SUN-BURN PART 5

But the idea one of their own had wanted to kill them left them shaken and worried. They had already known about this, but being reminded of it was horrific.

-8-

Outside the spaceship, the Sun Dancer was accelerating towards the sun without any noticeable movement inside. As the sunlight grew brighter on the fusion-drive rocket’s hull, the heat barely affecting the hardened ceramic hull plates, the sensors dotting it were on the point of overloading as they recorded the increase in heat radiation and gravity beyond their limits. The rocket’s long, solid body was marred by a large hole with a twisted piece of metal and ceramic, tearing through the ship’s structural integrity, and causing hell to the damage control systems.

Inside the flight deck, Jenna and John sat at the controls. Both of them were in their astronaut suits as a precaution to better protect them from the radiation, and to cool themselves down. It didn’t work. The heat had been building more and more, while the suits cooling plants had helped they weren’t anymore.

“Okay, Mac, Ryan, it’s now or never,” Jenna said into the radio.

Mac was on the engineering deck. Like the others she was in her spacesuit, and she had her armoured hand on the release lever. As a movie fan, she’d taken the precaution to just check the lever to make sure the connections weren’t messed up. “I’m ready,” she said through the intercom.

“Me too, guys,” Ryan spoke over the intercom as he stood in the launch bay. He had timed the nuclear warheads. Now he was just ready and waiting. “All nukes are prepped. Has computer finished the calculations and program?”

“Yes,” John replied.

“Good.”

“I’m still not sure about blowing up one of the engine reactor plants,” Mackenzie interrupted. “Sure, it’s gonna give up a lot of thrust, but we will be relying on batteries and the smaller plants for power.”

“That’ll just have to do, Mac,” Ryan said.

“We have checked this out, Mac.”

“I know, its just I don’t like the thought of giving up something good.”

“Hey, I don’t like it either,” Ryan said.

“I never said you didn’t, Ryan,” Mackenzie said.

“Okay, we’re ready to go now. With some luck, the explosions will send us into a drift,” John interrupted the arguing engineering duo.

“Good luck, everyone.”

Jenna bit her lip, swallowing hard as nerves overtook her. She glanced at John, who looked just as nervous. “Let’s do it,” she muttered.

“Switching to computer control,” John said slowly; it had been agreed to switch it all to computer control, as computers rarely if ever made a mistake. The computer had already been programmed.

“Releasing the locks now,” Mac called.

On the screens, the computer showed the ejection was in progress.

Sound didn’t travel through space, so forget those sci-fi movies and TV shows. But they felt the impact as the shockwaves rocked the ship, and they felt as if they were being pushed backwards. A moment later, they felt more explosions which pushed the Sun Dancer back even further away from the sun.

Jenna and John both studied the readouts. “It’s working!” Jenna turned in delight.

“We’ve still got some way to go, one of the rocket reactors is being ejected with another two bombs,” John checked the computer’s schedule. “Detonating….now!”

Jenna grimaced as the explosion rippled through the Sun Dancer. It was much closer this time, but when they righted themselves, another bomb exploded and the rocket was thrown even more backwards. She studied the navigational scanners, watching as the beacons calibrated their astronavigation instruments.