The incoming objects were still several hundred kilometers out, so as the first cannonball traveled, Zee proceeded to fire off one after another from around the crater rim. Each shot followed about twenty seconds apart, and a few dozen shots were on their way by the time the first was approaching its targets.
Pia hadn't been able to look away from the lead cannonball, watching as its tiny blip sped out from Ceres like a worker bee. As it approached to within twenty kilometers of the incoming attack line, the nearest object began adjusting its path to avoid an impact.
'Got their attention,' Pia thought.
Zee updated the crew, then began entering new instructions. Theo's cannon was apparently firing some sort of sturdy mini drone. Zee had the next closest cannonball drone light up like a flare, burning brightly for over thirty seconds before running out of fuel.
'You missed! What the hell, McKinnon?'
Zee barely even registered Miller's yapping. He was examining the screens and holos intently, watching for something.
Pia was actually the first to see it, and quickly alerted Zee. 'They moved towards the heat. Jesus, they'll track onto Cerex too!'
'Keep your head on, that's a good thing. Trust me, ok?'
The line of incoming attackers were at the four hundred kilometer marker when Zee's next flare drone went off, this time behind the approaching line. The entire spread out net of drones began moving slowly inwards as they attempted to track onto the flare.
'I don't like the looks of their formation, too spread out. And they're moving way too fast for mine to match speeds,' Zee complained.
Pia, along with the rest of the crew watched as drone after drone flew right past the attacking line and then ignited..
'I swear to God,' Miller began, 'if you keep missing, I'm going to come find you and make sure to kill you myself before the rest of us die.'
This time Barton stepped in and said what the others were thinking. 'Commander, he's saved our butts more times than I can remember already, please just let the man work.'
Miller was fuming, both at Zee and how Barton made him look scared in front of everyone. 'What the hell was that about,' Pia began asking Zee, but he cut her off early.
'He's a petty, arrogant, insecure little man, that's what.'
After ten drones all flared up and died behind enemy lines, the purpose seemed more clear. Zee had lured the entire dragnet of incoming attackers to within about a ten kilometer wide cluster, and made them slow themselves considerably as well.
'Time to get up close and personal.'
The next cannonball fired its thrusters in full reverse until it came to a halt and then began fleeing the nearest main enemy craft. The gap between them closed fast at first, but by the time they collided there was only a five km/hr difference in their speed. Zee's drone latched on and began inspecting its counterpart.
This enemy drone was clearly a weapon of some sort, and appeared to have dockings where its much smaller companions had only recently detached. It made sense that the mini swarm wouldn't have the fuel or thrust to have survived a trip from either the Moon or Earth on their own.
The suction grips on Zee's cannonbot made it resemble a remora attaching itself to a passing shark. It drilled holes through the outer casing and inserted a handful of cameras, sensors, and miniature laser cutters. Pia could see wiring inside, with a second inner hull which kind of looked like a torpedo.
Time was quickly running out as the nearest missile was now under a hundred kilometers from Ceres. Zee feverishly worked the controls to attempt a breach of the inner casing. This second material was much sturdier, causing him to send his robot sensors sideways between the inner and outer hull.
Pia stared at the feeds intently as beads of sweat built up at her hairline. She went to swipe her hair back out of her face when she heard a faint click and then, for the briefest of moments, she imagined she saw a thin curl of blue flame.
Suddenly all of her external feeds flared brightly and then blinked off. It's a strange feeling to be blinded in your thoughts, but not your eyes. It was as if half of her mind was simply switched off. The cannonbot sensors, the long range CereSat data, even the perimeter cameras around the ship, all showed nothing but static. The only thing left intact was internal Cerex hardlines and shipwide comm channels, which promptly filled up in pandemonium.
'Are we hit?' Vineland asked incredulously.
'Of course we were hit you son of a bitch!' Miller screeched back.
The rest of the crew all yelled over each other to be quiet, wanting to hear from Zee.
'I thought so,' was all he muttered to himself. 'Where are you all now?'
'Jesus, what was that?' Pia pleaded with Zee on their private channel to explain.
“Releasing sensor net Gamma,” he stated flatly. A hundred specialized microdrones spewed out of partially obscured holes in the mud encrusted surface of Cerex.
Then to Pia, quickly he said, “EMP, from a nuke.”
As the new sensor array deployed, the crew struggled to make sense of the neural blackout.
Geoff was next to chime in. 'Sir, a blackout like this had to come from an EMP blast. But with no apparent damage to Cerex itself, it must not have come from a nuclear bomb.'
Theo knew explosives, and called bullshit immediately. 'This is space, Burnsy, no air.'
'Yes I know there's no air, and no rocks either, so maybe you let the big kids talk, huh?'
Theo was about to go find the sniveling little twerp when Zee finally controlled the situation again. 'Theo's right, at roughly a hundred kilometers, there's nothing left of a blast wave. No air means no extra material to heat, only the mass of the bomb itself is available to spread out in the explosion-'
Miller cuts him off, 'So there was an explosion?'
'Oh yes, my probe tripped a defense mechanism on one of the main incoming. I figured as much, they wouldn't want me to take them apart like I did when we left lunar orbit. New array is operational now, the other two nukes were blown up and triggered in a cascade. All bogies appear to be neutralized. Firing another flare now.'
All eyes and minds turned to the new feed which popped up showing the radar array. The flare drone lit itself up, but there was no movement from anything in the area.
Pia scanned her own more detailed feed which showed lesser circles around suspected debris. Some were going at a tremendous speed, pushed along by the leading edge of the nuke's shockwave. As she saw a stray target lock pop up almost overlapping that of Cerex on the screen, instinct kicked in.
'Exosuits, everyone, impact any second.'
'What are you seeing, Pia?' Zee began, but stopped as the impact shook Cerex down to its carbon fiber Spine. The hull seemed intact, and only a few sensitive systems were blinking warnings. There was a sound like heavy rain all around, and for a brief moment Pia imagined her field tent back in Pando.
By now Zee had retaken the lead and jumped back onto the main comm with confidence. 'Now that we've once again somehow managed not to die, I'd like to direct your attention to the eastern side of the plane. If you can find a window nearby you'll see the newly formed Occator geyser spouting what looks to be organics rich sleet in tremendous amounts. Everyone be sure to thank our thoughtful competitors if they still exist upon our return to Earth.'
Theo and Sara were first to a window while the others tried accessing any outside cameras. Sara let out a gritty shout of joy as Theo picked her up and spun her around. She grabbed two handfuls of his dirty blond hair and messed it up playfully.
“Now no more excuses for taking a bath!” Sara laughed.
Chapter 3
In the aftermath of the explosion, Zee confirmed that each main attack ship had been a sizable nuclear missile. When Zee leveraged their heat seeking ability and gathered them close, setting off one nuke had destroyed them all.
All but one. The stray rocket had torn its way into the bottom of Occator, no farther than a couple hundred meters away.
“It must have
locked on to Cerex, but was moving too fast to adjust in time to impact us directly,” Zee had explained at the briefing following the celebration. “That explosion was large but definitely not nuclear. It opened up a fissure roughly 10 meters wide and must have tapped into whatever source has been causing the periodic geyser action that we were unlucky enough to experience during descent.”
“As for our own beat up but beautiful ship, if you were wondering...while you science nerds were off doing experiments, me and Theo were improvising some defenses. Theo played in the dirt mostly...typical, while I built the flare drones.” He winked at Theo. “The EMP risk was diminished by a factor of nearly a thousand by the mud bath Theo gave Cerex and the substations. Each is coated with a foot or more of dense clays formed from the crater regolith mixed with water. The chip blackout should be temporary, too. The substations, assuming they're not damaged from the explosion or light sleet we're experiencing at the moment, should just require a jump. In Cerex herself, we're good.”
Miller interjected, but more mildly than his usual bluster. The repeated heroics by the crew had effectively minimized his role as commander, and though his massive hubris remained, he had been forced to narrow his focus considerably. Fame and power beyond reason lay waiting for him back on Earth, while on Ceres he was becoming a tolerable nuisance. Thinking of home made Miller suddenly panic.
“Oh God, CereSat! We lost our only link with NatoCorps?”
Zee grinned widely, “As soon as the first missile blipped up on radar, I sent CereSat to wait it out in high polar orbit. You can thank me later.”
Relief washed over Miller's face, but was quickly replaced by shock and anger.
“How exactly did you bypass my personal controls, McKinnon?”
Silence all around. Miller couldn't run this operation without Zee, but refused to be blatantly disrespected in front of the crew.
Finally Zee smirked. “I didn't, technically. I had parked a few heavy thrust drones nearby after we first landed. Just in case we lost comm link with it, of course. Hope that's ok...Commander.”
Zee could see the battery acid running through Miller's blood, but to the suit's credit, he kept his composure.
“Alright. Well, we're lucky we still have our satellite link. Geoff, find it and let's set it back into its usual orbit. Now,” doing his best to reassert control of the conversation, “tell me about this geyser. Are we in danger from the spray?”
Pia jumped in, angry at how Zee was being dressed down. “I think we'd all be in trouble if Cerex couldn't handle a little snowstorm Jared, no?” Then she scrunched up her nose and upper lip in the way French women have mastered for centuries. “I've been monitoring the outpouring, and it's already slowed considerably. Less than half the volume is coming out compared to immediately following the impact.”
“Stage fright in front of an audience,” joked Sara.
“Lara, is it obstructing the solar arrays?” Miller deadpanned, ignoring Sara.
“My arrays are most likely garbage,” she let out with a sigh. “Unlike some of you, my equipment couldn't get treated to Theo's little mud bath, so it's probably toast. The materials can be reused of course, but our power is going to be way down until we get the arrays back up again."
Pia interjected again. “Without doubt, the arrays are important, Lara's right. But I think we've all failed to grasp what the geyser can provide us.”
Theo got down on his massive knees and bowed down towards the port side of Cerex, where the snow could be seen whooshing past the windows. “Oh mighty geyser, please provide for us!”
Sara slapped his ribs. “Fuel.”
“Exactly, forget processing the regolith for scraps of water, we're talking endless easy hydrogen and oxygen,” Pia looked back at Miller, “IF we can maintain access to that water. The intense cold and pressure is freezing the spout like an ice fishing hole. We need to act immediately to secure safe access to whatever water source lies underneath. It could change our entire mission."
Vineland had been quiet during most of the meeting, preferring to sit back and observe the others. Now he felt the need was strong enough to interject. “This is not a good idea.”
Pia was disappointed at being refuted, especially from the levelheaded Colonel, but she waited for him to explain his reasoning.
“My apologies, Pia dear, I understand your excitement, but this is an entirely unstable system. Rushing out now will get someone killed, I can almost guarantee it.”
Miller found himself in the unusual position of agreeing with Pia. “Colonel, what about our mission has not been risky?”
Vineland was calm, but resolute. “How are we supposed to install any sort of equipment into an active geyser? It'll get blow halfway across the Belt. And if we wait and try digging back down, we'll just get blown back out like a cannonball."
There was a silence for several seconds as the Colonel's sober words sank in.
Theo wore a grin so wide it split his massive beard in two, but he waited, enjoying being the one who figured out an answer before the paid brains onboard.
Sara noticed it first and gave him a gentle punch in the chest. “Well go ahead dummy, tell us already.”
“I don't know what you're…”
“Tell us!” Notebooks and pencils began flying his way.
“We don't dig," Theo explained, "gods forgive me for saying that out loud.”
Miller went directly in front of him, “Tell us, damn it, what are you getting at?”
“We melt our way down, sir...Commander.”
“Then we get blasted, what's different about melting?”
“We melt our way down, and the water refreezes behind us. As long as the ice is 10 meters thick or more, that should give plenty of strength to prevent it from cracking open again right away.”
Pia wasn't sold yet. “But then what good is the water if it's stuck under 10 meters of ice?”
“Oh ye of little faith. Theo has thought of everything. I had to do a similar job once in Norway setting up a bunker for a President of some…”
“Theo, how?!” Pia growled anxiously.
“Alright, alright! Install a valve of some kind to handle the pressure and let us control the outflow. As long as we can get down deep enough and anchor the valve into the surrounding ice, we're good to go. Simple job.”
“How long?” Miller asked.
“Harder to say, with the repairs and power losses. But I can get a test melter ready by the time she freezes solid enough to get near her. Tomorrow, likely.”
“Make it happen, Theo.” Miller charged out of the room, determined to be the first to leave.
* * *
The prototype Theo came up with was crude looking at best. Measuring nearly three meters long and almost a meter wide at the base, it resembled an enormous tear drop with nanomachinery crammed into the entire tail of the structure. The front was a miniaturized nuclear reactor, which Pia was concerned to learn was one of many already in use onboard.
The geyser had slowed considerably in the first hours after the attack, but didn't cease entirely for another two days. At Vineland's urging, they waited one more day to be sure the area was frozen solid. Santos repurposed an ore collection rover to shuttle the melter into place, but Theo rode along for the placement.
The land surrounding the eruption lay buried under a few meters of snow. A second rover ended up being necessary to plow a road and uncover the original blast site, with icy spears jutting out in a frozen explosion. The plow shattered these fairly easily, sending a storm of ice fragments flying away in slow motion arcs. Eventually Theo was able to outline the main circular depression, a new scar on a surface untouched for billions of years.
Between the low gravity and his massive Nordic frame, he was able to lift the nuclear teardrop with ease out of its makeshift harness. He carried it down the gentle slope, placing it in the snow as if it were a baby carrier.
To Pia's chip the melter looked lit up like a mini sun, reminding her of w
hat it contained. She watched as he triggered the device to begin heating up, and felt Zee on the edges of her thoughts, a playful reminder of their connection that passed as the digital equivalent of flirting.
Zee had been busy as usual with the clean up and repair work following the attack, but still managed to surprise Pia with small signs of affection. Once while she was arms deep in the wiring of a food printer, he overrode a nearby sensor panel and had it play birdsongs. She slid out from under the machinery when she heard it, and saw the entire open floor of the printer subdeck had been holographically transformed into a beautiful forest stream.
Pia shook off the memories for the task at hand, monitoring Theo's life support readings, frustrated at how often her thoughts of Zee had begun interrupting her work.
'I've got some movement.' Theo's voice boomed out through the comm with nervous excitement. While others may have been nervous, he was like a kid about to open up a birthday present. 'Wiggling her into place, then she's all yours Zee.'
Sara was abnormally quiet as she watched on the main holo wall display along with the rest of the techs. Everyone was waiting to see how far down they would have to go before reaching the fissure, but Sara was concentrating more on making sure Theo didn't do anything stupid.
The melting probe sank, imperceptibly at first, then picking up speed to about a centimeter per second by the time it went fully into the ice. If the fissure was too jagged, the melter would get stuck before long. If the probe got too hot, then it ran the risk of hitting the fissure before the ice above it was sufficiently solid again. Theo retreated up the slope on his way back to the ship, grinning so widely his beard was scratching the sides of his helmet as he hopped along. The entry looked spot on, with his extensive drilling knowledge helping him choose a perfect temperature to ease the melter down gradually.
There was chatter on the open crew comm, until Miller cut through with an executive override. Only he and Coburn were up in the pilot module, leaving the rest of them free to grumble their frustrations to each other out loud in the STEM bay.
Mission Cerex Boxset Page 9