Part 2 (1/2)

Max's voice came over an intercom. ”Hey folks, we're taking off in two minutes so you better strap yourself in 'til I have the motion stabilizers on.”

Abbey rushed over and strapped herself into one of the chairs. Caleb and Simon didn't follow.

”Hey, I bet that's a window,” Caleb said, pointing.

On the wall opposite the door into the computer room was a large, rounded rectangular outline, like a window on an airplane. Abbey watched Simon and Caleb walk over and look at it.

”What are you doing? What if that's a door to the outside?” Abbey asked.

Caleb scrunched up his face. ”A two-foot-high door, two feet off the ground?”

”Take off in one minute,” the computer said.

”It could be a door to another compartment. You two better get strapped in.”

”It's got to be a window,” said Simon, pointing to a control panel with two b.u.t.tons next to the outline. He pressed the top b.u.t.ton. The blind slid open, revealing a gla.s.sed-in window with a view of the causeway and the metallic building set into the hillside.

Caleb and Simon plunked themselves into two of the remaining seats just as the vessel detached from the causeway and climbed into the air. The takeoff was surprisingly smooth and fast. They stared out the window at the rapidly disappearing causeway. Once aloft, the vessel rolled sharply to the left. Simon's backpack, which he'd removed when they'd entered the room, flew against the wall with a thud. They now had a bird's-eye view of the city. The rail tracks extended out of the city in several directions with tiny monorail-type trains moving at a rapid pace. The river formed lazy S-curve loops as it wound through the city.

”It all looks familiar somehow,” Abbey murmured, more to herself than to her brothers. The vessel began moving in a smooth forward and upward direction. She started to relax slightly, when all of a sudden the vessel shot forward. She clutched the armrests as she was pressed back into her seat. She couldn't even turn her head to look at Simon and Caleb. She ran the numbers in her mind. Trained astronauts can tolerate up to nine g's. Regular people get sick at around three to four g's. Abbey prepared to throw up.

But almost as soon as the feeling started, it stopped. She no longer felt motion sick, or even like they were moving very quickly. Yet she could see the clouds were still hurtling past at the same pace. They broke through the cloud cover a moment later, and the rate at which the fluffy ma.s.s of white sank beneath them was disconcerting at best. Their acceleration was definitely still more than five g's and they were s.h.i.+fting direction every few seconds-yet she couldn't feel any motion at all. Roller coasters were engineered to maximize velocity, acceleration, and rate of change in acceleration, otherwise known as jerk, within a range that still allowed the human body to antic.i.p.ate the upcoming changes and brace accordingly. But her body lurched and cringed in preparation for jolts that never came. If the derivatives of displacement didn't apply in this world, what laws of physics did?

Max's now-familiar voice came over the intercom again. ”Okay, the motion stabilizers are on. You guys can go back to work.”

”That was totally sweet,” said Caleb, undoing his seatbelt and rus.h.i.+ng over to the window.

Simon unbelted himself and joined his brother.

When she could see that her brothers weren't careening into walls or floating in the air, Abbey followed suit. ”This is crazy,” she said, shaking her head.

They watched in silence as the clouds slipped farther away. They started to pa.s.s what looked like satellites, docking stations, and other vessels. Then the air started to get darker, and they could see the glimmer of stars, like they were on the edge of the atmosphere and s.p.a.ce was just above them.

”You know,” Simon said, ”I bet a computer like this would have a self-diagnostic system. At least...if I were to develop an advanced program, I would include one.” He turned to the computer wall and spoke. ”Computer, run self-diagnostic!”

Nothing occurred.

”Calling the computer 'Sarah' seemed to work last time,” Abbey ventured, even though she wasn't sure why she was even partic.i.p.ating in this crazy exploit.

”Okay, Sarah, run self-diagnostic,” Simon ordered once again. This time the computer hummed to life. Lights flashed.

”In what system?” the voice asked politely.

”Um...navigation,” Simon said uncertainly.

”Problem identified in line 3,845,934 of code,” the computer responded.

”Er, um. Sarah, can you show that line on screen?” Simon said. One of the large screens flicked on, and rows and rows of characters appeared on it.

Abbey gazed at the screen willing her brain to make sense of the symbols, letters and numbers, all in no apparent pattern. ”It all looks like Greek to me.”

”Actually,” Simon said, ”it looks like an advanced derivation of current a.s.sembly codes.”

”What's that?” Abbey asked.

”It's the language that the programmer language is compiled into after the programmers are finished with it, but before it's compiled into machine code,” Simon said. ”Um...Sarah, can you describe the problem exactly?”

”Calculations of x, y and z s.p.a.ce coordinates cannot be undertaken,” the voice answered.

”Values must have been produced at one time. How long has this problem been occurring?” Simon asked.

”Nine days, four hours, twenty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.”

”What happened at that point?” Simon asked.

”An upgrade was applied to the navigation system.”

”I wonder if this is what it's talking about.” Caleb's voice emerged from the other side of the room. He'd been rummaging through the storage bins. He walked across the room with a small blue and silver manual. Improve your s.p.a.ce coordinate calculations to an additional decimal place, it read in big bold letters. Smaller print below read: Calculate s.p.a.ce coordinates to the third decimal place to improve precision in landing and reduce time-consuming navigation into s.p.a.ce ports. On the bottom of the box, there was an emblem reading: S Systems.

Simon scanned the box. ”I wonder if it's some sort of legacy problem,” he said.

”A leg of what problem?” Abbey knew he had said 'legacy'. But she hated the superior tone he adopted when he engaged in computer talk. ”Would you care to explain that to us non-computer techies?” Abbey asked.

Simon did not look up from the manual. ”When an upgrade has been applied that's not backward compatible with the existing code.” He flipped open the book and started reading. ”The third in a series of upgrades improving s.p.a.ce-coordinate calculation precision decimal place by decimal place.” Simon paused. ”And the calculations cannot be completed...” he murmured almost to himself. He turned back to the computer. ”Sarah, did this problem occur with the previous upgrades?”

”No previous upgrades have been applied to the navigation system.”

”The previous upgrades must have made some changes to the code that were necessary for this upgrade to work,” Simon said. He no longer looked at Abbey when he spoke. He was talking to himself, lost in his programming world.

Abbey wandered back to the window.

Caleb, having long since given up on a.s.sisting Simon, was looking out the window. ”We seem to be descending,” he said.

Max's voice came over the intercom again, informing them that they had arrived in Newellay, they should strap in, and they would only be stopping for a few minutes.

Abbey and Caleb watched out the window from their seats. The descent was smooth and uneventful. From what Abbey could see of the city, it was very similar to the one they'd left, except larger-low buildings around high-rise hubs, with train tracks extending out in several directions. This city was situated on what appeared to be an ocean, with crystal blue water extending as far away as the eye could see. A causeway, much like the one in their previous location, came into sight, except this one simply hung in the air above the city attached to a tall, rectangular tower that connected the causeway to the ground. Rows of identical causeways with moored vessels lined up next to each other, each attached to its own tower. A large sign on the closest tower read Gate 3. There was an empty docking point below the s.h.i.+p with a stack of metallic containers next to it. Abbey strained to make out the lettering on the side of the containers as their vessel descended into its spot. She could make out the letters 'AL' on one.

Once they were docked, the metallic white hull of another large vessel parked nearby limited their view.

Simon flipped through the lines of code on the screen.

Abbey sifted through the manuals and boxes that Caleb had deserted in favor of the window.

”Newellay. Where do you suppose that is?” she asked her brother.

”I dunno. The signs I can see from here are in English though,” Caleb replied, craning his neck to see beyond the vessel next to them.