Stormhaven Rising (Atlas and the Winds Book 1) (6 page)

Small shelf units stood to either side of the narrow window, covered with pictures of his family. Shapiro knew he had eleven brothers and sisters, and nine children, the youngest of them still in college. Their clean-cut faces occupied the shelves, smiling proudly like recruiting posters for the Mormon Church.

“We know where Cavanaugh is,” he said, looking up from the monitor embedded in his desk.

“I understand she’s a pilot, and that her car was found at an airport,” Shapiro said. “She couldn’t have been so unconcerned as to file a flight plan?”

“No,” Anderson shook his head. “She left on a private jet registered to the corporation that was bankrolling her work,” Anderson said, tapping a button on his desktop display.

“Stormhaven,” Shapiro said.

“That’d be them,” the Secretary said. “They took off about ninety seconds before we got on the ground to arrest her.”

“Lucky for her,” Shapiro said, pulling out his epad to scan the file that he’d just received from Anderson. “Do we know where they went?”

“That’s where it gets interesting,” Anderson said. “The jet took off and disappeared from radar. The choppers lost it less than ten seconds after it cleared the runway. And TIA and Sky Harbor International never tracked it at all."

“Active stealth? That’s interesting,” Shapiro said. “Maybe one of Stormhaven’s subsidiaries is a military contractor?”

“Probably,” Anderson nodded, “but we don’t know for sure.”

“We don’t?” Douglas asked. Defense contractors were scrutinized at a quantum level. Most of the time there were congressional committees and a half-dozen other agencies watching the process.

“Not a clue,” he said. “Needless to say, there are a few people scratching their heads over that surprise."

“I can imagine,” Shapiro said.

“The Air Force happened to have a satellite overhead,” he said. “Space Command tracked the jet for several minutes on IR, until it masked its heat signature somehow. We finally got a satellite ground-scan on it as they were on approach to an airfield in Northern Arizona.

“Well then, Cavanaugh isn’t the only one to catch a lucky break,” Shapiro said, reading the file.

“Homeland Security isn’t supposed to depend on lucky breaks,” Anderson said.

“No sir, I guess not,” he said. Shapiro had enough experience to know that a lot of times in the field, it was dumb luck that broke an investigation loose.

“It’s no surprise that the strip where they landed is about a mile from one of Stormhaven’s headquarters,” Anderson said. “So we’d have looked there anyway.”

The agent opened the map attached to the file and frowned. “Is this right?” he asked.

“That’s where they put down, and the satellite does show a large complex of buildings,” the Secretary said, shrugging. “Colton Taylor owns a ranch there, so we’ve got to assume that’s it.”

Shapiro zoomed the map in until he could make out the runway and the buildings that Anderson was talking about. “Ok then,” he said. “How do you want me to handle this?”

“Arrest Dr. Cavanaugh. Keep it simple if possible,” Anderson said. “However, if knowledge of the asteroid has been leaked, your first priority has to be containment.”

“We don’t know what you’re going to find once you’re on the ground. Walk softly, but do what you have to.” Anderson’s eyes left no doubt that he was authorized to go to any length to keep this quiet.

“Yes sir,” Shapiro said.

***

Chapter Four:

From Chaos to the Dancing Star

Stormhaven:

The Communications Center was one of the rooms that had fallen into disuse as Stormhaven evolved. At first it had been Colton’s window on the world, a place where he could access any source of information available.

Dr. Viki Rosnikov had often watched Cole, sit in the center of the room for hours swiveling his seat and staring at the images along the video screens that lined the walls. She’d struggled to understand his need for feeding news into his mind in wholesale lots; a cacophony of chaos that he somehow understood with an incredible intimacy. He’d said it fed his creativity, but the insanity of it usually drove her away, leaving him to his odd passion.

For the last year though, Cole had left this room empty, so when he’d asked her to meet him here, she’d been surprised.

When she arrived she realized that she wasn’t the only one he’d summoned. It wasn’t unusual for Tom Stevens, the head attorney for the corporation to be included since they’d both been in on almost every decision Colton made since the beginning, but he’d also invited Sophia Warner, and Daryl Creswell. The four of them sat walled into their own thoughts, two down each side of the conference table, when Cole showed up with a young woman.

As director of Stormhaven’s recruiting, Viki had interviewed every resident of the community, but this wasn’t a face she knew. He pulled the chair out at one end of the table, offering it to the newcomer, and slipped into the seat at the opposite end.

“Mica, can you make sure we’re not disturbed?” he asked the computer.

“Of course Mr. Taylor,” the computer answered. The door behind him closed and the latch sealed with a quiet click. Viki shivered in spite of herself.

“Now, let me introduce Dr. Danielle Cavanaugh,” Cole said. “She’s been an outside consultant, which is why none of you know her. She’s worked for us as our liaison for Project Spaceguard.”

“Spaceguard?” Viki asked. “I thought we avoided military projects.”

“It isn’t military,” Daryl said, the color draining from his face. “It’s an asteroid tracking program.”

Sophie gasped. Viki glanced at the two of them but her attention remained focused on Dr. Cavanaugh, who returned her gaze, not flinching under the scrutiny.

“Dani was, until last night, an astronomer at Kitt Peak,” Cole said.

Tom leaned back in his chair, but said nothing.

“These people, are the ones that will be involved in any decisions we need to make,” Cole explained to Dani. “Please tell them what we know."

Danielle took a deep breath. “Last Wednesday night, Carter Anthony and I discovered a previously unknown asteroid. This asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and it is large enough to be ...
terminal
... for humanity.”

She stopped. The air froze. No one moved, waiting for her to continue. Viki looked toward Cole. He sat like a statue.

“They made that movie already,” Tom said.

“She’s serious,” Viki said, realizing that neither Cole nor the woman he’d brought to the table showed any signs to the contrary. The flash of frustration that edged Cole’s eyes at Tom’s sarcasm had convinced her. “She’s not kidding, is she?”

“No,” Cole said. “Mica, show us the orbital data.” The walls on both sides of the room dissolved into a panorama of space. The overhead lights dimmed, creating the disturbing illusion that they’d been transported out into the universe.

An image of Earth rolled into view before spinning off to disappear into a point on a long curving blue line. The overlapping screens created the effect of sailing through space until more lines appeared and the inner solar system was visible as a series of concentric rings.

“What you’re seeing is a real-time plot for the major bodies of the inner solar system.” Cole said. “Now Mica, add the asteroid."

He pointed to a red line spiraling through the ecliptic. “As you can see, 698 days from now it crosses through the exact point where the Earth will be.” Tom and Daryl twisted in their seats to see the image on the wall behind them.

“Show us the impact,” he said. No one moved, watching the planets swing inward until the Earth shot back into view. The line depicting the asteroid’s path ended in the middle of the upper Rocky Mountains.

“Now give us the margin of error.” A white ring expanded rapidly from the intersection, drawing a grey mask over a large portion of the continent.

“Somewhere inside that zone is ground zero for about twelve cubic miles of bad news,” he said.

“Jeez,” Daryl said, his trembling hands betraying his shock. Even Danielle, who’d lived with this knowledge for days, seemed stunned to see it so graphically depicted.

“What I want to discuss,” Cole said, his voice soft, “are our options.”

“We’ve got options?” Danielle asked.

“Always,” Cole said.

“Really?” Viki asked, struggling to get a handle on the idea that the Earth was facing a death sentence.

“Now I understand why you asked about the schedule for the
Dancing Star
,” Daryl said.

“We haven’t flown it yet,” Sophia said. Her eyes were still wide, but the shock had cleared.

“Wait,” Viki said, her thoughts refusing to gain traction. “What the hell is the
Dancing Star
?”

“A space craft,” Daryl said.

“Private space access ended after that huge lawsuit fifteen years back, didn’t it?” Danielle asked.

“Yeah,” Tom confirmed. “We can’t get a license to fly something like this. Nobody can.”

“We have to,” Cole said. His words hung in the empty space of a heartbeat.

Tom shook his head. “After that kid, Starnhoff, and his wife died on one of those tourist space flights, his father sued the industry out of existence. When he got a jury to agree that the accident was caused by a lack of government oversight, he bent the government so far over the barrel that congress shut down private human space access entirely.”

“Yeah I know,” Cole said. “But dreams die hard.”

“Dreams be damned,” Tom said. “Nobody’s been able to get permission since.”

“I know,” Cole said. “But dreams
do
die hard, and when the time comes, that’ll give us an edge."

“Bullshit,” Tom said. He shoved back from the table but Viki caught his arm to hold him to his seat.

“You’ve already built this ship, the
Dancing Star
?” she asked, trying to draw the friction out of the conversation with her best professional voice.

“It’s one of Cole’s pet projects,” Tom said. “I caught the first requisitions earmarked for it two years ago.”

“But I thought they just discovered this asteroid,” Viki asked, looking at Dr. Cavanaugh. The astronomer nodded.

“Let me back up a bit,” Cole offered, anticipating her next question.

“The
Dancing Star
is a true space ship.” Tapping a control on the table he opened a file on the wall opposite to the map of ground zero. A diagram of something that looked a bit like a modular apartment building appeared. “I originally intended it to be a cargo hauler,” he explained. “It’s not like anything that’s ever been built before—“

“That,
thing
, is a space ship?” Dani said. The diagram showed a wedged structure that stuck out of what must have been the front and behind it two long truss frames that spanned a group of huge shipping containers. “Does it ride on a booster of some sort?"

“No, it’s self contained,” Cole said.

“I don’t see engines,” Dani said.

“The engines are inertial—“Cole said.

“That’s been a pipe dream since before I was born.” Danielle shook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, Viki caught Sophia biting down on her lip.

Cole was smiling, unperturbed. “The physics are rather straight-forward,” Cole said. “The theory was first proposed by a couple of scientists in the early 1960’s, but there wasn’t any way to prove it until the technology caught up to the science. What we’ve done is develop a system that exploits the inertial field that exists during the period of non-simultaneity in action and reaction."

“So?” the astronomer asked, unimpressed.

Sophie jumped in. “There is a finite timeframe in any real system when force applied cannot be balanced because acceleration has not yet reached steady-state. During this
phase
delay
, there’s an inherent storage process that compensates for the imbalance within the system. This transient charge is an inertial field. These engines operate against this field.”

“That was a waste of a perfectly good explanation,” Viki said, looking around at the others.

“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Cole said, “but we’ve only recently been able to get it to work.” Opening another screen on the tabletop he flipped the file toward Dani with a fingertip. “That’s the math, but if you’re still skeptical, you’ve already ridden in a jet with one of these engines in it.” Cole leaned back and winked at Sophie.

“I don’t want to get caught up in debating the science when we’ve got more pressing matters to deal with,” he said.

“Of course,” Danielle said. “I’ll read this when we’re done here."

“So Cole, let’s assume your space ship is real,” Viki said. “Do we use it to stop the asteroid?”

“No,” he said.

“Why not?” Viki blinked at his unexpected answer.

“It wouldn’t work,” Sophia explained. “The engines have to be tuned harmonically to whatever they are pushing, and the frequencies they’d need to generate to move an asteroid are way outside their operating range.”