Sling malfunction

As they looked at the actual image of where they were headed, the figures Free read on the screen jibed with what he was seeing: the Moon Complex covered an enormous expanse of land covering thousands of square kilometers. It seemed to be made up of hundreds of biospheres soldered together, accessible one to the other.

   Chapter 1

In the next moment the ground beneath their feet trembled violently. Anyar, who had stood to pour herself another drink, fell onto her side. Herbert toppled off his seat onto his back. Lynda teetered on the edge of her part of the bench but grasped onto Brad who held onto the seat to steady them both. By instinct, Free's arm went protectively around Skye, and his hand grabbed the table edge. The fingers of his other hand hooked into the lattice of the gazebo.

Glasses, plates, cutlery, all of it shook and spilled off the table and much of it broke. Food and drink slopped onto the table's surface and ran over the edges in a confused soup, hitting the ground in great plops.

The quaking seemed to go on forever but it couldn't have lasted more than fifteen seconds.

"What the hell was that?" Brad yelled when it stopped.

By now they were all on their feet. "Everybody okay?" Free asked, looking around.

Nods and yeses. "It's like something slammed into the surface of this moon,” Lynda said.

"MT, what happened?" Free called.

"The UUSA has malfunctioned."

"What? The Sling? How?"

"I am assessing the situation and will have a report as soon as possible."

Free was already looking up, trying to see through the dome; all of them were. "Dim the lighting,” he ordered.
Major Tom instantly complied.

As darkness fell over the interior of the Moon Complex, the blackness beyond lit up with stars. Earth II became visible in the distance, as well as its small, dark moon Thanos.

"There!" Brad pointed.

It looked as if it had stopped in midair, somewhere between where they stood and the direction they knew the Military Complex to be in.
"It's an upside-down antique cherry picker," Herbert said. And although no one was watching him, he looked around and muttered, "I-I grew up on a farm."

The enormous object had an enclosed and transparent basket at the bottom, and from it extended a long arm that seemed to stop dead somewhere out in space.

"That's the amazing part," Skye mumbled. "That it doesn't connect to anything, it's just pinioned by gravity from the strongest source."

"Damage report yet?" Free asked the AI.

"I am still analyzing the data but it appears that the UUSA hit the dome."

"How the hell could that happen?" Anyar asked. "Aren't the coordinates set?"

"Perhaps the gravitational pull of Earth II shifted slightly," Free said. "Maybe something happened there."

"Like what?" Herbert asked, his voice fearful.

"A tsunami,” Major Tom reported. "Magnitude eleven point seven. From all that I can gather it appears that the tsunami, while causing no human casualties on Earth IJ, did manage to distort the gravitational pull of the planet, altering the anchor of the UUSA which in turn altered its trajectory by only millimeters—"

"But if you multiply that by the distance from Earth II's outer layer to the position of the Sling in space, it makes quite a big difference," Skye said.

"It threw the Sling off course badly enough that it bashed into the dome. Are we okay in here?” Free asked what was on everyone's mind.
"The dome has been pierced at the outer layer. That does not affect the life support within,” MT said. "I will undertake repairs on the dome but first the UUSA must move toward its destination."

"The Military Complex," Lynda said, her voice dismal.

"Yes. The distance is approximately two hundred meters. I must now shatter the dome's exterior layer completely between the UUSA and the complex docking point in order for the UUSA to move along. As it proceeds to its designated docking spot, I can repair the dome behind it."

"You can do that?" Anyar asked, her voice awed.

"Can and will."

"Sounds like a plan," Brad said.

"A good plan," Free added. "Make it happen."

"The procedure is already underway," MT advised them. "I am programmed to support life at all costs."

"That's good to know," Anyar said.

They all stared up, watching through the night sky as the outer edge of the dome cracked open before their eyes, creating a sort of pathway that led to about where the Military Complex stood. As the splintering occurred in the dome's outer surface, the UUSA, no longer jammed in the dome, was free to slide along, and it did. Free could see that behind the Sling MT was already repairing the initial collision site.

   Jason X: To The Third Power, chapter 7