CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One: The Last Living Ship ∞ 1: A New Mission

32 ∞ Currents Versus Itinerary

Day 00006 Mission Nilex

Captain Gareth Levant left the Garden with simmering anger and disbelief.

«Canaisis,» he thought, «why didn't we see this right away?»

«The wording and language are very much in order of most business language we're familiar with, Captain. There were some parts of Corporate Law that I did say I wanted you to clarify for me.»

He stopped himself in mid-thought and considered her words. «You're correct, Canaisis. It's my fault for putting off looking into what you wanted. Next time I put you off, you have my permission to shoot me twice during practice.»

«I won't hold you to that. You were understandably occupied with our guests. What's your destination, Captain?»

He had stepped into the transit tube. «Bridge, please.»

Canaisis delivered him faster than usual, as if she sensed his mood. He stepped onto the Bridge and flung himself at the command chair. Once seated, he made himself calm his mind—it was time to be logical and not emotional.

"Report on seed pods," he said to Canaisis.

"No change, all appears in order."

"Report on ships being monitored."

"Two ships of possible military application have started leaving orbit."

"Does that include the one we first started watching?"

"No, Captain."

"Proximity to usable solar magnetic lines?"

"We could begin sailing now, but a current of more efficiency is still a ways away."

"Show me, please."

The front wall screen lit up with a diagram of the Sol system and curving torus lines of Sol's magnetic field. Canaisis was climbing straight up out of the system, perpendicular to the planetary orbits. Had they followed the planetary plane, they would have been passing Jupiter.

Gareth was very tempted to open sail and leave this system as fast as possible. But another part of him said not to, that Earth did not yet know Canaisis' control of magnetic currents and it was better that way. They had entered the system as if on inertia alone, coasting and gravity-braking. It gave them time to analyze a system while appearing like a normal ship. Experience had taught him and Canaisis the value of not alarming the natives, and the element of surprise could be a powerful tool.

"Maintain trajectory, while I come to a decision."

"Aye, Captain."

"Pull up the Pleiades star cluster map. Let's look at the seed pod delivery schedule."

The wall monitor changed to show the star cluster and a dotted blue line showed the projected course, ending in New Jordan. A different idea occurred to him while he studied the map. Several actually, from different perspectives.

"How far out are the globe drones from us, Canaisis?"

"Approximately six million kilometers."

"Can we extend them farther?"

"Approximately twelve million kilometers is the limit of my reach while under fusion drive."

Roughly thousand times the diameter of Earth, Gareth thought idly. Two on opposite sides of the ship doubled that, giving the cameras a better ability to triangulate a target.

"Dedicate eight drones to the task of keeping watch at the max distance, and let's focus on those two ships every twenty minutes. I want close-ups of them, every angle and from every side of those ships. Start building a 3D schematic based on observations so far. Do we have an estimated course yet?"