Just realised this is now the longest story I've written so far, and there is still so much more to go.

Saw a t-shirt a few days ago that said this...

ASTEROIDS; nature's way of saying "How's that Space Programme coming along?"

Pretty much sums up this story :D

Chapter 53

New Toys

Blue worked feverously at the flight deck computer when a familiar voice called from home.

"Railgun Base to Star Runner; we're getting a proximity alarm" Sarah Spencer told Blue.

"Funny about that, so are we" he replied "Radar says we're in no immediate danger but I'm putting the LIDAR on it now. It doesn't appear to be anything from the outer solar system; it looks like it's in Earth orbit, but it is pretty big."

"Can you get a camera on it?"

"Should be able to when it goes by; its trajectory will bring it to within sixty kilometres" Blue noted.

"Is that close?" Calla asked.

"For two objects in orbit, close doesn't even come close to describing it" Abigail replied.

"Ah-ha; paint swapping" Calla nodded her head.

"Err... huh?" Abigail wondered.

"When a couple of boats get a little too close, we say they swapped paint."

"Yeah that's a pretty good description" Abigail nodded.

The picture Blue sought appeared on his computer screen, giving him a Storm Petrel level of surprise.

"Hey Abby, come and have a look at this" he called back.

"It's okay" Calla smiled "I'll keep an eye on your dad."

Although she was glad to have Calla there, Abigail did not feel right leaving Luis's side but she understood why Blue had called her when she saw the screen.

"It's the MTV" she gasped in fear "commander Sage must still be trying to get us."

"After three days? He'll have a hard time if he is" Blue replied "We can easily drop down to a lower orbit in preparation for re-entry, but if he tries a similar manoeuvre in a ship that big, I doubt he'd get back out of Earth's gravity well."

"Wait... what are you doing?" Abigail asked when Blue brought the Star Runners controls online.

"Going in to take a closer look" he replied with a grin "I rarely get a chance to study a large space ship up close."

"If you're not careful, you're gonna give Sage a free shot at us" Abigail warned.

"If it looks like he's gonna try and ram us, I'll dump an Orion capsule and an EPC in his path" Blue said with determination.

"I've got a bad feeling about this" Abigail shivered.

"Blue, it's Sarah here; were getting some funny readings down here" her voice echoed throughout the ship "What are you up too?"

"I'm just taking a quick peek at the Mars Transfer Vehicle" he replied.

"Was that Doctor Spencer?" Abigail asked.

"Sure was" Blue responded.

"Cool; Mom will be happy to hear she's still around."

Abigail continued to feel nervous as the two ships drew closer and closer together. She almost expected her former home to suddenly turn and pounce on them with no mercy, but it just continued to float on by, appearing to be barely moving when it was really travelling eight kilometres every second. Blue studied the MTV with fascination but there was something not quite right and it took Abigail a few minutes to notice it.

"Wait a second" she said at last "Can you turn this ship ninety degrees to port?"

"Sure thing" Blue replied as he followed his sister's request.

"Oh no" Abigail gasped when she saw the asymmetric centre of the MTV.

"What's wrong?" Blue was more than a little concerned.

"Quick; check the radar" Abigail said with urgency. "Is there another ship out there?'

"Not that I can see" Blue revealed "What kind of ship?"

"A Soyuz just like that one" she said pointing to the centre of the MTV "There were two of them; lifeboats we could use to get back to Earth in an emergency."

"Sage could have gone down to Earth then" Blue noted.

"I can't see why" Abigail shrugged "I assumed he'd go straight home to Mars."

"Maybe he was tired of Mars and wanted to go home" Calla noted from the back of the ship.

"Mars is home" Abigail argued.

"Was he born there?"

"Oh... I suppose not" Abigail realised.

"Well according to the radar he's nowhere near here, so I'm thinking we take your ship back" Blue smirked.

"Take it to Mars?" Calla thought Blue was going off the deep end.

"No I mean take possession of it."

"That makes more sense" Calla agreed.

"Can you link up with your onboard computer remotely?" Blue asked.

"I'll give it a try" Abigail said as she went to work.

"How's Dad doing Calla" Blue called back.

"No change" she replied "Breathing and pulse still okay."

"Well that's one bit of good news, but I'd prefer he woke up before we re-enter the atmosphere" Blue noted "If our landing is anything less than perfect, it would be very difficult to get him out in a hurry."

"Is that why you're killing time with the MTV?" Abigail asked.

"One of the reasons, but I really do want to see if we can use it."

"To go home to see Mom?" Abigail smiled as she continued working.

"Top of my list" Blue admitted.

"List? What else have you got in mind?"

"Later my dear sister; one thing at a time."

"Sorry to say this but even though you're my brother, doesn't mean I trust you completely" Abigail said suspiciously.

"Okay I'll admit it; the only reason we risked our lives to come rescue you, was to enslave you and Dad, and make you work in our salt mines."

"Oh ha ha" Abigail sneered "Salt mining will have to wait though, I'm in the MTV system."

"Sweet" Blue grinned "Let's see if we can get on board."

"Not as easy as you may think" Abigail bit her lower lip.

"Why; what's wrong?" Blue asked.

"The inside of the ship... it's a vacuum in there."

"What? Is there a hatch open we didn't see?"

"Hang on and I'll check" Abigail said as she poured over the information on the screen in front of her.

"Find anything?" Blue asked impatiently.

"Not... yet..." she kept scanning the screen "Wait... here it is; the pressure valves were opened remotely from... oh my God... a signal from Mars."

Blue thought silently for a moment about the odd news and formed a few ideas.

"My guess is someone did not want us to get onboard your ship or... they wanted Sage dead."

"Or off the ship" Calla added.

"Sounds like Mars is as dangerous as Earth" Blue noted "Maybe even more so."

"It never used to be" Abigail sighed.

As Abigail wondered what had gone wrong with her life, the communication line from Earth spoke once more.

"Our feed shows you headed for the other ship" Sarah noted "What are you up to Blue?"

"It appears Commander Sage has fled to Earth" Blue responded "I'm guessng someone on Mars tried to kill him too. So considering there is a big empty spaceship up here, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the situation. At the moment there is no life support inside but if we can do something about it, we should be able to board the ship."

"You were supposed to be coming straight back down after the rescue" Sarah reminded him.

"Gotta try while we're here" Blue replied.

"Oh I hope my Mom isn't hearing this" Calla shivered a little.

"I can tell you this, Mrs. Linwood is not happy with you right now" Sarah revealed.

"Rats!" Calla sighed.

While Calla hoped she would not be called on to explain things to her mother, Blue had other problems on his mind.

"If we dock your Orion back on the nose of the ship, we still have a problem with an air leak on our docking ring; I assume you have the equipment to seal it."

"Of course we do" Abigail sighed "So where is the leak?"

"Somewhere on the seal between the EPC and the Orion."

"Which you damaged when you rammed us" Abigail smirked.

"Don't blame me" Blue retaliated "You're the ones with the weird hatch modifications."

"Why don't you just put the Orion back in place, then unhook the EPC from your ship and leave on the nose of the MTV? We have eighteen free Universal Docking Rings down the side of the ship; it's only the Orion that had the old style."

"Because you didn't normally dock there" Blue realised "I should have thought of that."

"You're just like Dad" Abigail smiled "Cute, but a bit slow sometimes."

"Let's have some quiet from cheap seats please" Blue said when Calla started giggling.

With Abigail's help operating the MTV systems remotely, Blue succeeded in putting the Orion capsule back on the nose of the larger ship in just over twenty minutes, but before they attempted their second manoeuvre, the Dias children took a moment to go back and see how Luis was doing. With so much happening it was difficult to concentrate on so many important tasks knowing he was still unconscious nearby.

"Please wake up Dad" Abigail pleaded as she gently stroked his hair.

As Blue watched on, he had to admit he felt envious of the relationship Abigail obviously had with their father. He felt sure it was something each member of his family would share with each other, and he was already feeling like an outsider forcing his way in where he did not belong. He sighed heavily realising he would have to ignore these feelings because too many people were relying on him to keep his mind on the important tasks ahead; and the one person he did not want to disappoint was Calla's mother. When the girls heard his sigh though, they believed it was for a very different reason.

"I'm sure he'll be okay eventually" Calla said to the siblings "He just needs to rest and he'll be awake before you know it."

Abigail smiled weakly as she nodded, but she had to voice what was troubling her.

"I'm worried about the possibility of brain damage though" she admitted "Dad was without oxygen for five hours."

"I understand what you're saying" Blue nodded "but the Co2 alarm goes off when it detects slightly elevated levels, so he would have had some oxygen in the capsule... just not as much as you'd want him to have."

"So there is hope" Calla agreed "Lots of it; we got hope coming out the wazoo."

"Delicately put, but yes" Blue agreed "High hopes indeed."

He left the girls with his father and returned to the commander's seat to prepare the Star Runner for separation. As he checked the manoeuvring systems and programmed their new destination into the flight computer, something quite unexpected caught his attention.

"Err... Abby... we've got a little problem here" he noted.

"Not another one" she sighed "What is it this time?"

"We're accelerating" Blue replied "Very slowly but we're definitely experiencing an increase in velocity."

Calla was fortunate to see Abigails changing emotions as she scrunched up her face in confused contemplation. With glacial slowness, her eyebrows rose and her eyes widened until her face was the epitome of shock and fear; the Magpie felt quite proud of himself.

"No no no no no no no no No No NO NO NO NO!" Abigail declared as she flew forward and dropped into the pilot's seat.

She slid the computer keyboard closer and began to type so quickly and furiously, it would have impressed Vin Diesel.

"The VASIMR engines are online" Abigail said as she continued to type.

"What's a vasamer?" Calla asked.

"It means Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket" Abigail answered.

"That... doesn't help" Calla said as she was still very confused.

"Just think of it as an Ion Engine on steroids" Blue said "Can you shut them down Abby?"

"Not remotely" she replied "I'm being blocked by a high level security lock out; I could do it from inside the ship though by just shutting off the fuel lines."

"How about the life support systems?" Blue checked.

"Easy; it's part of the general system so there is no security lock out."

"Speaking of lock outs, my pressure suit is out of action so we can't depressurise" Blue noted. "Are any of the MTV docking rings connected to an airlock?"

"The four forward of centre are" Abigail noted.

"Okay; then we're all set to go" Blue took a deep breath and started to transmit "Star Runner to Railgun."

"We're still here Blue" Sarah answered.

"Just wanted to let you know we are definitely postponing our return to Earth, in favour of boarding the MTV."

"Calla's mother is STILL not very happy about this" Sarah admitted.

I am starting to get a little tubby as I age, but I figure it only makes me harder to kidnap.