A Matter of Logistics

Posted on Wed 13th Mar, 2019 @ 4:33pm by

520 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Oort Cloud, near(ish) SB109
Timeline: MD 1, 17:30

"Closer," Rihoko Gray instructed. "Reduce closing velocity to fifty meters per second."

Rihoko's oldest daughter, Winter Gray, answered, "Thrusters retro burn... two... one."

Her twin sister, Autumn, verified, "fifty meters per second."

Their ship, Gray Maru, was nothing like the sleek interstellar ships of the Federation's Star Fleet. Two kilometers long, it was more than three times the length of a Sovereign class ship, but had far less structure. At the aft end sat the ship's matter / anti-matter reactor and an RCS cluster. Two toroidal nacelles wrapped around the ship at a third and two-thirds its length, housing the impulse generators as well as further RCS clusters. At the bow was a relatively small space, home to the Gray family. Most of the ship, however, was little more than bracing. Empty, the ship had two trusses which ran forward to aft; at capacity, the trusses were filled with brobdingnagian bubbles, each carrying cyclopean volumes of highly compressed gasses.

The Gray family specialized in ice mining. Ammonia ice yielded nitrogen and hydrogen; Methane gave carbon and hydrogen; water ice, hydrogen and oxygen. Together, the four were the most-needed elements of galactic civilization. Together with phosphorus and sulfur, they formed the vast majority of organic molecules. And while Federation replicators could rearrange matter on a molecular, even an atomic level, they couldn't create something from nothing.

"Deploy harpoons," Rihoko instructed.

Jane Gray, Rihoko's wife and the twins' other mother, answered, "Firing solution stable. Firing harpoons one and three." she paused a moment, then reported, "harpoons secure. Cable takeup on automatic."

"All stop," Rihoko ordered.

"All stop," Winter answered. Together, the family watched as the harpoons, now dug into the ice of the twenty-kilometer ice body, brought them in closer to the surface, then locked them at the optimal distance.

"Firing harpoons two and four," Jane said, and monitored them for a moment. "Harpoon lodge points are good. Anchored to the asteroid."

"Deploying probe arms," Autumn announced. Along the length of the ship, automated arms folded out and reached for the ice. At their ends, gobbler heads were cone shapes, wider at the mouth than at the stem. Each contained an array of microscopic wheels which would tear into the ice and push it up-arm, toward the ship, where the ice would be melted, separated into its component elements, and routed to the appropriate holding balloons.

"Good job, family," Rihoko praised. "Secure to mine-status watch; I'll take the first shift." As her family secured their stations and left the little control center (Jane paused a moment to collect a kiss from her wife), Rihoko watched the indicators for the probe arms. Most of the work was automated, and if things went well, the family wouldn't have to intervene... but things never went perfectly; that was why Humans remained in the loop. Eight months, she estimated, and they'd have broken down this rock completely. Then it would be back to the Starbase to off-load the volatiles, and for repair, refit, and recreation. It wasn't a bad job, she reflected. Everyone had to be somewhere, doing something; this is what the Gray family had chosen.

 

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