AL Clark by Jonathan G. Meyer (digital e reader .txt) 📕

Chris and his mother headed for the computer relay station located in the center of the ring. As they rode the lift up to the hub, she explained what they needed to do.

“There is a relay in the hub that is fed from the ship’s computer located beneath the shuttle bay. We need to close a few breakers and re-establish the link to the passenger terminals. Pretty simple really.”

Chris unexpectedly admitted, “I am so glad you’re here Mom.”

Liz looked at her son, a worried look on her face, “You’ve had a rough time here. How are you—I mean really?”

“I’m okay Mom. Things are much better now. If you want to know how I managed my time alone, you’ll have to read my journal. I even did some drawings.”

She smiled at him and touched his cheek. “I look forward to that.” She took a step back and looked him up and down, “You’ve grown so much, and you act just like your father.”

He replied, “I should be so lucky.”

“You miss him, don’t you?”

“Yes, mom, very much.”

“I miss him too,” she said, and added, “They say time heals all wounds.”

“I hope that’s true Mom, I really do.”

Suddenly uncomfortable, she changed the subject, “You need a haircut. I’m gonna have to take care of that.”

Chris grinned, shook his head and opened the lift hatch. In the hub, the lights came on, and he made a quick three-sixty around the circular room; gracefully returning to his mother.

“I couldn’t help myself,” he said.

“I understand that, but we’ve got work to do.”

“Yes, Mother.”

The panel they needed was embedded in the wall by the main ship door. Liz opened the panel, reset the breakers, and realigned the signal. A small screen in the compartment lit up with the Excalibur logo, and just that quickly their task was complete. The terminals were online.

They couldn’t help themselves from spending a few minutes playing in the hub before they headed back.

AL RETRIEVED THE CODEBOOK, and he and Ana sat down to work on their list. Going through the ledger was a tedious and time-consuming job. Rank was used to arrange the book instead of by profession, which required them to go through the entire list looking for doctors. They found four doctors and one surgeon before Al heard the room’s computer powering up.

“Computers are up,” he told Ana.

“All right!” She exclaimed, “Now we can find out what we need the easy way.”

She jumped up and ran to the desk to find the Excalibur logo displayed on the monitor with a flashing telltale that stated—Ready for input.

“Computer, show me a list arranged by priority, of the people to wake when we reach Avalon. Display the first twelve names.”

It took only a few moments to find the doctor they needed.

“It looks like we need to find a Doctor Ian Trask, pod number one-hundred and four. He was to be the third person revived,” Ana explained to Al.

Ana’s mind jumped to a new question. “Computer, what is our current location?”

“You location is the habitat ring—LQ fourteen,” said the computer in a strong woman’s voice.

“Not us—you idiot—the ship.”

“Insufficient information.”

“What do you mean, insufficient information?”

“Sensors are currently off-line,” the computer answered.

“Why?”

“Cause unknown.”

They were blind without sensors, as the computer had no way to determine where they were.

“Computer, what is the current date?”

“The current date is December twenty-first, two thousand two hundred and one.”

Ana frowned and looked at Al, “We left Earth more than forty years ago? Did we miss Avalon?”

Al found the information disheartening, and admitted, “We could be just outside our solar system or ten years past Avalon, we just won’t know until we get the sensors back. Let’s get ready to wake the doctor, and then we can wake our other technician, and then the captain. When we get to that point, maybe we can worry more about where in space we are.”

“One problem at a time—right?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

They met up with Chris and Liz on their way to the lift and together they went to the hiber-pod bay to find a doctor. To their dismay, Doctor Ian Traskow died years ago. He was a shrunken, dried-out facsimile of a human being, and would never help anyone again.

Second on their list, was Doctor Jacody Mumbada. When they located his pod, they found a pleasant looking black man around thirty years old that was a trauma care doctor and a cardiac specialist. According to the computer, he was Doctor Traskow’s backup replacement. His pod also had the troubling red light, but he was reasonably young, and through the mist in the window he appeared healthy.

Ana prepared the hiber-pod to begin the revival cycle, and set the timer for eight hours, as she had done with Liz. She stayed behind to monitor Doctor Mumbada’s pod while the rest of them prepared the medical center. After they completed their preparations, the four of them sat down to discuss the second hiber-pod technician they required.

The name that the computer suggested was not the technician that Ana wanted to wake. She had a friend aboard.

“I know this woman—I’ve worked with her before I came to the ship, and she is an excellent technician.”

“Shouldn’t we be following the computer recommendations,” reminded Liz. She believed in by the book procedures.

Ana was quick to reply, “I need to know I have someone I can work with. Under these conditions, we don’t have time for personality clashes.”

“I think Ana is right,” Al said, “We do have to get along with one another if we’re going to speed this up.”

Eventually, Liz reconsidered, and they decided to wake Ana’s friend. Chris was for whatever Ana was for, so Elizabeth was effectively outvoted.

When the doctor’s pod slid open, Chris and Al loaded him onto the floating stretcher and took him to the medical center. Once there and under Ana’s care, he recovered quickly, his first words were—of course, “Where Am I?”

His new shipmates went through the explanation process again, introducing themselves and informing the physician of their plight. Ana continued to administer to Doctor Mumbada while the others went to prepare for another awakening. They only needed one more person, and they could wake the captain. Hopefully, when he joined them, the highly trained and experienced officer could start making sense of their situation.

Al was elected to return to the habitat ring and have the robots prepare a room for the doctor. Liz told him how to access the robot’s storage space, and tired of sitting, he grabbed his stuff and got moving. An hour later, he was in the robots cubby hole and standing in front of robot number nine.

“Robot Nine, I need you and your two friends to prepare quarters just aft of mine for Doctor Jacody Mumbada. He will require bedding, towels, and work clothing. Because he’s a doctor, he will need a portable medical kit. Can you do all that?”

“Yes, sir. I can procure what you request. Will he require coffee?”

Al smiled and said, “Sure, why not?”

“Is that all, sir?”