Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 7 – Focus

“Sissy, display the ship`s status to all crew please.” Captain Shoffer tried not to lose the focus on his mission.

A full blueprint of Chariot 3 divided into 3 decks started being displayed on their lenses. The projection was then broken into sections showing the main technical areas of the spaceship which were zoomed on until they had an expanded view of the devices. They felt as if they could almost touch some of the parts.

The SD Interface and jump drives were graphically highlighted in a light green color; the graphene solution tanks were displayed in amber with a bar indicator that pointed that it was running low. The reserve energy panel was amber lighted and blinked a ’20 percent’ indication with a holographic line that connected the linear motor which had the same color displayed on it.

Finally, the eyes of the four crewmates followed a representation of what seemed to be red waves flowing among them and leading directly to a transparent graphene tube with a bright metallic red content.

“Unstable, very unstable” were the perplexed words that Cai Yiu Hun used to describe the pipe leading the bridge`s deck head down to the magnetic pole which he now starred with his own eyes rather than using the information displayed on his E-Lenses. There, in the center of the spacecraft, stood the tube that contained the ship`s main power supply, the return home or to wherever they wished to go: the antimatter.

“It does not look good.” It was all Flumen could put together without understanding exactly what was happening, rather excited with what he expected to see in the outer side of the ship.

As the images stopped being displayed on their lenses, the crew turned to Flumen and then back to their Captain. But before they could say or even think of anything, Sissy interrupted their thoughts. “Captain I also would like to inform you that I took the liberty of making a few improvements to the magnetic pole and we may now…”

“Sissy, at the moment the magnetic pole is not our main concern. What I would like to know is how far can we fly?” Captain Shoffer was often called Captain “Straight” at the Academy for always getting straight to the point.

“Captain, we have only 20 percent of our reserve energy remaining and we are using 50 percent of it to keep the antimatter from setting off and killing us all. We are unable to produce any reserve energy due to the black hole`s instability. Solar energy is not an alternative to enable the ship to fly long enough to complete this mission. If I may suggest, our mission must be put aside momentarily, and an alternative power source of power must be obtained or the antimatter will detonate.”

“And the good news is…?” V-Nus hoped for the best.

Immersed into their own thoughts, the Captain and the others did not bother to listen to V-Nus` words. Flumen could not stop thinking of what could possibly be waiting for him outside while Cai Yiu still stared at the tube that held their destiny.

No matter how many difficulties they were about to go through, deep in their minds they all knew that Captain Shon Shoffer always had a plan, even when he did not have one.

“Perhaps we should consider extracting energy from the pyramids? They should be capable of supplying us with more than enough power.”

“Your idea is rational Flumen but we must avoid interacting with other cultures, whether Earthian or not. Besides, we have no information if a 2,000 years old power plant would still be capable of generating any energy at all.” Before Flumen, Shoffer had already cogitated seeking an alternative in the desert.

“Sissy, start mapping the planet. We need to know where we are and where we are going to. Also, scan the planet for suitable energy sources.”

“Yes Sir. Spherical probes being released.” Sissy promptly replied.

The three silver metallic spheres underneath Chariot 3`s body glowed bright white, disconnected from her body and moved rapidly on different directions. The first went north, the second headed east, and the third one went down towards land, making a rough turn to west until it disappeared in the horizon as fast as the others.

“Captain, the mapping probes are expected to return in approximately 57 minutes.”

“Estimated period to locate suitable energy source: Unknown.”

“According to the positioning of the stars above us, it is safe to assume we are currently on planet Earth. Approximate terrestrial year: 593 B.C.”

Sissy`s voice sounded as optimistic as a machine could be which for them it was far away from good.

“Right planet, wrong year,” stated Shoffer trying his best to stay as positive as he could.

The expression ’rather earlier than later’ crossed V-Nus` mind but for the first time, he preferred to remain quiet.

“Captain, if I may recommend we should initialize the Aryayek.” Cai Yiu was always a great strategist – Captain Shoffer knew that – and his tone was firm when suggesting using a device he had acquired knowledge of at the Academy: Aryayek, the prediction device.

Shoffer looked down, wet his lips with the tongue and then cleared his throat “Sissy, do as he says. Process all data we have on the mission into this ‘thing’. We need a hint before we get hit.” Captain Shoffer had never been an enthusiast of predicting his or anyone`s future, and would rather not call the ‘thing’ by its real name, but as much as he tried to replace a solution for their problems, there seemed to be no light at the end of that tunnel.

“Captain, I already took the liberty of doing so and Aryayek is currently analyzing the data. So far, we tracked the coordinates of our destination at Groom Lake back to a high security military facility popularly known as Area 51.”

Area 51 is commonly known as a large military airfield officially called Groom Lake or Nevada Test and Training Range. The primary purpose of the base was for long time officially undetermined, however, for long it was believed that the facility most likely supported the development and testing of experimental aircrafts and weapons systems.

Although the facility has never been declared to be a secret base, all of its research and experiments were classified. In the terrestrial year of 2013, the existence of the base was publicly acknowledged for the first time when the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, declassified documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in the year of 2005.

The Area 51`s secrecy was notorious for its surroundings featured with warning signs stating ‘photography is prohibited’ and ‘use of deadly force is authorized’ under the term of the 1950 McCarran International Security Act.

“Understood, Sissy. Continue running this ‘thing’ and let me know once you obtain more information. Yet, there is no time to think about it, we have the antimatter to stabilize and a space disc to save. Cai Yiu, prepare the heli-rings, we are going down!”

As he finished giving his orders, Shoffer jumped right after Cai Yiu, sliding down the pipe connecting the bridge`s deck head to the magnetic pole and landed at the Flight Deck, followed by V-Nus and Flumen clumsily arriving after them.

While there was not much they could do onboard Chariot 3, but to wait for the spherical probes to replace a fuel that took humanity thousands of years to discover, Captain Shoffer would still gather his team and explorer the perimeter.