Kirk nodded, staring at the rough surface of the moon below. McCoy was right. It was time to get the colonists the hell out of there.
He hated to lose, hated to be beaten. There had to be something they were missing, some way to stop this explosion from destroying so many dreams. But at the moment that seemed as impossible as stopping a sun from going nova. Sometimes in the universe, there were just events too big for man to control.
But that thought did nothing but gall James Kirk.
Chapter Eight
Countdown: 6 Days, 3 Hours
LILIAN COATES stared at the half-packed containers. Now it looked as if she had no choice. The attempt to stop the moon explosion had failed. Governor Pardonnet had announced they had no other options but to leave Belle Terre at once. She had less than a day to get everything she and Reynold owned together and ready for transport back to one of the ships. She didn’t know which ship, but that really didn’t matter. One cramped room was like any other. She and Reynold would survive the trip back to Federation space, but it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
In fact, from what the governor had said, the trip wasn’t going to be easy for anyone. The attempt to stop the moon explosion had destroyed a number of the colony’s ships and left others useless. Conditions on the way back were going to be crowded and slow going.
Lilian had to give the governor credit. He hadn’t pulled any punches, but told them exactly how hard it was going to be. The only way the Belle Terre colony was going to make it back to Federation space was with a rescue mission from Starfleet meeting them partway with repair parts, dilithium crystals, and empty ships. And he was considering having the colony’s ships move out of the danger zone and just wait, meaning that the length of time they might be on the crowded ships would be longer than even the trip here.
On the way to Belle Terre she would have met such challenges head-on. But now, without Tom, and with no plans for a better future, she didn’t have much energy to meet anything.
Of course, at the moment she really didn’t even have the luxury of time to think about her future, or feel sorry for herself. She had to get packed and ready to transport back to the ships when their turn came.
“Reynold!” He was big enough to help and right now she needed his help.
The silence in the small dome-house suddenly caught her attention. She hadn’t seen Reynold since just after the governor’s speech an hour ago. He had sat and listened to it with her, then gone into his room. She assumed he had stayed in there, so why wasn’t he answering?
“Reynold, honey,” she said, moving toward his room. “I know you want to stay. So do I.”
She opened his half-closed door and realized she had been talking to herself.
With a quick glance into her room and then the bathroom, it quickly became clear that he wasn’t in the house at all. Yet he hadn’t told her he was leaving, and he always told her when he was going outside. That was the agreement they had made.
She tried to push down the sense of panic filling her thoughts. The “fist” that always warned her of something bad about to happen was again gripping her stomach.
She went quickly out the front door into the fading light of the evening. A few people were walking toward the main part of the colony, but no one else was in sight.
“Reynold!” she shouted as she moved around their dome, looking down the road and off through the trees in all directions.
Her call echoed for a moment in the forest and around the other dome-houses, then faded to silence. Reynold was nowhere to be seen.
And he wasn’t answering even if he could hear her.
She quickly went back inside and checked every inch of their house, leaving his room for last. When he wasn’t hiding in his closet, she forced herself to stop and take a deep breath.
“What are you doing, Reynold?” she asked out loud. “You’re only nine years old. Where could you go?”
Then she noticed what she should have seen earlier. His coat was missing. And his favorite hat. And the pack that he had used when he and his dad had gone hiking just before leaving Earth.
Clearly he had decided to run away. She knew he didn’t want to leave Belle Terre, and this was his way of deciding he wasn’t going to be made to leave. A child’s logic.
But where would he have gone?
She moved quickly back through their living room and outside, turning right and walking up the slight incline of the dirt road. Three domes from hers was Reynold’s best friend, Danny Laird. She knocked loudly and insistently on the door and after a few seconds Kathy Laird appeared.
Kathy was a short, thin, and attractive woman who enjoyed laughing. She and her husband both were geologists. At the moment Kathy looked as tired and upset as Lilian felt.
“Lilian?” Kathy said. “What’s wrong?”
“I think Reynold’s run away,” Lilian said, “since he doesn’t want to leave Belle Terre. Have you seen him?”
She shook her head. “No, I—”
Lilian could see the sudden worry and panic creep into Kathy’s eyes as she turned away from the door.
“Danny?” Kathy called out as she moved back into the dome. “Danny?”
Lilian stood, the tall trees around her swaying gently in the evening breeze, the fist around her stomach clamping up even harder.
“Danny!”
A moment later both Kathy and her husband, Estes, came to the door. Between them they had their younger child, JoAnne. Both looked panicked.
“He’s not here,” Estes said. “And his favorite pillow is missing.”
Lilian nodded. “I was afraid of that.”
She scanned the trees and domes around her. Nothing at all to be seen. Reynold had run away, and he hadn’t gone alone.
At that moment, three domes away, Judith Whitney came to the door of her home and shouted, “Diane! Time to come in.”
Diane was Reynold and Danny’s age. And one of their best friends as well.
“Diane!” Judith called out again, the panic clearly starting to fill her voice.
Lilian glanced at Estes and Kathy, knowing instantly that it hadn’t been just their two kids who had taken it upon themselves to stay on Belle Terre. As she started up the street toward Judith, Lilian wondered how many other kids had gone with her son.
And just where had they gone?
The problem was, on an unexplored planet, how far could a bunch of nine-year-old kids go? And how should she and the other parents go about finding them?
By dawn she wasn’t asking those questions anymore. Over five hundred people had stopped packing and joined in the search and no one had found even one sign of the six nine-year-olds who were missing. It was as if they had been beamed right off the planet.
Countdown: 6 Days, 2 Hours
Captain Sunn glanced at the time. They had been on this planet now for almost twelve hours. Half a day on one stop that they still hadn’t determined would help the Belle Terre colonists. If this planet turned out to be bad, they had wasted a large percentage of their total search time.
But so far none of them could find one thing wrong with this planet. And that was exactly what was driving Sunn crazy. There had to be something wrong here. Or had to have been something wrong. Otherwise, why weren’t the original residents still here, filling their beautiful cities, tilling their fields, traveling on their roads?
Something killed them or chased them away. And before he could tell Captain Kirk this was a good place for the colonists to come to, Sunn needed to know what happened.
But the answer to that question wasn’t coming easily.
They had tested the soil for any signs of past contamination. Negative.
They had run extensive tests on the air. Same result. Nothing to indicate any past problems.
Now Sunn and Roger were doing complete scans of the areas under the city and fields. Nothing there but a fairly extensive subway system and sewage-removal system.
“You know,” Roger said after they had finished the last sc
an, “I’m starting to really hate this place.”
Sunn laughed. “Too perfect for you?”
“Exactly,” Roger said. “No pollution, no big predators, no crowds of natives. Just empty cities and beautiful landscapes. Ughh.”
“So where haven’t we looked for problems yet?” Dar asked.
Sunn pointed upward. “An exploding moon is about to wipe out Belle Terre. Maybe something natural in the nearby area got these people.”
“Like what? A giant solar flare?” Roger asked. “We’d have seen evidence of it in the soil.”
Sunn knew that. Anything really major or poisonous coming from space and killing the population less than one hundred years ago would have shown up instantly in the soil and air samples. Or stuck to the outside of the buildings if nothing else.
“I got it,” Dar said. “Neighboring aliens abducted them all? Had them for lunch.”
Sunn laughed. “Let’s check anyhow. And then go over everything again.”
“And if we can’t spot anything then?” Roger asked.
Sunn shrugged and glanced at the screen, at the beautiful and very empty city spread out in front of them. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Countdown: 5 Days, 23 Hours
“I want to find another solution,” Kirk said, staring at the Quake Moon on his screen. “And I want to find it fast.”
None of the bridge crew said a word. Sulu and Chekov both sat studying their instruments, McCoy stood behind Kirk’s chair to his left, and Spock worked at his science station.
Kirk and the rest of the crew had spent the last few hours dealing with all the problems caused by the attempt to pull the plug on the explosion. Casualties had been great. Sixty-seven colonists dead, a hundred more injured. All crew of different ships. Eight colony ships either destroyed or completely beyond repair. Another thirty ships damaged.
All for nothing.
The failure was going to make leaving Belle Terre even more difficult. Now not only were they short of provisions, but they were short of ships.
Kirk studied the moon as he would study any enemy. He didn’t like failing, and right now this entire wagon train to the stars was failing badly. He had gotten all these colonists to this planet; he wasn’t going to leave without a fight. And as far as he was concerned, trying to pull that plug had just been round one. They still had just under five days to figure out another solution.
“Someone needs to find a giant pin and just ram it into the moon like popping a balloon,” McCoy said, breaking the deadly silence on the bridge.
Kirk glanced at McCoy, who was standing behind him. McCoy was clearly just as upset as anyone at the entire prospect of losing Belle Terre.
“A three-hundred-mile hardened crust of a moon is not a balloon skin, Doctor,” Spock said from his science station.
“To a big enough pin it is,” McCoy said, glaring at the Vulcan.
Kirk was just about to tell his two senior officers to quit bickering and come up with an answer when he suddenly realized that McCoy just might have the answer in his joking comment. They did need something to pop the pressure building inside the moon and just maybe they could find a pin large enough.
“Spock,” Kirk said, “the doctor just might have something there.” Kirk jumped to his feet and patted the puzzled-looking McCoy on the shoulder on the way past.
“It is highly illogical to think that ‘popping’ this moon would be a solution,” Spock said.
“Thank you,” McCoy said. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Kirk waved Spock’s comment away and faced his science officer. “What would be the result of something large hitting the thin plug-area of the moon’s crust?”
“It would depend on the factors involved,” Spock said.
Kirk, annoyed, again waved his science officer’s answer away. At times getting a clear answer from the Vulcan was all in how Kirk asked the questions.
“Let me try this again,” Kirk said. “What amount of force at impact on the plug area of the moon’s crust would cause that area of the crust to rupture without setting off a chain reaction that would explode the entire moon?”
Kirk figured that was about as clear as he could put that question.
Spock looked at him for a moment, then nodded, clearly thinking, showing no outward sign at all of the intense calculations Kirk knew were going on in that head.
Kirk glanced back at McCoy, who was still looking puzzled, then at his first officer. Finally Spock said, “My initial calculations will only be estimates, sir. It would take three hours to get you exact numbers.”
“I’m willing to take your estimates, Spock,” Kirk said. “As a starting point.”
Spock nodded. “It would take a mass approximately five percent the mass of the Quake Moon, impacting at ten times a standard orbital velocity over the plug area, to rupture the crust of the Quake Moon.”
“And what would happen then?” Kirk asked. “Would the expected large explosion occur?”
“No,” Spock said. “The pressure would be released at the rupture, stopping the chain-reaction larger explosion that is building now.”
“Great!” Kirk said.
“However,” Spock said before Kirk could even turn away, “the smaller explosion from the collision and rupture, even on the far side of the Quake Moon, would blanket the exposed side of Belle Terre with radiation.”
“Leaving it lifeless?”
“Possibly,” Spock said. “I would need more time to do the calculations. And that would depend on the type of explosion that would occur.”
Kirk could feel the faint tinge of hope building. There was a way to save the planet, and half the life on it. That might be enough. Just barely enough.
“How big an object is five percent of the Quake Moon’s mass?” McCoy asked, moving up and joining the discussion.
Kirk could tell that the doctor clearly wasn’t happy with this idea, but going along with it.
“A smaller moon, Doctor,” Spock said. “Or an extremely large asteroid, depending on the physical makeup of the body involved.”
“So, Jim,” McCoy said, “what you are suggesting is ramming one small moon into this larger moon to cause a smaller explosion that will destroy only half of Belle Terre?”
“Doctor,” Kirk said. “What I’m suggesting is that we keep looking for answers. And this is one possible one.”
“Just like pulling the plug was an answer,” McCoy said. “Spock, what are the odds of this idea working?”
“At the moment, Doctor,” Spock said calmly, “less than one per cent.”
Kirk watched as McCoy glared at him for a moment. The tension was so thick on the bridge again that Kirk wondered how anyone was breathing. They were all upset and clearly getting desperate. Maybe he was getting so desperate to save the colonists and Belle Terre and the olivium that he wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Point taken, Doctor,” Kirk said. “So let’s keep looking for ideas.”
“Captain, I think this idea may be worth investigating further,” Spock said. “If you’ll allow me?”
Kirk waved Spock toward his science station. “Be my guest. Until we come up with another idea that sounds better.”
Spock nodded and turned to his scope.
“Well, Doctor,” Kirk said, moving back and dropping down into his chair, “any more ideas?”
“You’ll be the first to know,” McCoy said.
“Anyone else?” Kirk asked, glancing around at his bridge crew.
No one said a word, so Kirk sat back and stared at the Quake Moon’s rough surface filling the screen. Two hours later he was still sitting there.
Staring. And he wasn’t one inch closer to solving the problem.
Chapter Nine
Countdown: 5 Days, 20 Hours
SUNN STARED AT the beautiful alien city on the viewscreen, then pushed himself out of his captain’s chair. “Well, we’re getting no answers in here. Time to go exploring.”
; For over a day they had searched for any clue to what happened to the residents of this planet and had gotten nowhere. Period. As far as they could find out, this city should still be crawling with the original residents.
Now it looked as if their only hope was to find some sort of record in the dead city. Maybe the former inhabitants of the place left a forwarding address.
Dar and Roger moved with him to the hatch, then watched, laser rifles in ready position, as the airlock cycled and then opened. Sunn stepped forward and stood at the top of the short ramp, looking around. The air had a crisp bite to it, but as their readings had told them, it smelled clear and fresh.
“Wow,” Dar said, taking a deep breath and releasing it. “After all the months in the ship, this is great.”
“I’ll second that,” Roger said.
Sunn had to agree that being outside felt good. Very good, in fact. In the short time they had been over Belle Terre, none of them had taken any time on the planet’s surface. At the moment he couldn’t remember the last time he’d stepped onto the surface of a planet. Too long, he decided. After they got done with this he was going to make sure they saw a planet’s surface a little more regularly.
“Keep a constant scan going all around us,” Sunn said. “I don’t want us surprised out here.”
Roger nodded and glanced down at his Starfleet-style tricorder. “All clear. Just like it has been every other time I’ve checked.”
“Keep checking,” Sunn said. “Dar?”
Dar indicated that he was ready, laser rifle up and hot.
Sunn patted his hip to make sure he had his weapon, then headed down the short ramp toward the ground. In front of him stretched the green field for about a hundred paces before being cut by one of the roads that led into the city.
He hit the bottom of the ramp and set off through the knee-high grass toward the road and the city beyond. There was no wind at all. The sun felt warm against his face, but the crispness of the air was going to be enough to keep the heat down. If this placed turned out to be as good as it looked, the Belle Terre colonists were going to have a new home, cities already built and just waiting.
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