Jordan leaned back and started rubbing his chin, “Yes . . . seasonal affective disorder, circadian rhythm disruption, depression; we were on the Gregory Falls, and I remember that we had to make an effort to adjust to the ship’s rhythm. Because of that, we have had no problem here on the Weasel.”
He looked back at Wills, “I have not been outside since we went into isolator drive; is it really that bad?”
“Doctor, have you ever been at the bottom of a deep mine or cave and turned the lights out?”
Jordan’s eyes narrowed, “Yes, twice; it is that bad?”
“Identical, except that it’s planet-wide.”
Jordan started rubbing his chin again, “Two things spring to mind, light therapy, and routine. Of the two, strict adherence to a daily routine of as great an involvement as possible in order to keep the mind occupied should be our best tool in this situation. A technical enhancement to that would be the daily use of light therapy. Of course, the main beneficiaries of that would be the people that spend a great deal of time outside of this ship. I will have to consult with Doctor Banko and get an assessment of Forester optic response, but I doubt there will be a problem there. Would it be possible to build lighting devices for the Foresters with specific spectral output?”
Wills held up his hand and stood up, “Don’t ask me; talk to Captain Helt in Engineering. Doctor, you, and your wife are now in charge of keeping us all sane. Do what you have to and good luck.”
##
Wills stepped out of the elevator on the dimmed crew deck at the same time as Helt was leaving his quarters, “Ellias, perfect timing. Before we go to the meeting, there is something I need.”
“What’s that, Admiral?”
Wills got a small smile on his face and pointed at Helt’s collar, “Do you have an extra bar?”
The questioning look on Helt’s face changed to a grin, and he reopened his door, “As a matter of fact, I do.”
#
Wills and Helt entered the crowded dining hall and worked their way to their seats at the front table. The seating arrangement had been changed to surround the holographic projector stage that now occupied the center of the room. As with other meetings of general interest, the rest of the crew, and a lot of Foresters that remained on the Weasel, watched the meeting in other dining halls or duty stations. All of the floaters now sat in the centers of towns with screens pulled from the Weasel set up to show this meeting to as many Foresters as they could reach. CeCe acknowledged the Admiral’s presence and moved to the center of the room.
The background noise quieted and CeCe started to speak, “Five days ago-”
“Excuse me!”
A startled CeCe turned to face Wills, who has rounding the side of the table to approach her, “Sir?”
“There is one piece of business that needs to be taken care of before we go any further. Stand at attention Commander.”
CeCe came to a really confused attention, “Sir?”
Wills reached a couple of fingers behind the left collar of her uniform and pressed a fourth small silver bar in place next to the three that were already there.
“Cicely Copeland, five days ago you became the commanding officer of the biggest ship in human history; you should have the rank to go with it. So, effective from the moment you activated the isolator drive on the Weasel-Forest, you are promoted to the rank of Captain.”
Wills stepped back and saluted.
CeCe managed to return the salute as the applause from the crew members in the dining hall started. What had happened had to be explained to a small degree to watching Foresters, but they, largely, understood it.
CeCe lifted her left hand to her collar and felt the four bars while Wills smiled and shook her hand, “Captain, I believe you have a report to give, so stop fooling around.”
CeCe bowed her head at the applause and reorganized her scattered thoughts, “Five days ago, while attempting to lift the Weasel off the surface of Forest, an unforeseen event destroyed the lift ring. Because of the lack of time caused by an approaching radiation wave, I proposed and initiated an act of near suicidal desperation.
“When humanity first developed the drive that we now use to travel across the great distances between the stars, its first test took place on the surface of our home planet. That test caused great destruction and many deaths. Since then, we have never activated that drive system near a planet. After the disaster of that first test, many investigations and much research tried to determine what happened. In the end, we could never say exactly what did happen.
“Five days ago, I did what they did on that first test; I activated an isolator field generator on the surface of a planet in a desperate gamble that our greater power, control, and generally better systems would . . . .”
CeCe’s eyes wandered down to some remote point below the deck, and she tried to steady her hands by wringing them together, “well . . . I guess it’s more accurate to say that I believed I was making a choice between a hideous, slow death from radiation poisoning and a quick, painless end.”
She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and lifted her eyes back to the people around her, “Progress in the field of isolator drive technology has been an interest of mine for all of my adult life. I can assure you that there is not one scientist in all of humanity that has even speculated on the possibility of what has happened here.”
She stood straighter and spread her arms, “Here we are. So, what are we going to do with it?”
She pointed to a crewman that was standing by the room’s
