Dark as Daylight Ch. 09

"Anyone that slouches in the Captain's chair should be horsewhipped."

She jumped, sat up straight, and looked for her accuser.

"That's much better Janet. Now, tell Jack not to use a sledgehammer when a tweezers will do. Tell him to use the KISS method. Doctor Aubrey didn't have a lot of time to disable all the test kits in different manners. He had to do it the same method with each one.

Tell Monty I want to speak with her, because something is missing. Something terribly wrong is missing."

Callie asked, "What do you think is missing Doctor Luck?"

"Callie, why would someone go through all the trouble of taking you into the deepest parts of space, while keeping all your colleagues in the dark. Academics don't do that; they feed off the knowledge of each other. That's how they grow; that's how the leaves on the tree expand, and grow upwards towards the sun. The more knowledge, the greater the expansion of the tree. Doctor Aubrey was the smartest one in that group, and he had the most seniority. That's why I gave him that position. I thought it was the right thing to do. Apparently I was very wrong.

Now, he does not want this rocket to be a successfully launched towards planet Earth to give the message that we are landing on Gliese 581G, and have renamed it. If that message gets out, our mission is successful. If it doesn't, it is a failure, because no one will ever know what happened to us. The only way we would ever be able to tell our story is to return home. We could do that easily, but we would have to bring home dirt and rocks from other planets to prove it. Therein lies the problem. We would have to land. I will bet that Doctor Aubrey has done something to the landing system."

"How could he bypass all the built in safeguards?"

"He could put a block of C-4 in any of the landing gear chambers, and attach wires to any of our electrical lines. Once we start lowering the landing gear, the explosion will rip apart the ship, and depending on our altitude at the time, it could kill everyone on board as we crash to the ground."

"I heard everything you said Even, now what do we do about it?"

"We do the same thing I told Janet to tell Jack to do. Use the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method. Don't make it public knowledge yet. There is no sense getting everybody worked up over it.

Use Gordon, Newton, Laura, and Adam Schiff. There are only half a dozen people on this ship that know that the landing gear can be put down hydraulically, instead of electrically. They are four them, I am the fifth. You will guess who the sixth one is."

"Well don't keep me in suspense, who is it?"

"Hannah."

"Hannah, how did she get involved with this?"

"She was my nurse remember? When I was not allowed to work at work, I worked at home. The blueprints were so big she would help maneuver them for me. I began explaining to her what I was doing with the blueprints and that's how she found out about the hydraulic system. We can even lower the landing gear by hand, but it might take months to do."

"You have your quorum coming up in 10 minutes. I think you should put him in a spacesuit, take off his helmet while he is outside and let him die at Gods' hands. As you're getting him dressed in engineering tell him you know all about his plans for blowing up the ship, and you've already taken action to remedy the matter. As you taking him outside, he may tell you where the explosives are, and the reason he is doing all of this to us."

"I have to go Even. Callie give your heading towards Earth to Janet so we can compare it with the science divisions' estimate."

"Yes Captain Jamison. Captain Dover, your heading towards Earth should be 126.07o with an angle of declination of 38o."

Janet wrote down Callie's numbers, and compared them to the Science Division. Then she made her first Executive Decision. She split the difference between the two numbers.

"Helm make your heading of 125.5o, angle of declination 36.5o.

"Helm responding: 125.5o, angle of declination 36.5o."

**********************

"Put that traitorous bastard in that chair, and if he moves out of it hit him, hard."

"Members of the quorum, we meet here under very unusual circumstances, and on a matter of the utmost importance. The cases before you today are of High Treason; not 1 count of High Treason but 3 counts. We will only take up two of these cases today just to show his ill intent towards the members of this quorum.

Today's cases are against Doctor Lincoln Aubrey, former Director of the Science Division. Members of his staff will testify that he ran the division as a tyrant. The members did not complain simply because it is not done in academia. If it was not for one brave man, this entire ship would still be heading in the wrong direction, instead of heading towards our new home at Atwater Luck, formally known as Gliese 581G. Why he did it is unknown, and he has not been forthcoming with his reasons. All we know is he did it, and he got caught at it.

Today, in a little more than 4 hours we were supposed to launch a rocket towards our former home, The Planet Earth. This was our last rocket, and our final chance to tell our families, friends, and all humanity of our success and landing on Atwater Luck.

During a meeting today I requested the head of our engineering department, Col. Jack Daniels, to run one more examination of the rocket to make sure everything was in perfect operating order.

He and his staff were going over the rocket, when one of his staff members found a cracked circuit board. It should have registered a fault on his testing equipment, but it did not. They tested it with another test kit and it also registered good. They took out a circuit board, from a previous rocket they knew was bad, and tested it on both test kits. The broken circuit board tested fine.

Someone tampered with our test kits. The only person to visit the engineering section on a continuing basis, prior to his arrest was Doctor Lincoln Aubrey. He has the knowledge and the expertise to disable the testing kits.

All equipment in the entire engineering section that Dr. Aubrey had access to is now being tested, and retested by different personnel, to verify every component is working properly.

The men and women working in engineering are a very elite, and prideful group. This man has put a stain on their reputation, and they are angry about it. They will do their part to put this ship back into top working condition, and find whatever traps this traitor has laid for us before we successfully land at our new home.

Our Engineers are asking your help. They want you to listen to the evidence we are going to give you, and if you find it sufficient, find the defendant, Doctor Lincoln Aubrey guilty of High Treason. One Moment Please."

"Engineering, this is Captain Jamison; Jack I need you up here now."

"On my way."

"The first witness for the prosecution will be our chief engineer Colonel Jack Daniels."

Jack arrived and presented to the quorum the cracked circuit board that tested positive when it shouldn't have, and the testing equipment that was tampered with. Then he showed everyone exactly how Doctor Aubrey tampered with the test kits to make sure everything read positive. It was a trick every science student in high school learned, while taking chemistry, and physics. It also worked on these high-tech machines. Now that it was repaired, he attached the wiring to the circuit board, and it proved that the board was damaged.

Then he used a test kit that had not been repaired. It showed the circuit board was good. He told the quorum that the rocket would have exploded within 100 yards of their spacecraft, with the potential of doing damage to the exterior of the ship, as well as destroying the last remaining rocket."

Monty asked, "Do you have any questions for this witness Doctor Aubrey?"

"Yes, I do. How do you know it was me that tampered with the test kits?"

"Do you mean besides your fingerprints being all over the units, Dr. Aubrey? You see Doctor, when we handle sensitive equipment, we always wear gloves. They protect the equipment from the oils on our hands so it does not disturb their accuracy. You didn't wear gloves, and your fingerprints are everywhere."

"Anything further Doctor Aubrey?"

"No."

For the next hour, a line of scientists preached about the way Dr. Aubrey handled the Science Division; never allowing any other scientist to see the scans from the x-ray telescopes or any other advanced systems that were available to them. He kept them totally in the dark, and under threat of expulsion from the division.

When they were finished, Monty asked, "Does any member of the quorum have any questions they'd like to ask the defendant?"

An under voting age teenage girl stood up and asked, "Why would you do this to us? No one here ever hurt you."

Aubrey didn't answer her.

Monty said, "It's up to you to vote on the innocence or guilt of the first charge. Hijacking the spacecraft Good Luck 1. This is too important to use an electronic count. All voting members who believe Doctor Aubrey is guilty please stand."

"I count 67 Betty; what about you?"

"I count 67."

"All who believe Dr. Aubrey is innocent of the charges please stand."

No one stood up.

"On the first count of the indictment Doctor Lincoln Aubrey is found guilty. Please be seated."

"On the second count of the indictment, the willful destruction of community property, with the intention of destroying the last possible way for us to inform Planet Earth that we have successfully completed our mission, by landing at Atwater Luck, formally known as Gliese 581G. Please rise if you believe the defendant is guilty."

"I count 67 again."

"I count 67 also.

"On the second count of the indictment Doctor Lincoln Aubrey is found guilty. Please be seated.

"According to our laws there are only 3 crimes that can receive the death penalty. Rape, Murder, and High Treason. Never when we sat around the table making up our Constitution and laws; never did we ever believe in our hearts would anyone commit High Treason onboard this vessel. Everyone was so carefully screened. Everyone gets along so well and then there is this one rotten apple, which always finds its way into the barrel. We just found ours. Doctor Aubrey, I'm not even going to ask you to stand. I'm going to announce that you are guilty of one of the highest crime imaginable by our laws.

'You are hereby sentenced to death.'

On the same day, at the same hour we launch our last rocket towards our former home, the Planet Earth, the helmet on your spacesuit will be removed, and you will die instantly. I wish it would take longer. The remainder of your spacesuit will be removed from your body, and you will be cast out into space, as a piece of flotsam for eternity. Take this traitor back to his cell."

Newton was sitting in the third row watching Aubrey intently, as he was ordered to do. When Monty delivered the death sentence, Aubrey didn't wince, he didn't blink, and his breathing didn't change. He remained calm as the guards took him by his arms, and led him away. As he walked by Newton's row, he seemed to have a satisfied grin on his lips.

Newton went up to Monty and made his report.

She asked him, "How large are the access ports to the landing gear?"

"They are easily 6 feet high by 4 feet wide Monty; why?"

"I'm just wondering if we should put 2 people into each opening so it can be searched more thoroughly."

"We would only get in each other's way Monty. All of them are all going to be searched in the same manner. They are going to start at the top of the shaft, and work our way down. We are only talking about an area of 16 feet in diameter. The top of the landing gear is a flat, impenetrable surface. The access panel is only there for us to work on the electronics, the pneumatics, and if all else fails, the cranks to lower the landing gear by hand. I hope that never happens, because that will take a very long time to do it.

The 4 of us will look for anything that is out of place. He couldn't have walked around the ship with a 6-foot pole, without someone noticing it. He could not have carried liquid explosives onto the ship, he would have needed a lot of inside help, and he didn't have the connections to get them in. If it is C4, he had to hook it up to a battery and timer or an electrical source for it to work properly. There are only so many places that have electrical cables that can be reached in there. Even if he had all the schematics for the ship, which I'm sure he doesn't, because Callie doesn't give them out to just anyone, they're all going to be in the same place where we can find them. All we need is time and that we have more than enough of. We can stay in orbit around Atwater Luck for months if we have to, and survey the planet while we continue to look.

We also have one other way to lower the landing gear I just thought about. As we decelerate going into Atwater Luck's atmosphere, we can release all the locks. At 75 feet above ground level, give the ship a really hard bump down. We should be able to level off between 40 and 50 feet, if everything goes well. If there is an explosion, we will still have three legs remaining, plus the nuclear engine, and Delicious' engines operating at full capacity.

The belly of the ship is 22 feet lower to the ground than where the landing gear begins. It means we stay aloft, and look for a grassy incline. A place without a great deal of rocky outcrops, and send out a landing party to verify it. We can even see what damage was done to the strut and determine if it is repairable."

"Enough forward thinking for now. You engineers get started and you are going to have me building a bridge to Gliese 581F. Don't you dare get yourself killed Newton. Elizabeth will hate me if you do."

"The hell with Elizabeth, I'll hate you."

He got smacked hard, on the back of his head.

"What's this 'The hell with Elizabeth already?"

"Hi baby, you missed the first part."

"The first part better be very good, otherwise you're going to be in an awful lot of pain."

"That was the first part baby. Monty said, "I'd better not get myself killed, because Elizabeth will hate her. I said the hell with Elizabeth, I'll hate her."

"Is that what happened Monty?"

"I have no idea what he's talking about."

Newton got hit again, but this time it was hard, and then harder.

"Come on Monte that's not fair; she's going to kill me now."

"Yes, Liz that's what happened. I just like to see men crawl, when their women are around."

"Me too, isn't it fun. The only man I ever met, who didn't crawl when he was near his wife was Doctor Luck. No that's not true; Doctor Thyme is the same way; he is a very strong man also."

"Beth, I know it's going to be hard for you to remember, but it's not Doctor Thyme anymore, it's dad. We are a family now."

"I know Newton; it's just going to take me a little while to get used to it, that's all."

"I've got to change and get ready to go to work."

"You're not scheduled to go in for 3 hours yet."

"I know, but Jack wants me to check one of the receptacles in the landing gear and it's going to take me an hour to get there. So I'm going to start early, and I'll finish early. That way when you get home, I'll be all rested, and we can fool around."

"I think I have a headache."

"It's starting already?"

Monty smiled. "Way to go Elizabeth, never let him know what's happening."

"Why did he say he was going to hate you Monty?"

"He's going to be looking for something very special."

"How special, for him to hate you?"

"Oh, it's just an explosive device, meant to blow up our landing gear, and part of our ship as we approach the planet."

"I'll go with you. You are the first person I ever loved, and I'm not about to lose you."

"You're not coming any place near me. It's not only you, there's our baby to think of. I won't risk either of you for anything."

"Gordon is going into another of the landing gear. He has one baby, and Zoey is pregnant with another. He's not letting her anywhere near that place.

Laura and Adam Schiff are going in the other two landing gear. They have no children yet, and if something happens, one of them will survive. It's the best way baby. Let us do our work properly, and nothing will happen to hurt us or this ship."

"He's going to be a little late starting his work, Monty. My headache disappeared."

"Take all the time you need Elizabeth; remember he needs some energy left to do is work."

"I'll let him sleep for an hour, after I'm done with him."

"Enjoy yourself, if anyone deserves some enjoyment in her life Elizabeth, it's you."

"Come on big boy, let's see what you got."

"You've already seen it."

"I'm going to see if I can make it grow."

"It might hurt you if it does."

"It already hurts me, and I don't complain because of the way we finish."

"I believe this is going to be a lot of fun."

"This is going to be more fun than all the engineering you've ever done; all the roller coasters you have ever been on, and all the lies you ever told in your life."

"Oh Boy!"

**************

"Colonel, we have a new one still in its box."

"God loves us. Take it out, put it under a microscope to check it for cracks, and then test it."

"Colonel, I need you over here for a moment."

"What do you have for me, Mel?"

"Here sir, take the mirror and look about 8 inches in. We have a hairline fracture in the body of the rocket. It may be nothing, but I think I'd like to micro-weld it as a precautionary measure."

"Why didn't we pick this up before, Mel?"

"I don't know sir. The body of the rocket has been apart several times, and not under guard. That bastard could have come in here with a pocket knife, reached in and made that long scratch easily. I'm not saying it wasn't there before, but it is there now, and I think it should be taken care of."

"I agree Mel, do it."

"Thank you, sir."

"Engineering to the senior captain."

"This is Captain Jamison, what do you have for me Jack?"

"Can I put that bastard in the nuclear containment unit and watch him roast."

"I've already pronounced sentence on him Jack. What did the bastard do now?"

"One of my engineers found a 10-inch long scratch on the internal portion of the rockets body. There is no way for it to get there except by human hands. Mel found it as he was checking a few moments ago. He believes Doctor Aubrey took a pocket knife and gouged the internal portion of the aluminum. Would you have a security team take apart his room, from top to bottom, to see if he has a pocket knife there. If he does, bring it down to me and I'll test it to see if it to see if the aluminum on the tip of his knife matches the rocket casing. Then I'll go to his cell, and detach his balls with it."

"The documents say you cannot do that to a condemned man. I will have his room taken apart, fumigated, and put back together."

"Thanks Monty. It's just like on Earth, the accused has more rights than the victim."

"That is the truth, and there's nothing we can do about it. Go back to work Jack. Find out what else that bastard did to our rocket. Our message has got to get to Earth. I will continue keeping us together."

"I've got my best team on it, and I am here supervising."

*********************

"Jack get over here quick!"

"What's up Mel?"

"While I was welding, I thought I saw something further back towards the tail. That cock sucker is very good. Look at the present he left us. I think the scratch was a diversion."

Taking the 'Chimera' hand held, digital microscopic camera, Jack pointed it towards the rear of the rocket, directly against the propellant container. What showed up on the television screen made everyone but Jack gasp.