“Of course, the President of the United Nations issued a statement earlier today supporting Senator Farley’s claim that Star One was the source of the bad weather the Earth is now experiencing,” Teela added. She still had a hard time understanding why people acted the way they did, particularly politicians.
Teela projected an Earth newscast on the main viewscreen, which showed heavy rain and wind striking a city on the coast of Texas. Teela turned up the sound so everyone could hear.
“Gale force winds are already striking the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to Galveston,” the newscaster was saying. “Local weather bureaus have clocked wind gusts in the last hour of over 120 miles per hour, with torrential rains now moving into many coastal areas. Hurricane Rachael is still over 240 miles from landfall, moving to the west northwest at twelve miles per hour. Widespread coastal flooding and destruction from the tornadic strength winds is expected to continue to get worse as this killer storm approaches. Already hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and moved inland from low-lying areas. Landfall of the eye of the storm is expected to be slightly south of Freeport.”
The screen shifted to show tornadoes in Kansas and Oklahoma. The enormous twisters were shown tearing through the heart of several Midwest cities leveling structures, tearing roofs off, and ripping power line poles out of the ground, causing horrific explosions of sparks.
“Much of the Midwest continues to suffer under the onslaught of a record number of tornadoes,” the newscaster continued. “In the last week, over 100 tornadic storms have ravaged much of the center of the country, spawning nearly 300 tornadoes.”
The screen changed once more, showing a view of the Earth almost entirely wrapped in heavy clouds as seen from Star One. General Karver, Lieutenant Emerson, and Steve all turned to look at Teela.
“That’s typical of the newscasts from around the entire world. The weather situation will only continue to get worse as the weeks go by,” Teela concluded.
“How much worse will it get?” Lieutenant Emerson asked with a slight quiver in her voice.
She knew that a lot of people on Earth had to be suffering due to the inclement weather. She still had close family members that were trapped there. They hadn’t been able to get them safely to the cape in time to be brought up to Star One; the fighting had gotten too bad, too quickly. A number of personnel had seen their families become trapped.
“The amount of severe weather will continue to increase steadily,” replied Teela, looking at Steve and then turning to face Lieutenant Emerson and General Karver. “There will be widespread flooding, heavy snowfalls in mountainous areas, and almost total crop failure worldwide.”
Lieutenant Emerson was quiet thinking about her parents who lived just outside of Boston. She had accepted that there was nothing she could do for them, but it still hurt just to think about what they were going to go through. She wished that her younger sister had made it to the cape. Turning, she walked slowly back to her console.
“This is going to be difficult for a lot of our people,” commented General Karver, watching the lieutenant go back to her station. “Watching the destruction on Earth will not be easy.”
“I’ve already talked to Doctor Blackwater,” replied Steve, agreeing with the general. “He is setting up counseling sessions for those with close family members that will be hit the hardest.”
“This is a good crew,” General Karver stated, knowing how difficult this must be for some. He knew that Lieutenant Emerson’s sister had been trapped on Earth and hadn’t been able to make it to the cape. “They will cope with the situation; we all will.”
“Everyone on the station has family or friends still down on Earth,” Steve said with a heavy sigh. “This is going to be rough on all of us.”
“It’s one hell of a situation,” General Karver agreed with a nod.
“What’s the current status of the FarQuest, Teela?” asked Steve, looking up at a small screen, which showed the FarQuest’s current position relative to the neutron star. The two were rapidly nearing one another.
“Latest telemetry shows all systems functioning normally and the crew still in deep sleep,” replied Teela, evenly. “The flight computer has only had to activate the ship’s thrusters once to move the ship out of the path of a possible small asteroid.”
“That’s good,” spoke Steve glad that the mission was going so smoothly. He had been concerned about the entire crew being in deep sleep and not able to respond quickly to an emergency.
Teela kept very close track of the FarQuest because Jennifer asked about it quite often. “The crew should be coming out of deep sleep in eighteen days, which will put them within 233,660,960 miles of the neutron star-black hole binary. Interception will occur at a range of nearly eight billion miles from Earth.”
Steve leaned back, thinking hard about what still needed to be done. So much depended on the information the FarQuest would be sending back. Already, the Farside array had firmed up the trajectory of the neutron star-black hole binary. If it held true, which it should, every planet in the Solar System would be seriously affected. Several might end up being pulled into the neutron star-black hole binary. Mercury would probably fall into the Sun, and it was doubtful the Earth would survive the stresses the planet would be put through. Even if Earth did survive, its orbit would make life untenable on its surface.
“Lieutenant Commander Williams is on the line, Sir,” Teela informed Steve.
“Yes, Todd?” Steve spoke into his com.
“Everything went smoothly with the docking,” Todd reported. The work crews have begun placing the extra support beams and the Luxen cables in place. The job will take about two shifts to complete.”
“Very well,” replied Steve. “Todd, have John meet me in the Alpha launch bay. I want to take a Centaur out to inspect the work being done on the Power Wheel and Space Platform.”
“John is already on his way,” responded Todd, smoothly. “He thought you might want to do that.”
-
Twenty minutes later, Steve watched through the Centaur’s main front viewport as the Centaur swung around the rim of the main wheel and down toward the Power Wheel and Space Platform. Centaur work vessels and numerous scooters were visible. Workers were busy attaching beams and stretching the Luxen cables in place.
“That’s a lot of work going on,” commented John, gazing at all the activity. Flying the Centaur was a thousand times easier than maneuvering the Space Platform.
“I had Todd remind everyone about safety,” replied Steve, watching the work with a critical eye. He didn’t want anyone hurt doing this.
As they neared where the two structures were being joined, Steve thought about how unsightly the melding of the two space structures was. He had always felt that Star One had an aesthetic beauty all of its own, and now part of it was marred. It almost seemed as he looked out the viewport, that the entire station was resting on the Space Platform.
Welding arcs flashed and thrusters fired as the Centaurs hovered and worked around the joining points. Workers in spacesuits swarmed over the structure, firing small jets on packs mounted to their backs. The structure was being strengthened to withstand the acceleration from the four ion drives that were soon to be finished inside the Space Platform.
As the Centaur continued its downwards arc, it passed beneath the platform to the platform’s wheel, which was slowly rotating beneath it. Even this would be evacuated when the main ion drives were activated. Those four drives were on the corners of the Space Platform.
“We can always undock the Space Platform later,” John said, looking at the structure now attached to Star One. “If we have to move the station, we can always separate the two when this is all over with.”
“I just wonder if it will ever be over,” responded Steve, thinking about their future. “There is so much we don’t know still ahead of us, John.”
“Teela thinks we will survive,” John said, recalling some of the conversations t
hey had while he was running the docking simulations.
“I hope she’s right,” responded Steve, letting out a deep sigh.
Would they be moving Star One from place to place in the Solar System just to survive? Would they be mining the asteroids and small moons to get needed resources? What would the Solar System be like after the neutron star and black hole left? Would there be any other survivors?
As the Centaur turned and began climbing slowly back up the other side of the station, Steve had an unobstructed view of the Earth hanging serenely in space between the unwinking stars. Earth lay there as if nothing were different, except for the fact that much of its surface was covered in a dense layer of clouds. Only in a few isolated areas were there vistas of deep blue visible, where small areas of the ocean still managed to peek through the shielding cloud layer.
Looking to the side of the station, he could see the pockmarked crescent of the Moon. He knew that Mase was busy blasting and tunneling deep under the surface. Mase was trying to get deep enough so that they could survive a minor nova if the Sun did flare up. Steve talked to Mase every day.
Steve knew from their daily communications that Mase felt that if he could complete his deep installations soon enough with the Luxen walls and supports they were putting in place the Tycho City installation might survive. For the last several weeks, Star One had been making daily shipments of Luxen to Tycho City as they raced against time to prepare for the coming quakes that would soon shake both the Earth and the Moon. Tycho City was now also producing Luxen in its own reactor. However, the Luxen from Star One produced in zero gravity was slightly stronger than that produced in Tycho City’s reactor.
Fortunately, Tycho City was in a relatively quake-free area. Mase had been using some of the nuclear weapons furnished by General Karver to relieve the pressure on as many fault lines as possible that might pose as a menace. The Moon had trembled as the many kiloton explosions had rumbled through its depths, blasting the fault lines and creating huge caverns deep beneath its shattered crust, and throwing up clouds of Moon dust far above its surface. The clouds of dust had even been visible in Star One’s telescopes, which had been observing the areas being subjected to underground blasts.
“Mase has a good crew,” John said, seeing where Steve’s eyes were focused as he fired the Centaur’s thrusters to pass around the main wheel. “If there is any way for them to survive, Mase will find it.”
“I know,” Steve replied somberly, looking at the Moon. “It’s just hard to believe that, within months, the only members of the human race left alive may be on Star One, Tycho city, and those two deep Earth installations that Senator Farley knows nothing about.”
“It’s amazing that they have remained hidden so long. I really believed that Farley would have found them by know,” replied John, slowing down the Centaur as it neared Alpha.
“He probably would have if he knew they existed. The few people that do know are not talking,” commented Steve, thinking about the thousands of men and women locked away in the deep underground bunkers.
The structures were designed so they could be expanded, and many of the underground rooms had still been under construction when they had been forced to seal up. Fortunately, all the material to finish construction was already inside, as well as plentiful stocks of food and water. If the Earth survived, the two bunkers would form the foundation of two new underground colonies deep beneath Earth’s surface.
“What about other countries?” asked John, looking over at Steve. “Surely other shelters are being built abroad. Everyone can’t have their heads stuck in the ground.”
“Not really,” Steve replied dejectedly “Senator Farley and the President of the United Nations have made it plain to everybody that they believe the entire neutron star affair to be a hoax. No one dares question that for fear of retaliation. Numerous scientists and others have been reportedly put to death for even bringing the subject up. Also, many of the people in other countries that seized power when Senator Farley did believe as he does. They are following his lead.”
“How can everybody be so blind?” asked John, shaking his head disgustedly.
“If any more underground shelters are being built, they are being done in utmost secrecy and in nearly inaccessible areas,” Steve replied. “Teela has not seen any signs of that, and we have been using the military spy satellites, when the weather has permitted, to scan the globe for any type of preparation. Of course, with the heavy cloud cover the last several weeks anything could be happening down below. Most of the Earth has been hidden from us as well as from Senator Farley.”
“What about Russia and China? They both have scientists that must know the truth, and both are capable of building shelters.” questioned John, finding it hard to fathom that no one was taking precautions.
“China and Russia are nearly at a state of war,” answered Steve. “If either does anything suspicious, the other would probably launch an all out nuclear attack. They are constantly threatening each other and deploying massive numbers of ground troops. They are so paranoid about each other that the neutron star threat has taken a back seat. Any attempt to build underground shelters that might stand a chance to survive might be looked on as an attempt to survive a nuclear exchange. Neither side dares build shelters for fear of the other’s instant retaliation.”
“Talk about sticking their heads in the ground,” John muttered. “Don’t they realize that if they do nothing the neutron star will finish them off?”
“Some of their leading scientists know,” answered Steve, recalling some of the radio messages they had intercepted. “We have had some communications with their astronomers on the Mir 4 stations. They have told us secretly that they have confirmed our neutron star observations and other scientists on the ground also know the true situation.”
“But they are powerless to do anything,” continued John, wondering what the astronauts on those low Earth stations thought about this situation.
With the weather currently sweeping the globe, he didn’t see how any of the people on the low Earth stations could get back to Earth. They were trapped in orbit.
“With the current communists in control, they are being very careful about what they report back to Earth,” Steve continued. “They think some scientists and their families may be trying to set up a survival cell in one of the deeper caves in Russia unknown to the military. Because of the secrecy involved and their lack of government support, the people on the Mirs don’t believe they will stand much of a chance of survival.”
John fired several more bursts from his thrusters, guiding the Centaur back into Alpha’s brilliantly lighted docking bay. With practiced ease, he sat the small craft back down gently on its circular landing pad. The bay was quickly pressurized, and several crewmen rushed over to secure the Centaur.
John knew that Steve still had a long day ahead of him. John was scheduled to meet with Julie and Kathleen down in one of the ecological habitats. Julie had promised him that, if he behaved, he could actually try fishing in one of the catfish ponds that was ready to be harvested. The thought of fried catfish for supper was almost enough to drive the worries, for a while at least, from John’s mind.
-
Steve returned to his office and was surprised to find Christy there waiting for him. “Hi, gorgeous!” he said, taking her in his arms and smothering her in a long, drawn out kiss. She felt so soft and vulnerable in his arms. Pulling back, he looked into her deep blue eyes and, releasing her, stepped back smiling.
“Hi, yourself,” she responded with a pleased look upon her face.
“Todd and you did a great job with the docking today,” Steve said, walking around and sitting down behind his desk.
Christy took a seat in front and leaned back, brushing her blonde hair off her shoulders, relaxing, and crossing her legs. She had let her hair grow out over the last several months.
“Todd’s people are so easy to work with,” Christy said. “Also, some of Captain Gera
ld’s people have turned into real assets. I don’t know what we would have done without their help at times these past few months.”
“Captain Gerald and his people have really worked out well,” Steve agreed. “That group of marines is really talented.”
“General Karver did a great job picking them out,” added Christy, agreeing with Steve.
Steve leaned forward with his arms on his desk, changing the subject. “Ty will be awake in another eighteen days. We have already loaded all the black hole information into their on board computers. I’m sure it will be a shock when they realize what we are sending them into.”
“Ty has a good crew,” Christy said, reading and understanding the concern in Steve’s voice. After all, Ty was his closest friend. “The FarQuest has performed flawlessly so far. Ty will get the job done and be back with us in another six months.”
“Perhaps,” Steve said with a faraway look in his eyes. “But that’s a damned black hole out there, Christy. We never expected something like that when we sent Ty on this mission.”
Ty has never failed in a mission, Steve,” Christy reminded him. “He won’t fail in this one. Don’t forget that Pierre LaRann is on board, and he is an expert on black holes.”
“LaRann is an expert in many astronomical fields,” Steve replied. “That’s why he is on this mission.”
“When they wake up, we will have plenty of time to decide how to proceed,” Christy said, reading the concern in Steve’s eyes. “LaRann will know how to safely continue the mission.”
“By the time they return, we may have already moved the station far away from Earth,” Steve said with a heavy sigh. “The black hole will be within four billion miles of Earth and getting closer. We may have no choice other than to begin moving the station to keep it out of harm’s way. We are only six months away from its closest approach.”
Both sat silently for a few minutes. “If we move the station, where will we take it?” asked Christy.
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