Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2)

by Jeffery Bagley

  Brianna shook her head. “It isn’t right for him to ride her like that. He purposely picks on her more than any of the rest of us.”

  Marcus, the other cadet stopped eating and spoke. “Look, we may not like it, but the Sergeant has a point. Up there in space, if the shit hits the fan, we have to be able to depend on each other. What you or I do in an emergency may decide whether everyone else on the crew survives or dies. I know this is just boot camp and these are just a bunch of mind games, but up there in space when you play the game, it’s for keeps. Down here it may be a mud hole that you fall in. You can survive that, but you don’t survive exposure to hard vacuum or radiation. If she can’t hack it, she needs to get out. Otherwise, the Sergeant’s going to make sure she fails out. It’s not anything personal. We all like Julianna ok, but she’s just not going to make it. Scientists need to stay back here on Earth and let the Space Force do the things up there in space.”

  Brianna stood up angry and red-faced. “Look Marcus, the last time I looked, my PT scores were better than yours. The rest of my training test scores are in the top ten percent of the class. Save your crap about scientists not being tough enough for someone else.”

  Brianna grabbed her meal tray, threw it in the recycler, and stormed out of the chow hall. She ran across the assembly field and back into the barracks. “Julianna, get your ass up. We’re going to go run again and get you into shape,” she yelled as she walked toward their corner of the barracks. Arriving at her bunk, she saw that Julianna’s bunk had been stripped and her locker was open and empty. She heard movement behind her, whirled around, and found herself face to face with Master Sergeant Gustov.

  “Your girlfriend couldn’t make the grade Miss Driskall. She quit, packed up, and has already left for home. You want to go with her?”

  Brianna glared at him and said nothing.

  “Miss Driskall, your scores are damn near at the top of your class. Not bad for a civilian at all. But I’m going to ride your ass until they’re the best or you quit too. You damn well better graduate as the number one cadet in this class, even if you aren’t going into Space Force.”

  The Master Sergeant turned to go and it was all Brianna could do to hold her tongue and not let him know what she thought of him. He stopped and turned. “Miss Driskall, before you say something that really pisses me off, let me tell you something. The last time I was in space I was assigned to a construction crew at the south pole of the moon. We were trying to repair some damage the base took from a moon quake during the encounter with that dwarf star. A huge gaping crack opened in the ground and three of my team members fell into it. The damn thing was probably over five hundred feet deep. We were all tethered together. As the other team members fell into that crevice, the tether attached to me snapped tight and their weight started pulling me over the edge. I caught myself at the very edge and was hanging there holding on to the lip for all I was worth. I was trying to keep all of us from falling to the bottom of that crevice. My hands started to slip; I couldn’t hold all of us up. The next man below me on the line saw that I was slipping and that we were all going to fall and die. Do you know what he did?”

  Brianna shook her head.

  “He pulled out a knife and reached up and cut the tether. He fell with the other two and died. I managed to crawl back up and save myself. Could you have done that if you had been in his place? Maybe you could and maybe you couldn’t. But, I know for a fact that your friend couldn’t. This isn’t a game, Miss Driskall. There’s one thing about space that you can count on. It wants to kill you. It wants to kill you real bad. The first time you let your guard down or turn your back, it will kill you, never forget that!” He turned and walked away as Brianna fought back the tears in her eyes.

  Chapter 6

  February 22nd, 2044

  Space Station Alpha

  General Seale walked into operations control on Space Station Alpha. Colonel Ellis, the station commander was already seated there listening to the communications between the mission controllers on Phobos Control and the interdictor ship that had launched from Phobos station several weeks ago.

  “How’s it going?” asked General Seale.

  “Big time problems,” said Colonel Ellis. He motioned at the main display screen above the controller’s heads.

  Colonel Hank Jenkins, the most experienced pilot that Space Force had, was the pilot of Interdictor three. At the moment, Colonel Jenkins was arguing with Phobos Control.

  “I really don’t give a shit what the damn politicians want. This rock is too damn big. The scans we’ve done indicate the thing is almost pure nickel and iron with only a small amount of trace materials. If something goes wrong and this thing hits Earth, it won’t burn up in the atmosphere. This thing will hit the surface of the planet. I’m looking at a certifiable dinosaur killer, except that the dinosaurs are already extinct and we’re not!”

  “Interdictor three, this is Phobos control. Standby.”

  “What’s the problem Colonel?” asked General Seale.

  “Well, that asteroid is over seven hundred feet across and it’s almost solid metal. Computer estimates show that it’ll pass within three hundred kilometers of Earth in four years and nineteen days. That’s way too close for comfort. If that thing was to hit Earth we are talking regional devastation at the best and possibly a near extinction event. It would be very bad news for the human race.”

  “That’s what we’re up here for Colonel. Why doesn’t Colonel Jenkins want to place the thruster probes as planned?”

  “Colonel Jenkins doesn’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about putting that monster into lunar orbit sir. He feels that a miscalculation or error could bring it down killing billions of people. He’s recommending steering it into the sun,” Colonel Ellis replied.

  General Seale frowned. “Patch me through to Phobos Station and Interdictor Three,” he told the communication technician sitting at the panel in front of him.

  The technician nodded and said, “You have an open channel, sir. Be aware that you’ll have a significant time delay of about four minutes one way.”

  General Seale took a deep breath. He didn’t like arguing with his subordinates in public, much less over a communication frequency, but had no choice. “Interdictor Three, this is General Seale. While I understand your reluctance to place the interdictor probes and steer the asteroid for lunar orbit, your orders are to do so. If we don’t change this asteroids course there is a slight possibility of it hitting Earth in a few years. We have to change its orbit. Our superiors, meaning the government we work for, want the metal in that asteroid. They have directed us to use every means we have to put that rock into lunar orbit where the metal in it can be mined and refined. You are directed to go ahead and place the interdictor probes as planned. Phobos Control will launch the refueling missions as planned. We have a six week window to move this rock into the proper trajectory where it can be captured into lunar orbit. There will be no further debate on this issue. Alpha Control out.”

  General Seale turned to leave the control center. “Let me know if there are any other problems, Colonel Ellis.” He left the control room and headed for his cabin.

  …

  Four minutes later and about fifty five million miles from Earth, Colonel Hank Jenkins was cursing his head off. “Those damn idiots in the government are so greedy for profits that they’re willing to risk the whole damn human race.”

  Lieutenant Jason Greco sat quietly in the co-pilot seat of Interdictor Three listening to his Captain. Finally, he spoke up. “Colonel, if we don’t move it, there’s a very good possibility it could hit Earth. If we move it, there’s a much lower chance of that, and it does contain thousands of tons of very valuable metals. They can still change their minds later on. They will have to do another set of course corrections in about three years to settle it into the final capture orbit. At least what we’re doing today will definitely keep it from hitting Earth.”

  Colonel Jenkins was still fuming. “I
f we just hit it with a couple of nukes we could put it on a course to drop it into the sun. Then, it would be completely safe. You heard the General though, orders are orders. You’ve done the simulators, Lieutenant Greco, time now for the real thing. Launch and place the probes.”

  “You got it,” Jason replied excitedly. He turned and yelled back into the cabin of the interdictor. “Hey Jonesy, you and Griggs get those probes spun up. Alpha Control says we are go for placement.” He spun around and pulled up his control display for the probes. “I was hoping you’d let me do it, Colonel. I’ve run the simulators a hundred times, but this is my first mission out here to bump a real rock.”

  “Well, it’s not like we do it every day,” Hank said. “The last time I was out here, we were trying these probes out for the first time and we had a hell of a time. They’ve improved the control mechanisms quite a bit since then. We actually had to let a guy ride the things down manually.”

  Jason looked at Hank in amazement. “You mean you guys actually put on a spacesuit and guided those things down by manual control?”

  Hank nodded. “Yep. It scared the crap out of all of us, especially the specialist who actually did it.”

  Jason shook his head. “I guess so. At least this monster isn’t tumbling. It shouldn’t be a problem at all for the probes computer systems to do it. It’s going to take a long time to aim and move this beast though.”

  “That’s why Interdictor Five and Six are launching on a rotating two week schedule for the next six weeks. They are bringing out tanks to refuel the main propulsion thruster unit. It’s going to take a lot of thruster burns to get the delta-V to line this thing up for a lunar capture orbit. It sure would be nice if they could make the nuke propulsion units small enough to use on these things. It would take a lot less fuel that way.” A series of green lights lit up on their instrument panel. “It looks like the units are ready to go.” Hank said.

  Specialist Jones called from the back of the cabin. “Ok, LT, they’re all primed and ready to go.”

  Jason looked over at Hank and got a thumbs up signal. “Let’em go,” Hank said.

  “Releasing maneuvering probe one,” Jason said and he flipped the release switch for the first probe.

  In the view screens they could see the flat round shape of the probe drift away from the ship with small puffs of gas from its thrusters. It slowly approached the surface of the asteroid that was about two hundred meters away from the ship. The probe hung there about thirty seconds as the computer calculated the ideal point to place it. Then, the probe’s thrusters fired and it approached the surface of the asteroid. Upon contact, the explosive charges of the anchoring pitons fired driving the hardened steel anchors into the asteroid.

  Jason checked his status board and then maneuvered the Interdictor around to the next release point. It took three hours, but finally all four maneuvering probes and the main propulsion unit were placed. Jason then backed the Interdictor about a kilometer away. “Ok, all units are placed. Phobos control, this is Interdictor three, request permission to activate the computer control program.”

  Hank and Jason sat back and waited for the response from Phobos Control. “Good job on the probe placement, Jason. I couldn’t have done it better myself.” Hank complimented.

  Hank was quiet for a couple of minutes as they waited for a response from Phobos Control. He then spoke up awkwardly. “Uh, listen, Jason. I’ve wanted to talk to you about something but haven’t had the chance. I was wondering, if you could, if you would tell me…”

  Jason looked at him. “I know you and Colonel Pierce were best friends, so I understand. Go ahead and ask. I’m surprised you haven’t spoken about it before now.”

  Hank hesitated, and then asked, “I’ve read the reports and stuff, but what really happened to Mike on the Elpis Mission?”

  “I’m not really sure. Colonel Pierce had seemed fine to me. He had me spin up the crew module for gravity and not long after that he started experiencing what he said was vertigo and nausea. The medical specialist said that he had come to her for some headache and nausea medicine on several occasions. He relieved me on watch on the command deck when we were guiding the robot to the artifact site. We had called him to come to operations for something and when he didn’t come I went up to get him. I found him non-responsive without a pulse. We tried, but couldn’t revive him. I’m really sorry.”

  Hank shook his head. “Hell, it wasn’t your fault. He died doing what he liked best. There’re a lot worse places to die than in the pilot’s seat of your ship. You did a good job getting that ship and her crew back home. From what I read in the reports, most of the crew was green from the academy. You and the rest of the crew did a hell of a job.”

  Jason was silent for a few minutes. “To be honest, we had a four month crash course by one of the best. I really respected Colonel Pierce. I’ve never met a better space pilot.”

  Hank was getting ready to answer when Phobos Control answered their request.

  “Interdictor Three, this is Phobos Control. We are activating the control computer for the probes. Please observe for proper operation.”

  Jason reached over and zoomed in their imager on the two maneuvering probes that were in sight. One of the probes emitted a long thruster burn that lasted about two minutes. Then, all was quite. He thumbed his call switch. “Phobos, we saw one long burn on probe number two. That’s it so far.”

  “We confirm Interdictor Three; this is going to be a long slow process. You guys are free to head home. Looks like it’ll be at least four days before the main thruster is due to fire. Interdictor Six will be on station in about two weeks. We’ll have a hot meal and shower for you when you get back. Good work.”

  Hank spoke up. “Roger that Phobos Control, we are setting course for base. See you in about two weeks. “Jason, why don’t you get some sleep? We’re not due to burn for home for about four hours. I’ll take the watch and then let you do the course maneuver.”

  Jason nodded and unbuckled and started to flip over his seat and head to the crew cabin.

  Hank stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. “Thanks for telling me about Mike, Jason.”

  Jason smiled. “No problem, sir.”

  “One more thing, Lieutenant. I got this message a few hours ago but I didn’t want to distract you.” He showed Jason his communication pad and said, “It looks like you’re being pulled off interdictor duty.”

  “But why? I thought I was doing ok out here!”

  Jason read though the message and huge grin split his face.

  Hank punched his shoulder. “They want you to return to Earth and train to fly the lander for the next Elpis Mission. It looks like we’ll be working together again real soon.”

  Jason looked at him. “How’s that, sir?”

  Hank grinned back at him. I’ve been chosen to be the commanding office of the new Space Force ship they are building for the next Elpis mission. The ship’s going to be named the United States Space Force Ship “Colonel Mike Pierce.”

  Chapter 7

  April 2nd, 2044

  New Russian Republic Border

  Bijan slowly crawled on his belly up to the edge of the ridge. He was careful to keep the lenses of his binoculars covered so they would not reflect a glint of light and give his position away. He was already taking a very big risk moving about in broad daylight, but since their night vision scope had stopped working, they could no longer observe the Russian outpost in the valley below under cover of darkness. When he reached the top of the ridge, he pulled a small camouflaged tarp over himself and left only his face exposed. He looked up anxiously. Hiding from the eyes of the sentries wasn’t hard, but avoiding the gaze of the ever present and circling drones was a totally different matter. He cursed the Russian vultures up in the sky. Even at night, the drones could make out a single man in the rocks by his thermal signature if he wasn’t careful.

  Bijan didn’t see any drones at the moment, so he looked down at the outpost and grinned a
t what he saw. The infidel invaders were getting complacent. When the Russians had come pouring down from the Caspian puppet states and invaded his country, they had driven his people before them. After the Iranian air force had struck back at overwhelming Russian armored forces with a nuclear warhead, the enemy had reacted with fury. They had assumed a policy of shooting all ethnic Iranians on sight. There were no questions asked. The women and girls were sometimes raped first, but afterwards even they were shot as a man might slaughter a wild dog. His people that survived the invasion had fled across the borders into the neighboring countries. If they didn’t, they died.

  Bijan’s resistance team consisted of fifty men. They had infiltrated back across the border from Pakistan during the past week. They were one of many such teams that were continuing to fight the infidels using guerilla warfare tactics. His team had been watching the outpost below them for four days now. It was manned by about seventy Russian regular army soldiers and their officers. The Russian’s below him had been here at this outpost for several months now. With little or no fighting taking place, they had gotten lazy and complacent. Bijan’s team was about to make them pay for that and the many other atrocities that they had been part of. They would make the infidels pay with their own blood and lives.

  Bijan could only see two guards on duty. The rest were probably drunk or sleeping. Bijan grinned again to himself; the infidels would soon learn the foolishness of their ways. He pulled out his digital radio and clicked the talk button three times. His second in command, Arman, would hear the clicks and have the men move in. Below him, he could see his men moving forward quickly while they tried to stay hidden in the rocks. As they reached the positions where the guards normally were, Bijan suddenly noticed with alarm that the guards were no longer there. He watched as his men ran through the buildings of the outpost throwing open tent flaps and the doors to the prefab buildings. The tactical situation struck him suddenly like a wall of bricks, it was a trap. He pulled up his radio to warn his men just as a rifle butt hit him in the head from behind.