Comet Riders — Part Six
There is no turning back
The Year 10,541 of Life — The Royal City
King Long-hair stepped from the back door of the Royal House to survey his garden. He admired the bright green foliage with the ripe yellow fruits.
“Mother, I didn’t know you were here,” he said, to Bright-sky.
“I came to play with the children, but they…” She did not finish the thought as she remembered where the children were. Her grandchildren were grown and gone. “I’m sorry. My mind is not what it used to be.” She had abdicated the throne to her son thirty years earlier. She had enjoyed a retirement of playing with her grandchildren and writing her memoirs; however, she now had trouble separating the past from the present in her thoughts.
Long-hair sat on the bench beside his mother.
“It is such a beautiful day. Let’s enjoy it together,” he said, hugging her.
“I have not seen Golden-sky, how is your sister?” Bright-sky recalled why this day was special, and she lamented the looming loss of her daughter’s son. Being of special birth, her grandson Red-sky, named for his great-great-grandfather, had always been her favorite.
“My sister is doing well. This is both a time of joy and sadness for The Family.”
“It’s tomorrow, isn’t it… the launch?”
“Yes, Mother, it is tomorrow. I’ll come and get you.”
“Life has been so strange,” she said, her thoughts drifting. “I could never have imagined all that happened during my time. I saw the first flying machine. I saw the first view of Layall beyond the sea. I was there when the first rocket launched into orbit.” She smiled. “All this before you were born.”
“Not exactly, Mother, I was there for the first rocket launch. It was only forty years ago.”
“Oh, yes, I remember now. You wore the red suit with a black hat. You were so striking.”
“That’s right.”
Bright-sky frowned. “I should wear red tomorrow. Red-sky has not spoken to me in forever.”
“That’s not correct. You had dinner with him only last week.”
“Oh, yes, I remember. We had the fish. Fish is so rare, you know. We really need to learn how to capture more fish. It is so tasty.”
“Yes, after we move the comet, then we will have time to explore Layall and do these other things.”
“Red-sky, he is going to move the Death Comet tomorrow, right?”
“That’s almost correct. His spaceship launches tomorrow. But, it will take a year for him to get into position to move the comet. However, tomorrow is the last time we will see him.”
“So sad. I am so very sorry that I could not find another way.” She dabbed the tears from her eyes. “Such a horrible sacrifice to make, but there simply was no way to get him back after moving the comet.”
“We all know, Mother. It’s not your fault. There was simply nothing to be done, and he is proud to be of service to all the people of Layall.”
“Yes, but it was your grandfather’s dream that the sacrifices were to protect his grandchildren, not to sacrifice them in the process.” She silently wept for a moment while her son held her. She remembered the time she spent with her father, Long-stick.
Bright-sky and the University of Scientists developed the machine to move the Death Comet. However, they could not build one powerful enough to return to Layall after the mission was completed. It was a matter of one-for-all. One human could sacrifice his life so that all could live. There was no hesitation in the choice. Bright-sky had delegated that the person in the rocket ship had to be from the Royal Family. They would sacrifice one of their own in atonement for their failure to build a more powerful rocket. As King Long-hair’s two children were the first and second heirs to the throne, the mission fell to Bright-sky’s daughter’s first child. From the day of his birth, Red-sky was groomed for the mission to save all the people of Layall.
“I’m going home now. Don’t forget me in the morning. I’ll wear red.” Bright-sky dried her eyes and slowly walked through the Royal House to her own house across the courtyard.
The Year 10,779 of Life — Aboard Lancer 112
Taking advantage of the weightless environment, Duke Brown-wood executed an 180 degree swivel in midair and pushed off from the bulkhead to float across the spaceship’s cabin. After returning to the portion behind the partition, he grasped a tablet and began reading as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
“Oylo,” Sapphire said, floating beside Gray-rock. “Will you be using the torch?”
Gray-rock turned his attention to the Princess. “Uh, yes.”
For long distance travel, the use of the torch was faster and more fuel efficient than the gravity engine. The torch could rapidly accelerate the Lancer to a high velocity where the spaceship could then coast for billions of miles without further fuel expenditure. On the other hand, the gravity engine could only propel the ship at a fixed, slower pace, and it required constant energy input. The disadvantage of the torch was that the same quantity of energy was required to slow the Lancer as was used to accelerate it. And, the use of the torch in close proximity to Layall was prohibited. For this reason, Gray-rock had plotted a flight path above the planetary plane. He would use the gravity engine to move the Lancer a safe distance away from the Ice Station, and then use the torch to quickly fly down the gravity well towards Helos. He would intentionally overshoot Layall a bit before using the torch to slow the spacecraft. Finally, he would approach Layall Station using the gravity engine. This, Gray-rock calculated, was the fastest flight plan. He thought about explaining this motivation to Sapphire, but decided his simple answer was best.
“Good,” she said. “You’ll need to recalculate, however. This is our actual destination.” She handed him a computer memory chip.
Gray-rock accepted the chip. Ah, the super-secret spy mission unfolds, he mused to himself, thinking of Bird’s-eye’s conspiracy plot. Gray-rock inserted the chip into the navigation computer. Scanning the chip’s contents, he saw the Royals wanted to go to an empty spot in space above the planetary plane, but twenty million miles farther from Helos than was Layall.
“What is located there?” he asked.
“Why nothing,” she winked, “yet.”
Gray-rock thought about asking the obvious question: What will be there? But, if she wanted him to know, she would tell him. He completed the adjustments to change the ship’s route to this flight plan. By this time, the Lancer was far away from the Ice Station, and he initiated the process of unwinding the gravity energy in preparation for using the torch.
Sapphire floated nearby. She was not exactly hovering over him, but she was close enough to watch his calculations.
He turned to her. “You might inform your father that we will begin torch acceleration in thirty minutes. We’ll all need to strap down until the torch is stable at full power.” This was the officially recommended procedure, although it was unnecessary; however, Gray-rock wanted to be rid of her oversight. The Lancer was equipped with a gravity force field such that the acceleration acted upon all parts of the ship, and everything inside, individually. They would remain weightless inside the ship with no sensation of the acceleration. Without the gravity force field, they would be crushed to jelly.
Sapphire nodded and joined Duke Brown-wood in the rear portion of the cabin. At the prescribed time, they strapped into the acceleration seats. Gray-rock cinched the straps of his own acceleration chair in the small cockpit. He made a final check of the space behind the Lancer. There was only empty space for a hundred light-years; nothing would be endangered by the torch exhaust.
In the torch’s reaction chamber, hydrogen was fused into helium, releasing a large amount of energy. Gravitational lenses focused the energy and mass exhaust into a tight beam ejected at the speed of light. This beam had the coherence of a laser beam. In this way, nearly 100% of the energy released in the reaction chamber became thrust for the spacecraft. No other rocket-type motor had this level of efficiency. Unfortunately, the gamma and alpha radiation contained in the torch beam was lethal, and this intensity remained lethal for at least a light-year behind the spaceship. Thus, anyone on a planet or in a spacecraft which happened to pass into the path of the torch beam for the next year would be killed. It was easy to see why tight restrictions were placed on where the torch could be used.
Gray-rock ignited the torch. In a few minutes its power level reached 80%, and the Lancer was accelerating towards the region of space specified by Sapphire. After 30 minutes, the acceleration level passed ten gravities, and Gray-rock gave the all-clear signal to his passengers. The three of them released the straps of the accelerations chairs and resumed floating freely about the cabin. Of course, there was nothing ‘safe’ about ten gravities of acceleration. Rather, this was the point where they would be instantly killed should the gravity force field fail whether or not they were in the acceleration chairs. There was no point in remaining confined, although the torch would continue to burn for ten more hours.
Gray-rock surveyed the instrument readings. Within moments, he felt the presence of Sapphire behind him.
“When will you execute the course correction?” she asked.
The only safe way to speed down the gravity well towards Helos and the inner planets was to follow a path above the planetary plane. This minimized potential, disastrous encounters with solid objects. However, the path required a mid-course correction to change their vector from one leading above the planetary plane to one leading back in towards Layall.
“Three days,” Gray-rock answered. He did not elaborate that, after the course correction, they would be traveling directly into Helos. This was no concern because he would save them from crashing into the star by burning the torch again, after another three days. Directing the exhaust beam of radiation directly into the star was the safest way to use the torch near Layall. He would then use the gravity engine to complete the journey to their destination.
“We’ll arrive in seven days,” he said. He wondered if she was regretting choosing the Lancer for the trip; Her Royal Yacht would have been much faster. He knew he would not be enjoying the time with his passengers.
She shifted her position to wedge her body between his and the starboard console. Only a foot separated them, and he struggled to keep from touching her.
Staring straight into his eyes, she said, “Brother, we’ll have to think of something…” She wet her lips. “To pass the time.”
Gray-rock thought her meaning was clear, but he hesitated to continue the conversation. He turned his focus to her father, floating in midair a few feet away while reading his tablet. She drew his attention back to her as she fingered the tab of her zipper. She pulled it down a few inches to reveal that she was not wearing the customary underwear which women wore.
She leaned her lips closer to his ear. “Don’t be shy. Are you married?”
“No.” It had been a ridiculous question. He was clearly not old enough to be married.
“But, you are betrothed?”
“Yes, to Cinnamon. She is also from the Crescent Lake.”
“But, you are not celibate?”
“No.” He recalled waking up in Soft-petal’s bed aboard the Ice Station and wondered just how much Princess Sapphire knew about him.
“Well, I am neither celibate nor betrothed. So, don’t be shy.”
To accentuate her meaning, she drifted across the cabin to the relief station. The small spacecraft did not have a private refresher. A person using the relief station depended upon the respectfully diverted eyes of the fellow passengers for privacy. Gray-rock averted his attention and returned his focus to the ship’s instruments. He wondered why the Princess was not betrothed; she was more or less his own age.
THE END of Part Six
Part Seven, (coming soon)
Copyright ©2023 by S. M. Revolinski All Rights Reserved
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