The Pathfinder Project (28 page)

“That’s right,” she said. “The
situation is very similar to the safeguard procedures we used back in the
Sol-system… protocols space colonies use to keep infected material at one site
from damaging the eco-system of another.” She reactivated her computer screen
and pointed at the bacteria. “No matter how hard you try, something inevitably
slips through now and then. You do the best you can, but in the end it’s still
an imperfect process.” She sighed, slightly depressed. “I had a sister working
at a site located on one of Jupiter’s moons. I miss visiting with her via the
daily Comm-traffic.”

“I understand completely
Doctor. However, my concern was to bring the situation under control. If I hear
you correctly, then I’m a happy Captain,” concluded Dennis. “How is our
Brotherhood guest doing?”

“Not well. He had sores
resulting from prolonged, direct exposure to those mineral rocks all over the
inside of his mouth and tongue. All of the lesions our people have will
eventually heal, but for him it’s going to be a painful process that will take
a few extra days. He seems much more susceptible to it for some reason.”

“Perhaps it’s all those genetic
enhancements that give him superior strength.”

The Doctor chuckled wryly. “As
soon as the nurses finish cleaning out all of the pus and fluid from the sores
in his mouth I’m planning to give him something for the pain.”

“Not tonight you don’t,”
Kaufield said, shaking his head. He completely ignored the expression on
Karen’s face.

“Captain…”

“
Not tonight
!” shouted
Dennis angrily. “I want that SOB to lie there
all
night and think about
what he tried to do to us. It certainly won’t kill him to spend
one
night with discomfort… you know, like the sleepless nights he and his people
put Thomas and all the others through. Who knows, an uncomfortable experience
like that might actually
penetrate
this so-called ‘superior’ brain of
his and change his mind the next time he thinks about building explosive
devices on
my
ship!” He walked over to the door and turned back. “You
can give him something tomorrow at 0800. Not before… and
that’s
a direct
order, Doctor.”

“I guess it’s not a good night
to be a spy on
this
ship,” Karen commented as she watched him stomp
angrily out of the Medical Ward.

THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

Thomas Roh sat watching the
stars from his seat in the Observatory wing, completely stunned. Not that it
wasn’t really great to see stars again, mind you… that part he was quite
comfortable with. However, in the three weeks that had elapsed since Dr.
Simmons brought the unknown bacterial infection under control, the
Pathfinder
had steadily explored outward from its home galaxy. And outward further. And
then further outward beyond even that.

They were currently situated
somewhere in the midst of the Centaurus super-cluster. Distance measurements
from home base were almost impossible now, if not for the carefully plotted
waypoints they had established along the way. When all calculations were said
and done, the
Pathfinder
had journeyed more than 1.5
billion
light years from its original Milky Way starting point.

“That’s over a hundred and
fifty million light years for each pound George has grown!” he pointed out to
Dr. Markham as she walked by. “And thirty two million light years for each day
that we’ve been in space. For God’s sake how long can this go on? There’s only
so much area in our universe, you know.”

“That’s why it’s called the
known
universe,” said Julie proudly. “Now that your team has got the train moving,
it’s our job to determine just how much area there is in the
unknown
.”

“This is absolutely
profound
,”
said Thomas. “For crying out loud, there are a lot of people on this ship – and
I happen to be one of them – that really
believe
in the concept of Intelligent
Design. I hope you’re not going to try and find a scientific explanation for
everything
we discover out here. You’ll blow our faith and we’ll have nothing left to
spiritually comfort us!” He looked out the window again. “After all, everyone
knows the universe is filled with a colossal number of galaxies – each
containing an unbelievable star count – so why do you have to go and try and
map it all, anyway? Aren’t men supposed to be the over-aggressive, OCD type?”

Since she was standing, Julie
leaned her head down next to Thomas and whispered softly in his ear, “Centaurus
is not
just
a galaxy or
just
a star cluster. It’s a super-cluster
containing hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of smaller galaxies, depending
upon how and where we decide to draw our perimeter lines.”

“Oh, now I understand,” Thomas
acknowledged dryly. “It’s a
super-cluster
. Thank you for pointing that
out Doctor. Now this journey to the edge of infinity makes perfect sense.”

Julie sat down at her desk and
began typing rapidly on the keyboard of her laptop. “
Why
are you here
again?” she asked, resting one of the ear tips from her glasses against her
lower lip. “Did the Captain suddenly decide I need a babysitter? Did he think
that someone constantly playing Devil’s Advocate would lighten my mood? Aren’t
there literally a dozen
other
places on this ship where you could be
right now?”

“I’m on a survey assignment to
become more familiar with your Observatory,” said Thomas proudly. “Since the CAS
Drive is functioning like a finely tuned machine the Captain wants me to be
ready to assist your staff with software adjustments to the telescope equipment
as we move farther and farther from home.” He grinned widely. “That means you
better get used to seeing more of me!”

“If your goal is to survey the
Observatory then why don’t you
start
looking at our equipment and
stop
stargazing out the windows for God’s sake?”

“I’ll get to that,” Thomas
decided, “After I finish my study of this phenomenally awesome view that you’ve
found for us.”

“The Captain wanted me to
locate something appropriate for tonight’s Fourth of July celebration,” she
said absently, carefully studying the screen on her laptop. “So I killed two
birds with one stone. While you and the civilians are partying tonight, we here
in the Observatory plan to busy ourselves with the observing process.” She
quickly looked him up and down. “Speaking of the celebration, do you have a
date yet?”

“Uh, I don’t know if
that’s
such a good idea…” Thomas said shyly. “I don’t normally handle social
situations with females very well. And since I’m also still under Doctor’s
orders to take things easy, I was just planning on spending the evening in my
quarters with George…” He stopped in mid-sentence as Kari walked up and handed
Julie a handful of computer disks.

The first thing that captivated
him was her short dark hair, then her eyes. Thomas drank in the pure sight of
the cute young administrative assistant and she smiled warmly back at him. The
mere sight of her smile instantly activated every male-response trigger in his
body at once. His normally focused thinking quickly began to move to a high
speed blur. His mouth opened and he tried desperately to convince his brain to
activate his vocal cords. “Hi… uhm… hullo,” he barely managed.

“Kari.” She said, smiling
again.

Thomas struggled to avoid
falling out of his seat. “Hello Kari,” he said finally. A part of his
subconscious was screaming for him
not
to say anything further to her, so
he impulsively asked the question leaping to the front of his mind as fast as
he could before that part of him had a chance to win. “Kari, do you by any
chance have plans for the Fourth of July celebration, yet?”

“Why no I don’t actually,” she
said, grinning in sheer delight at his obvious discomfort and the war he was
fighting with his shyness. “I might drop by the Garden wing for a bit though,
just to see how things are going. I’ve been working all morning already. By
evening I’ll have put in plenty of time so I’ll almost certainly be ready for a
break. Maybe I’ll see you there.”

“Save me a dance, will you
please?” he asked, again saying the sentence as fast as he could before the
fear in him had a chance to prevail. He hoped that it didn’t sound like he was
begging, but as a human male he was fully prepared to do so if necessary.

“I most certainly will, Thomas
Roh,” she said cheerfully before idly wandering back to her desk. He watched
her attractive, slim figure recede in absolute male awe and then noticed Julie
was studying him just as carefully.

“Okay, Dr. Markham perhaps
you’re right,” he said, trying desperately to clear his fogged head. “I think
that the rest of my survey
can
wait.”

“You pounce and then you run!”
Julie replied, laughing so hard her shoulders were shaking, “You men are
all
the same… every last
one
of you!”

“Well, no offense Doctor, but
dating is an imperfect process,” Thomas commented, leaning one arm against her
desk. He whispered into her ear, “It can be even more intimidating when trying
to initiate a romantic encounter while in the presence of an
older
woman.”

Astonishingly, he nearly made
it out the hatchway before she caught him.

*    
* * *     *

Adam fumbled around in Thomas’
kitchen, searching desperately for the dry kibble he needed to feed George. The
black and white kitten, now about ten pounds strong, was watching him
suspiciously from the living room. Every now and then Adam would look up in
frustration and George would catch his eye and respond with a loud “
Meow!
”

“I know – trust me – I’m
looking for your damn food, cat!” Adam said. “And this is the last time I waste
part of my day off stopping by to feed you, that’s for sure!” Behind him Nori
laughed loudly while watching him continue to hunt for the food. She carefully picked
up George’s other bowl and washed it out in the sink before replacing its
contents with fresh water.

“Meow,” George yowled again,
flopping over on his side to watch Adam from a more comfortable position. His
long black tail whipped back and forth, signaling his curiosity.

“Where is Thomas, anyway?” Nori
asked. “Has he been returned to duty?”

“On a limited basis,” Adam
informed her, pulling a box of dry cat kibble out from a cabinet beneath the
sink. “
Aha!
We’ve found the cat food,” he grinned, carefully refilling
the cat’s bowl. “He’s going to start coming to the Council meetings and also
work part-time in the Observatory. The Captain feels that’s enough for now.”

“Council meetings, huh,” she
replied. “Word is the Brotherhood spy was sentenced today… what was his name –
Warren?” She paused but couldn’t resist asking. “Did you decide to toss him out
an airlock?”

“He’s going to live,” said Adam
firmly. “We discussed it for quite a while, but death is always the easy way to
deal with situations like that.” He put the box of cat food back into its
cabinet and shut the door. “His face has permanent scarring from the illness he
recklessly brought on board so he’s going to have to live with that, first of
all. We also decided to assign him to work in one of the restaurants on deck
four.”

“Is he going to be safe there?”
queried Nori inquisitively. “Even if he himself isn’t guilty of murder, I’m
sure he’s going to take a lot of heat for spying on our ship and for what his
people did to ours back on Earth. That hangar four crew is a tough crowd,
especially when they’ve been drinking the ‘stuff they don’t have on board’.”

“He more than earned exposure
to a little personal danger, don’t you think?” responded Adam. “Warren has
agreed to continue to cooperate with Dr. Simmons and her efforts to learn more
about his unique… biology. The Captain has ordered her to create a high-level
security file to document everything she finds out. That’s all I can tell you
for now, the rest is considered classified by the Captain.”

“I can always find out what I
need to know by withholding sex,” she told him, stepping up behind him and
wrapping her arms around his stomach.

“That weapon is rapidly
vacating your arsenal for the time being, woman,” grinned Adam, turning to face
her and patting her rapidly growing tummy. “Seriously though, what can our
Brotherhood spy do?” he asked. “As long as he works in the restaurant, right in
front of God and everybody, the Captain has authorized a marine guard to
protect him. The rest of the time he’s confined to his quarters, which are
thoroughly searched twice a week the same as if he was in a prison cell.”

“Sooner or later, someone’s
going to take a swing at him,” predicted Nori. “I’ve been tempted to myself,
considering what he was planning to do to our ship.”

“From a security standpoint, we
need to find out who the hotheads and trouble makers are,” said Adam. “So he’s
kind of doubling as a flash point. If anyone attacks him, they’ll be prosecuted
the same as they would be if they assaulted anyone else.”

“You keep saying
him
.
Are you even sure
it
is a he?” she wondered. “I’ve heard these
Brotherhood people have had lots of… work done.”

“The Doctor is pretty certain,”
he replied. “She says he’s a human being – probably cloned – with genetic
enhancements to improve his brain power, senses and strength. Other than that,
she really can’t tell us more because it all goes in the Captain’s classified
file… at least for now.” He stopped and thought carefully for a moment,
deciding how much he was authorized to tell her. “His advantage is gone now.
When we leaped away from our home star system he lost the connection he had
with his powerful friends. He’s quite alone now, at our mercy and very scared.”