Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 23:18:36 -0700 (PDT) From: drake angel <drakeangel1719@yahoo.com> Subject: Exodus Whiskey Chapter Five - VASIMR Exodus Whiskey This is a fictional story set in the not too distant future. No intended parallels have been drawn or inferred between characters in this story and any one living or dead. The story deals with such situations as love between two young boys, sexual arousal and some sexually explicit content. Read at your discretion, follow the rules of your country and locality. Please do send me feedback if you like this story, or if you have any comments you would like to make. My email id is drakeangel1719@yahoo.com Chapter Five: VASIMR "Cape, Arkon 6 has crossed the backyard.", Father said into the microphone on his lapel, as he piloted the heaving beast across the vast blackness of space. The backyard fence was an invisible picket 562,000 statute miles from the earth's nearest surface, after which Arkon 6 was free from Earth's gravitational reach, a sole planet. "Arkon 6, Cape. Good flight tracking. All systems are nominal at this point. Cross reference both sides." "Cape, Arkon 6. 5 and 7 are looking good." "Arkon 6, copy. Standby." Father rotated his neck and smiled at his copilot, Nancy Kellems. Arkon was designed to rotate around it's central axis, to create an effect of Earth like gravity. It made Father feel just a little sick, perpetually. He got out of his seat and poured out some coffee for himself and Nancy and stretched a little bit, as he sipped his cup and passed Nancy hers. "Does it sometimes bother you that the only thing that separates us from instant death is this thin sheet of plexiglass and some clear airgel?" "The only thing that separates us from instant death is destiny, Nancy," "You're very philosophical tonight" "Considering we are carrying the contents of atleast a thousand libraries in our cargo hold", he smiled. The Arkon 6 was being tested for structural stability under maximum load. The government has decided that books, by now valuable to none, were the cheapest weights to experiment with. Arkon 6 was pregnant with a trillion lines of verse, used magazines, dog eared novels, and dusty tomes awaited final release into the void of space, when their use to humanity was over at last. "Arkon 6, Cape. We are now ready to schedule the first of our speed brake tests. Are you geared up?" Father quickly got into his chair, strapped himself in and took the controls. "Cape, Arkon 6. All systems nominal. We are ready for schedule." "Arkon 6, Cape. Power up to full with after burners at 120%. In 200 miles apply full reverse thrusters, with after burners at 200%. Do you copy?" "Solid copy Cape. Arkon 6 initiating." "Get ready to for some eye popping," he said, grinning to Nancy. VASIMR engines 1, 2, and 3 fired simultaneously. "Burn engage, Cape." The corneas of his eyes flattened with the acceleration, blurring his vision. Sounds, mutated, their high frequencies all but silenced. But in the vast expanse of space, they seemed to still, motionless, like a father smiling as his angry child tries to hit him to get his attention. Twelve million pound feet of thrust against the black void of space. A buzzer planted on his wrist band signaled that the ship had reached target velocity. Without it, his senses were too overwhelmed by the acceleration to read dials, or hear alarms. His fingers clamped down on the red button behind his control column. With his thumb he struggled but flicked open a kill switch lock and pressed down on the afterburner button beneath. Momentarily he sucked in air, as he felt his body explode with the sudden negative acceleration, his vision reddened and his suit struggles to keep his ribs from cracking but progressively slacking pressure braces on his chest. He almost blacked out, before he felt a feeble buzz on his wrist. He choked as he returned to his senses, his vision clearing, and the pounding in his brain reducing. He looked to the side and saw Nancy, passed out in her seat, head slumped forwards. He pressed a button on his panel and she jolted out of limbo, looking dazed and sick. He smiled at her. The entire operation had taken less than ten seconds. "Cape, Arkon 6, maneuver complete. Good readings." He pressed his visor mic when he got no reply and realized that his headset was damaged during the maneuver. He saw a red light blinking at the center console. He quickly pressed the speaker button. "Arkon 6, brace, brace brace." He could hear some dull thuds all around him, creaking, alien strange noises, possible emanating from the ship's out hull. He quickly yelled into the PA mic, "Crew brace, brace, brace. Meteor impact." He saw Nancy quickly working the controls of the close proximity space radar. As the display emerged on the cockpit glass, they saw thousands of small fragments converging on their ship. The screen read, "Average object velocity : 1m/s" "What the hell is that?", Nancy asked as she looked at him in alarm. Just at that moment, he noticed, simultaneously, an alarm on his side of the console, that said, "Main exit malfunction. Check Hyd Pumps 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.", and in the darkness outside, small fragments of reflected sunlight, all around his ship. A million books, floating, weightless, like a dance of light flittered around, some escaping into space, others, flattened against the ships hull, not a single page fluttering, but fixed, rigid, like set in concrete. "My God." "Arkon 6, report. Cape." "Cape. Arkon 6. Main exit malfunction, hydraulic pump failures. We've been hit by egress debris." "Stay put Arkon 6. Cleanup crews are en route, ETA 15 minutes. Do not attempt any maneuvers. Stay put." He walked towards the large cockpit glass that towered more than four floors above his full height. "Solid copy, Cape." He walked up to a book, stuck to the outside of glass, lit now by the bright emergency lights inside. He could make out the open page: "I heed not that my earthly lot Hath little of Earth in it, That years of love have been forgot In the hatred of a minute: I mourn not that the desolate Are happier, sweet, than I, But that you sorrow for my fate Who am a passer-by."