Lost Drifters

“Sir, what is the story behind the destination planet’s name? Mogo Ri Chu means ‘Mushroom Sunrise’ in Chinese. Are there lots of mushrooms on this planet?” Senior Engineer Chen asked Captain Bostaph.

Unbreakable was en route to the planet Mogo Ri Chu 2-0. Captain Gerald Bostaph had recently signed up for the Milky Way Delivery Service in an attempt to make some money to feed the crew and keep the ship in flying condition.

“I don’t know if there are actual mushrooms on this planet, Chen,” Captain said. “The legend says when the first colony ship arrived, and the settlers observed the first sunrise on the new planet, they witnessed purple clouds resembling oyster mushrooms in shape. Since most of the settlers were of Chinese origin, they named the planet Mogo Ri Chu – ‘Mushroom Sunrise’.”

“Why was it purple?”

“Hernandez, this nerdy question is for you,” Captain turned to Chief Scientist.

“Of course, Captain.” Maria Hernandez smiled. “There are some primitive photosynthetic bacteria on this planet, which is retinal-based rather than chlorophyll-based like we have on Earth. Retinal protein absorbs the green-yellow light spectrum, allowing red and green to pass, resulting in beautiful purple color. These bacteria are also airborne and provide the same purple color to Mogo Ri Chu’s clouds.”

“Thank you for the lecture, Chief Scientist. I am amazed as to how much useless information your brain contains.” Captain winked at Hernandez.

“With all due respect, Captain, I disagree!” Chief Scientist shook her head, setting free her beautiful long red hair. “I would say sometimes we find scientific facts quite useful in our adventures.”

“You are right, Maria. I was just teasing you,” Bostaph smiled.

“Wait…did you say bacteria? Did settlers bring it with them or was it native to the planet? Like…alien?!” First Mate Lukic whispered, his eyes open wide. “Does it mean we made alien contact? And I was not there?! You broke my heart, Maria!”

“They are native to the planet, Rade,” Hernandez patted First Mate on the shoulder. “But don’t despair, humans discovered many planets with primitive microbial life forms. Just no advanced ones. We will keep this honor for you.”

“I really hope this day will come soon, can’t wait any longer!” Lukic exclaimed. “Captain, what are we bringing to Mogo Ri Chu, again? Could these native bacteria be harmful to our cargo?”

“I don’t think so, Lukic,” Captain answered. “We are delivering a shipment of toys for kids. Cargo Bay One is completely loaded with all kinds of games, dolls, puzzles, gizmos, and I don’t know what else. Do you have kids, First Mate?”

“Aye, Captain! Nine, to be precise!” Lukic demonstrated nine fingers so everyone can be certain as to how prolific his family was.

“Wow, Rade, you keep surprising me!” Navigator Maynard said.

“And I think I know all the toys there are!” Lukic continued proudly. “I am literally a toy expert! For all ages. There are actually a few games I enjoy playing myself!”

“What are they, if you don’t mind sharing?” Captain asked.

“Sure! For example, the Humavoid Robot Doll – you cannot distinguish her from a real human, she possesses advanced AI, and you can configure her looks and all the physical attributes just to your liking. They can also be changed at any time if you don’t like the way she looks anymore. Amazing toy, highly recommended!”

“Rade, are you sure this is a toy for kids?” Maynard asked, squinting her eyes.

“Well, yes, I think so…then there is another one, you need to design and build a toy spaceship using different parts and components made out of different materials or 3D printed. Then you make sure your spaceship flies, and you launch it to collide with other spaceships to see who survives. Very entertaining!”

“I hope we won’t need to play this kind of game for real…” Captain mumbled.

“And, finally, the best of them all is called ‘Lost Drifters’. This is a 3D labyrinth projected into a special game pod with zero gravity. Participants are placed at random locations within the labyrinth. You need to find an exit while floating in space. Whoever bumps into each other or a labyrinth wall is eliminated. Walls are invisible and can only be sensed with portable pulsed neutron guns.”

“Sounds like fun!” Senior Engineer Chen said. “Would be great to play on the ship as a team-building activity.”

“I like the idea,” Captain said. “How did you say it is called, Lukic? ‘Drifting Losers’?”

“No, ‘Lost Drifters’.”

“OK, let me check the cargo list if we have this game as part of the shipment.” Captain looked into the document registry on his console. “You are lucky, guys! Here it is, let’s do this!”

In the next two days, they retrofitted the empty Cargo Bay Two into a game pod and started playing. Lukic was right – it was a lot of fun and a great pastime the whole crew could engage in. First Mate proved to be the true master of this game – his evasive skills and precise maneuvers in zero gravity took many by surprise and caused a lot of admiration and awe.

It took the crew most of the day to play through the first round. Finally, only Lukic and Doctor Kim remained, as First Mate was getting close to the labyrinth exit with Doctor Kim pursuing him. At this moment, Captain Bostaph entered the Cargo Bay and called for a halt. He’d been one of the first to be eliminated and had retreated grudgingly to his quarters earlier.

“What is it, Captain? We are almost done with the first round. This is amazing!” Chef Stroganov answered Captain’s command.

“I am afraid we have an emergency. Get back to your work areas, immediately!” Bostaph crossed his hands behind his back.

“Aye, sir, on the way!” First Mate exited the labyrinth and reached out to turn off the game pod. “Did you say emergency?”

“We are approaching Mogo Ri Chu and have just received urgent communication. Apparently, there is a large asteroid field surrounding the planet. We are unable to use Space Compressor to get any closer. Asteroids will make charting the path very dangerous if you remember our previous mishap getting stuck inside the planet. We need to use propulsion engines, moving very slowly, maneuvering gently between asteroids. A small fuel discharge should give us just enough momentum to advance without hitting these rocks floating in space.”

“Oh, I get it!” Lukic raised his hand. “Space Farting!”

“If you wish so, First Mate…” Bostaph said with a disgruntled grimace. “Navigator Maynard,” he turned to Leslie, “I hope you had enough rest recently. We all need to rely on your skill to steer the ship along a complex trajectory in the asteroid field to avoid a collision. Hernandez – your task will be to monitor data from every possible sensor we have, calculate position, momentum, and forces, and feed this information to Maynard. Any questions?”  

“Hey, this is very similar to the game we just played, only now we have to maneuver the ship!” Senior Engineer Chen exclaimed.

“You are right, Chen. We all just gained critical skills to get out of this trouble. I am a genius!” First Mate patted Senior Engineer on the shoulder.

“Well, not exactly, but close enough. Let’s make sure we do not turn ‘Unbreakable’ into a drifting loser,” Bostaph grumbled.

“Lost drifter, sir.”

“Whatever. Get to work!”

Three hours later, Unbreakable entered the asteroid field. The crew was ready for the challenge. Space Compressor got shut down a long time ago, propulsion engines were working in the manual mode, Navigator Maynard and Chief Scientist Hernandez at their respective posts.

“I wonder where these asteroids came from,” Captain said. “It is very unusual for the planet to be surrounded by so much space junk.”

“If I may, sir,” Hernandez answered. “I did some research on Mogo Ri Chu. The asteroid field contains remnants of the planet that got captured by the Mogo Ri Chu star system and shattered to pieces by a collision with much heavier gas giant Mogo Ri Chu 4-0. Now, these pieces are drifting in space close to Mogo Ri Chu 2-0 orbit.”

“Lost drifters…” Lukic whispered.

 “Thank you, Chief Scientist,” Captain said. “Are you using all the available sensors? I want to make sure we have complete information about our surroundings and don’t miss anything. We had enough misadventures in the past.”

“Yes, sir, I am. We have light, sonic, neutron, beta particles, and ion beam data.”

“Excellent. Anything unusual?”

“Nothing so far. We are moving slow enough to acquire lots of data and avoid collisions. The asteroids are interesting, though – some of them are just ice, some volcanic, but others contain many heavy metals and rare minerals.”

“Wait, did you say heavy metals? What kind of metals?” Captain asked, raising his finger.

“I can see lots of copper, iron, and nickel, but also ruthenium, osmium, iridium, platinum, and geimuim, which is much rarer and a lot more precious.”

“Rare and precious?” Bostaph whistled to himself, closing his eyes. “Rare and precious…rare and precious…” He raised his eyebrows and asked: “Hernandez, do you think we could salvage some of these rare and precious metals? This is a unique opportunity for us! This stuff costs a fortune at the Exchanges of Zakh Zeel! We could finally pay for all the ship repairs, stock some supplies to cook ourselves decent food, and get out of this stupid delivery business!”

“Look, people, I know what is going on!” Lukic exclaimed, smiling and raising his hand. “We are in the Enchanted Forest!”

“What?” Captain shook his head. “What are you talking about, Lukic?”

“You know, Enchanted Forest! Like in a fairytale. There is magic everywhere and we need to find the path across this miraculous rock garden in search of mysterious gems and spellbinding minerals…Maybe, just maybe…we also have a chance to encounter some alien wizards in this strange enchanted place.”

“First Mate, have you checked with Doctor Kim recently? Sounds like you are out of your mind. Do you have a fever, maybe?” Bostaph looked at his First Mate with suspicion.

“No, Captain, I am perfectly fine! This is just so amazing!”

“Okay, if you say so. Hernandez – is there any way for us to capture these riches?”

“I don’t know. Captain. We can identify asteroids with high content of heavy metals, but I have no idea how we are going to mine, process, and separate what we need from the rest of the asteroid material.”

“Hey, I know what to do!” Lukic got excited again. “I realized there will be another opportunity to demonstrate my sledgehammer skills, and here it is!” He looked around the Bridge, smiling. “Let me go out there and break these rocks into small pieces. Then I will be able to collect fragments with precious stuff in them.”

“First Mate, I suspect we need a lot more fragments than you might be able to collect manually,” Captain shook his head. “Even if the whole crew gets out there with sledgehammers, the effect will be minuscule. No, we need a different solution.”

“Wait…Captain, remember when we were stuck inside the planet, Zuma wanted to shoot missiles and blast everything to pieces?” Maynard said.

“Sure, where are you going with that?”

“Well, it was a dangerous thing to do when stuck inside the planet, but this time it is different. I believe if we select asteroids with high heavy metal content and shatter them into dust with our missiles, we will have a lot more volume of expensive and rare material to work with.”

“Why is this situation different, Maynard?” Captain asked. “Why wouldn’t this be a dangerous thing to do?”

“Because we are in the open space, asteroids are scattered, and we’d be able to maneuver to avoid damage.”

“Alright, let’s assume we can do that. But how the hell would we collect this rare and precious dust we create?”

“I think I can help, Captain,” Hernandez raised her hand. “We could decompress empty Cargo Bay Two, where the game pod used to be, and then use Magnetic Pump to suck the dust in. Moreover, we can exploit density contrast to capture only heavy mineral fragments, filtering more common, light material out. I will re-purpose our densimeters to do that.”

“Brilliant!” Captain pumped his fist in the air. “Sounds like we have a shot at it – pun intended!” He looked at the crew. “Zuma, prepare the Battery Unit to fire. Maynard, get ready to maneuver even slower than we are drifting now. Hernandez, Chen – get the density measurement equipment working. We are going to get rich, mates!”

Three hours later, the space mining operation was ready to begin. At Bostaph’s command, Battery Unit started firing missiles at the asteroids with high heavy metal content Hernandez was picking for them. Navigator Maynard steered the ship very slowly, avoiding intact asteroids and positioning Unbreakable in proximity with the newly created precious dust. Senior Engineer Chen operated a Magnetic Pump as well as an array of densimeters, filtering out space junk and collecting useful substances in Cargo Bay Two.         

Everything went according to plan. When the ship finally left the asteroid field, Cargo Bay was almost completely filled with captured material.

“Beautiful, I am loving it!” Captain Bostaph rubbed his hands. “Chen, do you know how much good stuff did we capture exactly?”

“Hard to say, sir, but based on the density readings, I would estimate heavy metal content to be at least eighty percent of the dust in the Cargo Bay.”

“Wow, this is awesome, an astounding success! Thank you all for this magnificent effort! I will ask Chef Stroganov to prepare a feast for the whole crew once we make a ton of money out of this and become rich!”

“But sir, if I may…” First Mate Lukic interrupted Captain’s speech.

“What is it, Lukic?”

“This means twenty percent of what we‘ve got is junk. We need to sieve everything carefully to separate expensive material from rubbish.”

“Yes, we do – what do you suggest?”

“Hernandez has a bunch of screens and meshes in her laboratory. I can go to Cargo Bay and start a manual sieving operation. I did some quick calculations – if I start right away, it would take me about fifty years to go through all the stuff we’ve got.”

“Lukic, appreciate your enthusiasm, but this is not something we need to do right away,” Captain said firmly.

“I know what we need to do right away,” Doctor Kim smiled.

“What, doctor? Is someone sick? Is it contagious?” Lukic asked, standing up, ready to run.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Doctor Kim smiled again, raising her hands in front of her to calm Lukic down. “However, you and I have some unfinished business, First Mate.”

“But…I took all my pills as you prescribed, Doctor!”

“All of them? Including weight loss medication and concentration improvement drugs?”

“Well, I am taking weight loss pills quite regularly. I think I lost about a couple hundred grams in the past two weeks…Concentration improvement drugs are difficult though, I keep forgetting about them…”

“This is precisely why you need them, Rade…but this is not what I am talking about! Before we entered the asteroid field, we were playing a wonderful game, remember?”

“Oh, yes, ‘Lost Drifters’! Of course! You and I were the only two people still left in the game!”

“And now, since we are not lost and not drifting through space junk anymore, we could finish the game.”

“But Cargo Bay Two is full of rock fragments,” Captain frowned. “Where are we going to set up the game pod?”

“I have an idea, Captain,” Doctor Kim said. “Currently, the crew enjoys a clean bill of health, nobody is sick, and the Infirmary is empty. We could move the game pod there.”

“Ingenious!” First Mate exclaimed. “Let’s do that immediately! I want to finish and enjoy the well-deserved victory!”

“Not so fast, Rade! I think I was getting better at this game with every minute, I should be able to beat you,” Doctor Kim said, shaking her head. 

“We shall see! I am ready! I will even postpone the start of my manual sieving operation until tomorrow!” Lukic announced, as everybody laughed and went to the Infirmary to continue playing ‘Lost Drifters’.