It only took a couple of weeks till it all started to become
nothing more than routine for Hans. Morning paper work and afternoon charters,
lessons and certification testing – it didn’t take long for the days to start
to blend together. Duke had been true to his word and hadn’t been an issue for
him, but it was obvious that he still hadn’t earned his respect either. Therefore,
it came as a surprise when Marietta knocked gently on his door one morning to
tell him that Duke had asked for him to come to the shop to take a look at something.
Hans dropped everything and went straight to the shop. He
was pretty sure that it had to be important if Duke was asking for him
specifically. He arrived in the shop to find Duke and Jessup, one of the
pilots, staring at a diagnostic display for one the larger commercial transport
planes. Hans said nothing, but just walked up behind them to see what they were
looking at. It didn’t take long for him to see what the issue was.
“Well now that’s interesting.” Hans wasn’t aware he had
spoken out loud till Jessup jumped at the sound of his voice. Duke just grunted
and turned to face him with a frown.
“Interesting isn’t my choice of words for this. Seen
anything like it in all your years of experience?”
Hans ignored the sarcasm in the statement and stepped closer
to the display so that he could manipulate it and get a better look at a few
details. “I’ve seen something similar once, but not quite to this extent. Give
me a second here.”
Duke and Jessup both stepped back as Hans worked with the
display, bringing up a few different reports and asking the computer to do a
few more scans for him. He kept at it till he was sure that he was seeing what
he thought he was seeing. He tried his best to suppress the excitement that he
felt rising inside as each new report confirmed what he had been thinking
earlier.
“Where were you flying when the error first popped up?” Hans
said as he turned to face Jessup, ignoring Duke for the moment.
“I was taking a short cut over the Mantou Islands. I know
it’s not the usual route, but I was a little lower on fuel than I had expected.
Client asked for a small extra side trip and I didn’t really think it would be
an issue if I just took the short way back. I know it’s not an approved flight
path, but…” Jessup let his voice dwindle down and looked away.
“I’m not going to fire you. We’ve all done something like
that at one time or another, just don’t let me hear about something like that
again. So did the issue present before, during or just after the islands?”
“Almost as soon as I was over the landmass, maybe a bit
before. Everything just started going wonky.” Jessup didn’t bother to keep the
relief out of his voice. He knew he had just dodged a bullet and he was more
than eager to fill in any details now that he knew he wasn’t going to get
fired.
“Okay, you do seem to know what’s going on here so do you
mind sharing already?” Duke interrupted before Jessup could say anything else.
It was obvious to Hans that he was annoyed. He wasn’t enjoying being left out
of the loop on things.
“Thank you Jessup, that’s good. Go talk to Callie about
getting a new craft for the next few days. It might take a bit before this one
will be back in the hangar for regular use.” Hans deliberately ignored Duke
knowing that it would anger him even more to wait. Once Jessup was gone, Hans
turned his attention to Duke. “It’s an
error caused by a very specific type of magno-electric field. It’s very rare
and I’ve only ever seen it once before when I was in the Armed Forces.”
“So this is a military thing then?” Duke stepped back closer
to the display to get a closer look at some of the diagnostic tests that Hans
had requested of the computer.
“No, not exactly. That
just happens to be the only time I’ve ever encountered anything like this
before. It was a training flight on a remote planet that was still in its
natural state. It was considered unsuitable for terraforming. We used it for
target practice with new weaponry.” Hans tapped one of the scans that he had requested,
bringing it to Duke’s attention. “This one is the big tip off here.”
“So what caused this magno-electric pulse and should we be
reporting it to the authorities?” Duke stepped back from the display,
scratching his chin.
“No clue, it was a singular occasion back then and I
wouldn’t doubt that it would be so now. However, I would think that the
authorities already know about it since they don’t want any travel over those
islands already with the exception of emergencies. Just make sure the pilots
are all aware and respecting this restriction.”
“Fair enough.” Duke smirked, “Looks like you’re proving
yourself around here. System wipe ought to take care of the errors and I’ll run
some more diagnostics and give her the once over myself.”
“Sounds good,” Hans gave the time a quick glance. “I have a
lesson to do in an hour until then, if you need me, I’ll be in my office.
Thanks for calling me over for this Duke.”
As soon as Hans was back in his office he pulled up the
initial planet survey for the Mantou Island chain. He glanced at the clock,
wanting to make sure that he had enough time to do what he needed to do. He
read over the initial survey findings. Unique metal compounds and an extensive
cavern system had been noted, but odd magno-electric readings.
Hans made a few notes about the island chains and glanced
back at the time. He would have to put further research on hold, but it was
looking promising. Very promising.
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