A New Beginning Ch. 02

He immediately radioed back. "Full power is not necessary Captain Antoinette. Besides with the way the ship is shuddering now I don't think we should go to full power until I can determine what's causing the vibration."

"Don't question my orders Joseph!" I yelled into the radio. "Just bring us to full emergency power. Do it now and then get up here. I'll send Beth below. I want you up here to see something."

"Captain Antoinette, I strongly . . ."

"Do it now! Then get your ass up here on the double!"

"Full throttle, you're the captain."

"Beth, get to your duty station below. I want Joseph up here now."

"Yes ma'am," she answered me.

Within seconds the vibrations increased as the James Cook went to full power. The whole spaceship was shaking like a stop sign in a hurricane. I sprang to the nose of the ship and looked through the upper starboard window again. We were still being sucked into the hole!

Unbelievable! Even with the ship's engines going full blast we were still being drawn into the hole . . . along with everything else.

I watched as James Cook's tail section closed in on the hole. By now it was a good 25 to 30 kilometers behind us and only about 50 kilometers away from the hole. It was closing that distance fast. In fact, as it drew closer to the opening its speed toward it seemed to increase -- it didn't have any thrusters to slow it down.

Then I noticed something even more peculiar. The opening was closing up; the cracks were disappearing and the hole was getting smaller. Mother Nature was repairing the hole in space.

As I watched it, my hope was that maybe the hole would completely close before we got to it. But I judged the distance we were from it and compared this with the speed with which the hole appeared to be closing up. The hole looked too big and we were approaching it too fast, even with the thrusters going full blast.

Then the James Cook's tail section hit the edge of the hole. It broke apart; the tail section going one direction into the hole and the liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks along with the cargo hold taking another route through the hole.

The two pieces disappeared into the blackness on the other side as soon as they entered through. The last thing I saw of them was the tail section spinning like a top. Then it was gone.

I didn't want us to hit the edge and break apart too. I did another quick calculation. I figured we had two, maybe two and a half minutes before we would be sucked through the hole.

I didn't waste any time. I noticed Joseph coming through the open airlock from below. He started to come toward me but I ordered him to go to his station and reduce engines to one quarter power. He looked at me questioningly. I just ordered him to follow my orders and reduce engines to one quarter power.

I'm sure he thought that I was crazy -- issuing two contradictory orders. But reducing to one quarter power would give us just enough thrust to control the pitch and yaw of the ship through the hole, which at the time was all I wanted to do.

Then I ordered Juan to bring the nose of the James Cook about 180 degrees. I didn't want to go through the hole but neither did I want the James Cook to hit the edge of it and break apart. Since the thrusters -- even going full blast -- couldn't prevent the James Cook from being sucked into the hole, I figured going through it was the lesser of the two evils.

The shuddering stopped immediately as the ship came about. Joseph then came and stood next to me. We were both looking out James Cook's main window, as was everyone else on the upper flight deck.

"What's that?" Joseph asked of no one in particular.

"I don't know; a hole of some kind," I answered him. "It just swallowed up what was left of the tail section and the cargo hold. We're next."

He was just standing next to me with his mouth agape.

I continued. "Even with the engines going full throttle we were still being sucked toward it. I watched the tail section hit the edge of the hole and break apart. That's why I ordered us to come about and reduce power. I didn't want us to hit the edge of it too."

Turning, I said to the junior flight officer, "Juan, I want you to guide us right through the middle of that . . . whatever it is. Can you do it? We only got about a minute before we go through it."

"Yes ma'am I can," is all he said. But then that's all I wanted to hear.

Joseph then left me and returned to his station. I stayed where I was and watched our progress toward the rapidly closing hole. I knew it was going to be close. I crossed my fingers and said a silent prayer that we would make it through OK.

I didn't know what was on the other side of the hole but judging from what we had been going through the last few hours I didn't think it could be good.

To be continued . . .