“But they haven’t,” Christy responded her eyes narrowing. “I just feel like we’re missing something.”
“At least they think they have finally located the dust cloud the neutron star emerged from,” added Steve, reading another part of the report. “Tentatively, they have identified a dense cloud of dust that lies edgewise to the Solar System, which is slowly moving away from us. Early observations indicate it is unusually dense and contains some heavy elements. This might explain why the neutron star wasn’t detected sooner.”
Christy looked at the reports and slowly shook her head. “It’s coming for us, isn’t it?” she said in a low voice, her deep blue eyes looking at Steve. The knowledge made her feel small and helpless and worried for the future. For everyone’s future! It had been a burden keeping this secret for the last several weeks.
Steve took a deep breath, staring at the numbers. That was the problem. The neutron star was still so far away that it was hard to comprehend just how dangerous it was. Everything for now still seemed normal, but that would change in the near future. A year from now, everything would be different. Drastically different!
“The Farside astronomers claim something is causing its trajectory to vary slightly,” Steve said. “They say it could be the mass of the dust cloud it was hidden in, or another large body orbiting out beyond the Oort cloud that we haven’t discovered yet.”
“What if it comes deep into our space?” Christy voiced with growing concern etched upon her face.
She brushed her blonde hair back away from her eyes. This had been a growing nightmare for her ever since Steve had informed her of the Farside discovery. “This could be bad Steve; how are we going to deal with this? How is anyone going to deal with this? When the people down on Earth find out, they’re going to freak out!”
“According to the Farside group, if the neutron star comes in too far it could have disastrous effects,” Steve said softly, drawing in a deep breath and gazing into Christy’s eyes. “The people down on Earth will have to be told at some point. What will happen then, I don’t think any of us can possibly know.”
“How bad?” asked Christy, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from Steve.
Steve hesitated for a moment, and then looked up at Christy. “In the worst case scenario, the neutron star could come in extremely close and disrupt the Sun to the point that it could go nova. If that happens, we would all be wiped out, burned away to ashes in the resulting fireball. That’s why we have to get more information.”
“A nova,” Christy murmured quietly not wanting to believe in the possibility. That would be the end of everything. There would be no escape from that.
Christy closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them, trying to gain strength from Steve’s closeness. The future was going to be very difficult, and she didn’t know if she wanted to be alone in that future. She knew that as soon as all this came out publicly, everything would change. The world would never be the same again. Her family and friends down on Earth would be in jeopardy. Even here on the station, they could be in grave danger.
“Farside already has a pretty good idea of the neutron star’s trajectory,” spoke Christy, recalling the numbers. “What difference will a few million miles one way or another make? We’re probably not going to survive this, Steve. How can we?”
“We can’t give up hope, Christy,” replied Steve, knowing Christy’s words were true. He had always been an optimist. He couldn’t believe that they couldn’t find some way to survive.
Steve had studied some of the results of the simulations run on the neutron star’s orbital path. The projected consequences for Earth were very bad. Civilization as they knew it probably would come to an end. Just the massive ocean tides the neutron star would generate were going to cause massive flooding and do serious harm. Tens of million would probably die from those alone.
“This is so hard, Steve,” Christy said slowly, trying to hold her emotions in check. Sometimes the knowledge of what might be waiting in the future weighed heavily on her. “I know we still have time, but can Ty’s mission really help us?”
“I hope so,” Steve said, seeing the worried look on her face. “Colton and I both agree that we should prepare for significant changes in the Solar System. The star is already so close in astronomical terms that we will be affected no matter what path it takes.”
“I’m just so afraid, Steve,” Christy admitted with a shaky voice.
“We all are,” Steve said evenly. “No one can be prepared for something like this.”
Leaning forward, he stared at Christy’s troubled face, wishing she didn’t have to carry this burden. “There is no doubt that even at a minimum, there will be some serious changes in the orbits of the planets. If any of the outer planets orbits are changed even slightly, it will affect us. If the orbit of Pluto is already being affected, it’s just a matter of time before the neutron star begins to affect some of the others.”
“Including Earth,” Christy said somberly, gazing at one of the photos of the neutron star and wishing it wasn’t there. What would happen to all of her friends and relatives down on Earth?
“Yes, including Earth,” Steve replied, his eyes meeting hers.
Picking up one of the other photos, he gazed at it briefly before looking back at Christy. “I want you to begin meeting with the various department heads and get a feel for what would be needed to make this station completely self-sufficient as soon as possible. We don’t want to panic the department heads; just tell them it’s for an economic feasibility study to help improve the station’s profitability.” Steve’s eyes locked with Christy’s, both afraid to think about what the future might hold.
“Do you really think we can survive here on the station?” asked Christy, gazing at Steve. They had already talked about this to some extent, but she still had some serious reservations. Would they even want to survive if Earth was gone?
“I think so,” Steve responded with a slight nod. “With some slight modifications to the station, I believe we can. We already have sufficient power. Julie reports that we are recycling our water very efficiently and almost producing enough air and food to get by.”
Christy was silent for a long moment. What would it be like to survive on the station, perhaps cut off from everything? How long could the station survive without help from Earth? What was going to happen to Earth and Tycho City? If the Sun went nova, she knew that even Star One wouldn’t survive that.
“I’ll meet with the department heads this afternoon and ask each one to do a feasibility study on their departments,” Christy said, gathering up the papers on the table and placing them neatly back in their folder. She knew that as soon as she resumed her station duties, she would feel better. Staying busy helped to take her mind off the neutron star.
She felt numb thinking about what might await in their future. These next few days were going to be very difficult. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She still had a job to do.
“More people are going to know about this soon, Christy,” warned Steve, seeing the distress in her eyes. “We’re going to have to say something to the crew in Main Control as well as over on the Space Platform.”
“They’re good people,” Christy responded. She knew most of them extremely well.
“I know they are,” Steve said, his eyes seeing the uncertainty on her face. “But this neutron star information is going to be hard for a lot of our people to hear. Look at how difficult it’s been for us.”
“We’re coping,” Christy replied with a slight nod. “We have known for awhile, but it hasn’t been easy. How can you think about the end of the world and not be affected?”
Steve stood up and walked around the table. “I’m afraid you’re right,” Steve said with a heavy sigh. He sat down next to Christy, taking her hand, and then looked deeply into her eyes. “We have to stay strong for the crew, Christy; they will be depending on us.”
“Maybe it won’t be as bad as w
e fear,” Christy said, trying to sound optimistic even though she felt an ominous feeling of danger in the pit of her stomach.
Steve holding her hand was a shock, but it seemed to help take some of the fear away. “The Farside scientists could be mistaken. They even say in their report that they need more information and that some of their readings don’t make a lot of sense.”
“Ty’s mission will tell us that,” replied Steve, releasing her hand and looking up at the large viewscreen and the Jupiter Probe ship.
Both Steve and Christy became quiet pondering the mission they had set up for Ty. They both knew that a lot was riding on what Ty found on the neutron star mission.
-
Ty was strapped into his heavily padded command chair on the Flight Deck of the Jupiter Probe ship. Before him was a crowded instrument panel even more complicated than the shuttle he was used to. All the shuttle controls were there, plus others that would be used to monitor the ship for a long-term space flight. Captain Simpson was in the pilot’s seat to his right, activating the ship’s computers.
“How dangerous is this mission going to be, Commander?” Simpson asked quietly so no one else could hear him, turning his head casually toward Ty. He had hesitated asking some questions earlier because he didn’t want to frighten everyone.
“That depends a lot on how well they put this ship together,” responded Ty, reaching above his head with his right arm to turn on a bank of viewscreens that showed views of the various ship compartments. “I’m not going to sugarcoat anything; this will be dangerous. It will probably be the most dangerous space mission ever flown.”
“I expected that,” replied Simpson, flipping several switches on the console in front of him. “I guess I’m still trying to understand all of this. A neutron star; it seems so fantastic!”
“We’ll be going farther and faster than any ship has tried to before. If the ship is sound, we have a decent chance of making it back,” Ty said solemnly, staring steadily at Simpson. “If we run into any problems we’ll be entirely on our own; no one will be able to come and get us. There will be no one to bail us out.”
“It would have been the same going to Jupiter,” Simpson spoke, his face looking somber. “We all knew there was danger when we volunteered for the Jupiter mission. This just adds a little more.”
Behind the two, there were two more large control stations. One of the two was used to monitor the ship’s systems and environmental controls, at which Lieutenant Strett sat busily checking the ship’s current environmental status. At the other station, Winston Archer was checking the ship’s drive status and the fusion reactor. In addition, the walls of the Flight Deck were covered with various instruments and controls.
The fusion reactor would allow the ship to maintain a one-third Earth normal gravity environment when activated. The three scientists had gone back to the Science sections to begin checking out their equipment, which had already been stored onboard.
The ship itself was 220 feet long and 40 feet in diameter at its widest point with a slightly tapered nose. It was the largest self-contained spacecraft that had been built to date. The ship used on the failed Mars mission in 2036, which Captain Simpson had been on, had consisted of several shuttles linked together with a series of rocket motors and external fuel tanks. The Jupiter Probe ship was different. There were ten sections the crew inhabited and twelve sections dedicated to fuel tanks, the ion drive, and the fusion reactor.
The large delta wing on each side helped to stabilize the ship and held a number of RCS thrusters and their fuel. The new SRBs would also be attached to the delta wings up next to the ship’s hull.
Karl Velm was down in section ten, the Engineering section, checking out the systems there. He could also monitor the ship’s engines and correct problems from his main engineering console.
Ty spent a few quick moments studying the controls in front of him. Most he recognized, they were similar to the shuttles; but there were a number he was not familiar with. He knew he was in for a quick crash course. He had spent several hours the night before studying schematics of the ship, going over all the changes that had been made from the original design.
The ship’s flight computers would control the ion drive as well as the SRBs. Captain Simpson and he would mainly monitor the flight and check the computer for necessary flight corrections. Both men had a long preflight checklist as well as a total system checklist to go over. Ty knew he had to learn everything that was new on the Flight Deck as quickly as possible. What other choice did he have?
“Let’s go through a complete systems check first,” Ty said over the com system, ready to get started. “I want everyone to double check every system for any possible glitches. If there is even a small doubt whether a system is performing at its optimum level, I want to know about it. We won’t power the fusion reactor up yet or go on internal power from the fuel cells. We’ll do that later after all the systems check out. Do this by the numbers and use the checklists.”
Turning to Captain Simpson, Ty said, “Let’s begin our part of the checklist. Go through it slowly the first time so I don’t miss anything. We’ll keep doing it until I get everything right.”
“Sure thing, Commander,” replied Captain Simpson, placing the thick checklist on a holder next to his right hand.
Ty put his own down in a similar holder so he could pay close attention to Captain Simpson.
“A lot of this is similar to the shuttles we use on the Earth-Moon run, which you’re already familiar with,” he commented, pointing out various controls, switches, monitors, and instruments. “Most of the added controls have to do with systems monitoring, especially for the ion drive and the fusion reactor. Let’s begin.”
As Simpson went slowly through his part of the checklist item by item, he explained everything in careful detail. Anything that Ty wasn’t familiar with, they spent several moments going over until Ty was satisfied he understood its purpose.
For several hours, Ty put the crew through their paces, going through the checklists and checking the ship’s systems. He was everywhere in the ship, watching everything and familiarizing himself with each section.
Most of his time was spent on the Flight Deck, going patiently through the checklists at each of the four control stations. His goal in this first session was to get a good feel for the ship and its crew. In the next session, he would get down to more serious details. Fortunately, his intimate knowledge of the original design of the Jupiter Probe ship was helping immensely.
The six hours passed rapidly; most of the crew was intimately familiar with all the control stations from weeks of practice. Ty knew from watching them that they were already melded together as a team, easily adapting to the new members that had been added at the last minute. They had shown a lot of patience as Ty asked questions and had them run through various checklists and drills at their stations. Even when he had them repeat something that was obvious to them but had not been obvious to Ty, they showed patience.
The two new members of the scientist’s group had settled in quickly, already getting to work checking out their equipment and familiarizing themselves with the Jupiter ship. The instruments and equipment they would be using to make their observations were already familiar to them, since the same type of equipment was used at Farside.
Their main adjustment would be learning to live in the confined environment of the ship over a long period of time. However, even this shouldn’t be too difficult. They had both worked at Farside long enough and made sufficient shuttle trips to be reasonably familiar with closed environments. Also, compared to a shuttle, the Jupiter Probe ship was a luxury liner with a lot of space.
At the end of the six hours, Ty was satisfied with his progress as well as that of the crew.
“Good job, everyone,” Ty announced finally over the ship’s com. “We have found a few minor equipment bugs, which the techs can straighten out during the next few hours. Several systems when running at the same time seem to be
acting sluggishly. Everyone take four hours for a meal and a break. We will start another six-hour session later this afternoon. We will go to onboard power and check the fuel cells plus a partial power up of the fusion reactor. If everything goes smoothly, we may test fire the ion drive.”
“The fusion reactor is ready to go online anytime,” Captain Simpson commented, loosening his restraining straps. “We went through a partial power up several weeks ago to check the computers that monitor the magnetic containment fields and artificial gravity. We had it on for nearly two hours with the platform’s techs going over everything. This will be the first time that the crew has powered it up on our own. It was done by remotes from the platform last time.”
“Will that be a problem?” asked Ty, unbuckling his own safety harness.
“Not at all,” Captain Simpson replied. “We have rehearsed it hundreds of times. And we have all been waiting to fire up the ion drive.”
-
Ty took time out to grab a quick bite to eat in the platform’s cafeteria before returning to the ship. He wanted to go over with the techs some of the minor problems they had found in the ship’s systems that morning. Several systems were, in Ty’s opinion, responding sluggishly. They were probably just programming problems. Captain Simpson had mentioned that almost every time they trained on the ship they found a few system problems. He also said that every time they fixed one it seemed that two more appeared almost immediately afterward.
The techs were already in the ship when Ty returned. Two of them were at Lieutenant Strett’s environmental systems control console. They had already partially disassembled the bottom front of the console so they could get to the circuitry inside. One of them was on his back slightly inside the panel, pulling out several computer boards and handing them to the young female tech sitting at the console. She was placing them carefully in a small box and securing them.
Star One: Neutron Star Page 13