Read Trajectory Book 1 (New Providence) for Free Online

regions and began scrolling the display over. “Here’s our object. With your estimates, it’s heading on this trajectory.”
    Emma squinted. “Those are outdated…”
    “Ok, I’ll update them with your new data. But allowing for a bit of sludge, I can extrapolate that this thing is moving along this elliptical arc.” He extended the plot further and zoomed out again. “Right into these ships.”
    The blobs were labeled Pandora, Calypso, Making Time, The Terror.
    Calypso was Emma’s father’s ship.
    Emma grabbed the tablet and started updating the plots based on her most recent data.
    “What do we do?” Tamra looked back and forth at Emma and Greg. “There’s nothing to worry about, is there?”
    Emma was still inputting values, comparing with her own plots from the Olympus data. “Space is pretty big, Tam. The chances of anything hitting anything else in open space is, well, astronomical.”
    Greg grabbed her hands. “Did you talk to Powell already?”
    “We just came from there.” Tam sniffed. Her hands were clammy. Greg looked at her with concern.
    “We need to go back and tell him this. We have to get this up to Lighthouse.”
    Emma gave his tablet back, the cone on the object was narrowed to a smaller band that neatly intersected the inbound trajectories of the ship. Mars visible at the bottom of the display. “What makes you think Control hasn’t plotted this already?”
    Greg shut off the tablet and stowed it in his pack as he stood. “I don’t know. Maybe they have, but if not, they need to see it. Doc Powell should be able to get their attention.” He helped Tamra up, and headed to the door. “Let’s go!” Emma followed.
 

010
    Lighthouse.
    Commander David Mancuso struggled into his jacket. The uniform wasn’t fitting too well anymore. He’d leave the gloves and hat at least; it wasn’t a funeral.
    People in the hall nodded and smiled as he walked past. A few said happy birthday or thanked him or just said hello. He was the highest ranking officer on the station and something of a celebrity.
    He was one of the oldest people on Mars. Or in orbit. Today he was another year older.
    And he was dying.
    The Commander took a deep breath, ignoring the pain in his chest and entered the mezzanine.
    “HAPPY BIRTHDAY COMMANDER MANCUSO!!!”
    Noise makers and applause filled the space. The huge, curved windows showed Mars reeling slowly past below, the dark stain of Sinai Planum rolling by, Olympus Mons a visible bump on the limn of the red planet in the distance coming towards them.
    “Thank you, thank you everyone.” Mancuso grinned and nodded at them. And damned if he didn’t tear up. I knew this was coming and they’re still getting to me. Damnit. “Where can I get a drink?”
    “Over here, sir!” Dan Wilkins yelled over from behind the bar. Mancuso passed through the room of faces, shaking hands, saying thank yous, getting claps on the shoulder. Mancuso noticed the balloons and streamers decorating the mezzanine.
    Wilkins cleared his throat, and projected himself louder than it was strictly required for Mancuso to hear him. “Before we get into what you’ll be drinking, we have a small presentation for you.”
    Sunil Pradeep, his comms officer winked at him and raised a half-full glass of something that looked like orange juice towards him. Mancuso nodded back and tried not to look too sour.
    The room quieted down around him, heads turning to listen in. “For your many years of service… decades, really.” Wilkins was warming up and Mancuso felt a roast coming on. “We have uncovered a gift befitting a man of your considerable age.” Some whooping from the crowd. “It wasn’t easy. There aren’t many things around here that old that aren’t considered vital equipment, but we dug deep and came up with this!” A flourish produced a brightly-colored wrapped box.
    “It was found in the belly of the old Exodus ship that brought our first colonists here. Somehow missed during