not, but we find
ourselves in a pretty mess this time and I wanted to be as open
about what ’ s happening as
possible. ”
He nodded toward
Mbaka. “ You ’ ve all seen
Mbaka ’ s report.
We ’ re missing one hundred and
thirty-three wave guides on the port side.
That ’ s eighty more than we
can run the framing drive on. Additionally
we ’ ve lost a lot of ion
engines. We can reprint most of the parts for the engines but the
designers never imagined we ’ d
survive a shot this bad and we don ’ t have enough diamond weaves to cover our wave guide losses.
You all know diamond weaves have to be grown. We
can ’ t print them out
here. ”
“Now we all know that
Mbaka is one hell of an engineer and
there ’ s been a lot of talk
that, given enough time, he ’ ll get us flying. I sure believe if anyone could pull it off
its Mbaka and his crew. I really do. ”
He cleared his throat and
pulled his chin in over his jowls. “ There ’ s
more to it than just the wave guides and ion engines of course, and
that ’ s why
I ’ ve called this
meeting.
“Mass 17 is an odd fish
and there ’ s no doubt about
that. I uhhh.” He stopped, and appeared uncertain what to say,
something that never happened. “ Well, it ’ s complicated.
Why don ’ t I just have Alder
explain it to you?” He fell silent like a stone.
“Right.” Alder faltered
picking up the ball. He stammered for a moment, stunned by
Pilton ’ s abandonment. “ Let me just show you.” If the crew wasn ’ t panicked enough yet, the failure of the normally verbose
captain could not be missed. Alder tapped the screen in front of
him and a ball of grey haze rose up in the middle of the table
around the camera. “ What
I ’ ve sent to your screens is
the current visual from one of our drones. What I want to you
notice is the block of data in the lower right. The third number
there is the current distance in kilometers from our ship. Right
now, it ’ s hanging at just
over two-thousand kilometers out, roughly straight off our bow.
Watch what happens if I order it to continue away from
us. ”
For several seconds
nothing happened then the distance reading began to move up, slowly
at first but increasing rapidly. “ What you ’ re seeing is
the dust cloud that enveloped the Duster after the explosion. We
should pass out of it right about twenty-two hundred
kilometers. ”
It
didn ’ t happen all at once.
First there was a glimmer of star light, ripped away almost at
once, then a rent in the cloud, then the probe broke free. There
were audible gasps from the crew around the ship as the video fed
in. The sky broke open, cold, massive, and filled with stars. It
was a stunning sight. Mass 17 was hung before them, transformed yet
again. Where before there had been a seething mass of gas and dust,
a planet had formed. The sun hung over its right shoulder leaving
the surface to the imagination. What could be seen were a series of
fiery red cracks spread around the dark face and a halo of neon
colors that seemed to pulse and whirl around the poles, spreading
out in sheets and bands clear to the equator. Rising with the halo
were knots of color, strange iridescent objects that seemed to pull
the aurora with them.
Alder waited a moment
before going on. “ What you
are looking at is the crust of the newest planet in the Galaxy.
Once the burn out that hit us passed, the planet collapsed quickly.
A lot of our instruments are offline but we think
it ’ s a little smaller than
Earth. It ’ s only about
two-thirds as massive. It ’ s
hot. The cracks are gaps where the plates are still fusing
together. But, like everything else in this system,
it ’ s strange.
It ’ s cooling extremely
rapidly. Something, you can see them as blips rising with the
aurora, is forcing or pulling super hot plasma out of the poles.
The process started by the nanobots is clearly ongoing. The heat of
the planet is being pumped into space to cool. Specifically, all
the carbon
ourselves in a pretty mess this time and I wanted to be as open
about what ’ s happening as
possible. ”
He nodded toward
Mbaka. “ You ’ ve all seen
Mbaka ’ s report.
We ’ re missing one hundred and
thirty-three wave guides on the port side.
That ’ s eighty more than we
can run the framing drive on. Additionally
we ’ ve lost a lot of ion
engines. We can reprint most of the parts for the engines but the
designers never imagined we ’ d
survive a shot this bad and we don ’ t have enough diamond weaves to cover our wave guide losses.
You all know diamond weaves have to be grown. We
can ’ t print them out
here. ”
“Now we all know that
Mbaka is one hell of an engineer and
there ’ s been a lot of talk
that, given enough time, he ’ ll get us flying. I sure believe if anyone could pull it off
its Mbaka and his crew. I really do. ”
He cleared his throat and
pulled his chin in over his jowls. “ There ’ s
more to it than just the wave guides and ion engines of course, and
that ’ s why
I ’ ve called this
meeting.
“Mass 17 is an odd fish
and there ’ s no doubt about
that. I uhhh.” He stopped, and appeared uncertain what to say,
something that never happened. “ Well, it ’ s complicated.
Why don ’ t I just have Alder
explain it to you?” He fell silent like a stone.
“Right.” Alder faltered
picking up the ball. He stammered for a moment, stunned by
Pilton ’ s abandonment. “ Let me just show you.” If the crew wasn ’ t panicked enough yet, the failure of the normally verbose
captain could not be missed. Alder tapped the screen in front of
him and a ball of grey haze rose up in the middle of the table
around the camera. “ What
I ’ ve sent to your screens is
the current visual from one of our drones. What I want to you
notice is the block of data in the lower right. The third number
there is the current distance in kilometers from our ship. Right
now, it ’ s hanging at just
over two-thousand kilometers out, roughly straight off our bow.
Watch what happens if I order it to continue away from
us. ”
For several seconds
nothing happened then the distance reading began to move up, slowly
at first but increasing rapidly. “ What you ’ re seeing is
the dust cloud that enveloped the Duster after the explosion. We
should pass out of it right about twenty-two hundred
kilometers. ”
It
didn ’ t happen all at once.
First there was a glimmer of star light, ripped away almost at
once, then a rent in the cloud, then the probe broke free. There
were audible gasps from the crew around the ship as the video fed
in. The sky broke open, cold, massive, and filled with stars. It
was a stunning sight. Mass 17 was hung before them, transformed yet
again. Where before there had been a seething mass of gas and dust,
a planet had formed. The sun hung over its right shoulder leaving
the surface to the imagination. What could be seen were a series of
fiery red cracks spread around the dark face and a halo of neon
colors that seemed to pulse and whirl around the poles, spreading
out in sheets and bands clear to the equator. Rising with the halo
were knots of color, strange iridescent objects that seemed to pull
the aurora with them.
Alder waited a moment
before going on. “ What you
are looking at is the crust of the newest planet in the Galaxy.
Once the burn out that hit us passed, the planet collapsed quickly.
A lot of our instruments are offline but we think
it ’ s a little smaller than
Earth. It ’ s only about
two-thirds as massive. It ’ s
hot. The cracks are gaps where the plates are still fusing
together. But, like everything else in this system,
it ’ s strange.
It ’ s cooling extremely
rapidly. Something, you can see them as blips rising with the
aurora, is forcing or pulling super hot plasma out of the poles.
The process started by the nanobots is clearly ongoing. The heat of
the planet is being pumped into space to cool. Specifically, all
the carbon
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