Into the Unknown, Page 2

would enjoy.

  Andrew belatedly saw they were raising their glasses to toast. “To Friday the thirteenth.” Said Tony as they sipped at their wine.

  Andrew had barely put the glass to his lips when Tony proposed a second toast.

  “And that we stare superstition once more in the eye again?”

  “Successfully again?” added one of the Americans.

  “To unexpected visitors?”

  Andrew didn’t even see who spoke as he realized someone was speaking directly to him.

  "Did you see it in twenty-nine?"

  The voice surprised Andrew and he quickly looked in the direction it came from. It was one of the Silicon Valley men. His nametag simply stated 'Simon'.

  “Only from down on Earth."

  "It missed us then, is it going to miss us now?" Simon had a smile on his face

  "Simon!" gasped the other man's wife.

  "I assure you; you have no reason for concern..." Andrew looked the woman's ample bosom. He felt guilty thinking it was because of their size, and her age that she was here. “Helen?”

  "Ahhh." One of the Russians: Vladimir, interrupted. "Maybe no concern, is reason for concern?"

  Andrew looked at the man unsure of how to reply.

  "How do you see that?" said 'George', another of the Americans.

  Andrews mind stopped processing Vladimir’s cryptic question as he realized he couldn’t read the tags quickly enough; and he was beginning to lose track of who was who, and where the conversation was going.

  Vladimir was smiling. "Well I'm sure we would all benefit from reconstruction."

  Tony grinned and spoke with an identifying British accent. "Not me; I'm a member of Lloyd's; and the insurance adjustment won't be good?”

  Andrew felt he should intervene before somebody began to get concerned. "The asteroid passed through the window as predicted before, so it will miss the planet this time: everything will be fine."

  "Not so." Vladimir seemed intent on creating a panic. "It was; what do you call it? In a Gray zone."

  Andrew couldn’t argue that, so he decided to bend the truth a little. "I can assure you that if there was any danger of impact none of us would be here." He did believe that, but it was also something he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of.

  Vladimir smiled a smile that Andrew was also not a hundred percent sure of. "And here: are we safe here?"

  Andrew could see Helen? Was it Helen? he tried to read the name tag without appearing he was gawping at her breasts. Whatever her name she had the look of someone who was getting nervous. "Earthrise may look like a jumble of bits, but it is a fully functioning spacecraft. We have the ability to independently reposition, if that was ever to become necessary. Which I’m sure it won’t,” he quickly added.

  "No billiards in space then?" said the Brit light-heartedly.

  “Billiard; there is table here?”

  Andrew didn’t see who spoke and he disregarded the question. “We are not the eight ball… Definitely not." Andrew didn’t want meddlesome people on the bridge, but needs must as needs be he thought. "If any of you are in the least concerned I can let you see for yourselves… tomorrow: but not together: in small groups.” He could see Vladimir was talking confidentially to another of the Russians and seemed to have given up his unhelpful comments.

  They were half way through the delicious desert when one of the crew came to whisper in Andrews's ear. He forced a smile and muttered. "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen: You will have to excuse me as I have to attend to some matters on the bridge, but I look forward to meeting you all again." He stood and strode out the room with a strange feeling of foreboding.

  Clive was waiting for him when he came into the control room. He looked at Andrew anxiously. "A communication from base," Clive said preempting the question. "There's a possibility there are two asteroids?"

  "Two?" Andrew said with more surprise than intended.

  "Well nobody can give us any definitive answers yet, but the wobbling behavior could be caused by an un-cohesive core, or it's possible that some time the asteroid was broken apart, or it could have even picked up a companion on its travels."

  “Could be one or two; that’s it?”

  “Nobody knows; they are just informing us.”

  "Consequences?"

  "Possibly quite a few; again nobody is willing to, or can give us any definitive answers."

  "Then are there any undefined answers that we know will concern us?"

  "At this moment, and this close to its path the answer is probably yes; but we don’t know they are what yet."

  "Then until we do we need to begin maneuvering to a safer orbit."

  Clive nodded. "Tricia is already running the data."

  Andrew looked at the young woman sat before a bank of computer screens. "What’s your take?"

  "With the information available it's difficult to be confident.” She said. “What I do know is that a lower orbit will take us closer to the atmosphere and gravitational effects, and hem us in?”

  “Your suggesting a higher orbit?”

  “One further out will certainly give us more opportunities to make adjustments?"

  It took Andrew only seconds to decide. "Do the calculations, but out it is." He looked between the woman and Clive. "I suppose I had better return and let our guests know in the most reassuring way I can.

  With less than twenty-four hours before the asteroids arrival, Earthrise was approaching its higher orbit. It was far later than Andrew was happy with: the delay being down to the fact that further out into space various militaries had located very sensitive satellites: the last things those people wanted was a load of tourist who for a multitude of reasons, could see and maybe work out what they were up to. Besides prying eyes the higher orbit also created isolation for the station, and any departure back down to the planet created its own problems, but as the shuttle wasn’t intending any imminent departure: that was the least of their problems.

  Andrew had explained in terms that he hoped would assure and arouse least amount of concern at what was happening, and how scientists had now speculated that the asteroid would glance the edge of the atmosphere. There was still no consensus as to a partner, though the majority now believed there were two asteroids: an opportunity according to head office, that would give a those on Earthrise a sight witnessed by no one: on or off Earth, before. It was what the visitors had paid for; asteroids, meteor trails and Earth as a backdrop. Everything was setting up for a publicity bonanza.

  Andrew partly expected there would be some wanting to evacuate, but with a hole in their bank balances and nothing to show for it, only a couple made a half-hearted request to do so. What Andrew didn’t tell them was that even if anyone wanted to he couldn’t let go of the shuttle. It was even more critical now for its ability to help with maneuvering.

  With twelve hours to go everyone settled down in anticipation of the most spectacular sight they, or anyone would ever see.

  With nine hours to go more bad news arrived

  Andrew looked at the faces; he felt nervous, these were people with immense power and influence; and not the kind of people who accepted being told what they would do, but him having to order them do something was what he had to.

  "We have further information…." he began, "concerning the safety of this ship and all of us aboard it." He saw a few faces register what could have been fear. "Firstly I wish to assure you that your safety; and that of Earthrise's crew is the absolute priority of the World United Banking and Investment Corporation. Nothing will be done or contemplated, and no decisions will be made that will compromise the safety of any person aboard; now or into the future. I give you my word on this." He felt it added a little more authority if he personally certified what he was about to say. "Information has only within the last few minutes been relayed to us regarding the asteroid, and I'm afraid it is not what we would have hoped for." Now some of the faces did show fear. "I have already conveyed to you that observati
ons suspected the asteroid is not a single cohesive body. These have now been confirmed: instead it is a conglomeration of hundreds; possibly thousands or more individual boulders, rocks and ice particles. In light of this the World United Banking and Investment Corporation has decided that Earthrises proximity raises concern."

  The Silicon Valley man's wife let out a sob, and suddenly everyone was talking and bombarding Andrew with demands. "Please!" he said ignoring whatever was said towards him. "Let me finish and I will answer any questions you have. We are undertaking further changes in our orbit, but to ensure the safety of all aboard, everyone; including none essential crew members will be immediately located to a secure area. In this area we will be safe…" The words 'from everything but a direct impact' were forming in his mind but he decided that wasn’t something he should share.

  Then at a little under four hours they discovered Nemesis. At the time it didn’t have a name, but with a mass of twenty million tons it justified one. Though suspected it had remained obscured until there was nothing anybody could do; but then again no one ever could have.

  Andrew gently touched the cabinet top. The physical contact was irrational, but as his fingertips still felt no vibration it gave him a slightly reassuring feeling. It was an action that he had only just realized had done repeatedly as the minutes had ticked away.

  He desperately needed to be busy; to occupy his body, as well as his mind, but the station was in limbo, and every crewmember that could do anything was doing everything they were expected to do. Clive and Tricia were sat in their auxiliary command seats; finalizing close down procedures.

  So: apprehensively, he like the rest of the crew and short-term visitors, waited. For Andrew that was a far from an easy task, he had always seen himself as a man of action, or at least with his finger on the button, now nobody was or could be. He was conscious again that he was making the resting of his open hand seem as casual an act as possible. The thought generated another, would the others have had the same curiosity, or fear? Almost certainly they would.

  He looked slowly around the interior of the cramped pod. Cramped, that wasn’t an exaggeration; the capsule had been designed to accommodate forty-nine. The number always annoyed him, it offended his sense of symmetry, of neat parcels, why not fifty? Whatever the design team had, had on their minds, the number here now was in justification three less than they had assumed. But in their plans and procedures they: as people who don’t face immediate danger do, had assumed that everyone would be calm and confident, and that half their anonymously calculated occupants would be resting; laid inside the recessed cots that occupied the far end of the area like tiers of open filing cabinets: or as had otherwise been observed; like racks in a morgue. The reality was that few were calm enough to slip inside the small tunnels, never mind rest or sleep in them.

  .

  Without meeting anyone’s eyes: or drawing attention, Andrew tried to read their faces. It was without question that their minds were occupied, though none spoke of anything. In fact conversation had now ceased; hardly anyone had uttered more than a short sentence for the last fifteen minutes.

  It wasn’t that they were in actual fear of their lives, well not immediately. Compartment six, or as it was unofficially known: the refuge, was one of the strongest parts of the station. One of three: once fully operational it was totally self-supporting; though only in the way that any ships lifeboat was, and like its sea borne equivalent it could separate away into space if the occasion ever arose. Maybe that was the worry, alike with an ocean liners lifeboat, the refuge had little independent propulsion; and in a disaster the capsule would be almost completely adrift in a sea too vast to contemplate until rescue could be achieved.

  It was ironic really; space was