Day 1372. Habitat is finished. We used the original plans furnished. It looks like a short drum. With a radius of 820 feet and height of 1640 feet. There are two main docking stations, one on the top and one on the bottom. We managed to find enough silica to melt into glass to line the insides. Everyone assumes that is supposed to keep the water inside from corroding the hull. To me, all it will do is slow down and hide the corrosion. However with as many meteoroids ground to dust as we pumped inside it might work without cracking.
The elevator system is really strange. The design also called for two sets of stairs from the docking ports to the curved sides of the habitat and that is the floor. One of the engineers wants to build a pair of wings so he can fly down to the deck. He of course is nuts.
The rotation speed of 1.9 RPM is suppose to give it an artificial gravity equal to 1G or what we feel on Earths surface when we stand inside the hull.
With all that interior volume it took six weeks to pressurize to almost Earth normal. The hydroponic and dirt gardens helped clean up the air. The smell of the air was terrible, but is bearable and Nehru claims it will smell better as time goes by.
Amity has rebuilt every computer from parts for the habitat and is convinced that there are no traps or triggering routines in them. No computers from the ships will be allowed until they've been torn down and rebuilt clean.
Surprisingly Wanda, our historian, knew how to build radios. Another hobby that will pay off. She designed and built a separate communications system that is not compatible with any communications system on the ship or habitat.
Day 1395. Habitat is completely setup and 1st family moved over during 2nd shift.
Day 1400. Six more families moved over.
Day 1403. The astronomy section has finally gotten their act together and now has a firm conclusion on our date in Earths time-line. We traveled 1747 years 16 days into the past. That makes today's Earth date Mar 6, 268 AD. By my calculation that means we have to wait 1753 years 9 months and 16 days before we can make contact with Earth on the Earth date February 20th 2018. What a mess we're in. We've been here almost 4 years, so I hope we can survive another 1753 years. I hesitate to think about what our society will look like at that time.
The Captain has ordered one of the Buckler's shuttles to be outfitted for the trip to the asteroid belt to investigate the probable wrecked spacecraft. Only two women will be allowed as crew because they aren't pregnant. All the male crew are required to leave samples in the medical lab just in case we don't return. Naomi laughed until she cried, when she found out that I was to captain the expedition.
Day 1419 second shift. Crew for the expedition is finalized. Naomi is extremely irritated because I didn't tell her until this morning that she was my pilot. The crew consist of Juan, Harold, Linda, and Hector. Our mission is to map for usable ore concentrations, and determine whether the spacecraft detected can be salvaged. Round trip not counting delays caused by mission is six weeks. The Captain says we'll probably be back in two months. We depart right after 3rd shift meal.
Day 1430. Jupiter is scary close up. It dominates almost half of the view plates.
We did find the target object and it was what was left of a spacecraft or habitat. It looks like something exploded inside. It has a stable orbit so we'll salvage it sometime in the future.
Day 1451. Naomi makes me a nervous as a cat in a room full of mouse traps. Her maneuvering through the asteroid belt would turn anyone's hair gray. She claims that she isn't going that fast.
We located a small spacecraft about the size of our shuttle, but it's to small to be detected from Saturn. Harold and Juan have been exploring the electronics and claim that this shuttle is like a tug boat. Juan is going to try to use the gravity plates to lock on to the derelict and see if we can tow it. Maybe that's why one quarter of the hull is convex. Communications with Buckler established that we're still over a million miles from the target.
Day 1452. Towing it worked great until Naomi made a 90 degree turn and we lost it.
Day 1553. Only minor damage to derelict where it grazed an asteroid. I ordered Naomi to limit her velocity to 1/8th. I don't care if it does take us a week to travel the remaining distance.
Day 1559. This target spacecraft is larger than the Buckler, and no detectable damage on the exterior.
Day 1560. Juan and Harold investigated for over 5 hours and claim that the ship was abandoned. After activating the computers in the control room they ran a full diagnostic and only the environmental system failed. I had them install a G panel and radio beacon on the hull.
We'll take our derelict back and later return to salvage this one.
Day 1582. Just finished briefing the Captain and he turned over our derelict over to engineering to refit. They claim that they can have it ready to fly on its own in a few weeks.
The Captain is extremely interested in the abandoned ship, however he says we cannot bring it back until medical and environmental can give it a clean bill of health. He called Rosa and told her to put together a team to write up the requirements and specifications that any derelict must meet before salvage and refitting.
I ran into Wanda in the mess and sat down across from her. When she looked up I told her, “I needed to talk work with you after we eat.”
She said, “Fine, come by my office in an hour.”
In her office I sat and then started talking. “We found one wrecked spacecraft in the Jupiter system. In the asteroid belt we found a ship larger than the Buckler and a small shuttle type ship that we brought back.
“If I remember correctly back around 2010 a bunch of miners took off for the asteroid belt. Another group went and set up a colony on the moon. Is there anything in the historical records about either group discovering any alien spacecraft?”
Scratching her head, she replied, “No, none that I can recall. I reread the complete set of files on the asteroid and moon. No alien spacecraft reported found or any anomalies that might me construed as alien. Of course those people out in the asteroid belt are, or should I say, will be extremely independent and may not have reported everything they found back to Earth.”
“Well, hopefully we haven't or will not recover anything that they didn't report or find in their time.” I stated.