Connection (28 page)

“Captain. Mister Kobe here…as you ordered.”

“Lock him in one of the crew cabins,” the captain ordered. “You did search him didn’t you?”

The ensign looked at Robert and replied. “Yes sir. Thoroughly. He only had this quantrum doee that hooks to the Earth internet, and some communiqués.”

“Carry out my orders Ensign,” ordered the captain.

“Aye sir,” the ensign replied. “This way…” he said motioning to Robert.

“Interesting safe passage you promised,” Robert said as he was marched aft.

“Sparks. Check this thing out and make sure it isn’t dangerous,” the captain ordered his communications officer.

“Aye sir.”

The communications officer took the quantum entanglement communicator over to his station while the captain took the thick communiqué pouch and glanced through it. He stood up and started off the bridge. “Commander. You have the comm. I’ll be in my cabin. Keep me up-to-date if there are any changes with the ships outside. Let the other ships know that we have Robert Kobe on board – voluntarily I suppose. We…” the captain paused. “I’ll let you know. I don’t like this one little bit. Let me know what that thing is too,” the captain indicated the communicator Kobe had brought aboard.

                                                                    ****

Locked cabin Prometheus – enroute to Mars

“Robert. You want me to get you out of there. We can cut a hole or send in the robotic troops. Calm Nemesis – you too Cassandra…give this some time. I’m fine. Come get me if I yelp,“ Tod said over his subcutaneous communicator.

                                                                    ****

Prometheus bridge – enroute to Mars

Sparks. What is that thing Kobe brought on board?” Commander Dillingham asked the communications officer.

“Sir. This is a quantum entanglement, communications set that is hooked to one on Earth. I can hook to the web on Earth in real time. That’s how I looked it up. We can email, text, and web call just like we were on Earth – in real time sir. There isn’t any delay. It’s legit. Its damn amazing sir and Kobe just gave it to us.”

“We do have a task force. We have him outnumbered,” the commander said.

The comm officer laughed. “Sorry sir but our lasers did nothing to them with direct hits and they took out our railgun without any trouble.”

“What do you think about their tech?”

“Sir. They could disable us, jam us, hide from our radar, travel instantly from point to point, travel to the stars, have impenetrable armor, their weapons are more powerful, have instant communications, their suits protect them better, they can carry more payload – I’d say we are outclassed and if they wanted to hurt us they could have.”

“Umm,” said the commander – he agreed with everything the comm officer said but why was their information on Kobe so…Commander Dillingham had heard the communications with the Captain. “Duty Navigation to the bridge,” he said over the intercom. A disheveled Lieutenant Junior grade came to the bridge a few minutes later.

“Lieutenant Chin reporting as ordered sir,” said the petite brunette.

“Chin. I want you to determine the orbit of asteroid 2011 SR52. Use the Earth observatories I suppose,” ordered the commander.

“Sir. It will take a while with the time delay between here and Earth. We don’t have the capabilities aboard,” she replied.

“Get with Sparks and use that thing,” he said pointing to the box plugged into a monitor. “That gaves you instant access to the Net...”

“Wow. Really sir? What should I look for?” she asked.

“See if there is any current data if it intercepts the orbit of Earth at the end of March.”

“What year sir?” she asked.

He hadn’t thought of it that maybe she had a point. “This year or coming year I suppose.”

“Yes sir. I have a friend at the Mauna Key Observatory sir,” she said and noted the time. “Should be visible from there…”

                                                                    ****

“Hey Stella. I have a message here for you…no video. Says its from a Lieutenant Chin,” said the duty grad student on the thirty meter telescope.

“What does she want?” Stella said frostily. They had broken up when she reenlisted two months ago – she still was upset about it.

“She wants us to plot the asteroid 2011 SR52…she won’t say why.”

“I’d rather do that then these random NEO scans…swing the focal will you. Do we have any recent captures?”

“We have the last three nights where we may have it on the edge of that segment. We’ll plot tonight versus those but it will be a pretty lousy approximation. You know we’ll need another – Purple Mountain should have some. It always takes them a week to get permission from higher authority before they send anything. It will be a while before they give us a return.”

“William. Do it anyway,” Stella said. She was curious where her friend was since she was supposed to have left on some hush-hush mission in space.

                                                                    ****

“We have a request from Mauna about asteroid 2011 SR52. Isn’t that the one we wanted to check out anyway? Send them the information and ask for any of their most recent captures. We will get more information than give.”

                                                                    ****

“Stella. You’re not going to believe this but they have current data we can compare. They want ours. Doing capture in about twenty minutes, I’ll let the computer crunch on what we have.”

The twenty minutes dragged to thirty – then an hour.

Stella was getting angry with William. He was usually pretty conscientious. She decided she’d check on him in his little ‘rat hole’ of an office. She saw him huddled over his screen and doing frantic calculations.

“Well?” she said perturbed. William didn’t even look up. She tapped him on the shoulder. “Well?”

“Oh God. You do it too. I’ve done these calculations three times. It has to be wrong. That asteroid is headed on a trajectory right at Earth. It will hit here March 30
th
,” William said. “Oh God. Please do them yourself…tell me I’m wrong. That asteroid is a friggin’ monster. It’s BIG.”

Stella pushed him aside and slid up a chair. She started checking his data and calculations. There weren’t any errors. “Did you add the Chinese data?”

“Yes. There’s matched ours. Who do we call? How would your friend know anything? Isn’t she supposed to be off in the wild blue yonder?”

“Chin…how do you know that?” Stella asked
sotto voce
thinking she had kept her breakup quiet.

“I’m just a grad student but I listen to you…even when you’re upset.”

Stella got misty-eyed thinking of Chin. Damn. She didn’t want to breakdown now. “Send Purple Mountain our data and ask them to reconfirm. I’ll notify DHS…and Chin.”

                                                                    ****

“Their data confirms there is a strong chance on impact with Earth the end of March. I will contact the administrator.”

                                                                    ****

Prometheus bridge – enroute to Mars

“Oh God,” Lieutenant Chin exclaimed, then, looked ashamed at her outburst.

“What is it Lieutenant?” asked the commander. It had been a quiet two hours since his order for the Lieutenant to check.

“Sir. The Hawaii and Chinese observatories confirm that asteroid 2011 SR52 will impact Earth on March 30
th
of this year. It is a large asteroid sir,” Chin answered. “Sorry for the outburst sir.”

“Understandable. Do you have data?” the commander asked.

“Yes sir. They sent me the whole file sir,” she said.

“Is this some trick data ploy by Kobe?” the commander asked.

“No sir. My friend answered me in a way that no one else could know anything about. They took the asteroid’s position tonight and several nights before and confirmed it with a Chinese Near Earth Object Observatory.”

Commander Dillingham hit the intercom to the Captain. “Captain. Need you on the bridge sir.”

Captain Beasley answered. “I don’t like being disturbed Dillingham. It better be important.”

“Captain. Asteroid 2011 SR52 is on a collision course with Earth…just had it confirmed. We verified the information.”

“On my way,” replied the captain. He was VERY disturbed by the communiqués. If even half of them were authentic, Earth was very corrupt and his actual mission was to be a sacrificial lamb to be killed by Kobe. Kobe was to be setup by the military in collusion with corporations on Earth so those leaders of industry could exploit the resources of this solar system and others. He hurried to the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge,” Commander Dillingham ordered as everyone came to attention. “Captain.”

“What was so important?” queried the captain in an exasperated voice.

“Sir. Sparks has determined that this device has instantaneous communication with Earth’s Internet. Communication with observatories on Hawaii and China have conformed that asteroid 2011 SR52 will impact Earth March 30
th
of this year,” the commander said.

“Commander. Have you confirmed these facts?” the captain asked.

“Sir. Lieutenant Chin says that her friend at Muana Observatory said they confirmed it tonight. She said she was one hundred percent convinced this was authentic.”

Captain Beasley looked thoughtful. “Bring Mister Kobe to the conference room. Have all the senior officers meet us there.”

“Aye sir. Kobe and the senior officers to the conference room…” he replied and went to give the appropriate orders.

                                                                    ****

Robert Kobe was brought in and he sat quietly as the senior officers of the Prometheus filed into the room. They all jumped to attention as Captain Beasley entered. Robert stayed seated.

“Let’s say I believe a word of this fabrication,” the Captain said shaking a stack of communiqués at the group. “What should we do about it?”

There was silence from the group as they were not all up to speed. The captain filled them in with the limited information he had been given plus the damning communiqués that certainly looked like the generals on Earth had set the task force up to fail and be destroyed by Kobe.

Robert looked around the room and realized no one had the guts to speak.

It was Lieutenant Chin who began and Robert could have kissed her at that point, “We need to redirect that asteroid. It is confirmed to be on a collision course with Earth and the further away we redirect it – the less we have to move it. We may be able to concentrate lasers on one side of the asteroid and the outgassing would move it. I don’t think we even have the combined mass. Everything else is secondary. We save Earth and do it soon.”

Robert sat mute and bit his tongue hoping they would agree.