Chapter 21: The Asteroid Over Vanuatu

ZIP was already hunched over Mark when Joe came to the front of the crowd. A few of the men hovered nearby, which others ran to the site of the explosion. Most stayed in place, looking around nervously.

“Is he... ?” stammered Joe.

“He sustained a powerful shock,” said Madera. “The energy was too much for that panel and it backed up to the terminal here. Mark had his hand on the keyboard.”

Zip was taking Mark’s pulse. Mark’s right hand was blackened and his sleeve was frayed up to the elbow. “His pulse is strong. I think he’s just unconscious. It must have been quite a blow!”

“Yes, it was,” said Madera. “I could feel the power of it just standing nearby! But his heart is beating strongly! Let’s get him back to the Tempest where he can receive some care!”

“What about the power?” asked Joe, getting to his feet.

“Look around you, Joe,” said Madera with a wave of his hand.

Joe and Zip looked out toward the plant.

“Hey!” exclaimed Joe. “It’s okay! It’s leveled off!” The shriek had diminished to a gentle hum once again, and the sounds of popping conduits and breaking glass had disappeared. “What happened?”

“I think that the panel over there was a huge breaker for this part of the power system. Mark was right. There was enormous danger in starting the plant up after so long. The energy surged through it and even the breaker couldn’t handle it very well. It blew up when it couldn’t handle the strain any more, and diverted the energy it couldn’t absorb back into the terminal here. Fortunately for Mark, by that time there was only a little left.” Madera glanced down at Mark. “He’s a brave man.”

“Yes, he is,” confirmed Joe with some animation. He and Zip picked Mark up. With the help of two others, they carried him to the elevator. In less than a minute, all the men were on their way back to the control center and the Tempest.

Within ten minutes they were back in the main hall. Through the great doors they could see more than two dozen spacecraft arrayed on the extensive launching pad.

Mark sighed deeply, then moaned. The four men who were carrying him kept up the pace. Joe called out, “Mark! How’re you doing?”

Mark moaned again, blinked, then opened his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling, appearing not to see anything. Then suddenly he began to struggle.

“Hey! Hey, what’re you doing?” he cried out. “Put me down!”

“Easy, Mark,” said Zip. “You had a shock, but you’ll be okay!”:

“I’m okay now! Put me down! I have to fix the panel! Where are you taking me?”

“Everything’s fine, Mark,” said Mr. Madera. “The system leveled out and the power is back on and controlled.”

Mark sank back with another sigh. “Great,” he said. “Put me down, though. I’m all right.” The men set him on his feet, but supported him as he wobbled, trying to get his balance.

“Wow! Am I tired!” he said at last. “Somebody help me to my bunk and wake me when it’s over.”

“I’ll go with you, Mark,” said Joe. With Joe trying to support the larger of the two Starmen, the two of them walked slowly across the quad to the airlock that led to the launching pad.

“We’re still not finished,” said Madera. “We have to steer the asteroid out of its collision course. For that, I think we’ll need some help from an unlikely source.”

“Gene,” stated Zip.

“Gene,” affirmed Starlight Enterprise’s Chief Ioneer.

Jesus Madera reached for his communicator and asked that Gene be sent to him from where he was being held in the Tempest. Madera dismissed the men who had been with them in the power plant, then turned to the red-headed Starman.

“I’m sure that Joe or even I could pilot the asteroid if we had to, but it is best that Gene do it-best for him.”

“Of course, Mr. Madera,” said Zip. “I understand.”

While they waited, the Starman gazed around. Far above was the roof of the great chamber like an iron sky. The natural lights of the complex once again blazed throughout the structures. The air seemed fresher.

He and Madera watched Gene descend the ladder and jump the last few rungs to the pad. Then he turned and paced quickly to the closest entrance in the great wall. He came through the airlock, discarded his helmet, and hurried to the small group that was waiting for him.

“We have restored power,” said Madera.

“So I see!” said Gene with a great smile. “That’s terrific! Do you want me to pilot the asteroid away from Earth?”

“That’s exactly what I want you to do. Let’s go.”

The three men made their way along the corridors, hastened past open doorways, and took the elevator up one flight to the control center. They passed dozens of SE men and members of Space Command. Captain Mary Marks-Owens was supervising their work.

Once in the control center, Gene took his seat at the main console, glanced at the Starman and the other men in the large room, then stared at the screen before him. He scratched his head, then placed his hands on the keyboard and activated it.

“Whew!” he exclaimed a moment later. “Well over 290,000 miles per hour! It would be better to turn this asteroid aside and pass by the Earth rather than try to bring it into orbit, as Zimbardo had planned at first. We’re going too fast for that!”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Madera, seating himself on a stool next to Gene. “Let’s see how you do it.”

Gene plotted coordinates and tracked the trajectory of the runaway asteroid, then calculated the amount of thrust needed to pass the Earth at a safe distance. He figured how much he could slow the asteroid down without putting too much stress on the inhabitants. When he was finished, he turned to Madera.

“Okay?”

“Looks right to me!”

“Well, then ... here goes.” Gene entered the figures into the primary guidance system and activated it. Tears suddenly came into his eyes. “Oh, please let it be enough, let it be right, let it work,” he whispered.

The Starmen woke after twelve hours of sleep aboard the Star Ranger. Uncharacteristically, Joe was the last one up. He found a note in the washroom that read, “We’re on the Tempest. Join us for breakfast whenever you’re ready.” He washed up quickly and hastened to the SE fleet command ship.

Readily admitted, he found his two colleagues in the dining area. Mark and Zip were just finishing a large platter of scrambled eggs and cheese, potatoes, freshly-squeezed juice, and hot coffee. “I’ll have the same, but with tea,” he announced, and sat down.

“Yes sir,” came a voice from the galley.

“How’re you feeling this morning, Mark?” asked Joe. “How’s your hand?”

“Couldn’t feel better, Joe! Had a good sleep at last, and my hand should be healed in a couple of weeks. It was a second-degree burn.”

A few moments later, Gene came out carrying Joe’s breakfast.

“Gene!” exclaimed Joe.

“Yes, Mr. Taylor. Just trying to help out a little,” said the erstwhile pirate.

“He cooks as well as he pilots,” said Mark.

“We’re safe, then.” Joe made it a statement rather than a question as he shook some pepper onto the steaming eggs.

“Yes,” said Zip. “The asteroid will sweep past the Earth in a week, missing it by about 50,000 miles. It will be visible for almost the whole night over the south Pacific, like a fast-moving star. Should be quite a sight!”

“Then what?” asked Joe between gulps of juice.

“Then what, what?” responded Mark.

“Then where does it go?”

“As Gene said yesterday,” explained Zip, “it’s moving too fast to enter an orbit around the Earth, so Gene steered it into a course around the sun. It will take about seven months to circle the sun just inside Earth’s orbit. Then it will catch up to the Earth and can easily be placed into an Earth orbit at that time. Scientists from Starlight Enterprise will live on it and try to learn its secrets. In fact, a ship will be launched from SE in a couple of days with a crew of them. They’ll intercept the asteroid and start the exploration right away.”

Mark continued bringing Joe up to date. “The Captain’s got a team replacing the huge airlock on the surface of the asteroid, and the temporary power supply packets are being reloaded on the ships. We’re in complete control of the asteroid now.”

“Where’s Madera?”

“He finally got a full sleep, then went back into the complex. He can’t wait to find out how it all works. He’s hoping that Richard will put him in charge of the exploration team.”

Joe scooped a large helping of potatoes into his mouth, then talked around it to ask, “Well, when do we leave?”

“I’m excited about this place, and would like to explore a bit myself,” said Zip, “but more than anything, I’d like to go home. We can leave any time we want to.”

“I’d like to see Mr. Madera one more time before we go, and then take off for home.”

A day later, the Star Ranger was well on its way to Amundsen City. The Starmen were relaxed, seated comfortably at a small table in the lounge, with the ship on automatic pilot. The strains of Bach’s Little Fugue filled the ship.

Joe asked, “Is that the disk Montezuma Vly gave us?”

“No,” said Mark. “That was destroyed when Lather melted the Vigilant Warrior. This is just part of our standard library. Beautiful piece. But I sure wish we hadn’t lost that disk Montezuma gave us. What a tragedy!”

“Yes, well, Vly did say that we could visit him again. Maybe he’ll give us another.”

“I’d like to see him again, but not for a while. I don’t want to leave home for a long time!”

At the end of their journey, the Star Ranger touched down gently on the tarmac at Amundsen Base, near the south pole of the Moon on the edge of the largest city in the Earth-Moon system-Amundsen City, with over eight million inhabitants. The Starmen debarked from their ship, crossed the field and entered the airlock that led into the receiving area. Through the second door, they could see an enormous crowd.