, it's not a trick."

"By whom?" Bridget asked.

"Someone who doesn't like us being out here." I turned back to my engineering screen. "COMA, adjust our velocity and course to intercept the object."

"That will require ten minutes."

"Bridget, you come with me. We're going to get in the shuttle and wait until we're in range of the object."

She stood up and joined me for a trip to the hanger. When we arrived there, we got in the shuttle and strapped in.

"How are you going to get that pod?"

"The shuttle has grabbers," I said. "Once I have it in my clutches, I can drag it into the hanger."

The course and velocity correction jets matched our vessel's speed to the object. Now it was my turn to try and get it. COMA depressurized the hanger and I maneuvered the shuttle out of the hanger and put it on an intercept course to the pod.

"What's so important about this pod?" Bridget asked.

"Maybe someone's in it. It is a rescue pod, which is designed to keep a crew member escaping a spaceship disaster alive for a time."

"For all we know they could be already dead."

"That's true, but we have to make an attempt to save them. It's an unwritten astronaut rule."

The approach to the pod was risky, but when I got the shuttle close enough to deploy the grabbers, I began the really tricky capture trick, something I hadn't attempted since astronaut training. The grabbers emerged from a storage bin in the top of the shuttle. I used a joystick to move the grabbers into position so that I could grab the pod right in the middle.

Once the grab was accomplished, the next step was to get it back to the hanger. A slow and very careful twenty minutes later I had it in the hanger, but there was no way to know if anyone was aboard or if they were alive until I went through the slow procedure of opening the pod.

What we found when the cover swung open was the last thing I had expected. It was a young woman. She had a sharply defined face with thin lips and green eye, but what caught my attention was her long white hair, something most would consider rare for a young woman.

According to her tag, she was Kali Smith, another second-class astronaut. Her expertise was listed as combat assistant. Just what we needed, I said to my sarcastic self.

On the other hand, I should have expected it. It was as if the universe had turned against me.

When we revived Kali, what she told us was not expected.

"I was with the USS-Avenger."

"What year did your mission launch?" I asked.

"We went out in 2102."

I turned to the others. "That's way after we went out." I turned back to her. "What happened to your ship?"

"We ran into a more advanced alien race and our ship suffered severe damage. I don't think that anyone else got away." She looked around at us. "How long have you been out here?"

"Over two hundred years relative to Earth. We were in hibernation for twenty years, and we've been exploring habitable systems for months."

"You must have been on the original Centauri exploration missions."

'That's right. We are what's left of three missions, the first of which went out in 2043." I pointed at Natale and Bridget. "They're from the second mission that launched in 2046."

"And, you're the only male?" she asked, her expression exhibiting confusion.

"Yes. I was a backup for the captain of my mission, but he died in hibernation because he was older, and we were in it for twenty years."

Kali looked around at the four other women before turning to me. "This must be a wild situation."

"It's awkward," I said. "But it's not of my making."

They laughed.

"You're lucky," I said. "We have six bunks on this ship. Otherwise we would need to share."

"I was used to my own stateroom."

"Welcome to the good ship Love Cruise," Janet said, grinning. "There is no privacy on this bird cage."

"Yeah, and we have minimal clothing," Bridget said. "And there is no such thing as sleep wear."

"I can attest to that," I said, smiling.

They giggled.

"I'm surprised they didn't include uniforms," Kali said.

"I don't think they expected us to succeed," I said. "They didn't account for hyperspace. The ship that Natale and Bridget were on exploded because they used electromagnetic antimatter containers. Ours uses natural magnetism."

"When our mission launched, they knew about hyperspace but didn't realize that it would stop us from aging."

"We also don't menstruate," Natale said.

"Yes," she said. "So much for starting a colony of humans on a new Earth."

We all agreed with that.

I turned to Janet. "What about this planet? Are there any aliens on it?"

"We're about a half million kilometers out from it. Do you want to go into orbit?"

"Yes, as long as there's no threat."

"If they were a threat, I think they would have noticed our presence by now."

"Okay, have COMA make the necessary corrections to get us into orbit." I motioned to the others. "Let's get seated at the command station so that we can weather the correction burns."

We took seats at the command station and watched the ship approach the planet, which didn't look very promising for habitability.

After that was completed, Bridget and Natale took Kali to get cleaned up and squared away while Janet, Sharon and I kept an eye on the planet we were approaching.

"How long till insertion?" I asked.

"We should be in orbit by 0900 tomorrow."

I stood up. "Good. I think I'll go down to engineering and see if I could boost the object mitigation laser's power."

She didn't react. When I arrived on the engineering deck, I began looking into the drawings for the laser and its power source. What I found was surprising. It was only running at fifty percent power. I changed the code to improve it to ninety percent.

We gathered for a communal supper of soy meatloaf and potatoes, along with a beer.

"How in the heck did you managed to have beer on a space craft?" Kali asked.

"We discovered that the agricultural robots had brewing equipment and the necessary ingredients. All they needed was for the process to be activated."

She shook her head. "Unbelievable."

"Are we going down to the planet?" Bridget asked.

"Probably not. It's not all that habitable. I just want to verify that humans are not on this planet."

"What are we going to do if the aliens attack us?" Natale asked.

"I don't know, but I did find out that I could boost the object mitigation laser's power from fifty to eighty percent. However, I don't know if it would make a difference in a battle."

They weren't happy to hear that, but what we did find changed our plans.