Jupe shook his head as he looked back to the monitor and watched TC walk through to the passenger seating, wondering if he had lost his mind. He turned up the sound volume and was amazed to hear TC being helpful and polite, telling them everything was in order, the ship was in great shape, and they would be leaving as scheduled. He even told then to call him TC.
“Sir, will we get to see any aliens?” Dorrington Calp asked him with pleading eyes.
“You never know,” TC said, not wanting to disappoint the boy.
“If we do, will they be scary?”
“Truth is, they should be scared of us, if they have any brains.”
“Captain, is there really a chance of meeting alien life?” Taylor-Marie asked, concerned at TC’s evasion to her son’s question.
“I’ve been to the outermost reaches,” TC said with all seriousness, “and I’ve yet to meet any aliens. So I have to tell you, the chances are remote, if not zero, of seeing anything at all.”
Jupe flicked off the viewscreen with disgust, his head crowded with questions why TC had never been that honest with him. Either in talking to him on his level when he was a boy, or explaining things when he was an adult, he never got a straight answer. Did he have to be a stranger to get a decent conversation? If he was a relative, especially one who had not lived up to expectations, he would get locked in a dark room and told he couldn’t see his friends for the next couple of years or so, while TC was being sociable to total strangers.
* * * *
Dawn-Star searched the crowd for the one familiar face that would make her day. All she could see were the usual onlookers who would turn up to see a spacecraft launch into the blue sky and presumably far away to the stars. She was never sure what attracted them to the launch, since she herself never found them interesting. The spectacle of the thunderous engines, the romance of heading into deep space and revealing its mysteries, or even the morbid hope of seeing the ship malfunction, always drew cheers from the crowd, while all she could think of was why anyone wanted to leave natural air, real food, and a gravity field that didn’t cause long-term illness.
Her last bit of work for TC was in checking the passengers onto the ship. As with anything involving her help with the mission, that had not gone to plan. Real Munro was without his original signed-on partner K Silversmith, and had a new woman, Chera Flagstown. Such a change would not have been allowed had the flight been official. Since TC was in no mood for such things, and was preoccupied with the launch, he only gave a disinterested and inaudible reply. Dawn knew she had no cause for concern, since she wasn’t travelling with them, although she did notice that Real and Chera seemed uncomfortable together.
The others, for that matter, gave no appearance that they were happy, both the Rees and the Morgan family. Their children constantly fought each other, and that was before they even entered the ship. To be shut together with such kids for a long flight would be unbearable for Dawn.
It was a small passenger list, but TC was happy enough with it, and Dawn reasoned that it was because there would be more room on the ship during the long flight. It was not exactly advertised to the passengers, but the ship was not designed for luxury travel, but that was what you get when you want to travel illegally to the most sought-after destination in history.
There were a few people amongst the onlookers that she recognised, and gave them a polite few words in small talk. She walked around the group several times before she resigned herself to the obvious, that her brother was not there. A tear struck her cheek, and it came as a surprise that she felt sad enough for that to happen. She had long prepared herself to see TC leave for space for the final time, so when the day arrived she felt little remorse. But the fact that Jupe had not bothered to even watch the great ship depart, after she had personally asked him, hit her hard, and it took all her strength to retain her composure.
PART TWO
JOURNEY AND DISCOVERY
The big engines didn’t come in until they were free from moon-orbit. When they started, causing a massive shudder to the ship, the Earth tore away from them. In only a matter of forty minutes, they passed Mars and only then did the engines start to warm up. TC laughed like a madman when the readouts showed that everything was good and they had nothing in front of them but open space. He liked to act a little crazy now and then; in part relief at finally being back in space, and partly to shock those travelling with him. But in truth, he was a true professional, and he knew to not begin the ultra-light travel until they were beyond the Earth’s solar wall, the boundary between the solar-system and so-called extra-galactic space. Most traffic operated within the solar boundary, and there was a general opinion that beyond there lurked many hidden and deadly things, since not many pilots ever went that far out.
“Told you we’d have her running to your liking,” Cuthbert said, although TC ignored him.
“I like the sound I’m hearing,” said Thax, referring to the constant low rumble from the engines that could be heard throughout the ship. TC ignored him too.
Their course would take them toward Alpha Centauri and the station there, which was where ninety percent of all extra-system ships headed. Should any official UDE ships come near and query their flight, their story would be that they were headed to T Station and nothing more.
The passengers took two or three days to come to terms with the artificial gravity, and also the fact that the Earth was becoming a small speck behind them. Some people reacted badly to the thought, and no one ever knew how they would react until they were actually in that situation. TC made it a point to visit and chat with them, to see if they were mentally attuned to the flight.
Two women were not part of the passengers, and nor had they been introduced to them. At first Rebbi Rees thought them to be hostesses, and she wasn’t happy that Rolondo laughed at her idea. They were not with the passengers, since Rebbi had not seen them in the lounge, or in one of the private rooms. They guessed that the women were with the Wilson brothers, as they both paid little attention to the passengers, and said nothing to them other than daily greetings, and even that seemed forced. After Rebbi politely inquired as to whom they were, it came as a surprise that they were merely the Wilson’s girlfriends. It was a further surprise when she was told that they had no intention of settling on Ancia, but were just there on the ship for the experience of being in space, and looked forward to seeing Earth again.
Jenna Pree was a qualified dentist, and yet she had no established medical practice and preferred to hang out with Cuthbert. Sarra Roachmann was an aspiring folk singer, and had three different types of guitars with her, but she only liked to play them for her boyfriend Thax, due to her shyness. They were both in their early forties, and neither one was very attractive.
“How you travelled much? Made big flights like this?” Rebbi asked them, looking to start a conversation.
“Not to Ancia,” said Jenna.
“This is our first,” said Sarra. “Our boys didn’t want to have a big break from us. Can you blame them?”
Thax seemed to come from nowhere, and he ignored Rebbi as he leaned close to Sarra. “I told you not to mix with them,” he whispered, not enough to stop Rebbi overhearing.
“I’ll mix with who I want,” Sarra responded, pulling away from him.
“It’s not what we do,” Thax hissed, still trying to be discreet.
“I don’t care what you do.”
Then TC appeared, and said something to Thax to make him step away. Rebbi took note of not only how secretive they were but also that he must have been monitoring the conversation.
“She’s not going to be a problem?” TC asked Thax when they were away from the others. He meant Sarra, but Thax knew he was also talking about Jenna.
“Not worth thinking on,” said Thax.
“You know she doesn’t like travel. How do you expect her to last this long haul? I’m not running a tourist ship here.”
“She’s over it; over her problems. Not like last
time. She can handle it, I promise she will.”
TC wasn’t convinced but he did not push his point.
“When’s the kid coming out?” Thax asked with enthusiasm, expecting to hear that Jupe will be allowed to mix with the crew, now that they were in flight.
“Why do you care?” came TC’s blunt reply. “Are you his father?” He walked to Thax, demanding he answer him. “Are you his father? Are you?”
“TC, ease off …”
“No? Then how about you back off from what’s not your business.”
TC eyed him, daring him to reply, his face red. Thax raised his hands and nodded, giving an easy smile. He went and found his brother in the engine bay and told him that TC was still drinking, and it might be a problem for the rest of the flight.
* * * *
To celebrate their first week away, TC had everyone gather for a special meal. It was the first real meeting of everyone aboard the ship, except for the son of the captain that the passengers knew nothing about. He told them to not expect such a service every week, but maybe every now and then, when they approached a memorable sight, or actually made it to a year in space without everyone being at each other’s throats. But it was only ten weeks to get to T Station.
“You haven’t gone to Ancia before?” Rolondo asked Sarra. They were seated next to each other, with Rebbi on his other side, and it had taken a few minutes to break the ice, since it was the first time they had talked. Rebbi listened and brooded when she recognised the flirting tone to his voice, something he just could not help when talking to a woman for the first time.
“We haven’t really been anywhere before,” Sarra said, not knowing that it was obvious to everyone.
“Not outside the solar system,” Jenna added, who was opposite Rolondo at the table.
“Which is nothing compared to getting to T Station,” said Sarra.
“Cuthy has,” said Jenna. “That’s my guy, Cuthy.” She pointed to Cuthbert who was helping dish out more food, and looking like he was enjoying it.
“There’s no aliens?” asked Chera. She had been sitting with Real at the next table that also seated the Calp family. Real had said nothing to her and just listened to the children bicker. Chera had tried to be polite to him, asking him a few questions, but he could not focus his attention on her.
“There’s what?” Sarra asked, not expecting a question to come to her from the other table.
“It’s just, I know they say there’s no such thing …” Chera fumbled, embarrassed that she had spoken. She glanced at Rolondo but saw that he was not even looking at her, although Rebbi was.
“Plenty of rumours, though,” Real said, pretending to be interested and trying to show everyone that he was giving Chera support. He didn’t care that she appreciated him doing that.
“Aliens? She’s asking about aliens?” Jenna asked with a laugh in her voice.
“One thing that’ll make our flight interesting,” Sarra said with sarcasm. “May be the only thing.”
“If you see any space critters, let us know,” said Jenna. “We’ll be famous.”
“Years of travel,” said Sarra. “Going everywhere this side of the galaxy, and they’ve found nothing.”
“Actually, UDE ships have many secret bases,” said Real, “and some people think they’ve got places where alien and humans meet, to negotiate peace terms, so they won’t attack the Earth, and keep away from Ancia. They think this has been going on for years. And part of the terms to peace is they keep away from our ships and stations.”
“These ‘some people,’” Rolondo said with an amused grin, “they include you?”
“No, I don’t follow that view,” he said with a hint of humiliation. He looked at Chera but she was not interested.
They ate some more, and made polite small talk, and Real said nothing else. No one noticed Morgan change tables, mostly to get away from his children, whose voices were getting louder and louder. Both of the Wilsons left the meal early, and TC had hardly been there at all.
“What do you think of what Real said, Morgan?” Rolondo asked, hoping to get him talking. “Do you think we’ve secretly made contact?”
“Please,” Morgan said, taking up the challenge. “Claims of alien contact, that’s all a hoax. First Contact has never been made, by Earth probes, Earth government signalling programmes, UDE explorers, or any private explorers. For all the effort they’ve put in to finding intelligent life, all that expenditure, they’ve had not a single trace. That’s not particularly good business, to get nothing from all that expenditure.”
“It’s well known that many things go unreported,” Real said with a strange abruptness that caused an awkward silence. He was clearly incensed at his opinion not being given any respect. Chera had to get up and leave.
Rebbi gave Rolondo a worried look. She thought that if the conversation remained at that level for the rest of their flight, Ancia would seem a long way to go. Then she noted that he was more interested in watching Chera leave.
* * * *
At the two-week mark, TC decided that the passengers had been pampered enough and it was time to get them to work. Wanting to retain his image as the good captain, he had Cuthbert and Thax break the news that each passenger was required to clean the ship, with no exceptions. The two brothers carefully took them through the correct cleaning procedures. All of the interior of the ship, including walls and ceilings, and every single object, had to be cleaned every day. It was up to the passengers to decide for themselves who did what. They were told that their health would be badly affected if even the smallest spot was missed. Cuthbert was happy to describe the people he knew who neglected such cleaning on a long haul voyage, and died three days after reaching port. It was a horrible way to go, added Thax, trying to one-up his brother.
“This is unreasonable,” Taylor-Marie said to Morgan after the brothers left. She was aghast at the thought. “They want me to clean? How dare they even suggest that. Do they know who we are?”
Morgan saw fit to make his protest to the Wilsons. “You do realise we are paid passengers, not part of the crew?” He addressed them like he was talking to lowly employees.
Both brothers laughed and then ignored him like he wasn’t there.
“It kills time,” Jenna told Morgan hopefully, trying to appease the situation. “Look at it that way, if it helps. It’s good to get regular exercise. That you’re not just sitting around doing nothing. The gravity fields are not as harsh on the body if you keep moving around. That’s what I heard, anyway.”
“The captain needs to be informed,” Morgan said, uninterested in her reasoning. He then returned to his family. “Children, listen to me, I have an important announcement. We will not be partaking in any cleaning.”
He paused and studied his children, unhappy that he could see only two.
“Where’s Dorrington?”
“He’s in the works,” Maddison said with a vague look at one of the walls.
“What are you talking about?” Morgan asked his daughter.
“In the works,” Maddison said like they should have known what she meant. “Inside the walls. He found a loose panel and he climbed in. I told him not to, but he still did. That was a couple of hours ago.”
“Taylor …” Morgan asked, wanting a good explanation why one of the children had done something so dangerous.
“He can’t be doing that,” Taylor-Marie said with indignation. “It’d be filthy in there.”
“They do clean inside there,” said Westminster. “I saw them.
“Maddison, can you show me where it was he went in?” asked Morgan.
Dorrington came running into their room, and stopped hard on his heels when he saw the whole family looking at him. He knew he was likely to be in trouble, and he stared at the floor.
“Dorrington, where have you been?” his mother demanded.
“It was great,” he said, still over-enthused with his adventure. “I found this opening, must have gone half-way dow
n the ship. You need to see it, it’s so great in there.”
“You cannot go doing that, it’s dangerous,” said Morgan.
“What’s dangerous about it?” the boy asked him innocently.
“It just is,” Morgan said with his voice raised. “Don’t do it again.”
“Of course it’s dangerous,” Westminster chided his younger brother, “you might get cleaned by one of the Wilsons.”
Dorrington laughed, but his brother added, “Mistake you for a bug,” and that made them shout and fight each other.
Maddison laughed at them and told Dorrington that he should hit harder. Taylor-Marie tried to stop them but she did not want to get her clothes ripped. Morgan gave up and went to find something to take his mind off his family.
* * * *
Jupe may have been trapped against his will and unable to see any of the passengers, but TC kept him busy with important piloting work. From monitors in his room, he could watch as much as he could, not just the passengers but the outer scopes that checked for all manner of near objects, some harmless but most deadly. Everything they passed needed to be scanned and logged, regardless of the fact that they were millions of kilometres away from the ship.
Due to the illegal nature of their flight, TC was prepared to shut the engines off, and all power use, if another ship came anywhere near them. The further from Earth they went, the more chance they had of being contacted by one of the many UDE military patrols. Illegal flights were not their main target, although they were well known for catching them. UDE’s main purpose was in finding alien vessels, and TC laughed at the thought that they were obsessed with the idea. If they had any hint that a ship might not be human, no expense would be spared to catch up to them, for the chance of making the fabled First Contact. If that happened, TC knew that his ship would be bombarded with messages describing Earth, humans, and popular culture. If anything, such a thing would be hilarious to TC, and more than once he had wondered, given that situation, if he should prepare something “alien” to fire back at them; some gibberish or fake pictures, just to get them excited. He might just grab the microphone and broadcast nonsense with a threatening and gravelly voice, demanding a certain flavour of jellybeans, or something.