Quantum Disturbance by Arton Haziri

Author:Arton Haziri [Haziri, Arton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Having endured several complications, near death experiences and total communication blackout, receiving signal from the Ground Crew finally alleviated their fears, though their troubles were still persistent and far from over. The voice of Roger Simons was the most saccharine tone they’ve heard in a long time. Crew instantly rushed to celebrate, but aside Andre, no one was aware that the problem that plagued radio antennas was still there. They entirely neglected their Commander and Albert, who were still hugging their tools at the Airlock entrance. Within seconds, the crew found themselves in the living hall, sprinkling the mineral water out of contentment. Two astronauts, still situated on the cold metallic floor, stared at each other speechlessly, calm, knowing their work wasn’t done yet. They heard celebrating voices shouting joyously in the distance, voices that dispersed through the corridors of what was believed to be lost and out of coordination ship. The voice from Earth which they longed for, gave birth to new hope, hope of surviving, accomplishing the mission and the prestige of leaving a mark in history books, as the first people to colonise Jupiter’s mysterious Europa.

‘Irri.’ Eric called peacefully, ‘please get Andre here the faster the better,’ even before he finished his request, Andre showed up carrying two smallish in size oxygen canisters. He congratulated astronauts for the effort they had put in resolving the problem, and before anyone said anything, he began replacing their depleted canisters, while reporting on the situation considering the terminal and deciphering the newly arrived message.

‘The situation is not as good as to deserve celebration, you told them that?’

‘We haven’t really said a word since we came back.’ Albert replied, while Eric just listened.

‘It is true, we did receive the incoming call from Europa Ground Base, but we can’t…I have my doubts…I’m afraid they can’t hear us. Now, there could be several causes for that, terminal malfunction, something went wrong with the code or something hardware related, and I mean antennas. Guys, we need to tell them somehow that we are here, because if we don’t, they might stop and give up, render us dead and super expensive space junk.’

‘I didn’t believe I would say this,’ Captain’s face turned grim, immediately after his oxygen tank was installed, ‘but…I believe you have the right to know.’ He cleared his throat, ‘before the morning, remember when I pulled the stupid prank on you guys, you know?’

‘I doubt we’ll forget that anytime soon!’ Andre reacted with grim, unblinking face and voice that was slightly saturated with anger.

‘Well, Irri did some extensive analysis on our position and the direction we are headed to, and…guys I’m going to be honest with you, we deviated ever slightly from our pre dictated course.’ Two listeners went slightly pale, while Eric’s expression was that of a defeatist. The situation suddenly became dire. Computing the distance and direction to which the gigantic ship was headed, even the slightest deviation in desired trajectory, would result in them flying pass the target, missing it and ending up on the journey to Kuiper Belt, doming their fate.

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