Jason let out a sharp breath. He felt excitement growing at just the thought of making this trip. This was a rare opportunity to travel far out into the Solar System. He might never get this chance again. Who knew what they might find on Ceres. “If I agree, when do we leave?”
“We would need you and Greg back up on the Moon by the end of the week,” General Adamson replied. “Both of you will have to go through a crash course on how to fly and operate the shuttle. Ariel claims she can operate the shuttle by remote control all the way to Ceres and back, but I would feel better if the crew could pilot and operate it in an emergency.”
“Will you do it, Jason?” asked Tom, knowing he was asking a lot. “This mission could be more important than finding the Avenger. There may be intact ships inside Ceres if the base was actually built. Imagine what that could mean.”
Jason closed his eyes. He knew his sister was going to be highly upset with him again. She knew they had found a crashed spaceship on the Moon. He had been allowed to tell her and Trevor that, but nothing else. Jason also wondered how Greg would feel about this. He wasn’t sure Greg would be willing to leave his wife and infant son so soon after returning from the Moon. It had been extremely difficult for Greg to be away from his family, not knowing if he would ever see them again.
“Well?” General Adamson asked. “We will do everything in our power to make sure you have everything you need to accomplish this mission safely. We need to know what’s on Ceres.”
Jason slowly nodded his head. There had never been any real doubt in his mind that he was going to accept. The crucial question now was how was he going to explain all of this to Greg? An even bigger problem was how was he going to explain this to his sister?
-
Greg leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes slowly, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe what Jason had just asked him to do. For the last two weeks, he had concentrated on his family, getting to know his infant son and enjoying the feeling of being a father. Now Jason was asking him to give that up and go on a dangerous mission from which he might not return.
“Ceres,” he mumbled, trying to recall what he knew about the distant asteroid. “That’s a long way to go in a 100 year old shuttle.”
“Ariel and some technicians are checking the shuttle,” replied Jason, trying to sound positive. “She says we can do this.”
“Lisa and Adam will be going too?” asked Greg, wondering what he should do. How could he explain this to his wife? He had very mixed feelings about this mission. Part of him was screaming to go; the other was asking what about Elizabeth?
“Yes, and there will be four others besides them,” added Jason, knowing that Greg was struggling with this decision. He couldn’t blame him. “General Adamson promised that if anything goes wrong, the second shuttle will be used to launch a rescue mission.”
Greg could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He genuinely wanted to go, but was it fair to his family? The ordeal he had put his wife through when Jason and he had crashed on the Moon was still fresh in his mind. They were just now getting where they could talk about it without his wife breaking into tears.
“We have to leave by the end of the week?” asked Greg, his mind racing. That wasn’t a lot of time.
“Yes,” responded Jason, knowing that was only a few days away. “General Adamson wants us to go through training on how to fly and operate the shuttle. It should take about two weeks.”
“Makes sense,” Greg replied slowly with a pained look on his face. “Jason, I need to talk to Elizabeth. This is a decision I can’t make without speaking to her. After what I put her through when our lander crashed, I just can’t do this without her permission.”
“I understand,” replied Jason, nodding his head. He knew that Greg placed a lot of importance on his family. “I told General Adamson you would have to talk it over with Elizabeth. He has given you permission to tell her about going to Ceres but not much more than that. Greg, if this is going to put a strain on your family you don’t have to go. I’m sure Ariel will understand.”
“I’ll let you know tomorrow,” Greg said, letting out a deep breath. He knew he would have to have a long talk with Elizabeth. However, one of his greatest dreams was to get to explore space. He didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity. He might never get another.
-
Jason was sitting in the copilot’s seat on board the shuttle Ariel had sent down to retrieve him and Greg. Greg was back in the revamped passenger compartment talking to a new group of technicians and scientists that were going up to the Avenger. The scientists were full of questions after learning who Greg was and that he had spent a number of weeks on the wrecked spaceship. Jason was glad Greg was going. He knew that if Greg had decided not to go, his best friend would have regretted that decision later.
Looking out the cockpit window, Jason saw the Moon rapidly growing in size. He doubted if he would ever get used to traveling at these speeds. A trip that once took days now took only a matter of a few hours. “How many people are currently on the Avenger?” asked Jason, looking over at the young man who was sitting in the pilot’s seat.
“There are forty-two, plus the eight we are bringing up on this trip,” the young lieutenant replied. “Colonel Greene is really pushing the exploration of the ship. They’re also cataloguing and looking extremely close at all the wreckage strung across the crater. Some of it has even been brought into the flight bay to be studied.”
Jason nodded, wondering what he would find when they landed. He noticed a slight change in the shuttle’s trajectory, and he knew they were now descending toward the desolate lunar surface.
“We did manage to get the other hangar door working,” the lieutenant added. He had been told that during the first few launches only one door would open, leaving a clearance of only a few feet on each side of the shuttle’s wings.
The Moon’s desolate surface rapidly grew nearer and soon the shuttle leveled off, heading toward a small crater in the distance. Reaching the crater, the shuttle slowly circled and for the first time Jason had a good view of the wreck. It was still difficult to see unless you understood just what you were looking at. He knew that the large boulders and clumps of rocks below were actually dust-covered pieces of the Avenger.
Jason hadn’t realized until now just how much wreckage was in the crater. It made him wonder exactly how large the Avenger had been before the crash. Looking toward the Avenger, he could see the remains of the crashed ship. It dwarfed everything else in the crater. The wreck was nearly 400 feet long and 200 feet high. Jason’s eyes moved along the ship, looking at all of the closed hatches and noticing several that had been opened. The Federation had certainly known how to build ships.
“Colonel Greene is waiting for you and your friend in the conference room next to the Command Center,” the lieutenant continued as he watched the instruments on the flight control panel. The ship was being flown by remote control, but he knew enough to take over in case of an emergency.
The shuttle arrowed down slightly, and Jason saw that the two large doors to the flight bay were open. Moments later, the shuttle entered smoothly and sat down gently on the deck. There wasn’t even a slight jar as the shuttle came to a complete stop and the engines shut off.
Taking a deep breath, Jason unfastened his flight harness and stood up. He was back where all of this had begun over twelve weeks ago. Going into the passenger compartment, he saw the hatch was already open and the other passengers were exiting.
“Guess we’re back,” Greg said, smiling broadly. He was excited to find out what had been discovered in their absence. He hoped he would get the opportunity to inspect the Avenger’s weapons before they had to leave to go to Ceres.
He was glad that his wife had agreed to let him come. Their talk had been quite long and comprehensive, but she understood his desire to be part of this. She had made him promise to come back safely.
“There are over 50 people up here now,” responded Jason, walking over to s
tand next to Greg. “Colonel Greene has brought a lot of specialists up here to help explore the wreck.”
He looked out the open hatch and immediately noticed that the flight bay was brilliantly lit. He could see several technicians coming over toward the shuttle. They were probably going to check out its systems after the flight to Earth and back.
“Hard to believe there are so many,” Greg replied with a nod. Jason and he had spent over four weeks alone on the Moon after their lunar lander had crashed. It was something Greg hoped he would never experience again.
The two walked down the ramp and came to a stop, looking over at the second shuttle. Several technicians had two panels open on the side of the shuttle and were peering inside. One of the men seemed to be making adjustments or repairs to something.
“I hope they know what they’re doing,” muttered Greg, shaking his head with his eyes focused on the technicians. “The Federation’s technology is a lot further along than ours.”
“I’m sure Ariel is helping them,” Jason reassured Greg. “Let’s get to the conference room and see what’s been going on since we left.”
They passed through the double airlock and started down the short corridor, passing through the hatch. As they walked through the ship, one of the first things they noticed was that all the lights were on. Evidently, all the broken ones had been replaced. Even more surprising was that all the wreckage had been cleared from the corridors. In several areas, large metal patches had been welded into place to strengthen the walls.
“They’ve done a lot of work up here,” Greg noted as they passed several technicians carrying their tools and other equipment. “From inside here it’s hard to believe we’re in a crashed spaceship.”
“If not for the outside, you wouldn’t know this ship is a wreck,” agreed Jason as they stepped through another hatch. This section of the Avenger had survived relatively intact.
A few minutes later, they reached the conference room and after knocking, went inside. Colonel Greene, Lisa Gordon, Adam Simmins, and another man and woman they weren't familiar with were sitting at the long conference table.
“Commander Strong and Greg; it’s good to see you again,” spoke Colonel Greene, standing up and walking over to meet the two men. He shook both of their hands before continuing. “I think you know everyone except Karl Stern and Andrea Oleson. Karl is a physicist and has several other science degrees. Andrea is a doctor and highly familiar with most of the strains of flu that have existed in recent years, including the Spanish Flu.”
“Hello, Commander Strong,” a pleasant feminine voice spoke from the front of the conference room. “Nice to see you again, Greg. I am excited that you agreed to come with Commander Strong on this mission.”
Looking up, Jason saw a large viewscreen with an image of Ariel dressed in her dark blue uniform. “Hello, Ariel.”
The dark haired girl on the screen nodded and smiled. Her dark eyes showed her pleasure at Jason and Greg being in the conference room.
“If everyone will take a seat, I will go over what we know and what we hope to accomplish with this mission,” Colonel Greene said.
Jason and Greg sat down and turned to face the colonel. They were both curious to hear what he was going to say. General Adamson and Tom Hays had both been a little evasive when asked specific questions about the mission. Both had said that Colonel Greene would brief them on what they hoped to accomplish if they could find and get into the Federation base on Ceres.
“As you have been told, it seems that the humans that fled to our Solar System after the destruction of the Human Federation of Worlds realized they couldn’t colonize Earth.”
“Because of the flu,” Greg said, recalling what Ariel had told them weeks back. “Their civilian ships became infected with it.”
“We don’t think all of them were,” Doctor Oleson spoke with a serious look upon her face. She was thirty-four years old and had made medicine and the study of diseases her life. “They made an attempt to contain it to a few ships.” Doctor Oleson looked over at Lisa.
“From what we have been able to learn from Ariel there was a concentrated attempt to contain it on the civilian ships,” Lisa continued. She had talked to Ariel considerably about this, trying to find out what had happened. “Once the doctors realized they couldn’t stop the spread of the disease, they made a drastic decision. All the infected colonists were moved to a few ships and placed in quarantine. The doctors and scientists that remained in the fleet did everything they could to disinfect their remaining ships to stop the spread of the deadly disease.”
“It was the only thing they could do,” Doctor Oleson explained. “They had no immunity at all. The flu would run its course in less than 48 hours, usually resulting in death. The doctors in the fleet just didn’t have the necessary facilities or the time to create an effective serum. They felt a strict quarantine was their only option.”
“So some of the colonists as well as their military personnel may have survived?” asked Jason, thinking about the ramifications. “Do we have any idea how many?”
“No,” replied Colonel Greene, shaking his head sadly. “We think many probably died. Their attempt to disinfect their ships probably failed in some cases. Andrea believes that as many as sixty percent of the civilians may have died before they managed to control the spread of the disease.”
“That still leaves nearly 16,000 survivors out of their civilian population, plus their military,” spoke Jason, recalling how many had been in the civilian refugee fleet. “Do we have any idea how many were in their military ships?”
Colonel Greene was silent for a moment. “Commander, how big do you think the Avenger was before the accident?”
Jason looked confused and then he answered. “The surviving section is about 400 feet long and 200 feet wide. I guess if you add the damaged section and the wreckage in the crater floor the ship might have been about 500 or 600 feet long.” Jason noticed Ariel smiling, and Colonel Greene was shaking his head.
“You’re not even close,” Greene responded. He turned to Ariel and said. “Will you tell Commander Strong and Greg what the specifications are for a Human Federation of World’s light cruiser?”
“A fully intact light cruiser would measure 600 meters in length, 150 meters wide, and 150 meters thick. It would have a crew of 500 with an additional complement of 75 marines. The ship would be equipped with over 80 weapon emplacements and two Shrike missile pods. It would also be equipped with two medium bow laser batteries.”
“Lasers,” Greg said, his eyes lighting up. This was what he had been wanting to find out. “Can I see the lasers?”
“They were destroyed in the crash,” explained Colonel Greene, shaking his head. “Nearly 50 feet of the bow of the ship is imbedded in the crater wall. The other weapons Ariel is talking about are kinetic energy weapons. The ship’s weapons are capable of firing large armor piercing rounds at extremely high speeds. This is far greater than anything we have ever been able to achieve. We’re still looking at their missile capability. Unfortunately, most of the missiles were destroyed in the crash. We only have a few heavily damaged ones to inspect.”
“This ship was nearly 2,000 feet in length,” Jason spoke, astonished at the thought. “Where’s the rest of it? I don’t think even the wreckage out in the crater will account for that much.”
“We’re still searching,” Colonel Greene replied. “It could be anywhere on the Moon’s surface. After the explosion in Engineering, many of Ariel’s sensors went off line. Commander Standel managed to get some of the ship’s maneuvering thrusters working and tried to bring the ship down for a landing, but the thrusters were not powerful enough. The Avenger crashed, and most of the remaining crew were killed.”
“Commander Standel,” repeated Jason, recalling the mummified body they had found in the room next to the Command Center. “Was that the body we found?”
“Yes,” Ariel replied sadly, with obvious pain in her voice. “He was a good commander.
The Fleet Admiral thought very highly of him.”
“Ariel believes that the Avenger broke apart as it came down,” Lisa continued. “The added stress from the maneuvering thrusters plus the damage already done to the Engineering section caused the ship to break apart. The rocket engine you found in the crater is part of the maneuvering system, not the actual drive system for the ship. The ship broke apart just behind the flight bay. All of Engineering, the sublight drive, and the FTL core are gone.”
Jason and Greg just looked at each other. If a Federation light cruiser was 2,000 feet long, how big were the first line jobs?
“So what do you want us to do at Ceres?” asked Jason, looking over at Colonel Greene. “Ceres is a pretty large asteroid. It’s nearly 590 miles in diameter. It might not be that easy to find the base, especially if it’s concealed.”
“I don’t believe that will be a problem,” Ariel spoke, her dark eyes focusing on Jason. “I will furnish you with the Avenger’s identification codes. I believe that if we broadcast them at Ceres, once you go into orbit the base will make itself known.”
“If the base is actually there,” Greg spoke with a frown. “If there is no response, we may not be able to find it.”
“Assuming we find the base and can get inside, then what?” Jason asked. “What will we be looking for?”
“We don’t believe there are any survivors currently alive on Ceres,” Colonel Greene spoke. “I wish there were; they could teach us so much. I firmly believe if there were survivors there would be some sign.”
“Have you tried contacting them?” Greg asked. Turning his head to look at Ariel, Greg continued. “Don’t you have some way to contact the base now that you have power?”
“I have been trying,” confessed Ariel, looking slightly guilty.
“You have?” spoke Colonel Greene, looking stunned. “I thought you agreed not to do anything without first consulting with me.”
“I am truly sorry, Colonel,” Ariel replied, her eyes taking on a trapped look. “But there are commands buried deep within my program, which demand that I attempt to contact the nearest Human Federation of World’s base. That would be Ceres. I have been trying for over three weeks, and there has been no reply to any of my hails. I don’t believe there are any survivors on Ceres.” The expression of anguish and sadness on her face said more than mere words possibly could.
Slaver Wars 1: Moon Wreck Page 11