NIRI TE 'S FANFIC "LAST FLIGHT OUT "

Started by Niri Te, January 10, 2013, 08:37:46 PM

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Niri Te

  CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
   "Radar shows range at 600 miles, closure at 400," reported William.
   "O.K., that's good.  We are flying this puppy right down the localizer," remarked Sharon, alluding to a phrase used in the 20th and 21st centuries for an aircraft making a perfect instrument approach in bad weather.
   The Flight Deck was packed.  Everyone wanted to watch John and Sharon dock the Old Dog to the ISV.  This turned out to be  a fortunate thing for Sharon, and she asked Dan, "I have to make a trip to the Necessary Room.  Do you mind taking a short turn at the controls for a few minutes?"
   "Not at all, Major," replied.  And the two switched out in the Command Pilot's Seat.
   Three minutes later, Sharon walked up to the Command Pilot's Seat, with two coffee cups in one hand, and one in the other.  She handed Dan the single cup of coffee from her one hand, while the other held two cups of Japanese Green Tea.
   "Here you go John, I thought that this would hit the spot before things got a bit interesting."
   "Thanks Sharon, this will fill the bill."
   William updated the Positional Awareness of the pilots with, "Range at 493 miles, closure at 400 miles an hour."
   "Thanks William.  Keep the position reports coming every fifteen minutes, until one of us changes the frequency," said Sharon.
   William smiled, gave a thumbs up, and returned to his data screens.  John walked up and regained First Officer duties from Dan.  Wendy asked Transport Jim how stable the hydrogen reactions were, to which he replied, "Like a brand new ship."
   "Eana Txe'lan Ikran, This is Old Dog, we are closing at a velocity of 412 miles an hour.  Do your readings concur?  Over."
   "Old Dog, this is Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  We show the same rate of closure. Be advised that when you are fifty miles out, we will slowly slow your closure to ten miles an hour.  When you are one mile out, we will drop the closure rate to 200 feet per minute.  At a quarter-mile out, we will cut your rate of closure to only 50 feet per minute.  At 500 feet out, closure and all docking control will be given to you.  Read back for possible correction. Over."
   "Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  This is Old Dog,  I  read back.  At 50 miles separation you will slow the closure rate to 10 miles an hour.  At one mile separation you will slow the closure rate to 200 feet per minute.  At a quarter-mile separation, you will slow the closure to 50 feet per minute.  And at 500 feet separation, closure rate and all docking control will be our responsibility.  Is that correct? Over."
   "Old Dog.  This is Colonel Hill on the Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  You are correct.  Over."
   Wendy whistled quietly and walked between the teo Pilot's Seats, patting each of them on their shoulders and said, "Nothing like a little extra pressure, huh Guys?"
   Sharon responded with, "No problem, he just wanted to be sure that John and I were at the controls when we got in close.  I will reassure him right now."
   "Eana Txe'lan Ikran, this is Major Sharon West,  Command Pilot of the Old Dog.  Be advised that Major Williams and I are on the controls of the Old Dog as I speak.  We will comply with your instructions, and take complete control of the Docking Maneuver at 500 feet separation.  Old Dog on active stand-by."
   Eleven minutes later,William announced, "Closure velocity at 400 miles an hour.  Separation of 393 miles."
   "Well folks, for those that have no direct duties concerning the docking of the two vessels, you might just pull up an easy chair, a can of pop, and a bag of popcorn.  This game is going to begin in earnest real soon," chuckled John.
   "Nope.  It's plain to see that there is no pressure on the Flight Crew of THIS ship," said Wendy.
   "Separation of 293 miles, closure rate of 400 miles and hour."
   Transport Jim reported, "Fuel burn nominal, pressures nominal, reactor temperatures nominal."
   Several members of 'The Peanut Gallery' hurried to the Hall to make and bring back snacks before thing got too interesting.
   "You people are constantly stuffing your faces, and you don't have important duties on this ship to keep you busy.  You had better watch it!  You will gain weight if you keep this up, " cautioned Sharon.
   As the last of them got back, William advised, separation 193 miles.  Closure rate at 400 miles an hour."
   To which Transport Jim added, "All reactor and drive system numbers nominal."
   Wendy and Pamela stood outboard of their mate's Pilot's Seats, and watched with joyful anticipation, the events as they unfolded.
   "Old Dog.  This is Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  We are activating our locator strobe. Over."
   "Eana Txe'lan Ikran, we will announce when we see it. Over."
   "Separation, 93 miles.  Closure rate 400 miles an hour."
   "All power and drive system numbers are nominal."
   Seven minutes later, William announced, "Separation 59 miles.  The ISV is beginning to speed up.  Do you want me to give constant closure readouts?"
   "No," replied John, "Just let us know when it stabilizes at 10 miles an hour."
   "O.K., from now on, there is a Cone of Silence on the Flight Deck," admonished Sharon.  "There will be NO talking here that is not done by a Flight Crew Member, and NOTHING that is not mission critical until I say otherwise."
   Two minutes later, William announced, "Separation 28 miles, Closure rate 10 miles an hour." 
   Transport Jim said, "All numbers are nominal."
   "Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  This is Old Dog.  I see your strobe.  No need to reply."
   "William, I'm going to need the numbers every ten miles now.  Sharon said, "Jim, you don't need to say anything unless you start to see something that you don't like, O.K.?"
   "Aye, Skipper." was Jim's reply to Sharon.
   Two hours and 42 minutes later, William announced, "one mile separation. our closure rate is slowing."
   "Roger that." replied Sharon.
   Twenty-six point four minutes later, William said, "Quarter mile separation. Slowing."
   Fourteen minutes later Sharon had John radio the ISV that the crew of the Old Dog had assumed control of the docking.
   Ten minutes later, Sharon and John had matched the ISV's speed, rolled their craft to where the two outer airlock doors were ten feet apart.  Through the docking cameras, by the outer airlock doors on the Old Dog, Sharon and John were viewing the distance, speed, and alignment of the two space craft on their overhead screens.
   With twenty seconds to contact, Jim announced, "On the ball. Two feet."
   At ten seconds to go, "Contact probe light."
   With five seconds to go, Jim said, "CONTACT!  Lock light are on.,  Latch lights all green."
   "Sharon then transmitted, "Eana Txe'lan Ikran, this is the Old  Dog.  We are locked fast to your vessel.  Permission to come aboard."
   The reply was instantaneous.  "Old Dog.  This is the Commander of the Eana Txe'lan Ikran.  Permission granted."
   The cheer that erupted from the rest of the crew of the Old Dog could probably be heard on the ISV WITHOUT an intercom.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
   The last of the the cam locks retracted from their lock rings, and the door of the ISV swung out of the way.  One by one all of the people on the Transport entered the ISV, with, according to tradition, the craft's commander, and it's three pilots, as as the last to disembark.
   As Sharon came up through the hatch, the people on either side of her helped her to a handrail.  The handrails were required because they were on a zero "G" section of the ship.  Everyone made their way to the forward sections of the ISV, which had artificial gravity.
   "Permission to come aboard the bridge," said Sharon, as she and John, who were the ranking officers, followed by their memuntxate, stood in the entryway.
   "Permission granted.  Welcome aboard," replied Colonel Hill.  "I am glad that all of you made it, safe and sound.  You folks from the Undersea Research Facility just made it out by the skin of your teeth, I understand!"
   "It was a little dicey for a while," commented John, "but the rapidly rising super-heated air bubble that we rode on when Mauna Loa blew up, probably was the difference that put us into orbit burning as little fuel as we did."
   "Yes!" agreed Colonel Hill, "No one can say that Eywa didn't aid you in THAT flight!  By the way," he continued, "you two are BOTH out of uniform.....you will need THESE to be properly attired," and in each hand, he held a pair of Epaulet sleeves for the rank of Major. Both Sharon and John thanked the Colonel for their promotions, as they took the offered insignia.
   "I would not be looking for an increase in my pay vouchers," he said with a smile.  "I doubt if anyone is a Finance Headquarters to receive the notification of your promotions."
   "That's O.K. ,Sir," said John, "We do it for the Honor of the job, and the flight time is PAY enough!"
   "Now that you brought up the topic," voiced the Colonel, "How would the four of you like to be included in the flight rotation of the crew?"
   "I thought that only military personnel were allowed to pilot ISVs," said Wendy.
   "In the past, that was true, but out here, under the circumstances, there can be allowances made,"  Colonel Hill said.  THEN he got an idea.  "Since that might bother your sense of fair play, both you and your civilian pilot Dan, will find military flight suits in your sizes on that table over there.  And he pointed to a table in the far corner of the bridge.  As for the absence of Rank Insignia, a solution just presented itself.  "It seems that I have two Captains that were just promoted to Major.  It further seems, that both of them have already changed their insignia accordingly.  Therefore, you two have now been awarded the rank of Captain."  He looked them all in the eye, one by one, and said, "Everyone on this ship WORKS, and we have a chance to talk, and find where your talents lie, over dinner.  Now that you are on a ship with a much larger compliment of crew, our shifts can follow a more normal pattern.  Because of this, we have Set Hours for our meals.  Dinner will be served beginning two hours from now.  So we don't we all meet in the galley in two and a half hours?  Major Paladin Edwards, here, is one of our Ship's Captains.  Major? Would you be so kind as to please point out the quarters to our new crew members on your way to yours?"
   Colonel Hill thought for a moment and said, "By the way, because you have members of both genders on your crew, are any of you married?"
   John and Wendy clasped their hands and raised them, as well as Sharon and Pamela.
   Without skipping a beat, Colonel Hill said, "Don't forget to show each of our two couples their 'Honeymoon Suites'.  DIS-MISSED!"
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 

CHAPTER SEVENTY
   "Well, how do I look?" asked Sharon of Pamela.
   "You look as STRAC as you ever did on Earth, oeyä muntxate. So don't worry.  You will pass muster!" said Pamela.
  "Well, my dear, you look JUST like the women on the old recruiting posters on Earth, oeyä meuianga tsamsiyu alor!" said Sharon with a proud grin on her face.  "Let's go knock 'em DEAD!"
   The two couples entered the combined mess five minutes early and asked the Sargent at Arms where the Colonel's table was.  The Sargent offered to take them to it, but Sharon said, "It would be bad form, for us to seat ourselves.  We just wanted to know where it was located."  He described it's location to them.
   Once they knew where the table was, the four of them walked towards Colonel Hill, in such a way that he could discretely "Wave off" their approach, or motion them over.  He chose the later, and raised his right forearm, to the horizontal, took his right index and middle fingers, bending them one time, from an open hand to closed fist position.  The two couple came over to within two feet, and waited for the Colonel to introduce them.
   "Majors Sharon West and John Williams, and Captains Pamela Wright, and Wendy Harrington, allow me to introduce Majors Debra Yatsimi, and Roland Lazar, our two physicians."
   Just then, the rest of the Under Sea Renegades all showed up en masse at the entry to the Mess. 
   Sharon eyed them with an expression that did NOT portray happy thoughts.  She quickly changed her demeanor before facing the Colonel to the one that she wore when she was introduced to the two doctors.
   "Begging the Colonel's pardon, Sir, but may I have a word with my people?"
   "Of course, Major, and invite them back here with you when you are done."
   "Yes, Sir, I will," Sharon said as she turned around and headed for her group.
   "Now THIS ought to be REAL interesting," said the Colonel to those he was with.
   "There had BETTER be a REALLY good reason for you people showing up late.  The FIRST meeting that you had with the Crew of the ISV ! One, I might remind you we were ESPECIALLY invited to attend by the ranking officer of this vessel.  Whether you people like it or not, this happens to be a MILITARY vessel, and you people need to ACT like you are aware of that fact.  NOW, just what the HELL happened?"
   Captain Dan Warren sheepishly looked at Sharon and said, "As Eywa can read my heart, I was LOCKED in my room.  I was ready half an hour early, went to the door when Chip and Steve knocked on it, but the thing wouldn't open!  I then tried the manual over ride, but it was the LOCKS, and not the operating mechanism that were not working.  Just then, Jim Everest happened by, and when he diagnosed the problem, he ran to the Old Dog, got a few of his tools, came back here and within three minutes, got the door opened.  Then we hurried straight here."
   "O.K., but here is that you SHOULD have done: once there were a total of FIVE people at that door, YOU as the ranking member of the group, should have dispatched Chip to come and tell us of your problem.  THEN we could have sent some help.  It's O.K., NONE of you come from a military background.  While everyone else on this ship has been in the military a decade or more.  Come on, I'll formally introduce you to the Colonel.  By the way, until HE says otherwise, you address him as Colonel, Colonel Hill, or Sir."
   Sharon and her five wayward Old Dog comrades worked their way over to Colonel Hill.  When they were about three feet away, the Colonel, in a deliberate non-threatening voice said, "I see that the lost have been found."
   Captain Warren slightly raised to fingers of one hand, and once recognized, said, "Colonel, Sir, I can explain."  The Colonel bade him to go on. 
   "Sir, I was ready to go in plenty of time, but my door wouldn't open." He went on to explain, in detail, the symptoms of what happened and how Jim Everest ran to the Old Dog, got his tools, and remedied the situation.
   "Who is Jim Everest?"  he Colonel asked.
   "I am Sir, Jim Everest, Chief Engineer of the Old Dog, at your service."
   "Well, Jim, I will introduce you  Megan O'Reilley, our Chief Engineer, over dinner.  Shall we go to our table?"
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
   While the Colonel's party was awaiting their soup, Colonel Hill began the introductions by going clockwise from his left.
   "To my immediate left is one of my captains, Major Sven Kreigson.  To his left, Major Scott Wrigby.  To his left is Captain Alex Ryan.  Major Paladin Edwards and his First Officer, Captain Shirelle Williams, are currently on duty.  Next are ship's First Officers: Captain Georgia White, Captain Amber Wells, and Captain Evan Stallings.  Our ship's Navigators are Captain Neville James and Captain Paul Rinton.  There will be other Senior Staff Members that I will introduce you people to, later today.
    "But now let me introduce our New Crew Members:  To my immediate right is Major Sharon West, one of the Captains of the Old Dog.  To her right is her wife, Marine Biologist and Electronics Engineer, Captain Pamela Wright.  To her right is another Captain of the Old Dog, Major John Williams, and to his right is his wife, and former Civilian captain of the Old Dog, Captain Wendy Harrington.  To her right is another former Civilian Captain of the Old Dog, as well as a Shuttle Pilot, Captain Dan Warren.  And to his right, are two people who can aid us in our staffing difficulties, both civilians; Old Dog Chief Engineer Jim Everest, and Navigator William Treycott.  Next, we have three civilians that we will need to match up with something necessary on this mission.  Chip Higgins, Project Chief of the Under Sea Marine Biology Research Team of the Univversity of Hawaii, who hold Ph.D.s in Marine Biology, and Geology.  Jim Hansen, Ph.D. in Biology, and Steve Hobbs, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to your new home."
   The entire meal was a delight with the Colonel at one point asking Pamela if she was responsible for setting up the shrimp farm.   She replied that Old Dog Chief Engineer, Jim Everest had slightly more to do with it than she did, and that her biggest contribution was showing him what conditions the Shrimp liked the best, and how to keep "their world" running that way. From then on she only had to visit the Farm about once a month.
   Once dinner was finished, the New Flight Crew Members got their duty schedules.  Transport Jim was scheduled to the Engineering Section.  Pamela joined Thomas Ring and Stanton Edwards in the Electronics Section.  Willliam Treycott happily joined the Navigation Team, and Steve Hobbs, Jim Hansen and Chip Higgins were told to "Hang Loose" until good matches for them could be found.
   "So when is your first Duty Shift?" asked Pamela.
   "Fifteen hours and eleven minutes from now," said Sharon, after glancing at her watch.  "You?"
   "The same." replied Pamela. "I think that they are keeping the married couples on the same schedules."
   "It seems as if that is what they are shooting for," replied Sharon. "Initially, John and Wendy are going to be split-up so that each of them can be trained by an  existing pilot with ISV experience. You and I can be on duty at the same time because we are in totally different sections.  Are you excited to be back working in electronics until we get to Pandora?"
   "Well, we will see what has changed in the last six years, THAT'S for sure!"  Captain Ring says that he can bring me up to speed in a week to ten days, so that there is nothing for me to worry about." revealed Pamela.
   Once the military formalities of the "Meet and Greet" had concluded, Sharon and Pamela headed back to their new quarters, showered, and relaxed a bit before turning-in for a nap, to acclimate themselves to their new sleep cycle, that would now remain constant until their arrival at Pandora.
   Once in bed, the two of them did a quick review of some Na'vi, kissed, and drifted off to sleep
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
   Three minutes before the alarm would go off, Sharon opened her eyes, rolled over and said, "Rewon lefpom oeyä hona yawnetu alor,  Srak hahaw sìltsan? Good Morning my adorable, beautiful Beloved.
   Pamela brushed the sleep from her eyes, and said, "Srane oe hamahaw sìltsan ulte ngaru tut?" Yes I slept well, and you?
   Sharon returned with, "Oeru lamu sìltsana hamahaw, oeyä muntxate." To me was good sleep, my mate!
   "Nga lu sìltsana numeyu, Ma Sharon!"  returned Pamela to her Love. You are a good learner!
   "O.K. my Love" said Sharon, "That was the most Na'vi that I have EVER used on the fly in a conversation, and I think that I need a break to cool down my overheated brain circuitry for a bit, before I 'em oeyä eltu!" cook my brain
   "Nice finish, Honey," said Pamela, "You threw in some more Na'vi."
   "I was on a roll, so I just couldn't help myself!" replied Sharon proudly.
   "Well we still have eleven hours til we need to report to our duty stations, " said Pamela, "I guess it will take a week to ten days to shift our sleeping and eating patterns to those of the ISV."
   "You are right, Sweetie Pie!" responded Sharon, "This is the first time since before we left Earth, that we have slept for eight hours straight.  Now we just need to slowly adjust the Start and Stop times of that sleep cycle."
   "It will come with time and practice," said Pamela, "Do you want to stroll around the ship and find our where my Duty Station is?"
   "Sure, why not?  Let's throw our uniforms on.  I believe that on THIS ship, a military bearing at all times is the Uniform of the Day."
   "I think you are right, oeyä yawnetu," answered Pamela.
   Once properly clothed, the two of them exited their quarters and walked aft, planing to ask directions to the Electronics Shop from the first crew member that they came across.  They didn't have to wait long, before rounding a corner, and almosr running INTO Major Megan O'Reilley, the Ship's Chief Engineer.
   "OOPS! Sorry Major!" said Pamela, who had been leading the way around the corner.
   Major O'Reilley instinctively put up her hands as Pamela rounded the corner right in front of her.  She caught Pamela by each of her upper arms, saying "WHOA! There Sea Biscuit!  Where are you two headed?!"
   "We were going to take a walk around the ship, and learn where some of the important locations are.  Right now, we were headed to my Duty Section, the Electronics Shop," said Pamela.
   "Just CAME from there!  Follow me, and I will show you both," advised Major O'Reilley.
   "This will be your Duty Section, Captain Wright," said the good Major as she walked through the door.  "THIS is Captain Stanton Edwards, one of your two fellow Electronics Engineers.  Captain Stanton, meet Captain Wright, Captain Wright, Captain Stanton."
   The two engineers chatted for about half an hour, while Major O'Reilley and Major West got acquainted.  Once the formalities were out of the way, Major O'Reilley invited the couple to join her at the Mess Hall for coffee.
   "I was under the impression that the Mess Hall had set hours, Major," queried Sharon, to which Major O'Reilley replied, "The MEALS are set, but you can get coffee or tea anytime."
   "Pamela and Sharon accompanied Major O'Reilley to the Mess Hall, where they chatted and sipped coffee for half an hour, until Major O'Reilley returned to her office, and Sharon and Pamela returned to their quarters.
   Once inside their Little World, Pamela observed, "I think that the entire ship and her crew has been annexed, so to speak, by the ISV."
   "I'm not so sure that is such a bad thing, we will get there a lot quicker his way." replied Sharon.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
   Major Edwards rounded the corner for the five yard jog to the Flight Deck, wondering just WHERE Major West was.  Most new Captain candidates would have been tearing down the corridor, trying to make it to the Flight Deck before he got there.  "Well, " he thought, "I guess that we will have a little Heart-to-Heart on her first Duty Shift."  He walked aboard the Flight Deck with a smile on his face, imagining the lame excuse that she would try to come up with.  Then he looked over at the Flight Engineer's Station and Major West was deep into a technical discussion with one of the Flight Engineer's.
   The moment that Major Edwards looked at Sharon, her conversation with the Flight Engineer, First Lt. Samuel Bonner, ceased. And she faced him stating,
   "I decided to come up here about twenty minutes ago, and get a feel for the performance envelope of this ship."
   "That is a good thing," commented Major Edwards, "It shows initiative, desire to learn, and displays a CAN DO attitude.  Major West, I think that you will fit in with this crew just fine."
   "Thank you, Major Edwards.  I am just trying to do my fair share, when it comes to becoming familiar with the operation of this ship," offered Sharon.
   "Well then, Major, climb into the Number Two Seat and let's start the learning curve",  said Major Edwards, as he strapped himself into the Command Pilot's Seat.
   While Sharron was trying her hand at the controls of the ships, Pamela was getting a quick Ramp-Up-to-Speed, concerning how electronic components had improved in the last six years from Major Thomas Ring.
   "The new advances in molecular memory storage have drastically reduced the size and weight, as well as heat generated by electronic devises that are used in the military," instructed the Major.
   "But how can we test them below the sub-assembly level?" asked Pamela, "You can't replace individual silicon atoms, so do you just throw the entire module away like they did the ancient incandescent light bulbs?"
   Major Ring replied, "It may seem wasteful, but yes.  If you look at it this way, it was impossible in a practical sense to remove and replace the damaged tungsten filament and then evacuate the bulb of all air.  I realize, back in those days that almost seemed prehistoric to us now, repair facilities could take apart assemblies, and sub-assemblies, replacing individual resistors, capacitors, coils, and later, transistors or integrated circuits.  What we have done since, engineers, such as yourself put an entire 200 terabyte motherboard into a single module the size of an I.C. chip, is simply to be able to put a hundred of those chips together on a single sealed card, that is totally impervious to dust, vibration, and water.  NOW we identify WHICH memory node has a problem, and replace that nodal card. It is almost symptomatically analogous to what a neurosurgeon does inside the human brain, understand?"
   "I am beginning to get my head around it," responded Pamela, "But wouldn't you then have to wait while everything that was in that node is reloaded, making you vulnerable in combat?"
  "No, Captain, you are thinking that these nodes are like stem cells, that can become anything.  These node ARE capable of doing that but the ones that are mission critical for specific tasks, are all preloaded with ALL the information needed to just Plug-and-Go instantly on line."
   "WOW! I would LOVE to sit and talk to one of the software designers that wrote THOSE subroutines," said Pamela, "My Wife is into Electronics as well as Aerospace Engineering, so I will just get her to help me with the hardware aspect of Artificial Memory Systems."
   "Well," said Major Ring, "It sounds like you will have no problem with the homework I will be giving you for the next week, then!  If the two of you ever want to talk to one of the software engineers that actually WROTE some of those subroutines, you are looking at him!"
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
   Steve Hobbs woke up, showered, and headed to the mess hall for breakfast.  Once there, he did a pretty delicate balancing act with a full tray in one hand, and holding a small dish of toast and a second dish holding a cup of coffee in the other.  Half way across the dining portion of the mess, someone leaned back in their chair, and almost knocked the coffee and toast dishes out of his hand.  He had just marginally regained control over his breakfast spread, when a thirty year old, medium height, Girl-Next-Door, in a lab coat invited him to sit at her table, before he would end-up scattering dishes of food and drink all over the Combined-Mess floor.
   "You are one of the Undersea Renegades, aren't you?" the Lab Tech asked.
   "Why, yes, Ma'am, I am. Dr. Steve Hobbs,  Organic Chemist of the Marine Biology Group."
   "Organic Chemist, did you say?" replied Sylvia Lyon.
   "Why, yes, Ma'am.  That is what my position was within the Research Team," clarified Steve.
   "Well, Dr. Hobbs, I am Major Sylvia Lyon, head of the ship's medical laboratory.  Have you ever seen the procedures that are run in a medical lab?"
   "As a matter of fact, Major Lyon, I paid my way through half of my college by working as a medical lab tech while going to M.I.T."
   Like a shark sensing blood in the water, Sylvia asked, "Do you think you could re-familiarize yourself with the procedures again?"
   "Of course, Major!  Give me a day to study up, and then have one of your people stand over my shoulder while I run a couple of tests, and I should be back in the swing of things," replied Steve.
   "GOOD!" exclaimed Sylvia, "Consider yourself part of my medical team!"
   "BOY! Eywa does NOT mess around when she wants to make something happen, does she?" marveled Steve.
   "No," replied Sylvia, "She usually gets straight for it, if it is needed."
   The remainder of the breakfast was spent in small talk until Steve dropped another bombshell, "You should meet my colleague, Dr. Chip Higgins!  While I was paying my way through M.I.T., HE was working in a hospital in Honolulu, doing biopsies to pay his way through the University of Hawaii."
   "WHERE IS THIS MAN?" inquired Sylvia, "We are in critical need of BOTH of your talents."
   "Well, I could take you to his quarters, if you would like, Ma'am," stuttered Steve, so shocked by Sylvia's sudden reaction to the news of Dr. Higgins.
   "Well, finish the last of your pancake, Dr. Hobbs.  We don't want you wasting away."
   Steve started to get up and felt a hand on his left shoulder, pushing him down in his seat, and exclaimed, "Eywa IS incredible!  Major Lyon, meet Dr. Chip Higgins."
   "So you are the Dr. Higgins that I have been hearing such a glowing report about over breakfast?" stated Sylvia.
   "From HIM?" joked Chip, pointing at Steve with his right thumb.  "Oh, he lies about me ALL the Time! So WHICH tall-tale has he been spreading this morning?"
   "Oh, the one about you being one of the Top Laboratory Technicians and Pathologists in the state of Hawaii, while going for your Doctorate," responded Sylvia, without so much as skipping a beat. "You KNOW, Doctor, you have a choice. You can either USE your great talent to help people on this ship OR I can do my absolute damnedest to get you a job in the ship's laundry.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
   Sharon and Pamela were having dinner after getting off their duty shifts, and they spied Chip walking into the Mess Hall.  Pamela got Chip's attention, by standing up, and he signaled would be joining them once he went through the line.
   "It will be good to see what he thinks of his new duty," said Pamela.
   "Yeah, it was really fortuitous that the Medical Lab was so severely short staffed, that Major Lyon needed to snatch Chip, Steve, AND Jim to fill out her department," voiced Sharon.
   "Steve and Jim should be walking in here momentarily," announced Chip, as he sat down.
   "So...how are the three of you fitting in with the Major, and your job duties?" queried Sharon.
   "Well,"  Chip said between bites, "In the month that we have been in the section, we have gone from having to be monitored, to where shortly, we will be running on a four shift cycle."
  "Yeah, that was brutal what Sylvia had to do being on 24 hour call as the ONLY Lab Tech," voiced Pamela, "but that decompression accident on the Moon Colony, from the meteor strike two weeks before the ISV shoved off, left her with NO options."
   "That's true," agreed Chip, "There was NO TIME to garner the trust of others, and besides, most of them had been SENTENCED there, so there was NO WAY they would EVER step foot on this ship."
   "That is ALL that we would need," concurred Sharon, "To have those RDA criminals on board this ship as we achieved Pandoran orbit would be criminal.  The Na'vi would rightfully run us ALL off Eywa'eveng.
   "Here come the other two," observed Pamela as she motioned them to sit at the table once they had gotten their dinners.
   "Hey, guys!  How goes it?!" asked Sharon as a greeting.
   "Well, the learning curve was a bit steep at first, but I think that the three of us are holding our own now," replied Steve.
   "I think that we have acquitted ourselves rather nicely," mentioned Jim, "So what about you, Sharon?  How is our next class of Ship's Captains coming along?"
   "Well, now that you asked," replied Sharon, "It looks like we will be turned loose as full-fledged ISV Captains in another week.  We were told that as soon as we are through the Oort Cloud, all of us will be flying the ship solo, out in interstellar space.  As a point of interest, you guys might like to know, that we entered the Kuiper Belt seven hours ago, so we are moving right along now."
   "That's true," volunteered Pamela, "We are setting up some new Long Range Scanning Radars in the shop right now, and we will be installing them in a day or two.  This will put them on line for the run through the rest of the Kuiper Belt and then the higher speed run through the Oort cloud. That will make the traverse of the Cloud and  the interstellar run to the Alpha Centauri System safer."
   Sharon added, "This may be new to you Folks, but this Ship had been hot-rodded slightly just before the Battle for the Well of Souls.  We will be able to cover the distance to Pandora four months faster than it has ever been done before."
   "WHOA!" exhaled Chip, "We are ging to set the ALL-TIME-RECORD for an Earth ship, aren't we?"
   Pamela smiled and said, "Yes, we will, and that is why we need the new longer range, wider spectrum, higher resolution, multi-frequency devices on this ship."
    "It will be her last run, but she will retire with honor." offered Sharon.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX 
   "Well, Major West, the Navigation Panel is going to get a bit more information available on it, but I don't think that you will mind," noted Major Paladin Edwards, as he and Sharon walked to the Flight  Deck.
   "No, Sir, I won't mind at all!  Captain Wright told me all about the new scanning system," replied Sharon.
   "Lighten up a little Major!" counseled Major Edwards, "I know that this is a military ship, but you DON'T need to refer to your wife as Captain Wright!"
   "I wasn't sure just how high and tight you were, Sir, so I thought that it was expedient to possible err on the side of Militarily Correct Speech."
   "We,,. I don't mind you calling me Sir, as I DO have two years time In Grade, on you.  But you don't need to refer to your wife by her military rank," offered Major Edwards.
   Majors Edwards and West relieved Majors Kriegson and Harrington, and settled into their chairs.  The departing crew advised their replacements of a few Kuiper Belt objects that had moved several thousands of miles higher in their locations than was listed in the ten year old charts.  Major Edwards thanked the departing flight crew for their update on the 'Upwardly Mobile' Kuiper Belt objects and he and Major West were left on the Flight Deck with First Lieutenant Samuel Bonner, the Flight Engineer for their rotation.
   Half an hour later, Sharon's wife Pamela, and the Chief of Section Major Thomas Ring, entered the Flight Deck, pushing a cart loaded with the electronic equipment for the new displays.  Accompanying them was the other other Electronics Section Member Captain Stanton Edwards.
   "Majors, we should have all of this installed, slaved into the main sensor array, and calibrated in about two hours.  That should give you two plenty of time to get used to your new Situational Awareness Display.  We are going to need to get-at your old display panels and be where you two are sitting.  If you two can put the ship n autopilot for the next half hour, we promise to return your seats to you, none the worse for the wear."
   "No problem, Major. We will just sit in the Jump Seats at the rear bulkhead, watching the show, coffee in hand!" replied Major Edwards.
   After they had been sitting back by the rear bulkhead for a short while, Sharon asked, "Major, I have a question about the learning possibilities on this ship."
   Major Edwards responded with, "What is it that you want to know?"
   "All of us on the Transport were slowly learning to speak Na'vi from Dr. Augustine's book and a few old optical drives. None of us have seen a library on this ship, and we are worried about losing the little bit that we have learned."
   "Well, have no fear, the reason that you haven't seen a Library Room here, is because the entire ship is a library," explained Major Edwards.  "There are Na'vi lessons available on the video display in your room.  After we get off duty, I will show you and your bride how to access them. Oe kivar aynga, txo aynga new."
   Sharon haltingly replied with, "Irayo ma karyu! Oel omum ayoeti ftivia ulte aysänumvir ngal ayoet zamamunge."
   Major Edwards sealed the deal with, "Tsakrr ayoe kem si fì'u."
   Forty-three minutes later, Major Ring motioned the Flight Crew forward, and the Ship's Captain, and his student took their seats.  After walking them through the different Search Modes, how to activate them, and read and interpret the displayed data, the Engineering team, bid the Flight Crew adieu, and returned to their Section Room.
   "Well, Major Edwards, what do you think of the way that the auto-navigation circuits are slaved into the new scans with three times the range of the gear that WAS on this ship?" asked Sharon.
   "I think that it will make the passage of the Oort Cloud much safer, and probably less anxiety producing, Major West."
   "I agree." concurred Sharon.
   Three hours later, they were relieved and both went to the Combined Mess, joining many of their friends and relatives. Around the table were Majors Edwards, West,  Williams, as well as Captains Harrington and Wright.  Added to the military members, were all the civilian members of the Undersea Renegades.  There was much excitement at the news of them being able to start their Na'vi lessons again in three days.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
   "This sure is great that Major Edwards showed us how to access all the video libraries on this ship concerning the Na'vi language, customs, and the little bit of their history that we could learn before the RDA was sent home PACKING," mused Sharon.
Pamela replied, "I don't suppose that this information was standard issue on the RDA ships, now WAS it?"
   "Probably not, but the information would have never been accessed by the Hired Guns that were traveling on those ships anyway," responded Sharon.  "It is HERE on THIS ship, where it IS both used and appreciated."
   Their personal lessons finished, Pamela and Sharon went to the huge gym on the ISV, to get some aerobic exercise.  While there, Major Ian Riley, the Chief Flight Engineer, walked in and jumped on one of the Climbers.
   "So how do you like our ship?" asked Ian.
   "It is a dream to fly at these speeds," replied Sharon.  "The Transport would be at its maximum fuel burn to get to 98% of this ship's speed, and we haven't even opened this thing up yet!  Thanks to the staff in the Section that my lovely wife works in, we can safely run over the top of the Kuiper Belt at a level of safety that we could not achieve in the Transport."
   Pamela asked, "Major Riley, How do you find the interface to your Duty Station from our new Long Range Scanners?"
   "I really like it, Captain, as do all the other Captains, First Officers, and Flight Engineers. You guys in Engineering, really out did yourselves THIS time."
   After their post-workout showers, Sharon and Pamela made for the Combined Mess, to catch dinner before the line closed down.  The Mes never completely closed.  In the tradition of all ships there was always coffee, and a huge pot of soup available for those working strange hours.  The couple wanted to grab a full meal, however, before retiring to their quarters.  As they walked in, they spied Wendy and John walking through the line, and after they had made their selections as well,  they joined the other couple at a table. 
   "So how are your ISV Captains lessons coming along, Sharon?" asked John.
   "I would guess as well as expected," replied Sharon.  "We are doing all manner of emergency procedures now. 
   "We are working on the same material as well, so we must all be progressing at the same rate," guessed Wendy.
   "So how are the Na'vi Studies for you and John coming along?" asked Pamela of Wendy.
   "Oh, some are quick and easy, and others are more difficult,  and take more time." said Wendy.  "And some easy, but for SOME reason, are troublesome to us," she mused.
   "What is giving you an unexpectedly hard time?" queried Pamela, "Perhaps I can help?"
   Oh, you would think this 'So Elementary of a Lesson', Pamela, it would hardly be worth your time," fretted Wendy.
   "I don't judge what is trivial, and what is not," voiced Pamela.  "We are all learning a new language, so there are different parts of it that will be difficult for different people," noted Pamela.
   "Well, if you MUST know, it is the two letter fixes that are at the end of the word NGA, that are giving us trouble.  We are not sure when to use the different ones," revealed Wendy.
   "Well, let's see if I can shed some light on the subject for you two," soothed Pamela, as she reached for her touch screen.  And she wrote the word the word NGA  and explained; "Fì'lì'u ral YOU mì Ìnglisi.  NARU means TO YOU and can sometimes mean You Have. "Let me find some Useful Phrases, in the back of the Na'vi dictionary."  She flipped the electronic pages ahead and peered studiously through the list.
   "Here's one!" she announced.  "Ngaru lu fpom srak? which we know to mean, 'How are you? are you well?'  But literally it means,  'To you is wellness, yes/no?'"  She waited to see the nods of comprehension. And found another phrase;
   "Ngaru tut? and to you? and you?"  Which is a phrase you will hear a lot.  It sort of means, How About You?
   "Or you could propose a toast to a craftsman by saying, Ngaru Tsulfä! To You, the Mastery!
   "How about NGAHU?" asked John, "That word is used in the phrase, Eywa Ngahu."
Pamela wrote HU.  "Hu is an adposition and means WITH.  Eywa Ngahu means Eywa with you. If you stick HU at the back of a noun, you don't have to worry about lenition, but let's deal with that later."
   "O.K.  But what about NGAT and NGAL?" asked Wendy.
   "Those mean YOU also, when you are using a transitive verb.  I'll show you an example, and maybe we can sort things out," said Pamela as she saw the confusion in John's and Wendy's eyes.
   "Oel ngati kameie." she wrote on her tablet. Oe-L is the Do-er, Nga -T is the do-ee. 
   "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" exclaimed John.  "When do we use T and when do we use TI?"
   "You can use either a T or a TI after a vowel, so you can say NGAT or NGATI." said Pamela. "But after a consonant, use IT or IL.  Eywa sees Sharon becomes, Eywal kame Sharonit."
   Sharon said, "Then if I wanted to say Sharon sees John, I would say, "Sharonil kame Johnit?"
   "Eyawr! That is correct! No matter where in the sentence you place the noun, L or IL is the DO-er.  Johnit kame Sharonil mean that John is being kame-ed by Sharon."
   "But because it is open word order, I'm going to be comfortable and keep it in English word order." puzzled Sharon.  " And I would be correct in doing that, right?"
   "For now, I would say yes, but if a Na'vi speaker changed the word order when speaking to you, you will have to remember that the Ls are the Do-ers and the Ts are the do-ees.  But we can start out by using English sentence structure." said Pamela reassuringly.
   "Noticing the partial comprehension in John's and Wendy's eyes, Sharon seized the moment, and said, "This sounds like a good place to end the lesson, and have everyone return to their quarters to digest all of this."
   All were in agreement and everyone called it a night.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
   John and Wendy left the Mess Hall and headed to their quarters.  The Na'vi lesson had been great, but left their heads spinning just a bit.  Of course that wasn't the only reason; a lot had happened and in so little time, much of it so incredibly fortuitous that Wendy still couldn't quite believe it.
   "Hey," John called softly, moving to embrace her as they entered their quarters.
   "Hey," Wendy murmured, looking up and smiling before returning the embrace.
   "You look tired," John observed, sitting down next to her on the bed.
   Wendy rolled her eyes and giggled.  "Oh, what GREAT observational skills you have," she remarked, feigning surprise and shoving his arm lightly.  "Actually, just thinking..." she admitted with a sigh, leaning her head on his.
   John stroked his muntxate's hair, kissing her forehead gently.  "Mmmm, Okay... what about?" a mischievous smile played on John's lips as Wendy scooted closer into his shoulder with a contented sigh.
   "Us, we are mated now.  I mean, we're married." she flashed him a brilliant smile.  "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?  One moment Lovers, the next, Partners for Life. Amazing!"  They looked into each others eyes and smiled.  Wendy kissed John playfully.
   "So, what's on your mind?" John asked, as they both reclined on their sides on the bed, facing each other.  Wendy's face became serious, as she turned to her muntxatan.  "We are Out Here, in space.  Pandora is still years away.  What if I get pregnant, John?  We don't know how interstellar travel would affect the baby.  Or the radiation, or the gravity levels, or anything.  What if something happens to the baby, to me, to us both?"  Various scenarios flashed through her mind.  Caesarian section.  Premature birth. Miscarriage and hemorrhage, and Eywa knows what else that could go wrong, out here, in the vastness of space.  They only knew that what tools and knowledge they possessed on board, were minimal at best.  There was no maternity ward, and no specialist to field those possible issues.
   He took her hands in his, and kissed her forehead soothingly.  "Tam, tam, oeyä Yawnetu. We've got the lab, and the ultrasound experiments," he reminded her.  "A great deal of progress in regards to the growth of stem cells in space has been made.  I'm sure that we can apply that to a possible pregnancy," John replied.  It was scary, he had to admit, to think about it.  After all these centuries, pregnancy could still be dangerous on Earth.  But here on the ship?  with a host of unknown variables?  He took her hands in his, and looked her in the eyes.  "What ever happens, dear Muntxate, I promise you, we will face it together."

   "I want you in the Number One Seat starting tonight, Major.  Let's get the muscle memory down in the correct arms for the Aircraft Commander."
   Sharon thanked Major Edwards for his trust in her abilities, to which he replied, "If you didn't show the competence, I would not have let you in the Command Pilot's Seat.  The Kuiper Belt was small potatoes.  IN a little over two weeks, we will enter the Oort Cloud, and there is No flying over THAT!  We stay on our toes, and fly THROUGH the Oort Cloud."
   Sharon climbed into the Command Pilot's Seat and started familiarizing herself with the control-feel of the equipment on THIS seat, with now, the opposite arms that she HAD been using.
   "Well, Major Edwards, with the both of us sharing the same comfort levels in my ability to fly this ship through the Oort Cloud, I believe that this ship's Last Flight Out of our solar system WILL be a safe one!" stated Major West.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
   Wendy Harrington walked into the medical wing of the ISV looking for Colonel Debra Yatsimi, the Head Doctor of the Ship, and one of the two surgeons on board.  As she entered the section, the first person that she came across was Chris Neely, the Head Nurse of the ship. 
   "Good Day, Captain Neely.  I wonder if I could set an appointment to see Colonel Yatsimi about some medical questions that I have."
   Captain Neely looked up, and said, "I don't think that would be much of a problem, Captain Harrington.  Let me see if I can catch her."
   Chris paged the doctor, and directed Wendy to several chairs that made up the waiting room on the ISV. Wendy sat down in one of the chairs, and closed her eyes, trying to frame her questions in her mind.
   Doctor Yatsima walked in the room and said, "Captain Harrington?"
   Wendy rose from the chair, and responded, "Yes, Ma'am."
   "What is your question for me Captain?"
   Wendy spoke to the Doctor of hers and John's desire to have children, but also of their concern over the safety of such an act, one which she was not sure had even been attempted before.
   The Colonel sat Wendy down on the other side of the desk from her, and said, " What I am about to say, is not just Colonel to Captain, or Doctor to Pilot, but also, as woman to woman.  The traditional answer to this question is no. The reason being that there are significant hurdles that stand in the way of a woman becoming pregnant, or at least remaining pregnant once fertilization takes place.
The primary problem with space conception is the effect that radiation can have on both sperm counts and the development of a fetus.
Environments, like that of outer space, that have high levels of radiation can be harmful to the creation of sperm in males. With lower sperm counts, the likelihood of pregnancy in the first place is diminished.
But even if conception occurs, the exposure of radiation to a forming fetus would kill the cells almost immediately. So even if fertilization could occur, the cells would not be able to replicate and form an actual fetus.
A third problem exists, and that is the extremely low gravity environment of space. While the exact effects have not been studied in detail, it is known that a gravity environment is needed for proper bone development and growth."
Colonel Yatsimi Looked at Wendy and asked, "Do you want some of the specifics on this problem Captain?"
Wendy said "Yes, I would like to understand this better," so the Colonel pulled a touch pad from one of the pockets of her lab coat, and began.
   "Astronauts taking extended trips into space, are exposed to much higher levels of radiation than astronauts have ever faced before. Only recently, have space ship designs been able to provide the necessary shielding to provide the needed protection to avoid development of cancers and radiation sickness.
   "So when long term space flights began, like the earlier ones before NASA's proposed  hundred-year starship, and the much shorter light speed trips that we now can make, then better shielding technology was developed, first by NASA, and then by RDA.
   "Scientists have done a bunch of tests and concluded that sex and procreation in space is no easy feat. In fact, it's really hard. The hardest part is  the exposure to cosmic rays. High energy protons  damage male sperm; any fetus that were conceived in the 2070's did not survive the pregnancy, and since then, no one has even tried to bring about a Space Conceived, or Space Gestated infant."
   Colonel Yatsimi looked into Wendy's eyes, and noticed that she still understood what was being discussed, but still said, " If I go on, there are going to be a lot of numbers thrown around, do you want me to get into the hard Science of all of this?"
   Wendy replied with, " I have two engineering degrees, so I believe that I can stay with you".
   The Doctor then resumed with her technical description of the problems with, "The annual dose in interplanetary space from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) is about 0.73 Sv, (Sievert), during solar minimum and 0.28 Sv during solar maximum. Such high radiation doses are unsustainable for long-duration habitation and required considerable shielding in the construction of all Spacecraft since the 2030's. Radiation from solar particle events (SPE) can be very intense, but is easier to shield. For adults, the available data suggest effective threshold for serious health effects in the 0.5-Sv range for high dose rate x rays or gamma rays. These data may be useful to estimate the thresholds for GCR protons, which have similar biological effectiveness as gamma rays. However, they cannot be used to estimate the thresholds for high linear energy transfer (LET) heavy ions. For in utero exposures, serious health effects from radiation exposures in utero can occur at substantially lower doses than in adults. The threshold (or effective threshold) for developmental abnormalities in the fetus during major organogenesis appears to be about 0.1 Sv acute gamma rays. Again, information is not available from high LET radiation for these effects in humans hence estimating a threshold dose for the high-LET component of GCR would have substantial uncertainty at this time. The critical health effect (most radiosensitive) for human colonization of Pandora, will probably turn out to be infertility in women resulting from radiation exposure in utero. It has been found that oocytes are extremely radiosensitive during gestation, i.e., 50% killed following only 0.07 Sv of chronic tritium beta rays (similar in biological effectiveness to x rays and GCR protons). This would imply that the threshold for early onset of infertility (menopause) in women of child bearing age, could possibly be in the 0.05 Sv range. Protecting the fetus in transit to Pandora, would require far more shielding than even the ISV has. Another thing that comes to mind, is the ionization that you people were subject to while leaving Earth by the skin of your teeth. There is a VERY good chance that you are all sterile already, and definately WILL be by the time that you reach Pandora."
   Noticing the shattered look on Wandy's face, the Doctor said, "Don't look so glum though, you CAN have children once you arrive on Pandora, we have learned a LOT about AVATARS since the battle for the well of Souls. The gestation tanks are impervious to damage even in the hundreds of Giga Electron Volt range, and you and your Husband WILL be able to have all the Children that you wish to have in your new, undamaged Na'vi bodies".
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 

CHAPTER EIGHTY

   Wendy had another two hours before she was due for her next Duty Shift.  Her husband, John, was the one who would relieve her in the duty schedule.  If she hurried, this would give her plenty of time to enlighten John on what she had learned from Colonel Yatsimi.  First, she would need to gather her thoughts together. She decided that the best way to do that, was in the Mess Hall, over a late night bowl of hot soup, and some coffee.
   She had just settled down at a table with her "vittles", when Chip Higgins walked into the Mess.  He noticed Wendy with her soup and coffee, and using hand signals, asked Wendy if he could join her, smiling broadly when she waved him over.
   "I thought that you would still be snuggled up to Muntxatan for other hour yet, Wendy," stated Chip, as he sat down across the table from her.
   "Oh I had some medical questions for Colonel Yatsimi earlier, and I came here before going back for a short nap," replied Wendy.
   The two of them each spent the next twenty minutes, verbally maneuvering for advantage.  Chip, in trying to discern the exact nature of Wendy's questions, and Wendy, trying not to give Chip anything where he could extrapolate useful information concerning her appointment with the Good Doctor.  Wendy won the contest handsomely.
   Once they had each finished with their snack, Wendy excused herself, and headed for her Quarters.  Once inside, she silently shed her clothes, set the alarm for half an hour, and slipped under the covers next to her husband.
   In what seemed to Wendy like an instant, the alarm went off.  She quickly disabled the alarm, got cleaned up, grabbed a cup of microwaved coffee, and headed for the Flight Deck.
   "Good Morning, Captain Harrington.  Ready to get Wrung through the Wringer on Emergency Procedures?" asked Major Sven Kreigson.
   "As ready as I am ever going to be, Major," replied Wendy, as she and Major Kreigson relieved Captain Georgia White.
   Wendy's shift was spent running through forty-seven emergency scenarios, some minor, some major, and only on two of them was there a need for Major Kreigson to comment on a slightly different way to do things.
   John and Major Scott Rigby walked aboard the Flight Deck, and John alerted Wendy to the fact that they had S.O.S., (creamed chipped beef on toast) on the breakfast menu.  She thanked him for the Heads Up, and warned him that she would appraise him of what she had learned in her discussion with Colonel Yatsimi, over coffee after he was relieved by Sharon.
   By the time that Wendy was relieved by her husband, she was two notches shy of seriously hungry.  John's mention of S.O.S. set her salivary glands into  high gear.  So a stop at the Combined Mess, was in order.
   On her way through the door, Wendy eyed Sharon just heading for the tables, from the serving line.  The idea came to her, that it might be a good idea to bounce her new-found knowledge off another woman who was Not a Health Care Professional BEFORE dumping it on her husband.
   Wendy walked up to Sharon's table, and asked if her set were taken.  Sharon said, "Pamela is on her way.  But the more the merrier!"  on cue, Pamlea walked in and spotted where Wendy and Sharon were sitting, joining them once she had made her selections.
   After several moments of small talk, Wendy asked if she could share something of a personal nature with the couple ONLY.  She was assured that what ever she shared, would be held in the strictest confidence.
   "Well, ma oeyä metsmuke, I went to see Colonel Yatsimi last night, to ask about the dangers of conceiving and carrying to term, a baby on an interstellar space flight.  She gave me a not-so quick lesson in space medicine.  This lesson left me with both good and bad news.  The bad news is, that John and I are almost certainly sterile and even if I could beat the odds and conceive, the chances are absolutely zero that the embryo would live much beyond the zygote stage."
   "Oh, I'm so sorry, Wendy!" consoled Sharon.  "I surmised how much a family of your own, would mean to you."
   Pamela put her hands around Wendy's and said, "I am so sorry,  I wish that there was something that our technology could do for you."
   "Actually there IS something that our science has done that will negate all the damage that has been done by years in space."  Wendy stated.  "And it would be better for our children, too.  Thee Colonel told me that the Avatar bodies are impervious to the radiation in space, with the lensing effect of the gravitational cocoon that the ship form around itself as it folds space.  Secondly, even at sub-light speeds, the combination of the ship's shielding, the Avatar Gestation Tanks, and the "amniotic" fluid in the tanks, the radiation and sub atomic particle damage to the developing Avatars is far less than to an embryo developing within its mother, even on 20th century earth."
   "Then you could start a family on Pandora as Avatars?" queried Pamela.
   "Yes!  We could!" exclaimed Wendy.  And she and Pamela spent the next two minutes being all "school-girl" bubbly.
   "Well," giggled Wendy, "I guess I'll try to take a nap til John gets off duty, and I'll give him the news, both good and bad."  She thought for a moment, looked at Sharon, and said, "No Hinting, when you relieve John."
   "My word as an officer, I will say and intone nothing," assured Sharon.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
   Pamela and Sharon relaxed while eating their breakfast, neither of them needing to be On Duty for a little over three hours.  "Wendy was sure happy when she left here thinking about babies!" said Pamela. 
   "Yeah.  But I don't think that she realizes how far into uncharted territory she is sailing," noted Sharon.
   "How so?" questioned Pamela of her muntxate, "Is it that risky?"
   "Well, for starters," began Sharon, "I realize that women successfully carry fetuses to term all the time and they sleep every night.  But an Avatar, without it's operative Driver, is nearly comatose in many ways.  I don't know if ANY research has been done on THAT little problem.  It's NOT like any of us are going to be full-time Na'vi as soon as we land.  The Na'vi will probably  be watching us like hawks, for a good six months to a year before they will be comfortable with us," clarified Sharon. "I don't want to wish Wendy ANY ill will. Truth be known, I hope that she and John, have a kelku FULL of ayevi, if that is what they truly want!"
   "But, HOW?" fretted Pamela.  "Could you,quietly, of course, check to see if there was actually a chart of sorts, for the couple to sail their Ship of Dreams by?"
   "I can do that, the same way that Wendy found out what she knows," answered Sharon.  "Today, after I get off from work, I will speak with the same Head Surgeon that Wendy spoke with."
   Once breakfast was eaten, Sharon and Pamela went to the exercise room and put in a good half hour on the machines.  This was followed by hot showers, a clean set of clothes, and a quick stop at the Medical Suite to make an appointment to speak with Colonel Yatsimi.  With an appointment secured for an hour after they both got off from Duty, their day was pretty well set.
   With forty-five minutes remaining before they each must report for Duty, they both found themselves at the Combined Mess, coffee cups in hand.  Over that cup, it was agreed that they would meet at their quarters before making their way to see Colonel Yatsimi.  Once they had mapped out their day, the Two went their separate ways to their Duty Stations. 
   "Good Morning Major Edwards," said Sharon as she walked onto the Flight Deck, "So when do we enter the Oort Cloud?"
   "In forty-nine hours, twenty-two minutes," replied the Major, "You and I will be on Duty when we fly it."
   With that out of the way, the two of them relieved John and Major Wrigby.  Nothing was intoned about what Wendy had spoken to Sharon earlier, and the Change of Command was over in moments. 
   Their shift was spent with the two of them, plus their Flight Engineer, First Lt. Samuel Bonner, running full-on emergency simulations.  Any rough spots were immediately addressed until the Flowed like water.  Half way through the shift, Major Edwards unstrapped from his seat, and walked to the aft bulkhead of the Flight Deck saying, "As far as you are concerned, Major West, I am NOT HERE.  I am simply GRADING your performance."  The last fifteen minutes of Sharon's shift was spent performing emergency procedures with Flight Engineer Wrigby.
   As they were relieved, Paladin remarked, "You two handled this like this was your twentieth voyage on this vessel, now, why don't we get some dinner?"
   Sharon said, "I'm sorry, Sir.  But I have to meet my wife at our quarters before we go to an appointment that cannot be broken."
   "No problem, Major West," replied Major Edwards.  "We will do it tomorrow night!"
   When Sharon entered their quarters, Pamela had already been waiting five minutes, and they headed for the Medical Suite, making their appointment with Colonel Yatsimi with twelve minutes to spare.  Once in Colonel Yatsimi's office, Sharon briefed the surgeon on what was going through Wendy's head concerning the possibility of having children.  The Colonel's eyebrows shot up when Sharon mentioned that it appeared that Wendy was under the impression that she could carry a child as an Avatar.
   "Oh NO she doesn't, I recommend against it, in the strongest of terms.  YES there HAVE been cases of healthy babies born to women in comas, but those are SO RARE. As an Avatar, when it is NOT inhabited by its Driver, it is close to a Coma state.  It would be a VERY high risk pregnancy that could well KILL the mother, as well as the child.  I will need to get her in here, and counsel her as to the realities of such an attempt.  At the VERY LEAST, the Avatar would need to sleep in our Medical Lab at Blue Heart Gate, IF it still has the capabilities that it once had."
   With that said, Sharon promised the Colonel that she would have Wendy stop in her office the next day and make an appointment.  On their way out of the doctor's office, Sharon looked at Pamela and said, "We can still make dinner at the Combined Mess."
   As they walked into the Mess Hall, they were waved-over to a table by Colonel Edwards, who was only half finished with his meal.  Once seated, Pamela started asking the two Pilots their thoughts on interfacing with the new Ship's Array.  Sharon and Paladin, felt like first year astronaut cadets the way that Pamela grilled them for information on how the new sensors worked in reality.  About three-fourths of the way though dinner, Major Edwards suggested that Pamela come up on the Flight Deck in two days and watch them enter the Oort Cloud.  Pamela responded by letting them know that if Major Ring cleared it, she would do just that.  Before they finished their dinners, Pamela reminded Colonel Edwards that they were a bunch of shrimp making babies in the Transport and it would be a good idea for them to celebrate penetrating the Oort Cloud with a Special Dinner.
   "I will get in touch with the Mess Officer so that he notes the Special Dinner," said Major Edwards, in closing.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
   "Rewon lefpom oeyä lefngapa ikran maktoyu." said Pamela, as she kissed her mate on the forehead.
   "Rewon lefpom oeyä hona yawnetu alor," replied Sharon as she grabbed her Sweetheart and rolled the both of them over in the bed until she was on top of Pamela, who was now laying on her back in the bed, with Sharon straddling her hips.
   "Two points for a Reversal," announced Pamela.
    "I will now claim my prize!" said Sharon, bending over and tenderly kissing her bride.
   Half and hour later, both were in the Combined Mess, enjoying their soup and coffee when Wendy walked in.    Once she had grabbed a cup, Wendy migrated to their table and grabbed a seat.
   "So how is YOUR new day progressing?" said Wendy, smiling broadly.
   "Well, Major Edwards and I are going to run a few more simulations of penetrating the Oort Cloud tomorrow," replied Sharon.
   "Well, Colonel Yatsimi said that she wants to see me today for a soup to nuts Physical, as soon as I get off duty.  So I will go to the Medical Section right after I down this cup of coffee," reported Wendy.
   "Make sure that you let us know how it goes.  The last time I had to have a full blown Flight Physical, was when I was in Astronaut Training," said Sharon, as Wendy took one last gulp of her coffee, and headed for the door.
   "Well, what do you think? Are they going to give ALL the Renegades flight physicals now?"  asked Pamela.
   "If so,"   returned Sharon, "I think that it will only be to cover the REAL reason for this, and that would be to check out Wendy's reproductive system, AND counsel her in the STRONGEST possible terms to NOT attempt to get pregnant as son as she starts driving her Avatar."
   "I wouldn't want to be ANYWHERE in that Medical Section when Wendy gets told THAT!" remarked Pamela.
   "Hey guys!  What's up?" announced Chip Higgins, with the remaining Undersea Renegades in tow, as they sat down.
   "WELL Gentlemen, consider yourselves warned," said Pamela.  "It looks like Colonel Yatsimi is going to tell Wendy what she is NOT going to want to hear during a class ONE-A Flight Physical today.  Sh wear any hearing protection that you might have as work today."
   "Let me GUESS," offered Jim, "She is going to be told that she is sterile."
   "Nah, she already KNOWS that," said Sharon. "But the other day, the Colonel let her know that her Avatar is NOT sterile, and is fully functional reproductively.  NOW she has taken it on herself to get 'preggers' the moment that she is turned loose to drive her Avatar.
   "UH OH! BAAAAD JUJU!" announced Steve.  "This has NEVER been tried.  We wouldn't know WHERE to start.  There MIGHT be people at the Main Medical Complex that would be willing to TRY this on an experimental research basis. IF she signed a million release forms ASSUMING that ALL of their medical equipment was running perfectly, but otherwise ..."
   "Well from what I understand, the Colonel is the epitome of a Commanding Office,"  offered Chip, "She can ell someone to Go To Hell, and make them look forward to the trip!"
   "So TELL me Sharon," queried Steve, "How far along the trip ARE we?"
   "We will be working up to our penetrating the Inner Boundary f the Oort Cloud on my shift tomorrow," announced Sharon.
   "WHOA!" exclaimed Jim.  "We are COOKING!  The last ship out took another MONTH to get this far!"
   "Wait til we enter interstellar space," counseled Sharon, "We will shave almost a YEAR off the total voyage time."
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

 

CHAPTER EIGHTY- THREE
   "Good Morning Major Edwards.  I guess we will do one more simulation today before we play it for real tomorrow, huh?" said Sharon by way of greeting on her way into the Flight Deck.
   "No, I thought that we would just take it east today.  What you need to know, I am sure that you ALREADY know." replied Major Edwards.
   Sharon took her seat, and looked out the forward screens, remarking, "Boy, it sure was a rocky trail getting to where we are, when it comes to interstellar travel.  The blocks of Math, Physics, and Technology that had to be laid down on top of each other, were quite a stack!"
   "That they were," added Captain Ian Riley, the Flight Engineer.  "It has been centuries for the knowledge to build up, but we managed to make steady progress to the point where we regularly can fold space with confidence."
   "I guess that the largest late gain in our knowledge, came in 1994 when someone proposed a method for changing the geometry of Space by creating a wave that would cause the fabric ahead of a space craft to contract, and the space behind it to expand. The ship would then ride this wave as the region itself would move around the wave," reminisced Captain Riley.
   "I remember studying that. I believe it was the Alcubierre Metric," offered Sharon.  "Kind of like a 200 meter long interstellar surfboard riding a wave of its own making!"
   Major Edwards added, "I think that was called the Lorentzian Manifold, which if ne looked at in the context of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, would allow a Warp Bubble to appear in previously flat space/time, and would move away, covering distance, at what appeared to be Superluminal Speed. Inhabitants of the Bubble would feel no inertial effects due to Space moving, instead of the ship."
   "That may be true," added Sharon, but at the time, it appeared that they were playing fast and loose with General Relativity.  There were several big problems that seemed to rear their heads at this simplistic of an approach.  The first of which was that it would take exotic materials, presumably anti-hydrogen to develop the power to create, and sustain the Warp Bubble, and Anti-matter containment was in its infancy at that time."
   "Well, it didn't end THERE," added Captain Riley.  "At that time, no Mathematical Model had been proposed for a way for the ship to exit the Warp Bubble." 
   Major Edwards jumped in with, "One of the interesting things about the Lorentz contraction was that even when the ship was accelerating, it wold be traveling on a free-fall geodesic trajectory.  In other words, a ship using the Warp to accelerate and decelerate is always in Free-Fall.  And the crew would not experience any Delta-VEE effects."
   "That may be true," replied Sharon.  "But Enormous Tidal Forces were said to be present near the edges of the flat space volume, because of the large space curvature there."
   "That was true," responded Captain Riley, "But it was thought they could be kept very small within the volume of the Bubble occupied by the ship.  The original warp drive metric were to use the ADM form, which was OFTEN used in explaining the initial value formulation of general relativity.  This was probably why many thought that space/time was a solution of the Field Equation."
   "Uh-huh!" interjected Sharon.  "Well, THAT would explain why everyone spent a decade or so chasing the Wild Horse that Metrics in ADM form were adaptable to a family of inertial observers, but that those observers were not really distinguishable from other such families.  That interpretation was taken by many to misleading ends, because the contraction and expansion referred only to Relative Motion."
   "This is what happens, when someone tries to build their bridge from the middle of the stream to both shores," chortled Major Edwards.  "In General Relativity, you would first specify a plausible distribution of matter and energy, and then find the geometry of the Space/Time associated with it.  But it is also possible to run the Einstein Field Equations BACKWARDS, first specifying a Metric and the finding the energy-momentum that goes with it."
   "Isn't that what Alcubierre did to build his Metric?" asked Sharon. 
    "Yes, it is." responded Ian, "and by so doing, his solution could have violated several energy conditions and then require exotic matter to even work.  "This is what Serguei Krasnikov said, that it would be impossible to generate the Bubble that Alcubierre described without being able to force the exotic matter to move at local faster-than-light-speeds, which would require the existence of tachyons.  There were some methods that were discussed by the experimental physics community that would avoid the problem of tachyonic motion, but would have probably generated a naked singularity at the front of the Bubble." ...
   The rest of their shift was spent in similar discussion of theoretical physics as it related to space flight.  These three flight officers had, through the innocent expositions that were inspired by a simple comment, found out on that duty shift were big fans of Theoretical Physics.  Once they were relieved, they high-tailed it for the Combined Mess to sample what was being offered for breakfast.  Everyone gravitated to two tables that they shoved together where our budding physicists and the majority of Undersea Renegades were enjoying SOS (creamed chipped beef on toast) and coffee.
   "So Honey, how was your duty shift?" queried Sharon of Pamela.
   "Well, Major Ring has us working on something new.  I'll tell you about it in a couple of days," replied Pamela.
   "I have a question:" posed Wendy as she sat at the table, the last to arrive. 
   "Go ahead. I'm all ears." announced Pamela. 
   "Why spend all this time inventing way faster than light travel systems, and new undreamed of electronics, when we are running away from a planet that just died because of people with such a penchant?  Aren't we going to a moon where everyone lives in the Stone Age?" asked Wendy incredulously.
   Pamela studied her coffee for a moment and said, "Some of the stuff that we are coming up with will make this much shorter trip, safer.  And some of it may make Pandora safer for it's people, when it comes to their weather."
    Sharon jumped in with, "Two things, Wendy; First of all, technology and the ever-questioning human mind did NOT destroy the Earth.  Rampant greed and the quest for exorbitant profit margin at the expense of live to others and even the Planet itself, THAT's what killed the planet. Secondly, as long as we still have the Eywa given curious minds that we were born with, we can't help but ask the question WHY,  when we look at the universe and everything in it.
   Ian climbed aboard the conversation with, "Wouldn't you Undersea Renegades like to study the oceans of Pandora?  It will take a lot more than Stone Age technology to do that.  We can be the most curious, searching creatures in all creation, and as long as we don't become the subjects of greed, we will NEVER repeat what most of our species did on that planet."
   "After several minutes of silent eating, Pamela asked, "So Wendy, how did your flight physical go?" 
   "Initially, badly. But things brightened right up in short order."
   "OK, out with it!  What happened?" inquired Sharon.
   "Well, as soon as the tests were done, Colonel Yatsimi sat me down.  She immediately informed me that we were on ABSOLUTELY uncharted territory if I attempted to get pregnant while as Uniltìrantokx.  While that piece of information did not it well with me, what she said next turned everything around.  The Colonel said that if I was willing to do this and be constantly monitored at Blue Heart Gate, while my Avatar was "asleep" in their medical section, two things could be accomplished: John and I could start our family, and the Medical information that could be learned would be immense and invaluable."
   Chip Higgins said, "YEAH," while acting like he was unclogging his ears.  "We heard THAT commotion all the way in the Lab!", with the other techs nodding in agreement. 
   "Well that all sounds exciting, but it is time for my wife and I to get a few things done," said Sharon, as she picked up her tray.  "See you guys on the Flight Deck when we penetrate the Oort Cloud tomorrow."
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR
   "Hey, John, how are we going?" asked Sharon, as she walked onto the Flight Deck. 
   "Well, we will officially penetrate the inner boundary of the Oort Cloud in an hour and fifty-one minutes.  We will pass to the ten o'clock of a quarter-mile hunk of, what appears to be ice of some sort, 26 minutes later," briefed John.
   "Well, with some of our brand-new whiz-bang equipment that we recently installed, we can more accurately tell exactly WHAT it is," stated Pamela, as she walked aboard the Flight Deck. 
   "Yeah, I would LOVE to know WHAT we have there," exclaimed Sharon, "It CAN'T be sold frozen H2.  It is more likely H6+ *snow* on some sort of substrate.  I'm thinking either rock, or, more likely, a mixture of frozen water and frozen oxygen."
   "Mind if I stick around and watch the show?" John queried.
   "Not at ALL," replied Sharon, "the more the merrier."
   "OK, are we ready to make history?" asked Major Edwards, as he walked onto the Flight Deck. 
   "Well, I sure am, IF I can get this big oaf out of my seat!" said Sharon good naturedly as she playfully slapped John on the back of his shoulder.
   "OK, I know when I gotten an eviction notice," chuckled John, as he rose from his seat.
   "Don't go away MAD, but I want to EARN my passage.  And besides, WHERE would you spend your over time check, anyway?" teased Sharon, as John and Major Scott Rigby made their way to the seats at the rear bulkhead of the Flight Deck to watch the proceedings.
   Twelve seconds early, the ship crossed the inner boundary of the Oort Cloud, and fifteen minutes later, they were giving the new sensors the first work-out in getting optical, and radar reflectivity readings, while they were separated from the object by over forty thousand miles.
   After a few moments of that, Pamela walked up between the two pilots' seats and showed her wife, and Major Edwards, how to get a spectral analysis of the object's composition, by reading the elemental signature of the object's surface as they struck it with a high energy CO2 laser.  The instant the laser struck the object, it vaporized a swath three inches wide and six inches deep.  As it did so, spectral analyzers on the ship took readings of the resulting vapor.
   "You will have your composition over dinner tonight folks," Pamela announced.
   Once the Wow Factor of the process, and the spectral analysis had subsided, things got back to normal on the Flight Deck, with only Pamela remaining, as she was instructed by Major Ring, in case the Flight Crew on duty needed any help with the brand new equipment.
   In what seemed like a short time, Wendy and Major Sven Kriegson accompanied by Flight Engineer Ian Riley, relieved the crew.  While the Relieved Crew was leaving the Flight Deck, Wendy warned them to Prepare For Quite A SHINDIG.
   It seems that she, Colonel Hill, and the kitchen staff, had secretly planned and prepared a luau for the occasion, with three hundred pounds of shrimp, and some fresh veggies, harvested from the Old Dog, and a bunch of rice that was stored as a staple on board the ISV.
   When the Crew entered the Combined Mess, to the applause and mock adoration of the Ship's Company, they realized that Wendy wasn't kidding! This ISV Crew REALLY knew how to throw a party!
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

   
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE
   Once the raucous welcome died down to a dull roar, Colonel Hill stood in front of the Flight Crew, put two fingers in his mouth, and let out a whistle that was loud enough to wake up all the Dead on Earth. 
   People shut up, mid-word, or mid-clap, as the case might be.  Colonel Hill eyed the crowd and said, "OK People!  Let these crew members eat.  Their comments and descriptions of what transpired on their last Duty Shift will be available for any of you that choose to read them, after they have time to first, sleep.  Their reports will then be available in the journals section of the Ship's Data Log."
   With that, Colonel Hill motioned for everyone that was present on the Duty Shift in the Flight Deck to join him at his table, once they had secured their meals.  Once they were at Colonel Hill's table, he inquired about their opinions of the newly installed scanning Gear, and Major Edwards answered, "This new gear is fantastic!  It's sensitivity and selectivity is unparalleled.  We found an object that was half a mile long at a range of 120,000 miles, and were given its speed and track at that range.  At 40,000 miles range, we got our first readings on the object's composition.  At 30,000 miles range, Captain Wright showed Major West and I how to use the CO2 laser to get a spectral analysis of the outer 6 inches of the object's composition.  The results of that experiment will be delivered to us some time during our meal, Sir."
   Half way through their meal, Captain Stanton Edwards of Engineering, brought a single sheet of paper and stood about five feet from the group at Attention. 
   "At Ease, Captain.  What do you have for us?" asked Colonel Hill.
   "I have the results of the spectral analysis that was done on the Oort Cloud Object that we promised to have ready over breakfast, Sir," replied the Captain, as he handed the read out to the Ship's Commander.
   Colonel Hill studied the sheet, and handed it to Major Edwards, who looked at it for half a minute, and said, "Well, it looks like your suspicions were correct, Major." handing it to Sharon.
   "Well, well!" said Sharon, as she quickly scanned the data on the sheet.  "It looks like my hypothesis about the H6+ snow was correct.  The substrate is a mix of conglomerate rock, methane, and other hydrocarbons.  Could this be a remnant of a gas giant that broke up?" 
   "It certainly LOOKS like it," offered Ian, "I would LOVE to know the cause and sequence of the break-up, as well as WHERE it occurred, but NOT enough to stick around!"
   "So, do you folks think that you can each write up something short, and post it to the Ship's Journal file on the computer?  That would satisfy the Ship Company's curiosity about what went on up there," asked the Colonel.
   "Sure, no problem," replied Sharon, "It will help with Crew Cohesion."

   "What were you writing, Oeyä Yawnetu?" asked Pamela, as both she and Sharon closed their computer ports simultaneously. 
   "Oh, I noted both the hard data of what happened, and my thoughts of, and reaction to it," said Sharon.
   "Hey, with our nap, it's been four hours since breakfast," volunteered Pamela, "We don't want to get overly pudgy.  Why don't we hit the gym?"she asked.
   "That sounds fine by ME," replied Sharon, and they spent the next hour in the gym.
    Once they had worked out, showered, and changed uniforms, they made their way to the Combined Mess for lunch.
   When they were partially finished with their meal, Wendy walked in, having just been relieved.  Three minutes later, John walked into the Mess.  Once the four of them were seated together, talk shifted to Pandora, and soon centered on the care that Wendy would receive if she would get pregnant as an Avatar.
   "So tell me, are the Medical Staff going to just observe and test, or will they use some active measures to increase the chance of success with this pregnancy?" asked Pamela. 
   "They said that they would be there to step in if things started to deviate from what should be normal, but that they would try to remain as unobtrusive as possible, if the could," replied Wendy.
   "One thing that occurred to me," stated Sharon, "was that if you wanted to increase the success rate of this endeavor by a huge margin, we have been doing Avatars for almost two decades now.  What about raising the embryo up in a gestation tank?"
   John rolled his eyes, and out of Wendy's line of sight, mouthed, "Don't go there," but too late.  The look that Wendy shot at Sharon was one of pure disdain.
   "I WILL NOT be denied the experience of Motherhood," seethed Wendy, "I will NOT have MY BABY brought to term in a Glorified Test Tube!"
   Pamela saw the expression on her Yawnetu's face change, in an instant and knew that she must separate the two NOW.
   Sharon knew that Pamela was trying to 'keep the peace'  when Pamela suggested that the two of them retire to their room, and Sharon agreed.  As they got up from the table, however, Sharon reminded Wendy, "Remember.  That child's mother's body was raised in a Test Tube!"
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

     CHAPTER 86

As they were leaving the Mess Hall, Pamela asked Sharon, "You are NOT a vindictive person, so why did you feel it was neccesary  to put that parting comment in the conversation with Wendy?"
"Because, oeya yawnetu, she seemed to put down ALL AVATAR'S, as Test Tube Spawned sub Humans, with her barbed answer to my truthful, innocent question", replied Sharon matter of factly.
"Oh, I know that she was being a tad defensive with her remark,  but don't think for one minute that she is going to let it lie right there",  warned Pamela with an all knowing smile.
"Oh, probably not, but I might be able to stack the deck on the side of Medical Common Sense, if I am successful in garnering a little help from the Medical Section, or support from the Ship's computerized Medical Library Section," said Sharon with a wink.
"I hope that you are right, oeya yawnetu", said Pamela worriedly.
"The one thing that I have very little patience with," said Sharon,  "is someone that spouts off with any convienient defense of a hair brained idea, that they feel that they MUST attempt." Sharon further explained, "All of our knowledge of the state of Medical expertise on Pandora is twelve years old, and unless they have made tremendous advances in their Medical knowledge AND actual practicing Methodology, she is taking a HUGE risk with her own safety, and that of an infant as well."
"Oh I know that there may not be much knowledge about what she want's to attempt, simply due to her own fears about her Biological Clock, I just hope that SOMEONE can talk sense to her.  Once we reach past that stubborness and Irish temper, she is quite reasonable and very intelligent." voiced Pamela.
"We shall see, oeya yawnetu," soothed Sharon, as she brushed some loose strands of hair from Pamela's face, "Time alone shall tell."

Two hours later, the couple re-entered their quarters, after having given Dr. Yatsimi a fast Heads-Up, and spent an hour in the Gym.
"Well, the Colonel seemed pleased that someone that Wendy knows, is also trying to be a voice of reason, honey, but I was particularly interested in your line of thinking that Wendy could possibly risk having this ENTIRE CREW thrown off Pandora, by violating far too many cherished beliefs of the Na'vi people, should she go against the wishes of a Tsahik, and the infant DIES," said Pamela. She went on by saying, "Even if the child LIVES to a ripe old age, Wendy COULD drive a wedge between the Na'vi, and ALL the members of this ship, if she starts to shout at an Eyktan, or Tsahik, that tells her what she does NOT want to hear."
"That is a wise perception, Pamela, one that I had NOT thought about," answered Sharon.
"I have my moments," said Pamela, as she gave a playful swat to sharon's txim."Now let's shower off, and take a nap." She advised.
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi

Niri Te

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN
   "Oh, you can't hog ALL the crew time for yourself.  Let someone ELSE log some time too," said Wendy playfully to Sharon, as she relieved the other pilot.
   "No problem," responded Sharon, "You can take the controls, Ma'am!"
   In the year since Wendy's disagreement with Sharon, the ISV's medical staff, and almost anyone who disagreed with her plan for Motherhood, Wendy had mellowed to the point where she could work with other members of the crew, without any friction at all.
   "Well, it looks like you will stand a good shot at piloting this ship out of the Oort Cloud, Wendy," mentioned Sharon.  "We will have a better handle on the timing in another four days, so says the Navigation Computer."
   "Anything good for breakfast?" asked Sharon, in an effort to keep things cordial.
   "They have a pretty god replica of French Toast, I'd give that a try," reported Wendy, as Sharon headed aft, saying, "Thanks, I will!"
   Sharon walked into the Combined Mess, and spotted her wife, and the rest of the Undersea Renegades, sitting at their usual table.  When she walked up to the table she said, "So how was everyone's evening?"
   "Pretty good.  I had a great night's sleep," offered Steve, munching on some powdered scrambled eggs.
   "So when are we going to break out of the Oort Cloud, and kick these hamsters in their asses?" asked Chip.
   "Oh, about five weeks from now," responded Sharon, as she drizzled a bit of artificial maple syrup on her French Toast.  "It looks like it will be on Wendy's shift.  While we are discussing Wendy..."  announced Sharon, "What or who got her to calm down about her maternal plans, over the last six months?"
   "Chip Higgins piped up and said, "Colonel Yatsimi, among others.  They simply let it be known that if she didn't tone down her One Woman Quest for the right to have this child, no matter HOW poorly timed, she would do it ALONE."
   "Yeah," added Steve, "As soon as it was obvious to Wendy, that her little experiment was going to REQUIRE the attention of the FULL medical staff, plus a LOT of luck, she backed off and decided to play it the Medical Section's way."
   "Well, I'm glad that she came to her senses. Now it is a joy to work with her again, I'm told," said Pamela looking at Sharon.
   "Well, she has regained her sense of humor that she had on the Old Dog," remarked Sharon with a smile.
   From there, the conversation drifted to the shared dream of the Renegades to be blessed enough by Eywa, to be able to study the Marine Ecosystems of Pandora.  Chip and Steve, wondered how they could construct an underwater research lab, while Jim and John, wondered what types of Marine Life they would encounter in Pandora's waters.
   "The kind with LOTS of TEETH, " stated Sharon and Pamela, flatly.  ALL agreed that it would be GREAT to go beneath the waves in Pandoran waters, and each truly hoped that their research would yield results that would better both the day to day lives of the Na'vi and have a positive affect on the Marine Ecology of that moon.
   Captain Jason Taylor, One of the Avatar Lab Techs, was invited to sit a the table by Chip and Steve.  He respectfully raised two fingers of his left hand and said, "You people REALLY do miss the Open Ocean, DON'T you?"
   "Does it show?" mocked Pamela good naturedly.
   "Oh, only from about a PARSEC away!" noted Transport Dan.
    Jason nervously looked around the table, and Chip said, "Tell them."
    Jason nodded, cleared his throat, and said, "We have the records of who donated the DNA for everyone's Avatar on this ship.  It might interest you to know that ALL of you are genetic members of the Olo' of the Eastern Sea, who's Eyktan and Tsahik are a Lesbian couple, so the two of you," he said pointing at Sharon and Pamela, "will feel right at home."
Tokx alu tawtute, Tirea Le Na'vi