The World Game

by Allen Charles

  “Just make sure you’re double tethered Fel,” came from Shaw.

  She paused a moment and looked over her shoulder at him. “Fel?” she said with feigned astonishment. “Oh! OK... Ger!”

  They both burst out laughing at this tiny interlude that had taken their relationship to a new level.

  Fuller had placed twelve of the 24 explosive charges in a compact pattern about four hundred meters from the ship, at a point calculated by Shaw and confirmed by Carver as the optimum point to remove a major rotational vector that the fuel bomb had imparted.

  Hand lines had been set up by Carver and Fuller who had some free-fall experience. It had taken several painstaking hours of virtual rock climbing across the tumbling surface to hammer in pitons and attach the ropes that had come with the explosive charge kits. Someone was looking favorably on this situation. A wrong move could mean being swatted off the surface like a blowfly on a hot day. There were no second chances here.

  Once the lines were established, the charges had to be transported two at a time in a back pack to ensure a soft landing at the site, then Fuller had used a portable fuel cell multi tool to drill set holes and fixed the charges into place with self channelling rock spikes. These spikes allowed some directional adjustment so all the explosive force was focused to a narrow virtual cone that would be covered with slabs of fragment rock. The gap behind each charge base plate was reinforced with small pieces of rock that would be pulverized by the recoil, but it was the initial microseconds of intense force that would slow the tumbling vector.

  Shaw and Hannaford were the second shift, mining slabs of rock using a mining laser that had also fortuitously been loaded aboard for asteroid mining. They used a variation of an age old technique to shear out the blocks. Firstly they carved into the fragment surface in a two by eight grid of sixteen rectangles each a half meter by a quarter meter and to a depth of a quarter meter. These would be impossible for two people to move or lift under former Earth gravity, but here the blocks were weightless. The problem was their mass momentum and the tumbling forces. If a block got loose it would be a deadly, crushing missile, even at low speed the momentum would mash a human body into a bloody smear.

  Ever the problem solver, Shaw had designed a rope rig that tethered each block by two holes lasered through opposing short edges. The holes were smooth and the angle through the edge acted as a braking force simply by tensioning the guide rope. It was going to be a long, slow process, but there was no immediate time shortage.

  To shear each block, the guide rope was first threaded through and clamped to prevent the block escaping. The first block was the big test. Shaw and Fuller had made up sponge foam sealed packs that had a second ingredient of water. The edges of the packs were titanium alloy strips cannibalized from the seats and welded closed with the mining laser. Like the expanding wedges of freezing wet wood used by the Egyptian pyramid builders of four thousand years earlier, these packs would expand outwards as they froze. Jammed between the fragment itself and the cut out block, something had to give. Shaw and Hannaford hope it would not be the titanium rim.

  “The pack has to go down to the bottom of the channel so we shear as close to the base as possible and we have about five seconds to place it from the insulated pack into the channel before it freezes. OK Fel?”

  “Gotcha Ge...er!” Felicity exaggerated back.

  “You two get serious!” came the chastising disembodied voice of Fuller over the buddy comms.

  “OK Fel, on three exactly. We extract and place then pull back fast. Have you got your tether taut?”

  “Tether is good. Start counting.” Felicity had tucked one foot under the rope grid for purchase and watched Shaw intently waiting for the count and his motion cues. Her hand was in the insulated bag ready to yank out the pack.

  “One.. Two.. Three!” They both sprang into action, ripping a pack out of its warm slot, swinging it over in slow motion and aiming at the crack in the rock like bread into a toaster. The slot was exactly two centimeters wide and their youniform protected fingers hit that measure at their bases. They pushed the packs in and jammed their fingers after to shove the packs down as far as they could reach.

  “Out! Now!” Yelled Shaw urgently. “Back up!” They scrambled to push away from the block, the reaction of the forces involved now beyond theory.

  Shaw turned back only to see Felicity still in place, her foot caught between a rock ridge and the rope grid. Her effort to push off had hopelessly caught and tangled her ankle.

  “Get down! Get Down Fel!” screamed Shaw as a vibration shock of the block shearing rattled the fragment. The block bounced around against the rope restraint but held in place. It was a razor sharp shard chipped off by the shearing impact that did the damage. Even carbon mono filament nano technology has its limits. The keen edged mini missile of rock travelling at bullet speed sliced through Felicity’s tensioned main tether sending her flying away from the surface in whiplash effect. The second tether was in place but that was not going to help her. She was about to be whipped around like a tennis ball on a string but she was not designed to bounce on impact. Even with the youniform and buddy, she would not survive.

  “Gerald! Help me!” She drifted away, her arm outstretched towards Shaw who was frantically looking around him for anything that could be used to save her. He stopped for a second, clearing his thought and letting his incredible mathematical mind take over. He could see a solution that was a race he had to win at the risk of his own life

  “What a great act!” Peepers commented. This is going to be a hard decision between the X6 act of Corcoran and Martin and these guys. If you are going to bet on this one you have the next three seconds to place your bets. Charonelle, over to you. What do think of these guys?”

  Charonelle projected an image of delight, a disembodied pair of hands clapping. “Oh, Peepers, it is just too hard to call between X6 and this group. They are both fantastically entertaining and they both deserve to survive and become immortal, but I guess only one can win and the others have to die. But they don’t really die now! They go into stasis and get another chance. Ooh! I just don’t know... Hmmm... I would have to go with... Hmmm... FELICITY! Dear Felicity! What do you think Howley?”

  “Okay! You know, Felicity is cute and Shaw is entertainingly different with his big brain, but their act is a little bland, flinging around on ropes and stuff, and calling each other “councillor”. Seems a bit dull to me. Now Martin and Corcoran have got some pizazz! As a professional comedian I have to work hard to get all the bored morons out there laughing...” there was a huge uproar across the network. “... calm down everyone. Calm down. See I actually got some emotive thoughts moving in you lot. That’s my job! That’s all that ever moves in us disembodied brain pods!” The grumbling died down. “So! Y’know, these two, Martin and Corcoran, are the good guys too, but they are EXCITING! Look at the blood and gore spilled in the name of justice. Look at their ingenuity using makeshift stuff like chucking out five tons of junk. I have to say that these two will be the winners.”

  The network started buzzing again with bets and counter bets, odds and side wagers and the occasional psych brawl. The network police had to intervene in an unusual cerebral exposure perpetrated by an ancient who got too much ethanol stimulant when his automatic brain pod maintenance system went on the fritz. Turned out he had been a wild boy early in his bodied life during Game Series two. The police put him back in his brain pod and suspended the ethanol delivery until a certified repair coding was registered at the police nexus.

  Nickle spoke up, “Get your bets in now friends. This is THE most exciting finish we have ever seen in all the World Game series. Who do YOU think is right? Charonelle or Howley?”

  CHAPTER 50

  Behind the Moon

  The transports and shuttles from Space City were now milling around in the protective region that used to be the back of the moon, never seen from Earth. Reduced to line of sight ship to ship communications, it was
taking time to determine who was senior and in command.

  While they argued and sorted themselves out, the front of silvery fragments and particles moved inexorably towards the moon like a disciplined cavalry charge. No one had noticed the faint laser pulse flashes reflecting off the oncoming fragments that were oblique to the moon’s umbra. The light was being scattered by the irregular fragment surfaces, but was reaching behind the moon. No one was looking for a signal like this.

  Aboard a shuttle, Space City hydroponics engineer Jing Chu was sitting quietly looking out one of the few windows in the hull. She was watching the distant fragments that were just coming into sight at the edge of the moon’s sharply curved horizon. Her head was lolling against the window in a half doze as she semi-consciously observed the unique display unfolding in front of her.

  She suddenly felt dizzy and disoriented and her eyes opened wide, making the feeling worse. A feeling she had not experienced since she was a small child at a fair, when the flashing lights had set her off into an epileptic fit that turned into a grand-mal seizure. Medication had taken care of her childhood malaise and she had grown out of the condition by her early teens.

  Now it was back and building in full force. She knew immediately what was happening to her and recalled her childhood control instructions. Shut your eyes and control your body. Force relaxation.

  After a few minutes of controlled breathing the sensation dissipated. She peeked out of one eye into the cabin and felt no discomfort, so opened both eyes and looked around. No reaction. Jing now realized that something from outside had set her off. Regular flashing lights no longer had any effect on her, so whatever was coming in the window had to be unusual and very powerful to set her off again after all these years. She decided to experiment cautiously by covering one eye and taking a quick look out the window.

  Nothing happened. She looked inside then swung back to the window a second time. Nothing. With trepidation, she prepared to uncover her eye and look out with both, intending to swing back immediately if she felt an onset in any way. She failed to consider that the fragments had moved closer in the last few minutes and the intensity of whatever had revived her long gone childhood epilepsy would be considerably stronger. In fact not in a one on one increase, but a squared value increase.

  Jing looked out with both eyes open and immediately went into a grand-mal fit, thrashing in her seat restraints, eyes rolling back in their sockets and gasping for every breath.

  “Medic! Medic!” came the scream of alarm from the passenger behind her. Her buddy was trying to counteract the fit but not succeeding, as one of the Space City medics drifted up to Jing’s convulsing body. He immediately immobilized one arm slapped a BioMeter on it. The Meter flashed and made a pfft noise as it blasted a seizure calmative through Jing’s skin and into her bloodstream. The medic watched as Jing gradually calmed and subsided into a fitful sleep, then he looked at the BioMeter and read off Jing’s medical profile, noting that her epilepsy had been classed as full remission over twenty years earlier. He looked around and asked the nearby passengers what had happened.

  The passenger who had called him spoke up. “I noticed she was looking out the window a couple of times. I guess I was a bit envious that she had the window which made me look at her. She was restless, looking out and back and she kind of shuddered once just before she looked the last time and went into the fit.”

  The medic queried Jing’s buddy, rapidly putting the evidence together of an external stimulus that had set off the epileptic fit. He keyed in his privacy channel to the shuttle commander, Bob Evans. “Commander Evans, Medical Officer Hogan here sir with a report on Jing’s condition and a strong recommendation.”

  “Yes MO Hogan?” replied Evans.

  “Sir, Jing is now stable. She has suffered a grand-mal epileptic seizure that I believe was caused by external stimulus related to the approaching fragment swarm. Her buddy records indicate that it was purely a visual effect that resurrected her epilepsy that has been in remission for twenty years. based on this finding I recommend that all view ports on all ships be closed and secured while we investigate what the phenomenon is. It may be that even those with no previous history of epilepsy may be affected, including yourself and your copilots, sir.”

  “Thank you Hogan. Understood and being implemented immediately.”

  Evans went straight to the line of sight communications channel. “All ships! All ships! Cease all communications now and listen carefully. This is an emergency order.” He continued to instruct the immediate closure of all view ports, including the pilot cabins, and then after a suitable pause for implementation, explained the reason why. “Has anyone else experienced passengers with any sort of fit in the last few minutes? Affirmative replies only please.”

  The speakers were silent. “Monitor and observe using electronic means only until further notice. I am taking command of this flotilla under Martial Law until further notice. Evans out.”

  “Sir!” the co-pilot signalled urgently, “One of the shuttles is on collision course with a transport and not responding to radio or guard frequency.”

  “Get the transport to move, emergency procedures. Keep trying to raise the shuttle.” Evans activated the external cameras and gradually brought up the gain on the resulting dimage of the flotilla. There was a faint, pulsing interference of the dimage that he had never seen before, but that was not his concern right at the moment. He could see the errant shuttle heading towards the transport. Tiny puffs of jets from the transport set it moving off to the side, out of the path of the shuttle. It was going to be very close.

  “Sir, I am getting something back from the shuttle comms channel. There seems to be screaming and incoherence... wait... Yes shuttle, we hear you. What’s going on there?”

  The frantic voice was fading in and out, “Our pilot has collapsed for some reason and our co-pilot is having a fit of some sort. I had to subdue him to get to the comms. What shall I do? We are heading straight at another ship I can see ahead. Help us!”

  Evans took the comms. “Stay calm. The other ship is taking evasive action so you do nothing. Now tell me your name and position.”

  “Yes. Yes. I am Sheila Johnson, Cook’s Assistant on Space City. I don’t know how to fly this shuttle.”

  “Sheila, this is Commander Bob Evans. I will help you through this. Firstly, make sure you do not look out the windows of your shuttle or you could end up like your flight officers. Something outside is causing the problem. I need you to shut all the view ports and then I want you to get the Captain and his co-pilot removed from the cabin.”

  “Y..yes sir.” Sheila replied, voice trembling.

  “Look on the console in front of the co-pilot WITHOUT looking out the front view port, and locate a symbol that looks like a pull down window blind.”

  “Found it sir.”

  “Press the button and hold it down. A selection of windows to close will come up as a dimage. The last one is “Close All”. I want you to touch that.”

  Sheila followed the instructions and the window shields slid smoothly into place.

  “Look at the diagram that should have appeared under the dimage. It shows the shuttle and all the window shields in place. They should all be green. Are they?”

  “Yes sir.” Her voice gained confidence.

  “Get some help and remove the flight crew from the cabin. Get them medical care but YOU do not leave. Do you understand Sheila?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Move on it, fast.”

  Sheila peered out into the cabin area and beckoned four passengers in the closest row to come to her. All had some space training for City living so they were able to move efficiently. They stopped just outside the cabin.

  “You two take the captain and you take the co-pilot. Get BioMeters on both of them straight away.”

  “Yes SUH! And who put you in charge SUH!” The attitude coming off a large, square jawed man was almost tangible. “Who are you to order us around. What
did you do to the captain?”

  “Oh, for crying out loud!” Sheila used her old Australian namesake grandmother’s favorite expletive. “There is no time for this bullshit. Just do what I tell you if you want to live!”

  The macho man was a little confused, but still retained enough arrogance to be a problem, smirking and delaying the removal. “Want to live, huh? And what’s an iddy biddy little girl like you wearing a cook’s insignia going to do to save us, huh?” He stopped moving arms folded in defiance.

  “Ooooh!” Sheila was getting angry. She suddenly launched herself at the man and flicked out her hand at his exposed neck. The look of surprise on his face was classic as his body became paralyzed by Sheila’s application of Pirogi Cholent martial arts that was her leisure past time and exercise regimen.

  “You!” she indicated, “Get over here now and help! Anyone else want to argue with me?”

  The group moved with aclarity and the cabin was quickly cleared, The captain and co-pilot under medical care. Sheila resumed her seat at the console. “I’m back Commander Evans.”

  “Thank you Sheila. Is everyone OK?”

  “Yes sir. One of the helpers slipped and fell sir, but he will be OK soon.”

  “Slipped and fell?”

  “Don’t ask, Commander.”

  “Oh. Oh well, let’s get a move on now. Look at the console in front of you. To the right you will see a series of Flight related buttons. These will bring up a dimage of your shuttle and other vessels in proximity. Do you see the row of six buttons with shuttle shapes on them?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “The top button has one shape that is your shuttle. Press it now.”

  A wire frame representation of the shuttle came up as a dimage in front of her.

  “The next series of buttons represent other vessels in close proximity regions, like layers of an onion. We will stay with the default settings for proximity. Push the second button down now.”