Leaving Blue 5.1 (9 page)

Although I was glad that all the Uduss had been obliterated, dropping these weapons made me feel like a destroyer of worlds, a role I despised. I knew I would have nightmares, images of burning homes and charred corpses, for years.

Alan announced coolly, “No damage.”

On a mauve screen, Aom shrank as Exp One moved away from it.

“Alan, put in code five.” This procedure would take us to D36.

“
Code
in.”

“Alan, has Thomas put in the ACC methods?” This request referred to acceleration programming methods.

As the engine roared louder, braces wrapped around everyone. They wouldn’t be thrown out of their seats.

“Yes.
ACC methods
in.”

Sam leaned forward, staring at a black monitor, examining a star map.

“Alan, has Joel finished all the R Ten engine maintenance?”

“Yes.”

On a monitor, text flashed. All the hatches were closed. Every computer network was functioning normally. My vtp remained quiet, no incoming emergency emails.

I paused, thinking. “Is everyone strapped in?”

“They are,” Alan replied.

Would the acceleration tear a hole in Exp One’s tail before we reached D36?

“Resume flight path priority Bch.” This change activated a voice command for the computer network.

“Bch acknowledged,” Alan announced.

The ship accelerated. Everyone’s face masks closed while their chairs shook harder.

Would the translator’s necks break during the extreme acceleration?

On a mauve screen, the room’s electromagnetic settings indicating that the field preventing anyone from being torn out of their seats increased. Now the skin on our faces yanked downward, pulled by inertia.

Sam hollered in pain.

Alan bellowed.

Jen screeched.

David yelled.

Thomas groaned.

Would the translators die of heart attacks? Were the Reen ships tied down correctly—my body pushed harder against the back of my seat. Now it was harder to breathe because inertia was compressing my rib cage and lungs.

Hours later, I climbed out of my chair. It withdrew into the floor. All around me, everyone else stood, fatigued expressions on their faces. The extreme acceleration had pushed their bodies to the limit. If the ship had sped up any faster, everyone’s skin would have been torn off.

“We’ll reach D Thirty-Six in six months and five days.” I exhaled, relieved that nothing had gone wrong with our ship after we dropped the bombs.

Two months later, Rhea walked up to me. “Greg, my English has improved drastically. I will continue to help Darwin, Adam, Naartin, Caldur, Mona and Joama.”

“I’m sure Irea and UE would appreciate it.”

She nodded.

Because Exp One was extremely large, I assigned each translator specific tasks, including the use of telescopes, spectrometers, wireless networks and photonic-cable maintenance and other equipment.

And since everyone wanted to learn how to fly the Reen ships, we began sending each other a lot more emails, messages focusing on that topic.

After Exp One disintegrated, acting as my co-pilot, Darwin would help me fly one Reen ship. Alan would be the captain of the other interstellar craft. In the meantime, Adam and I toiled non-stop, repairing Exp One and updating both Reen vessels.

Naartin began restoring Exp One’s satellite dishes and accompanying software. At the same time, he studied the second Reen ship’s spectrometers and other equipment and software.

Mona started learning about radio interferometric telescopes and food preparation responsibilities, helped by Sam.

Joama assisted Mona and Sam. From time to time, Joama helped Sam with dental and medical records.

While none of the humans could grasp Sila or Reen hieroglyphics, I received hundreds of text emails from UE, Irea and Rhea. All of them told me that every translator asked endless questions, trying to understand more English.

Within a few weeks, after David, Naartin, Caldur, Adam, Jen and Mona began inspecting Exp One more thoroughly, results appeared on my vtp. Although I felt our ship would only last for eight more months, emails indicated that it would remain intact for fifteen. That meant it wouldn’t disintegrate until we were eight hundred thousand miles from Alpha Centauri A.

I live in a nondescript three-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, a place that is located on a busy street. During the day, I work in market research, conducting phone surveys and recruiting for focus groups. On my days off, I write. Because I’ve studied Chaos Theory, quantum mechanics, psychology, language, robotics and artificial intelligence for years as hobby, these topics show up in my science fiction novels.