Proxima Adventure

Chapter 3. The Fateful Change.

Chapter 3. The Fateful Change.

The time to return to Earth arrived, and that meant that the guys had to explain to the gals what they were about to do.

"How do you know that we can survive the acceleration to light speed?" Alice asked, her pretty face twisted with concern.

"We ran theoretical runs based on programming changes to the Graviton system," Charles said. "The result indicated that it only had a 2.5 percent failure possibility, well within Space Command parameters."

"Space Command parameters are not all that reliable," Judy said. "What I don't like is the fact that there's no way to alleviate the effects of intense acceleration if the Graviton system doesn't work,"

"Oh, it will work. What we don't know is how well it will. It's worth the risk in order to avoid getting back into the hibernation modules."

She sighed. "I didn't sign up to this project to take chances like this."

"This entire project was a calculated risk," Carl said. "Why did you sign up for it?"

The women glanced at each other before Hilary replied. "We were told that we would get double our pay if we promised to entertain the male crew members."

Carl glanced at Charles, who was in a forced stoic facial mode before turning back to her, presenting her with a confused expression. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope!" Hilary said. "Look at us. Do we look like serious crew members for an advanced Space Command project?"

'I'm not qualified to answer that seriously loaded gender rights question," Carl said, trying to appear serious.

They all burst out laughing.

"Ok," Janet said after conciliatory sigh. 'We're willing to go along with your assessment of the risk."

"Good!" Charles exclaimed. "We'll start the process this evening. We should lie in our beds before it starts. That should give us some relief if there are any G-forces."

His positive attitude wasn't duplicated in the rest of the crew, but they realized that there was no other good option.

That evening Charles lay in bed watching an old Seinfeld television show. He figured it would take his mind away from thinking of the consequences of being awake when the ship begins its acceleration to light speed, a process that will take several days.

The main nuclear ion drive engines fired up to begin the process. The Graviton system was handling the G-forces well. Charles smiled as he watched the ship's velocity increase without any problem. The process continued for two hours without any noticeable issues.

Then it happened. The lights went out. Charles found himself in complete darkness with no sound. The engineering display was dead, and his Seinfeld show was gone. It was as if he had slipped into a dead zone.

Surprisingly, the graviton system was still functioning. If the ship's power had gone out, he would be floating in free fall.

He reached over to his nightstand for a flashlight. Once he had it in his grip, he pushed the button to activate it, but it didn't light up. It was dead, but that didn't make sense. It was fully charged.

The eerie situation left him in a state of sensory depletion. No light, sound or feeling. It was as if he had died, but he could still feel his heart beating. This situation was something that he had no knowledge of, and it frightened him.

The other crew members suffered the same frightening situation. Alice felt as if she were in a dark pit with no way out. It was a maddening lack of sensory awareness that made her think she had died.