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A Moment's Inattention - Chapter 7
"Boss," Harper's voice came over the intercom speaker located in Beka's stateroom. "We're nearly at the slip point. Want to take over piloting now so you can get a feel of how we're going to fly."
"On my way," she replied as she got out of her bunk.
Beka walked onto the command deck, as she entered she spent a moment to survey the situation. Vexpeg and Rev were at their normal stations while Harper was sitting in the pilot's chair. Covas was standing beside Rev observing as he monitored the bucky cables tying the Maru to the Victorious. Beckenworth was on the command deck as well. He was watching Harper as if he expected him to try and hijack the Victorious and sell her to the inhabitants of Kolk Seven.
Beka nodded to Covas and then slid into the pilot's chair as Harper vacated it, deliberately ignoring Beckenworth.
"You did good, Shorty," she said as she settled into the seat. "Head aft and man up. It's going to be a rough ride and I'm going to need every bit of power you can give me. And be prepared for an unannounced exit from the stream. There's a good chance it'll take two hops to make the trip back."
"You were able to make the transit from New Caledonia to Serenity with no intermediate stops." complained Beckenworth. "Why will you need to make a stop on the way back?"
Beka swiveled the pilot's chair around so that she was facing Beckenworth. "Because I wasn't towing nearly six million kilograms of dead weight behind me on the way here," she snapped. "The Victorious wasn't too much of a problem when we left Serenity's orbit because we stayed on a steady vector to the slip point. But when we enter the stream it's going to be a big one.
"The stream twists and turns like a drunken Vedran grass snake and a ship transiting the stream has to follow those twists and turns. But every time we change course to follow one of those turns the Victorious is going to want to continue on it's old course. It's called inertia. I suspect you might have heard of the term. That means I'm going to have to compensate for the Victorious' reluctance to want to go where I want it to go."
"And." said Beckenworth. His face was expressionless but the sneer in his voice more than made up for the lack of expression.
"Have you ever piloted a ship through the stream, Mr Undersecretary?"
"Of course not," retorted Beckenworth. "I leave that sort of things to others." The tone of his voice indicated that by others he meant menials.
"Somehow I didn't think so," said Beka. "Well let me try to explain. Non pilots have no idea just how disorienting the stream is. You don't want a disoriented pilot in the pilot's chair. If your pilot becomes disoriented and you're very very lucky you'll simply emerge at a different destination than the one intended. If you're not lucky you wont emerge from the stream at all, or else you'll emerge in numerous pieces scattered throughout the universe. An average pilot can navigate the stream for two or three minutes before becoming disoriented and that's generally good enough. I can last maybe five minutes before becoming disoriented, under optimum conditions. And conditions are going to be far from optimum when we enter the stream."
"The tow cables," said Covas as she looked up from the cable control display. "Towing the Victorious is going to throw off how the Maru maneuvers. It's going to feel different and your reflexes are going to be wrong. You'll be fighting the stream instead of flowing with it.
"You're in the wrong outfit, Covas," said Beka. "If you ever get tired of playing soldier. You should head over to Winnipeg Drift and see about joining the Guild. If you do I'll sponsor you. You're right, I'll be out of synch with the stream. But there's another factor. There's an excellent chance the Victorious will slam into the sides of the stream which wont do it any good at all, and since we're connected to the Victorious by the tow cables it wont do us any good either. If you think normal slipstream travel can make you nauseous, just wait till the Victorious hits one of the walls of the stream."
Beka swiveled the pilots chair back around to face the Maru's control panels, turning her back to Beckenworth in the process. "Lets do it everyone. Covas, Mr Undersecretary, my crew and I are about to get very busy. I need you both off the command deck."
As the Maru's passengers began to leave the command deck, Rev spoke up. "Petty Officer Covas, I would suggest that you stand well clear of our watchdog when we enter the slipstream. I noticed that he didn't take Beka's advice about not eating before we entered the stream. Mr Undersecretary, I'm afraid that you are about to get very very sick."
As soon as their passengers had left the command deck Beka began the final checks for entering slipstream. "All stations report. Pilot ready."
"Sensors and cable control ready," said Rev
"Environmental control ready," said Vexpeg.
"Engineering ready," said Harper.
"All stations," said Beka, "prepare to enter slipstream on my mark. Three, two, one, mark" On three she activated the slipstream generator and the Maru, with the Victorious in tow, entered the slipstream.
Harper used to tell Beka that riding the slip stream was akin to surfing. Once when they had taken a cargo to Infinity Atoll he had managed to talk her into learning to surf. After managing to ride a few waves Beka was willing to agree that in some way riding the waves was similar to riding the stream, however at the moment there was one big difference. When she was on Infinity Atoll there had been no one on the back of her board doing their best to throw her off the board.
As Covas had predicted Beka's reflexes were hindering her rather than helping her. As she felt the Maru drift out of the center of the stream she automatically corrected, but since he was towing a vessel that massed nearly the same as the Maru rather than piloting an unencumbered Maru, her corrections were not large enough. She would then increase the correction, generally over correcting and the Maru would again drift out of the stream, this time in the opposite direction. Despite Rev and the Maru's computer's best efforts to keep the Victorious aligned with the Maru as she traveled the twists and turns of the stream, the Victorious swung from side to side bucking and twisting like a maddened duroc constantly altering the location of their combined center of mass and forcing Beka to fight her way through the ebb and flow of the stream. Muttering curses under her breath Beka wrestled with the Maru and the stream. She could hear Rev muttering as well. She hoped it was a prayer because she suspected that she was going to need all the help she could get.
Beka was being forced to concentrate on simply ensuring the Maru didn't hit the walls of the stream rather than on navigating. As she had told Covas earlier if the Victorious collided with the walls of the stream it wouldn't do the crew of the Maru any good, they would all be struck with a case of vertigo and nausea. But if the Maru came into direct contact with the stream the results could be catastrophic. The vertigo would be severe enough that Beka would most likely loose complete control of the Maru. In which case as she told Covas, if they were very very lucky they would find simply themselves someplace unexpected.
At the tow station Rev was frantically paying cable out and taking it in trying to keep the Victorious' oscillations from getting out of control. But even with the assistance of the Maru's computer it was a touch and go operation. Something had to give and it did. There was a tremendous clang and the Maru shook as if it had been hit by a giant hammer.
"That was cable ten," said Rev
Before Beka could reply there was another loud clang and the Maru lurched to the right.
"Cables five through seven," said Rev. "Cables two and nine approaching critical stress levels.
Anything else he was going to add was lost as Beka's inner ears abruptly went on strike and vertigo began to set in. The Victorious had swung into contact with the walls of the stream. Acting on instinct rather than conscious thought Beka exited the stream while she was still able to control the Maru's exit point.
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