Corvus Prime: Escalation

by C. Cougar Sanborn

  ‘I know that this is difficult. Would you like to take a break?’ asked Tómas.

  ‘No Sir. I want to get it all out, while it's still fresh.’

  ‘What happened next?’ asked Schmidt.

  ‘After he was finished, he stuck something... in me... and I heard a pouring sound. It started burning my insides and I let out a muffled scream. He jammed the stun device into my neck and I passed out. The next thing I can remember, I woke up in that tank in the other room.’

  ‘I think we have all we need. Thank you,’ said Schmidt.

  They left the room and were about to leave the medical wing when Dr. Wadell stopped them and said, ‘I wanted to let you know that I’m sending for a colleague that specializes in counseling rape cases. She’ll be coming up today.’

  ‘Good. Whatever she needs to get through this,’ said Tómas.

  ‘There’s one more thing that you should know. She’ll never be able to have children of her own. Her ovaries were destroyed and that’s something that the nanobots just can’t fix.’

  Tómas shook his head sadly and after groping for words, said, ‘Damn. That's really tragic. Thanks for letting me know.’

  As they walked down the corridor, Tómas said, ‘Somebody is going to pay. Now what?’

  ‘I have a suspicion. I need to question the Bastico twins again.’

  They headed for the Italian Embassy and were escorted into the same conference room as before. Schmidt asked Tómas to remain silent and let him handle it. A few minutes went by before the ambassador came in.

  ‘You have some follow up questions, Inspector?’ asked Bastico.

  ‘Just a few more questions for your sons. If you could bring them both in here, then we can quickly clear this up.’

  Bastico got a nervous look and said, ‘Dante is studying for exams, but I can bring Angelo in.’

  ‘I really need to speak to them together. It will only take a few moments. There isn’t a problem is there?’

  Bastico had the look of a cornered animal, but said, ‘No problem. I’ll have them brought in.’

  Ten minutes went by and the ambassador and his sons came in and sat down. Angelo was wearing a black t-shirt. He sat facing Dante and was careful not to show his left cheek. Dante was wearing a dress shirt and tie, with the top button undone and the tie loosened. All three of them looked nervous.

  ‘Are those scratches on your face Angelo?’ asked Schmidt.

  ‘Yes, my mother slapped me for talking back. It was an accident.’

  ‘I see. The DNA results came back from the assault on Airman Allegret. I’m afraid they point to you, Angelo.’

  ‘What?! There must be some mistake. I was here playing my video games that night.’

  ‘In addition, there was another attack last night. A young lady was viciously raped. Unfortunately she couldn’t tell us anything before she died as a result of the cleaner you poured into her. That’s first degree murder, and they have the death penalty here.’

  Tómas nodded, crossed his arms, and glared at Angelo.

  ‘What?! That wasn’t me. I really was here last night.’

  ‘When we send the samples out for DNA testing, I’m sure that they’ll point to you as well.’

  ‘Ok, Ok, I did watch the pilot in the shower and we struggled, but I didn’t rape anyone. When I came home that night, I was scared and told Dante. He said he’d cover for me. He played both of us for the first interviews.’

  ‘Idiot. He’s bluffing. There was no DNA to collect,’ said Dante.

  ‘And you would know that, how?’ asked Schmidt.

  ‘Uh... because you said some sort of cleaner was used. Ang, why? You didn’t have to kill her.’

  ‘You... you jackass. You’re framing me. I was here all last night and I have a dozen witnesses to prove it. I was playing on-line with a headset and webcam. You can check. Why? Why are you setting me up? We’re suppose to be covering for each other.’

  ‘Why? I’ll tell you why, brother... because you’re a loser. You’ve always been a loser... a poor student... in with the wrong crowd... no ambition... and still you were always Father’s favorite. It just isn’t fair. I’ve worked hard for good grades. I’m making a future for myself that doesn’t rely on the family name or it's money. I figured if I made you look even worse, then I’d be the favorite.’

  ‘I’m so disappointed in the both of you. You have brought dishonor to the family name.’

  ‘Ha! Look who’s talking. If it wasn’t for your money, you’d be in prison... or dead,’ said Dante.

  The ambassador slapped his face and said, ‘Not another word... from either of you.’

  Schmidt looked to the twins and said, ‘I’m afraid that I have no choice, but to declare you both Persona non Grata. You will no longer be able to leave the embassy without an armed escort of station security.

  Tómas looked to the ambassador and said, ‘If they’re not off this station in forty-eight hours, we’re going to pull our embassy out of Italy and break off relations... and yes... I can.

  The ambassador turned to his sons and said, ‘You have a choice. You can face criminal charges for what you’ve done, or return planet-side and join the armed forces. I’ll even let you have your pick.’ Turning to Harrison he said, ‘They’ll be out of here in twenty-four hours.’

  With that settled, Tómas, Schmidt and Johann left the Italian Embassy. As they were taking the lift to Harrison’s office, he said, ‘You’re quite the actor Inspector.’

  ‘Not one of my better performances, but it got the job done.’

  ‘So they just get to walk away? No penalties?’ asked Tómas.

  ‘It will go into their records, but officially, we can’t touch them. Of course there are... unofficial channels, but I can’t advise you on those. If they do go back to Earth, then the ladies could pursue civil suits against them, but don’t look for justice in the Italian court system, and good luck getting them extradited back here.’

  ‘Unofficial channels it is then, but you didn’t hear that from me,’ said Tómas.

  Chapter 10

  HIDDEN COST

  Two hours after leaving the station, the Adamant was decelerating into the vicinity of 2015HK3 and 2015HK4. Directly ahead was the nearest asteroid. It had the same dark red appearance as the first one they dealt with. The Adamant swung around and steadied up on a course trailing behind the first asteroid about ten miles back.

  Coop was in the main lab on the Adamant with Darla. They had a direct comm link with the bridge and were monitoring the mission from there. Coop was watching the monitors intently.

  ‘McCandless, this is Straus. Move the Colorado into position for the test.’

  ‘Acknowledged,’ came the reply.

  ‘What’s happening now, Doctor?’ asked Coop.

  ‘The first step is to determine the mass of each asteroid, so we can more accurately calculate the trajectories we need in order to achieve the desired ricochet impact. We do that by applying a measured amount of force and then monitor the deflection.’

  The Colorado moved to within towing range and established a low-power, defocused graviton beam.

  ‘We’re in position,’ reported McCandless.

  ‘Ready Doctor?’ asked Straus looking to the comm screen.

  ‘We’re ready here,’ said Darla as she made sure that the sensors were recording the data.

  ‘You have a go, Colorado. Engage,’ said Straus.

  McCandless increased power to the graviton beam and countered the pull with increased thrust. It took about a minute to smoothly ramp up the power.

  ‘We’re at full power on the beam,’ said McCandless.

  ‘Very well. Maintain that attitude,’ said Straus.

  Coop was watching the action and said, ‘When you mentioned that these asteroids were frozen ices, I was expecting to see a white snowball, or maybe even a black snowball if it had collected a bunch of space dust... but dark red?’

  ‘Its a mixture of water ice, methane ice, am
monia ice, along with other trace organics. Eons of exposure to the sun, even in deep space has sort of cooked the surface creating a variety of organic compounds that produce that distinctive color,’ said Darla.

  After fifteen minutes, Darla said, ‘That’s good there. We have the data that we need from this one.’

  Straus nodded to the screen and said, ‘Colorado, disengage the beam and form up on us.’

  ‘Roger that, Sir.’

  After ramping down the power on the tow beam, the transport moved away and returned to it's previous position behind the Adamant.

  ‘The computer estimates it's mass at 73 billion tons. That’s about twelve percent more massive than the last one we dealt with. We’re ready to measure the second one,’ said Darla to Straus via the comm screen.

  Straus nodded and had Captain Burke set course for the second asteroid. A few minutes later they were pulling in behind it and once again the Colorado moved into position to test it's mass. After the data was collected, Straus ordered the transport back into formation.

  ‘The second asteroid measures in at 60 billion tons. I’m feeding the mass and trajectory data into the computer to calculate the ricochet. It will take some time for it to determine the optimum corrections.’ said Darla.

  The computer was programmed to minimize the impact forces on the asteroids, yet produce enough deflection so that both would be steered away from Earth. The system ran the variables, calculated probabilities, and started eliminating some of the millions of scenarios that had been calculated.

  Once the computer was left with the ten best choices, it began detailed calculations, taking into account gravitational effects of the planets, solar radiation effects, and long term celestial mechanical effects.

  In the end, one simulation of a glancing blow was produced which minimized the debris field that would be produced by the impact, yet send both asteroids into safe trajectories that would produce stable orbits. It calculated the course corrections needed on both asteroids, including the thrust vectors that the transports would need to maintain as well as the time table for the entire operation.

  Straus, Darla, and Coop were having breakfast in the cafeteria when the computer notified her the results were in. She pulled out her electronic slate and reviewed the scenario.

  ‘We’ll need to return to the first asteroid so we can begin with the heavier mass. I’m sending the thrust vectors to the transports nav systems now,’ said Darla.

  Straus pulled out his comm device and ordered the flight group back to the first asteroid.

  ‘We will need to stop the rotation of both asteroids, in order to minimize the side spin effects. Here’s what the computer thinks it will look like,’ said Darla playing the simulation of the impact.

  ‘That’s quite a lot of debris,’ said Straus.

  ‘It looks worse than it really is. Its less than a million tons. Most of the pieces are smaller than a basketball. It will produce a spectacular meteor shower, but even the larger pieces should burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Of course, we’ll have to see what really happens before we can relax,’ said Darla

  ‘Just as long as we don’t have to worry about Trifids,’ said Coop with a smile.

  Straus and Darla gave him a puzzled look, and he said, ‘Trifids... the walking killer plants from that old movie. It started with a spectacular meteor shower that left most everyone blind. What? You’ve never seen it? It’s a classic old Sci-Fi.’

  ‘Probably best not to mention it, until after the meteor storm. We wouldn’t want to start a panic,’ said Straus. He gave Darla a wink and she turned away to hide her smile.

  ‘Its just an old movie,’ said Coop with a sullen tone.

  Straus headed for the bridge, while Darla and Coop headed for the lab. The Adamant fell in behind the first asteroid to monitor the deflection, while the transports moved into position. The Colorado moved behind the asteroid to slow it down, while the Mackenzie was applying force at an angle to stop it's rotation and to pull it to the right and slightly down.

  ‘How long do we need to maintain this, Doctor?’ asked Straus via the comm screen after the transports were at full power.

  ‘Just over eight and half days.’

  ‘And then what?’ asked Coop.

  ‘Then we move to the second asteroid and pull it into an intercept course. Let’s just hope we don’t run into trouble.’

  ‘Trouble?’ asked Coop.

  ‘The drones tried to stop us from interfering the last time. We lost four pilots, a transport, and three fighters.’

  ‘That’s something we don’t hear about back home... the cost. We just hear about the results,’ said Coop.

  That night at dinner Coop joined the Straussers for some informal chitchat. What with being plied with questions for days, Straus and Darla felt the need for a little payback and Coop agreed to it.

  They had no sooner started their wine, when Coop asked, 'So, who's going to start?'

  Straus jumped right in and asked, 'I'll go first. How long have you been in the business?'

  'I started making documentaries in High School, went to UCLA through their film program, majoring in documentaries. Was hired right out of college by Nat Geo. I was there a few years, went independent for nearly ten, but went back to Nat Geo and have been there for the last ten.'

  'Never married?' asked Darla nodding to his empty ring finger.

  'There were a few near Mrs. ...as I like to say.'

  Straus laughed and said, 'That's good. Never heard that one.'

  'Seriously though. I'm now engaged to a wonderful gal in Public Relations at Nat Geo. If there is a tomorrow for mankind, we'll definitely be getting married.'

  The questions continued through dinner and they were now enjoying a cup of coffee. After a few moments of silence Coop spoke up.

  'Well, since it looks like you two amateurs are running out of questions, let me ask you one that's been bothering me for awhile.'

  'Mr. Cooper has the floor.' said Straus as he saluted him with his coffee cup.

  Coop looked around and gestured to the surroundings and said, 'All this technology. Decades, maybe centuries beyond what we have on earth... why are you just sitting on it and not sharing it with the world? I mean... what makes you any better than us to be the guardians?'

  Straus got a little indignant, set his coffee down abruptly, and said, 'The Corvan's handed a loaded gun to a toddler and left. A lot of good people died trying to figure this stuff out, and a lot of them were my friends. Through that sorrow and sacrifice we earned the right to make that call. Most of this stuff is way too dangerous, and in the wrong hands could destroy us all.'

  Darla spoke up hoping to break the mounting tension and said, 'First of all, even we don't have this all figured out yet. Much of it is guess work and we've nearly destroyed ourselves a couple of times. We don't even have a theoretical understanding for our energy source. That being said, we have started to share some of the technology. There are over two dozen DEP reactors in place planet-side providing electricity to the ever-growing demand. We've provided three major teaching medical universities with the Nanobiotic tanks so that they can help us study the technology. For the most part however, there just hasn't been time. Our research efforts are directed toward winning this war, not figuring out how to put the technology to use in civilian applications.'

  'That's a good point,' said Coop. 'They're both really good points. I imagine if we come through this, and eradicate the Drones from our system then you'll have more time to look into things like that.'

  'Don't get the idea that if we kick the Drones off of X that this is over. They are like a cancer spreading through the body of our galaxy. Just because we eradicate that cancer in our little toe doesn't mean that we should ignore the rest of the body. If we do, it won't be long before they're back to finish us off.'

  'And how do you plan to address that? How do you fight a war over those kinds of distances?'

  'We don't know yet. The Corvans and the D
rones seem to be able to travel those interstellar distances. The Corvans also said that there are other races out there also fighting against the Drones, and that in time they'll become our allies. Its possible... I'm hoping at least, that they will show us when the time is right. At the moment we're... auditioning and proving ourselves worthy to be allies.'

  Darla made the same all-inclusive hand gesture and said, 'It could well be that the technology for interstellar travel is right here at our fingertips and we just don't know how to access it yet.'

  'That's probably a good place to stop. I've got an early morning,' said Straus.