Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 (5 page)

Eight

After detaching the third ISSC module in preparation for the asteroid missions, Colonel Fox’s EVA crew re-entered the station. Ansari made a stationwide announcement on the intercom system stating—without explanation—that JJ, Dyl, Song-Ye, King, and Tony were “unexpected temporary guests” and asking the rest of the crew to cooperate with them as needed.

“Remember,” she added, “their mission details are classified, but their assistance has been invaluable in the past.”

When the EVA team was safely back in the equipment module, JJ and her friends went with Ansari to meet the British officer. JJ had fond memories of when she and King had traveled with Major Fox to the Kylarn base on the far side of the Moon.

By the time they reached the equipment module, Fox had finished removing his spacesuit and stowing the components away. The man was compact, with shadows of fatigue under his eyes and more salt than pepper in his hair. His face was serious, his lips pressed into a straight line below his mustache. Fox had been suspicious of the teens when they first arrived at the moonbase, but he had grudgingly come to accept the Star Challengers after working with them.

Holding onto a support handle on the module wall, Fox regarded them. “Cadets, you haven’t changed a bit. It’s been years since the attack on Magellan. I’ve given up trying to understand your comings and goings, but I’m glad you’re on our side. It’s good to see you. There’s plenty of work afoot, but I suppose you already know that.”

“We probably won’t stay long,” King said. “But we’ll pitch in on whatever you need us to do.”

“We’re supposed to help you prep the asteroid mission,” Song-Ye added.

“I understand that if it hadn’t been for your sharp eyes and curiosity, Cadet King, we’d never have known those asteroids were diverted from their orbits.” Fox’s stern expression softened. “Frankly, I’m glad to be in the thick of things again. It took a bit of convincing, but I managed to persuade the combined militaries that I needed to direct this operation in person. Fortunately, I got Major Rodgers to go dirtside—that’s down on Earth—and run Central in my absence. He’s Lieutenant Colonel Rodgers now.”

JJ grinned. “Good choice. What have the Kylarn been up to in the meantime?” JJ looked at Ansari. “Have they left Earth alone since we chased them off the station?”

“As far as we can tell, but it’s hard to say. Now that our new Eye in the Sky satellite is in position at L-5, at least we have a way to observe the far side of the Moon. There is a great deal of activity.”

“You know the squidbutts are probably watching us right back,” Dyl said.

“Without a doubt,” Fox agreed.

Over the station intercom, Pi announced, “The new booster just arrived here in orbit along with a shipment of warheads for the asteroid missions.”

Ansari answered. “Good. Dispatch four crew in Manned Maneuvering Units to take the cargo to the mission modules.”

“Aye, Stationmaster. Once we assemble the plasma spacedrive engines, we should be ready to launch all three asteroid missions on schedule.”

Fox wore a distant expression. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see a shipload of nuclear weapons.”

“It’s strange to think that every nuclear nation is joining in this effort. Now these terrible weapons just might save the world,” Ansari mused. “Some people think that research should be conducted for purely scientific reasons, but without some incentive, many advances would never have been made.”

JJ said, “The United States and the Soviet Union invented missiles and hydrogen bombs to threaten each other with nuclear war. The Cold War was over before I was born, but I’ve read about it.”

“The Cold War was over before any of our
grandparents
were born, Cadet,” Ansari said.

JJ blushed. Sometimes she forgot that they were more than a century in the future. “Of course. Anyway, some good came out of that situation,” JJ continued, even though the whole subject must seem like ancient history to the rest of the ISSC crew. “The rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviets also started the space race. Without that, and the contest to put a man on the Moon, I doubt there would even
be
a space station now.”

JJ, who made a hobby of learning about space programs around the world, couldn’t help talking about it. “Sure, the two superpowers made the world a pretty tense place, but each side made lots of breakthroughs—launching rockets, satellites, and manned missions to space. All because the United States and the Soviet Union were working so hard to top each other. In 1957 the Russians launched
Sputnik
—the very first orbiting satellite—and four months later, the U.S. launched Explorer 1. In 1961, the Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. A few weeks later, ‘Ice Commander’ Alan Shepard was the first American in space, and only a year after that, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. And so on.”

“Does it matter which country made the progress?” Ansari asked.

“It did at the time,” JJ said.

In fact, the space rivalry had gotten so heated that in 1961 President Kennedy announced the goal of putting an American on the Moon before the end of the decade, which upped the stakes and created a race to the Moon. Over the years, a series of firsts went into the history books: In 1963, the Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in Apollo 11 were the first men to walk on the Moon. In 1975, after almost twenty years of rivalry, Americans and Soviets worked together on the Apollo-Soyuz mission; when the two spacecraft docked in space, it signaled a new era of cooperation.

“And even though the Cold War put the world on edge for decades,” King said, “the research and tech spinoffs from those space programs have helped the world since then. Kind of a silver lining to the dark cloud.”

“I doubt that the manufacturers of our nuclear missiles expected them to be used for anything other than war, but I’m certainly glad we have them available to help us divert those asteroids.” Colonel Fox drifted over to one of the viewing windows and looked out at the spacesuited men and women using their MMUs to jet away from the station and meet the large cargo container drifting along the orbit toward the ISSC.

Four other crewmembers drifted past the Star Challengers, exiting the equipment module at the end of their shift. The strangers shot curious glances at the five young people. JJ didn’t think she would have time to get to know all of the new crew. The Star Challengers would probably stay aboard the station for a day or two, gathering information so Commander Zota could send them on to the next phase of their mission.

Unexpectedly, Dr. Kloor and Security Chief Napali opened the hatch from the nearby node room and pulled themselves toward the group. Napali looked tough as nails, as usual, and the physicist did not seem pleased. “I know who you are now!” Kloor said. “I figured out where you’re from, so don’t deny it.”

Ansari and Fox looked intrigued. JJ’s stomach fell. Napali and Kloor drifted toward them. “I thought about every instance, then I checked the records of your previous visit at Moonbase Magellan. Chief Ansari filed detailed reports, you know. Aside from the impossible fact that you magically appear and disappear without using any sort of spacecraft, it’s also very curious that for people on a classified and highly skilled mission, you cadets don’t seem to know much of anything. You weren’t familiar with the moonbase. You arrived at the ISSC and didn’t know anything about current events. Now you’re back and
still
don’t know about any of our widely publicized preparations for dealing with the asteroids. In fact, you have no idea what’s happened since you were last here.”

Napali picked up the conversation; obviously, the two had discussed the questions beforehand. “On the other hand, you seem to know an awful lot about the Kylarn—details
we
haven’t even discovered yet. You know what they call themselves, and you claimed to know their intentions, long before we had any evidence.”

“Wait a minute!” Tony protested. “Are you implying that we’re squidbutt spies?”

“Mira might be, after all,” King said in a low voice. “She proved that.”

“But we’re the good guys!” Dyl piped up.

“When you keep arriving out of nowhere, you can’t expect people not to ask questions and press for answers,” Colonel Fox said. “We’ve given you the benefit of the doubt because you were so helpful—but Cadet Mira has made everyone more cautious.”

“I know,” King said in a low voice.

“No, I’m not accusing you of spying. I think the answer is stranger than that,” Kloor said, like a prosecuting attorney preparing to pounce. “You young people come from a
different time!
That’s why you don’t age. You don’t arrive by spaceship—you’re somehow transported through time. You arrived at the moonbase nearly three years ago, just before the Kylarn base was discovered, then you appeared on the ISSC almost two years ago, and now here you are again. I checked the images from your first visit—you haven’t changed at all since the beginning.”

JJ’s throat was dry, and she tried to think of a good answer.

“Uh, you’ve been watching too many movies,” Dyl said.

Kloor remained adamant. “I’ve been looking at
evidence
and drawing the most logical conclusions. Do you deny it?”

Ansari and Fox waited in wide-eyed silence to see how the young people would respond.

JJ looked at her fellow Star Challengers, wondering how they could still keep their mission secret, as Commander Zota had asked. And in those few seconds of hesitation, Dr. Kloor got all the answer he needed. “I knew it! Are you here to change history? Are you here to erase our timeline?”

“No! That’s not it,” JJ finally said. “We’re trying to
save
history! We’re trying to help humanity get prepared.” Even though Zota had insisted on secrecy, they were in a different version of the future now. When King and Song-Ye looked shocked at what she had revealed, JJ said defensively, “We have to trust someone.”

Tony followed JJ’s lead. “Now do you all understand why we couldn’t tell you anything?”

Ansari seemed to have trouble accepting what she heard. “So you come from the past to change what happens here? Or do you learn from the future, go back, and try to change things in the past?”

“We’re trying to help the human race prepare, to give us a head start before the Kylarn arrive,” JJ said. “If we focus on research and discovery, develop technology decades sooner, and keep the space program strong, maybe the Kylarn won’t bother us. We know now that the first alien scouts are going to spy on Earth in our lifetimes.”

“But if you change all that—our past—what if we’re never born?” Napali asked.

“If the invasion is as bad as we predict it could be, that might still save millions of lives,” Ansari said.

“Billions, actually,” King said in a low voice. Ansari looked at him in shock.

“Look.” JJ held onto a grab bar on the wall and turned to face the adults. “We’ve gone back twice before. We already changed what happens by helping save the moonbase crew and the space station. In our original timeline, the Kylarn destroyed Moonbase Magellan and its crew, and then took over the ISSC. All of you would be dead if we hadn’t changed anything.”

“We risk our own lives every time we come here,” Dyl said.

Song-Ye added, “We can do a lot of good—I promise.”

“In your future, what happened with the asteroids?” Kloor asked.

“This is a problem,” Dyl said. “They did some real damage.”

“But we want to help you change that,” JJ assured them.

Kloor frowned. “What does that mean. The billions of lives?”

“We can’t give you specifics. It could jeopardize what we’re trying to do here,” JJ said, trying to defuse the tension in the room.

“Your very presence is changing things!” Fox said quietly, his words cutting through the air with some frustration.

“We weren’t trying to lie to you—we just needed to keep a low profile,” JJ explained. She desperately wanted the adults to trust her and her friends. She knew, though, that dishonesty wasn’t a good way to start building relationships.

“You have to admit,” Dyl said, “that if we told you we were time travelers from the past trying to head off an alien invasion, you would have thought we were either lying or crazy.”

Tony nodded. “Believe me, conversations like that never go well.”

“Pfft,”
Song-Ye said. “We didn’t understand it at first. How could we expect
you
to?”

“We’re trying not to tip off the Kylarn about the changes we’re making,” King said. “So, can we keep this a secret among friends?”

Stationmaster Ansari, who had always been on their side, nodded slowly. “It will be our secret.”

Fox seemed surprised, and although Kloor wore a satisfied smile, Napali remained skeptical.

“My gut tells me we can trust these cadets,” Ansari said. “And considering how powerful the aliens are, we’re going to need every ally we can get.”

***