Star One: Tycho City Survival (18 page)

Special
preference had been given to close family members of people already living on
the Moon. There were also a number of additional scientists, doctors, nurses,
technicians, teachers, engineers, and others from various professions that had
been invited to come up to Tycho City.

“It’s getting
crowded in Tycho City,” commented Anthony, recalling the long line he and
Jolene had been forced to stand in the night before to get into their favorite
restaurant. “I was speaking with Jolene last night, and she said she has one of
the new ecological habitats nearly ready. She’s been speaking to Julie Gray
nearly every day, and Julie even sent down a couple of her assistants to help
Jolene finish setting up the first habitat.”

Mase smiled to
himself. Jolene and Anthony were seeing each other on a regular basis. Sometimes
he and Linda would go out with them to one of the restaurants in Tycho City. Mase had to admit that he did enjoy going out with Linda, she was bright, easy
going, and a lot of fun to be around.

“I spoke to
Julie yesterday, and she is quiet confident that Jolene will be able to handle
the habitats,” Mase replied with an easy smile. “Julie also suggested several
people from Earth she thought would be a big help in monitoring the habitats
and assisting with setting up future ones. I don’t want Jolene overworking
herself.”

His suit com
system suddenly blinked a yellow attention light inside his helmet, indicating
an incoming message from his office. He knew it had to be Linda, and if she was
calling him now it had to be important. He pressed the receive button on the small
com panel on his wrist.

“This is
Mase,” he spoke. “What’s wrong, Linda?”

“It’s
terrible, Mase!” Linda spoke in a frightened and upset voice. “I just spoke to
Margaret on Star One, and she is saying that both the president and vice
president have just been killed. It seems that Senator Farley and part of the military
are in the process of staging a coup. There is fighting breaking out everywhere
on Earth. There have even been some nuclear weapons used in the Middle East and
between China and Taiwan.”

Mase was
silent for a moment, his mind reeling in shock from what Linda had just said.
“Linda, we’re on our way back. Send a message to Major Daniels and Captain
Struthers to meet me in my office. Also, have Jolene and Isaac come too.”

“What’s going
on?” Anthony asked. He hadn’t been able to overhear the private conversation.

Mase shook his
head and proceeded to explain what Linda had said as they rushed toward their
small shuttle. Mase knew the world had just become very small and much more
dangerous.

-

“Are we sure
both are dead?” Major Daniels asked, shaking her head in disbelief. Stephanie
couldn’t imagine any part of the military going along with Senator Farley.

“It’s
confirmed,” Mase replied in a firm voice. “I just finished talking to Commander
Larson on Star One and Teela has confirmed the information. We also know that
Senator Farley was at the White House when the president was reportedly
killed.”

“What else is
going on?” Isaac asked trying to understand the sudden changes on Earth. “Surely
not all the military is backing the senator?”

“Unfortunately,
a lot of them are,” Mase replied as he took in a deep, steadying breath. “For
weeks now, the senator and his group have been telling everyone the neutron
star threat is a joke. He has gained public sentiment by promising to end
marital law and the policies of the current administration. From the reports we
are getting, over seventy percent of the military has gone over to his side.”

“Seventy
percent!” Major Daniels repeated, her eyes growing wide in disbelief. She found
it hard to believe that so many could have turned against the president. It
just served to indicate how bad the situation on Earth was becoming.

“What about
the launch complexes?” Isaac asked with deep concern on his face. “We still
have a lot of people and supplies that need to come up. We can’t hope to
survive on our own without them.”

“Evidently
General Karver was not in Washington when it fell,” Mase replied, relieved that
they still had the general to depend on. Jane Kinsey and Tim McPhryson are also
at the cape. The general is pulling all of his loyal units in to defend the
launch complexes. He feels he can hold them until we get everything and
everyone up here.”

“That still
might pose a problem,” spoke Captain Struthers, arching his eyebrows. “Some of
the people on the primary lists may not be able to make it to one of the launch
complexes if Farley and his crowd control most of the country.”

Mase nodded,
knowing they were going to leave some valuable people stranded on Earth. He had
already thought about that. “Every effort will be made to get those people
safely to the cape; if not, then others will have to be substituted.”

“We’re going
to have a lot of people coming up in the next several weeks,” commented Jolene,
thinking about the monumental task in front of her. “Our systems are already being
heavily stressed just from the people we currently have in Tycho City. It won’t take much more for everything to come apart on us.”

“We may have a
solution to that,” answered Mase, recalling the conversation he’d had with
Doctor Wruggi on Star One several nights back. He looked slowly around the
small group, knowing what he was going to suggest was a drastic measure, but it
might just allow them to survive and reduce their use of non-replaceable
supplies.

“As all of you
know, a new deep sleep drug was used on the crew of the FarQuest. This will
allow them to sleep until they reach the neutron star and not use any of the
ship’s consumables. I intend to use the same drug here at Tycho City to put as many of our own people into deep sleep as we can. Then, once the danger from the
neutron star has passed, we can reawaken them.”

“Deep sleep?”
Isaac repeated, his eyes widening at the idea. “For how long?” He hadn’t
thought something like this would be possible, at least not on the scale Mase
was suggesting.

“A year or
more if necessary,” Mase replied evenly as his eyes moved across the group. “It
will reduce our usage of food and water supplies until after the neutron star
passes. It will also give us the necessary time to complete the new Tycho City cavern and the smaller ones.”

“How many
people are we talking about putting under?” Anthony asked curiously.

Mase had
allowed him to attend the meeting so he would know exactly what was happening on
Earth. Anthony had been involved in training additional pilots for the shuttles
and needed to know the conditions the pilots would be flying in.

“As many as
possible,” Mase replied. “I have already spoken to Doctor Klein, and he in turn
has spoken to Doctor Wruggi who is sending another doctor and several nurses
down that are familiar with the procedure. Star One is going to be doing the
same thing with part of the people that are evacuating to the space station.”

“Where are we
going to get the people to build these deep sleep chambers?” Isaac asked as he
thought about all the projects he currently had his engineers working on. “I
don’t have anyone to spare at the moment, and I suspect the chambers will be
highly technical constructs.”

“I believe
Captain Struthers can spare a few of his marines,” responded Mase, recalling
what he had read in the marines dossiers. “A number of them have the technical
training to be able to help. Also, many of the new evacuees from Earth should be
useful. I know we have some engineers and others that could be used that have
come up recently. Linda should have a list of those that are qualified. Get the
rest of the people we need from them and let’s get this started. I am afraid we
are rapidly running out of time.”

“I have a
lieutenant that is highly trained in technical matters that could lead the
team,” Captain Struthers volunteered. “Her name is Macy Kingston. I can assign twenty
of my marines to assist who have some additional training in technical matters.”

“That sounds
like a plan,” Mase replied with a nod. “Let’s get moving on this. The sooner we
can begin constructing the deep sleep chambers and putting people under, the
less strain we will have on our resources.”

“What about
the nukes that went off on Earth?” Major Daniels asked.

Stephanie was
concerned about a full-fledged nuclear war breaking out on Earth. The Middle
East had always been unstable, and the fact that China had used nuclear weapons
against Taiwan highlighted how badly the situation on Earth was rapidly
deteriorating. Too many countries had nukes they could throw around, particularly
if they fell into the wrong hands.

“A terrorist
group seized several launch facilities in the Middle East and struck Europe, as
well as Israel,” replied Mase, recalling what Steve had told him. He had spoken
briefly to Steve when he had returned to his office. “Of course, Israel retaliated. They took out all the launch sites in their nuclear strike. It looks as
if that nuclear exchange is now over, and the situation in the Middle East has stabilized. Reports put the casualties in the tens of millions, and it will
only go higher.”

“What about Taiwan and China?” Captain Struthers asked. He had a cousin stationed at an American base in Japan.

“Taiwan is a total loss, and China only suffered a few small strikes,” Mase answered. He couldn’t
imagine some of the horrors that must be occurring in the vicinities of where
the nuclear weapons had gone off. People would be dying for months from the
increased radiation. “That nuclear exchange is also over.”

“What does
General Karver intend to do?” Isaac asked with deep concern in his voice. From
what he had heard, the United States had fallen into a new civil war. Those
supporting General Karver and the dead president against those supporting
Senator Farley and the military that had sided with him.

“General Karver
is pulling all of his loyal troops back to the three launch facilities,” Mase
informed them. “Troops are being brought in from all over the country using
what air assets he has available. Those assets are also gathering up as many
people as he can off the lists that Star One and we have furnished him while
there is still confusion across the country over what is happening.”

“That sounds
like a big job,” Jolene said, thinking about everything involved.

“It is,”
Captain Struthers said with concern in his eyes. He couldn’t believe that U.S. military units were even now fighting one another. “General Karver probably only has a
brief window to pull this off. Right now there is a lot of confusion on both
sides. Once that confusion dies down, any chance of moving people or soldiers
around the country will evaporate.”

“How big a
window?” asked Anthony, concerned.

His sister
Jean had just come up a few days earlier. It had been a big relief to know that
she was safe. Anthony had moved her into his apartment and taken her to meet
Doctor Klein. She was scheduled to begin work at the Tycho City hospital in a few more days. He knew that many others still had loved ones at the cape or were
preparing to go to the cape to come up to Tycho City.

“I would guess
twelve to twenty-four hours at the max,” Captain Daniels replied in a low
voice. “After that it will be too dangerous.”

“Once General
Karver has pulled in all the troops and people he can, he intends to order the
rest of the troops that can’t reach the cape to surrender,” Mase informed them.
“He feels they will be better off going home to protect and be with their
families in this emergency.”

“I suspect
many may have gone anyway,” added Stephanie, shaking her head over the events
that were occurring on Earth.

“A lot of
people have died today,” Mase continued in a somber voice. “We can only hope
the fighting stops soon.” In the back of his mind, he knew that it probably
wouldn’t. The days ahead around the cape and the two military launch facilities
were probably going to be full of violence and death.

Everyone was
silent as they thought about all the people who had died. However, the nuclear
exchanges and fighting were nothing when compared to what Earth would face in a
few more months as the neutron star continued to come closer. Once the weather
began to change and storms intensified, the misery would only grow worse. Then
later the earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions would begin, sealing the fate
of the Earth.

The group sat
around for another few minutes discussing the situation and then broke up. They
had a lot to get done if they hoped to have a chance to survive.

-

Mase, Linda,
Jolene, and Anthony were eating out at a small restaurant that had always been
one of Mase’s favorites. The restaurant was packed, and there was a long line outside
waiting to get in.

“I was talking
to Margaret today,” Linda said as she picked at her food. “She says that Teela
feels the weather could start getting bad soon.”

“The neutron
star and black hole are coming closer every day,” Anthony commented as he cut
off a hefty slice off his steak.

“Enjoy that
steak,” Mase said, eyeing his friend. “They will be few and far between
shortly.”

Anthony’s eyes
widened as he thought about that. Then he turned toward Jolene with a pleading
look in his eyes. “You are going to have cattle in one of those habitats you’re
working on, aren’t you?”

“A few,”
Jolene admitted as she looked over at Anthony. “About a dozen is all. Cattle
are just too big, and they eat too much. We are focusing more on animals like
pigs, chickens, and fish.”

“Fish?”
Anthony spoke, his face brightening. “Please tell me we’re talking about
catfish.”

“Catfish and
several others,” replied Jolene, smiling. “We can grow them quickly and
efficiently.”