Star One: Tycho City Survival (34 page)

In just a few
moments, the two were lost in conversation as they discussed their futures and
possible wedding plans for Jolene. It was a good sign and showed that even in
the midst of disaster life went on.

Mase was out
on the lunar surface inspecting the work that had been done in the past few
months to seal up all the small fissures that had opened up due to the lunar
quakes that had shaken the Moon. Work crews had been toiling steadily to ensure
that there were no future pressure leaks in the habitats caused by the
fissures.

“We filled
them up, and everything is looking good,” Isaac commented as he and Mase walked
along in their cumbersome white spacesuits. “With the work we’ve done in Luna City, I feel confident that we don’t have to worry about any pressure drops there
either.”

Mase nodded.
At a recent meeting, they had decided to change the name of the old Tycho City to Luna City. With it now being usable again, they had plenty of room for future
expansion of their population. There were also a lot of various production
facilities that could now be put back to use making products for the colony.
That’s what they were now, an official human colony on the Moon trying to
preserve the human race and its heritage.

“How’s the
mass driver?” Mase asked as they stopped to watch a lunar dozer slowly piling
dirt up over what had at one time been a deep fissure. He didn’t know if they
would ever need the mass driver again, but he was curious to know how it had
made it through the quakes.

“There’s a lot
of damage on the rim, and both the control building and the mass driver
building suffered some damage,” Isaac replied. He and Jackson Pierce had driven
out in a Moon Buggy several days back to do an inspection. “We stored the mass
driver a safe distance from the rim, and it seems to have come through intact.
Pierce said if we ever needed to, he thought he could have it operational in
three to four months.”

“There has
been some discussion about using it to launch some supplies to Earth,” Mase
commented. “But I don’t think it would be practical. We won’t be able to
control where the pods come down that well, and there is no guarantee that what’s
inside would survive the passage through the atmosphere and landing.”

“It would be
difficult,” Isaac responded. Then he looked up at the beckoning stars. “It’s
starting to get colder on Earth now. Are they ready for what’s ahead?”

“I hope so,”
Mase replied as he thought over his recent conversations with Warren Timmons
and General Mann. “They’ve done everything possible to get ready. Now we just
have to wait and see how bad the cold gets.”

-

Trace was
wearing a light jacket as he looked at the long rows of vegetables. They would
be harvesting them in a few more days as it was starting to get colder each
night now. He suspected they would have their first freeze within the next
week.

“We’re going
to have to go back inside the bunker and stay again, aren’t we?” Emily asked
from where she was standing at his side. “Are we ever going to be able to stay
out on the surface again permanently? I feel so claustrophobic at times knowing
we can’t go outside.”

Trace knew his
wife didn’t like the cramped living quarters inside the bunker, but it was a
necessity. “Perhaps someday,” Trace spoke as he looked over at Emily. “We would
have to build houses that are better insulated and find a good heating source.
Then, as the days get warmer we might have to go down and live in our
basements.”

Emily was
silent for a long moment; she knew that would be a massive undertaking to build
the houses that were needed. Perhaps it would be simpler just to stay in the
bunker during those months when it was too hot or too cold. She could endure a
few months as long as she knew they could go back outside later.

“Would it be
easier just to expand the bunker?” she asked as she reached out and took
Trace’s hand. “If we just had a few larger rooms to go into it would be so much
better.”

“It might be,”
Trace responded as he looked up into the air. He thought he could hear a
helicopter.

“There it is!”
his father yelled from where he was standing next to the greenhouse.

Trace looked
to where his father was pointing and sure enough, there was a large helicopter
coming directly toward them. The helicopter was bringing them some emergency
supplies to ensure they had plenty of food to get through the cold spell.

The helicopter
circled a few times and then landed on a flat area close to the large garden. Several
uniformed men stepped off holding assault rifles. Trace walked forward, making
sure they could see he was unarmed.

“Are you
Lieutenant Trace Lewis?” one of the soldiers asked as he lowered his rifle.
Trace noticed the soldier was a corporal.

“Yes,” responded
Trace, nodding his head. “We’re glad to see you. You’re the first people we’ve
seen since the disaster.”

“We have some
supplies for you.” The corporal gestured back toward the helicopter and several
more soldiers jumped out and began unloading cases.

“Are you sure
others don’t need this more than us?” Trace asked as he saw how much they were
unloading. They still had food supplies for several years plus the greenhouse
and garden.

“We’re taking
extra supplies to all of the survivors,” the corporal replied. “There are MREs,
medical supplies, and a few other things that you might need. We have spent the
last six weeks searching the country and bringing in everything we could find
that might be useful. At the moment, we have a pretty good stockpile, and we
want to get part of it distributed.”

James walked
up to stand next to Trace and the corporal, watching, as the supplies were
unloaded. He saw several electric heaters being unloaded and smiled. When they
had first been contacted and asked what they might need he had suggested the
heaters to help combat the cold. The bunker had a heating system, but he wasn’t
sure it could handle the frigid cold that would soon be upon them.

The corporal
saw what James was looking at and smiled. “We’ve had requests for a lot of
heaters,” he said. “I suspect later, when it starts to get hotter, we will have
requests for air conditioners.”

When
everything was unloaded, the corporal turned back to Trace and James. “If you
need anything else we will be flying for another two to three weeks, then we
will have to shut down until the warm weather returns. Once it starts to warm
back up we will be back. We plan on making routine flights to visit all of the
survivors. There will also be some doctors and nurses along on future flights.”

Trace nodded.
“Thanks for the supplies, Corporal. It will be good to know we have them if
they’re needed.”

The corporal
nodded and gestured for his men to get back into the helicopter. A few minutes
later, it was back up in the air and vanishing toward the northwest.

“Let’s get
this stuff inventoried and put in the storage rooms,” James commented as
several of the other men walked up. “I’m glad to hear they will be bringing
doctors with them on future trips.”

James looked
up toward the sky, seeing that the helicopter was already out of sight. The bunker
was well stocked, but there was no way he was going to turn down additional
supplies. They would get the garden harvested shortly but could probably wait
another week or two on the greenhouse. Then it would be back inside the bunker
for two or three months. James let out a deep sigh. At least everyone had gotten
to spend some time outside over the last few months. Now it was time to go back
inside the bunker once more.

-

Warren Timmons
smiled at the latest reports. The resupply of the shelters was going well. Over
twenty large supply helicopters were flying around the country delivering extra
supplies to all the known shelters. Over the last two months, they had found
even more survivors. Some in subway systems, underground parking garages,
caves, and even in a few basements.

Some of the survivors
had been moved to better locations, and others had been equipped better to
survive the coming cold. They’d found a wealth of supplies at some of the
factories and warehouses they had been searching. While many areas had been
leveled by the weather, earthquakes, and volcanoes, others had survived
relatively intact. At last count, they had found slightly over 80,000 survivors
in the United States.

“I have some
tentative plans from the engineers,” Major Burns spoke as he slid some drawings
across the conference room table toward Warren.

Warren gazed down at the sketches the engineers had come up with. After speaking to the
scientists at Tycho City as well as the ones that had survived in the bunkers,
it had become obvious that, due to Earth’s new orbit, long-term survival on its
surface was going to be impractical. After speaking to some of the other major
bunkers, they had decided to follow Tycho City’s example. They would be moving
underground permanently and building habitats similar to those on the Moon.

The sketches he
was looking at were of a habitat 10,000 feet long, 400 feet wide, and 75 feet
tall. It would be able to hold 3,200 people and provide most of the food the inhabitants
would need. The rest of the food would be grown up on the surface when the
weather was warm enough. The plan was to build four of these habitats around a large
central hub. They would use solar power and wind generators to furnish the
majority of the power that was needed to operate the habitats. Current plans
were to build six of the new habitat centers in different sections of the
country.

Warren and
General Mann had decided this would give people the best chance of survival.
Construction would start as soon as the temperature warmed and would probably
take four to six years to complete.

“Are we doing
the right thing?” Warren asked as he looked over at Major Burns.

“I believe
so,” the major replied. “After everything we have been through, this will at
least allow our people to live normal lives again.”

Warren nodded. He wondered what President Kateland and General Karver would have thought
about all of this. Somehow, he thought they would have approved.

-

At Farside,
Adam Strong was feeling extremely excited about a recent discovery made by the
Albertson reflector. Just before the FarQuest had gone through the black hole,
it had sent back a photo of stars that could be seen on the far end of the
wormhole. It was a mystery to this day, as to how the photo had been taken.

The astronomers
operating the reflector had finally found a match. If they were correct, the
FarQuest and Star One had exited the wormhole in a star system 57 light years
away from the solar system.

Adam leaned
back in his cushioned chair and thought about this. In astronomical distances,
they were relatively close, almost neighbors. It would be centuries before the
Earth’s population or those living on the Moon reached the point where they
would be ready to reach for the stars. Perhaps sometime in the remote future, people
from Earth would be able to journey to where their long lost cousins had gone.
Adam wished he could be there to see it. It would be a glorious day!

Mase was in
the expanded Control Center speaking with General Mann and Warren Timmons. It
had been over five years since the neutron star and black hole had exited the
system. During that time, much had been accomplished. Additional ecological
habitats had been built, and now Tycho City and Luna City had an excess of
food.

A smaller habitat
had been built at Farside, and the dish array had been repaired and was now
back in full operation. Mase suspected this would have pleased Pierre LaRann
immensely. Nearly 600 people were now living at Farside.

On Earth, most
of the new habitat centers had been finished and the survivors moved into them.
Other countries across the world had followed suit and built new underground
habitats for their people. The latest census had indicated that there were
220,000 survivors worldwide. While not a staggering population, it was enough
to start over.

“It’s amazing
how much the Earth has recovered from the cataclysm,” Warren spoke over the com
system. Everything’s starting to green back up across the globe. Even a few of
the hardier trees have made an appearance.”

“But there’s a
lot less variety than what there was in the past,” General Mann commented.
“Some of the scientists estimate that over seventy percent of the plant species
from before the passage have died out.”

“Same with the
animal life,” Warren added. “All the larger species of animal life are gone;
only the smaller ones that could take refuge underground have survived.”

“Has everyone
moved into the new habitats?” Mase asked. He knew that some had been resisting
the move.

“Almost
everyone,” Warren replied. “A few have built new homes on the surface and have
elected to stay there. They agreed to let us send engineers to inspect what
they have done, and we have agreed to let a few remain.”

“We’re not
giving up the surface completely,” General Mann spoke. “In a way, I’m glad that
a few people will still be there.”

Mase nodded.
So much had changed in the years since the passage. “We will speak again
tomorrow,” he said. The three of them made it a point to talk daily.

As he turned
the com off, he looked over at Major Daniels. Stephanie had been a key figure
in finding the survivors on Earth and communicating with them. The Control Center had been changed over the last few years; it now served as a news center for
Earth. Hourly broadcasts were being made describing current conditions,
weather, and upcoming events. In between the news, music broadcasts were
played. There had even been some discussion about broadcasting movies to Earth.