Chapter Ten

Captain Leiber stood on the Bridge of the Boadicea and studied the report the watch officer had just handed him. He shook his head in dismay. Rubbing his chin, he scanned all of the available flight data received from the drop ship just before they lost contact. Everything had been going as planned until the drop ship entered the ionosphere of the planet. The flight data became erratic and then ended completely.

Something had caused the ionosphere to go haywire and the drop ship had been in the unfortunate position of traveling through it just at the wrong moment. Despite their best efforts, the crew of the Boadicea still could not get their sensors to penetrate the suddenly opaque ionosphere. It was as if all of the electromagnetic interference in the atmosphere had suddenly turned solid, cutting off all contact with anything inside.

The captain mentioned for Ensign Kepler. The fresh-faced young man practically leaped to his feet and hurried over from his duty station.

"Mr. Kepler, have you found in any previous reports of an incident such as this in any of our databases?"

Kepler shook his head. "No, sir. I have checked and cross-referenced all Space Safety Board reports and have not found anything that resembles this atmospheric condition...Sir."

The final word was added with a little too much emphasis. Kepler frowned nervously as soon as he realized his mistake. He wanted so much to make a good impression on his new commander.

"Good, Mr. Kepler. Have you checked the science databases as well?"

"I have the computer running a high granularity search right now. An answer to the search query should be available within thirty minutes."

Anger flashed in the captains eyes for a moment. "Mr. Kepler I need those results sooner. Those children may not be able to afford thirty minutes."

"Aye, Aye, Captain. I'll see if I can adjust the parameters of the search. It would help if I could task more of the computer core to the search."

The captain nodded. "I'll send orders to Chief Baker to retask the core." He keyed his WristVid. The sharp face of Chief Baker appeared.

"Aye, Cap, what'cha need?"

The captain would not have tolerated such familiarity from any other crew member, but the Chief's years of service to the commercial fleet had earned him leeway.

"I need you to retask as much of the computer core for Ensign Kepler as you can."

"Aye, I can do that. I'll just..." The captain politely interrupted Chief Baker.

"I don't need the details. Just take care of it."

"Aye Cap." Chief Baker's face disappeared from the captain's WristVid.

Ensign Kepler activated the new bandwidth with a few keystrokes. After only a moment he nodded.

"Captain, using the new core resources the estimated completion time for the search is six minutes."

"Very good, Ensign."

Even this delay concerned the captain. Every minute that passed could mean danger for the children aboard the drop ship. Until the crew could figure out what had happened to the atmosphere, their hands were tied. The drop ship had been equipped with plenty of supplies, so if they landed normally than they would be fine until this could all be sorted out. On the other hand, if the change in the ionosphere had damaged the drop ship, any rescue ship would probably be damaged as well. The key was figuring out what had caused this and how to fix it.

The captain said a silent prayer that the children would be safe until his crew could discover the answer. He had never been good at waiting, so he decided to do what he could until they could send a rescue party.

“Commander Saberhagen!” The captain bellowed for his second in command. A whippet thin man wearing an earnest expression hurried forward.

“Yes, sir”

“Mr. Saberhagen, I want you to personally oversee the preparation of a rescue mission for the missing drop ship. I would suggest you use the time until we know more to prepare a ship for any eventuality.”

Saberhagen executed a crisp salute. “Aye, aye, Captain. Right away.” Without another word he turned on his heels and walked briskly out of the room.

The captain trusted his second in command with the task. He knew that Commander Saberhagen had four children of his own, and knew that right now he was imagining how he would feel if it were his children in danger.

He wished he trusted the crew of the drop ship as much. As a part of the commercial fleet, the Boadicea was under command of the merchant arm of the Galactic Navy. This included the command crew and all of the key engineering and security positions on the ship. The rest of the crew was not part of the navy. The drop ship was not part of the commercial fleet, but the rescue ship would be. Often a delicate balance had to be maintained between the naval and civilian parts of the crew. However, in emergency situations, naval authority was unquestioned.

The captain had no children of his own, but he often saw his passengers as his children, for as long as they were on his ship. The thought of losing 35 of his children chilled him to the bone. It was not going to happen on his watch, if he had anything to say about it.