Chapter 3 Part 4

LieutenantCommander Brian D'Artanga stood on the command deck of the Issac Asimov. It was late in the morning shift and the primary crew would be arriving in a little over an hour to relieve his graveyard crew. Though a dull shift, the graveyard was still in command of the ship for one third of each day, and the shift leader, D'Artanga, was in command of the ship for those eight hours. It was his first command assignment.

Brian and the other five officers on the bridge usually spent the evening talking, reading, and pursuing various other diversions. The graveyard was not noted for excitement.

On this occasion, Brian was reading an article on ancient history of the First World War of Terra. No one was asleep; sleeping was an offense punishable by discharge and a back charge of wages. In spite of that, unless there was something important going on, light snoozing was generally overlooked.

On that particular night, the orders of the day were to monitor inbound traffic passing toward the Terra-Luna orbit or the orbit of Mercury. The previous shift had noted no activity, but the orders had been recorded and the ship's commander, Captain Kamisha, a highly decorated woman of Swahili decent, had gone to great pains to emphasize that this was not a routine training exercise. It may be for that reason that Brian was not totally surprised when the proximity alarm at the surveillance console broke the silence.

Brian quickly walked over to the console which was being manned by one of his junior officers. Ensign Wu Domato was focusing a long range sensor on the intruding unknown when Brian arrived.

The screen flickered and a tactical display showed a solid mass moving outward from the asteroid belt toward the inner system. A second screen gave a telescopic view of the object. It was a large rock slowly tumbling but moving at a fairly quick pace.

"The computer confirms that this is not a periodical NEO," Wu announced. If the rock had been a charted asteroid in an independent near-earth-orbit, it would have been in the navigational banks. If it was not in the banks, it could be a danger.

"Please plot a course projection," Brian ordered.

There was a brief moment as Wu and another officer, Lieutenant Dealingham, the navigator, conferred. Finally the lieutenant confirmed what Brian had feared.

"The object is on a course for the Terra-Luna system," she announced. "There is an eighty-six point four percent chance that the course will result in a collision with Terra on the European Continent."

Brian exercised his best command decision. He addressed the bridge. “Set an intercept course, and alert the battle group. Bring the reactors up to eighty percent and engage the drive as soon as possible." As the bridge crew became a flurry of activity, Brian turned to the com panel at his console. He entered a trio of digits and waited.

"Kamisha," the voice from the panel responded and a screen illuminated showing the face of the ships captain.

"Captain we have a situation."