Children Of Gaia

Chapter 17

Maddison and Eva sat staring out into space together. When folding space to move faster than light, Tarraxen ships produced an amazing by-product in the form of a dazzling light show right through the entire visible spectrum for human eyes. The coloured ribbons danced and flickered as the ship passed by all manner of spacial anomalies and matter forms in an instant.

Felix and Lloyd entered the room to watch alongside the girls. Just as they got comfortable the light show came to a conclusion as the view returned to an iconic slab of fixed constellations.

"Aw, what gives?" asked Felix disappointed, "I just bloody sat down." The others shrugged, none the wiser as to what had happened then Emelia came in.

"Excellent. It appears we have arrived at your coordinates, Eva," she announced. The group jumped to their feet, Felix and Maddison squished there faces against the view-port trying to see Gaia.

"Umm, I can't see her. Is Gaia on the port side?" inquired Felix.

"Me either," added a concerned Maddison.

Emelia's face went blank for a second, "Erranos advises that he cannot locate your Gaia station. Eva, are you sure about your calculations?"

"Yes, of course!" Eva confirmed, "take me to him, please."

"Sure, not a problem," smiled Emelia. The four of them all followed as she led the way to the bridge before leaving to tend to the prisoners. Erranos had suggested they utilise drones or even the tarras to check in with the prisoners but Lloyd was adamant that would've been a terrible idea, instead requesting Emelia fulfil the role, which she happily accepted.

They found Erranos sitting at his command chair, there was nothing on any of the displays as he was able to link in with all of the ship's systems remotely. Knowing they were about to come in Erranos activated the viewers showing them what he was able to see, "Eva, as I am sure Emelia advised you, I am yet to locate your station."

"Yes, we heard," Eva answered lacking her usual confidence, "how far is your scanning range?"

"One-quarter of a light-year roughly," Erranos answered, "if your station were close by I should have found it already."

The faces of the group lost hope all too quickly. Gaia had always been heading toward the galactic centre, her speed would vary slightly but Eva widened her search parameters to encompass a much larger range.

"What if they stopped briefly?" Felix asked aloud, "it takes days for Gaia to reach her top speed, if they only stopped for even one day that would put them much further back."

Eva jumped to a station, "Erranos, can you please make a heading between these three stars, stopping every half a light year?"

"Of course," he nodded just as the Lotar panned a few degrees slowly before accelerating to low speed as Erranos adjusted his telemetry.

"Where will that take us?" Lloyd asked hoping not to have missed the obvious.
Eva looked at him and winked, "Earth," she said calmly, "if Gaia isn't where she should be, then we will just head backwards until we cross paths."

"Brilliant," praised Lloyd as he bowed to Eva humorously.

Felix and Maddison stared each other down in excitement, simply giddy from the fact that they would soon be home.

The small jumps Erranos was required to perform were too precise for Tarraxen space folding at full power. He would easily overshoot his mark by a few light-years if he wasn't able to restrict the power settings. His calculations settled on 18% power output and he proceeded with the first jump. In a momentary flash, they arrived in a new section of space and Erranos set to scanning for Gaia. But still, there was no sign of her.