Ama Kit Xmas Gift - 12_2020

“Yes?” Calaway asked him, patient, though unease at the sight did not escape him. Something
bad must have brought the man here, and not even two hours in, too!
Straightening, the man cleared his throat. “Sir, an unknown attracting force has been detected,
about 1,950,000 km ahead. We’ll arrive at it in, in 15 minutes, sir.”
Calaway’s brow creased. “And you don’t know what this, ‘attracting force’ is?”
The man shook his head. “No, sir. The pilots and navs, they’re working on it but we can’t
seem to detect it in anything but gravity.”
“No visual oddities in the area? No physical mass detected?”
“None.”
Calaway raised his eyebrows. “Well, that’s odd indeed. Let me talk to the navs.”
The man nodded, and together they moved swiftly back across the bridge to the navigation
section, upfront behind the pilots where everyone seemed to be in much the same state as the
man who had delivered Calaway the news.
“So?” He leaned onto the back of his head nav’s seat.
The man didn’t answer immediately, focusing on the flying of his fingers over the various
navigational controls. After a moment, “Not much, sir. We know we’re being pulled somewhere,
our speed is increasing rapidly, but we are detecting no nearby matter that would cause such
displays. Nothing else around us seems to be moving either; the sun, the planets, all are
continuing their usual orbital patterns.”
“Hm,” Calaway thought, biting his lip. “Not a black hole, then?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s too local.”
The man nodded. “Is there no way to steer away from this?”
The nav shook his head, looking sullen.
“Ok,” Calaway said, straightening. Suddenly, he clapped his hands, turning and swiftly
pushing off towards the stage. “Keep working on it, okay? If there’s any way to avoid it, do it…
just so long as it ​doesn’t​ require us to stop the trip,” he ordered over his shoulder. Numbly, the
nav nodded, though Calaway had already strode away.
Reaching the stage, he pushed up without the stairs and clapped his hands loudly. Pressing the
mic on his chin, he emphasized the importance of his next words with the loud screeching of (for
once purposeful) audio feedback. Startled, the crew all looked at him, many with annoyed looks
on their faces. Again, here was Calaway, swinging his feet and making his mic screech,
distracting them from the work ​he​ gave them. An annoyance, but a necessary one nonetheless.
“Crew!” He announced, yelling as if he had forgotten the existence of his mic. Lowering his
voice, “It seems we have an emergency. In fifteen,” he checked the watch on his wrist - a useless
thing, considering how easily he could bring up one on his ret - “nope, eleven minutes now, we’ll
be heading into something producing an unknown gravitational force. There is no way out, and
no way of knowing what we’re going into.” He said all such cheerfully, even as panic overcame
his people. “Now, now, no need to go crazy,” he laughed. “No need in worrying about something
we can’t change. Navs, please keep working, and all pilots I would like you to try veering us
port, though if nav is right that won’t help us much.”