Chapter 2

"What've we got?" Pete asked when he got back to the bridge. "Lie to me and make me feel better."

"We've got a lot, but none of it matters," Ross answered. "We've got food for three months, but air and water for only three weeks. Worse than that, we've only got enough power for two weeks of life support if we run just the essentials and conserve everywhere we can. We've got maneuvering thrusters, but not enough to move us very far or very fast and no place to go that's close enough to reach with them. We've got the forward nav sensors back on line, but they're the low power ones. Everything with any punch depended on us having full power. That includes the comm. We're stuck talking at in-system ranges only, and there's no system to talk inside of."

"Well, let's eat. I always think better on a full stomach." Pete said with false bravado. "Besides, as you've described it, we've only got two weeks to eat three months worth of food."

Ross couldn't help laugh as they sat and ate. Their food stores would win no culinary awards and were mostly the basic, most economical options available, but there had been a few luxury purchases. Those purchases were going to go first, it would seem.

"Listen, we can maneuver, right?" Pete asked after they'd eaten.

"Right."

"And the forward sensors aren't long range, strictly speaking, but they're navigational, right?

"Sure," Ross agreed. "So they've got pretty good range, but its directional."

"So lets do a sweep with them and see what we can see. Maybe our engine pod is sitting out there just out of sight waiting for us to limp over and reclaim them."

"Well, its something to do," Ross said after some consideration. "Whatever sliced the rear section of the ship off like that isn't likely to have dealt gently with the engines though."

"What else can we hope for?" Pete asked. "Leprechauns?"

"Be careful what you wish for," Ross said with a laugh. "This far from Earth, things can get a little weird."

"This far from Earth? Hell, this far from Asgard."

"I'd settle for Tenerif Station," Ross added, and Pete nodded his agreement. Tenerif station offered barely more comfort than they carried with them, but it would seem like paradise to the two men given their situation. "You should take the time to record something to leave behind."

"Yeah," Pete nodded into his cup.

"Do it tonight. Don't wait until it starts to get to you. Do it now while you can still sound hopeful."

"Yeah," Pete said again. He began maneuvering his way carefully towards the galley exit, stopping to drop his cup into the disposal, but remembering in time that they had shut the unit down to save power. There was a durplex bag hanging on the wall and he dropped the cup there as he headed for the bridge. Ross followed, the two men moving slowly in the zero G environment.

Sixteen hours later, the two men, both fast asleep after having spent twelve straight hours ensuring their immediate survival and then focusing on the meticulous task of getting the systems sensors and computer systems setup to conduct a complete sweep of near space, were awakened by the blare of the ship's emergency alarm.

"what?" Pete's groggy voice came out of the dark.

"The proximity alarm," Ross answered from across the room.

"the sweep!" Pete blurted, jumping out of his bunk and hitting his head on the overhead compartment.

A few minutes later they were both dressed and in the bridge, huddled over the navcom's console.

"Okay, its not our engines," Pete said. "Too big for that."

"Maybe its what ran into us and chopped them off?" Ross asked.

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Pete answered. "Big enough, and if the preliminary readings are accurate, dense enough, but its not moving fast enough. In fact, its pretty close to motionless relative to us."

"Hmm. Well, if nothing else shows up, its something to go look at. I'm going back to bed."

"Yeah, good idea."

Six hours later, Ross Carson's consciousness came struggling up out of a deep sleep. He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he was hearing the chiming of his sleep alarm and not the blare of the proximity alarm.

He was sipping a bulb of coffee and reading over the results of the rest of the proximity sweep when Pete came in holding a bulb of his own. "This no grav shit sucks!" he said as he sat down opposite Ross.

"No argument there," Ross agreed. "The sweep completed as expected, and nothing else detected, except for the usual bits and pieces we expect to find here. The kind that brought us out here in the first place."

"Mmm," Pete said through his coffee. "So off to investigate our mystery object then?"

"Works for me. You want to lay in the course?"

"Sure," Pete began tapping instructions into the navcom, double checking it against the readings from the sensor sweep's proximity alarm. "What's the status of our maneuvering thrusters?"

"Thrusters are online and warmed up. Good to go when you are."

"All right, bringing us about," Pete said, and with the push of a button, the two men felt themselves slowly drifting away from their spots as the ship rotated slowly. "There we go, and twisting her tail ... now!" Pete said with some artificial drama as he pushed the button to engage the main thrusters.

"Too good!" Ross said with some cheer. "A third of a gee is not much, but its weight. I'll go see about making us some breakfast. Steak and eggs sound good?"

"Sounds fantastic. I'm going to go see if the shower will work with a little gravity back."

"Well, its not like it cares what kind of artificial gravity its detecting, grav fields or thrust induced."

"Yeah, but is it enough?"

"Should be, they sell these systems to the Belters, and most of them live in less than a third of a gee their whole lives."

"Yeah, but I"m not sure they use the showers," Pete joked.

"Funny," Ross grimaced. "You're only saying that because I used to date a Belter, aren't you?"

Hey, Inga was a great girl, and she sure sounded enthusiastic, as I remember.

"Yeah, she'd love this zero gee stuff — she was adept at certain zero gee ahh — maneuvers."

"Better get cracking on that breakfast. We've got six hours before we're close enough for direct visuals," Pete said as he headed for the shower. "Thats enough time for two good meals."

A minute later, as Ross was getting the steaks defrosted, Pete's voice came over the ship comm. "Pete Lopez. Have stomach, will travel." Ross laughed at his friend and partner and considered what would be better for the eggs, fried or scrambled. He was used to Pete's sense of humor, but even with the artificial lightheartedness, he'd gone the extra mile, having re-oriented the Eudoxus so the thrust would give the ship gravity oriented in the proper direction to make the normal deck 'down'.