Read Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 Online
Authors: Rebecca Moesta,Kevin J. Anderson,June Scobee Rodgers
Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 (8 page)
Fourteen
Now that he had the asteroid mission specifics, Commander Zota gave them another briefing before sending them back to the future.
“There are practical matters you didn’t need to consider on your previous travels. In the mission modules, every item will be carefully rationed. For a voyage that lasts a month each way, the crew have to bring everything with them—the oxygen they breathe, the food they eat, the water they drink, and the energy they use for all systems aboard.”
“Right. So we can’t stay long,” JJ said. “In and out, that’s all.”
“We could take them some extra supplies, too. Like energy bars,” Dyl said. “I know I always like getting a surprise treat on a long trip.”
“That’s a good idea. There are some in the pantry. I also have spacesuits for you to put on before I transport you to the asteroid mission modules,” Zota said. “Quarters will be tight aboard, and the commanders needed all available space for supplies. I doubt they will have spare helmets and equipment.”
“So this is strictly a Bring Your Own Spacesuit party,” Dyl said with a chuckle.
Song-Ye grinned. “Get serious, Junior.”
“Also,” the commander continued, “to send all of you into a single module would be too much of a drain. You’ll have to split up—two sets of two, and one of you will have to go solo.”
King raised his hand. “Eagle Scout King, reporting for duty, sir. I’ll go solo. I’m used to being independent.”
“Thank you, Cadet King,” Zota said.
“Tony and I will go together,” JJ said, not just because she preferred to be with her close friend, but because she knew Dyl would want to be with Song-Ye.
“Very well. Because there are locator devices in each of the three modules, and you’ve provided me with the mission timetable and coordinates, I can easily place you aboard each craft.”
Tony showed his enthusiasm. “We’ll go first.”
“Pfft,”
Song-Ye made a face. “Since we’re using a Kylarn time machine to travel to any time we choose, being ‘first’ is kind of irrelevant.”
“We’ll each get our turn,” JJ said.
In the briefing room, they ate chips and salsa and drank some soda. JJ ate a Moon Pie, one of her favorite treats.
Moon, sweet Moon,
she thought. Dyl guzzled an entire can of root beer, even though it wasn’t cold. If water and food were so scarce aboard the asteroid modules, they didn’t want to deplete any of the mission supplies.
“We’re off to the asteroids,” JJ said.
Mr. Zota said, “You should arrive just as the module reaches its target. Assist in the deflection mission, then signal me as soon as you know you’ve succeeded.”
“We’ll be back before you know it,” King said.
“You sound sure that we’re going to succeed,” Dyl said. JJ grinned. “Someone’s got to go kick some asteroids—might as well be us.”
Aboard the ISSC, each of the connected modules had seemed relatively spacious, with a contained volume larger than a school bus, plenty of room for the drifting astronauts and researchers to move around and perform their tasks. When JJ and Tony appeared inside the module for Asteroid Mission One, though, her first thought was how crowded the place would be if she had to spend two months here cooped up with other personnel.
Colonel Fox was the first to notice JJ and Tony arriving in their spacesuits. He turned, and his face lit up with surprise, then pleasure. “I was wondering when you cadets would be joining us, now that we’ve arrived at the asteroid.”
Even Dr. Kloor seemed pleased. “From past experience, I expected our young visitors to appear just as things were about to happen.”
JJ removed her helmet, and Tony did the same. The air in the module smelled stale, but Fox and Kloor were probably used to it. The travelers appeared tired and edgy, their nerves frayed.
“Boy, it looks like you’ve had a long trip,” Tony said.
JJ agreed. “I remember our long rover expedition on the Moon, Colonel Fox. You, King, and I went a little stir crazy being stuck in that vehicle, and that was for only a few days.”
“Indeed, we’ve had to become very good friends cooped up in this tin can for a month,” Fox said, “but I gave orders at the outset that no one was allowed to get cabin fever.” Though the British officers voice was matter-of-fact, JJ recognized it was a joke.
“Even after we finish at the asteroid,” Kloor added, “we’ll have another month before we get back home.”
“And two to six months more before the asteroids pass Earth,” Fox said.
After removing and stowing the components of their suits, JJ and Tony drifted forward to look out the windowport, where they could see a glinting bright star—the reflective surface of the approaching asteroid. From here, the Sun was much dimmer, farther away, although it still bathed the asteroid in a glow.
“Speaking from a defense perspective, there’s nothing wrong with an uneventful trip,” Kloor said, “it gave me a chance to catch up on my reading.”
Fox added, “We’ve been through the ship’s library, played games, and composed messages to our families. Thankfully, we can now implement our mission objective.”
On one of the module’s screens, Colonel Fox displayed the location of Earth and the orbiting International Space Station Complex, then a line that showed the trajectory of Asteroid Mission One, which was about to intersect the asteroid’s path. JJ saw the spinning animation of the solar system, watched the tiny dots of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter gliding along their orbits at varying speeds. All of the planets seemed to follow circular paths, but the asteroid was in a highly elongated orbit.
“The Kylarn certainly sent that asteroid reeling,” JJ said. “Its orbit is pretty warped.”
“It’s called ‘eccentric,’” Dr. Kloor corrected.
“I have an uncle who’s eccentric,” Tony quipped. JJ smiled at the pun. She was glad she was with Tony.
“Even the planetary orbits aren’t perfect circles,” Fox explained. “They’re called ellipses. For a long time people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, but as astronomers gathered more and more data, it became clear that the pieces didn’t fit.”
“I read about that,” JJ said. “An astronomer named Copernicus solved the problem by suggesting that all of the observations made better sense if the Earth and all the planets went around the Sun instead.”
“That caused quite a shakeup, I’ll bet,” Tony said. “People don’t like to admit that their basic understanding of the universe is wrong.”
“Even though the sun-centered model made sense of the planetary observations, it still wasn’t exactly right,” Kloor said, “until Johannes Kepler suggested the orbits weren’t perfect circles, but ellipses.” The physicist glanced over at Tony and said, “People didn’t like that either—the suggestion that anything about the universe might not be perfect.”
Fox nudged the side of the module wall and drifted away from the screen. “Our current estimates are that one to two million asteroids are orbiting in the belt, but right now we’re only concerned with this one. The other two asteroid missions are on schedule. We’ve got to get to this rock and make a little course correction.”
“The problems seem so complex,” JJ said. “How do we know this is going to work?”
“There are many variables,” Kloor said. “We don’t even know the precise shape and geological composition of our target. We only know its size and mass. In order for the Kylarn to make these three asteroids strike Earth, they had to have pinpoint accuracy. Fortunately, we don’t need to be too fancy—all we have to do is make the asteroid
miss.”
“Like playing basketball,” Tony said. “Getting the ball into the hoop takes careful aim, but missing the hoop is easy.”
JJ looked out the window, squinting to see details on the distant asteroid growing against the field of stars—a giant cratered cannonball heading toward Earth. “If we keep people from dying and mess up the squidbutts’ plans, that’s fancy enough for me,” she said.
***
Fifteen
The second crewmember of Asteroid Mission 2 was amazed when Dyl and Song-Ye appeared, but he accepted the situation quickly enough. Ansari was in charge of the second mission, having left Pi as Deputy Stationmaster aboard the ISSC. Dyl could tell that Ansari would not have missed this hands-on mission for anything.
The Stationmaster gave them a quick report. “We received a communication from Colonel Fox. Cadet JJ Wren and Cadet Vasquez joined Asteroid Mission 1 a few hours ago, and their team is already putting warheads in place on the first asteroid.”
Dyl knew Ansari pretty well, of course, but wasn’t familiar with the other crewman, Sergeant Jose Alvarez, though he’d seen Alvarez on the station. Alvarez was a military astronaut trained in spacewalks and construction activities.
“Song-Ye and I brought everything we need,” Dyl said. “We even came prepared with snacks.”
The Korean girl removed her helmet and sniffed the air, wrinkling her nose at the collected smells of long-term, cramped living. “We’re ready to help you on the asteroid surface whenever you’re ready.”
“You’ll get your chance, cadets.” Ansari looked at Sergeant Alvarez. “I’ve mentioned this before, but let me repeat: don’t underestimate these young people. They’ll offer valuable assistance.”
“Acknowledged, Ma’am,” said Sergeant Alvarez with military gruffness. “So long as they follow instructions. It’s a complex mission and we’re handling nuclear warheads, not toys.”
“As in, be super careful? We will,” Song-Ye said. “Consider us members of your team.”
Dyl nodded. “Not a problem. We don’t want any explosions before it’s time.”
Ansari adjusted the spacedrive controls as the module circled over their destination asteroid. Still wearing their suits, Dyl and Song-Ye eagerly gazed down at the squashed oblong rock that slowly rotated beneath them. “It looks like a giant potato,” Song-Ye said.
“Then let’s make some mashed potatoes,” Dyl replied.
The tumbling rock seemed to drift gracefully through the vacuum. He knew that small asteroids didn’t have enough gravity to pull them into a spherical shape, and many of them got fragmented during collisions over the billions of years of their existence.
Below, a deep, glassy scar rotated into view, a crater that looked much newer than the others. Song-Ye pointed it out to him. “What’s that? A meteor impact?”
Ansari knew exactly what they were seeing. She drifted close. “That must be the crater the Kylarn made when they altered the asteroid’s course.”
Alvarez pointed out, “If it withstood a blast like that, the asteroid is probably geologically stable. That makes our calculations easier.”
Dyl and Song-Ye were fascinated. “Will our nuclear bombs cause that much damage when we give it another shove?”
Ansari considered. “Maybe, maybe not, but the blast should be strong enough to do what we need it to do—knock the asteroid off course.”
“That’s a tough piece of rock! An asteroid on steroids!” Dyl said.
“We’re carrying nukes with a three megaton explosive yield,” Alvarez said. “It’ll be like hitting that asteroid with a giant baseball bat.”
“Or hitting a billiard ball with a cue stick,” Song-Ye said, reminding Dyl of their game of pool in King’s basement.
“Yeah, I’m ready to smack that asteroid with a cue stick,” Dyl added.
“Nuclear bombs are the only things we have with enough power to do the job,” Ansari explained. “Explosive power is measured in either kilotons—1000 tons of TNT—or megatons, a million tons of TNT. I hope we’ve brought more than enough, since we won’t get a second chance at this.”
“So these nuclear warheads are going to protect Earth,” Song-Ye murmured. She thought of how the idea would have surprised her diplomat father.
“I wonder if we can get extra credit for saving the world,” Dyl said.
“Every minute brings that asteroid closer to Earth,” Jose Alvarez warned, sounding impatient. “I see you cadets are already suited up. Let’s get up close and personal with that asteroid, install the warheads, and prepare to detonate them.”
Dyl held his helmet in his gloved hands. “We’re ready to go anytime.”
The MMU packs on their spacesuits made Dyl feel like a real rocket man. They had trained with the sophisticated maneuvering jets on their first mission to the ISSC, when they had expected to cross space to retrieve and repair the sabotaged Eye in the Sky satellite. Now, Dyl finally got his chance to see what the packs could do.
With his uncooperative legs, he had trouble moving around on Earth, so he loved the freedom of the weightless environment in space. Now, with the MMU, he felt like a superhero, flying along as he, Song-Ye, Ansari, and Sergeant Alvarez, exited the modules node room hatch. Sergeant Alvarez, who had carefully trained for the mission, detached the shielded casings of the warheads mounted to the space-station module. The three atomic bombs would have to be timed to go off simultaneously to act as a blasting rocket to deflect the lumpy asteroid.
Leaving Alvarez to finish their preparations on the modules hull, Dyl, Song-Ye, and Ansari jetted down to the surface. When he touched one foot to the crumbly asteroid, leaving his footprint in the pristine dust—a footprint like Neil Armstrong’s, in a place where no human had ever stepped before—he felt almost no gravity at all!
“That’s one small step for me.…” Dyl muttered under his breath. He loved being in low- or no-gravity environments. It always felt good.
He could see the ridges and dimples of the uneven surface. Because the entire asteroid was only a few kilometers across, the horizon looked very close, like a cliff edge in every direction. He drifted and floated like a feather in the wind, nudging the surface with his feet. “A few giant leaps would take me all the way around the world! No prob—”
“Or,” Ansari’s voice cut him off through the helmet radio, “you could launch yourself into space and become an orbiting object yourself. On a small body like this asteroid, with so little gravity, you could reach escape velocity with just a little push. Use your MMU to maneuver.”
Dyl gave a little blast of his maneuvering jets. “Piece of cake.”
“Don’t get cocky, Junior,” Song-Ye said. “We have a mission to finish.” As they drifted along, the asteroid rotated, moving them away from the module that hovered overhead. They primarily maneuvered with their MMUs. Alvarez dropped down toward them, towing the large containers that held the warheads.
As they came upon the fresh crater, Dyl looked down and saw that it was a deep, perfectly smooth bowl. “Compliments of the Kylarn?”
“They must have blasted this area with a very powerful weapon.”
Dyl could hear the concern in Ansari’s voice.
“Then let’s blast this blasted asteroid,” Sergeant Alvarez said, as he used his MMU to jet down toward the cratered surface. Dyl looked away from the sun, out into the starry expanse, knowing that many of those tiny specks were also asteroids—and out there among them, the invading aliens had set up other bases in addition to their outpost on the far side of the Moon. Even if the asteroid mission did manage to deflect the incoming rocks, Dyl feared that the Kylarn would simply try something else. “Let’s get these nukes in place,” Alvarez said. “I’d like to end the day with a bang.”
***
