Fast Freddie and the Generation Ship
by Philip J. Lees
You know, it’s funny you should mention Luther Cannon. And on this day, of all days. I actually met him, you know. Now, don’t look at me like that! I did meet him. Only briefly, to be sure, but it was him alright. Yes, I met Luther Cannon exactly two, no, it must be three standard years ago, right here, on this station. Have another drink and I’ll tell you about it. Call me Freddie. Everybody does.
It’s not often we have an unscheduled ship arriving here on the Suzy Q, but it does happen sometimes. Once we even had an unscheduled ship come up the needle from inside the black hole. That got people excited, I can tell you. But that’s another story, for another time.
The unscheduled ship I’m talking about now came from deep space, further away from the galactic hub than we are. I could tell you right now exactly where it came from, but I didn’t know that at the time and anyway, it would spoil the story. I’ll get to it when the time comes.
This ship was big, and it was moving fast! So fast that even I knew it must have been accelerating for a long time, and I’m no expert on these matters. But it wasn’t accelerating any more. Its engines were dead and it was zipping along, straight as an arrow, straight towards the Suzy Q!
Or near enough, anyway. As soon as our sensors picked up the ship the computers started calculating its course. There was a theory that whoever had programmed its autopilot must have been planning to use that black hole out there to swing the ship around and speed it on its way. If that was true, they’d got it wrong. According to the computers, the way the ship was going it would swing around the hole alright, but then it would just fall back and dive straight in.
Of course, we couldn’t let that happen. Any passengers on board wouldn’t have a chance, quite apart from what might happen to the Suzy Q if the other ship got too close to us. The problem was, what could we do? It was moving much too fast for a rendezvous. Even our fastest fighter couldn’t get up to that speed in the time we had, and if it could, what then? We knew nothing about the ship or who might be inside. They hadn’t responded to any of our signals.
No, the only thing we could hope to do was to deflect it in some way. The computers buzzed away some more and came up with a solution. Now I don’t really understand these things, but it seems that just a nudge or two, in the right place and at the right time, could change the ship’s course enough so that instead of falling back into the hole it could wind up in a stable orbit.
So that’s what we did. We sent out a small fleet of tugs, twenty or so as far as I remember. Now these tugs aren’t fast, but they do have powerful tractor and pressor beams and enough mass to make them effective. Each tug was sent to a particular point in space and its computer was programmed to deliver a push or a pull at the exact moment the other ship was whizzing past it.
Can I top up your glass? There we go. No, it’s okay. I’ll tot up the bill before you leave, don’t you worry. Besides, just looking in those beautiful blue eyes of yours I can tell I can trust you.
Now, where was I. Oh yes. Well, you may find it hard to believe that a precision operation like that could work first time, but that’s exactly what happened. Our pilots are the best in the galaxy, if I say so myself, and each of those tugs did just what it had to do. Every time that other ship passed one of them, its course was altered just a little bit, so that by the time it got close to the hole it was out of danger, on a long, elliptical orbit that would keep it clear of both the hole and the Suzy Q.
I wouldn’t want to bore you with the details, even if I understood them, but over the next few weeks that ship was nudged some more, until its orbit had flattened enough and its speed had slowed enough so that one of our shuttles could finally make contact. That was when we got our big surprise. It was the Hegira.
Ah, now I can see I’ve got your attention. You’ve heard of the Hegira, then. Of course you have! It was you who started talking about Luther Cannon. What you may not remember is that the Hegira was the very last of the generation ships. It wasn’t so long after she left Earth that they discovered this black hole. No more generation ships were sent out after that. It doesn’t make sense to set out on a voyage that’s going to last forty years or more, when you can go through the hole and cover the same distance in a few minutes. Unfortunately, the Hegira had been gone long enough that it was too late to call her back.
By the time the Hegira got here she was in pretty bad shape. The ship had been hit by some kind of cosmic ray storm that had knocked out almost everything except for life support systems. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that was lucky or not, but the fact is that for the last six months all the passengers and crew had had little but hope to keep them going.
Quite a few of them had gone crazy. Some even killed themselves. But there were still almost two thousand living people on board that vessel—far too many to be housed on the Suzy Q. Fortunately, their hydroponics were still working, so they had enough food and so on. What they couldn’t do was pilot their ship, or even find out where they were. All those systems were down. That’s why they hadn’t answered our signals. At least they didn’t know that they’d been on course to fall into a black hole. If they’d known that, even more of them might have gone crazy.
Of course, they never expected to find humans this far from Earth. After all, how could anybody be ahead of them? The other generation ships had all set off in different directions. Imagine how they must have felt when they found out that the voyage that had taken them so long could now be done in less than six months. All those years in vain!
Another one? Well, I think I’ll join you. What? Oh, thank you very much. You’re most kind. I love it when a pretty lady buys me a drink.
Anyway, Luther Cannon sat right here, here in Fast Freddie’s Bar and Grill, at this bar, right where you’re sitting now. He was the leader of the colonists, as I’m sure you know. He was an old man when I met him, but what do you expect? He’d been travelling for twenty-four years. He didn’t talk very much, but he thought a lot. What he thought about you can probably imagine. In theory, we could ferry the colonists through the hole, fifty or so at a time, but not to anywhere they wanted to go. They were expecting a new planet, all to themselves, and they were prepared to wait as long as it took to get there. Apart from that, they’d been together for so long that not many of them wanted to be split up from the others. They were a society, a community, and that’s how they wanted to stay.
Now I didn’t hear all this from Luther Cannon himself. As I said, he didn’t talk very much. No, what I know about that generation ship I learned from Luther Cannon’s daughter, Rosanne. She had the special position of being the first child born on board the Hegira. She’d grown up on the ship and it was the only home she knew.
Rosanne was a pretty girl and she and I spent a good deal of time chatting together. She liked me—I have a knack for making people like me—and almost every day she was on the station she would drop by to see me. Even though the Hegira was her whole life, I think it did her good to see a different face for a change, even an ugly mug like mine. What? Oh, that’s nice of you, but I know that a twisted runt like me doesn’t have much of a chance as a ladies’ man, even though I’m really a sweet guy when you get to know me.
No, Rosanne and I were just good friends. But it was me who introduced her to the person who became much more than that. He was a security officer named Noah, and until he met Rosanne I’d never seen him smile.
His first reaction to her wasn’t a smile, though. He came in one day when she was here and when she turned her head in his direction I saw his jaw drop and turn to jelly. Rosanne’s eyes were such a deep blue that when she laughed they seemed to flash bright violet. Quite beautiful! Yours are almost the same. No, really, they are.
Noah got his jaw under control quickly enough and his upper lip stiff as usual, but he couldn’t keep it that way for long and that’s when I saw him smile. It was like looking at a different person. He was quite handsome, I suppose, in a dark, military sort of way. I could tell by the way that Rosanne sat up on her stool and straightened her jacket that she found him attractive. So I did my duty and introduced them, then left them to it.
Word gets around quickly in a place like this, and it wasn’t long before everyone on the station must have known that Noah and Rosanne were an item. I was happy for them, naturally, but I was also worried. I was worried because of something else I knew about that wasn’t common knowledge. I generally get to hear about things before most people, but when I think it’s necessary I can keep a secret to myself. So don’t you worry about that, my dear.
The Hegira was going to carry on. The engines had been repaired and the burnt out power sources would be replaced very soon. Luther Cannon had sounded out some key colonists and the consensus was that they should finish what they’d started. They would have a formal vote before the final decision was made, but nobody was in any doubt about what the result would be. As I said before, the Hegira was their home, for many of them the only home they’d ever known.
Again, it was Rosanne who told me about that.
“What can I do, Freddie?” she asked me. “I love Noah and he loves me, but how can I let all my friends and my family go on without me? I’ll never see them again.”
“What about Noah?” I asked. “Couldn’t he come with you?”
“He has his career,” she said. “It would be asking too much for him to give all that up.”
I nodded, trying to look wiser than I felt. I thought that if Noah really cared so much for her he could easily find another career on board the Hegira, but I kept that thought to myself, too.
Mind you, Noah wasn’t in such great shape himself. He was in here later that day, sitting at a table covered with playing cards laid out in columns. He sat there without moving for so long that I went over to see if he was okay.
“The red seven on the black eight,” I said.
“What?” He looked blankly at me for a second, then looked down again. He picked up the red seven, held it vaguely in the air, then dropped it on a black six. Not good!
Before I could say anything else Noah swept the cards together in a heap.
“It’s no good, Freddie,” he said, echoing my own thoughts. He looked up again. “You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“I don’t know what to do. I really love Rosanne and I want to go with her. But I can’t just desert.” He pushed the cards more together and started to straighten them into a deck. “I signed up for a three-year tour. I still have ten months to go.”
In ten months, the Hegira would be long gone. I started to realize that, from his point of view, things weren’t nearly so simple as I’d imagined.
Now I like to think that I’m the kind of person a friend can count on when they’re in trouble and after Noah left I decided I had to do something. I have connections on this station and when I choose to, I can exert quite an influence in certain quarters, if I say so myself. So I started dropping a word here and a word there and it wasn’t long before things began to happen.
I heard the news first from Noah himself. A day or so later he came into the bar, hand in hand with Rosanne, and he was a different man. His face was alight and so was hers.
“Hey Freddie, guess what!” he said.
Of course, I pretended I didn’t know what he was talking about, although I already had a pretty good idea. Not much happens on this station without Freddie hearing about it, you can be sure of that.
Noah told me that Commander Clarke had asked to see him. He was nervous at first and afraid he was in for a reprimand. After all, he’d been seeing a lot of Rosanne lately and maybe he’d neglected his duties just a little.
But it wasn’t like that at all. When he reported to Commander Clarke’s office the commander got straight to the point.
“Mr. Wiley,” he said. “There is a new regulation that says all exploration ships should have a security officer on board.” He looked hard at Noah. “I’m offering you that job on the Hegira.” Noah told me that he couldn’t have said a word at that point even if he’d been ordered to, but fortunately Clarke continued.
“I realize that this assignment will mean extending your tour of duty … considerably.” Clarke was all businesslike now, man to man. “But I was hoping I could count on you.”
By this time, Noah had found his voice again.
“Yes sir,” he said. “I mean, I accept. You can count on me, sir!” He pulled himself together and stood at attention. “Thank you, Commander,” he said. Then he excused himself and went to find Rosanne.
So everything was hunky-dory, you think. Well, the story isn’t finished yet. Let me freshen up your glass and I’ll tell you the rest. Nuts? You really should eat something. We don’t want you getting tipsy, do we?
Anyway, it’s time to get back to Luther Cannon. It seems that he wasn’t happy about his daughter bringing along somebody from the Suzy Q. You see, all the colonists had been put through some pretty rigorous testing before they were allowed to join the Hegira. Luther wanted only the best. Now there was nothing wrong with Noah, but he hadn’t passed the tests that the others had.
In fact, Luther wasn’t happy with the whole situation. It wasn’t supposed to have happened like this. He and his people were pioneers, setting out for a new world. None of them expected to meet anybody on the way.
On the other hand, Luther couldn’t complain openly. After all, the accident that had brought them here would have led to their destruction if the Suzy Q hadn’t been there to help.
But inside, Luther brooded. I could tell that on the few occasions I saw him in here. He was a man with a lot on his mind. I blame myself that I didn’t see what was coming and by the time I did find out it was too late. But really, how could anyone have known?
You see, the Hegira left early. Luther ordered it and nobody thought to question him. The repairs had been completed days before and the Hegira was ready to carry on. Most of the colonists had never left their ship and the few that had were called back for a planning meeting. He made sure that all his people were on board, then, while Rosanne was asleep in her cabin he gave the order to undock.
And Noah, where was Noah? you ask. Well, he was in his quarters, packing the things he would take with him and feeling very excited, as you can imagine. By the time he heard the news it was too late. The Hegira had engaged her engines and had already started the maneuver that would swing her around the hole, accurately this time, and catapult her off into space. There was no chance of a rendezvous under those circumstances, even if Commander Clarke had permitted it, which I’m sure he wouldn’t.
So Noah lost the smile that had changed him so much. He came in here the following evening and drank so much whiskey he needed to be helped back to his quarters. For the next few days he carried out his duties routinely and hardly spoke to anyone.
I know, it’s sad, isn’t it. You look a bit unsteady, my dear. Perhaps I should come and sit next to you, in case you need a little support. There, that’s better. You see, the story still isn’t finished.
After moping for a week or so, Noah suddenly seemed to get a new burst of energy. I heard about it from one of his colleagues and I was hoping he’d pulled himself together and was starting to get over it, but it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like that at all.
When Noah was off duty, he would disappear for hours and it wasn’t until later that we found out what he had been doing with himself. It turned out that when he wasn’t in the pilot trainer, he was in the astrometrics lab, scanning, studying, until one day he came out of there bright eyed, almost feverish, and went off to see Commander Clarke.
Now the reason we can use this black hole to travel to other parts of the galaxy is that it isn’t just here, it has bits in a lot of other places as well. If that doesn’t make sense to you I’m not surprised, because it doesn’t make much sense to me, either, but that’s how it is. The astrophysicists say it has ‘multiple points of intersection with space time’, whatever that means.
It turns out that Noah had found one of these points quite close to the solar system where the Hegira was headed. Using the hole, a ship could get there in under a year, normal time. If only we’d known that earlier things might have been different, though even then I doubt that Luther Cannon would have been pleased. He wanted to do things in his own way. He wasn’t a man who liked changing his plans.
But what use was the route that Noah had found? you may ask. After all the Hegira wouldn’t be arriving at her destination for another twelve years. Well, you see, another thing about the hole is that as you get closer to it time goes at different speeds. No, really, it’s true. On the fringes, in Cauchy space, the minutes count for hours, and they say that if you go deeper a few weeks in the hole could mean years on the outside. So if you go through the hole in just the right way you can come out years in the future. I don’t really mean ‘through’, of course, but it’s the only way I know to say it.
In all the hours Noah had spent in astrometrics and pilot training he had come up with a course that would take him through the hole and bring him out in good time to be waiting for the Hegira when she arrived at her passengers’ new home. So that’s what he did! Commander Clarke didn’t want to allow it at first, as I heard it, but Noah was so passionate and insistent he was hard to resist, and besides, the commander could see the advantage of having a channel of communication with the new colony, especially through somebody as motivated as Noah was.
My dear, you seem tired. Perhaps I could escort you to your cabin? There we go! Don’t worry, Marjorie will take over from me. Fast Freddie’s Bar and Grill never closes! Just lean on me. I’ll look after you.
So Noah packed his bags again, said goodbye to all his friends, including yours truly, and piloted his ship down the needle into the heart of the black hole. And that’s the last anybody saw of him.
What? Well, I’m afraid I can’t tell you the end of the story, because it hasn’t happened yet, and won’t for almost ten years. You see, the Hegira is still travelling through space, the old-fashioned way, and as for Noah, in our time frame he’s still inside the hole, not even half way there. Don’t worry, though, for him it’s only been an hour or so, assuming he worked it out right.
And even if Noah and the Hegira both arrive safely, what happens when he and Rosanne meet again? Will they still love each other? After all, she’ll be quite a lot older than him by then. But I knew both of them, I saw them together, and I’m optimistic. I think that everything will work out fine.
You see, my dear, I believe in the triumph of true love. Don’t you?
- End -
© Copyright Philip J. Lees 2001