Corporal Gault, stood on the bridge as the traditional bridge guard.
The main bridge holographic view screen , located in front of the command and control consoles, currently showed ship system status bars and a timer counting down to liftoff. As bridge officers and crew completed launch tasks, the task status bars turned green. By 0655, all status bars were green.
“ Ready to launch, Captain,” the executive office, Commander Steward, said and added, “We’re also in complete stealth mode.”
“ Very well. Ensign Young, give the five-minute launch alert,” Mary ordered.
“ Yes, Captain,” Ensign Young said and then used his holographic communications console to access the ship’s intercom system. “All crew members, launch in five minutes. Crewmen should be at their launch stations.”
When Ensign Young ended his message, an audible launch alert was continually broadcast through the intercom system. The launch warble sound would continue until the launch engines were started.
Most of the crew were already at their launch posts, strapped in a chair using a harness, monitoring specific ship systems. For the crew and marines who didn’t have systems to monitor, they strapped themselves to their bunks.
Captain Neubauer and Lieutenant Klaxton sat in the Triple C along with Dr. Harper and Dr. Jones. The main Triple C holographic display was identical to the bridge display, showing everything the bridge officers were seeing.
A minute before launch , Lieutenant Commander Buz Vanderver turned to Corporal Gault and motioned him to strap in at an unused seat by him at the engineering console.
A traditional second -by-second countdown started as Stephen began counting backward from sixty seconds. The computer’s voice was calm as it counted down the seconds.
At thirty seconds, all umbilicals to the ship from the Phobos Naval Station hangar support systems were retracted. At twenty seconds the massive hangar doors above the Stephen Hawking began to open. As the doors opened, stars could be seen above, and when the doors were fully opened, the planet Mars took up half the moon’s sky.
At five seconds the launch engines ignited , and the ship began to vibrate. At zero seconds SRS Stephen Hawking lifted off and began retracting its landing gear while moving upward out of the hangar. The bridge’s holographic display showed the launch from Phobos Naval Station. The ship’s crew watched as the ship slowly slipped out of the hangar and then accelerated into space.
“ Captain, we’re now one hundred kilometers above Phobos and can navigate,” Lieutenant Temani LaPalm said as she continued looking at her navigation console.
“ Secure from stealth mode and set course for Gliese, point five power, five percent light speed,” Mary ordered.
“ Yes, sir,” LaPalm answered as her hands selected various holographic console options. “Stealth mode disabled. Course set for Gliese. Power at point five. Speed set to five percent. Ship’s computer responding, sir.”
Within seconds Stephen calculated the direction to Gliese and the exact speed needed to arrive at the appointed time. Stephen then brought the main antimatter engines online for thrust and projected a black hole in front of the ship. In an instant the ship entered the time-speed dimension as it was being pushed and pulled toward the planet Gliese at five percent light speed.
“ I thought the black hole would be a lot bigger than that,” Corporal Gault said to Lieutenant Commander Vanderver as he looked at the main bridge holographic display, which now showed the black hole in front of the ship.
“ We’re only using point five percent power. When we lay in our course for the observation point, it’ll be gigantic,” Vanderver said as he continued monitoring his control panel.
After double-checking all systems, Mary gave the order for the crew to return to regular-flight duty stations and then asked her Anna to contact Captain Neubauer, Lieutenant
The main bridge holographic view screen , located in front of the command and control consoles, currently showed ship system status bars and a timer counting down to liftoff. As bridge officers and crew completed launch tasks, the task status bars turned green. By 0655, all status bars were green.
“ Ready to launch, Captain,” the executive office, Commander Steward, said and added, “We’re also in complete stealth mode.”
“ Very well. Ensign Young, give the five-minute launch alert,” Mary ordered.
“ Yes, Captain,” Ensign Young said and then used his holographic communications console to access the ship’s intercom system. “All crew members, launch in five minutes. Crewmen should be at their launch stations.”
When Ensign Young ended his message, an audible launch alert was continually broadcast through the intercom system. The launch warble sound would continue until the launch engines were started.
Most of the crew were already at their launch posts, strapped in a chair using a harness, monitoring specific ship systems. For the crew and marines who didn’t have systems to monitor, they strapped themselves to their bunks.
Captain Neubauer and Lieutenant Klaxton sat in the Triple C along with Dr. Harper and Dr. Jones. The main Triple C holographic display was identical to the bridge display, showing everything the bridge officers were seeing.
A minute before launch , Lieutenant Commander Buz Vanderver turned to Corporal Gault and motioned him to strap in at an unused seat by him at the engineering console.
A traditional second -by-second countdown started as Stephen began counting backward from sixty seconds. The computer’s voice was calm as it counted down the seconds.
At thirty seconds, all umbilicals to the ship from the Phobos Naval Station hangar support systems were retracted. At twenty seconds the massive hangar doors above the Stephen Hawking began to open. As the doors opened, stars could be seen above, and when the doors were fully opened, the planet Mars took up half the moon’s sky.
At five seconds the launch engines ignited , and the ship began to vibrate. At zero seconds SRS Stephen Hawking lifted off and began retracting its landing gear while moving upward out of the hangar. The bridge’s holographic display showed the launch from Phobos Naval Station. The ship’s crew watched as the ship slowly slipped out of the hangar and then accelerated into space.
“ Captain, we’re now one hundred kilometers above Phobos and can navigate,” Lieutenant Temani LaPalm said as she continued looking at her navigation console.
“ Secure from stealth mode and set course for Gliese, point five power, five percent light speed,” Mary ordered.
“ Yes, sir,” LaPalm answered as her hands selected various holographic console options. “Stealth mode disabled. Course set for Gliese. Power at point five. Speed set to five percent. Ship’s computer responding, sir.”
Within seconds Stephen calculated the direction to Gliese and the exact speed needed to arrive at the appointed time. Stephen then brought the main antimatter engines online for thrust and projected a black hole in front of the ship. In an instant the ship entered the time-speed dimension as it was being pushed and pulled toward the planet Gliese at five percent light speed.
“ I thought the black hole would be a lot bigger than that,” Corporal Gault said to Lieutenant Commander Vanderver as he looked at the main bridge holographic display, which now showed the black hole in front of the ship.
“ We’re only using point five percent power. When we lay in our course for the observation point, it’ll be gigantic,” Vanderver said as he continued monitoring his control panel.
After double-checking all systems, Mary gave the order for the crew to return to regular-flight duty stations and then asked her Anna to contact Captain Neubauer, Lieutenant
Similar Books
