“Doc, Jack, come on in and take a load off,” shouted the ebullient billionaire. He rolled over to the specially built bar in his custom, four wheel drive wheelchair while waving the newcomers in. “Pick yer poison, Ludmilla.”
“Of course I must drink vodka, being Russian. What brands do you have?”
“Let’s see here, I got Reyka, 42 Below, Stolichnaya elit, Grey Goose and Crystal Head if yer lookin’ for boutique brands.”
“What is this Crystal Head, it sounds interesting.”
“It’s made in the wilds of Newfoundland, Canada, under the spiritual guidance of Dan Aykroyd, the comedian and actor. Supposedly it’s filtered through diamonds. As you can see, it comes in a crystal skull bottle. Myself, I’m partial to 42 Below, the vodka from down under.”
“It is made in Australia?”
“New Zealand, 42º south of the equator and 42% alcohol. Hell, they all taste the same to me, but then I’m a bourbon drinker.”
“Do you have any in the freezer?”
“The 42 Below.”
“I’ll try that. Jack?” she said, turning to her escort.
“I’ll try the Crystal Head. I’m always up for a new spiritual adventure,” he grinned. “Besides, Aykroyd was a believer in space aliens before I was.”
As TK poured, Ludmilla addressed the other guests. “JT, it is good to see you taking a break from work. The only place I have seen you recently is in sickbay, after you were abused by the bears in training.”
“It’s good to be here, Ludmilla,” the science officer replied. “Even in the armored suits, the bears sometimes get a bit too enthusiastic. But they are all smart and eager to learn—they have really gotten the hang of combat as a team. Bear is a natural leader, as is Isbjørn.”
“I had been complaining about him spending all his time either playing with the bears or the ship’s new weapons systems, but now the shoe is on the other foot,” added Gretchen. “Two days from sailing and now I’m the one with too much to do.”
“And you love every minute of it,” JT grinned at his partner. The relationship between Gretchen and JT was not of the forsaking-all-others-forevermore kind. They clearly enjoyed each other’s company but there was no long-term commitment—more like friends with benefits.
“Only because it means we will soon be underway,” she replied. “I’ll feel so relieved to be back in space with a deck beneath my feet.”
“I think we are all ready to sail for some distant star,” said Jack, joining the group, drink in hand. He stepped down into the conversation pit and took a seat next to Ludmilla on one of the built-in curving couches. TK followed in his high-tech wheelchair, which handled the step as though it wasn’t there. “You should reconsider coming with us on the shakedown flight, TK.”
“Naw, Jack,” the billionaire answered. “I’ve seen Earth and the Moon from space and now I’m content to just live quietly here on the farside. Besides, I’d just be excess baggage on board the Peggy Sue—here I have work to do.”
“You do yourself a disservice, TK,” Ludmilla responded. “You are a man of great experience and insight, and you would be a positive addition to our mission.”
“Well thank you for saying so, young lady. But those new frigates ain’t gonna build themselves and somebody needs to keep things running smoothly around here while y’all are out flitting from star to star.”
“Speaking of stars,” Jack said, purposely changing the subject to ease TK’s obvious discomfort. “Have you decided which star should be first on our itinerary, JT?”
“That, Captain, is an interesting problem,” JT answered. “Normally you would think that we should just head for the closest star on Dr. Piscopia’s list, then the closest to that one, and so on. But if you want to minimize the total distance for the entire trip that might not be the best strategy.”
“Really?” said Ludmilla.
“Yes, instead you need to consider a course that visits each star system once while minimizing the sum of the distances traveled between them—a little conundrum referred to as the traveling salesman problem.”
Gretchen raised one inquisitive eyebrow and said dryly, “fascinating, Mr. Taylor. Do tell us more.”
Ignoring his paramour’s sarcasm he continued. “Computer scientists and graph theorists call this a Hamiltonian Circuit. In a simple undirected graph, a Hamiltonian circuit is a path that visits every vertex exactly once and then returns to the beginning of the path via an untraveled edge. Since our list of stars can be viewed as a fully connected graph, the optimum solution yields a total distance 45.98 parsecs. But it isn’t that simple. We will be transiting alter-space between systems, not 3-space, and that changes the effective distances among the stars.”
“Going through alter-space really changes things that dramatically?” asked TK.
“It can, remember that alter-space transit times depend not only on distance but the masses of the two stars involved. For example, Zeta Tucanae is farthest from Earth measured in normal space at 9.2 parsecs. But if you calculate the transit times among all the systems and Earth, Zeta Tuc drops to third, with a transit time of 9.36 days. Our old friend, Beta Comae, which is farther away from Sol than all of the systems on our list, is actually closer in terms of travel time than all but two of the target stars.”
“OK, so you ran your optimization program on the modified list and what did you get?” asked Gretchen.
“Not exactly, Elena and I figured that limiting the longest alter-space transit would be a good thing. The minimal circuit, with a total transit time just over 77 days, requires a nearly 24 day transit from Delta Pavonis to Gliese 581. By traveling from Sol to Gliese 581 first, and then on to 61 Virginis, we can trim the longest alter-space transit by 4.5 days. Optimizing the following hops makes our itinerary: Beta Hydri, Epsilon Eridani, Chara, Zeta Tuc, Delta Pavonis and then home.”
“What does that do to total transit time?” asked Jack.
“Not much, total time is less than 79 days,” JT answered, somewhat pleased with himself, “so we only add a day and a half total to cut the longest transit by more than four.”
“It’s settled then, great,” the Captain pronounced.
“So our first leg will be the longest,” Ludmilla asked, “and it will take us to the red dwarf with all the planets, the one that Sally asked about?”
“That’s right, Gliese 581 is suspected of having six plants, one of them being a super-earth. From an astronomer’s prospective, it may well be the most exciting stop on the trip.”
“We’ll have to put that in the brochure,” TK quipped. Looking toward the dining room, he spied Maria coming their way. “It looks like Maria is ready to serve dinner, and just in the nick of time too. My stomach was startin’ to think my throat had been cut.”
Captain’s Office, Farside Base
Jack was only suffering from a mild hangover following the previous evening’s festivities.
You can say a lot of things about TK Parker,
he thought,
but that man can really hold his liquor.
The intercom chimed and his administrative assistant announced that Bear and Isbjorn had arrived. “Yes, Jimmy. Please show them in.”
The office door slid open and two polar bears padded in, a large male and a female half his size. They ambled over to the desk and sat on the floor, then the male spoke. “You wanted to see us, Captain?”
“Yes I did, Lt. Bear, and you too, Isbjørn,” Jack replied. “I wanted to speak with the two of you about the polar bear contingent for this next mission.”
“Yes, Captain?” said Isbjørn. Of all the new bears, she had been the first to grasp the significance of what was happening at the lunar base, and what the next mission might entail.
“With the refitting of the Peggy Sue we were able to expand and improve on the polar bear quarters,” Jack said. “To the point where we can reasonably accommodate five bears. That, of course, leaves us with the question of which five bears.”
“I would expect that you will take Bear, since he is one of the ship’s officers,” ventured Isbjørn. “And if it is not too forward, I was hoping to accompany him.” Both bears looked at each other and then back at the Captain.
“I had naturally planned on Bear,” said the Captain, “and you, my dear, were at the top of my list. You have excelled during training and have demonstrated an ability to work well with humans.”
“Thank you Captain,” said Isbjørn, demurely looking down. “I won’t disappoint you.”
“Keeping in mind that this will be no pleasure cruise, and that living quarters onboard are not nearly as comfortable as those on the base, I would like your advice. Who should comprise the rest of Peggy Sue’s bear contingent?”
Bear nodded and looked to Isbjørn, saying, “you first, babe.”
“I would recommend that the mix of males and females be kept balanced—too many males in a confined space can lead to short tempers and misunderstandings.” She looked directly at the Captain and blinked several times. “Assuming that, I would say that Inuksuk and Aurora would be the best choices.”
“Explain,” the Captain said, leaning back in his chair.
“They have both done well in the training and get along with each other well. The alternative would be Tornassuk and Snowflake, who have also bonded as a pair. The problem is that Tornassuk has not fully recovered from being shot—I don’t know how he would take to the confined spaces onboard the ship.”
“Bear?” Jack asked, looking at his master-at-arms.
“I would concur, Sir. Breaking up either pair would introduce unneeded tension. And Isbjørn’s right, Tornassuk is not at 100% yet.”
“Fine, what about a fifth?”
“It should be one of the younger bears,” Isbjørn said tentatively. “Siku is very bright and Aput is quite outgoing with humans.”
“Not Umky?” Jack asked, cutting to the heart of the matter.
Isbjørn looked at Bear with questioning eyes. She was hoping that the Captain did not think she was trying to protect her own cub by leaving him behind. After returning her gaze, Bear looked back to the Captain. “Sir, Umky is at an age when he needs to leave his mother and become his own bear. We are afraid that taking him on the mission might delay his development and also raise questions of nepotism.”
“I see. And you agree, Isbjørn?”
“Yes, Captain. It would do him no good to stay so close to his mother—and it could possibly cloud my judgment under some circumstances.”
“Very well, since we have an abundance of young males, Aput it is,” Jack replied, leaning forward to operate the touch screen built into his desk’s surface. “I’ll have Lcdr. Curtis send out official notifications today. Is there anything else?”
“No, Sir,” the bears said in unison.
“Then thank you for coming and I’ll see both of you on board tomorrow. Dismissed,” he said, returning his gaze to the desk top. As the bears exited the office he looked up at their disappearing backsides, thinking,
I’m glad you both wanted Umky to remain on the base, there are few enough talking polar bears as it is and I wouldn’t want to lose both of your bloodlines if something goes terribly wrong during the mission.
* * * * *
Isbjørn and Bear walked side by side across the broad terrace leading from the base administrative offices. Both wore thin white harnesses, providing a place to mount their comm pips and, in Bear’s case, the silver bars of a Navy lieutenant. It had been discovered that humans felt more at ease around bears wearing the harnesses—perhaps the nod to wearing clothing, however minimal, made them seem less like wild animals.
“That went well,” Isbjørn said to her companion. “The Captain seemed to have already thought this all through.”
“That’s what makes him the Captain, babe,” Bear replied. “Now we have to break the news to Umky—he’s not going to like staying behind.”
“The day comes in every cub’s life when he has to go out on the ice by himself,” she replied. “Besides, I think that we could use some time alone together.” As she voiced that opinion, her hips swayed, bringing their flanks into contact for half a step. Bear looked at his mate while she studiously looked away, gazing across the main concourse.
I hope that means what I think it means,
he thought with a toothy grin, causing several passing humans to give the pair a wider birth.
Peggy Sue, Departure from Farside Base
The bridge was fully manned and all of the observer’s chairs were occupied as well. Everyone with an excuse to be on the bridge, with its spectacular view through the ship’s transparent bow, was wedged in somewhere. Even Jean-Jacques de Belcour was present, sitting in one of the guest’s chairs behind the Captain.
In the days before departure, Jean-Jacques had gone out of his way to mend fences with the officers and crew. Eventually he petitioned the Captain to include him on the new mission, citing the usefulness of having an indisputably independent witness to whatever transpired on the voyage. The Captain agreed to the request without comment. However, to Lcdr. Curtis he said: “Put him in a single birth stateroom. I don’t want to inflict him on anyone else.”
Those who did not have a duty station, and not privileged enough to rate a place on the bridge, were crowded into the ship’s main lounge. Normally the lounge served as the wardroom for the ship’s officers and scientists, but on special occasions it was opened to all on board. Prime seats at the tables in front of the large, eye shaped viewport had been claimed hours ago, while boarding was still underway.
At the port side personnel hatch on first deck, Lcdr. Curtis was standing, tablet in hand, running down the list of personnel who were on board and shipyard workers still to disembark. From behind her came the unmistakable sound of the Chief.
“Move yer worthless carcases or yous will find yer selves floating home.” The last time the Peggy Sue left port there were a number of trapped guests and a pair of stowaways on board, much to the Chief’s displeasure. “Yous better double time it down the gangway and straight to the dock exit, or the air might get a bit thin.”
“Good luck, Ma’am,” said one of the shipyard workers as they exited the ship and hurried down the gangway that extended to the fused stone floor of the dock. Gretchen could not tell if the dockworker meant good luck on the voyage or with the Chief.