Critical Dawn Read Free

a mountain,” Pippa said over her shoulder. “I need you to develop a presentation for an extended features set on the Nat-Geo product line by Wednesday.”
    “Gee, thanks, boss.”
    “Anytime, action man. Now get out of my office and go get your adrenaline rush.”
    “Take it easy,” Mike said, mumbling as he frantically searched the web for anything that could explain the bead.
    Charlie exited the building and headed for the elevator, all the while thinking about that little blue sphere. It must be site contamination, he thought. Had to be. Couldn’t be anything else.

Chapter Two
    Generation Ship 5A

    Ben Murray sat in the enclosed Operations Room wondering if he would be remembered by future generations. The lucky ones who would reach their destination—still nearly a hundred years away. His life would be spent rumbling through space.
    All eight measurements of visual status display fluctuated green between the bottom three bars. Everything at a safe level. Then again, it always was. He must have had the most boring job on the ship although he couldn’t show it today.
    Sitting next to him at the console was a new replacement. Jimmy was retiring, and it was Ben’s responsibility as the new senior team member to bring new operator Ethan Reeves up to speed.
    Ethan was clean-shaven with neatly-combed, mousy hair and wore a crisp, dark blue uniform with red piping along the arms and legs. Ben had shaved that morning, his first in a month. There was nothing he could do about his frayed jumpsuit. Best to try and keep up appearances, at least initially.
    “The four on the right are the critical measurements. You escalate immediately if one touches the red,” Ben said.
    “I do it by pressing here?” Ethan said, pointing to a square on the console screen.
    “Yep. One of the engineering team will fix it. The backup systems automatically kick in. If they don’t, you have to switch to manual override. You do that here.”
    Ben patted a group of four safety-locked switches.
    “How will I know if it’s worked?” Ethan said.
    “You’ll be sitting in the dark with somebody from master control shouting at you through the speaker if it doesn’t.”
    “Does it happen a lot?”
    “Do you remember any service outages?”
    Ethan looked to his left, frowned, and paused. “No. Anything else I need to know?”
    “Our job is to monitor and control the ship’s internal power source for stability. That’s about as technical as it gets.”
    Ben figured they didn’t fully automate the systems as it gave people on the vessel something to do. It also helped with compartmentalizing the crew.
    “Can we go through it again?” Ethan said.
    “One of us will sit with you for your first few shifts. You’ll be okay.”
    Ethan sighed as he gazed around at the sparse, metal-paneled walls.
    “Not what you were expecting?” Ben said.
    “Have you ever seen outside? I mean, space?”
    “Nope.”
    “My teacher told me that the fleet had been built in a hurry, functionality over comfort. I just thought … Once I was up here …”
    Ben shrugged. “Listen kid, it’s six hours a day in front of the display. The rest of the time, you can watch as many old movies and shows as you can handle. The food’s no different up here. We’re all in the same boat—”
    Since a flu virus spread early into the two-hundred-year voyage, all sections of the ship were isolated. He’d been in Two. A child section containing five orphans, where he was fed and educated by a single adult who avoided any kind of relationship with the children. He’d only ever met orphans and often wondered if they were being singled out for the Operations Compartment.
    “I get that. Survival of the species. We’ll be honored as the forefathers …” Ethan said.
    “My advice is to make the most of your time here. Get a bit of mental stimulation, study the old books; it’ll keep you sane. I’ve got two years left, and reading kept me going.”
    Six hundred and