Star One: Tycho City Survival (21 page)

-

Lieutenant
Lewis had finally made it home to Tulsa Oklahoma. He managed to catch a ride on
a semi carrying a load of oil field pipe to Cushing. His wife had been staying
with his parents on some acreage they owned between Tulsa and Owasso. The semi
driver had been polite enough to go out of his way to drop Lewis off at the end
of the long winding driveway that led to his parent’s home.

His parents
lived in the center of a four hundred acre plot of land. The land had a number
of small hills covered in trees and thick brush with the large wood frame house
setting between two of them. If you missed the driveway, you would never know
the house was there.

Lewis was
halfway up the long driveway when he heard a young boy scream. “Dad! It’s Dad!”

Lewis looked
up and saw his seven-year-old son running down the driveway as fast as he
could. He dropped his duffel bag and rushed forward, meeting his son, lifting
him up, and hugging him tightly. “Hello, Nate,” Lewis said, thrilled to be able
to hold his son in his arms. “Where’s your mom?”

“She’s in the
house with grandpa and grandma.”

Lewis put his
son down and, walking back, picked up his bag. Then taking his son’s hand, they
walked quickly to the house. He couldn’t wait to see his wife and parents.

Emily Lewis
stepped outside to see what her young son was screaming about this time. She
dropped the historical romance novel she had been reading when she spotted her
husband Trace coming up the long drive with Nate. She ran down the three steps
of the porch and was soon wrapped up in Trace’s arms.

“I was afraid
you weren’t coming back,” she choked out, her eyes filled with tears. “They
said on the TV that the fighting at the cape was horrible and thousands of
soldiers and civilians had been killed.”

“It was bad,”
Trace admitted as he released his wife. He saw his parents come out to stand on
the porch. His father had a big all knowing smile on his face. “A lot of good
men and women lost their lives in the battle.”

“I’m just glad
you’re safe and uninjured,” Emily managed to force out.

She could feel
her heart racing and felt as if she were about to faint. Emily took several
long deep breaths. It had been so difficult not knowing where Trace was or what
had happened to him. They knew he had gone with General Karver to the cape, but
little else.

“Let’s go talk
to Mom and Dad; we have some things we need to discuss,” Trace said as he
released his wife.

“What type of
things?” Emily asked, her eyes glistening from her tears. “The fighting’s over
and the government will soon sort all of this out.”

Trace didn’t
respond; he hated to be the bearer of bad news. While at the cape, he had heard
a lot of rumors about this supposed neutron star.

A short while
later, the family was sitting around the large kitchen table, and Trace was
enjoying some of his mother’s ice tea. He took a deep drink and smiled. “They
have nothing like this in the marines!”

“What’s going on,
Trace?” his father asked in his deep voice. “We’ve heard so many rumors it’s
hard to tell fact from fiction.”

Trace leaned
back, hearing his chair creak and seeing his mother give him a sharp frown, he edged
back forward with his left hand wrapped around his ice tea glass. “What do you
know about this neutron star that’s been on the news?”

“Everyone says
it’s not real that President Kateland made it all up,” his father answered.
“It’s been on all the news stations for days about how it was all fake. They
have shown numerous astronomers saying that it was all a hoax in order to get
the government to drastically increase the space budget.”

“Well, it’s
real,” Trace replied, his eyes taking on a serious look. “My marines and I just
spent the last several months watching as every type of emergency supply and
equipment you can imagine was launched from the cape up to Star One and Tycho City. They also sent close to ten thousand people up as well. You don’t spend that
kind of money and risk losing the country over a lie.”

His father let
out a deep breath and shook his head. “I was afraid of that. I voted for Susan
Kateland in both elections. It just didn’t seem possible to me that she would make
up such a story and lie to the people of this country.”

“Trace, what’s
going to happen?” his wife asked with a frightened look on her face. She was
holding their young son in her lap. She had hoped now that Trace was back their
lives would return to normal and they could go back home to Tulsa.

“I heard some
people talking once while I was on guard detail at the cape,” Trace spoke as he
recalled the worrisome conversation. “They were saying this neutron star will
dramatically affect the Earth. They were talking about massive storms and
extremely violent earthquakes. There was even some talk about a lot of
volcanoes erupting and causing a nuclear winter.”

The room was
silent, and his father looked over at Trace’s mom, who nodded. Trace didn’t
know everything that had been going on at the farm. There were a few things
that James had kept secret from Trace, feeling that his son would have
disapproved.

James stood up
as he reached a decision. “Trace, come with me. I want to show you something.”

Trace stood up
and followed his father out of the house; he saw they were going out to where
his father had the large family storm cellar built into the side of a small
hill a short distance from the house. With the tornado threat in Oklahoma, it wasn’t uncommon for homes to have a shelter. There was a smaller shelter next
to the house, but the big one had been built when his mother had complained
about being claustrophobic in the smaller one and worried that the house could
fall on the shelter if a tornado hit.

“Dad, I’ve
been in the storm shelter before, what is it you want to show me?”

His father
didn’t reply as he opened the large heavy wood door and began descending the
steps. As they reached the bottom, Trace could feel how much cooler it was in
the shelter compared to outside. The storm shelter was also used to store
canned food and other necessities. His father lit a Coleman lantern and then
turned to face Trace.

“Years ago, I
joined a survivalist group,” his father began his eyes focusing on his son.

“A survivalist
group?” Trace echoed in surprise.

He had never
heard this before. Of course, his wife and he had been living in one of the
suburbs of Tulsa and only visited his parents every other weekend. But he had
never imagined his father joining one of those crazy groups.

“Yes, a survivalist
group,” replied James, nodding his head. “As you know, we’ve always been well
off from some oil and gas properties I own out in Western Oklahoma in Custer
and Washita counties.”

James walked
over to a large cabinet that contained blankets, and enough food and water for
two weeks. This was normal for a storm shelter, as you never knew how long it
might be necessary to take shelter from a severe storm or how long it might be
before you could get back into town to get supplies.

James reached
behind the cabinet and unhooked a hidden latch. Instantly, the cabinet swung
out, revealing a heavy metal door, which had been hidden behind it. The door
had a combination lock and James rapidly moved the tumblers to the correct
combination and then pushed the door open. Stepping inside, he reached over and
turned on the lights.

Trace stepped
inside, his eyes widening in shock. “What is this place?”

They were in a
long, brightly lit corridor with several doors on each side and what looked
like a junction at the end of the corridor that led to other areas. James opened
one of the nearer doors and stepped inside, motioning for Trace to follow him.

Trace entered
the room behind his father and looked around in shock. The room they were in
was full of shelves and cabinets stocked full of food and water and about everything
else you could possibly need to survive. On the far wall, he saw a weapons
cabinet with a number of shotguns and automatic assault rifles.

“A number of
us got together and secretly built this survival bunker,” James explained as he
led Trace down the aisles between the supplies. “It has two water wells drilled
down deep to furnish water. There are two wind generators on the far side of
the hill out of sight to furnish power. In addition, we have batteries that can
provide electricity for forty-eight hours if the wind stops blowing. There are
also two large diesel generators in a concrete blockhouse behind the hill that
can power everything in an emergency if necessary.”

“This is
amazing,” Trace replied as they reached the weapons cabinet. He saw a number of
twelve gauge shotguns as well as AR15s of both 22 and 223 calibers and other
weapons.

“How many
people is there room for?” asked Trace, looking over at his father. He couldn’t
believe this had been on the farm all this time and he hadn’t known about it.

“We can put
twenty-eight people in here comfortably,” James responded. “Thirty-five at the
most.”

Trace nodded.
“I want to see the rest of it. I’m afraid we’re going to need it shortly if
what I heard at the cape is true.” Trace paused and looked seriously at his
father. “Dad, I’m really glad you and your friends built this. You may have
just saved our lives.”

James nodded.
His wife Alice had always given him a hard time about building the bunker; now
he was glad that he had. If what Trace was saying was correct, it just might be
their salvation.

Mase was
standing in the large cavern that would eventually house the future Tycho City. In the distance, he could see excavators still at work and hear occasional
explosions as mountains of dirt and rock were blasted out of the distant wall.

“How much
longer until the excavating is complete?” asked Mase, glancing over at Steffan
Darrow. Mase knew that Steffan was spending most of his time supervising the
excavation to make sure everything stayed on schedule.

Mase wanted to
get started on the interior as soon as possible. The original Tyco City cavern was overflowing with people even though Doctor Klein was in the process of
putting hundreds of people into deep sleep. Captain  Struthers’ people were
helping in the construction of the deep sleep chambers along with a number of
qualified people from the survivors that had been brought up to the Moon. A lot
of progress was being made, but they still had a lot of work to do.

“Another week
and we will have the excavating finished,” replied Steffan, turning to face
Mase. “We have already started on the roof and some of the support structures.
It will take us an additional six weeks to finish that. In the meantime, we can
actually start on the infrastructure for the new Tyco City as well as the
ecological systems we want to install. I have already spoken to Jolene about
that, and she is supposed to have a completed plan for us to review in another
few days.”

“Speaking of Jolene,
I want to go check on this habitat of hers. I understand she is finished with
the first one.”

“It’s
fantastic what she has done in there,” Steffan responded with a big grin on his
face. “We’ll have the second chamber finished sometime next week, and she will
be starting on that one shortly.”

“We’re going
to need them,” responded Mase, recalling the food and water usage currently
occurring in Tycho City. “We need to get some additional food sources going, or
we will find ourselves eating MREs.”

“I will tell
my crews that,” Steffan promised with a grin. “They will do anything to stay
away from having to eat those readymade meals.”

Mase nodded. While
he shared Steffan’s viewpoint about the MREs, they would suffice if needed.
However, if they could get the second food cavern finished they might not have
to worry about that. He would prefer to save the MREs for an emergency.

Linda had
furnished the data for him on their food and water usage, and he knew they
really needed to start raising more of their own food quickly. They were also
putting a heavy strain on the city’s recycling systems, and Isaac was in the
process of adding more water purification and recovery systems. Isaac had
assured him the water problem would be solved within a week and they would not
have to resort to rationing.

“MREs,” Steffan
muttered with a frown, still thinking about the readymade meals and recalling
the numerous cases of emergency food in one of the storage areas in Tycho City. “They’re not bad, but I definitely prefer real food.”

“They will get
us by in an emergency,” Mase replied as he studied the work going on around him.
Numerous work lights throughout the cavern made everything easy to see. He
spent a few moments watching some workers pour the footing for one of the large
roof support beams. “We have enough MREs to feed everyone three meals a day for
four years if need be.”

“If we can get
both of those ecological habitats up and running, plus enough people into deep
sleep, those might not be needed,” Steffan commented as he watched the workers
pouring the footing critically. He would see if he couldn’t rearrange some work
schedules so they could finish the other habitat quicker.

“I guess I
will go see what Jolene has done,” Mase responded with a friendly nod. “Keep me
informed of progress.”

Steffan nodded
and walked over to where the workers were pouring the support footing. He
wanted to ensure everything was being done right. As soon he reached them, he
quickly began pointing out some potential problems and giving instructions.

Mase walked
two hundred yards to a large sealed door. He paused, gazing at the large metal
obstruction, knowing it was actually an airlock that protected the ecological
habitat from contamination. Mase opened the outer door and stepped inside a small
interior room. The room was white and sterile with several small benches along
the wall.

A computer generated
voice began speaking, informing him to stand still during the decontamination
process. He watched as several different colored lights came on in the room and
felt a prickly sensation on his skin. He knew his body was being hit with
specific wavelengths of light aimed at destroying certain bacteria and
contaminants. Once the lights went off, the next airlock door swung open.

Mase stepped
out and was greeted by a young woman sitting at a work desk just off to one
side of the airlock door. “Hello, Karen,” Mase spoke upon seeing Linda’s
younger sister. Unlike Linda who had brunette hair, Karen’s was a dark black
and cut shorter. He also knew she was twenty-four years old.

“Hello,
Commander,” Karen responded with a big smile upon seeing Mase. Her sister had
introduced the two of them and, from all signs, her sister had a thing for the
commander. “Let me call Jolene and she can show you around. She’s been hoping
you would come and see what’s she’s done here.” Karen picked up the phone on
her desk and made a quick call.

Mase nodded as
he gazed around in awe. He hadn’t expected to see anything like what was spread
out before him. He knew the ecological habitat was 1,200 feet long, 300 feet
wide, and 100 feet tall. Everywhere he looked was greenery. He could see plot
after plot of growing vegetables and what looked like small orchards of fruit
trees. He thought he could actually hear a few birds calling in the distance.

“Are those
real birds?” he asked, glancing to look over at Karen his eyes growing wide in
surprise.

“Yes,” responded
Karen, grinning. “We have released a number in the habitat. I think Jolene said
there were four different species she has introduced. They are all small birds,
such as finches and hummingbirds, because of the restricted space we have. She
has some larger species she plans on releasing in the main Tycho City cavern when it’s completed.”

Mase paused as
he saw Jolene hurrying in their direction. “I’ll talk to you later, Karen,” Mase
said as he began walking toward Jolene.

Karen nodded
as she watched the commander. From the few times she had met him when he had
come over to see Linda, it was easy to see what her sister saw in him.

“Hello,
Jolene,” Mase spoke as the young woman reached him. “You didn’t need to rush;
Karen was keeping me occupied.”

“Karen has
been a huge help,” Jolene replied with a nod. “Today she is in charge of the
airlock and the contamination procedures. Later she is going to learn how to
tend all the different vegetable plots we’ve planted.”

Mase nodded as
he gazed about. He was surprised to see a few butterflies and what were
obviously honeybees buzzing around.

Jolene noticed
what he was looking at and smiled. “The butterflies and the bees are for cross pollination
of our crops,” she explained. “We have a number of honeybee hives spread
throughout the habitat. We also have nearly a dozen different varieties of
butterflies.”

“So we will
have honey too,” Mase spoke with a pleased look upon his face.

“Some,” Jolene
responded with a nod. “There will be more when we get the second ecological
habitat completed and the new Tycho City habitat ecology up and running.”

“How are your
crops coming?” asked Mase, looking at several of the small plots around them.

“We will begin
harvesting our first crops in just a few more days,” Jolene replied with
satisfaction in her voice as they walked over to a plot that contained tomatoes
growing high up off the ground on trellises. She reached out and touched one
that was just starting to turn red. “All the individual plots are monitored
through our control systems and receive the proper water and nutrients through
an underground system. It’s the same type of system that Julie has set up in
Star One’s ecological habitats.”

“Impressive,”
Mase said with a nod. “How much food can you grow in just this one habitat?”

“The dwarf
fruit trees are still a year away from providing a good harvest,” answered
Jolene, gesturing toward several small orchards. “Some of the crops, such as
radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, okra, green beans, cucumbers, and others will be
providing bountiful harvests shortly. Others, such as potatoes, beets, carrots,
and corn will take a little longer. We should be able to feed over a thousand
people out of this habitat alone if they don’t mind being vegetarians.”

“I can’t see
Anthony being a vegetarian,” commented Mase jokingly, knowing how well the
shuttle pilot enjoyed his meat.

“He may have
to get used to it for a while until we get more habitats set up,” replied
Jolene, knowing how Anthony liked to eat. She knew he always ordered a large
portion of meat when they went out to eat on their dates.

In the
distance, Mase thought he could hear the faint sound of a rooster crowing.
“Chickens?” he asked, glancing back over at Jolene.

“Yes,” Jolene answered
with a nod. “We have several varieties from Leghorn to Rhode Island Reds. There
are four separate enclosures with close to five hundred in each. That will
furnish us with a source of eggs as well as meat eventually.”

“Any other
sources of meat?” Mase asked. He wasn’t a big fan of a vegetarian diet though
he could get by on it if he had to.

“Don’t worry,
Commander,” Jolene replied with a knowing smile. This had also been one of Anthony’s
biggest concerns, one he had broached more than once when the two of them were
out. “Follow me.”

They walked
toward the far wall of the ecological habitat and passed through another small
airlock where they had to go through decontamination procedures once more. They
entered a large room that was about a hundred feet long and thirty feet wide.
Once inside, Mase instantly noticed the room seemed to have a higher humidity.
He could see a number of large tanks with pumps circulating water spaced evenly
throughout the room.

“What’s in the
tanks?” he asked, stepping over to look down inside of one. He was surprised to
see what looked like hundreds of small fish.

“Fish,” Jolene
replied with a grin. “We have four separate species in twelve different tanks.
I spoke with Julie on Star One earlier, and they have come up with a new and
safe growth hormone that can cause the fish to grow quite rapidly. Once we have
the next habitat ready, we will be establishing several small ponds to grow
fish in to eat. The tank you’re looking at now contains catfish.”

“What about
cows, pigs, and sheep?” Mase asked. He knew that a few had been brought up.

Jolene frowned
at the question. “We have a few of each to keep the species going,” she
admitted. “There are also a lot of eggs and sperm from different cattle, sheep,
and pig species frozen in our gene bank. As for actual live animals, we have a
dozen sheep, a dozen pigs, and six cows at the moment. We just don’t have room
for more; those three species eat a lot and take up room we don’t have.”

Mase nodded,
he knew Anthony would have a hard time shortly when steaks disappeared from the
restaurants. “What are the future plans for those animals?”

“I’ve spoken
to Steffan and Isaac, and they have agreed to build a third habitat once the New Tycho City is finished. The pig herd can be expanded quite rapidly, and they will eat just
about anything. We also feel we can grow enough hay in the third habitat to
allow us to feed about twenty head of cattle.”

Mase nodded.
He knew that once the neutron star had passed they could continue to expand the
ecological habitats even more. It would be a lot of work, but it could be done.
“Do you have enough help?” asked Mase, knowing Jolene was putting in a lot of
hours. Anthony had been complaining that sometimes he had to go to the habitat
to see her.

“For now,”
Jolene responded. “We have a number of people that came up from Earth that are
well qualified to help in the habitats and I think some of them just want
something productive to do.”

“I can
understand that,” answered Mase, thinking about the thousands of people
currently living in tents on the outskirts of Tycho City. “Make sure you have
one or two people who are qualified to handle the habitats if you’re not
available. I don’t want you overworking yourself.”

“I won’t,”
promised Jolene, knowing that Anthony had probably said something to Mase about
the long hours she was putting in. “I actually have four people that I’m
training to run the habitats. Eventually there will be one or two people responsible
for each habitat, and they in turn will report to me.”

“Sound like a
good plan,” responded Mase, folding his arms across his chest as he walked over
to another tank and gazed at the small fish swimming in it. He had always liked
eating fish and was glad to see they would be a major part of their diet in the
future.

Jolene
continued to show Mase around, and he continued to be impressed by what he was
seeing. It was obvious she had everything well in hand. When he left, he made
sure she understood if she needed more people or anything else not to hesitate
to ask. He also told Karen he was glad to see her working in the habitat and to
listen to Jolene. He explained that Jolene needed proficient help in the
habitat and he wanted Karen to learn as much as possible.

After leaving
the habitat, Mase started walking toward the Control Center. Steve Larson had
spoken to him earlier concerning a daring maneuver about to be done up in
space. Steve was going to attempt to join the large space station and the Space
Platform together into one unit.