Steve’s shorts: Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers, Part Two…
[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]
Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers
Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore
“There’s a ship in orbit,” the AI announced to Brendan’s crew.
Obregon, who had been standing behind the captain, perked up.
“I thought we were the first ship to visit this solar system,” he reminded everyone in Command & Control.
“Put it on the screen,” the captain said. Lester often ignored Obregon’s observations, sometimes to his detriment.
Historian Obregon recognized the old ship immediately—not the particular ship, but the type. “It’s just like Magellan.”
“The colony ship sent to New Haven?” Lester said.
“Same type. Magellan became an orbital museum after it was retired from active service. But this ship is similar. It’s a big-rig interplanetary ship designed for the Sol system retrofitted to haul colonists somewhere, very slowly compared to modern ships. No superstring FTL drives back then.”
“I confirm Dr. Obregon’s observations,” said the AI. “This ship is named Hope.”
The ship’s AI was multi-purpose. Its most important task was to negotiate the jumps from universe to universe within the multiverse, what gave the appearance of FTL travel and a delicate task that Brendan’s navigation and engineering teams could understand in theory but lacked the computing speed in practice needed to do the job. Coordinating all the ship’s sensors and communications was secondary but also necessary. And the AI also provided an extensive database that was continuously updated at each port of call to contain most knowledge of each ITUIP member’s history.
“When was it sent out?” said Lester.
“That datum isn’t in my database,” said the AI.
“As far as I know,” said Obregon, “only three colony ships were launched before the Tali invasion of the Sol system.”
“Correct,” said the AI. “I have plans for the retrofitting of this one. They’d already christened it Hope. I have no data about its launch, though. There is a possible reason for that: Its projected launch date corresponds to that invasion.”
“Perhaps it was launched before the Tali reached Earth, maybe even during that invasion, out of desperation.” Obregon glanced at Brendan’s Tali navigator. “Sorry, Gor’rak.”
“No problem,” said the Tali. “All that’s ancient history.”
“Very ancient,” said Lester. “Is there any sign of life?”
“Unlikely after all these centuries,” said Obregon.
“It only takes minimal power to maintain orbit,” said the AI. “I have detected thrusters that are making the small orbital corrections necessary for such a low orbit.”
Obregon dove deep into history. The trip to New Haven his ancestors had taken took over a century. New Haven’s star was also G-type, 82 Eridani. He remembered details about that epic journey.
“By the same token, there might be people in cryounits onboard.”
“What?” said Lester. “That’s impossible!”
“Not really,” said the AI. “We still use cryounits along with portadocs in the lifeboats where a superstring drive isn’t available.”
“You’ll want to send a security team over to Hope, Lester,” said Obregon. “And my people should be there too, just in case there are people in the units. If they are, we’ll have to gently wake them up from a very long nap.” He waved a hand to the C&C crew. “I’m done talking. I’m going to get my people ready.”
***
Comments are always welcome.
Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
