Free Star One: Tycho City Survival by Raymond L. Weil Page B

react to this neutron star news,
particularly since she still had family living on Earth. Hell, he didn’t know
how anyone would react!
    The two men
entered the office, and Linda closed the door quietly behind them. They walked
over and sat down in the two comfortable chairs in front of Mase’s desk.
    “What’s going
on?” asked Isaac, feeling curious about what the commander wanted. Mase had
sounded very adamant over the phone about coming to his office immediately. He
had been surprised to see Steffan Darrow, Tycho City’s chief engineer, waiting
to see Mase also.
    “There has
been an important discovery made at Farside by the astronomers.” Mase quickly
told the two men what had been discovered and what the possible ramifications
could be for Earth.
    The two men
sat in silence for a long minute, staring at Mase in astonishment. Neither
could believe or wanted to believe what they had just heard. Surely, this was a
joke of some kind. However, neither had ever heard or seen Mase pull such a
stunt. They looked nervously at each other and then back at Mase.
    “A neutron
star,” Isaac finally mumbled in a stunned voice. “And it’s going to destroy the
solar system?”
    “Not destroy
it,” Mase spoke up, shaking his head. “It will just rearrange the orbits of
most of the planets. We’re not sure just how badly the orbit of Earth will be
changed, but our planet will definitely be affected. We should know more about
that in another week.”
    “So much so that
people may not be able to live on its surface,” said Steffan, glancing down at
one of the photos that Mase had shown them. It was hard to believe that small,
dim dot could be so dangerous to everyone and everything.
    “If the Earth’s
orbit is changed so much it’s pulled much farther out away from the sun than
its current orbit, then yes, the surface could become uninhabitable,” replied Mase,
evenly.
    He found it
difficult to say the words, but you couldn’t argue with the data in the packet
from Farside. LaRann had been extremely methodical in the information he had
sent.
    “What are we going
to do?” asked Isaac, wondering if they were all doomed to die in Tycho City or on Earth. This was not what he had been expecting when he had come into
Mase’s office. He had thought Mase had questions about the mining operations.
    It didn’t seem
to him as if there was much they could do. How could you stop a neutron star?
At least his family was here in Tycho City. His wife and two children had flown
up the previous year.
    “Tycho City is deep beneath the Moon’s surface,” began Mase, wondering how they would
receive what he was about to suggest. “I want to know if it’s possible to make Tycho City self-sufficient to the point we could survive without supplies from Earth.”
    “You plan on us
staying in Tycho City?” Steffan asked with surprise in his eyes. Then, after
thinking for a minute, he added, “I can see your point. What good would it be
to return to Earth if it’s not safe there either? At least here we are in a
contained environment.”
    “I suspect
that Commander Larson on Star One will do the same thing. I don’t believe he
will evacuate the space station either. Between us and Star One, we have a lot
of resources that could be put to use to allow us to survive.”
    “Tycho City was never intended to be totally self-sufficient,” Isaac reminded Mase as he
mulled over the work that would have to be done. “It would take a lot of effort,
and we would have to bring a lot of supplies up from Earth, particularly spare
parts. We may even need some additional specialists to put in some of the
systems required for long term survival.”
    “I’m not sure
that Tycho City’s current location would be the best for us either,” Steffan
said with a thoughtful look on his face. “We might be better off cutting into
the side of the crater wall. If we drilled in a thousand feet with our mining excavators,
we could put thousands of feet