The starchild compact, p.7
The Starchild Compact, page 7
"Twisted my left knee. I should be okay in a couple of days." He gave Jon and Ginger a broad grin as he adjusted to the lurching motion. "Your arm?" he asked Ginger.
"Broken humerus – I'm okay for now."
"Ari – to the Core," Jon said on the All-Call. "Ginger…anything inside I need to know about?"
"Not right now, Skipper. Stuff tossed around – no major damage I can see on first survey."
"Outside shows we're whipping around like a cart on a carnival ride whip," Jon told them. "Everything's moving relative to everything…"
Ari stuck his head into the Core. It was wrapped with a white bandage that already was taking on a red stain behind his right temple. Before anyone could ask, he said, "Knocked off my feet and hit something – not sure what. Doc fixed me up, is why I didn't get here right away. Sheeze, Ginger, what happened." She told him.
"You okay to work?" Jon asked Ari.
"Yah…" He grabbed a chair arm for support as the Pullman whipped-lashed again.
"Ginger, see if you can raise Houston. They're going to want to know about this. Nothing they can do, but they'll want to know."
Ari eased himself in front of the RVC. "Let's see what I can do with the gyros," he said with a grimace.
Ginger took that to be an expression of pain.
Jon announced on the All-Call, "Everyone stay put, unless you're injured and need help. Talk to me if you have to. Doc, we're standing by…"
Ginger had composed a message and sent it on its fourteen minute trip to Houston. Her message was concise, yet sufficiently detailed to inform Houston that Cassini II had a problem, but that they were getting a handle on the situation. To Ari's delighted surprise, whatever had happened, the tethers were still intact. He furiously manipulated the gyros in all three modules. While Ari struggled with the gyros, Demitri turned his attention to reeling in both tethers. He had to work closely with Ari, so that he took up slack as Ari was able to develop it. All the while, the Pullman was whipping along its chaotic path, reversing its direction in the most unpredictable way every time it reached the end of the tether. Simultaneously, the Caboose whipped along its own path, at times passing perilously close to the Pullman. And the Box was pulled first one way as the Pullman reached the end of its tether, and then the other as the Caboose pulled it back.
Over the next hour, with Jon orchestrating their actions, Ari and Demitri slowly brought the monster under control. Ginger kept up a running commentary to Houston, and CapCom wisely remained silent, except to provide an occasional aside to a fascinated world that was following the events out beyond the orbit of Mars.
#
Carmen Bhuta was in her room when all hell broke loose. She was flung to the deck, thrown across the deck to come up hard against a table leg. The moment it happened, she knew she would carry a nasty bruise for the next couple of weeks. As her room whipped this way and that, her first thought was primitive terror, the fear of dying out in space, far from home. But when that didn't happen, even though her world was acting like a crazy carnival ride, the Doctor assumed control. She dragged herself into a sitting position, grabbed a belt, and secured herself against the table leg. Then she began checking each of the crew members using her specially modified Link that gave her immediate access to any crew member's vitals.
Jon was what Jon always seemed to be, cool and collected – unaffected by whatever it was that was happening. Demitri appeared to be injured, but he was coping, and didn't need her services at that moment. Ginger – now there was an enigma. The girl obviously had been physically hurt. From the readings, she clearly was in pain, but like Demitri, she was coping. She tried to reach Ginger, but Ginger's Link was set to reject incoming calls.
Ari burst into her cabin, bleeding profusely from behind his right temple. "Can you stop the bleeding, Doc? Then I got to get to the Core."
In between the wild surges, Carmen patched Ari's laceration, which – he told her – came from the edge of a table. As he lurched out of her cabin, Carmen shook her head in amazement. These guys are something special, she said quietly to herself as she gripped the table leg to keep from being thrown to the deck again, despite the belt. She continued checking the rest of the crew. Noel seemed okay, but Chen was unconscious. Carmen called Jon using her executive override to tell him about Chen, and to find out how long the problem was likely to last.
"Chen will have to take care of himself until we get this under control," Jon told her. "I need you to examine Ginger's arm. It's broke, and she's in a lot of pain. Don't go do anything heroic. Stay put until you can safely get here. I mean that – you are a vital part of this mission. We need you!"
Elke was also okay, but she seemed to be undergoing physical stress. Carmen called her. "What are you doing, Elke?"
"I was in the gym. I'm okay. I presume you need my help, so I'm on my way to you." At that moment the Pullman took a particularly strong lurch. "Oof! That will become a bruise," Elke said.
"Be careful!"
"Don't worry, Doc. I can take care of myself, and you need me!"
Carmen checked on Michele. Apparently unconscious. "Elke…Michele is non-responsive. Can you check on her? I think she's in her lab."
"On my way, Doc. I'll call you."
#
It took everything Elke had to keep hold of the rail. It was time to focus, and not get distracted by anything. As the room twisted and whipped in unpredictable ways, Elke tried to find a rhythm. She moved in fits and starts, always having at least one firm hand-hold. She sprinted across the gym during a moment of quiet, reaching the central ladder just as the room twisted wildly again, lifting her off her feet entirely. Within a few minutes, Elke found a rhythm of sorts, and using her athlete's prowess, moved down the ladder, across the lower room, and into the bio lab.
Michele lay on the deck in a pool of blood, obviously unconscious. Plants were strewn everywhere, and with each lurch, tumbled around some more. As Elke entered the lab, Michele groaned, and pitched against a sample table as the Pullman lurched again. Elke hooked one leg around the table leg, grabbed the barely conscious blonde, and held her close as the next round of whipping jerked them around. At a pause, Elke wrapped her legs around the French woman, keeping her foot still hooked around the table leg, and began to probe Michele's bloody scalp with her strong fingers. She touched a wet spot near the back of her scalp, and Michele groaned.
"I got you, Baby, I got you!" Elke ripped off her left jumper sleeve, and folded it into a pressure dressing. Then she reached inside her own jumpsuit, tore at her thong, and pulled it off her body. With deft, sure fingers, she used the thong as a strap to hold the pressure dressing to Michele's head. "I got Michele, Doc. She's got a scalp laceration, but I dressed it with a pressure pad. She'll be okay until this shit stops." Michele groaned again and opened her eyes.
"Mon Cherie, you're here…" Her eyes rolled up again as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
"I can't leave her, Doc," Elke said. "She's still in trouble. She needs you as soon as you can make it."
#
"Jon, I need someone to check on Chen," Carmen said. "He's unconscious. Noel seems to be okay. Maybe he can do it."
On the All-Call, Jon said, "Chen, if you can hear me, call the Core. Noel, find Chen. Be careful, but find him!"
#
Noel was in the lavatory when everything went crazy. The narrow confines of the small room allowed him to brace himself so that he suffered no trauma from the wild whipping about. Under the circumstances, it seemed prudent to him to remain where he was until things settled down. With nothing to do but stare at the wall and tighten his muscles every time the Pullman wheeled off in a different direction, Noel reflected on what might have happened. The only thing that made any sense at all made no sense whatsoever. They had to have been struck a glancing blow by a small asteroid on one of the tethers. Nothing else he could imagine would result in such chaotic tumbling. Even as he sat there, he could hear the gyros screaming in protest as someone – probably Ari – was working the blend of engineering sense and art that would eventually bring everything under control. Although he was tempted to call the Core, he knew better. They didn't need his interference at that moment.
Then he heard the All-Call, and knew that Chen was in trouble. A few minutes before the strike, Noel had been in Chen's stateroom discussing a matter with him. That was the natural place to start. Timing his movement to the pauses between wild swings, Noel opened the door to Chen's room, to a chaotic jumble of everything not tied down, including Chen. Chen was being flung around like a dishrag. Noel managed to grab a leg and stop his tumbling, but it was clear that Chen was fully unconscious. Noel checked his breathing and pulse – they seemed okay.
Noel had no executive override like the Captain and Doctor, so he called Carmen using his normal Link. Carmen answered immediately. "His vitals are strong, Noel. Can you find any injury?"
Between surges, Noel carefully felt Chen's entire body. "Some bruising from being tossed around, but nothing major that I can tell."
"Okay…see if you can stabilize his head and neck. I want his head, neck, and shoulders NOT to move relative to each other. Can you do that?"
Noel looked around him for something that could act as a back-board. Another lurch caused him to grip Chen firmly to hold him to the deck, minimizing movement. While waiting for the surge to pass, Noel noticed a roll of common duct tape rolling across the deck, and had an inspiration. He grabbed the roll of tape and secured Chen to the deck with strip after strip of tape. He carefully ran two strips across his forehead out to both sides, and several across his shoulders. He secured his legs, and then passed several long strips down the length of Chen's body to prevent longitudinal movement. It took about ten minutes, but when he was done, Chen could not have moved if he had wanted to.
"He's secured, Doc." Noel examined his friend. "You'd better get here pretty soon, though. I think he's in serious trouble."
#
"What's the situation, Doc?" Jon asked Carmen, as Ari and Demitri started to make real progress in containing the wild gyrations.
"Two potentially serious injuries – Michele and Chen. We could lose them if I can't get to them. You have to get this thing under control!" The Doctor's voice was as firm and commanding as Jon had ever heard.
"We're working on it. Another ten minutes, and you can move about – carefully!" Jon glanced at Demitri and Ari for confirmation. "I'll let you know – about ten minutes."
Eight minutes later the wild gyrations nearly ceased. "Got you, you miserable bastard!" Ari shouted at no one in particular.
"Come to Papa," Demitri said with equal enthusiasm as he switched the tether retrieval to high speed. "We got it, Skipper," he said to Jon, as he wiped perspiration from his pate.
"Cool," Ginger said. "Anyone have an aspirin?" And she fainted away.
Chapter 7
The terrible pitching and yawing finally stopped. Saeed felt close to death's door. Had Allah abandoned him, or was this a test like Job's, a test of his faith in Allah's goodness and mercy? Praise be to Allah. Obviously, Allah had caused a serious disruption of Cassini II's voyage. Saeed could not begin to understand Allah's reasons, praise be to Allah, but obviously, He had done a mighty thing to the spaceship. Perhaps in demonstration of His omnipotence, He had reached down from on high to touch the vessel with His finger – sufficient to demonstrate His power, praise be to Allah, but not enough to destroy the spaceship. The Caliph would need to be informed.
Weak though he was, and through the blur of his radiation disrupted thought process, Saeed recorded his message. It consisted of a rambling, nearly incoherent recitation of his epiphany, the tether extension, his suddenly becoming ill, and Allah's intervention resulting in the near destruction of Cassini II. The burst transmitter had survived the solar storm and the asteroid impact. It deployed normally, found its target, and transmitted its message before disappearing into the depths of space.
In Teheran, Caliph Ayatollah Khomeini and his two closest advisors reviewed the latest message from their Saturn bound warrior. The recording showed a haggard image of a mentally distraught Saeed going on at length about a near disaster, Allah's Prophet Warrior, the Other World, the new Jihad…. Clearly, something had happened. When they learned in the following days of the near destruction of Cassini II and its crew, part of the puzzle fell into place, but that still left the mystery of Saeed's mental state. The Caliph extended his international feelers for clues to the mystery.
One of these was Eskandar Ali Jinnah, a never-before-activated Isma'ili sleeper, a Nizari Hashashiyyin, who worked as Alex Jinnah, an engineer for Cassini II Mission Control.
#
All three modules were finally locked into a single unit. The resulting zero-g was shortening the recovery time for Demitri's knee. Using onboard sensors, he calculated their new orbital parameters while Houston ran the calculations with their remote data input from Earth. The numbers were different, but not enough to matter. Ari and Noel intended on spending the first several hours after the hook-up checking and rechecking the reactor and VASIMR engines. From the Pullman, the control electronics seemed to have sustained no damage, but they wanted to check the actual circuits, and Ari actually wanted to do an EVA for a visual inspection of the engines themselves.
"Let's find out now, before we commit to the Jupiter boost," Ari said. "If we've got a problem, we can use the Jupiter transit to get back home." Jon was not about to argue with that logic. So Ari – who still sported a small bandage taped to his temple – and Noel prepared to move through the Box into the Caboose for their internal inspections, followed by the first EVA since getting underway.
Michele was recovering nicely. Other than a headache from her mild concussion, she was in good shape, although she complained about the patch of hair Carmen had to shave in order to close the wound to the back of her scalp. Carmen allowed her to putter around in her lab so long as she didn't exert herself. Zero-g made that unlikely, but Elke stayed with her just in case.
Ginger's arm, now firmly encased in a rigid cast, was healing. Her only complaint was that she itched inside the cast, and Noel came up with a piece of flexible wire that solved that problem.
Chen still was a problem. Carmen had found no broken bones, but something had put him into a coma, where he still remained. She finally determined that he had flexed his neck in such a way as to severely pinch his spinal cord, causing his brain to put him into the coma. His vitals had fully recovered, but his brain wave patterns completely befuddled her diagnostic computer. Houston was equally bewildered, and offered no useful suggestions.
They were about twenty days away from the Jupiter Boost. Jon was convinced that it was in their best interest to get a complete handle on their situation before they committed to the boost. As Ari had said, it could be their ticket home, if they needed it.
Both the Box and Caboose indicated normal pressure and atmosphere content, so Jon authorized Ari and Noel to transit through the Box to the Caboose. "Just keep me in the loop," he told them as they opened the hatch to enter the Box.
#
Ari floated through the connection hatch into the tunnel, followed by Noel. When they both were inside the tunnel, someone in the Pullman shut the hatch. When it had sealed, Ari opened the Box hatch.
"What the fuck is that awful smell?" he shouted, and slammed the hatch shut. "Skipper, we got some kind of a problem in the Box."
"That was puke, pure and simple…human vomit," Noel said.
"Can't be," Ari said. "Not possible. You getting this, Skipper?"
"We are," Jon said. "Hold on. We're going to lock in a couple of the Doc's breathing masks."
A few minutes later, the hatch to the Pullman opened briefly, and two packages sailed into the tunnel. "Put them on, and stuff the bags into your pockets," Jon told them. "Now, be careful!"
This time, Ari eased the hatch open, moving very slowly. When it had opened about a centimeter, suddenly the hatch jerked out of his hand, opening wide. A crazed, creature screaming "Allahu Akbar!" lunged at him with some kind of pole, but without momentum or leverage, the pole just bounced harmlessly off him. Using moves that were second nature to him, although not practiced in zero-g, Ari grabbed the arm of the creature, spun him around, and wrapped his legs around the creature's legs.
Almost immediately, whatever fight had remained in the creature left. "We just found part of our eighty-one kilos," Ari said to Jon on his open Link. "You better get the Doc in here right away."
He took a closer look at the stowaway, for that surely was what they had. The facial hair – what remained, that is – indicated his gender. He couldn't have massed more than 55 kilos at full weight, but he looked to be around forty-five at the most right now. He was no more that 162 centimeters, with curly dark hair – what remained of it, and dark eyes set into a sharply featured Semitic face.
Ari addressed him in Arabic: "Your name, Warrior."
Saeed looked at Ari in astonishment. "You speak Arabic!" His demeanor assumed a formal nature, insofar as that was possible in zero-g in his emaciated condition. Ari loosed his leg hold on the little man. "I am Saeed Esmail of the Caliphate, Prophet of Allah, all praises to Him, and the Ayatollah's warrior." Despite his condition, his face seemed to shine for a moment, and then he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Ari and Noel looked at each other in complete astonishment. "What was that all about?" Noel asked. Ari translated for him.
"You've got to be shitting me. We're two-hundred-fifty million kilometers from Earth, and we've got a stowaway spouting medieval religious crap!"
Before Ari could muster a sufficient response, Carmen floated through the lock, black bag in hand. Ari steadied her and said, "He just went unconscious, Doc. He's a Caliphate Jihadist. He's unpredictable, so be careful."
Carmen quickly took his vitals and examined his eyes and scalp. "Radiation," she said, "radiation sickness…has to be." She looked at Ari. "The solar storm a while back…I think he was exposed to its full intensity. Without immediate medical attention he will die." She stowed her instruments in her bag. "Help me get him to Sickbay, both of you." She indicated that Noel and Ari were to take him by head and foot to guide him through the lock. "Captain," she said on her Link executive override, "please meet me in Sickbay." It sounded more like an order than a request.
