Chapter 3: Vulnerable Situation
Bharat awoke from his slumber in a trance when he heard the panic alarm go off.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
He was actually having a dream about his parents, family and childhood friends since he was missing them very much as he was traveling in this spaceship for almost one year and with the same boring routine every day however he never had to listen to the Panic Alarm in the last one year. Though they had drills happening every month to know what they had to do in case of emergency but that was scheduled and they already knew about it exactly when the alarm would ring. However this one was early when he was still fast asleep so he was not ready and was surprised.
Right at that moment an announcement was heard from the speakers on the spaceship and the captain Siddhant was announcing: "ALL UNITS REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO THE CABIN DECK ASTEROID BELT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Arjun also woke up due to the panic alarm and heard the announcement and said: "What happened? Why are they calling us so early?"
Repeated announcement by Captain Siddhant from the spaceship speakers could be heard: ""ALL UNITS REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO THE CABIN DECK ASTEROID BELT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"ALL UNITS REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO THE CABIN DECK ASTEROID BELT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY".
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Bharat, detecting something peculiar and the seriousness of the news, got up quickly and stated to Arjun: "I think we should report immediately to the cabin deck let's go now."
"ALL UNITS REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO THE CABIN DECK ASTEROID BELT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY".
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Bharat took Arjun with himself and shot towards the Cabin deck as instructed in the announcement.
As soon as they reached the cabin deck which was also the control room and most of the commands were announced from here they found the rest of the crew members already present there.
Dilip the Vice captain shouted: "WHY DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG? YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION FROM THE ANNOUNCEMENT AND PRIOR REPORTS. WE WERE ALL EXPECTING YOU IDIOTS."
Bharat and Arjun were embarrassed because they were the last to go to the control room and their vice-captain was cursing at them.
Captain Siddhant shouted from the back: "LEAVE THEM RIGHT NOW. WHAT HAS HAPPENED IS THE PAST. RIGHT NOW, FOCUS ON YOUR SCREEN AND THINK ON HOW TO EVADE THIS ASTEROID BELT."
Vice-Captain Dilip was enraged with Captain Siddhant for reprimanding him for no apparent cause. Apparently, it was Bharat and Arjun's fault that they were late, and as Vice-Captain, he wanted to teach them a lesson, but instead of facing Bharat and Arjun, Captain Siddhant was yelling at him.
They were all from the Surya sect, and Vice-Captain Dilip was from the Yuniv sect, so he was already out of place. He also had a sense of competition in his mind about how to prove Captain Siddhant wrong and establish himself right, and in the process he would be able to prove that the Yuniv sect was far superior to the Surya sect.
Vice-Captain Dilip refuted and said: "Siddhant, Captain! Why are you yelling at me rather than at those who are late? I was simply attempting to instill the principles of punctuality in our staff members, but it appears that I was incorrect, as the Surya sect appears to want their Disciples to be late and lack the values of punctuality."
Captain Siddhant Said: "What are you saying? I am just asking you to focus on the task ahead since we have got a life threatening danger called the asteroid belt up ahead. If we are unsuccessful in maneuvering the spaceship from the middle of the asteroid belt then not only our mission will be failed but all of the crew members will lose their life and if we lose the mission then the evil beings will get a huge advantage over humanity."
Vice-Captain Dilip said: "Are you out of your mind Captain? There are no imminent dangers of clashing into the asteroid belt. I only thought you were trying to instill the values of Punctuality in our staff members so I was supporting you in this. Do not fool anyone, it is true that there are millions of asteroids in an asteroid belt, however a space probe has never had to worry about hitting one on its way in outer space. The reason for this is because space is so big and so empty when it comes to macroscopic objects such as planets and asteroids. Outer space is crammed full with microscopic particles and fields, but when it comes to an object big enough to crash into, they are very rare. Space is so big and so empty of rocks on average that unless a space probe intentionally aims towards an asteroid or a planet, it will miss. So as per the estimates the natural collision rate between two asteroids in the asteroid belt has to be once every ten million years. Therefore, assuming a space probe moves at speeds comparable to an asteroid and is around the size of an asteroid a space probe would not hit an asteroid in the main asteroid belt for ten million years, even if flying around blindly we all know this fact."
Captain Siddhant said: "What you are saying is true however that is applicable only for the asteroid belt which is between the planets Mars and Jupiter which is in our Solar System which is a report published by one of our famous earth space organization. However now we are not in our Solar system but we are on a different dimension which is the Dark Dimension on a different Galaxy and heading towards a new planet called Tamro so we do not know about the conditions here nor there was any kind of research being carried out in this part of the universe so it is completely a different and new territory where the basic natural rules of the nature doesn't apply. So do not argue and concentrate on the mission, this is my order."