Joseph J. Lazzarro & Peter L. Manly

Ben Franklin’s Spaceship

Silence on a spacecraft is a heart-stopping sound, for it means the air scrubbers have ceased working. Captain Jakeson snapped his eyes open and in the dim emergency lighting saw his clothes floating in a free-fall in the center of his cabin.

“Damn! The engines are dead!” Holding onto the edge of his bunk, he stabbed at the intercom button to call: “Bridge!”

The speaker remained silent.

He glanced out his window and saw that the giant saucer-shaped antenna was still intact. She looked like an umbrella towing a beer can. Franklin was the first electric powered spaceship, driven by microwave energy beamed across space. She converted the radiant energy into electricity, powering the ion engine complex. He had felt proud to be her master, setting new records of speed and endurance. The Franklin was the only ship that could travel funder constant acceleration, a fact that was driving the other aerospace transportation and supply companies out of their collective minds. It also changed the economics of Earth-Mars travel, substituting high-value goods for their usual passenger load. Indeed, a good chunk of the company’s net worth was tied up in this single cargo. Because of the sheer value of the mission, Jakeson had resigned himself months earlier to the possibility that his brand new ship just had to be the target of corporate and political intrigue.

Fear, determination, and a slight edge of anger filled his mind. He knew that in space, fear dulls your thinking and ultimately can kill. While easing out of the bunk he ran down a mental checklist that would isolate the cause of the power failure, and if it turned out to be sabotage he’d track it to the source with a vengeance.

Nobody screwed with his ship and got away with it!

He mentally backed up and reminded himself that the ship was of a new design and that all the bugs might not have been ironed out. He groped for the emergency flashlight and reviewed his position. With the engines out, the ship was well past turn-over, more than halfway to Mars. They were on battery power and could last only a short time.

Then a scraping noise from the stateroom entrance caught his attention and he heard the engineer ask: “Captain? You in there?”

“Yes, Smitty. Come in.”

Jakeson stood as the engineer opened the door. “All the displays just died. No intercom either.”

“You got any idea what caused this?”

“Not yet, Sir. Can’t tell anything until we get the computers back on-line. We’re working on that now.”

Jakeson pulled himself toward the stateroom door. “Have you seen any other crew?”

“Just Vinnie in the galley. He said he’d stay put until he’s needed somewhere else.”

Jakeson paused at the ladder leading upward. “Get back to the engineering section, and get ready to feed a report to Jonesie. I’m heading for the bridge.”

The emergency lights provided dim illumination at best, but he preferred their feeble glow to the total blackness of space. He tried to reason out the situation calmly, clinging to his training. He was damned sure that it was not yet time for the Franklin to go into free-fall. The computer had not announced any divergence in the flight plan, either routine or emergency, which normally proclaimed all course changes. He rifled through his brain, trying to come up with an answer.

The ship’s basic structure was not that complicated. Had the antenna complex malfunctioned, or lost its link with the transmitter? Or maybe one of the individual engines had failed, causing a system shutdown? There was no way to determine the trouble without the computers, and valuable seconds had already ticked away. At least he hadn’t heard or felt an explosion.

This was one of the “quiet” failures. Glancing up the ladder which ran the length of the ship, he saw a shadowed face looking down helplessly and bellowed: “You know what happened?”

“No, Sir, I—”

“Then stay put up there!”

He gently pulled himself up and headed for the bridge, hoping to find answers in the ship’s control center.

The bridge had a telescope and the communications antennas; the rectenna and ion engines were forward of that. He moved onward. There were no other crew members on the ladder to be seen, and he hoped they were all at their emergency stations by now. After what seemed to be an eternity he entered the bridge, its normally bright displays and computers all dark. The emergency lights barely lit the chamber, giving the scene a ghastly appearance as he spotted First Officer Suzanne Jones.

“Report!” he snapped.

Jonesie waited at her command console, a look of controlled concern playing across her face. “The first thing to determine is whether an engine failed, the rectenna malfunctioned, or if the beam stopped. I can’t give you any answers until the network comes back on-line. For the moment, we’re running on emergency battery power.”

“But why are the computers down?” Jakeson asked peevishly. “Aren’t the damn things running on uninterruptable power supplies?”

“Yes, they are, sir. I don’t have a good technical explanation. Perhaps a power spike went through the system?”

“Well, reboot the damned things and let’s have some answers.”

“I’m working on that. But it’ll be a few minutes, sir.”

There was nothing to do but wait, and Jakeson grudgingly strapped himself into his command seat, glaring at the dark display screens. He rolled his eyes to heaven, knowing how finicky computers could be, and with life hanging in the frigging balance. He could operate computers, but didn’t eat, sleep, and breathe the machines like Jonesie did. She was a total computer geek if there ever was one.

After a time, Jonesie floated over to Jakeson’s station. Her face showed some relief, but she still looked as if she’d tasted sour milk.

“We’ve managed to get the computers back on-line. Good thing someone around here does triple backups. From all the data, it looks like Earth’s orbital power station simply isn’t transmitting any longer.”

“You’re sure it’s not a problem on board the Franklin?”

“Yes, sir. The orbital microwave beamer must be out of action.”

“Hmmm.” Jakeson frowned. “I really don’t like that answer. We can only rely on battery power for a few days, and that’s only if we take almost everything off-line.”

“That’s my re commendation, sir.”

“Get ready to send a signal then. I want to transmit our current status back to base, and find out what the hell’s happening back there.”

Jonesie pulled herself back to her station. Flipping several switches, she spoke to Jakeson decisively. “You’re on the air!”

Jakeson used few words in describing their current situation. They were without engine power, but with no obvious structural damage. They were running on emergency battery power, but that power could last only a few days at best. He also requested an immediate status report from base. Then, as he locked the handset into place, he queried the revived computer and found that the message would take six minutes to reach Earth. It would be at least twelve minutes before he could expect an answer.

He looked up at Jonesie. “Keep the channel open. They may have already transmitted an explanation before we sent our question.”

The minutes dragged on. Smitty reported the intercom back on-line, adding that the engines were operational—they just lacked power. Twelve minutes came and went and stretched to fifteen, and just as Jakeson was about to transmit a second, heated request for information, the channel came alive.

“Um, Franklin this is Beamer. Your message is received and we’ll… ah, get back to you. Beamer out.”

Before he could build up a good, angry head of steam for a retort, it occurred to him that the orbiting microwave power station, Beamer, might be in the middle of its own emergency. He could envision them handling a fire or a blowout, not able to take time to answer his radio messages.

“Jonesie, sounds like Beamer’s got a problem. Can you swing the high gain antenna over toward Earth and see if we can pick up any local signals?”

“Aye, Sir!” Her hands flew across the keyboard as she watched her displays. She listened quietly for a few minutes, her face cold sober. “Sounds like normal radio traffic to me.” She shifted frequencies several times. “If Beamer had a problem they’d be screaming for help, but all the emergency frequencies are quiet.”

“Well, then, see if you can get me a link to corporate headquarters. I need to know what’s going on!”

Several minutes later Jonesie reported: “Sir, I can’t get into our usual relay satellite. I think they changed the transponder codes.”

Jakeson knew the ship was equipped with puny radios which could be heard only by the company ’s privately owned satellite with special antennas and he glared at the microphone. “Ain’t it great working for the cheapest company in the System?” Then he stopped to consider his options.

“Try to raise Mars,” he suggested finally. “They’re closer to us anyway.”

“I’ll try, sir, but they aren’t expecting a message from us so I doubt their antenna is pointed in the right direction. Furthermore, we’re no longer following our planned trajectory since the engines shut down. Even if they wanted to call us they’d point at a place thousands of kilometers from where we actually are.”

“Well, give it a try anyway. And see if you can pick up any news broadcasts. I’m going below.”

“Aye, sir.”

Jakeson was floating in the engine maintenance bay when Jonesie reached him. “Sir, there’s a news broadcast I think you ought to hear. I’m recording it.”

Jakeson pressed the intercom button. “I’m on my way.”

He pulled himself into the bridge and she said: “I’ll rewind the recording.”

The speaker came to life: “…while stock in the tiny Martian company has tripled in value…”

Jonesie reached for the controls. “Oops. Rewound too far. It’s the next one I wanted you to hear.”

“Let it play!” Jakeson barked.

The broadcast played on: “…invented a new process for the manufacture of solar cells with twice the efficiency at one-tenth the cost. In other news, Space Ventures announced they may be having trouble with their new cargo ship, the Ben Franklin. The experimental spacecraft has not been heard from in five days. Even though her skipper is an experienced spacer, company officials fear the worst.”

Jakeson lowered his brows and thought. For the past four days he had sent in regular reports and they had been acknowledged as usual. Something was fishy. Now he found he couldn’t communicate with the company or anybody else.

“Jonesie, I think we just heard our own obituary.”

She gaped at him, astonished. He looked up and said, “Pull up the cargo manifest on your screen. I’m going to look over the ship’s papers.” When he returned to the bridge he asked: “What’s the highest value cargo we have?”

She ran a finger down the screen. “Well, for a single lot about a third of the cargo mass is power system components for the Mars colony. After that, um, the medical equipment is pretty expensive. The rest is construction stuff to expand the colony. It’s things they can’t make yet for themselves.”

Jakeson studied the ship’s papers for a moment. “You know, Jonesie, we’re more valuable dead than alive. Those power system components in the cargo bays are just solar cells, and with the new ones coming on the market they aren’t worth a tenth of what the company paid for ’em.” He waved a sheaf of papers in her face. “But the cargo is fully insured and the ship, too. If we reach Mars then the company loses a bundle.”

“Sir, they wouldn’t—”

“I think they already did.”

He pressed the intercom button. “Smitty, get up here. Have I got an engineering job for you!” When the engineer arrived, Jakeson asked him: “Smitty, did you ever wonder why they collect solar power in Earth orbit and beam it to the ship rather than mount the solar collectors on the ship?”

“Yes, sir, I did. I believe the answer was that they could switch power from ship to ship more easily and they could sell unused power while we were docked and loading.”

“Yes, I bought that excuse myself. But I think the real reason was to exercise control. They have the on/off switch in their hands.”

Smitty sighed, and then brightened after a moment as he scribbled some notes on a piece of paper. “I think I may have a solution to our little problem.” He held up the note. “These are just some preliminary calculations, but I think we can vacuum-weld the solar collectors in cargo to the microwave antenna and power the ship’s engines. We’ll get only about half the thrust but we’ve got enough consumable supplies to get to Mars.”

Jakeson grinned. “Exactly my own idea but I hadn’t carried the design as far as you have. Get working on it. Use any available crew.” He turned to his first officer, “Jonesie, see if you can’t rig one of our radios to the high gain antenna. At some point we’re going to have to talk to corporate headquarters. And keep an ear on the news. I expect they’ll have a nice funeral service for us and I don’t want to miss that!”

A month after her scheduled arrival, the ship sidled up to Phobos Station and startled the Mars traffic controllers.

“Good to see you, Franklin! We thought you were lost.”

“Just a little detour, Phobos,” Jakeson replied. “We took the scenic route.”

Jonesie interrupted: “Sir, I have an urgent call from corporate headquarters on Mars.”

“Tell ’em to wait.”

“Aye, sir!”

Jakeson got himself a squeeze-bulb of coffee, paced the ship and thought hard before returning to the bridge to accept the call.

“Put ’em through.”

The video screen lit up to show a fat little man sitting there with a forced smile on his face. “Captain Jakeson! What a pleasant surprise to see the ship and you, alive.”

Jakeson had met this corporate hack twice before. Deevers was a mid-level manager in charge of acquisitions who didn’t have a sincere bone in his body. After the earlier meetings, he had wanted to wash his hands. It felt good to be on the offensive.

He leaned forward and smiled back. “I understand that your company considers us dead. Do you have business with us?”

Deevers appeared at a loss for words. “Um, why yes! We thank you for delivering our cargo to Mars orbit.”

“ ‘Our’ cargo? Let me cut to the bottom line. You and your corporation no longer own either this ship or its cargo. Two days ago you received the largest insurance payment ever for an ‘irretrievable’ shipping loss. Legally, the ship was then salvaged by us.”

Deevers sputtered. “But, but, you are our loyal employees. You were working for Ventures at the time.”

Jakeson smiled. “Loyal employees? I bet you cut off our salaries on the same day you cut off the microwave beam!”

“Now please, Captain, I’m sure we can clear up this little misunderstanding. I’d like to—”

“CAN IT! We have no business to conduct.” Jakeson reached for the cut-off switch.”

“Captain, if you’re claiming the ship? That’s mutiny!”

Jakeson winked at Jonesie. “No, this is not mutiny. It’s only mutiny if the crew revolts against the commanding officer, not if the commander revolts against the powers that be. I am being insubordinate, not mutinous. There’s a difference.” He grinned.

Deevers looked like he was close to having a heart attack. “You don’t think you have a chance in hell of winning, do you? Our legal staff alone is larger than 85 percent of the registered corporations.”

Jakeson’s smile got bigger. “I don’t have to win, just keep this ship tied up in the courts until the Moon develops her own atmosphere.” He leaned back in his command chair and tapped his fingers. “Tell the company they can buy back the cargo at fifty cents on the dollar. That’s a real bargain, and the price will be seventy-five cents on the dollar tomorrow. The price goes up accordingly each day. And if they don’t buy the cargo, tell them that I’m sure the settlers would love to get their hands on it for ten cents on the dollar.”

Content

Joseph J. Lazzarro & Peter L. Manly
Ben Franklin’s Spaceship