“Totally worth it. Most fun I’ve had in ages!” Storm said as Dmitry held the large machine rock steady.
Silver gradually gave way to black matte as they collected more of the Enigma’s skin.
“Well, whoever’s in there doesn’t seem to mind,” Storm said two hours later. “The basket’s full. We’d better head back.”
Dmitry nodded. He backed the crab gently away from the tennis court-sized area they had cleared. “For all my bluster about harvesting this thing’s skin, I am curious about it.”
“Who isn’t?” Storm said. “Somebody built it for a reason.”
“Suppose we take time out before the next harvesting mission,” said Desira, “and cut a round hole in the substructure…”
Dmitry nodded. “I’d have to keep her absolutely still, and it would take a few minutes to cut through even a few inches of that stuff. We’d need the auto position lock, but its cameras need visual references, and there aren’t any on that smooth surface.”
“Then I’ll make some. Cut out a few isolated squares.”
“Good idea.”
“I wonder if Drew’s crew have gone under its skin yet? Probably not; it would be all over the news by now.”
“Then we could become doubly famous,” Dmitry said. “We’d be the first ones to put a hole in an alien spaceship.”
****
“I love that old machine,” Storm said as they exited the crab into the pressurized tunnel leading back to the Zephyr’s flight deck.
“Me too. It’s a real workhorse, and yet still very responsive on the controls.”
“We’ll have to send it for a real good overhaul after this job’s finished.”
“So, how was it?” Desira said, floating over to greet them, once they emerged into the open space of the flight deck.
“Great,” Storm said, grinning. “No worries about rupturing live cables or pipes with this; you just cut a square and go.”
“Nice. So how many sheets did you get in total?”
“Two hundred twelve.”
Desira focused on the wall for a second, and then looked back at Storm. “About $256,000 worth of titanium. It’s not bad, but it’s going to take a lot more hauls like that before we break even, just given the cost of renting the ship and the amount of thorium it took to cover the distance out here.” She smiled. “It’ll still give us a nice boost, though, and put SSI in the black again.”
“Don’t forget, we can repeat this operation as many times as necessary, Dimitri said. “And that’s assuming there isn’t anything of great value buried inside. I, for one, would like to explore deeper within and see if there is a jackpot waiting.”
Storm turned to Desira. “We were talking about putting a hole in it to see what’s there.”
Desira raised her eyebrows slightly. “Oh. You talk about that very casually, like you’re gonna put a hole in a coconut. You’d better hope nothing bad comes out, since we have literally no idea what’s in there.”
“Yeah. I’m hoping my brother’ll do some of the groundwork for us there.”
“As long as Jane doesn't interfere. She doesn’t seem to approve of what we’re doing,” Desira said. Jane was currently in her cabin, out of earshot.
Dmitri chuckled. “Oh, that we could all be respectable professionals like her, not bottom feeding scrap merchants, eh?”
Storm smiled. “You know, though, if we going to keep making more runs out here, we’re going to have to find a company that’ll keep leasing to us. If Barlow won’t, that would be a problem. We may have to pay more elsewhere.”
Storm’s communicator chimed before Dmitry could reply. He took it out of his pocket and answered, a small display opening in midair. The face of a stern-looking old man appeared before them. “This is a confidential message to Storm Kovacs. If you’re not Storm Kovacs, please stop watching now.” Storm’s look of puzzlement was reflected by the others. Then Desira’s expression changed to enlightenment. “I know who that guy is…”
The message continued to play. “I am Ray Hawkins, founder and CEO of Rapier Aerospace. Storm, I would like to buy out your claim on the Enigma. I’m prepared to pay $10 million right now, in exchange for full salvage rights. Please reply at your earliest convenience.”
Storm raised his eyebrows. “Interesting. So they want to buy us out already?”
“They’ll have to pay a lot more than $10 million,” Dmitri said.
“I’m not selling the find of a lifetime for any price.”
Desira shrugged. “Make him a counteroffer. Everyone has a price. What’s yours? $1 billion?”
Storm smiled. “Yes, I’d probably let them have it for that. But that guy’s a wily, pennypinching old fox, or so his reputation says. I don’t see it happening.”
“So what about $100 million?” Dmitri said.
“It would have to be somewhere north of there.”
“So, just reply with a ridiculous number. All he can say is no.”
“True. But if Barlow won’t lease to us anymore and we can’t get access to another warp ship, then our claim on this thing’ll be useless. I don’t want to brush him off completely. Not yet. Here goes.”
Storm touched the reply button in the top right of the display. “This is Storm. We acknowledge your offer to buy our claim on the Enigma for $10 million. I would like to counteroffer to sell the claim to you for $500 million. Let me know your thoughts.” He ended the recording and pressed ‘send.’
****
“Well. We’re sitting on $1,150,000 worth of panels,” Desira said after Storm and Dmitri had finished the fourth harvesting run. “That’s some nice work.”
“Thanks,” Storm said. “Now where the hell are the showers on this thing?”
“I could really go for a burrito,” Dmitri said.
Storm’s communicator chimed again. He flipped it open to see a new message from Ray Hawkins. “I have an idea for you, Storm. You keep your claim on the Enigma. We send in some space tugs and attach them to that thing so we can slow it down enough for it to be captured by the sun’s gravity. Then your crew continues harvesting it, and we’ll pay you a predetermined, guaranteed price for the titanium. Obviously, this is going to be below market price, but you’ll make money and we’ll obtain a crucial metal at a discount. Let me know what you think.”
Storm’s face lit up. “Well, well, well, it seems I’m not the only one who had the idea of attaching some tugs to this thing.”
“It seems an attractive arrangement,” Desira said. “We get to keep ownership of the Enigma, they make it so we can access it indefinitely. Sounds like a win-win to me.”
Dmitri nodded slowly, considering. “It sounds like a good deal to me, as long as they’re still paying us enough for the titanium. We also need to specify in the contract what happens if they pull out before the thing’s been captured by the sun’s gravity, or we want to pull out after that. Quite a bit for the lawyers to fight over.”
“I’ve been doing a few calculations,” Desira said. “If anyone’s going to slow this thing down from 100 miles a second in time for it to enter the sun’s orbit, they’re going to have to get on it pretty soon, just because of its inertia. This thing could well weigh millions of tons. They’d need to be refueling the space tugs almost constantly to exert enough force over a long enough period of time for this to work. Fairly big operation, logistically.”
****
“Solar Conveyor 4, entering your fifty mile zone,” the male voice said over the comms, two days later.
“MSS Zephyr, acknowledging Solar Conveyor 4,” Jane answered.
“USS Sigma, entering your fifty mile zone.”
“USS Sigma, acknowledging Solar Conveyor 4.”
Storm rubbed his hands together. “Here we go! She’s bringing the thrust harness for the tugs.”
“What’s this other ship?” Drew’s voice said from the Sigma.
“Just a business arrangement,” Storm said.
“Jesus, Storm. Are you selli
ng off sections of the Enigma’s surface to other companies?”
“No. We’re attaching tugs to slow the Enigma down enough that it can be captured in solar orbit.”
“You’re doing what?”
CHAPTER SIX
“Pretty awesome, huh?” Storm said, as he watched the structure unfold. The large Solar Conveyor 4 floated near the back end of the Enigma. The Conveyor’s cargo bay had discharged a cylindrical tether that had gradually telescoped out. Meanwhile, five long branches began to unfold in a perpendicular fashion from the central strut, unfolding like an umbrella.
“It is awesome,” Desira said, watching the spectacle. “How are they going to get it into place and bolted onto the hull?”
“We’re going to help them,” Storm said. “We’ll use the crab to grab one end of the trunk section, and they’ll hold the other with a robotic arm.”
“Gotcha.”
“It’s hard to grasp the true scale of this thing, isn’t it?. That center section is what, 200 feet long? The arms must each be about 250 feet long, presumably so the tugs’ exhaust is clear of the side of the Enigma.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be a heckuva bending moment on the arms once the tugs power up,” Dimitri said. “They’ll probably have a triangulated brace to help take the load, somewhere between the arms and the intersection.”
“Presumably they’ll tell us when they need us to help,” Desira said.
“I hope so,” Storm said. “We can’t do any more harvesting right now because we have to wait on standby for them.”
Desira nodded as the five arms opened and telescoped out in slow motion, like the petals of a cosmic flower. The entire scene was illuminated by floodlights on the outside of the Solar Conveyor 4.
“It’s kind of like trying to catch a submarine,” Dimitri said.
Storm smiled. “With the added benefit that we don’t get chopped to pieces by the propellers.”
The trio watched in silence as the long, spindly arms reached ninety degrees from the trunk and stopped, their triangular braces in place.
“SC4 to the Zephyr,” the same voice said over the comms. “Were going to need a little help with positioning the harness, so you may wanna get your crab ready for flight.”
“Roger that,” Storm said. “We’ll be out there alongside you in about forty minutes. Let’s get this thing done,” he said to Dmitry and Desira. Then turned to Jane. “Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be back in a few hours.”
****
“I’ll take it from here, boys,” Desira said as they looked out on the floodlit pipe-like trunk of the thrust structure, twenty feet in front of the crab.
“I mean it,” Desira insisted, as Dmitry frowned at her. “You guys got to have all the fun on the harvesting. It’s my turn.”
“Well, I suppose you’re as qualified to fly this thing as anybody else,” Dmitri said. Storm nodded.
“SC4 to SSI crab, do you copy?”
“Loud and clear,” Storm said.
“We’re ready to commence attaching the thrust bar to the Enigma. You guys set?”
“Good to go,” Desira said. She swapped places with Dmitri, grabbing the large joystick with her right hand. The vast, shiny wall that was the tail end of the Enigma took up their entire view. “Looks like the end of the bar’s about fifteen feet away from the surface,” Desira said.
“Roger that, SSI. We’re going to paint the target with a laser now.” At his words, a bright green dot appeared roughly fifteen feet to their upper right on the vast metal wall.
“So it’s just gonna screw itself in automatically?”
“Yes, ma’am. All we have to do is give the command.”
“Go to grab the bar?” Storm said.
“Go to grab.”
Desira moved the tiny craft in deftly with small bursts of thrust, until the thick bar was only ten feet in front of them. “Gently,” she reminded Storm.
“Yeah, I figured,” he quipped. He moved the right claw carefully, twisting it until it grabbed the enormous pipe. “Hopefully I’ve got a good hold without squeezing it too much.”
“We’re going to move it into position now, SC4,” Desira said.
“Roger that, go to move.”
Desira fixed her eyes on the bright green dot as she nudged the crab gently upwards. A minute later she applied a gentle burst of down thrust to arrest their movement, still minding the alignment. “Should be lined up now, best as I can tell,”
“Very good, SSI. We’re gonna nudge it forward gently with the robotic arm once you let go.”
“Roger that,” Storm said. He released the claw’s grip, keeping it poised around the giant pipe just in case. The structure slid slowly past them to the right, and then stopped.
“What’s your clearance?”
“It’s about two feet off,” Storm said.
“Roger that.”
“One foot to go.”
They watched the thick white flange close in on the silver surface.
“Contact.”
“Very good, SSI. Will commence attachment.”
A ring around the end of the pipe lit up brightly as four laser emitters inside the flange bored holes into the Enigma.
“Looks steady,” Storm said.
“Okey-doke. Bolts are going in now.” A few minutes later, the confirmation came from the Rapier ship. “Woo-hoo! We did it.”
“A job well done,” Storm said. “Now we just need to get those thrusters on there.”
****
“Breaking news,” the red-jacketed newswoman said with a deadly serious expression. “The Enigma, the mystery which had held all humanity captive since its discovery three weeks ago, will be captured by space tugs that will brake the enormous artifact in its trajectory so that it will never leave our solar system. This unprecedented operation will be performed by Rapier Aerospace Incorporated, headquartered in Marineris, Mars. This had already caused an uproar in the scientific community, with calls to leave an object that we don’t understand alone. Even President Slater has weighed in with these words:”
The scene cut to the White House press room, showing the gray-haired man at the podium.
“Manfred Larson, Administrator of NASA, and I feel in the strongest terms that what is unquestionably an interstellar spaceship built by another civilization should be left alone at all costs, not salvaged for commercial gain. The very worst case scenario being that it could be volatile or accidentally induced to detonate, conceivably with enough power to destroy our entire inner solar system. We do not know what we are dealing with. This is not something we want in the environs of our home planet, nor any human outpost…”
Storm muted the sound and turned to Dmitry. “Okay, now we’re more infamous than ever.”
Dmitry nodded, frowning, and turned the sound back on.
“Various groups, including the United States government, are preparing legal moves to stop Rapier Aerospace and Space Salvage Incorporated from performing this operation,” the anchor continued. “ENN’s legal analysts are already questioning the viability of this maneuver, as the former company’s headquarters are on Mars, and the latter is incorporated in Apex City on the Moon…”
“Good luck with that stall tactic,” Desira said. “I’ll admit,” she said to Storm and Dmitry, “I didn’t think people would react this strongly.”
“Whatever happens there, they can’t exactly stop us from five billion miles away,” Storm said. “And I don’t see Ray giving in either. Not when there’s billions of dollars on the line. Right now, though? I want to see the inside of it. Not only will we see something nobody’s ever set eyes on before, but I’ll beat my brother to the punch. Once they start that braking maneuver, though, it’ll be impossible.”
“Then we’d better do it soon.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“So, what’d you think about this?” Dmitry said.
Storm’s forehead glistened with sweat. “I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t scared.”
; They were so close to the vast Enigma that its surface looked flat.
“So, are you sure you wanna do this?”
“I was never one to back down from a dare.”
“Nobody’s daring you to do this.”
“I guess I’m daring myself. You have to have an adventurous streak to do what we do…”
“Yes, but this is another thing entirely. There could be big green monsters waiting for you.”
“Green monsters that can take a burn from a laser cutter?” Storm forced a grin.
Dmitry shrugged.
“I think you’re both nuts,” Desira said, from behind.
Storm turned to face her. “I guess I am.”
“Well, let’s get on with it,” Dmitry said. “We’re in position. Go ahead and put some holes in the hull for position hold reference.”
Storm took the control gloves, aimed the cutting laser, and projected squares of fire on the metal. Panels slowly floated free.
“We’re gonna be here all day,” Dmitry said, sighing as the shiny squares moved agonizingly slowly.
“Torch ’em,” Desira said. “Burn ’em near the edge, and the gases coming off’ll act like mini rocket motors.”
“That’s a fine scientific approach, but it’d be easier just to grab them with the claw,” Storm smiled.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Position lock on,” Dmitry said, once the floating pieces had been removed.
“Let’s do it.” With a tap of the screen above him, Storm changed the beam pattern to be a tight circle and turned it on the Enigma’s hull slightly above their position. A fiery circle appeared, and a few seconds later a metal disc, still glowing at the edges, separated from the hull.
“Go ahead and toss that thing away like it’s a discus,” Dmitry said.
“The claw’s movement won’t screw up the lock, will it?”
“No, she’ll move back after any drift.”
“Right on.”
A minute later, all three friends stared rapt as the fiery circle of vicious heat went up against the hardest known form of carbon ever discovered. Seconds dragged by, eventually turning into minutes.
The Cosmic Bullet: The Enigma Series, Part One Page 7
