The World Game (19 page)

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.”

Sheila touched the second button and another dimage appeared next to the first. Following Evan’s instruction, she traced a path from the single shuttle dimage to the red colored miniature on the second dimage. All the other shuttles and transports in the group were represented by blue wire frames, except for one which was pulsing between yellow and purple. It was also the closest and visibly getting closer. The path lit up and the words “confirmed I.D.” flashed along the path. She told Evans who acknowledged.

“Sheila, this is where you become a pilot, OK?”

“Yes sir!” she replied, now full of confidence.

“I want you to place your pointing finger of your right hand on the red image of your shuttle in the second dimage, then trace a path in a downwards orientation, away from the moon, between the other vessels in your area, then stop the trace just outside the grouping. Do not remove your finger from the path end. Do it now.”

She did as instructed, checking carefully that the path avoided all contact.

“Sheila, on the first dimage there should now be a response menu asking you to confirm the path. You have checked the path visually so please touch the confirmation menu with your left hand and wait for an activate menu message. Keep your finger on the path end through all this.”

“Sir, the message is in front of me. It says “Path Confirmed. Action Move? Yes No”

“Shelia, touch the “Yes” menu entry, wait until the word “Yes” turns from yellow to green, then you may withdraw your right hand from the path and sit back for the ride. You should watch the dimage for your travel progress. If you see any danger approaching, you can use your pointing finger again and drag the path to change it. Only you can do so as the system has read your fingerprint for this move.”