Command Decision (Project Gliese 581g #1) by S.E. Smith Read Free Book Online

on my plants.”
    “What?! What did I say this time? Mei!” Sergi groaned. “Chinese women are too difficult to understand.”
    Josh watched as Ash hastily moved aside as Mei swept past him. Ash’s eyebrows rose when Sergi quickly followed. A grin curved Josh’s lips when he saw the expression on Ash’s face. It wouldn’t be long before his friend joined in the fun.
    “What’d I miss this time?” Ash asked.
    “Mei asked if we would ever see Earth again,” Julia replied before Josh could say anything.
    “And Sergi’s answer was…?” Ash asked, glancing back at the other two members of the crew who had disappeared through the doorway.
    “A rundown of how far we are going in a prototype spaceship with no backup if something were to go wrong,” Julia answered with a brief glance at Josh. “I have some tests to run before we get too much further away. Please, excuse me.”
    Ash and Josh watched as Julia disappeared in the opposite direction. Each person had to deal with the reality of their decision. It didn’t matter that they had been training non-stop for the past eighteen months for this mission.
    In the end, all the talk, all the planning, couldn’t quite prepare them mentally for what was ahead. If something happened, there wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone on Earth could do to save them. The knowledge that they would have to depend on each other, and a never-before-tested spaceship on a maiden voyage into the unknown, was unsettling and it would take time for each person to come to terms with it.
    Josh understood this. It was one of the things his dad had talked to him about before each mission. For the first time in his life, he could finally appreciate what his father had been trying to tell him. His father’s quiet voice rang through his memory.
    “Every mission could be your last, son,” Edward Manson said. “You can’t go into it thinking about that. You focus on what needs to be done. In the back of your mind, there is always the thought of what could go wrong, that is why we train for it, but we don’t let it consume us. If you do, if you quit, then you are doomed to failure and failure in space means death.”
    Josh jerked back to the present when he felt Ash touch his arm. He pressed his lips into a firm line and nodded. He turned when he heard the sound of the communications console chime.
    “Call the others,” he ordered. “It’s time to go.”
     
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Gliese 581 – Eighteen months; twenty-three days; four hours: 928,081,020 km/6.2 Astronomical Units (AU) from Earth.
     
    “I won’t even say the words running through my head,” Ash murmured, standing next to Josh and looking at the virtual wall. “I know this is what the mission was about, but damn if I really thought we’d find anything.”
    “We’ve been observing it for the last two months, why would you think it is not real?” Sergi asked with a raised eyebrow.
    “I don’t know. It could have something to do with the huge yellow dancing globes that you programmed into the computer last month,” Ash retorted, thankful his dark skin prevented the slight flush he still felt at being caught unaware of Sergi’s latest prank.
    Sergi chuckled. “It was Mei’s idea. She saw you playing the game in the recreation room,” he replied with a grin that faded as he grew serious. “This will require numerous space walks, you understand that, don’t you, Josh? I need to be able to get up close to study it.”
    “I know,” Josh replied. “Not yet, though. I want to evaluate the situation before we do anything that could compromise any member of this ship or the Gliese.”
    “It does not look like a ship,” Mei reflected, her gaze moving over the large circular structure.
    “The new photographs indicate there might be more than one,” Julia replied, coming up to stand near the others. “I believe they are lined up in a row.”
    “A row? Can you bring up the photographs for us?” Josh asked with a