Twisted Spaces: 1 / Destination Mars

by E. N. Abel

  The pilot was still missing, so Mike took the helm. With one move of his joystick the sphere jumped 'upward', out of the planetary plane, and, unhindered by an atmosphere, accelerated with mind-blowing values. On the main screen the numbers on the ship's speedometer display just rushed by.

  ''How do you detect an incoming missile?'' Simone asked, curious.

  Marlene, strapped in her seat, answered: ''Normally by radar. We have a little commercial radar transmitter on the hull, one of the simple, smaller types charter boats use. Six mile range on the water, two hundred in open space. But these idiots down there are hitting us with so much microwave energy we are practically blind ...'' Then, after a second: ''But they are illuminating the incoming, too! One moment ...'' She rapidly started hammering away on the keyboard.

  ''Navigation!'' Mike commanded that moment, ''we need to go to Alternate-One!''

  ''Yes, one moment, please!'' She kept typing on the keyboard.

  ''Marlene!''

  ''Mike, please, one more moment!''

  Mike leaned back, his brows wrinkled: this response wasn't to his taste. They just had a few seconds to react ... then a section of the main screen changed, and a circular graphic appeared: a stylised radar screen with a small white mark in the center and a blinking red dot on the outermost ring.

  Recognizing the visual for what it was, Mike demanded at once: ''Distance and speed!''

  Some more pecking, and the info appeared: speed 14200 km/h, dist 280 km.

  ''Wow, that's fast ... Mach fourteen! Four kilometers per second,'' Simone shouted. ''Must be an ICBM! Four megatons per warhead, up to eight of them on board.'' Looking at Mike she added laconically: ''You should feel honoured: that thing costs big bucks. Makes it a historical first, too.''

  ''Navigation! Can you produce a three dimensional ...'' Mike turned towards the navigators seat, but the woman there seemed to be frozen, staring at the incoming missile in horror.

  ''Marlene!'' Mike shouted sharply.

  She flinched, caught herself and hurriedly entered another command in her keyboard. The picture switched, showing a wire frame model now, with the white mark in the center. The red dot blinked in the lower left corner now. Vector coordinates appeared in a description block. ''ETA fifty seconds,'' she stated with a timid, fearful voice.

  Mike turned the ship a bit, then pulled the joystick back, rushing away from the intruder, distance increasing per heartbeat: 290, 300, 310, 320 ...

  Simone suddenly gasped: ''Mike, if they detonate that thing remotely ... the electromagnetic shock wave! How far ...?''

  ''Nobody can answer that question,'' Alex threw in from his seat. ''I mean, how far an EMP travels in open space. No experience yet. What we know is: the energy drops with the forth power of the distance, and that in space, as well. We also have a few nice reflection layers of those gold-plated aluminium rescue blankets ...'' He laughed.

  ''You think this is funny?'' Marlene sounded accusingly.

  ''Pah, I've been in worse situations,'' Alex replied dismissively.

  Marlene stared at him with open mouth. ''What can be worse than being hunted by a nuclear missile?''

  That drew a snort. ''Standing in front of a Taliban execution command.''

  ''What do you propose we do?'' Simone turned to Mike.

  ''Navigation, plot a course straight into space,'' Mike ordered, ''direction away from the ICBM. Speed only a bit faster than the projectile.''

  ''But why ... ?''

  Mike just stared at her grimly, and she suddenly understood: he had given her an order and was waiting for her to comply. Blushing she turned to her station, and somehow feeling humiliated she worked on the keyboard, ran the calculations. It took under a minute, and she said with a pressed voice: ''Course plotted.'' Then, very pointedly: ''Sir.''

  Mike ignored her stinger: ''Set course.''

  Marlene clicked her mouse twice: ''Course set ... Sir.'' Again, that tone.

  Immediately the wireframe graphics changed a bit, positioning the incoming missile exactly at its south pole.

  After a moment Michael looked at Marlene: ''Is it following us?''

  ''Yes, sir.''

  ''Defence!''

  ''Yes?'' Carl looked at him.

  ''Fire a class-four at it!''

  ''Ok.'' Carl had obviously expected something like this. He just bent forward, touched his controls, tapped twice: ''class-four ... launched.'' He turned back to Mike: ''Target contact in forty seconds. Better get some distance, Mike.''

  ''Propulsion, ready for a little stress test?''

  ''Yep!'' Rosskov actually sounded cheerful. The approaching nuke really didn't seem to bother him.

  ''Propulsion, pedal to the metal.''

  ''Acceleration to M-100, countdown on One.'' Alex giggled, double-tapped his pad. ''One.''

  The reactor gave a deep, angry hum and the speed-distance display went nuts, the numbers rushing by so fast that the digits turned into stripes. After a few seconds the SPEED number on the main screen stabilized: 118800 km/h. They had felt nothing, no motion at all.

  ''Oh my god, it really works,'' someone shouted.

  ''Silence!'' Mike ordered, watching the ICBM drop away.

  ''Twenty seconds to impact,'' Muller suddenly announced from the Defence seat. ''It's right on track ... want a visual?''

  ''Absolutely!''

  On the main screen a section switched to a view of a slowly shrinking Earth.

  ''You see the glow of the rocket motor?'' Defence asked. ''There!'' A circle on the main display appeared.

  ''Yes.''

  ''Distance: fifty kilometers, forty, thirty ...'' Muller counted down in one-second intervals.

  At ''Ten'' the weak light in the circle suddenly exploded, expanded, but then shrunk unexpectedly fast.

  ''Woahhhhhhh!'' A collective outcry sounded through the ship.

  ''What happened?'' Simone shouted.

  ''I detonated the grav mine by remote control,'' Muller answered, grinning away. ''It was close enough. The grav impulse must have triggered the warheads, but the developing gravimetric field of the mine just sucked up the nuclear explosion. And probably the radiation, too.''

  ''Well done!'' Mike's fist beat on his armrest. ''Propulsion, slow down, then hand over to navigation. Navigation, move us into an orbit!''

  Again Marlene hesitated: ''At this height?'' Again she just got a wordless stare from Mike. Now definitely feeling humiliated, she quickly entered the commands: ''I have control over propulsion. We are now at two thousand three hundred kilometers, entering orbit in ... ten, nine ...''

  ''You needed to change our course to a straight line,'' Simone suddenly said, ''to make the ICBM follow us in our track.''

  ''Our weaponry isn't very sophisticated,'' Mike replied, ''the mines are unguided and have no propulsion. Our ejection system works like an air gun, we use a burst of compressed air to shoot the projectile out of a small launcher pipe, down in the machine deck.''

  ''And in space its trajectory is a straight line.''

  ''No, it's just unimpeded by any air friction. Otherwise it follows the gravitational field lines, gets drawn towards the strongest gravity well, like everything else. That's why we needed to get away from the local gravity center on a perpendicular course. The missile swung onto our track and flew into the bomb.'' He sighed. ''As I said, not very sophisticated.''

  ''Maybe, but it worked,'' Simone smiled.

  ''For now,'' Mike said in a sinister tone.

  ''You know,'' Alex threw in from the side, ''I would have loved to try my particle cannon.''

  That made Mike laugh out: ''Christ, you are such an idiot, Towarischtsch!''

  Alex also laughed out loud: ''From you, that's an honour. Now what?''

  Chapter 74

  Beijing

  Monday, 14.11.2016

  ''The missile detonated at 1800km height,'' the liaison officer reported nervously to the chairman.

  ''And?''

  ''The target is still on radar, now in a two
thousand kilometer orbit.''

  ''You mean, we missed?''

  ''Yes, Comrade Chairman.'' The General now clearly showed signs of fear. ''The explosion was atypical too. Something seemed to have sucked it up.''

  ''What? How?''

  ''We don't know yet. Also the spaceship fled with an unbelievable acceleration rate. We are still evaluating the telemetry data.''

  The chairman took a deep breath and turned to Xao: ''Now what?''

  General Xao had a very good idea about what had eaten up the explosion, but only replied dryly: ''We hope they don't retaliate.''

  ''A fifteen meter balloon? You are joking!''

  ''You tend to forget that these people can create a black hole, the most powerful phenomenon in the universe - a thing that can eat stars. And we have provoked them.''

  The chairman turned red, then faced his Defence minister: ''All forces on full alert!''

  ''That,'' Xao interjected, raising his hand, ''might not be necessary. They will hardly come with an invasion army over land.''

  ''You are right,'' the chairman agreed, then nodded to his minister: 'Air Defence network on full alert!''

  ''Yes, Comrade Chairman.''

  Chapter 75

  Earth Orbit

  Monday, 14.11.2016

  ''Now,'' Mike said slowly, answering Alex's question: ''now we knock them on their asses.''

  ''Counter-attack?'' Defence asked eagerly.

  ''Yes. Prepare another class-four mine and a class-one AM charge.''

  With barely hidden satisfaction, Carl started his computation. Watching closely everybody could see a very faint smile: obviously he had enough of playing the target. Changing their role from rabbit to wolf suited him just fine.

  Reyd bent closer to Alex and whispered: ''What's a 'class four'?''

  ''A mine based on gravitation, an artificial black hole category four,'' Alex whispered back. ''Unstable, collapses within a few microseconds. Like that thing we used to crack the shelter roof - just four power-ten magnitudes stronger. And only yay big.'' He made a fist.

  Simone ignored the whispered lesson and addressed Mike pointedly: ''Care to inaugurate me?''

  ''Sure. We'll answer to the attack.'' He turned to his navigator: ''Where did the missile come from?''

  Marlene, still shocked by the recent events, did not react. The bridge crew held their breath, expecting Mike to explode. But he just unbuckled, walked over to Marlene's seat, kneeled town, took her hand and stroked her arm gently. As soon as he touched her, she woke from her trance and turned her eyes to him.

  ''Darling,'' he said kindly, ''some people have fired an intercontinental nuclear missile at us. That's a weapon of mass destruction, designed to destroy a whole country and to burn its cities in a nuclear fire. They did so unprovoked - we neither threatened them, nor invaded their country, did not attack their people or resources. Are you still with me?''

  Marlene nodded weakly. Being called 'darling' by Mike was a first and kind of heart warming, and it soothed her. As did his warm, strong touch.

  ''It's like dealing with a schoolyard bully,'' he went on. ''You have two options: either you run and hide or you hit back. We are able to do both. But, if we decide to run and hide, we'll have to do so forever. We can outrun them for a while, but in the end we will need to return to Earth. Be it only to get supplies like air, water, as well as food and, of course, antimatter. Our fuel cells are nearly full, but they will not last forever. Then they can try again, and again, and some day they will get lucky. Are you still with me?''

  ''Yes,'' she answered in a squeaky voice, then cleared her throat.

  ''The other option is to make it clear that we don't take it kindly being shot at. Doing it in a way they will surely understand. You see, we cannot make everybody like us, or love us, but we can make those unkind to us tread carefully around us.'' He paused, then popped the question: ''So, what shall it be? Run and hide or make a stand?''

  The young woman took a deep breath. ''Make a stand.''

  ''Good.'' He pointed to Marlene's control station: ''Where did the missile come from?''

  Without looking to the instruments, she replied: ''Central China.''

  ''Thank you, darling. And now the next question - and this one is really important. We'll fly an attack on a nuclear missile base, drop a big bomb on them, continue to their capital city, explode an antimatter warhead at high altitude to scare them out of their wits, then we'll squeeze their tails. People will get hurt, people will get killed.'' He paused shortly to let what he said sink in. ''People who are responsible for the attack, but also innocent ones. We'll try to avoid that, but in the end that's inevitable if one takes such a course of action. Collateral damage, you have heard the term.'' Mike smiled at her. ''Now my question to you: do you feel up to that? Please take a moment to consider, then answer me. And while you try to come to a decision, please remember the chain of cause and effect - what causes what. Also remember who we are and where we are.''

  Again Marlene took a very deep breath, and after a minute, answered: ''Yes. I can do it.''

  ''Good. Here are my conditions for you to stay in that seat,'' and he pointed to her place: ''No more questions, no more hesitations until it's over. I give you an order and you react. Can you accept that?''

  ''Yes.''

  ''Wunderbar.'' Mike placed a hand on her shoulder, and she felt a wave radiating from it. ''You are now officially a member of our bridge combat team.'' He showed a sad smile. ''Afterwards, when we are safe, you can yell at me, beat me, sue me, whatever. But while in action ...''

  ''I will obey your commands.''

  He got up: ''OK, then let's do it. Helm!''

  ''Yes, Lieutenant!''

  ''Get the coordinates from NAV and calculate attack vector on that missile base.''

  ''Already done, Lieutenant!'' Acar grinned broadly.

  ''Navigation, check the helm's computations!''

  Caught by surprise, but without visible hesitation, Marlene swiftly moved forward, pecked away on her keyboard. While she was working, she set to speak, but Acar already knew what she wanted to ask.

  ''No, I'm not insulted that you double-check. My ass is on the line too, so let's make it abso-friggin-lutely sure. As safe as we can. That's how we always work: limit the risk as far as possible. Then act.''

  Slowly it began to dawn on Marlene what brothers-in-arms meant. ''Attack vector verified.'' She looked up: ''We could do a micro adjustment on the last kilometer.''

  ''Helm?''

  ''I see it. Done.''

  ''Propulsion?''

  ''Reactor ready, Towarischtsch.''

  ''Defence?''

  ''Mine is ready for launch, deflector shield on maximum!''

  ''Helm: leave orbit. Commence attack run!''

  ''Roger.'' Acar tapped on his control screen, and the sphere shot out of orbit, accelerated with breathtaking speed and dashed towards the planet below her. ''ETA to target one: three hundred fifty seconds.'' He grabbed the joystick. Just in case.

  Chapter 76

  Beijing

  Monday, 14.11.2016

  The midmorning session had hardly begun, when an aide came running in. ''Comrade Chairman, Comrade Chairman,'' he waved a pad computer, ''we have detected an intruder who has violated our northern border! One object approaching central China with unbelievable speed!''

  The whole committee turned to the harbinger, when the Army's liaison officer yelled out and drew their attention to him: ''That's not all! We've lost contact with our missile base in Quan-Yang!''

  ''What?'' The chairman looked stupefied at the man, who typed hectically away on his notebook. After a moment he looked up, pale.

  ''It's gone, Comrade Chairman. Completely gone! Wiped off the map! See for yourself!'' He turned the notebook: it displayed a satellite view of a steppe with some streets ending in a big, round crater.

  ''What? How?''

  That moment a new, silent sun appeared over Beijing. It was so powerful that it seemed to penetrate close
d eyelids, sunglasses, even walls. For a few seconds it overwhelmed everything and everyone with its brilliant white glare, then it faltered and collapsed. The people had taken one breath, when a murderous blast of hot air hit the city, rushed through the streets, buildings, halls, tumbling people, bikes, goods. The hurricane lasted a few moments only, then was gone again, leaving a trail of clutter, debris and chaos.

  And chaos was what reigned in the central committee's meeting hall. Everybody was shouting - nobody listened. Xao just picked up a tilted-over chair, put it upright again and sat down. He took a deep breath, happy to be alive. That had not been a normal nuke; only the warning he had hoped for.

  Xao's adjutant Chin Feng entered the holy hall, carrying a pad computer. He stopped shortly, found Xao and came running to him. Putting the pad in front of him, Feng said: ''It's all over the internet. Our attack on that spaceship, their counter-attack and the explosion over Beijing.''

  That did not exactly fit into Xao's plans, but he had expected the committee's actions to become public sooner or later.

  ''That's not all,'' the Lieutenant continued. Everybody in the room listened in now.

  ''What else?'' The chairman was furious.

  Feng faced him : ''A message to you, I mean to the central committee. It was also published on the net. Shall I read it?''

  ''Yes.''

  ''To the central committee of the Republic of China. You have attacked us without provocation and with a weapon of mass destruction. We have retaliated in kind and destroyed your weapon and the base it came from. And we have sent you a warning. The sun you just witnessed was caused by an antimatter bomb with half a gram of payload. We will attack again, this time using a hundred times more. That will evaporate your city. Your only chance to prevent this is to publicly and through the Internet swear to never attack or harm us again. This pledge has to come from each and every member of your leadership. We also demand, as a symbolic submission, to supply a hostage in the form of the person who discovered our location in Germany.

  Choose wisely, or the three thousand year history of Beijing will end today.