Chapter 18: Collision Course!

EXHAUSTED with relief, the party broke up. The men from Space Command left the Starlight Enterprise plant and returned to their headquarters. Robert Nolan and Beowulf Denn lifted off from a launching deck not far from Richard’s office and set course for the space station that was the central facility for Nolan Mining Enterprise.

Richard had already given orders that ships from Starlight Enterprise be assigned the immediate task of pursuing and capturing the eighteen pirate ships that had destroyed NME’s decoy freighters the day before. The SE freighters that had actually carried the probes into space had been joined by SE ships gathered quietly from various sources during the previous week. They had converged during the journey so that many were in place throughout the area of the search, ready to respond to any orders that might come.

Inside many of them were the Firewasp fighters SE produced for use in the Asteroid Belt. The Firewasps were small, tremendously fast and amazingly maneuverable one-man ships that had been concentrated in several SE bases in the Asteroid Belt. They had been named after a menacing insect found in certain hostile swamps on Mars. The tiny craft served mostly as a deterrent, since smugglers and other lawless types avoided any settlement that showed it was ready to defend itself against marauders.

Commander John Lewis was to issue similar orders to Space Command ships in the vicinity of the microwave net. There were enough SE ships close to the course the pirate fleet was taking that Firewasps could be launched to intercept the pirate ships within an hour.

John Rwakatare and Richard Starlight remained alone in Richard’s office. They were seated on a sofa, looking out over the vast lunar landscape. An enormous dark gray field stretched out for several miles before breaking up at the far side into jumbled, light gray boulders.

“What do you make of it, Rock?” asked Richard. “Why did Zimbardo tell the entire planet that he was going to pulverize it, and then set his projectile on a fly-by course?”

“I don’t think he merely made a mistake,” said Rock. “He’s shown he can guide asteroids to near-pinpoint accuracy.”

“Hmm, yes ... but those were much, much smaller and were aimed at much closer targets. You don’t think he could have just ... aimed and missed?”

“Possible, Rick, but I’m not convinced. Consider this: where did the communications from Zimbardo come from? An asteroid base. The Starmen told us about this hollow asteroid and that it could be ‘flown’ like a great spaceship. We have seen only one large asteroid coming toward Earth. To be blunt, I think Lurton Zimbardo is a liar. The asteroid he aimed at Earth is his own base! His threat to slam it into Earth was intended to cause panic-and it did! He achieved that without actually having to carry out his threat. I think the real threat is what is inside this hollow asteroid.”

Richard was listening intently. The relief he had previously felt was evaporating rapidly. He deeply admired and respected John Rwakatare. Rock had a remarkable and rare combination of a filing-cabinet mind and an ability to dream. He was eminently logical at all times, but could also come up with “leaps beyond logic” in which inspiration confidently answered a challenging situation. Now was one of those times.

Richard remembered when Rock had graduated from Starlight Academy fifteen years earlier. Richard was in his early forties at the time, and recalled the shock that went through the Starlight world when Rock was offered the position of Starman but had turned it down. He was the only person ever to have refused the honor. He had chosen instead to stay close to a young woman whom he loved; they had married and now had four young children. Rock rarely left his family, and Richard had placed him second in command of Starlight Enterprise.

Rock continued. “We already concluded that the ability to sheath spacecraft and even asteroids comes from an alien intelligence more advanced than our own race. I think it highly likely that the source-at least the immediate source-of that knowledge is the asteroid Zimbardo has taken over. We don’t know what other capabilities this asteroid base has. But we do know that Lurton Zimbardo is bringing it to Earth-very, very close to Earth, and that he will be here in fifteen days.”

Richard swallowed hard and looked away. “Oh my, Rock!-I’m sure you’re right. In fact, what other possibilities are there?”

“But unless he has defenses or weaponry we haven’t seen yet, we have an advantage. A slight advantage.”

“What’s that?”

“He doesn’t know that we know where he is or that we have guessed what he’s really doing.”

Robert Nolan and Beowulf Denn made the twenty-six minute journey from the Moon to the space station. Robert had been full of chatter on the way back, but Wulf had responded only with short sentences, and after they had docked they went their separate ways. Robert went to his office to call the President. Richard had urged Robert to be the one to inform him that the probes had deployed successfully, that the microwave net had found the asteroid, and that Earth was not in danger of collision. Robert felt the honor deeply and was eager to announce the good news.

Wulf found his way to his own private sanctum, saying he wanted to take a nap. He set a “do not disturb” code on his communication system. Then he prepared another audiodisk, making a brief report of the luncheon meeting at Starlight Enterprise. He played it through twice, making changes until he felt comfortable with the message. Then he speeded it up so that the complete message lasted 0.027 seconds, encrypted it, inserted the disk into his personal computer, and transmitted it. After the message had been sent, he destroyed the disk and removed all signs on his computer that the action had occurred.

He stared out the window at the third planet, a beautiful blue and white globe, thinking nothing in particular. After a moment he stretched out and tried to take a nap. But he couldn’t sleep.

A red light pulsed rapidly on the console near Lurton Zimbardo’s chair. Seeing the flash from the corner of his eye, he jerked his head around and stared at it as if he couldn’t believe that it was lit.

“What’s this?” he thought. “There’s no message due now.” He pressed the button that deactivated the light, placed headphones on, dialed a few knobs on the console, and pressed “Play.”

Fifteen seconds later he leaped up from his chair and bellowed. With both hands he jerked the headphone cord out of the control panel. The wires whipped through the air with a noise like a scourge. Zimbardo twirled, his eyes bulging, and flung the headphones from him with all his force. The set flew through the command center and collided with the opposite wall. Everyone in the room froze and turned to look at the pirate leader, and were appalled at what they saw. He was trembling with demonic fury. No one moved or said a word. Even Gene was afraid to speak.

“They found us!!” Zimbardo shouted. “They found us! The Earthmen know where we are! They’ve located the fleet!! The freighters those fools destroyed yesterday were decoys! The Earthmen deployed the real probes and they’ve already found us! They outsmarted us!” He cursed vehemently, then growled as if his teeth were grinding on gravel. “But I’ve never been outsmarted! I won’t be outsmarted now!”

Zimbardo jumped back into his chair. “Gene! GENE!!” He screamed like a man possessed.

“Right here sir,” said the young man, coming up quickly to the pirate leader’s side.

“Crank up all the power this asteroid can give me! I’m going to create the biggest electromagnetic pulse this Solar System has ever seen, and BURN every last one of those probes out of the void!! And then when we are invisible again, we’ll move this asteroid to a new course and continue our plan.”

“But sir,” pleaded Gene, almost desperately. “That would take a lot of power! It would be highly inefficient and might work against us! I don’t know the power capacity of the asteroid! It could very well burn us out!”

Zimbardo stopped moving for a moment, then turned his head very slowly around and stared at Gene. His eyes glinted with an unearthly light.

“Do it,” he hissed.

Gene stepped back half a pace, then pivoted swiftly and ran to the power breakers on the far side of the room. He began to pull switches, override safety indicators, and turn power dials to maximum output.

In a little less than three minutes, he turned and looked back at Zimbardo. The pirate leader had not taken his eyes off of his assistant for a second. With his mouth slightly open, Gene looked into Zimbardo’s eyes from across the room and nodded with a quick jerk of his head. Zimbardo smiled, inclined his head slowly, and turned back to his console. He laughed out loud and pressed the switch that activated a general direction EMP.

There was a deafening sound like that of a huge metal block falling to the floor and then grinding along an uneven surface. A wailing screech filled the room and everyone but Zimbardo covered his ears. The screech increased in intensity until men fell to the floor and writhed, pressing their hands firmly to the sides of their heads. Then there was sudden silence and the lights went out. Men began to moan, and someone’s voice quavered: “The atmosphere recycler has stopped!”