She frowned. “At our present acceleration – and the need for deceleration before jump – we’ll need at least three days to reach a safe insertion point and velocity with respect to the Moon’s gravity well. Four days would be better. Say, September 2nd.”
And the smiles disappeared.
“Excellent,” Johannes said in order to swing the mood back his way. “That means we do not need any outside workers, and can thus maintain acceleration.”
He saw a few nods here and there. He had to end it on a somewhat positive note – or at least one where everyone could believe that positive action was underway.
“So, to conclude. Defence – that’s Hank’s department. Escape – if necessary – Olive. Preparation of all passengers – Tatsuo. Hopefully, we will need none of you, and this will all blow over.”
“Captain Yrden,” Nordine called from her position at the comm.
“Yes, Nordine?”
Her face had gone pale. “War!”
* * *
Johannes walked swiftly, Jaswinder by his side, to the Command Centre. Everyone there appeared sick. Most stood near the detector station, where they could see the telemetry from the Earth satellites.
“Report,” Johannes ordered.
“Everyone seems to be launching fighters into space, Johannes,” Quentin said. “The Europeans blew Topside One. She’s sent out a distress call. And we have other distress calls from—”
“Oh, my God!”
Johannes spun around. “What?”
Nick Fontaine sent his cursor to outline areas in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. “Preliminary reports indicate ballistic missiles, Captain. No real reason for them unless they are nuclear.”
With horror, they watched the tracks rise, their projected targets in various areas of Europe and North America.
“Oh, hell.”
Johannes didn’t ask this time. More ballistic missiles had gone up from various oceans and countries. Preston had nailed it, damn it all.
They watched the telemetry on the screen in silence.
“Johannes!” Lorrie called, and everyone turned, expecting even worse. “Listen to this.”
He heard Jill Paxton’s voice from FTL-1.
“All FTL ships, we are abandoning station. Do not stay to pick up survivors; jump to hyperspace immediately you are able. Catastrophe Plan Alpha now in effect. We will attempt to get to Haida Gwaii, but are doubtful of success. Attacking vessels are targeting life-pods from destroyed ships and stations.
“Patrol ships are pirates.
“Come back for us in 7 days. If we do succeed, we’ll be in that position, waiting for you. Do not, I repeat, do not allow any military vessels of any nation to close with you.”
Jaswinder gasped as the message got cut off in mid repeat. Johannes felt like someone had kicked him in the guts. Jill, who had demanded that he leave, had told him that someone had to stay, and that she would fill that role: gone.
“Sendai Maru under full burn! Damn! Fighters approaching her.”
Johannes closed his eyes.
“They passed her by.”
“Lost telemetry from satellites over Japan.”
Lorrie routed another distress call to the speakers.
“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. FTL Ship Maid Marion holed and open to space. Abandoning ship.” A pause. “For whatever good that will do us. All ships: Earth Governments at war with each other. Have used nuclear weapons. Reports of widespread destruction. Most major cities destroyed: New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Moscow, Berlin, London, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, and too many more to list. Reports of chemical and biological attacks. Escaping destruction by returning to Earth not, repeat, not advised.”
“Turn that off,” Johannes ordered. It could only depress his people further, and they needed to think.
“Johannes, message from the Moon Colonies,” Lorrie reported, eyes wide.
“What is it?” He didn’t really want to know.
“The various factions have started their own little war. Chemical and biological attacks reported.”
“Johannes,” Nick called. “Topside Shuttle One has changed course. They’re now heading directly to intercept us.”
“Topside Shuttle One calling us,” Lorrie said.
“I’ll take it.” He went to the comm.
“Topside Shuttle One, this is Haida Gwaii. Go ahead.”
The voice that came on sounded frightened. Hell, who wouldn’t be frightened? Johannes felt fear freeze his own insides.
“Haida Gwaii, Topside Shuttle One. We were heading for the Moon Colonies, but can’t go there any longer. Topside One reports massive destruction. We can’t go back. We wish to claim refugee status and support until we can decide what to do, where to go. We have thirty-eight souls on board.”
Jaswinder gripped his arm. “We can’t turn them away.”
Johannes felt torn apart. What if they weren’t refugees? What if they were USNA soldiers?
“We can handle thirty-eight,” Quentin said.
“If they aren’t lying.”
Quentin had obviously not thought of that. He went silent, then proposed something useful. At least he hadn’t stop thinking.
“Don’t bring them aboard. Have them come to a relative stop a hundred kilometers away. Even if they have no food on board, they’ll have enough air for at least a day or two – even if their maintenance people are lazy, ignorant, and incompetent.”
Johannes nodded. “Thanks. Good idea.”
He relayed that to the shuttle, who accepted the orders with thanks.
“We’re losing more satellites, so info is sketchy, but Euro Station Alpha and Euro Station Beta are toast. Topside Two has gone dark, probably destroyed. Russian Mir station is gone.”
“Workboat leaving Haida Gwaii, heading for Venture.”
“We’re getting reports that fighters are targeting life pods.”
That confirmed Jill’s report, and shocked everyone present. No one fired on life pods – excepting pirates. They had no defences, and little capacity for running.
Johannes shook his head. “Log everything. Record everything. But there’s nothing we can do. Topside One Shuttle One won’t reach us for quite a while. Let’s do a shift change. Get some sleep if we can. Tomorrow might be a busy day.”
He took Jaswinder’s arm, and left the Control Centre. He could feel her trembling.
“Harold was right. End of the world, he called it when he first came on board.”
Johannes held her closer. “Speaking of the good Professor, where is he?”
“Left on Twin Star along with a lot of his researchers and Matt and Ellen.”
“Good.” Johannes turned them into the corridor where their quarters lay. “He did his job. The Knowledge survives.”
* * *
Venture
Sunday 29 August
Wen Pearson walked into a cafeteria buzzing with excited voices. He looked around, and found Carly sitting with Dave Patterson and William. After grabbing some food, he walked over and sat down.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Haven’t you heard?” Carly asked
“No. Sleep shift.”
“We’ve been ordered to prepare for immediate departure,” she told him.
Dave Patterson smiled grimly. “And that’s why we try to load the ship in a balanced way. Cargo doesn’t have to do anything. We’re ready.”
“Why?” Wen wanted to know.
“Rumour has it that the USNA Space Force just took over FTL-1, Pilot Pearson,” William said.
Wen shivered. Those bastard pirates had come out into the open. “Carson,” he corrected William. “Wen Carson. Not Pearson. I guess I don’t need to hide it any longer. That’s what I saw; that’s why I’m here instead of back with Amalgamated. I saw the pirates. They used a USNA patrol ship to kill 684. Your people and my people wanted time to prepare. If I talked ... well, you’ve just seen what would have happened. Only it would have happened three months ago.
“Bastards are probably making a grab for all the stations.”
“Attention all crew and passengers. Attention all crew and passengers.” Bettina’s voice cut through the conversations. “This is Captain Bettina Yrden. I have to report that war has broken out on Earth. Terrible, terrible war. Against all treaties, nations kept nuclear weapons. They’ve now used them.”
Carly and Wen looked at each other in disbelief.
“Space fighters from all nations have launched. They are in the process of destroying each other and all stations, satellites, and ships in Earth orbit.
“As you know, we are prepared for immediate departure. If we see anything threatening, we will get underway. If you hear the emergency klaxon, proceed immediately to the acceleration lounges or your flight stations – whichever applies. Do not waste time. We will not be gentle, nor will we wait.
“Further information and what news feeds we can get will be routed to the acceleration lounges.
“The Families have long suspected that we might get cut off from Earth supplies. We have prepared. We didn’t expect this, yet even this would not have changed our preparations. Take heart. The Families will survive. If you are a passenger, we will transport you to a world where war does not exist. If you have skills we need, we will offer employment.
“Remember: The colonies need us now, as never before. We will be there for them.
“Captain out.”
Silence filled the room for ten seconds, then a roar of conversation broke out, followed by a mass exodus as off-shift crew went scurrying to the lounges to watch the news as it came in. Wen kept his seat, as did Carly.
“God Bless Bettina Yrden,” Carly whispered lowly, but Wen caught it.
“Why?”
“She must have at least suspected something.”
“I don’t understand.” He took another forkful of potato. Nothing would change by him hurrying to see what he couldn’t affect.
“You’ve been deep in your game, in your cargo program, or working hard,” Carly said. “You know that my nephew came up.”
“Right. Lucky thing for him.”
“No, not lucky. Foresight. Bettina did the same for any otherhire who wished to bring up his or her family. A holiday, she said. Because Venture had to stand by Haida Gwaii until completion, we had all those rooms on the passenger deck empty. ‘You all have empty guest rooms. Why not show your families what you do for a living. It’s on us.’”
Wen carefully set his fork down. “She did that?”
“And, from what I’ve heard, she sweet-talked several who demurred. She knew. The Yrdens knew. Somehow, they knew – or at least suspected.”
The cost. The enormous cost of lifting all those non-paying passengers up. The cost of feeding them, providing for their comfort. He had hated the Yrdens – mostly because of Jaswinder, later because they had imprisoned him on this ship. One by one, they had changed his mind. They were only people, after all. Every family has its good, its bad, its indifferent. Yes, may her god bless Bettina Yrden.
“Nigeria!”
“Pardon?” Carly looked quizzically at him.
“On one of my runs to FTL-1, Johannes Yrden commandeered my shuttle. I accompanied him down, and we brought a family out off of the Nigerian coast. Landed on a beach, for pity’s sake. We brought them out just ahead of people with guns shooting at them – and us. Then we got chased by their military aircraft until we reached international waters.”
“You’re joking.”
“No joke. I wonder who they were, really. Definitely not ‘Mr and Ms Smith’, as Johannes called them.” He looked down at his unfinished meal. “You’re right: they either knew or suspected, and they’ve been smuggling people out. It would be interesting to know which people – and why.”
He shoved his meal away from him, no longer feeling hungry.
“Where’s Eddie?”
“Having fun in the zero-g room.”
“Let’s go tell him what’s happening. He should hear it from us, not as rumours.”
She stared into his eyes a long time. “From us?”
“Unless you would rather do it alone.”
CHAPTER 31
FTL-1
Monday 30 August
Major Sharon Temple looked around her. Deep in the heart of FTL-1, the Families had built what they called a Catastrophe Core. A place to go, to hide, if everything went wrong.
Everything had gone wrong. Now fifteen Family members and employees sat around, waiting. And her. She made the total sixteen – an outsider, reviled by the others. With no information from the wider world in the past twenty-four hours, the enforced closeness had begun to grate.
She looked at the airlock, at the red warning light above it telling them that outside lay vacuum … and death. Her oaf of a commanding general had decided to make this station his base. He had not believed that anyone would fight the oh so impressive USNA. Were it not for the outcome, she would have relished the look on his face when he learned otherwise.
General Wingrove. Good riddance. He and his men had killed innocent civilians on the station. Now they had joined their victims, and floated around just as dead.
Most of the survivors distrusted her – distrusted her uniform. She had removed the jacket shortly after entering this most sacred of sacreds – her entry thanks to her liaison with young Owen Yrden, not present.
She watched the only person disposed to talk to her: Jill Paxton. Jill knew about her and Owen, knew that Johannes Yrden had given her the codes to this place. She, at least, didn’t shun the only member of the military to survive the destruction of the station – at least the only member they knew of.
“Water?” asked Jill, holding out a squeeze bottle.
They had gone to seventy-five percent gravity. It used more energy, but the consensus held that they were unlikely to get rescued, so what the hell.
“Thanks.” She accepted it, and took a pull.
“You never answered my question yesterday,” Jill said.
“Oh, which question was that?”
Jill once again indicated the pistol on the Major’s belt. “How long do you think we should wait?”
And that was the question, wasn’t it? If no one came to rescue them, they sat in their own tomb. Sooner or later, the air would run out, the power would run out, the water would run out. They would die of dehydration, suffocation, or from the unearthly cold that lurked outside, only kept at bay by their limited power. The air and power wouldn’t last long enough for them to starve. The Catastrophe Core held enough provisions for over one hundred people for a month.
“Longer than twenty-four hours,” Sharon replied. Jill had the grace to laugh.
Lots of water, too. So that brought it down to suffocation or freezing. She tried to not think of it, but Jill had again forced it into her consciousness. Or by a bullet.
In any event, Sharon didn’t want to think about that, nor to have people speculating.
“Owen said he would come for me. I believe him.”
Jill smiled softly, compassionately. “I thought you told his father to get him out of the system.”
“I did.” She stood up. “Let’s go for a walk.”
So they walked around the circumference of the room, light on their feet as befit the reduced gravity.
“You told me about your Catastrophe Plan Alpha. In seven days – six now – survivors who can will take life pods, lifeboats, anything that can fly in space, and go to your rendezvous point to await pickup.”
“Correct.”
“Owen will know that. He’ll come back.” She dodged around two people coming the other way, not looking where they were going. “He’ll come back,” she reiterated, “and he will remember us even if your Families don’t.”
“You doubt my Family?” Jill sounded a little put out.
“Not at all. I believe that any Family ship that comes to the rendezvous on a rescue mission will remember this place, and will attempt to ascertain if
anyone made it in.”
“Likely.” Jill sounded appeased.
“But Owen will know that I would attempt to get here.” She shrugged. “In any event, no one should think of doing anything drastic for at least twenty days.”
“Twenty?”
“Well, six more until the rendezvous. Then you have to figure that ships might not come immediately. And, if they do, they might have all they can cope with, rescuing those in even greater distress than ourselves. And it may take a while to get here, avoiding all the debris. And, after they get here, they may have to cut their way in. So, figure on a minimum of twenty days. Anyone who does anything before then is a fool.”
“I just wish we knew what is going on out there,” Jill said. She drifted them in the direction of the comm station. But nothing came through.
“We already know what’s going on out there. War. Radiation is slowly spreading around the world, as well as the ash, smoke, and dirt brought up by the explosions. Outside here, there’s still probably at least several fighters that are trying to kill anything that doesn’t have their flag tattooed to it.” She looked around her prison cell again. “And, further out, those shuttles we saw should be nearing Haida Gwaii. That battle hasn’t begun yet.”
And Johannes had gone to Haida Gwaii. Hopefully, he had done as she had requested, and had at least gotten Owen out of the system. Unlikely that Johannes would have gone with him, for Jill had told her that he had taken over as Station Chief.
Jill sighed. “Twice more around the room?”
“Sure. Then we can play cards. You play poker?”
Jill laughed, causing everyone to look at them. “You have any money?”
“Lots. In the bank. On Earth. Good North American Dollars. Wonder what they’re worth now.”
* * *
Haida Gwaii
Monday 30 August
“We have problems, Ms Yrden.” Tanya Olynski said from the detector station.
Jaswinder didn’t want to hear it. She and Johannes had decided that at least one of them should remain in the Command Centre at all times to divide the problems between them. She had already handled more than her fair share. Time for Johannes to do his part. But, just now, he and Hank Lowe worked on their defence plan, trying to figure out how to hold and then defeat trained soldiers with only a few security staff backed by civilians.
Not With A Whimper: Survivors Page 34