Stormhaven Rising (Atlas and the Winds Book 1) (10 page)

“That
is
strange,” she said. “Nothing else?”

“Nope. Just that I'm supposed to keep quiet about it,” he said.

“So how long until we get a visual on Mission Control?” She glanced around trying to find a display that would show their position over the Earth.

Pointing over her shoulder to a screen that showed one of the outside cameras he said, “I think that’s Seattle below us, so maybe five or six minutes."

She twisted in mid-air to see the monitor. “We better get that antenna pointed.” She pushed against his outstretched arm toward the far wall.

“Is this the controller for the S-band Data Link Antenna?” she asked, hanging over a rack of controls labeled CAS3. He nodded, overriding the internet antenna feed.

Activating the manual controls, she watched a screen light up with an image from the targeting camera. It was only a rough pointing device, but once it picked up the signal, the dish would lock automatically. Using the small joystick on the rack, she swung the antenna from its usual position until it was looking at the onrushing horizon.

Instantly the station’s com was screaming with indignant crewmembers looking for their lost internet connection. Susan fielded the calls, explaining that the antenna was offline for a few minutes while they chased the problem down.

“You’d think it was the end of the world,” Scott said, grinning in spite of himself.

She nodded, watching the meter for a sign of the signal. The camera shifted as it auto-aligned.

“You’re hot,” she said. He plugged in a headset and waited. A burst of static signaled the encryption program had synced the voice channel from Houston.

“Alpha, this is Mission Control, Houston. Do you copy?” The voice from Earth came in clear and strong.

“Copy Houston. Go ahead.” Scott held himself to the control rack with one hand.

“Hello, Alpha. Please stand by for Director Lange,” the voice came back again.

“Roger. Standing by,” he replied, turning towards Susan, who kept an eye on the screen displaying the tracking camera. He knew she could hear the voice from his headphones across the quiet module, but she pretended to give him privacy anyway.

Less than a second later another voice came on. “Scott. This is Joshua Lange. We’re only going to have a couple minutes so I need to be brief. Are you alone?” He paused waiting for Scott to reply.

“Copy, Joshua. Susan Winslow’s here, but not patched in. What’s the situation?” Scott and Lange had trained together with a Russian team of cosmonauts for the mission that delivered the orbital tug to the station. After that flight Scott had stayed in the Corps, and Joshua had started up the political ladder. They barely had a chance to speak anymore, though Scott recognized the stress in his tone.

“I’ll get to the point,” Lange said. “Effective immediately, you need to terminate all science projects and prepare non-essential personnel to be removed to Earth as soon as the
Liberty
arrives. You’re being re-crewed.”

“I’m not sure I copied that?” Scott said.

“You heard me. We’re removing the science personnel from the station. We need Alpha to be re-tooled towards a new mission,” Joshua said.

“You’re saying that we’re to terminate the science operations? What new mission?” Susan glanced over her shoulder at the commander. He shrugged but listened to the voice of Lange in his ear.

“Orbital assembly,” Lange said.

“Assembly of WHAT?” Scott asked.

“I can’t give you details because things are still fluid. All I can say is that we’ll be using Alpha as a construction facility for a military project.”

“You’re sending up a military crew?” he asked.

“Roger on that. The Air Force will be staffing the ISS for this project,” Lange said.

“Last I checked, they don’t train for space construction.” Scott shook his head.

“You’ll be training them in situ,” the Director said.

“Excuse me? You’re sending rookies up here to do construction work,
without training?
"

“Scott. I understand your concerns—"

Closing his mic he snarled, “The fuck you do!” Startled by his outburst, Susan swung around.

“We’ve got no time to debate this,” Lange said. “We will use Alpha whether you’re there or not. Do I make myself clear?”

“Copy that,” Scott said through clenched teeth.

“We need our best people on the station.” Joshua’s voice softened. “You’re the best we’ve got to baby-sit these amateurs.”

“You are sending body bags with them?” he said.

Joshua ignored the sarcasm. “Your priority now is getting those scientists packed out. It’s going to get intense while we’re gearing up."

“Roger. I copy,” Scott said, his voice settling back to normal as his training reasserted itself. “We’re approaching one minute to the horizon. What do I say to the crew? They’re going to go hyperbolic."

“We’re working on that. I’ll send you an official story ASAP, but for now I’m uploading what we’ve got of the mission specifications. You should be receiving the file.” The inbox beeped and he turned to look at the screen. “Keep this close to your chest, Scott. Need-to-know only. Copy?”

“Affirmative on the email,” he said, opening the file to make sure it decrypted.

“What about Susan,” Scott asked, glancing at her. “Is she up or down?”

“I can’t give you an answer on that,” Lange said. “Probably down, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Roger Houston, we’re going over the threshold,” he said, looking at the signal meter on the bank of instruments behind her.

“Good luck, Commander. Houston out.” Lange’s voice dissolved into a burst of static as the antenna reeled without a signal.

Sue looked at Scott who was staring at the screen. She drifted past him to relock CAS3 into the internet relay.

Pushing himself back from the rack she saw the display. On it was the image of the asteroid’s orbit. “I guess you need to know,” he whispered.

***

Stormhaven:

Viki Rosnikov had been sitting on the patio of the cafeteria for most of the day, staring out across the trees of the Biome watching the birds dance in close formation. Her mind raced down long and disturbing corridors of thought, both chasing, and running from reality, as if it were a demon in a childhood nightmare.

Consciously, she understood that she was wrestling with the idea that they were facing something cataclysmic, but understanding,
and feeling
, was decidedly different. Rationally her mind could accept the end of the world, but her heart refused to see it, except in vivid flashes of horror. One thing she did understand with crystal clarity, was how it felt to face the demon that had haunted Cole for all these years. And that bothered her more than she cared to think about.

After Colton had unveiled his grand vision last night, he’d left Danielle with Tom and Viki, claiming he had other matters to deal with, but that was his way of telling Viki she should run the astronomer through her paces.
Check her out and see if she fits.

They’d discussed many things, but the subject of the asteroid kept planting itself in the middle of their conversations. A huge monster that none of them could see around. It devoured her sense of calm and was the face she knew she’d see every day from now until ... until,
then.

Without turning she felt someone behind her. Tom. She knew even before he spoke.

“Are you ok, Vik?” he asked, concern softening his voice.

“Maybe,” she said, raising one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. She held her eyes on the distant trees, refusing to turn. If she looked at him her resolve might crumble, and she couldn’t let him know just how scared she was. He’d always been strong for her, even in the worst of days when their marriage had been dissolving into divorce, but she knew this time she had to be strong on her own. This was a beast they each had to conquer alone.

“Feel like talking?” he asked, setting a tray down beside her and moving into her field of vision.

“Do you?” she asked, glancing into his eyes and realizing that he was chewing on the same things she was.

“Not particularly,” he said. “Though, sooner or later I think we’re all going to need to let it out.”

“Be careful, you’re sounding like a damn shrink,” she said, the chill in her voice fading.

“Should I ask?” he said, after he’d spread out his food and started picking at it. “What’s on your mind?”

“Same thing that’s on yours, I’d wager.” She leaned back in her chair.

Finally, after a long hanging pause, she blurted out, “How’d he know?”

“About the asteroid? I don’t think he did,” Tom said. “That’s too outrageous even for Colton Taylor.”

“Then why were we already building that spaceship of his?” she asked, staring at him. “I’ve been trying to figure out how he’s managed to put us in the right place at this moment in time. It can’t be simple luck.”

“Why not?” he asked, shrugging. “Cole’s one of the luckiest SoB’s on the planet. Ask him, he’s the first to admit it.”

“This is more than that,” she said. “I know better than to think he’s psychic, but how the hell did he know?”

“I’m still betting on dumb luck,” Tom said.

“I’m not. This is what we’ve been doing for as long as I’ve been here,” Daryl said, walking up with a tray of food. “Mind if I join you?” He pulled a chair over from the next table and parked himself without waiting for an answer.

“What do you mean? I’ve never heard about any list of projects that he’s handed down,” Viki said.

“Weren’t you in charge of that NASA project a few years ago that studied the psychological effects of living in a sealed environment?” Tom pointed out. “Knowing Cole’s opinion of NASA, I thought it was a bit odd that he took that one on."

“Yeah I thought about that too. He did kind of push that one down my throat,” she conceded. She’d sworn to never do another government-backed project again, because NASA had simply discounted her findings since they weren’t what they’d expected to see.

“Haven’t you wondered why some projects have six of us working on them and others have twenty?” Daryl asked.

“I hadn’t really paid attention,” Tom admitted.

“He didn’t have to say
‘we’re going to build a spaceship’
to get us to build one,” Daryl said. “All he did was plant the seeds of ideas, fertilize the ones he wanted, and then we’ve been working to do this ever since."

”If he’s not psychic then what was his angle?” she asked.

“We have a responsibility to those who live off of what Stormhaven produces,” Viki said. “Not just the ones here in the community, but we’ve got a hundred thousand employees in subsidiary companies that’ll be out of work when he buries us. There’s no point to it.”

“Really?” Daryl challenged. “If there’s no point to being on the moon, why do China and America both have bases there? It’s because there are resources to exploit.”

“Ok, so maybe there’s a thin justification there,” Viki said, “but I guess that’s better than insanity.”

Tom shook his head. “You really think that’s why he was doing this? For mining rights to the moon?”

Daryl shrugged. “There are a lot of experts out there who’d buy into that potential market, so maybe that’s his angle.”

“Yeah but that’s not what he’s selling now,” Viki said. “He’s betting everything on a big maybe. Maybe the government won’t succeed ...
but maybe they will
.”

“The question is, are you more willing to bet on Colton Taylor, or Washington?” Daryl said.

“Excuse me, Mr. Stevens,” Mica interrupted. “Mr. Taylor is requesting your input on a new development.”

“What now?” Tom asked, pushing back from his food, not that he’d been eating it.

“There has been a vehicle sitting outside the front perimeter since 1310 this afternoon,” the computer said. “It is highly probable that it is a government agent as the front license plate was issued to the Department of Homeland Security and is assigned to their Phoenix office."

“How do you know that?” Tom asked.

“I accessed their vehicle records,” Mica said. “It is currently assigned to Field Agent Douglas Shapiro.”

“Shit!” he said. “Tell Cole I’m on my way."

***

Beijing:

The Intelligence Analysis Division of the People’s Republic of China was one of those throw-back departments where they leaned heavily on tradition and routine. Sometimes it appeared that they might as well be using abacuses instead of computers, but when you have a thousand eyes looking at a single point in time, it is easy to study everything in minute detail. Manpower compensated, as it always had in the PRC, for a lack of tools.

The desks in the huge room were ancient carved monstrosities, as obsolete as the stacks of reports and photos that were piled on their polished wood surfaces. Nothing looked to be less than a hundred years old except the staff, and even among them, there were notable exceptions.