Stranded in Nichaeljen (6.2)

Laurie, after looking over Trib's information, decided to make the station its own teleporter machine that would enable them to get to Lask, since even the Laskonian ships couldn't land in the Nichaeljen blizzard. Laurie had been dreaming of making some sort of teleporter even before she came to Exandra. Now with the help of Trib's information, she was sure she could. Chris found Laurie plundering through the recycling room trying to find parts and asked if he could join her.

Dr. Kingston couldn't organize everyone's personal medical records as she wanted, especially without the aid of the colony's main computers. Non-essential systems were still offline. She did, however, begin the task of building a database on her MTD for family correlations and baseline information instead.

"If I click this, I can transfer all of this information to the Central Station's computer in the hospital area on floor 2… once I finish building it," she mumbled to herself.

"I'll help you with that dear," Eli said, poking his head through the doorway. "We just finished bringing the computers in the main control center online."

"Oh good! It will be a lot easier to work on this on the hospital area's computer. Working on this tiny screen has been tedious; in fact, I am glad this week is about over," Dr. Kingston said.

"One down, 23 more to go! This one week felt like it lasted a year; I guess we will get used to it," he answered with a chuckle.

*****

"I've almost got it, it's just missing something," Laurie stated, a little frustrated. "I am only able to transport things from one side of the platform to the other."

"Try this." Chris answered, as he typed a few commands into the control panel.

"Hey, I should have thought of that! Good job!" Laurie exclaimed, watching over Chris' shoulder as he completed his inputs into the computer.

Chris grinned back at her.

"Let's see if this thing works!" he said, tapping the last button.

The two decided to use a box as their first test. Inside, they wrote a note in Laskonian that said:

Hello, this is from Central Station on planet Exandra. We are trying out an experiment. Please send it back so we know if it worked.

On Lask, the airport received the box through its own teleporter. Alarmed, the officers delivered the box, still unopened, to Admiral Lenoir. Throwing all caution aside, the Admiral opened it and found the note.

"It is from our friends on Exandra," he said with a chuckle, "Call Trib."

"You called me, sir?" Trib asked, entering the room a few minutes later, accompanied by Captain Mitchell.

"Our friends have made a teleporter," the admiral said.

"Amazing, how did they do it?" Captain Mitchell asked.

"I have no idea, but I know how we can find out," Trib answered with a mischievous smile.

*****

Laurie and Chris waited anxiously for the reappearance of their box, when it did reappear they found a new note inside along with a small device.

Leave the device in the box, it is collecting data…How many people can your platform hold? ~ Trib

Sparing an excited glance back at Chris, Laurie double checked her calculations and sent her reply back in the box. They sat waiting anxiously for their box to reappear with perhaps another question when suddenly Trib and Captain Mitchell came through the teleporter!

"Yes! It works!" Chris exclaimed.

"You two made this?" Trib asked.

"Yes," Laurie replied.

"With a little help from the information you gave us." Chris added.

Captain Mitchell looked around at all the remnants of their previous attempts strewn around the room.

"We made a few modifications," Laurie pointed out to Captain Mitchel who had noticed their stack of blueprints on a nearby table, "We can send or receive anything over longer distances, even without a teleporter on the receiving end. We could have sent our box back to Earth, even though it has no teleporter, but Lask was closer."

"It may still be too dangerous to send a human back to Earth, the distance may still be too great to send live matter." Trib commented while inspecting the calculations scribbled, in Laurie's handwriting, on large boards around the room.

"It is still amazing that you achieved all this on your own!" Captain Mitchell exclaimed.

"Have you shown anyone else?" Trib inquired.

"No. Let's go get them now!" exclaimed Laurie, leading the chase out of the room.

Dr. Kingston and her husband had just finished programming the computer and downloading the health record disk that she had made when Trib came running in, grinning.

"How in the universe did you ever get here?" Eli Kingston asked.

"Come see!" Trib said.

"I'll go get the others," Captain Mitchell said, appearing in the doorway.

Dr. Kingston and Eli stood, mystified, putting down their work to follow Trib. When everyone had arrived at Laurie and Chris' teleporter lab they found piles of clutter and an odd looking contraption with a platform. Laurie and Chris took turns blurting out the progress on their project and the modifications they made to the Laskonian design.

"Now you can come to Lask any time," Trib smiled. "My friend Granel has also solved the problem you have with our atmosphere. He has created a small rebreather device which will allow you freedom on our planet without your protective suite.

Trib looked glanced out the third story window and noticed that the snow was melting.

That is strange, He thought to himself. It shouldn't be starting to melt already; something is very wrong with this storm. We need to investigate this further.

For the next several days, the colonists on both planets tested the new equipment, teleporting back and forth between Lask and Exandra's Central Station, as well as learning to use the new rebreather device. Everyone was pleased that they did not have to wear the life support suits.

A few days later, while taking a break at the controls to the teleportation pad, Laurie absent mindedly gazed out the window to the landscape beyond. Something was different.

"The snow is gone!" She shouted to an empty room.

She jumped out of the chair at the controls station darted towards the hall, excited to share the news. Trib, who was entering the room at the same time, stepped aside before watching her run down the hall. Confused, he too ventured over to the window to look out. The snow had completely melted away.

Too early, he thought to himself. The quindecennial Nichaeljen normally lasts six months.

Concerned, he decided to send a message to Lask to see if there was any new news on the possible causes of Exandra's weather anomalies.

"The snow has finally melted! Everyone, come look!" Laurie blurted as she ran through the halls.

A shout of praise filled the station. Trib used the teleporter and traveled back to Lask to tell the rest of the Exandrian colony citizens the good news. They were all excited to finally get a chance to explore the area outside of the Central Station and move into their new homes.

When the excitement died down, Trib requested a private meeting in the Central Station and asked that Captain Mitchell, Eli and Dr. Smith.

"I have some bad news," Trib stated.

The men glanced at each other, sharing a look of disbelief.

"The storm you just had only covered the area occupied by your colony. Lask's spies say that our enemies, the Platonians, have a technology that could have generated this storm," Trib continued, "I think the leader of the Platonians, Escrib, is planning something. He knows you are here. Perhaps he has assumed that you may try to help us the next time he sends his men to attack us on Lask. Our Laskonian spies have informed us that the Platonians have set up a base somewhere here on Exandra. He may attack, and I do not know when."

"Agreed, the three of us will keep an eye out for anything strange." Captain Mitchell offered.

"I agree," Dr. Smith stated. "I'd suggest sending out scouts, or telling the colonists to help us be on the lookout but until we have more information it seems unwise to share this news with the rest of the colony- we'd only introduce fear and uncertainty."

"If anything happens, we'll all be happy to help you and your kind," Captain Mitchell assured Trib.

"Yes, after all your people have done for us, I am sure our people would be glad to help in any way we can." Eli added.

*****

After the colonists had finally moved back into their homes, the Star Traveler crew decided that their original mission could wait no longer. It was time for them to head back out in search for the missing alien cylinder that was supposed to be somewhere on Exandra.