Price of a thousand bles.., p.13
Level Seven, page 13
“Okay. Let me help you suit up,” Abby finally said aloud. Then she subvocally said to Mortimer, “Tell me what’s happening now.”
“More trouble. One of our standard warhead missiles and one EMP missile have stopped responding to commands.”
“Destroyed?”
“Unknown,” Mortimer said, continuing the private conversation. “The asteroid is also trying to jam radio comms with our drone fleet, but that has been intermittent. Contact loss with the missiles seems more permanent, so I’m assuming the worst.”
Abby finished checking Violet’s seals, then helped her attach the MU to the bottom of her utility pack.
“The EVA team needs to get back inside as quickly as possible,” Mortimer said. “Four of my stealth drones are almost in position to attack the lasers. Once they do, I’ll send the remaining two missiles in.”
Abby watched until Violet entered the airlock and cycled it before returning to the bridge. She immediately strapped in and examined the screens. One said simply, “drone detonation countdown,” and the number was shrinking rapidly.
“I thought you were going EVA?” Nora said.
“Violet went,” Abby said without further explanation.
Nora’s only reply was a cold glare.
“Mortimer? I thought we were going to detonate an EMP missile above the reactor and the control center, then hit each with a regular warhead. We can’t do that now.”
“Correct. I’m going to focus our attack on the reactor since I’m not positive where the command center is located, but the EMP warhead is also pumped by a small nuke, so hopefully, that will be enough to take out both. Even if the command center survives after we destroy the reactor, it should be robbed of power and unable to stop the rest of our drones from coming in to clean up.”
“And their magnetic field won’t protect them from the EMP?”
“Not one this strong,” Mortimer said.
“Should we move farther away?”
“Nukes act differently in space. Even if their reactor goes critical and detonates, the shock waves can’t travel through air or the ground. Being a hundred miles distant is more than enough.”
Abby glanced at the camera feeds showing her friends working outside. They had freed one missile, and Violet was pushing it away from the ship. She was just about to ask about their safety when Mortimer spoke.
“The missiles are starting their attack run,” Mortimer announced. The main screen split between a camera view of the rock on one side and trajectory arcs and an ETA countdown on the other. “Those of you outside the ship, look away from the asteroid. There will be nuclear detonations. Their brightness could possibly overwhelm your visor’s ability to filter.”
As the first missile neared the rock, it flashed a brief OVERHEAT warning and suddenly disappeared from the screen. Then a bright flash made the telescope’s brightness filters engage to dim the view.
“What—” Abby said, but before she could complete her question, the second missile nearing the asteroid also detonated, creating another flash and causing the screens to momentarily fuzz with static.
“Apparently, the asteroid still had a laser battery held in reserve,” Mortimer said as the screens began to clear. “They blasted the EMP missile, but before its tanks exploded from the heat, I sent the order to detonate the warhead. I think it was close enough to do the job, because the second one got through with no laser fire. My sensors show that the magnetic field is down, and the entire area around the reactor is molten hot.”
Another explosion flared on the screen. “And that was their reactor exploding.”
Abby let out a long breath she’d been holding. “So, it worked?”
“Yes.”
Nora groaned and leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed. She’d obviously been stressed too. The EVA camera feeds showed that everyone outside was still fine.
“Matt? How are you doing?”
A loud Klaxon sounded throughout the ship, and several screens started flashing a red INCOMING ATTACK message.
“We’re about done,” Matt said. “Hey, what—”
Then several things happened all at once. The ship lurched into motion, slamming Abby hard into her harness as she jolted forward. She cried out as pain lanced through the still-mending wound in her side.
“Violet! Get away from that missile, quick!” Mortimer said. “One of our own EMP missiles has been compromised and launched at us. It will be here in thirty-one seconds.”
The feed from Violet’s helmet camera showed a chaotic scene. Off to one side, the Jackalope moved into the frame as it positioned itself between the spacewalkers and the asteroid. Matt and Ikemba had been tethered to the ship and were violently yanked along behind it. The missile Violet had been moving blasted away from her using attitude thrusters, sending her and the camera view tumbling away. Evidently, she’d been using her suit jets or the MU to move around since no tether pulled her along behind the ship. Violet grunted and cursed as she struggled to control her tumble, and on one rotation, the camera showed the missile’s engine fire as it streaked out of the frame.
Before Abby could even gather her wits to ask a question, the ship rattled violently, screens fuzzed to static, and then all the lights went out. A half second later, the lights flickered back on, and the screens showed various systems in the process of rebooting.
“Mortimer, what happened?” He didn’t reply. She remembered losing contact with him due to an EMP during the attack in the bunker, so she didn’t panic.
“Nora, are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said, but her eyes were still wide, and a sheen of sweat covered her face. “What happened to Violet?”
“I don’t know yet. We’re going to have to wait until the systems reset.”
“And I’ve lost contact with Archie. Is . . . is he dead?”
Abby shook her head. “No. I’ve lost contact with Mortimer, too, but I doubt they’re dead. I’ve had this happen before. We just need to give them a couple of minutes and see if they reset on their own.”
Radio contact with Violet was restored with a loud crackle. “Hello! Can anyone hear me? Abby? Mortimer? Nora?”
“We read you!” yelled Nora. “What’s your status?”
“I’m okay,” Violet said. “But you guys are going to have to come and get me. I’m kind of flying away from you, and that’s, ummm . . . pretty scary.”
“Can’t you use the maneuvering unit?” Abby said.
“Well, the MU isn’t working because one of its thruster outriggers snapped off. Which, I might add, is why I also seem to have a broken arm. Stupid design.”
Nora cursed under her breath. “We have to go get her.”
“We will.” To Violet, she said, “Is your suit intact? Everything working?”
“Yes. I’ve stopped my tumble using the suit thrusters, but since they use my breathing gas, I’m not going to waste it all attempting a return to the ship. I’m too far away.”
“Good thinking,” Abby said as she locked on to Violet’s suit transponder so that they wouldn’t lose her. Then she shifted the entire sensor package toward the asteroid, hoping to get a better idea of what was happening.
Violet was breathing heavily and cursing under her breath. “So, can Mortimer or Archie take control of my suit and bring me back?”
Abby glanced at Nora, who shook her head. Still no word from either of the AIs.
“Can’t do that just yet,” Abby said. “They are both offline, rebooting. Just hang tight. We need to check on Matt and Ikemba. We’ll come and get you once we have the guys back inside. Can you see them?”
“No. I’m too far away. The ship is about the size of a thumbnail now.”
Abby swallowed hard and glanced at Nora again, who stared at the screen showing Violet’s trajectory away from the ship. “Matt! Ikemba! Come in, guys. Answer if you can.”
After unbuckling her harness, she said to Nora, “Stay here and keep talking to Violet. I’m going to try and get the guys back inside.”
She pulled her way down the corridor to the airlock and looked out the little window in the interior hatch.
The outer hatch was closed.
Understanding flooded into her like ice water. When she installed the new gravity-manipulation drive, she had also created interlocks that made it impossible to engage the powerful magnetic field with the airlock open, to prevent it from messing with a spacewalker’s delicate suit electronics. Mortimer had closed the airlock before operating the drive to move the ship. That meant Ikemba’s and Matt’s suits had been fried.
Just as she was getting ready to don her suit, the outer hatch swung open, revealing the two space-suited figures struggling to get inside.
Mortimer spoke inside her head, “I’m here, Abby. I’ve shut down the drive and opened the airlock. They should be okay now, but be ready in case you need to help them. When I turned on the ship’s magnetic field, it killed Matt’s and Ikemba’s suit electronics. They have air because it is a mechanical system, but no heat, lights, or radio.”
“Show me a camera view inside the airlock,” Abby said as she pulled a suit from the locker and struggled to get into it in zero-g. “I assume you intercepted the missile with the one Violet was pushing away from the ship?”
“Yes. Luckily, it didn’t get close enough to do its full EMP damage, but we did suffer some minor issues. I might need your help to replace some melted-down circuit blocks.”
The airlock hatch closed, but before the chamber had even fully pressurized, Matt removed his helmet and was yelling over the intercom. “Go get Violet! She’s drifting away.”
Abby breathed a sigh of relief. “Mortimer, can you take control of her suit thrusters and bring her back?”
“No, she’s too far now, and her MU is broken,” Mortimer said. “We’ll have to go get her. Hang on to something, everyone. We have to hurry. One of our missiles is still unaccounted for.”
CHAPTER 12
With Mortimer at the ship’s controls, it was relatively easy to match Violet’s course and then edge up close enough for her to enter the airlock. Getting her out of the suit—with her arm flopping around like a wet noodle—proved much more difficult.
As Nora tended to Violet, Abby began patching up the ship’s internal systems that had been damaged by the nearby explosion while Mortimer controlled drones doing the external repairs. Mortimer also fed her detailed reports from his drones near the asteroid. There had been no new activity since the missile launch.
A half hour later, Abby finished with the most urgent repairs and started toward the Jackalope’s tiny galley to check on the crew.
“So, Matt and Violet both have broken arms?” Abby groaned. She remembered her own broken arm after being thrown from a horse as a kid.
“You shouldn’t be moving around,” Mortimer said. “We don’t know what other surprises might be lurking on or around that asteroid. Our EMP might not have disabled all of their equipment. Besides, we still haven’t found that other missile, and everyone needs to be strapped in.”
“It’s been forty minutes since the last one came after us,” Abby said. “I’m willing to take the chance. We can’t just let them sit strapped in with untreated broken arms. Besides, the rest of the crew is already down here. I should be too. Have you notified Uptown Station of our status?”
“Yes. They’ve also said they can now easily see the rock on radar. Still no change in course or obvious activity.”
“That is so weird,” Abby said. “We need to find out how the Aggregate hid that huge asteroid.”
She entered the galley that was serving as an emergency medical bay and saw Violet floating next to Nora in one corner. Violet grinned and held up her right forearm in a cast. “Hi, Captain! Both bones!”
“You don’t do anything halfway, do you? Are you going to be okay?”
“Good as new when these little nanoids finish with me. And these med packs give some goooood drugs. Will you sign my cast and draw pretty flowers on it?”
Abby snorted. “Maybe later.”
She turned to Matt. Ikemba sat beside him, unwrapping a large nano-med patch.
“You too?”
Matt shrugged and grinned. His arm was already showing ugly shades of yellow and magenta just above the elbow. Ikemba carefully wrapped the patch around Matt’s arm and watched as data began scrolling down a nearby screen.
“Yes. It’s broken,” Ikemba said. “I guess Matt just didn’t want to be left out of the party.”
The patch immediately infused painkillers, making Matt sigh and roll his eyes. “Violet is right about the good drugs.”
The nanotech material then began to flow over Matt’s arm, looking every bit like the videos Abby had seen of replicators eating people. It sent a chill creeping up her spine, but this mass stopped growing once it had encased his entire arm in a stiff, hard-shelled cast.
Abby shook her head and frowned. “I saw the way the two of you were yanked around on the end of your tethers, so I guess we’re lucky you both weren’t hurt worse. How is it that you’ve been inside much longer than Violet, yet you’re second in line for treatment?”
“I wasn’t sure about mine at first, but by the time Ikemba was done working on Violet, I was convinced it was something more than a bump.”
“My drones found the other missile,” Mortimer said and opened a screen on a blank wall in the galley. The video showed it floating nose-down toward the asteroid, and it appeared to be dead. The camera zoomed in on a little device attached to the missile’s skin. “I suspect this is how they compromised the missiles. I’ll need to do a thorough examination, but it appears that my protections were enough to stop them from seizing control remotely, so they simply cut their way inside with tiny drones to gain access to the flight systems.”
“Then why didn’t this one come after us too?”
“The drones aren’t picking up any heat or electronic traces, so it appears to be inert. I suspect it was caught in the EMP blast, but I’ve instructed my drone to hover nearby and detonate if the missile shows any signs of becoming active.”
“So, can we do what we came here to do now?” Nora said.
“Yes,” Mortimer said. “My drones have scoured the rock to the best of my ability. There could still be something hidden there, but I think we’re ready to approach the rock, so everyone needs to strap in.”
“Okay, everyone,” Abby said. “You heard Mr. Roboto. We need to get to our seats and buckle in.”
“I hate it when you call me things like that,” Mortimer said inside her head.
“I know, I know,” she said with a broad grin.
Ikemba helped the still-drugged Matt back to their ship, and Nora guided Violet back to her seat. Five minutes after everyone was strapped in, they were underway.
They arrived at the asteroid without further incident. Then, using the construction bots, they began unloading the reactors and positioning them on the surface. Once they were anchored in place, a gravity-manipulation unit was connected to each, and they were powered up.
The Aggregate had used one large reactor, but Mortimer’s modeling showed that the eight small reactors Abby’s team had brought should generate enough power to encompass the entire rock inside a giant magnetic and gravity-manipulation bubble. Still, the team was attempting to combine multiple gravity fields, which hadn’t been tried before.
“Okay,” Mortimer finally said. “We’re ready. The reactors are all producing power and responding to our commands. I’m moving the ship farther away to make sure we don’t get sucked into the field like we did during Abby’s experiment.”
Abby checked the clock. Using only construction bots, Mortimer had installed all eight units in two hours and forty-three minutes. Maybe Owen had been right. If it hadn’t been for the transit straps not being removed from the missiles, which had been human error, she and the rest of the humans hadn’t really been needed on the mission. And given enough time, Mortimer could have fixed that problem with bots too. Were humans simply becoming irrelevant?
Their concern about combining gravity fields was totally unfounded. Once two fields touched, they immediately merged, and the combining effect continued to expand until the entire rock was inside the bubble.
“Going to seventy-five percent power,” Mortimer said. The familiar blue and pink boundaries represented on their screens brightened as the combined field grew more powerful. “And now I’m attempting to adjust its course.”
At first, there didn’t seem to be any change in the original deadly trajectory arc shown on the screen, but then a second track showed, diverging slightly from the first and widening over time.
“It’s working,” Mortimer said. “The course is already changed enough to save the station.”
Cheers filled the little room. Even Matt, who had been dozing in a drug-induced stupor, woke long enough to celebrate.
“This is great news,” Nora said. “Now we know this multiple-GMU procedure will work for Uptown Station too.”
Mortimer continued talking over the chatter in the room. “We’ll need to shadow the rock for two more days, until it is well past the station, before shutting down the drive to collect the reactors and GMUs. I had wanted to put the rock into a long, elliptical orbit around the moon, but it’s moving too fast. On this current course, it will move deeper out into space and eventually be pulled into the sun.”
“Can we stay longer than two days if necessary?” Matt asked. “I’d like to steal one of those kick-ass lasers and also install one of the GMUs on my ship. I doubt my dad would make me remove either of those once they’re installed.”
“Hooking up one of the GMUs should be easy enough,” Mortimer said, “but if that laser didn’t take damage from the blast, its electronics will most likely be useless due to the EMP.”
“We can still try!” Ikemba said.
“And find out how the asteroid managed to disappear from radar,” Violet said.
Abby made a command decision. “We’ll stay as long as it takes to collect the tech and data we need, unless Uptown Station has a good reason for us to get back sooner. With this thing moving deeper out into space, we might not have another opportunity.”
