New Enceladus – chapter 6

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March 1st, 2218

En Route to Ptolemy-1

Lead Plasma Physicist Abolou Yabro

The week I turned 18, I became Abolou Yabro, the new Ghanan Bantu name I chose for myself. I hated the name my mother gave me, William Calhoun. She picked the name because it belonged to some rich guy, and she wanted me to be rich too. Apparently she didn’t notice, the man she named me for was the son of an American Vice-President who thought slavery was a great thing.

My mother was a stupid, hopeless criminal, a thief and drug addict. If she were attractive enough, she would have been a prostitute instead. My father met her by selling my mother a dose of illegal drugs and won her heart by giving her an extra dose for free. I wanted no part of their lifestyle, or any of my family anymore.

I think I was the only one on the ship who hated being in cold-sleep, because it resembled what people said being intoxicated was like. I’ve never been even mildly intoxicated, and I never plan to. People often tease me because I’m firmly opposed to drinking or any sort of drugs unless they’re medically necessary. Keeping my mind sharp and training it well is how I went from living in a wooden crate at age 16 to being a fully qualified plasma physicist.

I greatly enjoyed my wake shifts on the journey since my only duties during unpowered flight were inspecting and maintaining the Zolachev drive. Inspection took less than a day, and ‘maintenance’ consisted of marking the drive’s perfect condition in the log. The drive’s magnets, lasers, and electronics are handled by Electrical Engineering, so those are a whole lot of ‘Not My Problem’. The fuel piping is the responsibility of the Builders, so again, ‘Not My Problem’.

It’s pretty hard to damage anything built to resist four million tons of force anyway. Unless two large asteroids miraculously hit the drive in the same spot, I had nothing to do. Each wake cycle of the coast phase, I spent about 29 days getting to know one of our Geologists, the cute and amusing Antonella Campos-Este de Napoli. Even her name was exotic and beautiful.

Her situation was similar. Since we were several light-years from the closest planet, there were very few rocks for her to study. So far, my ‘job’ on our journey had been about 50 days of actual work, and nearly four years getting to know Antonella. If it weren’t for the fraternization rules, I’m sure we would have at least two children already.

I heard about the collision, and the four crew we lost when I was woken from cold sleep. I was sad and a little worried, but they assured me most things were fine. We would be able to complete our journey.

We were decelerating now, so I needed to check the drive systems at least three times a day, but my job was still easy. Well over 90 percent of the effort had gone into the engineering and construction of the monstrously powerful behemoth of a reactor.

The same general rule applies to ground vehicles, boats, and spacecraft, it’s a hell of a lot easier to drive a vehicle than design and build one. My recent work still left me at least 6 or 7 hours a day with Antonella. I was walking to her quarters to see her, when the Commander announced; “Please meet in the mess hall, as soon as your work shifts are over.”

The two of us were finishing our meal, when the last of the duty crew entered.