Star One: Dark Star

by Weil, Raymond L.

  “He’s a good officer,” Captain Gerald repeated. “We might want to consider contacting him.”

  “I will take that under advisement,” General Karver replied not sure if they really wanted additional contact with Earth. “I don’t see how it would benefit us to contact Earth at the moment, but it is something we need to think about.”

  “Keep us informed if anything else about Farley shows up,” Steve ordered pleased that Senator Farley was now powerless. “I would still like to know what happened to him.”

  “If he was banished to the surface, he won’t last long,” General Karver said, knowing what the reported conditions on the surface were like. “He is getting what he deserved; it’s just a shame it couldn’t have happened sooner.”

  “Do you think we should contact this General Young?” asked Christy, looking at Steve and General Karver. “If he has any resources at his disposal, he could get more people into some of the military’s underground shelters.”

  “It’s something that General Karver will have to decide,” replied Steve, nodding at the general. “He is still the surviving senior member of President Kateland’s government.”

  “I will discuss this with Captain Gerald since he may know this General Young,” General Karver replied after a moment. “We might also want to contact Mase at Tyco City and see what he thinks.”

  Steve nodded, understanding why General Karver was being so cautious. Mase was closer to Earth than they were, and his opinion in this matter would be highly important.

  -

  Several hours later, Steve and Christy were seated at Jensens eating their first decent meal in days. Jensens was crowded as people tried to restore their lives back to some sort of normalcy.

  “Teela says the earthquakes will begin to increase in strength rapidly now,” Christy said, taking a small sip of the rich red wine that Jensen had poured a few minutes earlier.

  It was hard for her to think about what was occurring back on Earth. The entire crew had left a lot of family members and close friends behind. The chances of any of them surviving were very small. There had been so much death on Earth already and even more was ahead.

  “Unfortunately, that is probably correct,” replied Steve, picturing what life on Earth for the next several months would be like. “Teela’s latest reports show that most of the coastal areas around the world are flooded. The water levels of the oceans are slowly beginning to rise. There has been some melting of the arctic ice cap, and food supplies are rapidly dwindling.”

  “I talked to Mase earlier,” Christy went on, reaching out and taking Steve’s hand, enjoying the warmth of his touch. “He has completed his deep shelters and he does plan on putting the majority of his people into deep sleep until the neutron star-black hole binary passes.”

  “He has no other choice,” replied Steve, knowing that Mase was going to be faced with some very difficult decisions.

  “He intends to keep less than 500 people awake to operate the deep shelters and maintain his surface installations,” continued Christy. “He says that will tremendously reduce their drain on consumables and give them a large reserve of food stocks for when they can safely begin to awaken the sleepers.”

  “Did he say how long he was going to keep them in deep sleep?” Steve asked. He knew that Doctor Wruggi, in recent days, had spent a lot of time talking to Mase and some of Mase’s doctors about the deep sleep drug.

  “He wants to keep the sleepers under for about a year. By then he will know how the Solar System has been affected,” replied Christy, knowing that this was a lot longer than Doctor Wruggi had suggested was safe originally.

  “A year,” Steve spoke, recalling his last conversation with Doctor Wruggi on the subject. The doctor had said that longer times would be possible. However, the sleepers would have to be monitored extremely closely for any sign of ill effects.

  Of course, if the Sun experiences any type of nova situation and the Moon survives, he will keep them under indefinitely,” Christy said. “Even though a deep sleep period over one year could result in losing some of the sleepers. Dr. Wruggi has estimated that a two year deep sleep could result in losses of up to twenty percent of the sleepers and five years up to forty percent.”

  “There are so many unknowns,” Steve replied, gently squeezing her hand. “For Mase and us. What will we find on the other side of the wormhole? Will it be another solar system or just empty space with nothing around?”

  “I think everyone is wondering about that,” Christy responded with a sigh. “There are still so many unidentified issues ahead of us.”

  “But at least we are all together,” Steve said. “We are a large enough group that we can start over, and with Star One and the Space Platform we have a lot of resources available to us.”

  Christy looked around the restaurant, noticing that there were a quite a few families enjoying a meal together. She wondered if Steve and she would ever look like that.

  “Did General Karver and Mase discuss the new situation down on Earth?”

  “Yes, they did,” responded Christy with a slight nod. “Mase is going to try to contact this General Young in a few days. He is curious as to what happened to cause them to finally revolt against Senator Farley.”

  Jensen made an appearance shortly with their meals. Both spent the next hour talking about their hopes for the station and the firm belief that Ty awaited them on the other side of the wormhole.

  Later, Christy snuggled up to Steve’s warm body in his quarters as they both slowly drifted off to sleep. Each of them had been too tired for lovemaking, but just being there next to each other was comfort enough. We’ll survive, Christy thought sleepily as she fell into a deep, restful slumber.

  Steve rolled over and looked at Christy’s quietly sleeping form under the blanket. Putting his arm around her, he closed his eyes as a long, restful sleep quickly encompassed him.

  Teela turned off her monitors in the commander’s quarters. She knew that she shouldn’t have been watching, but Steve and Christy shared something that she badly wished she could have with Todd. Sometimes it made her want to cry, realizing that she was forever barred from experiencing what it would actually be like to touch Todd. To feel his body against hers, to be able to share what two people in love normally experienced.

  Using her sensors, she saw that Todd was sound asleep. Materializing in his room, she lay down on the bed next to him. He didn’t even know she was there. How could he? Her body wasn’t real. He couldn’t actually feel her touch. With a sob, she vanished back into the system and forced herself to go to work. She had a lot of information to go through for the commander and others. She buried herself in her work, putting Todd and her dreams in the back of her mind for now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sergeant Adams looked around the empty cave, feeling disappointed. His squad of men had been sent to this location to search for possible survivors. General Young had sent the squad out to check a group of small remote caves that reportedly held survivors from the carnage that was raging around them.

  Sergeant Adam’s eyes swept around the cave, noting the obvious signs of recent human habitation. An old shirt, a couple of dusty blankets, a torn sleeping bag, and several empty food tins were all that were there.

  Corporal Strong squatted down and put his hand over the remains of a campfire and then, frowning, touched the ashes themselves. “It’s cold, Sir. If anyone was here they have been gone for several days at least.”

  “But they were here at one time,” commented Sergeant Adams with a frown.

  If they had only heard about these survivors earlier, they could have been rescued. Now there was no telling where they had fled to. He let out a deep breath in disappointment. They were finding few surviving people in their searches.

  A small group of survivors they had found in the basement of a house had reported that a large group of survivors had taken refuge in these caves. Due to the health of several members of the small group in the basem
ent, they had decided not to go to the caves with the larger group.

  The marines had walked through nearly three miles of dense dying forest to get to them. There were four small caves that went back deep into the small mountain. The rain and the mud had made the trip extremely difficult, and they had struggled for nearly half a day just to get here. In addition, the necessity of wearing the cumbersome masks that allowed them to breathe clean air had made the trip even more difficult. The air deep inside the cave was not too bad, and Sergeant Adams had removed his mask to allow better communication with his marines. The air, even deep within, smelled of sulfur. Outside it was much worse.

  “They must have run out of supplies,” suggested Corporal Strong, coming to stand next to Sergeant Adams. “There are a lot of empty food containers in the back of the caves. They probably ran out and were forced to leave and search for more.”

  With a nod, Sergeant Adams turned and walked the hundred yards back to the cave’s entrance. Once at the entrance, he put his breathing mask back on and gazed out at the countryside below him. A light rain was falling, and visibility was severely limited. The forest was no longer green. Due to the contamination in the atmosphere many of the trees were dying. Dead limbs and brown leaves were evident on many of the trees. Even the grasses that normally covered the ground were dead or dying. Sergeant Adams let out a deep sigh. He had been raised in woods like these. It was sad to know that shortly they would be completely dead. Very soon, he knew, nothing would be left alive on the surface. The only survivors would be those in the deep underground bunkers.

  Turning back to Corporal Strong, he said, “Radio Captain Wells, and tell him there were no survivors at this location. We are coming in.”

  -

  General Marcus Young stared at the latest reports from the surface with grave concern on his face. During the last several months since he had taken control of the complex, earthquake and volcanic activity had increased substantially. The atmosphere outside the deep bunker was almost unbreathable without some type of air filter mask to remove the contaminants. He let out a deep breath, wishing he could do something else to help the few survivors still struggling on the surface.

  Looking around the command center, he saw that his people were all busy, working hard at figuring out how they were going to survive. A mixture of military and civilians operated the consoles and computers inventorying supplies, checking on spare parts, and possible locations on the surface that could still be searched for survivors.

  Most of the large screens on the wall were filled with static. Only occasionally would one clear up briefly to show a view from one of the satellites in orbit. The communications center was fully staffed as the communication officers scanned all the available frequencies for signs of life. Each day there were fewer and fewer.

  From the few scattered radio stations still on the air, Young knew that conditions on the surface of the Earth were quickly becoming untenable. There was no doubt in his mind that very soon the only people surviving would be in deep bunkers. Some of those bunkers might not be able to survive the strong earth tremors, which were constantly shaking the globe. Even here, in Young’s bunker, the earthquakes were noticeable.

  “What are our surface units reporting on their search for additional survivors?” he asked a young female lieutenant who was operating one of the communication consoles. They were listening to every broadcast they could find, trying to ascertain what other survivors were doing.

  “No luck so far,” she replied, shaking her head sadly. “We thought we had a lead on survivors living in some nearby caves, but all our search team found were a few old camp fires. Sergeant Adams believes they have already moved on.”

  “Very well, tell them to return to base,” Young ordered. There was no sense in continuing to risk his people in the steadily worsening conditions outside. The marines on the surface were using breathing masks due to contaminants in the air.

  In the last two months, since he had overthrown Senator Farley, they had managed to rescue nearly 800 civilians who had managed to pass the screening process to qualify for admittance to the bunker. Most of these had been from nearby farms and small towns. In almost every case, the survivors had taken refuge in storm shelters and basements.

  The screening process was not particularly difficult. If a person was healthy, willing to work hard, and had no past criminal record or affiliation with Senator Farley, they were allowed admittance. In addition, there were nearly 400 military personnel in the underground bunker. Senator Farley had not utilized the bunker’s resources to allow it to maintain the total complement of people it had originally been designed for. It was capable of sustaining 2,000 people for two years with the original supplies it had on hand. Senator Farley had substantially increased the food supply most of it in high-end foodstuffs for his lavish meals and parties.

  “The last food stores have been brought in from the evacuated military bases,” Captain Wells reported as he came up to General Young.

  “Think we can find anything else useful up there, Captain?” asked Young, turning his gaze toward Captain Wells. He knew they had searched the surrounding area over the past month pretty thoroughly.

  “Not much,” admitted Wells, knowing that anything that might be useful had already been brought into the shelter.

  Captain Wells was a young marine with seal training. He was highly talented and a deadly marksman. He had been made responsible for locating any additional supplies that the underground bunker could use. He had been sending out scouting missions to nearby towns scavenging for anything they could find. One squad had located a herd of cattle that had been penned up on a nearby farm. The cattle had plenty of hay and a large ventilated barn to take shelter in. They had been butchered and their meat brought back and stored in the bunker’s large freezers.

  General Young had ordered all the remaining military bases that he could contact to be closed down. The few lingering soldiers were told to go home to their families. They were allowed to take all the supplies they could carry with them, and transportation was made available to get everyone as close to their homes as possible. Even so, many found they had to walk a long ways due to impassable roads and swollen rivers. Air transportation was extremely limited.

  Most of the military food rations that were left at the bases had been transferred to the deep underground command bunker and several other underground facilities. General Young was in contact with two of them that might stand a slim chance of long-term survival. Like the command bunker, the other two facilities were scrounging for supplies in the countryside. No one knew how long they would have to stay underground. The world outside the bunkers was almost unrecognizable.

  The heavy rains had devastated much of the countryside, and then the earthquakes had followed, adding their fury. Cities were torn apart as buildings never designed to stand up to such powerful earthquakes collapsed, and roads buckled, leaving gaping chasms that cut deep into the earth. Death and destruction ravaged the continent as millions died in the ongoing carnage. Then the volcanoes began to erupt. General Young doubted if there were more than a million survivors still alive in all of North America.

  On several occasions, they had been able to launch a few high altitude surveillance craft. One of the things that had surprised him was the revelation that Star One was on an intercept course for the neutron star. They had tried several times to contact both Star One and Tycho City, but interference from increased solar activity had made communication impossible. Of course, after everything Senator Farley had tried to do to them, General Young couldn’t blame them if they were receiving his messages but were afraid to reply for fear of treachery.

  Captain Wells was talking to one of the communication officers, who seemed to be excited about something. Nodding, the captain turned and walked quickly over to General Young.

  “We just picked up an SOS from a small town about 120 miles to the northeast,” he reported. “They claim to be a group of 420 survivors taking shel
ter in the basement of their high school.”

  “One hundred and twenty miles,” repeated General Young, frowning. In the conditions outside, that was a long ways to travel. “Can we get to them?”

  “I believe so,” Captain Wells replied with a confident nod. “The main highway is relatively intact. I can send Sergeant Adams with some heavy trucks to get them. They also claim to have a lot of food supplies.”

  General Young thought for a moment. He still had plenty of room in the bunker for survivors. This might be their last chance at finding any.

  “Do it, but make sure you send enough marines to keep the survivors and their supplies secure,” General Young warned. “Other scavengers could have heard their broadcast over the radio.”

  “I’ll send the trucks plus two full squads of marines,” Captain Wells replied. “I’ll lead the detachment.”

  “Very well,” General Young replied. He watched as Captain Wells went back to Communications and sent Sergeant Adams a message. Then the captain left, going to gather up his men.

  Looking around the main operations center of the complex, General Young hoped that someday he could tell Commander Larson and Commander Colton how he wished he could have stopped Senator Farley sooner. At least Captain Gerald would survive. He knew that the captain had been secretly transferred to Star One. This was something he had never revealed to anyone.

  Taking a deep breath, General Young leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He soon became lost in thought trying to think of what else they might need to survive the approach of the neutron star.

  -

  On Star One, Captain Gerald and Lieutenant Emerson sat in front of the main sensor and radar equipment monitoring their flight. Another recently promoted lieutenant was at the weapons console, ready to fire the railguns if an asteroid was spotted. General Karver stood behind the new lieutenant, talking to him in a low voice.