Chapter 10: Up Up and Away

George had been busy. He and Nate had been utilizing the Internet access to set up several corporations in order to handle the traffic of goods and currency. Naturally, discretion being the keyword, it was a carefully constructed network. Simon was consulted several times on the best methods of protecting access and concealing the whole operation. Blazing Star had completed all communications repairs and with sufficient power now began to link in to Earth’s satellites. Nate and Simon assisted in insuring that each connection was untraceable.

Simon had been giving a lot of thought to the future of their growing project. What were they going to do after they got to space. This Star Project was a good start. Simon suggested that they create a corporation with the name of Star Force Galactic at the top of the food chain. All subsidiary corporations and companies linked upwards to Star Force Galactic. Once they were finished with the corporation creations, everyone on board Blazing Star owned at least one corporation and somehow found themselves on at least one Board of Directors somewhere, even Blaze.

For the purpose of registration, Blaze was given the name Blaze Star and placed at the absolute head of everything. That was almost hilarious, an android, running what could potentially become the biggest corporation in the world. They were thinking big.

One person they did not have on board that could have assisted them was a lawyer. Lawyers, however, were not noted as being the most honest or trustworthy historically and a lot of them became politicians, so that fact was not surprising. George elected to route any legal requirements through his company lawyers in Edmonton. They had served him well over the years and he felt he could trust their discretion. They were utilized only where no other avenue was possible.

Simon and Bill felt that the time was right. They would launch today. There was no sense in twiddling their thumbs any longer.

Simon called a meeting of everyone, including all security for Command Conference Room at 12:00 Noon. Blaze could monitor any security issues while the meeting was going on. As everyone showed up, the section chiefs seated themselves around the consoles, chairs were provided around the perimeter of the room for all the others. Blaze was in her usual spot.

“I only have a short announcement to make and then we can all relax for a while and enjoy lunch. My quarters will be open for anyone wishing to use the kitchen facilities after this announcement.” said Simon. “Today, at 3:00 PM we will attempt to take Blazing Star to space. We have all worked very hard to get to this point and there is no need to delay it any longer. This action is not without risk. We simply have never done it before and there is a lot that could go wrong. There is also a lot that we do not know about Blazing Star. We are hoping that once in space, we can begin to figure it all out. I am told that you should not feel any strong changes in motion or gravity as those things are compensated for by Blazing Star as she moves. At 2:45 PM I want everyone to be at their post. All security staff except Grant and two others will remain on the ground and use the cabin as their base until we return. They are to go back to full combat readiness. Since all of our Security personnel have been Transport Shuttle trained, ST-1 will remain at the cabin cloaked in the event they need transport or communication. Helen, could you also select one doctor and one nurse to remain with security at the cabin just in case. If there are no questions, let’s eat!”

Well fed and more relaxed, everyone slowly assumed their required posts. By 2:45 PM all was in readiness. In Command, Simon sat in the captains chair, Grant was in front of the Security console, Nate was at an Engineering console, James was seated beside Simon at a console, and Bill at another console. Tonya, Dave, Mark and Andy were also present and had seated themselves in empty chairs with inactive consoles. Blaze sat to the left of Simon at another blank console. Two security guards were standing near the doors into Command.

At 3:00 PM precisely, Simon spoke. “It is time. Blaze, I want you to handle everything. It is what you were designed to do, and you can react quicker than anyone else here to a problem. Everyone else, watch the consoles. Report anything unusual. Learn everything we can. We may have to do this manually some time.”

“Understood Captain” replied Blaze.

“Recall all external Droids” said Simon.

“Already on-board and stowed” replied Blaze.

“Activate Command View Screen, orientation forward” said Simon.

“View Screen activated, displaying frontal view.” said Blaze as a huge screen at the front of Command displayed their view as if they were outside looking forward.

“Spin up Sub-light Engines to 90%.” said Simon.

After a brief interval Blaze replied “Engines at 90%, Captain.”

“Lift us one foot up and maintain position.” said Simon.

“Maintaining position one foot up.” replied Blaze.

Bill was watching all the consoles carefully and nodding. It looked good! Everyone else was paying attention to the nearest active consoles. It was a learning experience for most, except for Blaze. She stood beside Simon, doing, for the first time in her life, what she was destined to do, control all the functions of Blazing Star and proudly serving her Captain!

“Retract all landing gear.” said Simon.

“Gear retracting. All landing gear stored.” replied Blaze.

“Shut off cavern lights, open cavern doors and activate hologram over doors.” said Simon.

“Lights off. Doors opening. Hologram activated. Doors fully opened Captain” said Blaze.

“Activate cloak.” said Simon.

The view screen shimmered slightly then stabilized.

“Cloak activated.” responded Blaze.

“Very slowly, move us forward out of this cavern.” said Simon.

Everyone held their breath as the Battle Cruiser moved forward for the first time in over 2,400 years. Slowly it moved. Blaze had centered Blazing Star on the door opening so as not to scrape or damage anything on exit. It took almost a minute before the great ship cleared the cavern doors.

“We have cleared the cavern bay doors, Captain.” reported Blaze.

Everyone resumed breathing.

“All stop.” ordered Simon.

“All stopped!” replied Blaze.

“Close cavern bay doors then deactivate hologram.” said Simon.

“Doors closing. Now fully closed. Hologram deactivated.” reported Blaze.

“Grant, contact your ground team. Ask them if they see or feel anything unusual.” said Simon.

After a few seconds Grant replied. “Security reports ‘all clear’. They are picking up a sort of faint humming sound but cannot identify the source. They want to know when we are going to start?”

“Tell them we are over their heads now.” said Simon with a smile.

“Any abnormal communications, Blaze.” asked Simon.

“Negative Captain.” replied Blaze.

“Take us up, Blaze. Accelerate slowly.” said Simon. “Accelerating. Leaving atmosphere in one minute twenty seconds.” replied Blaze.

Everyone, including Blaze, was staring at the front View Screen.

“That is beautiful.” exclaimed Bill.

Clouds were flashing by, then suddenly the view screen started to darken to blue-black then black and millions of tiny colored dots of light started to appear on the view screen.

“My God, we made it!” said Simon. “All stop Blaze.”

“All stopped!” replied Blaze as the view screen showed that they were completely motionless, just hanging there, in space.

“Captain, there are multiple small debris items on collision course.” said Blaze.

“Plot a course to the moon. Set speed to arrive in 30 minutes.” said Simon.

“Course plotted. Speed set to 2%” said Blaze.

“2%?” said Bill.

“Make it 10%, Blaze” said Simon.

“Arrival in Moon orbit in 5 minutes and 50 seconds.” replied Blaze.

“Incredible and she is fast!” said James.

“Captain, something is happening.” said Blaze. “I detect separate sub-routines activating. Linking now. Shift Engines Activating. Diagnostics running.”

The console panel in front of James started to light up. There were red lights and green lights and blue lights. There was a problem somewhere.

“Simon, this panel is coming online.” said James.

“Blaze, do you have full control?” asked Simon.

“Yes Captain. New data coming in from storage. Shift Engines Diagnostics report damage to shift engines. Maintenance and Repair Droids activated.” said Blaze. “Repairs underway. Estimated repair time 14 minutes.”

“Looks like you were right, Bill. We can’t shift when we are on a planet.” said Simon. “It appears that the whole sub-system shuts down when it cannot be used. Blaze, any weapons or shields yet?”

“Negative Captain. Now holding station over Earth’s Moon.” reported Blaze.

“Grant, contact your team. Let them know we are doing fine. We will check back in an hour or so.” said Simon.

“Got it!” said Grant.

“Nate, what’s your take on what happened?” asked Simon.

“It looks like there are sub-routines linked to different functions that activate when some sort of requirement is met, just like a good modular computer program. This one would be much more advanced than most, however. Since this ship was brand new, there must have been a sequence that would have activated shields and weapons at some point in time. I cannot believe a Battle Cruiser wouldn’t have them.” replied Nate.

“That is exactly what I was thinking!” said Simon. “Blaze, you received new data?”

“Yes Captain.” said Blaze. “I now have all the data on the Shift Engines. Access to those systems and locations are now fully online. Physical access has been granted.

Bill said, “Simon, I have new information displaying on my maintenance console. It is showing Shift Engine diagnostic results and repair status. Reactors are now increasing output and showing 90% power levels and holding.”