“Pretty impressive,” said Bane. “I’ve had a bit of a wander around, although I couldn’t get down to Level 2.”
“No. Pretty tight security around here. They don’t want any wayward billionaires wandering into the fusion reactor and pressing the wrong button. Guests are limited to the observatory, casino, and hab zone. Did you check out the observatory?”
“No.”
“It’s pretty cool. Obviously, it’s underground, so you don’t see the stars directly. The observatory has 30 private 3D viewing booths linked to a series of multi-array telescopes, about one click north of here on the surface. It’s a big attraction for the mega-rich. I’m good friends with Sue Skuthorpe, the observatory supervisor. If things are quiet, she slips me in for free and gives me a booth.”
“Has the base ever had any accidents? Decompression? That sort of thing?”
“Not since completion. In the early days, while it was being constructed, there were some accidents. But today the base is pretty safe. There are airlocks everywhere, at each end of every connecting tunnel. Any sudden decompression will automatically close every airlock on the base.”
Kit pushed her empty plate away and gave a satisfying belch as she leaned back in her chair. “Ah, you gotta love fresh food!” she said. She noticed that Bane had been glancing frequently at the clock on the nearby wall during their chat. “Are you waiting for someone?” she asked.
“No,” he replied, looking once more at the clock. “But I think I’ll go for another wander. We’re due to fly out in an hour and I need to stretch my legs.” He stood up and gave her a curiously sad look. “Thanks for the chat. It’s been nice getting to know you.” With that, he turned and walked away.
Nice getting to know me? she thought. He’s a bit intense. Maybe he’s just a loner; someone who’s not all that crash-hot at relationships. She shook her head and ordered a coffee, or what passed for coffee on the moon: a pleasant-tasting hot drink with a mild artificial stimulant. A few minutes later a female waitperson arrived, tipped the coffee all over Kit’s head and sat on her lap.
It wasn’t intentional.
She was simply knocked off her feet by the explosion.
9
Dr. Simon Wisecroft pushed himself to his feet and found that he had launched himself into the air. He hit his head on the ceiling and then drifted back down to land lightly on his feet. The artificial gravity was gone. That must have been the second explosion. What was the first? He had to find out what was going on. He started to run down the corridor towards the control centre and fell forward again, landing gently on the ground. Damn! I’m going to have to learn how to run in one-sixth gravity! He adjusted his gait, lengthened his stride and attempted to adjust his balance as he went. He didn’t fall again, but he was sure he didn’t look particularly graceful. All around him he could hear concerned voices. As he ran down the corridor, he kept yelling, “Stay where you are until we know what is happening!”
In the centre of the research facility was the control centre for the whole of Luna City. There were dozens of monitors showing video feeds from key areas of the base, along with comms and specialised monitoring stations for life-support systems. Wisecroft made an undignified entrance into the command centre, sliding across the threshold and crashing into the back of a staff member at a monitoring station.
“Sorry,” he said.
He saw his Chief of Security, George Leonidis, with a bemused Zac in tow, enter the command centre from a door on the opposite side of the room. Zac was literally bouncing off the ceiling, jumping up and touching the ceiling with his hands and landing back on his feet.
“Hey guys, you should try this!” he said, with a goofy grin on his face.
Leonidis asked, “What the hell just happened?”
Lance Catrell, the Control Centre Coordinator, was seated at a console, wearing his ever-present ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ baseball cap. “There have been two explosions. One of them, as you can guess, knocked out our gravity generator and life support. As far as I can tell, life support systems for producing oxygen and filtering the air have been completely destroyed.”
“How long can we survive without life support operating?” asked Wisecroft.
“About eight hours before carbon dioxide poisoning sets in. But that’s not the worst of our problems.”
“It’s not?”
“No. The first explosion is more serious. It was in the fusion reactor control room.”
“What damage was done?” asked Wisecroft.
“Not sure yet, but it can’t be good. We haven’t been able to contact the reactor staff. I’ve got security teams on their way down there now.”
“Do you have the video log of the explosion?” asked Wisecroft.
“I’m just bringing it up now, sir.”
An image of the interior of the fusion reactor control room appeared on an adjacent monitor, with a rolling time indicator in the bottom right corner. “This is a few minutes before the explosion,” said Lance. Everything appeared normal. Three staff in white lab coats were on duty. Two were sitting at the long control desk facing the thick window that looked out onto the reactor, and the supervisor was standing behind them with a data tablet in his hand. Nothing happened for another minute, and then, suddenly, there was a spray of blood and gore from the back of the supervisor’s head, and he fell to the floor. The two who were seated turned towards the door with a shocked expression and, almost simultaneously, both of their chests erupted in a spray of blood. A moment later, two people walked into view, both wielding what appeared to be some kind of primitive gun made of plastic. One of them removed what appeared to be an explosive device from a backpack. He placed it on the control panel desk and spent several moments activating it. Both people then turned around and looked directly into the camera, knowing they were being videoed.
“It’s Dr Perryman!” exclaimed Lance.
Zac was looking at the screen, too. “Hey! It’s Annisa! I told you she wasn’t lost, Georgy Porgy.” He started waving at the screen. “Hi, Anni! You’ll never guess where I am.”
Wisecroft said nothing, but felt an intense heaviness in his heart as he looked at the face of Annisa. He didn’t recognise the other person but assumed it must be one of the other missing base staff. As he watched, Annisa and her collaborator placed an arm around each other and smiled, raising their fists triumphantly into the air.
A moment later, there was a blinding flash and the screen went black. There was stunned silence among the observers as they considered what they had just witnessed, although Zac was now sitting in a swivel chair, twirling himself around.
“How did they gain access to the control room?” asked someone standing beside Wisecroft.
He answered, “Annisa is a senior research team leader. She has clearance for full access to the entire base. She must have momentarily reactivated her biochip.”
“But why ...?” began the other person.
““Why” is not important right now,” Wisecroft said bluntly. “We need to know what damage has been done and what we can do about it.”
A comm channel opened up and a female voice on the other end said, “Control Centre, we can’t get to the reactor! The tunnels have completely collapsed in this section. It looks like the explosion also took out the Observatory on Level 1. I sent a team to check out the grav-gen and they can’t reach that section either. The Level 2 tunnels have collapsed there as well. The central chamber and main lift directly above, on Level 1, are still intact, so the second explosion can’t have been as big.”
Leonidis leaned forward and spoke into the comm. “This is George Leonidis, Chief of Security. Is that you, Martinez?”
“Yep.” Natasha Martinez was Leonidis’s deputy; a fiery Colombian, tough as nails and extremely efficient.
“Good. I want all security personnel to be on full alert. Guard the entrance to every section, and I want a double detail stationed at the entrance to the research facility. Shut down all movement through
the tunnels until we get a handle on what’s going on.”
“Roger. On our way.”
Wisecroft looked at his Control Centre Coordinator. “Lance, bring up the reactor readings. We need to know what we’re dealing with.”
Catrell brought up a new screen, full of graphical interfaces and readouts. “Does anyone know how to interpret this data?” asked Wisecroft.
“Let me look,” said a new voice at Wisecroft’s side. Dr. Arno Manchester, the head of nuclear physics, had just entered the control room—only slightly more gracefully than Wisecroft had. He slid into the chair alongside Lance and began typing instructions. He was silent for a full minute, then sat back and whispered softly, “My God ...”
“What? How bad is it?” asked Wisecroft.
Manchester’s face had turned pale. “The containment field generator has been damaged. The fusion reaction is accelerating out of control.”
“Can you shut it down?” asked Wisecroft.
“No. Without the containment field, there is nothing we can do.” Turning in his chair, Manchester looked up at Wisecroft and calmly said, “We have a cascading reaction that is completely beyond control. When it goes critical, it’s going to blow a hole in the moon at least two kilometres wide and almost as deep. There will be nothing left of this base.”
There was complete silence in the room.
“How long have we got?” asked Wisecroft.
Manchester swivelled his chair to examine the monitor again. He called up a calculator and crunched some numbers. “Assuming the reaction continues at its current rate, and also assuming we can maintain the flow of water to the core, we have about eight hours.”
His words were still hanging in the air when another major explosion rocked the base, knocking Wisecroft and several others to the ground. Control room lights dimmed momentarily and then regained their luminosity.
“Where was that?” asked Wisecroft, picking himself up off the floor.
“Just a moment,” said Lance. He scrolled through various screens and readouts, and then swore loudly. “The water harvesting plant is offline. I’m getting nothing from the water plant control room, and water pressure in the feed lines has dropped to zero.” He turned to Manchester and said, “We just lost the water for the reactor.”
Wisecroft swore. “Can this get any worse?!” No one said anything. He turned to Manchester. “How does that impact our timeframe?”
“It’s not good. Not good at all,” replied Manchester. “I can’t say for certain yet. I’ll have to watch the reaction rate and make some calculations. The lack of coolant will at least halve how much time we have. We may even have as little as two hours. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.” He began crunching more numbers and making notes on his data pad.
Lance interjected, “I’ve just scanned the video logs for the gravity generator and water plant control rooms. The same sequence of events took place there as in the fusion reactor. Two terrorists enter, shoot the control room staff and then detonate a bomb while smiling at the camera.”
Wisecroft looked at Leonidis. “At least that accounts for all six of our missing personnel.”
“Yes, but I don’t think we should assume it’s over, sir,” said Leonidis. “There may be others who are still lying low, maintaining their normal routine and waiting for a chance to act. Even if there are no others, these six could have planted other devices around the base on delayed timers.”
Wisecroft addressed Gates, his comm officer. “Michael, give me an open channel to address the research facility, plus engineering and aquaponics.”
Gates punched a button and gave Wisecroft a nod. Wisecroft gathered his thoughts for a moment and took a deep breath.
“Attention, please. This is Simon Wisecroft. We have a grave situation on our hands. We are currently under terrorist attack. We have accounted for six known terrorists, who are now deceased, and we are unsure whether there are any others. The water extraction plant, the gravity generator and the containment field generator for the fusion reactor have all been destroyed. I won’t try to soft-sell this to you. We have lost control of the fusion reactor. It is undergoing a cascading fusion reaction that will culminate in a catastrophic explosion within the next few hours. Consequently, we are abandoning the base.”
He paused to gather his thoughts and to let the information sink in. “We will use Genesis to evacuate all research staff and as much equipment as we can salvage. Some civilians and non-research staff will initially be evacuated using shuttles, which are closer to that part of the base. I am aware that Genesis wasn’t scheduled for launch for another week, but we don’t have a choice. We may only have two hours to evacuate, so we need to work quickly and efficiently. All engineering staff make your way immediately to Genesis and, once there, bring life-support systems online. Also, see if there is any way we can channel whatever remaining water we have on the base to top up the tanks on board Genesis. Most importantly, the main propulsion drive needs to be operational within two hours. Aquaponics staff, strip the farm completely clean. Transfer everything we’ve got, including all seed stores, to the aquaponics module on board Genesis. Use the access tunnel on Level 2, via engineering. Research Centre staff, I want everything of value stripped from here and taken on board. It’s now 12:20. At precisely 14:20 we are leaving the moon. Work fast, people. That is all.”
Wisecroft felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. Zac was moving his arms in jerky motions and asked, “Hey doc, can you do the robot?”
10
Wisecroft turned to Lance Catrell, the Control Centre Coordinator, and said, “We need to evacuate everyone. How many civilians do we currently have on base?”
Lance scratched his head through his Space Odyssey baseball cap and gave Wisecroft a worried look. “A lot less than we did half an hour ago.”
“What do you mean?”
“While you were on comms, I was assessing the damage. The explosion that took out the water plant on Level 2 also destroyed the Casino above it. Martinez just reported that the whole cave system there has completely collapsed. Biochip readouts indicate there were nearly 300 people in the Casino at the time of the explosion, but I’m not getting life signs from any of them now. There were also over 120 civilians and staff in the observatory and its precincts when the blast from the fusion reactor control room took it out. No sign of life there now, either.”
Wisecroft was visibly shaken. “We need to assemble all surviving civilians and non-research staff in the cafeteria so we can do a head count. We should be able to evacuate the survivors on the shuttle currently docked at the terminal and the two that are on their way. How soon until they arrive, Michael?”
“They’re about 10 minutes out, sir.”
“How many can each shuttle carry, Lance?”
“About 50 safely.”
“OK. Open a channel to Martinez.” Gates punched a button on the console and nodded. “Martinez, this is Simon Wisecroft, do you read me?”
“Yep.”
“What tunnels are still intact?”
“The whole of Level 2 has collapsed except for aquaponics and engineering and the tunnel that links them. On Level 1 the central chamber is still undamaged, so we have access to the lift and the shuttle terminal, but the casino and observatory and their linking tunnels are all gone.”
“OK. Take your team to the hab. We’ll assemble everyone in the cafeteria. Once you’ve done a head count, I want you to lead everyone to the central chamber. We’ll be evacuating them via shuttles.”
“Roger. On my way.”
Wisecroft turned to Gates. “Open a channel to the hab. I need to address the civilians now.” Gates nodded. Wisecroft took a breath and started speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please? This is Dr Simon Wisecroft, director of this facility. As you are no doubt aware by now, we have some serious problems. There have been several instances of sabotage on the base, resulting in some serious damage; so serious, in fact, that we will hav
e to evacuate the base as soon as possible. I need everyone to assemble in the cafeteria area immediately. My deputy security chief, Natasha Martinez, will meet you there and will lead you to the main terminal chamber, where you will be boarding shuttles. The shuttles will take you to lunar orbit, where we will arrange transfer to another vessel. Please go straight to the cafeteria. Do not deviate to retrieve possessions and do not attempt to access any other areas on the base. There are collapsed tunnels which may be in danger of further collapse. If you have friends or loved ones in other areas, please leave them for us to find. I ask that you remain as calm as possible. Thank you.”
Wisecroft, sat back in his chair, running his hands through his hair and breathing out a big sigh. “Have I forgotten anything, Lance? Anything I’ve missed?”
“There might be one thing.”
“What?”
“Genesis.” Lance paused and gathered his thoughts. “The terrorists knew of its existence. In fact, the two renegade scientists, Drs Perryman and Klausman, have been part of the team that has been working on getting it ready for two years. They have had full access to the ship for the whole time. They must have predicted that we would plan to use it to evacuate. I can’t believe they would have left it untouched.”
“You’re right,” admitted Wisecroft. “We have to assume that they’ve either disabled an essential system or else they’ve planted some kind of explosive device on board. Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice. We either stay here and die, or we take our chances on board Genesis.” He turned towards Leonidis. “George, securing Genesis has got to be your priority now. Take a team and scour every inch of the ship, inside and out. You’ve got about 90 minutes to find whatever they’ve done to it.”
“What about him?” asked Leonidis, indicating Zac, who was currently lying on the floor in a corner of the room, sound asleep.
The Stars That Beckon Page 5