“As everyone knows,” began Steve, standing up and looking at the expectant faces, “The FarQuest has been lost in the wormhole at the center of the black hole. There is a good possibility that the ship was able to transit the wormhole safely to exit out into another section of space.”
“Do we know where?” asked Julie still finding it hard to accept the fact that they would never see Ty again.
“Teela has been searching known stars to find any that might match the ones we saw in the photo we received from the FarQuest,” replied Steve, looking over at Teela.
Teela shook her head with a disappointed look on her face. “So far, there has been no match,” she responded. “I am expanding the search, but it could be days before the search program is done. Even then, we might not find a positive match. The FarQuest could be anywhere.”
“So Ty and the FarQuest are lost somewhere in deep space,” Jennifer spoke quietly, the shock still evident on her face.
“We are assuming they made it through the wormhole,” Jarl Stoler commented. Dryson and he had been studying the FarQuest data on the black hole for several hours. They were particularly interested in LaRann’s theories on black holes and traversable wormholes.
“Do you think they did?” asked Steve, hoping the FarQuest had managed to survive the transit of the wormhole.
“Possibly,” Ted Dryson spoke up. “From what Jarl and I have been able to understand of LaRann’s theories on traversable wormholes, it’s definitely possible. Particularly with the use of the rotating magnetic field they established. From what we have studied of the math involved, it may just have worked.”
“We can only pray that it did,” Christy said simply, looking around the group.
“How long can they survive with the supplies they have on board?” Jennifer asked. She knew it couldn’t be indefinitely.
“Their water and oxygen is recirculated and can last almost indefinitely,” Todd Williams replied. He was extremely familiar with the specs of the FarQuest. “However, their food supply is another matter; possibly six to seven months if they ration it.”
“Could be much longer than that,” Doctor Wruggi interjected. “If they make use of the deep sleep drug, they could considerably extend that. Perhaps by several years.”
“I have asked Teela to give us a brief summary of what we have managed to learn from the preliminary study of the FarQuest data,” Steve said.
Standing up, Teela moved to the head of the table to stand next to Steve. “The neutron star-black hole binary is now only eight billion miles away from our Sun,” she stated in a calm, soft voice. Her deep blue eyes moved across the staff members, capturing everyone’s undivided attention.
On the main viewscreen, a colored schematic depicting the Solar System and the planets in their orbits appeared. The trajectory of the neutron star-black hole binary was marked in dark red.
“As you can see, the neutron star-black hole binary will intersect the Solar System disk at 1.46 billion miles from the Sun,” Teela spoke in a calm lecturing voice.
“Close enough to screw up the Solar System,” commented Dryson, shaking his head.
Walking over to the large viewscreen, Teela used a laser pointer to show the intersection point. “Fortunately, Jupiter and Saturn will both be on the far side of the Sun at this point and will not be drawn into the black hole. However, because of the strong gravitational stresses from the neutron star-black hole binary, almost all the orbits of the planets in our Solar System will be markedly changed.” Another schematic showing a much different Solar System flashed up on the screen.
Many of the asteroids were gone, swept up by the changed orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, which now rode in an orbit much closer to each other than before. Pluto was gone, cast off into the depths of interstellar space. The orbits of Mars and Earth now nearly intersected just inside the orbit of the few remaining asteroids and Earth came dangerously close to the orbit of Venus at its closest approach. Mercury’s orbit was largely unchanged, and the orbit of Venus was more elongated than it had been.
“Those are some really drastic changes,” Todd Williams spoke up, eyeing the schematic. “Life on Earth will be impossible with that orbit.”
“No more Goldilocks zone,” Stoler spoke with his eyes focusing on the screen. “At the fartherest distance from the Sun on that diagram even the Earth’s oceans will freeze. As the Earth nears Venus, the oceans will melt and begin to boil as the water temperature rises. After a few years, there will be very little liquid water left on the surface, and the atmosphere will be unbreathable.”
“Assuming the Earth stays together from the gravity stresses it will be put through,” added Andre, gazing at the screen. He had run some simulations, and in several of them, the Earth had been broken apart.
“What about the Moon?” asked Julie, seeing that the Moon was not depicted in orbit around the Earth. For that matter, many of the moons of the outer planets were missing.
“We don’t know yet how many of the satellites of the different planets will be affected,” answered Teela, stepping back over to her position beside Steve. “Some may survive intact to continue to orbit the planets they do now. Others may be pulled out of their orbits. Some may be cast off into space, escaping the Solar System altogether.”
“What about the Moon?” asked General Karver, wanting an answer to Julie’s question. He wanted to know what would happen to Tycho City.
“As for Earth’s Moon, we don’t know yet,” replied Teela, switching her gaze to the general. “Several of the simulations show the Moon remaining in a much closer orbit to the Earth. Others show the Moon breaking apart and becoming an asteroid field encircling the globe.”
“What will the effect be on our Sun?” asked Dryson, staring intently at Teela. “Will it go nova?”
Teela hesitated before answering. “The latest information indicates an 84 percent chance that the Sun will undergo a major transformation.”
“What kind of transformation?” Julie Gray asked, afraid of the answer. She still hadn’t recovered from the news about Ty. John had taken it extremely hard. He was still back in their quarters with their kids.
“It may experience a nova transformation. How large a nova is speculative,” Teela replied in a lower voice.
“Then we are trapped,” said Christy, letting out a heavy sigh. “We can’t move the station to safety in the time we have left. A nova will affect the entire Solar System; we couldn’t possibly get clear in time.”
The room was quiet as everyone weighed their options. Any type of nova would incinerate Star One, no matter where it was in the Solar System. They couldn’t move it far enough away from the Sun for the station to be safe.
“There is a solution,” ventured Teela, cautiously. She had run a number of simulations and hadn’t talked to anyone about what she was going to suggest. She hadn’t even had time to mention it to Todd. She looked over at the commander with a strange, pensive look appearing on her face.
“The wormhole,” Steve responded his eyes widening in sudden understanding. That was what the strange look on Teela’s face meant. “You think we should attempt to take Star One through.”
“The wormhole!” Dryson repeated sharply looking stunned. His eyes narrowed as he considered the possibility. He glanced over at Stoler, who had an equally stunned look on his face. “Is it possible?”
“Yes,” Teela replied relieved that the commander had realized what she was going to propose. “We know from Professor LaRann’s data what conditions are like and what they did to attempt passage through. With the ion drives on the Space Platform, the addition of some SRBs, plus strengthening the station’s structure, it is feasible. It would be possible for us to reach the black hole and navigate through the wormhole before the nova occurred.”
“Ridiculous!” proclaimed Stoler, shaking his head in denial after thinking about the ramifications. “To move the station that far and attempt to go through the wormhole will be next to impossible. The stat
ion’s structure would not survive the gravitational stress of the black hole long enough!”
“Not necessarily,” retorted Todd, thinking about the station specs and the thrust the four recently completed ion drives were capable of putting out. “We can get the station there. I am sure of that.”
“Can the station survive the stress?” asked Christy, looking over at Todd. She knew he had studied the stress levels the station was capable of handling. It had been necessary when calculating the maximum thrust for the ion drives. “That would be a long boost to get us there in time.”
“The ion drive chambers installed in the Space Platform are capable of nearly one-fourth gravity of thrust if needed,” replied Todd, looking over at Teela who nodded back in affirmation. “Our artificial gravity could be adjusted to compensate for the thrust, making it unnoticeable to the crew. The station is currently capable of handling the thrust from the ion drives without any additional modifications.”
“Can the ion drives handle that amount of thrust over a long period?” asked Stoler. He knew the ion drives had been designed to move the station over relatively short distances before needing to be recalibrated. The station was just too massive.
“I would recommend only boosting at one-tenth gravity,” answered Todd, thinking about all the specs. “We could boost the station for eight hours and then coast for eight and then boost for another eight. That will give us time to check the systems between boosts for any potential problems. We have almost unlimited fuel supplies in the Space Platform for the drives, and we could do this for weeks.”
Turning to Teela, Todd asked her a question. “If we boosted the station that way, how long would it take us to reach the black hole?”
“From the time we begin boosting the station, it would take us 132 days to reach the black hole,” responded Teela, doing the calculations effortlessly.
Turning to Dryson and Stoler, Steve asked, “The FarQuest used a modified magnetic containment field generator to surround the ship with a revolving magnetic field. The field trapped electrons from the ion drive to form some kind of barrier to stabilize the wormhole and keep it open to allow their passage. Star One is a lot bigger than the FarQuest. Can you design a large enough generator to surround the station with a revolving magnetic field like the FarQuest used?”
Dryson and Stoler looked at each other and then, after talking quietly for several moments, responded. “It can be done,” Stoler replied with a nod. “But we’re still not certain this plan is feasible.”
“I don’t think we have any other choice,” spoke Christy, looking at the two physicists. “If anyone has any other ideas that might allow us to survive a nova, now is the time to speak up.”
The room was quiet, with everyone looking at one another.
“Can you build the field generator in time?” Steve asked the two scientists once more. It looked like Teela’s plan was going to be adopted. There just was no other option.
“We have plenty of time to build the equipment we would need,” replied Dryson, his eyes narrowing in thought.
“We can build a generator that will be much more stable and powerful than the one the FarQuest used,” Stoler commented after a moment. “We would have to study the data to see why LaRann felt the revolving magnetic field with the trapped electrons would stabilize the wormhole for their passage through it. With the time we have, we might be able to come up with something better and more dependable.”
“It will have to be much stronger in order to keep the wormhole open and stable during our passage,” continued Dryson, thinking deeply. “The station is much larger than the FarQuest.”
“We will have to look at LaRann’s theories on wormholes very carefully,” Stoler said. “We need to understand exactly why he needed the magnetic field.”
“Since Star One is much larger, the stresses inflicted from the wormhole will be tremendous,” Dryson stated. “From the very nature of the wormhole Professor LaRann describes in his theories, it will be inherently unstable. If I understand his theory correctly, it is the trapped electrons in combination with the revolving magnetic field that holds the wormhole open as we pass through. Not only that, but we can’t activate the magnetic field until just seconds before entering the wormhole itself.”
“Very well,” Steve said, letting out a deep breath. “I don’t think we have a choice in this. I want everyone to prepare their departments to boost the station ten days from now. That will give us time to prepare the station and completely review all the data we received from the FarQuest. Julie, you and Kathleen need to see how the boosting will affect the ecological habitats.”
“So we are going to attempt to go through the wormhole to where Ty and the FarQuest are?” asked Jennifer as she realized just what was being proposed.
“That’s what it looks like,” Steve replied. “Unless anyone can come up with another solution between now and the time we begin boosting the station.” He felt somewhat better as he realized that he might indeed get to see Ty and the FarQuest again.
Jennifer was silent as she thought about this. She would ask Teela some detailed questions later. There was a lot of this she didn’t understand.
“Teela, what are the latest reports from Earthside? Any chance that Senator Farley can do anything to prevent us from leaving the Lagrange point?” asked Steve, looking over at Teela. Senator Farley had been quiet for several weeks now due to the increasing severe weather down below. Steve had been expecting another attack but, so far, none had been launched since that first missile attack.
“I don’t see how,” she said thoughtfully. “Look at the newscasts from down below that I have been monitoring for the last few hours.”
On the main screen, a scene of destruction was being displayed. The view was of the South Carolina shore just north of Myrtle Beach. It showed massive waves being driven onto the defenseless shore by powerful storms at sea. The waves could be seen smashing buildings, tearing down power lines, and flooding miles and miles of helpless coastline. News crews flying high above the flooding were broadcasting the destruction.
Other scenes showed rivers overflowing their banks. Massive levees were being desperately thrown up to hold back the torrents of rising water. Enormous efforts were being made to prevent the raging floods from bursting through and sweeping entire towns and villages away. Military forces, along with frightened townspeople, were emplacing sandbags trying to control the flooding. Teela played the scenes for nearly five minutes.
“The storms on Earth are out of control,” Teela reported. “Most of the Earth is being exposed to monsoon-like rains. Hurricanes and typhoons are almost too numerous to count. Already, millions of people in the low-lying areas of China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Europe, and even the United States have been made homeless. Many others have lost their lives due to the increasingly severe weather.”
“What about the food situation?” asked Julie, staring awestruck at the viewscreen. “With the weather this terrible, it’s bound to have had a catastrophic effect on the world’s crops.”
“A state of emergency has been declared in every nation,” replied Teela, trying to sound calm. “Much of the year’s harvests have been inundated with floods. Some countries will be facing widespread starvation in just a matter of weeks. The U.S. has curtailed all exports of grains and other foodstuffs until the emergency is over.”
“It won’t be over,” commented Andre, sadly. “It is only beginning.”
His words weighed heavily on everyone. They all knew that shortly the earthquakes would begin, followed by the volcanoes. Conditions down on Earth would only continue to deteriorate.
“Civil unrest will spread very soon,” stated Martain Blackwater, looking around the group. “Anarchy will begin to swell across the globe as hunger increases. Fortunately, the weather will prevent the wholesale slaughter of people fighting for what food remains; many will just die in their homes.”
“What about the earthquakes?” asked Steve
, watching Teela. He had come to depend on her a lot recently. “What are the latest estimates on when those might occur?”
“We could see some major earth movements within the next 30 to 60 days.” Teela replied as she quickly accessed a simulation. “The heavy rains are not helping the situation. From the models we have put together, I don’t believe that we will see a widespread increase in volcanic activity for another 60 to 90 days. However, there is a possibility that some of the earthquakes could trigger a few major eruptions.”
“Very well,” replied Steve, nodding at Teela. “Let’s get to work then.”
-
Down on Earth, Senator Farley sat in one of the deep underground retreats built to protect the president and staff in case of a nuclear war. He had gathered together many of his closest friends and business associates to sit out the terrible weather raging up above.
Martial law still reigned throughout the country. The severe weather pounding the countryside held the nation in a death grip. Many bridges were out, thousands of square miles of coastland and river bottom were flooded. The nation’s crops were almost a complete loss. The continuous rain was preventing farmers from getting into their fields, which had turned into swamps. They couldn’t even harvest the pitiful remains of their decimated crops. Many people were already wondering where their next meal would come from.
Clutching a smoking cigar in his right hand, Farley looked around the conference table where his advisors had gathered. Many had a look of fear and desperation on their haggard faces. Already, several who had fallen into disfavor with Senator Farley had been cast out of the shelter into the raging storms above.
“What are the latest reports?” he demanded, taking a heavy puff on the cigar with a scowl on his face.
A two star general at the far end of the table stood up. Scant weeks before he had been a young colonel in the marines.
“We can hardly move anything,” General Young reported in a steady voice. “Whenever there has been a break in the clouds or a lessening of the rain, we have moved some supplies with helicopters. So many bridges are out and roads flooded that moving anything for long distances is next to impossible. Many communities are isolated, and their only contact is by radio. Much of the nation is out of power with lines down and electrical generating stations flooded or damaged.”
Star One: Dark Star Page 23