by Peter Wood
‘Hang on,’ Thom said. ‘I want to know where we’re going that’ll take so long. We could have another adventure on Earth in that amount of time.’ He had always planned to return to the underwater ice caverns at the Antarctic.
‘Travel will take twenty-one hours if we make good speed, Thom, and we can use the rest of the time for exploring. I found this adventure in a distant place on our asteroid belt.’
A holo of a strange-looking asteroid flicked into view.
‘What is that?’
The trio were staring at a convoluted mass of rock and ore.
‘I searched for traces of comet collisions and I found this. It will be a good adventure.’
‘That thing is an asteroid?’ asked Thom.
‘A remnant of an even bigger one.’
Wirrin linked to the holo, called up the information Sonic had collected, and scanned through while Thom and Calen stared at the startling shape.
‘That thing is 256 kilometres across. If it’s a remnant the original must have been huge.’
‘Dingoes! That main hole we can see must be enormous.’
‘It is 47 kilometres across, Thom, and it might be the path where a comet penetrated. We will explore and find out how deep it goes.’
‘Wow! What about those other holes then? Some of them look like volcanic craters … Except you can’t have volcanoes on asteroids … Maybe smaller comets made them? That’s the weirdest looking asteroid I’ve ever seen. When do we leave?’
Sonic whacked his tail excitedly on the water and gave his special laugh as he drenched the three of them.
‘Seventeen days … And I will fly your ship all the way.’
***
‘It still doesn’t feel right, no matter what he says. It’s his adventure and he should be here,’ Thom said.
Wirrin and Calen totally agreed. They’d all demanded a postponement when they learned Sonic couldn’t accompany them, but he’d insisted the expedition to the mystery asteroid should go ahead as organised.
Each evening in the pool during relaxation time they’d planned and discussed some aspect of the trip and Sonic’s keen anticipation had been a big part of the enjoyment and interest they’d all felt. Then they’d found out just a few hours before they were to set off that all the pod leaders for the enhanced dolphins needed him at a meeting of some kind. It had seemed like a minor setback at first, which would mean delaying their departure for a few hours only, but then word came back that the meeting would continue the next day and Sonic told them to go without him.
Calen said he’d stay with Sonic, because it must be something important, whatever it was, and that meant Wirrin and Thom didn’t see much point in going. Sonic overruled that and, using his definite tone, said he expected Calen to be his eyes and ears. Calen couldn’t say no then, and in a somewhat subdued manner the trip had got underway.
‘I know why he’s made us go. It’s because if we wait for him to be free we mightn’t ever get there. It’s over five months since he said adventures were going to be a regular part of his life,’ Wirrin said.
Calen gave a resigned snort of agreement. ‘You’re right, Wirrin. He’s just too busy and we can’t stop him. Yajala’s been trying to organise him to have activity days that match up with ours but something always happens and it’s always too important to ignore.’
‘Well, if we have to wait another five months before he can travel anywhere with us we won’t be going anywhere either, because that’s getting close to the move to Titania and he’ll be busier than ever then.’
There were gloomy nods all round.
‘Hey, at least we can take him on half-day adventures to the moons once we get there. He’ll be able to fit that in,’ said Thom.
There was silence for a while. Calen played with the viewing screens but they were too deep into space to see anything but stars.
Wirrin superimposed a position reference on the proposed course for him, but since they’d only been travelling for half an hour it looked like they’d hardly moved.
Thom was concentrating. What was he doing? Hmm, why was he running a full diagnostic on the engines? Whoa – 23.7G!
‘Thom, why are we going so fast? Can the engines cope?’
Thom looked smug. ‘They’re showing a hundred per cent perfection, Wirrin. Sonic said we’d need to push so that’s what I’m doing. We’re now a full 2G faster than any of the Comets and this is still the best ship in the solar system.’
Calen twisted to look at Thom. ‘Is this the highest acceleration ever?’
‘For a ship with human level grav-compensators it is, and ours are operating at complete max. I’ve been a little bit faster but only for short times.’
‘How long will it take to get to K137 if we stay at this rate?’
Thom activated one of his controls.
‘Another nineteen and a half hours with an error margin of fourteen minutes.’
‘Where does the error margin come from? You always know the precise times.’
‘It’s because we don’t know its exact location, Calen. All the information Sonic found is thirty-four years old so I’m sure there’ll be a variation in its predicted position. We won’t really know till we’re in scanning range.’
Wirrin had done his own search to see what he could find but had come up with exactly the same data as Sonic. It turned out to be from a Mars-initiated robotic survey for improved knowledge about the size and distribution of objects in the asteroid belt, and the only existing data about K137. That was frustrating, but in a way intriguing as well, with the prospect that they’d be the first people to see it. They’d started calling it the mystery asteroid and Thom kept stating that they were going to find a cosmic dragon.
‘It’d be funny if we get there and can’t find it.’
‘Calen, we’ll find it. You can’t not find something that big,’ said Thom.
‘If another comet hit it, or it collided with something else in the last thirty-four years we mightn’t. Maybe we should turn off now and head for Mars instead. That’s the closest place and we definitely know where it is.’
Thom gave Calen a look and Wirrin did a quick check.
‘Mars isn’t the closest. There’s a habitat called Ascension about five hours away and Mars is seven.’
‘That’s one of the early habitats. It’s a big one isn’t it?’
‘Yes, Thom. It started off as a spinner then converted to grav-fields. It’s got 4.8 billion people.’
Spinners were a type of habitat constructed before the development of directed grav-fields and worked by rotating a series of concentric cylindrical structures to produce the equivalent of normal Earth gravity. Each layer had to spin at a slightly different rate and that made them very complex.
‘Five hours? Can we go past it on the way to K137?’
The trio exchanged glances, their interest piqued. Thom did some calculations then shook his head. ‘It’s too far off course and would add an extra four hours even without slowing down for a proper look. The only sensible way to see it would be to forget about K137 and I don’t want to do that.’
None of them did, so for a while they contented themselves with looking at holos about Ascension, which Wirrin pulled from the ship’s general database.
***
‘It’s easy, Calen. You won’t have to do anything except wake me up if the automatics do something unusual.’
Calen felt weird about being in sole charge of the ship for the next six hours while Wirrin and Thom had a sleep. Not too weird, because the automatics were completely capable of reliably controlling the whole journey if need be, but Thom, being Thom, preferred having someone on watch, as he called it, all the time.
Wirrin would officially take the second six hours though it wouldn’t be that long because Thom would never sleep for twelve hours while the ship was travelling. Wirrin would, any time he got the chance, and he’d definitely sleep the last several hours of approach till Thom and Calen woke him.
&nb
sp; ‘So how am I supposed to know what’s unusual? We could be heading for Pluto and I wouldn’t know the difference.’
‘You don’t have to. I’ve set it up so all you have to watch is that bank of blue panels and if any of them turn red the automatics will tell you to panic.’
‘What?’
‘Calen, they won’t turn red. The ship systems are too clever to let anything go wrong.’
***
In the strange quietness and solitude as the ship made its way through deep space, Wirrin, settled at his console for his turn on watch, contemplated the familiar constellations and stars shining from their ebony background. He smiled as he recalled the ancient idea that they were holes in the vault of heaven, revealing the light beyond and letting water through to fall as rain on the Earth.
Calen would be asleep by now and Thom wouldn’t wake for another two or three hours, so he had the ship to himself. This calm and solitude was strange and Wirrin suddenly realised he couldn’t recall ever being in quite the same situation. He watched and thought for a while then felt like doing something.
Hmm! Thom’s abilities with the picofactory were okay at a basic level but to get the best from it needed either special knowledge or an AI. Well, there was no AI but Wirrin definitely had the expertise. All he needed was more familiarity with this particular system, so for nearly two hours he applied himself and focused intently on mastering the complex range of capabilities available to the picofactory. The awareness that something wasn’t right took a moment to register.
One of the panels was glowing red! What? That couldn’t be? Thom had said the panels were really a token and the automatics would handle everything.
Wirrin was about to link to the panel to try and find out what was happening when a message appeared on the visuals directly in front of him. The automatics were making sure they had his attention.
ALERT! ALERT! PRIORITY MESSAGE INCOMING.
HOLO ACTIVATION REQUIRED.
Wirrin leapt from his seat, rushed to the open door of the little cabin where Thom and Calen were sleeping, and watching in case the holo started, yelled for them to wake up.
‘Quick, the alarm’s gone red. Get out here quick.’
Thom lifted his head as Wirrin raced back to the console, and with questions racing through his mind, activated communication mode. Taking one look he shouted again. ‘Thom! It’s a priority message from Pirramar. I’m starting it now.’
Chapter 34
Pirramar appeared, his expression serious. ‘Thom, in consultation with habitat security I’m requesting you make an immediate course change to the coordinates now locked into your flight databanks. Two days ago seven Cadre ships rendezvoused with a large asteroid and started moving it on a trajectory towards three other ships that were stationed near an even larger asteroid. For the last few weeks K74 has been moving asteroids with their Cadre ships, and while most have been brought and parked in close proximity to construction sites, several seem to have been used for experimental purposes and initially we thought this was an exercise in using multiple ships for far faster movement. Ten hours ago the last possible turnaround point for a termination with the second asteroid passed with no sign of deceleration.
This caught our attention because the accuracy of their navigation now indicated the possibility of a collision. That possibility steadily firmed to certainty, leading us to believe the exercise might be aimed at testing the results of a high-speed asteroid collision. Just seven minutes before I sent this message the speeding asteroid began to change course. If it continues, it will head in our general direction. There is a critical time horizon, defined by the rising possibility of our habitats being targeted, and your ship is the only one logistically able to gather more information.’
Wirrin’s heart caught but Pirramar was continuing and he mustn’t miss anything.
‘The asteroid in question has a diameter of over 7 kilometres and the steady acceleration of 3.4G indicates a joint effort by four Cadre ships pushing it at the high end of their sustainable capability.’
There was a gasp from Thom who was now sitting at his control console and the view of stars in the visuals moved as the ship began its course change.
‘Our best interpretation of the attenuated signals we are receiving confirms this by showing a convoy of the three remaining vessels. To answer any questions you have, this message is accompanied by all our current information and analysis. I will speak again in fifteen minutes, after you take action and build your understanding of the situation.’
Pirramar disappeared and a puzzled-looking Calen moved closer to Wirrin.
‘What’s going on? Why is Pirramar telling us about K74 collecting an asteroid?’
He’d missed most of the transmission. Wirrin looked to Thom but he was totally absorbed with his console.
‘It’s not going to K74. There’s a possibility they might be taking it to our habitats and Pirramar wants Thom to investigate because no-one else can.’
‘Investigate? Is it close to K137?’
‘Forget about K137, Calen. We’re not going there anymore. Thom changed our course a few seconds before you came in. Pirramar’s made it a priority.’
‘For an asteroid? How could that be a priority? We’ve got all sorts of protections against them.’
‘It’s no longer just an asteroid.’ Thom sounded serious. ‘With the speed it’s built it has catastrophic potential. I’ve looked at Pirramar’s data and it shows continuous acceleration since they picked it up and for something that size it’s travelling at an enormous speed.’
‘It can’t be as fast as us.’
‘No, Calen, but it’s been accelerating for … fifty-six hours. It’s … it’s very close to our speed – just under 7000 kilometres per second and we’re just over.’
‘But we’ll soon catch up to it won’t we?’
‘If it was directly ahead we’d catch up in about two hours but the big direction change reduces our effective speed and makes it over five hours before we’re close.’
‘Five hours? Couldn’t the Comet reach it in that time? The security AI could take over and change its course.’
‘Think, Calen. The Comet would be travelling in the opposite direction and they’d pass each other so quickly they’d be out of range in a microsecond. Then the Comet would have to reverse direction to chase it. That would take … about fifteen hours. Look at this.’
A holo image showing the relative positions of the habitats and the moving asteroid sprang into view.
‘We have nine Comets including the companion ones with Quambi and these are the most recent positions I have data for.’
Nine blue lights winked into existence, seven close to the three habitats and the other two in their usual position near K74.
‘I’ll code in the optimum intersection paths for all of them and we’ll watch what happens.’
Wirrin was impressed by Thom’s rapid set up and demonstration of the possibilities for each vessel, which showed clearly why Pirramar wanted them involved. Well, it was the strategic kind of planning he trained for.
‘See. That’s why it has to be us.’
Calen nodded. The visual representation made it obvious.
‘I can’t believe they’re actually aiming at our habitats. No-one would do something like that.’
Wirrin couldn’t believe it either.
‘I know,’ said Thom, ‘but the course change makes it a possibility. I expect that at some stage the course will steady and we’ll know where it’s really going. What worries me is why they made it look like a collision with that other asteroid for two days and then suddenly changed. It’s as if they were purposefully misleading anyone who was watching.’
Thom was right. It did have a devious feel to it.
‘It doesn’t make sense anyway. The multi-spectrum beams on the Comets and the habitats would just vaporise it like they did that ship on Earth.’
Wirrin watched Thom shake his head strongly.
‘It’s too big, Calen. Way too big. The beams would have practically no effect in the short time they’d be in range.’
‘So what about the shell we’ve been building round Attunga?’ Calen said. ‘That’s nearly finished and it’s the strongest material ever made. The same with Warrakan’s surface.’
Wirrin answered this time. ‘They’re not designed for anything with that combination of size and speed. There’s an enormous amount of kinetic energy involved that would all be released instantaneously.’
Calen looked shocked. ‘Are you saying there’s nothing our habitats can do to stop it?’
‘Not that I know of.’
Thom knew though. ‘They’ll move. I expect the big drives are probably already working, because that way at least two of the habitats will be safe.’
‘Why not all three?’ Wirrin asked, thinking it would be hard to collide with something deliberately moving out of the way.
‘If the asteroid wasn’t being controlled it would be easy. It would just fly straight past, but it is being guided and with over 3G to work with it’s far more responsive than the single-G the habitats can use. You could say the habitats are three times as unwieldy as the controlled asteroid, the same as this ship is six times as agile as the asteroid.’
‘It’s not actually moving directly towards our habitats is it?’
Thom worked with his console. ‘Not at the moment. It’ll pass by with millions of kilometres to spare on the course it has at the moment, and there’ll be nothing to worry about if it stays on that course. The trouble is it’s been changing. Pirramar’s data shows two small changes since he first contacted us.’
‘Could that be good?’
‘Maybe, but I can’t be sure because they’re both just enough to keep the habitats as a possible destination, and both small enough to be minor course corrections for somewhere else.’
‘Somewhere else? Can you check for other possible destinations?’
‘I already have, Wirrin, and nothing stands out in the time frame we’re worried about.’