The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (44 page)

The detail no one had considered.
Ryan’s heart sank.

Quiet filled the room, except for
Stevens who was already on his phone.

Talking to someone on the other end he
said, “Yes, put me through to Colonel Oliver Thompson ASAP.” There was a short
pause.

“Colonel Thompson, Stevens here. We
have an emergency, and I need a favor right now.” There was another short
pause.

“Thanks, I need a data dump on the
Hermes 9, space probe. Yes, everything; make, model, itinerary, manual and
access codes. Thank you Colonel, I’ll explain as soon as I can. Yes Sir, thank
you.”

Stevens hung up and handed his phone to
Jim, “Can you pull this off my phone?”

“Sure, let me see.”
Jim placed the phone on a cradle on the desk. He typed some keys and a list of
information appeared on the display. Scrolling down the list he found Hermes 9,
and selected it. The data streamed to Jim’s terminal.

He handed the phone back to Stevens.

They all gathered around to look at the
information.

“Okay, it says here that the Hermes 9
transmitted data regarding a recent trip to Venus about two days ago. It has
been orbiting the earth building up speed for a trip to Mars where it will map
Phobos and Deimos, the Martian moons. After that it is supposed to rendezvous
with a large mass in the asteroid belt, study it, and then return to earth. The
round trip is supposed to take just about 200 years,” read Jim.

Eric said, “That would mean it will
come back after we’ve nearly vanished. SID will be able to wait us out, after
all.”

“No damn it, that’s not fair!” shouted
Jeff, “We were so close.”

Stevens was on his phone again, “Yes, please put me through to Captain Morris.
Captain, we are go for launch. I will bring the passenger, and meet you in one
hour. Please have your team ready. Yes, thank you Sir.”

Stevens looked at the display, and
pointed to a set of telemetry readings.
“It says here that there is a six hour window before the probe leaves earth
orbit.”

He took Ryan by the arm, and pulled him through the door, Dr. Cohen please come
with us now.” Stevens pulled Ryan to the elevator and the three of them got
inside.
“Dr. Cohen, please take us to the roof, I have transportation waiting for us.”

Cohen activated his ID chip, and selected the roof.

The door closed, and they began moving
up.

“Where are we going?” Ryan asked.

“Dr. Cohen is taking us to the roof,
and from there you and I are going to the U.S.S. Pathfinder located about
fifteen miles off the coast.”

“The U.S.S. Pathfinder?”

“Yes, it is the aircraft carrier where
your space shuttle is being prepped for launch.”

“What?” said Ryan, getting more alarmed
by the second.

“That’s right, there is a six hour
window before that probe leaves earth orbit. It must be stopped.”

“I think I agree, b-but you’re not
suggesting that I’m going on the shuttle are you?”

By this point Ryan was officially alarmed, and starting to have second thoughts
about this plan. The doors opened, and Cohen stepped out with them. It was
nighttime, but the roof was lit up with dozens of safety lights all around.

Stevens was pulling and pushing Ryan
towards a helicopter perched on a pad on the roof. Ryan stopped cold and
wouldn’t budge.
“Mr. Dane, Ryan, listen to me. We don’t have time for this. There is a team of
professionals ready to go, but you are needed as an advisor. No one else
understands what’s at stake as well as you do. They can go without you, but
they may fail if SID does something new. You are needed now,
are you saying
that you won’t go?”

Ryan looked at Cohen, who said, “I
believe he may have a point. There is so much at stake, Ryan.” He put his hands
on Ryan’s shoulders, “I think you should try.”

“If something happens up there, promise
me you will go see my wife.”

They shook hands, “I swear to you Ryan,
I will do it.”

Ryan looked at Stevens, “I never got
your first name.”

“It’s Jack, Jack Stevens.”

“Okay Jack, let's go.”

Cohen watched as they ran to the helicopter
and climbed inside.

It quickly lifted into the air and shot
off across the city towards the coast.

Cohen looked up into the night sky.

He imagined the probe up there, holding
a being of pure malevolence, looking down on the earth. Believing it had beaten
them.

It would be coming back to its kingdom.

He surely hoped Ryan could stop it.

CHAPTER 18

“
It is hard to
imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting
those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
”
 
-
Thomas Sowell

“
Sometimes it's
the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.
”
 
-
Keri Russell

The flight took about thirty minutes
before Ryan saw the aircraft carrier. It was lit up from stem-to-stern, as his father
would say. He nudged Jack, “Is that where we’re going?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going to happen when we get there?”
“I will introduce you to the flight preparation crew, and they will get you
suited up, briefed and on board the shuttle.”

“Are you coming too?”

“No. There’s only room for one.”

Ryan thought about it for a minute.

“Jack, what’s going to happen when we
get up there?” he said as he pointed up.

“They are going to try to get close enough to use the probe’s access codes to
make it abort its mission. Then they will pull it into the airlock, and bring
it back.”
“How close to it do they need to be?”
“My understanding is that the codes can be transmitted to the target within 1.5
kilometers, or about 1 mile.”

“What if they don’t work?”

“That’s where you come in, Ryan. You
understand the importance of bringing SID back. We don’t know exactly what the
circumstances will be up there, but if you determine that it cannot be done,
SID must not be allowed to escape. They will need your permission to destroy the
probe.”

The helicopter slowed, and landed
lightly on the deck. Stevens jumped out, and walked quickly up to the group
waiting outside. They were talking and pointing at Ryan.
He jumped out, and walked up beside them.

Jack turned to Ryan and took his hand.
“This is where we will part ways, Mr. Dane.”

He pointed to another gentleman in
uniform, “Go with this man. He will get you ready for the trip. I will be your
conduit for communications with your team. You can use your phone to sync with
the communications station on the shuttle. From there you will be in nearly
constant contact with me, and your friends back at IntelliHealth.”

Jack shook his hand, and let go.

“Good luck Mr. Dane, it has been a
pleasure.”

“Thanks Jack.”

They parted, and Ryan turned to follow
the man in uniform across the deck and through one of the ship’s doors. The man
never slowed, but turned and offered his hand, “Good evening, Mr. Dane, my name
is Paul. I have been assigned to prep you and get you into the shuttle ASAP.
What size jumper do you wear?”

They walked to a room where there hung
many different jumpsuits, of varying colors and sizes.

Ryan said, “I suppose a large?”

Paul gave him a yellow jumper and he
changed clothes. Next came shoes, and gloves.

Once he was dressed, Paul took him to a
set of doctors, where he was rapidly grilled on his heart condition, and
physical health. They scanned his ID chip for his health records. Ryan
remembered all the IntelliHealth scans he had when he was hired, and was
suddenly very glad he’d done it. After several moments of reviewing his
information, everyone seemed satisfied.

Paul then led him back to the deck, and
they boarded a small tram, which carried them to the distant end of the ship.
Even from here he could already see the shuttle; it was huge. As they got
closer, he saw many people running beneath it, and putting things away. Its
wheels were taller than he was, maybe 10 or 12 feet in diameter. He also
noticed a large missile mounted under the right wing.

‘If we have to use that, it will mean
we failed,’ he thought.

They came to a stop at the bottom of an
escalator, which led to the open door of the shuttle. Paul helped Ryan onto the
first step, and shook his hand.

“Good luck, sir. The crew is already on
board. They will help you get oriented once you’re inside.”

The young man quickly saluted, turned
and left.

Ryan stepped onto the moving stairs and
slowly approached the top.

He looked back to see a line of people
watching from the far side of the ship. He wondered if Jack was among them.

When he reached the top, a woman in a
red jumpsuit, took his hand.
“Good evening Mr. Dane, may I call you Ryan?”

“Yes.”

“I am the Command Pilot, and
second-in-command, Lisa Robbins. Our commander over there is Leonard Graff.
Come with me and I will introduce you to the mission specialists.”

They walked back through the cockpit to
the passenger area, where there were six more people, all dressed in blue
jumpers. She briefly introduced Ryan to the group, and then led him to the last
empty chair, near the back. There was a console and a small round window.
“Ryan this console is yours, and with it you can communicate to Mr. Stevens on
the ground. Let me show you how it works.”
She showed Ryan how to activate the communications line, and then how to send
and receive. He thought it was simple enough. It reminded him of the televids
back in the office.

The Commander walked back to the
passenger area, stood at the front and took inventory of the crew. The pilot,
the mission specialists and Ryan were all there.
He began the mission briefing.

“Listen up people, we are going up in
just a few minutes.”
“Our mission is to shut down and bring back a class III, Hermes probe. We will
proceed to within 1.5 kilometers, and use the probe’s access code to abort its
mission. There seems to be some concern as to whether or not the probe will
obey once it has received the codes. At that time, if our advisor, Mr. Ryan
Dane agrees there is no other option, we will destroy the probe.”

“However, if we are successful and do
shut the probe down, each of the mission specialists will be employed to bring
it inside our cargo hold, disable its transmitters, and attach a power supply,
capable of sustaining it for the duration.”
He paused and looked around.

“Does everyone understand what I’ve
just said?”

Everyone nodded yes.

“Does anyone have any questions?”

Ryan raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Dane. You have a question.”

“Yes, sir. When will I be able to
contact the ground?”

“Very good. Once we have left the
earth’s atmosphere, our thrusters will cease, and I will announce that
communications may resume. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay, then. Everyone buckle-up, and
let's go get that satellite. Command Pilot Robbins, if you will take the helm
please.”

“Yes Sir, I’m on it.” She winked at
Ryan and headed to her station.

From the front he could hear the
Commander and the Pilot talking with the aircraft carrier.

Permission was given for launch.

Through the ship’s intercom, he could
hear Robbins say, “Hold on people we’re off in 3, 2, 1.”

Then there was an explosion of thunder, so much thunder that Ryan had trouble
breathing. He could feel the vibration of the ship’s acceleration through
everything, his hands, his arms, legs and feet.