Free Chronicles of Athena Lee 6 Imperial Subversion by T S Paul

was in my work jumpsuit, and took the time in the lift to slip on my skinsuit, orders were orders. Arriving at the Command deck I nodded to the Marine guards. Normally they checked everyone’s ID, and I mean everyone. Me, they let pass. All the Marines on board the station knew me. Quite a few had wrestled me to the floor. Three times a week I worked out in ‘Marine Country’ while my sweetie Marine Lieutenant Dar Zakaszewski, trained me in various forms of unarmed combat. A girl had to find a way to stay fit!
     
    I entered the bridge just in time to see Commander Mulligan’s dramatic escape and the destruction of the enemy destroyer. Nice to see that those antimatter missiles work. Not that I doubted Chief Tad’s work. Everyone was watching the battle and missed my entrance. Minerva had her back to me so I stood behind her and tapped her on her shoulder. Not expecting me she jumped in surprise!
     
    “Athena! Not funny sister, you about scared the crap out of me! Thanks for coming so quickly.” She reviewed the intelligence that Skinny had reported.
     
    “Holy flaming meatballs Min! Are they crazy over there?” I had to think for a minute. Did we have anything that could stop a huge kinetic attack like that?
     
    “Min, that big rock is a planet killer! If it hits the planet everything is gone. All of it. If anyone survives down there, they will be in a ‘nuclear winter.’ We have to stop them before they kill our world!”
     
    Minerva looked at the firebrand that her little sister had become. She approved. “That’s why I had you come up here, Athena. I need your advice. Do we have anything that can stop the bombardment? Anything at all?”
     
    Athena asked Wilson. “Wilson have you been following the conversation? Do we have anything that will do it? How about in the FLEA warehouse?”
     
    “I’m sorry Athena, but that is no. The FLEA scientists never built anything like that. Planetary kinetic strikes are illegal, they never considered it. As for us, we do have one thing. But it might not work.”
     
    “What is it? Can I fix it? We have to try.”
     
    Wilson just loved his friends enthusiasm for fixing things. “You already fixed it Athena, not an hour ago.”
     
    “What! Crap..I didn’t think of that. That may classify as a last resort measure. Thanks buddy!”
     
    Min just stared at her sister. It was really irritating not being able to hear the whole conversation. It sounded like she had a solution or maybe not, it was hard to tell. “Athena I only heard your half of that conversation what did he say? Do we have something that can stop it?”
     
    I smiled at my sister grimly then bowed my head. I really didn’t want to tell her, but the survival of our world was at stake. “Min the only thing that we have with enough impetus to deflect that big rock is us, this station. We can ram the rock with the station.”
     
    “That’s crazy! Can we even do that? What about all the people on here, what about us?”
     
    “The station’s orbital engines engines looked as though they would start. That is what I was doing before I came up here, making sure they would work. We will take damage, a lot of damage but I think if we hit it just right we can change the rock’s orbit. That is if, they throw it at us. As for the people they have to take their chances. If we evacuate, the imperials may figure out what we are doing and try to stop us.”
     
    “Can you start the engines up?”
     
    “I will issue orders to my people. I will suggest that we move most of the non-essential personnel to interior sections of the station. The rest will just have to take their chances.” I pursed my lips as I considered all of our options. “Min, we could load the civilians and others in the escape pods and then launch them at the last minute, just before impact.”
     
    “That would help, thanks Athena.” She turned to her staff and began issuing orders.
     
    I stepped over to the console and issued orders