America One: War of the Worlds (8 page)

Finally, the fuel was launched and Jonesy and the rest of the older astronauts were again fighting fit and enjoyed the flights into space.

The time came for the final astronaut briefing. They only had rest for a couple of days before four of the five shuttles were to head back into orbit. It was time for Astermine to return to Mars.

Chapter 5
 
Mission Four to Mars

“Refresh your coffee mugs, ladies and gentlemen, then please sit down, let’s get this show on the road,” shouted Ryan above the usual din of loud-talking astronauts.

Every Astermine astronaut was at the briefing. Even two of the young, third generation pilots-in-training on the simulators had been invited to the first time. Jonesy was the oldest astronaut, Michael Victor Noble at nine, and James Ryan Richmond Price at eight years old the youngest.

Every pilot wore new khaki flight suits given by the United States Marine Corps. Three generals had visited the Nevada base a week earlier arriving in a twenty-year old V-22 Osprey from The Marine Corps Air Station in Camp Pendleton, California.

The three men had brought a couple of dozen Marine Corps flight suits as a gift. They didn’t have small sizes for the third generation, but the girls had got to work on the base and within a few hours the kids in training looked exactly like their older counterparts.

Through the new communication systems now reaching across the United States, the Marine Corps had heard that one of their own had been part of Astermine’s space missions from Day One, and had wanted to meet this soldier.

VIN Noble had chatted to the visitors and had told them what he had done since leaving the Marine Corps decades earlier. They had been impressed and in a ceremony in the conference room had pinned the Distinguished Flying Cross to VIN’s chest. Since he was wearing a real Marine Corps flight suit for the first time in his life, he looked good and Suzi, Mars and young Michael Victor Noble dressed in his new flight suit felt proud.

The three generals had been very interested in VIN’s two metal legs and his metal right arm. They were rather shocked when VIN’s son showed them his metal right arm, and Jonesy could not help but mention that metal seemed to run in the Noble family.

“Let’s get this Mars briefing started,” shouted Ryan as the queue for the coffee urns diminished. His wife Kathy brought him his third cup of the morning, then sat down in the front row. “First off congratulations former Marine Lieutenant Noble on your new medal. It seems that you haven’t been forgotten by the U.S. military. The United States Marine Corps is wanting to work with Astermine on our new robotic soldiers. Lieutenant Noble has been asked to bring one of the robots back from The Martian Club Retreat.”

“What about the cosmic rays, and radiation dangers?” asked Suzi Noble. “Those robots have been outside on the Martian surface for over a decade.”

“About as dangerous as our shuttles sitting outside, in or out of the blue shields,” replied Ryan. “We will encase the robotic soldier in a radiation protective environment for its return flight, and the ground crew will build a new contamination chamber in Hangar One, Suzi. I believe that the transportation of more and more goods from the red planet will need growth in our radiation protective systems, and I have set up a new department here on base to handle the cargo that returns from Mars.”

“It took the gold we returned with on our last flight nearly four weeks, sitting at a far corner of the base, to settle down, and its excessive radiation to vanish before we could actually touch it with our hands,” stated Lunar sitting next to her mother, and her son James.

“We will build a new Mars Cargo Incubation Facility on the north western corner of the base,” continued Ryan. The concrete building will be guarded by robotic soldiers 24/7, and no human will be allowed within one mile, until our robots state it is safe to enter the area. This is what the generals were interested in: how we use robots to do the work of soldiers.”

“Thanks to the Israeli and Australian Air Force’s robotic computer pilot boxes, we human pilots and astronauts will be out of a job pretty soon,” added Jonesy.

“I thought you wanted to go fishing partner?” suggested VIN Noble.

“Well, I do, but I don’t want any metal pilots flying our aircraft,” remarked Jonesy.

“I’m sure that after young James Richmond Price and Michael Victor Noble get their wings, we will be training robots to do all our jobs,” stated Ryan smiling at the room.

“Sounds crappy to me,” added Jonesy. “Maybe I should get a robot to do my flying, and fishing for me, and go and live in a cryogenic box somewhere.”

“Thank you Mr. Jones. Right, our mission, flight commanders and astronauts for Mission Four to Mars,” continued Ryan looking at his notes. “Mission Commander: Astronaut VIN Noble will fly in the lead ship
SB III
.
SB-II
: Astronauts Jane Burgos Flight Commander left seat, Jenny Burgos right seat.
SB-III
: Astronauts John Jones Flight Commander, left seat, Maggie Jones right seat.
SB-VI
: Astronauts Saturn Jones Noble Flight Commander left seat, Mars Noble right seat.
SB-V
: Astronauts Flight Commander Lunar Richmond left seat, Kathy Richmond right seat. Backup Astronauts are Shelly Saunders for
SB-II
, Michael Price for
SB-IV
and myself for
SB-V
. Any questions?”

There were none, but Gary Darwin slapped his partner Michael Price on the back. Michael had always wanted to go to Mars, would be the first Australian on Mars, and naturally he wanted to be with his wife.

“Our
SB-I
Astronauts for delivery of parts to the Orbital Build Station will be under Mission Commander Allen Saunders, and will be Astronauts Jamie Saunders, Michael and Penny Pitt. My daughter Pluto Katherine will be Nevada Base Commander in our absence. Heading out on the Mars Mission with us will be Dr. Smidt, Igor, Boris, Max Von Braun as Head of Build Crew with his crew of two, Vitalily as Head Mechanic with his team of two, Joanne Dithers Roo as Medical Specialist, and of course Ruler Roo, and their two boys Joe and Joot will be the only two children going. That is all, apart for Max Von Braun who is replacing Mars Base Commander Dave Black, who will be returning, and we have Suzi with one of her team of biologists going. The biologist will spend a few years doing food growth research, and will not be returning.

“We are not taking any of the younger members. There is no room, the mission will interrupt their studies, and since this is a fast return mission with only a ten-day deadline on the red planet, our youngsters are staying behind under the guidance of Astronauts Hillary Pitt, and Gary Darwin.”

For two more hours Ryan went on describing everybody’s role on the mission, and back on the base while the crew were away.

The only question on the more experienced lips was what if there was a storm on the planet when they arrived? Ryan couldn’t answer that one.

The briefing ended with a reminder that they were flying space shuttles which were completely full of fuel, and that extra caution had to be taken aboard each ship, and that the shuttles would be flying 25 miles apart, not the usual ten miles, to the red planet. All four shuttles would launch with new parts for
America Three
an hour apart the next morning, as the fuel was already in orbit.

Three days later Jonesy added a full twenty minute burn to
SB-III
which would increase the forward speed by 11,000 knots to allow the shuttle fleet to leave earth’s orbit.

Even though
SB-III
was smaller than the two newer shuttles, VIN Noble was aboard with Suzi. The two smaller shuttles with both cargo areas full of fuel for the return flight, didn’t have much room for more than four in the cockpits. The two larger shuttles had the rest of the crew, nine members squashed into the Captain’s quarter which had been arranged like school dormitories, and filled with beds. To allow everybody to get some rest, there were always two crew on watch in the flight chairs which gave the others room to sleep.

It wasn’t as bad as Jonesy and VIN had dealt with on their first flight to DX2014 in the smaller mining craft
Astermine One
, but it wasn’t much better, and this flight was 145 days long, including one day for planet orbit on either end of the journey.

“Brings back memories, partner,” stated VIN as he watched the shuttle’s nose gradually turn away from its orbit around Earth and begin to move into the nothingness of space.

“Glad we have roomed before” replied Jonesy, “but it is going to be a long flight.”

“And it is a dry flight for a change, darling,” added Maggie. “It is time Ryan curtailed your alcohol consumption while in flight.”

“Maggie, you don’t think these two semi-grown up men haven’t hidden a bottle of something somewhere on this ship?” smiled Suzi. Suzi had taken her leg supports off as soon as they had reached space twenty hours earlier. For her floating around in space, it was far easier to keep her useless legs tied behind her knees, just like Jonesy had had his legs positioned while asleep.

VIN on the other hand always preferred the magnetic floor and being able to “stick” to the floor with his metal feet to get around. For him it felt more stable.

“I looked everywhere,” Maggie replied as the two men flying the ship looked forward, trying to ignore what being said a few feet behind them.

“General John Jones, have you hidden a bottle somewhere?” Maggie demanded.

“We are out of Low Earth Orbit,” stated Jonesy to VIN sitting next to him, and trying hard to ignore his wife. “Speed: 39,990 knots, and heading into the middle of nowhere.”

“General Jones, you had better answer my question, or Suzi and I will rip this shuttle apart,” demanded Maggie again winking at Suzi.

“All shuttles, this is Command Shuttle
SB-III
,” continued Jonesy doing his job. “We have you all in formation.
SB-II
you are 21 miles off our port side, not 25 as the boss ordered. Boss in
SB-V
, you are 26.5 miles from
SB-IV
, and lagging behind by a few knots. Saturn in
SB-IV
, perfect positioning.
SB-II
and
SB-V
, Shake a leg and get into perfect formation so I can lock all craft autopilots to the command ship, over.”

Slowly the shuttles were positioned and Jonesy set the Fleet Autopilot system to where all four ships would stay in formation exactly, and the pilots didn’t need to do anything other than monitor their ship’s progress. The autopilot system controlled thrust, forward speed, direction, and fuel usage to keep all four ships in formation 25 miles apart, at the same speed and made sure that minimal fuel was used.

Any of the ships could disengage the Fleet Autopilot, within a second at any time, and Jonesy could disengage the system just as fast if there was a problem.

“Fleet Autopilot engaged, Forward Speed 41,010 knots and climbing. ETA 144 days and three hours to Mars orbit. You may undo your seatbelts and run around the ship if you want. Astronauts just sit back, relax, and contemplate the lack of alcohol aboard for this dry run, out” stated Jonesy smiling.

VIN smiled at his last remark, knowing to whom it was intended. First it was to Ryan, who had suddenly decided that flying would be done without a sip of something before bed. Second, it was to try and make Maggie forget her last question. He was sure that Jonesy had his stash somewhere, and there was no way VIN himself was going to share his hidden bottle of Indonesian Arrack given to him by Bob Mathews. Arrack had been the closest Bob Mathews had found to Rum, during his fishing travels in the southern hemisphere, and had one extra ingredient to the rums of the northern hemisphere: rice.

Bob had given Ryan, Jonesy, VIN and Mars Noble a bottle each from his “Sundowner Drinks” stock from aboard ship, and VIN was sure that all four bottles were hidden aboard the shuttles somewhere, as the female astronauts had not been told about the gifts. VIN, again smiled thinking that Ryan had the audacity to ban drinking aboard, but the chance was that he had his own bottle aboard somewhere. Maybe Ryan had made it a joke directed at Jonesy.

“Suzi, I honestly think my husband is going deaf,” continued Maggie once Jonesy had closed down the intercom communications.

“Going deaf? I thought he had always been deaf, he certainly acts like it,” VIN’s wife replied with him trying to keep a straight face. “My husband would certainly not break any rules. Maggie, lets watch that old
Gravity
movie from 2014. I quite like that actress, whatever her name was.”

The cockpit aboard
SB-III
had changed somewhat for this journey. Having a team of builders who could change the interior of the shuttles at a moment’s notice was certainly a benefit. The two rear jump seats had been taken out and exchanged for two more comfortable chairs that could turn into sleeper beds with straps for sleep.

Astermine One
, the mining ship had an interior the size of a small mini-van inside the cockpit.
SB-III
was 50 percent bigger. Their luggage was stacked in the small area between the cargo bay door, which was sealed and the rear of the docking port. There were several cubic feet of hanging space and room for bags on top of a 60-day frozen food storage unit. Here was where Maggie was dying to search for Jonesy’s bottle. She would bet her whole pay check to Mars and back that it was stashed inside there somewhere. She was wrong. Both VIN and Jonesy had found new places to keep their luxuries hidden.

Their water supplies were stocked inside the wall of the ship, between the cockpit and forward cargo bay. It had once been a fuel tank, but had been changed into a water tank decades earlier.

On the opposite side of the docking port which was in front of this wall, behind the two rear seat/beds was an upright freezer where 100 days of food supplies were stored, as well as the space toilet and bag bath unit, a separate compartment in the rear corner of the starboard side of the cockpit.