Worlds Apart
William L Frame
Copyright © 2020 William L Frame
All rights reserved
First Edition
Fulton Books, Inc.
Meadville, PA
Published by Fulton Books 2020
ISBN 978-1-64654-353-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-64654-354-0 (digital)
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
For Harry
Prologue
The Fulcrum
Earth’s colonial starship, the Fulcrum, sailing under autonomous control through the vast, empty distances of interstellar space, executed an emergency course correction eighty-six years into a one hundred thirty-seven-year voyage. Hibernation pods containing the ship’s flight engineers Michael and Kera Collins were automatically activated with the unscheduled course change. Sleeping beside their children’s pods, the husband-and-wife team awakened to the projected hologram persona of Cooper, the ship’s AI appearing to be standing beside their pods as it waited for a response.
“How long?” Mike asked, groggy from the effects of hibernation.
The AI answered, “Eighty-six years, fifty-six days, twelve hours, fifteen—”
“We got it, Cooper. What’s the situation?” Kera asked, interrupting the emotionless AI entity. With ten thousand souls in hibernation, it was their task to maintain the ship’s flight systems and verify all course changes that diverged from the original programmed flight path in the event of an emergency.
“My sensors have detected the impact of a rogue planet one hundred eighty-three miles in diameter colliding with an orbiting planetary body with a diameter of one thousand two hundred sixty-one miles. The system is WLF1954, which is aligned with our destination’s flight path. The planet was the seventh planet composed of a rocky core covered by a three-thousand-foot layer of methane ice. The impact was a direct hit, completely destroying both in the event. The system’s sun is pulling the debris inward. The Fulcrum was to sail through the planetary system, but the highly unlikely and impossible doomsday scenario just happened. I cannot avoid the debris field created by the impact. The debris is expanding outward in all directions as the system’s sun pulls it back inward, forming an umbrella of debris. I’ve altered our course to avoid most of the debris. Our best option is to sail directly into planetary system WLF1954 and orbit the third planet called Planos, which is habitable. I calculate it will take twenty-one hours, fourteen minutes, and thirteen seconds to position the Fulcrum behind the planet and use its mass as a shield. The emergency requires my programming to continue transmitting a subspace message to Imperial Command, streaming our shipwide status until the event passes without incident or we are destroyed.
“The planetary survey records list the planet as inhabited by a humanoid species. I’ve launched a probe to scan the surface and confirm the survey’s findings of humanoid life,” Cooper informed the pair as they quickly dressed into their ship coveralls.
“How long before we position the ship behind the planet of this system?” Mike asked, zipping up the front of his coveralls.
“Full tactical analysis will be provided on the bridge,” Cooper flatly responded to the question.
He glanced at his wife, who was looking worriedly at her sleeping children, when her eyes rose from them to lock with her man’s. “They’ll be fine,” Mike assured his wife.
“Yes, I know, but mother’s worry,” she said with a smile and then ordered the AI. “Cooper, meet us on the bridge.” Kera turned away from the hologram and faced her husband as the hologram disappeared. “Eighty-six years, we’re barely two-thirds of the way there and we can’t go back to sleep. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, babe. Let’s find out the full extent of what we’re facing,” he said to her as he reached out for her hand. Quickly they made their way down the corridor to the elevator that would take them up to the ship’s flight deck and the bridge.
Once on the bridge, Cooper materialized to stand before them on the right side of the elevator doors. The pair stepped just inside the doors as they stopped and looked at the ship’s view screen on the opposite wall. With Cooper’s usual efficiency, the view screen depicted the enormity of the calamity threatening the ship. From their current position, Cooper had run multiple simulations showing alternate escape trajectories in dim red lines.