CHAPTER 6

The six comet fighters are in such a hurry to enter their mini launching pad that six thumbs went at the same time to the print reader. The Spacestreak, the comet fighter's ship, is a huge ship when viewed from the outside. The size is a necessity. Because the size of comets they fight are not exactly the type you can swat away with a baseball bat, Spacestreak is loaded with high level explosives which took up most of the space. But sometimes these comets have some important minerals in them, which is why the Spacestreak has a small shuttle which they use in salvaging the remains of those comets. This shuttle has a mini launching pad in the ship which can only be assessed using the fingerprints of the comet fighters.

The six kids removed their hands, waited for one of them to put their thumb print and each reached out again to the print reader. At last however, they got into the launching pad and into the shuttle. Just before the shuttle launched, they saw Dr. Sol come into the launching pad.

"Hey" Congstan said " how about that cute invisibility trick I put on this shuttle? "

"It didn't work the last time" Drake reminded her.

"I improved it, let's just try it"

"Okay" Drake agreed.

Congstan depressed a button and a panel slid out, keys appeared on the glass surface and Congstan quickly typed in the command.

From his position in front of the view screen, Dr. Sol watched,astonished, asbthe shuttle melted into oblivion.

---- ---- ---- ----

"You know Tungsten, I still can't understand why you choose to go with me in something that might probably end in death" Silversten threw in casually. There were aboard their spaceship New Voyager. The New Voyager is a ship that was designed for long distance and long tenure travels. The first of it's kind, designed to go several light years. The ship has a new technology using plant cells that recycles carbon(iv)oxide to oxygen and carbohydrates. Through a complex series of hydrogen and boron injections and deductions carried out with the aid of a substance very much like an enzyme, the carbohydrates are transformed into a hydrogen -boron fuel with water as by product. The water is used to ignite a reaction with carbon(iv)oxide to produce oxygen and carbohydrates again. So basically, the ship will never run out of oxygen.

Part of the carbon and hydrogen - boron fuel is used to run the ship while a small amount goes to the ship's mini farm, where it is used to produce light and heat very much like that of the Sun's. The crew eat the food produced by the farm to stay alive and as long as they are alive, they breath out carbon(iv)oxide which is used to produce the oxygen they breath and the fuel that runs the ship. Summarized simply, the ship is a self supporting ecosystem. It can't run out of fuel or oxygen or food either since the ship has its own gardener. Basically, one can live in the ship forever. But then some guys do get tired of the monotonous routine of staring at stars zoom by and racing stellar rays and pulses while keeping an eye out for any planet that has signs of life. And this last you have to do traveling at a speed faster than that of light and still accerelating. Which means they have to scan a bigger fraction of a light year ahead of them for such planets and involves occasional slowing down and sometimes complete stops. Sometimes they even have to land inside a planet completely strange and then find themselves in danger of being marooned in a planet with a gravity about forty times more than earth's. This usually involves using a huge chunk of their fuel. Which they weren't always happy about because that means waiting for sometime doing nothing while the reserves fill up.

But to Tungsten, all this is not as annoying as pulling in and out of 'the dive'. Because ecosystems are usually slow, they figured they could use some bright ideas. They knew that according to physics, once they is no external force to stop them, except maybe, occasional black holes and some really strong stars, ( the latter only slows them down), they will continue accelerating once they start. So what they do is use a good portion of their fuel, attain a very fast acceleration that will hit the speed of light in like about twenty minutes, then cut their fuel and let the ship continue to accelerate on it's own. This is a very fast way of travelling and Tungsten and Silversten called it the dive. Trouble is, pulling out of the dive is more difficult than pulling in and uses more fuel. In about an hour after they pulls into the dive, their velocity will be doubling every minute. And going that fast, they would burn all their fuel to pull out of the dive, and that they cannot afford on their cosy little ecosystem or it will crash. So every forty or thirty minutes, they pull out of the dive, not completely but at least out of the acceleration and at a speed much slower than that of light while they wait for their reserves to fill up.

The most annoying parts for Silversten is resetting the ship's clocks. Going at a certain speed, you are certain to reach a certain planet at a certain time. But when the speed suddenly drops or increases, (which happens often), one is no more certain to reach a certain planet at a certain time and one has to reset the clocks again to be certain. Otherwise, Silversten thinks New Voyager is a great ship and so does Tungsten but for a different reason if sleep and coffee at any time.

The two friends were relaxing at the ship's bar and talking leisurely since they have decided not to pull into another dive for a day, earth timing. Both were really relieved, as neither has to worry about resetting clocks or fuel.

Silversten waited a while for the answer to his question, decided it wasn't coming and questioned again.

"What made you insist on following me on this wild goose chase?" Silversten asked

"I have already answered you before" Tungsten replied, sipping his coffee.

"When?"

"Oh nevermind" Tungsten said and whistled to a trolley, which trundled up to them.

Tungsten poured anther coffee and sipped, almost as if he has forgotten that Silversten is there.

"I hate it when you do that" Silversten said, mildly annoyed.

"Do what?" Asked Tungsten confused.

"Dismiss one's question as if he is insignificant"

"Which the person probably is" Tungsten replied tartly then added quickly

"Uh oh. Sorry, just some left over traits"

Silversten sighed.

"Just answer my question " he said.

"Well" Tungsten began "It is a bit of a long story. Of course no one would expect the son of a top political mogul, one of the powers that be, to embark in such a dangerous mission on an untested model of spaceship"

"So that's it. To attract attention by doing the unexpected " Silversten mused.

"That's only part of it" Tungsten said" the attention is not for myself, I want to attract attention to my father. Not every wealthy man will let his son go on this kind of mission"

"So you want to portray your father as a hero, as a man who has the people's interest at heart, isn't that it?" Silversten asked, suddenly scowling.

"Not that. My father is not a hero neither do I portray him as one. I'm just doing this as an act of rebellion. Before we launched, I met my lawyer, one barrister Lavender, and arranged to sue my father. I had a little trouble with him and he threatened to 'dispose of me'. Luckily I caught that phrase on record and used it to file a lawsuit. So when I wouldn't show up for the court hearing, speculation will be that he sent me on this dangerous mission in order to get me killed. Now ask yourself, can such a man be portrayed as a hero? Someone who has the people's interests at heart?".

Silversten was lost deep in thought. His mind went back to the world war and what had caused it which in his opinion was very silly, really silly indeed...