Castaway Planet Read Online Free PDF Page A

while the superconductor storage coils are charging. Okay?”
    “Sounds good to me, Sakura.”
    She found herself holding her breath as she reached out and touched the activation button.
    Without a bump or jolt, the universe outside disappeared, and the Trapdoor Drive sent LS-5 hurtling on its unknown course. “Trapdoor Drive activated! We’ll be under drive for . . . about one hour and ten minutes.”
    This is going to be the longest hour ever .

Chapter 4
    The stars shone out again, and she bent forward. “Coils recharging. Doing a full survey of the sky again . . .” She tumbled LS-5 once more around its axes. “Generating full sky view . . . okay, everyone, start looking. I’m blinking our virtual displays between the first panorama we got and this one. I’m sending different areas of the sky to—”
    “ Got one!” sang out Caroline. “Brightest star in our sky just jumped a beautiful, beautiful big fraction of a degree! Measure that arc, Sakura!”
    “It’s . . . about an eighth of a degree,” she said after a moment, feeling a smile spreading over her face. “That’s less than a light-year off, right?”
    “About zero point two seven light-years, I think, which given the brightness means we’re probably looking at a G-type star!”
    G-type star . She heard the words with a tremendous lightening of her heart. That was the best possible candidate for a world they could live on.
    She heard both her parents let out their breaths in a sigh of relief. “That’s wonderful, Caroline, Sakura,” her mother said. “But let’s not jump the gun. See if any other stars move.”
    No one else spotted any that they were sure of, and by the time they were done, the second jump had begun. After another tense-yet-boring wait, Sakura repeated the maneuver and started the comparison running again. This time, Hitomi spotted two more that she thought moved. A close comparison showed that she was right, but the movement was small compared to the now very noticeable movement of the first star. One appeared to be a red dwarf about three light-years out, and the other a brighter star five light-years away. No very bright stars were directly ahead of or behind them, so they weren’t heading straight towards or straight away from any possible candidates.
    That was enough for her mother. “All right, then. Sakura, cancel those other jumps and get us headed towards that star, okay?”
    “Yes, Mom—I mean, Captain.” She felt much steadier this time as she set the course. “Given that we’re this close and moving as fast as we will be, I don’t need to do a fancy navigation calculation. Just point the nose at our target and drop out to adjust our course maybe once a day. We’ll be about there in a little less than four days.”
    “That’s just fine, honey. Hold off on the jump for a little bit. Everyone, unstrap for a moment so we can all talk together,” said her mother.
    The others unsnapped quickly. It took Whips a little longer to release all his hold-downs.
    “First . . . all of you, come here,” Laura said. She reached out and hugged little Hitomi to her, and gestured the others close.
    Then her mother looked up as the family gathered, straight at Whips. “You too, Harratrer.”
    She could sense a momentary protest that he was too old to need special treatment. “Come here , Whips,” she said, and heard her voice waver. “You’re our family too.”
    The patterns that rippled chaotically over Whips’ skin showed that he, too, was close to the equivalent of tears. He drifted over to the others and wrapped all three arms around the Kimei family; Sakura and the others gripped his arms and hands, and even though he was so very different . . . it was still exactly like a hug from their own family.
    For a few moments they all hung there, not moving, just accepting that for now, they were together, and a family, and safe.
    Mom smiled finally and spoke up. “That’s right. We’re all here, we’re all alive,