Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 (6 page)
Read Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 Online
Authors: Rebecca Moesta,Kevin J. Anderson,June Scobee Rodgers
Ten
While Dyl and Song-Ye helped Dr. Romero examine the alien body, Colonel Fox took JJ, King, and Tony to see the starfish-ship, which remained attached to the station airlock from the Kylarn’s attempted invasion.
The vessel was an ominous, alien-looking construction attached to the node room’s exterior hatch, through which the Kylarn had entered in their bid to take over the station. Its hull gleamed silver, and five long, sharp arms radiated from the central body.
“The vessel is still largely a mystery to us,” Fox said, “even though our aerospace engineers have analyzed it for nearly two years. Dr. Kloor has dozens of theories about the physical principles that might drive a ship of this sort, but we still haven’t been able to
fly
it to test those theories. The cockpit controls are a rather inscrutable. No matter how our engineers have experimented with this ship, they cannot get any of the systems to respond. Simply put, they’re stumped.” He raised his eyebrows, the thin mustache bristling on his upper lip.
“Could I give it a try?” JJ asked. “I know it’s a long shot, but I’ve taken flying lessons. My uncle Buzz taught me how to take off and land, both with and without instruments. And I know as much about the Kylarn as anybody.”
“That doesn’t mean you can fly an alien ship!” Tony said.
“On the other hand,” King mused as they drifted there outside the node room, “JJ isn’t completely locked into how normal aircraft systems work, and she’s pretty resourceful. She might even have an advantage. And we
have
been studying simple Kylarn words and symbols.”
“Commander Zota briefed us on basic squidbutt controls,” JJ said. “I’m sure Dyl brought his note cards. If I have those to remind me what all the symbols mean, I just might be able to figure it out! Think of what we could learn from that alien spacecraft. What do we have to lose? Isn’t it time to take a few risks?”
“Indeed, Cadet Wren, you have a point,” Fox said. “If you think you can get this thing flying, I’m willing to let you try—though not without a spacesuit. It will offer a small measure of protection.”
“I can manage in a spacesuit,” JJ said. “We’ve been trained, remember? And I wouldn’t mind the extra safety factor myself.” For a split second, she wondered what she had just gotten herself into. So much could go wrong. But then she thought about actually
flying
an alien ship, and excitement took over. “I’ll get those index cards from my brother, then we can test a few things.”
Donning a spacesuit was a lot more complicated than pulling on a change of clothes. The technology had advanced from the suits developed for the original space program, but the completely enclosed suit still had to be like a form-fitting spaceship that provided all the life support and protection a human body needed to survive in the extremely hostile environment. She dressed in an insulated undergarment, leggings, boots, torso pack, gloves, oxygen, communication systems, and energy reserves.
Ready to go.
She sealed her helmet and activated the suit radio so Fox could speak with her. Floating in her bulky suit looking at her friends, she gave them a thumbs-up, pushed off into the node room, and sealed the hatch before pulling herself up into the hollow control cavity of the alien ship.
“Don’t overdo it, Cadet Wren,” Fox said in her earphones.
“I’m a cautious person,” she replied. She thought she heard her brother snicker before Fox clicked off the transmission.
The alien cockpit chamber was spherical and cramped. Large pilots could not have managed a test flight, but the squidbutts were evidently squishy and could cram into a small space. She didn’t see any single control panel, just display screens, buttons, and control sticks mounted at seemingly random places around the walls. Since the Kylarn had sets of tentacles, it wouldn’t be difficult for one of the aliens to reach in any direction. She had reviewed Dyl’s notes and recognized many of the symbols. The exact controls of the ship would be different from the time machine, of course, but they were similar enough that the sequencing should work.
“First things first,” she said, partly to herself and partly to Colonel Fox over the suit radio. “This should activate the systems.” Zota had already shown them the trick to activating the alien technology. Grinning with anticipation, she pressed the symbols in their proper order.
Lights glowed on the control panels. Trapezoidal screens lit up, filled with streams of information that she couldn’t read. Other screens showed images of the space station—external cameras, apparently.
A set of controls up and behind her head showed targeting hexagons and a set of control sticks—possibly the energy weapons that had blown up the Eye in the Sky satellite. She decided to stay away from those.
Another screen displayed a curved line that looked like the course the ship had flown from the Moon. Swoop symbols around a cluster of knobs implied direction—a way to choose movement. A set of colored graphs was … velocity? She found a lever below the propulsion systems and pushed it gently as if afraid it might give her an electric shock. “Let’s see if this does what I hope it does.”
“Again, I advise caution, Cadet Wren,” Fox admonished.
Then beneath JJ the hatch slid shut and sealed. She felt the starfish ship moving, vibrating, and making a faint grinding sound. “The good news is, I think I’ve discovered the docking controls.”
The starfish ship detached from the ISSC with a puff of decompression from the node room, and an automatic burst of exhaust propelled it away from the station. The change in movement bumped her from one side of the cockpit to the other.
“I’m not doing that!” she said. “Automated systems have taken over.”
Sensors were guiding the starfish ship away from the ISSC—hopefully, without causing any damage. She had seen how easily the stations solar panels and observational instruments could be damaged. Her mind was whirling. She remembered the cockpit gauges and systems inside the Piper Arrow that she had flown with Uncle Buzz. “The controls aren’t
insanely
complicated,” JJ said, sounding as if she were trying to convince herself. Voices were shouting over the helmet radio, and she transmitted back, “I’m doing what I can—just let me think for a minute.”
As the screen images showed the ship drifting farther from the space station, she couldn’t find any override. When no better idea sprang to mind, she decided to try the propulsion systems herself and see if she could fly the thing. Once she got far enough away from the space station, she would have all the room in the solar system to maneuver—as long as she could get back to the ISSC. She had a few hours of air in her suit. That gave her time to solve the problem.
With a little experimentation, matching the directional symbols she had memorized from Dyl’s cards, she could make the ship move along the three axes, just as she had moved the waldo arm in the Challenger Center. She cautiously tested the alien systems and was pleased that she could tilt the starfish ship left and right, back and forth, up and down. When she tried to accelerate, the vessel began to spin like a Ninja throwing star—a shuriken—but she didn’t feel dizzy. In fact, the control chamber seemed balanced like a gyroscope. She flew farther away into space, then shifted direction to head back toward the looming green, blue, and white planet Earth. It looked so beautiful in front of her.
“Just don’t try to shoot me down,” JJ said into her helmet radio. “I’m in control here—sort of.” She didn’t want to try anything fancy, but the starfish ship flew and spun. This vessel had traveled from the Moon to Earth in only a few hours, an amazing speed! But she wanted to remain in the vicinity of Earth.
Fortunately, the controls didn’t really require her to think like an alien. With a lot of trial and error, JJ figured out how to guide the starfish ship. She found herself feeling giddy. At the speed she was going, the planet below and the distant space station moved at a blur, and it made her lightheaded. She decided to take a trip around the Earth, orbiting above the clouds and continents. She had no way of knowing how much fuel the craft had, but surely the Kylarn pilot must have expected to fly back to the Moon. This little side trip should be nothing by comparison.
She watched the view through the screens, studying her lovely home planet, with its peaceful wisps of clouds, the familiar outlines of Africa, Europe, North America. Traveling westward, opposite the direction of the ISSC orbit, she saw the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, then Australia. She had never been to Australia, but there it was, below her. She decided that this flight beat any vacation anyone else had ever taken. Laughing with delight, she transmitted updates of her flight. By now JJ supposed the whole world might be watching.
She flew around to the Earth’s night side and saw city lights twinkling down in the population centers. She raced along until the glow of sunrise lit up the rim of the planet. It was such a beautiful home, full of life and natural beauty, yet also fragile. If the oncoming asteroids weren’t deflected, they would smash into Earth like cosmic cannonballs.
The thought diminished her joy and wonder in the flight, and she decided to return to the ISSC. No use taking chances—it was her responsibility to bring the Kylarn ship back intact, now that she had discovered some of the basics of its operation. The physicists, engineers and pilots would swarm over it.
The Space Station Complex gleamed before her. Its array of mirrorlike solar panels and cylindrical modules connected in three dimensions, like some child’s toy model.
By now JJ had a good feel for how the alien ship worked, and an optimistic confidence in the automated systems. “I’m coming in again. Everything’s intact—I’m fine. Now if only I can dock safely.…”
Colonel Fox sounded tense and harried over the suit radio. JJ was sure she’d get a stern lecture once she got back aboard the ISSC. She had been impulsive—people had often criticized her for making rash decisions because she was anxious to make progress or accomplish a goal without “thinking it to death.” But as Commander Zota said, sometimes it helped to be bold. Because she’d been willing to follow her intuition, she now knew how to fly the alien ship. That was certainly an argument in her favor, wasn’t it?
She activated the docking controls. The starfish ship took over, slowing its spin and aligning itself to the same airlock hatch in the node room. “I’m coming in,” she said.
The soft metal beneath the ship extruded again with odd metallic noises, forming like lips around the airlock hatch, sealing tightly, then hardening. The bottom hatch opened, allowing JJ to exit the alien ship. Shaking, but grinning and very pleased, she pulled herself back down into the node room.
Over the helmet mike, she announced, “Mission accomplished.”
***
Eleven
That afternoon, JJ and Dyl worked with Pi in Central, as two more rocket launches from Earth carried cargo up to the space station—the last components of engines that would propel the detached modules to the oncoming asteroids. Tracking screens showed launches from six major spaceports on Earth, reactivated launching zones that had been expanded over the last few years since the Kylarn threat was identified.
Song-Ye assisted Dr. Romero, giving thorough medical examinations to the astronauts who would soon depart on their long missions to the asteroids. King and Tony suited up, going outside with Captain Bronsky and Colonel Fox to receive the new cargo and help install the propulsion systems.
JJ wanted to do some hands-on work herself, but Ansari chided her. “After your excursion in the alien spacecraft, Cadet Wren, you’ve had enough outside activity for one day.”
“Put it in perspective,” Dyl told her when he saw his sister frown. With a gentle nudge, he drifted across Central to reach another station. “You’re aboard the
space station.
Is that really too dull?”
JJ couldn’t argue with that. “You’re right. There’s plenty of work to do right here.”
Keeping their secret had weighed heavily on her. Despite Commander Zota’s admonishments, she felt uncomfortable hiding things from Ansari, Fox, and the rest of their friends from the future. How much more did she dare tell them? The Kylarn invasion fleet was the obvious threat to humanity. JJ had been taught to work with others as a team, and she and her friends could accomplish more if they had the same goals as Ansari and Fox. Commander Zota’s original purpose for the Star Challengers was to reignite public interest in space and science so that the human race could be prepared for the danger he knew was in store. It was not a goal that any one person could accomplish alone.
Captain Bronsky and Colonel Fox wanted all the Star Challengers to have experience working in space outside of the station, and Tony and King had been assigned to the EVA operations. For a while JJ watched the spacesuited workers drift about the three modules. She heard King singing softly to himself something about “Ground Control to Major Tom.” With all the bustling activity both inside and out, the ISSC finally looked like the futuristic space stations in the movies Dyl watched.
Dyl and JJ were assigned to double-check inventory lists on a couple of computers. It was less interesting than the other tasks they’d had on the station—nothing like starting up a Kylarn craft or helping with an alien autopsy. But it was extremely important that the crew know what supplies were on hand as the new weapons arrived. Still, they watched the arrival with great interest from Central.
The clusters of nuclear warheads were delivered to orbit under strict security. The atomic weapons contained enough explosive force to shove the rogue asteroids off course like a cue ball hitting another ball on the side. For the month-long trip, the warheads would be firmly anchored to the outside of the modules. Thrusters and large propellant tanks were attached to the rear of each cylinder. Each mission module looked like a hodgepodge collection of tacked-on parts.
Regarding the operations, Dyl said, “Those sure aren’t as sleek and streamlined as ships on
Star Trek.”
“But they’ll work,” JJ said. “There’s no air in space, and no aerodynamic drag, so a spaceship doesn’t have to be streamlined.”
“We don’t have time to worry about cosmetic appearances,” Stationmaster Ansari said. “We just need to get the job done. Our three missions are due to launch in two days.”
Just then, one of the ISSC’s long-range telescopes detected activity on the Moon. “Two bogeys heading our way at high velocity,” reported Security Chief Napali, as alarms began to sound throughout Central. “Kylarn starfish ships.”
“But King and Tony are outside—Colonel Fox and Captain Bronsky, too!” Dyl exclaimed.
JJ said, “We need to get everyone to shelter.”
At a nod from Ansari, Dyl shot over to the comm controls and turned on the stationwide intercom.
Ansari said, “This is the Stationmaster, issuing an immediate recall. All teams get back into the station!”
“Wish I’d tried out the weapons on that captive ship,” JJ said. “Stationmaster, maybe I should launch. It might give us at least some defense.”
“And let them shoot you down, Cadet? No matter how good you are, the aliens have a lot more experience.”
Streaking into Central, her face flushed, Security Chief Napali positioned herself at a defense station. “I’ve been waiting for some target practice.”
“We should have Tony in here—he’s the best at videogames,” Dyl said.
“This isn’t a game, Cadet Wren.” Napali frowned. “Those aliens intend to destroy us one way or another.”
Colonel Fox’s distinctive voice came over the speakers. “We’re pulling the crews together now, Stationmaster, but there won’t be time for us to cycle into the station. We’ll take what shelter we can.”
A pair of sleek starfish ships hurtled in, transforming from fast-moving blips to whirling attack crafts. They streaked in close to the space station, but Napali was ready with the ISSC’s new defenses. The security chief launched two explosive rockets from the battery that had been mounted below the equipment module.
“They’re targeted,” Napali said. The rockets soared forward, aimed at the two alien ships. JJ and Dyl held their breath, watching, hoping.
“If we miss, it might provoke them,” Ansari warned.
“They’re provoked already,” JJ said. “The squidbutts came here with mayhem on their minds.”
The rockets arrowed toward their targets, but the whirligig alien ships flitted and zigzagged. The first rocket zipped past, missing the closer starfish ship. The second one also scraped by, and the other alien craft danced out of the way.
“This is a problem. It’s like throwing a rock at a dragonfly,” Dyl groaned.
Everyone in Central remained tense. Alarms continued to sound throughout the station. JJ worried about the crew who remained outside and vulnerable, although the station could just as easily be damaged by blasts of the Kylarn weapons. No place was safe.
But the alien ships did not open fire. Instead, after nonchalantly dodging the missiles, they circled the ISSC, studying, mapping. They flitted close to the three separated modules and the spacesuited work crews still clustered around them.
“Shall I launch another rocket, Stationmaster?” the security chief asked.
Ansari contemplated a long moment, then shook her head. “No, you might hit our people.”
The starfish ships zoomed around the complex, flitted back and forth as if taunting the humans, then split in opposite directions and streaked away.
“That was … weird,” Dyl said quietly.
“What was that all about?” JJ was sure that the Kylarn, with all their firepower, could have attacked anytime they liked.
Napali shook her head in disbelief. “I have no idea. Maybe the missiles scared them off,” she said, but even she seemed to doubt that answer.
“I’d be freaked out by nuclear missiles flying at me, but would the squidbutts?” Dyl asked. His voice wobbled as he spoke.
JJ glanced at her brother. She was scared too. This Kylarn activity was different from every other encounter they’d had with them. It didn’t add up. JJ fixed her eyes on the strange alien vessels. A moment later, the two starfish ships raced back toward the Moon.
“They were just checking us out,” Dyl said. “I guess we did scare them!”
“Maybe,” JJ said. “But I’m pretty sure they were trying to freak
us
out. They’re not afraid of us. At all.”
***
