Chapter 14

SS Peake, February 22, 2162
High Orbit over Saturn

On the cargo hauler SS Peake, the engineering team was hard at work getting ready for the fourth and final test burn. Fifty engines were mounted to the ice moon, now called Big Berserker Four. These guys were aching to move 30.8 billion metric tons of ice out of Saturn’s orbit, drive it through the asteroid belt, break it up and drop it into a specific crater on Mars. They spent most of their time wiring it for demolition because while they proved they could be deadly accurate with their drop, accidents could happen.

“You’re going to move a moon that weighs over thirty billion tons with fifty N-52 engines?” asked Michael Baker, a new engine control specialist. “Fifty N-52 engines running at 200% will give you maybe five billion tons of thrust.”

“More than enough thrust,” said Roy Bridges, the chief engineer for Scarlett Water Systems. “We’re not trying to lift the moon; we’re trying to nudge it out of orbit. We’ll use her orbital velocity to carry it to Mars. The hard part is braking. We’ll be decelerating most of the way.”

“What happens if you miss?”

“I’m not paid to miss. Worst case scenario is if we are that far off target we’ll slide Big Berserker 4 into a Martian orbit and then we’ll have to figure out what to do with it.”

The countdown clock was ticking off the time to ignition. F-733 GunSlingers and several scooters were deployed around the equator of Saturn CXLII, observing the launch. Inside the control room on the SS Garriott, the flight controllers were going over their pre-launch checks and so far, all looks good. Unfortunately, no one has heard from Alan Scarlett in almost two months, but Pandora has assured everyone he was alive and healthy, and very busy. Everything else was classified.

All the hard work of the men and woman of Scarlett Water Systems was coming to fruition. Fifty of the largest reaction engines ever built, wired together with miles of cable, mounted on engine stands that were secured ten meters deep into the ice. It was the heaviest spacecraft ever built, and it was not designed to carry anything.

“3... 2... 1 ... ignition!”

The men and women in the control room on the Garriott and the Engineering team on the Peake held their breath as the news came in from the observers. “I see twelve good burns on the northeast quadrant.”

“Southeast quadrant all burning.”

“Southwest quadrant is lit up.”

“All engines on the northwest fired good.”

Then came the voice of Charlie Bassett, mission controller, “observers verify indications, all fifty engines are running and responsive. Ten seconds to throttle up.”

On the SS Peake, several Berserker engineers studied computer interfaces with the Big Berserker, and the voice of engineering, Charlie Bassett, went around the room, querying the different specialists for their status.

“Reaction mass?”

“Go!”

“Throttle response?”

“Go!”

“Navigation?”

“Go!

“Environmental?”

“Go!”

“Structural?”

“Go!”

Chief White glanced at his computer readout and saw no problems. “Berserker Control, this is Berserker Engineering we are go for throttle up.”