Felix shook off the bone-jarring chill left over from the transfer booth and ran toward Jacqueline in the waiting shuttle. He passed the TSA officers and, taking advantage of their cultural naïveté, flipped them a double bird. He dove headlong into the All-Seal and glided through the tube, flipping midway to land feetfirst against the shuttle’s outer hatch.
“Jackie, it’s Felix. Open up!”
The hatch clicked and swung inward. Jacqueline’s face greeted him from inside the hull. “Where are the others?”
“They’re still talking to the Assembly, but we have to leave right now.”
“We can’t abandon them here.”
“We aren’t abandoning them. Listen, Ridgeway sent me back alone because a warship is about to hit Earth. I have to get to a QER and warn the people back home.”
“Well, why doesn’t the Assembly just use one of theirs and recall it?”
“They don’t know the QER exists. I have no idea how, but we beat them to it. Which is why we can’t just radio over instructions. They might get intercepted.”
Jacqueline slid into the pilot’s chair. “Secure the hatch.”
Felix did as he was asked, then strapped into the copilot’s seat. Jacqueline’s hands danced over the console as the shuttle came out of its nap. Maneuvering thrusters fired to clear them from the transfer station, but nothing happened. Jacqueline fired them again, without result.
“We aren’t moving.”
Felix craned around to look through the starboard portals. “The All-Seal hasn’t disengaged. We’re still attached to the station.”
Jacqueline frowned and threw the main engine throttle levers through the windshield. The shuttle fought like a hooked fish, then tore away with a great popping sound and accelerated away from the transfer station. “Not anymore we’re not. Do you care which ship we go to?”
“No, whichever is closer. I have to get Jeffery or the professor on the line as soon as possible. The faster we warn them, the more people can be evacuated before the hammer falls.”
“Didn’t you say it was just one ship? Shouldn’t we try to fight them?”
“With what? Bucephalus is the only warship we have, and it’s out here. Earth doesn’t have any space-based weapons because they’ve been illegal for centuries. The only thing we’ve got that even resembles a weapon is the Asteroid Deflection Grid, and that system’s lasers need a decade of warning just to divert a rock.”
Jacqueline looked straight ahead, concentrating on flying, weaving around the tangle of civilian ships queued up behind them for their turn at the transfer station. “How bad is it going to be?”
“I’ve been trying not to think about it, but it’s going to be devastating. Earth’s surface is going to be wiped clean. It’s unlikely that there will be any survivors among anyone still dirt-side when the attack happens.” Felix started ticking off the compounding disasters with his fingers. “The planet’s infrastructure will be lost. The debris field will probably destroy all the habitats and mining operations in low Earth orbit as well. All of the space elevator stations out at geosync will come untethered and fly away.”
Jacqueline was near tears while Felix went on with his cataclysmic laundry list. “What about your home?”
“New Detroit?” Felix stared at the ceiling for a moment as the scenario ran through his brain. “Actually, the moon should be okay. The debris shouldn’t have enough energy to make escape velocity, at least not very much of it. The Earth is going to lose some mass into hyperspace, but not enough for the moon to break free of her gravity. No, the orbit will get a bit bigger, but that’s about it.”
Jacqueline forced a smile. “I’m happy about that, Felix. Really, I am. There’s no reason we should all have to lose our homes, our families.”
“It’s not the end, Jackie. The Mars settlements are self-sustaining, and we have dozens of colony worlds. We can rebuild.”
Felix waited for a reply for a long time, but decided it was best to leave Jacqueline to her thoughts, when she blurted out a question.
“What about the Unicycle?”
“It’s a million clicks out at the L1 Lagrange point. They’ll have to adjust its position a bit to account for Earth’s lost mass, but it’ll be fine.”
The survival of the Unicycle was a small consolation, but it would mean that Sol wouldn’t lose its transportation hub. Ships could still ride the beam into and out of the system while the recovery effort was—
Suddenly, Felix’s face erupted into a smile bright enough to light up a runway. He released his harness, stood up, and kissed Jacqueline full on the lips.
Jacqueline blushed. “Thanks, but what was that for?”
“Jackie, you just saved Earth!” Felix’s arms Muppet-flailed so hard his hands hit the ceiling.
“That’s wonderful. How?”
“The Unicycle. At full power and pointed at something in Earth’s orbit, it’ll be like using a mining laser to burn an ant. Nothing—I mean, nothing—can live through a focused thirty-terawatt particle beam from that close. It’s practically point-blank range.”
He leaned back in to kiss her again, but she placed a finger over his puckered lips.
“That’s wonderful, Felix, and we’ll celebrate properly later. But right now, I have to fly.”