Flight Of The Anasazi
By David Billiot
Copyright 2026: All rights reserved
Chapter 18: Rescuers Need Rescue
The really amazing thing was how every system could be the same and yet every system was still different. Whoever had gone on this planet building rampage through the galaxy, they had been thorough. Every system had a collection of plasma extractors. Every system had a planet in the habitable zone. Every planet had a moon. The planet was always right around one earthmass and the moon was right around 0.0123 earthmass. Yet, even with all of that uniformity, the on the ground situation at each planet was different.
Al was keeping detailed records of each system.
Sometimes the system was well terraformed but the people had lost their technology. This was the case with Lalia’s people. They relied on digging up the solid hydrocarbons in the ground for energy.
A few times Mark had found a planet with no people at all. Some of these were just bare rock, like terraforming had never happened. However, others had been terraformed and there was evidence like ruins that showed that humans had been there but for one reason or another they were just gone. The cattle had gone feral and the plants returned to the wild.
It was a galaxy teeming with life but all the life was on the same tree of life. All the aliens were actually cousins.
“Captain, tomorrow mark seven months since the beginning of our mission. I was thinking we should have a celebration to boost morale.” Al said.
Mark was in the middle of replacing a worn out part in the generator room. He was on his back looking up at the machinery and he paused. “Why?” he asked.
“All of us are excited for it.” Al said. “We want to plan a party.”
“We’d be celebrating not achieving our mission and getting lost. Everyone back home probably thinks I’m dead.”
Al seemed to think about this. “I see your point. But this was still a historic mission and we are making progress to getting the Anasazi back to Florida. Plus it will be Lalia’s birthday soon.”
“No one is ever going to believe what we found. It would be just my luck that the government will classify everything and keep it top secret. And what are they going to do with Lalia? I mean, to them she’s an alien.”
“I will … consider about this.” Al said.
“Consider what?”
“You have suggested something that might cause some of my mission priorities to be in conflict with each other.”
“I’m guessing that’s bad.”
“We have standing orders to return to report back to mission command. I also am ordered to keep you alive and in good spirits. I know that if any harm comes to Lalia, you would not be in good spirits.”
“You’re overthinking it.”
“On the contrary, Captain; I believe this is a matter I have not fully thought out. In order to perform my duty to you and to the ship I must … consider this.”
“Before you spend a lot of time on that, it would be better to figure out if we’re making any actual progress towards getting home. Are we going to be jumping forever?”
“I can not say the actual distance.”
“I know. But I would like for you to figure it out.”
“We are making progress. More than that I can not say. I do believe this is all the more reason to find reason to celebrate.”
Mark considered. He shrugged. “Alright. Maybe I have been working us too hard. Let’s start adding days off to our routine and if we find a good place for shore leave, let’s take it.”
…
Despite injuries and very serious damage to the ship, the crew of the Roanoke worked to get partial power restored. Eleven men were in spacesuits working to keep the ship’s hull from ripping apart while doctor Fussy treated other men in the medical bay. As soon as a man could leave medical to go help, he did that.
Stormer was the one who pointed out that the ship was still moving extremely fast towards HC03. The Roanoke was actually in a position where it was closer to get to HC03 than to get back home. Roma didn’t understand how that could be.
“The RTG doesn’t have enough power to actually run the ship, just to get the computers to start booting.” Jameson pointed out.
“We have an overheat on HT2.” Lozentz reported.
“Can I use battery to get Karen online?” Roma asked.
“Captain, the main battery looks like it had a fault line going through it and then had a quake.”
“Pull together people.” Stormer said. “Captain, we have to slow down.”
Roma nodded. She got on the comm. “Jameson, cut off HT2 and just use hydrogen tank one. Don’t worry about Karen. Manually use the FTL to slow us down.”
…
The party took place the next day while the Anasazi was docked at a plasma extractor. The stars and planets had long ago blended together in Mark’s mind. He was sure Al kept good records but for Mark this was just another star with another plasma extractor. The people who lived on the planet had been reduced to an agrarian lifestyle. The oceans were abundant with fish so fishing boats were an important part of their culture.
The planet and the fact that Mark was now in the newsroom listening to Bruce give a toast to celebrate the seven months of their mission got Mark thinking. He was working his way home but seven months was more than half a year. What if it went all the way to a year? Then that would mean his one year wedding anniversary would also follow soon after. Oh, wow, Mark had been married for over six months. He had thought he would never marry. It was strange. If he had never met Lalia, certainly he could not see himself ever being with any other woman. He would have been single for life.
Bluman, Lalia, and Mark were surrounded by 3D projections of the AI avatars. Each now had a voice it could use and so the place was not quiet. The AI avatars were carrying drinks and pretending to drink. Bluman stood to the side to be polite or maybe just to stay out of the way. Only Mark and Lalia actually drank alcohol.
“Al, come here.” Mark said. “Tell Lalia what you told me.”
“About what?”
“The beautiful beaches on the planet.”
Al started to hedge. “I don’t actually know that. It’s a prediction.”
“The trip has been long but we’ve been doing really well.” Lalia said.
“I want to check if it is safe but how would you like to swim in the ocean?” Mark said.
“However, I must point out that I will still need to fuel the FTL. We are waiting for the plasma extractor to produce the required amount.” Al said.
Peggy came over wearing an evening dress. “Mark, Lalia, are you two having a good time?”
“You should address him as captain.” Al said to her in a whisper.
“It’s a party. Relax Al.”
“I don’t mind. It’s fine.” Mark said.
In order to avoid a rendering occurrence called “pop in” where an Avatar would just suddenly materialize in the room there was a 3D door projected on a wall. When an AI wanted to come or go from the party they used that door. Alexander came in wearing brown trousers, a leather jacket, and a brown fedora. He was the AI for … Mark forgot. Anyway, he came in full of confidence and went up to Wilma.
“I think you’ve been looking for this.” Alexander said to her.
“My ring. Where did you find it?” Wilma asked him as he showed her a 3D rendered ring.
“It was in the most peculiar place. There were these three crows.” Alexander said to begin a story.
…
Roma, Stormer, Fussy, and Jameson were floating in the conn in zero G.
“We can fabricate a replacement battery but it won’t have any power until we generate some.” Jameson reported.
“Get it going.” Roma ordered.
“Already started but it’s going to take longer because of the low power situation.”
“The good news is we’re in orbit around HC03. We’re orbiting at a distance of about five hundred billion kilometers. I have Lozentz on the radio now trying to reach the Anasazi. However, if he suffered the kind of damage we suffered, it might be too late.” Stormer said.
“Specialist Delcor is in serious condition. I have him stabilized but he needs to get to a hospital.” Fussy reported.
“Thank you.” Roma said. “Let’s keep someone on the radio. We need sensors to scan for him. We are in a bad situation but our mission has not changed. If the Anasazi is in this system we will find it and rescue Mark Adakai. Also, we have eight panels on the outside of the ship that need repair. Stormer, assign four men to do that. They can go out in shifts if need be. Until those panels are repaired we can’t bring HT2 back online.”
…
The Anasazi landed on a beautiful deserted island with a beautiful beach in the middle of a huge ocean far from any civilization. The island was a volcanic island with a lagoon around it. Around the lagoon was a circular chain of coral lakes. Lalia had on a swimsuit and they enjoyed the beach. Bluman took it upon himself to set up an open air grill and cook. Bluman could not say for sure why but he had cooking coded into his system. Kathy theorized that Bluman might have been a chef robot previously.
This was such a nice day. Mark felt very content. He had no right to feel so happy. Freedman was likely panicking. Mark knew that the plan to send an autonomous ship to rescue him would fail, if they would even send it. No, they likely had just had a funeral for him. Or maybe the election was so rancorous that people forgot about Mark all together.
Bluman brought out a speaker to play music while Mark and Lalia had their picnic on the sand. Then the two humans went swimming again. They swam in the ocean. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. It was a beautiful day. Mark and Lalia were at the beach and just took a moment to forget the troubles of hopping star to star.
Mark was stretched out on the towel on the sand and Lalia came out of the ocean to be next to him. Mark got his phone and showed it to her.
“Let me show you my house.” Mark touched a screen and the render came up.
“It is nice.” Lalia said as she struggled to see due to the glare of the sun.
“That it is. The actual floor plan wasn’t in the ship’s records so I worked with Al to create this model of it. When we reach Florida, you will live with me here.”
“Where will you park the Anasazi?”
Mark chuckled. “Uh, not here. The Anasazi is a government ship. Not exactly military but,” he shrugged; “it’s military.”
“You have to give it back.”
“I do. But that’s ok. We’re going to live right here and be happy. And let me show you this. This is the school where I teach. They might think I’m dead so I might need to work on getting my job back.”
“So we will both be teachers.” she said.
“You know, I still never figured that part out. Jer introduced you as a good teacher of children. What was that about?”
“A mother is a child’s first teacher.” Lalia said.
“Oh. I guess it’s obvious when you put it like that.”
“And I will be a good teacher.” Lalia said.
Mark put his arm around her. “I am so happy I asked you to dance with me. And we’re still dancing.”
“Tell me more about your home.” Lalia said.
“Florida. It’s a lot like Maica. There’s summer and winter. Ice at the poles. Vast oceans separating the continents. We look up and see the moon. My friend Clark always wanted to go to the moon. He loved the moon. But he didn’t make it. So I went to space for him.”
“Is he still on Florida?”
“Yeah. Still there. Not going anywhere. I shouldn’t say it like that though. Clark died when we were in high school.”
“I am sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. But look, when we get back; when we get to Florida I will keep you safe.”
“Is there danger?”
“There’s danger everywhere.”
…
“Initiating gravity protocol.” Karen said.
“SOS. Roanoke requesting assistance from any ship. SOS. We have power failure. SOS. Roanoke requesting assistance. Repeat, we have power failure.” Lozentz continued to say on the radio. “Anasazi, do you read us?”
The gravity wasn’t all at once. It ramped up slowly bit by bit until it was at the full nine point eight. Lozentz felt the shift from zero G to one G and it made him sick but nothing he hadn’t experienced before. Delcor needed gravity so Roma had ordered Karen to find a way to run the FTL at partial power to generate it.
Jameson was on comm from engineering. Fussy was on comm from medical. Roma and Stormer were in the conn.
“Karen, we need a report. What happened to the Roanoke? This was supposed to be a two month journey and we got to HC03 in days. Nearly ripped the ship apart in the process.”
“Captain Roma, I can not explain it. I will have to analyze the information.”
“First we need you to scan the ship for other damage we can’t find.” Stormer said.
“Understood.” Karen acknowledged.
“We also need a flight plan to get closer to the star.” Roma added.
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