Aurora Saga 2 Immortality for Life (2 page)

Zoren moved quietly in through the doorway and edged over towards his workstation.

‘Afternoon, Zoren!’ Gulco said in a sarcastic voice. ‘Glad you could join us today.’

Gulco was in his early forties and as the oldest living Agonian had inherited the position of leader. He was well respected and always displayed an air of authority. He also held the stature of premier engineer, being responsible for the construction of the shuttle and the maintenance of the space station. He was always well-presented and often wore an ornate inuple cap over the stump of his left arm, which he lost in an accident when a machine malfunctioned some twelve years earlier.

Here we go. Another lecture!

‘This is the second time this week, Zoren. Everyone else starts at nine. For some reason you seem to think nine-fifteen is more appropriate. Could you not get up this morning?’

‘Ok, Gulco, I hear you,’ Zoren replied.

‘Well I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough. If you’re late one more time in the next two weeks, then you’ll be working on one of your days of rest. Is that clear?’

‘Whatever!’ Zoren replied quietly, so he could not hear him.

‘
I said
, is that clear?’ He was now almost shouting at Zoren.

‘Yes, Gulco. I understand.’

‘Do you? You’re old enough to know better. You should be setting an example to the younger engineers and not playing silly pranks.’

Zoren was surprised and also felt a little embarrassed.

‘Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know what you get up to, Zoren. You need to grow up. You father was a very good engineer. He would be very disappointed to know you’re behaving this way. He was…’

As Gulco continued to speak, Zoren’s thoughts drifted back to the first time his father brought him to the engineering section. He was fifteen at the time and his father forty-three.

*****

‘Well, Zoren, this is where you’ve been assigned,’ Zoren’s father, Samolo said.

A medley of noise from machinery echoed around the room.

‘I’m not sure I want to be an engineer,’ Zoren said, sniffing the air. ‘I know you are and granddad was too, but I don’t think I can make the sort of things you can.’

Zoren was feeling completely out of his depth and apprehensive over the amount of information he would have to learn.

A loud drone of hydraulics signalled that one of the vast overhead cranes was about to move a section of the shuttle into position. Three engineers were waiting patiently for it to arrive at the main assembly area for the shuttle.

‘Don’t worry, Zoren,’ his father said. ‘I felt the same way on my first day. The thought of all that machinery I needed to learn how to operate and all those materials to understand. But trust me, once you start, you’ll enjoy it.’

Zoren peeped at a large drive unit sitting within a construction frame. Engineers were fixing some finished parts to it, while others were discussing a drawing of another part and measuring a space where it was to be fitted.

‘Is that one of the engines?’ he asked.

‘Yes. It will take about another four years to finish all the parts required. Then we can see if it works. Why don’t we go over and have a look.’

Zoren edged nervously over to the frame.

‘Hi, Zoren,’ one of the engineers said.

Zoren smiled back.

‘It looks very complicated,’ Zoren remarked.

‘That it is,’ his father replied, ‘and all we’ve got to go by are these plans.’ He picked up a large book of fabric sheets, which was one metre square. On each page was a detailed drawing of a part, all dimensioned and with various exploded views and illustrations. ‘This is one of two thousand, three hundred and twenty-four books…’

*****

‘… so we have work to do.’ Gulco paused. ‘Zoren, have you been listening to me?’

‘Yes… Yes. Work to do,’ Zoren replied, catching just the last few words Gulco had spoken.

Gulco shook his head, before he said, ‘We’ll need to use eight of the ten consoles for the test today.’

They walked over to the workstations, which were arranged in a compact semi-circle. A young woman was already sitting at one of the workstations.

‘Morning, Zoren,’ she said.

‘Hi, Zuki,’ he replied.

Zuki was his sister-in-law and was the same age as Zoren.

Zoren stared up at the drive sitting inside the test chamber behind a large glass wall. He felt very proudly. Many thousands of hours had gone into its construction; his father’s lifetime had been spent on it and Zoren himself had worked on it for three years.

Gulco was now awkwardly cradling four cylindrical rods against his chest with his only arm and hand. He wandered over to Zoren’s workstation and unceremoniously dropped them onto the desk alongside it, before going back to his workstation to retrieve another four and wandered over to Zuki, who took them from him. He then pulled two cloths from his pocket, which had a sequence of numbers printed on them and handed one to each of them, before saying,

‘This is the order we need to run the programmes in. Zoren, you’ll take one to four and, Zuki, five to eight.’

Zoren sat at his workstation and, after studying the cloth, inserted the first of the cylinders, which contained a computer program, into console one. The monitor illuminated and a string of text scrolled down the screen. He repeated the same for the other three consoles.

Meanwhile, Gulco had moved over to a master control console, where he sat down in his seat.

‘All done here,’ Zoren said over to Gulco.

‘Here too,’ Zuki added.

‘All right people, get to your stations,’ Gulco said. ‘This is a trial run. Initiate programme one.’

‘Confirmed,’ Zoren replied. ‘Checks completed. Running! Ten seconds to completion.’

Zoren watched the monitor closely.

‘I have a success indicator.’

‘Ok, go on two,’ Gulco said.

Zoren ran through each of his programmes, moving from console to console as he went. He then handed over to Zuki.

‘Ok, go on five,’ Gulco said.

‘Confirmed,’ Zuki replied. ‘Checks completed. Running! Thirty seconds to completion.’

Zoren watched Zuki’s monitors, as the programmes executed. Suddenly one of the screens froze.

‘I may have a problem,’ she called out to Gulco.

Gulco studied his monitor. ‘I’m currently showing a run on programme five.’

The screen was still frozen. They waited for a minute.

Gulco got up from his seat and went over to Zuki. He viewed the monitor.

‘That damn console’s crashed again,’ he said, thumping his fist down on top of the monitor. ‘Bloody computers! They’re a load of crap. How are we supposed to run anything on these? Re-start it!’ Gulco said to Zuki.

Zuki pulled the programme from the slot, waited a few seconds, and then re-inserted it.

‘I’m surprised this space station functions at,’ Gulco said. ‘Damn computers are useless; give me a person any day. They won’t let you down.’

‘Yes, but people do make mistakes,’ Zoren commented.

‘And they arrive late,’ Zuki added, with a cheeky smile.

‘So computers are prefect then,’ Gulco said. ‘I don’t think so. This one’s far from perfect.’

The monitor had frozen again.

‘Ok, Zuki, move all your programmes up one console. This one’s going out the damn airlock later,’ he said in frustration.

Zuki inserted her programmes in the consoles and they went through the entire process once more.

‘Good, success at last,’ Gulco said with some relief. ‘I think I could have done it manually in half the time. Right, listen up everybody! We’re going for a power run to check all the parts are functioning correctly. If anyone sees or hears anything they think could be a potential problem, I want to know about it immediately. Understood?’

Everyone acknowledged Gulco.

‘Zoren, switch control mode to live operation. Go on my mark,’ Gulco said. ‘Everyone, back to your station. This is a live firing and you all know what to do.’

Engineers rushed to their consoles, which were positioned in front of the large glass wall of the test chamber. Their monitors illuminated to show various sensors reading on them.

Zoren’s two hearts started to race as he readied himself.

This is it then. I hope this works.

‘Ready!’ he shouted.

‘Execute!’ Gulco instructed.

Zoren started programme one.

‘Running one.’

The sound of two small motors starting could be heard coming from inside the test chamber.

‘We have success. Running two.’

Zoren moved across to console two, checked the monitor and then glanced up to see a large fan inside the main housing of the drive unit starting to rotate. The noise from the small motors increased as the fan gathered speed.

‘Two successful! Running three.’

The fan was now spinning quickly.

‘Success on three. Running four.’

The fuel injectors started to open and a pulse of light leapt from the rear of the drive.

‘Four successful!’

Zoren looked over to Zuki.

‘Running five,’ Zuki said.

Abruptly the beast awoke and a ball of flame spat from the rear of the drive. Then with a roar, flames leapt out from the rear of the drive.

‘Five successful! Running six,’ she said. ‘Drive now operating at minimum power level.’

There was a cheer, which rang out around the room.

‘Ok, people, let’s focus,’ Gulco said. ‘I want a full check on all systems.’

Engineers stationed at the consoles around the test chamber, studied their readings.

‘Fuel injector readings are within the published specification,’ an engineer reported back.

‘Stabilisers too,’ another shouted.

‘What about the primary and secondary fans?’ Gulco asked.

‘Sorry, Gulco, my system has crashed over here. Re-starting! I need thirty seconds to re-check.’

Gulco shook his head.

‘See what I mean. Can’t trust these damn computers. If you have to, do it manually.’

Zoren smiled to himself, but was feeling uneasy. The drive was running steady, but thirty seconds passed very slowly.

‘Checks done. Primary and secondary fans are operating well below maximum temperature,’ the engineer now reported.

‘Go on programme six,’ Gulco said to Zuki, who nodded in acknowledgement back to him.

‘Running six!’ she said.

Zoren could hear the noise from the drive slowly increase in pitch and volume. A large column of flame was now being expelled from the rear of the drive.

‘Six successful,’ Zuki reported.

‘Status everyone!’ Gulco shouted above the noise of the drive, so everyone could hear him.

The engineers all signalled that everything was all right.

‘Run seven,’ Gulco said to Zuki.

‘Running!’

Zoren held his breath for a moment as the drive stuttered, then the power steadily increased. He could no longer hear Gulco.

Zuki indicated to Gulco that programme seven had been successful. Gulco was about to give the signal to start programme eight, when one of the engineers started to wave his hands frantically. The noise of the drive chanced and there was the sound of scrapping metal. Instantly Gulco signally to Zoren to terminate the test.

Zoren hit the stop button.

The flames ceased abruptly, but the scrapping noise within the drive continued to get louder, while the primary fan decelerated. Then there was a loud bang. Part of the casing fractured and the whole drive shook violently. The fan started to break up. Fragments flew from the rear of the drive striking the far wall and the window.

Zoren thought it was never going to end. He flinched, when with a final bang, the fan shuddered to a stop. There was a stunned silence within the room.

Gulco trudged over to the window. He was twisting the inuple cap on the stump of his left arm in a to-and-fro motion trying to remove an itch caused by nervous perspiration.

‘What happened?’ he said to the engineer who had signalled the problem.

‘The injectors… It was in injectors,’ the engineer replied in a dejected voice. ‘They couldn’t provide enough fuel at full power. The fan overheated. The result you saw.’

‘Damn! That’s at least two years’ work in pieces in there,’ Gulco said angrily. ‘Get in there and clean that damn mess up. Zuki, get me the injector plans.’

Zuki brought over the injector plans and laid the book onto a large work-bench.

Gulco marched over. He hit the work-bench top with his fist and then said,

‘Bring me the data from the test. Zoren, your father made the injectors and you finished them. If you caused this failure, I’m going to have you cleaning the corridors for the rest of your sorry life.’