Preamble

It’s been 150 years since the technological discoveries of the mid twentieth century led to advancements in almost every facet of life. War over resources, borders and religion ended generations ago. The world is at peace.

A new single democratic semi-socialist government exists, a transformed version of the old United Nations. Food production is plentiful. There is no cost for staples, utilities, personal and mass transportation or education. Distribution points replaced stores and needs are met for every citizen in every district across the globe. Allocations are based on employment and family needs. There has not been a shortage of food for over 136 years.

The need for currency has been all but eliminated. Although a form a currency exists, it is not controlled by the government. Citizens mostly barter for items not supplied by the government that are considered unnecessary for living such as alternative clothing, artwork or services such as manual labor for personal property improvements.

Clean, bright and spacious apartment housing in or near cities has replaced the old dilapidated buildings of the past. There are large areas of green space between each complex. Property owned by citizens that has been handed down through the family for generations, is retained in that family until there are no descendants left to inherit it. While in possession of that land, they may sub-divide and trade it for services. If no descendants exist, it then becomes a possession of the government and is utilized as needed, mostly for parks or preserves.

The earlier discoveries led to faster than the speed of light space travel. New life sustaining planets have been found and settled. Those settlements are also under the jurisdiction of the new Earth government. Newly discovered planets are studied for years before a decision is made on whether it should be settled or left alone. Many have not been settled because they are considered scientifically and environmentally unique even though they can sustain human life.

Crime has nearly been eliminated. However, despite all the government does for the population there are problems that exist. Previously illegal drugs have been legalized but abuse does occur. When these problems come up citizens are put into rehab facilities and are counseled extensively to become productive members of society again. Some citizens that refuse to abide by the law and cannot be reformed are incarcerated until it is determined they are no longer a threat to society. Very few detention facilities exist around the world because most people prefer the new ways over the old.

Deep space freighters move supplies between settlements. Some of the ships are privately owned but most of the freight they carry is for the government. In exchange, they receive parts and supplies needed to keep them operating. For non-government freight, other compensation is accepted.

Chapter one -2207

“Test, test..., it’s the Earth year 2207, I'm thirty six and my name is Marcus..., Marcus Kelson... oh yeah, and I'm really good looking! This is my story, well the Dani's story... I hope this recorder thing is working. I picked it up at the last stop. It's old but it still works. I could use the ships recorder but Minor would probably hack it and send it to the whole crew and beyond. Anyway, this is the story about this ship and its crew, mostly the crew because the ships story is pretty boring, and besides, it doesn't talk...,much.

“My bed is over there in the corner next to the ships secondary, thirdary, is that even a word? controls. I choose to sleep here in section 1A. It's technically the hold, but 1A is more like the third bridge. The second “bridge” is the engine room. We, I mean I. Well mostly me, installed the redundant systems here several years ago to make more room for the crew. Well, more room anyway. Cap had a fitness room installed. It was pretty damn expensive. He bartered six trips between Lesath 4 and Proxima to pay for it. I'll get back to that later. 1A is close enough to the Command Mod so I'm not late for breakfast but not too close. The crew quarters are too confined, noisy and stuffy. Here it’s peaceful, quiet and doesn’t smell like dirty socks or decomposing bodies like the crews quarters. Okay, maybe just dirty socks. It's not that I dislike the other crew members of the Dani, quite the contrary. They are my friends, my family, well, most days.

“The proper and OES registered name of this ship is Epsilon Eridani, but we call her Dani. She’s a fine ship, fifth and last of the Eridani class. Dented and worn but she runs like a top. Because she was the last of her class built she had all the latest technology at the time and was the fastest of the Eridani class freighters. Cap won her in a high stakes poker game, eight, or maybe nine years back. He knows how to bluff.

“Each section of the hold is thirty meters long by twenty meters wide by eight meters high and usually loaded with cargo. Each level of the hold is made up of twenty four sections, twelve on the port side, those are A through L and twelve on the starboard side labeled M through X from forward to aft. The ships hold has six levels and five in the command module. She is large ship and most of the hold sections are empty most of the time. Unless we're running food for a planet in crisis.

“From the top down in the command module, Level One is the primary Engine and Jump Systems, Level Two is the Bridge, Level Three the Crew Quarters and Mess, Level Four Main Systems Control and Life Support and Level Five Auxiliary Power, a lot of Lithium in there! Of course the engines themselves can only be accessed from outside the ship. My favorite part of any trip, he says sarcastically. Something about being held on by a thin safety belt while cruising in jump just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, right!

“The trips are long, boring and quiet.

“Let's see, what else do you need to know? The ships big, did I mention that? I think I did. Let's see. This trip we're carrying some supplies for Canopus Septum. Fun times there. Wish I could forget that battle, but the scars on my back and the occasional pain won't let me. Anyway, our regular shipping path takes us between the Spica, Nunki, Edasich and Solaris systems. This trip though has us on a little different route. After Canopus its Adara, Procyon and a rest stop at Deneb-3. Then maybe a trip to Earth and Capella. It all depends on the freight we pick up along the way of course.

“It's been twenty years, no, seven years since the 'Great Disaster'. Wow, am I getting old. Earth has become a laboratory for survival, evolution, and restoration since it was nearly destroyed from the volc...”

The decompression alarm screams, loud, piercing, and obnoxious, I launch off the floor, nearly leaving my GravBoots stuck to the deck two meters below. Okay, maybe it was only sixteen centimeters. The recorder spins out of my hands landing on my unmade bed. When I settle back down the deck, I make my way over to the control panel and pound the silence button.

The control panels are flat, back lit pressure sensitive touch screens. They used to be heat sensitive but if for some reason you're wearing a pressure suit, usually in a bad situation, the controls could not be activated if the heaters in the finger tip failed. Which they ofter did. OES designers made the in the early days of deep space travel but a lot of ships had to be retrofitted. A few accidents made the design change necessary. Rescue crews could not open doors without a lot of tools and usually had to resort to explosives, which was generally not recommended in the close quarters of a ship. But even with the redesigned panels, blowing things up was still sometimes necessary but not much fun. Flying shrapnel could do a lot of damage to a pressure suit.

Being the engineer and mechanic it’s my job to assess and execute repairs which I seem to have trouble keeping up with. Bringing up the ships diagram and I scan the display for the location of the problem, but of course a eighty percent of deck three array was lit up. Half the sensors no longer worked and the remaining were trying to compensate! I touch the screen and spin the diagram of the hull to see if can narrow down my search. I zoom in on the flashing area and hope against all hope. Great, I narrowed the problem down to the size of baseball stadium! I'll have to take it one section at a time.

I plot my path through the ship for the quickest way to the problem, opening the doors that I need to pass through to get there. I open them one at time see if any more sensors activate. I stop when I think I'm getting close to the breach. I'll have to do the rest one at a time, manually. I grab my patch kit, sling it over my shoulder and start walking through the section toward the ladder. I pass the stacks of Geo-cons and standard TEU containers. Some of the containers are vivid colors and help break up the monotony of the dimly lit interior of the cargo holds. Harrison will occasionally will re-stack the containers in geometric patterns or by color or both to pass the time. Sometimes he will create a maze and then call me to come help with something. The fun only lasts a minute for me, Harrison gets hours of enjoyment out of it.

“Marcus?” I hear Cap call on the ear piece.

“Yeah, I got it Cap.” He hates when I call him that. “It’s up two levels; somewhere between sections 3F and 3J.” I answered.

Why is it always above where I am and never on the same level? It takes ten damn minutes on a good day to get there and this ain’t a good day! Climbing ladders with GravBoots sucks worse than lemons. The boots are big and clumsy, like I need help in that department. I use to turn them off, but I’ve bruised my head, or my ass one too many times. It never hurts to be safe is my mantra now.

Most captains keep their ships in a slow steady rotation to maintain a mild artificial gravity. Cap keeps us at about a half of a G. You never know when the ship might drop out of jump unexpectedly and if your in mid flight, you probably won't wake up until the nest day.

I reach the ladder to the next deck. Looking up at the first of two, thirty foot climbs. The rungs are shiny and seem to stretch on forever. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older. I reach down for the switch on my belt. It's easier to climb with them off. No, I think to myself. I don’t want a migraine today. Just when you think it’s safe, because it’s been months since the last incident, the ship makes a sudden shudder or, reverse engines. The next thing you know, you’re ten meters from where you started, flat against someone’s brand new dining room. I leave them on. Just as an extra precaution, I clip my belt to the safety rail and I start the slow climb up the ladder. You would think someone would invent a pair of GravBoots that you could adjust. You know, just for this purpose, turn them down a little for climbing,

“Pain in the ass ladders!” I whisper to myself.

“Marcus? You say something?” I hear.

“No Cap.” I reply.

I stop climbing and I make a mental note to work on that in my spare time. I continue my slow ascent with a smile on my face, because when I invent those puppies it’s going to get me a lot of credits. I finally make it to top of ladder at level two. I crank the hatch lever three times to the right and push it up. The hatch spring pops it open and I climb up into section 2B. I have to rest a minute.

“Marcus, any luck yet?” Cap sounds impatient.

“Still climbing” I said as closed the hatch and locked it back down. I start on the second leg of my quest.

“Why didn’t you take the lift?” He asks.

“You mean the broken one?” I asked sarcastically.

“Oh yeah,” he pauses and then says, “Remind to order the parts.”

“Hey Cap?” Now I’m going to be a smart ass, because I can.

“Yeah?” He answers.

“Order the parts!” I reply with a smile.

No response. He’s probably looking through the manual right now. I can only hope as I reach the summit of the second ladder and pop the hatch. I climb through the hatch into section 3B. Hallelujah I think to myself already exhausted. I lock down the second hatch.

I turned and headed for the damaged section in question. As I pass the large placards designating where the section I’m in stops and the next one begins, I see the door is closed at section 3C.

“Somethings not right.” I say to myself just above a whisper.

“Marcus?” Cap inquires.

“Hey Cap, Do you show the door to section 3C open or closed?” I asked as I examine the display in front of me.

“Let me check.”

“This isn’t right”, I reiterated under my breath. The leak isn’t anywhere near here. I expected the door to be closed at 3E but not here and why the hell does it show override open?

A moment later Cap announced, “I show it closed, why?”

“No reason, just that the local display is showing it open.” I told him.

“But is it open or closed?” He asks.

“It’s definitely closed. But I think we need to pick some pressure sensors at our next stop, I used the last one last week.” I told him.

“How many do we need?” Cap wanted to know.

“At least forty.” I lied, it never hurts to a few have spares.

“You know how much forty sensors are going to cost?” He demanded.

“More than you’ll want to pay, I should think.” I said.

“You got that right!” He grumbled. “How long before you know the damage?” He asked more serious.

“It’s going to take a minute to override the door. Hopefully I won’t get sucked out when I do.” I said, not completely joking.

“Be careful M.” He said in a serious tone.

He only used ‘M’ when he was no longer having fun.

“Right!” I said while trying to get the damn door moving.

This is just peachy; now I get play ‘suck Marcus through a hole the size of a grape’ one section at a time, I thought as keyed the commands into the screen. Come on! Start moving damn it! I wondered if the door was working at all. I hadn’t been through this part of the ship since we left Port Lincoln seven weeks ago. Then without warning the horn started wailing and the strobe started flashing indicating the door was moving. I had to make another mental note to stuff some foam in those damn horns before they gave me a heart attack. I deactivated the horn with a wrench, perfect shot if I do say so myself. I would have to retrieve the wrench later, and replace the horn. Getting back to the task at hand I turned my attention back to the panel. I slowly pulsed the door open a centimeter and stopped. I listened carefully. Nothing, good! It was just a sensor malfunction after all, I could fix that later.

Add that to my list of things that will never get done. I set the override on and the door slowly raised open with a grinding moan. Yeah, I found another problem. It sounds like the door needs a few new bearings. Lucky for me I have those in stock. Cap would pitch a fit if he had to by those too.

I continued on my way through sections 3C, 3D and then 3E. The door between 3E and 3F is also open. That’s promising. I make weave my way through the stacks cargo and reach the door at 3F/3G. This one is closed as it should be. I bring up the display and scan it for any pressure variation. It shows normal across the screen. I enter the override sequence and slowly proceed to open the door. I hit the open button three times pulsing it open just a few millimeters this time, not wanting to push my luck. It responds immediately and it stopped after moving just enough to break the seal. I silenced the horn with the button this time. No need to make more work for myself, and besides, I don’t have another wrench to spare.

I listen and can’t hear any whistling. Not that I don’t trust the sensors but, I don’t trust the sensors. I punch in the command sequence and the door slides up easily.

“Cap, its Marcus, just entered 3G and heading toward H.” I walk slowly and silently along the deck listening. Cap stays quiet. He knows I’m listening.

I'm make my way around the containers in 3G on my way to the next door. This is taking longer than I expected. It must be fifteen minutes now. I turned down the aisle that leads to the door expecting a clear path, but I found my way blocked by two fallen Geo-container.

“Harrison! Can you come to 3G, NOW!” I screamed into the com. There was no excuse, if the dogs were properly set, I wouldn’t be staring at a couple of Geo-cons blocking my way. Not to mention the damage compensation we’re going to have to pay out to owner of its contents if something is broken. I’ll make sure the higher percentage Harrisons' cut.

“What it is it Chief?” The reply came over the com.

“I got a couple of Geo-cons lying in the aisle in front of me. Get down here now. I need help moving it.” I was pissed and he knew it.

“Be there in less than two.” Harrison said.

Less than two, I thought to myself. What, was he shadowing me again? He knows that bugs me.

I hear the hatch above me pop open. Harrison climbs down onto the ladder, pulls the hatch closed and locks it down. He grabs the side rails and slides down ladder stopping a half a meter from the floor. He disappears from view behind the containers. Youth! Just one time I’d love to see him land on his ass. I hear the lift hum to life and ten seconds later the first Geo starts to move up and settles back into the empty spot it original occupied. I see Harrison eying the Geo-con as he directs it back in place. When it’s settled, he activates the locks securing it. He repeats the process with the second container then turns toward me with big grin on his face.

“Anything else Chief?” He asked

“No.” I replied, then added, “Next time make sure you lock the cargo down please!”

“Right, Chief, thought I did Chief!” He followed with a mocking salute. After parking the lift, he scurries back up the ladder to level four.

I make my way to the display panel for the door between 3G and 3H. I set the overrides one more time and pulsed the door, again just a few millimeters, open. No sound again, one more section down and three to go.

The display 3H is black. I try to power it up but that doesn’t work. I pull out my screwdriver and remove the access panel under the display. I see the problem immediately. The power conduit connector has unplugged itself, again. Another item to add to the list. I reach in and reconnected the coupling and wrap some tape around the connection. The screen flickers to life. Not the preferred repair but it should last a year or two. I log on and entered the override sequence. I hit the open button three times, as soon as the seal broke my ears popped.

“Shit!” I whisper, pissed at myself. A fine time to remember my pressure suit back is in the command module.

“Cap, section 3H.” I announced. It didn’t need further explanation.

I punch in the commands to close the door between 3F and 3G. No sense in decompressing more sections than needed. I figure the hole must be relatively small based on the fact that I'm still standing and didn't get sucked under the door.

Now the fun begins. With the patch kit still hanging off my shoulder, I pulled it around and position it in front of me so I access the tools in a hurry if needed. I raised the door just high enough to duck under then closed it using the panel on the other side. I set the decks backup oxygen tanks to compensate for the air loss. Checking the display, the system tells me I have approximately thirty five minutes to complete the repair. I hurry toward the outside wall of the hold stopping every meter listening intently for the leak. Eventually I here it. That annoying high pitch whistle of escaping air. So high pitched in fact it makes my hair stand on end. I turn my head left then right, right then left, up then down. I move to stand facing the outer wall with a stack of two TEU containers in front of me. The sound coming from behind them, I think. I can't get any closer to the wall because of the containers.

“Just great!” I exclaim.

“What is it Marcus?” Cap asks.

“The hole is behind a stack of containers.” Switching direction. “Harrison can you here to move some stuff around. It looks like the hole's about three meters up from the deck.” I reply annoyed at the current situation.

“Be right there Chief.” A second later Harrison pops through the hatch to my left and slides down the ladder. Damn, I hate that.

“Get lift and start moving these containers out of the way. I need to get behind them.” I pointed to the general area of the hole.

“Got it!” He says as he spins lift around and starts moving containers. I could moved them myself but why bother when you got someone who has fun doing it. Using the royal blue apparatus, he maneuvers the containers around with ease and fits them into holes out of the way with unnerving speed. If I moved the containers around that fast I'd be crushing things left and right. He is pretty good at this moving the containers thing. He finished the job in less the five minute. He knew we had limited time to complete the repair.

As he clears the path to the outer wall I step closer trying to zero in on the hole I step a meter to the right. It got quieter so I stepped left about meter passed where I started. I still hear. At least I'm heading in the direction. I move more to the left and sound gets really annoying. I pull a set of neon orange earplugs from my kit and stuff one in each ear. I can still hear it but it doesn't hurt now.

I pull the yellow smoke stick from the side pocket of the kit and light it. The smoke stick is sixteen centimeters long when new, and roughly two centimeters in diameter. I watch the bright yellow smoke hover near me for a moment and then it starts to move up and to the left.

I walk in that direction, holding the now warm yellow probe above my head. The smoke, swirling in a really cool tight spiral as it began to pick up speed toward the cause of the whistle.