THE JUMP

Harris stood waiting in the small switch room, waiting for what he did not know. Raftos was standing next to Harris, Mick was sitting on the floor in the corner watching the large panel on the main part of the wall. A small tinny sounding intercom speaker suddenly came to life and a voice came over cool and quite calm.

" Command base control to LightStar, all personnel clear of the ground hanger, you may proceed to launch at your own time."

Raftos leaned forward and pushed a switch near the intercom.

" LightStar to base control." said Raftos. " All systems are steady, we are ready to make jump." Raftos let go of the switch.

The speaker sounded for one last time.

" Base control, good luck."

Raftos looked down to Mick.

Mick said " You can do the honours any time."

Raftos moved forward slightly, there was a small square metal cover in the center of the panel he was standing beside, the metal cover had a lock with a key sticking out of it. Raftos turned the key and opened the cover. Behind the cover was a large red button. Raftos stared at the button.

" Here goes nothing." he said.

There was a small tingle in the air as the electrical charge in the room dropped slightly. Then nothing, no bang, no whiz, no flash, no wobble, nothing. I hadn't worked.

" Is that it." said Harris.

" It's not very impressive is it." said Raftos

" Has it not worked." ask Harris.

" I think it should have." said Raftos. " It's not easy to tell."

Raftos stepped over the wires and junk on the floor and went to a small port in the wall covered by a lock down blast cover. He checked the pressure gauge on it to make sure the outer glass was still intact and then unscrewed the latch. As the cover swung back Harris could see a mass of stars. Raftos looked out.

" Guess it worked." he said.

Harris moved over to the port and looked out. The hanger, the fifth moon, Morstan itself, all were gone. A million stars blinked in the velvet blackness of deep space.

Raftos went over to the main panel locked the control button, but left the key in. Then pressed the internal intercom button.

" Jump made." he announced. " Eight hours rest period." he then turned to Harris. " It's been a long day lets get some sleep. I'll show you where you're bunked."

Raftos lead the way out from the switch room along a few passages until they came to a passage that was widened out in one section to form an alcove, here a small bunk had been fixed half way up the wall. Harris's bag was on the bunk. A small modesty curtain was pulled back at one end.

" Things are very basic on this ship." said Raftos. " But hopefully we won't be on it very long."

Raftos left Harris who stood in the passage looking at his bunk for a while. Even though it was a basic military steel bunk Harris was tired enough to sleep almost any where. He put his bag under the bunk then took his boots off. Harris then took this jacket off, it was a plain fairly worn jacket he had borrowed from Peters. Harris had decided not to bring his military uniform, especially not that hideous admiral fleet commander one he had been given. As all the crew were civilians he thought he might be treated with suspicion if he if he looked official. In fact the only military issue he was wearing were his socks and underpants. Hanging up the coat on a hook by the top of the bunk Harris climbed in and lay a while on top of the bunk covers.

Harris Lay on his bunk but sleep would not come, partly because he had never been in such an uncomfortable place and partly because his mind would not rest. The bunk consisted of a folded peace of perforated metal with a few utility covers on it. Strange noises echoed round the passages like some nightmarish orchestra. Noises unlike anything Harris had ever heard before and nothing he could name. He tried to put the noises down to metal stress as the ship moved and twisted in the cold of deep space. There was no soft padding or acoustic damping on this ship, it was like being inside an oil drum. He had never been any where so basic since he been camping in the forest as a teenager back on Darron. At least back then he knew where he was.

Harris rolled over on his back and stared at the bulkhead just above him. He had turned his personal light off but with the bulkhead lights that ran along the length of the passage there was enough reflected light to see everything even with the small curtain closed. The ships power system was giving them a small amount of gravity and his restraint straps were quite comfortable, so Harris just started counting rivets. He noticed just above his head something he had not seen before, a very simple Vidiocom unit fixed in the corner just above his head. He reached up and pushed the on button. Much to his surprise it flickered into life, he pulled the ear peace down, it was an old unit and the ear peace was attached to a wire. He listened as he flicked through some of the basic channels, some were too faint some were broken up and the clearest were speaking in Surdo a language Harris had never learnt. It was something to watch anyway. He found a channel with nice landscapes being shown to music.

Suddenly Harris pulled the ear peace out, as it slowly retracted into the Vidiocom unit he reached up and stabbed at the off button. Harris sat up, snapped open the retaining straps and let them fall to the floor. He spun round to sit on the edge of the bunk leaning forward so as not to bang his head. Harris had just realised if they had made the jump into sector five they would not be receiving any Vidiocom signals, form anywhere.

Harris was puzzled he did no know what to think now. Stuck on a poxy ship miles from who knows where with a crew who were just one step away from bandits, some on them not even one step. His hand caught his jacket which was hanging on the hook near his bunk, there was a sharp knock, wondering what had made the noise he felt in the pockets. He found the two bars of Hershey he had bought at the central headquarters gift shop. He let one slip back into the pocket and took the other one out. Opening the wrapper he snapped a peace off and put it in his mouth. The mixture slowly melted on his tongue, it was a warm comforting feeling. If the manufacturers knew how comforting that bar was at this moment, thought Harris, they would have there advertising campaign sorted for the next hundred years. Harris slowly, very slowly munched his way through the bar.

Harris having finished his Hershey bar Harris got back onto his bunk and tried to go to sleep. There were too many things going round in his head for rest to come. After tossing and turning for some time Harris finally gave up, swinging his body round putting his feet over the side of his bunk he jumped down into the passage. He decided to wander round the ship to see what was going on any where or see if any one else was having a problem sleeping. He paddled about in this stocking feet so not to wake any one up by stamping around in boots. This ship was pretty good at echoing any sound round all the corridors. Avoiding any passages with snoring sound coming from them Harris eventually found himself in the so called control center, from there he could hear someone was humming and talking in the switch room module. Harris walked up the passage connecting the two rooms. He put his head round the part open door and was surprised to find only Mick in there, Mick was in fact talking to himself.

" Do you want some company." said Harris.

" O hi. " said Mick " Come in, do I take it you couldn't sleep either, bit of a noisy place this ship."

" It wasn't the noise, well partly the noise, but mainly the old brain box would not stop working." said Harris

" Hmmm." hummed Mick who was only half listening to Harris.

Mick was fiddling with the insides of an instrument panel, he pushed some wires into a connection block and tightened the cover, he stood up, closed the panel and locked the cover down. Mick then went over to a corner where the only small space for movement remained. Mick sat down on one end of a long box. The rest of the box was covered with packets of food and drink in various stages of being eaten or discarded. Mick picked up a bar of Kloo and tossed it to Harris.

" Thought you'd be getting some rest." said Harris. " You've been working in here since I came aboard."

" Had years of rest." said Mick. "This is the culmination of all those years, rest I don't need." he paused. " That's a lie, I'd sleep if I could, I'll get a few hours in a bit. It's this thing."

He waved a hand holding a bar of Kloo in a large ark indicating the whole ship.

" It won't let me sleep, it's got problems. They went for the cheep option when building it, not the good option." he paused again this time to take a bite of Kloo "Well to be fair." he continued. " They spent the good money on the power rings and the tripping generators which were unique and very expensive. What they did do was save on control gear, this stuff." Mick kicked a panel.

" Good stuff taken from basic military ships but not designed for this kind of ship. Most of the stuff works well but not good enough and not designed for the kind of navigation this of ship requires."

"Is that why they lost the other ships." ask Harris pulling the seal strip off his bar of Kloo.

Harris did not want the bar but took a small bite to be sociable. Kloo was like a soft fudge with straw mixed in it and it tasted like sweet peaches. If you are interested you can get different flavours and with twenty five wrappers a Tee shirt with Kloo written on it.

" I don't think the ships were lost because of the control systems." said Mick. " They were lost because of ignorance."

"Ignorance." said Harris. " Ignorance of what."

"Ignorance of how complex the control of this machine is." Mick popped open a carton Scuzzy Rice and started eating it with his finger.

" They had the principles." continued Mick. " I had set those down at the beginning, the principles which of course worked on the test model. However as we started building these for real I began to realise we were missing something, something important and I could not put my finger on it."

Mick was talking in small jerks between mouthfuls of Scuzzy Rice.

" I started asking for more and more control systems, I didn't know why at that stage but I had a feeling at the back of my mind we needed them. By this time the cost was spiralling out of control. Men in grey had been brought in to manage the project. The trouble was I could not explain why I wanted some of this stuff. At that time I had not worked it all out, I wanted to. They were rushing I wanted delays. They wanted results, I wanted the project halted, I wanted to bottom out this problem, I needed time and space." Mick paused and even stopped eating.

" Do you know we're not in sector five." said Harris.

" O yes." said Mick. " We're in a sector just outside Parranadoor, an open bit of space with nothing in it."

" That's less than three days from Morstan." said Harris. " I thought we were jumping across the universe. I could have taken a buss here."

" There lays the trick" said Mick. " Central control probably think were across the universe."

" Is this all a con by Raftos." said Harris.

" Oh no." said Mick." We're doing what the other ships did not do, were being very careful. "

Mick stopped to open a packet of Koko-kolo a sweet kids drink which is not terribly good for you, he took a drink. There was a long silence, Mick seemed to have lost the thread of what he was talking about.

" You were saying you were being careful " Prompted Harris.

" Sorry." said Mick " I was just watching the dial to your left its going up to the orange band which is about forty eight thousand megahertz which is too high." Mick got up and came over to the panel, he adjusted some control knobs and watched as the dial settled back to its accepted position.

" That's what I mean about the control systems." said Mick. " They work but need continuous supervision, they should be all linked back onto a central computer system."

" You mean they are not." said Harris. " I don't believe it, what kind of ship is this."

" Experimental." said Mick looking up at Harris with a big smile.

This conversation was not doing a great deal for the confidence Harris had in the project. The whole thing seemed to revolve around this one obviously slightly strange lad.

Having got the wavering dial to drop to an acceptable reading Mick sat down again and continued eating.

" What's a hero like you doing on this ship." said Mick quite out of the blue. " Most of this crew are misfits, pirates or Raftos old crew. You a hero, medal of honour, good job. I doubt they ordered you come, not on a stupid mission like this."

" Raftos requested I come." said Harris. " He seemed to think he owed me a favour for something my father did for his family when we were young. Although how much of a favour coming on this trip is I am not sure."

" That sounds like Raftos. His hearts in the right place most of the time. He saved me from curtain death. " said Mick. " That still does not explain why you came, you must know its a very risky mission. You've got a safe job."

" I suppose I have not had much time to think about it since arriving on Morstan and meeting Raftos." said Harris. " Then, suddenly I'm here. As you say I had a safe job, perhaps Raftos is brighter than I had thought, perhaps deep inside the librarian is still that young cadet entering pilot school. Full of hope, dreams and ambition, still wanting to boldly go where no man has gone before. Who knows. Either that or I'm an idiot for being talked into this."

" Think I'd stick with the idiot image if I were you." said Mick. " Less complicated and you can blame everyone else when it all goes bottom up."

Harris had to laugh, Mick was right you could drive you self daft trying to find a motive for your actions. Mick ask if Harris if he knew how the light star worked. Harris told him that up until two o clock the previous afternoon all he knew was that LightStar was some failed teleport project, long since dead. After all it was the most secret project in the universe. As to how it worked Harris had not even begun to think about it.

Mick picked up a big marker from the rubbish on the floor near his feet and started marking the wall in the corner where he was sitting. Harris joined him in the corner and sat down on the box. Mick started talking about sub molecular wave harmonics but Harris stopped him explaining he was a pilot not a physicist. Mick munched a bar of Kloo and started again.

Mick drew a rectangle on the wall saying it was a magnet, he drew the lines of the magnetic field around it explaining that these were stellar harmonics, forming the lines of force round the magnet, these lines of force he explained were created by sub-molecular particles reacting with the matter at the core of the magnet. Harris so far could fallow that. Any object sitting within the lines of force were affected by the force and remained in place by aligning its molecular structure with that force. If the body moved around the lines of force, the alignment of the atomic structure within the body changed in alignment to reflect this new position, all relative to the lines of magnetic force. Mick paused again until Harris, looking at the diagram on the wall nodded his head.

If by some means you could make the particles of atomic structure in an object change there orientation, said Mick, other then by moving it through the field of force, it would cease to exist in its original place, but would exist in the place matching its new molecular orientation.

Harris stared at the wall where Mick had been scribbling, he sort of understood, but could not believe it. LightStar changed the molecular orientation of the object, namely LightStar itself and any one or any thing in it. Mick put a cross in the middle of the drawing where he had drawn the magnet, simply saying, that for magnet, read universe.

Harris ask why they had lost the first two light stars. Mick looked serious, for the reason lay in the feeling that had been nagging at him during the construction, why he had wanted the project halted. It was not till much later after Mick had been thrown off the project and they had lost the first two ships., when finally Mick had that vital time to think, he eventually worked out what the problem was, that nagging feeling at the back of his mind, the problem was not with the LightStar. Mick went back to his Scuzzy Rice and stuck his finger in, pulling it out again he held the finger covered in runny gloopy rice in front of Harris's face.

"The universe." said Mick " Is not a magnet, it is lumpy with runny bits and thick bits, bits moving and dropping."

A lump of rice fell onto Harris trousers. Harris looked at where the rice and dropped. In a soft voice Harris said the obvious, what Mick had been getting at.

"Those ships could be anywhere."

A few moments of silence followed. Then Mick suddenly became animated and jumped up off the box where they were sitting. The box was not balanced so Harris found himself slipping onto the floor.

" One of the crew will be here soon to relive me on watch." said Mick. " I want to show you this before he comes."

Harris got up off the floor and followed Mick to the main control panel.

" This you know." said Mick. Indicating the button Raftos had pressed to make the Jump. " The keys always in there, no one is going to press it just for fun." Mick opened the door then shut it again. " This dial is the one to watch."

Mick pointed to a large dial above and to the left of the Jump button. This was round with an arc of numbers on the face inside the glass cover, a needle was vibrating slightly and pointing to the numbers halfway up the scale. The bottom few numbers were in an area marked in purple, the top few marked in red, the rest were in a green area.

" This." continued Mick getting hold of a big knob under the dial. " Controls the input flow." He turned the knob slightly and the needle in the dial above responded. " All you need to remember is green we can Jump, Purple the power is too low, red, well if you press the button when it's in red don't forget to wave good bye, we'll be torn apart."

" Why are you telling me this." said Harris.

Mick ignored the question and just pushed Harris a little further down the panel. Mick put his hand on a large black control wheel with ridges round the edge so your fingers to get a grip. It filled Mick's hand, he could only just reach it. It was above and to the right of the Jump button. It had a serrated flange like a bicycle chain sprocket against the panel surface, on this flange was an arrow pointing to numbers painted on the panel. These numbers ran round the wheel from number one to number twenty four. The number twenty four had been crossed out with a marker pen. The name under the wheel was 'Modular Damper 24'. A loud click sounded as Mick moved the wheel from number two to the number three.

" This is the important one." said Mick. " It is not like the others." Mick looked across at the panel opposite where there were several similar wheels marked Modular Damper. " This. " continued Mick. " Records all the setting on each jump we make, after each jump this is moved to the next number. To go back to any place we have previously been to just reset it to a lower number. Anywhere except number one."

" Why not number one." ask Harris."

" That's the hanger on the Moon at Morstan and its moved since we left, it won't be there. Nobody knows about this control except you and me." said Mick tapping the knob as he let go of it.

" Why are you telling me this." ask Harris. " I am an old fashioned pilot and have not flown any ship for a long time. I don't even really know what I'm doing here."

" I am not sure why I'm telling you." said Mick. " Just say I've got this gut feeling that somehow you're the most important member of this crew. If I figure it out I'll tell you, in the mean time don't tell any one else about the Jump back switch."

" All that's made me hungry." said Harris.

" Now you're talking." said Mick and went over to the pile of food in the corner.

Mick threw Harris a bar. Harris told Mick he did not really like Kloo and threw it back and ask if there was any Hershey, Mick rummaged around and the threw a Hershey bar to Harris. Harris caught it just as Predling appeared at the door saying it was time Mick got some rest.

A few words exchanged and Mick went out through the far door of the switch room. Harris said good night to Predling and wondered back to his to his bunk.

He lay on top of the covers thinking about the conversation with Mick. Harris knew he would not get much sleep tonight.