“Outer marker D9 is moving.” said Lisa.
“I thought you said you lost the signal to it?” asked Karen
“The tachyon pulse signal is gone,” said Lisa “I am now just getting the position update from standard radio signals.”
“Any attempts by that fleet to access the markers’ message greetings?” asked Karen.
“No and the pool is still open as to what greeting message number the new guys are going to respond to.” smiled Lisa as Karen glared at her.
“You said D9 is moving?” asked Karen.
“Yes, it seems to be moving toward us.” said Lisa.
“What about the new guys?” asked Karen.
“D8 and D10 says they are coming towards us, looks like they spotted us.” said Lisa.
“Could be,” said Karen “what’s Cougar 3 status?”
“On our five thirty,” replied Kathy “15 kilometers away, still paralleling our course and matching our speed. It’s running lights are still off.”
“In other words no change in its status since we entered the belt.” said Karen
“Pretty much yes” said Kathy.
“Carolyn, long range active scan, 180 degree sweep forward with the bow as the center.” said Karen
“Are you sure you want to do this Karen?” wondered Carolyn “This is something we normally don’t do.”
“I’m sure and yeah you are right, this something we normally don’t do but then again this mission doesn’t go by the plan book.” said Karen.
“Scanning” said Carolyn “and we don’t have a plan book.”
“I know” said Karen
“Oh good” said “for a minute there I thought I missed something new in the briefing. So boss what’s the plan now?”
“I want to change course but before we do I want to make sure we don’t run into anything out here.” said Karen. “Kathy what’s the status of the running lights?”
“They are on, do you want them off?” asked Kathy.
“Not yet,” replied Karen “but before we turn I want you to turn all of them off for 10 seconds, turn them on for 2 seconds, turn them off for 10 seconds, turn them on for 2 seconds, turn them off for 10 seconds and then turn it on. Then use whatever running light closest to Cougar 3 as a signaling light, use standard Morse code to tell Cougar 3 of our course change, you might need Lisa’s help on that”
“Where are we changing our course too?” asked Kathy
“Don’t know yet, how’s the scan?” said Karen
“No returns yet” said Carolyn
“Carolyn, there might be more active scans in the future, when you do them make sure Cougar 3 is not caught in the scan.” said Karen.
“Understood.” replied Carolyn.
“What’s the contact time between the new guys and us?” asked Karen
“Based on what D10 is detecting, roughly 23 hours and 15 minutes.” replied Lisa.
“Scan is back” said Carolyn “all clear up to 1 million kilometers ahead.”
“Lisa turn on the PA system” said Karen.
“It’s on” said Lisa.
“Attention all hands this is Captain speaking,” said Karen “assuming no change in speed between the new guys and us we expect contact to happen with in the next 23 hours, so clean up your rooms and put away all the breakables because the ride might get interesting soon. Engineering, make sure all systems are working because we are going to yellow alert in 10 minutes.” Karen then motioned to Lisa to turn the PA off.
“Lori, Kathy, Lisa get ready to change course, 40 degrees to the starboard, in 15 minutes, you all know what to do.”
“Aye.” said Lori.
“Aye Captain” said Kathy.
“Question Captain” asked Lisa “do you want Cougar 3 to reply to our course change message?”
“No,” replied Karen “there is no need for them to reply to the message, say that in our message to them. We should however send a second message with any updates to it though. Lori and Kathy, when we turn let’s make the turn smooth, steady and long.”
“Will do Captain” replied Lori.
“Not a problem, besides my room is a mess, don’t want it to get any worse after the turn” joked Kathy.
“Carolyn, “ said Karen “do another active scan now to see what’s up ahead, do one every 2 minutes, report findings no matter what.”
“Will do” replied Carolyn.
“Running light sequence is done,” said Kathy, “computer is doing the Morse code sequence on the aft starboard side running light.”
“I’m impressed.” said Karen
“It’s part of the helm control routines,” said Kathy “never used it before, but hey this is interesting, date stamp on this routine says it’s July 25, 2003.”
“So?” asked Lori
“Don’t you find it strange?” asked Kathy
“I don’t know what you mean” replied Lori
“That there is a computer program written for this ship roughly two years before it was launched into space.” said Kathy.
“It took time to write the routines for this ship.” said Lori
“No way,” said Kathy “from the time of initial contact to launching of this spaceship was one year, the United States government really burned the midnight oil to get this spaceship going.”
“Maybe it’s from its old routines that they brought over.” said Lori
“Right,” said Kathy “like a Los Angles class submarine is going to make use of running lights such that they figured it would need a computer program to control certain lights to make it send Morse Code.” Kathy looked around the bridge of the ship, no one seemed to care about this strange occurrence, not even the Captain.
“Kathy,” said Karen “give it a rest for now, we got more important things to worry about.”
“Long range scan complete” announced Carolyn “all clear ahead for the next 1 million kilometers in all forward directions.”
“Thank you science.” said Karen “Lisa, message greeting number 55.”
“Captain?” asked Lisa
“The pool” said Karen
“Oh, I think 55 is off limits.” said Lisa
“Why?” asked Karen “what is wrong with DGE 1.”
“Nothing, “ replied Lisa “just that all the new guys we have been running in to the past tend use DGE 1.”
“Makes sense to me” said Karen
“So there is no fun in that.” said Lisa “don’t you think, some place, some where some new guy might actually know one of our languages instead of DGE 1?”
“Okay,” said Karen “is DGE 2 valid or is that off-limits too?”
“It’s valid” replied Lisa “but somebody else got it”
“Who?” asked Karen
“Sorry Captain”, replied Lisa “client privilege.”
“That applies to lawyers and doctors,” said Karen “not wayward communication officers moonlighting as bookies.”
Lisa nodded that she wasn’t going to give up the client. Karen then said “Okay DGE 3?”
“Taken!” said Kathy “and I am not going to trade.”
“So much for client privilege” said Karen
“Yeah there goes my practice, thanks a lot Kathy” sneered Lisa
“Sorry!” said Kathy
“I think Lisa’s side business will survive this trip out Kathy,” said Karen “Okay is there a DGE 4?”
“Yeah but that’s taken too and I am not saying who.” said Lisa
“Is there a DGE 5?” asked Karen
“Not to our knowledge.” replied Lisa “You want to take up message greeting number 59 which is the next in line and it is available by the way?”
“Okay I guess. Which is it?” asked Karen
“Something from Earth.” said Lisa
“Really? Which one?” asked Karen
Lisa just smiled and said “Oh it will be a riot if some new guy respond to it.”