Read Online The Venusian Gambit by Michael J. Martinez - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Michael J. Martinez
Tags: Fiction
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teenager, but damn if he wasn’t a fine officer. He also happened to be frighteningly adept at obtaining information, getting shit organized and generally doing anything and everything Diaz asked. She got him promoted after Egypt, and she’d consider another bump up the ladder if he’d just stop calling her “ma’am” in that British way that sounded like “mum.”
“All right, listen up,” Diaz said. “Just got off the horn with President Weathers. The Chinese finally signed off with us boarding Tienlong as a humanitarian mission. Creative way of saving face. That means Operation Bear Trap is a go. We’re up in 30 minutes, unless Tienlong gets some ideas. Jimmy, status report.”
The room darkened and the dozen souls inside turned toward the holoprojection in the center. Earth hovered off to one side, with the Moon close by. Ride Station was 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. There were three other dots as well. The first was Hadfield , heading off toward Mars’ orbit. The second was Tienlong , coming in fast from Saturn. And the third was Armstrong , and it looked to Diaz that Shaila Jain was hitting the gas at just the right time.
“ Tienlong has yet to alter speed or course,” Coogan said. “She’s slated to make Earth orbit in about 15 hours, but we’re hoping we can do something about that. Armstrong has reported a couple of very small burns in the last hour, which ought to position her right alongside Tienlong in approximately 25 minutes.”
Diaz frowned; it wasn’t as though she begrudged Shaila the chance to rescue Stephane—if he could be rescued. But there were two others on that ship, and in addition to being outnumbered, Diaz knew that Shaila was stressed, physically and mentally, by the loss of Stephane. Shaila was a thorough professional, no doubt about it, but Diaz knew that if it were her wife aboard that ship, she’d tear through that ship with a chainsaw to save her.
“Can we get there first, Baines?”
From the cockpit, U.S. Air Force Capt. Elliot Baines—fully rigged in VR hologear—chimed in. “Calculating new burn now. And…yes, General. We’ll need a full burn in…four seconds.”
“Do it.”
The Hadfield ’s engines roared to life, pushing the little ship a little faster into space—and closer to Tienlong . “ETA now 21 minutes, General,” Baines reported after the engines died down.
“And that pushes up our timing, Gerald. How we doing?” Diaz asked the African man sitting at an impressive array of controls and holodisplays. Before him, a series of dots ringed the Earth-Moon system, and a number of lines proceeded from these dots toward Tienlong .
Dr. Gerald Ayim, former scientist for the Total-Suez conglom and one of a bare handful of people who understood the quantum physics behind the extradimensional incursions over the past few years, moved his fingers across his virtual control panel, and a number of lights began to glow. “BlueNet is responding. We have full control of the satellite array. Ready to release the energy at your command, General.”
Diaz gave him a nod, which he returned with an absent-minded smile as he further adjusted and attuned the BlueNet array of satellites. BlueNet was originally designed to detect Cherenkov radiation—a specific and harmless type of light that served as a tell-tale sign of extradimensional incursion on Mars. Six months ago, when Ayim was working for Harry Yu and their experiment went to shit, Ayim and his late colleague Evan Greene managed to stem the runaway interdimensional energies by using the BlueNet array to redirect them.
The hope here was that BlueNet could do it again. Armstrong had reported hundreds of thousands of minute Cherenkov readings in the icy rubble that had been Enceladus—rubble that Tienlong then drifted through. By all appearances, Tienlong had collected whatever was giving off the Cherenkov radiation and was bringing it—or them —to Earth.
“All right, so we fire up BlueNet
“All right, listen up,” Diaz said. “Just got off the horn with President Weathers. The Chinese finally signed off with us boarding Tienlong as a humanitarian mission. Creative way of saving face. That means Operation Bear Trap is a go. We’re up in 30 minutes, unless Tienlong gets some ideas. Jimmy, status report.”
The room darkened and the dozen souls inside turned toward the holoprojection in the center. Earth hovered off to one side, with the Moon close by. Ride Station was 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. There were three other dots as well. The first was Hadfield , heading off toward Mars’ orbit. The second was Tienlong , coming in fast from Saturn. And the third was Armstrong , and it looked to Diaz that Shaila Jain was hitting the gas at just the right time.
“ Tienlong has yet to alter speed or course,” Coogan said. “She’s slated to make Earth orbit in about 15 hours, but we’re hoping we can do something about that. Armstrong has reported a couple of very small burns in the last hour, which ought to position her right alongside Tienlong in approximately 25 minutes.”
Diaz frowned; it wasn’t as though she begrudged Shaila the chance to rescue Stephane—if he could be rescued. But there were two others on that ship, and in addition to being outnumbered, Diaz knew that Shaila was stressed, physically and mentally, by the loss of Stephane. Shaila was a thorough professional, no doubt about it, but Diaz knew that if it were her wife aboard that ship, she’d tear through that ship with a chainsaw to save her.
“Can we get there first, Baines?”
From the cockpit, U.S. Air Force Capt. Elliot Baines—fully rigged in VR hologear—chimed in. “Calculating new burn now. And…yes, General. We’ll need a full burn in…four seconds.”
“Do it.”
The Hadfield ’s engines roared to life, pushing the little ship a little faster into space—and closer to Tienlong . “ETA now 21 minutes, General,” Baines reported after the engines died down.
“And that pushes up our timing, Gerald. How we doing?” Diaz asked the African man sitting at an impressive array of controls and holodisplays. Before him, a series of dots ringed the Earth-Moon system, and a number of lines proceeded from these dots toward Tienlong .
Dr. Gerald Ayim, former scientist for the Total-Suez conglom and one of a bare handful of people who understood the quantum physics behind the extradimensional incursions over the past few years, moved his fingers across his virtual control panel, and a number of lights began to glow. “BlueNet is responding. We have full control of the satellite array. Ready to release the energy at your command, General.”
Diaz gave him a nod, which he returned with an absent-minded smile as he further adjusted and attuned the BlueNet array of satellites. BlueNet was originally designed to detect Cherenkov radiation—a specific and harmless type of light that served as a tell-tale sign of extradimensional incursion on Mars. Six months ago, when Ayim was working for Harry Yu and their experiment went to shit, Ayim and his late colleague Evan Greene managed to stem the runaway interdimensional energies by using the BlueNet array to redirect them.
The hope here was that BlueNet could do it again. Armstrong had reported hundreds of thousands of minute Cherenkov readings in the icy rubble that had been Enceladus—rubble that Tienlong then drifted through. By all appearances, Tienlong had collected whatever was giving off the Cherenkov radiation and was bringing it—or them —to Earth.
“All right, so we fire up BlueNet
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