“ETA?”
“Four minutes.”
By now, Zara had hugged everybody on board. “You got IIX running again, just for me?” she asked Kato and Martin, as they floated on the left side of the bridge near Wilson’s and Elias’ workstations.
“Yep,” Kato replied. “Well, us and a small army. We did it under the radar, without any official approval.”
“There was some… unpleasantness,” Martin interjected. “A uh… cat fight of sorts.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Kato said. “There’ll be hell to pay when we get back.”
After a long moment, Kato turned to Zara. “Don’t ever scare me like that again!” he said.
“I don’t even know how I ended up being Seung Yi’s prisoner,” she said. “I was with Akio…”
IIX dewarped in the exact spot that Allen had set. The stars and planets reappeared outside. The Sun was about the same size as before, though it was on the opposite side of the ship now. Kato scanned around, and saw that the brightest planets were in completely different locations. He then looked back at Zara. She continued her sentence: “He and I were kind of somewhere we weren’t supposed to be.”
“Yeah, we know,” Kato said, with the merest grin. “He was accused of having something to do with your disappearance.”
“What?”
“Yes. But, we have a dump of his entire memory, proving his innocence. He’s a free man again.”
“Phew! I can’t wait to see him again.”
“You need a bath and a few good meals before you’re going anywhere, young lady!” Karla said in a mock motherly tone. Zara smiled. Her fondness for Karla had not diminished.
Sighs of relief all around. “Holy cow, we did it!” Wilson said. “Nobody got hurt. My God, am I glad to see you, Zara!”
“Likewise.”
“Never underestimate a small group of determined people,” Elias said.
“So, what happens now?” Karla asked.
“Well, we have a while to think about it,” Elias said.
“And get our story straight?” Allen said, with a half-chuckle.
Everyone and everything turned a blinding white. The occupants shielded their eyes. Elias practically choked. “WHAT IN GOD’S NAME?”
“Holy crap!” Mark yelled. “Is it a supernova or something?”
“I… haven’t a clue!” Wilson said. “Turn the ship and get the science suite on it!”
“Doing it right now,” Mark said. “Grab onto something!”
The bridge revolved quickly around the crew in a counterclockwise direction, until it had spun almost 180 degrees. Nobody had time to grab onto anything. Martin, who was floating near the edge of the bridge, was knocked flying by Elias’ workstation. “Aargh!” The impact sent him rolling around the inside of the circular room, flailing as he tried to stop himself. Nobody paid any attention. The brightness of the virtual viewport was turned down, and they could see again.
“Holy mother of God!” Mark said. Karla shot him a disapproving look. “Okay. Readouts,” he said. “Full electromagnetic spectrum. Heat somewhere just shy of a hundred million degrees. It’s coming from… oh…”
“What?”
“It’s coming from Ceres!”
Wilson turned white. “Oh, my God! The gravitometers were right! It’s just that we saw the effect in spacetime before the light and heat caught up to us…”
“What the hell happened?” Elias said.
“An explosion of incalculable size,” Mark said. “Ceres is, was, a small, inactive, rocky body. It couldn’t blow up if it tried.”
“I was told there were seventy to a hundred million people living there…” Kato trailed off.
“That’s the current estimate,” Wilson said. “Don’t know how many of them lived on Ceres, and how many were on other asteroids…”
“Anything around there is toast as well,” Mark said. “Even if not vaporized, they’d be sterilized.”
“Sterilized…” Elias said, slowly. “As in, cleansed of all life…”
The light slowly diminished in intensity. They could now see that its source was a tiny pinprick in space. Zara was silent. She blinked several times, with a stunned, faraway look on her face. Elias shook his head, looking utterly shocked and bewildered. His lips quivered. Mark studied the instruments’ readouts intensely.
“What… what the hell could have caused it?” Wilson asked shakily.
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Mark said. “It’s absolutely without precedent.” After a moment, he continued; “I hope some observatories recorded it, since we didn’t get the first few seconds. Maybe there’s a clue in the data somewhere…”
“I guess Lana getting punched in the face and Kirsti getting knocked out don’t really matter now,” Kato said. There was complete silence for a little while.
“I hate to say this,” Elias said, “but the timing is very coincidental, don’t you think? We were just there. Do you think it was something aimed at us that went horribly wrong?”
Wilson shook his head. “There isn’t a technology known to man that could have done that. Unless they had something up their sleeves that’s completely new...”
The light had now faded. Darkness was restored outside. Kato suddenly looked as though he were about to be sick. “Guys, how far are Earth and Mars from the explosion?”
“Mars is a very long way away,” Allen said. “The pulse actually won’t have even reached them yet. It will be very weak when it does. Earth, on the other hand, is about equidistant from where we are now.”
“So… Earth didn’t get fried?” Kato asked unsteadily.
“I doubt it,” Mark said. “The outside of our hull only got about twenty-five degrees hotter at its peak. And that only lasted half a minute. So that’s the level of heat they will have experienced, and it’ll have been attenuated by the atmosphere.”
“Phew!”
“Now, all those other wavelengths on the other hand…” Mark said, still studying his instruments. “Lots of light, of course. Plus a hefty dose of gamma and x-rays. Hard to say what the effects will be.”
“S’pose we ought to head for home,” Elias said. “Only we’ll do it the proper way this time: come out of warp at a hundred million kilometers out, and cruise in on ZPR the rest of the way. Actually, nix that. Ten million K. We can get there that much faster. It worked on the way out here.”
Allen half chuckled and shook his head. “We haven’t followed a single safety procedure yet. Don’t see why we should start now!”
“Earth or Mars?” Karla said.
Elias sighed. “Damn good question. I’m gonna say Mars. I wondered if we could be of any help on Earth, but I don’t think we can.” Nods all around.
He turned to Allen. “Get us home.”
“Aye.”
Chapter 38
The plush white furniture in Akio’s living room formed itself to Zara’s body; a half-reclining, half-sitting position, perfect for watching TV. She wore a red blouse and gray sweatpants. To her right was Akio. He wore blue jeans and a white t-shirt. They held hands. He shuffled in a little closer to her, so that they were almost cuddling.
“So tell me, Zara, am I Mr. Right?”
“Look, as I’ve already explained a thousand times,” she said in mock exasperation, barely suppressing a grin, “you’re Mr. Right for Right Now.”
“Ah, a woman’s heart is a strange and mysterious thing,” Akio said, mimicking a fortune teller. “Who can understand its depths?”
Zara shrugged slightly, in her totally casual and relaxed way. “One day at a time, boy.”
“Will you at least stay here with me, while you try to figure out what to do next?”
“Yes. I will promise you that much. I’ll even put up with your dorky friends coming over.”
“So, the smell of popcorn holds much allure for you?”
“When you guys don’t burn it, yes.”
Akio smiled. “And what about model airplane glue?
There are many good kits available now!”
Zara rolled her eyes. “Boys. I’ll choose those times to go out. The clubs hold much allure for me.” She paused. “Although, I don’t understand any of the styles or social cues now.” Her tone became more serious. “I don’t understand the world at all, Akio. It’s completely different from anything I remember. It’s changed even in the time I’ve been back. It’s gonna take a while to get acclimated. We have to take it slowly. You understand?”
“Yes.”
“I’m probably gonna wear a disguise most of the time, too,” Zara continued. “I don’t need celebrity status on top of it all.”
Akio nodded. “I can well understand.”
Zara scowled. “No you can’t. You haven’t done battle with that madman—twice—and almost been killed by him both times. The same is true for my dad, too.” Zara’s jaw was clenched. She looked away from Akio, at the window.
Akio sighed. “No, I can’t understand that. I’ve led a pretty sheltered, privileged life.”
“It’s gonna take me a while to deal with all that.” Zara looked back towards Akio. “Until then, I’m kind of a fragile flower. You have to take good care of me.”
Akio merely nodded. He cupped both hands over Zara’s right hand, which he was already holding. She smiled wistfully, and her shoulders dropped some.
“Well, it’s just about time,” Akio said. “I’ll put the show on.”
A floor to ceiling display appeared in front of the window. “Earth News Network is proud to present a two-hour special feature on the momentous events of Eight-Seventeen, and the intervening time, named One Month that Changed the World.” The network’s logo flashed past and gave way to an attractive brunette presenter. The camera zoomed in closer to her plastic smile. “Hello, everyone, I’m Cindy Turgeon. Tonight we’ll look back at what has been called the most turbulent period in over a century. To begin with, there isn’t a man, woman, or child alive who doesn’t know what happened one month ago today, on August seventeenth: the apparent self-destruction of the dwarf planet Ceres, a would-be sovereign territory that was home to the Yi Dynasty and MX9 Corporation. The magnitude of the explosion was such that that world was completely destroyed. All attempts to contact survivors have failed. An estimated seventy million people perished.
“The heat and light from that event also caused chaos on Earth. North America, Mexico, and the northern part of South America caught the brunt of the explosion’s energy, at 10:13 PM Eastern Standard Time. The heat caused no direct injuries worse than a bad sunburn. However, the mass panic and instant severe weather conditions are responsible for at least two thousand deaths and eleven thousand injuries. Coastal areas were inundated as hurricane force winds and a monstrous storm surge, caused by the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, wreaked havoc. Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi have been worst affected. Power was out across most of the continent for about a day. Cleanup efforts continue.” The camera cut to aerial views of wreckage-filled bayou swamps.
“In space, the story was quite different,” she continued. “The Earth Transport Interchange was closed for two days following multiple pressure hull breaches caused by temporarily-disabled spacecraft crashing into it. Ninety-eight people died there, and thousands were stranded until parts of the orbiting station could reopen to traffic.” Zara and Akio looked at each other for a long moment, the severity of the situation weighing on them, and then back to the screen.
“The story of Eight-Seventeen, of course, is intertwined with that of the abduction of Zara Sasake-Robbins by the Yi Dynasty. The Mars Science Foundation mounted a successful rescue effort, using the only ship fast enough to catch the cargo ship in which she was imprisoned: the Interplanetary Interstellar Explorer. This is, of course, the same ship that brought both her and her father back from the brink of existence, to rejoin the human race two-and-a-half centuries after their departure. The fact that IIX was in the vicinity of Ceres mere seconds before the blast cannot be ignored. Many have called for an investigation into whether there is a link between the two events. In order to head this off, the Mars Science Foundation released recordings of the entire rescue operation, as seen from the craft’s external cameras. It tells a story that will in itself doubtless be recounted for generations. However, it does show Ceres as clearly being intact before the ship entered warp. Readings from onboard instruments show the explosion happened fifteen seconds after the ship left.
“A stunning revelation that came from the rescue is the fact that Seung Yi was, in fact, alive. This message, received by IIX minutes before the end of the rescue mission, was also released by the MSF.” The bone-chilling message from Seung Yi was played: “I can, and am, coming to get you. Back off now, or you will face unimaginable torture. You will wish you had never existed.” The hairs on Zara’s neck and arms stood up. She took in a sharp breath, and her body tensed up. Akio gripped her hand with both of his more tightly.
“This recording was analyzed,” Cindy Turgeon said, “and compared to known recordings of his voice from the 22nd century, via voice pattern analysis. Top experts from the CIA have confirmed it was him. Pressure then mounted on the Koreans to exhume his body, buried at a state funeral in 2161. They did so, and the grave was empty. The resulting furor has prompted many questions about whether the Chinese knew he wasn’t really dead, but was in fact in a hibernation chamber.”
“Then, while the world was still coming to grips with all this, three unknown spacecraft showed up in Earth’s orbit, on three successive days. Nobody saw them coming, because that’s how they were designed. Their crews admitted they were stealth warships of the Yi Dynasty sent to destroy prospecting craft in the asteroid belt, so they could keep a stranglehold on the world’s iridium supply. They came to Earth, because there was nowhere else to go; their home base no longer exists. Those crewmembers, thirty-six in total, are now being held at the FSE headquarters in the Pacific, awaiting trial for war crimes.
“So, back to what started it all: the detonation of Ceres. If the explosion had happened here on Earth, there is no question it would have been an extinction level event. Six observatories on and off the planet were watching that part of the sky when it happened. All of them recorded very high resolution data of the event. With me in the studio is ENN’s chief scientific correspondent, Alayna Barnes.” The camera zoomed out to show a Mexican-American woman sitting to Cindy’s left. “Alayna, can you tell us what every human being alive surely wants to know: what happened?”
“Well Cindy, as you can imagine, the world’s top academic institutions have pored over the data endlessly. A nuclear explosion has been ruled out, as the quotient of gamma radiation would have been far higher. A chemical explosion, even if it were possible on that scale, would have given a spectral signature that would have made it very easy to identify the components. No such signature exists. As startling as this is to say, it really seems to have been just a release of energy in its purest form, much like the Big Bang itself. Speculation is rampant that some kind of super weapon was being developed at Ceres, particularly given what we now know about the militaristic nature of that world. When pressed on what this might be, though, scientists readily admit they have no idea what could produce such high energy. Zero-point sources produce no chain reaction, and hence can’t be harnessed in that way. The only possible candidate is antimatter. CERN has demonstrated that this can be created and stored in a special type of containment field, though only a milligram was produced by them for obvious safety reasons. Estimates of how much it would have taken to cause the destruction of Ceres are anywhere from ten thousand to one hundred thousand tons. This is obviously completely infeasible to produce and store.
“The big fears at this point are twofold: one, that it was some hitherto unknown celestial phenomenon, a kind of anti-black hole, or two, that it was a side effect of the use of a warp drive so close to the dwarf planet. For this reason, the warp research program at MSF has been shut down until further notice. The debate goe
s on in scientific circles, and research will continue until the cause of this incredibly destructive anomaly is found.”
“Thanks Alayna,” Cindy said. “We’ll be right back.” Commercials started to play, for cars, clothes, and strange items that Zara didn’t understand.
“Hi Zara, it’s Dad,” the message played in Zara’s ear. She put her hand up to her right ear. “I’m watching the show too,” he said. “Just make sure you’re sitting down, and don’t have a cup of coffee in your hand. That is all!”
“Hmm,” Zara said, putting her hand down next to Akio again. She quickly relayed the message to Akio. He looked somewhat quizzical, as he took her hand again.
“Welcome back,” Cindy said, as the network’s logo flashed by once again. “Here, we are recapping and analyzing the momentous events of the last month, beginning with Eight-Seventeen. Now, we turn our attention to the daring rescue, mounted by the Mars Science Foundation. This appears to have been initiated by the Director of that organization, Kirsti McLellan.”
Zara’s eyes grew wide. “What?”
“She quickly mobilized a task force of engineers and technicians to overhaul and refit IIX, a task that would normally have taken ten months, in four days.” Zara took a swig from the coffee cup to her left, and then set the cup down again. “Ms. McLellan, along with the crew of IIX, has been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal…”
Zara spit her coffee everywhere, and jumped to her feet, still looking at the screen. “BULLSHIT!” She turned to face Akio, turning red in the face. “What the… heck? McLellan tried to stop them! She even got into a fistfight over it!” Akio opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“Call from Dad.”
“Accept.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” was all Zara heard. Wheezing, uncontrollable laughter. Zara began to chuckle. Once Kato had regained the ability to speak, he said: “You know what happened? She made a deal with everybody involved. Lana, and everybody else. She gave them their jobs back in exchange for their silence! And they had to let her take the credit!”
Kato's War: Book Two of the Kato's War series Page 18