Homeward Bound

[Toaster]

Captain Wallace sighed. How five years could have passed in near claustrophobic proximity to each other without the two cliques of crew and passengers assimilating was beyond him. He knew the researchers were busy with their workloads – after all, cataloging an entire new system was a tremendous effort – but he wasn’t sure whether he even knew them all well enough to call each by name, and there were just fifty people aboard the Astraeus.

He shrugged to himself. It shouldn’t matter to him. He had his crew – his family. And he had had the pleasure of spending nearly five years in their company, getting to know each and everyone of them as well as anyone could. Twenty-eight competent individuals, all experts in their respective duties, all cut from the same dedicated, adventurous material as Wallace himself. Each one of them had proven themselves to be an invaluable member of this small community.

The researchers and scientists on the other hand… Captain Wallace was certain they were all good men and women, dedicated to their jobs and willing to do what it took to complete their assignments. But they were just so damn busy all the time. The only ones he had ever had any lengthy conversations with were Dr. Haas and Dr. Milroy, the two heads of the research team. The rest were little more than strangers to him. Strangers on a comfortable but small vessel that had been on its own for five years.

Wallace shook his head. Scientists.

“Status report, everyone,” he announced to his bridge crew, straightening up in his seat.

“We’re still precisely on course and due to enter the system in twenty-eight days,” Mr. Culling piped up immediately. “We will pass right between the Kiribati field and the Palau cloud.”

Wallace nodded his approval. “Engineering?”

Mr. Iwamatsu turned to face the captain. “The reactor continues to maintain an output of eighty percent maximum performance. Engines one and two are running well within their parameters, as always.”

“And engine three?”

“Under routine maintenance, it should be up and running in roughly two hours.”

“Excellent, Mr. Iwamatsu.” Wallace hesitated a moment, smiling to himself. “Mr. Braumann?” The bearded Rheinlander sighed, looking over his blank console screen.

“Same as usual, captain. Nothing to report.”

Wallace chuckled. “Very well, Mr. Braumann. You may take the day.” Braumann rose from his seat, politely nodded towards the captain, and left the bridge. Captain Wallace turned in his seat to face Mr. Juaré, still slumped over his console, quietly snoring away. He started to address the old man but thought better of it. The drone pilot wouldn’t have anything to report anyway, as he hadn’t for the past eleven months. Instead, the captain turned towards Ms. Cartly.

“Sensors?”

His first officer kept her eyes on her readouts, replying, “Nothing new to report. I’m still helping Dr. Milroy and her team catalog the sensor data we collected in the Oort cloud.”

Wallace wrinkled his nose. “You’ve been at that for nearly five months.”

Shrugging, Cartly responded, “Yes, cap. The doctor still insists that the microparticles we picked up may be of organic nature.” She turned to face the captain, a sly smile on her face. “I still think it just looks like space dust.”

Wallace tapped his fingers on his seat’s armrests, thinking to himself, before jumping up out of it.

“Very well. Keep at it, everyone.” Nodding to his crew, he turned and marched off the command deck and down the narrow corridors towards the research team’s labs.