Unum Chapter Fifteen
Year Eight
Year 8 Month 2 Week 4 Day 4 Hour 22 Minute 21 Second 01
Earth Date: 08-02-05-04-22-21-01
Chapter Fourteen
Park had her headset on. She was hit with a flood of information from both ships and the asteroid. Ship-to-Ship comm line to both command decks was open. “Tenzin, Bliff? Start feeding me gravitation data, please. Also, stop all Engine telemetry data and life-support. Thanks.” The barrage of information stopped. Park could now see her command monitor. She started all engines on the Bonghwang first. Then she put the Vandu’s engines on stand-by.
Tenzin said, “All green, ma’am.”
Park heard Bliff over the loudspeakers, “Vandu all green, Bonghwang.”
“Increasing Vandu’s reaction engines and setting aft engines to 85 degrees. Power at 25%. Holding. Tenzin read off rotation spin, please. Bliff, read out lateral vector, please.”
The computer displayed relative position to Earth in degrees. Park set Earth as zero degree. She then set the point 10 million kilometers inward from Earth. She also set a point about 100 million kilometers away from their current position. That was their injection point to a transfer orbit that would short spiral the asteroid to Earth’s pickup point. From there, massive mining crafts and haulers would make short work of the asteroid. Park figured it would take 8 months to pulverize their haul, as opposed to weeks from the usually small asteroids her fellow haulers brought in.
Tenzin sounded out, “Estimated ten hours to rotation stop.”
Park nodded. “Increasing Bonghwang aft engines to 50%, burn time 32 hour. Okay, now we watch the numbers. Course correction in ten hours. Set.”
She heard Pasini over the speakers. “Next course correction set to minus 10 hours.”
And, it began.
32 days later
Park studied the display before her eyes. She could see the asteroid was nearly in a perfect course despite odd, weird, and nearly impossible engine shutdowns and fuel leaks. Kirk thought it was one of the Reserve Engineers, she almost agreed, but there were mishaps when it could not have been the Reserve. “Increasing aft engines to 95%. Vandu reaction engines at 78% and Vandu’s aft engines increased to 102%. Burn time one hour.”
Ga Ka said over the speakers, “Engines are green. Redline not reached. Fuel at 22%”
Park checked the Bonghwang’s fuel. It was at 19%
57 days later
The entire CSone Command staff monitored the Bonghwang and Vandu slip the asteroid into a transfer orbit. Linda sat at her station viewing telemetry from the two ships. The insertion point was about 18 minutes away in two-way communications. Linda waited for Park to acknowledge her last transmission. There was a low level hiss over the overhead speakers. A second later, Linda hear a click.
“CSone, this is Bonghwang. The asteroid is in place. Ping channel is 252.36, over.”
Linda tapped out the number on her keyboard. A section of her monitor opened a window with streaming numbers. Her communication headset was snug. One ear was covered by a padded earpiece. The end of the boom mic hovered just in front of her lips. She clicked the transmit toggle switch on the transceiver box next to her. “Bonghwang, this is CSone, signal is strong. 5x5. Sending Haulers Ping channel. ETA will be confirmed after receipt of their position. Standby Over.”
Ted had been pacing the entire time. He stopped, looked over to Linda, then his watch. Another 18 minutes before a reply from the Bonghwang and about 9 minutes from the group of haulers already dispatched. The haulers had been made in anticipation of what was expected in asteroid sizes. The Bonghwang and others of her class were expected to start bringing in the bigger S and M-type asteroids. The Bonghwang in particular was expected to push the envelope passed a trillion tons.
The speakers boomed, “Hauler Group V-vector 0956. Acknowledging channel 252.36. NavSync says rendezvous at 556 hours.”
Linda toggled transmit, “Hauler Group V-vector 0956, CSone acknowledged. Transferring mission control to you. Enjoy. Over.” Then she tapped on her keyboard. “Bonghwang, Hauler Group V-vector 0956 enroute. ETA 556 hours. Mission transferred. Acknowledge. You are released to return to dock. Over.”
Park used small bursts from the reaction engines to move the Bonghwang away from the asteroid. With the headset still over her head she could see the wired image of the Vandu drift away from the asteroid’s surface, slowly turn and proceed toward the Bonghwang. Park smiled. This was a good mission with stupid large profit. She and Pasini agreed to form a new corporation. With the profits from this haul they would retro fit both ships and add two more. Bliff would command one while Tenzin commanded the other. All four ships would work as a single unit and work on bringing in asteroids in the ten or more trillion-ton range. With a capable crew there was no need to think small. Of course, the first thing to do was find the saboteur. She thought about dispensing hauler justice and space the bastard, but cooler heads needed to prevail. The bastard would be brought to trial, then spaced. Several moments later, she heard the message from Linda. Park pushed the transmit button in front of her. “CSone, we acknowledge. Hauler Group enroute. We are released to Dock fall. Out.” She pulled the headset away and rested it on a strip of Velcro. She pushed herself out of the chair and aimed for the doorway. “Tenzin?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Push us out to 100 klicks and hold for the Vandu. She’s docking.”
Tenzin said, “Yes, ma’am,” as she disappeared into the corridor.
Pasini handled docking the Vandu to the Bonghwang herself. It was slow and precise. She fired the reaction engines in short bursts, with long moments of drift, in between the burst. She felt the slight bump and heard the click-click-click thump of the locking mechanism. “Bliff?” She said.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Finish up here, please.”
Bliff said, “Yes, ma’am,” as she disappeared into the corridor.
The airlock door opened, and Park floated midair. Pasini drifted into her arms and the kiss was soft, but the embrace was passionate.
“How are you feeling?” Park asked.
“Feeling good,” Pasini replied.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth kisses completed the conversation.
63 days later
Linda ate lunch at one of the new local restaurants. The two outer interior rings were turned up several weeks ago, but this was the first time she had a chance to finally experience food in a near earth-g environment. She liked it. She was halfway through her lunch when Gale appeared. Linda beamed. “Gale! You made it.”
Gale sat down in a slow huff. “Yeah, finally! I had to oversee the new install. The cryogenic storage containers were off spec width by three millimeters. What the hell? By the time we finished we lost 30 centimeters.” She shook her head. “It’s not like we have dozens of other contractors to pick from.” Gale exhaled slowly. “How was your day?”
“Better now that I finally get to see my wife.”
Gale’s laugh was hardy. “Same.” She leaned in and gave Linda a warm and soft kiss. As she pulled away something didn’t seem right. The gravity was off. Slowly the feeling increased. The ring was about to stop. “Lin, gotta go. It’s the ring.”
Linda felt it too. “Same. I’ll be on the Command deck. I’ll hit you on the EmergNet.”
Gale was out of sight in seconds. She started out with a run, then long skips and jumps.
Linda took her own route to Command deck. She felt the gravity sputter a few times, then vanish. She was already working her way toward the main shaft when a bright flash appeared a hundred meters in front of her. Black smoke and the smell of charred plastic, metal, and flesh filled the air. She placed her soft mask on and allowed the filters to scrub the air. She left the spare air off. She took one of the other tunnels and snaked under, over, and through recently burnt equipment. Ab Uno struck again, but this time with a vengeance. When she made it Ted and half the Command crew were in place.
Ted spotted Linda. “Linda, glad you made it. Some of staff are trapped. Those bastards knew how to make this move effective.