Almost as if he had never left.
Before she realized it, she was on his bed, hugging him and crying.
He was crying, too, while he kept saying, “Mom, Mom, I’m sorry.”
Over and over.
Countdown: 3 Days, 11 Hours
Sunn must have been dozing slightly in his chair when Dar said, “Got one!”
“Got what?” Sunn asked, coming up out of his chair, trying to get his thoughts back on track as quickly as possible.
The screen showed that they were still in warp and moving at a high rate of speed. Had Dar found the Blackness?
“A Class-M planet the Blackness might have passed,” Dar said. “Dead ahead.”
“Bring us out of warp and into standard orbit,” Sunn said, “and don’t waste any time about it.”
Sunn sat back down and watched the screen as Roger took the Rattlesnake out of warp and swung it down into orbit faster than he’d ever done it before. Far faster than standard regulations called for, that was for sure. But way out here, who was going to care about regulations?
The planet on the screen was a brownish color, with swaths of blue and white. Clearly a desert planet with very small oceans, unlike most Class-M planets. More often than not planets habitable by humans had far more water than land.
“Evidence of a large civilization,” Dar said, studying his screen. “Pre-spaceflight, it would seem.”
“Scan for power sources,” Sunn ordered.
“Nothing really,” Dar said. “Hydroelectrical power near some larger populated areas, nothing much else. But there are signs this civilization used to be space-flight-capable.”
“How do you know?” Sunn asked. There was really no way Dar could tell that from this high, even with the best scans.
“Easy,” Dar said. “Look!” He pointed to the main screen that was now showing an object coming up in the distance.
“What is it?” Roger asked.
“Looks like it used to be a large space station,” Dar said. “Completely dead.”
Sunn stared at the alien-designed station floating larger and larger on their main viewer. This was exactly what he was afraid he’d find. And what he hoped not to find at the same time.
“How the heck has that thing stayed in orbit?” Roger asked.
Sunn had been wondering the same thing.
“It’s stationed at a neutral gravity area between the planet and one of its moons,” Dar said. “Should stay there for another few hundred years unless something bumps it.”
“Take us in closer to the station,” Sunn ordered. “See if we can find out what happened.”
“That Blackness sucked the energy out of it,” Roger said.
“We don’t know that yet,” Sunn said.
“Anyone want to make a small wager?” Roger asked.
Neither he or Dar took Roger up on that proposition.
Chapter Eighteen
Countdown: 3 Days, 11 Hours
It had taken a few minutes for Lilian to calm down enough to get Reynold calmed down. Then she got him to explain what he and the other kids had done. He spent the next few minutes holding her hand and telling her about the cave and about how they all thought that their parents wouldn’t go back to Earth without them.
Then, with his hand still firmly grasping hers, they had gone up the street in search of the other children. They found them all, asleep in their own homes, on their own beds.
The children broke into tears when they saw her. She hugged them all until they calmed down. And told them that their parents really hadn’t left them. Their parents had just been needed on the ships.
Then, when they were all together, she explained what had happened, how their parents had all searched and searched for them, how even the governor and hundreds of others had helped search.
The kids were all worried that they were in really big trouble when they heard about the governor, but she managed to convince them that he had just been worried like everyone else. Then she told them why everyone had gone so soon and how they were all in the ships trying to save the planet, because no one wanted to go back to Earth.
What she hadn’t told them was her worry about getting back on the ships. She hadn’t bothered to ask the governor or anyone else how she should go about contacting them. But there had to be a way.
“Okay,” she said after they all had eaten a lunch she fixed in her kitchen. “Everyone is going to go take a quick shower in their own home, then get into clean clothes and come back here. I’m going to need all of your help on something.”
“What?” Reynold asked.
“Is it going to be fun?” Danny asked, his eyes brightening up for the first time since she had found him in his bedroom.
“It will be fun, and an adventure,” she said. “We have to go down into the main part of the compound and find a communications set.”
“So we can talk to our parents?” Diane asked.
“Exactly,” Lilian said. “If we find one, you can talk to them. So anyone know where a communications board might be?”
She asked that question in hope that one of the kids had seen a communications room with one of their parents. But they shook their heads no.
“It’s scary down there,” Diane said. “No one’s there.”
“We’re all going to stay together,” Lilian said, hugging Diane. “So there won’t be anything to worry about. And I’ll stay right with you. Okay?”
Diane nodded, but didn’t look at all convinced.
“Now everyone, off to the showers, then come right back here. Clean clothes and socks. Then we’ll take you to talk to your parents.”
Reynold headed down the hall and the rest went through the front door at a run, trying to see who could be first. She had managed so far to turn it into an adventure for them. She just hoped they could find a communications set. Or that someone had thought to leave one.
She wished she had been in good enough shape to think to ask for one. But beating up on herself for that now was just a little too late.
Now she had all six of the children’s lives in her hands. She had to stay calm and clear-thinking. There was still plenty of time left.
Countdown: 3 Days, 11 Hours
Sunn and Dar crawled through the old airlock and onto the alien space station wearing spacesuits. Sunn hated the restrictive suits, but in this instance they had no choice. Not only did they have to cross some open space, but the atmosphere in the old station had long ago frozen. From what Dar could tell, just over one hundred years before. Same time frame as when the Elah had lost all their power.
The corridor and doors were huge in comparison with the Rattlesnake’s. The ceilings were at least eight feet, and much wider than anything standard in Federation space. And Dar and Sunn could walk side by side through the doors. The station had the look of a very early space program. Every inch of space seemed to be used for something mechanical.
“Bet these people were big,” Dar said after they had looked around for a few minutes.
“Let’s see if we can find out,” Sunn said, moving off toward where Dar had figured the main control room was for the station.
Sunn moved slowly, making sure his gravity boots held him firm to the alien decking. He didn’t want to take any more time here than absolutely necessary. If he discovered that the Blackness had been responsible for this, they would take the Rattlesnake and head at full speed for Belle Terre. Captain Kirk could draw his own conclusions at that point with the information Sunn would give him. If the colonists needed the planet they had found, they would face dealing with this Blackness then. At this point, Sunn was hoping they wouldn’t.
It didn’t take them long to discover the true size and look of the station aliens. One frozen body was lodged against the ceiling. It was vaguely humanoid. Long, wide, camel-like nose, massive humps on the back, huge hands, cloven feet without shoes. The eyes were frozen open but Sunn couldn’t see their color. Clearly a race that had evolved on an arid planet.
He and Dar studied it for a moment, then moved on through the wide door and into the control room. A half dozen more of the aliens were dead in there, lodged in one position or another against bulkheads or massive chairs.
Dar moved over to a panel, brushed a light dusting of frost off, and then said, “Computer access here.”
Sunn had been studying the one who looked to be in charge. He had bright gold bands on his massive chest that wrapped around the humps on his back and then up and over his forehead. Clearly some sort of uniform.
“Get it fired up and downloaded,” Sunn said. “I want to get out of here. But make sure you don’t leave any sign we were here.”
“Try my best,” Dar said.
With one more look at the gold-wrapped alien, Sunn moved over to help Dar. At least this race, from what he could tell was going on down on the planet, was making a comeback from losing all its energy, if that was what happened here. They hadn’t all just sat down and given up like the Elah had. Maybe in another fifty or one hundred years, they’d be back up here in orbit, giving their long-dead brothers a decent burial.
Last thing they needed then was to discover aliens had been on board in the meantime.
After a few minutes, Dar said, “Primitive, but I got it all. Downloaded to the Rattlesnake’s computer.”
“Great,” Sunn said.
Dar quickly unhooked his equipment, then moved over beside Sunn. Sunn glanced around them, giving the gold-wrapped alien one last look. When these people got back into space, all they’d see was a little disturbed frost on one panel. Not enough to clue them into anyone else being here.
Sunn tapped the communications link in the side of his helmet. “Roger, we’re headed back.”
“You got it,” Roger’s voice said. “I’ll be waiting.”
Thirty minutes later Sunn was sitting in his captain’s chair, watching the playback of the Blackness coming at the station, right up to the point where there was nothing.
Just as it had happened on Nevlin to the Elah. Only this time they had a recording of it. And as far as Sunn was concerned, the big mass of Blackness was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen. And not just because he’d seen what it could do to entire planets.
“Any idea what that thing was?” Sunn asked.
“Not a clue,” Dar said. “Not one stinking clue.”
Sunn nodded. “All right, I’ve seen enough. Get us back to Belle Terre. Top speed.”
“Think Kirk and the Starfleet people are going to want to see this?” Roger asked, laughing.
“I have no doubt about that,” Dar said.
Neither did Sunn. Not one doubt at all.
Countdown: 3 Days, 8 Hours
For over three hours, Lilian and the children had searched colony buildings looking for communications equipment.
Nothing.
They had found where some had been, in a room in the main town hall. But clearly the colonists had planned on never coming back here, or having a here to come back to. So they had taken everything they needed to start again. And that included the communications equipment, of course.
After she and the children had found the empty room in the town hall, she had made it into a game for the kids to keep searching. It wasn’t until three hours of having no luck that finally Danny stopped outside the last building they had looked through. “We’re never going to get to talk to our parents, are we?”
Diane and the other boys started crying, so Lilian had gathered them around. “We’re just going to have to wait until they get the moon stopped and come back for us.”
“What happens if they can’t stop it?” Danny asked, also on the edge of tears.
“Then one of the ships will check on us and beam us off the planet before anything happens,” Lilian said.
“Really?” Diane asked.
“Really,” Lilian said. “Remember I said that even the governor was searching for all of you. He’s not going to let the moon explode with us here. No way.”
She just hoped she was sounding as brave and sure as her words. She actually had no idea if the governor would come back for them or not. She clearly remembered his words, and the number of hours he had told her to remember. There were still eighty of those hours left.
A very long time.
“Okay,” Danny said, sounding half convinced.
“Tell you what,” Lilian said, noticing that the light was slowly getting dimmer. “We can search more tomorrow. Right now let’s go back to my home and decide where we’re all going to sleep.”
“If I get my bed and blankets from my house,” Diane said, “can I stay with you and Reynold?”
“Of course you can,” Lilian said. “Everyone is sleeping over tonight. It will be fun.”
That cheered them up some. At a run they headed back up the hill toward home, racing each other to see who could get there first. Lilian followed behind, a little slower, trying to figure just what she was going to do if no one came back to check on them. She had no idea at all.
Ahead of her the kids laughed, the sound echoing down through the trees and empty buildings. It was a great sound, one that she had thought she might never hear again. But at the moment she had Reynold’s life and five other children’s lives in her hands. Having no idea what to do just wasn’t acceptable.
Countdown: 2 Days, 23 Hours
Kirk stared at the small moon on the screen. And the massive fleet of colony ships hovering behind it. He was getting very, very tired of staring at that surface, yet there was over two more days of doing just that. Sometimes the most critical of missions was the most trying. This was one of those times.
“Cut engines now,” Mr. Spock ordered all ships.
Kirk motioned that Uhura should cut the link to the other ships. In a few seconds it wouldn’t matter if she cut the link or not. Gamma Night was almost on them again, and would cut all communications anyway. Ten hours of drifting, out of touch with everything.
Mr. Spock glanced up from his station as the main screen went fuzzy with the Gamma Night. “The small moon is on course.”
“Good,” Kirk said. But he knew it hadn’t really been that good a thirty-six-second push at one-eighth impulse. Three ships had lost engines before the thirty-six seconds was up. Two others had lost tractor beams. Without the backup ships for each colony ship, they would have had disasters.
This fleet was just plain tired. Most of these ships needed complete overhauls that they were never going to get way out here. They had never been intended for this kind of wear and tear right after taking such a long flight. It was amazing more of them weren’t breaking down.
Yet they couldn’t break down on the final push. During that last shove on the small moon, they didn’t have the luxury of having half the colony ships as backup. All of them would have to be pushing, and for longer than thirty-six seconds, to make that small moon impact the Quake Moon in the right spot, at the right speed. Scotty and his crew were doing everything they could to keep ships running, but there was no doubt that the last push was going to be a problem.
Around him the bridge was quiet. Over the last hours he’d talked to the governor about trying to get a ship out of formation and back to Belle Terre to check on Lilian Coates and the children. They just hadn’t be able to spare even one ship so far. But Kirk was going to try to do just that during the next period between Gamma Nights.
Kirk also wondered what had happened to Captain Sunn and the Rattlesnake. If anyone could find a useable planet and make it back here, Sunn could. Kirk hadn’t expected to hear from Sunn yet, because he was sure Sunn was far out of ship-to-ship communication range. Even if Sunn did find a suitable planet, Kirk hoped they didn’t need it. But the problems coming up on the last big push, when all the ships would be pushing without backup, worried Kirk a great deal. Having a backup planet, and the Rattlesnake helping push, would be a very, very good thing. If Sunn could just get back here in time.
“McCoy to Captain Kirk.” McCoy’s voice
came over the comm line from sickbay.
“Go ahead, Doctor,” Kirk said. “Problem?”
“Got a patient that needs some food and rest is all,” McCoy said.
“And who would that be?” Kirk asked. He hadn’t been informed of anyone in sickbay.
“I’m talking to him,” McCoy said.
Kirk laughed. “Yes, Doctor. On my way.”
He stood and, with one more glance at the fuzzy image of the small moon on the screen, headed for dinner and a good night’s sleep. There just wasn’t anything else to do at the moment.
Part Four
LONG LAST DAY
Chapter Nineteen
Countdown: 1 Day, 3 Hours
GOVERNOR PARDONNET stared at the tired face of Captain Kirk as Kirk said exactly what Pardonnet was afraid Kirk would say. “I’m sorry, Governor. We just can’t spare a ship to jump to Belle Terre.”
“Not even one of the shuttles?” Pardonnet asked.
“Not even a shuttle,” Kirk said, shaking his head. “You know we’re using everything that has power and can be rigged with a tractor beam. The next push is in eleven minutes. Our longest time between pushes during the entire twenty hours before the next Gamma Night is sixteen minutes.”
Pardonnet sighed. That was exactly what had happened last time during the twenty-hour period between Gamma Nights. And it was going to happen again. Lilian Coates and those children, if she had found them, were alone on Belle Terre for now. And that was haunting Pardonnet, giving him nightmares.
“Governor,” Kirk said. “I promise you that after the last big push Enterprise will do a sweep of the planet. We’ll get her and the kids off of there before anything happens.”
Pardonnet nodded. Kirk had promised this before, but both of them knew the timetable. The last Gamma Night was going to release them just one hour before the small moon needed to be hitting the Quake Moon. Then they had to do the last, big push of the small moon. If the maneuver worked, there would be less than thirty minutes to find Lilian and the kids, beam them off, and get the ships out of danger from the explosion. A thousand things could go wrong in that short amount of time.
STAR TREK®: NEW EARTH - BELLE TERRE Page 15