What the Stars May Bring

Hard Burn

After the meeting with the captain, the chief petty officer showed the six candidates their births.

"We will be underway as soon as they finish topping off the skiff's tanks and it undocks," the young man reported. "In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. Since we will be pulling five Earth gees throughout this burn, you won't be getting much sleep until it is over."

"Thank you for the warning," Cooper said as she chose her capsule. "Is there any way to monitor the bridge in our nooks?"

"Certainly," the petty officer said. "Simply change the vid to channel one and you will get a live feed."

"Thanks again," Cooper said as she climbed in and closed the webbing over the entrance of the capsule.

The designers had covered the interior of the capsule in white simulated leather cushioning on all sides except for the webbing at the nook's entrance. That way, it protected the crew person inside from sudden changes in velocity. Without such safety measures, it would be very easy for a person to get hurt. 'There's nothing like a broken bone or two to put such safety measures in place,' Cooper thought as she familiarized herself with the interior of her new quarters.

She quickly found the vid and the flip-down "seat" she was to use during high G thrust. 'I haven't had to withstand a high G thrust like this since leaving Earth,' she thought as she set the vid to channel one. 'I just hope that it won't take be a lengthy one.'

After a few moments of waiting, she heard an alarm sound. "The rotational sections of the ship will be despun and retracted in five minutes. Please take hold now."

'Here we go,' she thought as she did her best to relax. 'I wonder how long it will take to despin the section.'

Gradually, over the course of a few minutes, the 'gravitational force' caused by the rotation gradually faded away to nothing. As she floated in her cubby, Cooper thought, 'That was fast.'

Then there was a moment of vertigo as the sections retracted and were locked in place by the primary hull.

'Now we wait until the skiff's tanks are full,' she realized as she watched the live feed from the bridge. Gradually drifting off to sleep upon hearing that it would be a couple of hours before they would be underway.

---

Cooper awoke to the sound of the take hold alarm. "Five minutes until a hard burn. Please prepare for a five-gee acceleration over the course of an hour. I repeat prepare for a heavy burn of five gees for an hour."

'These guys don't mess around, do they?' she thought as she folded her chair down and strapped herself in. 'I only pulled a maximum of three G's when going from Earth to Luna.'

This time around the take hold siren kept counting down the acceleration as opposed to the quick announcement the despin process had warranted.

Cooper adjusted the position of the vid screen and strapped it in place. 'The last thing I need is for it to come loose under the force of five Earth gravities,' she thought as the countdown progressed. 'Under that kind of acceleration, the screen would undoubtedly break a bone or two if it hit me on its way 'down.''

The next four and a half minutes passed quickly as Cooper divided her attention between the announcements and the bridge feed on the vid. 'I wish they would cut off that alarm so I can hear what they are saying on the bridge,' Cooper thought as the seconds ticked by.

Just then, another alarm sounded saying "Take hold, take hold, thirty seconds until hard burn." and then counted the remaining seconds.

From the bridge feed, Cooper heard the various department heads being called upon by the captain and answering, "Go."

Finally, the first officer reported, "All systems are go."

"Begin acceleration on my mark," Captain Wilson ordered. "Five, four, three, two, one, mark."

Suddenly the take hold alarm stopped and Cooper could clearly hear the vid. Then she felt herself being pushed down in her seat. 'Here we go,' she thought as her body slowly felt heavier and heavier.

"We are now under five gees of acceleration," the first officer reported over the feed to the bridge.

'Tell me about it,' Cooper groused. 'I thought I was weak under the spin gravity's Mars standard point four gees. Now I'm going to experience over twelve times that.'

Cooper tried her best to relax and watch the vid feed. Meanwhile, she could barely lift her arms a few inches above her lap. 'Just think, we only have to spend an hour under this acceleration. Only!'

---

After what seemed like a week, to Cooper at least, the Lexington finally went inertial. 'I hope I don't have to do that ever again,' she thought as she unstrapped herself.

Then came the next announcement, "This is the captain speaking. We will coast for the next hour before resuming thrust. Please take this time to use the latrine and grab a bite to eat. The good news is that we only have three more burns to make our window for the trailing trojans. Lexington actual out."

'Three more,' Cooper thought unhappily as she left her capsule to use the latrine. 'How much angular momentum do they need in order to catch up with the trailing trojans?'

After she lined up to use the latrine, a non-commissioned officer handed her a package. "Inside is an emergency ration pack and a two liter bag of water. Please try to eat the ration while we are inertial, but use the water sparingly. The last thing you want is to experience is a five gee burn with a full bladder," he explained before giving the next person in line a package and saying the same thing all over again.

---

As far as Cooper was concerned, this had been the longest day of her life. 'At least they gave us an hour break for every hour of acceleration,' she thought as she ripped open her latest ration pack.

'These aren't that bad,' she thought as she ate her meal. 'I bet that these are the same rations they are having up on the bridge. After all, they are designed to be eaten while leaving one hand free. I wonder if only officers on board get these rations or if the crew gets them as well?'

Cooper was doing all that she could to ignore the fact that they still had one burn remaining. 'Its too depressing to think about,' she reflected as she munched on her barbeque chicken sandwich. 'I wonder if we will have time to get some rest before having to go on duty. I really hope they give us a few hours' sleep.'

The truth was that she was exhausted. While she had been sitting down during the accelerations, all of her joints and muscles were throbbing. 'I'm glad that we will be under steady, low-level acceleration on Hope. No more hard accelerations for me.'

Unfortunately, as she learned a bit later, that was not in the cards for her.

---