General Karver knew that, for the last several weeks Captain Gerald and Lieutenant Emerson had begun seeing each other occasionally on a personal basis. Because of the situation, General Karver didn’t have a problem with it as long as it didn’t interfere with their jobs. He had made it a point to tell both of them that just so they would understand.
Already, they had blasted twenty-two small asteroids apart that had strayed too close to Star One. Many of them would not have collided with the station, but even those that passed in close proximity to the station were being eliminated. It allowed the crew to stay in practice and to be able to react if a real threat to the station should appear.
“Good morning, Steve,” Christy said with a smile, taking her place next to the commander.
“Have a good night’s rest?” Steve asked with a slight grin on his face.
Christy turned a little red since she and Steve had spent the night together and their lovemaking had lasted for quite some time. “Very good,” she said, glancing demurely at her console. “How is everything this morning?”
“Everything’s nominal,” Steve replied with a slight smile. “The latest reports indicate that we are nearly two and one half billion miles from Earth. That puts the neutron star-black hole binary still four billion miles away.”
“About another two month’s flight time,” whispered Christy, looking up at the screen, which showed the neutron star and black hole that awaited them at the end of their flight.
At high magnification, the neutron star was a brilliant white dot and the black hole was just barely a dark blur next to it. Their conversation was interrupted by an alarm going off on the sensor array board.
“What is it?” asked Steve getting up and striding over to the weapons console, where General Karver and Captain Gerald were rapidly checking the data.
Lieutenant Emerson had relieved the newly assigned weapons lieutenant and taken his seat at the console. “Another asteroid,” Lieutenant Emerson replied with worry on her face. “A very large asteroid; the biggest we have encountered.”
“How large?” asked Captain Gerald, watching as the information appeared on the screen above the weapons console.
“It’s coming across now,” replied Lieutenant Emerson watching the screen intently.
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Captain Gerald seeing the answer. “The damn thing is nearly as large as the station. It’s almost 1,000 feet in diameter.”
“Our railguns won’t put a dent in something with that much mass,” Lieutenant Emerson stated, her hands running quickly over the weapons console.”
“We will have to use a Black Night with a nuclear warhead. We have four of those ready in the missile launching platforms,” General Karver said, glancing over at Steve.
“Do it,” ordered Steve, knowing that precious time was passing. “Place the station on condition yellow, and order everyone to prepare for possible asteroid impact.”
At her station, Christy spoke rapidly into her com unit as alarms started going off inside the entire station. In moments, the crew was headed toward their emergency posts. In critical areas of the station, airtight doors shut and locked.
“Station is secure,” Teela reported a minute later as she appeared next to Christy. She had been watching everything and had just activated her hologram.
On the main screen, a dim dot made an appearance. At nearly 200 thousand miles, it was still distant, but at their speed only eight minutes from impact.
“Missile platform ports open,” Lieutenant Emerson reported, her hands running quickly over the console in front of her. The weapons tech in the other seat next to her, was also pressing buttons on his console, readying the railguns to take out anything that was left of the asteroid after the nuclear strike.
“Nuclear weapons launch authorized,” General Karver said in a steady voice. “Just like we practiced, Lieutenant. It’s just a rock, and it won’t be shooting back.” He was standing right behind her.
Taking a key from around her neck, Lieutenant Emerson inserted it and turned it to the right next to a blinking green light on the console. The blinking green light signified that a nuclear tipped Black Knight missile was ready for launch. By turning the key, the missile would automatically arm itself one minute after launch.
“Missile locked on target,” she confirmed as course data was fed to the missile’s targeting computer. “Stand by to launch missile.” Lieutenant Emerson double checked her board, then pressed the launch button next to the blinking green light.
From the upper wheel of the station, a Black Knight missile leaped away from one of the missile platforms and accelerated on an intercept course for the incoming asteroid. Brilliant flame spread back behind the accelerating missile as it flashed toward its target.
“Impact in six minutes,” Lieutenant Emerson reported. “Commander, I have set up the Black Knight to impact the far right quadrant of the asteroid. If it does not destroy the asteroid, it should deflect it enough to give us a narrow miss.”
“Very good, Lieutenant,” Steve replied, his eyes on the screen, which now also showed the drive flare from the missile.
“That’s a large asteroid,” Christy said, watching the screen worriedly. She knew it was big enough to take the station out completely.
“Activate a second missile in case the first fails,” ordered General Karver.
This was a scenario they had discussed and planned for. If they encountered a large asteroid, it might be better to deflect it than to attempt to destroy it.
“Second missile on standby,” Emerson reported a moment later after taking the key out of its current slot and inserting it into another but not turning it. “If the first missile doesn’t destroy or deflect the asteroid, the second missile will be fired to detonate in its center.” She paused, doing some quick calculations. “The second missile will impact the asteroid approximately 2,000 miles from the station.”
“Be ready, Lieutenant,” General Karver ordered, his eyes focused on the sensor and radar screens. “We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”
On the screen, the asteroid gradually grew in size as Star One and the tumbling rock quickly drew closer together. It now looked like a small, jagged marble tumbling slowly around its axis.
“Missile impact in 30 seconds,” Teela reported.
“Impact in 15 seconds.”
“Impact in 5 seconds.”
“Impact, and we have detonation.”
On the screen, a brilliant white glow covered the asteroid as the force from the nuclear explosion melted thousands of tons of rock and gave the asteroid a hefty kick in the side. For a brief moment, the asteroid was invisible behind the spreading fireball and brilliant light from the explosion.
Steve watched spellbound as the asteroid cleared the inferno and continued toward Star One. A large section of its surface was glowing white from the impact.
“How big a deflection did we get?” Steve asked concerned since the missile looked to have done little actual damage to the asteroid.
“It’s enough,” Teela said suddenly from Christy’s side where she had been monitoring the entire crisis. “The asteroid will miss the station by about 18 miles. However, I am tracking numerous small fragments that have broken away as a result of the nuclear explosion. Some of those are on a collision course with the station.”
“Confirmed, sir,” spoke Lieutenant Emerson as her fingers flew over her console. “We are placing all railguns online and preparing to fire. We are tracking over 82 separate inbound pieces of debris.”
“Eighty-two,” Christy said worriedly, looking over at Steve, her eyes growing wide with concern. “How many are on a course to intercept the station?”
“Most of them,” replied Teela with a look of worry showing in her deep blue eyes. She was hurriedly checking the station’s sensors and correlating the data. “I’m giving the weapon’s tracking computers the coordinates for the largest fragments that are on a collision course.”
“Firing railguns on targets,” Lieutenant Emerson reported.
The six railguns kept continuously online were all put on automatic fire control and began firing at the incoming asteroids. The other four were being hurriedly powered up. General Karver watched with growing concern, knowing they were not going to be able to get them all. The station was going to take some hits. His eyes focused on the sensor screen, which showed the incoming meteors. Several vanished as they were hit by the railguns.
“One minute and thirty seconds until impact,” intoned Teela, tracking the inbound cloud of debris.
“All railguns now online,” the weapons tech next to Lieutenant Emerson reported.
“Firing railguns automatically on targets as they recycle,” added Lieutenant Emerson, keeping her experienced eyes on the sensor and radar screens as her hands flew deftly over the controls of her weapons console. “I am overriding the safeties and setting the railguns to fire every twenty seconds.”
Steve watched as meteors began vanishing from the screens, the largest fragments shattered by the powerful railgun rounds. He knew that by overriding the safeties the railguns could overheat and their barrels could melt, even with their Luxen shielding.
“Impact in sixty seconds,” Teela reported. Then, looking over at Steve with worry in her voice, “We’re not going to get them all!”
“The railguns will not be able recycle quickly enough,” Captain Gerald reported grimly, keeping his eye on the sensor and radar screens.
“We’re going to get all the large ones, but several of the smaller ones may impact the station,” warned General Karver.
“Impact in thirty seconds,” Teela reported, her eyes growing wide.
A look of fear crossed Christy’s face as she unconsciously gripped the armrests on her chair tighter.
“Impact in ten seconds.” Teela continued, using her interior sensors to scan the entire station and the platform.
“Impact!”
Steve felt the station shudder as a piece of debris hit, and then almost immediately several more smaller vibrations rattled the station. Alarms started going off on consoles all throughout Main Control. They were quickly silenced as the Main Control crew hurriedly tried to determine the damage to the station.
“We have six impact points that have penetrated the station,” Teela reported with a pained and shocked look upon her face. “Our Luxen shielding stopped the others from piercing us.
“Where?” demanded Steve, knowing that the station had been damaged. “Where did they hit us?”
“Three in storage areas, one in ecological habitat four,” Teela paused before continuing looking shocked and visibly upset. “Two penetrated to the crew’s quarters. Impact locations are Blue one, outer level; no casualties. The hull sealed itself since it was a small breach. However, the largest fragment penetrated to Green level three. Airtight doors have sealed automatically, cutting off that section and those in between. I have confirmation of eight fatalities.”
Looking at Steve and Christy, Teela felt almost like she needed to cry. “Kathleen Preen is one of the casualties. The asteroid debris tore completely through her quarters!” Teela had watched the entire terrifying scene on her monitors. There had been nothing she could do!
Steve and Christy sat absolutely still, hardly breathing.
Not Kathleen, Christy thought. How could something like this happen? Oh God, why Kathleen? Why did anyone have to die?
“It could have been worse,” said General Karver, walking over and standing in front of Christy. “The station survived, and now we must go on.”
“These are the first people we have lost since all of this began,” replied Steve, feeling numb and finding it hard to talk. It had all been so sudden and unexpected.
“We need to tell Julie,” Christy said quietly, finding it hard to accept what had just happened.
“We need to get rescue teams into those damaged areas,” General Karver reminded Steve. He knew that Steve was in shock. The general knew what it was like to lose people under his command. It was never easy and never would be.
On the main screen, Teela changed the view to show the impact points on the station’s hull. Strategically placed cameras offered views of the entire station. Most of the ruptured holes had sealed automatically due to a special sealing compound that was layered into the station’s outer and inner hulls. Only one hole remained that could not be sealed.
On the outer rim of the main wheel, a jagged hole nearly three feet across marked the impact point of a piece of asteroid debris. The small asteroid had torn completely through the station, exiting on the other side of the rim. It had tumbled through several small storage compartments, laying them to waste and then three sets of crew quarters, killing everyone inside before exiting the station to continue on its desolate course.
“Get a repair crew out there as quickly as possible,” Steve ordered Lieutenant Commander Kevin Anderson, the first shift duty officer. The shock was wearing off, and he knew that some people were trapped in their living quarters. “Then I want all the interior sections repressurized.”
“Yes, Sir,” the lieutenant commander replied, stepping over to the communications panel to contact the repair crews.
Around Main Control, the room became quiet as word of the tragedy quickly spread. They were stunned by the disaster that had just struck.
“I’m sorry, Commander,” Lieutenant Emerson said with tears in her eyes. She felt as if she had let the station down. “There were just too many of them.”
“It’s not your fault, Lieutenant,” Steve replied still feeling dazed by the disaster. “You did the best you could; everyone did. The station is still intact, and we all knew that there were dangers in what we’re trying to do.”
“You did just fine, Lieutenant,” General Karver said, motioning for the other lieutenant to take Emerson’s place. “You saved the station and did your duty; that’s what counts.”
Captain Gerald put his arm around Lieutenant Emerson. “It’s all right, Sandy,” he spoke in a gentle voice.
“Why don’t you take her to her quarters,” General Karver suggested. “I can watch things here for awhile.”
With a nod, Captain Gerald led Sandy Emerson to the doors of Main Control and exited.
“Are you all right, Teela?” Christy asked quietly, noticing that Teela had a strange and extremely sad look on her face. Christy knew that Teela and Kathleen had become good friends and been seen together often throughout the station.
“Commander, I need to speak with Jennifer,” Teela mumbled, still in shock.
She had never seen someone die before, and she had watched Kathleen’s death from the cameras in her quarters. It had been horrible but over in an instant. Kathleen had never known what happened.
“Go ahead,” replied Steve, aware that Teela was having a hard time handling what had just occurred. He hoped this wouldn’t affect the AI adversely. No one had ever thought about how something like this might affect Teela.
They all were having a hard time accepting what had just happened. It had happened so suddenly. They would all miss Kathleen and her carefree, always cheerful attitude. She had been a valuable member of the crew. Steve knew that Julie and John Gray would take her loss very hard also. Steve took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He still had a station he had to run and repairs that needed to be made. He would have to hold his grief for later.
-
In Jennifer’s quarters, Teela materialized to find Jennifer lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling, her face slightly white. Several pictures had been knocked off the wall from the asteroid impact.
“What is it, Teela?” asked Jennifer, sitting up seeing the distressed look on the AI’s face. She had never seen Teela looking so distraught before. Something was seriously wrong.
“Kathleen’s quarters were destroyed in the asteroid impact. She’s dead, Jennifer,” wailed Teela, replaying the scene in her mind over and over again. “Kathleen’s dead!”
&nbs
p; “Oh my God!” Jennifer cried, tears forming in her eyes. “She couldn’t believe what Teela was saying, but she knew from the look on Teela’s face that it had to be true.
“Why did it have to happen?” Teela cried with emotion flooding her voice. “Kathleen was so kind and generous, and she was my friend!”
Jennifer had to fight to keep her own emotions under control. Kathleen had been a good friend, but right now Teela was on the verge of collapse. Jennifer didn’t know how the AI’s systems would respond to this type of emotional stress.
“Teela,” Jennifer said gently. “You know that things like this happen to people. All during our lives people we know, friends, family, and associates occasionally die. It’s part of being human. Yes, Kathleen was your friend; she was my friend too. But we have to remember her for what she was, and as long as we have those memories she will be alive inside of us.”
Teela looked at Jennifer, not sure what to say. She had read about Earth’s religions, but they had only confused her. There were so many different beliefs.
“Come, sit down,” Jennifer said, patting the bed beside her. “We have some time; let’s talk.” Jennifer reached for a tissue on the bed stand and wiped the tears from her eyes. For now, she had to focus on Teela; she would grieve for Kathleen later.
-
In Main Control, Steve and Christy were just recovering from the shock of losing a close friend and the other casualties. Some of whom Steve had known, not as well as Kathleen, but he had met most of them at one time or another.
Already, Lieutenant Commander Anderson was assembling repair crews to patch the outer hull. Once that was done, they could repressurize the damaged areas and send crews in to begin the cleanup. There would also have to be a memorial service for the dead crewmembers. In the back of Steve’s mind, he remembered the last time something like this had happened, during the construction of the station when a completed section had blown out killing another of his friends. Steve felt Christy’s hand take his and hold it tightly.
“We’re all going to miss her, Steve,” Christy said, her eyes glistening from half formed tears. “But we must go on. We have a mission to complete. We knew that this was dangerous, and we could lose even more people before this is over, but we have to try or the entire human race could be lost.”
Star One: Dark Star Page 29