Proxima Adventure

Chapter 7. New Possibilty.

Chapter 7. New Possibility.

Charles, Carl and Dave were down in the engineering deck trying to find some clue that would explain their present situation. They had no real idea of what caused the blackout incident, but they were hell bent on finding something that could explain it.

Carl was the first to say anything. "I found something in the record that might be a clue to what happened when the blackout occurred."

Charles looked over at him with a confused expression. "I thought that we already checked those records."

"This was in the energy profile," Carl replied. "It wasn't included in the sensors list. It was in the temperature record. During the blackout, the temperature of the sensor array increased several hundreds of degrees. In fact, it reached a peak of 1080 degrees C."

Charles's brow furled. "That's weird. That would suggest a powerful beam of energy struck the sensor array."

"If you do the math, the temperature array heated up to that temperature in just a few seconds. That indicates that it was a very powerful microwave blast."

"That doesn't make sense. A beam of that intensity would have to be focused, like from a weapon."

"We experienced the same heat intensity," Dave said. "Since we were separated from you by four light years, that would mean it was a collective attack."

"From whom?" Carl asked.

"Or from what?" Charles added. "Let's say that it was a powerful microwave beam. How did that cause a blackout that sent us into this weird situation?"

"Good question," Carl responded. "String theory says that gravitons are massless but still carry energy. Maybe they have a little bit of mass that could interact with photons at microwave energy levels. That could cause some sort of change in our perception of reality."

"Yes, but our perception of reality doesn't change reality," Charles suggested.

"Or, maybe it could," Dave said. "It wouldn't take much to have us in a phase displacement. I realize that that idea is only theoretical, but it's a possibility that we could consider."

"Even if that is an explanation," Charles said. "We don't have any way to create a powerful microwave beam, and even if we did, we have no idea how to control it to extract us from our situation."

"That pretty much sums up our collective belief in that theory," Carl said.

He didn't get any argument from Charles and Dave.

Alice, Judy, Vicky, Hilary, Beverly and Mary were on the command deck trying to argue out ideas that would explain their situation, but their discussions were more personal.

"I think that we're stuck living with the guys for a long time," Vicky conjectured. "I don't think there's any possible way out of this disconcerting situation."

"I don't think that's a problem," Alice replied. "We can work out a reasonable process that will allow us to enjoy their sexual favors."

"The question is, will they go along with us making the rules?" Beverly asked.

"We really don't know much about them," Hilary said. "It would end up making us behave as if we were prostitutes."

"Charles seems to be the one that they align with," Mary said. "What sort of guy is he?"

Alice sighed. "He's had a rough time when it comes to women. He was married and had a child, a boy, but both his wife and kid were killed in a stupid car accident. I remember that he was devastated and considered dropping out of Space Academy. He connected with another woman, but she cheated on him. I think he joined the Proxima B mission because he didn't care what happened to him."