The Chrispin was on its way back to
Earth Sector Station when the call came. Lt. Ray Harris turned from the
communication console. "Sir, its Deputy Markim."
"On screen" Commander
Gunn looked up at the elderly face that appeared on the main screen.
"Deputy Markim, what do we owe this honor?"
"We have a problem Paula and
we think you may be able to lend a hand."
"We'll certainly try. What's
up?"
"We've received a distress
call from the colony on Altair 5. Its a farming colony that has been
established about two years. Everything has been going well until two weeks
ago. It seems that the generators failed on one of the farms. At first they
didn't think it was anything serious. Then others started failing and the
failures are spreading."
"What kind of failure,
mechanical?"
"That would be easy if it
were. No, this is a failure of the Ytterbium core."
"How can the Ytterbium core
fail."
"That's the puzzling part. The
cores in those generators should radiate for years, maybe even centuries.
"So what happened?"
The Ytterbium stopped radiating. It
was almost like it was drained."
"How is that possible?"
"We hoped you could find that
out."
"We can try. Altair is in the
general direction we were going next. We can go right away."
"Good. We'll notify Altair 5
that you are on your way. Good luck."
As the screen faded, Paula gave the
order to Captain Sue Chen the Navigator, "Lay in a course for Altair 5
Sue."
"Laid in." Sue responded.
"Helm, let's go!"
The humming of the McPherson drive
filled the ship as the Chrispin headed toward Altair 5. For five days the
Chrispin sped through the emptiness of space. Science officer Major Karl Karl
and Chief Engineer Major Jeff Anderson spent most of the time checking the
Chrispin's data banks on Ytterbium and Ytterbium generators.
Ytterbium is a soft, bright,
silvery, rare-earth element that can be modified at the sub-atomic level to
cause it to radiate as it revert back to the original form. This radiation is
similar to a cross between radioactivity and magnetic force. It is a strong
but limited radiation that can be reflected by Beryllium.
This power line runs through a
beryllium reflector, the Ytterbium core, and an exciter coil. The reflector
focuses the Ytterbium radiation onto the wire at the exciter coil. When an
electric current flows through the exciter coil, the focused Ytterbium
radiation causes large amounts of current to flow in the output wire. The
exciter gets feedback from the power line. Piezoelectric crystals are
generally used to provide the pulse to start the generators. The exciter
feedback loop sustains the operation.
Ytterbium radiation is not harmful
to humans in small quantities. It can have a disruptive effect on organic
materials close to it so it must be carefully handled. Its radiation has a
short range and does not leave lingering radiation as do radioactive
materials. Since it is artificially modified, it can be undone with no
lingering radiation.
Because of the light weight and
high power outputs it is a common for portable power generation and is the
main power source for colonies where other power sources are limited or
non-existent. The high power units such as the Chrispin uses are heavily
shielded because of the radiation. Lighter weight units are generally not
shielded because the lower radiation levels are not harmful.
Once the Ytterbium has been
modified it should retain the radiation much the same as a magnet retains its
magnetism. Eventually it will run down, but that should be centuries, not a
few years. By the time they reached Altair 5 they had no idea how something
like that could happen.
After five days they were
approaching the planet. "We've got Altar Control, Sir." Lt. Harris
announced.
"On Screen." Paula
ordered.
The thin face of Joe Jenkins, the
colony administrator filled the screen, occasional static lines danced across
the screen. "Chrispin!" he began. "Thank goodness you've come.
The situation is deteriorating rapidly!"
Captain Chen turned to Paula.
"We'll be in orbit in 17 minutes, Sir."
Paula acknowledged, "Thanks
Sue." Turning toward the screen, Paula said, "As soon as we're in
orbit we'll use our shuttle to you. We'll keep the Chrispin in orbit for now.
We'll send a landing party down to check things out. They should be on the
ground in little over an hour."
"Acknowledged. We'll brief
them when they get down."
Altair 5 was very Earthlike from
space. The continents were different but the colors were the same. It had been
an excellent choice for a colony. Well suited to human life, it was earlier on
the evolutionary scale with few large animals and no intelligent life.
Paula assigned Karl and Jeff as the
landing party to go down to the surface. They took a small four man Flitter,
homing on the beacon at the small spaceport, the only one on Altair 5. The old
colony ship that had brought the colonists to Altair 5 stood disused some
distance from the only building, a low prefab that could have used some better
maintenance.
Continued
Return to My Home Page