The Methuselan Circuit Read Online Free Page A

his hand against the window. It was cold. Wow!
     
    A buzzer began to sound, on and off. He looked to his board. The borders around one of the secondary screens flashed red; and a message on the main screens read, “Primary Power Coupling Failure.”
     
    He was twelve. He had no idea what a primary power coupling was. What was he supposed to do? He looked around, but there was nothing to see beyond the opaque energy screen. He took a deep breath. “I guess I have to do something about it.”
     
    The first place to look was obvious. He studied the secondary screen with the flashing red border. It appeared to show energy routing through the engines and out the thrusters. Yes, there was the matter—anti-matter convection chamber. Fuel flowed into the chamber where it was converted to anti-matter and then routed through magnetic manifolds to the engines. Everybody knew that much, even kids his age. He’d learned about it by reading National Geographic. They always had articles on space flight, the frontier planets in the adjoining solar systems and all sorts of other stuff. He’d even read about the Space Academy.
     
    “Ok back to the problem, this is really cool and all, but I’ve got a job to do,” he reminded himself. What to do, that was the problem. His Dad always told him to focus. He studied the screen and followed the energy flow. There was a blockage in the flow. One piece of equipment flashed red, and the label read, “Primary Power Coupling.” Next to it was a similar piece of equipment. It was gray on the screen and had no energy flowing either into it or out of it. The label read, “Secondary Power Coupling.”
     
    The ship rocked and began to shake wildly. Alexander looked out the window. The stars and the earth spun around, disappearing from sight only to reappear seconds later. The ship was out of control! He began to feel sick. Steam hissed out of one of his vents, clouding his view of the screens. Then the screens began to go dark. “I have to switch to the Secondary Power Coupling and fast!”
     
    How?
     
    He touched the image of the Secondary Power Coupling. It brightened. The word “Armed” showed beneath it, but no energy flowed into or out of it. The shaking grew worse. He looked back at the main screen. The message describing the failure was now flashing with a bright red box around it. Instinctively he reached out and touched it.
     
    Beneath the message a checklist came onto the screen. He looked it over and saw where it told him to activate the Secondary Power Coupling by selecting it on the Engine Display. “I did that,” he objected, but even as he said that he noticed that was step two and not step one. That read,
     
    “Step 1: Deactivate the malfunctioning Primary Power Coupling by selecting the icon on the Secondary Engine Display.”
     
    He groaned. Rule number one—don’t hurry. Rule number two—follow directions. Alexander reached over and deselected the Primary Power Coupling by touching it. The icon changed color to a dark gray. The energy stopped flowing into it and rerouted to the Secondary Power Coupling which was now armed and ready. Energy went through the coupling and into the engines. The ship stopped shaking.
     
    Alexander relaxed and looked out the window. The view of the earth and stars steadied. The emergency was over. He relaxed. Leaning back in his seat, he glanced at the main screen again. The checklist was still there. It had five steps, and it occurred to him that he’d only done two. Everything seemed to be working, but he couldn’t help but think they wouldn’t have made it five steps long if two steps would have done just as well. He finished it.
     
    When he completed the final step the secondary screens went dark. The main screen changed to show a distinguished looked man in a black and silver uniform. The man had silver hair that matched his uniform and a full mustache. He looked at Alexander from beneath bushy brows, and said, “I’m