Earthship One

Aurel G. Smith

Earthship One

Deep space, in the further reaches of the Kuiper belt, a lone saucer shaped craft has just come out of FTL, and has started to scan for their mission target; a deep space probe, that mysteriously went off-line a while ago.

They’re tasked with the probes’ recovery, repair, and reinitialization back into space.

This is Earthship One, a flying saucer like craft some one hundred feet in diameter, with an upper dome like structure that serves as control and bridge, and a larger, but shallow hemispherically shaped domed lower area containing a modified cargo area with a special Maintenance Pod attached to the ship’s cargo bay. This ship is an Off-World Acquisition, maned by a crew of eight bridge personnel, various support teams in an assortment of departments, and a special salvage/repair team of six in the cargo bay Maintenance Pod that is essentially connected to the ships’ underbelly.

Captain Sid Michaels, a Gray Earther, stands in front of the viewscreen.

The Captain Inquires. “Any sign of our miscreant probe? Mr. Smith?”
The Engineer, also a Gray and a civilian, but an Off-Worlder, says. “Nothing to report yet captain.”

At the Coms Station sits Major Zazz, a turtle like creature who is also an Earther, replies. “The Coms are clear sir, I’m only getting some weak signals from an older deep space probe, but it’s not the one we’re after sir.”

The navigation civilian Mr. Wursts, a Human Earther, inquires. “Why this particular probe sir? … These older ones go offline frequently.”

The captain says. “This one cost about four billion dollars and there was a lot of hostility to its mission.

By keeping it up and running it helps the ‘Powers To Be’ to get ready for the Great Disclosure that’s set to happen in a couple of decades.”

The Exc, Major Tom Ryan, a Human Earther, steps in, sensing discord adds.

“Boys, If people in general find out that we don’t even need such equipment out here, they’d raise such an outcry. … There’s more then a lot of unhappy Out-Of-Towners and Off-Worlders to Deal with, it’s the population in general. The treaties we have with other races would be seen as a restriction to our rights to expand outward. It’s bad enough to get boarded and searched, but if the whole world would be under. … We don’t want to go there, just do your jobs, that’s all.”

Turning to the Captain, the Exc says. “Just routine, sir. When we find it. ...” Just then a Gray Homeworld saucer shows up.

The Captain, his voice slightly raised, says. “Coms! Contact!” The screen displays a miserable looking gray homeworlder who crankly says. “State your purpose! … Why are you so far out!?” The Captain, calmly strolls over to the display, and says. “We’ve been dispatched out here to locate and repair an errant earth probe, … that went offline. We've been dispatched to find it and repair it.” The homeworld gray sneers and says. “One of those misfits from some other universe! … Isn’t that right captain!” Captain Sid Michaels, a gray, ignoring the insult, calmly replies. “I’m a third generation Earther. My family runs a grain farm near the Choac Mountains back on Earth. What are you, after, captain?” The grumpy grey homeworlder says. “Do you have any bio-cybernetics on your ship?” The captain respectfully replies. “No sir, we don’t use them. Earthships don’t have any, as you very well know, Captain.” The gray homeworlder demands. “We’re boarding your ship. No interference!” The captain replies. “We will accommodate you.” He then turns to his Exc. “My second will escort you.” The screen goes blank. The captain says. “We’d better comply, Number One.” The homeworld grays board and search Earthship One, and they find nothing, but before they leave they tell the Exc where the missing probe is. On his return to the bridge he tells the captain. “It’s nice of them to tell us where to look for the probe.” And as the homeworld gray ship departs, the Captain slyly says to his Exe. “It’s remarkable that they knew where it was.” The two just nod in agreement.

On finding the probe they secure it for repair to a cargo bay maintenance pod. The special salvage/repair team of six, start to work on the probe, replacing failed components with replacements from the cargo bay maintenance pod. The probe is essentially connected to the ships underbelly, which requires a space walk to repair it, a bit of new school mixed with old school techniques, and on fixing the probe they return it to space. As they boot it up, they stay out of the range of it’s scanners. Once earth is getting telemetry they cloak and return to earth, their mission completed.