After Moses Prodigal, page 41
There was a moment of silence before Captain Trent spoke. “Don’t worry about me. Just get that bomb out of here.”
“But—”
“Give me a five-count and then drop altitude. You’ve got enough tonnage to crush down through the cab. I’ll take a dive for it and hope for the best.”
“That’s a death sentence,” Matthew said.
“Probably, but—”
“Wait, we’re about to cross a bridge,” Yvonne said. “The lake. Think you can clear the wall?”
“Beats the pavement,” he said. “Waiting on your mark.”
Grace watched the approaching water with fascination. That was going to be one big leap.
“Okay,” Yvonne said. “Five, four, three, two, one!”
The door of the truck opened and Trent flew out. Grace gave him a boost right as the Sparrow dropped in altitude with a stomach-churning lurch, crushing the cab like a tin can. The belly of the Sparrow made contact with the bomb. Hopefully, Trent had made it, but she couldn’t worry about that right now.
“Yvonne,” Abigail shouted from her position, clinging to the bomb. “Move a few degrees to the... Never mind, you’re good! Hardpoints are attached.”
Matthew slammed the control to raise the lift.
“We’re not out of this yet,” he said as it pulled them up into the Sparrow. “Davey, grab the turret just in case. Jason, Grace, help Arthur.”
As the lift finished its ascent into the hold, Grace couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes. After so long, she was home.
MATTHEW HIT THE COCKPIT at a run. By the time he slid into his seat, Yvonne had already pointed them toward the brightly lit Well of Ceres.
“Matthew, the fuel.”
His eyes fell on the digital gauge, and his heart sank. “We’ve only got a few seconds of burn with the main engines. Pull up the delta-v map. What’s our escape velocity?”
She dug into a side compartment to pull out an old spiral-bound set of charts. “It looks like... Just over five hundred meters a second from the surface.”
He pursed his lips and shook his head. “We won’t make that, but we’ll get enough altitude to give us time to figure out a plan B.”
“How fast are you intending on flying through the well?” she asked.
He looked at the gauge and then glanced at the pool of light ahead of them. They’d be there in mere seconds. “Open the comm to an emergency channel. Whitaker said the well was being closed. We need to find out if that’s true.”
“Comm is open,” she said.
“This is SPW5840. We are airborne over Port Jacobson carrying a live nuclear weapon for disposal. We need immediate access to the Well. Anyone listening, tower control or civilian, please respond. Is the Well clear? Please respond.”
A moment later, “This is tower control. Say again? You said a live nuclear weapon?”
“I don’t have time for this,” Matthew growled. “I’m about to hit the Well. Is it clear?”
“No, wait!” another voice responded. “We’re still in it! We’re still in it! We’re last in line and will be out in five minutes!”
Matthew glanced at the fuel gauge. If they didn’t enter the Well now, they wouldn’t even get a single burn from the engines. “I’m too low on fuel,” he said. “I can’t wait. What’s your model and profile? Maybe we can slide past each other.”
“Solarline Passenger Shuttle. Eighty on board. I could... I could retract my wings for landing. I’d have to override some safety features. That would give me a twenty-five-meter width.”
“Do it. Get as close to the edge as you dare.”
“Stand down!” control shouted. “SPW5840, you are not authorized to enter the Well!”
Matthew pulled the flight yoke back and pointed straight up the illuminated shaft. “Overruled.” He fired the main engines. They roared through the deck and they were pressed back into their seats. The Sparrow blasted into the Well like a bullet through a gun barrel. Then the engines went dark.
“Oh, wow, this is fast,” Yvonne said.
“Tell me about it, Matthew said, touching the yoke with a gentle hand. A drop of sweat ran down his forehead, but he didn’t dare wipe it away. The slightest mistake and their journey would be over. Ahead he saw the shuttle. “I’m almost to you, Solarline. Sit as close to that wall as you can and don’t move. I’ll do the maneuvering.”
THE WALLS RUSHED PAST in a blur to Abigail. Despite having her faceplate lowered, the glare of the brightly lit shaft was giving her a headache. She shifted to a more comfortable position where she could look up the Well and still keep her finger on the pause button. Riding a nuclear bomb was definitely on her list of the craziest things she had ever done. The top of the list, specifically.
“I’m fine out here, by the way,” she said to no one in particular.
“We’re busy,” Yvonne snapped.
Abigail sighed. So much for friendly conversation. Ahead of her, the shuttle loomed. The Sparrow rotated slightly so that it would slide beneath them. Abigail cocked her head. It was going to be close.
The shuttle approached at dizzying speed.
It was going to be too close. The Sparrow might make it, but she could be shorn off.
Here it was.
She closed her eyes, expecting to feel a thunderous impact.
“Look at that,” Matthew said. “Cameras report that I had three meters to spare. Nothing to worry about.”
Abigail let out a long slow sigh of relief. But she couldn’t relax, not with her finger on the button. That, of course, was the real problem. Even if they made it away from Ceres, they still had a bomb to contend with. One way or another, this thing was going to blow.
YVONNE SAT BACK IN her seat and let out the breath she’d been holding. That had been far too close.
“Solarline,” Matthew said, “Have a safe landing. Sorry for the scare.”
“That was some good flying SPW5840. I hope the thing with the bomb works out okay.”
“Yeah, we do too.” He closed the comm channel. “Yvonne, can you do a work-up on our velocity? How close are we going to be to escape velocity when we—”?
He cut off mid-sentence, and Yvonne saw that he was staring at her. She glanced down at herself and noticed a fine misting of blood on her clothes. Kudzu’s blood.
“What happened?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Just leave it. I’ll be fine. Leave me alone for a minute so I can work out the numbers you want.” She tapped furiously at the keyboard doing everything in her power not to look at the speckles of blood on her sleeve. It was over. Done. He would never haunt her again, and she was free to live her life.
“I’ve almost got it. Here. We’ll be traveling at about four-hundred fifty meters a second when we clear the Well, over one-fifty shy of escape velocity.”
“We can use the steam thrusters to push us into an orbit,” he said.
“Probably, yes. It’ll run them dry, but that’s the least of our concerns.”
She entered a bunch of numbers into the computer to plot their path. At that moment, the rest of the crew piled into the room, including their extras.
“Good to see you on your feet, Arthur,” Matthew said. “How’s the head?”
Yvonne turned to look at the old man and his bandaged skull. “Do I need to look at that?”
He rubbed his head. “Concussions don’t kill people.”
“Brain damage does,” she retorted.
“It doesn’t matter while we’re carrying that bomb.”
The group fell quiet. Yvonne turned to look out the window at the walls of the Well, still passing them at incredibly dangerous speeds.
“How much time is left on the countdown?” Grace asked.
“There’s no way to tell,” Matthew said as he made a minor course correction to keep them centered. “At most twenty minutes. Seconds at the least. Depends on when the countdown started.”
“So how do we get that thing far enough away from us that we don’t all die when it blows?” Jason asked.
Matthew glanced at Yvonne and nodded before turning his eyes back to piloting. She cleared her throat. “Suppose we drop the bomb when we breach the surface.” She pointed at the screen showing the plan she’d been working up. “It will continue on the current path. The Sparrow will rotate toward the horizon and burn its steam thrusters. They don’t have a whole lot of delta-v, but we should have enough to at least get us into a highly elliptical orbit.”
“How long will it take us to get out of range of the blast?” Davey asked, frowning.
“It depends on how big the bomb is. There’s a lot of this that I’m not qualified to work out,” she admitted. “First, outside an atmosphere, there won’t be a pressure wave. That’s the majority of a nuclear explosions destructive force. However, without an atmosphere to absorb radiation, that burst of ionizing energy is going to be much more intense over a much longer distance. I won’t be surprised if Ceres loses half its satellites.”
“But the Sparrow is protected from radiation, right?” Davey asked.
Matthew nodded. “As long as we aren’t too close. We should have time to get away.”
“But who lets off the button,” Arthur asked quietly. “If we pull off to escape and it detonates immediately, we all die.”
The cockpit fell silent for a minute.
“Can we rig something to hold it?” Grace asked.
“With what’s on hand? Something we would trust with our lives and still release that trigger at the right time? No,” Matthew said. “That’s asking for disaster.”
“Then I’m the one to hold the button while the Sparrow escapes,” Arthur said.
Grace stirred. “We’re not just going to leave you to die. Matthew, tell him—”
Matthew cut her off. “Let him have his say.”
“It’s my responsibility,” Arthur continued. “None of this would have ever happened were it not for me. Had I not been a coward and put my foot down to do what’s right just once, you wouldn’t be here. My own granddaughter lived on the street. In slavery.” He looked down at Grace. “She’s riding on a ship with a deadly payload because I was too ashamed to put a stop to this. Let me end it. Grant me this one request to make up for a lifetime of mistakes.”
Yvonne had to admit that it made sense. If the one responsible was willing to do it, it would make the rest of the plan a lot easier. He could hold it for several minutes to give the Sparrow ample time to reach a minimum safe distance—
“Request denied,” Matthew said without taking his eyes off the controls.
An uncomfortable silence followed.
“I don’t understand,” Arthur mumbled.
“We don’t make our own atonement,” he said. “A good deed, even a sacrificial one, doesn’t make up for the mistakes of a lifetime. So go ahead and wipe that notion out of your head. You’re not here because we expect you to make things right. You can’t do that. You’re here because of Grace. She wants you here. Evil deeds aren’t covered by good ones, they’re covered by forgiveness.”
Arthur stared at Matthew flummoxed. “But—”
“My decision is final. Besides,” he said. “We don’t have any need for that style of heroics.” He reached over and flipped on the comm. “Hey, Abigail. How are you doing out there?”
“I was starting to think you’d forgotten about me and, you know, the bomb.” She put a little more emphasis on that last word than Yvonne thought was necessary. “I hope you have a plan.”
“We sure do,” Matthew said. “You said that suit of yours was designed to take a lot of radiation. How much radiation are you comfortable with?”
IT WAS STILL A GAMBLE, and Grace didn’t like it. Their best guesses said that Abigail would have a few minutes before the time hit zero. But if they were wrong? She might not make it away. Grace climbed out the top hatch of the Sparrow lugging Abigail’s thruster pack with her.
“Be careful out there,” Matthew said into her comm. “Stay close to the Sparrow. You have the same momentum as us, but we are still in Ceres’ gravity well, so it won’t be true zero gee.”
“Relax. I’ve got it.” She looped the second thruster pack to her chest and took a quick look around. The bright walls of the Well rushed past. They’d be at the surface soon, and gravity was slowing the momentum from their single burn. Using her thrusters, she gently pushed herself up and over the Sparrow’s body then let herself drift down toward Abigail.
“I’m at her now.”
Abigail craned her neck to get a look. “It’s good to see a friendly face. Strap that thing on me.”
Grace set to work securing the thruster pack across the back of Abigail’s armor. “You sure you’re going to be okay?”
“As sure as I can be. Hey, don’t worry. I’d say odds are in my favor.”
“I just... I just got back, and I can’t lose you,” Grace blinked back stinging tears.
“This is going to work. My suit was made for this. You guys will come get me after the fireworks and we’ll all make up for the time we’ve lost.”
Grace finished securing the pack and wrapped her arms around Abigail as best she could in her bulky suit. “I’m holding you to it.”
They shot out of the Well of Ceres like a cannon, and the lifeless surface began to fall away. It was weird to think that they weren’t going fast enough to escape from Ceres, though Yvonne had said it would take hours for them to come down.
“Time for you to go,” Abigail said. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
“I’M ABOARD,” GRACE said in the comm.
“Detaching the payload now,” Matthew said. “Magnetic hardpoint disengaged. Giving a touch of steam to push away from you, Abigail.”
He watched the instruments closely. They had a little more speed coming out of Ceres than Yvonne had estimated. That gave them some extra leeway.
“We’re clear,” Abigail said.
“Firing the steam thrusters now.”
Yvonne updated the positions and numbers on their monitor. “Looks good. In just a few minutes, our course will have changed enough to put us safely out of the bomb’s way.”
Behind them, the others hovered in the hall, anxious, but not daring to interfere. To Matthew, the minutes dragged on for an unbearable length of time. Knowing he had a crewmate risking her life for the rest didn’t make him any happier.
“How’s the view out there, Abigail?”
“Honestly? It’s Ceres, so it’s just a gray rock. At least it’s around sunset, so I can see some of the nightside lights. I hope they’re watching the sky when they get their new star.”
“I hope they aren’t,” Yvonne said. “I’d rather not hear stories of mass blindness.”
“Going to be that bright, huh?” Matthew asked.
“For the first few seconds without protection, yes.”
“I’ve already dimmed my visor,” Abigail said. “All the same, I’m not going to watch the initial blast.”
A chime went off in the cockpit.
“What’s that?” Grace called from the hall.
“We’ve hit one hundred kilometers out,” Matthew said. “Abigail,” he said quietly. “At your leisure.”
“MARK,” SHE SAID, KNOWING that the others would start a timer. She released the button and immediately set her thruster pack to wide open, prograde to the bomb’s course. The bomb quickly fell behind her. If all went well, someone was going to have to fish her out of the sky before she came back down to Ceres. Her thruster burn would stretch that time to as long as possible
But that was a future worry. For now, it was just a waiting game.
At full throttle, the pack would exhaust its meager supply of propellant in about a minute and a half. A lead weight settled down into her stomach.
“You know,” she said. “Now that I’m here and waiting for that thing to blow, I’m a little nervous.”
“Are you okay?” Matthew asked.
“I’m not going to be sick or anything, but...” She shrugged, knowing there was no one to see the gesture. “In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if I’ll even know if it blows in the next few seconds. Also, the temptation to look over my shoulder is just about unbearable.”
“Don’t do it,” Yvonne said.
“I won’t, I promise.”
She waited until her pack ran nearly dry. “Okay, I’m changing my orientation.” She rotated so that the top of her head faced the now distant and receding nuclear weapon and deployed her shield holding it above her head with both hands. It wasn’t liable to offer an awful lot of protection, but it would stop a few more high energy particles from hitting her suit and body. “I’m ready.”
The comm fell utterly silent for agonizingly long seconds.
That feeling worked its way into her gut again, so she started talking to distract herself. “The worst part is, I can’t even tell I’m moving. Part of me still feels like the Prodigal’s close enough to reach out and touch.”
“I had you on the scopes for a minute,” Yvonne said. “Trust me, you’re moving away from it at a good speed.”
“Great,” Abigail said. “Now it’s just... Wait for an explosion. Someone else talk. I feel like I’m blabbering and I need the distraction.”
She heard a bit of shuffling from the comm. “We should have taken bets on how much time was left on the bomb,” Davey said. “Winner doesn’t do chores for a week.”
“There will be no gambling on the Sparrow,” Matthew said sternly. “This is a vice free zone.”
“More like fun free,” Abigail said.
Matthew grunted something incoherent, and Abigail laughed. “Hey, is Grace there?”
“I’m here.”
“I was wondering about something. When you—”
The bomb detonated. She felt a shock against her shield that sent her into a wild tumble and her comm squealed with static. Reflexively, she squeezed her eyes shut, and even then she could see the blast as she tumbled through space, end over end.
