Ed’s mini-me, approaching Earth, Sol system
‘What the hell am I going to do when I get there?’ Ed mumbled to himself. ‘I have no plan at all.’ He was absolutely fuming with himself and that stupid bloody Menka. How dare she threaten his home.
He peered down at his screen. The liner was dead ahead, still accelerating, and the four marine ships were close behind. His fighter was much quicker than the commercial vessel and he’d reach it in three minutes. But it still wasn’t visible to the naked eye.
He could see on his screen, several other ships having to take sudden evasive action and hoped they all managed to avoid each other in the process. He tried his DOVI again, but got the now familiar white noise.
‘Shit…think of something,’ he raged. ‘If you’re around, Neferuptah, I could really do with a hand right now.’ Then he remembered her words. There comes a time when you have to face potential extinction events and overcome it yourselves with your own ingenuity.
‘What happens if my ingenuity has buggered off?’ he shouted at the cockpit.
He knew if he shot out its alma drive, it would only stop it accelerating and as it was already doing point one five light speed, that really was of no help at all. Blowing it to pieces would only make matters infinitely worse – when all the bits spread out, many of the bigger sections would impact the surface.
‘Think, Edward, think.’
Concussion, he thought. ‘That just might work,’ he muttered. But the autopilot will counter any influence I induce and set it back on its original course.
The Gabriel hailed him again. He ignored it.
Destroy the array first, then it won’t know it’s off course.
The liner’s drive cones were visible now, glowing blue against the backdrop of stars. Earth was looming bigger every second and the vessel was curving around in an arc to meet it. If he could just nudge the bigger ship a few degrees to starboard, it might be enough for it to bounce off the planet’s atmosphere. Leaving it to power away into clear space, where it could be easily destroyed.
He powered in under the liner and slowed to match its speed. It had four larger protrusions on its underside, any one of which could be the main array.
‘Hallich, I’m going to destroy its array, can you detonate some missiles off its port side to push it in the opposite direction? On no account hit the ship itself.’
‘Roger that, I understand,’ Hallich replied. ‘Can’t we board the ship and divert it?’
‘If the autopilot is code locked, which it probably is, we’d run out of time.’
‘Roger…one of my men says the forward nacelle under the bow is the main navigation array on that model.’
‘Thank you.’
Ed lined it up and using the lasers, put a couple of energy bolts into the array. The covering panels blew away, shattering into a thousand pieces, leaving the internal electronics and the multidirectional detection sphere exposed. Another two bolts and the whole thing exploded outwards with such surprising violence, he had to veer away rapidly as shrapnel peppered his ship. Then a huge flash lit up his cockpit.
‘Oh, no…’
Then unconsciousness.
‘What the fuck was that?’ shouted Andy, as everyone on the Gabriel’s bridge had to shield their eyes as the liner exploded and lit up the holomap.
‘It was wired,’ said Phil. ‘Any deviation or interference would’ve done it.’
‘Where’s Ed’s ship?’ Pol asked, the concern evident in her tone.
‘Two of the marine ships have collided,’ said Phil. ‘They’re spinning out of control.’
‘Shit…what a mess,’ said Linda.
‘I still can’t find Ed’s ship,’ Pol cried, her tone getting more insistent.
‘There it is,’ said Callon, pointing to a small object spinning away from the planet.
‘He’s either unconscious or the ship’s damaged,’ said Phil.
They watched helpless, as several large sections of the liner were now heading for Earth’s atmosphere, along with two of the marine ships.
‘There’s a freighter in trouble too,’ said Phil. ‘It was the closest commercial vessel to the explosion, must’ve been hit by debris.’
‘This has just got so out of control,’ said Linda. ‘If only we could get there sooner and use our tractor, we might be able to manipulate some of those larger bits so they miss.’
‘Or drop them in an ocean,’ said Andy.
‘Why don’t we jump into the atmosphere and come out to move the troublesome sections?’ Callon asked.
Everyone went silent for a moment.
‘Didn’t think of that,’ said Phil. ‘Cleo, can you jump us safely into the planet’s upper atmosphere?’ he asked.
‘Underneath the falling debris,’ said Linda.
‘Give me a moment,’ she answered, as the antigravs immediately began spooling up.
‘Shit,’ said Andy. ‘She’s doing it.’
‘I’ll get the tractor up and running,’ said Linda. ‘Andy, can you spark up the asteri beam and target some of the medium-sized bits?’
‘On it,’ he said, tapping away earnestly.
‘What about Ed?’ Pol asked.
‘Sorry, Pol,’ said Linda. ‘Thousands could die if we don’t stop those things from impacting the surface. Any one of them will have the same destructive power as a large nuclear warhead.’
‘Oh,’ Pol grunted, looking like she was about to burst into tears.
‘Ed’s ship isn’t in any danger,’ said Phil. ‘He’ll most likely be unconscious. We’ll go grab him as soon as the planet’s safe.’
‘Okay,’ she answered, sounding a little unsure.
The bridge lights dimmed slightly as the huge vessel jumped into a clear area, one hundred thousand feet above Earth’s surface. Phil stood the ship on its tail and powered it straight up, taking the screaming motors up to one hundred and eight per cent. They went through the sound barrier in under five seconds and into space some twelve seconds after that.
‘There are four sections I’m concerned about,’ said Linda, pointing to one of them on the holomap. ‘That’s the largest, Phil…go there first.’
Phil didn’t reply, but brought the ship up to point three light and initiated a wide hundred and eighty degree turn, coming up behind what was a large section of the liner’s bow. It was spinning end over end and spewing gasses from multiple locations.
Linda grabbed onto it with the tractor as Phil matched its speed.
‘Take us to starboard,’ she said. ‘Not too quickly, I don’t want to lose grip.’
He did as requested and gradually the powerful beam dragged the spinning lump of death, little by little out of its lethal trajectory.
‘That’s the next one,’ pointed Linda.
Over the next few minutes, they managed to deflect two more ship sections. The fourth, however, was already too close to the atmosphere when they arrived, so Linda manipulated it enough to ensure it fell somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
The two damaged marine ships had been stabilised and the injured personnel taken to the medical suite on Armstrong Station, Now a very different establishment to when Ed and Andy first visited it a few years ago.
‘Let’s go get Ed,’ said Linda, noticing a huge look of relief on Pol’s face.
Phil turned the ship and hit the gas back in the direction where the mini-me would be.
‘Can you give me a vector?’ he asked.
‘Can’t find him,’ said Pol.
‘Weren’t you keeping tabs on him while we were busy?’ Linda asked.
‘I was busy watching what you were doing,’ she said.
‘Has someone else picked him up?’ asked Andy.
‘Perhaps he cloaked,’ said Callon.
‘What would be the point of that?’ said Andy.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘There’s no jump signature and we’d still be able to detect his ship if it was in someone else’s hangar.’
‘She’s right,’ said Linda. ‘He should be here.’