Monday, February 17, 2014

What happened to my Asteroid? Section 17:


Captain Calhoun slowly opened the door to the bridge and drifted in.  He slowly and quietly closed and latched the door while he started to drift toward the command console.  He liked sneaking in to operation spaces just to see what the mix between focusing on ops and paying attention to what was happening in the rest of the space.  He was seldom disappointed.

“Captain on deck!” A petty officer announced. 

“Carry on.”  The captain announced before anyone could react.  Again, he was not disappointed.

“Captain, current status is on your console and there is a message for you from command.”

“Thank you.”  The captain drifted over to his console and strapped in.  He studied the station status updates, current supply levels, and the current flight tracks for all vessels in the vicinity.  This was the part of the job that made being a space station commander one of the most boring and droll occupations in the solar system, but it was important to stay on top of this information since there were several hundred people whose lives depended on him in an environment that is constantly trying to kill them and home was a long way away.

“Captain, long range probe 5 is returning early.  It reports priority mission completed.”

“Direct it to bay 5, and tell the service crew to get it processed ASAP.”

“Aye sir.”

The intercom lit up “Bridge, T-Ops.”

The captain pressed the intercom button “Go ahead Kim.”

“Transport 6 is approaching the asteroid, it has rotated around to deceleration attitude but hasn’t started braking.  And it is moving VERY fast.”

“OK, keep an eye on it and keep me posted.”

“Aye sir!”

The captain reviewed the course plot of the rogue transport, took a glance at the latest update from the lab and then noticed the message from Command.  He scrutinized the message, thought about it for a minute and then re-read it.  After a long pause he punched the intercom “Lab 4, Bridge.”

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