Star One: Tycho City Survival

by Weil, Raymond L.

  -

  Mase stepped out of the Control Center and let out a deep breath. They had found many more survivors than he had ever expected as the airwaves cleared and they could communicate better with the surface. It was difficult to realize that there was nothing they could do from the Moon to help the situation. All they could offer was a means of communication between bunkers. He was just thankful that General Mann and Warren Timmons had survived. Between the two of them, they were bound to come up with a plan.

  After a few minutes, Mase found himself back inside the cavern that contained the original Tycho City. He paused, as he looked at all the work that was being done. The roof was being strengthened with a layer of Luxen, and Luxen support beams were being installed.

  It had been necessary to reactivate a few of the mining sites outside of Tyco Crater so they could get the raw material to produce more of the wonder metal. If all went according to plan, in another month people could move back into the old Tyco City if they wanted. There had already been some discussion about changing the name. Mase was leaning toward Luna City.

  All the sleepers had been awoken. Accommodations had been found for all 8,270 survivors, and Tycho City now seemed more like a vibrant living city. The restaurants and shops were open; people were going about their daily business as if nothing catastrophic had occurred. Just standing on the main street in the small city you would find it hard to believe that the world had nearly ended.

  As Mase walked through the nearly deserted city, he stopped in front of the building that had held his former office. So much had occurred since he had received that first call from Pierre LaRann demanding that he come to Farside. Thinking of LaRann, Mase wondered what had happened to Star One. Were they somewhere else in the galaxy, building a new human civilization and wondering if the Moon or the Earth had survived? Perhaps someday far in the future they would know each other’s fate. For now, Mase had work that needed to be done.

  -

  Jolene was in the apartment with Linda discussing an important development in her relationship with Anthony. Karen was busy at one of the ecological habitats and would not be home for another few hours.

  “Anthony has asked me to move in with him and Jean,” Jolene confessed, her face glowing with excitement.

  “Really?” Linda replied, surprised that Anthony was ready to make such a commitment. Of course, he and Jolene had been nearly inseparable for the last several months. “Are you ready for such a move?”

  “I think so,” Jolene replied, her face flushing slightly. “If things work out with us living together, then we will go ahead and get married.” She pulled out her hand from behind her back and showed Linda the ring she was now wearing.

  “Married!” spoke Linda, raising her eyebrows. It was hard to imagine Jolene and Anthony married, but there was no doubt that they were deeply in love with one another. She reached out and took Jolene’s hand, gazing at the ring. It was definitely a nice one with a decent sized diamond. “The ring’s gorgeous!”

  “I hope you approve,” Jolene spoke her eyes searching for support.

  “Of course I approve,” Linda said with a big smile. “I just hope that Mase and I can join you someday.”

  “I’m sure you will,” Jolene replied with a grin. “He has a big load on his shoulders, and he needs someone to help take that off, if only for a little while. It will only be a matter of time before he sees that also.”

  Linda nodded. She hoped Jolene was right. She was in love with Mase, and she was sure he felt the same way about her. Someday it would be her turn; she just had to be patient.

  “So, when are you moving out?” Linda asked as the two went into the living room and sat down.

  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.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  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!

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  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 survive
d.”

  “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.

  “It’s all yours, Stephanie,” Mase said as he stood up.

  Stephanie nodded. She had a special team that broadcast the news and several others that enjoyed doing the music. “I hear you’re having a cookout tonight.”

  “Yes, we’re celebrating our anniversary. Today makes three years since Linda and I got married.”

  “Save a steak for me,” Stephanie added with a smile. “I bet Anthony is happy we finally have steaks again.”

  “Definitely,” Mase replied with a grin. “The new animal habitats have allowed us to greatly expand our cattle herd.”

  “Don’t spoil Anthony and Jolene’s kids too much,” Stephanie went on. “Their little boy is the spitting image of his father.”