He rubbed a hand over his face. “We didn’t even know this system existed until ten weeks ago.”
“Oh. An Outer Space system?”
“Yep. And not a minor one like Gateway. This one is called the Transmission. In simple terms, it takes a portion of the energy produced by the power plant and transmits it to Outer Space, pushing us toward our destination. With me so far?”
“Yeah. It’s moving us through Outer Space.”
“Right. Except the explosion wreaked it. Without the Transmission operating, we can't go faster or slow down or maneuver.”
“And why is that so upsetting?”
He raked his fingers through his brown hair. “Outer Space isn’t empty. There are massive objects called Planets, huge projectiles with names like Asteroids and Comets, and dense balls of burning gas named Suns. If we don’t crash into one of them, all these things exert a force that can either slow us down, push us off course or trap us. In other words, we’re dead in the water.”
CHAPTER 3
“Are we in any immediate danger?”I asked Logan.
“I don’t think so.”
“Think?”
“Sorry, some well-meaning scrub interrupted me before I could finish my calculations.” He teased, but his humor didn’t linger.
“Can we fix the Transmission?”
“I don’t know. The maintenance scrubs didn’t perform the routine cleaning and upkeep on it. I’ve a terrible feeling the Travas had been in charge.”
Not good. Since Inside had a limited number of holding cells, most of the Trava family had been confined to their quarters in Sector D4.
“Can I go back to work now?” Logan asked.
“You can finish your calculations,” I said.
“You’re not going to leave, are you?”
“Nope.”
I stood behind him as his fingers flew over the keyboard. After twenty minutes Logan whistled in relief, relaxing back against his chair.
“Good news?” I asked.
“We’re not about to crash into anything in the next four weeks.” He turned and met my gaze.
“But?”
“We might be on a collision course.”
“Might?”
Logan gestured weakly to the computer. “I need to search through the data…”
“Not now. You need to eat and sleep.” I cut off his squawk of protest as I yanked him from his chair. Marching him down to the upper’s cafeteria in Quad G3, I stayed with him while he ate. Then I escorted him to his little suite next to Inside’s main control room. The small cluster of rooms had been used by the captain so he would be nearby in case of an emergency.
We didn’t have a new captain yet, but Logan came close. With his technical knowledge and familiarity with the computer systems, he had his fingers on the pulse of our world.
Since the rebellion, the uppers kept doing their jobs, monitoring the life-support systems. I realized the scrubs hadn’t. They didn’t want to clean and perform the mindless tasks anymore. I didn’t blame them, but those tasks were vital to our existence. How could we convince them?
I tucked Logan into bed. “Don’t leave until you’ve had a few hours of sleep. Do you understand?”
