applepie

Chapter 4

Arabella finally composed herself enough to sit up, but she had no recollection of how much time had passed. She made a pitiful picture seated there on the cold floor of the Ara X. Her clothes were wrinkled, her hair had fallen down around her shoulders in limp curls, and her blue-green eyes were now bloodshot and puffy from her tears. She looked and felt as if she had just waged a tough battle, but Arabella knew that the hard part was yet to come. She had to find a way to return home, or at least get word to Vern that she was safe. She was only able to imagine the worry he must be going through at the moment waiting for her communication that she had arrived safe at Pluto.

“Think Arabella. Just stop and think for a moment,” she began to mumble to herself. Arabella abruptly stood and began to issue a series of commands to the computer to find out more about the surrounding area. She instructed the computer to scan for planets supporting life, and rank them according to the advancement of their civilizations. She also told the computer to map the surrounding area and store the information within the database under the listing of undiscovered.

“Processing of your commands will take approximately thirty minutes,” the computer said. Arabella kicked the consol in frustration at her own predicament. She was quickly shifting from the terror she experienced to rage. The feelings of utter helplessness that she was going through were not something that she was used to. In all aspects of her life she was confident and in control. She was one of the top minds in her field of engineering, and there had been no room for uncertainties in her life. In her agitated state of mine, Arabella knew that she had to do something while the computer was processing her instructions. Rather than bemoan her fair, she decided to look at the experimental drive.

Arabella lifted a panel from the floor that would allow her access to the experimental equipment. The first thing that struck her as she finished its removal was the smell of burning wires. It seemed that a flaw in the system wasn’t the cause of her being taken off course. One of the wires must have developed a short and caused the malfunction. For Arabella, this was amazingly good information to know and actually managed to bring a ghost of her previous smile to her face. Since it was a mechanical malfunction, she could simply replace the wires and her system would be functioning again. Arabella breathed a sigh of relief that her situation had just improved dramatically. If she could figure out where she was in relation to home, she could get back there with little issue. With this in mind, she began to work. She removed the old wires that now were burned and had melted casings, and began to fix the system.

The task of rewiring the experimental transport system took the entire thirty minutes that the computer was processing Arabella’s commands. She was just wiping her hands, now black from working, with a rag when the computer signaled its completion of her instructions.

“Put all information on screen in text only, and also display findings in holographic form.” The written summary detailing the specifics of two-hundred thirty surrounding systems appeared on screen, but it was the three dimensional image at the holographic display that drew Arabella’s interest. The area for holographic displays could be viewed in a single direction, but it could also project images all around so that the viewer seemed to be at the heart of the image. This was the option Arabella used now, and the surrounding area was shown in relation to her position. She turned a circle, hoping against the odds, that something would look familiar. To her disappointment, nothing looked even remotely similar to the areas she knew, so she began to look the area over again. “Highlight the systems with intelligent life,” she instructed, and about a quarter of the systems were brightened while the others faded. “Show me the ten systems which show promise of high technological advancement.” She surveyed the remaining ten systems. The closest was only about two light years away, and the furthest was more than one-hundred light years from her location.

Arabella moved back to her computer screen and entered the commands that would show her the information on the ten remaining systems. Only one of the systems had space travel capabilities, but the technology of the planets seemed to focus on military capabilities. From the report she discovered that it was a divided system with the different factions working to destroy the other. The probability of receiving aid from one of the three planets there was only two percent. The next world that had technology was not advanced. They had running water and some unknown energy source that they used to cool and light their homes. There were no airborne technological advances beyond small gliders that were used for recreation. Travel was done with the use of beasts of burden similar to the horses found on earth. The computer predicted that there was a ninety percent chance of receiving some aid from this system.

Arabella gazed at the system a little more closely. It seemed to be a binary sun system, which was extremely rare. The inhabited planet was lush with vegetation, and there seemed to be only a single large landmass. Some smaller islands dotted the planet, but none seemed to support the settlements that the larger continent did. The land was cut through by a network of rivers that originated from a single sea at the center of the continent. Around the sea was a massive city that dwarfed all the other towns on the planet. The surrounding country showed obvious signs of being used for agriculture, and the image taken with the ship’s scanners showed areas where the land looked like a patchwork quilt from the farms and forested areas. There seemed to be abundant food and the computer had listed the planet as the one most probable to offer aid.

Keeping the odds of receiving some aid in mind, Arabella set a course for the neighboring system. She chose to use the transport system to travel. The system was twenty light years away and by taking the chance of using the transport function again she would reach the planet within a single day. Once she had the coordinates for the first travel point in the computer, Arabella closed her eyes and initiated the jump. When she finally looked, she was pleased to see that she had traveled to the exact coordinates she had instructed. Breathing a sigh of relief, she sat back and began to enter all of the travel points that should take her to the system.

Once this was completed, she left the shuttle to pilot itself through the series and went to her berthing for some needed sleep. Before closing her eyes, she looked at the pictures she had carefully set around before taking off. There was one of her family, her niece smiling out, and another of her and Vern standing together with grins on their faces. The final was one she had taken of her friends from their last vacation together. As she drifted off to sleep, Arabella vowed to find a way to return home to the people she loved. Nothing would keep her from finding her way back to the place where she belonged.