49. Sum of parts

It took Victoria, John and Michael a few days to return to the Irondome. They spent their detour on a second freighter in silence among workers and supplies shipped to the slowly disappearing camps.

Over the months, as the hope to recover any worthy remains from the Giant vaned, the contractors and their service companies took to greener fields. Relatives ran out of funds to keep digging for their lost ones, medical crews running out of sponsors and patients slowly able to ship out.

The trio went on their own ways, speaking only in official matters for months on end. John managed to keep the investigation on track. The final experiment they needed to run was prepared, budget allocated and a small, old freighter procured.

Hanah went home to her parents for some local holidays and Ben disappeared in the ether, again. Mark and John was enough to conduct the experiment. Hanah would return in a few weeks to finish the evaluation of the new data.

The final report was close to be finished. The political pressure subsided. The news cycle switched to new matters, a few taxation and regulatory border disputes between far away systems. The Giant’s story was old and only gathered interest in expert circles.

Still a few streamers, solo video and documentary makers created some content around her. Increasingly theoretical going into conspiracy theories sometimes as the official investigation took years to close.

John saw the finish line now. While he wished a successful experiment, it would strengthen their recommendations for new safety systems, it did not change the largely supported outcome.

Evidence was plentiful. Giant’s sensors were flickering off, missing the deep space asteroid field. Crew did not use the back-up sensor drones as they have been trained and mandated by procedure.

Frontal shielding could not hold against the meteorites showering into the ring’s platings. Initial containment failure was not followed up by the automatics to shut down the damaged ring. Those automatics were old, last maintenance way over its time.

The company was scraping every penny out of the ship. And people paid with their lives. The story’s public part was straightforward.

• “T minus 10 second.” — John’s thoughts were crashed by Mark’s voice. Countdown started, soon their small ship with a few sensor drones at its wings will start its Alcubierre engines.

The forward engine rigged to explode twenty seconds into the flight. Far from any civilian route and the Irondome. Victoria was gracious enough to provide two of their sensor drones with the agreement of Admiral Haggardt’s. Of course the military expected all data and the possibility of breakthrough technology was too large for them to ignore.

The moment of detonation came quickly. A few seconds and the ring blows. Mark and John expected immediate deccelaration on detonation. To their knowledge, they replicated all measurable circumstance the Giant went through. The freighter used its ion drives to accelerate while warping space around itself.

The bomb went off. At the exact time they estimated.

All sensor drones in perfect position.

From outside the freighter stopped in an instant exactly where the drones were looking for it. And the freighter was sliding forward.

They scanned just like the Perseus Train did with the Giant.

Structure was perfectly okey. On board sensors did not detect a deceleration.

Mark let out a sigh. John seen his friend disappointed before. He will get over it.

On the bridge of the Irondome, Victoria monitored the experiment personally. She was not amused. Her stern gaze met by her XO’s.

• “Something was missing.”
• “Yes, but if the GTSB couldn’t find out what, then who knows.”
• “Indeed. Who knows.”

• “You left early again, without saying a word.”
• “Come on, Vicky, let’s not start this again today. I told you yesterday I have to leave to the space port.”
• “No, John, you did not! And I am spending my rare off days.”
• “I know, and I am sorry. But I told you over the weeks. The lawsuit is about to start, it goes to trial and the judge ordered me to testify.” — subway door just closed front of John. — “Damn it.”
• “Don’t talk to me like that!”
• “Not you, the metro, I am gonna miss my flight.”
• “You deserve it. And don’t expect me waiting here for you.” — the communication channel closed.

John ran through the port. At least tried as hard as he could. The security gates picked him as the training dummy of the day and every procedure ever imagined for airport and spaceport safety applied to him.

He traveled a lot, went through these before, never all of them at the same time. Chemical testing, CT machine, even patting him down.

By the time he ran to the boarding desk, the attendant just shook her head.

• “I am sorry, the gate was closed ten minutes ago.”
• “I really need to be on this flight, testifying in an important case. Can you hold them a bit?”
• “I am sorry, Sir. This is not an airport, the boarding procedure is more sensitive. Can’t let anyone through after the train left.”
• “Yeah, got it. I know, but I had to try.” — John was still breathing heavily, not used for a second workout on the same day, after Victoria took most of the night from him, running through the airport was not a jog in the park. — “Can you, can you… get me to another flight, please?”
• “Sorry, you need to find the company desk in the main terminal, the way you came from and to the right.”
• “That is half an hour walk.”
• “Yes, it is. Have a nice day!”

Before John could let out the sigh of his life, they felt a trembling. He thought the flight is just taking off, yet it felt strange. Then a loud bang scared the soul out of both him and the gate attendant. She quickly took her desk phone and called central.

John looked at the crooked wall behind her. Whatever it was, the force of it bended multiple layers of steal plating. The wall protecting them from the worst. The attendant’s face switching to bright white as she heard the news.

Then the public announcement came alive with a fire alarm.

• “Please remain calm and proceed to main terminal and through fire exit one, two and three.” — the repeated message dotted by alarm buzzing.
• “What happened?” — shouted John to the attendant.
• “Your flight, the entire booster blew up on the launch station.”
• “That hasn’t happened in fifty years.” — John has been trained on those old catastrophes. Space age was so old at this point, such a basic error never happened anymore.

As he walked back toward the main terminal, called back Victoria.

• “Hey, how are you? Managed to reach your flight?”
• “What, aren’t you angry?”
• “Why would I? What happened?”
• “Ah, I missed the flight.”
• “Oh, sorry for that, come back, made some breakfast, you can get a new flight here.”
• “On my way. Turn on the news.” — John could barely hear himself under the alarms and shouting, the general chaos at the spaceport grew moment by moment.
• “Oh, okey.” — she replied and commanded the screen by voice to show the news.

Just caught a replay of one of the public cameras with the spaceport in the background. And the shockwave emanating from one of the platforms, flattening the nearby factory, airport facilities and whipping up waves of three meters causing tidal waves at the commercial district across the lake.

She stopped the stream and wound back. Playing it frame by frame, she saw the first stage booster as the origin of the detonation. Must be sabotage. Those were hundred percent safe modules for half a century.

The platform in her sight across the lake, Ava braced herself for the shockwave. The phone she just used to call John thrown into the wind. She was glad with herself. Plan is still on its track.

Read the story leading up to now:

Giant of the Stars

Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy