“Was anyone hurt?”

“No. Everyone was still behind Charlie when we got the faults. We’re OK.”

Malcolm exhaled heavily.

“Alright. I just told Stephen to run the generators 35% over capacity. Let’s hope it’s enough.”

He reached for the comm.

“Attention crew of the August, this is Malcolm Glass. I need everyone to report to module 320 immediately. We’re in a thunderstorm people, and I don’t want anyone getting wet.”

He hung up, and turned towards medical officer Brianna Wesley.

“Bri, has anyone thrown up or reported any kind of fatigue?”

“No..not yet.”

“Good. Sounds like we’re ahead of the storm.”

Bodies began to file into the small module with sleeping bags and dehydrated snacks. After a few hours, cards began to appear as the silent hail fell outside in the vacuum of space. The hours droned by.

 

Tuesday, 0848

“Malcolm, I’m getting a radio frequency coming in on our primary comm channel. It’s one of the transports.”

“I’ll take it.”

The static stricken voice popped and hissed over the intercom.

“August, this is Captain Segei Azarov of the Trident. I’m inbound to your location, and it looks like you guys have some pretty bad weather. No?”

“Yeah, I hope you guys brought a beach ball. Great for a tan.”

Sergei didn’t laugh. Malcolm continued.

“How’s your ship holding up?”

“We’re okay. Although Kepler isn’t clearing us to land. They told us you would have ideas.”

“Can they re-route you to the dark side of the planet then?”

“No sir, they did not want our engines exposed to the direction of the radiation.”

“Makes sense, use the bulk of the ship as a shield against the cosmic rays. Sergei, do you think that you could park the transport under the station? We’ve got enough shielding to deflect the radiation away from you guys.”

“Like giant umbrella. Is brilliant idea Mr. Malcolm sir. I’ll relay that to the rest of the convoy.”

“Sounds good. Make sure you relay the message about keeping the bulk of their ship between them and the radiation.”

Malcolm put the comm back on it’s docking station.

“You’re going to put them under the August?” Marissa looked bewildered.

“Yeah.”

“And what if the shields fail?”

“Then the August plummets into six transport vehicles and everybody dies. The wreckage will fall back to Kepler and take out a good chunk of the colony. Nevermind that interplanetary travel will end for the Cygnus constellation. Yeah, I thought of that.”

“And…”

“I didn’t sleep much last night, and right now I’m running out of ideas. The alternative is to count all 7200 on board those transports, and all 38 of us as lost and lose interplanetary travel anyways.”

“So do you kill some to save a portion, or do you try to save everyone?”

“A portion? Those 7200 people have lives, families, and have been traveling for an awfully long time. No. They aren’t a portion Marissa. They are people. Nobody dies.  Terry, how are my shields?”

“Good. Lights are still on sir.”

“Perfect.”

As the next few hours passed, the crew of the August watched the massive transports maneuver to the just beneath the station. They had to move quickly. The umbrella created by the shielding was wide enough for two stacks of ships to park side by side. One by one the ships captains were guided into position by the crew of the August. The fifth transport had just finished moving into position when Terry’s voice broke the subdued volume of conversation.

“We’ve got a radiation spike!”

Series Navigation

<< The Daily Drudgery of Malcolm Glass – Part IIThe Daily Drudgery of Malcolm Glass – Part IV >>