The World Game (9 page)

CHAPTER 24

Aboard Carver’s Space Transport.

Fuller and Carver were glued to the comms screen. They were aware of the six transports following them up the Skyhook, but they were watching the shock wave approach Goddard and the Skyhook base.

“Time to release!” Carver stated decisively. “We need to be far enough away from the Skyhook to avoid whiplash effect, regardless if it is just energy wave transmission of a complete severance of the Skyhook from its ground anchors.”

“What are the likely outcomes?” Fuller asked.

“There are two principal disaster scenarios presented in flight study. What we are facing is orders of magnitude greater than anything ever anticipated.” Carver flicked a switch and spoke an override code into her youniform microphone. A noticeable force of acceleration pressed the cadets back into their seats as the reaction mass engines kicked in. The transport was now a free flight space craft. Watching out the window, Fuller saw the apple sized earth swinging away under the belly of the craft, the blue of the oceans and the dappled colors of continents now mostly a uniform silver, interrupted only by cloud banks.

A further turn of a few degrees revealed the Skyhook behind them, dwindling away to an invisible point on the surface, attached to a small wedge of surface that was visibly being consumed by the silver cloud as it rolled forward. There were clearly only minutes to go before the shock wave met Skyhook.

Fuller, still mesmerized by what he was seeing, whispered “What were the two outcomes?”

Janine glanced at him, never having seen him so close to losing it. “Are you OK?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Shocked, but fine. Please tell me.”

“OK. Scenario one. Closest to an energy transfer. A transport or a meteor strikes the Skyhook. We only need to consider the low altitude strike now. The carbon mono filament shell will hold integrity up to an atomic explosion, but the energy transmission will cause a ripple to run along the Skyhook in both directions. The ground anchors will dissipate the downward force. The upward ripple will behave like the ripple of a skipping rope. If both ends are held firmly the ripple will be absorbed by the holding points and transmitted to an energy sink. It goes away. Our problem is that we do not have a fixed energy sink at the top of Skyhook. It is held in place by some clever Lagrange mathematics. When the ripple hits the top, it is going to flick like a bull whip tip. And toss off anything on the Hook as the ripple travels. That is the good news John.”

He rolled his eyes. “Give it to me. The bad news.”

“Scenario two. The Skyhook is severed at some point. In this case at the base. What happens when you have a bucket of water on the end of a rope being swung around horizontal to the ground, which negates gravity for our intent?” Janine paused, seeing that Fuller knew exactly what she was getting at. “The rope stays taut and the water remains in the bucket under centripetal forces just as long as the velocity of the swing is maintained at a certain minimum. You can swing faster and the tension on the rope becomes greater. Then you let the rope go. The bucket goes flying off and becomes subject to other forces that were negligible compared with the centripetal force. It takes off and the rope follows it, bucking and twisting as it is affected by localized forces around it.

The Skyhook is a huge bucket on a string, with the bucket in vacuum and the string end in atmosphere. If it gets sliced it is going to take off at some extreme velocity with its directional vectors dictated by the tail. Kinda like the tail wagging the dog.” Fuller gave her a half hearted grin. “So it takes off? What’s the danger?”

“The theoretical directional uncertainty from the Skyhook vertical position is a planar arc of around thirty degrees. Like a narrow fan. Space City is the bulls eye of the target. We have to hope that the tail wags the dog enough to miss Space city.”

He looked at her. “We have nowhere to run. We can’t risk Space City until this is over.” He put his head in his hands. “Oh, God help us!” he murmured.

CHAPTER 25

Yellowstone National Park.

The super volcano was belching magma and ash into the atmosphere in never before seen volumes while molten rock spewed into pyroclastic rivers that carved new pathways through what had once been lush nature reserves, now scorched landscapes with barely a tree stump smoldering. There was no living thing within a hundred miles of this boiling landscape. Multiple craters pocked the area as magma surfaced through cracks and melted new vents. The earth mantle was like a giant sponge oozing out liquid, but without the resilience of a sponge. As the magma pipes grew wider and more numerous, the infrastructure of the crust was being compromised to the point of total collapse into a super crater. Rivers which drained into the region boiled and vaporized their total flow, adding superheated steam to the miasma and forming mud-rain as it liquefied in the atmosphere.

There was no one to see it, not even from space due to the ash cloud, as the center of the cataclysm simply sank into the surface. The dimple grew as the edges followed into the boiling lake of lava that was exposed. In the centre of the molten lake a new phenomenon appeared as the liquid lava drained downwards into the earth. A whirlpool appeared, only explained by the enormous number of vents that had allowed the internal magma pressure to drop to the point that reverse flow was possible. Unheard of in geological theory, but there it was. The earth was suffering a wound like a flesh eating bacteria on a body.

The collapse raced outwards at the edges at sixty miles an hour and not appearing to be letting up and passed out from under the ash cloud, finally visible to those in space.

Aboard Air Force One, now in low earth orbit, the President and anyone who could be spared from immediate duty were glued to the windows, watching events unfold beneath them as their orbit took them over the volcanic region. Far over the horizon to the east they could not see the silver wave front as it approached Goddard and the Skyhook. The shock wave would reach Yellowstone in about 25 minutes when their orbital position would be down on the horizon to the west. The other side of the wave would soon be racing past them in the opposite direction as it totally engulfed the surface.

“What is happening down there Chuck?” The President asked Hanes. “Have we got anyone on board who can explain this?”

“We are in contact with Space City. There are geologists up there but they are not in viewing range now. We sent up the imagery and we are waiting for interpretation.”

The President sighed and went back to looking out the window.

A flight officer tapped on the cabin door and entered, handing a note to Hanes, who scanned it and sucked in his breath.

“Tell me Chuck.”

“Oh man, Tom. This is not good.” He looked up with a wry grimace, realizing the silliness of the comment. “The geologists are saying that the super volcanic region is collapsing in on itself. Because they cannot see the epicenter due to the ash cloud, they are theorizing that a lava lake is forming. One of them is of the opinion that crust collapse is imminent and the lava lake will implode and be sucked back into the earth. The other two discount this as a remote possibility. They all agree that the lava lake will expand until cooler geologic formations are encountered that will stop the melt.”

“Do they say where it will go from there? What about the shock wave when it hits?”

“None of them have any certainty of what happens next. The one who suggested the implosion does say that the shock wave could travel down into mantle and cause massive fragmentation as the energy of the wave is bottled up and concentrated. He says the earth itself could shatter.”

The two looked at each other, the flight officer still standing by listening in shock. Chuck turned to the officer. “Not a word. There is nothing anyone can do. There is no point in starting a panic. Report back to your station.”

“Yes Sir!” The officer turned smartly, composure regained, and left.

Hanes looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes and we find out who was right.” They went back to staring out of the window.

CHAPTER 26

Aboard the Space Transports

The strident scream of sirens punctuated by the shouted orders over the PA system “Strap in! Strap in or find a hand hold! Skyhook release is immediate. Power failure emergency!” The steady acceleration that had held everything in place had ceased and loose items floated about in the weightless environment. Bits of paper fluttered in the ventilator breeze while potato crisps ballooned into an out of control cloud. Bodies floated, arms and legs flailing for control. Without weightless training there was only panic.

All six transports had separated successfully. Aboard the fifth transport with the jammed air lock, X5, the co pilot had handled the separation while the pilot had grabbed onto the air lock handle as the artificial gravity disappeared. His intention was to examine the air lock jam and then decide on a plan to fix it or leave it alone and rely on the inner door. That option was not to be. As he grabbed the handle the residual momentum of his body twist took the handle around or suffer a broken wrist.

An ominous hissing sound started as the lock released and only the internal cabin pressure held the door closed. There should not have been any leakage.

The pilot’s mind went into trained auto drive mode, analyzing the problem and deciding that some debris must also be trapped in the inner lock seal. The extra pressure of the lock itself had controlled the leakage until a moment ago. Now the craft was tumbling in free space out of control with the limited air slowly leaking out. His body was now flattened against the door pod due to the acceleration of the transport. He couldn’t open the door to clear the blockage because the outer door was unsealed. He doubted if he could open it against the cabin pressure on his own any way. His own youniform and buddy would keep him alive even if the atmosphere ran out completely, but his passengers were good as dead if he could not do something very quickly to stop the leakage.

Could he turn the lock handle back and slow the leak or stop it? Without some purchase to push against he was helpless.

He scrabbled his feet about, feeling for a projection or anything he could push against. His toes found a protrusion and he jammed his foot hard against it, hoping it was not just some weak, plastic molding. He applied pressure gradually between the lock handle and his foot. Fortunately the direction to close the lock was away from his body, so he was pushing the handle. The projection at his foot held so he applied more pressure to the handle.

Suddenly the hissing increased as the lock dogs failed to engage their holes in the frame and pushed the door gap wider. The air was now rushing out disastrously.

CHAPTER 27

Aboard the remaining five transports.

Aboard the other five transports things were going smoothly. The first three were thousands of miles higher than the second and closer to their objective, space city. The last three were at a point that significant reaction mass would be needed to escape earth’s gravity well and reach the City.

Air Force One was at low earth orbit waiting for a pick up shuttle from Space City.

“Attention all stations! Attention all stations! This is Commander Janine Carver on Skyhook Transport Designated X7. Warning! Warning! Our calculations show that if the Skyhook is severed at the base by the anti-matter shock wave, the probability of the Skyhook terminus mass sling shooting into Space City with some level of significant impact, is in the range of 25% to 35% probability. Failing higher authority or executive direction, it is my recommendation that Space city be immediately evacuated until the danger has passed and that all Skyhook transports stand off out of range of whiplash effect of the Skyhook and do not approach Space City until danger is cleared. This message is now on automated loop repeat on guard channel.”

Janine put the comms back to local. “What do we do now?”

“I was thinking about that while you were transmitting. What’s our reaction mass state?”

Janine brought up the display which showed 99% full tanks. “We are full. Just a little used for the separation. What do you have in mind John?”

“Space City needs to evacuate and take as much survival material as it can ship. They need the shuttle that is picking up the President. We have to wait about for the hit or miss and we have reaction mass, so we could go get the President and release the shuttle for evacuation. We can recharge reaction mass from Air Force One if you don’t mind loading volatile fuel instead of water. The reaction mass thrusters do not have any ignition system so the mix should be safe, just a little less effective in thrust due to the lower density of the fuel. Is that feasible?”

“It has never been done before to my knowledge John, but it makes sense. Shall we go meet the Pres?” Janine said with a cheeky grin.

“Let’s talk to them!” he replied.

Janine flicked the comms to Air Force One and the Space City Shuttle in a three way link. “Air Force One and Shuttle C2 acknowledge link.” She paused waiting for responses.

“This is Air Force One X7 acknowledged.”

“Shuttle C2 acknowledged”

“Commander Janine Carver here Air Force One and Shuttle C2. Here is what we have in mind...”