Chapter 1

Steve Baron was a test pilot for a company that researched and tested advanced concept craft designs and sold to the military. Specifically he was now primary pilot for Bracken Aerospace; Reusable Space Vehicles Division.

There were two specific types of Space craft that Steve had already flown into space. One was a small cargo craft, much smaller then the space shuttle, but able to achieve orbit on its own power without the huge fuel tank and external rockets that the Space shuttle's required. Of course it did not have the cargo space the shuttle did, but still had a respectable amount of storage space for items that could prove useful in space.

The other was a vehicle that was slightly smaller, could carry up to 4 persons with enough supplies to last up to 2 months. It had a capability to have interchangeable types of weapon systems on it. One was for pure space. One was for air and space fighting capabilities. The last was an air to surface capability. By configuring several abilities together you could get a craft with the ability to fight in all three scenarios.

Steve had just gotten back from the Bitterroot Range in Montana with his niece, Jessica Baron. He had dropped off a trailer load of supplies at the family lodge in the Bitterroot mountain range, and checked on the buildings and various equipment and vehicles located there. He and his brother, Greg Baron, had made the lodge as independent as possible from the need for electrical, water, or gas services provided by outside sources.

A wind generator supplied all the electrical power they could want. There was also a back up generator with 500 gallons of diesel fuel. Water was supplied by a well and was very pure and very clear. It supplied all the drinking water, and bath and toilet water also. It was totally sealed from outside sources and should not get contaminated to easily.

He and his brother had been avid about being able to survive any conceivable catastrophe, so had chosen their location carefully. It had to be somewhat isolated, hard to get to, and be self sufficient. They chose a location in the Bitterroot mountain range in Montana. Both made salaries of over 6 figures a year so money was not a problem when they decided to build.

Greg was an author of three best sellers in the mystery genre. He was also a Major in the National Guard. So between those two jobs, he made a very, very good living for himself and his daughter, and was able to spend as much money and more on the lodge as his brother, Steve. Between the two, there was almost nothing they could not fix, build, or make. Currently he was on a call up to active duty by his unit due to the emergency caused by the appearance of the Asteroid... Since Greg's wife had died, his brother Steve did most of the care of his daughter during his long absences, which explained why Jessica was sleeping in the seat next to her uncle, sleeping the sleep of the exhausted. She had helped to move a lot of frozen meat into the basement walk in freezer that had been put in when the lodge had originally been built.

Although the government had stated that with the cooperation of the Russian, French, and British governments, the danger presented by the Asteroid, which had been named, Morshak, after the astronomer that had discovered it, Boris Morshak, had been dealt with by a concentrated nuclear strike, Greg's contacts in the military advised him that not all was as should be. So stocking up the lodge was still on going.

It had taken several weeks to modify rockets to carry the nuclear warheads into space and beyond earth's gravitational pull. It was decided not to try to destroy the Asteroid, but to place the warheads and have them explode in a particular pattern which would change its direction enough to by pass the earth. It had apparently succeeded.

All Steve could get out of Greg, was that his contacts said that the French had done something with an extra two missiles, and while the main body of the asteroid would miss us, something was not right.

The official government release to the news agencies was all was well. Greg's contacts said not really, keep it to yourself though. So Greg had informed Steve to get more food up to the lodge. While there, he had convinced a lady who worked for them off and on to basically move to the lodge permanently to keep it clean and to be sure it was ready for Greg, Jessica, and himself for occupation.

They also hired a retired man who was a whiz at fix and repair to maintain the generators and water pumps. He was also responsible for maintaining the grounds, and helping keep the truck garden in shape. Now that fall was here, and most of the garden had been harvested, he helped Mrs Graso with the canning. All in all there was an incredible amount of food in storage at the lodge. Enough to keep everyone there in food for several years to come, if they were careful.

The crowning achievement in Steve's mind was the small lake he had had constructed. A half mile to the east, downslope, was a natural depression that was a little over 1000 feet wide and 2200 hundred feet long. There had been a creek that carried run off from higher up on the mountain through this little depression. So Steve had a company come in, clear the trees, strip the bark and lay them out behind the lodge to season, and he had had a dam constructed at the end of the depression where it spilled further on down hill after running through it.

The final result was a small man made lake that was fed by run off from storms and melting snow. He had it stocked with fish so they would have a self renewing supply of fish for as long as was conceivable to think of. For the last two years he had gone fishing at the little lake, which he had named Lake Anfang, which was German for the word begin, or start. He couldn't remember which, but liked the word. At it's deepest the lake was almost 65 feet deep. That was a lot of water.

He had spared no expense for the correct types of water plants to line the newly formed lake with. Everything had been thought out and considered. All in all, he had spent over 850,000 dollars on the dam portion itself. Another 15,000.00 had been spent on the company that had stocked the lake and planted the correct plants for the lakes health.

Another benefit from the lake was the small hydro electric generator that had been installed at the same time as an alternate power source. It worked off the spillway. Water could be diverted through a small pipe to turn the turbine which in turn sent power up a cable to the house. That was the third power source and it produced much more power than was really needed.

Yes, the lake had produced two added benefits to the lodge and to his family, f ish for food, and electricity in time of need, if the wind generator went down. Periodically they took the wind generator off line and started the dam generator, and it worked flawlessly. They would replace parts that were worn, lube everything that needed it, and check the huge blades that turned the generator on the wind generator. Mostly the generator was a sealed unit, so with one exception, no lubing was needed.

One thing only had they agreed upon. That was to run a phone line from the phone company to the house. Since they were way up the mountain, the phone company said they would have to charge them a huge amount for surveying the route up to their house, line maintenance and installation. Monthly service charges would not be that much. After talking it over, the brothers agreed to have the line run themselves, and this way they would not have to pay the phone companies huge price for installing telephone poles, when trees were abundant.

So a small company that was familiar to Greg was hired, and a phone line was run.

Trees were trimmed, permanently in some cases, and that saved them over 15,000 dollars alone. It was astounding the cost that running a phone line would have cost them had they let the phone company do it.

It was after having spent only two days at the lodge that Steve had received a call from his flight operations chief. He was told he had to come in for a possible extended mission. He told Mrs. Graso and the handy man, Ed Handleman, that he would be leaving early to go back to his job. He had considered leaving Jessica with them but she objected vociferously. Well, she could stay at his apartment that the company maintained for him outside the Bracken fight operations center.

Since his boss had not said the mission was right away, he decided to take his niece with him. So after many long hours on the road, he was only just now pulling up to the gate that let him in to Bracken Aerospace. A short 6 minute drive found him at the Flight operations building. Dropping Jessica off at the cafeteria, he made the short walk to Doug Masterson's office, his operations boss.

"Steve! Thank god your here! We have a problem. You have a mission to fly in less than 2 days! You will be carrying 1 passenger with you. Lt. General Bob Cavendish. You're to take him to the international space station, and THAT'S where you will stay until the emergency is over. You will take subsequent orders from him during the emergency."

Steve blinked. "What emergency? How come I am taking a passenger up to the space station. Won't NASA be a little pissed at us? They practically reamed us a new one when I did a flyby of the station just 9 months ago, remember?"

That had opened a can of worms indeed. The United States government had not been pleased to discover that a private company had the capability to get a vehicle into close proximity of its beloved international space station.

Despite the fact that Bracken had filed all the appropriate flight plans, there was really no flight plan for space. The flyby had been Bracken"s signal to the powers that be, that there was a serious contender for alternate space capability flights other than NASA. Once that fight had happened, several governmental agencies had descended on Bracken looking into its operations closely.

"Well, that's all changed. They have been easing up on us for the past couple months anyway. Now the Air Force Space Command has taken steps to secure our services! We now have access to real time satellite imagery. The general has had specialized equipment brought to us. We have installed specialized military radio and onboard military grade radar. This stuff is HOT! Next generation stuff we didn't even consider because we didn't know it existed!"

" We have outfitted our ship with weapons provided by the Air force Space command. Steve, we have a Laser system now that's better than what we had installed!

Takes up less room too. Your going to have a busy few days once your up there, but if it works out, you will have time to relax and take it easy till it's time to return."

"Have you eaten? We need to start your briefing, and get you flight ready. I hope you're ready to go, because we don't have to much time. You know how the news had said the asteroid problem had been resolved? Well, it would have, had the French not taken it into their heads to give the asteroid an extra boost. Space Command has proof positive that several large pieces of the asteroid have broken off, and are headed our way, thanks to the two extra hits the French decided to do."

Steve was putting two and two together and coming up with disaster. This only confirmed what his brother had told him over the phone. This was even worse!

"Uh, Doug? I do have one problem. I have my niece, Jessica, with me. Her dad is doing an active duty hitch with the National Guard right now. I can drive her back to my place in the mountains I guess. Or can I use the company jet to fly her there? If things are as bad as your saying, I don't want to leave her alone in the apartment here while I am gone."

Doug was shaking his head no even as Steve was speaking.

"No can do Steve. The company big wigs have the jet tied up. Also, the general says the government will be grounding all flights starting 4 PM this afternoon. They are going to call it a precaution against terrorist activity. Steve, they are sure that we are going to be hit with pieces of this asteroid, and it's going to be bad. You can leave your Niece here with me, I will treat her as my own, my word on it."

It was now Steve's turn to shake his head. He was responsible for his niece and he could not see leaving her with Doug, no matter how good a man he was. He had to get her back to the mountain lodge! It was a very strong place and would ride out any problem fairly easily, he thought to himself. It was also very safe. Ed was a very good shot and had instructions as to what to do in an emergency.