In France, a husband and wife stood outside their ruined home. They had survived for months in the basement on canned food and bottled water. But now, a strong earthquake had collapsed their home, driving them out into the gray, wet twilight of the late afternoon. Looking dismally about, the husband led his wife back to the feeble safety of the one wall that remained standing of their home. It was difficult to breathe, and the air smelled foul. Sitting down, he put his arm around his ailing wife. Kissing her gently on the cheek, he smiled, remembering better, happier days. Huddled together for warmth, the two watched what would be their last sunset through the low overcast sky.
-
Back on Star One, Steve felt the steady thrust from the ion drives. They were struggling to change Star One’s headlong flight into the black hole by a few precious degrees. Already, their speed had increased to over 3,000 miles per second. On the screen, another asteroid blew apart as it was struck by the railguns blowing it out of their path.
Lieutenant Emerson had all ten railguns online. Captain Gerald and Lieutenant Emerson were keeping their eyes glued to the radar and sensor screens searching for potential targets. General Karver stood behind them, watching everything carefully.
On the big screen, the black hole loomed ever more ominous as Star One rushed toward it. A slight vibration could be felt throughout the station from the ion drives. They were pushing the station slowly onto the course that would take them safely into the waiting wormhole.
“I’m scared, Steve,” Christy whispered with her eyes riveted on the screen. “What if we become trapped in the wormhole? We could be there forever.”
“We’ll be all right, Christy,” Steve replied gently. “We have probes out on all sides of us, and we will have advanced warning from them if there is a problem we need to deal with.”
Minutes passed as Star One continued to hurtle into the black hole. Their speed continued to increase at a faster rate as the station neared the actual black hole itself.
“Speed is 20,000 miles per second and increasing rapidly,” Teela reported from her position next to Steve. She had been going back and forth between Main Control and the Space Platform.
“Our speed is really rising,” spoke Christy, worriedly. “It will be more difficult for John to adjust our course.”
“John can handle it,” replied Steve, confidently. “He’s the best pilot we have.”
“It’s time to fire the SRBs,” Teela said, and then vanished to reappear next to Todd in the Space Platform.
“One minute to SRB firing,” Todd spoke over the com, watching the computer count down. Todd glanced at Teela and smiled. “Everything is going to be just fine, sweetheart; don’t worry.”
“I’m scared Todd! What if the station doesn’t make it?” Teela said plaintively. “I mean, humans believe they have a soul. What about me? Will I just cease to exist? I don’t think I have a soul.”
“You definitely have a soul, Teela,” replied Todd, gently. “You have too big of a heart not to.”
Teela smiled warmly back at Todd. “I hope you’re right.”
“Ten seconds to firing, Todd,” spoke John Gray, watching as the computer counted down the last few seconds.
John wished that he could be with Julie, but he knew that he was the best pilot for this job. They had already said their goodbyes in case the station didn’t make it through the wormhole. He knew it all depended now on his piloting skills.
“SRB ignition,” Teela said as the station seemed to receive a large kick and everyone was pushed back in their acceleration couches. Then gravity returned to normal as Teela quickly adjusted the artificial gravity.
On the outer edges of the Space Platform, eight large SRBs added their power to the four ion drives, gradually accelerating the station ahead at one and one half gravities of acceleration. The Luxen cables felt the strain but did not break.
The ion drives glowed brightly, leaving four glowing trails of electron fire behind the station. Already, the intense gravity from the black hole was forcing the far ends of the threads of electron fire to bend and curve back toward the deadly maw of the black hole. The gaseous trails from the eight brilliant SRBs began to form behind the station; soon they too would be bent and pulled in. Nothing escaped the black hole’s deadly grasp; it sucked in everything. Nothing was immune, except for the small neutron star that rotated in a tight, safe orbit around it.
-
Steve felt the station shudder and vibrate ominously as the SRBs continued to fire. This was much worse than the acceleration they had endured at the start of their flight. He watched worriedly as the station’s stress indicators rose and then stopped way up in the green, almost touching the yellow.
“Speed is up to 35,000 miles per second,” Christy reported, hardly daring to breathe. She knew from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity that they were already experiencing a time dilation effect from their high rate of travel. It would become much more pronounced as they neared the speed of light.
“Switching railguns to automatic computer instigated fire,” Lieutenant Emerson reported. She pressed several buttons and typed in a code on her computer console.
For the next few minutes, the station’s computers would tell the railguns when and where to fire; Lieutenant Emerson would not have time to override them. Only the computers with their ability to process data in millionths of a second could protect the station now if an asteroid were detected. Lieutenant Emerson knew that Teela would be monitoring the railguns closely. She was the only one with the ability and speed to override the firing computers if necessary. For the rest of the flight, Lieutenant Emerson and Captain Gerald would just be observers.
“45,000 miles per second,” Christy said, watching the speed indicator continue to rise.
It wasn’t the ion drives or the SRBs that were causing the increase. It was the massive gravitational pull from the black hole itself that was pulling them swiftly in.
“One minute from magnetic field activation,” Jarl Stoler reported over the com from his position in the Power Wheel.
Their speed continued to increase rapidly. Steve was aware of the station’s thrusters firing almost continuously to keep the station on an even keel and properly aligned with the black hole. He knew that John must be struggling down in the Space Platform trying to stay on course and keep the station stable.
“Speed 70,000 miles per second,” Christy breathed out nervously. She reached over and grasped Steve’s hand, holding it tightly.
“Railguns are on automatic firing sequence,” Lieutenant Emerson reported as the railguns began firing and recycling automatically to fire again as they tried to sweep the path clear in front of them.
“Magnetic field activation,” Jarl Stoler reported from the Power Wheel as he pressed the button home, which activated the first magnetic field generator. A low whine came from the equipment, indicating that it had turned on.
Steve watched on the main screen as the station became surrounded by a golden halo of trapped electrons from the ion drives. They were in the center of a huge bubble.
“Two minutes to the wormhole,” Lieutenant Emerson reported as another probe stopped reporting. It had been destroyed in the unstable wormhole opening.
“Probes 3, 7, 8, and 10 have all stopped transmitting,” Lieutenant Commander Anderson reported from communications where he had been monitoring the probes.
“How’s our course holding?” demanded Steve, feeling the station beginning to vibrate even worse. He hadn’t expected to lose so many probes so quickly. The station was once more making those groaning noises as its structure was put to the test.
“On course and holding,” reported Christy, checking her instruments. “John is keeping us dead on target.”
Christy knew it must be taking a Herculean effort on John’s part to keep the station on course. Just from the noise the station was making it seemed to be protesting what was being done to it. It seemed as if the structure had taken on a spectral life of its own.
-
Down in the Space Platform, John and the other two pilots fought to keep the station on the calculated course for the wormhole. The heavy gravitational pull was pulling on the station, causing the three to have to use the station thrusters almost continuously to keep the station on course and stable. John gritted his teeth as he struggled to make all the adjustments that were necessary. He was flying mostly on instincts now.
Todd watched tensely with Teela at his side as Star One continued to accelerate toward the area of total emptiness at the center of the black hole. That was the location of the wormhole.
“Almost there,” Teela whispered to Todd.
She felt apprehensive about what was soon to happen. She wondered if she would survive. She wondered if any of them would. Current simulations now only showed a 40 percent chance of success.
-
“Speed is 120,000 miles per second and increasing rapidly,” Christy yelled as the station began to groan loudly and audible sounds of strain were heard from the station’s joints. It sounded as if the station was about to come apart around them.
“Twenty seconds until wormhole entry,” Teela reported in a strained voice over the com. She had decided to stay with Todd until the transit was over.
“All personnel, standby for wormhole transit!” Steve barked over the station’s com system. On the screen, the swirling maw of the black hole now surrounded the station. Steve felt Christy grip his hand even tighter.
“I love you, Steve,” she spoke, not caring who heard.
“Wormhole insertion,” Teela’s voice announced.
“I love you too,” Steve replied in a voice that seemed to last forever.
Time seemed to slow down and then stop. Steve’s mind and senses seemed to explode as wave after wave of dizziness assailed him. For an instant, Steve felt as if he existed at every point in the universe. He no longer had a physical body he could sense. He could see every world, every intelligent being, he was back on Earth, on the Moon, he could feel Christy’s deep love for him. He sensed with a part of his mind the first magnetic field generator go down as the edge of the field was penetrated by an asteroid. It was followed an infinity later by the second generator and then, a timeless instant later, by the third!
With a resounding crash Steve recovered, finding himself back in Main Control, hearing alarms pounding at his ears amidst screams and yells of sheer panic, and then all the lights went out. Steve could hear groans and grinding sounds coming from tortured metal above the human sounds.
Steve knew that the station had been holed, possibly severely. Some of the asteroids that had been pulled into the wormhole with Star One must have struck the station. The emergency lights came on dimly, lighting up frightened and worried faces. Lieutenant Emerson was slumped over her console, obviously unconscious, and she was not the only one.
“We need a medical team up here, quick!” Steve barked. “Captain Gerald, please send someone down to the infirmary to get some help. Have them take a portable hand lamp out of the emergency locker.”
“What happened?” asked Christy, wanting to hear Steve’s voice as one of Captain Gerald’s marines grabbed the lamp out of the emergency locker and ran out of Main Control toward the infirmary.
“I don’t know,” replied Steve, looking about. “I think we lost the magnetic field generators,” Steve had a vague memory of the generators going down and then a brilliant white light.
“Then we’re trapped in the wormhole,” Christy said in a defeated voice. Thinking her worst fear had come true.
“I don’t know,” replied Steve equally worried. “We don’t have any power. I don’t believe we’re still in the wormhole though.”
“We can’t be in the wormhole,” General Karver spoke as he bent over Lieutenant Emerson, checking her for injuries. “We must have made it out the other side.”
At that instant, the main lights flickered and then dimmed, to come back on at full strength. Captain Gerald was relieved to see that Lieutenant Emerson was regaining consciousness and was sitting up at her console holding her head, which had a dark bruise on it.
“She will be fine,” spoke General Karver, looking at Captain Gerald. He had seen enough injuries in combat to know the difference between a minor injury and a major one.
“The fusion reactor must be back online,” reported Lieutenant Commander Anderson, rushing over to the damage control board, which he could see was lit up with glowing amber and red lights. “We’ve got some problems.”
“What’s our condition, Teela?” asked Steve, wanting a quick update on the station. With surprise, there was no answer. “Teela?” Steve asked again, growing concerned and looking over at Christy.
“Matheson, what’s wrong with Teela?” Steve demanded with alarm growing in his voice, looking over at Andre who sat at the main computer terminal.
“I don’t know, Sir,” reported Andre, punching buttons rapidly on his computer console. “I can’t get her to respond either.” Andre’s face took on a look of grave concern; Teela was like a daughter to him.
“Todd,” Steve said into his com. "What's your situation down there?
“Not good, Commander,” Todd replied. “I believe we are operating on the emergency reactor. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Stoler. We’ve shut down the SRBs, and the ion drives shut down automatically when we lost the main reactors. Dryson says the fusion reactor here on the Space Platform scrammed itself. It will be a few hours before we can ascertain if it received any damage. He suspects the one in the Power Wheel probably did the same. Is Teela up there with you? I can’t seem to get her to respond?”
Steve hesitated, glancing worriedly at Andre. “No, she isn’t. Matheson is checking to see what’s wrong. We should know something shortly.”
“What’s the damage report?” demanded Steve, getting up and striding over to the damage control board.
“It’s not as bad as I feared, Sir,” reported Lieutenant Commander Anderson, letting out a deep sigh of relief. “A lot of the connecting Luxen support cables have snapped. We have pressure leaks in about twenty different areas, but most of those are being repaired from the sealant in the hull. It looks as if we took hits from some small asteroids. Both reactors have scrammed, and we can’t communicate with the Power Wheel. However, someone down there had to activate the emergency fusion reactor; that’s where our power is coming from. We also have several stress indicators showing that hull structural integrity in a lot of areas is borderline. We need to get everyone out of those sections immediately!”
“How about casualties?” asked Steve, hoping that there were not too many.
“Unknown, Sir,” Anderson replied. “Without Teela, we don’t have any quick way to check. From this board there will almost definitely be some, but how many is hard to say.”
“Get rescue parties into those damaged areas and have the people moved to more secure locations,” Steve ordered. “We can’t afford to lose people.”
Steve made his way over to Matheson’s console and looked at him inquiringly. Matheson had a stunned, crushed look on his face.
“What’s wrong, Andre?” Steve asked with foreboding. He could tell there was something terribly wrong.
“She’s gone,” Matheson mumbled with shock in his voice, not wanting to believe what the system was telling him. “Teela’s program isn’t in the core anymore; it’s been erased. Somehow, the passage through the wormhole, or possibly the complete system power failure, has destroyed her program. There’s nothing we can do to restore her!”
Main Control was silent as the word was passed that Teela’s program had been destroyed during the transit of the wormhole. Everyone felt the loss intensely; several of the women started crying. Teela had become a very close friend to many of the crew in Main Control and would be deeply missed. Margaret Sullivan was crying openly at the news. Margaret and Teela had become very close since Jennifer had arrived on the station. Steve also wondered how Todd and Jennifer would ta
ke this. First Kathleen and now Teela. Steve wondered how many others would have to die before this was all over.
Several medical people appeared and hurried over to begin assisting injured personnel, including Lieutenant Emerson.
“Commander!” Captain Gerald yelled excitedly.
Steve turned to see that the main viewscreen had come back on. It showed an outside view of nothing but stars. There was no sign of the black hole or the neutron star.
“We made it,” Christy said, breathing a sigh of relief and sadly feeling Teela’s loss. She felt as if she had lost one of her best friends. She gazed at the beckoning stars on the main viewscreen and knew that if not for Teela, this would not have been possible. She was also worried about how Todd would take Teela’s loss.
“We made it,” General Karver reaffirmed as a number of the crew in Main Control started cheering and clapping their hands.
Christy knew that if anyone deserved credit for their survival, it was Teela. She had a lot to do with all of them being alive today. It was her idea to try to traverse the wormhole.
“Commander, this is Jennifer Stone,” a new voice on Steve’s com spoke excitedly. “I need you and Todd to come to my quarters as soon as possible.”
“It will be a little while, Jennifer,” replied Steve, wondering what she needed. He also wondered how he was going to break the news to her about Teela. “We are sort of busy at the moment.”
“You don’t understand,” Jennifer replied in a strained voice. “Teela is here, and it is imperative that you and Todd get down here as quickly as possible.”
“Matheson,” Steve said confused, looking over at the station’s chief programmer. “Jennifer says Teela is in her quarters. I thought you said her program was wiped.”
“It is,” replied Matheson, looking extremely confused. “There is no way that Teela can be in Jennifer’s quarters. Whatever it is, I can assure you that it is not Teela!”
Star One: Dark Star Page 31