‘I am sorry Teacher and Medic have failed you, but it will not harm the main object of the expedition a great deal. I am fortunate in that I have many duplicate circuits which can be called into service automatically should the need arise, so I do not think I shall fail for some time to come.
‘Your other main concern, about having access to tools, replacements and general equipment, this will become automatic should my circuits shut down. Access to all lifts and rooms will likewise be made available to you, with the exception of the power plant. There is nothing you could possibly do if it should fail, and the mission would then be aborted. You would not know about it, so have no fear.
‘Do you have any question you wish to ask at this point?’
Although they suspected it, the truth when it came was a bit of a shock to Glyn and Arki, and they were dumbstruck for a few moments, not knowing what to say or ask.
‘Thank you for telling us about yourself and other things.’ Glyn began hesitatingly, and then he found a little courage from somewhere, and drew himself erect in his chair.
‘Why did you give me such a shock when barring my access to the book room?’ he asked.
‘At the time I could not be certain of your reactions to some things, as a lot of my vision devices have failed and there are no more spares. This meant that a lot of your probing and searching went unmonitored and was therefore not available for assessment. I had to err on the safe side, as you would put it. I am sorry.’
‘That’s OK, I just thought it was a bit harsh, that’s all.’ Glyn now felt a bit more relaxed.
‘I have a question,’ said Arki, ‘do you know exactly where we are going and when we shall get there?’ he asked.
‘I do not.’ came back the reply. ‘When the ship was first envisaged, it was known that the nearest star with planets which could possibly support human life could not be reached in one man’s lifetime with the technology of the time, in fact it would take many lifetimes to reach that goal.
‘The only possible solution was to breed humans on board the ship, and hopefully educate them sufficiently such that they would be able to survive with a reasonable technological background when the new home planet was reached. So far, things have gone well, and several solar systems have been viewed as a likely new home for your people, but none have come up to the criteria set by the designers of the system.
‘As far as I can ascertain, this project was your peoples last desperate attempt to make sure that some humans survived the holocaust that was predicted to happen, due to the prevailing conditions on Earth at the time. I cannot predict where or when we will arrive at our destination.’
‘It might be in your lifetime, or many generations into the future, it depends on finding a suitable planet, and that I cannot predict.’
‘How about the incident of the asteroid?’ Glyn asked, ‘I found an old diary in the book room, and according to the entry I read, a similar asteroid passed by the ship about two hundred years ago. The possibility of two such happenings in such a short space of time is beyond all chance, so how do you explain that?’
‘One possibility is that the asteroid is on a circular or orbital course, and therefore the Ship could have intercepted its path twice by cutting across its plane of rotation.’ Glyn thought the Captain’s voice had taken on a somewhat defensive and defiant tone.
‘I don’t see how mankind could possibly let things get to such a state that the Earth would be destroyed, surely they must have known the possible consequences of their actions, and corrected them, for the good of all?’
‘You are using logic, many of the humans of that time had other priorities, namely acquiring material possessions and trying to raise their status above that of others of similar ilk. Reason does not apply in such circumstances, and the situation has a momentum all of its own if left uncorrected, which it was.’
‘But the people who were responsible for building this ship couldn’t have been like those you described,’ added Glyn, ‘so why were they not able to correct things?’
‘It would seem that it was a matter of numbers and governments, there were not enough sane people in positions of power to bring about the necessary changes to regain the stability for continued existence, and once things had got out of control, there was little they could do.’
The questions and answers flew back and forth for some time, Glyn and Arki being of the opinion that the Captain was doing all that he could to give them the information they required, although there were some areas where he was evasive, or maybe the Captain didn’t know the answers, or was programmed not to respond.
It was quite late when Glyn returned to his cabin, and Mia, who had retired to her bunk, politely enquired as to what he had been doing.
He tried to explain in the simplest of terms, but apart from the usual acknowledgement of what he was saying, there was little interest in the content.
There were some minor breakdowns over the next few days and one emergency call-out in the middle of the night when a part of the air purifying system suddenly failed.
It was the first time anyone could recall a night repair being called for, and Glyn began to worry even more about the state of the ship.
He and Arki had many discussions about what they had learned from the Captain, and both were getting more than a little concerned about the frequency of the break downs, but then all seemed to calm down for a while, and life got back to normal.
It was while Glyn was in the book room that the next catastrophe struck. A shudder ran through the room, the lights dimmed, flickered, and came back on again, only to go out once, more plunging him into total darkness.
His eyes tried to adjust to the inky blackness, but he was totally blinded when the normally dull light of the book room came on with a glaring brilliance which almost hurt.
Leaving the book on the table, he ran to the antechamber discarding the breathing helmet all in one fluid movement.
Entering the series of corridors which led back to the main section of the ship, the persistent peep-peep of the general alarm system was beginning to grate on his nerves.
Arriving at the eating room and panting for breath, he enquired as to what all the fuss was about when the voice of the Captain thundered down at the assembled group.
‘This is an emergency. This is an emergency. There has been an explosion in the air processing plant. A four man team is to report to the equipment room at once, all other personnel are to report to the eating room, and not leave it under any circumstances until advised to do so. That is all.’
Arki pushed through the group, and gasping, said to Glyn,
‘That’s two of us, who else shall we take?’
Glyn had already taken the arms of two other men present, guiding them towards the doorway, pushing their way through the rest of the people who were trying to get in.
As the foursome entered the equipment room, the machinery was already disgorging a selection of tools and spare parts, and most unusually, a four wheeled trolley.
‘Better load that lot onto the trolley, I suppose.’ said Arki, turning to Glyn for his approval.
‘Proceed down the main corridor until you see a flashing blue light.’ the thunderous tones of the Captain instructed, and they hurried out of the room, nearly jamming the trolley in the doorway in their haste.
They ran on down the echoing steel corridor with Brendon pulling the rumbling trolley behind them, Glyn urging them to go even faster and Brendon complaining bitterly between desperate gasps for breath.
As they rounded a bend, they could see the flashing blue light and began to slow down, Brendon cursing volubly as the heavily laden trolley tried to run him down.
‘Well, this looks like the spot, but what do we do now?’ asked Arki, ‘there’s no doorway or lift in view.’
As if in answer to his question, a section of the wall slid back revealing a dark chamber, the light coming on as the first of them hesitatingly entered.
Brendon dragged the trolley in with much puffing and blowing, one of the wheels going over Arki’s foot which brought forth a stream of expletives which the others had rarely heard before.
The wall panel slid to behind them with a dull thump, and the lift suddenly dropped. An unexpected surge sideways took them all by surprise, to be followed by two more and then another small drop.
‘You are about to enter a prohibited zone. In order to do so you must be recognized as authorized personnel. Eight identification discs have been issued along with your equipment. Each person must wear two discs, one on the front and one on the back. Please help each other to do so now.’
‘He sounds a bit terse today.’ commented Glyn, as they fumbled around trying to affix the discs to each others backs.
The back panel of the lift slid to one side with a most unpleasant scraping noise, and they were confronted with a vast chamber full of equipment stretching from floor to ceiling, fluorescent type lights flickering on one by one, flooding the area with their harsh light.
‘My status board indicates that a blocked filter and a ruptured pipe need to be repaired, and any other damage that may have been occasioned. When the explosion took place it disabled my vision units in that area, you will have to describe to me what you see in the way of damage.’ For once, the Captain’s voice didn’t seem quite so loud, being lost in the vastness of the air conditioning chamber.
They dragged the trolley into the one clear space available, and looked around at the bewildering maze of pipes, cylinders, pumps and vast vat like containers which held the filtering materials.
‘That looks like the faulty pipe.’ the fourth member of the party said, indicating a torn and twisted piece of pipe-work which had wound itself into a caricature of a snake about to strike. The pipe, when it had split open under the massive increase of pressure due to the filter being blocked, had torn open the side of one of the filter vats, exposing its fluffy white filter material like a cascade of glistening foam.
Glyn relayed back to the Captain the fact that the pipe had split and ruptured the vat in the process, and was then asked for the coding on the pipe-work.
Fortunately for them, the split occurred just at the end of the part number which was printed on the pipe, so this was relayed to the Captain along with the number of the vat and the size of the rent in its side.
‘Replacement parts will be sent to you. You will have to put safety masks on while you force the filter material back into the vat. A panel to cover the rent in the vat will be sent, but welding the panel into position is not an option as the heat would destroy the filter material, suitable adhesive will be supplied instead. When these arrive, please await further instructions. Please retire to the lift chamber with the trolley until the parts arrive.’
They clambered back into the lift, dragging the trolley in behind them, this time managing to get a wheel to run over Brendon’s foot as he manoeuvred to get the best position in the cramped space available. After a while, they began to wonder if the repair system had broken down, so Glyn pressed his ear to the wall and nodded.
A distant deep rumbling noise became apparent after a few minutes, growing in volume until they wondered if it was coming into the lift with them. The noise stopped, and a large panel in the wall next to the lift slid open to reveal a large open truck like vehicle, which slowly squeaked its way into the space they had recently left among the pipe-work.
‘Well, here are our bits and pieces,’ said Glyn, ‘let’s get on with it before anything else blows up.’
They trooped out to inspect the offerings the Captain had sent, the replacement pipe being on top of the pile.
‘OK, we’ll start with this.’ said Arki, waving the new piece of pipe above his head and went over to the damaged one.
‘You won’t be able to undo it without one of these.’ Brendon said, pointing towards a large adjustable spanner which lay on top of their own trolley.
‘Well are you going to just look at it, or bring it over so I can use it?’ retorted Arki, often a little short when speaking to Brendon after a fatuous remark.
Brendon picked up the spanner, and, mumbling about what he would like to do with it, went over to the impatient Arki who wrenched it from his grasp with a little more force than was strictly necessary.
Arki had already undone the coupling on the end of the pipe where it was joined to the manifold, when the voice of the Captain shattered the silence making them all jump.
‘You were supposed to await instructions. You could have injured yourself, and the others present. Also an incorrect action could have caused further damage to the plant.’
‘The other end of the pipe is open to the atmosphere, so there can’t be any pressure in it, and as it only transports air I don’t see how it could harm me.’ Arki retorted, feeling pleased with himself having got one over the Captain.
‘Anyway, I thought your vision circuits were out of order.’ he added gleefully.
‘What you say is true, but my audio circuits are functioning correctly and you make a lot of noise. The rules are for your own protection. Please obey them in future.’
The others exchanged smiling glances as they enjoyed the battle of wits between man and machine, while Brendon seeing a chance to even the score, laughed out loud.
Arki released the damaged pipe and loosely attached the replacement in its place.
Removing the broken end of the old pipe from the vat proved a little more troublesome and Glyn had to come to the rescue, adding his weight to the end of the big spanner until the joint came free.
At last the new piece of pipe-work was in place, and tightened up to their overall satisfaction, Brendon looking as pleased with himself as if he had actually done the job, so Arki innocently stepped backwards and trod on his foot, with abject apologies.
‘Analysing the sounds from my audio circuits, I assume that you have completed the necessary work on the replacement pipe. Please put on your safety masks and proceed to force the filter material back inside the vat. The edges of the rent may protrude, so these will have to be hammered back into place such that the covering panel will fit snugly against the surrounding surface of the vat. There is a power hammer on the truck specifically for that purpose.’