Commander Ella walked over to Dobbins. “Most interesting, Captain,” she said. “That woman sounded as if she did not realize that she was on board a ship.”
“Yes,” Dobbins concurred, “it was interesting–and frustrating. What was all of this about a mayor and Captain Loman being dead?”
“I don’t know. It seems a little odd for Captain Loman to be dead, given that he was only in his early 40s. Still, an accident could have happened. It’s the part about the son and the mayor that bother me. Loman had no children when the Lethe left, and there was no role of mayor in the ship’s society.”
“It’s been 30 years,” observed Skylar. “Isn’t that enough time for things to change on board and for Loman to have children?”
“You’re forgetting, Mr. Skylar,” Dobbins said, “that the Lethe has been traveling at close to the speed of light. Time has passed more slowly for the people on board than it has for us. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is, but it must be less.”
Lieutenant Sawyer briefly joined the discussion. “About 13 years have passed, sir.” She promptly returned to work.
“So,” Dobbins continued, “obviously not enough time. Something clearly is wrong, but what? And how do we figure out what is wrong?”
“Captain,” Brackers said, “let me take a team over to the Lethe. We can meet with this ‘Mayor’ and see what else might have happened.”
“Hang on, Commander,” Dobbins responded. “Let’s see if we can talk to the ‘Mayor’ first.
“Lieutenant Marquél, patch us back into the Lethe’s internal communications again.”
After Marquél worked to regain access to the Lethe, Ella offered a suggestion to Dobbins. “Captain, it might be better if I spoke this time, given that the woman on the Lethe already considers you a troublemaker.”
“Very well, Commander Ella, give it a try.”
After a brief click, the same female voice came from the speakers. “Mayor’s Office. This is Marlene. How may I help you?”
“May I speak with the Mayor, please?” Ella asked.
“I’m sorry,” Marlene answered, “but the Mayor is unavailable today. May I take a message for him?”
“No, Marlene, that’s fine.” Ella responded. “I’ll try again later. Thank you.”
Marlene closed the connection again.
“Well, Commander Brackers,” Dobbins said. “it looks like we are about out of options. I’m going to lead a team over there to see if we can meet with this mayor personally. If something’s wrong psychologically with the passengers of the Lethe, I don’t want this to look like an invasion, and I don’t expect there to be much danger. Mr. Skylar, you’re our pilot. Commander Ella, Mr. Chang, and Mr. Samuelson, grab your gear and meet me at Shuttle One’s docking port in 20 minutes.”
As he left the bridge, Dobbins wondered exactly what happened to the Lethe.
Twenty minutes later, the entire team had assembled in front of Shuttle One’s docking port. Docking ports were the ship designer’s answer to the pesky problem of losing atmosphere to space during shuttle exits and entries. Instead of having the ship land in a pressurized shuttle bay that had to be evacuated every time a shuttle exited or entered, the shuttles flew into a shuttle bay that was a vacuum. Each ship then connected to a docking port, a small tube wide enough for two people to walk comfortably through side-by-side. Each shuttle then could push off from the docking port, come about, and fly away from the ship into space without any loss of the ship’s atmospheric supplies.
Shuttle One, nicknamed “Lucy” by Skylar, had the best engines of any of the Hyperion’s three shuttles. Capable of traveling at 0.95c, Lucy was the only shuttle that had any hope of matching speed with the Lethe. Lucy had the capacity for up to 15 people. Indeed, it was almost a small starship in itself, not much smaller than the early interplanetary shuttles that Hegemony had used to colonize Mars. Now, such a ship served merely to transport people between ships.
The team entered through the docking port. Skylar immediately walked to the shuttle’s helm controls and activated the ship’s power. As the ship powered up, the remainder of the team found seats and sat down. Zhang sat at the shuttle’s engineering controls, while Samuelson settled at the communications/operations panel. Dobbins, dressed in tan away mission fatigues, took the central command chair, a station that duplicated the command station on the bridge in miniature. Commander Ella found herself a seat a little behind the main control area in the passenger section.
“Ready to push off, Mr. Skylar?” asked Dobbins.
“Ready, sir.”
“Push off,” Dobbins ordered.
The shuttle Lucy separated from its docking port slowly. As soon as it had cleared enough room to turn, it spun around to fly out of the shuttle docking area. Gradually, it moved passed the other three shuttles that were settled at their own docking ports, moving out towards the main shuttle bay doors. The doors opened as the Lucy drew near, allowing the ship to enter space. As the doors fully opened, Skylar activated the shuttle’s main thrusters, and the Lucy accelerated away from the main ship and on towards the Lethe.
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