They knocked over the trash can and disappeared.
“Wait, they forgot their change,” Edwin said.
“Shut the fuck up, Edwin.”
Markus looked out the window, and seemed about to go outside when his phone beeped.
“Hi Markus, this is Windee did you forget about our technical staff meeting? We’re waaaaiting for you!”
Now that donuts were being made in the kitchen, the replicators could be devoted to completing the stargate. And, with the base construction accelerated, Windee was already running full simulations on the alignment algorithm.
The captain had suggested they would use tectonic faults to power the stargate, as this region of the planet seemed full of them. However, there had been difficulties.
“As before, our main obstacle is the unpredictable nature of the faults. They offer adequate power, if we can predict when the earthquakes will happen.”
“Why can’t we just synthesize antimatter?” Markus complained.
“The captain says we can’t use antimatter,” Windee said automatically.
“Antimatter is far too dangerous for this planet, Markus. You know that,” Shirley said.
Markus shrugged. “That’s not our fault.”
“Markus,” Shirley warned.
“I was making a joke—get it, fault?”
“Yes, I do,” Shirley said, sounding unconvinced.
“Hey!” shouted Windee. “Maybe instead of passively gathering fault-line energy, we can actively initiate discharge using a modulated graviton pulse!”
“We’re trying to generate power, not use more of it,” said Markus.
Shirley paused. “So, Windee, your idea is to induce earthquakes, then instantly draw their power before they can damage the planet?”
“That’s what I saaaid!”
“We would need to be certain of our calculations to avoid dev astating the region. But the concept has promise. Can you continue your work?”
“Okay, Shirley!” Windee saluted and returned to her station.
“Markus, what’s your progress on the modeling program?” Shirley said.
“It’s going well. But I have a few improvements on the interface that I’d like to run by you. Might you take a look?”
Markus led Shirley to his workstation, where he pulled up a screen. Shirley frowned.
“Markus,” she said quietly, “that’s not the modeling interface.”
Markus shook his head. “No. It’s a communications net. I’ve been constructing it in my spare time. The work is almost complete, but I need our exact travel path to recalculate our proper timeline.”
Shirley shook her head. “We’re not supposed to contact our timeline. Mother gave us orders.”
Markus continued as if he hadn’t heard. “I’ve been plugging in approximate values, and I have narrowed the possible timelines. But I can’t be sure which is the correct timeline without your help. You must have recorded the transit data, right?”
“Markus. Stop.”
“So, you’re saying you have the transit data but can’t share it?”
“Markus, please focus on your assignment. I look forward to hearing of your progress at our next meeting,” Shirley said. Then she disappeared.
Bitch.
Now Markus was convinced that his mother was keeping the coordinates hidden. She probably brainwashed Shirley into keeping the space-time variables secret, too.
Fuck! There had to be a way around the data block. But Shirley or the captain would detect any attempt to penetrate the ship’s security.
Markus had everything he needed to communicate. But without the ship’s space-time values, all he had was a radio with an infinite number of stations, and no way to know which signal was actually coming from home.
* * *
Windee Tran didn’t know why she was so smart. She just was. The captain had asked her to realign the space-time filaments, which had been easy. Now she was modeling a tectonic profile for the graviton emitters. That was easy, too.
So now Windee was looking for something else to do.
Lately, she’d noticed Markus trying to back-calculate the navigation data. She assumed that the captain had asked him to. The captain probably thought she was too young. Windee tried not to laugh. Markus was a cool big brother, but his calculations could be slow and crude.
Luckily, Windee was a calculating whiz. And the math looked fun. So Windee went downstairs to her workstation and began defining her variables.
Two hours later, Windee Tran found Markus in the kitchen.
“Hi, Markus! How are you?”