Free The Return of the Manhattan by Lee Ecker Page A

that could work!”
    “And what would that be?” Roger asked courteously.
    “Well you could remind yourself to send it back two hours from now, and then all we have to do is look around and it should be here.”
    Roger laughed out loud, “By Golly, you’ve got a point. Let me think about that for a while, but it’s certainly worth a try!”

CHAPTER 14
    “They did it!” David opened his weekly executive council meeting with those emphatic words. “We got another message from the Pathfinder crew. They struck oil! Apparently it’s a huge oil field and they should have no trouble filling our tanks.” The Excalibur was still about one light year from O-2113, and slowing through Warp twenty. “I guess that means the discovery occurred at least a year ago so they will have plenty of time to pump out the oil we need. They say the planet is almost identical to Earth geologically and climate wise and has abundant resources with food sources readily available. I suppose by this time, they have already established some sort of farming.”
    “It will be good to eat normal food again!”
    The entire council was excited as David made the announcement throughout the entire ship. When he finished, he asked, “Roger, how are we doing on our trajectory?”
    “Not bad considering our ETA is a year away, but we need to make a correction or we will not be able to stop until we are about a half light year beyond the planet. I think we should do a wide swing around the planet as we are decelerating, and then we wouldn’t have to increase the G loads. We probably could increase the G loads slightly, but it’s not necessary. Maybe we weren’t able to pinpoint our positions as accurately as we thought. However considering the distance involved, that error is not large.”
    David turned to Dr. Baker, “How about it Warren, can we do that safely?”
    “I think we could. The acceleration deceleration forces haven’t affected anyone adversely and we are now used to the higher amounts. But if it’s not necessary, I would rather we didn’t.”
    “Okay, Roger, make the wide swing.”
     
    The remaining time fled by as the entire crew was busy cleaning up last minute details. Those who had opted for the deep sleep mode were now being slowly reawakened except for their prisoners who would remain catatonic until returning to Earth. The passengers who joined them at Juliet were digesting the latest information reported from the Pioneer crew and were planning their colony establishment. It seemed that the planet had been uninhabited from a human standpoint, but there were many different types of animal wildlife that were similar to species on Earth.
    Dr. Baker was quick to warn against possible diseases that could devastate their colony before it got started. He, assisted by his medical students, planned exhaustive tests to determine how healthy the planet would be. He would be bestowing advanced degrees upon many of his students, some of which were planning to remain on the planet.
    They were well below Warp one when the planet became visible as a small speck in the sky and two way communications were established. At first contact, the communications center patched David into the link with the Pathfinder leader. David opened the communications, “Pathfinder, this is the Excalibur. Greetings from Earth. We have been receiving your regular transmissions since, well it seems like forever. Over.” The distance was still considerable and each transmission and reply had a built in delay of several minutes.
    After the delay, the message came in loud and clear, “This is Mike Wells of the Pathfinder. It’s good to hear another voice from Earth. Welcome to the new world. We knew another ship was to follow, but we were at a loss as to how long it would take. We have an abundance of oil. Is the situation still desperate at home? Over.”
    “Situation still desperate. However, our ship is large enough to fulfill requirements for several years. We