Lucifer Comet (2464 CE) by Ian Wallace

Author:Ian Wallace [Wallace, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-16T21:00:00+00:00

A great variety of scientific instrumentation would be needed; but as it turned out, most of the equipment already on hand in the institution labs of the individual scientists was portable (some massively portable despite pattern-laser microcircuitry) and adaptable to self-contained nuclear-pellet power. Liana Green specified the only exception: she claimed to need some systems whose roots were firmly embedded in Antarctic glacial ice or in sub-ice bedrock. Methuen headed off a delay of many months by pointing out that similar anchorages could hardly be attained on Dora in time to pay off during a hundred-day stay (the revised figure). After some consultation with her stratogeologist colleague and with the ESC chief of interplanetary geology, she huffily compromised on substitute nuclear-powered and portable systems which operated on the sonar principle and were locally available.

The frigate Farragut was lean-mean impressive, torpedoshaped to get her through atmospheres in a hurry en route to and from space; length half a kilometer, beam behind her nose eighty meters tapering back to ten. Preliminary exploration revealed a disappointing paucity of private cabins, and they were tiny; but the storage space was beautiful, and the engines and differential mass frightening.

At the end of a tour, they met in the captain’s mess over cocktails; there the task force members, carefully avoiding the subject of their personal discomfort, complained bitterly about having to deploy their instruments along with their bodies in such cubicles. Methuen inquired which ones among them would need to use their instruments while in space-transit. It developed that the only one was Astrophysicist Sari. The captain then observed that there was excellent storage space for instruments which would not be in space use; and he added that a special lab for Dr. Sari could be set aside within the storage area. That silenced the task force; and Methuen wickedly drove home the needle by remarking that the officers who normally would enjoy single privacy in these cubicles would have to double up to make room for the scientists.

At that, Olga surprisingly moved (a) that Captain Methuen and Executive Officer Zorbin should not be displaced from the cabins they would normally occupy, and (b) that Captain Methuen be authorized to make all cabin assignments subject to appeal only to himself. Sari seconded.

Methuen as chairman asked and secured permission to introduce an amendment, namely, that he and Zorbin would co-bunk in the captain’s cabin, thus releasing an additional cabin for assignment. Olga seconded, hoping for assignment with her instruments to the slightly enlarged space of the executive officer’s cabin.

The motion as amended passed. “Thank you,” Methuen remarked; “the amendment will allow me to assign the executive officer’s cabin to my second and third officers who together will find the space barely adequate for their operational needs.” Olga knew better than to comment.

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