Star One: Tycho City Survival (22 page)

Steve was
hoping to give the station some additional maneuverability and perhaps move it
farther out into the solar system where it might be safer. They had come up
with a crazy plan to install four ion drives on the Space Platform to increase
their maneuverability. Actually, from what Mase understood, the plan had
originated with Teela, the station’s AI.

Mase was also
growing concerned about the worsening weather on Earth. While it hadn’t gotten
as bad as quickly as they had originally thought it would, they were beginning
to see an increase in the number of storms across the planet.

-

Lieutenant
Lewis stood on the large porch of the family home watching the rain fall in torrents.
Already, the bridge to town was reportedly out, and water was rapidly rising in
all of the nearby creeks and ponds. Fortunately, the house and the surrounding
area were relatively high, so any threats from flooding were extremely low.

“Still raining
I see,” James commented as he stepped out onto the porch and gazed at the dark
clouds.

“Yeah, Dad,”
Trace replied as he listened to the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance.
It was obvious the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon.

“I checked the
rain gauge earlier, and we’ve already had over three inches since last night.
That makes nearly ten in the last seventy-two hours.”

“I heard
several of the NASA people say we would see more storms as the neutron star got
closer.”

James nodded
his head as he looked over at his son. “I’m just glad some of the others came
early. We’re only missing the Galleger family and the Kingstons. The rest
brought their RVs and are riding out the storms in the meadow behind the
shelter.”

“I’m surprised
they aren’t already in the shelter,” spoke Trace, flinching slightly as thunder
roared loudly above them. He could see a few small hailstones falling and
making splashes in the puddles of water that were everywhere.

“We don’t want
to use any of the supplies or put any stress on the shelter until we absolutely
have to,” responded James, looking down toward the barn. There were several
cows inside as well as his two horses. He could also hear hail hitting the roof
of the large metal shed just to the side of the barn. “I hope the hail doesn’t
get any larger.”

“Have you
heard anything else on the TV or the radio?”

“Not much,”
James answered with a frown. “The government is acting as if nothing unusual is
going on, but the local stations are starting to report widespread flooding all
over the eastern part of the state. The governors of Arkansas and Missouri have already declared states of emergency and have called out the National Guard
to help sandbag towns from the rising water.”

The door to
the house opened once more, and Trace saw his wife step outside. She shivered
from the cool wind caused by the heavy downpour.

“It’s chilly
out here,” Emily complained as she came over and stood next to Trace. “Is this
rain ever going to stop?”

“Eventually,” replied
Trace, reaching out and putting his arm around his wife’s waist. “It’s not
going to rain for the next forty days.”

“I hope not,”
Emily responded with a halfhearted laugh. “If it does we may need to build an
ark.”

Trace and
James laughed at her comment, but both knew that this rain might just be the
beginning of something far worse.

-

The next
morning, the rain let up somewhat. James and Trace were down at the barn
feeding the animals when they heard the sound of vehicles coming up the drive.
James glanced worriedly at Trace and then walked over and unlocked a small
cabinet on the wall. Inside were two twelve gauge shotguns that he kept there
in case of an emergency. James handed one of them to Trace with a handful of
shells. The other he took for himself and began to slide shells into the loading
chamber.

“I don’t know
who that can be,” James said as he glanced worriedly out the open door and down
the drive.

“It could be
the Gallegers and the Kingstons,” Trace spoke as he slid the last round into his
shotgun.

After another
minute, they saw two four-wheel drive pickups come around the corner. Both were
covered in mud, and one was pulling a small trailer.

“That’s them,”
James said with relief in his voice as he sat the shotgun down next to the door.

Trace followed
suit, glad they were not going to need the weapons. He had seen enough killing
while at the cape and didn’t want to see any more.

The two
stepped out of the barn as the pickups pulled up. Once they stopped, the two
went over to greet the new arrivals.

Phillip
Galleger opened his pickup door and climbed out. “That was one hell of a
drive,” he complained as his wife and two kids piled out of the pickup and
headed for the house. “The main bridge is out, and most of the roads are
flooded. I didn’t think we were ever going to find a way around all the flooded
areas to get here.”

“You can say
that again,” added Cole Kingston as he and his teenage son walked over. His
wife and two daughters were headed to the house where the others were now busy
talking to Alice and Emily.

“We thought
you might wait until the rain stopped,” James said as he motioned for them to
follow him and Trace back to the barn. It was starting to rain and they could at
least go inside where it was dry.

Once inside,
the men became quiet as they heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. It
sounded as if the rain was going to start pouring down shortly.

“It was getting
too dangerous in town,” Cole spoke with a heavy and worried frown. “We were
starting to hear reports of widespread looting, and the National Guard is now
being used to enforce the law. The police can’t handle the situation on their
own anymore.”

“People were
starting to run out of food and the stores were closed,” added Phillip, shaking
his head sadly. “There is so much flooding in the streets the employees just
couldn’t make it in to work. People got frustrated, and some of those with four
wheel drive vehicles began breaking store windows and taking what they wanted.”

“There were
even a few reports of people’s homes being broken into,” Cole continued. “We
felt it was time to get out of Dodge, so here we are. That trailer and the
pickups are full of all the food and other supplies we could bring.”

James nodded.
“Let’s park the trailer in the shed. It will be dry there and also out of
sight.”

Phillip
noticed the two shotguns next to the door and nodded his head approvingly. “I’m
glad to see the two of you are not taking any chances. Trace, I’m pleased to
see you made it back safely. Your military training may come in extremely
useful if things continue to deteriorate.”

Trace nodded,
hoping that wouldn’t be necessary. “Everyone’s here now; how much longer before
we go into the shelter?” he asked.

Once inside
the shelter, they could seal it up and they should be safe from any looters
that might appear, though in this weather Trace didn’t see how anyone could get
around. The Gallegers and Kingstons had made it, but from what they had said,
it had been a major ordeal from all of the flooding.

“Not until we
have to,” his father replied, looking outside as the rain began to fall in
earnest. “We don’t know how long we will have to stay inside. It could be for a
few weeks or even months.”

Everyone
became quiet at the thought of that. The idea of spending months in the cramped
environment of the shelter was not appealing to any of them, but they all knew
it might become a necessity.

-

Warren Timmons
gazed at the latest report on the condition of the underground bunker complex.
The civilian quarters were nearly complete, and plans were already underway to
dig even deeper into the mountain to create additional space for the people
inside.

“The grumbling
has decreased considerably since we started moving the civilians into their
permanent quarters,” Major Burns reported. “We need about another week to
finish all of them and then we can start working on other projects.”

Timmons was
studying one set of plans, which depicted a deep underground tunnel if it could
be called a tunnel. He turned to Allen Summers. “What is this?” he asked,
pushing the plans toward the engineer.

Summers
glanced at the plans and then looked back up at Timmons. “As you know, we are
building several additional storage areas as well as more recreation
facilities. This tunnel will serve as both and should help the long-term morale
in the bunker. The tunnel is six hundred feet long, thirty feet wide and twenty
feet tall. We will be installing growing lights inside and a variety of plants
inside the tunnel. There will be a walking trail down both sides where people
can go and stretch their legs.”

“What about
food?” Warren asked, his eyes focusing on the engineer. “I assume part of this
tunnel will be for growing things we can eat.”

“Of course,”
Summers replied. “It’s been suggested that we allow the civilians to help with
this. It will give them something constructive to do.”

“Sounds like a
good idea,” Warren responded. “Just make sure it’s well supervised and doesn’t
get out of hand. Now, what about up on the surface; what’s going on up there?”
He turned his attention toward Major Burns.

“As you know,
we still have some data coming in from several weather satellites,” Burns
replied. “Storms are definitely on the increase across the globe. There are
also reports of flooding and losses of power in some areas.”

“What about
Star One and Tycho City have we heard anything about them?” Warren asked. He
hoped both were still okay.

Major Burns
leaned back with a look of worry on his face. “There are some rumors going around
about an unsuccessful attack by our government on Star One,” Burns reported.
“We haven’t been able to substantiate them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it
were true.”

Warren shook his head in frustration. Knowing Senator Farley, there was no doubt in his
mind that the rumors were correct. Leave it to Farley to try to destroy one of
the few places humans could be safe with the coming of the neutron star. He
wished there was something he could do, but he knew there wasn’t. Only by
keeping their existence a secret could they remain safe from Farley. He also
knew that General Karver had arranged for Star One to be armed so the space
station could defend itself. Warren knew that when Farley found out about that
he would be highly upset.

One thing that
pleased Warren was the recent report he had received from the other complex. An
underground line connected the two so they could stay in constant communication.
The leader of the bunker had reported that General Mann and a Colonel
Wilmington had made it safely there.

Command of the
bunker had immediately been turned over to the general. Warren knew that
General Mann had played a huge role in the defense of the cape, and he was glad
to have the talented general in the other bunker. There was no doubt that
General Karver had given Mann the bunker’s location. He also knew that Senator
Farley would be searching the entire country for the general. Warren smiled.
Farley could search all he wanted; he would never find the general now that he
had made it safely to the underground refuge.

Leaning back, Warren closed his eyes. There was still so much to do, and the worst was still ahead of
them. He just hoped that when this was all over the bunker and the people
entrusted to him were still here. The bigger question was what type of world
would they find themselves in? What would the surface be like when the neutron
star and black hole exited the solar system? Warren opened his eyes and shook
his head. He couldn’t afford to think about that now; he had over 6,000 people
to look after. They had to be his first priority.

Mase was in
the Control Center with Major Daniels and Captain Struthers. For the last month,
they had been carefully detonating nuclear weapons deep beneath the surface of
the Moon in an attempt to reduce the threat of moonquakes later when the
neutron star approached. General Karver had sent the small nukes up just before
the cape fell on two special shuttles launched from the military launch centers.

In order to
relieve the pressure from known quake zones around Tycho Crater, they had a
crew that had been carefully drilling deep beneath the Moon’s surface. Under
the watchful eyes of a number of Captain Struther’s marines, who were familiar
with nuclear weapons of this type, they lowered the nukes down the holes and
then detonated them. The current drill hole was one hundred and twenty miles
north of Tycho Crater. Lieutenant Macy Kingston was supervising the positioning
of the nuke in the hole at the drill site.

“Nuke is at
the proper depth,” Kingston reported from the Moon Buggy she had just returned
to. Tycho City had furnished a mining crew to operate the drill, and she had a
squad of her marines that were trained in the use of nuclear weapons to do the
rest.

“Two thousand
feet,” reported Major Daniels, turning to look at Mase.

“That’s the
correct depth,” Isaac commented from where he was standing looking down at a
table with some seismological charts spread out. “If we set the nuke off there
it should relieve the pressure off of a major underground fault that runs
through that entire area.”

Mase nodded.
General Karver had sent up forty of the small nukes, and this would be the
twenty eighth one they had used. “Major Daniels, give Lieutenant Kingston the
go ahead to arm the nuke and move off to a safe distance.”

Stephanie
passed on the order. Now they would have to wait until the drilling team and
the marine squad moved out of the area.