Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station (31 page)

Jess defiantly stuck her chin out. “That bastard helped kill my friends and tried to commit mass murder. He had it coming.”

Harry couldn’t disagree with her logic. “The people in Geneva probably wouldn’t approve.”

“Then let’s not tell them.”

The deck shuddered, almost knocking them off their feet. Harry hadn’t expected to feel the explosion in the vacuum of space. The pod must’ve detonated fairly close to the station or the blast was larger than he’d imagined.

He helped steady Jess. “We need to get a status on the ship. And to call my father and see what we do now. We’ve lost the command crew.”

She nodded. “Let’s get to the bridge.”

It was located at the front of the ship. The room had six spacious consoles and a large screen. Two men and two women manned the controls. The gravity here was less than in the torus, only about Mars normal.

One of the women stood. “Mister Rogers. Miss Cook. I’m Lindsay Waller. Liberty Station’s reserve pilot.”

Harry gestured toward the screen. “Did the bombs go off? What’s the condition of the ship?”

“The bombs exploded short of the atmosphere,” the pilot said. “The ship is in good shape. The emergency bridge is wrecked, but other than the blown out observation port, a lot of leaks to plug, the damaged lifter, and the two ejected escape pods, everything is fine.”

Harry looked at Jess. “Two pods. We only used one.” He returned his gaze to the pilot. “Who ejected on the second?”

She shrugged. “We’ve accounted for everyone. Maybe it was a malfunction?”

He cursed under his breath. “It never worked out that way in the movies and it probably isn’t true now. Dammit. My brother somehow survived me blowing him into space. He escaped.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Nathan stared out over the waves from the hatch of the escape pod and enjoyed the strong salty smell of the ocean. His idiot brother had almost killed him, but he’d overcome everything. Luck was his birch. The bombs he’d planted should’ve already destroyed the station. Victory was his.

He hoped he wasn’t too far from civilization. In any case, his sat phone should be able to get him a lift.

His mother answered after a few rings. “Nathan?”

“Alive and well, Mother. We couldn’t retrieve the reactor, but I planted explosives on the space station. You should’ve seen it blow up by now.”

“Something exploded in orbit, but the station is still there. Maybe you only damaged it. That could be good enough, I suppose. Where are you?”

“In the middle of some ocean. I can give you GPS coordinates. I need a pick up.” He recited his location.

“I’ll send someone,” she said. “This war with your father is only starting. I want you back here as soon as possible.”

She hung up without another word. Nathan climbed back into the escape pod. There had to be something to eat in here somewhere.

* * * * *

Clayton listened to his son explain the events from orbit with a mixed sense of anger and relief. It could’ve been so much worse.

“I obviously failed in providing enough security,” he said at last. “I needed a heavily armed cadre of troops there to protect the station.”

His son shrugged. “It was hard to imagine this happening. What about the people who were supposed to be on that lifter?”

“Dead. We found them in an old warehouse. It had a tunnel right under the security cordon. I have Cradock searching every building for more. We also found one of my executives with his throat cut. Probably the leak.”

“That sucks,” Harry said. “The engineer said the ship is fit to boost. We still have the reserve pilot. The captain and primary pilot died on the bridge.”

Clayton shook his head. “That won’t do. I’ll find someone else who can learn to pilot the ship. Call your people. We have two lifters held in reserve. That’s two dozen more security people. Have them pack whatever weapons you think you’ll need. Hell, pack things you don’t think you’ll need. You should be prepared if anything like this happens again.”

Jess leaned over Harry’s shoulder. “We should’ve put weapons on the hull. It’ll take us a few days to replace the panels in the observation room, but we can do that while in flight. I’d really like to break orbit as soon as possible.”

Clayton couldn’t agree more. “I have the lifters under heavy guard. No one will be using them without authorization. The only other ways into orbit are the spaceports in China and India. I’ll warn both of them.”

He checked his screen. “Let me make a few calls. We’ll launch as soon as we can. Get things ready on your end.” He terminated the connection.

That had been entirely too close for his comfort. He needed to get the ship on its way before something else went wrong. He picked up his phone and called his assistant.

* * * * *

Ten nerve-wracking hours later, the last two lifters docked with the station. Harry had spoken with his people on the ships, so he was certain there wouldn’t be any trouble. He still had all four trained fighters on hand to welcome them. Armed to the teeth.

He relaxed when his people came out the hatches. The addition of two dozen of his men and women took the edge off his anxiety. They’d keep one of these lifters to replace the damaged one. They’d already jettisoned it. The pilots that had just brought them up would go back down in the remaining one.

Harry knew one of the new pilot trainees. Lieutenant Colonel “Black Jack” McCarthy. The tall man floated out of the lifter with a huge grin. “Momma always wanted her boy to be an astronaut.”

He pulled the pilot over to a crate and shook his hand. “We’re glad to have you with us, Colonel. The crew will get your stuff into your new quarters while we break orbit. I don’t want to give my mother or brother another chance to screw us up.”

By the time they made it to the bridge, the departing lifter was undocking. The one that had been holding position was ready to reattach to the ship.

He introduced McCarthy to Waller. The two pilots immediately started talking shop.

While that was going on, Harry commandeered a station and called his father. It was night, but he knew he was waiting for them to get on their way.

Harry was surprised when he only got audio. “Is your screen broken?” he asked.

“I’m on my jet, but not in my office. Mexico might get a little warm for me once everyone discovers I’ve been building a spaceship. I have a little island nation that’s considering electing me president for life. In exchange for a very substantial payment and jobs at the new spaceport I plan on building there, of course. It’s recognized as a nation by the UN, so that might give me some cover.”

“Are you expecting a lot of trouble?”

His father laughed. “Oh, hell yes. The UN will hold endless hearings. Every gasbag on the planet will call for my head on a platter and demand that I bring the ship back at once. The US government is going to have a conniption. Things will be very exciting. I’m sure that they’ll attempt to nationalize all my holdings. That won’t stop me, but the fight will be long and glorious.”

“Good luck, then. Captain Waller tells me that we’re about ready to break orbit.”

“She’s only the command pilot, and while competent at that task, has no leadership experience. I think you would be best suited to that role.”

Harry stared at the display in confusion. “Me? I don’t know the first thing about running this ship.”

“And you don’t need to. You know how to lead. The subject matter experts can handle the details for you. Learn as you go, just like Colonel McCarthy. Right now, everyone needs a confident, steady hand at the helm. That’s you.

“Miss Cook will be your second. She knows every aspect of Liberty Station. She can teach you about it while you show her how to be a leader.”

He looked over at Jess. She was staring at some readouts on one of the other consoles. “I think she’s already learning that. Fine. We’ll break orbit in fifteen minutes or so.”

“Allow me to wish you the very best of luck. Humanity is counting on you. I’ll keep you up to speed on events here as they unfold.”

Harry ended the call and walked over to Jess.

She looked up. “We’re ready. Both lifters are docked and the engines are uncovered and ready to fire.”

“My father thinks I should assume command of the ship. What do you think?”

Jess beamed. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”

“Then let me bring you down. He said you should be my second in command.”

“Me? Is he smoking crack?”

Harry laughed. “Doubtful. He just thinks that you’d make a good counterbalance. You know the ship better than anyone else and I’ve seen how decisive you can be.”

“That wasn’t me being decisive. That was me being impulsive. I’m not leadership material.”

“And I’m not trained to run a spaceship. We’ll both have to learn as we go. Are you ready?”

Jess took a deep breath. “Ready, Captain.”

Harry returned to his console. “How can I speak to everyone on the ship?” he asked Waller.

She reached past him and tapped the controls. “Hit the green button to activate the speakers. Hit it again to close them.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks. As I just told Miss Cook, my father has appointed me as the Captain of Liberty Station. I’m sorry if that steps on your toes.”

The woman held her hands up. “I’m a pilot, third in line for flying the ship. I have enough on my plate becoming the command pilot. You can gladly have the sleepless nights, Captain.”

“Tell me that in a month.”

He touched the button. A chime sounded from the speakers overhead. “Attention, everyone. This is Harry Rogers. You don’t know me, but after the terrible events that took Captain Lee from us, I’m assuming command. Miss Jessica Cook will be my second.”

Harry paused a moment to allow that to sink in. “We’re going out to explore the solar system. There are many things that you don’t know yet, but I’ll be talking with all the section leaders as soon as possible. You deserve to know what we’re looking for and what we hope to find.

“For the moment, just accept that this is the most exciting and important voyage of exploration humanity has ever undertaken, bar none. If we find what we hope, you’ll be helping to free mankind to explore the universe.

“Think about that as we get under way. We’re breaking orbit in ten minutes. Do whatever you need to do to get ready. Inform your supervisors if there’s a problem. Rogers out.”

He touched the button again to shut off the speakers. “Ten minutes, pilot.”

She looked at her console. “Orbital mechanics being what they are, I can work with that. We’ll start out slow and build thrust as we come into the best course. Just as a heads up, if you’d waited twenty minutes to say that, we’d have been on the wrong side of the planet and would’ve needed to wait.”

Harry felt a little chagrined. “I’ve obviously watched too much television. Let me rephrase. When would be the optimal time to break orbit?”

She turned in her seat. “Just over fifteen minutes, Captain.”

“Go with that.”

“Aye, sir. Rotating the ship to bring the engines into the correct position for burn.”

* * * * *

Jess watched the countdown clock until it hit zero. She’d been in communication with Ray Proudfoot for the last five minutes and everything was ready. Right on the mark, the engines began firing.

The fuel pellets dropped one at a time into the fusion chamber and intense magnetic fields crushed them until they ignited. The thrust from each burst wasn’t massive, but one after the other they got the ship moving. The ship slowly began rising into a higher orbit. The consoles and seats rotated until they found a balance between the thrust and the centrifugal force.

They’d continue to burn for several passes around the Earth before they escaped its gravity. The fusion burn would be visible below. She wondered how long it would be before anyone noticed they were leaving.

* * * * *

The ringing phone woke Kathleen Bennett from a sound sleep. No one called her at night unless something was terribly wrong.

“Bennett,” she said groggily.

“I’m sorry for waking you so late, ma’am,” her assistant said. “Something serious has come up regarding the space station. It’s leaving.”

“What? Is it falling out of orbit?”

“No, ma’am. It has some kind of thruster that we couldn’t see. It’s firing now. The astronomer you paid to keep an eye on it feels certain that it’s leaving Earth orbit. It’s not a space station. It’s a spaceship.”

She sat bolt upright. “Is my son back?”

“Yes, ma’am. He arrived an hour ago and went to bed.”

“Wake him. I want a full team in my office in twenty minutes.”

Kathleen hung up and began dressing hurriedly. She didn’t know how they’d missed this, but she knew what it meant. Her ex-husband was going to wherever that crashed ship had come from. She was certain of it.

She wouldn’t let him steal a march on her. Somehow, she needed to get in front of this.

* * * * *

Josh Queen, the secretary of state for the United States of America, woke at the first ring of his phone.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir. Something has happened.” The man outlined the events in orbit.

Queen sat up and slowly nodded. “The president will need to know about this first thing. Contact the owners of this station and demand to know what they think they’re doing. I want details on my desk in an hour.

“And Paul, don’t let them push you around. This is a direct threat to the United States of America. I don’t care who they think they are, no one secretly builds something like this in orbit around our planet. They might have nuclear weapons. They’ll answer to us directly or suffer the consequences.”

He rose, looked at the clock, and started getting dressed. Today would be long and difficult. At best, someone had built an unauthorized spaceship, duping the American government. At worst, they were threatening the stability of the greatest nation on earth.

He couldn’t allow that to stand.