Regan's Reach 2: Orbital Envy (16 page)

"Ham . . . let's do this thing."

And they were back in the Medlab . . .

* * *

Emergency lights flickered on throughout the ship allowing Commander Merryl to make his way to Central Control. Wide eyed figures looked to him as he passed, probably hoping for some kind of reassurance. He could offer nothing being as much in the dark as anyone. His heart still beat wildly, thumping in his chest so he paused for a few deep breaths before entering control. He could hear yelling through the door.
At least they're doing something.

"Commander in control!" The voice of security boomed across the space as he entered, drawing all anxious eyes to him.

"Update number two, what is our current situation?" He moved straight to his command chair eyeing the blank screens and ignoring blank faces.
Stay cool, we need order.

"Sir, we're trying to establish what happened and restore power. All systems are down; they completely crashed so we can't yet identify the problem. Engineering and Tech systems are onto it as we speak." The tall extremely thin Coran looked far too young to be second in command and Merryl cursed inwardly,
Nepotism will be the death of me!

"What was happening before we crashed number two?"

"We were monitoring a signal from the region of the third planet region sir, not Earth, something in space, an orbital perhaps?"

"They don't have orbital's Ryner." He said it dismissively.

"Well sir, we noticed the signal and I
was
about to call you. It seemed random, meaningless until we realized it was repeating. It appeared to be specific for us, certainly squirted in our direction sir. We were trying to interpret it so I could give you more information."

Merryl ignored his concerns. "Go on . . ." As they continued to speak systems around them appeared to be coming back on line with lights flashing on screens. In the background he could hear the air system now humming again.

"We don't know how they detected us so early, but we're quite sure the message, if that is what it was, was for us. Then sir, all I can say is that there followed a massive drain on our systems and everything crashed. The rest you know sir."

"So we still know nothing. Was it an attack?" He turned to his young tech officer. "Terrin, what do you think?"

The tech systems specialist blanched in the spotlight then rose to the occasion. "Sir nothing penetrated our systems," She desperately reviewed data as the systems continued to power up. "The signal was being monitored by communications. We weren't receiving file data, just monitoring the signal and while that was going on our systems suddenly experienced a huge drain. It crashed everything. Sir, we can't be sure that the two things are even related."

"Keep checking Terrin, it's too much of a coincidence, let me know immediately if you find anything, anything at all, no matter how inconsequential. Ryner," He turned to the young officer reluctantly, "could something in engineering have caused the drain?"

"I'll get down there now Sir." He quickly departed before Merryl could say anything, clearly relieved to escape.

The large front screen suddenly flashed back to life, the star field spread from side to side dominated by the sun. "Somewhere out there is our goal people and we were heading right for it. Get us back under power before we hit!" Merryl slumped into the command chair thinking.
We are a long, long way from our home . . .

* * *

. . . Much nearer their home but still very much in the dark the ADF slashed through what miniscule atmosphere the moon possesses. Rod's decision to 'get up close and personal' had triggered warning alarms from the onboard computer systems but truthfully it was a pointless exercise anyway. Other than the experience gained there was nothing to see, nothing to learn. Minjee had given up protesting. He was 'a lad' as the Aussie would say. It irritated her but nevertheless she did respect his attention to detail when it mattered. Sure, they were breaking protocol here but she could tell Rod was keeping them well within safety limits. She pretended not to notice.

"Five minutes to contact Rod." She reminded him of the soon to be reached point where they would again come under Ham's critical gaze.

"Gotcha . . ." he pulled back on the joystick, soaring away from the surface and into a high curve that would bring them back on track when they reappeared from behind the man in the moon.

The seconds ticked by as they prepared for contact and handover. Rod looked across at Minjee guiltily. "Thanks for not making a big deal about that. I wouldn't have done anything really silly, not with you in the seat anyway."

"Oh really . . . So what's so special about me then?" She thumped him playfully.

He smiled, "I won't be missed, no family, few friends, but you . . . you make the right kind of impression everywhere. You'd be missed Minjee, believe it."

"Hmm, you underrate yourself I think flyboy, you may have friendships you're yet to cement." She smiled back. "Thirty seconds to contact."

The ADF swung back into glaring sunlight, the screen immediately compensating so that they didn't even have chance to squint. The seconds ticked by as they waited for Ham's usual 'Welcome baaack'. More seconds ticked by . . .

"Hillary Station this is ADF A1. Do you read me Ham? Come in please." Minjee looked sideways at Rod, eyebrows raised.

"No idea." He replied to the unspoken question, "Try again."

"Are you there Ham, we're ready to hand over for return." She sounded concerned.

Nothing . . .

"Hillary Station, anyone, do you read?"

Still no reply. They waited a moment longer . . .

"Well, it looks like we're on our own babe" Rod sighed, "and now this does sound like a test. Make the calculations and let's show we can get ourselves home."

Minjee immediately set about working through the routines with their system. The general task wasn't difficult, Earth dominated the view screen and Hillary Station under magnification was easily discernible. Negotiating the pipe and landing the ADF would be another challenge altogether.

Two hours later Rod having utilized both the ADF's propulsion methods to accelerate and slow, they drifted in through the moonward entrance and sailed down pipe through darkness. Earth could be seen through the earthward opening but other than that all was black, no blue field screen at the earthward rim, no lit windows, no sign of tube movements, a few of the unmanned Sherpa's appearing to drift. With no signals it was eerily quiet both from the station and in the cockpit.

"Rod . . . Look over there, on the back of that Sherpa . . ." she gestured to the right.

He looked across squinting in the dim light provided from either end. It was a body, draped over the rear of the Sherpa as if stuck there. A cold feeling ran down his back. They were passing centre pipe now and debris became apparent, scattered about randomly. Rod slowed them even further progressing using the effector tech so their drift became a crawl, meter by meter toward the earthward flight decks. Both were galvanized now, alert, adrenalin pumping. It was clear something terrible had happened.

"Hillary Station, this is flight control on The Step do you read?" A woman's voice, she sounded anxious.

Minjee tapped to reply."Hillary Step, this is ADF A1, we read you from Hilary Station someth . . ." Rod grabbed Minjees arm arresting her comment. He glared at her and shook his head.

"Do you read me ADF A1, this is Flight Control Hillary Step, and who am I speaking to?"

Rod took over, "Hillary Step this is Major Rod Harmon, Ma'am we are in the middle of a surprise drill. You can expect contact again within the hour, two at the most. Our safety systems on station are being tested in case of emergency, do you read?"

"No one said anything to us Major, how come we're not having a drill?"

"Well we'd hate for you to miss out control, maybe it'll be you tomorrow . . . or the next day." he looked at Minjee and grimaced.

"Thanks for the heads up Major, I'll let the powers that be know and send word to Earth there will be a shut down for two hours, over."

"Make it three ma'am, it'll take a while to get everyone back to their work stations."

"Will do Butch, safe flying."

He gritted his teeth at the nickname then turned to an angry Minjee.

"What the fuck Rod . . . this
is
an emergency."

"We don't know that yet, an accident yes, without a doubt." He grabbed her forearm firmly. "Min, there's a lot at stake here. The real powers that be would love for there to be a disaster here. We owe it to the citizens of this station, and to Regan to find out more first. Don't we?" He paused, waiting for her reaction.

She hesitated, "I guess so . . . but we've got no communication or control."

"So we go in, we find out what we can, and then we report if necessary. Until then we say nothing, agreed." Already he was guiding the ADF toward the flight deck, the lack of field a concern but not insurmountable. They had trained for just this eventuality.

* * *

Russian Federal Space Agency Moscow

President Sokolov and Prime Minister Popov rested in the large meeting chairs, eyeing the screen briefing from Baikanur Cosmodrome with disappointment. The news was not encouraging and it was unacceptable.

"Yuri," Sokolov interrupted the Roscosmos Administrator, "It is essential that we assert our presence in orbit. If we do not have a substantial platform like the Americans then our presence
must
be established by more regular flights to the station, they
must
be longer flights and the station
must
be expanded. This is self evident. Why do you continue to protest?"

The administrator blanched under the barrage. "Mr. President, our budget is stretched as it is. Are you saying that we will have more funds allocated?"

"You will have the budget Yuri," the Prime Minister intervened soothingly, "but we must have action now. It is more important than ever that we have a constant presence in space, something active, and something beyond the presence of fourteen cosmonauts in a tin can. What can you give us?"

The Administrator looked pensive. "Vasily, we have only three shuttles available here. If you make available the two military Orbit Warriors at Plesetsk Cosmodrome then we can rotate flights to maintain a presence while servicing the craft between launches. Without the Warriors it will be very difficult and almost certainly unsafe. Can we afford the embarrassment of an accident?"

Popov looked across at the President who nodded imperiously.

"You will have them Yuri, but their flights must avoid Hillary Step and Station. We do not want them looking too closely at our designs."

On screen the two watched the Roscosmos Administrator shake his head . . .
With frustration perhaps?
The meaning was unclear.

"You will have your presence in orbit sirs, but we cannot do this for long. We need a base in space to achieve your desires."

The screen went blank. "We need a miracle Vasily, this is not going well." Sokolov looked bleak.

"This is true, a miracle or a disaster Andrei . . . perhaps both."

In Baikonur Roscosmos Administrator Yuri Perminov stalked from the conference room in anger.
Idiots! As if the Americans would be interested in
our
designs. We fly like Albatross, they fly falcon . . . The devil take you!

* * *

The STEIN Transport, Gliese 667 System

Apart from their mystery drop from warp the journey so far had been uneventful. The last two weeks however, cooped up in the relatively small space of the saucer had been a trial. Steph had proved inconsolable and Marin was genuinely concerned. Sitting now in the war room he pushed the coffee across and as she reached for it he grabbed her hand.

"Steph, this has got to stop. I do understand how you must feel. You think that if you'd known about what happened to Regan you would never have risked hurting her, but you've got it all wrong. Regan chose to keep this to herself and I agree with her. She doesn't want that beautiful boy to have the stigma of rape and violence hanging over his head. She just didn't want to take the chance of sharing what happened with anyone, and truthfully, she had dealt with it herself, as best you can with these things. She's a strong woman Steph and she didn't need to be cared for. She certainly didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. Steph, she took her own action, and killed them! Regan takes matters into her own hands; you need to let go of this and do the same."

"I'm sorry Marin; I feel I've let her down, like I should have stayed to support her."

"How can that make sense? All this happened over four years ago. She didn't talk about it then and wouldn't want to now. Look, I doubt anyone ever gets over something like that completely, but after all this time whose needs would it really meet if you tried to bring it up with her?"

"I just feel guilty."

"It shouldn't be about you, so stop. That's not what she would want for you. In fact I think she'd be damn angry with you right now. You're about to arrive on the other side of the galaxy in an alien society. This is a dream; she'd want you to enjoy it. I certainly do, so enjoy it with me, won't you?"

Steph seemed to consider his words then stood and walked around to him. She climbed on his lap and curled up into him. For once his first thought wasn't to carry her to a bunk room. He held her and thought nervously about Dahlia, only three days away.

* * *

Rod brilliantly drifted the ADF in to the flight deck as if he had done it a thousand times before. They had barely stopped moving when Minjee handed him his helmet for the dash across to the airlocks. Gravity was lowest here on the innermost ring, around eighty percent earth normal and they would need to be careful. The real challenge would be entering the emergency airlock without power. Neither of them had ever needed to manually operate the locks and Minjee silently cursed her lack of attention to that fact. Rod nursed the craft as close as possible to the emergency door. They had air for around fifteen minutes outside the ADF and wanted to make the most of their time.