Sci-Fi Story Series Part 6 : Adventures of Sifar - Trouble

Sifar floating in void of space in some sense, waiting for Wow signal to be detected by its sensors. The team is working overtime to not to miss this event. The whole mission depends on this. From space, it would be much easier to pinpoint the location of signal which will be the destination of Sifar.

Hind started to get anxious, what if there will be no signal, what if he will be commanded to abort the mission. The silence on the sensors are deafening.

Suddenly red light with alarm startled everyone.

"Get me to control center." Hind said hurriedly.

"Sifar to commanded we are holding the position. What is the status?"

"Sifar, this is commanded center. we have acknowledged enormous solar mass ejection coming your way. This may disrupt the communication and may damage the ship. We are looking for options. Please stand by."

co-incidentally year 2077 is the year of starting of new solar cycle of 11.6 years based on the counting of cycle number 23 which started in year 1996 and ended in 2008. Solar flares are one of the deadliest phenomenon of our solar system. They can wipe out all the satellite communication, electrical grid, circuits etc. in mere minutes. Directly in path of it will decrease the chance of receiving the signal as well.

"We do not have much options command. If we leave our position we may not be able to receive the signal."

"Be patient captain, we are having a high-level meeting to discuss our situation. You will be intimated of the decision."

"Brilliant!" Hind now frustrated. Bunch of bureaucrats with zero knowledge of the situation will now decide the fate of the endeavor. What more Hind and his team is not even included in this.

"How much time do we have command?" said Hind

"At current rate, it will reach you in 2 hour 37 minutes or may be less."

"We are sitting ducks here command. Give us something."

"With all due respect sir, command center has made a mistake." said Jai working on his control panel furiously.

"What do you mean?" Hind enquired.

"If we triangulate our position based on relative distance from earth and moon, while accommodating the revolution of moon around the earth, we are far closer than command center has calculated." Said Jai as a matter of fact.

"My God, that's true, tell me the stats." Hind knuckles are getting white while clutching the integrated control panel of his seat.

 "Sir, the calculated speed of the flare is around 2.5k kms per second and estimated distance is 7.3million kms. My calculation shows the flare will reach us within an hour or may be less." said Jai still working on his panel.

 "This is absurd." sigh Hind, I am not going to scarifies my team for the mission. Even if I have to wait for another 5 decades.

 -----

 "Command center, we have less than 30 minutes now based on our calculation. what is your decision?"  being responsible for the team, Hind found new sense of authority.

 "Captain, command has decided to leave the decision on to you. You are now fully responsible for your actions. The communication will now be disengaged till solar storm passes. Good Luck."

 The pre-radiation of solar flare has now disrupted the communication between Sifar and Command. Now all is in the hands of Hind.

 "Cowards." Mumbled Hind

 "Listen team, this is your captain speaking, we are abor..." words trailed from Hind as he heard a voice from crew. Hind looked in the direction.

 It's Nia. "Excuse me captain." said Nia.

 "What is it Nia?"

 "Captain, before you take any decision I have a suggestion to make."

 "Now is not the time. Every minute we lose, we will get dangerously close to flare. Our machinery may fail."

 "Hear me out captain." Nia continued hurriedly without waiting for Hind's signal to speak. "Sir, I sense that we might not have received the Wow signal because of the disruption caused by high energy particles travelling nearly at the speed of light. They may have interfered with our receivers. I think if we..."

 "Enough Nia, even if we have received the signal we may not be able to pursue it due to abnormal solar activity." said Hind.

 "But what if we get out of the reach flare and try this again?" argued Nia

 "It won’t work, for one the signal event has already passed,  two we need zero relative gravity location for this, and three we may not have enough fuel for this adventure."

 "Gravitation lensing, we can use gravitation lensing to re -receive the signal. we just have to adjust our position to align with massive space object such as black hole which is in between the path of signal and us." said Nia excitedly

 "This is correct sir, I verified there are 2 locations in our solar system where we can receive the signal in an hour or so again. Fortunately, one of the location is in Zero relative  gravitational field, towards dwarf planet Eris. But if we start now we still have to cross section the path of flare." Smith pitched in

 "This might work." said Hind thoughtfully "What is the force field calculation Jai?"

 "We will take major hit during cross section and calculation shows that force field can barely cope with the high energy particles. Not to mention we will lose one of our fuel cell."

 "Not if we use gravity assist of earth to slingshot us in the direction" said Hind, "Team we have challenge at hand, command has left the decision on me. I would suggest if any of you have any second thoughts speak it out now." Hind ordered.

 "We are with you captain." Environment at Sifar's deck is now electrifying. 

"Let’s do this, Jai set the trajectory, Nia keep on checking the solar activity path. Smith try to reestablish our communication lines with command center." Hind said

"We are ready captain." said jai

"Alright, team get ready for an impact."

"Cryothrusters engaged." said jai

With cryothrusters coming to life again. Sifar started moving in direction towards earth rotation direction to make use of gravity assist. This will increase its Sifar's speed by many folds but the G force, which the team will have to face, will be huge. Some may even pass out for short time.

The next hurdle would be to face solar flare as soon as they pass earth's trajectory, they will be hit by flare with full force with little chance to escape.

To Be Continued…

Image:https://www.solarsystemscope.com/