Orbits - Book 2 - Dangerous Debris: Orbits, #2

By Thomas Swartz

In this exciting adventure, the crew of Excelsior encounters a strange group of humans seeking something every human wants. But are they in fact human? Will they succeed in their quest? Thomas Major and his crew will assist while dodging an old nemesis, and be a witness to a transformation that can only be described as miraculous. Faithful Rosalind gains knowledge of her lost husband, but will the acquiring of that knowledge cause her to question her position on Excelsior?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Swartz
• Release date: Aug 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005836221

Thomas Swartz

Thomas Swartz was born on Long Island, NY in 1964 where everyday after school he would watch the adventures of Captain Kirk and the Star Ship Enterprise on the Star Trek TV series. Those stories always made him think that regardless of how far mankind can go, and what he would encounter, he could and should always remain human. Now a former lawyer, amateur astronomer, and father of two young children, with a loving wife, he wants to create a new space adventure series that is a little closer to home in the not too distant future where the qualities of humanity and heroism are revered. Orbits - The Hunt for Everything is his first book.

Book preview

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ORBITS

Book 2

Dangerous Debris

Thomas Swartz

Orbits - Book 2 - Dangerous Debris by Thomas Swartz

Copyright © 2022 - Thomas Swartz

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: [e-mail]

The cover illustration from NASA depicts the distribution and movement of man-made objects orbiting Earth.

From NASA:

More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or space junk, are tracked by the Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) sensors. Much more debris -- too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions -- exists in the near-Earth space environment. Since both the debris and spacecraft are traveling at extremely high speeds (approximately 15,700 mph in low Earth orbit), an impact of even a tiny piece of orbital debris with a spacecraft could create big problems.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter Nine

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter Twelve

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter One

Excelsior was on a routine debris sweep. This was the bread and butter of Thomas Major’s orbital garbage removal business. On this particular sweep, Major was hired by the major orbital cruise ship operators to clear their orbital lanes of dangerous debris. You would be surprised by the amount of junk that falls off of the tourist cruisers. Most cruise ships have exposed viewing platforms where they allow passengers to suit up and experience the real vacuum of space in the most direct way. People being as they are, obsessed with their own images, always bring various photographic equipment onto these platforms to take selfies with the Earth as a backdrop. Who wouldn’t want such an image displayed in their family room? Well of course it is very difficult to handle photo equipment in space gloves. So invariably phones, camera selfie sticks, and tripods find themselves floating away. There were other objects which seemed to fly off the cruisers with regularity. Stuffed animals were popular. Plates, glasses, and silverware disappeared into the black. Larger items could be engine housings, oxygen tanks, and communication antennae. Stuffed animals and spoons may not seem dangerous, but when orbital craft travel at high rates of speed, they can easily puncture the hulls of tourist cruisers or any other craft.

Excelsior was sweeping orbital lane B2. Its capture nets were extended to catch the debris. It was a boring operation for the crew as there was not much to do but to watch items fall into the nets. The entire crew was on the bridge trying to fight the boredom while Major had the easy task of holding the joystick steady so that Excelsior stayed in the lane.

This is our fourth launch since our incident and we haven’t seen or heard anything from our enemies, Carlos began. Do you think we’re safe?

These people don’t forget Carlos. We can be sure we’ll encounter them at some point, Major responded.

I wonder what they did to Commander Fox? Rosalind asked.

I’m sure it was not pleasant, Major continued. She’ll be back you know, Carlos asserted.

Carlos, she’s probably in some gulag wasting away, Rosalind stated.

No. No. No. The villain always comes back. That’s how it always works. Rosalind and Major were not surprised that Carlos’ view of how the world worked mirrored the plots of movies. Besides she knows the most about Major. The Communists are not going to pass on all she knows about Major.

You have a point Carlos, Major agreed. Major had foiled Commander Fox’s deception in getting him to retrieve a data module of the Communist Central Committee containing the personal information of every human being. Fox claimed she was with U.S. Space Force Command to get him to retrieve the module. She also used her enticing womanhood to lure Major into the task. But when a Chinese dissident crossed paths with the Excelsior crew, it was clear that Fox was working for the Communists. And realizing the pernicious evil use to which the Communists put the data, Major took the only action a principled man could. He destroyed the data. But Major knew that because of his actions, he would now be a marked man, and something that Fox said made it clear that he would have to watch everyone from now on. His simple life as a space garbage hauler was over.

Boys, I’m going back to my cabin. I’m going to try the radio transmitter again. I’ve got to keep trying. You can keep fantasizing about Commander Fox if you want, Rosalind said and she got up to leave.

After Rosalind cleared the bridge Carlos continued, You know Major, she has something for you.

Rosalind?

Well, maybe that too. But I’m talking about Commander Fox. Carlos was not bashful about bringing up such topics. But it made Major very uncomfortable.

Carlos I don’t really want to talk about this. Can we change the subject?

Well all right. Carlos thought for a moment and then brought up another topic uncomfortable to Major. So have you thought about my suggestion?

I don’t know Carlos, I would feel silly. Silly? What do you mean?

What the hell would I write in a captain’s log?

My gosh, the proceedings of the Excelsior! Carlos urged.

Proceedings? We pick up garbage Carlos. Who is going to want to read the ‘proceedings’ of garbage pickup? Although Major had reluctantly agreed to be referred to as ‘Captain,’ he retained humility that he was just not that important.

It doesn’t matter if anybody reads it today. Captains throughout history have preserved their actions and thought processes for the sake of posterity. You have a duty to history to record events that involve this ship. Certainly, the events that happened a few launches ago merit preservation.

Major gave Carlos a look. What he had just said did strike a nerve with him. The Excelsior’s major role in the capture and destruction of the Chinese Communist Party’s data module would not likely be recorded by history. No one knew of Excelsior’s role except a few and of course the Communists who were not going to make a note to history. But Major’s self-conscious nature was anathema to recording his thoughts and actions.

"Well Carlos, I still don’t know. I am not a writer. I guess I’ll think about it more and if I figure out a