The Thor Heyerdahl was racing through Interplanetary Space, accelerating towards it target at Saturn. Tomorrow the ship would finally reach the midpoint of the journey and it would spend the rest of the way flying backward and braking to get into the desired orbit around the ringed planet.
Captain Hunt was sitting in the cockpit, watching a video message from Earth.
“Captain Hunt, this is Kurt Coller.”
‘Oha’ Hunt thought as the video continued, ‘the boss at Mission Control itself is calling me.’
“I would like to inform you that ESA and JAXA have agreed to allow an interview about your flight on board of the Thor Heyerdahl. Two days before you reach Pan a ship with someone from Port Luna will meet you.”
‘Reporter? Aprils fools day?’ flashed through Hunts mind.
“According to our mission planning, you should be down to maneuvering speed and preparing for transferring to an orbit around Pan, which will make docking easier. The ship of the reporter has an ESA certified airlock adapter and enough space for up to four people. We will send you a detailed report about the ship attached to this video message.
I know this is an unusual thing, but showing some good will in this interview might help us to get better relations to the Fen, which will be very important in the next years of your mission.
Kurt Coller out.”
‘At least I got a warning’ Hunt thought and sighed. He wondered if there was any kind of job left on Earth where you could not be ambushed by a reporter. But then a knocking at the cockpit doors made him turn around.
“Mrs Meier, still up that late?”
“Yes... I just a reply to an email I sent a few days ago and wanted to talk with you about it.”
Eric Hunt smiles and pointed at the empty copilot seat.
“Just sit down, I always have time for my crew.”
“You know, a major problem out here in the middle of nothing is signal delay” Sarah began to explain, “it is a headache if something bad should happen and it is also an inconvenience for communicating with Earth.”
Eric Hunt just nodded.
“When we were at Mars last year, I gave the video disk I brought from Earth to one of the Trekkies as a gift. We talked quite a lot over the next days and he said I should call him when I am in space again.”
“So you sent him a mail?” Eric Hunt asked, “Did you got a reply?”
“Yes, I got a reply... I had told him about our travel and about some of the changes they made to the Thor Heyerdahl compared to our visit on Mars. He said that he would still owe me for my present and he will send us a mobile wifi accesspoint.”
“A what?” Eric said a little bit confused. “I hope you will explain him that there is a no handwavium policy for the ships of our mission. But I still do not know what we should do with anything like this.”
Sarah grinned.
“It seems the Trekkies built a few drones with integrated Wifi and Interwave. Its a small automated spaceship that will follow us and give us faster than light communication! Even with Earth!”
Eric Hunt first instinct cried ‘no way’, but he took his time to think about the situation.
“So you say its a personal gift from someone else... it contains Handwavium, but it will stay away from our ship. We don’t have to modify anything here, but we get a faster connection to Earth.” He scratched his head. “And we might count it as working on our connections to the Fen on Mars?”
“Yes, exactly!” Sarah replied.
“I am pretty sure there will be some politicians back on Earth that will not be that happy if the hear it, but...”
Sarah blinked a few times, “but?”
“... but as you mentioned they are not here and there is quite a communication delay. I am pretty sure Mr. Coeller will be delighted to be able to work around this cage of rules. Just do not mention it directly in the reports, right? We might be in some trouble otherwise.”
Captain Hunt was sitting in the cockpit, watching a video message from Earth.
“Captain Hunt, this is Kurt Coller.”
‘Oha’ Hunt thought as the video continued, ‘the boss at Mission Control itself is calling me.’
“I would like to inform you that ESA and JAXA have agreed to allow an interview about your flight on board of the Thor Heyerdahl. Two days before you reach Pan a ship with someone from Port Luna will meet you.”
‘Reporter? Aprils fools day?’ flashed through Hunts mind.
“According to our mission planning, you should be down to maneuvering speed and preparing for transferring to an orbit around Pan, which will make docking easier. The ship of the reporter has an ESA certified airlock adapter and enough space for up to four people. We will send you a detailed report about the ship attached to this video message.
I know this is an unusual thing, but showing some good will in this interview might help us to get better relations to the Fen, which will be very important in the next years of your mission.
Kurt Coller out.”
‘At least I got a warning’ Hunt thought and sighed. He wondered if there was any kind of job left on Earth where you could not be ambushed by a reporter. But then a knocking at the cockpit doors made him turn around.
“Mrs Meier, still up that late?”
“Yes... I just a reply to an email I sent a few days ago and wanted to talk with you about it.”
Eric Hunt smiles and pointed at the empty copilot seat.
“Just sit down, I always have time for my crew.”
“You know, a major problem out here in the middle of nothing is signal delay” Sarah began to explain, “it is a headache if something bad should happen and it is also an inconvenience for communicating with Earth.”
Eric Hunt just nodded.
“When we were at Mars last year, I gave the video disk I brought from Earth to one of the Trekkies as a gift. We talked quite a lot over the next days and he said I should call him when I am in space again.”
“So you sent him a mail?” Eric Hunt asked, “Did you got a reply?”
“Yes, I got a reply... I had told him about our travel and about some of the changes they made to the Thor Heyerdahl compared to our visit on Mars. He said that he would still owe me for my present and he will send us a mobile wifi accesspoint.”
“A what?” Eric said a little bit confused. “I hope you will explain him that there is a no handwavium policy for the ships of our mission. But I still do not know what we should do with anything like this.”
Sarah grinned.
“It seems the Trekkies built a few drones with integrated Wifi and Interwave. Its a small automated spaceship that will follow us and give us faster than light communication! Even with Earth!”
Eric Hunt first instinct cried ‘no way’, but he took his time to think about the situation.
“So you say its a personal gift from someone else... it contains Handwavium, but it will stay away from our ship. We don’t have to modify anything here, but we get a faster connection to Earth.” He scratched his head. “And we might count it as working on our connections to the Fen on Mars?”
“Yes, exactly!” Sarah replied.
“I am pretty sure there will be some politicians back on Earth that will not be that happy if the hear it, but...”
Sarah blinked a few times, “but?”
“... but as you mentioned they are not here and there is quite a communication delay. I am pretty sure Mr. Coeller will be delighted to be able to work around this cage of rules. Just do not mention it directly in the reports, right? We might be in some trouble otherwise.”