Rock Killer (24 page)

Charlie looked around. There were no other exits. She hoped there might be an emergency escape tunnel. This was definitely an emergency.

“I’m sorry,” she said as innocently as she could. She stood and displayed herself to him. “I couldn’t sleep. I wandered down here and found this computer. I thought it might have some games on it.” She walked toward him slowly. His shorts didn’t hide that he was noticing her state of undress.

“There are no games on that,” he said firmly. “Besides, you had to break in to get down here.”

She moved closer to him and reached out to touch his shirt. “I was curious. Locked doors do that to me. I’m sorry.”

She moved so close that their bodies were almost touching. “I’m not in trouble, am I?”

“Yes,” he said, but not too firmly.

“Please,” she pleaded with her sea green eyes wide open.

Inwardly, she convulsed as she wrapped one arm around his thick neck and guided his lips to hers. “Please,” she whispered as their mouths touched.

He grabbed her and kissed her.

***

Griffin could see the asteroid through the dome ceiling window of the
Rock Killer
’s bridge. Because of its low albedo, SRI-1961 was more visible because it occulted stars rather than reflected sunlight. The mass driver was a thin, bright line extending behind the rock. The combination looked like a thick wire embedded in an ellipsoid-shaped lump of coal. The
Rock Killer
was approaching from behind and on angle of about 30 degrees from the asteroid’s velocity vector.

“How soon?” Griffin asked.

“A few minutes,” Knecht said.

“Are you ready, Cole?”

Cole was bending over her fire-control panel. “I’m ready,” she said. “But acquisition radar would help.”

Griffin shook his head. “No radar until just before launch.”

He looked at the asteroid. G
ood-bye
, he thought to himself.

Chapter Twelve

“...we’re all going to be trying to suck down vacuum.”

Charlie had all of her weight on her left leg and was slowly bringing her right knee back. Beatty had relaxed as she kissed him and his legs were just far enough apart.

The computer in the kitchen, just like the simple one in Trent’s house, beeped.

Beatty released her and looked up the stairs. D
amn, saved by the bell
, Charlie thought. Another moment and he would have been rolling on the floor in pain.

“I’ve got to get that,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere,” he ordered.

“I won’t,” Charlie breathed as demurely as possible.

Beatty bounded up the stairs.

Charlie grabbed the chip out of the computer, hoping she’d downloaded enough data. She scooped up one of the South African made weapons and a box of ammunition. She didn’t bother reading the label.

She heard Beatty pick up the handset and say, “Hello?”

Charlie climbed the stairs three at a time. The back door of the house was not two meters away, but Beatty was between her and the exit and the back yard was bounded by high fences.

“Hey, stop,” Beatty yelled, dropping the handset and rushing her.

She stepped out of his way at the last moment and tripped him. He fell hard but she didn’t wait to see him hit the floor. She ran for the front door.

The midnight streets were abandoned. Charlie sprinted in bare feet across the dry grass of the lawn to the house next door. It was small and well cared for. The windows were covered with iron bars. Charlie pounded on the door and screamed at the top of her lungs. Beatty exploded out of the GA house and ran toward Charlie.

The porch light came on and the door opened, stopped by a thick chain. An elderly woman looked out at Charlie with wide eyes.

“Help me,” Charlie said simply, trying to hide the gun and ammo box behind her leg.

“
Pour Dios
,” the woman said and closed the door. But Charlie could hear her working the chain off. Beatty was almost to the porch when the door opened again.

Charlie slipped in and the woman started to shut it. Beatty’s hand grabbed the side of the door and started to push it open. The old woman resisted but she hadn’t the strength or the mass to prevail.

Charlie rushed the door and hit it with her shoulder. It slammed shut, closing on Beatty’s hand. He howled in pain and rage but pulled his hand away. Charlie shut the door, locked the dead bolt and replaced the chain. Beatty pounded on the door, yelling more obscenities than Charlie knew existed. He ran to a window and tried to pull off the bars.

The old woman was talking frantically to her computer in Spanish. She finished about the time Beatty gave up and went away. Charlie was sure he’d be back soon and with weapons.

“The police,” the woman said, “are coming. I get you clothes now.”

And Charlie was suddenly aware she was only in panties.

***

Alexander Chun was doing administration work on a computer in his office/quarters. He could feel the vibration of the miners’ tools as they dug out corridors through the rock. They could get a lot done in the two weeks the trip took. They had to be careful not to change the center of mass of the asteroid too much. Small changes Naguchi’s navigation computer could compensate for by varying the thrust of the rear Masuka drives. Too large a change in the center of mass and the rock would tumble.

The intercom system beeped. Alex tapped the button and returned his hands to the keyboard.

“Chun here,” he said.

“Director,” a voice said tensely, “this is Manna, communications. We’ve intercepted a broadcast from the GA I think you need to hear.”

Alex turned, giving intercom his full attention. “Send it.”

***

Beatty returned to the house. He planned to get some reinforcements and some explosives and weapons from the basement. He didn’t know what Shari was up to, but he was going to stop it.

“What’s happening?” one man asked as Beatty came through the front door. There was a cluster of GA membership in the living room in various states of undress.

“And the computer has a call on it,” a woman said.

“Shit,” Beatty spat. “It’s Whaltham.” He went into the kitchen and picked up the handset that was still dangling on its cord. “Sorry about that,” he said to Whaltham.

“What happened?”

“I caught Shari Johnson messing with the mainframe. She just ran away. I went after her but she got into a neighbor’s house.”

“She’s an SRI plant,” Whaltham said. “Kill her.”

“I can’t go in after her. Trent said poor people are off limits. When the revolution comes, she said, it is the oppressed poor that would rise up to support the GA.”

“To hell with Trent’s stupid political ideals,” Whaltham barked. “Poor people get hurt in revolutions, too! And prepare to get out of that house. Get everything and everyone to the secondary house and burn that sucker down. But first, kill that bitch!”

“My pleasure,” Beatty growled and hung up the handset. He returned to the living room and barked orders to start packing.

The GA had an electric van parked in a garage a few miles away. He sent two people for it. The rest he started packing up the equipment in the basement. Then he pulled three men aside.

“Come with me,” he said and then went into the basement, not to pack but to get the weapons.

***

“We should be close enough,” Knecht reported.

Griffin nodded. “Cole, you may now use radar.”

“Right,” she said. A few moments later she exclaimed, “Damn, we can’t get lock yet. We’re out of range for the Pumas.”

Knecht looked at Griffin. “I’m sorry. It must be smaller than I thought.”

***

The communications room operator had just settled back in his seat. He was developing his own theories of what the intercepted message meant and didn’t like the answers he was getting. Then he jumped when, again, the computer beeped wildly. The screen displayed:

RADAR SOURCE X:154.3, Y:094.7, D:???.?

CORRELATING FREQUENCY, MODULATION, AND POLARIZATION WITH USES. PLEASE WAIT ONE MOMENT....

AN/XPS-119(V) U.S. LANDING CONTROL RADAR

The operator down loaded the information to Chun’s computer. He wasn’t supposed to do that without consulting Communications Chief Manna, but this was too important considering the intercepted message.

Chun had just finished listening to the Gaia Alliance statement when his computer displayed the radar data:

AN/TPG-209 (it continued) U.S. FIRE CONTROL RADAR

FRENCH “PUMA” RADAR GUIDED SPACE-TO-SPACE MISSILE ACQUISITION RADAR.

RUSSIAN –

Chun stopped reading. He again hit the intercom button. “Control room, we could be attacked by space-to-space missiles at any time. I’m on my way. Close all emergency doors and evacuate the outer areas.”

AD Banda’s voice came back. “Understood. We don’t have very many emergency doors installed yet.”

“I know,” Chun growled in frustration. A
nd no way to fight back
. he realized angrily. SRI-1961, like all space facilities and ships, was on Coordinated Universal Time, or Zulu time. So it was “morning” and the “day” watch was on. Chun was thankful for that. It meant all his best people were on shift and rested.

This was the best time to have an emergency, he realized as he left his office for the passage to the control room.

***

Cole smiled, wrinkling her piggy face. “I’ve got missile lock.”

“Fire a missile,” Griffin said. “Let’s see what she does.”

Cole punched a button on her console and the ship shuddered.

Out the bridge window, they saw the flame of the missile’s exhaust as it slung itself at the rock.

“Travel time is about two minutes,” Cole said. “Should impact about center of the radar aspect.”

***

The computer in the communications room displayed:

RADAR SOURCE #2: X:154.4, Y:094.6, D:???.?

CORRELATING FREQUENCY, MODULATION, AND POLARIZATION WITH USES. PLEASE WAIT ONE MOMENT...

Hikiru Manna waited impatiently while the computer searched its database. He remembered wondering why they bothered putting such a sophisticated computer on an asteroid. Now he was thankful for the foresight of the SRI executives that decided the computer was worth the expense.

The display eventually read:

AIM-10A U.S. “COBRA” RADAR GUIDED AIR-TO-AIR MISSILE GUIDANCE RADAR

SA-29 REPUBLIC OF RUSSIA RADAR GUIDED SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE GUIDANCE RADAR

SRI/XPQ-009 SPACE RESOURCES INC. DOCKING GUIDANCE RADAR

FRENCH “PUMA” RADAR GUIDED SPACE-TO-SPACE MISSILE GUIDANCE RADAR.

Manna looked at the screen over the operator’s shoulder and released a few Japanese expletives. “I want the computer to only warn us when it picks up a new source of that. The acquisition radar would be on the ship. We need to know where that is. And continuously download this to the control room.”

“Yes, sir,” the operator said, his fingers pounding on the keyboard.

***

Chun was climbing a ladder through the passage to the control room. Suddenly his world literally moved. The ladder moved up to violently kiss him in the face. His hands and feet transmitted a massive vibration as if the rock had been hit by a hammer. Then he felt a change in “up.” No longer was the ladder and tube parallel to up and down but at an angle. He found himself hanging from the rungs as if he were climbing the underside of a ladder resting against a building. If he’d been in full one gee he might not have made it up the ladder. But he was able to climb to the control room. The floor had a definite tilt. Navigator Naguchi was quickly but calmly working at her computer. “We’ve picked up a spin and we’re tumbling,” she said. “I can correct it.”

“The center of mass?”

“It changed, but I can still compensate for it.”

It was a good thing they weren’t very far off the center of the asteroid, Chun realized. Farther out and the centrifugal force might have plastered them to the outside wall instead of just giving a perceived tilt to the floor.

Chun turned to Banda. “Do you know where it hit?”

Banda shrugged his huge shoulders. “In the rear. We were lucky. It hit nothing but rock. Nothing breached.”

“Thank God,” Chun said, then realized he had to wipe blood from his lip where the ladder had hit him. The floor became magically level. “Good job, Bente.”

***

The bridge of the
Rock Killer
echoed with cheers. The asteroid had grown a cone of flame and rock dust, then began spinning and tumbling. Griffin looked at Knecht and she smiled broadly.

When the flame died, Griffin looked over the asteroid through the telescope. As he watched, the spin slowed to a stop and the tumble ended with the asteroid in the same attitude it had before the attack.

“Damn! Fire again, Cole.”

***

“Control room, this is communications. We’re picking up guidance radar again. They’ve launched another.”

Chun watched the numbers on the screen from communications.

RADAR SOURCE: X:159.8, Y:173.3, D:???.?

He looked around the bridge. Everyone was braced for impact.

“Control room, this is Thorne. All outer areas except the mass driver are evacuated. The techs figured we’d need the thrust.”

“Negative,” Chun replied to the intercom. “The mass driver can’t make that much difference.”