Solar Star

Ty Kelsey had been right about Colonel Nye’s determination to track them down and even before they had disappeared from sight she was making arrangements to follow them. Her anger had not dissipated but she had begun to think clearly and clinically again. Organisation and preparation had always been strengths of hers and had helped her claw her way over others who seemed, on the surface, more able, until she obtained the position of power she held now. She turned to the Major.

‘Have you a map of this area?’ she snapped.

He nodded and took it out of a pouch attached to his belt.

She grabbed it and almost tore it in half in her haste to unfold it then she laid it on the ground and knelt on it, tracing with her finger, the direction the craft had moved off in. She frowned; this map was little help as it only covered the state of South Dakota so she needed to narrow the search down. The aircraft had returned to pick up the final settlers, so it obviously wasn’t big enough to hold everyone so this meant it had to have left the first load somewhere, and if they were going to try to re-settle off world as she suspected they were, they had to transfer to another ship. She turned and looked up at the Major.

‘How long was it between trips?’ she asked.

Gerrard frowned; he wasn’t sure what she meant.

She sighed.

‘How long did it take from the time they took the first load till they returned for the next?’ she explained more patiently.

‘Oh, I guess about an hour,’ he said.

‘You guess?’ she queried, one eyebrow raised in a condescending manner.

‘No Colonel, I know,’ he replied angrily.

She sniffed, but didn’t say any more and her attitude was clear. She found him inept and it pissed him off as he didn’t believe any other commander could have done any better than he and his men had. They had seriously underestimated O’realian and had been caught on the hop so from then on events had conspired against them, things he could not have foreseen, like that energy barrier and their two hostages disappearing into thin air.

The sound of the approaching men stopped his brooding and he turned to see Lieutenant Dewmore and Corporal King coming to meet them. Gerrard was pleased to see they’d brought the portable communications consoles as well as the geo-graphic and GPS palm unit too as with these devices the Colonel would be able to contact other units and work out where the aircraft might be heading. He intercepted them before they got to the Colonel, who was still pawing over the map.

‘Lieutenant, set up the comm. unit here,’ he ordered.

The younger man nodded, his face showed concern as he wasn’t happy that they had failed, but like his commanding officer he had been uneasy about the action taken against Sakkara.

‘Yes Sir,’ he paused, and then added in a soft voice.‘I’m sorry Sir, we failed you.’

Gerrard grimaced.

‘No Lieutenant, the Gods weren’t on our side, that’s all.’

The lieutenant understood and smiled.

‘Yes Sir.’

He handed the GPS unit to the Major and set up the communications centre and Gerrard sighed and went back to the Colonel. She stood up, her hands on her hips and watched the two men fix the small dish in the corrected position to establish contact with the orbiting relay stations strung around the planet like pearls on a string. Gerrard handed her the small black box and she looked at it, then handed it back.

‘You can do this,’ she said dismissively. ‘I want to know about any facility capable of handling space craft and is within a half hour flight of here.’

He nodded and watched her head towards the lieutenant before he turned on the unit and started imputing the co-ordinates for the search. The lieutenant jumped as a sharp female voice broke his concentration.

‘Isn’t it ready yet?’ she asked crossly.

‘Nearly ma’am,’ he replied and rapidly activated the final sensors and watched the dish move a fraction and click into its correct position.

Nye tapped her foot impatiently and glanced at the large watch on her wrist and it was now thirty minutes since the craft left and the chances of it still being in the air were getting fewer with every passing moment.

‘It’s ready Colonel,’ the young blond lieutenant said.

‘About time,’ she snapped back. ‘Now listen carefully. I want you to get on to all the tracking stations in this area and see if they can find our space craft. You know the time it arrived here first and left?’

He nodded so she continued.

‘And the time it arrived again?’

‘Yes Colonel, I’ll get on it right away.’

She nodded once and turned her back on them as now all she could do was wait.

There wasn’t much activity on the Solar Star’s bridge, and Su-min was lonely and becoming bored. She sat glumly surveying the empty bridge as everyone else was doing something important to help get them underway.

‘All but me,’ she said to herself and sighed.

She was a petite five foot tall woman of Chinese American origin with oval brown eyes, a heart shaped face and her black silky hair cut in a bob style with a fringe. The overall picture was of a delicate fragile flower that seemed unsuited for a life in the dangerous world of space exploration but looks are deceptive, and anyone who judged her on them could be in for something of a shock. Raised with four older brothers Su-min had learnt to protect herself and was a martial arts expert worthy of respect. She also loved to teach others her skills and now many of the Star’s crew were proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Her second love was communications and she prided herself in her abilities to retrieve signals, even encoded ones that she wasn’t supposed to be able to intercept. In the old days computer experts did the same thing, the ‘hackers’ she’d read so much about, who had caused chaos in the world’s money markets and nearly started more than one war. Her line was less destructive, in fact, the aim of her game was to listen but not be discovered and so far she never had been. Ty didn’t really approve, so she didn’t use the Solar Star’s more sophisticated systems, but had to make do with her own set up in her quarters. She listened now to the different departments conveying with each other trying to judge how it was all going, but it didn’t make much sense as what they really needed to know was where Colonel Nye was and what she was up to.

‘I wonder if I can find out,’ she said and idly began to punch in the scanners and firstly she got the tower in the station and recognised the communication officer’s voice from the Red Rocket conveying that they would be departing in half an hour. Then she widened her net and began to refine the frequencies although Military transmissions were always a challenge but she thrived on them. The more difficult the task, the better she liked it and suddenly there was purpose again for her so she settled herself in front of her large bank of equipment and set to work.

The Colonel walked up and down the same eight feet of ground over and over again, in small staccato steps, while she waited for the shuttle to arrive. Lieutenant Dewmore eyed her nervously as he waited for King to stop speaking to the tracking station in Wyoming.

‘Thank you Sir,’ King said and Dewmore looked from the Colonel back to his Corporal.

‘What did they say?’ he asked quietly.

‘They confirmed the movement of an aircraft travelling south west across the corner of the state here.’

He pointed to the large map they had spread out on the hastily erected table in front of them.

Dewmore made a mark between the position of Sakkara and the reported path of the plane and te then extended it into Colorado and pointed to the next target.

‘Right, get onto” the Springs “and see if they have anything,’ he said.

King nodded and returned to the radio. Major Gerrard had heard their conversation and it tied in with what he had discovered. It looked like the Transportation Centre which is situated just north of Old Denver was the only logical place the aircraft could have reached in the time it had. That was assuming it hadn’t changed its heading as soon as it was out of tracking range. Gerrard didn’t believe it had, but there was always that possibility and he didn’t want to be the one who suggested Denver to the Colonel only to find out he was wrong as anyone who made that big an error, the Colonel would make mincemeat of him. He already doubted his career would exactly flourish after today’s disasters but he wasn’t going to add to his woes by leaving himself open to be blamed. Oh no, he was going to go slowly and cautiously by the book, leaving nothing to chance, even if that meant they got away. Actually he wouldn’t be at all upset if they did get away, as long as he couldn’t be blamed for it. He would wait for King’s report on his enquiries with” the Spring’s “station before he put Denver in the frame.

In the distance he noted was the grey bulk of the military shuttlecraft the Colonel had ordered, and behind it came three others. He frowned, he hadn’t been aware she had another brigade at her disposal, but that’s what it looked like. He grimaced as he saw her obvious delight at the sight of her reinforcements and now he believed, even if he stalled a bit longer, it would only be another three quarters of an hour before they could be at Denver.

‘And God help them then,’ he said under his breath.

Ty glanced at his wristband and read the digital readout that told him they had now been back here for an hour and fifteen minutes. He sighed and made his way back to the turbo lift, to once again check in on the bridge. He had spent the last hour in the hanger and cargo bay, helping reload the last supplies, which were the foodstuff Armin had been waiting for. It finally arrived too late to go aboard the Red Rocket, but Maclyn found room somehow in the Star’s cargo hold and now they were reloading the shuttlecraft. Ty had made sure his two trial bikes were loaded by doing it himself, not trusting Maclyn not to overlook them accidentally on purpose in the rush to get everything on board. Mac always moaned about Ty’s obsession with the bikes, saying it was pointless carrying them around when he hardly ever rode them, but Ty argued that they might come in handy one day, (although secretly he didn’t really believe it as all the places they had visited so far had no gravity, making it very difficult to ride them). But he loved to use them when given the chance and was determined they were coming along. Having safely secreted them behind some stores in the forward cargo bay, he felt he should find out when the Rocket was leaving as every extra minute it was here worried him, it was almost as if he could feel Nye getting closer and closer. The bridge doors slid open and he stepped out on a near empty scene with only Su-min and Black Elk there. Su-min didn’t notice him until he stood over her and began to watch what she was doing and her face registered shock, then guilt, which she quickly hid, but not fast enough. Ty had seen that look before when she’d been caught eavesdropping so he scowled at her and said.

‘Su-min what have I told you about that?’

She opened her eyes wide and tried to look confused.

‘About what Sir,’ she said softly.

He didn’t say another word, but kept up the eye contact until she blushed and he knew he’d been right. She sighed knowing she’d been caught red handed.

‘Okay, I was tinkering,’ she said.

He raised his eyebrows at the phrase ‘tinkering’.

‘I’d call it eavesdropping and illegal,’ he said.’

‘Maybe but I’m trying to see if I can find out what the Colonel is planning so…’

She stopped, hoping he’d let her off without a lecture this time, as it was in a good cause.

‘That’s a noble reason Su-min, but it’s still illegal…’

He shook his head and a half smile touched his lips as he hated to be a hypocrite, but just this once he’d have to break one of his own rules. He sighed and sat down on the rail next to her so he was facing the tiny figure.

’I know I’ve said I don’t want you ‘tinkering’ on the bridge, but, and I hate to say it, this time I’ll allow it. Hell I’ll even encourage it.’

Su-min smiled broadly up at him and was about to speak when he stopped her.

‘But,’ he said forcefully. ‘This is a one off, understood?’

She nodded trying to look serious, but it was hard to stop grinning.

He sighed as she was incorrigible and then he remembered what he’d come up to find out.

‘Have you heard when the Red Rocket is leaving?’

She nodded.

‘Yes they’ve asked to taxi out and should be ready to roll.’

He was relieved to hear that.

‘Can you patch me through to Armin, I want a quick word.’

She grinned.

‘No problem.’

This was her favourite saying and within seconds he was speaking to Armin.

‘I was just going to contact you,’ he said. ‘We are just taxing out. Where do you want to meet up?’

He, as usual, had pre-empted Ty, who was going to ask the same question.

‘Well I think the other side of the moon might be safe enough. What have you told the tower?’ Ty said.

Armin chuckled.

‘Oh, we are on our way to Mars, so the moon is on the way so we’ll see you there,’ he said, then added. ‘And good luck Ty.’

Ty paused, and then replied.

‘Thanks we may need all we can get. Star out.’

Su-min ended the connection and looked at Ty’s face, noting the concern on his handsome face for the first time and suddenly she realised this wasn’t a game they were playing, it was for real and she shivered.