Chapter 10

Gene didn’t blame them. He felt the same way. He would stay with Zimbardo for the time being, but he would keep a careful eye on the situation and look for a way to ensure his personal safety if it appeared that the pirate leader had lost touch with reality. The pirates were looking for power and prestige, not a suicide mission.

* * * * *

For almost two days the Starmen and the miners had been drifting in space, not using power of any kind, afraid that even using lights might draw the attention of the vigilant pirates on the asteroid. The distance between the ship and the massive iron asteroid with its fascinating interior was increasing incrementally, but not quickly enough to please Zip. He chafed with impatience.

Mark’s first duty once the fourteen men were aboard ship was to discover their location. Since the escapees were using no power at all, Mark could employ only observation and mathematics to get his estimate. He guessed that they were 1,023 miles from the nearest edge of the Asteroid Belt and drifting roughly parallel to it.

The Starmen’s plan was to head for the nearest SE facility. If Mark’s estimate of their position was correct, the facility closest to them was an unmanned Starlight Enterprise station on O344, a medium-sized asteroid coming their direction. As soon as it was safe to use power Joe would pilot the alien ship to the station.

“We’ll be okay in a few hours, Zip,” said Joe. “You got us out of the asteroid with food and a ship. We all thought that would be impossible. We ought to be able to turn on the energy and get blasting out of here before too long.”

“I know,” responded Zip, with his characteristic furrowed brow. “We’re caught between taking a chance on being recaptured by the pirates and depleting the food. We’ll run out of supplies in a couple of days.”

“I know--and the closest base is roughly four days away, depending on how speedy this beauty proves to be. But we’ll make it.” Joe went off to visit with Mark, who was gazing out of the window at the immense spread of the Milky Way.

George St. George came up to Zip, who was sitting alone at a table, doing nothing but staring down at his hands. He sat down opposite him; when Zip looked up, the miner smiled.

“You’ve brought us back into the heavens, young Mr. Starman,” he said, “so you’ve got no reason to be covered with gloom. You won’t get us to safety now any faster by worrying.”

Zip pursed his lips and looked into St. George’s eyes. “The man seems to be protected by a shield of innocence all around him,” he thought. “His base was destroyed, he and his men were captured and taken into a massive iron asteroid by the Solar System’s greatest enemy, and now he’s floating in the void with only two days’ food left, and he’s still calm and trying to encourage me the way he encourages his men. Who is the real leader of these men? I make the decisions, but he strengthens their hearts. He even strengthens my heart.”

St. George smiled. Almost as if he could read Zip’s mind, he added, “Each of us has a gift according to the grace given us, which we are to use to benefit others. If it weren’t for you, we’d still be locked up inside that room--or worse--under the control of Lurton Zimbardo. I have my gift, and you have yours, and we both employ our gifts well. We haven’t come this far to fail now. Our success doesn’t depend solely on you, you know. Relax and just do your part. There’s still a lot to do, but the outcome isn’t in doubt.”

Zip smiled, and before he could say anything St. George had risen and strolled to the window where Joe and Mark stood.

All at once, Mark pointed and cried out, “Hey, look at that! Do you see what I see?” Several men came to the window and peered out. Zip Foster joined them. Joe answered.

“Yes! --the asteroid’s moving!”

The dark bulk of the pirates’ asteroid, which had loomed so close to them for two days, was gradually but visibly moving away. Its silhouette had been blocking half their view of the Asteroid Belt and the gleaming array of stars behind it, but now, even as they watched, its profile diminished and stars were winking into view around its edge.

“They’re heading out somewhere--moving that entire asteroid! I wonder what’s going on?” asked Mark.

“We’ll be able to power up before too long, now! We’ll be on our way ourselves,” announced Zip, animatedly. “Soon we can get in touch with Starlight. It’s been over a week since we’ve been in contact. We’ve got a lot to tell them.” The shadow that had lain over Zip for two days had been lifted. “How long until we can turn on the power, Mark? When will we be out of the pirates’ radar range?”

“Less than an hour, I’d say.”

Zip raised his voice so everyone could hear. “We get under way in an hour, men!”

It was sooner than that. In 26 minutes, the asteroid was no longer visible to the eye. Zip waited a full 45 minutes then turned on the ship’s power at its lowest setting. Using the radar, he scanned the quadrant where the asteroid had last been seen and turned up no object of significance. He hadn’t expected to.

“That doesn’t mean they can’t see us,” he mused to Mark and Joe. “That asteroid is probably sheathed just like their ships. But I think we’re safe now--safe enough, anyway, to get moving.”

“Right. Let’s go,” said Joe. “I’ll jettison the derelict and power up! I’ve been looking forward to this moment!”

Zip ran the power switch up to maximum and commanded everyone to prepare for acceleration. Joe ignited the propulsion system. With the lanky Starman at the controls the alien ship began its journey toward the Asteroid Belt. As the ship began to cruise easily, Zip began to think of communicating with Starlight Enterprise.

“Mark, contact SE right away. Fill them in on our recent adventures and see if, by any chance, there’s a ship closer to us than the base on O344.”

George St. George spoke up. “What if the pirates overhear your transmission, Zip? Won’t they know we’ve escaped and be able to locate us?”

“I think it’s worth the risk, George. They probably think we’re still inside the asteroid and won’t be looking for us out here. Even if they do overhear the transmission, I doubt they’d send some ships after us. The distance between us is growing rapidly, and if we have to we’ve got plenty of time to hide in the Belt. I’m worried about our dwindling supplies; we need some relief soon, and SE needs our information as soon as we can get it to them. Go ahead, Mark.”

“I’m on it,” said Mark.

“Provide them with a concise but complete report,” Zip went on. “Tell them about the destruction of Z25, describe the asteroid with an estimate of the number of pirates and their ships, and especially the asteroid’s location. Don’t worry about details of our escape, other than to say that we are in an alien spacecraft and heading for O344 with a minimum of supplies. Ask Sim Sala Bim to send someone to O344 with the _Star Ranger_ and another ship to take St. George and his men back to Ceres or wherever they want to go.”

“Got it,” said Mark and began to prepare his report. In less than five minutes he had sent it, but due to the interplanetary distance he didn’t expect a response for nearly half an hour.

“Sure wish we had that realtime transmission equipment on board,” mused Zip out loud, thinking about how his encounter with the pirates had begun with the experiment in the control tower in Eagle City. “But I guess it’ll be a few years before the miniaturization is worked out so that spaceships can carry it.”

“We’ll get to the base a little faster than we thought, Zip,” said Joe. “This ship is cruising very efficiently. We can learn a lot from it, in time.” The sleek, forest green cruiser sped through the vacuum, rapidly approaching the edge of the Asteroid Belt.

* * * * *

Six hours and 23 minutes after the destruction of the atmosphere-generating plant on the edge of the Red Sea on Mars, a small iron asteroid struck the plant located just south of the Oxia Palus on an open plain about five degrees north of the equator and fifteen degrees west of the central meridian. It was a few minutes past 4:00 a.m. local time. Six miles away was the settlement of Westcott.

Most of the local populace had not heard Lurton Zimbardo’s radiocast, since it had come in just before midnight. The second asteroid followed a near-vertical course and slammed with tremendous force into the ground a half mile from the atmosphere-generating plant. The sun rose onto a land choked with dust. When the dust settled back to the surface about midday, the people of Westcott saw only a crater a mile and a half wide. There was no sign that any human artifice had ever existed on the spot.

Almost sixteen hours later, on an overcast afternoon in the empty northwest, the third asteroid struck. Its target was the atmosphere plant located 51 degrees north of the equator and 141 degrees west of the central meridian-southwest of a small crater which was the home of a town called Morris. It was centrally located for miners, prospectors, farmers, arborists, and mobile scientists, who lived near or roamed throughout the locale.

By this time Zimbardo’s message was known all over the planet and the utter destruction of the first two atmosphere generators had shown that his threat was to be taken seriously. Morris had been abandoned, and its 25,000 residents were in panicky flight to the northeast, opposite the plant. Few people saw the asteroid make a direct hit on the two billion solar complex.

Seven hours and 12 minutes later, the fourth asteroid demolished the atmosphere plant located nine degrees south of the equator and 167 degrees east of the central meridian. It was evening, and the resulting cloud of dust created a sunset of spectacular beauty, with colors rippling through the drifting sand like fire seen through a translucent curtain.

The final impact occurred in the early darkness hours. The atmosphere plant located northeast of Eagle Crater at 26 degrees north of the equator and 85 degrees east of the central meridian was instantly turned into rubble.

In a thirty-two-hour period, Mars had been scarred by five new craters, each one a mile to a mile and a half across. More than ten billion solars in damage had been done. Atmosphere generation on the red planet could not be restored for at least five or six years.

Much more satisfying to Lurton Zimbardo was the fact that the entire population of Mars was held inescapably captive by an hysteria of fear. No one doubted that Zimbardo had spoken his threat accurately. The five asteroids had arrived unseen until the last few seconds and had pulverized their targets with accuracy of less than half a mile of error. The fearful populace of Mars awaited the promised communication from the pirate leader, in which he would reveal his demands.

15: A Microwave Net

SPACE COMMAND and Starlight Enterprise were filled with intense activity. The previous day had been a roller-coaster ride of messages from Mars and the Asteroid Belt. First came the dismal news of the destruction of the Martian atmosphere-generating plants, one after the other. Then just before the tidings that the plant near Eagle City had been demolished, the message from the missing Starmen had come into Starlight Enterprise. The euphoria with which that word had been received was quickly dampened by the ultimatum Lurton Zimbardo had issued.

In words similar to those Troy Putnam had used weeks earlier, Zimbardo demanded control of Earth’s wealth and resources, with specific demands for access to Earth’s coded defense mechanisms, authority over major ports of travel, and power over the major decision-making processes and information systems. He closed his threat with the chilling announcement that he had already directed a sheathed asteroid more than forty miles long into a collision course with Earth. When his demands had been met and verified, he would then turn the asteroid aside.

Immediately after receiving the message, the President called a meeting in one of his maximum-security offices on Earth. Joining him at the table were some of his senior advisors as well as Richard Starlight, his chief assistant John Rwakatare, and other representatives of SE. Robert Nolan with his chief assistant Beowulf Denn and other representatives of Nolan Mining Enterprise filled out the gathering.

“Although he has demanded control of Earth’s systems of communication, exchange, and security, I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that Zimbardo’s real object is not clear.” The President was drawing conclusions after a brief introduction of the facts. “It is impossible for one man simply to become dictator of the entire planet, no matter who he is or what engines of destruction he can call upon. I suspect that his aim is other than he has announced, and I am determined not to provide the access codes to our most sensitive systems.”

There was a slight rustle of movement around the table. Whatever course of action was to be decided at this meeting, calling Zimbardo’s bluff had not been considered by many to be a viable option. The President continued.

“His ruination of the atmosphere plants on Mars proves that he is able to direct asteroids to targets with high accuracy, and that we are unable to detect them. Although the loss of the plants is a severe blow, it is not crippling. They can be rebuilt in a few years. At worst, the process of terraformation will be delayed for that long. Replacement will cost about ten billion solars--obviously a huge amount of money, but an amount that Mars can afford. The plants were over a century old however, and in the long run replacing the plants will be more effective and probably achieve the goal of terraformation faster than if we had continued to use the plants that were destroyed. Frankly, there were plans already in the works for modernizing the plants.

“No, the real damage has been psychological: the people of Earth and Mars are terrified. This, undoubtedly, was Zimbardo’s major goal in destroying the plants, and he has achieved it completely and thoroughly. His demands to us are clear, but it is difficult for us to perceive what he would achieve, even if we capitulated--which we do not intend to do.”

Robert Nolan could not contain himself any further, and lurched backward as if he had been struck. “_You don’t intend to cooperate with him?_” he almost screeched. “But he’ll destroy the entire planet if we don’t! There is no way we can detect an asteroid he’s made invisible to radar!”

“Dr. Nolan,” responded the President, “we believe that we have a method which will allow us to locate the asteroid that Zimbardo has directed toward Earth. We have a very good chance of locating it and destroying it.”

“A _chance_? Mr. President, you’re gambling with the very existence of life on Earth! If an asteroid forty miles long strikes Earth, it will not only cause the extinction of every life form on the planet, there is every likelihood that it will crack the Earth’s crust! There will be no escape! _No escape!!_ Don’t you see that we _have_ to cooperate with Zimbardo? It will be easier to meet his challenge once he has turned away the asteroid!”

The President responded in gentle tones. “You have not yet heard our plan, Bob. Believe me, I can sympathize with your quandary, but I am simply not going to deal with any evil force as if it had a right to negotiate. It doesn’t. This has been the principle behind the decisions we have made in order to meet the threat of the pirates from the first day.”

“_Principle?_” Nolan was almost shouting now. “For your _principle_ you’re willing to risk the destruction of all life on Earth? _That’s the evil we’re facing here!_”

“Bob--please listen to what Dr. Hoshino has to tell us. There is a plan. Dr. Hoshino?”

Robert Nolan leaned forward, placed his elbows on the table, and cradled his head in his hands. He was trembling. Richard Starlight looked over at his friend and colleague and felt very badly for him. He knew that Robert was under a tremendous strain. Richard agreed that the fate of the Earth was at stake and would probably be decided at this meeting. He was tremendously anxious himself, but he was eager to hear what Dr. Hoshino had to say.

Dr. Stephen Hoshino was a brilliant astrophysicist whom the President had commanded to work on a plan to counteract Zimbardo’s chief weapon--the radar bender. He was a slight man of Japanese ancestry who, in spite of his compactness, exuded power. Even his smallest movements were made with precision. Although he was only in his middle thirties, from his late teens he had been granted virtual carte blanche in his research. Even at that young age, his genius had become known throughout the inhabited Solar System. His voice was calm and mellifluous.

“Thank you, Mr. President. My team and I have been working around the clock for eight days to develop a system for detecting an object which is invisible to radar. We have succeeded. The theory was not difficult to develop, but the method provided somewhat of a challenge. We have now designed a technique for locating a body as small as, very roughly, two-thirds the size of the average spacecraft, by detecting its gravitational field.”

As he spoke, many of those listening to him felt the level of their anxiety diminishing slightly. Robert Nolan lifted his head. Though his expression was drawn, he was paying attention.

“We must manufacture millions of tiny probes and release these into space in a systematic fashion over many millions of cubic miles. Their design is quite simple. The laboratories and manufacturing centers of organizations like Starlight Enterprise, Nolan Mining Enterprise, and other companies can create these probes in vast quantities very quickly, using robotic techniques. Each probe will have gravity instrumentation. Using the microwaves naturally occurring in space, they will be connected by a vast neural network and thus act as a single instrument, with all data being fed back to various information centers.

“With the data from these probes we should be able to detect any massive objects in places where they shouldn’t be. Certainly a large asteroid cannot be hidden. The very size of the asteroid with which Zimbardo threatens our planet will work in our favor, since detecting such a large object can be achieved easier and sooner than if he sent, for example, a number of small asteroids such as those that struck Mars.”

“Where will the probes be deployed, Dr. Hoshino?” asked Richard. “Our time is short, very short indeed, if we have to manufacture, launch, and deploy the probes in time to locate and then destroy the asteroid. Even if we produce millions of probes, as you have said, we have millions of cubic miles of space to search through. In the time available, even trillions of the little probes can’t help much. Theoretically, the asteroid can be _anywhere_. There are asteroids inside the orbit of Mercury and outside the orbit of Jupiter. But I suspect that you already have an idea where we are to search.”

The President answered. “When Zimbardo sent his first message to Mars, evidence of his tampering with the Martian communication system was discovered. This allowed us to trace how his tampering was done and therefore where the signal came from--at least in a general direction. After he sent his second message, the one to Earth yesterday evening, the signal was traced again. We have learned that his base is moving toward Earth and we have an idea of the speed his base is moving and its direction. The information the Starmen provided confirms what we had learned through our investigations.

“Of course, our figures are somewhat imprecise, and we still have a lot of searching to do, but we have an excellent chance of locating him. It is highly logical that the asteroid he harnessed is from a place in the Belt close to his own asteroid. From what the Starmen reported, he just didn’t have time to locate an asteroid as large as he claims to have launched toward Earth from any place too distant from his own base. The probes will therefore be cast in a net in the space between Earth and the area of the Asteroid Belt in which the pirates’ asteroid was found.”

Richard Starlight, Robert Nolan, and others had a number of technical questions for Dr. Hoshino regarding the manufacture and deployment of the probes and the time schedule necessary to achieve their goal. At the end of the discussion it was agreed that the two companies, with others, would begin to manufacture the probes according to Stephen Hoshino’s design. Launch was planned for five days later, with deployment six to seven days after that.

* * * * *

“O344 coming up on the screen, Zip,” announced Mark.

“Not a moment too soon!” shouted Joe. “Food at last!”

It had been a week since the fourteen men aboard the alien spaceship had left the pirates’ asteroid. They had been traveling under power for four days. Although they had been very sparing in their consumption of the food, they had run out two days earlier. A few ounces of water per person remained in the containers; it had been carefully measured and rationed to last the entire journey to O344. Everyone was thirsty but no one was in danger of becoming dehydrated. All, however, suffered from the pangs of hunger. Mark had a headache that blurred his vision and made his responses slow.

“If it’s on the screen, we ought to touch down in a few minutes,” said Zip. He was moving slowly and often sat down with his eyes closed. Of the three Starmen, Joe seemed to be the least affected by the two days’ lack of food. The miners were lying down on their bunks. Other than Joe, only George St. George had exhibited much energy in the previous two days, coming forward to the flight deck every few hours to chat with the Starmen.

Zip asked George to prepare his men for touchdown. Deceleration had been gradual, so there was no need for the men to strap into the acceleration couches. However, they would need to be in spacesuits in order to leave the ship and enter the SE facility.

An asteroid about ten miles across loomed up on the screen. Joe circled it slowly.

“There it is,” he said as a landing pad came into view. A small dome next to the pad was barely visible, since the landscape that had been artificially shaped was on the dark side of the asteroid, away from the sun. The site on O344 was one of dozens of such places marked on the navigational maps. They were unmanned stations stocked with supplies and maintained for explorers, scientists, and others in the employ of Starlight Enterprise. They contained large quantities of food, water, and other basic necessities, and provided rustic living facilities.

It didn’t take Joe long to land the ship on the surface of the small asteroid. It settled down gently just a few yards from the dome.

“I’ll need someone to go into the supply cache and get some bolts, Zip. This ship doesn’t have any to keep it fixed to the asteroid--or if it does, I haven’t found the controls for them. I’ll have to stay aboard until the ship is secure.”

“Okay, Joe,” Zip responded. “Great flying. You pilot this ship as if you were trained in it.”

“That’s my job,” said Joe. “Don’t take too long, though. I’m hungry!”

The men went through the ship’s airlock, made the brief walk across the surface of the asteroid, and entered the dome. The dome contained a small airlock leading to a ladder that descended about 15 feet into the asteroid. Zip asked two of St. George’s men to locate bolts and go back up to clamp their ship to the surface. Within minutes the alien ship was fastened down tightly and all fourteen men were inside the supply station.

“Food! Toothbrushes! Showers! Clean clothes!” shouted various voices as the men scattered to look over the spartan facility.

“Food!” shouted Joe, and headed for the pantry where George St. George was already standing.