Star One: Dark Star

by Weil, Raymond L.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Christy said worriedly, pulling her eyes away from the screen. “From the news reports over the last several days the entire world is going to pieces. There have been riots in nearly every country, and several governments have already been overthrown.”

  “The announcement from the Secretary General of the United Nations yesterday morning was the turning point,” Steve retorted, angry with the man and his Third World selfishness. “If he hadn’t come out and proclaimed that the economic powers of the world were responsible for this emergency and that it was only an attempt by them to reassert their control over the developing nations, we might have had a few more weeks to prepare. The man is a puppet for other Third World nations and has been using his position to attack the larger industrial powers from day one.”

  “It’s bad enough that Senator Farley and his group continue to claim that the entire danger is a hoax,” sighed Christy as she shook her head in dismay.

  Christy noticed that Main Control was unusually quiet. Everyone seemed frightened and worried about what they had just witnessed on the viewscreen. Christy couldn’t blame them, many of their close family members were still down on Earth.

  “It’s only adding fuel to the fire,” Steve replied with growing worry in his voice.

  “There will be major riots everywhere, soon,” spoke Teela, stressing the soon part.

  She was standing next to them, watching the viewscreen. Teela was becoming much more comfortable around Commander Larson since she now knew she had nothing to fear from him.

  “What are your latest figures?” Steve asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

  In the last few days, he had come to depend on Teela more and more for her evaluations of the rapidly worsening situation down on Earth.

  “Based on the events of today and yesterday we can expect to see the riots continue to intensify,” replied Teela, turning her head to look at Commander Larson. “As social order collapses, we can expect to see more governments fall, and small wars will break out in many of the smaller Third World countries,” she paused before continuing, accessing more information. “The major powers will survive the longest because they are better prepared to deal with civil unrest. However, we can expect serious riots even in those, much worse than what we saw today.”

  “How long can we expect to continue to bring supplies and people up from Earth side safely?” asked Steve, his eyes watching Teela intently. They had just barely begun to send the supplies that were being stockpiled at the cape and the two military launch sites.

  Sometimes, when he was talking to Teela, he had to remind himself that she was a hologram and not a real person standing next to him.

  “There are a lot of variables involved,” replied Teela, cautiously. “We can probably expect the cape space center to continue to function normally for several more months. After that, we can expect major attacks by civilians and possibly AWOL military units when people finally realize that Star One and the Moon are the only real hope for survival. How long the cape can hold out after that, it’s difficult to say. Under the best of circumstances, I would say no more than an additional two months.”

  “So we have four months to get everyone and all the supplies we need up here,” commented Steve, thinking hard about everything that needed to be done. Four months wasn’t a lot of time.

  “That’s assuming that Senator Farley doesn’t throw a wrench into the entire program,” muttered Christy, looking back at the screen. It was showing unrest in a South American country.

  Firetrucks there were spraying rioting crowds with high-pressure water in an attempt to force them to disperse. People in the crowd were responding by throwing rocks and bottles. Occasionally a fire would break out briefly when a Molotov cocktail was tossed toward the Firetrucks. Armored police arrived on the scene and begin pushing into the crowd with their shields and using batons on the crowd. Rioters could be seen turning and running.

  “At least Ty is going to miss out on most of this,” spoke Christy, looking at a small screen on her console, which showed the current position of the FarQuest. Ty and Lieutenant Strett were scheduled to go into deep sleep later that afternoon.

  “How far out are they now?” asked Steve, leaning over to look at the flight path she had up on her screen.

  “Almost 680 million miles,” she replied, punching a few keys on her console.

  “In only fifteen days,” Steve said thoughtfully, still amazed at how fast the ship was moving away from them. “It’s hard to believe that we have a manned ship out that far. It makes the Mars missions pale by comparison.”

  “It’s already taking nearly an hour just to get a message to the ship because of the distance,” added Christy, recalling her last communication with Ty. “It takes two hours for a response to any question we ask.”

  “The final data from Farside is due within the hour,” reported Teela, checking her most recent information.

  She had been waiting for this data herself for nearly a week. Perhaps once she analyzed the new information she could determine why the neutron star was behaving so erratically. She had several ideas, but was afraid to say anything. She wanted to wait until she could confirm it with hard data.

  “The data will be transferred to the FarQuest’s flight computer for any final course adjustments that need to be made,” spoke Christy, quietly. She doubted if any major changes to the flight plan would be necessary.

  Steve moved his hands over the controls, and the view on the main screen switched to the Space Platform where several shuttles were being prepped for return flights to Earth. The shuttles were scheduled to bring up more of the crew’s relatives when they returned.

  In the past week, they had brought up nearly 200 additional people. They were being hard pressed to indoctrinate everyone into life aboard the station. Many of these people had never been in space before. Nevertheless, it was necessary to get as many people up from Earth as possible in the shortest amount of time.

  Steve wanted everyone up and safely on Star One within the next four weeks. He was also bringing up an additional 240 scientists and technicians that he had added to the lists. The situation down below was simply becoming too unstable. On the screen, he could see several Centaur work vessels bringing in their loads of pods from Tycho City.

  Tycho City had doubled their launches from the mass driver in order to increase the amount of raw material available for Star One’s facilities to process. Todd Williams was running a full three-shift operation in his raw material plants on the platform. Already, in the distance a rough structure of beams and braces was taking place where the new fuel storage facility would be.

  The fuel depot would have a protective coating of Luxen on it also. The work crews on Star One that were installing the Luxen shielding were nearly one-fourth completed with the main wheel. John and Steve were now making daily inspection tours of the station, the platform, and the fuel storage facility. With so much at stake, Steve wanted to keep as close a watch on everything as possible.

  Steve took a deep breath wishing things were different. Most of the crewmembers in Main Control had returned to their jobs, mulling over what they had just witnessed on the big screen. Steve couldn’t blame them for their concern; he shared it also. Star One was supposed to be a center of research and future science, but the neutron star had changed all of that. Looking at his watch, he noticed that it was nearly time for their daily staff meeting. They had a lot of information to go over today.

  -

  On the FarQuest Ty had just finished drinking a flat, tasteless soupy liquid concoction that Lieutenant Strett had removed from a refrigerated storage unit. She had instructed him to drink slowly and to finish every last drop. She was drinking an identical liquid meal.

  She laughed when Ty curled up his nose at the flat taste of the liquid. “No one ever said this stuff had to taste good,” she said, sipping her own meal slowly, watching the commander.

  “Why does every
thing that comes from a doctor have to taste so bad?” complained Ty, frowning. “Just once I would like to be given something that tastes decent.”

  “That’s just part of life,” Lieutenant Strett replied with a slight smile.

  Ty shook his head and after finishing the liquid meal, made his way back up to the Flight Deck. He was expecting the final flight data from Star One to arrive at any moment.

  -

  An hour later, Ty was finishing up his duties on the Flight Deck, making sure that all the controls were set on automatic and under supervision from the ship’s computer. Ty wished that Teela were here. He would have felt much more comfortable with the intelligent AI in control of the ship. From what Christy and Steve had told him the last few days, Teela was a remarkable sight now.

  “How’s it coming?” an inquisitive voice said from behind him.

  Turning around in his acceleration couch, Ty saw that Lieutenant Strett had made her way up to the Flight Deck. She had been busy down below making sure all the equipment was properly stored away. She had also checked the occupied sleep chambers one final time.

  Ty gestured at the main viewscreen, which held a dim dot in its center.

  “We should be getting the final Farside data in about three to four hours to feed into the flight computer,” Ty said, looking at the large viewscreen filled with stars. “Once the data has been checked and we confirm our flight path, then you and I will join the rest of the crew in deep sleep. Our next stop will be our friend there on the screen.”

  Lieutenant Strett was silent for a few moments, staring at the dim dot, which was their destination. “Do you think we really have a chance to make it back?” she asked with a trace of anxiety in her normally calm voice. “No one knows what we may find out there.”

  “I hope so,” responded Ty, thinking about Jennifer. “We have a good ship and a well trained crew. I think we will make it back all right. We can only wait and see what awaits us. Starting to feel nervous about our mission?”

  “Some, I guess,” Lieutenant Strett admitted with a weak smile “So much depends on this mission that it almost scares me to death just to think about it.”

  “We can only do our jobs and wait and see how the dice fall,” replied Ty, nodding.

  “I know,” Lieutenant Strett spoke with a heavy sigh. “It’s just not knowing what things will be like when we return scares me. The whole world could be changed when we get back.”

  From the latest messages Ty had received from Steve changes were already taking place on Earth, and not for the best. He also wondered just what the Earth would be like when they returned. “With a little luck, one of these days we will find ourselves safely back on Star One.”

  Lieutenant Strett only nodded and turned to sit down at her console. Activating it, she began checking the ship’s environmental systems one final time.

  Ty adjusted his controls to use the viewscreens to show different views of the outside of the ship. The SRBs looked unblemished attached to the powerful delta wings, with the much smaller probes looking like ants in comparison. Ty spent several minutes checking over the outside of the ship, satisfying himself that everything was as it should be.

  They were already far above the plane of the ecliptic and had not encountered a single asteroid. Ty just hoped their luck would continue while they slept. He knew that once Lieutenant Strett and he went into deep sleep, they would be entirely dependent on the ship’s computers. The ship had enough backup systems so that if something did go wrong the crew would have sufficient time to be reawakened and make the necessary repairs.

  From what Lieutenant Strett had told him, if it were necessary for them to be awakened it would take nearly twenty minutes for Lieutenant Strett to be awoken. It would then take another twenty for her to awaken any other member of the crew. If their luck continued to hold, perhaps they would all be able to sleep until they reached the neutron star.

  -

  Steve was in Main Control when the final information from the Farside array arrived. It contained the latest orbital estimates on the neutron star and any course corrections that might be needed by the FarQuest. As soon as the information was verified, Steve had Margaret transmit the information to the FarQuest. Steve knew that it would take over two hours before they received confirmation from the ship that they had received the data. As Steve waited, he reviewed the staff meeting that he had just come from.

  -

  All departments had reported progress in making their areas self-sufficient. Julie Gray, Dryson and Stoler, Doctor Wruggi, Lieutenant Commanders Williams, Anderson, Hernandez, and Hastings had submitted long detailed lists of parts and supplies that they felt they would need. Those parts and supplies were necessary in order to maintain the station over a long period of time without continuous supply runs from Earth. Todd’s list had contained a list of specialized tools he felt needed to be brought up from Earth to allow them to construct or build crucial parts and equipment the station might someday need.

  The other department heads had furnished additional lists as well as requests for additional technicians and scientists that they thought might be useful. Even Doctor Wruggi had suggested the names of several young, prominent surgeons and doctors he would like to see invited up from Earth. They had all expressed concerns about the current situation.

  “Senator Farley is fast forming a coalition that could seriously derail the president’s plans,” announced Lieutenant Commander Williams, looking at Steve and the others. “From the news reports, the president’s position is tenuous at best. What do we do if President Kateland is removed or made powerless by Senator Farley’s efforts?”

  “It’s something we are watching closely,” Steve replied with a grave look on his face. “We are all extremely concerned about what is happening down on Earth. Senator Farley is causing a lot of problems. President Kateland and Tim McPhryson have both expressed their determination that we will receive the supplies we need regardless of the circumstances.”

  “Is there any possibility that President Kateland’s government might be forced to step down?” Blackwater asked with a frown on his face. “What would that mean for us?”

  “President Kateland will ride it through to the end,” Steve replied. “Right now they still have enough support in Congress to defeat any bill that Farley introduces. If necessary, the president can fall back on her establishment of martial law to get around any financial strangleholds they might try to introduce.”

  “The bad part is that it seems as if Senator Farley is steadily gaining support, particularly from the civilian population,” commented Julie Gray, shaking her head in worry. “I think a lot of what he is doing is trying to manipulate public opinion. It could only be a matter of time before he has the power to do what he wants.”

  “That’s one reason why we must prepare ourselves as quickly as possible,” replied Steve, looking around the group. He had doubts himself as to how long the president would be able to continue to hold Farley at bay. The situation down on Earth was tenuous at best.

  “Every day the riots are getting worse,” Doctor Blackwater spoke. He had been particularly concerned about what was being shown on the news from Earth. How would those images affect the crew?

  “What if they manage to damage one of the launch centers?” Lieutenant Commander Hastings asked with concern in her voice. “We need all three launch centers functioning uninterrupted if we want to get all the supplies and people up here that we have requested.”

  “General Karver has moved enough military forces around the three launch centers to ensure their safety for the time being,” replied Steve, thinking about all the troops that were being emplaced.

  “General Karver will hold the launch centers,” Christy added with a confident nod. “We just need to make sure every shuttle launched contains what we need. We are bringing up priority supplies first and then our wish lists later.”

  “I hope you’re right,” commented Ted Dryson, dryly. “This situation co
uld get out of hand very quickly. I don’t know how our troops will respond if one of the launch centers is rushed by a civilian mob.”

  “It could happen,” Jarl Stoler added with a frown. “Senator Farley could arrange that just to test our military's determination to protect the launch centers.”

  “There are two full marine divisions assigned to protect the cape,” Steve replied in a serious tone. “These are the best troops our military has. In addition, both of the military launch centers are also very strongly defended.”

  “There is also a carrier battle group just off the coast to provide air support,” Christy added. “The cape is secure; at least for now.”

  Dryson and Stoler nodded, but neither was satisfied with Steve’s answer. They both still had serious doubts if American troops would fire on civilians if it meant inflicting hundreds, if not thousands, of casualties.

  The meeting finally broke up with each person going back to their workstations to look further into essential crew requirements. Each department head could request additional support crew from Earth if needed, as some already had.

  Steve noticed that Doctor Wruggi had stayed behind. The doctor, for the most part, had been unusually quiet during the meeting as if he had something weighing on his mind.

  “Do you have something else you want to bring up, Doctor?” Steve asked curiously.

  “With the new deep sleep drug, we could save more people from Earth,” Doctor Wruggi began, his eyes taking on a serious glint.

  “What do you mean, Doctor?” asked Steve, wondering what Doctor Wruggi was alluding to.

  “If we built additional deep sleep chambers in Star One we could put a large number of people into deep sleep. They wouldn’t use any of the consumables we have on board. I suspect we are going to be leaving a lot of valuable people down on Earth we would like to have up here on the station. In each meeting we have, there are more requests for additional personnel from Earth.”