As the ship continued to turn toward the BLUMO trap, Morgan hoisted his body up with the assistance of the corridor railing. As he reached down to help Carillo to her feet, he called to Ajay. “Get Kiera. Bring her to the flight deck.”
“Roger dodger.” Ajay toggled off his GEFF magnets and, with a push against the wall, he flew through the lab compartment door with the elegance of an Olympic swimmer leaping off the starting stand.
As Morgan and Carillo walked toward the flight deck with their bodies pressed against the wall and the BLUMO alpha and her entourage trailing behind, Morgan asked Carillo to describe the vision the BLUMOs had shared.
“There are millions of UMOs hiding behind the two asteroids,” she said. “The BLUMOs with us are going to pass between the asteroids. When the creature flies through the gap, the Callisto UMOs on each side of the gap are going to attack.”
“And what happens to us?” Morgan asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Once we fly through the gap, what happens to us?”
Carillo paused and frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t remember the vision showing that. I can ask.”
“No. Don’t.”
“Why not?”
They entered the flight deck and moved to their stations. As they buckled into their safety harnesses, Morgan shot Carillo a look. The BLUMOs were floating behind her headrest.
“Can they read your mind?” he asked.
“What?”
“The BLUMOs, do you think they can read your mind?”
“How would I know?”
“Have they anticipated a question before you asked them?”
Carillo thought about that for a moment. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Good, that means we have a chance.”
As the ship slowed and resumed a straight-line heading, Ajay and the blindfolded Kiera floated through the doorway, holding hands.
“A chance for what, Colonel?” Kiera asked.
“Both of you, get strapped in,” Morgan said.
“What about Dr. Shilling?” asked Ajay.
“We’re just going to have to hope the gurney straps hold. No time for anything else.”
He began typing in commands at the commander’s station while Ajay assisted Kiera into her seat and buckled her in.
“What’s up your sleeve, Paul?” asked Carillo.
“I’ll tell you in a sec. First, do me a favor and give Kiera and Ajay a rundown on what’s going on.”
Carillo repeated the basics of the BLUMOs’ plan to kill the creature pursuing them. Then she turned back to Morgan. “Now, what are you planning to do?”
“Can you create a diversion for me?” Morgan asked.
“What kind of diversion?”
“Can you engage the alpha in a conversation?”
“About what?”
“Don’t care. Something to distract her. Ask her to tell you more about the creature. Ask her where the UMOs behind the asteroids came from. Hell, ask her about the weather on Jupiter. Just keep her engaged for as long as you can.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
As Carillo swiveled her seat to face the BLUMOs, Morgan said to Ajay, “Take a look at your messages.”
“My messages?”
“Yeah. I sent you something.”
Ajay activated the crew messaging app on his console and read the message from Morgan. Going to attempt to break away from BLUMOs as soon as we pass through the gap. Need you to prepare to transmit message to Maya on all bands, I’ll have my hands full. Text of message to follow. Acknowledge.
A smile formed on Ajay’s face. He typed a reply. Roger dodger, Skywalker.
You’ll have to act quick, Morgan typed. If we break out and they aren’t content to let us go, they’ll quickly envelop us again. But I’m hoping they’re more interested in their prey than they are their bait. Stand by for Maya message text.
Copy that.
Kiera had apparently heard the flurry of typing. “Anyone gonna clue the blind girl in?” she asked.
“Sorry, no time,” Morgan said. “Just hold on tight and wish us luck.”
The white light at the center of the BLUMO ball flickered each time Carillo posed her questions, but the alpha didn’t respond. She filled her mind with the vision the alpha had shared and asked again.
“The creature. Why kill?”
A rush of dread passed through Carillo — and with it came a thought from the alpha. “Danger.”
“Why danger? Does it hurt you?”
“They are coming.”
The answer puzzled Carillo. It was almost as if the BLUMO didn’t understand her question. Did the pack leader mean more of the creatures were coming? Was that the danger? Was the sensation of dread intended to convey that the UMOs were capable of killing one of the creatures, but not more?
“More creatures? Are more coming?”
The white light flickered. In the background, Carillo heard Morgan telling Kiera to hold on tight. Carillo reached up and tightened her harness. As the straps pressed against her shoulders and chest, she felt stabs of pain and groaned.
“Julia, are you okay?” Morgan asked.
She loosened the straps. “Pain meds are wearing off.”
A thought from the alpha flashed into her mind. “Hurt. You are hurt.”
“Yes,” Carillo responded. “You hurt me. You hurt others. No more hurting. We are friends.”
The flickering from the alpha spread to the BLUMOs in the surrounding ball. They pulsed in unison, and a gap began to form in the center of the spinning ball. Then the white light moved out through the hole.
“Colonel,” Ajay said, “something’s happening. The white light is coming out. It’s touching Major Carillo.”
“Never mind, Ajay. Pay attention to the transmitters. Coming up on the gap in under a minute. Stay focused.”
As the alpha bumped up against the wound beneath her breasts, Carillo felt throbs of warmth penetrate her flight suit and soothe the burn. Then the alpha backed away and retreated inside the protective network of her blue escorts.
A new thought pushed into Carillo’s mind. It was a repeat of the earlier communication. “They are coming.”
“I don’t understand,” Carillo answered.
Morgan’s voice overlapped the alpha’s reply. “Here we go. Ajay, you ready?”
“Roger.”
Carillo spun her seat around to look out the flight deck window. To the left, beyond the sphere of BLUMOs surrounding the ship, was one of the two asteroids. It looked like nothing more than an inky blob that blocked the canvas of stars in the background. To the right, she saw only stars.
And then the first streak of golden light peeked from behind the asteroid, and Morgan began a countdown. “Ten…nine…eight…” One of his hands reached for the thruster panel, the other for the engine controls.
Carillo gripped her armrests, and a rush of panic flowed through her. A bolt from the BLUMO ball struck her in the head. The alpha screamed into her consciousness. “No! Friends!”
Another bolt shot out, this one hitting Morgan’s shoulder as he reached three in his countdown.
“What’s happening?” shouted Kiera.
Morgan doubled over, his arm quivering.
“We’re trying to get away,” Ajay said. “The BLUMOs just zapped Skywalker and—”
The ship vaulted forward. Kiera apparently hadn’t needed to hear more. Fumbling her hand over the auxiliary engine control panel at her station, she’d turned the VLF engines on and set them at full power. As the propulsion system roared to life, she reached for the thruster panel. “How close are we to the asteroids?”
“Stay on course, stay on course!” Ajay said. “We’re punching through.”
Enormous flashes exploded all around the Rorschach Explorer, shooting blinding rays of white through the flight deck windows. Ajay hit the send button before the flashes overwhelmed his vision.
The pack alpha, slow in its interpretation of Kiera’s an
d Ajay’s actions, now swirled into a buzzing frenzy and shot bolts of lightning at the heads of all four crewmembers. Before Carillo passed out, she sensed the alpha’s thoughts once more. “Friends! They are coming!”
Carillo would not know it until she awoke, but the same thoughts penetrated the minds of her shipmates, along with a stream of images.
A planet…but it wasn’t Jupiter.
A moon…but not Callisto.
A crater with a spaceport…but it looked nothing like Nuada.
And a spaceship…unlike anything the four had ever seen.
Augustus Amato’s office
A3rospace Industries Command and Control Center
Mayaguana Island, The Bahamas
Through bleary eyes, Amato stared at the painting of the Rorschach Explorer flying through space. Its engines glowing and hull gleaming, the proud ship angled toward a purple nebula in some far-off region of the universe. The painting was among several Rorschach tributes that graced Amato’s office walls, showing the ship gliding toward distant galaxies, orbiting strange planets or landing on alien worlds. The artist had successfully projected a sense of wonder — wouldn’t it be amazing to visit such places and see such things.
That’s how Amato felt, and it was how he wanted other people to feel. Whether through his Gateway to the Stars museum, his Living Universe garden, the Rorschach Explorer or other efforts to share his vision with the world, Amato wanted to inspire people to imagine the possibilities and think boldly about how to turn them into realities.
In looking upon this painting now, however, Amato felt like a shyster. He’d oversold the magic of space exploration — to his colleagues, the public and himself — and he’d underplayed the dangers. It wasn’t that he hadn’t understood the risks. He was, after all, a man who’d spent his entire professional lifetime in the space-exploration business. He’d been a first-hand witness to a number of NASA’s tragedies and an inside observer of others.
What had sent him veering off course was his lack of patience with those who placed too much emphasis on the risks. In many ways, Amato believed the entire concept of manned space flight had fallen prey to the management of risk. Bold moves early in the space program, ones that should have catapulted man into deep space within decades, had fallen back to Earth as the worry-mongers grew in number. Year by year, they whittled down the aspirations of manned missions from exploring the solar system to rotations aboard an orbiting laboratory. Not exactly the stuff of Buck Rogers or Captain Kirk.
And now those same worry-mongers were in ascension. Amato’s critics were howling at his hubris — none louder than Dr. Richard Collins. The outspoken scientist had even tagged Amato with a new nickname that had caught on in the media. “Icarus Amato,” the man who said be damned with risk.
“Only, unlike Icarus,” Collins had crowed when he first coined the nickname on Nigel Ewing’s show, “Amato didn’t try to fly to the Sun himself. Instead, he sent five innocent people to die for him.”
Amato was so immersed in his thoughts he didn’t hear the commotion in the hallway outside his office until Mark Myers opened the door. Sounds of jubilation followed the smiling Myers into the office.
“We’ve received a downlink from Rorschach!”
Amato rose from his chair and grabbed his cane. But he had walked no more than a dozen steps toward the door before the celebration pouring from Mission Control came to an abrupt halt. He paused and listened to the new sounds. Dante was rattling instructions over the center’s intercom and, in the background, Amato could detect fast-paced chatter and a few angry voices.
Resuming his walk, Amato prepared for the worst. Whatever Rorschach had downlinked, it was sobering enough to stamp out the euphoria caused by the transmission’s arrival. He thought of Icarus again and mumbled an apology to the crew.
“I should have known better.”
CHAPTER 14: OVERLOAD
Mission Control
A3rospace Industries Command and Control Center
Mayaguana Island, The Bahamas
September 5, 2019
No one even noticed Amato as he entered Mission Control. The station controllers were either glued to their consoles or engaged in discussions with colleagues. Pritchard sat by the instrumentation and communications officer as the young woman pointed at her display. Dante hovered over a seated group of Whave Technologies’ technicians, peering at their data screens. There was a sense of urgency throughout the room, but none of the people looked despondent. This was not a team confronting the aftermath of a disaster, Amato realized. They were responding to a crisis, that much was certain, but their actions and body language said there was hope.
Myers came up beside him. “Do you want me to get Dante for you?”
“No, let’s not distract him.”
Pritchard spotted Amato and gave a quick wave. Turning to a controller standing nearby, he handed the man a piece of paper and pointed toward Amato. The man dashed over with the note.
“Message from Skywalker.”
The man sped back to his station before Amato could thank him.
Amato handed his cane to Myers and gripped the page with both hands.
CDR-TRE to MAYA-FLIGHT: Good news: CCDR has established direct communication with BLUMO pack alpha a la Nick Reed. Bad news: BLUMO pack alpha aboard TRE and in control of flight dynamics and comms. Heading toward Callisto at 7X VLF max. MSRS critically injured by BLUMOs. Cardiac arrest from electric shock. Revived MSRS but vitals shallow. FE blinded by UV exposure during conflict between BLUMOs surrounding TRE and 2nd…repeat…2nd alien life-form. Hoping FE blindness temporary. CDR and MSAJ attempting TRE escape from BLUMO pack. If successful, aborting mission and returning to Earth. If unsuccessful, will attempt to determine alpha intentions and negotiate release. Keep us in your prayers. CDR-TRE out.
The mix of good news and bad was overwhelming. It was heartening to learn Morgan and Carillo were back in action, but troubling to read of Shilling’s and Kiera’s injuries. The establishment of direct dialogue with the UMOs was a welcome development, but their seizing of Rorschach was not. And then there was the mention of a second alien life-form and a conflict between the two alien species. What kind of aliens? What was the nature of the conflict? Why were the BLUMOs heading toward Callisto? Did the conflict have anything to do with the Saturn flashes?
As he grappled with these questions, Dante walked up. The mission director saw the printout in Amato’s hands and said, “Good. You’ve seen it. Give us another ten minutes and Dennis and I will be ready to give you a full debrief.”
“Go,” Amato said. He pointed at a small conference room toward the back of the center. “I’ll wait in briefing room one.”
“See you in ten.” Dante hustled back to his station.
As Dante and Pritchard entered the conference room, their expressions were focused and their strides determined. Although their faces displayed two days of stubble and their clothes were wrinkled and apparently slept in, it was clear Morgan’s update had energized them.
Myers followed them in, carrying a tray of steaming coffee cups. He handed out the cups and departed, promising Amato he’d be right outside if needed.
Pritchard settled into a chair across the table from Amato and sipped his coffee. Dante handed Amato a packet of papers before taking a seat next to Pritchard.
“Don’t beat around the bush, gentlemen,” Amato said. “What’s the situation?”
“On the whole, a lot better than I thought when I first read Skywalker’s note,” Dante said. “They’re alive. The ship’s intact. Most of the systems are nominal.”
He explained that the downlink had included a slew of diagnostic data files that had provided Mission Control with a detailed look at the ship’s condition. Life support was fully functional. The ship had power, though some systems were offline. All the comms antennas were operational except for the X-band antenna damaged in the first BLUMO attack. At the time the diagnostic reports were created, the VLF engines were t
urned off and the reaction control system was set to manual, but both appeared undamaged.
“That means Skywalker had full maneuverability for the escape attempt,” Pritchard said.
“When will we know if it worked?” Amato asked.
“Forty-five minutes to an hour,” Dante said. “We pinged them back immediately after the downlink finished, roughly twenty minutes ago.”
Amato did the math in his head. It would take the transmission another fifteen to twenty minutes to reach Rorschach, depending on their current position. If they still had the ability to communicate, any return message would arrive back at Mayaguana thirty to forty minutes after that.
“I hate to say it, but the odds they escaped seem small to me,” he said.
“Agreed,” said Pritchard. “But I don’t think Paul would have risked it unless he thought he could succeed.”
“Why did he do it?” Amato rubbed his head and stared at his coffee cup. “What the hell is going on out there?”
“It’s a good question. Dennis and I had a possible scenario in mind before Skywalker’s message arrived,” Dante said. “And we still felt pretty good about it even after reading what he had to say…until his mention of the second life-form. That kind of muddied the water a bit.”
“Let me hear it anyway,” Amato said.
“Okay, let’s start with the UMOs on Callisto. We agree there was a specific purpose behind the de-icing of the spaceport?”
“We do,” Amato said.
“It could be routine maintenance they perform periodically, or a ritual of some kind. Or, as we discussed before launching the fleet, it could be a sign the UMOs are expecting the Callistons to return soon.”
Pritchard picked up the thread. “After the UMOs left Callisto and we lost contact with Rorschach, we questioned whether there might be yet another explanation, but then came the Saturn flashes and Paul’s message.”
“That’s right,” said Dante. “Colonel Morgan’s message implies the BLUMOs are committed to taking Rorschach to Callisto.”
“That does seem clear,” Amato said. “If that’s the case, though, why try to escape?”
Magwave (The Rorschach Explorer Missions Book 2) Page 19
