Once the lift doors closed, he activated his comm unit and saw Tómas looking at him with a smile.
‘I take it Vicks is doing OK.’
‘She is now. She spent several days in that Nanobiotic tank. Not only did it grow her a new pair of feet, but she’s an inch taller now. She loves it.’
‘Glad to hear she’s Ok. I’ll pass that along to the squadron.’
‘Her new Galleon will be done in forty-eight hours. I can send her back out there if...’
Straus cut him off and said, ‘No, no. That was a pretty traumatic experience and we haven’t seen the drones for a couple of days now. You keep her there, but you can send the Galleon out on automatic. I’ve got an extra pilot here without a ship.’
‘I’ll do that. I wanted to let you know about the investigation. Is it safe to talk?’
‘Yeah, I’m alone in the lift.’
‘There was a second attack, one of the techs that works for Darla. McKay sent up a couple of Interpol investigators that he knew and they were able to determine that the Bastico twins were to blame. The ambassador agreed to send them planet-side and they’re already gone.’
‘What the hell is it with those Basticos?! They're nothing but bad news. Good riddance, I say. Which Tech was it?’ asked Straus.
‘One of the new ones... Jean Hackett. She was in pretty rough shape from the industrial cleaner that was used on her. Most of the damage has been repaired, but she won’t be able to have children.’
‘What?! No one deserves that... and the Bastico twins just get to walk?’
‘Officially. Unofficially... I understand that all that bad karma may be catching up to them.’
‘Oh, I’ll definitely be interested to hear how that turns out. In the meantime, I’ll let Darla know.’
‘So how's it going out there?’
‘The Mackenzie is back on duty. Impact in forty eight hours.’
‘Just to let you know the spotlight will be on you. Hubble will be watching the collision along with observatories from around the world. It tops the news everyday now, so don’t screw up.’
Straus laughed and said, ‘Yeah... no pressure.’
Chapter 11
JUST A WALK IN THE PARK
The final few hours passed uneventfully, and the last few minutes of towing was coming to an end. Darla was carefully monitoring the deflection and the computer’s updated recommendations.
‘Have the Colorado power down it's beam in one minute, starting... now,’ said Darla.
‘Colorado, stand-by to power down,’ said Straus watching the timer count down to zero, then said, ‘Disengage.’
‘Five more minutes for the Mackenzie,’ said Darla.
Straus nodded and looked at the main view screen. The Colorado moved off and joined the Adamant. Both asteroids were now in view and the gap between them was closing fast. The computer struggled with fine tuning the final impact, as the gravitational forces between the two asteroids had an ever increasing effect.
‘I have new thrust vectors for the Mackenzie. I’m uploading them to her Nav system,’ said Darla. After another few moments, she said, ‘The numbers are changing too fast, I’m having the computer update the thrust vectors directly.’
The computer was now in effect controlling the transport. Straus could see it shift course, first in one direction, then in another. It finally steadied up a full ninety degrees from where it had started.
‘One minute,’ said Darla.
‘Mackenzie, stand-by to cut your beam,’ said Straus. He watched the timer count down and said, ‘Mackenzie, disengage.’
Straus watched the transport power down it's beam and move off to join the flight group. The Adamant maintained it's position as the computer continued to update the trajectories of both asteroids.
‘The asteroids are accelerating toward each other. New estimate to impact is twenty minutes,’ said Darla.
‘Transports, proceed to your assigned observation points. Phoenix squadron, launch the probes,’ said Straus.
The transports moved out in front of the asteroids to record the collision from multiple angles. Darla and Coop had worked out the optimal vantage points and Straus was going to cover a third location with his two-man Ninja.
The ships of Phoenix squadron launched the sensor probes which would form a grid pattern on both asteroids so that stress data could be collected.
Turning to the cameraman on the bridge, Straus said, ‘Let’s go. You have the conn, Mr. Burke.’
They took the lift down to the Flight Bay and headed for Straus’s ship. After launching they flew to a point out in front and above the calculated collision point, so they could monitor the impact.
‘Five minutes to impact,’ said Darla watching from the lab.
‘All ships are in position,’ reported Straus.
Straus’s palms were beginning to sweat as the anticipation grew. The gap between the two asteroids was closing and time seemed to slow down.
The two giant bodies approached each other, seemingly in slow motion. The tension mounted as weeks worth of work was coming to a head. Straus started to break out in a cold sweat, as doubt crept into his mind. Would these miles-wide icy bodies hold together? What if they fractured? Would there be enough time to deal with the pieces before hitting Earth? How many millions might die because of his plan. His career... his life would be over.
He was vaguely aware of hearing Darla say, ‘Thirty seconds.’
Finally the smaller faster asteroid made contact plowing into the larger asteroid. A spray of pulverized ice shot out in all directions forming an expanding disc of debris from the point of impact. A brilliant light formed at the point of contact from the extreme friction of the impact. The smaller asteroid kicked out larger and larger chunks of debris as it slowly plowed into the surface. The light faded and it seemed that the asteroids, for a moment, had stopped.
Straus was beginning to worry that they might not separate at all, but then he noticed that the trajectory of the larger asteroid had shifted noticeably. The point of impact was obscured by the debris cloud but it did look as if the two bodies were beginning to move away from each other.
Finally after several long minutes he could see space between the two asteroids as the impact nudged them both onto new headings. Straus started breathing again, as he was relieve to see that they held together. The debris cloud that was produced was smaller than he expected, with chunks ranging from dust-size to bus-size.
‘It worked! The computer has confirmed that they are both on safe trajectories. The debris field is expected to disperse somewhat before it reaches Earth’s orbit in eight months,’ said Darla. Straus could hear the cheering in the background as others in the lab celebrated their success.
Straus went limp in his seat and relaxed while he muttered to himself, 'Thank God.'
The various ships continued to monitor the asteroids for another hour. Straus made a couple of low passes over the impact points as per Darla’s request, to capture images to accompany the sensor data that was collected.
Two hours later, all of the fighters had returned to the Adamant, and they were, at last, on they're way back to the station.
The task force warped back into the Station’s perimeter. The transports headed for the transport Bay and the Adamant moved into position near the docking collar. While Captain Burke was handling docking, Straus noticed that the domed park was completely enclosed and could see that the interior lights were on.
After docking Straus made his way off the bridge. The film crew gathered it's gear and the Straussers escorted them off the Adamant. Just outside the docking collar, there were many people gathered to greet those disembarking, among them were Tómas and Vicks.
‘Welcome back. Nicely done,’ said Tómas.
‘Thanks. I’m glad that’s over with,’ said Straus. Then seeing Vicks, he gave her a hug and said, ‘I’m glad to see you’re ok.’
‘I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. I owe you one.’
‘No problem. I’d hate to lose my favorite Galleon pilot.’
‘And check it out... I’m an inch taller now!’
Straus looked down at her legs, but couldn’t really see that she looked any taller. He smiled and said, ‘That’s great!’
Tómas turned to Coop and said, ‘Well, what do you think of our little operation, Mr. Cooper?’
He shook his head in disbelief and wonder, and after groping for words, said, ‘I don’t know what they’re paying you guys... but it's not enough. Its absolutely amazing. I’m not sure how I’m going to edit all of this together to make it believable and not have it come off as some sort of big-budget sci-fi movie.’
Tómas laughed, and said, ‘I’m sure you’ll do us proud.’
‘I mentioned to Coop that if he does a good job, that perhaps it would be easier working with a crew that we know and trust, rather than having to train a new film crew every time some outfit wanted to do a documentary.'
‘That’s a possibility, but I’m not making any promises until I see the final product,’ said Tómas.
‘Then I’ll be sure to do my best work. Now that things have settled down a little, do you suppose we could have a more extensive tour of the station?’
‘Of course. I’m assigning Master Sergeant Cavanaugh here as your liaison. She’ll see to it after she gets you set up with quarters.’
‘Thank you Commodore.’
Before the sergeant could lead the film crew away, Dr. Ames stepped forward and said, ‘I wanted to let you know that your Ninja made it back. The sooner we can meet the better.’
Straus sighed and said, ‘Whatever it is can wait until morning. We need a breather. Let’s get all the principal parties together in the morning after the flight briefings.’
‘I’ll set it up,’ said Ames as he walked away.
‘Is that something I should be there for?’ asked Coop.
‘Probably. We’ll look at the data and formulate a plan for the next mission. Once we do that you can decide if you want to go along or head home to work on what you have already.’
Coop nodded and turned to follow the master sergeant. The rest of the group went their separate ways with Straus and Darla heading for their quarters to rest up, shower, and change before dinner.
The next morning after the flight briefings, they gathered in the C&C conference room. Present at the meeting was Tómas, the Straussers, Dr. Ames, Col. Bernal, and Coop with his crew. Once the cameras were rolling, Coop nodded to Straus.
Straus said, 'Good morning everyone. We're here today to find out what our probe discovered about the Drones in the outer solar system. We sent it out there to determine what sort of operation they have in place that enables them to launch those objects at earth. I've asked Dr. Ames to also give us some background to make sure we're all on the same page. Doctor?'
Ames stood and brought up an image on the wall screen, ‘Thank you Commodore.'
On the screen was a diagram of the solar system.
'Just to put things in perspective, this is the solar system out to Pluto. You may recall that it was reclassified as a minor or dwarf planet back in 2006 when it was determined to be just one of a great number of objects out beyond Neptune.'
Ames zoomed out the image on the screen which showed a belt of objects in the outer solar system and continued.
'This region is known as the Kuiper belt and extends from Neptune at 30AU, that is 30 times the distance from the earth to the sun, out to a distance of 50AU. Its similar to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in that it's comprised of a great many small objects with a sprinkling of larger objects, such as Pluto. The Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBO's, that were launched at earth came from this region.'
'Our Ninja probe that we sent was cloaked and began by examining the area from which the KBO's were launched. It spotted drone capital ships coming and going along a line outbound from Area X. It looked as if they may have been searching for another suitable projectile, but nothing has been launched yet.’
‘That’s good to hear,’ said Straus.
‘And... by the time they get one in position, we’ll be out of range.’
‘Out of range?’
‘The drones had been taking advantage of a peculiar alignment of Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter to target Earth as we circle the sun. That alignment has shifted to work against them. Their next favorable window will be in eight months.’
He then used the remote and zoomed the image out even farther showing objects out beyond the Kuiper belt. He pointed out one particularly large object and continued explaining.
'Beyond the Kuiper belt lies a region known as the Scattered Disc. It extends from 50AU out to about 100AU. It is a much less organized area and objects there usually have eccentric orbits. One of the largest of these Scattered Disc Objects, or SDO's, is the minor planet Eris. None of the KBO's or SDO's would make a suitable base for the Drones, because those objects are made of ices and do not contain the metals and minerals that the Drones would require. So, the question became, what is out there that they could be using as a base.'
The imaged zoomed out even further and showed one particular object that was out over twice as far as Eris.
'Our probe followed a squadron of Drones into deep space beyond what is considered the Scattered Disc out to a distance of 200AU.'
On the screen was what at first glance looked like a dark red snowball. The images advanced as the Ninja closed in, and the snowball resolved into a planet somewhat larger than earth.
‘Based on the data the Ninja collected, it has roughly twice the mass of earth and approximately 200AU away. The surface is mostly methane ice that has ablated unevenly forming jagged peaks and valleys.’
‘Then this is a newly discovered planet?’ asked Darla.
‘Correct. We've submitted the discovery to the IAU, and they've given it a temporary designation of 2015JJ2. My buddy Mark Baker at Pacific Tech is really excited about the discovery and thinks that this might be the actual fabled “Planet X” that they've been looking for since the 1930's. You'll notice that it's surface is a dim dark red, darker than the KBO's making it too difficult to detect from earth with our current technology.'
'An ice ball like that wouldn't make a very good base. What are they doing out there?' asked Straus.
'Well, I don't believe it is an ice ball. I'm guessing that it has some sort of rocky core, possibly mineral rich. Because you're right, they're using it as a base, so it must have the resources. How it came to be out there we don't have a clue, but it is, and now we have to decide what to do about it.'
'Dang... and they've had plenty of time to dig in and exploit it.'
Ames nodded and advanced the image using the remote saying, 'This next image is the one for concern.’
On the screen was a close up of the opening of one of the access shafts. It showed a Tank with an escort of mini-drones.
‘What are we looking at... a tank with a cloud of small satellite drones?’ asked Straus.
‘No. That’s the problem. Those are normal size drones surrounding some sort of super-sized drone. Its ten or twelve times larger than the standard drone, larger than one of our transports.’
‘Ho... ly... crap,’ said Bernie.
‘And it's just not a super-Tank either,’ said Ames. He advanced to the next image which showed a super-sized Boxer with six large forward firing weapons emitters.
‘Great... just... great. Any other surprises?’ asked Straus.
‘The fun doesn’t stop there,’ said Ames advancing to the next image. ‘Not only is there at least a half a dozen Goliath capital ships... but, there’s at least a dozen of the Death Blossom capital ships that we saw at First Strike.’
Straus looked to Tómas and said, ‘Looks like they are gearing up for a major assault. We'll be over run. We're going to have to get out there and stop them before they launch. We’re going to need that second carrier... and at least two more full squadrons. What can we do?’
<
br /> Tómas thought about that for a moment as he consulted his electronic slate. He looked up and said, ‘We’ve already got a start on the second carrier out in space dock. We can shift our internal production to start cranking out the new updated Samurai. It has more powerful shields and weapons than our current stock as well as the warp supercharger. I can expand the production facilities at Corvus Bravo, and have them construct the updated Galleon and Ninja class ships.’
He paused as he went about making some calculations. Ames continued by advancing through the next few general images and speaking at the same time.
Corvus Prime: Escalation Page 15