Just A Little Itchy

Chapter 3 - galley copy

Leaving lunar orbit, and swinging the ship past Earth in slingshot maneuver, Patti hadrotated the gyros to roll the ship. Through the viewports, Earth in all its glory filled their vision;clouds white with sea land blue and green under the sun.It was autumn and the day was beautiful over North America. 

The Team took fulladvantage of the view to fill their minds with memories.They were ready to go.Patti had shaped their course below the ecliptic, outside the regular space lanes travelledby between-planets shipping, wanting to be well away from traffic and not endanger anyone.

 FomalHaut, the Lonely One, was their target, a staggering twenty-five light years or onehundred forty-seven and a half trillion miles away. Now days away from the Moon, Pattiachieved their final course orbit and said, "Gyros set. Neutral on the guns now, Engineer." 

"Neutral it is, Pilot," was the crisp reply. 

Rory and Shemp Jr worked together to set the sight line, manually cranking the gyros toturn ship a few degrees, centering the star within the 'scope sights. Green lighting the jury-riggedauxiliary board for the whatcha-ma-callit machine, Rory was ready. 

"We need another name for this thing," he said quietly to himself. 

The dry nervouschuckles all around let him know the others heard. 

"Okay, the verniers are set to automatically bring us out after a jump of five lights, so wecan recalibrate and look around." Rory grinned. "I hope. 

"We'll want to map as we go. Diagram, map, document and log everything. If this worksI see no way others can follow, unless we do. Just like Captain Cook sailing voyages ofdiscovery to the Pacific. Plus, everything that happens and all we say will be recorded and sealedin d-cube, just in case."

"I'm just glad we're pointing away from anything," Patti said softly. "I need a kiss,Rory." 

Un-strapping quickly to float across the control room to her pilot chair, Rory stopped hismotion head-to-head with Patti, looking out the main viewport.They both felt overwhelmed by the enormity of stars before them. Tears in their eyes theylooked at each other and kissed softly. 

"I love you," and smiles passed between them.Strapped back down Rory said, "Okay Team, this is it. Cue music please, Maestro!" 

PattiAngel smiled, and flicked a switch.

With a finger poised over the GO button and his other hand pointing out the viewporttowards FomalHaut, Rory smiled and spoke aloud, "Hey, Hey, Hey now Princess Murie, here wecome!"

 With the music playing softly in the background, Little Itchy pushed GO—and the starswent away.

The LSS Inspiration II floated in space. 

Patti had a quarter gee spin on to make down-be-down; so not everything floated away.Now a parsec from Earth on line to Alpha Centauri the crew worked at calibrating andscanning the sky, across degrees of the optimal Earth transit trajectory, looking for sight of thecolony ships. 

The three colonial generation vessels should be visible with their light sails deployed,square kilometers across. Even if as non-reflective black voids blocking out the star field. Theships had been on their way for decades now and would soon be decelerating over the next eightbillion miles to achieve maneuvering orbit in the Alpha Centauri system. 

Collapsing the solar sails should be visible as well, showing a rippling light to shadow tolight effect against the backdrop stars.Ship comm was set to auto-broadcast a contact signal—"Welcome, Welcome, Welcome... Lunar Star Ship Inspiration II in transit line to AlphaCent bids Welcome." Over and over. "Please respond... Calling Earth colony shipsConstellation, Kiev and Tianzi... Please respond.

"This is Captain, and Owner aboard, Rory Blackwoods of the LSS Inspiration II calling toEarth colony ships... Please respond." The broadcast continued. 

Shemp Jr cleared his throat before mumbling, "We're really gonna piss some people off,Chief."

 "How so?" Rory replied, pre-occupied. 

"Well, let's see now. These people ridin' the colony ships put their lives on the line tochallenge the universe and serious boredom; on a trip lasting generations. They left when theywas kids! Now they'll be grans and gramps. We," Shemp grinned and pointed at each Teammember, "have been sittin' here for nearly a WEEK keepin' an eye out for the colony ships. Ittook us a whole MONTH just to get here, and we spent most of that time sightseein' as wesurveyed the Fomalhaut system; and then booted over here to survey the Alpha Cent system.We're still kids! And we're here to welcome them." 

Patti frowned in thought; then smiled big-time. "But SJ, we're here to welcome themHOME!"

 AbnerJ Pettibone called out, "Yeah man, that's one nice E-type planet we found there inthe Alpha Cent system AND we can guide them right into the orbit track, baby! No wasted time,no wasted juice! 

"And before they know it, we'll have 'em talking to Earth 'bout the next colonists andsupplies. Now that should sweeten things up." 

The whole Team smiled and shook their heads. "Straight on trajectory!" 

"Just one little thing, Rory," said Patticake as she snuggled into Little Itchy's lap. "It surewould be nice if we didn't have to spin ship to get constant gravity."

Closing his eyes and giving his head a shake, Rory figured there was going to be noresting on his laurels allowed. 

He was interrupted from making a snappy reply as the red beacon light on the commbegan flashing, "Incoming Message... Incoming Message..."AbnerJ cried out from the 'scope bay, "Avast ye hardies, thar bay sails o'er the yardarm,Captain!" 

And of course Shemp Jr jumped right into it, "Whar away, matey?" 

Waco laughed and played the external navlights through changing space code patterns ...loud hurrahs and blinding applause.Little Itchy shook his head again and sighed. It's always something. 

Lunatics! Each andevery one of them!