by JS Rowan
“Yes, ma’am,” was all he said.
The other three shuttles had started to move the big rock, but not fast enough. By time that Sarah’s shuttle had touched down there were only twenty-eight minutes left in the projected redirection window.
“Everyone go to full burn! If the rock breaks apart, just pull your piece as far away, as fast as you can. If there is time, come back to help.”
All the shuttles went to full power. At first it seemed to be working, but then the big asteroid fragment started to rotate.
“We are losing thrust with this rotation. Shuttle Four, can you burn another forty degrees starboard?”
The pilot of Shuttle 4 complied and the rotation slowed. The Earth was starting to look very large in the window and they were closing very fast. Sarah realized that they had failed! They were not going to make it. She gritted her teeth.
The Semper Fi had already attached itself to the trailing piece that they had named Leona. They were making good progress at moving it off course from its date with Luna. Thor took a break from his work to check on Sarah, and his heart lurched in his chest.
Thor saw on the three-dimensional display that two of the shuttles were just finished repositioning themselves to the far side of the asteroid. They all fired their thrusters, accelerating toward the planet.
He toggled the radio to hear what was going on, his ears flattened to his head.
“Are you sure about this, Sarah? It just seems totally nuts to me,” Thor heard one of the pilots say.
“The asteroid fragment is going to miss the Earth by eighty kilometers, below the Kármán line, which is when it first enters the atmosphere. It would, with enough thrust, continue on out the other side of the atmosphere. However, without thrust it will be slowed by the air resistance and then gravity will pull it down to Earth. So hang on, boys, this is going to be a bumpy ride.”
“I’m with Brad, I think this is nuts, but if you say it’s going to work then that’s good enough for me,” said another pilot that Thor did not recognize.
“Just think of this—if you get out of this alive, the story will get you any girl you want,” said Sarah teasingly.
“Including you?” asked Brad.
“Oh, sure, you just have to ask my dad if you can date me, and I’ll be all over you!” She sounded like she was grinning.
“Isn’t your dad a nine-foot-tall werewolf?”
“He’s ten-foot-six, actually, but don’t let that bother you,” Sarah said, laughing.
“That’s my girl,” thought Thor, making a silent vow to “speak” with Brad if they made it home again.
On board the shuttle Sarah was not as sure as she made it sound. She had never been this frightened in her entire life. She swallowed convulsively. Then she remembered the things her mom and dad had done, and she found a resolve in herself she had not known was there.
Sarah was monitoring the temperature of the asteroid, using the sensors on all the shuttles. At certain points during the flight, the heat would build up in the asteroid fragment, and cause a section of it to explode with tremendous force. She hoped to have enough warning to be able to give the nearest shuttle time to disengage before the explosion.
The pilots had all engaged their heat shields. The turbulence was increasing even with their internal gravity fields trying to compensate. Of course, they would all be dead without the internal gravity helping.
Sarah saw a dangerous heat build-up near Shuttle 2 and radioed to the pilot.
“Disengage, Two, disengage now.”
Shuttle 2 disengaged just in time, and flitted clear of the huge blast that followed.
“OK, guys, we have to stay with this for another forty-five seconds. We are nearing our closest approach to the Earth.”
Sarah checked her readings again. There was a heat build-up near Shuttle 5. It was not dangerous yet, but it was close. She radioed the warning.
“Shuttle Five, prepare to disengage. You have a dangerous build-up of heat in your area, but if you disengage now we won’t have enough thrust to make it out the other side.”
“I’ll stay with it, then, Sarah,” replied Brad, the pilot of Shuttle 5. “After this, your dad will be a walk in the park.”
“Counting down: you can disengage in five…four…three…two…”
Sarah never completed the countdown. A massive explosion fifty times more powerful than Hiroshima exploded on the side of the asteroid closest to the Earth, on the other side of the asteroid from Sarah.
The explosion vaporised Shuttles 3 and 5, as well as fifteen square miles of farmland and small towns in southern Ontario, Canada. It also gave the asteroid the final thrust it needed to clear the atmosphere. No one needed to tell the remaining shuttle pilots to disengage—they were knocked away by the force of the blast.
On the Semper Fi, Thor saw the light-speed delayed explosion, and yelped.
Sarah awoke looking up at a clear blue sky. Her pilot had somehow managed a controlled crash in Wisconsin, and had pulled her out of the shuttle.
Back on the Semper Fi, Thor had been distracted by Sarah’s ordeal He saw that Sarah’s shuttle made it to a landing more or less intact. He breathed out a deep sigh of relief.
He did not notice the piece of wrecked ship coming over the horizon of the moon. Suddenly Thor saw it approaching, directly in their path.
“Captain, disengage the asteroid fragment and take evasive action.”
The computer relayed the telepathic message in what seemed to Thor to be a painfully long time.
O’Neil did not hesitate to issue the command. They had just gotten clear of the “late” asteroid fragment when the rock hit the drive section of the wrecked ship. The explosion rocked the Semper Fi and caused massive damage to all the sections facing the fireball. Fortunately, other than a few singed werewolves, there were no serious casualties.
Pieces of the exploding ship collided with the shuttle that Gupta was waiting aboard. However, the debris hit mainly in the areas that were not currently inhabited, and the shuttle’s repair bots sealed the hull against loss of atmosphere. Gupta had a front-row seat to all the excitement, and when his heart stopped racing, it occurred to him to call the Semper Fi for help.
“What do you think?” asked Kirk, the SAS officer. “Did that rock hit the part where those thirty-three alien bastards were sitting?”
“From what I felt when the rock hit them, I’m certain that none of them were left alive,” thought Gupta.
CHAPTER 14
Money, It’s a Hit
December 17, 2038, 11:57 a.m.
Gunny hadn’t really figured out the new monetary system on the ship yet, but he knew was being paid a lot of money by Earth standards. Still, when he had offered to buy at his favorite barbecue place on Deck Four—one that imported real beef when it could—he had not expected the silver wolf to eat him into poverty.
“I have not ever had such marvelous food,” the thought-amplifier relayed Mergnot’s thoughts, “What did you call it again?”
“Barbecue—it’s originally from Texas.”
“Oh, like our queen is—marvelous place. I shall have to visit it sometime.”
“It is a marvelous place. Thor and I will take you there when you get to Earth,” said Leona, who had just walked over to the private booth where Gunny had brought Mergnot.
“My queen, I am delighted that you could join us.”
Leona looked at Gunny; he was not doing a good job at hiding his dismay at how much the meal was going to cost him.
“Gunny, why don’t you let me pick up the tab?” Leona offered.
“Ah…if you’re sure, Captain. That would be good with me.”
“I’m sure,” said Leona, smiling. “So, what is the topic of conversation?”
“I was going to tell the good gunnery sergeant here about my recent adventures. But I am afraid my wolf nature got the best of me and I rather focused on devouring four porterhouse steaks.”
Gunny laughed ruefully. “It
was six twenty-four-ounce steaks actually.”
“Oh, yes, so it was. But the first two were gone so quickly, they hardly count,” thought Mergnot, doing the wolf version of a belly laugh. “But I digress. When our squadron first arrived in this star system, we had a cargo flat with us as well.”
“A cargo flat?” said Leona.
“It is a ship that is basically a drive system with a small crew and essential life support. It is flat on both sides of the drive, hence the name. It has oversized gravity decks on the top and bottom flats. The shipper places the cargo on the top and bottom and secures it with increased gravity. After we arrived here the Ship Master told me that the flat had been destroyed.”
“But it hadn’t?”
“I wasn’t sure at first. Then I saw a wolf on my ship that would have been on board the flat at the time that it would have been destroyed. I asked him, and he said that all the wolves that were on the flat were moved back to the main ships just before the Jupiter Station contact took place.”
“Why would your Ship Master lie to you?” thought Leona.
“If one clan is planning a surprise attack against another clan, they normally lie to their wolves until the last second. Masters do not see anything wrong with forcing themselves into the minds of the wolves. So to keep plans from being discovered by their opponents, they lie to their own wolves, even the Alphas.”
The thought-amplifier had replayed Leona’s thoughts as well as Mergnot’s, so that Gunny could hear them even though her lips were not moving—causing his eyes to widen. It was Gunny’s first experience of how Leona sounded when using telepathy. Leona brought her attention back to the discussion.
“So what happened to the cargo flat?”
“That is what I wanted to figure out. So I calculated probable courses. I also talked with numerous wolves on Jupiter Station that had worked on the flat. I discovered that we had fifteen hundred wolves missing from our original roster.” Mergnot’s eyes narrowed. “I knew that the flat had to be used for a concealed operations base. I knew from previous operations like this against other clans that the Masters like to build infiltration bases in the asteroid belts of star systems if possible. So that is where I started the telescope teams looking.”
Leona’s telepathic sense told her that Mergnot was telling the complete truth.
“When the asteroid was launched toward Earth, I knew it had to be a flat that launched it. An ordinary ship does not have the gravity or drive system that a flat does. A regular ship would not have been able to pull off an attack like that. So I back-calculated the trajectory of the asteroid launch and we started looking intently at the originating area of the asteroid belt. One of the telescopes caught a glimpse of a shuttle near an asteroid and we followed its course back to the base.”
“That was excellent work. You know, I think I would like a steak too. That smells so good.” Leona beckoned to the waiter. “I would like a twelve-ounce New York strip steak, well-done, potatoes, and broccoli, please. Mergnot do you want another?”
The silver werewolf nodded and continued with his story. “Thank you. We were able to see that the flat had disguised itself as an asteroid by turning up its gravity and attracting a large number of small asteroids to it. Effectively, that made it look like a large asteroid. So we planned an attack to capture the flat, and the covert base that they were building as well. We were using the asteroids as cover for our approach, when we saw the flat launch four shuttles and a group of steerable nuclear mines at your Space Dog.”
Gunny’s eyes grew wide as the steak arrived and Mergnot started to chow down on it. Mergnot looked at Gunny and Leona.
“Oh, I know that you humans are not familiar with the werewolves, so perhaps I should explain about my eating so many steaks at one time. The werewolves digest their food very quickly. We can digest as much as we can eat, and then go long periods of time without food, water, or sleep. I have not eaten in a week because I have been on the bridge of my ship directing this adventure that I am now describing to you. We are never really full and are always somewhat hungry. However, when we have enough fat and protein reserves to last us for four weeks, we just stop wanting to eat.”
“Good to know,” said Gunny.
“It is good to know. If I had known how useful this form was, I would have had myself converted. To be sure, I could have done without the one hundred fifty ship years of servitude and torture. However, I have not been sick since I was converted. I have been wounded a number of times with wounds that would have killed my former form, and recovered swiftly to go back into battle. I would not go back.”
“Maybe I should consider converting,” thought Leona.
Mergnot choked on his steak for a moment. “You, my queen? Do not even jest at that! None of your current follower wolves would still follow you—maybe not even your husband, Thor, and the other ‘human’ werewolves that I hear you lead. To them you would just be another ordinary werewolf. You would have to kill your way back to the top, and you would not succeed. The reason that you have followers, including Admiral, is because of what you have done despite the limited capabilities of your current form.”
“You mean, because I have done amazing things despite being a human.”
Leona saw Gunny’s eyelid twitch, and touched his ankle with her toes under the table. Gunny relaxed.
“Yes. Exactly. Despite being a human, you have won survival for your species and given freedom to the werewolf and other-species slaves. If you miss being able to mate with your husband, then just change Thor back.”
“Change him back—you can do that?”
“Not I in specific, however, yes, he can be changed back to human. The conversion technology that is used now was stolen from my planet, as was the design of the current Med Bays. The systems used to convert Admiral and Frosty were crude in comparison.”
“But it doesn’t say anything about converting people back in the database.”
“That is because the Masters do not know how to use the technology to its fullest capabilities and we did not tell them.”
“Wow, that is amazing,” said Gunny.
Leona did not say anything. She just had a faraway look in her eyes.
“So where was I? Oh, yes. Once the flat had made the launch, I knew that the flat and the covert base would have minimal staffing. So what better time to spring an attack? We attacked with shuttles. The flat had no defensive weapons and the base’s weapons were not active yet. We caught them by surprise and only lost twelve wolves doing it.”
“So you’re telling me you captured a flat and a covert base in the asteroid belt?”
“Yes, my queen. The wolves were lost when a nuclear mine exploded too close to our communications array, where they were working. I then left half of my wolves to occupy the base and the flat, and came here as fast as the Vengeance could, to intercept the attack on your Space Dog.”
“So those feelings I had, they were your attempts to communicate telepathically, is that correct?”
“Yes. And only a gifted telepath would even pick up on them. But I had heard that you were exceptional. Vengeance destroyed two of the shuttles as we approached you and dealt with all the mines. I let the other two shuttles land on the Space Dog because I didn’t want to kill any more of my own people. I knew I could handle the boarding party on board your ship.”
“That was a good call,” said Leona audibly.
“The covert base is also where the ship—that Admiral on Victory engaged—got its supplies to do battle with him and fire on your ship.”
The steak arrived for Leona and she started to eat. She took a bite of the meat, which was excellent, and chewed it slowly, savoring the flavor. So good! Leona also took a brief moment to munch some baked potato and broccoli. She had forgotten how good a real steak could taste. After swallowing, she looked into Mergnot’s eyes.
However, before she could continue her conversation with Mergnot, her son, Will, called the restaurant, and Leona was ushered to
the ship’s console that was there.
“Mom, Dad has sent you a message—and there’s an item on the news that you have to see. I think it’s what Dad’s message is about.”
“Can you send it to the TV in the restaurant here?”
“Sure—no problem.”
The TV lit up and a female reporter was shown standing in front of a huge fire. The wind was blowing her no doubt expensively styled hair into her face and she kept brushing it back.
“You can see the fire still burning fifty miles behind me in southern Ontario, Canada—this is as close as we could get. The blast incinerated an area about seventy miles across. It was centered over St. Thomas, and destroyed London, Ontario, the nearest major city. However, as devastating as that destruction was, it could have been much, much worse.” The TV journalist visibly gulped and her voice quavered. “If the asteroid had hit the Earth, millions of people would have died despite the advance notice. This video, recorded before the blast, shows five brave shuttle pilots actually riding the asteroid and giving it enough push to make it clear the atmosphere, instead of colliding with the Earth.”
Leona’s knees sagged and she grabbed the console for support.
“Please tell me that Thor and Sarah were not on those shuttles,” Leona whispered to no one.
The video continued, with a crawler title reading, “Replay: Asteroid shuttle heroes.”
“You can see in the video that one shuttle breaks away before the first blast occurs, just before exploding gases destroy the spot where it had been. The rest of the pilots now know that they are riding a bomb, but they stay with it. You can see that when the blast occurred, four shuttles were still powering the flight of the asteroid. Two shuttles were not seen again. After the blast, other cameras recorded two of the shuttles crash-landing in Wisconsin near Green Bay, and in Minnesota near Brainerd. Over to you, Bob.”
The newscast shifted to the face of a man seated in a TV studio.
“This is Bob Samuelson, reporting from Green Bay. We have just obtained video of a Jupiter Fleet shuttle crashing in a farmer’s field to the west of the city.”
