Supernova

Jim Rivers was dreaming about swimming. It had started out nice, but the water was cold now, and an octopus had wrapped its tentacles around him. The hateful creature was reaching down his throat, chilled fingers reaching … choking.

He woke with a scream, strangled by tubes running down his nose and throat to his stomach and lungs. Confined in some sort of capsule, he had no room to move his arms and legs – pod. There were tubes going everywhere – they seemed to be attached to him. They went into his nose, down his throat and a couple of other places that his mother taught him never to mention in public. He couldn’t look down, the containment was that complete. Pod.

Jim’s breath began to come in bursts; he couldn’t suck in enough air. Struggling against this terror, his heart raced. His skin felt like it was on fire with pins and needles, from his feet all the way to the top of his head. There was no window, just darkness. POD.

Maybe he could rock the capsule and get it to fall over. Ha! Fat chance of that when it was all he could do to move his head from side to side. A red light suddenly began pulsing next to his right eye. There was no noise, just the red light blinking. Heart nearly beating out of his chest, Jim struggled all the more. Was the damn thing going to blow up? THE POD!

Just as he was about to reach full on panic, he heard a metal whirring noise and then heard a series of clicks. Memory returned and Jim realized that he was in a pod, a cryonic chamber designed to keep him alive for the ten years it would take for the cargo ship to cross interstellar space. Thank heavens, he wasn’t some entrée on ice in an alien spaceship. Coming out of cryostasis always left him a little confused at first.

Suddenly he felt the tubes retracting. The pain was – white and fire and electric. The mouth and nose tubes being the last to come out, he couldn’t even scream his horror and outrage. As the last one retracted, the door opened and without its support Jim fell to the floor. He vomited repeatedly, an oily brown fluid. When there was nothing left inside of him, he curled up into a fetal position and passed out. This time he dreamed of sunlight and ocean.
———————

Jim Rivers signed on to make the journey as a navigator.  It wasn’t such a bad trip, as interstellar travel went. He would sleep through the actual space travel and awaken at the other end in orbit around Altera, the new Earth. The cargo? The ship was the cargo. The Valiant Explorer was a Premium Class Trinite Excavator and Processing Facility. Upon arrival it would orbit the host planet. The ship came apart in sections that could then be towed to the planet’s surface. Ten sections in all. It was a massive undertaking.

Once on the ground each unit was broken down and when reassembled and brought to the whole, it would be part of a self-contained, fully automatic excavation community. Each assembly team consisted of six men and women who traveled and lived in their sections or modules, frozen for the trip as Jim had been in his pod outside of the navigation deck.

Trinite was as necessary to life as oxygen. At least big business thought so. They discovered that trinite, when fused with iron and then cooled, resulted in a metal that did not transfer heat. It did not melt or absorb it either. Trinite simply reflected it away. This caused a sensation, as the applications were endless. A spaceship could fly into the sun to recharge its plasma engines, a ship could (theoretically at least) burrow to the center of a planet. A spaceship with a trinite shell could conceivably even make it through the heat of a supernova.

Scientists on Earth mastered gravity and interstellar space travel between the years 2100-2400; the only limitations mankind maintained in space travel today were those that caused erosion. Oxygen and water recycled easily enough, and food could be grown in greenhouses aboard the ship. That was another thing. Once cast, trinite didn’t seem to rust or chip. Of course large deposits had been found on Altera, hence the cargo delivery. To date, it had yet to be found on the planet Earth. It was beyond valuable.

So far it looked as if this wasn’t going to be much of a fresh start. A brand new planet with fresh air and clean water and the first thing they do is bring in an excavator. Of course, the planet would have to be made habitable, and the natural resources at hand would play a major role in that. Right now there wasn’t much more than grasslands in the south and icy frozen land in the north. The local residents looked a lot like zebras and had the brain capacity of Labrador retrievers. At least, that described the ones they had found. It was a shame, after the near ruin of the planet Earth back in 2459, mankind had not learned a thing in the thousand years since.

——————————-

Jim stirred.  The darkness was made of ice. Fits of shivering left little warmth and instinctively he clenched into a ball trying to conserve body heat. His mind tried to make sense of the sensory input and was failing. Soon he would have to open his eyes and find out why he was in such distress but he didn’t want to – he wanted to go back to sleep and dream. He tried to imagine sparkling clear ocean waves crashing overhead as he scuba dived on a coral reef. But no, the water was cold and the rock was hard. Another bout of shivering rattled his head against the floor and caused him to wince.  Enough.

He opened his eyes and saw his pod and five others in a row outside the navigation bay.   The two next to his, holding the Captain and his First-In-Command were black and powerless.  Some malfunction?  Charlie, the Captain, had been a good man but Jim could hardly process this yet.  All he knew was that it was cold and he needed to clean up and get dressed or he would die of hypothermia. He climbed to his feet, using the pod for support. He was a little dizzy at first, and his legs were still shaky. He staggered to his quarters and went straight to the bathroom. A few seconds later blessed hot water rained down on him, warming his skin and washing away the cold slime of the pod. At the end of his water allotment he looked out of the steamed shower door and saw a beautiful brunette standing in the bathroom watching him. She was wearing denim short-shorts and a red and white top, tied suggestively under her breasts.

“Howdy Jim.” She said with a sweet southern tang.

“Stella.” Jim answered as he opened the door and reached for a towel. He frowned as he moved past her and spoke to her reflection in the mirror. “I don’t like that kind of get-up,” he said, rubbing his face. “Original program please.“ The young woman behind him kind of shivered and shook herself into another shape. She now wore a grey bodysuit and a black jacket with the company insignia embroidered on the lapel.  Interesting that he could even hear the swishing fabric of her clothes as she moved. The holographic package on this cargo ship is really good, he thought.  Auditory enhancement to a holographic package was a pretty expensive program. 

“There is a situation on the navigation deck that needs your attention Jim.” Stella said evenly. Her voice was an electronic blend of sounds, designed specifically for the group in his module. The other nine modules had their own custom blends as well. The computer, of course, had no gender but scientists had realized long ago man’s propensity to attach human qualities to animals and machines. The holograph, designed to reassure and calm the humans it came into regular contact with, was a familiar presence so far from people and things that were recognizable.  Amazing what tricks the absence of your solar system could play on your mind.

“Stella, what happened to the Charlie and Red?  Their pods weren’t working.”

“Their pods short-circuited four years into the journey.  The resulting fire damaged both of their pods beyond repair as well as some of my memory banks.”  She replied.  Jim took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Charlie had been a friend.  He didn’t know Red Banks at all, he had been newly assigned to the ship before take off.  That explained why Stella had wakened him first, he was next in command.

“Have we arrived at Altera then?”  He asked.
“We have not.”  Stella responded.
“Then why did you wake me up, and why so fast?”  Jim shuddered. ” I was able to feel the tubes coming out.”

“That is regrettable, but an urgent situation requires your attention.”
“Where are we then?”  Jim replied, shivering.
“The star system here has not been mapped.  It does not have a name.”

“Seventy degrees Fahrenheit please.”  He said as he dressed in his own grey jumpsuit.  He heard the whoosh of air coming through the ducts almost immediately.  “Thank you.”  the temperature inside the module was kept at a bone chilling 45 degrees when they were in cryostasis.  He left his quarters and headed for the navigation bay.

“Stella,” Jim said as he walked.  “Have you double-checked the star maps against known routes?”
“Of course Jim.”  Was the measured response.
“Check them again please.”  He instructed.
“Certainly.”

Jim entered the navigation bay and went to his chair.  He turned on the main console and waited for it to power up.
“Start me some coffee, and some scrambled eggs and bacon please.”  He added as an afterthought.
“Do you want some toast with that?”
“Yes, wheat.  Make it four eggs, and some sausage.”  Jim replied.
“Right away.  Oh and I double-checked the maps.  This area is unknown.  I am unable to tell you where we are.”
“Stella, show me the last known area that we traveled through.  Can you find the point at which we left mapped space?”
“That will take a while Jim,” Stella replied.  “The fire damaged memory banks G1310 through G3907.  They control that information.”
“Isn’t there a back up system for that?”  Jim asked.  “I need to know where we left known space, how long ago and why the ship deviated.”
“Collating.”  Was the response.  “Your breakfast is ready.  Bon appetit.”

Jim went to the galley.  He went to the converter (much like a microwave oven) and opened the door.  There on a tray in front of him was a heaping pile of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and two pieces of toast.  A  large mug of coffee graced the side of the tray, a wisp of steam curling up enticingly.  While the reconstituted food wasn’t exactly the same as the real thing, he was ravenous and it wasn’t bad.  He ate his breakfast while Stella gathered the data he had asked for.  He would head for the navigation bay after eating and take his first look outside of the ship.

———————

Stella appeared beside him a little while later as he walked back to the navigation bay.

“Are you feeling well after consuming your edibles?” She asked.

“After what…yes.  Thank you,” Jim replied.  “Have you been able to find that data?”

“I have not.  But… after scanning the galaxy that we are in I have determined that the information is of secondary importance.” She said.  He stopped to look at her and she continued.  “The star closest to this ship will soon be entering thermonuclear runaway.”
“Thermo-what?”
“The white dwarf in this binary system-” she began, but Jim cut her off.
“Wait… white dwarfs?  Refresh my memory please.”  Jim could map stars all day long, but he was a little hazy on their physical properties.  He resumed walking to the navigation bay.

“A white dwarf is a star that is no longer in it’s main sequence.  It has used up all of its hydrogen and is no longer burning, no longer creating heat or the pressure that holds gravity at bay.  In effect, gravity wins and the star shrinks to about the size of the planet Earth.  They are usually white, and so the name.”

“Okay,” Jim replied, picking up the pace.  “If it has burned up all the hydrogen, how can it have a thermonuclear anything?”  They reached the navigation bay and Jim instructed Stella to open the view port.  They stepped past the console to look out the window that now covered half of the front wall.  Directly in front of them and quite bright were the two stars, revolving around one another.  Stella increased magnification and decreased brightness so that Jim could see the stars interaction more clearly.  The yellow star had an odd shape, it almost resembled a balloon with a thick tail that ended in a circle around a glowing white star.  Stella turned to Jim, his mouth had fallen open.

“This white dwarf is part of a binary system.  It  is gravitationally bound to the larger yellow star there.  Because of its incredible gravity the dwarf star is drawing hydrogen away from its binary star.  When its mass increases by 40% the white dwarf will become unstable and undergo a catastrophic explosion.  That is thermonuclear runaway.  The entire star explodes and disappears.  There is no core left, no black hole, nothing.  It is known as a Type 1A  Supernova, and we are about one light year away from it.”  She turned back to the view port.

Jim raked a hand through his hair roughly.  “Alright, so we make a run for it… how fast can we turn around?”  He asked.  The holograph regarded him patiently.
“At our size and speed at least one thousand miles,” she responded.
“Let’s get moving then!”  Jim moved purposely back to the console and began plotting the sequence to slow the ship and turn it around.  He was efficient, and knew his work well.  There was one planet nearby, a gas giant by the looks of it.  They were already close.  An idea began to take shape.
“If we approach the planet with this trajectory and speed,” Jim consulted his maps and did more calculations.  “Yes.  If we approach here..” he pointed to the planet. “Enter orbit there and keep our speed up we can ride it around and slingshot out the other side.”  He tapped his light pen against his teeth.  “It could work.  It would leave us headed in the opposite direction, about 45 degrees away from where we are now. We’d have one hell of a boost.  What do you think?”

“I think it will work quite well to turn us around.  It will not, however, get us far enough away.”
“It won’t?”  Jim’s shoulders slumped.  Stella shook her holographic head.
“Most supernovas extend about one light year, and we are right on the edge of that boundary.  However the shock wave continues to spread out.  We cannot outrun it.”
“How long?  He asked, “until it happens?”
“The white dwarf will enter thermonuclear runaway in approximately 36 hours.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?  Surely something…”
“Even if we jettisoned all the other modules we could not outrun this explosion Jim.  The ship will disintegrate in the shock wave.  This is most regrettable.”

The modules – Jim blanched.  There were six people in each one of the modules.  There were five more in his, all still frozen.  There was now a very important decision to be made.  He went ahead and programmed the course changes into the computer banks.  The loss of forward momentum was immediately felt.  He rose from the console and headed back for his quarters.  He stopped in the doorway, addressing the computer’s holograph one more time.
“Stella, I need the personnel files of everyone on board the ship.  All the modules.”
“Right away.  What are you thinking Jim?”  Stella asked.
“I have to decide.”  He responded, deep in thought.
“Decide what?”

Jim’s eyes wandered once more to the stars outside the view port.

“I have to decide whether or not to wake the others and let them know that they are about to die.”  He replied.

Jim knew this was a decision he couldn’t make alone.  A religious man his entire life, he only knew one way to resolve it in his mind and that was to pray.  In spite of the known outcome of their plight —-of the fact that there was no hope of survival, Jim prayed.  He rose and headed for his quarters a while later.  He sat at his desk flipping through the personnel files, one after the other.

*Baker, Thomas J., Crew Chief, 27 years old at departure, fluent in several languages.  The accompanying picture showed a handsome young man with close cut brown hair and blue eyes.

*Carver, Jessica A., Crew Chief, 25 years old at departure, 5 years experience off world.  Her picture showed a smiling blonde woman with pearly white teeth.

*Grant, Shane; Adams, Gregory; Miles, Stanley; Stuart, Franklin; Waller, Amelia – the names were starting to blend into one another.  Almost all were young, healthy people.  There were a few old-timers like himself, Bill Bauer and Marcus Holden.  He thought Bill would be the stronger of the two, and so headed for his pod first.

He set the pod to slowly wake his friend Bill, making sure that he wouldn’t come back to consciousness as Jim had – awake too soon and in pain.  He sat at the foot of the pod and waited for Bill.  Stella materialized beside him.

“You’ve decided to wake them, I see.”
“Yes, there was no choice. Not really.”
“Why is that Jim?”
“Each person has the right to face their own death, I guess. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“But won’t they suffer anguish because of it?”
“I guess most of them will, yes.”
“Not to all?”
“I don’t believe so Stella, I mean, it doesn’t bother me so much.”
“No?”
Jim shook his head.  “I’ve had a good life.  I’ve loved and laughed and learned.  I’ve sure seen more of this universe than most folks get to.  I’ve secure in my belief in The Lord, so if now is my time to die, well that’s as it should be.  So no, it doesn’t bother me so much.  Now, I can’t speak for the others on how they’ll feel.”

“I see,” said Stella. “What is it that you have to look forward to? Your body will disintegrate. It will no longer be. You – will no longer be.”
“Well, I believe in God, Stella. I believe he has a plan for us and when I die I will join him in heaven and live eternally.”
“I see.” Stella nodded slowly. “The others believe this as well? You do realize that God is scientifically impossible.”
“I don’t know that Stella, and I have no way to explain it to you, you being a holograph and all, but I believe in God.  I know there’s something more than all of this.”
“Wouldn’t it be kinder to let them sleep on, oblivious and unafraid? To let them die without remorse, or shame or sadness? To simply have peace and dignity.”

Jim’s bushy eyebrows drew together. “It is not dignified to die with slobber on your cheek and tubes sticking up every opening you got.  That’s not part of any dream I ever had, Stella.”

Stella nodded again. “Well then,” she said.
“Yes well.”
“Would you like me to wake the entire ship?  Everyone?  All the animals and..”
“Not the animals Stella, there’s no point.”
“Did your God not create them too?”
“He did, but they are not,” he gestured toward his head, “I don’t know, self-aware like we are.  I need everyone awake though, thank you.  Oh,” he added quickly. “Let them wake normally, there’s no rush.”
Stella nodded.  “I understand.”

Within a few hours the entire ship was awake and showered.  Most had eaten and were reporting slowly to their stations.  Jim used the private intercom to call each section head for a video conference.  When they heard of the impending explosion everyone tried to talk at once.  Jim let them work through their astonishment and anger.  Eventually they calmed and he was able to assert control over the meeting.

“We need to gather our people and let them know what we are facing.  They will need to make peace with whatever God they pray to,” Jim said.
“Pray? Pray to whom, your God?” One man said angrily.  “What God would let us die for no reason? God? Psh!”
“Has anyone challenged Stella’s results?”  One voice spoke calmly.  It was Vince Chapman, the Crew Chief of Drilling and Excavation.  “Jim?  What about the memory banks she says were damaged – have you looked at them?”
Jim was glad for the voice of reason. At 35 years of age Vince was a pretty sharp guy, well-muscled and fast on his feet. Jim suspected some military training in his background.
‘Vince, I have limited knowledge of that stuff and I‘m going to need some help there.  I need information.  I need to know exactly how much pressure this trinite hull can withstand. I need someone to look at the nearby planets and their orbits, their gaseous and elemental makeup.”
“What’s the point?” Ted Markham in the environmental section wanted to know. “I mean, we can’t outrun it, right?”
“No Ted, I don’t think we can. But we’re not going to sit here like a deer on the tracks and wait for the train to hit us either. I need to know what evasive action we can take and whether we are stronger as one whole unit or if we would fare better individually.”
“Individually?  What, you mean drop the sections now, here in space?  Are you crazy?”  Someone asked.
“Trinite is supposed to be able to withstand the force of a supernova.  Well we’re about to test that little theory.  But the connections between the units are metal, rubber, composites and trinite.”
“Those will be disintegrated, no doubt.” Said Ted.
“Total dust.” Vince agreed.
“So the question is, do we separate and take our chances alone or wait to get blown apart and hope the connections hold?”  Jim said.
“Maybe not,” Tank Videle said.  He was the Crew Chief of Maintenance.  He’d played ball in high school and was nearly as wide as he was tall, hence the name – Tank.  Everyone stopped to listen.  “We have trinite, and tons of iron parts.  Let’s fuse enough to coat the connection points.”

Ted started laughing.

“What?” Tank asked. “We’ve got three days, right?  We close the blast shields and that will hide all the rubber and metal connections.  Coat the shields and you would have a solid trinite wall.”  Ted stopped laughing as Tank continued.  “Coat it all the way to the seams and you’d have one solid surface.”
“Great. That’s great Tank!”  Ted was certainly enthused but Jim saw a problem.

“That is a great idea,” Jim said,  “but who is the last man out?”  When the final segment had been finished, someone would have to stay outside of the last section to seal it.  Actually, it would take two people.  The others soon came to the same realization.  Ted threw a book across the room.
“Great.  You volunteering for that one Tank? Huh?”  Ted said angrily.
“I was just trying to come up with ideas.  There has to be something!”
“It’s a great plan.  Come on Ted, at least Tank is trying to come up with alternatives.  Everybody keep thinking, we need more ideas.  Tank we’re going to keep that one as Plan A.  I think it’s a strong possibility that we can do this.  There is one other option I want to work on, but right now I think we need to get the forge fired up and send teams throughout the ship to gather iron ore.”

“What about Captain Beard and Red?”  Ted asked.  “We can’t just leave them.”

“For now Ted, the pods are the best place for them.  Let’s gather those that want to for a memorial service.  Do you want to arrange that?”

Ted nodded, glad to have something important to be in charge of.

—————————-

Twenty-two pairs of eyes solemnly watched as each coffin was jettisoned out into deep space. They immediately disappeared behind the ship, swirling away into the endless darkness.  Ted gave the eulogy himself; and while he knew neither Captain Charles McAdams or his first mate Red Banks personally he did try to do them justice. Jim said nothing. Ever since Stella had explained the supernova process a small detail had nagged at him but he just couldn’t quite get a fix on it. She said there would be nothing left, but he had done some reading.  Sometimes dying stars turned into pulsars. They didn’t always make black holes, and didn’t always just disintegrate. Jim pondered on this until Ted asked him to speak.  Jim stood and quietly delivered a prayer on behalf of the lost men.

The star would have to be super massive, as the larger one clearly was. This supernova very likely could end up leaving a pulsar behind…what was it about the process? Jim couldn’t remember exactly. The supernova explosion would disintegrate everything in its path…or would it?

Ted finally wound down. So far he had accredited the miracle of life to chemical drops from outer space, the rise of mankind to extraterrestrial visitors and he’d compared the shortened lives of Charlie and Red to those of characters in a dramatic movie that he liked. The memorial was over and those polite enough to stay for the duration were now standing to leave. Jim thanked Ted, who shone with all the attention, the man of the hour.  He didn’t seem to notice that most of the crowd were exiting the room as quickly as they could.

Jim and Vince headed back to the bridge together. Jim was using Vince to jog his memory. It was important, that nagging little thought, he just knew it.
“What do you know about pulsars, Vince?” He asked. Vince scratched his head.
“About as much as you could sweeten your coffee with I guess, why, some kind of star?”
“Some super massive stars become pulsars after they explode.”
“Yea but Stella said this one was going to disintegrate itself…and us.” Vince replied as he entered the bridge ahead of Jim.
“I know, I know, but there are two suns there,” Jim pointed at the binary stars. “One will go supernova, yes. But the other one still has a lot of mass. What is it going to do?”
“Oh I see what you’re getting at. Well, won’t it just, explode too?”

“Not necessarily.” Stella joined them. “I see what you are getting at Jim. Being as they are binary stars and gravitationally bound… the larger star would take a hit but it might not be destroyed.”
“And theoretically,” Jim pointed. “If we were at some point directly behind the larger sun, wouldn’t it shield us from the worst of the storm?”
“The ship would have to be very close to that sun Jim.” Stella warned. “Very close.”
“But the trinite should handle that easily.” Jim said. “Will the blast be that much more destructive closer up than if we are say, past this second planet here?” Jim pointed to the second planet in orbit around the suns.
“Exponentially yes, of course. But either blast zone will be fatal to the ship if it isn’t completely sealed with trinite.”
“Then it doesn’t matter which direction we take does it?”

Vince looked from Jim to Stella and back. “Are you saying we should fly back toward the stars? Toward the explosion?”
“Well…yes. I think that’s what I’m saying.” Jim nodded. Vince took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Fly into the star.” Vince shook his head, grinning. “Man, that’s radical.” He looked at Jim and Stella. “Do we have time to reach it?”
“We do.” Stella answered him simply.
The three of them looked out at the glowing suns.
“Fly into the star.” Vince repeated in awe.  His knees felt a little shaky.

———————-

It was the evening of Day Two. The crew worked around the clock in shifts. There was no calling in sick, no time for games or silly arguments. Everyone’s lives depended on their ability to seal the entire ship or as much of it as possible with the newly discovered metal Trinite. They had started with the first section at the head of the ship and were working their way back. Any sections left unsealed by the time the explosion started would be jettisoned. They didn’t have to seal all ten units, only the connection points between them.

Six sections had been completely sealed. They were now gearing up to start on the seventh. Iron for melting was becoming scarce. The department heads met again and everyone agreed that the last section of the ship would be cleaned out and jettisoned, leaving only three more to seal. By the time they cleaned it out, there would be more than enough iron to make trinite. The floor grates were made of iron, as was some of the duct work and equipment.  Crews began work immediately.

There had been a few injuries; a woman using a welding torch, concentrating on the work at hand had not seen another worker reach by her for something and had burned the man badly. He was in the infirmary recuperating and would be put back into cryostasis soon. Another worker had been in a hurry and spilled some molten iron. Several workers went to the infirmary. Everyone would recover but each delay brought them closer to the impending explosion with less done and more anxiety.

—————–

Ted Markham lay on his bunk, seething. He had not missed the snickers, the snores and the faces of the crew at the memorial. A bunch of sheep. They were a bunch of sheep and they didn’t even know it. He laughed, thinking ironically of the biblical reference. Sheep indeed, though not the same kind as Jim believed.
It melted his heart to think of his wife and daughter, waiting to hear from him and counting the days until they could be together again. Their transport was scheduled to run six years after his which meant that they were well on their way. He would not be there when they arrived. Nothing would be there. What would they do? How would they survive? Would they be able to gather enough fuel to return to Earth? They would of course, have supplies – but for how long? How would he ever make his way back to them?
Ted turned on to his back and stared at the ceiling. They might already be there. No one seemed able to tell how long the Valiant had been off course. It could have been a month; it could have been ten years. If only there was some way to tell how long they’d been asleep…the pods! The pods would tell them how long each person had been in cryostasis. If they took the hard drives out of the burned pods and hooked them up to Stella, the computer might be able to tell them when they had short-circuited. With a renewed sense of purpose, Ted rose from his bunk and went to find Jim Rivers.  This could be the information they needed to know how far off track they were.

“Jim,” Ted asked, “do you have a minute?” Jim looked up and saw Ted.
“Sure,” he replied. “What’s on your mind?”
Ted proceeded to explain his idea about the cryostasis chambers and the information that the burned out hard drives might hold.
“So if we’re figuring we’ll live through this thing,” Ted waved at the view port, “then this is information we could really use.”
“Ted, this could really work.” Jim said, excited. “Wow this is… this is good!”
Ted beamed. “Well you don’t have to look so surprised.”
Jim immediately stopped smiling and began to speak. “No I didn’t mean it like that…”
But Ted clapped him on the shoulder and laughed.
“I’m only kidding man,” he laughed.
“Well, you got me.” Jim laughed too.
Ted stopped laughing pretty quickly and looked out the view port at the ever-increasing white dwarf star.
“I guess I’ve made my feelings pretty clear before on what I think of God and all that.” He turned to look at Jim. “Can I ask you, a Christian man, to do something for me?” Jim nodded.
“Of course Ted. What is it?”
“Will you remember my wife Amanda and my daughter Grace when you pray at night?  I guess I don’t believe, but they do.  Even if we make it through this, I’m not likely to ever see them again. They are on their way to Altera by now, and there won’t be a welcoming party when they get there. I can’t get to them, and I can’t help them. There is nothing I can do.”
“I’d be glad to Ted,” Jim said nodding. “I’d be glad to.”
“Thanks.” Ted said simply, still looking out the window. He cleared his throat after a moment and turned back to Jim. “Well. I guess I’d better get working on those pods then.”
“Right, and good idea Ted. Even Stella didn’t think of that one.”
Ted smiled, he felt vaguely better than he had when he walked in. “Yea. Thanks.”
Jim turned back to his console, a thoughtful smile on his face.  Somehow he thought Ted’s wife would be pretty happy to know that her husband was requesting prayer on her behalf.