Prelude to Extinction: Xenophobia Series - Book 1 by Andreas Karpf

Author:Andreas Karpf [Karpf, Andreas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-03T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22 – July 26, 2124; 13:00:00

Kurt pushed himself back from the tangle of wires with which he was working and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His creation resembled a rat’s nest more than a carefully constructed series of relays and circuit breakers. With the schedule Jack had set for them, however, there wasn’t time to consider appearance.

He turned to Claire, who was looking over his work, and said, “I assume if one of your students back on Earth tried to pass this off as an assignment, you’d have failed them in a minute.”

She laughed and said, “I don’t think it would have taken that long.”

Kurt smiled, “Can you pass me that cover plate? I don’t want to leave the high-voltage lines exposed.”

She handed him the plastic plate, and he began re-attaching it to the wall. He felt that it was almost demeaning to have her assist him with such a mundane task. True, she was technically his assistant, but she held a doctorate in electrical engineering and had given up a faculty position at MIT to join the mission. It made him wonder how crew members like her dealt with their place on the ship. To be selected, of course, you had to be the very best in your field. But once they were underway, Claire and Pierre, among others, were relegated to ‘assistant’ positions for the next thirty years. Barring someone’s death, there would be no advancement to a higher position or rank. He began tightening the last of the screws, but his mind wouldn’t let go of the thought. Of course, being an ‘assistant’ on humanity’s first foray to another star system was more rewarding than any title he could imagine. But to have made it this far in their careers, they had to have had a strong desire to be the very best, to be the top person around. At some point, being second wouldn’t be good enough.

Claire handed him a few more screws, and he finished tightening the cover. Looking up, he said, “That’s the last one, right?”

“Yes. We’ve installed twenty of these relay and breaker units over the last ten hours. This better be the last.” Her tone stated very clearly that there was no doubt.

“I hope so,” he said with a smile. Then more seriously, “I’m still just worried about how much charge will actually build up when we pass through…the AGC. I mean, we’re just guessing what’s going to happen. What if each transit isn’t exactly the same? If it’s more severe, we could be in some serious trouble. Then there’s still the problem of what happens to us.”

“You’re not going to start that again, are you?”

“What do you mean?” he asked incredulously.

“Aside from blacking out, we came through fine last time. There were no serious injuries.”

“You sound as confident as Jack. I just wish I could be.”

“Well, think of it this way; it’s not like we have any choice.”

After they packed away the last of their tools, Kurt asked reluctantly,

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