Day 7
They reached Walker Hospital on the seventh day. Russo had all his security people on alert as the satellite hospital came into view, floating serenely above the icy Rings of Saturn. It took three hours after the hospital came into view for them to actually reach it and Finley spent the entire time on the Command Deck, going over the last of the reports and updates in preparation for sending them back to the new government once they docked with the hospital.
They communication array on the Loss and the satellites located throughout the solar system meant any starship could communicate with another at any time, provided there wasn't any significant space weather or coronal outbursts that blocked certain areas for short periods.
Once they crossed the light wall, Finley would send and receive scheduled updates whenever she needed without being docked, but until then, she wanted to conserve power by waiting until they were docked with the hospital.
It also meant she could limit the interference of the new government while they were still within their reach. Space radiation would make communication more difficult the further they got, but wormhole science and long-distance communication arrays meant it would take a lot for them to be completely cut off.
Walker Hospital had originally been a mining satellite built to harvest the ice that made up the famous glittering rings.
Ecotourism had stopped the harvesting only a few decades after it had begun, when Saturn's rings had become a popular vacation and health spot. The mining station had been upgraded in a stunning, massive space station based on the design of a cylindrical puzzle box, complete with elegant levels of different widths that rotated around a central pilar.
It looked more like a palace than a space station with the way the glass and steel gleamed like the ice it floated above.
Walker Hospital took up half of it, with the other half full of hotels, resorts, and spas, on top of all the fun luxuries someone could want on vacation. There was a small living area for full time workers, but most of them lived on the colony on the surface where it was much more affordable.
Still, it was so beautiful it had been called a siren station after the mythological creature that lured sailors to their deaths through a haunting song. There were even stories about people hearing music when space winds blew through the rings, but it only happened for a short period every few hundred years and they weren't predictable enough to become a regular attraction. They had been recorded though and Finley even had a few of those recordings. They sounded similar to the whale songs recorded on Earth.
There'd been a brief period in the 21st century when whales had almost died out on Earth, but the exodus to space and the discovery of a new biodegradable material had saved them. There'd been a huge celebration in the 23rd century when the last of the Great Pacific Plastic Island had been picked up and flown into the sun.
Earth had been declared a protected habitat not long after and almost all industrial businesses had been moved off world while Earth was preserved as the origin of humankind.
Finley had been expecting a final desperate attempt on her life as they approached, but thus far nothing had happened, and they were only an hour out now.
Evan joined her as Beau called ahead to the docking station, confirming their planned arrival and birth number.
"Everything's good so far." Evan handed her a tablet and leaned down to scratch Littlefoot's ear. "A and B shifts are on duty, and I think Russo's got every security officer on the ship on patrol."
Finley hummed. "He's worried."
"He's right to be. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?" Evan hissed. He refused to say bomb, thought it was bad luck on a ship. One of the many superstitions' soldiers carried with them.
"They didn't get very far." Finley muttered. "And Russo and Nemo will know who it was in a day or two." Nemo was still taking the control box apart, but he'd be finished soon. Hopefully he'd find more than a partial print and Russo wouldn't have to pull in thirty members of the crew to figure out who built it. He'd have to get assistance from the security office on Walker with that many suspects.
They were only scheduled to spend three days docked at Walker. They needed to take on additional supplies, the engineering package Finley had arranged, and she needed to decide what to do about the attempts that had been made and those behind them.
Finley didn't want to start losing crew members this early, but she could risk taking anyone that would try more than once. A one off could be chalked up to momentary madness, not someone who wanted to bring down the entire ship.
A repeat offender was much more dangerous. It was just bad timing that they didn't have long enough to see if any of the offenders they'd identified had the potential to be a much more serious threat.
"We're set for docking." Beau announced, doing a fantastic job of pretending he wasn't listening to their whispered conversation. Pilots as a whole were terrible gossips, but in general exercised good judgement about what was allowed and what was not. Due to their position on the ship, they were a bit separate from most of the regular crew, falling closer to the command staff, but still not exactly the same.
Evan turned to him. "Did we get a good number?"
"44." Beau winked.
Evan whistled. "That's low. I don't think I've had a double-digit birth before."
"I thought we had one once?" Finley looked thoughtful.
Evan shook his head. "It was one hundred. The zeroes had just faded."
For stations to justify having their own docks they had to have enough to make up for the massive amount of power, manpower, and maintenance they required so the smallest generally had a few hundred. Stations that didn't have docks had holding areas and reloading hangers that didn't require as much but could only service one ship at a time.
Walker Hospital's dock had over four hundred births, with a 77% occupation rate, making it one of the three busiest docks in the solar system.
~ tbc