“Thanks, Captain,” Pardonnet said, and cut the connection. Around him the ship readied for another short push against the small moon that was hurtling sunward. Even though they were doing these maneuvers in small increments, at only one-eighth impulse, it still wore heavily on all the ships, and took time each push to get ready.
Captain Chalker was busy; so were the crew. Pardonnet felt just about as useless as he’d ever felt. Right now his colony and all the people that had followed him vast distances to Belle Terre were at risk, and he could do nothing but sit and watch and wait. There was nothing for him to govern, nothing to lead. Every ship and every ship’s crew had to fight this fight. And that was out of his jurisdiction completely.
He started to say something to Captain Chalker, then stopped himself. Quickly he turned and headed off the bridge. If he was going to bother someone, it was better he did it down in the mess area. At least there he wouldn’t get in the way of those who were trying to save all their lives.
Countdown: 1 Day, 1 Hour
Lilian glanced at her watch, then up at where Captain Kirk had sat on the sand dune what seemed like an eternity ago. Had it really been so long ago? There was no doubt the world had changed a great deal since then. And it was only a few weeks old for her then. She had changed, too. Gotten stronger. Around her the children played in the sand, just as they had done that day.
She kicked off her shoes and let the coolness of the sand comfort her. The ocean air was fresh, the afternoon breeze light and just cooling enough. A perfect Belle Terre afternoon. She hoped the governor and Captain Kirk managed to save Belle Terre. It had to be one of the prettiest places in the entire sector.
She glanced at her watch. Twenty-seven hours left. Twenty-seven hours until this planet would be bathed with radiation.
If it didn’t get destroyed.
She was counting on the radiation and hadn’t let herself think of the other possibility much at all. Pardonnet had told her to get under something right at the explosion hour. She hadn’t given it any thought at the time, because of the search for the children. She could have crawled under a blanket for all she was concerned at that point.
Now was different.
Now she had six children to save. For the past two days, she couldn’t find anything she felt safe putting the children under to protect them from radiation. At best, the town meeting hall had a storage area underground. She’d take them there and do what she could to make it tight.
If she had to. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to. Almost counting on it. Kirk, Governor Pardonnet would come back for them. They had to.
She stood, her back to the ocean, watching the six kids play. Reynold seemed fine, but the others alternated between being very upset that they weren’t with their parents, and treating all this as a grand adventure. She tried to keep it on the adventure side as much as possible, telling them their parents were working hard to save the planet and they all just had to be patient. Everyone would all come back very soon.
Sometimes she said that almost as much for herself as the children.
She glanced up at the empty sand dune where Captain Kirk had sat all those days ago. It was empty, just as everything else in this colony was empty. Couldn’t one of the ships have come back? How hard would that have been? She knew the governor wasn’t going to forget her and the children. Something must be keeping them from coming back.
But she couldn’t imagine what that might be, for the life of her. So until they came back, she was going to make it as easy on the children as she could.
And search like crazy for a place to shelter them when the time came.
If the time came.
Countdown: 23 Hours
Sunn sat in his command chair, staring at the stars as they flashed past on the screen. He loved this, and had always been able to just sit watching for hours. They had just had a great exploration trip. Successful. This was why he’d left Texas, why he’d gone into space in the first place. He just loved exploring, finding new places. And since space was so big, there were certainly a vast amount of new spaces to find. Enough to keep him more than busy the rest of his life.
He glanced at their location and their speed and did the quick calculation. At this speed it would be twelve hours until they were in communications range with the Enterprise, eighteen hours until they actually got to Belle Terre.
Assuming the engines kept together.
As Roger had told him a number of times over the last day or so, they were pushing the old Rattlesnake too hard. But Sunn knew the Rattlesnake was up for the task.
Eighteen hours would get them to Belle Terre at least three, maybe five hours before everything blew. Sunn just hoped Kirk had the situation under control. The planet they had found was a good alternative, but not a great one. Belle Terre was better, if Kirk could save it.
“Well, well,” Dar said, “what do we have here?”
Sunn glanced at Dar. “What?”
“I think I just accidentally found what we were looking for?”
Sunn’s stomach twisted and he came up out of his chair. “The Blackness?”
“I think so,” Dar said, smiling.
“What is it?” Roger asked. “Can you tell?”
“Only way I even found it was wondering what was causing a blockage of my long-range scanners. On my sensors it’s just a big black empty area of space.”
“Moving?” Sunn asked.
Dar stared at his screen for a moment, then nodded. “Sure is. Subwarp, but still pretty fast.”
“How long is it going to slow us down to take a closer look?”
Dar shook his head. “Twenty minutes at most. But I don’t think we want to do that. We don’t know how far the range is on that thing.”
Sunn glanced at Roger, then Dar. They had been sent on a mission to find a planet. They had found one, but that Blackness out there was the planet’s big question mark. This was their chance to at least give the colonists and Captain Kirk more information to base a decision on.
“We went searching for that,” Sunn said. “Now that we’ve found it, I at least want to get some closer sensory data.”
Roger shook his head.
“Not too close, huh?”
“Not too close,” Sunn agreed. “Roger, take us to what Dar thinks is a safe distance.”
“I think we’re fine right here,” Dar said.
Sunn laughed. “Can we get decent long-range scans of whatever it is from here?”
“No,” Dar said.
“Then take us to a point where we can,” Sunn said. “And put the damn thing on screen.”
“Got it,” Roger said.
“There’s nothing to see,” Dar said. “At least with our eyes and on our sensors.”
The screen changed to a starfield as the Rattlesnake dropped out of warp. It took Sunn a moment to see the Blackness, but then he did. It blocked an area of stars, leaving the picture with an empty hole where there should be stars.
He sat back, watching, as whatever it was got closer. He had had lots of times in his years in space when his stomach wrapped up in a knot of fear. This was another of those times. It had never stopped him from acting and making decisions, but he was always aware of the fear.
“I think we’re just about close enough,” Dar said.
“Agreed,” Sunn said. “All stop.”
“Stopped,” Roger said.
“Anything?” Sunn asked Dar.
“I can’t seem to—”
Suddenly, every light, every screen, even the image of the blackness and stars, flickered, like a candle in the wind.
The next instant Sunn was sitting in pitch darkness.
Complete silence.
His hands gripped the armrests on his chair as he slowly floated upward.
Blackness.
Total blackness.
“Seems this was just a little too close,” Roger said, his voice filling the dark.
For the first time in Sunn’s life, the fist of panic
in his stomach threatened to overwhelm him. He just floated there, holding onto the armrests of his captain’s chair, listening to his own breathing, because he knew anything else he could do at the moment would be wrong.
Of course, if the Blackness had stripped all the power out of the Rattlesnake, as it seemed as if it had, there was nothing right they could do.
Chapter Twenty
Countdown: 21 Hours
“MRS. COATES,” Diane said. “I lost my bracelet. I think it’s in the cave. Can we go look for it tomorrow?”
Lilian stared at the dark-haired, nine-year-old Diane. Outside it was starting to get dark, and Lilian had just started dinner for the kids. Then Diane had asked the simple question about her bracelet and Lilian felt the relief flow through her. The cave.
Why hadn’t she thought of that before? They could be in the cave when the explosion happened. Of course.
“Mom, are you all right?” Reynold asked.
Lilian realized that she had almost spilled the bowl of rice in her hand. She sat it down and smiled. “More than all right. And Diane, of course we can go back to the cave. As soon as it gets light.”
“I don’t want to go back there,” Reynold said.
Lilian patted her son’s hand. “It will be fun. Just trust me. And I’ll be with you this time. Don’t you want to show me where you all hid?”
“I suppose,” Reynold said.
“I found the caves,” Danny said proudly.
“How far are they from here?” Lilian asked.
“It took us two hours to hike home,” Reynold said, holding up his watch. “I timed us.”
“Well,” Lilian said. “I’m looking forward to seeing them. We’ll take a picnic lunch and have fun. What do you all say?”
All the children agreed.
She relaxed and watched them eat. Now, at least, if the governor couldn’t get back to pick them up, she and the children had a place to hide from the radiation. She would just make sure they were all inside when the Quake Moon exploded. Maybe then they’d have a chance.
It was the cave that had gotten them all into this fix. Just maybe it would be the cave that would save them.
Countdown: 20 Hours
Sunn watched as the flame of the small fire flickered, sending strange orange shadows over the mess area. For the last three hours, bundled up against the creeping cold, they had struggled to find any way to get some energy back into the Rattlesnake.
They had tried everything they could think of, including setting up a bike and pedaling a generator to charge a battery. The battery wouldn’t hold the charge, and the generator didn’t have enough power to work even an emergency subspace beacon.
Nothing they tried worked.
The Blackness, whatever it was, had taken every tiny bit of the ship’s energy. The only thing they had left were some old-fashioned matches that Sunn had kept in his cabin in a drawer. It had taken him, Roger, and Dar twenty minutes of floating weightless in the dark, forcing open hatchways, to find his quarters and light that first match.
The light had been a savior. The yellow flickering flame, Dar and Roger’s faces in the dark, his cabin with his unmade bed, were all gifts to stop his growing insanity in the darkness.
He had had no idea just how black total blackness could be. It had seemed to close in around him, smother him. Even though he knew the Rattlesnake inside out and backward, it had suddenly, in pitch darkness and weightlessness, seemed alien and different.
He never wanted to be in that type of darkness again.
Out of his socks, they put together some small torches to get them back to the supplies, where they figured out better, slower burning material.
But even with the flickering flame to see by, and the emergency air opened slowly into the control and engine rooms, they had been unable to get even the slightest spark from anything on the ship. Even the portable energy source they had taken onto the alien space station had been sucked dry.
The Rattlesnake was dead. Nothing more than a floating hunk of metal, slowly losing its heat to the cold of deep space.
After Dar had finally given up, and Roger agreed, Sunn had moved them to the mess area. It was the only place on the ship where there was a port looking out to the stars. It was colder there, but if he was going to die, he wanted to at least do it looking at the stars he loved.
They couldn’t see the Blackness out that port. More than likely it was long gone by now, leaving them behind just as it had left entire races in the past.
What was that thing?
Sunn had no doubt he would never find out now. Just one of the many mysteries of space. He was just sorry he wasn’t going to get to search out more of those mysteries. He so loved doing that.
They managed to build a fire in the middle of where Sunn had eaten many meals over the years, lighting the fire under one of the bolted-down tables. The slight spin of the ship created just enough gravity to hold the fire against the bottom side of the table.
He wanted the fire, even though he knew it would take their air faster. At this point Sunn knew it didn’t much matter what killed them. They were either going to freeze to death, or die from lack of oxygen. He wasn’t sure which, and he didn’t want to ask Dar to figure out what would come first.
Death was death. What did it matter how it happened, as long as it happened in space? He had never had any illusions that someday he would die in space. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
Or in this fashion. He and Roger and Dar were going to die the way the Elah had done. Those people had gathered inside, around fires, and waited to die.
They were doing the same thing.
And yet he couldn’t think of another option. Maybe this was how the Elah had felt?
“What do you think James Kirk would do in this situation?” Dar asked.
Sunn thought about it. He had no idea.
“Even the great James Kirk will someday die,” Roger said. “It happens to all of us.”
“Some of us sooner than later,” Dar said.
Sunn smiled at his two friends in the faint light of the fire. Even in an impossible situation, they were still joking. All the years together had been fun, at least for him. He just hoped they felt the same way now.
He stared at the flames as his mind slowly seemed to pull back from his cold body.
Think, dammit! There had to be a way out of this.
No power, no ability to communicate or keep up environment controls. No power at all and nothing around them but deep space.
There had to be a way out.
There had to be.
He’d think of it, right after a short nap.
Beside him Dar snored lightly, his breath coming hard.
Roger’s eyes were closed and frost had formed on the lids.
They were dying and there wasn’t anyone coming to the rescue.
With one last look at the stars he loved so much, he closed his eyes.
Just a short nap. That was all he needed.
Sunn, Dar, and Roger faced the stars, side by side, as they all had been for years.
A short time later the flame under the table went out and only the light of the stars shone on the explorers.
Chapter Twenty-one
Countdown: 1 Hour
KIRK STARED at the screen as the fuzziness cleared and the Gamma Night passed them. All the colony ships were still in place behind the small moon. Everything looked to be in perfect position, as far as he could tell visually.
“Well, here we go,” Scotty said.
“Let’s just hope we go the right direction,” McCoy said from his spot holding on to the rail.
Kirk nodded. One hour until, with luck, they crashed the small moon into the Quake Moon.
One hour to save this colony.
“All ships reporting ready,” Uhura said.
Kirk glanced around at where his science officer studied his panel. “Up to you, Mr. Spock. Lieutenant, open a channel to all ships.”
&nbs
p; “Open,” Uhura said.
“Attention,” Spock said. “All ships connect your tractor beams to your assigned position. Any ship experiencing a problem, report at once.”
The silence on the bridge seemed to get intense. Kirk glanced around at each of his officers. None of them said anything.
Then Sulu said, “Tractor beam connected. Standing by.”
Again the silence gripped the bridge as Spock waited until all ships had a chance to carry out their orders.
Kirk stared at the ships on the main screen. Somehow, they had to make this work. There was just too much riding on it.
“No reports of problems, Mr. Spock,” Uhura said.
Spock nodded. “On my mark,” Spock said to all the colony and Starfleet ships, “engage engines at one-quarter impulse and hold that speed for exactly six minutes and twelve seconds. Stand by.”
Kirk knew that many of the colony ships would never be able to sustain such a push, but at this point none of them had a choice. They had to try.
“Five seconds,” Spock said.
Again the silence on the bridge weighed down even the air. Kirk sat forward in his chair, his full attention on the screen in front of him.
“Engage engines,” Spock ordered. “One-quarter impulse, now!”
“One-quarter impulse,” Sulu said as around them the Enterprise seemed to groan and shake.
Kirk could feel the rumbling and vibration through his chair. He had no idea what it was doing to those colony ships. But he had a hunch it wasn’t good. At one-eighth impulse, many of the tractor beams and engines of the colony ships had failed over the last few days. This push was factors greater strain on them.
And needed to be maintained far, far longer.
On the screen the scene looked no different. The entire wagon train to the stars was grouped in a small cluster, all pushing on a small moon. Conestogas mixed with smaller ships. A pathfinder ship beside the coroner ship. An industrial ship side by side with the hospital ship. A very strange sight indeed as they all pushed for the very life of the colony.
“One minute,” Sulu shouted over the growing noise.
Kirk was glad that minute had gone by quickly. He checked around the bridge. McCoy nodded at him, but said nothing. All the others concentrated on their stations.
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