This Corner of the Universe by Britt Ringel Read Free Book Online Page A

as he moved quickly down the lower deck toward the ladder
descending to the shuttle bay.  After his descent, Heskan ensured the hanger’s
airlock status indicator was a friendly green and entered.
    Anelace’s shuttle bay was the second
largest ship compartment after Engineering.  Designed to hold a Class C
atmospheric shuttlecraft for general-purpose use, the shuttle bay also acted as
a makeshift hold for large items.  Currently, the bay held two fleet navigation
buoys that Anelace had been stocked with prior to her attachment to
RT-17.
    Standing
just over six meters, the buoy not only acted as an easily located beacon to
mark where a tunnel drive could safely initiate a dive, it also sequenced ships
into an orderly traffic pattern to ensure safe jumps for each starship when
conditions around a tunnel point were crowded.  More valuable to the sporadic
Skathi traffic, the buoy also could act as a repeater and amplifier for
communication signals, helping punch data streams through the Beta Field
distortion.
    Next
to the buoy were two men outfitted in EMUs, Extravehicular Maneuvering Units. 
The EMU attached to the standard Brevic naval spacesuit and allowed for
spacewalks.  Alongside the two suited figures, a third crewman, Sensorman Third
Class Deveraux, helped them make last minute adjustments in preparing the buoy
for deployment.
    “PO
Davis, how goes the prep?” Heskan queried.
    The sensorman
second class raised the faceplate of his suit.  “We’re nearly ready, sir. 
Spaceman Ford and I will have it operational within a couple hours.”
    “That’s
fine, we have plenty of time so there’s no rush,” Heskan replied. “The way these
buoys break in this system, let’s take our time and have a nice, smooth
deployment.”  We only have one more so we can’t afford anything but that ,
he thought.  “One more thing, Davis, Ensign Truesworth will send you the
location of the dead buoy.  Do you think you can retrieve it?” Heskan asked.
    Davis
arched an eyebrow.  “We could, sir, but we really don’t have the necessary
equipment or the spare parts to repair it.  We’d have to cannibalize from the
other functional buoy in the hanger.  Brevic command kind of treats these
things as disposable anyway.” He lightly kicked the side of the buoy.
    Heskan
smiled and nodded while waiting for the petty officer to finish his sentence.  “I
don’t want to fix her but I would like to know why she broke.”
    Once
the preparation of the new buoy was complete, Heskan and Deveraux retreated
from the shuttle bay to its control room.  From the safety of the control room,
Deveraux’s practiced hands danced over the console’s controls and removed
gravity and atmosphere from the bay.  The entire floor of the aft end of the hanger
opened and Heskan could see infinite space past the bottom hull of Anelace . 
He watched as Davis and Ford floated up slightly with the buoy and then over
and down through the aperture.
    The
EMU operation took three hours, two hours to deploy the new buoy and test its
functions and one hour to “walk” to the failed buoy, capture it and stow it
inside the hanger.  By the time gravity and air were restored in the shuttle
bay, both sensormen were drenched in perspiration.  Heskan had long since
returned to the bridge to better monitor the spacewalk but kept his comments to
himself.  The operation was Ensign Truesworth’s show to run and Heskan knew
that if he stepped over the young ensign to try and dictate the process, he
would not only show he didn’t trust him but also would garner his resentment. 
    With
the mission finished successfully, Heskan leaned back and smiled.  “That was
excellent work, Jack.”  The ensign beamed.  “Make sure you pass along my
compliments to your whole section.”  All three men had been involved: Davis,
Deveraux and Ford.  “Also, I’d like you to begin a forensic analysis of the
dead buoy.  If we can figure out why it died, maybe we can