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Book 3: Chapter 6: Launch
Book 3: Chapter 6: Launch
Book 3: Chapter 6: Launch
Bill
January 2223
Epsilon Eridani
Garfield shook his head in awe. “It’s like those cartoon muscle cars when we were a kid—the ones that were all engine.”
The images in the video windows were indeed impressive. Epsilon Eridani 1, now in a completely new orbit around its sun, was surrounded by eight hundred mover plates. Trailing it by a million kilometers or so was one of the larger ex-moons of Epsilon Eridani 3, with a similar array of plates.
It had taken years to not only build all the equipment, but also to figure out how to control the assemblies. Forty supervisor AMIs were dedicated to maintaining and balancing the fields for each planet, in addition to the AMI in each plate.
And overseeing each planet would be my latest clones. They’d named themselves Daedalus and Icarus, which I privately thought was a little pretentious. But hey, it’s a free galaxy.
Garfield looked at me, his face flushed with excitement. “Short-range test complete. There’s a lot of room for error, but at minimum this setup is good for hundreds of Gs.”
I smiled and leaned back in my chair. “I guess we’re about ready, then.” A quick ping to Dae and Ick, and they popped into my VR.
“Okay, guys. Everything checks out. You’re clear that this is a Hail Mary, right?”The two nodded. Daedalus replied, “Sure, but it’s worth trying. Worst case, we fail, and the Bobs are no worse off.”
“It’s a good opportunity to get some quiet time for some astrophysics work, too,” Icarus added with a smile.
I chuckled in reply. Icky had turned out very similar to me in temperament. Content to leave the exploration and fighting to others, he just wanted to work on his research.
I found myself a little ambivalent about Icarus and Daedalus. Cloning ourselves was always purposeful, of course. But I’d cloned these two for what could turn out to be a suicide mission. It felt unclean, somehow.
They knew exactly what I’d been thinking when I’d made the decision to go ahead. The pair gazed back at me with alert interest, no trace of blame or rancor on their faces. I decided I’d accept their judgment.
I hesitated, looking around the room. This was one of those moments that changed your life forever. Everything was ready to go. Time to fish or cut bait. “Okay, guys. The docking bays are ready for your ships. Connect up, hit the road, and Godspeed.” ????B??