Where is Ray's Brain?!?!

It was a few days prior to Jump Out, the historic first jump of mankind’s first ever colony ship. I was in the primary control room running through a formal checklist with my First Assistant Chief. Jumps aren’t normally a big deal nowadays, since spaceships have been using jump technology for the better part of 20 years. However, there has always been talk of a theoretical upper limit as far as the amount of mass one can push through a single jump.

Destiny, our colony ship’s name, was nowhere near that upper limit but it was still five times the size of the largest jump capable ship in the fleet. So I was a little nervous and wanted to make sure everything was “nom and calm”. Or checking that systems were within nominal parameters and no alarms or warning lights were on.

It was during a power up test of the main engines that something started beeping. “What’s that Grey?” I asked my FAC. She gestured with her right hand over the 3-D display and pulled up a diagnostic holo. “Coolant temperature is getting a little hot, Chief.”

“That’s weird,” I said as I looked over her shoulder. “We haven’t even spooled up the engines. There’s nothing for the coolant to cool.” Then the impossible happened. The coolant temperature continued to rise and what started as a mildly annoying “look at me” beeping turned into a symphony of more insistent “this is getting serious” alarms.

“Okay, lets abort the test. Start procedures for powering down the main energizers.” I went to a separate console as Grey set to work getting the systems powered down. It wasn’t helping. Nothing we did seemed to have any effect. Well, that’s not exactly true. Nothing we did seemed to have any positive effect. It was like all the procedures we followed just made things worse. More alarms blaring and system warnings popping up like daisies all over the holo displays. Until…

“Until?” Sheila queried again, annoyed at my long pause. I took a long look at her, standing in her impatient kindergarten pose, secure in the logic and rationality of her worldview. I was like that once, just last week. So I didn’t say anything and just brought out my hardcopy print of one of the displays and showed it to her. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course this picture was summed up by her in just three.”What the hell?”

It is a little embarrassing that my old work computer had to die before I came back to writing at least once a day, but that’s what it took. I’m now writing today’s entry on a shiny new iMac via WriteRoom – the Mac equivalent of what I was using on the PC. In full screen mode its just a black screen with whatever text I decide to put down on it. Unlike the PC version though, I have to pay for this elegant piece of software after 30 days or else I can’t use it again. It seems good enough that I’ll probably buy it. Check back in 30 days and see if I do.

If it seems like the following story is very very short, that’s because its a work in progress. I actually do have a real job which is not writing. Well, not fiction anyway. It should be updated during most of the day and if not then throughout the week.

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“Logan, you can’t be serious,” she said. A frown crossed her face as she said it, as she usually does when she’s talking to me.

“I am, and I did,” I replied. “No use arguing about it now.”

Sheila, her name by the way, crossed her hands and leaned back. I called it the kindergarten pose because it usually preceded a long speech in which she would reprimand me like a 5-year old.

“Let me get this straight,” she began. “On the this very colony ship, mankind’s first ever, on the eve of our first system jump, on which at least 100 different subsystems are still having issues, you went and consulted with a shaman to rid the ship of evil spirits? Have you lost your mind?”

“I hope not. I’m the chief engineering officer. If I lost my mind we’re all doomed.” My attempt at defusing the situation with a joke was not successful, as evidenced by her throwing her hands up in the air. “Where did you find this guy anyway?” she asked. “Actually, he sort of found me.”