Zara's Flight: Book One of the Kato's War series Page 7

  Chapter 19

  Zara dialed James. It rang and rang, but he didn’t answer. She figured things were bad in his world, as a senior figure at TAON, and he was otherwise engaged, but she tried again anyway. This time, he answered.

  “Zara?” he said, staring incredulously at her face on his phone.

  “That’s right. My dad gave me your number, in case I needed anything.”

  “Oh… well, it’s fantastic to hear from you!” She hoped the reticence in his voice had more to do with how busy he was than who was calling. “I think you were in high school the last time I saw you,” he said. Zara nodded.

  “There is something I need,” Zara said. “I’m going to try and save my dad, and I need the smartest minds I can get. I’ll warn you, though: it involves a crime of the highest order.”

  James paused. “I don’t have to kill anyone, do I?”

  “No.”

  “And you think you can save him?” he asked, somewhat skeptical. “Everyone here has been over every possibility a million times. There’s no way.”

  “I’ll save him,” Zara said, as though it were a foregone conclusion. James heard and saw her determination.

  “Then I’m in,” he said. “Listen, I have to go—things are beyond chaotic here, as you can imagine. But, I’ll do anything for him—and for you. I’ll call you back later.”

  “Okay. Bye for now.”

  “Good work,” Christopher said once Zara had hung up. “I just thought of a bunch of other people we should rope in, such as the team from the TAON Foundation. Nobody cares about Kato and his mission more than them. We can only hope they’ll go along with it.”

  Christopher paused. “Oh, and there is one other…”

  “Who?”

  A wry smile crossed Christopher’s face. “A very old friend and the commander of the IME: Aleksandr Kozlov. The guy’s crazy as a hoot owl, in a good way. I’ll show you the video of his exploits, if you haven’t seen it. He’d give you the shirt off his back if he thought it would help. I can almost guarantee he’ll be in, and his expertise will be invaluable. He got us through some major scrapes on the mission. The rest of the IME crew, well, they’re too sensible and level-headed.”

  A couple of phone calls later, Christopher reported back, “Alex is definitely in. The other guys I tried from the TAON Foundation—Oleg and Irina—aren’t in, but are rooting for us.”

  “Okay.”

  “I told them we’d meet tonight, via ObiCast. I set the time at nine p.m. Pacific time, so it’s after the workday on the East Coast but still daytime in Russia. Let James know.”

  “Okay.”

  “Have you been to an ObiCast meeting before?” Christopher asked.

  “No.”

  He grinned. “Ah, well, you’re in for a treat then. You know the 3D computer interfaces projected in the air?”

  “Yes.” Zara’s brow furrowed.

  “Well, they’ve used the same technology to project people into meetings, from remote locations. It’s almost total telepresence. Videoconferencing’s going to be dead soon.”

  “Oh,” Zara said, wondering why this mattered.

  “I bet you don’t know why it was called ObiCast, though.”

  “No.”

  “Does the phrase ‘Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi’ mean anything to you?” Christopher asked, trying not to grin.

  “No.”

  “Ah,” Christopher said, suddenly grinning very widely. “It’s from a hundred-and-ten-year-old movie, where this type of projection technology first appears in the popular imagination. Teach you of Star Wars, I must!”

  Christopher, Zara, Aleksandr, and James sat around the virtual meeting table in Christopher’s media room. The latter two were like ghosts: glowing, nearly defined beings of light, a little fuzzy and flickery at times. James looked very stressed and anxious. Aleksandr merely looked old.

  “Greetings, friends,” Christopher said. “We all know each other, except for James. You are all known to each other, of course, through your work. I expect we will be the closest of colleagues after this subterfuge is over!” This produced nervous chuckles. “Here, of course, is the lady of the moment,” he said, gesturing to Zara.

  “I don’t have to explain what this enterprise means to all of us,” he continued. “Not only are we out to save Kato, but I think each of us would also like a piece of Seung Yi.”

  “He lied, cheated, and stole his way to the top,” James said, with a deep anger in his voice. “He gutted TAON and put a noose around Kato’s neck. There isn’t a single thing he sells that wasn’t copied from us. I’m keeping my language in check here for Zara’s sake, but suffice it to say I’d personally rip out his trachea if I could.”

  “No need to clean it up on my account,” Zara said, her brow furrowed. “I’d do the same. I watched my dad suffer for years because of him—so many sleepless nights, and dinner times when he wouldn’t say a word because he was so anxious about trying to stop this guy.”

  “Yi’s spending just under half his fortune on this mission,” James said. “If we manage to do this, it’ll inflict immense financial pain on him, besides the blow to his pride. It’d be worth it just to see his comeuppance.”

  “I think we all feel the same way,” Aleksandr said, nodding. “Any slight against Kato is a slight against me. I’ve watched this play out over the years, and so am very invested in doing this.”

  “Well, let’s save the axe-grinding for later,” Christopher said. “I’m particularly aware of how tight time is for you, James. This is what we have so far.” Christopher recited the list of obstacles he and Zara had talked about earlier. There was silence all around.

  “Hmph,” James said, at last. “To call this a tall order is an understatement. However, I will help in any way possible.”

  “I do think we shouldn’t meet in person,” Aleksandr said, “and we should make sure to use the highest level of encryption for virtual meetings. The FBI will be all over this. We must leave no breadcrumbs for them to follow.”

  “Agreed,” Christopher said. He turned to Zara. “I don’t want you to use your cell phone here. In fact, keep it switched off—they’ll be able to tell you were here from the towers it’s using.”

  “Too late,” she replied.

  Christopher sighed. “Okay, well… in that case, fly somewhere else tomorrow, turn it on and off again, to make it show up in a different location, and then get a new phone. Might throw them off the trail.”

  “Okay.”

  “Oh, holy cow,” James said, turning a sickening shade of green and shaking his head. “This is just starting to sink in. We’re going to steal one of the most valuable things ever created by man? And we think we can get away with it? Are we insane?”

  Nobody had an answer to that. “I was taught to make a living through honesty and hard work,” he continued. “This violates every principle in my body—and that’s if we don’t get caught.” He turned his palms up. “I’m gonna be involved for Kato’s sake, but we can’t forget the magnitude of what we’re doing here.”

  Chapter 20

  The Sun was now just a bright star from Eternity’s viewpoint. Kato’s eyes moved from the view outside to the status display. The O2 recycling efficiency was ninety-seven percent. It was creeping down slowly as the weeks passed, but the end was inevitable. He wondered what it would feel like, as the air became more and more stale onboard. It would probably take place slowly over several days, since the volume of air inside the ship was large. His lungs would start to strain and ache, and he would be forced to take ever deeper breaths as his body fought to survive.

  The screws would tighten ever so slowly. After days of agony, he would lose consciousness, and his torment would be over. The robots that had been instructed to cryopreserve him would then come and take his body, put it in the chamber, and switch it on.

  Kato shuddered and wondered whether it would be easier to take his own life, by a method of his choosing, before that day came. Breathing p
ure helium would do the trick, as asphyxiation by inert gas causes no carbon dioxide buildup in the bloodstream. He would slip painlessly into unconsciousness and death would follow within minutes. Neither Zara nor his parents would ever know it was suicide.

  The self-proclaimed Knights of the Round Table met the next day at the same time.

  “I have given this much thought,” Aleksandr said, “and there is no way to even get access to the ISS2, much less get to Dawn, undock, and fly away. And even if we did manage to do all that, she accelerates so slowly that any shuttlecraft in the vicinity could easily intercept her.” The others nodded. “Therefore, I propose that we take another route entirely: build our own spaceship, and intercept Dawn after she’s already left.”

  The others were stunned.

  “But…” Christopher began.

  “This does introduce a whole new set of problems,” Aleksandr continued. “One: we then have to try and dock with Dawn. I don’t think they’re just going to stop and let us in. Two: there’ll be ten crew members on board her to pacify and remove. Three: we’ll need pilots to fly our ship, who will have to get back to Earth with Dawn’s crew. They will pursued and investigated once they’re back. Hunted, more like—and the Chinese never give up. Four: we’re talking a lot of money to build and launch our own ship—billions of dollars, most likely.” Silence followed.

  “Well, I can help with the last part,” Zara said. “My dad gave me two billion dollars before he left.”

  “He did?” James asked. Everyone wore a shocked expression. “If it’s TAON stock, it’s probably only worth half of what it was. People have been shorting it like mad…”

  “It’s gold bullion,” Zara said.

  “Oh… in that case, he was a wise man, indeed,” James replied. “Since the economic crash began, gold’s gone up thirty percent, as people see it as a safe haven for their money.”

  “Nice!” Christopher said excitedly. “That means it’s worth nearly three billion now, which ought to be enough.” Zara nodded. “If we have our own craft,” Christopher continued, “we can take all the cargo we need, so that’s one advantage of this scheme. He’ll need tons of oxygen and a new recycling system. There’s no way to get that aboard any other way.

  “So, even with the problems Aleksandr mentioned, this is going to be the only way.” He looked at Aleksandr. “We couldn’t just order a standard shuttlecraft off the production line, could we?”

  “They don’t have enough cargo capacity,” Aleksandr said. “Plus, they only seat six. We’ll be bringing back ten from Dawn, plus our own crew. We’re going to have to design and build an entirely new craft.”

  “Crap. That’s major R&D, plus building and testing time,” Christopher said. “Three years looked like it would be enough time before, but it’s extremely tight now. Well, let’s get a rough design hashed out, anyway. It’ll need to be winged for reentry and landing. Seating for fifteen-plus, and eight to ten tons of cargo.”

  “Plus powerful engines,” Aleksandr said, “probably RS-70s or similar, since we’re going to have to catch Dawn in high Earth orbit and re-enter from there. That’ll take a lot of fuel, too.” He sighed and thought for a minute. “Just off the cuff, I think this is going to be a big-ass orbiter: sixty to seventy tons wet. Too big to launch on a reusable rocket.”

  “Ugh. That means we’ll need a heavy-lift expendable,” Christopher replied. “There are only two providers: SpaceX and Pacific Launch Services. Only one small problem: they’ve both been using most of their launches to lift parts for Dawn. They’re both booked solid for at least four years.”

  “Crud.”

  There was a long pause as all the Knights considered this.

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my business career,” James said, “it’s that money talks. Get on the horn to Pacific, and offer them a ludicrous bonus if they can fit us on their manifest. The Dawn launches will be done by then, so all it’ll mean is a bunch of satellite launches get bumped.”

  “Right,” Christopher said.

  “Meanwhile, we need a company who can build a dependable, flexible, high-performance spacecraft of a completely new design in under three years,” Aleksandr said, with a grin. “Not too much, right? I’m thinking Perkins Aerospace in Palmdale, California.”

  “Yes, one of the suppliers of the Earth-to-orbit shuttle fleet,” Christopher said. “I’ll get onto ’em tomorrow. You know, though: we’re going to need a cover story of some sort. Individuals, even very rich ones, don’t build a utilitarian spaceship such as this one just for joyrides.” The others nodded.

  “What about lunar ore transportation?” Aleksandr said. “That’s about the only use I could see for a craft like this, with its crazy-high delta-V and cargo capacity. Lunar orbit to Earth.”

  “Of course!” James said. “I’ve been reading about the new mining operations on the Moon, and it makes sense that they’ll need transports to get the stuff back to Earth. Voilà. We have a believable business venture. It’s actually quite a good business opportunity, if we weren’t doing all this swashbuckling! We’ll have to form a company, of course, and make it all look legit.”

  “Maybe we’ll stop by the Moon after relieving Dawn of her passengers,” Aleksandr joked.

  “Yeah,” James replied, his jaw clenched. “We could leave Seung Yi and co on the Moon, while we were about it. I’m sure they could put them to work in the mines.”

  “All this technical stuff is just overwhelming,” Zara said after the meeting was over.

  “Better get used to it,” Christopher replied. “You’ve got three years to train and plan for two missions—getting to Dawn, and then flying her. The second one alone would usually take five or more years—and that’s if you’re already a Ph.D. in something space-related.”

  Zara nodded and sighed. “So, about orbits and trajectories…”

  “That’s the spirit!” Christopher said, jumping to his feet. “Computer, show a whiteboard.” He wrote “a = F/m,” and then turned to Zara. “Acceleration equals force over mass…”

  Chapter 21

  Kato was entranced by the approaching orb. The observation bubble was completely dark, so that no reflections interrupted the view. “Computer, start recording,” he said without deflecting his eyes. “So, my loyal legions of fans, here is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. I’m thirty minutes from closest approach to Saturn. The best technology man has ever invented got me here, and you’re along for the ride!”

  Then his tone changed. “Now, you may have heard that shipboard malfunctions will end my life early. That much is true. However, the mission of the Eternity will still be fulfilled. First, today’s flyby, and second, a flight to interstellar space. I have roughly eight years left, and I will pass the heliopause—the boundary of the Solar System, fourteen billion kilometers out—less than three years into the mission. Right now, I’m twenty-five weeks out. I’m going a hundred and fifty-three kilometers a second and will reach my peak velocity at week thirty-four when the fuel is exhausted.”

  His manner now became more matter-of-fact. “As you can see, I’m approaching Saturn from about twenty degrees above the plane of the rings. The North Pole is visible, with its blue-orange hue. Below that is a more orange-colored band, then another blue-orange one. Then, the colors mix, until the band at the equator where it’s light orange again.

  “If you look at the horizon to the top right of the picture, if the camera’s contrast isn’t overwhelmed by the planet’s glare, you’ll notice stars already being eclipsed in real time as we draw ever closer. Saturn’s gravity is immense—second only to Jupiter’s among the planets—and I’m accelerating rapidly.” Kato was quiet for a while as he took in the view. Billions on Earth watched over his shoulder.

  “Saturn is now taking up most of my field of view,” he said, after a few minutes. “Even though the planet is so huge, the passage across its face will take only thirteen minutes at the speed I’m going. I’m going to fire some hundred-a
nd-twenty-kilogram blocks of copper shortly, which will enter the atmosphere. Three probes have their instruments trained on the area, and it’s hoped the light wavelengths from the copper’s incineration will tell us more about the atmosphere’s composition.” He was quiet again for a minute.

  “So, if you’re wondering about the rings, I’m going to pass right through them! I’m aiming for the Cassini Gap, which is the widest gap. I’m not too worried about orbiting debris—most of it’s accreted into the rings over countless eons. Besides, if I was playing it safe, I wouldn’t have gone crop dusting over the far side of the Moon! Speaking of which, Titan and Callisto are both easily visible. Anyway, the chaff’s now away, on its path to intercept Saturn. Two minutes to closest approach.”

  The vast plane of the rings drew closer. Try as he might, Kato couldn’t see any thickness to them at all. He continued his narration: “The whole scale of this place is almost beyond comprehension. You can now see the fine details of the rings as they stretch away from us for tens of thousands of kilometers on either side. Ring crossing coming up, in three… two… one… NOW!”

  The rings flashed from light to dark, as the ship was now in their shadow.

  “This is absolutely divine! You can see the banded surface at the planet’s equator moving by rapidly… the micro-bands contain small swirls, caused by the weather. Who knows what secrets Saturn’s giant core hides? In a few minutes, I’ll be out of communications range while I’m behind the planet. I’m also passing around to the night side… more pictures to come. Until then, enjoy the view! Spaceship Eternity out.”

  Kato felt supreme elation and oneness with the universe. All his troubles were forgotten. He touched his wedding ring unconsciously, as if he were communing with Susan.

  Zara’s new phone rang. It was Anna-Nicole; she had received the new number via text message.

  “Hey!” Zara said, on seeing the caller.

  “Hey! So, I saw the article in Forbes, you wearing your power suit and looking very businesslike, et cetera. Starting your own space exploration company, huh?”