The Time Was Past Read online

Chapter 1

  Middle of first week. Any normal inward trajectory would be retrograde, but we're accelerating toward the sun. Chemical rocket acceleration terminated when the disposable fuel tanks dropped off and primary trajectory is reported to be perfect. I hope so, otherwise we'll end up so far off course we may never make it back.

  End of third week. Finally all the O, G, & X solar panels are layered in place. Our spacecraft now looks like a cocoon. If everything works correctly we'll be safe from ionizing radiation during the gravity-assist maneuvers around the sun.

  End of forth week. The Captain announced that our trajectory was perfect and tomorrow we'd be inside the orbit of Venus. The engineers have started the ion drive using power from the G and X panels. One side effect of these panels is that by using the power they create, they effectively create a radiation shadow behind them. That should keep us safe.

  Middle of fifth week. The design engineers blew it. The boom projecting from the nose of the ship melted. We've lost all outside sensors and cameras. Heads will roll back on Earth.

  End of seventh week. The Captain sent two crew members outside to check radiation levels and install a new sensor boom. They gave an all clear, and now we have to reconfigure all the panels and re-install the communications arrays. Speed, that's why we took the trajectory we did.

  Ninth week. Well the butterfly is taking shape. Repairable impact damage to over twenty panels. I'll probably exceed my outside suit safety time limit in the next several weeks.

  Tenth week. The Captain ordered everyone to stay inside for two shifts.

  Tenth week, day 2. Was talking to the navigator in the mess last night.

  She was complaining that the orbit had shifted two degrees for no rational reason. It wasn't until she mentioned the solar storm we were running parallel to that I knew the reason.

  That's why I love the dimples caused by gravitational spots and magnetic fields in the beautiful elliptic parabolic cone. And then add in the pimples caused by concentrated solar radiation and plasma plumes. And the perturbations caused by gravitation fields within the cone itself. Cartesian space calculations are only good on a planets surface within a defined gravitational field, in space they are inadequate. I told her that if she'd come to my quarters I'd show her why we were changing course and how to calculate the changes. After looking at my rough calculation on my computer she told me that I should have been the senior navigator.

  I firmly informed her that I was no navigator, I just liked gravity calculations as a hobby. Why do you think that there is a mid-course correction, and then trajectory corrections all the way to destination? Even using the Oberth effect the journey will still take 3 years.

  I can't let my journal get to technical or it'll trip the triggers set into the computer and it will automatically transmit everything to Earth.

  Tenth week, day 5. The Captain called me to his office. After grilling me for over half an hour he informed me that I had an additional duty. I was to be the assistant navigator. Then he asked me if I knew anyone else aboard that had secondary skills that weren't in their files.

  Twelfth week. All G panels repaired and online.

  Week thirteen. All O and X panels repaired and online.

  Fourteenth week. Heard one of the astronomers griping in the mess about the fact that the Captain was making him train as a pilot. He never flew anything larger than a single engine on Earth. I also heard that one of the nurses was now working in the engineering section.

  So far the the journey had been routine, as predicted. The chief engineer is still griping about the power requirements needed to maintain the blogs and other internet connections to Earth.

  End of year one. As predicted the optical solar panel were down to 47% capacity. Only one of the two reactors had come online without any alerts. The backup fuel cell system worked like a charm while it was needed, but left us short on water.

  As a result the Captain changed our first target to Enceladus with Mimas as alternate. I spent almost three shifts with the navigator recalculating our location and the trajectory needed with power requirements and thrust calculations to bring us to a perfect orbit around Saturn. We'll just need to tweak the trajectory as new data is input. Both ice moons have extremely low escape velocities. The original target was the new moon that was captured twenty-one years ago.