Midway: Chapter 40

  Three days later…

   

  “Main ion engines disengaging in five… four…. three… two… one… and… engines down,” K’uuna declared.  Maharet and Johannes were overseeing the operation and were ready to assist while Dhika, Seth, and K’uuna conducted it themselves.

  “Alrighty… we are officially back on course,” Dhika declared to the matriarch and patriarch as she swiveled around in the captain’s chair to face them.  They had drawn lots for who would get to play captain in the exercise, and Dhika had won.  The two nodded and the younger woman swung back around and called out: “Alright, let’s put our front forward again… set forward starboard thrusters and rear port thrusters for a ten second push… ready Seth?”

  “Ready,” he answered.

  “Engage.”

  Seth tapped the panel in front of him and they could all feel the slight pull to their left as the ship started rotating.  “And… ten second push on the inverse?” Dhika asked.

  “Ready,” Seth answered again.

  “Count us down, K’uuna”

  “Ten seconds…” he called out, then: “five… four… three… two… one…”

  “Engage,” Dhika commanded, and Seth tapped at his panel.  Again they could feel the modest acceleration to their right this time as their overall yaw rotation returned to zero.  They then repeated the whole same procedure all over again to turn the pitch of their nose back down to face their destination.  “Alright then, good work everyone.  “We’re facing forward and back on course to Haven.”

  Thinking a command with her Brainchip, Maharet opened a shipwide broadcast channel and patched the tiny microphone in her EAR through to it.

   

  “Thanks to the good work of my daughter Dhika as well as K’uuna and Seth, I am happy to report that we are once again on course for Haven.  I thank them, but I’d also like to thank all of you, for your composure, and for your professionalism during the crises of the last month.  You are all a testament to the spirit with which this mission originally launched.”

   

  Johannes leaned in to speak quietly to Dhika.  “Dhika, Maharet and I would like to speak to you alone for a moment please.”

  She didn’t know where this was going, but she nevertheless got up from the captain’s chair and went with him.  Maharet joined them and the three went out through the bridge door and stood in the hallway together.

  “Dear,” Maharet said, “we’re concerned about the further disruption an election for captain would have right now.  With everything that’s happened… we think it might be better at this point to just make an appointment on our mutual authority.  Since we were both elected it’s not explicitly forbidden by the mission protocols.”

  “Oh.  Oh?  Okay… who?”

  Her mother gave her an incredulous look.  “Well, you of course.”

  “Oh… wait, what?  I don’t understand, how could you do that to Seth?  To K’uuna in there?  I, I can’t!  Oh hell, I don’t want that, they’ll resent me forever!  People will talk and… think it’s a conspiracy or something!”

  “But a divisive election will be such a disruption right now, it’s so not what the crew needs at this point,” Johannes offered.   He appeared tired to Dhika, unusually exhausted like he hadn’t slept since the incident on the bridge.

  “It’ll be a scandal Johannes, and that is what the ship really doesn’t need right now.  It may be in accordance with formal protocol but it’s the wrong thing to do.  A proper election is exactly what this ship needs right now, something… normal, something they can understand!  People need a chance to express their wishes at this point; this crew needs a chance to air things out and for everyone to have their say.”

  “You’re right…” her mother conceded, shaking her head.   “Of course you’re right.”  She pulled her daughter into a hug.  “You saying it though,” she remarked as she hugged her, “just makes me think you should be the captain that much more though…”   

  Dhika chuckled, relieved.  When released from her mother’s embrace she leaned over to look at the two men in the bridge who she figured would be her toughest competition in the election.   “Before all this…” she said, standing up again and addressing her two superiors, “I wouldn’t have even ran… but Alissa said she would support me if I became the captain.  With her gone now… somehow I feel like I owe it to her to run, even if it means running against her husband.”    

  “I respect that,” Johannes offered, somewhat distantly.

  “Alissa had a very aggressive spirit my dear; I’m sure whoever wins she would have wanted them to have had to fight hard for it.”   Her daughter nodded in agreement.

  “Another thing,” Johannes said, “have you had a chance to examine the sims?”

  “Not closely,” Dhika answered, “but I did have a look.  It doesn’t appear that they’ve been damaged by their activities or the kill switch, and it looks like the original programming is intact.”

  “Well that’s good... at least that’s something,” Maharet suggested.

  “Yes.  As you know, they can’t be simply turned off again once they’re fully activated so I can’t initialize them to know for sure.   I can only wipe the makeshift slave system Tycho loaded into them, and hope that they wake up intact the way they’re supposed to when they arrive at Haven.”