Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (41 page)

“That would mean the maintenance bots are or were working properly. That also would explain the absence of dead bodies. The repair bots would have moved the bodies to the morgue or the recyclers for the
rach
and
aarach
system. Whatever their programming told them to do,” thought Gupta.

Gupta beckoned the SAS officer to follow and continued down the hallway until he saw a ship’s computer console. He touched it and it came to life.

“I am on emergency power only, is this communication absolutely urgent?” it told him in its mechanistic fashion.

“I am here on a rescue mission. Is there anyone alive in this section of the ship?” Gupta replied to it.

“Rescue personnel have top priority for the ship’s computer system and power reserves. Thus: status report. Radiation levels are high due to the catastrophic failure of the ship’s nuclear power systems. This section is not safe for any non-converted life form. Reserve power is at thirty-five percent and falling. Automated repair systems have repaired the damaged solar panels on this area of the ship; however, the computer system has not received the required authorization to deploy the—”

“Computer, stop. How bad is the radiation?”

“Non-converted life forms risk damage if exposed to more than twenty minutes of radiation. Converted life forms risk damage with more than sixteen hours of exposure.”

After activating the local thought-amplifier translation system, Gupta turned to Kirk with a grim expression on his face.

“This area is too radioactive for you. You must return to the shuttle and close the air lock immediately. I will try to get help for the pilot.”

Kirk looked like he was going to argue, but then his military training took over and he obeyed without saying anything. Turning around, he ran back to the shuttle.

Gupta returned to the computer screen. “You have my authorization to deploy the solar panels.”

“Does your shuttle recognize you as the commander of this rescue mission?”

“Yes, it does,” thought Gupta.

“Please wait. I have verified with your shuttle that you are the commander of the rescue mission. Your authorization is accepted. You now have clearance to activate all the ship’s remaining functions and doors despite your status as a converted life form. Solar panels are being deployed. May I provide you a list of other functions that need to be restarted?”

“No. Restart ALL functions that can be restarted without further damage to the ship or any life forms left within the ship. Also, tell me if there are any life forms surviving on board the ship.”

“There are currently one hundred forty-eight converted life forms and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred thirty-six—correction, fifty-eight thousand seven hundred thirty-five captured indigenous life forms, in the prison area of the ship. There are additionally two hundred eighty-nine thousand nine hundred thirty-three
rachs
and one hundred thirty-three thousand four hundred twenty-two
aarachs
in the auxiliary life support system. R
ach
die-off is expected to start in seven hours, due to lack of nutrients. There are twenty-six thousand three hundred twenty-two bodies in the morgue awaiting recycling clearance.”

“Are there any Masters in this area of the ship?”

“Zero life forms outside the prison area or auxiliary life support area survived the radiation exposure. The last Master to survive the initial failure died thirty-six hours and twenty-two minutes ago. His body was moved to the morgue two hours after his death. The second-last Master to survive the initial failure died—”

“Computer, stop. Is there any way for me to safely get to the prison area of the ship?”

“There are large areas of zero atmosphere between here and the prison area. The likelihood of surviving a journey to the prison area is not high. Repair bots can now be dispatched to the affected area. Estimated repair time seven hours.”

“I have an injured non-converted life form on my shuttle. Is there a Medical Bay that is radiation-free to treat him?”

“All Medical Bays are currently subject to high levels of radiation. However, there is a functioning medical bot that could be dispatched to your shuttle. Decontamination of the irradiated areas is currently authorized, estimated completion seventeen hours.”

“Computer, I authorize recycling of the Master and converted dead that are in the morgue. Attempt to identify and catalog any captured indigenous life forms, and do not recycle those bodies. Is the communication system working between here and the prison area?”

“Communication to that area is currently offline. Estimated repair to that system is twelve hours.”

“Contact me in my shuttle when communication to the prison area is established.”

Gupta returned to the shuttle and found the medical repair bot already working on the pilot. The SAS officer looked a bit stressed. Evidently he had almost shot the bot with his pistol, but had decided just to watch it enter the shuttle and treat the pilot.

Gupta looked gravely into Kirk’s eyes. “If your brother is alive, he is in no immediate danger. But we are going to have to wait for the repairs to be done, until the ship says that it is ready for us.”

“In that case,” said Warner, pulling a small packet out of a pocket, plus a couple of water bottles from a knapsack, “why don’t I brew us both a cuppa tea?”

CHAPTER 13

Come Out, Come Out

December 13, 2038, 6:12 p.m.

“So now we’ve caught up to it, what do we do?” Captain O’Neil asked of the group in the briefing room.

“I think our best course of action is to send a probe to this point,” Sarah said, pointing to the asteroid, “and allow the nuclear weapon that is there to detonate.”

“I thought that would be a bad thing,” said O’Neil.

“It would be a bad thing if all the weapons went off at once. However, if just that one goes off, that might cause enough movement for the asteroid to miss Earth. Only the ejecta from the explosion would strike, with little to no damage done.”

“Why don’t we shoot it with a laser?”

“It is a proximity bomb. A laser will not cause it to explode properly. The other explosion that we saw before was not a nuclear explosion. It was just the explosive material detonating. But the nuclear material needs a timed blast to achieve critical mass. So we need the bomb to arm itself and detonate,” thought Thor.

“OK, probe it is, then, unless anyone has any other ideas,” said O’Neil.

No one ventured any other ideas; O’Neil waited a few seconds and then nodded.

“OK, Thor and Sarah, how long to get the probe ready?”

“It’s already ready to fly, in the Shuttle Bay. One of the pilots can fly it with this.”

Sarah produced a device that looked like an old-fashioned video game joystick.

Hiroshi took the joystick from her. He noticed that it came with a virtual view switch so he turned it on. Suddenly the Command Deck disappeared; Hiroshi was on the Shuttle Deck as far as he could tell.

“This is so cool, it has a direct telepathic visual interface,” Hiroshi crooned.

“I thought you would like that. I recommend you sit down or you’ll fall.”

It was Sarah’s voice, but when Hiroshi turned to look at her, all he saw was an empty Shuttle Bay.

“You have to turn it off if you want to see us.”

Hiroshi felt for a chair and sat down. He then took off with the probe. He felt the sensations of flying and speed. He could feel the wind in his hair—wait, space has no wind—

“I programed in a few extras for you, Hiroshi,” said Sarah, responding to the confused look on Hiroshi’s face.

“All right, Hiroshi, quit playing with your new toy, and get it over to the spot that Sarah picked out,” said O’Neil.

Hiroshi wondered where exactly that was, and in response the system showed him a colored line in space to follow.

Hiroshi followed the virtual line until he saw the bomb that he was supposed to get the probe close to. He slowed the probe but moved steadily toward the bomb. The bright flash of the bomb startled him; his body braced involuntary for impact. Then he was suddenly back on the Command Deck of the
Semper Fi
, feeling a little freaked out.

“Sarah, you could have warned me that would feel so real!”

Sarah was about to say something when the rest of the bombs went off on the asteroid. Hiroshi got really busy at that point, because suddenly there were pieces of the asteroid’s outer crust heading toward them at ballistic velocity.

Hiroshi could tell that he was not going to miss all of them. So he turned the ship so that the majority of the strikes would hit its bottom. That was where the heaviest reinforcement and fewest people were. Unfortunately, that was also where the gravity plates were.

The ship lurched as the fragments started to hit it. Gravity was suddenly disabled for the middle part of the ship. Hiroshi’s hull stress alerts went crazy after that. So Hiroshi stopped some of the movements that he was putting the ship through so he would not break it in two.

Another piece slammed into the bottom of the ship and the Command Deck personnel were flung toward the ceiling. Sarah and Hiroshi had strapped themselves in, but the rest of the deck crew was not so lucky.

Thor caught Ashley and O’Neil in mid-flight and wrapped himself around them to reduce their impact on the ceiling. When they hit the ceiling he felt some of his bones break. Then they were suddenly traveling toward the floor. Again he oriented himself in space to absorb the blow for the other two. Thor crushed a chair with his back and felt something impale him in the midsection. Thor screamed, “Kee-yii, kee-yii!” and then passed out.

“Hiroshi, report!” hollered O’Neil, extracting himself from Thor’s unconscious grasp, and then turning to help Ashley.

“We have widespread damage to the lower decks. We have casualty reports coming in from all decks. Most of them are wolves, so they are probably going to live. Gravity is out from two plates and that is affecting the entire midsection of the ship.”

“Get a medical team up here right now,” said O’Neil.

“A medical bot is just down the hallway. I have it coming right now,” Sarah said, moving quickly to her dad’s side.

“Thor saved my life—again,” said Ashley.

Just then, the medical bot arrived. It quickly scanned Thor and then moved on to another crew member.

“Get back here, you stupid robot!” Sarah yelled.

“Sarah, the medical bot left him because he is in no immediate danger. It looks worse than it is,” said Hiroshi.

“I hope it isn’t as bad as it feels, because I feel like a cement truck just beat the crap out of me,” thought Thor.

Sarah looked down and saw that her dad was awake and was still lying on the floor. Thor stood up, pulled the piece of metal from his back, looked at it and threw it on the floor.

“Man, that is going to be sore in the morning,” thought Thor.

Sarah just looked at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Dad, you should go to the Med Bay.”

“I am not going to one of those things again unless they carry me in. I’ve got work to do.”

The med bot came over to Thor and he let it work on his back, and also the hole in front that he had just noticed. After applying the XN treatment, the bot gave Thor a pain shot and then went back to the other crew members.

“Don’t worry, Sarah,” said Ashley, “werewolf healing is outrageously fast, eh.” She patted Thor’s daughter on the shoulder. The first time she had seen Thor get whacked and then go back into action—it seemed a lifetime ago.

Thor went over to a computer station and began to take readings.

“So what’s the status?” asked O’Neil.

“Give me five minutes to calculate new trajectories for all the different objects that we have now,” Thor replied.

O’Neil went and checked with the medics, who were still working on one of the crewmen. The other had already been taken to a Med Bay.

“It looks like they will both live, although I wouldn’t want to predict how long they’ll have to be in Med Bay,” one of the human medics said.

The medic arranged some fluid feeds for the second injured crew member (who mercifully was unconscious) before going out with him on an anti-grav gurney.

O’Neil checked the ship’s system. “How many casualties are there?” he said to the computer.

“Casualty report: one dead, seventy-four injured; three of the injured will require extensive Med Bay treatment,” reported the computer in its mechanistic voice.

“Who did we lose? Er, please state the name of the dead person.”

“Jillian Belcher, student pilot. Circumstances: the deceased was standing in the forward Shuttle Bay area when the last piece of asteroid hit the ship. She was projected into the ceiling bulkhead at a speed of—”

“Computer, stop. I don’t need the rest of the details—this time.”

O’Neil was just thinking that he should get some coffee, when Ashley brought him a cup. She gave him a big smile and he watched her walk away. O’Neil was thinking thoughts that no one should think with telepaths around, when Sarah cleared her throat loudly.

“We have some new calculations,” Sarah said, blushing.

Thor turned his chair toward O’Neil, taking in a sharp breath as his wounds pained him. On the bulkhead, a large screen lit up with a display of the asteroid pieces.

“There are forty-six larger objects and thousands of smaller, relatively insignificant objects now heading in the general direction of Earth. The outer crust of the asteroid was blown away in places,” thought Thor. “Interestingly, a large number of the bombs were placed on the front of the asteroid. The explosion separated and accelerated this piece here.” Thor pointed to a smaller piece moving away from the asteroid. “That caused the main part of the asteroid to slow down,” Thor continued. “The good news is that of the forty-six larger objects, only six of them are going to impact the Earth on this orbit of the sun.”

“This orbit of the sun, like, now?” asked Ashley.

“Yes,” thought Thor.

“Have the asteroid pieces changed course?” asked O’Neil.

“No, not significantly,” said Sarah.

“Then why are some of the pieces going to miss?” asked O’Neil.