Star One: Dark Star

by Weil, Raymond L.

  Christy and Steve looked at each other. They had already discussed this concern. The current lists for people to come up to the station were already much larger than they could accommodate, and the lists were only growing larger. Some people were going to have to be told that there was no room for their families.

  “What did you have in mind, Doctor?” asked Christy, intrigued.

  “We have several large storage areas next to the medical section,” commented Doctor Wruggi, looking at the two commanders. “I would like to have those emptied and equipped with deep sleep chambers. We can bring a lot of people up from Earth and put them into deep sleep until it’s time to awaken them.”

  “We considered that possibility ourselves,” admitted Steve, gazing at the doctor. “We didn’t feel that it would be viable in our situation. People would have to be put into deep sleep possibly for years before they could be awakened.”

  Steve and Christy had discussed whether there was any way they could accommodate more people on the station. Deep sleep had been one option they had briefly considered then set aside as not being practical for long-term survival.

  “We could be talking about years,” spoke Christy, shaking her head. “That’s why we didn’t seriously consider deep sleep as an option. How long would it be safe to keep someone in deep sleep without having to awaken them? Doesn’t it become more dangerous the longer they are under?”

  “I think eight months to a year would be reasonably safe,” Doctor Wruggi replied. “But we could rotate people! Let one group sleep for eight months and then replace them with a second group.”

  Steve and Christy looked at each other surprised; this was something they hadn’t considered. It would be great if they could bring more people up!

  “How many additional people could we accommodate if we did this?” asked Steve with growing hope that Doctor Wruggi might have found a solution to their being able to accommodate all the people on the lists.

  There were a number of people down at the cape as well as Houston Steve would like to bring up. Even a few from the two military launch centers, as well as additional family members. If deep sleep was feasible, it could solve a number of problems.

  “I have talked to my staff. The biggest problem would be building the sleep chambers along with the monitoring equipment,” Doctor Wruggi stated. “We can produce sufficient quantities of the drug as well as the necessary nutrients to survive eight months of deep sleep.”

  “Assume you have four months and whatever materials and help you need to construct the chambers,” Christy spoke animated by Doctor Wruggi’s idea. “How many additional people could we save?”

  Doctor Wruggi was silent for a moment, deep in thought. “I would have to do some figuring, but I estimate we could save an additional 800 to 1,200 people. The deep sleep chambers will not take up a lot of room. They can be stacked two or three high if necessary.”

  “Talk to your staff and give me a list of what you will need to do this,” replied Steve, reaching a quick decision. That might allow them to put nearly 4,000 people on the station. “I will see that you get whatever you need. I want to do this. Every person we can save only increases our own chances of survival.”

  -

  Ty had just finished his last systems check when the ship’s main computer began flashing, signaling incoming data from Star One. This is it, he thought as numbers began to flash across the screen; the last data from Farside was being transmitted. Several minutes passed as the data was received and correlated in the computer. Ty knew that the data was being sent repeatedly to ensure that the ship’s computer received all of it. The computer would compare the data to ensure it had received a complete set.

  “Is that the Farside data?” asked Lieutenant Strett, walking up and sitting down in the pilot’s seat next to Ty. She had finished her own system check and didn’t have anything more to do until it was time for Ty and her to go into deep sleep.

  “It looks like it,” replied Ty, waiting for the computer to finish. He had no sooner spoke than the data transmission stopped, and the computer signaled that it had finished the upload into its memory.

  Reaching forward, Ty projected the new orbital path on the main screen overlaid with the original trajectory. The two were almost identical with only a slight deviation of a few million miles at the end.

  “Do we need to make a trajectory change?” asked Lieutenant Strett, seeing that the two flight paths were not quite identical.

  “Looks like it,” responded Ty, doing some quick calculations on the computer. “However, it looks as if it can wait until we are decelerating for rendezvous. I don’t want to fire up the drive without the entire crew awake. I’m surprised though that we need to make such a large course change. From our previous data, we should have been a lot closer than that.”

  Ty spent several minutes working with the computer and then leaned back away from his console satisfied. “Everything’s set,” he said, scanning the controls one last time and unbuckling his acceleration harness. “I’m going to make a quick tour of the rest of the ship, and then it will be time for us to join the rest of the crew.”

  “I’ll activate the deep sleep environmental control program,” replied Lieutenant Strett, getting up and moving back to her console. “That will give us time to finish up and take the drug before the ship begins to cool down.”

  -

  An hour later, Ty felt the injection distantly in his arm as Lieutenant Strett administered the deep sleep drug. They had both changed into the white deep sleep clothing. In minutes, his last conscious thought slowly fled to the back of his mind as he drifted off into a deep, dreamless slumber.

  A few minutes later, Lieutenant Strett gave herself an injection and after attaching the special monitoring unit to her arm, shut the lid on her cubicle. In moments, she too had fallen silently and quietly to sleep.

  On the Flight Deck of the FarQuest, the computers continued to hum and monitor the ship’s systems and its sleeping occupants as the ship sped deeper and deeper into the lonely depths of empty, desolate space. The lights faded, and the temperature was allowed to drop to 50 degrees. The ship was now utterly silent.

  -

  On board Star One, Christy had rejoined Steve and watched as the computer showed that enough time had elapsed for the entire crew of the FarQuest to be in deep sleep. For minutes, the two sat enveloped in silence as crewmembers carried on their jobs around them. With the FarQuest crew asleep, they were committed to the mission. Only in case of a dire emergency would the crew be awakened before the ship arrived at the neutron star.

  “Commander,” an urgent voice interrupted his thoughts. Turning, he saw Margaret Sullivan the communications officer at his side. “Mase Colton is on the line. There is a problem at the Farside array he needs to talk to you about.”

  Nodding, Steve turned back to Christy. “I wonder what that can be about?” Flipping a switch on his console, he acknowledged Mase. “Mase, this is Steve. What’s the problem?”

  “You won’t believe this,” an agitated Mase Colton responded after several seconds. “But I have just received a report from Farside that Teela has somehow seized control of the array’s computer systems. This occurred twenty minutes ago, and she has directed them to make some type of unknown observations of the neutron star.”

  “Are you certain, Mase?” Steve asked hardly believing that Teela would do such a thing. She had been behaving so well recently. What could have caused her to take such an erratic action?

  “Yes,” replied Mase, sounding frantic “She has overridden our computer controls completely, and we haven’t been able to regain control of the arrays. Can you find out what is going on and have her release the arrays back to us before something is damaged? The scientists and technicians at Farside are in an uproar. We have detected a tremendous amount of data being transferred between the array’s computers and Star One.”

  Steve and Christy looked at each other in shock. Teela had been performing flawles
sly for several weeks now. Seizing control of the Farside array’s computers demonstrated that she had hither-unknown abilities that they had not even suspected.

  “We’ll take care of it, Mase,” promised Steve, determinedly. “I’ll get hold of her now and see what the hell is going on. She will definitely have some explaining to do.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Commander,” Teela’s feminine voice spoke, unperturbed, breaking in over the communication’s line. “I am through with the arrays and have returned control back to the Farside computers. It is imperative that Commander Jones, you, and I talk immediately in your office. I have discovered something of immense significance that will force even Mr. Colton to agree that I did the right thing. I’m sorry Mr. Colton, but what I did was necessary.”

  “Very well,” Steve replied confused but determined to get to the bottom of this. “But this had better be good, Teela! I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Mase.”

  Steve and Christy made the short walk over to Steve’s office to see what was going on. Both were mystified over Teela’s strange behavior. They found Teela pacing impatiently in front of Steve’s desk. She looked as if something was really bothering her.

  “What would you say if I told you I know what’s causing all the discrepancies in the neutron star data?” she began before Steve or Christy could get in a word.

  “What!” Christy exclaimed with widening eyes. “How could you discover something that has baffled our leading astronomers for several months?”

  “Not only that, but the Super Crays back on Earth have gone over that data countless times and have not been able to come up with an explanation,” added Steve, surprised. Was this why Teela had taken over the Farside array?

  “That’s because they were not asking the correct questions,” replied Teela, coming to a stop and staring at the two of them. “Don’t forget, even though I can’t be classified as a scientist, all the astronomical data ever discovered is stored in my core systems.”

  Reaching his desk, Steve sat down and looked up questioningly at Teela. He had a foreboding feeling that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear. Christy walked around Steve’s desk and stood behind him. Both were staring at Teela, waiting for an explanation.

  “The neutron star is in a tight orbit around a massive invisible body,” Teela said suddenly looking at the two.

  “Oh my God!” Christy spoke with growing concern spreading across her face.

  “What kind of body?” Steve asked evenly with a dark suspicion beginning to form in the back of his mind. He was familiar with most stellar objects. There was only one type of object that Teela could be talking about.

  “A black hole,” Teela replied, her deep blue eyes looking intensely at the two. “The neutron star is orbiting a black hole that is 42 miles in diameter and twelve times the mass of the Sun.”

  “A black hole,” muttered Steve, closing his eyes and shaking his head. This situation couldn’t get any worse. All their planning may have been for nothing!

  “The neutron star in is orbit around the black hole at a distance of 12,000 miles,” Teela added. “Please look at the main viewscreen behind you.”

  Turning around, Steve and Christy looked at a stellar panorama of space with a highly magnified view of the star field around the neutron star. The neutron star was circled in red, and another area next to it was circled in yellow.

  “Watch the area in yellow closely,” Teela instructed. “I have correlated the observations for the past several months to show the movement of the neutron star and the black hole.”

  As Steve watched, he could see the two areas gradually move across the sea of stars, twice he saw stars seem to blink out only to reappear later as stars were occluded by the object in the yellow circle. There could be no doubt something indeed was there.

  “Twelve times the mass of the Sun,” Steve said slowly, knowing that this discovery might just have signed all of their death sentences. He felt an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach as he tried to accept the reality of what Teela was saying.

  “Yes,” Teela replied. “I’ve confirmed the size and mass.”

  “That would account for the change in Pluto’s orbit so soon,” said Christ worriedly, looking at Steve as she tried to grasp what all of this might mean. She knew their situation had just gotten much worse.

  “What will the effects be Teela?” asked Steve, fearing the worst.

  “I’m still in the process of correlating that part of the data,” Teela replied with a worried look on her face. She looked slowly from Steve to Christy and then back to Steve. “But it will definitely speed everything up considerably.”

  “What can we do to help you?” asked Steve feeling numb at the now decidedly dim prospect of their survival.

  “I need more time with the arrays at Farside,” replied Teela in her very feminine voice, looking expectantly at Steve. “If you could clear it with Commander Colton so that I could use the arrays uninterrupted for several hours, I could give you a clearer report on how this will affect us.”

  “Consider it done,” responded Steve, feeling a growing knot in the pit of his stomach. “I’ll call Mase immediately. We will meet six hours from now to review the data. Will that be enough time?”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Teela relieved that the commander was not angry with her. “That will give me time to correlate the data and extrapolate the results.”

  Steve spent several minutes on the com line with Mase, explaining that Teela needed time with the array. Steve explained that Teela had discovered something of tremendous importance and that it couldn’t be discussed over the com. Steve told Mase that he would send a complete report on the next shuttle going from Star One to Tycho City. In the end, with little arguing, Mase agreed to clear the use of the array with the Farside astronomers. He had known Steve long enough not to question his requests.

  “Teela,” Steve said in a more serious tone, gazing at the young woman standing in front of his desk. “Next time ask permission before you do something like this. Unless it involves a serious immediate threat to the station, I want to know before you take any type of similar action in the future.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Teela replied in a meek voice. “It won’t happen again, she promised.” With that, Teela vanished as she deactivated her hologram.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” muttered Steve, looking at Christy. “It’s not normal the way she can just vanish in the blink of an eye.”

  “This is bad, isn’t it?” Christy said with a worried look on her face. “This black hole changes everything.”

  “It looks like it,” Steve said quietly, not wanting to lie to her. “The gravitational stresses will be much worse, and the affects on our Sun could now be catastrophic. I don’t know how this will affect the FarQuest mission.”

  “Oh my God!” moaned Christy, thinking about the mission. “Ty and the rest of the crew are already asleep. There’s no way we can tell them the danger they’re heading into.”

  “We could awaken the crew in an emergency,” Steve reminded her. “However, Doctor Wruggi recommends that we don’t because a person needs to wait at least four weeks before they can take a second dose of the deep sleep drug. We’ll have to wait until Teela is ready with her report before we can make any type of rational decision.”

  Standing up, Steve walked over to Christy and took her in his arms, holding her tightly in a warm embrace. “We can’t give up hope,” he said, looking down into her eyes. “We’ll figure some way to survive this also.”

  Christy said nothing, allowing Steve to hold her. She was afraid that the black hole had just taken away their only chance to survive.

  -

  Hours later Steve, Christy, and Todd Williams were in Steve’s office waiting for Teela to give them her findings.

  “A black hole is incredible,” Todd said with wide eyes, drumming his fingers on his knee absentmindedly. “We have never had an opportunity to study one up clo
se. We have always believed that a large black hole exists in the center of our galaxy, drawing in the core stars. To find one this close to the Solar System implies that they are a lot more common than we originally believed.”

  Looking at Steve, he went on. “Did you know that Pierre LaRann has written a paper theorizing that a black hole can be used as a gateway, or a short cut through hyperspace to other parts of our galaxy or even other universes?”

  “I read his paper,” replied Steve, wishing that Teela would hurry up. “Professor LaRann is the top man in his field in Space Time Theory. Some of his ideas are on the cutting edge.”

  “Commander,” Teela said suddenly appearing next to Steve’s desk,” She was dressed in her standard Star One uniform and stood smartly, looking at the three. “The news isn’t good. I used the arrays to check the neutron star and the black hole. I also did some quick checks on the major planets in the outer system. If you know what to look for, we are already seeing minor deviations in the orbits of Pluto, Uranus, and possibly Saturn.”

  At the rate the neutron star and black hole are closing on the Solar System, we can expect substantial weather changes within four months maximum on Earth,” Teela reported in a grave voice. “Earthquakes and massive volcanic activity will follow, gradually increasing over the following two months making the Earth nearly uninhabitable.”

  “That’s really speeding everything up,” Steve spoke worriedly. “That puts a deadline of four to six months max before all three launch facilities are incapable of launching shuttles.”

  “I also estimate that there is a 40 percent chance that the Sun could go nova from the gravitational stresses it will be exposed to.” Teela continued. “At the very least, we will be exposed to massive solar flares and tremendous amounts of radiation.”