Chapter 2

The Captain reached out and put a hand on the burly Cargo Master's shoulder. "Don't worry, Mac Gregor, you either, Mathison, we'll find her. If we have to search every single planet on every single possible vector along our route, we will find her."

It was now several hours after the launch, and the Captain was addressing the crew in the meeting-room/mess hall. They were all stunned by the news. They'd managed to ride out the storm several hours ago and were repairing damaged circuit boards when the emergency launch alarms started blaring on the bridge. Furious, the Captain ordered a full stop and a sounding off of all crew members.

When they'd discovered Samantha was missing, he'd been surprised by the burly man's defense of the young woman.

"But Sir, she wouldena launched on 'er own! She's never disobeyed one order, an' I made sure she understood your orders aboot launching."

By that time, the Captain's anger had turned to concern. Despite the time since the launch, and the distance they'd traveled, they should have picked up the pod's locator beacon by now, but there was nothing.

And the Cargo Master was right. She had never disobeyed an order. She had occasionally respectfully questioned an order when she didn't understand it, and had sometimes respectfully offered a suggestion of her own in its place, but she had never disobeyed one.

Hoping to rule out disobedience or cowardice, he sent the Chief Engineer to check out the pod launching mechanism; that's when they'd discovered the launch button had been hit. By using the internal video footage, they found out what had happened.

That's when he'd called a general meeting, and received resignations from the two men. He refused the resignations, telling them that the ship still needed them. To MacGregor he said, "This isn't your fault, and I'm not going to let you resign over it. Besides, you told her you'd come for her."

MacGregor wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "Aye, sir. That I did."

"I'm going to hold you to that, and Mathison, I'm not going to accept your resignation either. This was just a bad mistake that none of us could have foreseen."

Yes, sir," The young engineer replied. "But will she see it that way?"

"We'll just have to find her so you can explain it to her then, won't we." Then he spoke up louder, addressing his entire crew. "We will find her, people, make no mistake about that. Even if it takes the next twenty years, we will keep looking for her until we find her. Is that understood?"

The crew all said, yes, sir!" with more determination than they had been feeling since they learned of the loss. The Captain turned towards his Communications Officer. "Christine, get on the horn. Advise all ships, all ships in the area, of what's happened, and to be on the look out for her. See if you can get us some help actively searching for her too. Tell corporate what's happened, and that we'll be delayed arriving at Pternon."

She said, "Aye, sir," as she scribbled down notes.

"And request the latest maps for this sector."

The Captain then turned to his Navigator and Helmsman. "Chikoffski, Brahms, I want the locations of every inhabitable planet, no matter how marginal, plotted in, and get a grid map search laid out, starting from where she was launched. As soon as you get the maps, factor in any new planets. If we have to go back, we will.

"Martha, have your people standing by. Mac said her arm had been hurt. She may also have other injuries.

Stiv, Angie, get your shuttles prepped and ready to go.

Jan, get together with Martha, Stiv, and Angie and have search parties ready to go when we find her.

Mac, get them anything they need."

"All right people. We've got a missing crewman to rescue. Let's get to it!"

"AYE, AYE, SIR!"