Space Chronicles - The Gathering

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Marty settled back in his chair in the main briefing room on Space Port Alpha. He and two other commanders, Brian Scott and Andriy Leonenko, had been summoned to join Angie for a discussion with Arthur Wusserman, Director of Space Command. Marty had no idea what his new commission as commander meant. Was he to command his own ship with a completely new crew? Would he ever see Angie again now that she had been promoted to Admiral of the fleet? He was happy for her. She deserved it, but it placed their relationship on a slippery slope. Now, more than ever, he had to avoid any impropriety with her. She was his superior, and she had absolute power over him, a situation that he did not like one bit. He had considered retiring, but they would never allow it now that the ULGP was at war with the Dragon aliens.

Arthur Wusserman is a scientist, not an executive, but he is the obvious choice for Director of Space Command. The UN had decided that the military approach to space exploration was not the appropriate one. Marty and Angie had proven that concept by projecting an image of pure curiosity and friendly persuasion in their missions to other habitable planets around distant stars. As a consequence of this paradigm shift, General Wilson had been assigned to an advisor role, and the military aspects of weapon development had been assigned to an international research group under Viktor Woronowycz, a brilliant Ukrainian physicist, responsible for much of the advanced technology that had made galactic space travel possible.

"I'm sure that you are now aware that the Roswell aliens have joined the ULGP and have given us everything that they know about the Dragon aliens as well as many other intelligent extraterrestrials. They have also offered someone as a crewmember. She's an expert on the Dragon species and their language."

"Will she be joining the X-3002?" Angie asked.

"No. We are in the process of building a new ship, which has been designated the X-4001. This ship will be under Martin's command and it will serve as the command ship of your fleet, which will consist of the X-3001, under Brian Scott and the X-3002 under Andriy Leonenko. The Roswell alien will be assigned to the X-4001."

Well, that answers the question of whether I'll be together with Angie, Marty thought.

"When will this ship be completed?" Angie asked.

"It should be ready to go in two weeks. You and Martin will take it out for a test flight and then it will be fitted for the mission. That should require another two weeks or so after you return."

"Where are we going on the next mission?"

"You're going to the Sagittarius arm on the other side of the galaxy. The Roswell aliens believe that the Dragons come from a system on the outer edge of that arm."

Marty's right eyebrow shot up. "That has got to be at least 80,000 light years away. How can we go that far?"

"The new ship has been fitted with a Dragon alien jump drive. The jump will require several hours, but it can be completed with a minimum of risk."

"If we make many of those jumps, we'll end up as babies?"

Arthur smiled. "That would be impossible. It will subtract minutes from your age; that's all. You'll probably never notice it." He scanned his eyes over the others. "In the mean time, get some R&R. You deserve it." He handed a small square envelope to Angie. "This contains the tech manuals on the new ship. You two should go over them before your test flight."

Angie accepted it with a nod.

As he walked back to the elevators with Angie, Marty turned to her. "I didn't even know that they were working on a new ship."