Chapter No. 7. Adjustment.

I joined Janet and Sharon at the command station.

"Did you find anything?" Janet asked.

"Yeah, I found out that the engineers didn't understand the quantum effect ofcreating antimatter the way they did. Evidently, we can enter hyperspace at less than near light speed."

"That means that if we accelerate, we might end up in hyperspace," Janet said.

"Yeah, that's a good possibility."

She sighed. "Well, we need to make a course correction and slowdown in order to achieve orbit around the fourth planet."

"When?"

"Tomorrow at 1400 hours."

"Okay," I replied.

"The fourth planet has a breathable atmosphere," Sharon said. "There are island chains on the surface, but most of the planet is covered in oceans. The poles are ice covered."

"See any lights on the dark side?"

"I have, but I think they're natural. For one thing, they're two bright and accompanied by lots of smoke, an indication that they're the result of volcanic activity."

I stood up. "Oh well, we're committed to going there."

"Are we going to settle there?" Sharon asked.

"I don't know what we'll do. It depends upon what we find."

"I've traced a line of the course we were on from Earth," Janet said. "If all of the calculations were correct, I would say that we're somewhere in the Como supercluster."

"How far away from Earth?"

"Approximately 321 million light years."

"Wow! That's a . . . well, it's a long way."

"Yeah, it would take a long time to get back to Earth," she said.

"It would require twenty years. We would have to go into hibernation, and I'm not liking that idea."

"I'm definitely not getting into those things," Sharon said.

"I think we're in agreement on that," I said. "Even if we did get back alive, Earth would not be the same."

"So, what are we going to do?" Janet asked.

"Let's not worry about that until after we explore this planet we're headed to," I said. "We can survive on this vessel for a long time, assuming that it doesn't suffer major problems."

"Living on this birdcage bucket isn't exactly fun," Sharon said. "It's like being on a cheap cruise on a cargo ship."

"It's not that bad," I said. "We have food, water and air to breath, and we're shielded from a lot of the radiation in space."

"Okay," she said. "But what the hell are we going to do for the rest of our lives?"

I tapped a finger to my lips. "I don't know. Maybe we should explore habitable planets."

"Even if we find some, who will ever know that we did?"

"We will," I said, smiling.

She lowered her eyes and sighed. "Okay, I see what you mean." She looked up at me. "We don't have much choice."

"That's the way I see it. It's better than crying in our beer, assuming we had beer."

"We should be able to make it," Janet said with a subtle grin and bright eyes. "I went through the crop list that's on the agricultural deck and barley and hops were on the list."

"Really?"

"Yes, and even better there's brewer's yeast stored there."

I smiled. "I had no idea. Hopefully, the robots know how to brew beer."

"I think they do," Janet said. "All we have to do is activate the code to make them do it."

"How convenient. Maybe I shouldn't complain about the engineers that created this vessel."

"Actually, it makes sense that we can make beer," Sharon said. "If we had gone to where we were supposed to go, we would have been able to set up agriculture there for the settlers that would come after us, and beer would have definitely been on the list."

"Yeah, that does make sense," I said. "Go ahead and activate the beer brewing process. We may as well enjoy ourselves while we explore."

"Actually, we could also make wine," Janet said. "There are grape vines on the agricultural deck. I would assume that they have the yeast and the equipment to make wine."

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "We could drown our sorrows in booze big time."

They laughed.

I spent more time on the engineering deck trying to figure out how fast we could accelerate to before going into hyperspace. After going through the engine operations records and checking a lot of calculations, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the velocity that we get too, but rather the time spent producing antimatter, which was only activated during engine operations. Perhaps creating the antimatter offline would prevent that from happening. Unfortunately, it would require a test run to determine if I was correct.

We gathered at the day's end to eat supper together at the food station. We enjoyed soy stakes, potatoes and string beans plus coffee.

"I'm not seeing any evidence of intelligent life on the planet," Sharon said. "I think it might be the result of the fact that this planet is seismically active. I've tracked over a hundred active volcanic eruptions."

"That makes sense," I said. "However, seismic activity is indicative of a rotating iron core, which would mean that the planet has a good magnetic field."

"It does," Janet said. "We've seen the auras at the poles."

"We're also seeing lots of storms," Sharon said. "That could also preclude any intelligent life evolving on this planet."

"Oh well," I said. "We're committed to checking it out no matter what."

"If it is uninhabited, what then?" Sharon asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

That seemed to satisfy them.

They went back to the command station and I spent some time in my bunk listening to music, which was conveniently available in the memory stacks of the computer system. After a few hours, I decided to turn in, but the noise of athletic shoes slapping the floor interrupted that. I watched the women run past several times as they ran around the wheel. I'm not sure why they preferred the evening. I did my exercise in the morning. Maybe it was their way of working off disappointment with our current situation.

Eventually, they stopped and stripped to take showers. I wasn't sure if they were doing this to tease me or they just didn't care. I had no intentions of complaining. Maybe they wanted me to react, but I deiced to avoid that. Besides, it was definitely enjoyable.

The next day the time arrived for us to get into the G-chairs and slow the ship down and make a course correction to enter into orbit around the fourth planet.

The engine burn was particularly rough, and we were very glad to get out of the G-chairs. We sat down on chairs at the command station to see if we had been successful in achieving the proper insertion course to orbit the planet.

Janet did a fist pump. "Yes! We're right on course to arrive in orbit in four days and seven hours."

"Fantastic!" Sharon cried.

I blew out a relieved breath. "Good. Maybe we'll be able to see more of what's on the planet now."

"Yes," Sharon said. "At this lower velocity, the image motion compensating calculations will be more accurate."

We had no idea what we would see, but what we did find completely changed our minds about what we would do next.