Bridgebuilder

Countdown

"Hey, guess what?" Alex elbowed Carbon, who was just leaning against him reading in bed, and held his tablet up for her to look at, the ship headed their way finally close enough for the passive sensors to get a good picture. "They think we're trash."

She'd gone back to her usual method of dress after her experiment with his t-shirt the other day, sticking to jumpsuits as they'd done deep sweeps of engineering to clean up the area after all the repairs were finished. Loose objects and high speed did not go well together. She blinked at his tablet, head tilted slightly. "That is the Eohm ship?"

Right, she didn't have the ship recognition training he did. "It is, and it's a garbage scow. The massive keel with gravity plates to catch crap is a dead giveaway. No chance it'll have FTL, and probably only defense weapons for debris. As far as threats go, it's as benign as possible."

"Ah, I see. This is good. What is the estimated time of arrival?"

He backed out of the still image and checked the data that had been skimmed from a few minutes of video. "Looks like about six hours."

"And when will the waveride finish being computed?"

Alex tapped through a few apps and blanched. "About six hours."

They both sat there processing this information. Carbon was the first to speak up, "I believe we should continue with our plan as it is. A calculated waveride has a fairly large entry to account for drift, correct?"

"Yeah. Given our situation, I made sure to keep the uptake phase very loosely defined. Should be a 150 kilometer window in any direction, based on our trajectory when it was initially planned. Worst case, the sublight engines are mostly undamaged and we can come back around if we get pushed."

"Which way do you think they intend to send us?" Carbon drummed her fingers on her tablet, the screen covered in flowing Tsla text.

"I want it to be out of system, but the fact they're not coming directly at us makes me think they will overshoot, then come around and push us into the star."

She shook her head, "I do not like that."

"Can't say I'm a fan either. I agree with your assessment, we will stick to the plan. It'll be cutting it close, but they aren't leaving us a lot of options." Alex checked the time and thought about trying to grab a nap for about a second before giving up on the idea. There's no way he'd be able to sleep right now. "I'm going to double check the control console in engineering, you want to hang out?"

"If you do not need me, I will remain here." She held up the book she was working on. "But do get me if you desire company."

"I will." He smiled and waved as he departed her room, stopping in the mess for a coffee and to break the unfinished computer core off the wall so he could keep an eye on it. It didn't need to be anywhere near him for that, but he wanted it around so he could glance at the blinking red light instead of watching the progress bar on a tablet.

Coffee in hand and computer tucked under his arm, Alex headed back to engineering. Through the airlock and past the one good engine - now put back together as best they could get it, one side panel too warped to bolt back into place - estimated to be working at 70% capacity. A joke compared to what the ship had been capable of, but enough to get them underway.

His destination was the workshop between main engineering and the starboard engine, an area that also had a spare control console - it was primarily used when in dock, so the maintenance teams could move the ship without needing someone who had a brain implant. He set the computer core and bottle of coffee to the side and undid the fist-sized latches holding the console to the wall, unfolding it and latching it to the floor in its open configuration.