A beep, though blurry and screeching, came. Gotta be Sonya.

“Hello, Mr. Malagigi,” male voice said.

“Oh! Dr. Croxley,” I said.

“How far away in the system are you?”

“Approximately 0.3 Astronomical Unit en route in arrival point. Should be about two weeks away from Comet Halley. Didn’t expect that it’d come to this. It was bad timing. I’ll upload the diagnosis progress. Just so you recheck if everything going’s going smooth,” I said. “I’m around the system, and not in the way…”

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February 4, 2020: Day 71

I was lucky. If I hadn’t gotten myself back out a month ago, the ship would’ve slipped off a bit- and that meant a big thing. I was supposed to maneuver the ship to Venus, in order to accelerate the orbit with the help of gravity out towards Mars. Alas, I missed. It isn’t too bad. I only need to shut down the accelerator after a rapid slingshot, which lasted days before I woke up. Little too late, little too early on schedule. I figured that, rather than the destination, I’ve devised a faster path: around the Comet Halley, which is at least few weeks faster. If I calculate right, its cosmic tail would at least materialize for use in energy. I’d need to gather the hydrogen gas into the main tank, mix it according to the configuration that I had put in a test of simulation. I also reconfigured the main core so that it would be able to materialize with the incoming gas through vacuum surrounding system, ducts straight to tank. I had originally designed it for the reusable energy that I could find for use; i.e., solar and nuclear. Instead, this time, I modified it with the gas that sucks up the comet’s hydrogen for use in the accelerator, boosting the speed in its ultra-speed scattered particles, much like the launcher tank used at blast off. Except I don’t need to eject. Certainly not the main core. And the last stage, main core will close the ducts once the trail expires along the way.

Image via Wikipedia

“Good work, Mr. Malagigi,” Dr. Croxley said. “Can I ask you something?”