FUNERAL FOR A STAR

Raftos called a meeting in the control room what he was told all about the events on the crashed LightStar. The survivors had been made as comfortable as possible and were under medication in some of the spare bunks.

Raftos was of the opinion that we should now get out of the vicinity of the asteroid junk yard as soon as we could, everyone was in agreement with that. There was obvious nervousness about being so close to such a mass of unstable rock, any impact or unstable movement could set up a ripple effect which would destroy any ship caught there.

The subject then came up about the crashed ship and it being grave to those left on board. Mick made the statement that the ship must be destroyed, that the technology could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, we had seen the consequences of what could happen. The technology was too dangerous.

Raftos however thought that the ship was as good as destroyed buried as it was in the asteroid field, a conventional ship could not navigate its way in to find the crashed ship the way LightStar had done.

Mick still wanted it destroyed. Raftos then pointed out the very practical fact that they did not have the means to carry out the destruction. They carried no weapons or explosive charges, they had no option, they would have to abandon it.

Mick said he could destroy it. When ask how he simply said he would rig the generator to overload, it had a neutron core.

A stunned silence blanketed the room, the click, click, click, clicking of the ventilator was all that could be heard for at least the next eight minutes.

Eventually Packet spoke. "You mean to say this ship has neutron generators, if you are, I think there is no doubt that there is not a man in this room who would have come any where near this ship let alone fly it if we had known."

"I was not told this." said Raftos indignantly.

"They are not the old engines." said Mick. "These are a totally new type of generator. We've been flying the without any problem haven't we."

Strangely it was Predling who then sealed our next move. He said all the Timmeron felt uneasy about the fate of the crashed ships crew. They had not died but become entombed in the asteroid, the Timmeron believed that their soles were not free. If necessary he would volunteer to set the detonator to destroy the other ship.

The arguments about security and technology falling into the wrong hands would not have moved Raftos but he could not argue with the beliefs of the Timmeron. He had lived with them too long, he knew how strong their faiths were. It was the thing that kept them going in the far flung reaches of space.

Raftos told Mick to work out how they could do it, but stipulated that he wanted to be a very long way away when it want off. Raftos ask Mick if he had ever seen a neutron explosion, Mick said he had not. Raftos told him he would not forget it.

The stunned reaction to Mick's announcement about the neutron core of the generator came from the many disasters that had been caused by neutron generators in the early days of space flight. The Neutron engine was one of the first deep space power units, it was cheep efficient and effective. It was also, unfortunately, prone to blowing up. The situation was terrible but it was the only device that worked. When a ship blew up in deep space it was bad enough, but if one blew up in orbit round a planet it could take half the planet with it.

Mick and Packet worked on a device that they could attach to the remaining generator of the crashed ship that could be triggered by remote radio. This would give them time for a safe exit without having to count the seconds.

Harris piloted the shuttle as Mick and Packet made ready the device that was to trigger the neutron generator to overload. When they had finished they put on their space suits. Hovering thirty meters above the asteroid Harris held the shuttle near the now silent generator.

Mick had identified a control panel that could be accessed externally, this panel covered a series of connection blocks that were used during testing when the engine was built.

Stepping out from the shuttles air lock, Mick and Packet used magnetic clamps to lock onto the casing of the massive generator. The two men were dwarfed by the size of the thing as they inched their way towards the rear end of the generator where the control panel was located. Mick slowly unscrewed the blots holding the cover of the panel.

Harris did not like hovering the shuttle this close to the casing of the generator. Even when switched off, neutron generators emitted unstable magnetic waves as the core ebbed and flowed in its pressurised semi liquid state. Harris hoped Packet had taken this into account when designing the trigger mechanism. Harris was still brooding about all the disasters that could befall them when he heard the inner air lock of the shuttle door open. Packet and Mick entered, they had competed this part of the mission. With some relief Harris moved the shuttle away from the wreck of LightStar Two and headed back to their own ship.

The next Jump was to a position well outside the asteroid field, to a place Packet had assured everyone was a safe distance. The small telescope was filtered and pointed back to the asteroid they had just come from. Packet then sent the signal. There was a long delay as every one watched the monitors. It was too long, Packet was beginning to wonder if the device had failed, then there was a small glow on the screen. This grew and grew into a brilliant white light until it filled half the monitor screen, it then began to fade. As the picture grew dim Packet switched off the filter on the telescope. The asteroid region had been devastated, fragments moving and colliding, pushing away from the center of the explosion. A secondary shock wave was rebounding off the mass of rock and returning to the epicenter. When this secondary shock wave collapsed completely it would re-ignite the debris from the neutron cloud left by the explosion, this would create a second faster more deadly shock wave. Fortunately LightStar was far enough away not to be affected by either of the shock waves. Packet admitted he had added a safety factor of three to his calculation of a safe distance.

As the images of the explosion on the monitor screen disappeared the control room began to empty as people started to leave, each with their own thoughts.

LightStar made a jump back into safer space and within communications of Central Command. A message was sent about the rescue of the people from the wrecked ship and to the Admiral about his daughter. Command was to send a Battle Curser which was not far away to rendezvous with Light star and take the casualties as they had proper hospital facilities. They were congratulated on their work.

Everyone on board Light star was stressed and tired. It was time to get some rest and catch up on some sleep. Raftos called a six hour rest period.

Laying on his bunk Harris tried to sleep but his mind was racing, full of the events that had happened over the past twenty four hours. They had found LightStar two and saved some of the crew, they had proved LightStar worked. They had found a strange planet. Their mission however was far from over, for now the task was to find the Old Aganoon and reunite Raftos with his family. The problem however was where to find that planet, Harris had to admit, this puzzle was still far from solved.

Harris was drifting off to sleep, how long had he been on this ship it seemed such a long time although it must have only have been days. Should he go back to Central on the Battle Curser or stay with LightStar wandering section five looking for the lost planet, one that does not want to be found. Harris decided decisions like that would have to wait for morning and drifted into a deep sleep.