
Subj : New Beginnings
To   : All
From : Skyhawk #1
Date : Sun Aug 06 1995 16:55:43 PST

                             New Beginnings(26)
                             By Daniel C. Harrison(Skyhawk)
     
     The darkness turned to gray as, Candar heard the voice in the distance.
"Candar, can you hear me? Candar..?"
     "Uhmmmm" She sighed and opened her eyes...and swore as she was hit with a
blazing light! "I...I can see!" she shouted. She forced her eyes open, the pain
rupping through her. She had been in darkness too long. Squinting, she turned
slightly to the left and saw the smiling face of Dr. Grayson leaning over her.
Jerry was behind him. He moved forward and squeezed her hand.
     "Jerry." she whispered. The tears of joy came to her eyes and, she
laughed. Jerry laughed too and, Grayson nodded. She smiled. "Thank you,
Doctor. I don't know what to say?"
     Grayson shrugged, "How about..let's get this ship moving? Jerry finished
welding the A frames hours ago. All that remains is to puit the shuttles in
position."
     Jerry nodded. "He told me you were about to come out of surgery..and I
wanted to be here. Hope you understand, Captain." He squeezed her hand again.
     "Silly," Candar started to get up then, gasped and slumped down on her
pillow. Gently, Jerry helped her up. "Your still weak from the anesthesia. But
your coming around."
     "I can't believe the colors." Candar looked at the gray dingy infirmary
yet, it was as colorful as a rainbow."I understand what blind people go through
now. Are the colonists alright?"
     "We were able to stabilize the secondary systems. I need to lock the
shuttles in position and, Kevin already talked me through how to network the
computers. Henry has set up a pre-launch window for alignment with Mirinda III
but, he isn't sure he has the math right. I double checked him but, I'd like
you to reverify. We only get one shot at this" Jerry's face was serious now.
     "I know. And, I'm ready to go to work." She slipped off the table feeling
her strength returning, ignoring the bandage wrapped around her head. Grayson
had done a good job. "I'm going to the bridge. Jerry, get Henry and move those
ships into position. We still have a lot of work to do."
     "Right, boss." He grinned and left the room.
     Candar turned to Grayson. "How long do I have before I go blind again..or
worse?"
     Grayson sighed heavily. "I don't know..could be years or maybe tomorrow.
Tumors don't grow on schedule. People who have been predicted to die in a week
have been astounding medical professionals for years by living beyond it. I
think it might have something to do with the will to live. In your case, I
can't say.."
     "I have a lot of will." She smiled and looked over at Kevin who was
sleeping. "He looks better. How much longer before he can return to duty?"
     "About two more days I hope. I don't want to push it and, he has been
instrumental in helping Jerry."
     Candar realized there was a time slip here. "Okay. How long was I under?"
     "You've been out for almost two days, Candar. Slipped into a slight coma.
I had to pull you out. Fortunately, it worked. Your body was reacting
strangely, almost as if fighting..and I'm not talking about an infection. Do
you remeber anything while you were under?"
     Candar thought hard. There was something..some event but, she couldn't
recall. It was sad...terrifying. Her mind wanted to blot it out. She shrugged.
"Sorry, I can't remember."
     "That's okay." Grayson started putting some things away. "Don't work
yourself too hard, Captain. You need to rest even if you don't realize it."
     "I will." She turned and walked out the door. Making her way through the
corridors, she still marvelled in the color. Even the dark corners seemed to
leap out at her the light invading them. She stopped at the bottom of the
ladder leading to the bridge and looked up. She could see the white ceiling
above, the many lights from instruments blinking. Smiling, she climbed up and
entered the hatchway. She could see Henry's back to her, he was working hard on
something. "Can I help?" she said.
     Henry spun the chair around astonished. Grinning widely, he jumped up.
"Candar! I..I mean, Captain! You can see!"
     "It still smells like a meat factory in here." She laughed noticing they
had spit shined the place. A marvel after being sprayed with blood
everywhere."Are we ready to get moving?"
     "God, I hope so." Henry handed her a sheet of paper. "My astrophysics is a
bit rusty I'm afraid. Jerry checked it but, he wanted a third confirmation
before we launch. Need to correct for drift too."
     "No problem." Candar took the sheet and, working the problem quickly, she
found that there were no errors. She smiled. "Your math is excellent. We have a
launch window of twelve hours and thirty six minutes. It should put us in a
direct line for Mirinda. If all goes well, we should enter orbit in three
hundred and seventy days...a little over a year."
     "Damn." Henry sat down. "I was hoping I was wrong. What the hell will we
do for a year? We'll all go stir crazy!"
     "That isn't what worries me, Henry." Candar rechecked the figures. "Kevin
told me the landing will be rough and he wasn't kidding. We wont have any fuel
for a soft landing. We need to develop a way to slow us down once we enter
orbit. I'm not worried about burning up, the ship has sufficient protection and
we can angle the trajectory to assist as well. But, we wont be able to
decelerate. We'll hit the ground at better than a hundred miles an hour or
maybe more. Any ideas?"
     Henry thought a moment. "In the early days of space travel, the government
of the United States had an agency called NASA. They sent up several early
manned rockets. The crew came down in capsules that had parachutes on them. We
could try to rig something like that."
     "The Outlander is too heavy for that. But, we could maybe try it to at
least reduce our speed. We will hit like a bomb but, with luck we'll survive.
At least, I hope we will." Candar stared out the viewport. It would be tragic
to live this long, only to die in the landing..life wasn't fair.


                                                                        

                                                                               
                    
