Chapter 7

Marianne Still has the Narrative

With the air system restored, the other students were released from their cabins, and we all tried to eat, but were less than successful as most of the remaining food wasn’t the kind designed to be eaten under weightless conditions, and its preparation didn’t go well without the presence of at least partial gravity.

“All of you should return to your cabins until we can restore acceleration. You’ll be able to eat more normally then,” Thorn told the other students who all soon left.

“It’s time to get back to work,” Thorn told those of us remaining who were mostly just the rock miners.

“Steve, take George and Andrew to search for that secondary fuel tank. You can check on the air system again when you finish that. Since there are only the three functional maneuvering units, it will have to be just the three of us out working on the thrusters again,” he told those remaining, before turning to Will again.

“Will, try to keep the others in their cabins. It will probably be more difficult now but try,” Thorn urged him.

The other rock miners had recharged our maneuvering units with oxygen, cutting gas, and maneuvering gas in addition to charging the batteries for the lights and radio, so we three were soon back out on the hull. Things went somewhat better this time. I was more used to moving outside of the ship, and there weren’t any thrusters to be cut away this time. We were all able to start removing the nuts retaining the last unit to be moved and the remains of the final ruined unit.

Getting the replacement unit underway went well, but it had further to travel to the lower outside thruster location, so it took longer to move it there. It still required just as much effort to stop it, and then it wasn’t in the correct location. It seemed to delight in resisting our best efforts to get it into the correct position to insert it into the empty socket. After a lot of sweating and cussing by the rock miners, we finally got it started into the socket and then bolted it down.

I thought we were finished then, but there were still the many lines to each thruster that Thorn had disconnected from all four locations that needed to be reconnected to the two working thrusters and the ones at the empty sockets that needed to be checked to ensure that their one-way valves were in fact closed and the lines returned into the now empty sockets for later use. Following taking care of all of that, we returned to the interior of the ship. It had taken us over twelve hours to accomplish all of this work, and we were all worn out. However once back inside, I learned that the job wasn’t finished quite yet.

“Standby,” Thorn told Ralph and me. “I’m going to the power room to check on their progress and see if they found that hidden fuel tank. We may need to go back out if there are leaks or other problems,” he added. Ralph and I just collapsed against a sofa while Thorn checked. Will brought us some bulbs of water, and we drank that as there wasn’t really anything to eat without the gravity being restored.

“This is Captain Thorn,” was heard over the PA system a bit later. “All personnel strap into your bunks while we test the thrusters. This will require as much as an hour to complete. Navigation, compute a course from our present location to Terra, and be prepared to execute it on my command,” the announcement finished. A cheer was heard throughout the ship following that. Ralph and I were ready to return to our cabins, but we had left the maneuvering units in the airlock and needed to secure them before doing so. Will returned to the cabin with me.

I was beat, and it wasn’t just from the work, but from the uncertainty and the worry. I was asleep soon after strapping in. Awakening sometime later, I discovered that I had weight again, and also that my muscles were sore from all of the unusual positions and effort that I had encountered working on the thrusters. Will soon appeared in our cabin as I was getting up and stretching.

“Welcome back to the world,” he said with a smile. “You were out for around six hours,” he finished.

“Is everything working okay?” I asked in a worried voice.

“Everything is working, but we aren’t accelerating as fast as we should be, and we are going to be late getting back to school, but we will be getting back to school instead of being listed as missing,” he told me with a big grin.

“Would you like something to eat?” he added following that.

“Yes, I could eat a small horse or a large pig,” I told him realizing just how hungry I was.

“There’s a big meal waiting for you in the galley. Most of the others ate before going to sleep or taking the watch on the bridge. The rock miners are rotating through that. Thorn has been on the radio during the last hour with the authorities at Terra Station. The police will be there when we arrive,” Will told me. It didn’t appear that he had slept while I snoozed.

“Did you get any rest?” I asked in a worried voice.

“Yes, a couple of hours while they tested the thrusters and changed course. I think Thorn got a couple of hours also, but it was after that,” he told me.

On the way to the galley, I was congratulated by a number of other students, and to my surprise found our Geology Professor in the galley preparing food for the next meal.

“Marianne!” he said with a big smile. “Thank you for helping to save all of us. We were sure that the rock miners would get things repaired, but none of us realized that you had the same skills,” he finished with another big smile.

“I’m not that skilled at their jobs, but as Thorn told me, I have more muscle than the rest of you,” I told him, a bit embarrassed by his praise.

“From what I have heard from the gossip around campus, you are the strongest one there. Thank you for your help,” he finished before bringing out a huge plate of food from the warmer.

“I didn’t know that you are a chef,” I told him, looking at what he had been preparing.

“Cooking has been a hobby of mine for many years. I have been teased about it by some of the other professors, but never near a holiday or a celebration,” he told me with a grin. I took the plate and ate every bit of the food on it too, feeling a lot better when I finished.

Later I learned that with only the four thrusters, we could only accelerate fast enough to create the effect of seven tenths of a gravity, and that would delay our arrival at Terra Station by several days. I was definitely glad that I had brought along my heavy boots, as they kept me close to the floor most of the time. I did notice that many of the other students and the professors moved more carefully than usual in the lighter gravity.

There wasn’t really anything for us to do on the trip to Terra Station. Originally, there had been a review of what we had seen and learned scheduled for when we returned to school. However, since we were going to be longer getting back than scheduled, the professors decided to hold it on the way back to keep all of us occupied. Additionally, they started on some of the work that we would be missing by being late. This kept nearly everyone busy if not happy on the trip back in addition to serving as a good review of what we had learned previously.

We arrived at Terra Station, the space station above Terra, several days behind schedule, but received quite a reception. After we had tied up at the station, the police and the investigators from the Pilot’s Guild were the first ones to board the ship. It was another six hours or so before all of the questions and interviews were finished, and we were allowed to leave the ship. The Captain and the crew had been removed well before that by the police, and the investigators would spend several more days going over the ship before completing their investigation. The insurance people would also want to talk to at least some of us, but that would be later.

There were relatives and family members there to greet the local students and the professors, but only representatives from the school to greet the rock miners, Will, and me. We were all mobbed by reporters looking for a story, especially the rock miners and me, but the school’s representatives kept them away from us by promising them interviews later at the school after we had recovered. The representatives provided passage for all of us back to Terra and the school. I did see Thorn shaking hands with the Chief Investigator, as we had exited the ship.

The trip from the station to the spaceport wasn’t bad, as the school had rented or acquired the use of an executive shuttle and the seating was very comfortable. Our luggage had been loaded in the hold for us and was available when we landed. There were even more reporters waiting for us at the space port, but again representatives from the school and the police kept them away from us, promising interviews later. It was easy to see that they were disappointed by this.

We were all stared at in wonder and disbelief by the other students and some of the professors when we returned to school, but it was good to get back to our regular rooms and the normal, for here, gravity. It was late afternoon when we reached the school, and classes were over for the day, so we were able to go to our rooms following a meeting with the school officials where we were greeted and then informed of the arrangements that had been made for returning to our classes and the interviews that we would be having with the media and the insurance investigators, which would be overseen by the school’s authorities.

We were all late for the start of the new semester, but our professors all understood why and helped us make up what had been covered in the first few days of instruction. The three Professors who had gone with us had their classes given by some of their PhD candidates until they returned.

During the first week back, we were all bothered for interviews by reporters who arrived on campus and followed us around to our various classes and other activities. This was of course not in accordance with what the school officials had promised us, but they seemed to have little control of the media, although the campus police did their best to control and remove those not following the agreed upon rules. The insurance investigators were much more discrete.

Some of the reporters even showed up at the gym while Will and I were working out. Mac managed to keep them away from us and to remain quiet while we actually worked out, but as soon as we finished, we were mobbed with questions about what we had been doing and how much weight I had on the bar. This would lead to problems later, but we didn’t realize it at the time. After we had been back for a week or so the interviews dropped off and finally stopped, as the media had found something else to feature in the news.

On a Wednesday morning two weeks after we had returned, several men arrived at the gym as we started our daily workout. These were large men with well-developed muscles, and they were wearing expensive suits and shoes.

“Are you Marianne Riedasel?” their leader asked, as they approached me.

“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?” I asked.

“We’re members of the Power Lifters Association, and we saw the interview where you claimed to have eight hundred plus pounds on the bar that you were lifting. We don’t believe that you do or that you could lift eight hundred pounds,” he told me in skeptical voice.

“This is the setup that I have been using the entire time I have been here. Knock yourself out if you think you can lift it,” I told him to a big smile from him.

“I’ll just do that,” he told me in a somber voice, as he removed his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and went to powder his hands with chalk. One of the other men handed him a long wide leather belt as he finished which he put on.

“How long have you been working out here? I don’t see any marks on the floor,” he asked as he stepped behind the bar.

“Since I started school here in August of 3995,” I told him. He seemed surprised by my answer, before he squatted down, wrapped his hands around the bar, and surged up with the bar and its weights giving a shout. He got them up to his chest, and then over his head with a struggle, but couldn’t control the weight, and released the bar, which crashed down onto the floor making quite a bit of noise and denting the floor of the gym.

“Damn, how much weight do you have on that bar?” he asked in an embarrassed voice.

“It’s 875 pounds more or less, and she has never dropped it like you just did,” Mac told him pointedly, as he joined us.

“But how can she do that,” several of the men with him asked.

“She is from Telchines. That’s nothing to those from there,” Mac finished.

“Do you mind if I start my workout now,” I asked them, as I moved the barbell back to its usual position, before starting to lift it. They remained and watched my entire workout before leaving shaking their heads in disbelief.

It was shortly after this that I signed the contract with the school to supply them with geological samples from Telchines after graduating. We also learned that the school was very appreciative of the work that the rock miners and I had done to save the ship that they had rented. It showed up in our student accounts and was a real surprise. Will and I went out again one night to eat off campus following that.