America One: War of the Worlds (48 page)

Saturn stated that the flight crew above them were all standing by and circling, as the two men retraced the ladder back down into the base.

Within ten minutes Mars was leaving the cavern, and VIN headed towards the damage he had done to the base. It wasn’t a pretty sight. A dozen
Matts
were burned and littered around the command center floor with another three badly burned
Matt
bodies who looked much older and heavier than the others by the console.

The only light still on was the blinking door panel light to where the cryogenic chamber was in all the other bases. That meant that the power was still on and the base’s systems still working. Also there wasn’t a globe room in the place it was usually. The melted door a few feet from the destroyed part of the door led straight into the base.

There were outlines of several more what seemed like bodies strewn round in the forward section of the base as he peered through the broken door, and he saw the outline of one the tank-tracked robots waiting for him. The robot disappeared into sparks and the laser beam from VIN’s weapon turned it over on its side, but not before VIN noticed what looked like a tiny weapon the size of a school pencil sticking out of its tiny turret.

Suddenly the walls began to glow again, as if the system was rebooting itself. He checked his suit readout, and it showed little to no atmosphere in the area of the base. That meant that there were no
Matts
alive in the area he was in and he quickly checked the forward part of the base finding no more surprises. He opened the three storeroom doors on the rear wall, and since there was no air, they stayed shut.

None of the
Matts
could enter what was left of the command center, or the cavern, so VIN called it a victory. The base, or what was left of it was theirs, and he checked what worked on the command center’s console before he climbed out of the cavern, leaving the large roof door in the open position.

Chapter 21
 
One Giant Leap for Mankind

That was thirteen months ago, and VIN was now standing in the Blue Room of the White House in a new astronaut uniform the base in Nevada had put together for the occasion.

Twenty of the Astermine crew were also standing around the blue room eating snacks and carrying cups of coffee. It was already midday and lunch was to be served afterwards.

VIN and Suzi were chatting to the President and Vice President of the United States of America, and their spouses while news crews set up around the large room.

“What did you do then?” asked Penelope Pitt, the Vice President. She and her sister, who was standing next to her and the others had just returned from the burial.

Penelope, dressed in black, was in her eighth year as Vice President, and was looking forward to handing over the reins of leadership to the next Vice President.

The cold Washington weather was grey and snowy outside, and the room was aglow with light and conversation, and the warmth was appreciated.

Everybody had just returned from Arlington Cemetery, where four coffins had been lain to rest with full military honors.

It had taken a year to return, and the four members of Astermine were finally laid to rest. General Allen Saunders, Colonel Jamie Saunders, Captain Michael Pitt and Colonel Penny Pitt had been given everything the country could offer to be given in a full military burial.

“There wasn’t much left to do,” replied VIN Noble. “We wanted one of the ships to return to Nevada to figure out its maser system. We returned the other two back into the cavern for protection, and Vitalily and his Russian crew are still there bettering the base for future mining expeditions.”

“And there were no captives, or
Matts
alive?” The President asked VIN.

“We set the blue shields back up on our next visit 24 hours later, Madam President, and even before the atmosphere had returned to the cavern, we flew the two
Matt
ships in and several of us searched the base from top to bottom. The entire base was an exact copy of all the others except that it didn’t have a globe room. Why, there was nobody alive to ask, but there was never a Ceres globe in any of the Mars globe rooms. Maybe they didn’t consider it a planet or something. We know the cryogenic sleep chambers are occupied. We could tell from the operational fusion power system on the base’s third level. Otherwise the base was very short on supplies. Mars and I believed that the resupply of the
Matt
ships heading back to Europa had emptied the base of supplies.”

“And the ships had turned around once your attack as over?” the Vice President asked.

“Max told us 24 hours after the attack,” continued VIN. “The 160 ships had resumed their journey towards Europa. We actually got back into Earth’s orbit at the same time they disappeared around Europa.”

“The news crews are ready, we have 15 minutes” stated a lady coming up to the group.

The ceremony was to be televised throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and several other countries around the world. Martin Brusk and family were there, so was Mary Collins and hers. Mary Collins often wondered what it was like in the White House when her father was President. She hadn’t been born then

There were several world leaders and dignitaries in the Blue Room, and it was certainly a grand affair. The Australian Prime Minister was there, proud of his boys. They were to be given their country’s medals once they arrived back in Australia. Even the Chinese Premier was there as guest of the President, as well as his son, now proudly wearing an Astermine Astronaut-in-Training flight suit.

The hundred people or so sat, the Blue Room settled down, and the Vice President was introduced up to the podium.

“Today, my parents were buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Captain Michael Pitt and Colonel Penny Anne Pitt had given all to their country from their teenage years. Both were former United States Air Force pilots, and both died from direct fire while fighting enemy forces out in the solar system while working for Astermine Co. General Allen Saunders and Colonel Jamie Saunders, former United States Air Force pilots also died in the same fight, and that battle gave us on Earth our first permanent base outside the limits of our planet, on Mars.

“Many astronauts have left our planet for Mars, I being one of those brats, and with my sister we both learned to fly spacecraft, and learned what living in space is all about. I have been to Mars, and Enceladus and Titan. So has our last President of The United States of America, President Joanne Dithers Roo, who gave eight years of her life to lead this country, and now lives on Mars.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” was stated on the lunar surface over 80 years ago by another famous American, Neil Armstrong, who with his competent team of astronauts: Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins was the first man to step on another body in our solar system. My parents also had a good team around them. So did Pluto Katherine and Shelly Saunders’ parents. We all had a fantastic team around us. Thanks to NASA, this country believing in future space travel, and Astermine, one day our children will travel across our solar system with as little thought we in Washington think today of flying to New York.

“Thanks to one man’s dream, one American’s dream to go to space has made this all happen for us and our children. Thanks to Ryan Richmond, born in the State of Nevada, we humans now have the opportunity to travel far and wide, do research, learn outside our borders, and mine other planets and the Asteroid Belt for the minerals and metals we desperately need here on Earth. Thanks to Ryan Richmond, and our crew of 500 living and deceased personnel at Astermine, we humans now have the chance to travel throughout our solar system.

“We already have a base on Mars, and a direct launch on a return flight every two years. We also have a regular flight to the Asteroid Belt and back every two years, to Ceres, where we as a planet can begin mining the asteroids for all the metals we need here on Earth. Thanks to the modern and comfortable Astermine ships, mining companies from around the world can get a ride to Ceres to setup their own mining operations. The United States and NASA, China, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and France have already booked passage for the next Ceres flight seven months from now. Astermine has had over 290,000 queries from individuals and companies wanting to move to Mars, just in the last couple of months.

“Thanks to Astermine, seventeen companies here in the United States join another dozen companies in seven countries building spaceships for the next deployment of humans throughout our solar system. The new infrastructure Ryan Richmond has set up will be a $100 trillion industry in the next decade, all thanks to one man’s dream, and not letting others get in his way. Thanks to many people from around the world believing in this one man’s dream, we as a planet have entered into the space-era of future human existence.

“I would like to ask the President of the United States to join me, and my family, the crew of Astermine to come forward and to be presented with medals, civilian and military for the work they have done for our country, and our planet.”

The President of the United States of America gave out the posthumous medals first—the Air Force Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal to the four recipients’ daughters.

Ryan Richmond received the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. His wife Kathy, also a former USAF pilot received with General John Jones standing on new metal legs, and his wife Colonel Maggie Jones the Air Force Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Many of the recipients were getting the medals for the second time.

Former Marine Lieutenant VIN Noble received the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.

The rest of the Astermine crew, including Suzi Noble, Igor, and Boris received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Both Richmond daughters received this medal, as did Vice President Pitt and her sister Hillary, along with Pluto Jane Saunders, her sister Shelley, Jane and Jenny Burgos, Captain Pete, Dr. Nancy and Dr. Smidt.

A couple more medals were still due to be given out to the crew who were not on Earth that day, and afterwards once the news teams had left they all headed in for an informal White House lunch.

Both Jonesy and VIN were interested in what the fancy drinks the White House would serve them for lunch. It was fancy all right, but they both raised their eyebrows when they were told. Funny enough, everything offered as wine for lunch had been made on Mars, thanks to Suzi.

“I bet we are having chocolate cake for desert,” mused Jonesy loudly slapping his partner on the back.

Epilogue
 
The Martian Club Retreat

The first base built by Astermine on the red planet was reopened on the next visit by
America Two
. An American/Chinese company had leased the base for four years to do research of mostly biological and chemical tests. The team of ten were to be resupplied by
America Two
on the next visit. It was the first time these two countries had worked together for many decades.

Two new members from Martin Brusk’s development headquarters in Silicon Valley joined the team on the second visit by the mother ship two years later with an invited team of four Russian scientists.

Unfortunately, the distance from Mattville was too far for a subway connection, but the base received one of Martin Brusk’s new robotic Planet Hybrid Delivery Craft, or PHDCs with Martin’s two new crewmembers. This electric space-hybrid spaceship the size of a small Cessna was flown by robotic pilots, could fly two crew to Mattville, load up with supplies and return in 24 hours. The supply craft shared one of the two shields as a garage, and both outer blue shields were directly connected to the recently rebuilt and much larger silicone-glass see-through porch on the front of the base.

The outer shields, connected to the porch used much of the stored top soil from the base as a green vegetation area for the biologists and some say raucous parties could have been heard from the outer porch on occasions, if there was a real atmosphere. Nobody knew what being grown inside, or outside on the plateau, but the blue shields were very busy growing all sorts of green stuff.

After four years, the scientists left, their experiments complete, the blue shields remained as a parking area and the base was purchased and turned into the solar system’s first ever “Bed and Breakfast”.

An about-to-be famous thirty-foot long bar was built in the new Porch which gave customers beautiful vistas of the Martian scenery, and the spacecraft detailing service in the parking shields where space travelers often had their windshields cleaned before heading the last few hundred miles into Mattville. It was rumored that The Martian Club Retreat had been purchased from Astermine Co, for one U.S. dollar.

Many also say that a holograph of a well decorated astronaut was the focal point behind the bar. The astronaut was dressed in full space suit attire, with a helmet in the crook of the astronaut’s right arm, and the holograph proudly stared up into the heavens.

There were two graves outside the retreat on the plateau, and one day a holograph of Earth flowers appeared at the head of both graves. The fifty-foot high holograph was so beautiful, visitors enquired about being buried here. Unfortunately it was a private cemetery and public burial access was not allowed.

Even though the cemetery grew around the first two graves, more, even larger holographs appeared over time, the lights from the private burial ground could be viewed from a low orbit, and the cemetery was renamed “The Place of Earth Flowers”.

Over time, the cemetery became enclosed, the holographs were moved outside and inside the expensive and large silicone-glass dome building, a blue shield was installed, a power system was added and atmosphere became a permanent fixture.

Anybody visiting the Retreat’s famous bar could rent a spacesuit and walk through the dozens of holographs of flowers around the building, or aimlessly walk through the gravestones inside, and see the cemetery’s internal blue beauty. “The Place of Earth Flowers” became an added attraction for many a visiting space traveler.