The Long Star

By R. Blair Sands

The Long Star, super massive spacecraft is to large to ever land on any planet, and is a self contained vessel. After investigating the Orion Nebula, it proceeds across the universe. As they begin this journey, the engines malfunction in a way that is totally unexpected. Rather than give the ending away, I'll leave you to read the result which has a very surprising ending. A fantastic space adventure of exciting magnitude. Enjoy...

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Blair Sands
• Release date: Nov 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301895533

R. Blair Sands

I began my writing career in 1972, while in Thule, Greenland on assignment with Ford Aerospace. My first novel never made it into print because I considered it too bad to print. Hopefully, I improved along the way. Now I have more books that I did publish, and hope everyone likes. You can read 10 percent of any of my books on Smashwords.com and I invite you to peruse them. Thankfully, people who read the previews, usually buy the book. Hope that keeps up...Thanks everyone...

Book preview

The Long Star

By

R. Blair Sands

Copyrighted Robert Santee 2011

By R. Blair Sands

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved

Chapter One

At exactly 3:00 Am., on July 3, 2012, both control room monitors looking at earth in Space Station Alpha’s control center all went to extreme brightness. There were two screens showing the globe of earth. One was for Global Weather Systems, to tell the weather on earth from space; the other was for tracking and command channels between earth control, and Alpha control.

When they went white, the entire control room lit up as if someone had turned on all the lights in the room, which was normally lit by pilot lights of equipment and the subdued atmosphere of red light. The screens made a gradual return to a blank screen, except for some text in the middle that said Earth Link Lost on the command and tracking unit.

Second Officer Jose Ferra was sitting at the command console, with his feet propped up on the edge, and just happened to be watching the earth monitors as it happened.

The brilliance of the monitors blinded him for a couple of seconds, but when his eyes readjusted, and the view in front of him began to clarify, his mind became even more confused, and for some ominous reason, he began to sense a cold fear growing in his mind.

He bolted upright in the console chair, transfixed; his nerves causing his limbs to start shaking. He quickly pulled his feet down from the console and just stared for a moment at the screens then stood, still looking closely at the screens as if expecting them to stabilize momentarily. When they didn’t, he began shaking even more. He raised his arm and scratched his close cropped hair in confusion.

He began looking for answers, and wondered if the antennas might have veered off their earth-lock through some malfunction? He could not see the familiar image of earth anymore after that flash of light on his screens. He also noted the loss-of-signal light come on and start blinking.

It was not the first time he had seen the loss-of-signal light; they often did when earth was doing antenna maintenance, but with the screens going totally white then blank again, it gave him an ominous feeling. He didn’t like the feeling at all. He didn’t need to start having problems with only three days to go before rotating back to earth.

While his eyes were returning to normal, he called out to Wardon Tellman, Alpha’s senior engineer, who was in the next room studying some project printouts. Hey Wardon! Can you come in here for a second?

What is it Jose?

Still shaking somewhat, he said, We could be in some trouble here. I can’t see earth anymore on the monitors. The screens are saying we’ve lost the earth link again, and they never told us they were taking the system down!

As he rounded the corner and entered the room, Wardon spoke with a certain caution in his voice. "Maybe their up-link has failed, and tracking is temporarily out. We had better raise them and start identifying the problem. Their receivers should still be working. They are fed by a different antenna system from the up-link.

Maybe their antennas have veered off for some reason although they usually tell us in advance if they are taking them out of service for any length of time. Keep trying. They should at least be able to hear us.

But they can’t talk to us if their up-link is out of service, Jose objected.

Wardon continued as if he hadn’t heard Jose’s objection. They will be working the problem from their end too. So let’s keep checking for their signal to come up again. Also, we can re-check our angles to make sure that our tracking system is working right. Is the antenna still on auto-lock?

Actually, it shows that it is not locked because it isn’t finding a signal to lock onto. Also, I saw a brilliant white flash once, just before the monitors went blank. When it cleared again, earth was missing, or at least I couldn’t see it.

Jose reached for the auto-lock button, his hands still shaking. He watched momentarily as the auto-lock system recycled then said, Okay, we have, in fact, lost auto-lock for sure and, as you see, the signal loss light is still blinking.

Wardon could see that and answered, Hmmm. Don’t much care for that, Wardon stated, When did this happen?

It happened at 03:00 hours on the dot. I was looking at the console and the time module when it happened.

They both stood looking at the earth monitoring screens which were still blank except for the remaining and ominous message, Earth Link Lost.

The antenna angles displayed in the bottom margin of the screen were the same familiar angles they had seen for months on end. According to the readouts, the antennas were still pointing at earth.

Wardon said, Okay Jose, let’s try initiating the auto-lock once again.

Jose reached over and pushed the auto-lock button, which should have recycled the search and auto-lock system. Although the system tried to find a signal to lock on, it continued to fail.

With growing fear in his voice, Wardon said, Okay, time to quit guessing at what it might be and get the boss involved. Call the commander right now! He needs to know about this.

Jose pushed the station intercom button. Commander to the bridge. Commander to the bridge.

When his speaker blared out the words, Commander Gordon was lying on his bed in his t-shirt and pants, resting. Although he had been napping for about an hour, he responded quickly by pressing his intercom button and speaking in his normal crisp decisive voice, although it might have sounded a bit gravelly, Be there momentarily, Mr. Ferra, he said, recognizing the voice, What’s going on?

Jose started his report, Sir, Wardon and I have been looking at the monitors, and we have lost the view of earth. The antennas are pointed right, but there is no earth there. In addition, at the time we lost it, we saw an extreme bright flash on the monitors.

"Have you tried contacting earth terminal?

Not yet, sir. I wanted to notify you first. We did recycle the auto-lock a couple of times with no luck.

Well, while I’m on my way, he said as he put on his shirt and tucked it in. Why don’t you give it another try? Let’s be sure they’re awake down there. I’ll be up there shortly. Oh, and set up a replay. I want to be able to see the event first hand."

Certainly, sir.

When Commander Gordon arrived in the control room, he asked, Did you get a response from the ground?

No sir, no response at all, Wardon stated strongly, But since we do not have auto-lock, the earth terminal may be temporarily out of our beam-width for whatever reason might be going on down there.

Try it again, please, with the antenna pointed at our known angles for earth. Let’s make positively sure that our signal is being transmitted properly.

Jose called several times as the commander and Warden watched the output power meters, and the audio modulation meters to make sure the signal was going out and at the right angles, then he wanted to see the playback of the digital recording.

The commander watched as they began playing back the recent event. After considering what he watched, he looked at the real-time screen displays.

Okay, let’s go to the telescope and have a direct look. If there is a defect in our systems, doing that will prove or disprove it. Having said that, the commander led the way to another room where the telescope was located. He looked through the telescope first, and stood away to let the other two look.

As Warden nervously approached the viewer to look, his heart was beating faster than normal. He looked and saw what appeared to be large moving chunks of something on the viewing screen. He looked for a long moment then, shaking his head, finally stepped back to let Jose look.

Looking at the faces of Wardon and the commander, something told Jose what he was going to see in advance. He stepped up to the viewer, his hands trembling. Inside, his mind was racing, and his heart pounding as he looked into the eyepiece. It was easy to see the various sized chunks of the planet that once was there spiraling outward toward deep space. He too shook his head in obvious disappointment, after having looked.

He thought, Oh my God. It’s really gone. Jose had been looking forward to the ride home and getting back into a more normal life with his significant other, who was patiently waiting for him. Now that was all gone, and the thought of having lost his significant other was almost more than he could handle at the moment.

After all three of them had looked, the commander said. Okay. Do you see any evidence of the planet?

No sir, Jose said, and Wardon echoed it by saying, Me neither, Sir.

Both men hung their heads, as if in defeat, admitting that nothing was there except a tremendous amount of floating debris in the general vicinity where earth should be orbiting.

The commander continued, Call Earth terminal now. Let’s try again to see if there is any chance we can get a reply.

Jose activated the comm link again, but no carrier remained to talk on. The link to earth was down.

It’s not going to work, sir. The link is gone - it’s dead.

Suddenly, everyone on the station was grabbing for whatever they could hang onto in an effort to remain upright as the whole space station was jarred unexpectedly. They could feel a sudden gravity change as they were thrown wildly across and around the room.

Commander Gordon was thrown through the open doorway into the hall and up against a wall then crumpled to the floor. He momentarily passed out from the impact, but soon managed to right himself after a few moments and just sat still on the floor, trying to regain his strength. Wardon managed to grab a hold on the doorway and was able to hang onto it.

Jose was thrown into the telescope so hard that it bent his arm backward, nearly breaking it, while at the same time bruising Jose’s hands and head. He too ended up crashing to the floor in a crumpled heap. At the same time, the view ports were plastered with what looked like ice. It made it look and sounded as if it was hailing in space.

When Commander Gordon regained his presence of mind, he tried to access the situation and realized the origin, from where the ice crystals had to be coming. It was from the oceans of earth, and it was dispersing in space, making it spread out, and therefore, less in force; it also froze the water particles into a fine hail.

It lasted for almost a minute then gravity returned to its normal value on the space station. During that time, the space station was pushed outward in its orbit from the pressure of the outbound materials coming at them.

Seeing that Wardon was still standing, Commander Gordon told him, Make a call for damage reports.

Damage reports from all sections, Wardon said as he pressed the intercom button. As each station reported in, there was reports from almost every area about the hail on the windows, but there was no known damage on the interior of the station, at least that they had so far noted.

Outside, it was a different story. Some of the ice crystals had hit the sensitive solar panels, and the sudden impact had damaged some of them. Internal station monitors recorded the loss of power, and as the station personnel continued checking things, a secondary report was made to the control complex.

There had been an eleven percent loss of station power, which would mean that managing power usage would be needed in some cases. It would require limiting the length of time of some functions, like hydroponics water pumping, which would normally be left on all the time. It would now require a timing function to turn it on and off as per schedule. It wouldn’t put the station in danger, however, unless there was more damage to come later.

Commander Gordon was saying, Okay men, I think you now know that what you saw when the bright flash occurred is the last we are going to see of earth and what we just witnessed and experienced was the small pieces of ocean blowing its way into space. It appears as though they finally did it. They finally blew themselves up. There is no longer an earth. It is gone.

He had to stop talking