"Like a Walnut, the Rock holds a Surprise Inside!"

The RockShip Crisis

The asteroid did not follow the normal rules for asteroids - it was not moving in a fixed orbit around the central star of this system. Instead, it was heading out of the system at a high speed. Also, it was not riding the plane of the ecliptic - it was heading towards the North Pole of the system (that is, it was moving almost vertical to the normal planetary orbits.) They had been following it for nearly two days now, and they were still baffled.

"What do you make of it, Bob?" Crusher Wayne asked his partner.

"Damned if I know, Wayne. Could be a rogue from outsystem, I think."

"Well, if it is, it sure has travelled a helluva long way." He had already projected its path backwards, and found no systems within over a hundred light-years along it route. "Let's go in closer, I want a good look at that thing..."

Spraying fire from its attitude jets, the Crusher ship edged closer to the anomaly. From a distance of five kilometres, some details began to come into focus.

The leading edge of the rock was rough - not smooth. After spending a century in interstellar space, one would have expected the surface to be polished smooth by gas and dust impacting the surface at regular intervals. "Well, maybe it got turned around somehow." Bob mused. "Let's slow up a bit - enough to let the trailing section pass us." Again the attitude jets flared, and the ship eased itself down to a hair less than ten percent of lightspeed. Within moments they were looking at it from behind. The main drive motors then ignited, bringing them back up to a matched speed.

As the rock wall moved past their viewport, more puzzles became apparent. "Hey, that crevice looks too regular for a fault line - it almost looks like a... a door!" Wayne was astonished. "Who the hell would want to set an asteroid colony in motion? Warp engines are better for travel between stars.."

"Well, maybe they don't have warp..." He stopped. That's crazy.. Every system in the galaxy has warp technology. At least - every HUMAN one. "Hey, maybe that's an ALIEN ship! We might be looking at the first real evidence of non-human life in the galaxy!"

They didn't have time to ponder the ramifications of their observations, for the trailing end of the asteroid-ship was now before them, along with the proof they needed - three large reaction ports carved into the rock. Just then, the computer beeped for attention. "We're being scanned," Wayne told his partner, "And it's a HUMAN sensor beam!" Their attention turned to the asteroid - those ports were starting to shine from within. That could mean only one thing - whatever drive system they were using, it was activating! And they were right behind one of the jets! "Damn! Let's get away from this thing!" Bob was screaming.

Too late.

A stream of gas the temperature of a stars' core shot out of the opening, touching the ship and vaporizing it almost instantly. The two Crushers barely had time to feel pain before they became nothing more than some slightly cooler atoms in the drive flame of the asteroid. Seconds later, the flame came to an abrupt end, and something incredible happened - the asteroid vanished...

Director Goulet trembled as he read the report from the WWWA Central Computer. Why them? Of all the people to assign this investigation, WHY does it always pick THEM? He went over the noteboard scan again -

W-W-W-A Central Computer Information

Subject - Destruction of Crusher vessel: 'Thor'

Details - Ship presumed destroyed while investigating abnormal
behaviour of an asteroid in the Sigma Deltonis star
system - method of destruction - unknown.
Asteroid's last recorded path - towards the
Epsilon Lambda system. Supplementary data to follow.

Recommended troubleshooting team - Lovely Angels.

End Report.

"Damn." He had hoped not to see them in action again so soon. He punched a key on his desk. "Signal the Lovely Angel. The Computer has a job for them."

Bill sat at the controls of his ship, the Star Seeker. The Lovely Angel hung before him, a mere ten thousand kilometres away. He watched the screen, knowing she would open fire shortly. Yuri being with him did not seem to matter to Kei - she was going to blast them both to atoms.

A red indicator on his right started to flash. "She's firing!" Yuri cried anxiously. "Bill, take evasive action!" He ignored her pleas.

The scanner showed two inbound missiles. She's not taking any chances, is she? Bill didn't voice his opinion, they would pull this off - he was sure.

The computer tracked the missiles and gave Bill a distance count – 5000 - 3000 - 2000 -

At 500 metres, the missiles began to blur and shift. By the time the computer registered them at 450, they were gone. The screen before him turned green, and the computer displayed - Test Successful: Incoming Missiles Destroyed.

Yuri squealed with glee as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "It works! Bill, you're amazing!"

He reached up and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. Turning towards her, a wide grin on his face, he remarked, "Did you have any doubt?" He hit the communicator. "Good shot, Kei. Looks like the dispersal screen works the way I figured. If it'll stop your firepower, it'll stop anything."

Kei's face popped onto a corner monitor. "I think we should try again. You know - best two out of three." She didn't appreciate not hitting her target. "I could lay it on REAL heavy this time."

Bill grunted a short laugh, which made Kei all the more flustered. "No, that wouldn't help. Once the field is charged, nothing can get through it. Who knows, we might even be able to tunnel through a moon with this, although that might be pushing it some."

"Sure, sure. I'll believe THAT when I see it. Anyway, stand by for docking, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Right. This calls for a celebration." He broke the link and got out of the crash chair. He turned around, kissed Yuri on the forehead, and told her, "Beers and Burgers? My treat?"

THAT was about as far from what she had in mind as possible. She poked him in the ribs as he passed through the hatch.

He yelped and straightened up, bashing his head on the jamb. Rubbing his aching cranium, he turned around again. Yuri had her hands over her mouth, trying to hide the fact that she was having a giggling fit. He gave her a mock scowl. "Alright. Alright already. Champagne and Caviar. Better?"

"Better." She said as she pushed past him into the corridor. Now it's my turn, he thought as he followed. Making as little sound as he could manage, he crept up behind her and smacked her on her rear. She gave a little squeak for his benefit, then turned around to hug him tightly. "You really are something, you know that?" she muttered as she rested her cheek on his chest.

"Yes, I know... But don't let that stop you from telling me again." he told her as he stroked her hair. Hard to imagine we've gotten so close in the past few months. is what he didn't say. They had known each other since a malfunction in his ships warp drive had blasted him here from the year 2090. He had been an experimental physicist then, and some of his ideas had not been too popular. The company he worked for had sought to have him killed, and they had been partly successful - they had sabotaged his experiment in warp travel by destroying the field integrity control links, which controlled his velocity. So - instead of travelling fifty light-years in an instant, it took fifty years and an eternity of personal hell as it affected his mind in strange ways. When he had come to in this era, Yuri went out of her way to be his first friend, and it had escalated from there, until now they spent a great deal of their off-duty time together.

The airlock slid open and Kei walked in on their embrace. "Ahem." she coughed as they noticed her. "Sorry to interrupt, but we've got a call from HQ. We're supposed to report to the Director's Office on the double."

Yuri looked up at Bill. He winked at her and turned to Kei. "A hundred credits says we can beat you there. Whaddaya say?"

"You're on!"

The monitor behind Goulet showed them the destruction of the ship. Kei and Yuri watched in mute horror as the incredibly tough Crusher ship melted under the assault. Bill stroked his chin in thought. The scene froze as the ship disintegrated. Goulet turned to them.

"Fortunately, they set a probe following them before they went in to examine it closely, or we wouldn't have any clue as to what happened to them. After the attack, the asteroid executed a warp."

The girls floundered at that - the warp engine had yet to be built that would transport a billion-ton asteroid. Bill, however, was not surprised.
"Do you have a track on it? Where it jumped to?"

"Yes - the probe had a warp energy monitor on it. From the amount discharged, we have determined that it is now about two light-days away from the Epsilon Lambda system. At its' current course and speed, it will impact the second planet of that system in just less than three weeks." The second planet, Doros, had a population of almost one billion. If the asteroid was not stopped, they were sure to be completely wiped out. At the speed it was travelling, it would impact with enough force to almost shatter the planet. "Your mission is to intercept that ship and, somehow, prevent it from reaching Doros. If necessary, use atomics to destroy it. However, if it can be stopped or diverted, we would like to keep this device intact."

The Pair finally found themselves able to speak. "Yes, sir." was all they said - all that had to be said. They turned and left.

As the door closed behind them, Goulet motioned Bill to sit. "Doctor," he said as Bill lowered himself into a nearby chair, "I don't have to tell you about the gravity of this situation, do I?"

"Now, that's a rather poor choice of words, don't you think? Gravity is the cause of this mess, isn't it?"

Goulet groaned inwardly at the pun. Those two must be rubbing off on him. "Whatever you want to call it. Atomics won't be able to stop that thing, if it comes down to that. Do you have any ideas about what might?"

"Chief, you know what my contract says. I took this job on the condition that I was not required to produce weapons." In his first week back among the living, he had been abducted and 'requested' to produce a devastating new weapon for a Space Force mercenary. He had wanted no part of anything resembling weapons research after that. He looked up at the screen again. "Well, I think I can make an exception in this case. I'll have something for you within two weeks." Unless that ship decides to alter course, that ought to be plenty of time. He rose from the chair and headed for the door.

Ten days to go before impact, Bill signalled Goulet that he was ready to test his new prototype asteroid-smasher.

Back aboard the Star Seeker, Bill was making final adjustments to the control links to the device, which was strapped to the bottom of his ship. A rather cumbersome unit, it was half as long and about as wide as the ship itself. "But," Bill insisted, "it packs one Hell of a punch!" He closed the console and armed the unit. A dull whine permeated the ship – the fusion reactor was straining to charge the device, but within a moment things were quiet again. The new displays at his side told him that all was in readiness for the test. He engaged the thrusters and sped off for the asteroid belt, with the Angel following (just in case..).

He picked a piece of rock that closely matched the chunk he had designed this for, and instructed the computer to search for its center of mass. Almost instantly, a set of cross-hairs formed on his display. That was his target.

The computer took another two seconds or so to align the ship so that the axis of the weapon was in line with the asteroid, and then it informed its master that firing could commence. Bill fingered the trigger, and a multi-coloured beam erupted from the mouth of his invention. It struck the asteroid dead-center, and it was gone a second later.

The fusion generator started to whine again - Bill shut down the cannon before it could become fully charged. He signalled the director. "Test complete, sir. It should do the trick."

"Fine. Proceed to the Epsilon Lambda system immediately - we have been informed that someone is broadcasting from that ship."

THAT was interesting. "Any idea what the message is?" He altered course to put the Seeker and the Angel in line for the jump.

"No, but it can't be good, whatever it is."

"Right, we're on our way." He keyed a sequence into the computer.

Both ships jumped simultaneously.

They warped in about twenty minutes behind the rockship. The broadband communicator immediately began to pick up a signal. The video displayed an image of a man in his mid-thirties, with ratty, unkempt hair and a grease-stained coverall. He was speaking.

Actually, babbling was the word that best described it for Kei. "You never understood what I worked for! The Super-Drive could move PLANETS! But NOOOO, you didn't think it was needed! I'll show you all! I'll destroy
Doros unless you recognize me for the genius I am! Is that too much to ask for the safety of an entire world? I don't want to do it, but you're FORCING me to! I..." Kei cut the signal.

Bill appeared on the screen before her. "And you thought I was a real weirdo, eh?" He had an infuriating smirk on his face.

"It still holds. You're a total pain! This guy's just got a few screws loose!" She looked at Yuri. "Line us up to dock - I'll go in for him."

Bill got serious for a moment. "Be careful, Kei. A basket case like that could be real dangerous."

"Don't worry... He's as good as caught." There was a dull thud as the Angel made contact with the rockship. She entered the airlock fully suited up, gun in hand. The outer door slid open...

The crevice that was supposed to be a door wasn't. Kei used a torch to burn through nearly a meter of rock before she was into the ship. It was very uncomplicated, and she made her way easily to the control centre.

The man was still in the seat, babbling on. "I'll show you! I'll show you ALL! With this one act, I'll make the Super-Drive a part of history! And Doros will be part of that, as witness to my greatness! I'll ..."

"What you'll do is stop this thing before it hits Doros, fella! I'm with the WWWA, and YOU are under arrest!" Kei had her gun pointed at his head as he swivelled to face her.

A look of recognition crossed his face. "The Dirty Pair, eh? You shall witness my greatness, too." He touched a key on his chair. "And you shall not thwart me." A laser beam chopped him in half and wrecked the controls. Damn!

Kei raced back to the Angel. "Yuri, get us clear! Bill, it's time to test your gun for real! As soon as we're away!" She dove into the airlock and the Angel sped off.

Bill armed the cannon again. Again that pitiful whine of the straining reactor filled the ship. Kei was screaming at him through the commline, "Hurry, dammit! In a few more minutes Doros won't BE anymore!"

Damn, the target is off! "Right. Here goes nothing!" He hit the switch with all his might.

Once again the deadly beam sprang from the belly of the Seeker. It struck the ship not quite where it should...

The flash was blinding. When he recovered enough to see again, there was no trace of the asteroid, except...

Oh, No!

"Bill, can you stop it?" The fragment was still headed towards Doros at a deadly velocity.

Bill was dumbfounded. "No. The cannon won't charge in time. You'd better try to catch it."

But by then the fragment was in the atmosphere. Oh, PLEASE.. Yuri prayed.

It struck in the middle of the largest continent. Between its size and its velocity, it had the destructive force of a hundred-megaton fusion bomb. All life for two hundred kilometres was extinguished instantly, and a crater formed almost a kilometre deep.

"Ooops." Bill muttered.

"Here we go again." thought Kei aloud.

"At least we stopped most of it." Yuri tried to see the bright side.

Bill grinned over the commline. "Well, it COULD be worse."

The two girls stared at him. "How?" they asked as one.

He snickered. "It could have been YOUR fault!"

They sped home to face the music.

-FIN-