Chapter 18: Theoretically Speaking

Simon and Eddie paid a visit to Medical before he had to rush back to London.

Helen had Peter sitting up by now. She was feeding him lots of fortified liquids to help him regain body mass and aid in the recovery process. Surprising to Eddie, Peter was smiling almost as much as he was grimacing. Helen explained that the next few days would probably be painful for him, but the positive results were astounding. Peter understood what was happening and couldn’t help but smile.

His son and daughter rushed over to Simon and thanked him for saving Peter’s life.

Poor Eddie was trying to think of a solution to the questions bound to be raised about Peter when he returned to London. After giving it some thought, Simon had a suggestion. Eddie was all ears.

Simon said “You know, reporting Peter as having died may not be the best solution. What if you simply say that he has been moved to a very private recovery location and he is indeed slowly making progress. For a number of reasons, security being one and his health being another, you cannot disclose that location. We can still allow certain communication from Peter to anyone on Earth, and we can monitor it as well as keeping it secure. Perhaps, when Peter is up to it, we can make a list of contacts that should be informed. They may even be of some help along the way. As he improves, he can let his friends know a bit more about his health. I suspect they will be more than surprised at his recovery, but may not press the questions, especially if he keeps their thoughts elsewhere. Does this sound like it could work?”

Everyone nodded their heads and Simon looked over at Peter. He looked like he was trying to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a sound like ‘esshh’. He then nodded as well so as to confirm his approval.

“Then I think we have a working plan, Eddie!” stated Simon. “Let’s get you home!”

Dropping Eddie off in London was uneventful. Simon had Blaze issue special watches to Eddie and his two escorts. All three of them had been checked out by Blaze, and allowed to watch the two holo-vids describing the events to that point. It was a very eye opening experience for Eddie, but having been present for the last fifteen or so hours, he had little difficulty understanding the message. He had promised to be available for any assistance he could render, including asking a few agencies to curtail their investigations. That would ease the possible acceptance of British Personnel to the crew. Regrettably, at least for Eddie, he had to return the Translator Pad to Blaze, with his thanks, and a sigh, but he understood.

So far, Peter, his daughter Barbara and his son Mitch, had not been allowed out of Medical. That was about to change. Simon had gone back to Medical after dropping off Eddie, partly because he was concerned about Peter’s health and partly because Tonya had finally found out about Peters presence on Blazing Star and she wanted an update. Yesterday!

“Helen, do we have any kind of a wheelchair that we can use for Peter for a while? I would like to take him, Barbara and Mitch up to my quarters for some decent food.” said Simon with a grin.

Helen laughed and replied “I think he is ready for some solids. Go easy on the liquids, though. He has had a lot of that recently. As for the wheelchair, we do have something similar to the earth style wheelchair, but it is called a grav-chair. It hovers a few inches above the floor and moves with controls in the handles. I think he has enough control now in his arms to try it out.”

Helen pulled the grav-chair out of a storage room and moved it over near the recovery bed. Barbara and Mitch picked Peter up off the bed and seated him gently in the grav-chair. Peter was all smiles now.

Barbara said “Peter is getting heavy. We used to be able to pick him up with just one of us. Now we will need both of us to make sure we don’t drop him.”

“That is a good sign of his rebuilding muscle and bone.” said Helen. “Peter, try the controls and see if you can maneuver without killing anything!”

Peter was able to wiggle his hands enough to control the grav-chair, so without further ado, Simon had the three of them follow him to his quarters. On the way, Simon began to explain a bit more about the ship. How big it was and the fact that it had just been out to the edge of the solar system and back over the last few hours. His three guests were stunned. Peter was trying to say something. It came out like “ie neww tt”.

Simon turned and looked at a grinning Peter and said “Did you just say, ‘I knew it’?”

Peter nodded happily. Simon said, “You are making good progress, you will probably be talking up a storm in days.”

Simon opened the door and showed them into his quarters. He called Blaze and asked her to come along too. He then asked Mike to set a course to SBM and when safely secured, invite Tonya on board. He asked Blaze to set up the view screen in his room with a front view out of Blazing Star.

When his guests entered his quarters, they were astounded to see the view screen showing them traveling rapidly toward the moon. Simon was surprised when food arrived on a cart, accompanied by his on board Chief of Food Services. She was trying very hard to keep ahead of the situation, so Simon would not have to worry. She was doing a great job. With snacks and meals taken care of, he sat everyone down and started to explain more about the situation.

By then, they were secured in SBM and had seen the base on the way in. Tonya’s shuttle was already asking for landing clearances. Blaze handled that. Shortly after that, Tonya came into Simon’s quarters looking around.

“Just in time Tonya.” said Simon. “I was just about to start explaining why we went looking for Peter. You can help me out with some of the fine points.”

“I heard a rumor that you had found me a theoretical Physicist. Are you Peter Hunter?” asked Tonya.

“Yes he is, now grab a seat and we can begin!” said Simon.

After Simon had Blaze show the Holographic projections of the two introductory presentations, Simon got to the heart of the situation.

“Peter, we showed you our history and origins. You should now understand our role here. Blazing Star may be the most technologically advanced ship in our part of this Galaxy, but we have some hardware that the original builders were working on that we cannot get to work. In fact, we simply don’t understand it. Tonya requested that I find a couple of theoretical physicists to see if they could shed some light on the problem. That is why I looked you up. At least we have one to help us now Tonya, and from what I hear, the best one at that!” said Simon.

Peter grinned and said “u gott tree.”

“What did he say?” asked Tonya.

Barbara spoke this time and said “He said, that you got three! We have spent years bouncing ideas off of each other. We are really a team, the three of us. We each seem to have an area of interest and Peter is the one who brings all the ideas together. His area of expertise is the unexplained aspects of physics. Anything mysterious and he wants to solve it. Why don’t you show us what you have that is so mysterious and let us work on it?”

Tonya was beaming, she had brought a small set of schematics and an update to her theories on what they had been working on. Simon suggested they shift their activity to Command Conference and use the resources there. He also suggested they take a look at the console in Command in the hopes that that would help too. He left Tonya in charge and retired to his quarters to think.

Simon realized that some plans take a long time to complete and some things just fall into place on occasion. He had been extremely fortunate to find Blazing Star in the first place and now everything was coming together. There had been a few setbacks, but things were proceeding quite nicely. It now looked like the logistical supply problems were diminishing rapidly. Food was under control, personnel had just gotten a big boost and he expected to see even more improvements in that area. He felt comfortable that everything was under control on Earth. Star Base Moon was rapidly completing several new ships and had a few more under design. They still were way understaffed and he hoped that they could add more people soon. So far they had required all new personnel to have come from either the USA or Canada. Now they would add The United Kingdom to that short list, and perhaps soon, other countries as well. Now, also, they had an ally. At the very least, an agreement to be allies. The one ship assisting in the defense around the Sol System would soon be joined by several more as SFG completed them. It occurred to Simon that he really should spend some time with the Commander of that ship.

He had been told that she was highly regarded in Daandrusian High Command. Simon could no longer keep track of everything that was happening. It was time for another informal get together to see what has been going on.

One of the additional features of SBM was the enlarged Command and Control room. It had been designed so that it could open up into an expanding meeting room to accommodate almost any reasonable number of guests. Simon had been talking to Bill about where to have the next big meeting and they had worked up the plans. Tonya had them completed in less than a week. It was now configured for over one hundred personnel. It was somewhat circular in shape, with a main control area along one side and the additional observers in an arc around the other sides. This allowed for additional expansion if necessary. It could also double as a formal meeting hall by opening up a large seating area and closing off the Command area with the use of several sliding doors. When opened up, it was simply called the Main Hall.

Several weeks later, Simon had decided that the time was ripe for a meeting of all of the command staff. The Main Hall on SBM was chosen as the location. The time was selected as 2:00 PM GST (Galactic Standard Time) in order to allow all personnel to eat, and get comfortable. All the original crew from Blazing Star were present and a lot of new faces as well. There were almost seventy people in attendance. For this occasion, Simon had requested all the primary members of Earth’s secretive support network to be present as well, including two Prime Ministers and a President. There was a lot they needed to know, now that the Daandrusians were allying with them. Simon also had a few more surprises in mind for them as well.

The Shuttles had been working furiously bringing people from Earth up to a waiting Blazing Star, holding station over the various cities as they visited them. All the pickups were relatively trouble free, although the scheduling was rather tight. Once all the guests were assembled on Blazing Star, Simon had Blaze set course for SBM.