Delphi Castaways

Delphi Castaways Delphi in Space Book Sixteen Bob Blanton Chapter 1 Kansas Jason slowly regained consciousness as Zephyr, the AI in his Hyrax spacefighter, brought him out of stasis. “What the hell,” he thought. He started to check his fighter out; things seemed normal, well, except that his fighter’s right wing was trashed, its missiles gone. He struggled to remember what happened. They were fighting the Thoreans in the Thorean system. His squadron had been doing fast flybys to rake one of the Thorean cruisers. They had entered a wormhole to jump across the system so they could do another pass. He’d come out of the wormhole and hit something. That shouldn’t have happened! As he checked his instruments, he noticed a second Hyrax flying in formation with him. “Miranda? It has to be; we went through the wormhole together.” “Bravo 1, checking in,” he radioed. “Bravo 1, this is Bravo 2; welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” Miranda radioed. “How long has it been?” Jason asked. “Five weeks.” “Geez, that doesn’t make sense.” “Well, our AIs automatically put us into stasis. I think you must have sustained some kind of head injury since it kept you under for so long. I’ve been waking up every five days to check out the situation. We’re coasting next to where we exited the wormhole.” “What the hell did we hit?” “It looked like a couple of probes. Matilda, my fighter’s AI, managed to destroy the probe on my side before I hit it, but you actually hit the probe over by you. Matilda destroyed it before you spun into it again, but you were in the way at first.” “Yeah, I see that in my logs here,” Jason said as he continued to review the logs. “I don’t hear anyone else on my Comm. The damage on my fighter isn’t too bad, but it looks like my quantum relay lost its coupling.” “I was afraid of that. Matilda keeps saying that there is no relay available, but I’ve been hoping she’s wrong.” “Wishful thinking, but no dice. Any idea where we are?” “I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Kansas.” “Damn, without a relay, we’re stuck here until someone comes looking for us.” “Do you think someone will?” “Sure. They’ll have to launch a search and rescue.” “I’m sure they did, but that would have been weeks ago. We’re still here, and nobody has shown up to rescue us.” “They will.” “What makes you think so?” “Well, a couple of reasons. First, the probes we hit must belong to someone; maybe they’ll come looking to see what happened. And second, us dropping off the grid will drive Catie nuts until she can figure out what happened.” “But will there be enough clues?” Miranda asked. “Catie’s pretty tenacious. But until then, what should we do?” “We could just go back into stasis again and hope to wait it out.” “Ugh, I’m not in favor of that,” Jason said, sniffing at his ship suit. “What about heading in system? Is there a planet in the Goldilocks zone?” “I don’t know, but I haven’t picked up any EM signals coming from the system.” “That’s odd, given that there were a couple of probes out here,” Jason said. “Maybe someone was looking to colonize the place. Matilda just identified a promising planet. Right size.” “Great, then I vote for going in for a look. We’ll be in stasis, but at least we’ll be doing something.” “What’s the best-case scenario?” Miranda asked. “Someone shows up and rescues us.” “I’m not optimistic on that. Next case?” “That planet is habitable, and we hang out there. I’d rather not spend the rest of my life in stasis.” “You’re the boss.” Jason realized that she was right, he was the boss; as the squadron leader, he was in charge, even if the squadron was just him and Miranda. “I’ll tell Zephyr to take us to that planet; you follow.” “Yes, sir,” Miranda said. “Zephyr has the course laid in. I’ll talk to you again in two weeks.” “Got it. Goodnight, Sleeping Beauty,” Miranda said. Jason laughed. He’d get even with Miranda for that Sleeping Beauty comment, but right now, he needed to focus on the immediate future. He flipped the switch that would put him into stasis for two weeks. ◆ ◆ ◆ Two weeks later, Jason and Miranda woke up orbiting a planet, the second from the system’s star. “What do you think?” Jason asked. “Well, it looks pretty good,” Miranda said. “I’m still not picking up any EM signals. We need to get closer so our cameras can pick up details, but I’m pretty sure I see cities.” “I think I do too. But just on the two adjoining continents. The one isolated by seas on both sides doesn’t seem to have any.” “Right.” “Let’s go down closer and do a survey. We need to decide where we’re going to live for the next few months.” “Months?” Miranda asked. “I thought you said Catie would find us.” “She will, but it’ll take time. It might take years,” Jason whispered. “Let’s drop to 420 kilometers above the planet's surface; that way, our telescopes will give us details.” “You got it,” Miranda acknowledged. She and Jason weren’t sticking to any military protocol; it seemed foolish, given their situation. “I assume you want to set the orbital inclination to around fifty degrees.” “Right, that should give us a mapping of the planet in two days. Are you planning to stay awake?” “I don’t think so. I’d like to minimize awake time in this shipsuit until I can take it off and wash it.” “And take a bath.” “That goes without saying. Talk to you in two days.” ◆ ◆ ◆ Two days later, Jason and Miranda were flying next to each other as they reviewed the data. “They sure look human to me,” Jason said. “I agree, but the Onisiwoens look pretty human as well. We’ll have to see.” “I wonder…”