Capítulo 25: Sorry For Speeding Boss

A couple of hours later tensions and anticipation rose as they neared the time limit Stephan had set on the outbound trip. Rachel and Holly repeatedly checked the engine's speed and would announce any slight increase in hopes that Stephan would extend their mission.

Stephan however grew more irritated with each fresh announcement. When his patience ran out he retorted at the latest report, "Unless we've miraculously gotten closer to Pluto than it's moon we're still turning around."

Dawn and Jessica then exchanged looks of mutual surprise as they could feel the surge in anticipation and yearning coming from Rachel and Holly as their desire grew. Then, when Jessica took a closer look outside the transparent wall, She noticed their visual speed seemed to have increased while the reading of the instruments still showed the same speed. Glancing outside and back at the readings again, she then caught Dawn's eye and gestured outside and then at the control panel while sending the thought asking her if she had also noticed the difference.

Dawn checked for herself and then sent the thought back, >I think the duo's desire to see Pluto so bad that they are inadvertently using their bonded mover ability to get us there.<

Pleasantly surprised Jessica sent back with a quiet laugh, >Should we tell Step or let him see it come flying up in front of him?<

Sharing her humor as well, Dawn replied, >This should be fun but let's keep an eye on the engine because I think they're drawing the energy they need from the engine and we don't want them to draw too much and end up short circuiting it or something.<

Jessica responded, >I can feel a portion of the energy it's putting off flowing towards them too. I don't think they have been aware of it when they have used the ability before so we do need to keep a check on them to make sure it doesn't get out of control.<

To distract Stephan Dawn then asked him, "Instead of turning around could we float for a little bit and get a better look at the Alpha Centauri system? I would love to be able to see if we could get a better look being so much closer than the telescopes are back home."

Stephan growled then lectured, "We're not some amazing distance closer. What you're asking is like you think standing at the top of a skyscraper gives you a better view of the moon. Yes we are closer than any telescope has been in many years, but in actual distance we're basically only a couple steps closer."

He then took a deep breath and conceded, "But we'll be floating for close to an hour so you can go ahead and see what you can see while we're checking over the systems before we turn around and head back."

Dawn thanked him, "Wonderful! I've been curious about some of the planets we've found around these stars since you told me about this engine test trip and I was researching and looking in to this system that is so close but we treat it like it's soooo far away."

He sighed and replied, "That's because it really is so far away. Compared to the other stars we can see it's right in our backyard. But it's still the distance it takes light four years to get to us away. And not to mention how long it would take us to get there at our current speeds, even if we could go as fast as light we still would need enough food to last us 8 years or more."

Jessica then interjected, "What if we do by chance make it to Pluto before you shut the engine down? What would you do then?"

He sighed in a frustrated manner and said, "When we do our next test I'll plan for a stop at Pluto . And we can take detailed measurements, radar, close up pictures, and maybe even some chemistry analysis and other readings that the scientists interested in the physical attributes of it would like to see. As far as today though, we would would only be able to take pictures, radar, and basically just visual stuff because we're not set up with anything that isn't part of our navigation equipment."

Jessica then grinned and teased him by saying, "Why wouldn't you just use your builder ability to make the equipment for it then? Or even build like one of those rovers they put on Mars or something?"

He moaned and answered, "Pluto is basically a big ice cube so we wouldn't really be able to land a rover on the surface without the rocket melting and freezing it in place when it landed and shut off. Besides, it would take me at least a day or two to make it with my ability without crashing out from lack of energy."

Dawn offered, "You forget about the rest of the team's abilities. You wouldn't need the rocket part because me or Jessica could just jump it to the surface. Of course you might want to make it look like there was a rocket in there so we can keep quiet about our abilities, but you wouldn't have to worry about putting the parts needed in there until we were on the way home."

Stephan groaned and asked rhetorically, "Why did I ever think of taking all of these girls with me? I'm going to make history as the first captain in space to fall victim to a mutiny."

They all laughed and Dawn then announced, "OK ladies, lets take your foot off the gas and hit the brakes."

Confused, Holly asked, "We turning around already?"

Jessica informed them, "No. We're not turning around yet. But we do need you two to stop using your mover ability to push us further down the road and instead bring us to a stop."

Surprised, Rachel asked, "But how were we pushing us? Our speed still shows the same thing it did a couple hours ago."

Dawn grinned and answered, "That's because your boss was measuring your speed based on how fast the particles were exiting the engine because he thought that was going to be the only source of speed so was the best way to measure speed."

Stephen then bitterly responded, "It doesn't matter. It's not like our abilities are so powerful that we're going to make it all the way to Pluto and run into it."

Jessica laughed then pointed out, "Uh, bro, you might want to look outside."

As Stephan sat there sputtering over the view of Pluto, Dawn reminded Rachel and Holly, "Ladies. Use your abilities now to bring us to a stop. We don't want to slam into it or one of it's moons. Or especially anything equally dangerous."

Stephan finally managed, "H-h-h-how?"

Jessica giggled and answered, "When you told them we weren't going to get nearly far enough it gave them the challenge to get as far as we could. And for them Pluto became the desired finish line of the race and they started moving us there with their abilities."

"But how were they so strong at it and didn't pass out from the drain?" Stephan asked.

Dawn answered, "Individually it is a minor talent they both have. But with them being bonded, when they both use it together it grows stronger than one person alone could be. And they didn't know it, but they were borrowing the energy they needed from the engine."

He groaned and grumbled, "Well you ladies have fun taking pictures and all while I check on the engine to make sure that HR didn't mess the engine up and leave us stranded."

Dawn chuckled, "Have fun. But I can already tell you that they didn't use even half the amount of the energy that Greg's field device was using earlier."

Stephan started to retort an answer, paused, then replied, "I'm not even gonna ask how you know that but even if you're right I still want to make sure the engine is still OK"

He then proceeded to run diagnostics on the engine and double check the readings while the girls stayed enraptured with the views they were able to get of the planet. After completing his tests he then reluctantly assisted the girls in getting as many good views and readings of the planet as they could.

When they were satisfied with what they could gather, Stephan then informed them, "Alright ladies. Now that we are happy with what sightseeing we could do today we need to go ahead and head home because, even though H&R have shown how fast they could get us home, I still wouldn't want to take the chance of the authorities snatching Elliot here and taking him completely apart or then grabbing us and taking us off for whatever testing strikes their fancy trying to figure out how we got back so so fast. So let's just rely on the mechanics to get us home so we only have to worry about them wanting to do testing on the hardware instead of on the body-wear."

Jessica complained, "But I don't want to have to wait another day just to sleep in a real bed. Can't we just cheat a little to get us home a little faster or something?"

Holly volunteered, "Actually we could use a cheat that has been used before by using Pluto as a slingshot to give us a little extra speed on the way back."

Stephan protested, "But how could we do that with such a weak source of gravity? If we flew by even a fraction too fast it would just sling us off on some random trajectory."

Holly replied, "We could do it by going around at a slow speed and just making sure that we kicked up the speed at the right time to keep the proper heading."

After a short consideration Stephan granted, "Alright. Your way sounds good. You two run all the numbers and come up with the proper timing before we set sail again though."

Holly mockingly saluted and replied with a gruff voice, "Aye Cap'n!"

REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES
Shannon_DeNure

Here is today's chapter. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish the next one and get it out tomorrow but I don't know how hard me being on 3rd shift for the next 4 weeks will make it to even keep close to a chapter a day. So please bear with me.

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