Carving Out a New Home

The Garden Habitat of the Ship Minoa:

Patel Frazier had spent all of his teenage years becoming a mechanical engineer. He expected, when he received his assignments after he finished major school, to work within the walls and tunnels of the Minoa, not in the habitat modules with the biological ‘machinery’. And yet here he was, making his way to the grotto where Captain Novak was enjoying the company of his pet Owl.

Patel thought that Captain Novak and his pet owl favored each-other in a comical way. They both had round faces and dark eyes, and where the barn owl named Pepper had a curved beak, so too did Captain Novak have a nose hooked down with age and brokenness. His grey and pale brown hair that framed his elderly face even looked similar to Pepper’s feathers.

The Captain acknowledged Patel’s presence with a warbled “welcome sailor” and turned to face him with brown-black irises that still managed to shine bright with life even at one hundred and four years old. “Do you know why I’ve called you to meet with me today?”

“No, my captain” Patel admitted “I was merely summoned to you after I received my school assignment. If I may ask Sir,”

“Ask,” Captain Novak smiled.

“I have been training to be an engineer for six years, and I thought I’d be assigned to the main engines or the shields. Why do you need an engineer in habitat?”

The Captain sighed deeply and shook his head. “You scored the highest marks out of a class of one hundred and thirty and you still wonder why I called you here. Your aptitude goes beyond your mechanical skill, but more than that, the habitat needs more than biological scientists.”

Patel had a confused look on his face “I don’t understand Sir”

“Then I’ll be direct,walk with me,” Captain Novak said, rising to stand with his cane. He made a silent motion and Pepper flew in his own direction out of the grotto. Patel watched Pepper fly away in his peripheral vision as he followed the Captain out of the grotto into the foliage of the garden module.

Captain Novak waved his cane in different directions as he talked to Patel. “This habitat module and the other eleven on the Minoa all require centripetal force to adequately maintain gravity. The neighborhoods and the walls are the same way, though they surround these gardens as you know. The habitats and the fusion core they circle are the heart of the Minoa and its sister ship the Zwingli.”

Patel said “I know these things, my Captain. I still don’t see how I can help here.”

“This is merely a model for your job” Captain Novak said, “How old are you now? Twenty?”

“I’m eighteen, my Captain”

“Ah, well you won’t remember then” Captain Novak said. “Fifty years ago we noticed that our vessel’s course took us in the path of a rogue gas giant. We decelerated and moved ourselves in position to make a stable orbit. About twenty years ago we arrived in the magnetic field around this rogue planet, and we discovered rich moons that we could mine for additional resources. Since we arrived, we have begun preparations for a great project that will increase our fleet’s chances of success for the Unending Mission.”

“To make straight in the desert a highway and blooming oases for humankind” Patel repeated as if on command. They continued to walk through the foliage among many ancient and rare flowers the ship had cultivated on its long voyage through space.

Captain Novak paused at a hanging bush of poinciana flowers. He turned and stared deeply at Patel. “We are building a new ship. And you, with your know-how, are going to be responsible for setting the mechanics of it’s habitat modules into motion.”

Patel was stunned at this news. “My Captain! I did not expect to be assigned that kind of task either! You lay a great burden on me.”

“A burden I believe you can overcome. And one we desperately need to. Do you know how many people currently live on board the Minoa?”

“I believe we have a population of over 50,000 now.”

“The ship was designed to carry 40,000 comfortably. We now have 55,875 residents. It’s worse on the Zwingli, they exceeded 62,000 when I last spoke to their Captain’s council. We agreed that we would delay our voyage to Pi Mensae for this rogue planet when we calculated that continuing the voyage without a third Ark would require us to cut back our populations by force, and out of compassion for our families, we knew the costs of building another ship would be less strenuous than civil strife on these ships.”

Patel was silent, because he knew the implications of his statement from his history lessons, and those kinds of actions would be in violation of the spiritual meaning behind the voyage.

“So you need me to help calibrate the internal spin mechanism of the new ship.”

“That’s right,” Captain Novak said with an old man’s smile. He played with the poinciana’s leaves as he elaborated. “That won't be your only job, but that is the first one I send you to do. My Captain’s council and I are relying on you and our other agents to see that this new ship is a safe place to send our fifteen thousand volunteers. I have to guarantee them safety in their new home.”

“Has construction already begun?” Patel asked.

“It has been going since you began your training as an engineer.” Captain Novak said. The population has only become aware of the project recently and that is by design. So I’d like you to keep a level of quietness about the project for now.”

“Very well, My Captain.”

“You’ll be on the first lighter out of the Minoa at 7:00 tomorrow.”

“But sir, it will be my first time outside the Minoa, I’ve never been to space.”

“Then you are in for a treat! Pepper will join you” Captain Novak said as he beckoned Pepper to fly to his ungloved arm. She swept in and landed with her talons gripping around him. She did not puncture him at all.

“My Captain, I’m not sure how Pepper can help…”

“Pepper is no ordinary bird, Sailor, she’s a beta level A.I. in the body of my favorite bird.” Pepper chirped mechanically. Patel recognized a command when he heard one and agreed to take the computer-brain bird with him.

7:00 the next day, Outer Hull Loading Bay A:

Patel, accompanied by Pepper the Owl who hovered next to him on her own, were settling into their places on the Lighter, a tube-shaped craft in black and white tile plating that stood tall enough to make the large loading bay look cramped. It was grabbed by docking arms and transported over a circular door that awaited the alignment of the walls to open.

Patel was nervous, but Pepper chirped in his direction in what seemed to him like a calming manner. Patel sighed and said to himself “okay then, I’ll be calm.”

“I can talk you know” said a disembodied voice, almost from inside his brain. Patel gasped.

“Calm down” said Pepper, the bird had a feminine voice. “I was almost calm” Patel complained. “You should have told me you talked earlier.”

“If I did that you wouldn’t be distracted.”

“Distracted for wha-” said Patel until the claxxons blared loudly, signaling the walls were aligned and for just two minutes the door would be open. The Lighter dropped into the door and into the “outer-wall” that encased the Minoa in rock and ice, safe from the harshness of the open void. The drop took five seconds, and after a short adjustment the lighter continued to drop with increasing speed down and down. After twenty seconds of fall through which Patel shouted and held on tightly he felt weightless. Just like he did when he would go with friends to the centerpoint zero-g park, he was floating in his chair.

Pepper said chipperly: “Welcome to the void!” She fluttered her golden-brown wings with what appeared to be gravitic-distortion to hover herself to a nearby port hole and opened it. Patel was about to move forward to the window before a burly figure called to him. “FRAZIER, stay in that seat till you get the all clear, ain’t safe for a first timer to be floated free until we re-align.”

Patel simply said “yes sir” to Almeida Hunt, a crewman in his late twenties. He was the son of Ratclyffe Hunt, one of the Lieutenant Captains of the Minoa Council, who was piloting the ship. Almeida was a sort of friend, but he could be a bruiser when he put his mind to it.

Pepper’s owl eyes looked on silently at Patel. She looked sleepy but she said to him “he is right. I was hasty to show you.”

After a light chime sounded Almeida popped his head down into Patel’s row of the lighter and said “you’re good now buddy, get a look at the home ship. She’s a beauty.” Patel looked out and was amazed to see the white and red streaked ice rock surrounding the great city ship Minoa. It was forty kilometers in length from pole to pole and probably almost ten kilometers thick at the widest. There were clear holes and jutting instruments but it was mostly smoothed and rigid ice-rock. And Patel saw to his left also the distant similar shape of the Zwingli nearby. Smaller shapes around the vessels were known to Patel as the “Flotilla”, a collection of thirty six ships of various make and utility that accompanied the Minoa and Zwingli all the way from Old Earth, and stayed with them through their voyage to Alpha Mensae and now to Pi Mensae. Another century in the void when they regained momentum. Patel would be older than Captain Novak if he lived to see the arrival. The thought only gave him pause for a moment, but he watched more hopeful than dreading the future. He was going to be part of the project to make a new grand city to join the two homeships.

Lieutenant-Captain Hunt made a call to everyone on board. “Team, assemble in the cockpit.”

Patel and Pepper joined Almeida Hunt and several other crew from the Minoa as they floated just outside the cockpit where they could see the Lt.-Captain sitting in his command chair typing instructions to the lighter. In the window behind him they could see the grey-brown orb of the rogue gas giant Ahdee-Raat, and its moons, one of which was small, oblong, and surrounded by a few of the ships of the flotilla.

Lt.-Captain Hunt said “you all have been chosen due to your engineering skills and your ability to establish and maintain a habitat module. Some of you are freshmen crew and I commend you for taking on this opportunity. We will be rewarded by the legacy of our work. The tasks you have been assigned are known to you and more details will be given in time. Join me in prayer.”

The crew all bowed their heads, except for Pepper. Lt.-Captain Hunt repeated in the typical formula: “Dear Lord and Prophet, send us the wisdom of the Holy Ghost as we embark on this mighty deed. May this good work ensure that our names will be written in the book of the righteous, and ensure the delight and prosperity of our progeny and friends of good will into the beyond of space and time. In the name of Balazar the Blessed and Minerva Ever-Logical we pray…”

“Amen” said the crew in unison. Pepper nodded her owlish head perched on Patel’s shoulders. Lt.-Captain Hunt said happily “you all may busy yourselves with making plans for the projects you’ve been assigned. You are dismissed until I call on you to confirm your jobs.” With a hand wave he sent them all away before saying “stay here Patel.”

Patel stayed and pulled himself over one of the side chairs closer to the lieutenant captain, still in Zero-G with Pepper on his shoulders when Hunt said: “The Captain’s assistant can go, I wish to speak to you alone.”

Patel shrugged and Pepper floated away from the cockpit on her own.

Ratclyffe Hunt sighed deeply. “I wish he wouldn’t send his extra eyes to spy on us. Captain Novak is good natured but he’s paranoid as a bilge-roach. At least you got Pepper…”

“He has more owls? I’ve only met Pepper.” Patel said, confused.

“Oh he has a few, they’re all A.I. Pepper is the friendliest. The others are Polar and Pleasance. I hope you don’t ever meet Pleasance unless you’re in the Captain’s cabin as a guest.”

Patel was scared but Lt.-Captain Hunt chuckled “I’m scaring you boy I’m sorry. It is a pleasure to meet you. Almeida has told me plenty about your smarts. You like low-g basketball right?”

“Oh, yes, I do sir!”

“Good!” Lt.-Captain said. “You know your main task already, but there are a few details you need to be aware of before you begin. It involves the asteroid itself.”

The Lieutenant Captain pulled up a holographic projection of the asteroid which outlined a few geographical and man made features clearly. There was a small torus station fashioned to be their “campsite” with a tether attached to a crater on one of the poles, with a borehole jutting deep into the core of the rock and floating debris collected around in tension-wire nets.

“If you look here, you’ll see where we’ve excavated already. Do you notice anything interesting about the debris we’ve pulled out?”

“Hm” Patel said as he looked at the projection. “I thought this was a metal rich asteroid? The outside looks fine but what we’ve pulled out is all silicate if I’m reading it right.”

“Correct!” Lt. Captain Hunt was pleased “you know what that tells us?”

“Something happened to this asteroid and we need to get our building material from elsewhere?”

“Right again, we have another asteroid selected for the raw material, but there’s something odd in this asteroid. Somethings beaten us to it… have you heard of Ferrousites before?”

“The big space worm that eats metal? I thought that was just a bedtime story creature.”

“Oh boy they are real, we found a larva attached to the Minoa when we first arrived around Ahdee-Raat. This planets moons must be a natural nesting ground of them. We’ve received reports from the other fleets and the Homeworld about them too so we’ve got a strategy to get rid of one if it’s still inside, and you son, are the key!”

“Oh… I see” Patel said nervously. This was way more than he bargained for, but he was on the shuttle already. There was no way to back out. “What did Captain Novak expect me to do exactly?”

“The rotation calculation that we use for our ships is similar to a timing mechanism that scientists have found draws the Ferrousites out. That’s why colonial and merchant vessels built like our City-Ship need vigilant crews. If you and your team build the first gyro-wheel of the new ship and start a pre-activation sequence, the Ferrousite will come out and we can kill it. And since they’re made out of metal we can even use it’s skeleton as part of the new ship!”

Patel didn’t know how to respond to that other than “will I have help once it’s woken up?”

“Of course! You think everyone on board this lighter is only good at engineering? Leave that to me, Almeida, and the captain's assistant.” The Lieutenant Captain said this with a knowing wink.

Three Weeks Later:

Patel had been hard at work with the rest of the team constructing the gyroscope engine that would control the ship’s internal rotation speed, and were also constructing the casing for the fusion core that would sit nearby and provide the ship with power.

The work was going smoothly, the nanite swarms and bigger machinery were carving a greater channel inside the asteroid that was nearly three kilometers in diameter and almost fifteen kilometers long toward the other side. Patel could see the cloud of dust and nanites on the other side of the asteroid from the platform he was standing on, but up until now he nor anyone else had seen any sign of a living Ferrousite. They had not run the engine test yet, it was true, but they all expected to see something by now.

Almeida Hunt was getting anxious about it, and Patel had to tell him that all the engineering parts had to be ready first otherwise the structural integrity of the new ship could be jeopardized.

“It ain’t nothing to worry about, we can just build it again if it breaks. It’s not like the ship’s already built.”

“That’s a lot of wasted time for nothing, and you and I both know Captain Novak needs this done before the other ships get overpopulated.”

“Yeah, I know,” Almeida huffed. “But ain’t you done just about?” Even while he was wearing a spacesuit in the cavern this man was still loud.

“I am,” Patel said with a sigh. “Right about… now” he finished typing something and a nanite swarm over their head carved a final support beam out of imported metal. “Based on what we know about these things, if the rotation repetitions don’t attract the creature, then the new metal we brought in will.

“Nice! I envy you for being so smart, Patel. Can me and the boys get our snare-guns?”

“Go get them, I should be ready to start the process in one hour!”

After Almeida hurried off to grab his friends and their weapons, Patel primed the gyroscopic engine for rotation. As he ran the programs to prime the engines the Owl-like robot Pepper swooped down and sat on his shoulders.

“The Captain wants to see you solve this one” said Pepper silently. “Are you sure that you are ready?”

“The sooner we get rid of this thing the sooner we can build the ship in earnest.”

“That’s the spirit,” Pepper said, “Cavalry's here!”

Patel turned to see Almeida and five others with the electron-snare guns that they had been recommended to use by the scientific reports, and on a higher platform to the right he could see Lt. Captain Hunt watching attentively with his own rifle.

Patel took the cue that everyone was here to activate the engine. Slowly and with a loud scraping sound the metal began turning. The beams that would support the new habitats and modules of the vessel's interior began spinning slowly and incrementally building speed. After about a minute of turning they were moving smoothly. Patel’s coding for the cycle was working smoothly, and the ship would maintain healthy gravity in the modules with ease. However, now he was worried, where was the creature?

Almeida made a sound like a wild bird call and pointed across the cavern. A formation of rock fell apart and out from it burrowed a long silver-white creature. It was like a centipede or a worm in general shape, but with a mouth like a mythical dragon with many small eyes. It wriggled its way out of the rock and flew toward the turning engine. The repeating tick of the gyroscope was calling it and the scent of fresh metal must have seemed intoxicating. In it’s mouth they could see what looked like a molten furnace burning and driving the creature’s movements. It propelled itself in zero gravity forward with exhaust from the folds in its metal scales. The Ferrousite was, at its full length, nearly 500 meters in length.

“Son! The Snares!” called the Lt. Captain to his son. Almeida followed his fathers request and aimed along with his group their Electron-Snare Guns at the Ferrousite. They launched the pellets at the creature and energy nets appeared. They would release harmful electrons around the creature and stun it if they worked correctly. While they hit their target, the creature continued to move forward.

They shot more pellets at the Ferrousite, releasing more nets, and the Lt. Captain joined them in shooting. The nets bulked up but the creature kept moving. Patel was in shock and afraid for his hard work of three weeks and asked Pepper “what do we do now?”

“What I was programmed for” said the Owl-A.I. Patel felt Pepper jump off his shoulder and saw her levitate in the path of the Ferrousite. As it flew toward her it looked like she would be swallowed. She flew toward its mouth and almost dove straight into the burning maw. Patel could hardly watch, when suddenly she made an upward turn and carved into the monster’s brain. She shot out of its skull as the creature floated lifelessly toward them and the furnace-like insides went cold.

The Hunts and their crew cheered as Patel watched in awe as the massive body curled up and bounced off the rock wall nearby, floating aimlessly in zero gravity. He could see the tiny figure of Pepper approaching, she didn’t look much like a Barn Owl anymore, but like a scorched bird carcass made of wires. She said to Patel “take me back to the Captain, jobs done…”

A Few Weeks Later:

Patel was summoned back to the Minoa after several more weeks of work, the interior of the new vessel was shaping up much to his delight. He had even gotten Almeida Hunt to understand some of what he did with the nanites to make sure he had an assistant he could count on.

Now the Captain wanted to see him again. Unlike his first visit, he knew what Captain Novak might want to tell him this time. Holding himself with a straight back and a confident stride he approached the grotto. Old man Novak was sitting there like he was before, now surrounded by three owls. Pepper was looking better with a new coat of feathers, and Polar and Pleasance were also there. Polar was stark white, while Pleasance was jet black with red eyes. It was Pleasance who announced Patel’s presence. “He’s Here.”

Captain Novak smiled at Patel under his beak-like nose. “You’ve done me proud boy, you’ve done the whole ship proud. A monster slain and a new home on schedule for settlement! I dare say by the end of the year it’ll be vacuum sealed and ready for us to move in.”

“I think you’re right sir, I’ve spared no energy in getting it ready… How are you Pepper?” Patel said, asking Pepper directly.

“My circuits are back in place” she said delightedly.

“You were reckless” Captain Novak told his owl “but I guess it had to be done, we can’t be dealing with monsters in our construction sites!”

“It did, My Captain, it would not have succeeded except for Pepper.”

Captain Novak smiled. Patel thought he must have been reminiscing on something that happened a long time ago. He had seen his great-grandpa make similar faces. “Pepper and her sisters have always been the silent helpers of our voyage. They’re older than me, and I remember when we left the core!” The Captain laughed.

Patel smiled, “I am very grateful for their help.”

“Just so, as we are thankful for yours” Captain Novak said. “Get some rest and then lets get those modules built. I’ll send one of these ladies along with you when you return.”

“I hope I don’t have any more surprise monsters to fight, My Captain.”

The Captain and Patel laughed together, with Pepper agreeing: “I hope not either, I just got a new coat of feathers!”