Star One: Tycho City Survival (23 page)

Twenty minutes
later, they received the all clear from Lieutenant Kingston. They had moved
back to a small hill that overlooked the drilling site where they could observe
the results of their handiwork.

“Ready to
detonate,” Major Daniels informed Mase.

Mase nodded,
and Major Daniels transmitted the detonation signal to the nuke.

They all
turned to look at the main viewscreen, which was transmitting a video feed from
one of the Moon Buggies. In the distance, they could see the gray pockmarked
surface of the Moon. Suddenly, in one small area, the lunar surface seemed to
rise up and then fall back in on itself. Lunar dust spread out and began to
fall slowly back down in the light lunar gravity.

“We have
confirmed detonation,” Captain Struthers reported from where he was watching
some instruments.

“I would say that
blast was a success,” Isaac added as he looked at several seismographs that had
recorded the blast. There were still some major aftershocks occurring beneath
the blast site, but he knew that those would gradually taper off. “That’s the
last one.”

“I’m glad,”
Mase responded with a sigh of relief. “Setting off nukes on the Moon is a
little unnerving.”

“Isn’t the
FarQuest supposed to rendezvous with the neutron star today?” Captain Struthers
asked as he turned around to face Commander Colton.

“The crew is
supposed to be wakened later today,” responded Mase, recalling his latest
conversation with Steve up on Star One. “We should have some preliminary data
from them on the neutron star and black hole soon after.”

“I still can’t
believe a damn black hole is with that neutron star,” Isaac muttered,
worriedly. “How close are they now?”

“About 8
billion miles,” Mase answered. He had spoken to Adam Strong at Farside earlier
and asked some of the same questions.

Isaac only
shook his head. He was just glad he wasn’t on that ship. If something went
wrong, there was no way to send a rescue mission. He still found it hard to
believe that Pierre LaRann and LeAnn Kelly had volunteered to go on the
FarQuest. He had known both for quite some time and hoped they made it back safely.

-

It was several
days later and Mase had just finished talking to a distraught Steve on Star One.
He looked over at Charles Turner and Adam Strong who had flown in from Farside
just for this meeting.

“It’s
confirmed,” Mase said, leaning back in his chair with a heavy sigh. He looked
slowly around the small group in the conference room. “The FarQuest is gone.
From the last reports, we believe that Commander Tyler attempted to fly the
ship through the wormhole in the center of the black hole.”

“Why?” Isaac
asked in shock. “Why would they attempt to do that?”

“The ship was
badly damaged in an accident,” Mase responded. “There was some type of
explosion on board that damaged their drive systems. By the time they finished
the necessary repairs, they were trapped in the gravity field of the black hole
and were being pulled in. Professor LaRann felt their only hope of survival was
to attempt to navigate through the wormhole at the black hole’s center.”

“LaRann has
always theorized that a non rotating black hole of just the right size might
have a traversable wormhole,” commented Adam, shaking his head in disbelief. It
was difficult to acknowledge that Pierre and LeAnn might be gone. He just hoped
Pierre’s theories had been correct and they had made it through safely.

“Tyler wouldn’t have agreed to it if he didn’t think they had a chance,” Anthony added, not
wanting to believe that two of his good friends had just died. “If anyone could
pull something like this off and survive it, it would be Ty and Captain Simpson.”

“What does
Teela say?” Isaac asked, curious to know what Star One’s AI thought about the
chances of the FarQuest surviving the passage through the wormhole.

“She claims
there is a fifty percent chance that they made it,” Mase answered. “Needless to
say, the people on Star One are very upset about these developments.”

“I don’t blame
them,” spoke Adam, knowing the research staff at Farside would be deeply
saddened upon learning the fate of LeAnn and Pierre.

Mase took a
deep breath and then looked at the assembled group. “The situation on Earth is
rapidly deteriorating also. There is widespread flooding and dangerous storms
spreading across the globe. From the few news reports we have been able to pick
up, it is utter chaos down there.”

“It’s the
affects of the neutron star and the black hole,” stated Adam, recalling the
latest data. “I have seen the simulations run by Teela on Star One. We’re about
thirty days away from seeing additional earthquake activity and sixty days from
increased volcanic eruptions. Millions of people are dying daily, and it’s only
going to get worse.”

“Millions,”
Linda uttered, stunned. She wondered how her parents were doing. They lived on
the outskirts of Kansas City in the Midwest and, with most communications out,
she had no way to contact them. She had tried several times but to no avail.
Major Daniels had even used one of the military communication satellites to try
to ring Linda’s mom’s cell phone, but there had been no answer.

“Yes,
millions,” Adam reiterated in a somber tone. “The harvest for this year has
pretty much been lost due to the storms. Crops that were ready to harvest are
being subjected to heavy rain, and the harvesting equipment can’t get into the
fields. In other areas, it’s so muddy that crops can’t be planted. There is
already widespread hunger, and the power grids are starting to fail.”

“It’s only
going to get worse,” Charles continued as he looked around the group. “I have
seen some of the weather satellite downloads, and there are massive hurricanes
in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific. Several are larger and more
destructive than any ever recorded before. Shorelines are becoming inundated
with massive flooding and will never be the same again.”

Mase nodded;
he had seen Teela’s forecasts of what Earth was going to go through. “That’s
why it’s important we get the habitats completed. We’ll start seeing some
effects here as well shortly with an increase in moonquakes. Isaac, where are
we on the new Tycho City habitat and our reactor?”

“The digging
and blasting are finished, and the walls and the roof have been smoothed out in
the main cavern,” he reported as he glanced down at several sheets of paper in
front of him. “The fusion reactor is functioning normally and we are running
three shifts a day producing Luxen.”

“What exactly
is Luxen?” Jolene asked with a frown on her face. She had heard this metal
mentioned numerous times, but no one had really told her why it was so
important.

“It’s a
special alloy that can only be created under tremendous heat and pressure,”
Isaac explained. “The only way Luxen can be formed is inside a fusion reactor.
Until recently just Star One could produce Luxen, but with the construction of
our own reactor we are now producing it ourselves.”

“Luxen is
unusually strong and resilient, as well as impervious to most forms of
radiation,” continued Mase, arching his eyebrows. “Since its discovery it has
been used to line all of the rocket tubes, engines, and SRBs for our shuttles.”

“We will be
using Luxen for the main roof supports in the new Tycho City cavern as well as
a layer to cover the walls and the roof,” Isaac added. “We’re going to need a
lot of it, and that’s why we’re running a three shift operation.”

“Eventually we
will be adding a second fusion reactor, but that will have to wait until the
city is done,” Mase said.

Jolene nodded.
They were trying to do so much that, at times, it seemed almost impossible.
Only yesterday, they had finished the cavern for the second ecological habitat,
and she already had a team formed to begin working in it. She had also drawn up
plans for a third cavern if they could find the resources.

“We have
nearly finished laying the infrastructure for the new city,” added Steffan,
looking down at his notes. “We will begin actual construction of buildings in
about another week.”

“Sounds good,”
responded Mase, nodding his head and feeling pleased with the progress they
were making.

They continued
to discuss what else needed to be done as well as what had happened to the
FarQuest. Once the meeting was over, Mase intended to contact Steve again and
see if he had heard or found out anything more about the spacecraft.

-

Trace was
standing on the porch looking down the long, winding drive. It was dark, and he
thought he had seen a light in the distance. The rain had stopped several hours
ago, and now only a light mist was falling, but Trace knew this was only a
brief respite.

“See anything?”
his father asked, peering intently down the drive. His father was holding a 223
caliber AR-15 with a night scope on it.

Trace reached
down to his waist and, pulling his nine-millimeter pistol from its holster, he
popped out the fifteen round clip to make sure it was fully loaded. Looking
down the driveway, he thought he saw the dim flash of a light again. It was
difficult to tell for certain through the mist. He replaced the clip, chambered
a round, replaced the pistol in the holster, and glanced over at his dad.
“There’s someone down there.”

“I know,”
James replied as Phillip Galleger stepped out onto the porch. He was carrying
his twelve-gauge shotgun and a pair of night vision goggles.

“You two stay
here and let me check this out,” Trace said as he stepped off the porch. “It
will be best if I do this alone.”

“Be careful,”
James cautioned. “You don’t know who may be out there.”

“I will,”
Trace responded.

The two older
men watched as Trace vanished into the night. “I hope he knows what he’s
doing,” spoke Phillip, gazing nervously down the road.

“He does,” responded
James, trusting his son’s military experience.

Trace moved stealthily
through the trees, being as quiet as possible. He had hunted this farm when he
was younger and was intimately familiar with every inch of it. He had to move
slowly as the ground was extremely muddy and slippery. After a few minutes, he
reached the point he wanted behind a large old oak tree at a bend in the
driveway. From here, he would be able to see anyone attempting to come up the
road. He had only been there for a minute when he heard voices.

“You think
they will have food here?” a man’s voice spoke.

“Damn right,”
another responded. “James Lewis and his wife Alice will have everything we
need.”

“Will they
give it to us?” another asked.

“It doesn’t
matter,” the second voice spoke. “We kill them and take what we need. A farm
like this, they’re bound to have a tractor or a four wheeled drive pickup we
can take. Hell, after we kill them we can just stay here for a while or at
least until this damn weather clears up.”

“It didn’t
feel right killing those farmers at that last house,” spoke the first man.
“They were out of food and hungry too.”

“Survival of
the fittest,” the second man spoke in an uncaring voice.

Trace took a
deep breath, slowly took his pistol out of its holster, and slid the safety
off. He took careful aim and waited. It was obvious that these men had already
killed and would kill again; that didn’t leave him much of a choice. He could
see three dim shadows out on the driveway.

“Crap,” one of
the men said as he slipped and fell in the mud.

A light
flashed on, and that was all that Trace needed. One of the men was lit up lying
on the ground, and he had good silhouettes of the other two. His finger
tightened on the trigger and the man next to the one holding the light dropped.
Two more quick shots and there was silence. The light was still on, but now it
was lying on the ground.

Trace walked
out of the brush and flipped on the flashlight he had brought with him. Holding
his pistol at the ready, he walked slowly over to the three prone figures.

Two were
obviously dead, but the third was still alive. He was the one that had fallen originally
in the mud. He looked up at Trace with obvious fear in his eyes. “Don’t shoot,”
the man begged. “We didn’t mean any harm.”

Trace knew all
three of these men had already killed and would have tried to kill his parents
if the situation was different. Almost mechanically, he felt his arm rise and
the pistol bucked in his hand once more with a sharp, echoing report. The man
slid back down into the mud, joining his other two friends.

“What’s going
on?” Trace heard his father shout.

James and
Phillip came running through the mud, their weapons at the ready. Both came to
a stop as they saw the three dead men at Trace’s feet.

“They were
coming to kill us and take our food,” Trace explained, trying to hold in his emotions
after killing three men. “I heard them talking about how they had already
killed another farm family earlier.”

“You did what
you had to do,” Phillip said as he shined his light over the three bodies. He
stepped over and checked to make sure all three were dead. “We will leave them
here for tonight and bury them in the morning once the sun comes up.”

“It’s getting
more dangerous every day,” James said as they turned and started walking back
toward the house. “We’re either going to have to post a guard or go into the
bunker.”

“I hate going
into the bunker so soon,” Phillip said with a frown. “But we may have no other
choice. There may be more looters like those three roaming around, and isolated
farms would be a good target.”

“We will get
together with the others in the morning and discuss it,” James suggested. He
looked over at Trace, who was very quiet. “You had no choice, Trace,” he said,
reaching out and putting his hand on his son’s shoulder.’