Star One: Tycho City Survival (24 page)

“I know, Dad,”
responded Trace, feeling an emptiness inside. “It’s just so hard.” He had hoped
that once the fighting at the cape was finished he would never have to use a
weapon again to take a life.

“We’re all
going to have to make hard decisions at some point in time,” James said. “Let’s
just hope we all make the right ones.”

-

Warren Timmons
was in the Control Center for the bunker, gazing at a number of screens on the
wall. Scene after scene of the ongoing disaster upon the surface was being
displayed. Some of the video feeds were being picked up from orbiting satellites
and others from a hidden antenna array upon the top of a nearby mountain.

“It’s getting
worse every day,” spoke Major Burns, shaking his head. “There are reports now
of widespread flooding worldwide, and the hurricanes and typhoons are flooding
vast areas of the world’s coastlines.”

“What about
our own government, how are they doing?” Warren asked. They had heard a few
government broadcasts, but all they seemed to be trying do was attempting to
blame the changes in the weather on Star One.

“Just the
usual propaganda,” Burns replied with disgust in his voice. “The individual
states are doing the best they can and the Federal government seems to be
helpless to deal with the worsening situation. From the latest reports, nearly
sixty percent of the power grid is now down and food is becoming scarce. We are
receiving widespread reports of looting and a complete breakdown of civil
control in some sections of the country.”

Warren nodded. This was just what the Super Crays had predicted. Once the earthquakes and
the volcanoes begin to erupt, the surface would quickly become uninhabitable.

“Do we have
room for more people?” he asked, turning to face Major Burns. He wondered if it
were feasible to try to rescue more people and bring them into the shelter.

“We would need
more supplies,” answered Burns, looking quizzically at Timmons. “Adding more
people would seriously stretch our resources and require us to open up the
bunker and reveal our location. Even with the horrid conditions on the surface,
word of our location would spread quickly through word of mouth. It would take
only one of the surviving radio stations to broadcast our position and Senator
Farley would be aware of our existence.”

“It was just a
thought,” Warren responded with a deep sigh.

“Warren,” Burns spoke in an understanding voice. “We all know the hardships the people up
above are going through. We just need to concentrate on those we have been
entrusted with to make sure they survive this calamity.”

“You’re right
of course,” Warren replied as he watched one of the viewscreens, which showed a
small town inundated with rising water. There were a number of people trapped
upon roofs, and from what he could see; no one was attempting to rescue them.

“That is being
broadcast from a helicopter in Illinois,” a young blonde lieutenant reported
from her communications console. “We are receiving numerous video feeds similar
in nature from all over the country. The flooding is so bad, local governments
and even state governments are being overwhelmed. They just don’t have the
resources to respond to an emergency of this size.”

Warren nodded his head sadly. The scope of the human tragedy was beyond belief. What was
even more frightening was that this was only the beginning; the worst was yet
to come.

Mase was
standing on the lunar surface in his white spacesuit along with Anthony and
over a dozen others. They were all staring upward toward space. Up above a
brilliant light was visible where the Star One space station was in orbit. If
you watched closely, you could almost see it moving. Steve Larson and his team
had decided to move the station out of the Moon’s orbit and take it deeper into
the solar system. They had even been discussing taking it to the black hole and
attempting to take the station through the wormhole to escape a possible nova.

The reason for
this thinking was that Teela, the AI on Star One, was forecasting a good chance
that the sun would undergo a nova-like transformation due to the gravitational
stresses put on it by the close approach of the neutron star and black hole.
How serious this would be was still up for conjecture. Teela was unclear how
large the nova would be. Her simulations showed anything from a minor flare up
of the sun to a full sized nova, which would destroy the entire solar system.

Mase tapped
his com panel to send a message up to Star One. He was quickly put in touch
with Margaret Sullivan, the communications specialist on the station.

“Tell Steve he
has really lit up the night sky,” Mase commented as his gaze stayed riveted on
the sight above. The station had been equipped with four ion drives, and they were
slowly moving the station out of the Earth-Moon Lagrange point. “Some of us are
out on the surface watching the show, and the rest of Tycho City’s inhabitants are watching from their viewscreens. We all wish you the best of luck.”

“Commander
Larson says thank you and that he will contact you later with the status of the
station,” Margaret replied. “Everyone’s pretty excited up here; we’re anxious
to see how well this works.”

“They’re
actually doing it!” Anthony spoke as he gazed upward in awe at the spectacle.

The light had
become much brighter, and he knew that special SRBs attached to the station’s
hull had been fired to help accelerate the massive space station on its long
journey. Anthony knew special Luxen cables had been stretched between the three
wheels of the station to help stabilize it. There had also been a thick layer
of Luxen placed upon the outer hull to strengthen it for what was ahead.

It was sad to
know that so many of his friends were leaving. If they were successful in their
attempt to transit the wormhole, they would be permanently out of reach,
leaving Tycho City on its own. The station seemed to be moving faster, and Anthony
continued to watch with interest.

“We’re on our
own now,” Mase commented as he glanced over toward the edge of the crater where
he knew a Black Knight missile battery was located.

He hoped
Senator Farley didn’t turn his wrath on Tycho City now that Star One was out of
his reach. They would have to be on guard the next few weeks for any signs of
interference from Earth. He also knew that shortly the worsening weather
conditions on Earth would make any attempt to attack Tycho City impractical.

“We were going
to be eventually anyway,” Anthony replied. “Star One might be able to survive in
the short term for a few years, but in the long term the space station is not a
viable option. At some point in time, if they had remained in orbit, they would
have had to come down here in order to survive.”

“Where’s
Jean?” Mase asked. Jean was Anthony’s younger sister.

“Doctor Klein
let her off to watch Star One,” Anthony replied. “She is over at Linda’s
apartment with Jolene and Karen.”

Mase nodded;
he knew very little work was currently being done because of all the excitement
about the space station leaving orbit. That had been the main topic of
conversation for the last several days. There had been a lot of calls made back
and forth as friends said goodbye to each other. The station would still be
within easy communications range for a few more months, but it wouldn’t be the
same when you looked up into space and Star One wasn’t hovering protectively
overhead.

“Linda wants
to cook us all supper tonight,” Mase added as he continued to watch the space
station slowly pull away from the Moon.

He had a
number of close friends on Star One. It was sad to know that he would never see
any of them again. Steve Larson and he had been through a lot together over the
years as Steve built the massive space station and Mase did the same thing with
Tycho City.

Captain
Struthers came over to stand next to Mase and Anthony. “Commander, I have
ordered the crews at the Black Knight stations to be extra vigilant for the
next few days.”

“I was going
to recommend that myself,” Mase replied with a nod. “I don’t think we’re in any
immediate danger, but we should be watchful in any case.”

“Do you think
they will make it?” asked Anthony, referring to the planned attempt by Star One
to transit the wormhole.

“I hope so,”
replied Mase, turning to look at Anthony. “Teela thinks they have a good chance
or they wouldn’t be considering it. If they make it they will be starting a new
human civilization somewhere else in our galaxy.”

The group
became quiet, as they all looked upward at the receding Star One space station.
Around them, the desolate gray lunar landscape seemed even lonelier as Star One
left its protective position above them.

-

Later that
evening, Mase was at Linda’s apartment with the others. “How is progress coming
with the second ecological habitat?” he asked from where he was sitting on the
couch.

Linda and
Karen were in the small kitchen cooking. From the tantalizing aromas coming
from the kitchen, there was not doubt in Mase’s mind that this was going to be
an excellent meal.

“Great!”
Jolene replied with an excited smile. She was sitting in a chair across from
Mase. “The soil has been prepared, and we have already laid out the feeder
lines for nutrients and water. We will begin putting in the first garden plots
in a couple more days.”

“What about
the ponds for the fish?” asked Mase, recalling that Jolene had mentioned
raising fish in several small ponds in an earlier conversation.

Jolene brushed
her black hair back behind her shoulders with her left hand. “Steffan has a
crew coming tomorrow to build them for us. There will be four small ponds,” she
replied, recalling the latest designs. “Each will be one hundred and
twenty-five feet across and four feet deep. We will be raising four different
species of fish. We should have our first harvests in a little over six weeks
from the time the fish are first introduced into the ponds until they are large
enough to eat.”

“Any chance we
can fish in the ponds?” Anthony asked with a thoughtful look on his face. He
was sitting next to Jolene in one of the dining room table chairs. It had been
years since he had gone fishing on Earth.

“I don’t think
so,” admonished Jolene, reaching over and poking Anthony in the side. “Tyler
Erin and John Gray tried that on Star One, and Julie confiscated all of their
fishing gear after she chased them out of the habitat where the fish were.”

“Yeah, John
told me about that,” replied Anthony, shaking his head. He could well imagine
his friend trying to escape his wife’s ire. It was a very comical thought.

“So, we’re
going to have fish to eat?” Jean asked surprised. She had been staying
extremely busy with Dr. Klein and hadn’t thought much about where their food
was going to come from.

“Yes,” Jolene answered.
“Once we get the third habitat built we should have fish, chicken, and pork
available to add to our meals.”

“No steaks?”
Anthony asked with a disappointed look on his face. It was going to be a big
disappointment to go into a restaurant and not find steaks on the menu.

“Not for a
while,” replied Jolene, reaching over and patting Anthony on the leg. “I’m sure
you will be able to survive.”

“How’s your
work with Doctor Klein going?” asked Mase, looking over at Jean who was sitting
on the far end of the couch.

“It’s great,” she
replied with a big smile. “I’m learning so much and we have been really busy
getting the deep sleep chambers ready.”

“I was going
to ask Doctor Klein about that earlier, but never got around to it,” Mase said.
“How many people do we have under now?”

“Twelve
hundred,” replied Jean, promptly. “Doctor Klein says we have enough material
and medical supplies to put another one thousand into deep sleep over the next
six weeks.”

Mase nodded;
that would still leave over six thousand people awake. He would have a talk
with Doctor Klein about speeding up the process. That number needed to be fewer
than four thousand when the neutron star and black hole made their closest
approach.

“Supper’s
ready,” Linda informed them as she stepped into the room, taking off her apron.
“I hope everyone’s hungry!”

They all
gathered around the table, and their eyes widened upon seeing what Linda and
Karen had prepared.

“I didn’t know
you two could cook like this,” Mase said as he eyed the broiled rib-eye steak
on his plate. Looking across the table, he saw Anthony had a big happy grin on
his face.

They had
steaks, baked potatoes, green beans, fried okra, a green salad, and baked
rolls. Mase thought he could smell cinnamon, which hinted at a dessert hiding
somewhere out of sight.

“Linda, you
and Karen did great with this meal,” Jolene commented as she reached for the
salad. She knew that everything in the salad had been grown in her ecological
habitat, and she was anxious to taste it. She had offered to help with the
cooking, but Linda and Karen had insisted that they could handle it.

“We used to
cook together at home,” Linda said with a smile, remembering those days a few
years back. Then the smile slowly faded as she thought about her parents still
trapped on Earth.

Mase saw
Linda’s look of concern and could easily guess what she was thinking about. He
cut into his steak and took a bite. “This tastes great!” he said, breaking out
into a grin. He saw with satisfaction that a smile had returned to Linda’s
face.

“I don’t know
how often we can do this,” Linda spoke as she ate one of the small cherry
tomatoes in her salad. “I had some things put away in our small freezer.”

“Is this salad
all from the habitat?” Anthony asked Jolene as he took a cautious bite and his
eyes widened. “It actually tastes pretty good!”