back!”
The monitor went dead.
Compton ran out of his office and saw that the false ceiling in the outer office had caved in. His assistants were struggling to free one of their own from the debris.
“Emergency extraction and fire teams to Level 23, Nuclear Sciences Laboratory 211. This is no drill,” announced the calming voice of Europa.
“Are you handling this?” Niles asked on his way to the elevators.
The three assistants had just pulled the fourth from the soft ceiling tiles and nodded that they had it under control.
“The elevators automatically shut down, sir!” one of them called out, but Niles entered the rounded doors anyway.
“Europa, Director Override 1 Alpha. Activate Elevator 3, Level 23.” he said calmly, placing his entire hand on the security glass next to the door to have it scanned.
“Yes, Director Compton,” came the reply as the doors slid closed. “Director Override 1 Alpha accepted.” The elevator started moving downward at a dizzying speed.
“Are the emergency teams responding?”
“Security, fire, and rescue teams are currently arriving on station.”
Niles leaned against the far wall of the elevator. “Cave-in or explosion?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Explosion was detected by a higher than normal rise in laboratory temperature and vibratory analysis. This was confirmed by on-site personnel at 2210 and 13 seconds.”
The elevator came to a stop and before the doors opened Niles could hear the alarms and the shouts of rescue workers; he braced himself for the worst. The doors slid open and the car was inundated with smoke and heat. Niles placed a handkerchief to his mouth and nose, and then stepped out into the chaos that was the long, curving hallway. He grabbed the first man he came to, whom he recognized as Sergeant Gomez, a Marine attached to Jack’s security department and the on-duty security chief this afternoon.
“Report, Sergeant?” Niles asked, while holding the man’s arm.
“Not clear yet, sir. We have a lot of people down and a situation in the lab that’s out of control.”
“Okay, first off, let’s get these damn alarms shut off, so we can hear.” The director slapped the sergeant on the back.
Niles turned and made his way to the lab doors, which had been blown off their reinforced hinges. Compton had just left this lab twenty minutes before and now nothing was recognizable. He saw two paramedics working on someone in the observation room, which was still smoldering from the blast. His eyes widened when he saw it was Virginia Pollock. She lay on her back with blood coursing down her face. She was fighting with the men trying to work on her, slapping at the hands that were attempting to give her oxygen. Niles ran to her side and kneeled down.
“What happened?” he asked. He became worried when he saw that Virginia’s left eye was severely swollen shut and that she had at least a ten-inch gash along her scalp. Virginia slapped away the oxygen mask and tried to fix on Niles with her good eye.
“Reroute… the nuclear core mud to… the lab, we… have… to… drown it… concrete, through… the pipes. Out… of… control, energy… still… building.” Virginia grabbed Niles by the shirt collar.
“I understand, treat it as a reactor meltdown, correct?” he asked, worried his friend and the assistant director for the Event Group wasn’t going to make it.
Virginia could only nod her head once before she passed out. The paramedics lifted her onto a gurney and started on their way to the elevators. Niles watched her for a moment and then stepped into the destroyed lab. He saw men with fire hoses and the complex’s engineering corps as they tried to see into the intense burning in the center of the room. As Compton looked on he saw numerous men and women who had been slammed into the walls and furniture by the blast. He found the Corps of Engineers captain who oversaw the Event complex, including its levels and nuclear reactors.
“We’re going to a priority scramble of the core reactor on Level 120. We can’t operate the system because we have to take the redundant safety equipment off-line there and pump it up here. Start mixing the mud and the concrete. We have to bury this lab before those damn rocks eat their way through to our own power plant. We could end up blowing half of Las Vegas away.”
“Yes, treat it as a reactor meltdown,” the engineer said loudly. “It will take twenty minutes to reroute the piping.”
“Get to it!” Niles said, but the engineer had already left, grabbing some of his people as he did.
Compton looked around and knew this lab would be buried forever in a cocoon of mud and concrete. That was the only way he could think of to cut the oxygen off from the meteorites. As he looked around, he saw the broken bodies. He ran to a young woman pinned under a large lab table. Niles flipped it over but he could see she was far past helping. He fell to his knees and lifted the girl up. He struggled to carry her out of the smoldering lab, cursing his shortsightedness for the disaster that had claimed more of the Event Group staff.
Sarah had just finished up with the six geologists who had been chosen for the three flights. They knew what to look for and how to recover samples if they had to, but what was more important, they had learned how not to handle the specimens. No water, no oxygen.
Sarah left the classroom sporting the blue coveralls that came complete with the new mission patch on the left shoulder-an eagle holding three rockets in its talons, with the words “Dark Star” emblazoned in gold lettering. Sarah saw Ryan and Mendenhall walking toward her. Ryan looked distraught and Will looked as if he were trying to console him.
“Hey guys, what’s up,” Sarah asked.
Will stopped and Ryan was so preoccupied he ran into him. Then he looked up and raised his chin in recognition of Sarah.
“Oh, Mr. I-Can-Fly-Anything crashed the lunar lander sim again. He killed us all for the thirtieth time. The thing he doesn’t realize is that he’s only the backup pilot on a mission that’s a backup to two other missions.” Will turned to face Ryan. “It just doesn’t matter. We won’t leave the space station. Can you get that through your head?”
“It’s not that,” said Ryan. “If those Air Force jocks can land that damn thing, I sure as hell can.”
Sarah smiled and slapped Ryan on the back. “They’ve been at the simulator for the last three years, Jason. You’ve had less than a week. I think you’ll do in a pinch. Besides, Will’s right. Our team is third in line. Odds are we get a nice trip to the International Space Station and that’s it. A nice view for a few days and then a shuttle ride home.”
“Forget it,” Ryan said to get a change of subject. “What’s the word on the colonel and Mr. Everett?”
Sarah lost her smile. “The last we heard, Jack was in jail in Berlin, Carl is being extradited back to Ecuador, and there’s not a damn thing that Niles or the president can do about it.”
“Jesus, we’re stuck here training for something that will never happen and we lose both our commanding officers in two friendly countries. What in the hell is going on?” Mendenhall said as he turned. “Come on, Jason, we have emergency procedures to run with Captain Harwell.”
“How is the captain faring?” Sarah asked about their mission commander.
Will stopped and faced Sarah. “He’s a by-the-book stick-in-the-mud.”
“But he doesn’t crash the lander, that says something for him,” Ryan quipped.
Will smiled for the first time since Sarah met them in the hallway.
“Yeah, at least someone can fly the damn thing.”
“Hey, are we going to get together and watch the ESA launches tonight?” Sarah asked the men.
“If we survive the emergency training, sure,” Jason said as they turned and left. Sarah looked at her watch and decided to call the complex to get an update on Jack.
She walked to the security station and asked the airman for the phone. She was notified that her call would be monitored for security reasons and Sarah bit her tongue about what they could do with their eavesdropping, but
