Forbidden the Stars (15 page)

Captain Turner: Don’t tell me we’ve got another frigging runaway asteroid!

3:12:20

George Eastmain and Sakami Chin enter.

3:12:21

Alex Manez stands in portal to command bridge, watches.

3:12:23

Sakami Chin: What the hell is going on?

3:12:25

Helen Buchanan: Negative on that, Captain! It’s not an asteroid. Magnetic Doppler shift indicates it’s a ship. Sensors also read exhaust emissions.

3:12:27

George Eastmain: What did you say? A ship?

3:12:32

Dale Powers: Affirmative on that. We’ve got a visual; it’s not great at this distance, but you can tell it’s an artificial coming at us.

3:12:35

George Eastmain and Sakami Chin hurry to their stations.

3:12:58

Helen Buchanan: They’re not responding to comm. I’ve initiated SOS and warning transmissions; they’re not responding to either of those!

3:13:30

Captain Turner: Dale, can you verify its trajectory? Is it coming at us on purpose, or is this just a freak coincidence?

3:13:48

Navigation computer runs test simulations with variations entered by Dale Powers

3:13:49

Helen Buchanan: I’ve confirmed the computer’s emergency instruction set to send live EPS to Earth on continuous feed.

3:13:58

Dale Powers: Confirmation on trajectory. They’re definitely coming at us on a collision course.

3:14:01

Captain Turner: Shit! (pause) Helm! I know this ship is not designed for evasive maneuvers, but I highly recommend anything you might suggest. Get us out of this, Helen! Dale, can you get anything on visual that could help? Identify the bugger!

3:14:12

Johan Belcher, Ekwan Nipiwin and Henrietta Maria arrive and, seeing the approaching ship on main monitor casement, quickly take their stations. Captain Turner sees Alex enter, motions for him to stay where he is.

3:15:01

Dale Powers: Negative markings, Captain. The shape of it is unfamiliar. It’s not NASA or CSE.

3:15:05

Johan Belcher: ESA doesn’t have anything like that either.

3:15:08

Ekwan Nipiwin: Is not Japanese. It looks private.

3:15:10

Captain Turner: What? Are you trying to tell me—

3:15:12

Ekwan Nipiwin: Pirates did not die out in the Caribbean; they merely evolved. I say we are being attacked by pirates. And if you consider the information we have on board this ship, it’s no wonder why.

3:15:34

Alex Manez leaves portal of command bridge unnoticed.

3:15:35

Captain Turner: (shakes her head) How did they know! No one on this ship leaked any information!

3:15:40

Dale Powers: It could be anyone in any of our agencies. There are dozens of people who have access to, government information. Not to mention hackers, of course. Or other governments. When you consider everything, I agree with Ekwan; it’s not exactly a surprise. We should have anticipated something.

3:15:45

Captain Turner: Anticipated? We’re not a military ship! We’re scientific! This kind of shit is not supposed to happen!

3:15:48

George Eastmain: Whether it’s supposed to happen or not, I just picked up a radar sensor reading on that ship’s forward hull. It’s a can-opener.

3:15:53

Captain Turner: A what?

3:15:54

Ekwan Nipiwin: The front of the ship is a spike that punctures the hull of the victim’s ship, at the same time inserting a reverse claw that will pry open our hull like a can of sardines.

3:16:03

Captain Turner:You mean they’re going to ram us?

3:16:05

Ekwan Nipiwin: Yes. Also, if we do not don our suitshields, we will quickly run out of air and pressurization.

3:16:11

Captain Turner: Shit and damn it all! Helen!

3:16:21

Helen Buchanan: Sorry Captain. At current velocity, any drastic alteration in course will tear us apart.

3:16:26

Captain Turner: How long until impact?

3:16:28

Helen Buchanan checks trajectory computer, requests confirmation

3:16:39

Helen Buchanan: Collision imminent in five minutes, twelve seconds…mark.

3:16:42

Captain Turner: All right. All hands to don suitshields. If they want the frigging ship, they can have it. Dale, can you erase all main computer files?

3:16:47

Dale Powers: Affirmative…entering command codes now.

3:16:50

Captain Turner: Helen, eject everything from payload bay, let them chase the TAHU and everything else from here to forever. Everybody else, to the security receptacles.

3:16:59

Dale Powers: All non-essential files deleted. Confirmed. All essential files awaiting command code for deletion.

3:17:00

George Eastmain, Ekwan Nipiwin, Henrietta Maria, Johan Belcher leave posts and head for security receptacles.

3:17:03

Captain Turner: Voice print confirmation: Captain Justine Churchill Turner,
Orcus 1
. Security Code: Alpha-Alpha-Alpha-Zeta-Alpha-Turkey-Chicken-Rat. I never got around to changing it.

3:17:09

Helen Buchanan: TAHU and payload ejected, Captain.

3:17:10

Dale Powers: All essential files deleted. Main systems shutting down.

3:17:13

Captain Turner: Good, now both of you to your security receptacles. (Turns around)

3:17:20

—Where’s Alex!?

__________

NASA
Orcus 1
:

Sol System :

Flight Path Pluto-Luna

For the first time
in months—the first time since he realized his parents had died—Alex was truly scared. Petrified would be a better word, but semantics was beyond him right then.

He had sensed the approaching ship minutes before the
Orcus 1’s
sensors alerted the command crew to its presence. At first, he had thought it was merely a rendezvous ship previously arranged by NASA or CSE, but when the klaxons sounded his curiosity and confusion had brought him to the command bridge where he learned the truth.

Pirates.

And Alex had no illusions that their purpose was anything but to kidnap him. No stranger to the EarthMesh, Alex knew that no information in the world was failsafe. Someone must have hacked the
Orcus 1’s
transmissions to NASA and pieced the clues together. They knew Alex was alive, and potentially the key to light-speed travel.

A valuable commodity, to say the least.

It took him three minutes to unfreeze his paralyzed muscles. Once the captain knew of the impending collision between the ships that would destroy the
Orcus 1
, all hands would be ordered to their respective security receptacles. They would jettison the crew’s receptacles before impact, and the pirate ship would alter course, hunting down each receptacle in their search for Alex.

But he would not be among them.

There were enough receptacles for the original crew. He was sure no one would have the presence of mind to think of Alex’s survival; even if someone did offer him a receptacle in their stead, he would not accept. He had something else in mind.

He raced for his old security receptacle from the TAHU in the payload bay. It was his only chance. Standard procedure dictated that all receptacles be fully charged at all times; and that included the one from the TAHU. Although none of the
Orcus 1
crew had thought to recharge the receptacle, Alex had taken it upon himself to do the job one night a few weeks back. It had been a simple task after accessing the SOP files from the main computer banks.

He congratulated himself on his forethought.

It would take the pirates hours, perhaps even a full day, to hunt down the
Orcus 1
security receptacles, only to discover their quarry not among them. By that time, the emergency alert to Earth would bring military vessels patrolling the asteroid belt to the rescue, and the pirates would have to flee or die. All the while, Alex would be in his old security receptacle in the ship’s payload bay, unharmed.

Thirty seconds after dashing from the Command Bridge, Alex reached the payload bay and hurried to the ruins of the TAHU. He crawled through the wreckage to the security receptacle and fastened himself in, initiating a priority code he had programmed. For eighteen hours, he would be safe.

Closing his eyes, he trained his mind outside the
Orcus 1
, and tried to locate, with his mental capacity, the oncoming pirate ship.

Just as he was getting a fix on them, and began to magnify his outer vision, there was a deep mechanical rumbling under him, shaking the security receptacle violently.

“What the—?” he called out, steadying himself inside the receptacle.

He interfaced with the status monitor. “Condition?”

The monitor computer could accept voiced queries, but could answer only visually on the screen. In standard computer typeface, the words appeared.

: Unknown interference with SC stabilizers : Sensor findings inconclusive : Waiting :

“Link with
Orcus 1
computer,” he ordered.

: Link established : Waiting :

“Computer. What is the cause of recent vibrations in payload bay?”

: Vibrations in payload bay caused by executive order to eject all contents in payload bay by Captain Justine Churchill Turner at 3:16:50 p.m. EST : Waiting :

“Computer!” he shouted. “Abort! Abort! Abort!”

: Unable to comply : Waiting :

Alex did not have long to wait; at 3:17:08, a loud grinding noise filled his ears, blocking out any other sound, blocking out even his thoughts, as the payload bay door opened and the airlock pumps jettisoned the TAHU, the security receptacle, Alex, and a few dozen other objects into space.

Alex ground his teeth together as a sudden motion slammed him face first into the security receptacle’s monitor. His elastiplas restraints bit deep into his ribs and thighs.

Within moments, silence replaced the grinding, and Alex’s equilibrium returned. He could feel himself rotating at a slow rate. As for his velocity and trajectory, the security receptacle was useless in that regard.

Feeling the panic well up in his throat like hot bile, Alex forced himself to calm down and let his outer vision do for him what the security receptacle sensors could not. Within moments, he found that steady mental rhythm that allowed him to see outside of himself, to see outside of the tiny receptacle into the vastness of the beyond.

Thirty degrees or so from the zenith of his trajectory, he saw the
Orcus 1
. From his viewpoint, it was the NASA craft that was rotating in wide circles around his position, getting farther and farther away by the second.

He saw a smaller ship approaching the
Orcus 1
. Instead of continuing its trajectory, the pirate ship’s port thrusters fired, and it changed position, altering course to intercept Alex.

At that point, Alex could have cried at the way things had turned out.

He was completely helpless.

__________

Quantum Resources, Inc.:

Toronto :

Canada Corp.:

Michael slammed his fist
down on his desk. The windows in his new fourth floor office in the Quantum Resources, Inc. complex north of Toronto rattled from the vibrations. In the hall, his administrative assistant stopped the dicta-shell, glanced up through the semi-transparent fiber wall.

“What! This had better be some kind of sick joke! This is the goddam twenty-first century! Things like this don’t happen!” Michael could barely contain his anger.

“I’m sorry, sir, but we just received the NASA-slaved EPS transmission from the
Orcus 1’s
security camera confirming their S.I.D. call.”

Calbert Loche was trying hard not to notice his superior’s ire, knowing it was not directed at him, and continued with his report.

“At approximately 3:23 p.m. EST, an unmarked aggressor bore down on a collision course with the
Orcus 1
. For some reason, the
Orcus 1
ejected its payload moments before impact, and the aggressor altered course for intercept. There are no standard operating procedures for a pirate attack. Captain Turner was just doing what she thought was best. She was making it up as she went along, and only had a few moments to make a decision. NASA has cleared her of any culpability.

“Captain Turner confirms there was a single life form reading in the ejected payload, that of Alex Manez, who is now in the confines of the attacking ship. What he was doing there, I don’t know. The payload bay was off limits, but Alex must have thought it a good hiding place.

“The
Orcus 1
had no hope of pursuit, and its sensors were jammed and they lost the aggressor’s signature emissions. The
Orcus 1
is continuing final approach to Luna, and will arrive in fourteen days. NASA has a dreadnought-class protector less than a hundred gigs away, and is sending it to follow the aggressor’s last known trajectory, but the chances of picking up its engine emissions signature is minimal. The Earth Space Traffic Commission has been alerted, and will investigate, on a random basis, ships entering Earth orbit over the next thirty days.”