The World Game by Allen Charles Page A

sufficient momentum to the bladders to get them moving in the right direction away from the anti-matter storm. We can pick them up later and tow them on a short leash. The plan is to attach the hoses and pull the bladders out of their housings. We move away from the anti-matter and Space City and impart enough velocity to the bladders to outrun the anti-matter, then we untether and put the pedal to the metal as my old Dad used to say.”
    “Risky, but I guess we don’t have any option. Can your cadets handle free space with no training?”
    “That’s not a question I am even thinking about. There is no option. The Air Force One guys don’t have youniforms or buddies. They hadn’t planned on a space visit. These kids are good. They will do fine.”
    Fuller kissed Janine and backed out of the flight deck. He saw the human chain still taking goods aboard from the doomed Air Force One while far down the end of the cabin he could see Hannaford and Shaw waiting for him. As he passed the first lock one of the chain members fumbled a large package that floated away from him. Fuller reacted and seized the slow moving missile, stopping its progress by planting his feet on the cabin roof. He handed the package back to the crewman with the comment “You have to be careful mister, we don’t get two tries at this.”
    The crewman accepted the package, and Fuller saw the President’s face peeking around it grinning. “Yes sir! Won’t happen again!”
    “Mr President!” Fuller was speechless.
    “Carry on Col. Fuller. You are in charge here, not me.”
    Fuller threw a salute and kept on towards the waiting cadets.
    Shaw and Hannaford were accompanied by Amy Young, the three cadets unencumbered by any equipment other than a universal multi tool carried by Shaw.
    “Is that all you will need Shaw?” queried Fuller.
    “Yes sir. According to the Manual there is only one type of fastener in use and this will handle it. I am more concerned about the anti-matter sir.”
    Fuller looked sharply at Shaw. “What is the issue Shaw?”
    “I crunched the numbers on the fragment velocities with Felicity sir. They are very approximate, but there is a distinct acceleration due to internal repelling forces between the segments and the core. As much anti gravity as it is anti-matter sir. What this means is that we do not have as much time as we thought sir.”
    “How much time do we have?
    “In reality sir, none. No matter what we do, some anti-matter is going to overtake us based on a delay to recover the reaction mass and our maximum acceleration away from the danger. If we do not pick up the reaction mass we will run out and will not escape the anti-matter. If we do pick it up we cannot outrun it. We are done both ways.”
    Fuller looked thoughtful. “Did you get a scan of what anti-matter is heading directly our way?”
    “Yes sir.” Hannaford replied. “There are two large fragments that have a high probability of impact with us. Fortunately there do not appear to be dust particles of anti-matter. They annihilated themselves in the atmosphere and were a major contributor to the electric discharge we saw. Other fragments are on close trajectories but will clear us by sufficient distance. These pieces are masking whatever may be behind them.”
    “If we could deflect the two segments, we could still take an escape trajectory so that other faster segments will fly right past us. We may then be able to outrun anything coming up behind. Question is, how do we deflect these things?”
    There was silence for a moment then Shaw nodded his head and drew shapes with a finger in the air. He squinted one eye deep in thought. Just as he was about to speak, Felicity held up her hand and looked him in the eye. “That will work.”
    Fuller frowned. “He didn’t say anything.”
    “He doesn’t need to. I know what he is thinking.” Hannaford turned to Fuller. “Really sir, I know what he is thinking. He knows what I am thinking. It must be