America One: War of the Worlds (2 page)

Lieutenant Walls was awakened, so was Vitalily with the more senior Russian crew asking for vodka. Anything was better than they felt. Even a massive hangover would be sweet compared to this cryogenic crap!

After several hours of work making sure that all the waking crew had fluids and drips entering their bodies, and that they were strong enough to survive transfer to
America Two
, they left DX2017 for the last time.

To all the crew, who had a window to see out of, the new Mother ship did look grand as they left the asteroid and headed in its direction.
America Two
grew rapidly as they flew towards it.

Ryan and Kathy were adamant to be in
SB-IV’s
cockpit as they drew near. Together with his daughter, and Jenny Burgos who were piloting the shuttle, they watched as the latest Astermine shuttle approached a brand new mother ship which grew in their forward windshield.

“Twelve laser guns powered by what?” asked Ryan of his daughter as they neared.

“Each of our craft including this one,
SB-IV,
have new cold fusion power systems instead of the old Plutonium-238 units,” she answered. “Remember, Dad, you sent one of the
Matt
fusion systems down to Australia when I was a kid to be copied?” Her father nodded. “They have copied that system into several different sizes, and now many parts of planet earth are powered by these cold fusion systems. Mars, Saturn and I will bring you “OldGeners” up to date when you are comfortable aboard the mother ship in our new cafeteria.”

“What did you call us Lunar?” asked her mother with a half-smile on her face.

“Sorry, Mom. Over time we had begun to call you guys “OldGeners”. We have the
Matts
, the
Tall People
, the earth scientists, you called us the “NextGeners” and somehow you guys asleep up here got called the “OldGeners”.

“I would assume Captain Pete, Dr. Nancy, Bob and his girls are now older than your mother and I, and are really OldGeners?” asked Ryan.

“You won’t believe the difference 14 years can make,” replied Lunar. “I forbade Dr. Nancy who wanted to be up here to help you guys. She is becoming frail and certainly too old for space flight. How she and Captain Pete made it back to earth, only God knows. Also I forbade Joanne and Roo to join us. Since she is an ex-president, many, it seems, are worried about her coming up into space. They are on the island and will meet us in Nevada once you guys are strong enough.”

“Tell me how Pete got back?” Ryan asked, his face its usual color again.

“We will have a complete briefing on the mother ship. First we need to get you onboard, allow you at least twelve hours of rest, and then Mars, Saturn and I will bring you up to date. Dad, there is a lot of news we need to tell you, so rest for now, and enjoy the sight of
America Two
, your new mother ship, and a gift to you from all us ‘NextGeners’”.

Chapter 2
 
The Briefing and Return to Earth.

The “OldGeners” slept. Not only did they sleep the twelve hours Dr. Nancy had suggested was the minimum rest needed, many slept close to 18 hours. Jonesy was the last to wake up after looking like he had passed away 19 hours 33 minutes earlier.

Mars Noble manned the ship’s Bridge while the crew slept with Lunar heading in to take over every eight hours.
America Two
had already departed DX2017, and was heading back to earth leaving the asteroid to its wayward journey around the solar system.

The latest space ship was a dream to command, and walk around. The Bridge‘s interior layout had been copied from
America One’s
Bridge, and was slightly larger than its predecessor. The Bridge had been designed with an astronaut briefing area, and still had its three different command sections, Captain’s Command console, Laser Command console and the ship’s flight control center.

The spinning outer “wagon wheel” was a perfect system to walk around—upside down on the roof. There were twelve sections to the circle where doors whooshed open once somebody got within a few steps of them. The extra wide corridor took up a third of the outer half of the wheel, and the living apartments the rest, which comprised of different-sized, two-level apartments,

Below the accommodation area and in the inner wheel area was the cargo bays, twelve of them around the wheel of the ship. These cargo bays were twenty feet high and each section was sealed off by space-proof doors which were opened by the crew using terminals with codes.

The crew could continuously exercise around the upper wheel without stopping, as there were exercise lanes. Set between the two lanes was a white painted line on the magnetic floor boards which hid the underfloor magnets.

With full speed rotation, the outer area of the wheel rotating through space at over 70 miles an hour giving centrifugal force equal to 80 percent of earth’s gravity. For the joggers, or for the crew in their apartments they were stuck to the “floor”, the roof of the ship, and upside down like flies on a ceiling.

One of the outer twelve sections was the medical area, another housed the cafeteria and kitchens, and the other ten sections had up to 20 apartments in each section.

Below this walkway, and inside the cargo bays were the operational departments. There were offices and sections for all the sciences, as well as one section where live plants, and animals were protected in special areas for the passage across to Mars.

America One
had been designed by Ryan as a solar system exploration ship.
America Two
had been changed from Ryan’s initial plans from an exploration ship to a cargo ship, a transporter between Earth and Mars. This ship wasn’t equipped with the seven biological growth cubes in
America One
to sustain the crew on decade-long journeys.

There were two large columns from the revolving wheel section to the central wheel hub, and the two elevators inside them were far bigger than on
America One
.

The hub, the central part of
America Two
was a quieter area of the ship. Here there was no centrifugal force like the spinning of the outer wheel. Only the magnets under the metal floors stuck the crew to the floor, right side up this time.

Towards the rear was the massive thrusters and engine bays looked after by the build crew and mechanics. The central part of the hub was the elevator connection area to the outer wheel, and the forward area lead to the Bridge.

The Bridge on
America Two
was round in design compared to the oval Bridge on Captain Pete’s ship, and stayed stationary while the rest of the ship above and around the hub moved around it. The forward wall of the Bridge was totally silicone glass and felt like half of a round atmospheric bubble. Inside the Bridge one felt as if they stood in a bubble in space, and could look out forward and sideways without much hindrance. The thin, but extremely powerful and strong skeleton around the dozens of panes of silicone glass was hardly visible.

Ryan was impressed when he entered his new Bridge for the first time. He was still weak, but 17 hours of sleep had helped him regain his normal strength in space, and Lunar was again shocked to see that her father, as he entered the Bridge, hadn’t aged a day since she had left him asleep on DX2017, 14 years earlier. He looked much younger than Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy did back down on earth, and her mother looked her happy self again, exactly as she had remembered her.

“A very pretty view outside, Lunar,” Ryan stated as he entered. His daughter was on duty as Captain.

“You sure can’t get claustrophobic in this fish bowl,” added her mother, her parents arm in arm and helping each other to walk.

Slowly the “OldGeners” arrived. There was no rush, but the smell of freshly brewed coffee from the cafeteria above tempted the recovering crewmembers to hurry up.

Commander Mars Noble entered helping his mother Suzi, who had said very little since she was revived in the cryogenic chambers two days earlier. As usual, and due to her permanent paralysis below her waist, she did not wear her prosthetic legs, and floated in with the guidance of her son.

VIN Noble was behind them, and Lunar was quite shocked how young he looked compared to his son. Father and son only looked around fifteen years difference in age.

“Guten tag all,” stated Suzi smiling at Lunar while she greeted the Bridge. Suzi was still amazed how all these teenagers she had left only a few days ago, it seemed, had all grown up. Lunar, like Mars and Maggie’s daughter Saturn were now adults, had children of their own, and she felt left out that she hadn’t attended the wedding of her only son to Saturn.

“I think I could work in this Bridge for the foreseeable future,” stated VIN looking around in awe. “And this is your domain son?” he asked Mars.

“Well for the time being, and until you want to fight me for the position of ‘Head of Security’, Dad,” smiled Mars. “The laser command center is far more complicated than you used aboard
America One
, but we could always arm wrestle for it.”

VIN had been told by his son about the loss of Mars’ right arm, the same arm he himself had lost years earlier in the first
Matt
attack on Mars, and like boys, they had inspected each other’s metal right arms to see which one could respond to the mental commands from the brain. Mars’ more modern arm, made only a couple of years earlier down in Nevada, seemed to work better than his father’s, which was two decades old.

Igor was helped in by Jenny Burgos on one side and her older sister Jane on the other. Poor Igor still looked pale and even though he didn’t feel up to it, there was no way he was going to miss the first briefing on the Bridge.

Vitalily and Boris entered together looking like they had just awakened. They marveled at the Bridge, its size and the large view of space.

Allen and Jamie Saunders entered with Michael and Penny Pitt. The astronauts looked better than poor Igor, and all four walked in unattended.

Dr. Rogers and Nurse Martha were helped in by Shelly Saunders and Hillary Pitt. Both medics had been impressed at the medical service they had received from Dr. Nancy’s Personal Assistants, and told the growing group. Dr. Rogers had always been a softy for cakes and Danishes, often present with the pouches of coffee at these meetings, and couldn’t help himself heading over to the area where the snacks were floating on display.

“Sorry, Doc” stated Lunar as she watched Dr. Rogers do his usual thing, helped over by Shelly Saunders “Made on earth, but frozen for the journey. We haven’t really tested the onboard kitchens for fresh cakes.”

Finally the Jones family entered with Max Von Braun, one of the younger “OldGen” mechanics who hadn’t been asleep, and for the first time the young “NextGen” crew could see the real age difference between crewmembers of the same era.

Max, the build crew member who had helped Mars Noble out of his crashed
Matt
spaceship on the red planet helped in his secret buddy Jonesy. They belonged to a secret society aboard ship few knew about.

Jonesy still had trouble controlling his legs, but it looked like they were getting stronger. What was surprising to Mars and Lunar was that Max had been one of the young members of the crew who had headed out in
America One
on the odyssey decades earlier. At that time he had been 35 years younger than Jonesy. Now the age difference had changed to just 20 years, and the crew could easily see the lessor age difference between the two men.

Other than Max, there were none of the OldGeners aboard who hadn’t been to sleep.

Jonesy looked well compared to two days earlier. Saturn, and Max Von Braun, surprisingly to Lunar, ran around the astronaut doting on him like nurses. She had never seen her friend Saturn in this state before. Saturn got him a cup of coffee, then a Danish, then began to look after her mother. Jonesy was then offered a second Danish by Max, and Lunar thought to ask Jonesy what his secret was.

“Crew of Astermine, young, old, and not so old,” joked Ryan as everybody got what they wanted and sat around the Bridge full of crew. “First I want to thank our children, our Astermine children who returned to wake us parents. I want to thank young Max and his crew for looking after our children in our absence. At least we are still loved enough for our kids to come and get us, or, we are really needed down there on earth.”

To Mars Noble, it seemed that Ryan seemed jollier than he had done in the past, and with the more senior members of the crew back he said nothing. Ryan had gone through a lot of personal hell on the red planet before he had gone to sleep.

“It seems that we old fogies have really been asleep for fourteen years. I still can’t believe it, and now understand the surprises on the
Matt
faces when they found a new breed of people looking at them after centuries of sleep.”

“If we had slept any longer, Saturn could have been older than me,” mumbled Jonesy enjoying his coffee.

“Maybe we should have let you sleep another round or two partner,” remarked VIN Noble. “You were always grumpy when you woke up on our mining expeditions.”

Saturn gave her father-in-law a mean stare, and VIN grinned at her and winked. VIN Noble, a Jones expert, wasn’t going to stand for any of the usual Jones family theatricals.

“Thank you, as usual Mr. Jones,” added Ryan. He felt happy. Everybody had survived, it was good to see all the crew at their new ages of maturity, and the sleep must have done him good as he could put up with the Jones circus for a little while longer. “Lunar, that new shuttle,
SB-IV
is fantastic, so is this new mother ship. Kudos to you NextGeners…all of you. I saw a second new shuttle docked when we came in. How many ships does Astermine now have operational?’ he asked his daughter.

“
America Two
,
SB-IV
the shuttle that lifted you off the asteroid, her twin sister
SB-V
which brought up our new build crew last week,
SB-I, II
and
III
,
Astermine I
and
II
, and of course
Asterspace III
,” Lunar replied.