Chapter 2 – Invisible Death...
"Will we get to see any of it after the Carmack returns? Do we get to see any of the glowing firedrop, or does the Carmack's crew just place it all straight into storage?"
Sissy Carpenter chuckled at Sal. It was only Sal's third hop out of Earth's star system, and everyone remained very green around the ears during their third hop. Sissy could not fault Sal. He was only a rookie, and as such, he had not had the opportunity to gaze at the glowing firedrop before the captain sealed the cargo doors closed. She found Sal's fascination with the firedrop charming, reminding her of what she took for granted, of what she had first felt many star hops ago when she first scratched her name on a starship freighter's roster.
"Don't be in such a hurry, Sal," Sissy winked and brushed strands of the red-dyed hair that marked her as one of the ship's harvesters out of her face. "The firedrop will lose some its charm, even in your eyes, once you start seeing it all the time. Don't be in such a rush to destroy the early mystery."
Sal shook his head. "Seems like I've come too far not to at least get a peek at it. Seems I've risked a lot."
"In time, Sal. In time."
Sal sighed. It was hard to fight with Sissy's green eyes and her flaming, red hair. Captain Darringer had been wiser than Sal could have guessed when he had assigned Sissy to mentor the rookie Sal.
"Well, I thought I was joining the roster for something more than cleaning and organizing gear. I didn't have to jump light-years through space to do that."
Sissy disarmed Sal with a smile. "Before you know it, you'll be wishing that polishing space helmets was all you had to worry about."
Sal argued no further as he drifted beside Sissy through the hallway's zero gravity towards the captain's observation deck. He remained green in the life of star hopping, and his bones had not yet acclimated to the sensation of free-floating through a ship's halls. He had not yet looked upon the freshly-harvested firedrop with his own eyes, and so Sal had not yet decided if he would choose to cement his career among the stars, until his skeleton weakened so that Earth's native gravity would feel as crushing upon him as it did to the veterans of their freighter's crew. Sal drifted too quickly towards the observation deck; and as Sissy giggled, Sal bumped into Roy Henderson at the deck's entrance, who then bumped into Gary Beumont, who then careened into Erin Madcap, who was, for an instant distracted from the vital numbers scrolling along her digitized notebook.
"Mind yourself, Sal Maddox," Captain Darringer did not look behind his shoulder upon Sal as the more veteran crew members quickly returned to their positions. "Find a space in the rear and try not to jostle."
Though Sal would have usually faced a sterner scolding for his clumsiness, those in the observation deck offered him no criticism or consideration. Business demanded everyone's attention as a giant gas planet loomed just beyond the observation deck's glass.
Glazkov IV stretched across deck's view, its bands of blues, greens and beiges swirling together like thick clouds of paint. The sight of that silent planet beyond the glass still stole Sal's breath. None of the videos the star freighters carried back to Earth and none of the high-resolution photographs the tent vendors sold in the firedrop markets conveyed the quiet majesty, the crushing power that coalesced into the gas giant Glazkov IV.
It was the largest planet to which mankind had ever traveled. Glazkov IV dwarfed mighty Jupiter. He was no physicist, no star cartographer, but Sal imagined the mighty gas giant, if magically teleported into his native solar system, would've swallowed and crushed all rival planets. He was only a common, green rookie on his third hop to harvest the firedrop, and Sal did not understand the science behind the electrical storms that flashed all across Glazkov IV. Long bolts of cracking, white and silver electricity exploded from the planet's clouds, clenching outward towards the stars like broken fingers filled with terrible charge. The observation deck's lights flickered when the swirling electrical storms jettisoned the largest plumes of alien lightning. Glazkov IV was immense, and it was alive, demanding the crew of Captain Darringer's star freighter named Klondike to remember that they were all interlopers in that giant planet's gravitational court.
And Sal had never witnessed anything like the electrical storm Glazkov IV currently flashed beyond the deck's glass. All the dark space surrounding the planet seemed charged with power. Even the stars appeared to recede from the heavens and bow before the fury sparking from the planet's atmosphere. Sal was thunderstruck. How did any woman or man ever dream to get close enough to Glazkov IV to discover the small moon which orbited the giant, that small moon upon which had been discovered the firedrop.
"Try raising the Carmack again," Captain Darringer turned to face a woman floating slightly above him to his left. "The discharges appear to have calmed a bit. Maybe now we can get a signal through to our harvester."
The woman's fingers flashed over her notebook, and the deck's speakers hummed to life.
"Klondike to Carmack. What is your status?"
None in the deck made a noise while they waited for a reply. The passing minutes felt like hours.
"What's the Carmack's estimated position?" Captain Darringer asked a man floating a little below him to his right. "Give me as precise a guess as you can based on the harvester's last known position before the electrical storm blinded us."
"Sixty-two parsecs from drop," the man quickly replied.
"Last known velocity?"
"One-quarter parsecs per second."
"Keep trying to raise them through all that static," sighed the captain. "They're beyond the drop now if they weren't able to slow and execute the landing. We can't know what that storm flashing outside has done to their systems. Their window is closing. That giant swirling on the other side of the glass is going to embrace them soon if he's not already done so."
Sal peered at Glazkov IV beyond the glass. He could read nothing amid the flashing electricity.
"What's going on?" Sal gently touched Sissy's shoulder so as not to send her tumbling through the zero gravity.
Perhaps the light show of Glazkov IV simply overwhelmed the sparkle, but much of the life appeared to have vanished from Sissy's green eyes.
"None of us have ever seen this kind of electrical storm around Glazkov, Sal. It's playing havoc on all of our systems. We've not heard from the Carmack for over an hour since we first lost contact when the harvester drifted through a jettisoned electric arc. If the Carmack's lost navigation, it wouldn't be able to slow down enough for the drop. And if its trajectory missed the landing, then Glazkov is going to claim the harvester with its gravity."
"What will happen to the crew?"
"They'll be crushed."
Sal looked again at the hulking planet looming beyond the observation deck. Everyone remained silent so that the captain could listen to the quiet clock ticking in his mind. Somewhere between their freighter, the Klondike, and Glazkov IV awaited that small moon that had summoned them to that quadrant among the stars. The moon didn't even have a proper name. All the star charts simply called it AU803, and Sal wondered what happenstance tempted the first explorer to dare the giant planet's gravity to navigate closely enough to that small moon to discover the glowing firedrop. Glazkov IV turned the moon invisible, but Sal knew the moon was out there, and he prayed the crew of the Carmack had found it.
Sal wondered what Captain Darringer saw in the arcs of lightning erupting from the planet. Did all those blues, green and beiges give the captain some kind of clue concerning the fate of the lost harvester? It was only his third hop between the stars, but it was time enough for Sal to learn that space travel was nothing like it had seemed in the movies he worshipped as a boy. Explosions did not blossom in the cold vacuum. Only silence existed outside of that thin shell of ship that separate Sal and his crew mates from the void's lethal touch.
Captain Darringer faced his navigator who floated slightly above him to his left.
"Time?"
"One hour, seventeen min
utes and twenty-three seconds since we lost contact."
"The Carmack is either on AU803 or it is not," the captain replied. "No way of knowing for as long as all that static keeps popping. I'm not inclined to believe that Glazkov's light show is going to stop any time soon. Gather a secondary harvesting crew, Miss Carpenter. We drop the second harvester within the hour."
The navigator looked up from the numbers scrolling across her digital notebook's display. "Do we have the time for a second drop? The anomaly back to home is scheduled to arrive in a little under five hours. Does that leave us enough time to fill the second harvester with enough firedrop to make it worthwhile? And what if the second harvester experiences the same type of static?"
"There's time enough," nodded the captain. "We can wait for another freighter to hop into system if we must. We can float around Glazkov IV for a long time without the luxury systems powered if we have to wait for a second freighter to schedule a new anomaly for us when that crew returns home. That will salvage our harvest, however it cuts into our earnings. And the Carmack may already be on the moon filling their hold with firedrop. We're not going to know for sure one way or another until we set some boots onto AU803."
The navigator raised an eyebrow. "And what if we fail to reach anyone through all that static? What if they're already lost?"
A fire smoldered in the captain's eyes. "Save any other further objections and questions for the record, Navigator Garnett. The second harvester launches within the hour."
Navigator Garnett responded with only the slightest nod. None in the observation deck betrayed emotion. The captain had spoken, and his crew pushed off from the walls to float through zero gravity to whatever duties awaited them. Much remained to be done before the second harvester could drop towards AU803. Everyone aboard the Klondike knew the risk involved in the harvesting of the firedrop. They all knew the danger when they arrived at the spaceport and penned their names into the Klondike's roster. They had all accepted the jeopardy for the lucrative salary. They had accepted the danger so that their eyes might look upon the freshly-harvested firedrop, so that they might see the fresh firedrop glow in a splendor unfaded following the transit to the vendors' tents.
Sissy suddenly punched Sal's shoulder. The playful blow struck Sal unprepared and squeezed his face against the observation deck's glass. Glazkov IV had never looked so massive in Sal's vision.
"Smile," Sissy pulled Sal's face away from the glass, "you've just been chosen to serve aboard the Skookum."
Sal's face turned several shades whiter. "The second harvester? Me?"
Sissy winked. "Don't look so crossed. It's just want you were asking for. You're about to receive one hell of a jump up the pay-scale. You're going to get to stare upon the firedrop in the field. You're going to look through your own eyes on the splendor of AU803. You won't be a green recruit when you return from that trip. You'll even get to take your own firedrop home once the Klondike returns home with a hold brimming with firedrop."
"Why me? I don't know anything about harvesting firedrop."
"Because according to our ship's protocol concerning the drop of a second harvester, your skills have been deemed among those least vital to the Klondike's operation. You're expendable compared with those who will have to stay behind to see to their ship duties. Lighten up, Sal, there's nothing to harvesting firedrop. You'll be amazed how easy it is."
Sal hated himself for ever expressing a sentiment of discontent in Sissy's presence.
"I'm no soldier, engineer or medic," Sal stammered. "I'd be useless in an emergency."
Sissy chuckled. "Chances are we'd never have the time to realize when something went wrong."
Sal had nothing more to say as Sissy grabbed his forearm and towed him through the ship's bowels to the waiting harvester. He never got over just how quiet space could be.
* * * * *