**********
Adrian had successfully made it to the flight deck, securing himself in his pilot's seat on the other side of Don. He looked out the plasma shield. His eyes went wide when he saw the gigantic ripple directly ahead. "What the-"
In a flash, the shuttle was violently jerked toward the distortion. Adrian heard Scott yell. "Scott! Is Gloria okay?"
Before Scott could reply, Gloria spoke. "I'm all right, Adrian. I felt the jolt too. The arm barely missed my head, and right now, I'm about ten feet from the space station. But I'm getting pulled. Did you fire the thrusters?"
"Negative. We're checking into it."
Adrian turned to the rest of the crew and asked, "What was that?"
"Uh ? Commander, remember the first numbers that I had were to the power of a thousand," said Isaac.
"Yeah."
"Well, those numbers have just quadrupled. And to put it in laymen's terms, that thing's got gravity and a lot of it!"
"What?" questioned Doc as he turned to face Isaac.
Adrian turned back and looked at the distortion. "Are you telling me we're being pulled into this thing?"
"We are," Isaac answered.
Adrian quickly shouted orders. "Don, fire the reverse thrusters. Scott, get Gloria in here now before that thing swallows us up!"
Don fired the reverse thrusters, and the crew felt another jolt. But for some reason, they weren't moving. Adrian turned and looked at Sean. "Sean, send a distress communication to Houston."
"Roger that," replied Sean as he turned to his computer and began pressing applications on his screen.
Adrian was starting to become frightened. The shuttle wasn't moving at all. Between the force of the reverse thrusters and the force from the ripple, the shuttle sat motionless in space.
Sean spoke frantically. "Sir, there's a problem with the communication satellite on the shuttle."
"What do you mean, 'there's a problem'?"
Sean swallowed and shook his head. "I don't know. I'm not getting a signal. It's like it's not even there."
Before Adrian could answer, Gloria spoke. "Adrian, I think the shuttle's arm knocked the satellite off because it's floating past me."
Adrian turned his seat back around to face the ripple in front of the shuttle and slammed his fists down onto his console. Suddenly, there was another shudder, and Mars I began to move toward the ripple again. "We're moving again! Don, apply more power to the reverse thrusters!"
Don did as he was ordered as he punched in the commands. "It's no use. We're being sucked into that thing."
The crew in the flight deck sat wide eyed with their mouths open as the ripple came to within fifty yards of the shuttle. "Don, more power!" cried Adrian.
"I can't! I've already got the thrusters to full power!"
Adrian looked at the distortion again. They were moving closer to it. It almost looked as if a giant sea creature was beginning to engulf the entire shuttle. He frantically thought and said, "What if we rerouted all of the power in the shuttle to the reverse thrusters?"
"That might do it!" Sean responded.
Adrian turned and shot a look at Sean. "Do it then!"
Adrian felt the shuttle shake violently as it continued to move closer and closer. Alarms buzzed and beeped everywhere within the flight deck. Then Petey spoke anxiously from his station in the nuke-deck. "Uh ? Commander, we've got a problem down here."
"What's wrong?"
"With the shuttle shaking so badly, one of the rods has become lodged in the reactor core. I need to shut down all of the power to remove it. If I don't, the core is going to melt down, and then we're going to have bigger problems to worry about."
Adrian had come face-to-face with a decision he dreaded he would have to make since becoming the commander of man's first mission to Mars; placing the crew in danger of one disaster in order to avoid another. If he ordered Petey to shut down the power, they wouldn't have enough juice left in the thrusters to get away from the nightmare that was about to engulf them. On the other hand, if he ordered that all power be rerouted to the reverse thrusters, he ran the risk of a core meltdown.
Don yelled, "Commander, if we don't switch to auxiliary power now, the core is going to meltdown. ? Commander!"
Adrian was not only dealing with his responsibilities as commander, he was fighting with his personal feelings as well. "Commander!" Don screamed.
"Petey, shut down the reactor and reroute all auxiliary power to the winch. And Scott ? get Gloria in here fast!"
Don gave Adrian a puzzled look. "But, if we reroute all of the auxiliary power to the winch, we won't have time to reroute the power back and shut the bay doors."
"You don't think I know that, Don!"
"Don't let your personal feelings get in the way of your duty ? COMMANDER!"
"I won't leave Gloria out there to get sucked into this thing while we shut the bay doors and try to escape!" Adrian paused and shook his head. "I won't let anyone in the crew get hurt. You're all my responsibility!"
"Then you may have just killed us all!" Don screamed.
Adrian did not want to make this decision. And then ? he heard Gloria.
Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1) Page 8