Free Fear the Future (The Fear Saga Book 3) by Stephen Moss Page B

be done, and indeed they would not rest for more than a moment. But for now Sam reveled in his next, simple announcement.
    Samuel: ‘new moon one has a new designation. ladies and gentlemen, crew of new moon one … friends; welcome to hekaton. welcome to earth’s second moon.’
    The Hekaton-kheires were mythical second sons of the Earth, massive warriors of incredible strength that had once helped the gods defeat the Titans. Neither Sam nor his crew had been even vaguely aware of the obscure Greek myth before the mission, but when they had heard that Neal had chosen this as the title of Earth’s would-be second moon, they could not have helped but fall in love with it.
    It was, quite frankly, a cool name. And now it was their name. They were the Hekatons, first residents and masters of this massive nugget. A moment of pride surged through them, matched by Sam’s pride in them all. But it was a moment that must pass.
    Samuel: ‘all right. let’s get ready for disconnect, people. move to disconnect positions. let’s go.’
    Shadows of sighs echoed through the ether, but Sam ignored them even as he smiled. Someone had to be the taskmaster, and he knew none of them really begrudged him his role.
    The team of four wreckers pushed off backward from the anchor point, spooling out the cables that kept them latched to it as they went.
    They let themselves drift outward parallel to Hekaton’s surface until they were well out and could see up either side of the big engine module they had just brought to ground. Once they could see a clear line to where it was still attached to its seven brothers, they kicked off hard with their arms/legs, swimming upward on each side to grab onto the massive spars they now had to disengage.
    They had attached this one engine to Hekaton, but now they had to move on, separating it from the full mass of the ship so they could maneuver to the next anchor point and start the whole process over again.
    As they grabbed onto the upper spars, they sent signals to the ends of their cables still grasping the anchor below and released them, reeling in the cables even as they attached others to new points on the inside framework of the ship.
    They were always anchored to something. They could not risk one of the big brutes floating off into space. Even though there were no actual people in them, the four incredible hulks were far more important to their mission than any individual crewmember, and they all knew that.
    Peter: ‘latched and ready, anchor point one is prepped.’
    Other confirmations came back to Sam and he waited to initiate separation, waiting for clearance from Charlie that they had a good window.
    - - -
    It was fifteen minutes later, and the next time the engines fired Charlie was at last allowed to fire one of them with purpose, not just as an exercise in expenditure. Now that the first engine was tethered to Hekaton, they would move the asteroid itself, not themselves, and as the moment came, Charlie kicked his heels on the rock’s flanks and suddenly it was moving beneath them. The first of an ever more pervasive set of demands they would place on their new home.
    Charles: ‘we have rotation at zero point three cycles.’
    Remedios: ‘i have cable spool at matching rates.’
    They watched as one-eighth of their ship moved serenely away toward the stark horizon. It would not go far before Charlie fired it once more to stop Hekaton’s brief rotation, once they were over the next anchor point.
    Remedios: ‘nice work, charlie.’
    Charles: ‘you too, remedios.’

Chapter 8: Covered
     
    “As the video shows, the attempt was very real, and came dangerously close to being successful.”
    The room was appropriately disquieted by the sight. It was an image of the aborted attack on Neal in the corridor outside the Korean delegation’s meeting room. It had been brought in by Ayala, Neal’s head of security, at the beginning of a new session held as addendum to the main negotiations. A