Iceball

By PJ Tye

Iceball is set in the year 2185 with World’s technologically advanced concepts developed but slowly. Jim Malone the chief test pilot for the Nalt corporation is sent on a long mission in a small and untried spacecraft to destroy a very large ball of ice which is on a collision path with the Earth. When he eventually reaches it, he fires a charge, blowing off a section off the mantel of ice and revealing the surface of an enormous spaceship, several kilometers in diameter.

Eventually, he gains an entrance and finds that this vast spaceship has been sabotaged by a ‘Grey’, and is operating on low emergency power alone. He manages to restore power and finds a beautiful woman in hibernation. After coming out of hibernation, she speaks to him in quaint old English, last used several hundred years ago in the middle ages. She reveals that she is from a distant race of Earth’s ancestors who came to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, and manipulated early man’s genes to allow us to eventually develop into what we have now become. They introduced some of their own kind from time to time to guide and help us along the way. However, she should have been in contact over three hundred years ago, but because of the sabotage, the vast craft just drifted very slowly, and she remained in hibernation, and the world did not develop as planned.

Jim and Rebecca, as she is named join forces and after many unusual and sometimes difficult times, manage to prepare the Earth to resist the eventual invasion by the cruel and destructive Feltgangers using some of the very carefully concealed defense mechanisms put in place by the wisdom and foresight of these ancient ancestors many thousands of years ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PJ Tye
• Release date: Jan 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465865083

PJ Tye

David Tye is a father of two delightful young children. He started telling this sons bedtime short stories many years ago before they were born, and has continued to tell bedtime stories to them and those of his friends children who came to stay from time to time.Some were longer and some were very short, and it was this mix of bedtime stories that were so successful with requests to often repeat certain ones. Stories such as the Proud House, the Lazy Lamp post, and the Lost Nose, to mention just three, were asked for time and time again.All of these stories were designed to quieten down children when in bed, allowing them to stay in bed and listen prior to going to sleep. By using just their imagination, and not showing them any pictures from story books, it proved to be a very successful method of storytelling,Instead of compiling a compendium of these stories and sending them off to hopefully be published at what would prove to be quite a high price, he has decided to self publish several at a time at very low cost in the hope that small children everywhere will enjoy them.I am a member of the SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers & Illustrators)

Book preview

ICEBALL

Copyright © 2011 P J Tye

Smashwords Edition

[e-mail]

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher

Chapter One

The year was 2185AD and progress on advanced shuttle technology had been rapid since the turn of the New Century. Shuttle two had made considerable differences to payloads and the actual techniques of docking with other spacecraft had vastly improved, enabling the first plan for a large rotating space station to be implemented with many improvements over the original design. By the time shuttle three had been designed and deployed, engine efficiency had improved six fold, using far less chemical fuel of a radically new blend, and enabling a more controlled ascent to be made.

The following year shuttle design number four came off the drawing boards. It utilized the new fuel and thrust availability, which, when coupled to the low volume of fuel carried, enabled loads of nearly 400 tonnes to be taken aloft safely and easily. Because of this fact, space station design became very much bigger, and a wide variety of probes were placed far out in space to detect meteorites or debris which might be a potential danger.

Jim Monroe had spent 10 years flying shuttles for the Nalt Corporation, and was presently involved in testing one of the latest two man space craft with rocket and ion drives, intended for detailed exploration of the lunar surface and Mars. For this reason, it was equipped with a powerful diamond drill together with twin extending gripper arms, capable of grasping and holding onto outcrops of rock to enable drilling to take place.

The Nalt Corporation leased large tracts of land from the American Government involving all manner of difficult terrain for the initial testing and to obtain information for detailed design of new equipment to assist exploration.

Once all the information had been assimilated and fed into the computers, and with production craft were coming off the construction lines at one every three months, Jim was ordered to load one onto a shuttle and take it up into orbit for final space trials. This he did and found the mobility of the tiny spacecraft admirable. He had been in space for nearly three weeks, using one of the two space stations as a base, when the first signals came in from the far distant probes. Nothing could be seen, but the message was clear and terse. ‘Unknown object, more than three kilometres wide, unknown depth or weight, closing on a collision course with Earth. Speed less than two kilometres per second. Estimated impact time 1,249 hours, 6 minutes, 5 seconds at present speed’. Jim was called urgently back to the main space station, whereupon a meeting was convened. It was not long before he was asked by the Chairman if his new craft could investigate, and if so, how long it would take to both reach the object, and secondly, whether it would be possible, if it was found to be a large lump of rock, to lock onto it, drill down and insert a small atomic device to destroy it

Jim did a very quick calculation and concluded that the object was at least 9 million miles away, possibly more. I think I can reach it in about 25 days he said. This will leave about another 25 days before potential impact. However, I will not know about destroying it until I know what it is. Walter Smythe the Chairman said, I will arrange for further backup facilities, including military equipment for its destruction, in case you cannot deal with the matter once you know what it is. I will, of course, expect you to relay information both during your journey, and when you arrive, so that we may be fully prepared. I wish you all speed and good luck. With that the meeting broke up and Jim made his way to his quarters to pack. On his way out he absentmindedly picked up a small roll of electrical tape which he put in the pocket of his one piece suit.

He also collected CDs and dongles on history, engineering, electronics, science and languages, all very practical. Although he was very experienced, Jim felt some considerable apprehension at undertaking such a long journey in such a small craft. He was particularly nervous about the prospect of carrying an atomic device. However, once he had settled into the cockpit, and strapped himself down, he felt much more confident. If anyone can do it, I can, he thought to himself. After all, I have had more experience than anyone else on this space station, and I have the latest spacecraft, with rocket and ion drive, so I should have no problems. With that thought he gave the all clear for the airlock to be closed and evacuated.

The outer doors opened and he allowed the ship to gently drift out of the hanger and into the void. The rotation of the space station gave his little ship just enough momentum to float away and he then turned on two small solid fuel rockets which propelled him at an ever increasing speed away from it. They lasted for nearly four minutes before the main rocket engine cut in and he felt himself being pressed harder and harder into his seat.

At one hundred thousand miles per hour, the main rocket cut off, and the ion drive took over. All the vibration and pressure ceased, and an almost dreamlike state enveloped him.

There was no sound except for a slight hum. Jim released himself from the seat harness, and floated back to the food locker. He took out a chocolate and candy bar, pulled himself down onto his sleeping couch, clipped over a restraining strap, and ate the chocolate bar with some relish.

He knew that the journey was going to be boring and long, and that the automatic guidance and control systems would look after the spacecraft, so he allowed himself to relax, and he gently fell asleep. Some hours later he was woken by the timer he had set, and after releasing the retraining belt, made his way back to the cockpit. The instruments indicated a speed of one hundred and five thousand miles per hour, and rising slowly. He yawned, and strapped himself in and called the space station at the scheduled time to report his speed and present state, and then settled back to watch the stars. Soon bored, he turned to his CDs and slid in one of the discs he had brought with him into his laptop computer..

Twelve days later, Jim trained the crafts optical telescope onto the still distant target and brought the image onto his computer screen. He saw a tiny white ball, slowly rotating in space in an almost leisurely fashion. He enlarged the image and locked on it .He could now make out a smooth outline and texture, pitted here and there from meteorite impacts. The surface reflected light from the sun, which glistened and sparkled as the object revolved. He sent this information back to base as a matter of course. Well, if that is not ice, I’m a Dutchman, said Jim out loud, and chuckled to himself. He checked his speed which had now risen to nearly one hundred and sixty five thousand miles per hour and was still rising. At this rate I will have to turn about in around twelve hours or I will shoot straight past it, he thought. He set about inputting the necessary information into the control computer, and set it to automatic. The constant gentle acceleration gave him about a tenth of one gravity, which did not help him very much as far as moving about his tiny spacecraft was concerned, but it did mean that any loose objects eventually landed up at the rear bulkhead where he could easily recover them.

Sometime later, he was in the middle of eating when a warning bell sounded and the craft commenced to rotate, thereby presenting the ion drive thrust in the direction of travel. There was no dramatic effect because the drive was so gentle. Jim knew that several days would pass before any substantial slowing of the spacecraft occurred, and that the rocket drive would be required to make the final reduction in speed.

On the twenty fourth day, he set himself down into the main cockpit seat and strapped himself in. His speed was now down to eighteen thousand miles per hour, and the automatic computer sequence was about to begin. When the rocket drive started, the rumble and roar throughout the ship startled him. He had not realized how silent the last three weeks had been, nor how boring the journey was. He switched on the main screen and looked at the now very large object, and wondered whether the ships grabs would hold onto the ice. He sent a somewhat terse message back to base relaying his present position.

When the craft’s speed had dropped to 2000 mph, he changed to manual control and the next hour was very hectic with Jim manipulating the engines and controls to both slow his craft down and place it in the best position to fasten onto the ice. He made a detour around the object and followed it from behind, steadily matching his speed to the by now very large iceball. At a distance of 500 kilometres, it almost completely filled his view screen, and was slowly rotating anti-clockwise. He decided to attempt to lock into it as close to the centre of rotation as he could. He increased his speed very gently and closed in. As he got closer he saw that the centre of the iceball appeared to be raised in large furrows and mounds as though a meteorite has struck it, and so he moved over to the right where the ice was much smoother.

He extended both grabs and when he was within a hundred metres, fired what was in effect a harpoon gun. The harpoon disappeared into the ice with a spray of ice particles flying outwards. He started the electric winch and pulled his craft up to the ice. As soon as the two grabs touched the surface they automatically started to close towards each other, forcing the fingers of the grabs deep into the ice, and leaving several metres of furrows behind as they clawed in.

As soon as Jim was satisfied that his craft was well and truly fastened to the ice, he relaxed somewhat and shut down the motors. He was now travelling through space back towards the Earth in a wide lazy spiral.

The centrifugal force generated by this rotation gave him back his normal weight, and various loose objects landed back on the floor of his little spacecraft with a clatter. He unclipped his harness, and stumbled back to the food locker, and for the first time in many weeks, actually poured himself a glass of water from the container tap. Drinking it with some relish, stored the plastic glass, and went back to his seat. His legs were pretty weak, but at least he could get about without too much trouble. Before making any further moves, he dutifully reported back what he had done, knowing that it would take some time to arrive back on Earth.

Satisfied, he extended the drill and started the electric drive. The drill head bit into the ice and steadily bored down towards the centre, spewing out a fine cloud of ice particles as it did so. Each drill shaft section was only fifteen metres long, and there were thirty of them in the hold. He didn’t relish the thought of having to join all thirty of them, because each time the drill stopped as the length was used, he would need to leave his seat and go down into the hold.

Suddenly there was a very severe vibration, with a sharp shrieking sound coming up the drill shaft, and the motor cut out. With his heart beating strongly from the shock, Jim looked out and saw that the drill shaft had only penetrated some ten metres into the ice. He restarted the motor and withdrew the shaft, leaving a 300mm hole in the ice. He went down into the drill room as soon as the shaft seal was closed and air pressure established, and when he looked at the diamond studded drill bit, he was stunned to discover that it was totally destroyed, and would need to be replaced with the spare drill head. He clambered down into the drill chamber to inspect the cutters with their rows of small diamonds set into the special hard steel. He stared with unbelieving eyes at what he saw. Every row of diamonds had been flattened and worn smooth, and the steel distorted and worn away.

He decided not to fit the spare unit, but to insert an explosive charge into the hole to see if he could expose whatever had caused the problem. He removed the damaged head and fitted a small cylinder with an electrically operated plunger to expel the charge, and went back up into the control cockpit. He then carefully inserted the shaft back into the hole and deposited the explosive as far in as he could. Unable to release the harpoon, he severed the cable, withdrew the two grabs, and backed away from the iceball.

At a thousand metres he sent a radio signal and fired the explosive. As he looked, a large piece of ice broke into many fragments and blew away in all directions, revealing a dull grey surface pitted with what appeared to be meteorite impacts. Puzzled, he edged forward again and closed up towards the exposed area which was around sixty metres in diameter.

His first shock was to realize that it was a metal surface, with no trace of any marks where the drill had been. His second shock was when he found an area of very smooth metal a metre and a half wide, and two and a half metres long, with what he presumed to be the top of a door, pointing towards the central axis of rotation.

It was quite clearly defined, but with no obvious way of opening. He moved his craft over to the left and onto the ice, and repeated the exercise with a new harpoon, winching in until the grabs touched the ice surface. The grab arms were set out at an angle rather like outstretched human arms, with both grabs steel fingers pointing towards each other. They moved towards the centre in an arc, and dug deeply into the ice before stopping.

Jim cut all power, and moved with some difficulty to the suit locker, and spent the next fifteen minutes putting on a full space suit. He then clipped on three pressurized gas canisters to his belt and connected one to the directional nozzles at the back of the suit.

He then moved into the airlock, attached a lifeline, depressurized, and opened the outer door. As he climbed carefully into open space and secured his lifeline to the special ring provided, he wondered what he was going to find. He found that just a very short burst of gas from his directional nozzles was more than enough to make him collide rather heavily with the metal surface in front of him. The centrifugal force of the rotating mass made it very difficult for him to judge correctly. He attempted to grab at the metal, only to find that it was as smooth and hard as it looked. He was hanging by his lifeline, pulled outwards like a stone on a rotating sling. He eased the line and slid further to the right until he could reach the rough pitted metal at the bottom of what appeared to be a tightly closed door. Once he had made himself a little more secure by holding on with one hand, he looked at the divide between the smooth metal and the rough, but he could see no line or gap.

Letting go his grip, he pulled himself back, looking for any gap or handle, but he found none. He looked all the way around what he was now certain was a door but found nothing. Using his lifeline and easing it out then pulling it back once more, he went around it again, looking very closely for any clues, but again found nothing until he came almost to the point he started from.

Halfway up the right hand side, but about half a metre from the door, was what appeared at first sight to be nothing more than a rough indentation at the edge of a small meteorite crater amongst the rest of the miniature impacts. Jim looked closely at it, and switched on his helmet light. As soon as he did that he could see that it was a very cleverly concealed button. He pressed hard on it and the door slowly slid open, leaving a gap with a faint orange glow within.

Pulling up carefully on his safety line, Jim peered into the gloomy interior. It appeared to be a small one man air lock, empty and with smooth metal walls and floor. He clambered in and looked up at the roof and saw that this was where the faint orange glow was coming from. The complete top panel glowed, giving a somewhat apprehensive feel to what he was doing.

While he was looking around, wondering what to do next, matters were taken out of his hands. The outer door suddenly closed, severing his safety line. There was a hiss of air and the compartment became pressurized. He looked at his built in pressure indicator on his forearm. It showed a normal and comfortable pressure. The inner door slid aside and he looked into a corridor with the same soft orange glow. Gingerly, he stepped out and looked both left and right.

The corridor curved up in a long even curve in both directions, and he realized that he was standing on a floor which was edge on to the rotation of the iceball. The centrifugal force of which was giving a very convenient artificial gravity. This must be a gigantic circle, and if I walk forwards and upwards with the curve, I will eventually come full circle and back to this spot, he thought.

He took an analysis of the atmosphere, to find that it exactly matched that of the Earth, so he removed his helmet and clipped it to his belt. It did not take much imagination for him to realize that he was in a very large space vessel of some sort, but he was very puzzled as to why it was covered in ice. Perhaps as a disguise, he said out loud. Yes, that was it, a crafty disguise to allow this ship to approach Earth without arousing suspicion, until it was too late. With that thought in mind, he decided to be even more cautious, and cursed himself for not bringing a weapon to defend himself with if necessary. Opening a channel on the special frequency that had been designated specifically for him, he attempted to make contact with Earth. The ship that he was in appeared to completely block any transmission, and he bemoaned his lack of foresight in not making contact before entering the airlock.

Jim’s space suit was both heavy and rather cumbersome, so he took the decision to remove it which he did. He looked around for somewhere to conceal it, but all he could see were smooth metal walls and floor. So he folded it as best he could and placed it on one side, hoping that he would be able to recover it if the need should arise. He was dressed in a two piece, close fitting garment, zipped up the front to the neck. His shoes were soft and supple, with rubber soles, enabling him to move rapidly and silently.

After some minutes, he saw in the distance that the corridor appeared to divide on the right side, with that side sloping upwards more acutely. When he reached it, he realised that it was a slope leading up to another level. He moved cautiously upwards, estimating that the next level was some three to four metres above the one he was leaving. He turned around as he moved looking quickly to the left and the right. The new corridor looked just like the one he had left, and just as empty. He wondered whether his movements were being monitored, but he could see no means of doing so.

Somewhat comforted by this hope, he continued to move forward, and after what seemed to be quite a short way, he came to another upward sloping area.

He hesitated briefly, before deciding to go up to the next level, and then ran up quickly. The next corridor looked just the same at first until he noticed a door on the right just a few metres ahead. It was smooth metal, just like the airlock, but there was a small panel at waist height by the side, with a pale green glow. He took a deep breath and put his open palm onto it, and the door slid silently open. The shock that he felt when he saw what was beyond made him shake and burst out into a cold sweat. He was looking at an absolutely enormous amphitheatre, with, some metres in front of him, a metal wall in a vast circle at least a thousand metres in diameter.

Stepping through the door, and feeling weak at the knees, he turned to his left. He was standing on the floor of what appeared to be the rim of a tremendous circle. The rim was about ten metres wide, which, on his right hand side rose up to a little above his head height like a wall, and then recessed away from him for about four metres, before rising up in a great curve like a giant saucer standing on edge.

Where it recessed, there was what seemed to be a handrail coming out horizontally for about five feet, which puzzled him because It made no sense to him. On his left was the now closed door, with the vertical wall of which it was a part, sloping down both before and beyond it, again to about shoulder height. The top of this wall recessed away from him in a sharply rising curve into a giant dome on edge with windows set side by side as far as he could see. Almost like looking at the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral set sideways on except for the windows thought Jim, but so very much bigger.

The orange glow was so very dim here, that he found it difficult to see easily in the gloom. However, by craning his neck upwards, and looking at what would be the central axis of rotation, he could see four giant pipes which came out of the wall of the left hand dome, spread wide apart there, and coming close together and disappearing into a large octagonal structure in the centre, emerging from the other side and spreading out again before piercing the opposite wall. He found it difficult to estimate, but thought that this structure must be at least five hundred metres above him. One tube was white, another green, another blue, and the fourth one red.

There was no sound, and no movement, which he found rather unnerving, so he decided to continue walking around the rim to see if there was any way that he could climb up to the centre, and investigate this octagonal enclosure. As he walked he kept looking around for any signs of life, but saw none. After he had gone a few hundred paces, he saw an opening on the right hand wall, with steps leading up and up towards the centre. On the top of the wall were a series of pulsing lights, green where he was, and gradually turning orange and then red as the steps reached up to the centre. He started to climb, and soon realized what the lights were for. As he rose, he became lighter and lighter because he was moving closer to the axis, and the centrifugal force was diminishing.

By the time he was within a few metres of the centre, he was able to float freely, and rose to the top of the steps without any effort.

There was what he assumed to be a hand rail there, and he grasped it with both hands and rested whilst he took stock of the situation. In front of him was a small transporter vehicle with two seats. It was set at the end of a transparent tube leading straight into the octagonal structure. He pushed himself towards it, slipped between the seats, and sat down. As he did so, a padded arm, ending in a curved T section came out of the dashboard of this unusual vehicle, and gently pressed him into his seat. Looking at it with some surprise, he saw a large button with an arrow pointing forward on it. So he pressed it and braced himself waiting for the acceleration. However, the movement was very slow and majestic.

As he approached the end, he looked around and marvelled at the engineering that had gone into making this great vessel, and hoped that the civilization that had constructed it was benign. He passed through the side of the octagonal building and came to a halt. The restraining arm retracted, and he floated out of the end of the tube, and into the centre of a wide corridor, and of course carried on floating forward. As he came towards the other end wall, he saw that there was a gold coloured hand rail, which led all around the sides, and which was obviously intended to be used. He reached out for it and pulled himself down and looked round.

The light here was much whiter and stronger, and there were several doors set into the walls on both sides of the corridor, very much like an hotel back on Earth. He pulled himself along to the first door, and opened it in the same manner as before. He went into the room, which was softly lit by what appeared to be candles, and got the next dramatic shock. He could hardly believe what he saw, because there in front of him, was a room perfectly laid out with eighteenth century furniture, with an Adam fireplace, and what he thought were Chippendale chairs and a desk. The walls were decorated in the manner of the time, hung with many painting, some large, some smaller. It was laid out as a man’s study, with several books of the period on a shelf. He tried to pick one up, only to find that they were all fastened down.

He pulled open one of the drawers in the desk, and there in front of him was a large, leather bound bible, which floated out and up and into his hands. It was obviously very old, but in almost new condition.

Gingerly, he opened the cover and turned over some of the pages. They were quite yellow with a parchment like feel. He looked closer. They were made from parchment. He placed it back in the drawer, and gently shut it, feeling rather faint and disturbed at the implications of what he was seeing.

Jim was trembling with apprehension and shock. His mouth was dry, and he found himself breathing heavily. If it was not for the lack of gravity, he could have been convinced that he had stepped back in time.

Looking around the room once more before easing himself out and closing the door, he held onto the gold handrail until he had quietened down somewhat. He moved to the next door and attempted to open it. As soon as he did this, a soft note sounded and a hazy picture of a pair of human hands appeared, fingers outstretched, palms facing towards him, as if to push him away. So, I am not to attempt to enter there then, he mused. He pulled himself along on the handrail to the next door, and again tried to open it. It opened slowly and silently, and a strong smell of ozone flooded out into the corridor.

He let go of the handrail and pushed himself away banging his head on the far side of the corridor in doing so. The impact made him float back again, but not as quickly. He was now holding on to the handrail for dear life some metres away from the open door, quite frightened at what he could see. There was a constant flashing of intensely white light coming from within the room, but there was no sound at all. He moved silently up to the edge of the door and peered inside. What he saw within made him gasp and withdraw. The light continued to flash, but nothing else happened.

He gathered his courage and pulled himself into the room, squinting and shielding his eyes from the light as he did so. It was obviously a control room of some sort, with banks of dark glasslike areas, some with faintly pulsing lights, some with strange moving strips and colours. There were seats arranged neatly in front of these worktops, waiting for their owners to come back.

In the centre of the room was a large circular unit with the dark glass backs rising at about sixty degrees for about