Endurance

By Michael Black

The third Ebook in The Ship series, Endurance continues the saga of an average man who heard a strange voice in his head one day. In this third installment, Daniel and his family are helping Earth in its long struggle for 'real' and efficient space travel. Along the way, the family runs into more strange experiences, and discover more missing pieces to the big puzzle that is the Universe; plus a few more pieces that no one was expecting...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Black
• Release date: Mar 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463537565

Michael Black

I was born in 1948, to two delightful parents, in Brockton, Massachusetts. From about 5 years old I knew I loved Science Fiction and Horror movies. I graduated from Braintree High School in 1966. The Military draft was going strong then, and since I didn't want to be conscripted, I joined the Naval Reserve the next year. From 1968 to 1970 i served on my first ship, going to the Mediterranean on one 6 month cruise, being released after my 2 year obligation. From 1970 to 1972 I did Weekend Warrior time on two reserve Destroyers once a month, and two weeks in the summer. Just before my enlistment was up, I found I liked the life of a sailor, and reenlisted in the regular Navy, for the remainder of a twenty year carreer.After that, I went to work for a private Ship Yard, and spent the next 24 years working on more Navy Ships, making much more money of course. I retired in 2016, and have been learning how to enjoy retirement ever since.

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Endurance

Michael Black

Copyright 2019 by Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, thank you for your support.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Note and Reflections

Prologue

Commander Derek Ressler had a problem; and it was a big one. He was sitting in a brand new space ship, hurtling toward the outer reaches of the solar system at just under ten million miles an hour; and he had no power, no thrust. If he didn’t figure out how to start the ship’s engine, he would go down in the history books as the first interstellar corpse; not exactly a laudable achievement by anyone’s standards. Derek wanted a better legacy for himself; and wanted it badly.

The last transmission Derek received from Mission Control had told him the engineers were still puzzling out the cause of the interruption in ion flow that shut down the engine. That was an hour ago, so he should hear from them soon. He’d better, or the planet Neptune might settle the debate permanently. Derek had done the calculations already; The Seeker would collide with said planet in about six more hours if he didn’t gain control over the situation now. It would be a light glancing blow; but somehow Derek didn’t think that distinction would matter to him; he’d be dead...

The radio crackled, Commander Ressler; the engineers are convince that the problem is in the fuel sequencing module. Recommend you do a manual reboot on the engine computer; it will restart with the default settings, and you should be able to regain propulsion that way. Acknowledge procedure please.

Finally, a chance! Procedure acknowledged…beginning restart now. Standby… Derek got up from his command chair, and moved toward the engine compartment; when an old man materialized right in front of him. He knew who it was, he had seen the man on TV and in pictures often enough; but had never met Daniel Curran before, Jeezus Ambassador, you scared the hell out of me! What brings you here? I’m kinda busy right now.

Daniel couldn’t help but laugh, Sorry for startling you like that Commander, it does take some getting used to. Jay Allencourt gave us a call, just in case drastic measures were called for; our ship is pacing yours right now, about a hundred miles off on your port quarter. We’re here only to help out if we’re needed. Go ahead and do whatever you were about to do; we’ll see if the restart solves the problem.

As Derek moved into the tiny ‘Engine Room’ he raised an eyebrow, Jay called you huh; so you’re here to sort of baby sit me I take it. He found the Fuel Sequencing Module, and typed in the restart code; then they both waited twenty seconds until a message showed on the small screen that said ‘Default Mode Initiated’. Then they walked back the twenty five feet to the Command Station, where Derek started the engine. The monitor showed ‘Engine Output Nominal’. Derek looked up at Daniel, a slightly sheepish look on his face, I’m sorry about the snarky comment Ambassador; that was uncalled for. I appreciate your being ready to save my ass if something big went wrong…

Daniel had to laugh again, Not to worry Derek, and call me Daniel. In point of fact, we weren’t babysitting; we were sitting on Mars, getting ready to take a walk around to see the sights when Jay called us to help out if necessary. We can’t lose the first man ever to reach the boundary of our solar system, now can we? Now Derek was laughing, Are you kidding me Daniel; you already have that title. The whole world knows your life’s story by now! Daniel smiled at Derek, Yeah, but I kinda cheated, didn’t I? You’re the real deal…

Chapter 1

Daniel ‘beamed’ back to his ship a few minutes later, and was met with three giggling wives who had listened in to his whole conversation with Derek. Angie couldn’t resist teasing as she smiled at Daniel, Cheated huh? You still look like the real deal to us ya know… He could only chuckle; what can you say to a statement like that…

The Earth had come a long way towards ‘real’ space travel, in only a few years; thanks to some ‘helpful hints’ from aliens in another part of the universe. Not ‘given technology’, mind you; that was strictly forbidden by their ‘One Rule’, similar in concept to that ‘Prime Directive’ we are all familiar with in certain television shows. Still, the human race was encouraged to continue the development of projects that they had already investigated, but hadn’t followed through on; or had simply abandoned in favor of a different technology that did the same thing. The entire Earth had learned that lesson early on in the Alien/Human relationship; when Angie had pointed out that crystals could be vastly more useful than being used for children’s little radio science projects. ‘Earthlings’ had missed the real useful properties entirely; and were now finding profitable uses in high end electrical distribution and long range communications as well. Humans were learning that ‘all research’ pays off eventually; sometimes in ways you never dreamed of…

An ancient Alien star ship found deep under the soil and rock at ‘Area 51’ had provided huge breakthroughs in another area that humans were very interested in; spacecraft propulsion. After a long learning curve through reverse engineering the ships ion engines and fusion reactors, it was found that ion propulsion could be much more than the expensive ‘toys’ that they were playing with. Earths very first practical spaceship, the USS Seeker was the result of around the clock research for over three years. Today had been the first long range test of the ship and its one man crew. It was considered a resounding success, even though it had come close to killing its pilot; and the engine control software still needed some fine tuning. The ship had reached its goal, and the first human had visited the remote edges of local space.

Daniel had already done that; many times in fact. But he was not one to crave glory; he had ‘hitched a ride’ on each of his trips around the cosmos. Commander Derek Ressler had done it in his very own spaceship; built entirely in orbit over Earth…both men were destined for the history books; but for two entirely different reasons.

Earth had benefitted from alien first contact in another way as well. After 100,000 years, Earth’s peoples were slowly beginning to learn how to live with each other. There were still plenty of petty grievances, and outright conflicts, all over the globe; but at least there was a spark of a unified Earth, where there had not been one before. Daniel had played a part in that; although inadvertently and without his knowledge at first. Being declared Earth’s Ambassador by a far away Alien Council of planets; and then being confirmed by his own United Nations, thrust Daniel into the spotlight very fast. For a man who never wanted to be famous, Daniel was now very famous indeed…the notoriety often made him uncomfortable; but there was one benefit that he could not deny. He had three loving and playful ‘wives’ who went out of their way every day, to make him feel comfortable again. Daniel Curran was a very lucky man, and he knew it.

****

Derek achieved orbital insertion on schedule, a little over two days after his mishap; while he knew the ship could have gotten him back faster, the ‘incident’ had him a little skittish. Once all the ‘bugs’ were worked out of the ship systems, he would really exercise her engine; just not today. He waited an hour, until a shuttle came up to get him; then reported to the control center after landing. His ‘Boss’ on the space project, Bill Putnam, was there to greet him; and so was Jay Allencourt, which he pretty much expected. What he didn’t expect was Daniel to show up; not only that, Daniel had three women with him too. That seemed odd, until Jay spoke up, Derek, we want to go over your experiences on the trip. Daniel and his family wanted to be here too because they are interested in the program. Daniel you already met, these three ladies are Angela, Angel and Jane. The three girls nodded as each was named, but Derek was curious, How can it be that you four are that interested in what we are accomplishing; I mean you can go zipping all over the Universe whenever you want. You all know about tech that we can only dream of.

Jane jumped right in, Derek, both Daniel and I were born right here on Earth; so any breakthroughs are interesting to us. We don’t necessarily know anything useful about the Council’s technology, simply because it involves elements that we don’t have here in our galaxy. So your achievement is exciting to us too. Angel put Derek straight on a crucial point, Also Derek, Angie and I may have been ‘born’ into the technology; but being able to see the ingenuity of Earth’s people in action, is very interesting to us. Don’t think because we are a product of an advanced race of people, that your own accomplishments are insignificant to us. How did the artificial gravity feel to you; were there any fluctuations or feelings of distortion?

Derek could sense that she wasn’t toying with him; her smile seemed genuine enough; were they really that interested? Sometimes he thought it couldn’t be; they had super tech at their disposal everyday…then it hit him. That entire super tech was everyday passé to them; there wasn’t any real challenge to it. All this program development was interesting because they wanted to share in that challenge. Funny how it didn’t seem so confusing anymore…"Oh, the AG worked fine actually; someone’s going to have to explain that to me. Except for a couple of incidents of feeling queasy, because my mind expected me to be floating out there, everything worked fine. I’m a pilot, not a working physicist. I may know the science involved, but hands on is my specialty…

Daniel laughed out loud, That’s my cue I expect; I was a mechanic all my life, so I can give you the layman’s explanation. Very basically, it’s an induction field that runs through a continuous slab of metal under the deck plates on the ship. It’s almost like an induction heater, except there is little heat. The voltage applied to the coils under the slab is fairly low, so you don’t even notice. There is a solid slab of aluminum alloy about an inch thick, under the entire deck of the Seeker. Don’t ask me ‘why’ that works; it is something we had missed for centuries, because we already live in a gravity field. Out in space, you change the ‘frequency’ of the field, and you change the strength of the gravity effect. How’s that for a science lesson?

Derek couldn’t help but laugh at that, Daniel, I think I like you more every time we meet. Yes, I can live with that lesson.

They discussed every aspect of the flight, even focusing on the one real problem that marred an otherwise perfect mission. It was suggested that a separate project that dealt with Artificial Intelligence be enhanced and merged with ship development. That met with many grins, especially from Angie and Angel, who had started their lives as super computer starship drivers themselves. Angie even asked if she and Angel could join in with the ‘think tank sessions’ in that department; and were