Star One: Tycho City Survival

by Weil, Raymond L.

  Anthony nodded. He knew that twelve thousand people were not a lot to start a new civilization if the neutron star destroyed life on Earth. However, it was a lot more than what they had a few months back. Now they just needed to survive.

  -

  Lieutenant Lewis was sitting on the edge of his foxhole. The fighting was over, and they had been told they could go home. He stood up and looked at a long row of body bags that contained the dead from the recent battle. At the moment, both forces were intermixed as they tended to their dead and injured. He walked up to one of the body bags, unzipped the top, and gazed down at Corporal Higgins. He had been cut down toward the end of the fighting by machine gun fire from an armored personnel carrier.

  Looking around, Lewis realized that only two others from his original squad had survived. Lewis would write a letter to Corporal Higgins’s parents letting them know how their son had died. He knew Higgins also had a girlfriend, but he wasn’t sure where she lived. Higgins’ parents would have to let her know that the corporal wasn’t coming home. The dead would be buried here where they had fallen in service to their country. With a heavy sigh, Higgins knew the world would never be the same; he just prayed that it had all been worth it.

  -

  Deep in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Warren Timmons let out a deep sigh of regret. His heart was still pounding at hearing of the deaths of Jane and Tim. He had known both extremely well. He was in the Command Center of the large underground bunker that he had been entrusted with. It was sealed up, and the entrance had been camouflaged to avoid detection.

  Inside he had 6,240 people entrusted to his care. “What’s the current status on supplies and construction?” he asked, turning to look at Major Burns who was the highest ranking military officer in the bunker.”

  “We have enough supplies for six years,” Burns responded. “We’ll have all of the interior work done in another two months. The civilian quarters still need a lot of work to finish up.”

  Timmons nodded as he looked around the large Command Center at the busy people who sat in front of consoles and viewscreens. From here, they could monitor the entire complex as well as conditions outside. Hidden cameras gave them a good view of everything within several miles of the bunker. They also still had a few satellites they could tap into to monitor communications from around the country and the world. There were twenty highly trained men and women currently staffing the Command Center. Timmons just hoped they continued to go undetected. He didn’t want to think what would happen if Senator Farley found out about the two hidden bunkers and the people within.

  -

  Lieutenant Lewis had finally made it home to Tulsa Oklahoma. He managed to catch a ride on a semi carrying a load of oil field pipe to Cushing. His wife had been staying with his parents on some acreage they owned between Tulsa and Owasso. The semi driver had been polite enough to go out of his way to drop Lewis off at the end of the long winding driveway that led to his parent’s home.

  His parents lived in the center of a four hundred acre plot of land. The land had a number of small hills covered in trees and thick brush with the large wood frame house setting between two of them. If you missed the driveway, you would never know the house was there.

  Lewis was halfway up the long driveway when he heard a young boy scream. “Dad! It’s Dad!”

  Lewis looked up and saw his seven-year-old son running down the driveway as fast as he could. He dropped his duffel bag and rushed forward, meeting his son, lifting him up, and hugging him tightly. “Hello, Nate,” Lewis said, thrilled to be able to hold his son in his arms. “Where’s your mom?”

  “She’s in the house with grandpa and grandma.”

  Lewis put his son down and, walking back, picked up his bag. Then taking his son’s hand, they walked quickly to the house. He couldn’t wait to see his wife and parents.

  Emily Lewis stepped outside to see what her young son was screaming about this time. She dropped the historical romance novel she had been reading when she spotted her husband Trace coming up the long drive with Nate. She ran down the three steps of the porch and was soon wrapped up in Trace’s arms.

  “I was afraid you weren’t coming back,” she choked out, her eyes filled with tears. “They said on the TV that the fighting at the cape was horrible and thousands of soldiers and civilians had been killed.”

  “It was bad,” Trace admitted as he released his wife. He saw his parents come out to stand on the porch. His father had a big all knowing smile on his face. “A lot of good men and women lost their lives in the battle.”

  “I’m just glad you’re safe and uninjured,” Emily managed to force out.

  She could feel her heart racing and felt as if she were about to faint. Emily took several long deep breaths. It had been so difficult not knowing where Trace was or what had happened to him. They knew he had gone with General Karver to the cape, but little else.

  “Let’s go talk to Mom and Dad; we have some things we need to discuss,” Trace said as he released his wife.

  “What type of things?” Emily asked, her eyes glistening from her tears. “The fighting’s over and the government will soon sort all of this out.”

  Trace didn’t respond; he hated to be the bearer of bad news. While at the cape, he had heard a lot of rumors about this supposed neutron star.

  A short while later, the family was sitting around the large kitchen table, and Trace was enjoying some of his mother’s ice tea. He took a deep drink and smiled. “They have nothing like this in the marines!”

  “What’s going on, Trace?” his father asked in his deep voice. “We’ve heard so many rumors it’s hard to tell fact from fiction.”

  Trace leaned back, hearing his chair creak and seeing his mother give him a sharp frown, he edged back forward with his left hand wrapped around his ice tea glass. “What do you know about this neutron star that’s been on the news?”

  “Everyone says it’s not real that President Kateland made it all up,” his father answered. “It’s been on all the news stations for days about how it was all fake. They have shown numerous astronomers saying that it was all a hoax in order to get the government to drastically increase the space budget.”

  “Well, it’s real,” Trace replied, his eyes taking on a serious look. “My marines and I just spent the last several months watching as every type of emergency supply and equipment you can imagine was launched from the cape up to Star One and Tycho City. They also sent close to ten thousand people up as well. You don’t spend that kind of money and risk losing the country over a lie.”

  His father let out a deep breath and shook his head. “I was afraid of that. I voted for Susan Kateland in both elections. It just didn’t seem possible to me that she would make up such a story and lie to the people of this country.”

  “Trace, what’s going to happen?” his wife asked with a frightened look on her face. She was holding their young son in her lap. She had hoped now that Trace was back their lives would return to normal and they could go back home to Tulsa.

  “I heard some people talking once while I was on guard detail at the cape,” Trace spoke as he recalled the worrisome conversation. “They were saying this neutron star will dramatically affect the Earth. They were talking about massive storms and extremely violent earthquakes. There was even some talk about a lot of volcanoes erupting and causing a nuclear winter.”

  The room was silent, and his father looked over at Trace’s mom, who nodded. Trace didn’t know everything that had been going on at the farm. There were a few things that James had kept secret from Trace, feeling that his son would have disapproved.

  James stood up as he reached a decision. “Trace, come with me. I want to show you something.”

  Trace stood up and followed his father out of the house; he saw they were going out to where his father had the large family storm cellar built into the side of a small hill a short distance from the house. With the tornado threat in Oklahoma, it wasn’t uncommon for homes to have
a shelter. There was a smaller shelter next to the house, but the big one had been built when his mother had complained about being claustrophobic in the smaller one and worried that the house could fall on the shelter if a tornado hit.

  “Dad, I’ve been in the storm shelter before, what is it you want to show me?”

  His father didn’t reply as he opened the large heavy wood door and began descending the steps. As they reached the bottom, Trace could feel how much cooler it was in the shelter compared to outside. The storm shelter was also used to store canned food and other necessities. His father lit a Coleman lantern and then turned to face Trace.

  “Years ago, I joined a survivalist group,” his father began his eyes focusing on his son.

  “A survivalist group?” Trace echoed in surprise.

  He had never heard this before. Of course, his wife and he had been living in one of the suburbs of Tulsa and only visited his parents every other weekend. But he had never imagined his father joining one of those crazy groups.

  “Yes, a survivalist group,” replied James, nodding his head. “As you know, we’ve always been well off from some oil and gas properties I own out in Western Oklahoma in Custer and Washita counties.”

  James walked over to a large cabinet that contained blankets, and enough food and water for two weeks. This was normal for a storm shelter, as you never knew how long it might be necessary to take shelter from a severe storm or how long it might be before you could get back into town to get supplies.

  James reached behind the cabinet and unhooked a hidden latch. Instantly, the cabinet swung out, revealing a heavy metal door, which had been hidden behind it. The door had a combination lock and James rapidly moved the tumblers to the correct combination and then pushed the door open. Stepping inside, he reached over and turned on the lights.

  Trace stepped inside, his eyes widening in shock. “What is this place?”

  They were in a long, brightly lit corridor with several doors on each side and what looked like a junction at the end of the corridor that led to other areas. James opened one of the nearer doors and stepped inside, motioning for Trace to follow him.

  Trace entered the room behind his father and looked around in shock. The room they were in was full of shelves and cabinets stocked full of food and water and about everything else you could possibly need to survive. On the far wall, he saw a weapons cabinet with a number of shotguns and automatic assault rifles.

  “A number of us got together and secretly built this survival bunker,” James explained as he led Trace down the aisles between the supplies. “It has two water wells drilled down deep to furnish water. There are two wind generators on the far side of the hill out of sight to furnish power. In addition, we have batteries that can provide electricity for forty-eight hours if the wind stops blowing. There are also two large diesel generators in a concrete blockhouse behind the hill that can power everything in an emergency if necessary.”

  “This is amazing,” Trace replied as they reached the weapons cabinet. He saw a number of twelve gauge shotguns as well as AR15s of both 22 and 223 calibers and other weapons.

  “How many people is there room for?” asked Trace, looking over at his father. He couldn’t believe this had been on the farm all this time and he hadn’t known about it.

  “We can put twenty-eight people in here comfortably,” James responded. “Thirty-five at the most.”

  Trace nodded. “I want to see the rest of it. I’m afraid we’re going to need it shortly if what I heard at the cape is true.” Trace paused and looked seriously at his father. “Dad, I’m really glad you and your friends built this. You may have just saved our lives.”

  James nodded. His wife Alice had always given him a hard time about building the bunker; now he was glad that he had. If what Trace was saying was correct, it just might be their salvation.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mase was standing in the large cavern that would eventually house the future Tycho City. In the distance, he could see excavators still at work and hear occasional explosions as mountains of dirt and rock were blasted out of the distant wall.

  “How much longer until the excavating is complete?” asked Mase, glancing over at Steffan Darrow. Mase knew that Steffan was spending most of his time supervising the excavation to make sure everything stayed on schedule.

  Mase wanted to get started on the interior as soon as possible. The original Tyco City cavern was overflowing with people even though Doctor Klein was in the process of putting hundreds of people into deep sleep. Captain Struthers’ people were helping in the construction of the deep sleep chambers along with a number of qualified people from the survivors that had been brought up to the Moon. A lot of progress was being made, but they still had a lot of work to do.

  “Another week and we will have the excavating finished,” replied Steffan, turning to face Mase. “We have already started on the roof and some of the support structures. It will take us an additional six weeks to finish that. In the meantime, we can actually start on the infrastructure for the new Tyco City as well as the ecological systems we want to install. I have already spoken to Jolene about that, and she is supposed to have a completed plan for us to review in another few days.”

  “Speaking of Jolene, I want to go check on this habitat of hers. I understand she is finished with the first one.”

  “It’s fantastic what she has done in there,” Steffan responded with a big grin on his face. “We’ll have the second chamber finished sometime next week, and she will be starting on that one shortly.”

  “We’re going to need them,” responded Mase, recalling the food and water usage currently occurring in Tycho City. “We need to get some additional food sources going, or we will find ourselves eating MREs.”

  “I will tell my crews that,” Steffan promised with a grin. “They will do anything to stay away from having to eat those readymade meals.”

  Mase nodded. While he shared Steffan’s viewpoint about the MREs, they would suffice if needed. However, if they could get the second food cavern finished they might not have to worry about that. He would prefer to save the MREs for an emergency.

  Linda had furnished the data for him on their food and water usage, and he knew they really needed to start raising more of their own food quickly. They were also putting a heavy strain on the city’s recycling systems, and Isaac was in the process of adding more water purification and recovery systems. Isaac had assured him the water problem would be solved within a week and they would not have to resort to rationing.

  “MREs,” Steffan muttered with a frown, still thinking about the readymade meals and recalling the numerous cases of emergency food in one of the storage areas in Tycho City. “They’re not bad, but I definitely prefer real food.”

  “They will get us by in an emergency,” Mase replied as he studied the work going on around him. Numerous work lights throughout the cavern made everything easy to see. He spent a few moments watching some workers pour the footing for one of the large roof support beams. “We have enough MREs to feed everyone three meals a day for four years if need be.”

  “If we can get both of those ecological habitats up and running, plus enough people into deep sleep, those might not be needed,” Steffan commented as he watched the workers pouring the footing critically. He would see if he couldn’t rearrange some work schedules so they could finish the other habitat quicker.

  “I guess I will go see what Jolene has done,” Mase responded with a friendly nod. “Keep me informed of progress.”

  Steffan nodded and walked over to where the workers were pouring the support footing. He wanted to ensure everything was being done right. As soon he reached them, he quickly began pointing out some potential problems and giving instructions.

  Mase walked two hundred yards to a large sealed door. He paused, gazing at the large metal obstruction, knowing it was actually an airlock that protected the ecological habitat from contamination. Mase opened the outer door and stepped insid
e a small interior room. The room was white and sterile with several small benches along the wall.

  A computer generated voice began speaking, informing him to stand still during the decontamination process. He watched as several different colored lights came on in the room and felt a prickly sensation on his skin. He knew his body was being hit with specific wavelengths of light aimed at destroying certain bacteria and contaminants. Once the lights went off, the next airlock door swung open.

  Mase stepped out and was greeted by a young woman sitting at a work desk just off to one side of the airlock door. “Hello, Karen,” Mase spoke upon seeing Linda’s younger sister. Unlike Linda who had brunette hair, Karen’s was a dark black and cut shorter. He also knew she was twenty-four years old.

  “Hello, Commander,” Karen responded with a big smile upon seeing Mase. Her sister had introduced the two of them and, from all signs, her sister had a thing for the commander. “Let me call Jolene and she can show you around. She’s been hoping you would come and see what’s she’s done here.” Karen picked up the phone on her desk and made a quick call.

  Mase nodded as he gazed around in awe. He hadn’t expected to see anything like what was spread out before him. He knew the ecological habitat was 1,200 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 100 feet tall. Everywhere he looked was greenery. He could see plot after plot of growing vegetables and what looked like small orchards of fruit trees. He thought he could actually hear a few birds calling in the distance.

  “Are those real birds?” he asked, glancing to look over at Karen his eyes growing wide in surprise.

  “Yes,” responded Karen, grinning. “We have released a number in the habitat. I think Jolene said there were four different species she has introduced. They are all small birds, such as finches and hummingbirds, because of the restricted space we have. She has some larger species she plans on releasing in the main Tycho City cavern when it’s completed.”

  Mase paused as he saw Jolene hurrying in their direction. “I’ll talk to you later, Karen,” Mase said as he began walking toward Jolene.