Star One: Tycho City Survival (19 page)

“So, no more
steaks,” Anthony said as he cut off a smaller slice. He was going to take his
time and enjoy this one. It was hard to imagine not having steaks to eat.

“If we can
build a larger ecological habitat later, perhaps then we can expand our cattle
herd,” added Jolene, seeing the disappointed look on Anthony’s face. “But I am
afraid that the number of cattle we have is always going to be severely limited
due to space. Steaks are probably going to be few and far between.”

Linda turned
and looked over at Mase. She knew the commander had been under a lot of
pressure recently and was spending a lot of time talking to Jane Kinsey about
the supplies they still needed. “Are we going to be able to get all of our
supplies and people up here?”

“Hopefully,”
Mase replied with a heavy sigh. “We have twenty-six shuttles available,
counting the military ones. Jane Kinsey has ordered the shuttle’s maintenance
checks after a flight to be shortened. Once a shuttle arrives here, we have
twelve hours to refuel it, check its systems, and get it launched. It gets a
twenty-four hour check when it lands back at the cape.”

“That’s
skipping a lot of safety protocols,” commented Anthony, thinking about all the
intricate systems on the large shuttles. We could lose a shuttle or two because
of it.”

“I know,” replied
Mase, somberly. “But we have no other choice. Already, Senator Farley’s forces
are moving toward the cape. Heavy fighting will break out there soon. I spoke
with General Karver earlier; he and his men do not intend to surrender until
the cape has launched everything they have stockpiled there. That includes
people and supplies.”

“How heavy
will the fighting be around the cape?” Jolene asked. She still found it hard to
imagine Americans fighting Americans.

“It could be
very heavy,” answered Mase with a heavy sigh. “There are currently two carrier
battle groups off the Florida coast, so General Karver should be able to
control the air space around the cape. He has two full marine divisions as well
as several army divisions he has put together just to the north of the cape
complex. It just depends on how badly Senator Farley wants to take the cape and
stop the launches.”

“Farley’s a
madman,” Anthony spoke, his eyes glinting in frustration. “A good fourth of the
people we still plan on bringing up are trapped away from the cape and probably
won’t be able to get there. Farley has restricted travel in the county until
the military situation has been settled.”

“A few are
still straggling in,” added Mase, wishing more had been able to make it. There
were a number of distinguished scientists that were still at various
universities that now would not be coming up to the Moon or Star One.

After they had
eaten, Mase walked Linda to her quarters. Anthony and Jolene had gone on to pick
up Jean and then they were headed off to watch a movie. It seemed strange that,
in the middle of everything that was going on, people could still live a normal
life.

“My sister
Karen is at the cape and should be coming up tomorrow,” Linda said with obvious
relief and excitement in her deep brown eyes. “My parents are too old, and they
feel their place is to remain on Earth.”

Mase nodded,
very few people over the age of fifty were coming up. Some of that was
intentional. Only older people who were versed in a needed profession were
being allowed to come up to either Star One or Tycho City.

“I’m glad
she’s coming up,” Mase responded. He knew that Anthony’s sister had arrived a
few days earlier. “I received word late this afternoon that my brother Phillip
and his family have managed to make it to the cape. Phillip called me and said
they had to travel at night and use the back roads. He said they were lucky to
have made it at all with all the new checkpoints being set up to control travel.
Where will your sister be staying?”

“Here with
Jolene and me,” Linda said as they arrived at her small apartment building.
Linda’s apartment was a two bedroom. “She gets the couch for the time being.”

“Better than a
tent,” said Mase, grinning. “I can’t wait to meet your younger sister.”

Linda smiled.
It had taken her several weeks to let her guard down with Mase. She still felt
a little uncomfortable dating him since technically he was still her boss.

“You will like
Karen,” Linda said. Her little sister had a great sense of humor and was very
mature for her age.

“Have you
decided on a job for her yet?” asked Mase, curiously.

“Yes, I have,”
replied Linda as they went up the stairs to her third story apartment. “She has
always loved gardening. Jolene has a load of dwarf fruit trees coming up
tomorrow on one of the shuttles, so I think we’re going to put her to work in
one of the ecological habitats. She can help with planting the trees and taking
care of them.”

“Sounds like a
great idea,” Mase said as they reached the door to her apartment. “It will at
least give her something constructive to do.”

Linda entered
her personal door code, and her door unlocked. She opened the door and then
turned back to face Mase. She leaned forward, and he gently kissed her lips.

Mase stepped
back, smiling. “I will see you tomorrow; I want to meet this sister of yours.”

“I will bring
her by the office when she gets here,” Linda promised as she stepped inside her
apartment and closed the door behind her.

She could feel
her heart racing. She wondered if Mase knew just how much being near him affected
her. Having Jolene and her younger sister living with her would definitely
restrict any alone time she would like to have with the commander. Then again,
she thought, Mase did have a large, roomy apartment of his own. However, she
wasn’t sure if she was ready to move their relationship to that more intimate
stage.

-

Mase was out
at the mass driver watching the launches from the large viewscreen that Jackson
Pierce had installed in his office. The viewscreen had been put in immediately
after the accident a few months back.

“Everything’s
functioning fine,” Jackson said from behind his desk. “Since we’re only
launching to Star One, there is no stress at all on the mass driver.”

Mase nodded.
“We’ve had several threatening messages from Senator Farley demanding that we renew
launches back to Earth, but we’re ignoring those. Somehow I don’t think we
would get paid for our efforts.”

“Doubtful,” Jackson agreed then he looked at Mase with a thoughtful look upon his face. “I just wonder
if we will need the mass driver again once this neutron star passes.”

“Hard to say,”
Mase replied as he watched a mass driver cargo pod accelerate up the rail and
into space toward Star One. “I think the bigger question is will the mass
driver survive some of the moonquakes we will be experiencing in a few more
months?”

“We could
strengthen the rail,” Jackson suggested. “That would increase its survivability.”

“Perhaps,”
Mase said doubtfully. “But what if the crater wall becomes unstable?”

Jackson shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “It could happen if a powerful enough
moonquake was to hit us. In that case, everything could come crashing down. What
else can we do?”

“How hard
would it be to disassemble the entire mass driver?” Mase asked as he considered
the options. He wanted the mass driver available just in case they might need
it in the future. Star One might still need raw materials when all of this was
over.

“The entire
mass driver?” Jackson spoke, his eyes widening at the thought. “That would be a
major job.”

“Could it be
done?” persisted Mase, his eyes focusing on Jackson.

“Yes,” Pierce
finally responded as he thought about everything that would have to be done to
disassemble the mass driver. “It would be a big job, but we could do it. I
would recommend removing the magnetic accelerator coils and leaving the rail; it’s
anchored deep into the side of the crater wall. We can always rebuild the rail
if we need to; it would be harder to replace all the coils.”

“Make plans to
do it then,” ordered Mase, as he reached a decision. “At some point it may
become unsafe to continue to operate the mass driver. At that time, we will
disassemble it and move the parts a safe distance from the crater wall.”

“I will get
with Jase on this,” replied Jackson, thinking about the effort that would be required
to do as Mase was suggesting. He knew that Jase would not be happy to hear
this. “What’s the current situation on Earth? I heard there is already fighting
around the cape.”

Mase nodded.
“General Karver is well dug in with his marines and a few army units. There
have only been a few half hearted attempts to take the cape so far, even though
General Karver expects the attacks to increase over the coming weeks.”

Jackson nodded. His older brother was supposed to come up, but the last he had heard, Adrian was still in Illinois with no way to safely reach the cape.

-

Thirty-two
miles north of the cape, Lieutenant Trace Lewis and his twelve-man squad were
slowly edging themselves along a small ravine. They had been sent out to
reconnoiter the enemy positions in this sector and were doing everything to
approach their objective undetected.

Lewis held up
his hand in a fist and indicated for his men to stop. He could feel his heart
racing, and he took a moment to get his breathing back under control. A small ridge
ahead of them would give them a good view of the enemy forces. The only problem
was he was pretty certain that the ridge was held by enemy troops, and his
squad would be detected if they attempted to ascend it.

He held his
breath as he raised his binoculars to his eyes and studied the terrain ahead as
well as the ridge. Sure enough, he could see movement atop the ridge. Gesturing
for the radioman to come up, Lewis sent word back that the ridge was occupied. The
captain had set up a contingency plan in case the ridge held enemy troops. Turning,
he gestured for his marines to take cover.

In a few
moments, Lieutenant Lewis heard a loud whistling sound pass overhead and
suddenly the ridge erupted with a serious of large, deafening explosions. Dirt
was hurled high up into the air, and he thought he could hear screams mixed in
with the shells going off. For a full minute, the cape’s artillery pounded the
top of the ridge, blasting the enemy positions, and then everything fell
silent.

“Let’s go,” he
ordered, gesturing for his men to follow him. He took off at a trot, wanting to
reach the top of the ridge before the enemy could send reinforcements.

It only took
them a few minutes to reach the summit and his entire squad came to a horrified
stop as they gazed at the carnage from the artillery bombardment. Trace watched
sympathetically as several of his marines threw up at seeing what the artillery
had done. The bodies of the enemy had been severely mutilated by the explosions,
and it wasn’t a sight anyone wanted to see. It was also one you were likely
never to forget.

Lewis
carefully examined the bodies, doing his best not to show any revulsion at what
he had to do. There were sixteen they could find and that were recognizable. Of
them, only four wore military uniforms and the rest were obviously civilians.

“It’s as we
thought,” Corporal Higgins reported as he walked up to Lewis. “They are using
civilians to fill in for a lack of trained troops.”

Lieutenant
Lewis nodded. This was one of the things that General Mann had wanted to know.
General Mann was second in command to General Karver.

He reached for
his binoculars at his waist and, putting them to his eyes, carefully scanned
the terrain on the other side of the ridge. He could see a few uniformed troops
moving around, but primarily what he was seeing were lightly armed civilians.
Most of them seemed to be carrying shotguns and hunting rifles, and only the
soldiers seemed to have the heavier weapons.

“We’ve got
what we came for,” he said after a few more minutes. He was pretty certain he
had spotted a few enemy troops already making their way toward the ridge.
“Let’s get back and report; I don’t think we have to worry about a major attack
against our lines from this sector. At least not for a while.”

Higgins nodded
as he rounded the men up and they began descending the ridge. “They will need
to bring more trained troops up before they become a threat to us,” Higgins
commented as he stepped around several small bushes.

“They will
eventually,” Lewis responded, worried about what could soon be ahead of them.
“They’re still in the process of pacifying the country. Once that’s done, the
troops will arrive.”

Higgins
nodded. He knew that the big battles were still in the future. Idly, he
wondered how his family in Nebraska was doing. Currently there was no way to
contact them as all lines of outgoing communication were down. He hoped that when
this was over he could get back home. His dad had a large farming operation he
needed help with, and Higgins had always planned on following in his father’s
footsteps and eventually taking over the family farm when his father retired.

Lieutenant
Lewis watched as his men made it down the ridge and started along the small
ravine that led back to safety. He wondered how many of his marines would still
be alive when this was over. He had a sickening feeling it wouldn’t be many.

Mase was
talking to Steve on Star One about the current situation on Earth and the
worsening condition around the cape. Over the last six weeks, mountains of
supplies and thousands of people had been sent up from the cape and the two
military launch centers. However, it hadn’t been without cost. During the last
four weeks, the forces besieging the cape had managed to shoot down five of the
valuable and irreplaceable shuttles with long-range interceptor missiles.