Free Star Trek: The Rings of Time by Greg Cox Page B

before Apollo 11 had finally touched down on the moon. Space was no place to fly by the seat of your pants—except when something truly unpredictable happened.
    “Screw the mission plan.” He switched off the automatic pilot. “We’re not robots, following a programmed script. What’s the point of sending actual flesh-and-blood humans into space if we can’t react to unexpected circumstances and take advantage of amazing new opportunities?”
    “Woo-hoo!” Zoe cheered him on. “You tell ’em, Skipper.”
    “Hush!” Fontana said. “The grown-ups are talking.” She gave him a worried look. “I don’t know, Shaun. Maybe we should run this by Mission Control first.”
    “There’s no time for that,” Shaun said. Radio waves traveled at the speed of light through the vacuum of space, but there was still more than an hour’s time lag when it came to communicating with Earth, and that wasn’t even figuring in the bureaucracy factor. “That comet—or whatever it is—is going somewhere. I don’t want it to get away while they’re holding conferences back home.” He looked her in the eyes, struck as always by their brilliant green depths. “I don’t know about you, Alice, but I want to know what that so-called comet is.”
    “You think I don’t?” She searched his face. “You really think this might be a UFO, Shaun?”
    “To be honest, I don’t know what to think.” He toyed with the dog tags around his neck. “Like the doc said, we’re in unknown territory here.”
    “Well, that’s the job description, isn’t it?” Fontana sighed and settled back into her seat. He recognized the determined set of her jaw. “All right. Let’s go find out what’s driving that puppy.”
    Shaun turned toward O’Herlihy. This decision could have an enormous, and possibly catastrophic, effect on their careers. They could even be risking their lives. He needed to make sure his whole crew was okay with it. “Marcus?”
    “You’re in charge of this mission, Colonel. It’s your call.” The scientist’s gaze remained glued to his monitors. “But personally, I would never forgive myself if we didn’t at least try to solve this mystery.”
    Shaun felt the same way. “Okay, it’s decided, then.” He had never been more proud of his crew. “Keep the LIDAR locked on that comet. Track its every move.”
    “I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.”
    Zoe waved her hand in the air. “Hey, don’t I get a vote?”
    “No,” Fontana said in no uncertain terms.
    “Fair enough,” Zoe said with a shrug. “Although, just for the record, I think you folks are acting like real starship heroes.”
    Fontana rolled her eyes. “Why don’t I find that reassuring?”
    It took several minutes to calculate an intercept course based on the comet’s current trajectory. They would have to leave Sacagawea behind. The probe’s thrusters had been intended for only minor course corrections; they lacked the power for this sort of chase. Shaun would have to be careful not to expend too much of the Lewis & Clark ’s own engine power on this unplanned expedition. Mission Control would have a cow when they found out about it.
    It will be worth it, Shaun thought, if we can make contact with a genuine UFO.
    “Everybody strap yourself in,” he advised the crew and the stowaway. Zoe took a seat at the computer station next to O’Herlihy. She tapped out a fewlast notes on her tablet before stowing it away for safekeeping. “We’re hitting the gas.”
    “Tally-ho,” Fontana said drily.
    Shaun fired up the thrusters and initiated a controlled burn to accelerate the ship in the direction of the probe. The nose of the command module tilted as he altered the angle of their orbit to bring them into the same plane as their quarry. The Lewis & Clark climbed toward Saturn’s north pole. The planet’s axial tilt worked in their favor, as did the fact that Saturn was somewhat squashed in shape, being wider around the middle than from