Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (75 page)

CAPCOM, “
Ares
,
you’re looking good at two minutes. 27,664 feet per second. Telemetry and
Canberra tracking are solid.”

“Roger.”

“Wow!”
said Abby. “What was that?”

“Felt
like a thrust increase,” said Jeff. “Gabe?”

“Propellant
Utilization valve fine-tuning the LOX flowrate. Abby, that’s why I said not to
mess with the pitch. It’ll flatten out in a minute.”

“How’d
you know that?” said Abby.

“I can
read.”

“Yeah,
well, I can read too,” Abby said, sounding a little annoyed.

“Yes, I
know you can. The difference is, I remember what I read.”

Abby
chuckled. “Alright, that point’s yours.”

“I’ll
update the scoreboard.”

“What?
Have you been keeping tabs?”

“Yes,
since the day we met.”

“How’m I
doing?”

“Um, it’s
not pretty. Think of it in terms of basketball: Omaha Christian Day School
verses the Celtics.”

“Eeew!
That bad?”

“I’m
afraid so.”

Jeff
laughed. “You’re sounding a bit better.”

“We have
gravity again. I’ve decided I like gravity. Isaac Newton has become my new
BFF.”

“Well,
enjoy it while we’ve got it.”

“I’m
doing just that.”

“I can
see the terminator,” said Abby.

Jeff
glanced at the window. “Already?”

“Yeah,
we’re haulin’ the mail. Sunrise in about a minute and a half.”

CAPCOM, “
Ares
,
Newport, your TMI burn is Go at four minutes. 30,807 feet per second. Everything
looks good.”

“Roger.”

“9 feet
per second off on the H-dot,” said Gabe.

“Close
enough.”

“Sunarise,”
said Abby. “You might not want to look at it. It’s bright.”

Gabe
gasped. “Oh my god!”

“This
sucks,” said Jeff. “Here I am, the commander of this hunk o’ junk, and I’ve got
no window.”

Gabe
chuckled. “That’s because the guys that designed it thought you’d be sitting in
the left seat. See what pragmatism gets you?”

Jeff
laughed. “Okay, I guess you can update our scoreboard too.”

“Already
have.”

“Am I
doing any better than Abby?”

“Sorry.”

“Damn.”

CAPCOM, “
Ares
,
Newport, coming up on six minutes. We’ll give you a mark”

“Roger,
Newport, standing by.”

CAPCOM, “
Ares
,
six minutes and… mark.”

“Roger,
Newport, we concur with your six-minute mark.”

CAPCOM, “Roger. We’re showing 35,105 feet per second
and, uh, cutoff looks to be nominal.”

“Roger.
How are we looking, Gabe?”

“About 14
feet per second slow, but altitudes perfect. Couldn’t be much better.”

“Roger.
Abby?”

“Right in
the crosshairs.”

“Works
for me.”

CAPCOM,
“Uh,
Ares
, Newport, at 6 plus 47, we’d like to welcome you to the record
books. 36,364 feet per second. You just broke Apollo 10’s human speed record.”

Jeff
chuckled. “
Ares
, roger. Our apologies to Stafford, Young and Cernan, but
there was no way around it.”

CAPCOM,
“Roger.”

“Well,
that’s kind of cool,” said Abby. “Higher, faster, farther.”

“Yeah,
well, I think we’re gonna break all of those… and then some.”

“Yeah.”

“0.8
g’s,” said Gabe.

“Roger,”
said Jeff. “Nice ride. Almost comfortable.”

“Yes.
Sure beats lift-off.”

“Another
couple billion tons of fuel, and we could do this all the way there.”

Gabe
giggled. “Yeah, we’d just need a booster the size of Nebraska.”

“Cutoff!”
yelled Abby.

“Cutoff!”
yelled Jeff.

“It’s
already shutdown.”

“Yeah, I
know, but you said to yell it. You didn’t specify whether or not it was already
shutdown.”

“Oops.
Sorry. Thanks.”

“You’re
welcome.”

CAPCOM, “
Ares
,
Newport, we have your cutoff. 38,421 feet per second.”

“Roger,
Newport. Gabe?”

“Jesus!
Beautiful. Delta-V
_r
is 12,901 feet per second. I could kiss that
engine.”

“Uh,
yeah, you might want to wait for it to cool down a bit.”

“Probably
a good idea.”

Jeff
unlocked and raised his visor, then grasped Gabe’s and Abby’s hands and held
them down between the seats where Susan could grab hold. “Well, we’re on our
way.”

“Oh dear
god,” said Gabe.

“I didn’t
think you believed in God.”

“Given
where we are, what I see out the window, and where we are headed, I’m inclined
to think it may be time to revisit that issue.”

Jeff
chuckled. “Amen.”

CAPCOM, “
Ares
, Newport.”

“Yeah,
Newport, go ahead.”

CAPCOM,
“We’re showing post-insertion fuel remaining in the EDS as 6,580 pounds of O
₂
and 1,196 pounds H
₂
. In the event of MOI abort, swing-by and return,
that should be more than enough to get you back.”

“Roger.”

Susan
sighed aloud. “Whew! That’s comforting.”

“Yeah.
Though the thought of eighteen and a half months in space isn’t.”

“No.”

“Uh,
Newport,
Ares
, how’s the mood down there?”

CAPCOM,
“Yeah,
Ares
, um… wow, sort of a combination of awe, joy, and disbelief.
At the moment I think most of us are kind of numb.”

“Roger,
we know the feeling. Okay, well, as you know, we have a lot of housekeeping on
the schedule for today, and the next few. We’re gonna get moving on all that
right now and, um, we’ll try and get settled enough to get the video conference
up tomorrow morning. I dunno, say around 0700, 0800 your time, whenever you can
get a Canberra antenna on us. How’s that sound?”

CAPCOM,
“Roger,
Ares
, sounds fine. We’re anxiously looking forward to seeing and
chatting with you, but we know you have a lot to do. Take your time – we know
it’s been a busy morning – and we’ll see you when we see you.”

“Roger, Newport. Sue and I are gonna get started in
the Sundancer as soon as I can get the hatches back open, Abby’s gonna start on
the Cruise checklist, and Gabe’s gonna get a star fix, I think.”

CAPCOM,
“Roger.”

Gabe
nodded. “As soon as you’re out of the way.”

Jeff
smiled. “On my way. How you holding up?”

She
shrugged. “I dunno. Like Chrissie said, kind of numb. It’s kind of like a
surreal dream and I keep thinking that any moment I’m gonna wake up.”

“Yeah.
Well, if you do, be sure and wake me up,” he grinned, “cause I’m having the
same dream.”

“I’ll do
that.”

“Alright,
to work.”

#

Jeff
chuckled at the sight of Susan floating in the Sundancer, hunched over
attempting to remove her boots.

“Um,
would you like some help with that?”

“Yes,
please.”

He
grabbed the truss, pulled over to her, took hold of a leg and held it, locked
under his arm, while he fiddled with the boot. Both finally removed and stuffed
in a bag, he took her by the waist and spun her around. “Alright, let me undo
the back.” He unzipped and unsealed the back of Susan’s suit, then held it
open. “Okay, stick your butt through, grab your collar and pull your head
through. Once she got her head through the neoprene collar, Jeff reached into
the suit, wrapped his arm around her waist, grabbed her collar for leverage,
and pulled her out the back of suit.

“Whew!
Thank you.”

“You’re
welcome. Your turn.”

Susan
repeated the process on Jeff, and eventually both floated in their coolant
undergarments, panting at the effort.

Jeff shook his head. “As I recall,
this was a lot easier in the pool.”

“Yes, but we only had the one suit
to practice with, and it was big enough for you. I could swim in and out of
it.”

Jeff laughed. “Yeah.”

“And we had more hands.”

He pulled a vacuum-packed plastic
bag containing coveralls, underwear, soft booties, and some personal hygiene
items from beneath a couple thin bungee cords and passed it to Susan. “Yours.”

She grinned, sheepishly. “Thanks.
Um, I’m just going to slip over to the other side here and take care of some,
uh, personal business.”

“Yeah, roger that.” Jeff removed
his coolant garment and cast it adrift in the Sundancer. That, along with his
launch/entry suit, would drift about for a day allowing moisture to evaporate
before they were packed away in a locker in the command module, as they
wouldn’t be needed again for seven months. He then opened his own clothing bag
and removed everything. Into the empty bag went his absorbency undergarment and
the wet wipes he used to clean up. Rather than contribute further to the
already vast amount of human space junk floating about in the solar system,
their non-recyclable waste items would be packed away in the storage module
and, along with the EDS, jettisoned prior to orbital insertion to eventually
become just another Martian impact crater. On the other hand, if they decided
to abort the landing, the trash would be dumped prior to the swing-by burn. In
time, Mars’ gravity would pull it in and it would incinerate on atmospheric
entry.

Gabe came in. “Well, that looks a
lot more comfortable.”

Jeff grinned. “It is.”

“Got a good fix. We’re right on
course, but about 12 feet per second fast. Small matter, we’ll adjust for it
during the first course correction burn.”

“Excellent.”

“Chrissie relayed an email they
received from Gene Cernan.”

“Really? Wow. What’d he have to
say?”

Gabe smiled softly, took off her
glasses, and wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. “He said, ‘47 years is
long enough, it’s about damn time somebody broke that record. May the stars
rise up to meet you and the solar wind be always at your back. Godspeed and
safe voyage.’”

Jeff took her hand. “Oh god, that’s
nice. He’s one of the giants in whose footsteps we walk.”

She nodded.

“How’s Abby doing?”

“Fine. She’s wading through the
checklist. I’m gonna change and then take over for her.”

“Okay, good. Come on, I’ll help you
out of your suit.”

 Wednesday, March 23,
2016 (T plus 19 hours, 23 minutes)

CAPCOM, “
Ares
, Newport,
radio check through Canberra.”

Jeff keyed his mic. “Loud and
clear, Newport. How me, over?”

CAPCOM, “This is Newport, we have
you five by five. If you’re ready, can you come up on S-band?”

“Yeah, roger, we’re all set, I
think. Hang on a second.” Jeff drifted over to the video monitor and camera,
switched them on, and switched transceivers. “They’re ready for us.”

Gabe, Abby and Susan joined him in
front of the display.

“Uh, Newport,
Ares
, how do
you read on S-band?”

Chrissie’s smiling face appeared on
the video monitor.

CAPCOM, “There you are! Good
morning! Reading you loud and clear,
Ares
, and have a good solid
picture.”

“Hey Chrissie, great to see you.
How is everyone in Newport this morning?”

CAPCOM, “Everyone’s great. Hang on
a second and let me switch to the room cam.”

A moment later an image of the
entire MCC appeared. Every console was manned and the back of the room was
packed with a crowd that flowed out the doors and disappeared into the hall.

Jeff laughed. “Good grief, who all
have you got there?”

CAPCOM, “Uh, everybody, I think.
And all their friends and relatives.”

“Well, it’s great to see you all.
Never knew we were so popular. And good morning to you from 160,000 miles in
space.”

Jeff and the crew heard a huge
cheer, applause, and a lot of ‘good morning’s. They waved at the camera,
smiling.

CAPCOM, “That pretty well sums up
the mood here. I’m going to try and maintain control over this herd of cats.
Obviously there are a thousand questions, but I thought I’d ask some of the
more basic ones and then turn over to mic to a few others. If that’s alright
with you?”

“Yeah, Chrissie. Sure. Go ahead.”

CAPCOM, “Okay. First off, how are
you feeling?”

Jeff nodded toward the camera. “All
in all, good. But, um, I think we’re all pretty tired. Yesterday was a long day
and none of us slept well last night, and little if any sleep the night before.
Sleeping in space is going to take a bit of getting used to and I think we’ll
all be taking a few naps over the next week or two. Gabe had a wee bout of
space sickness when we arrived in orbit yesterday, and we’ve all had a few
moments of queasy stomach, but that seems to be passing. We had a light supper
last night and a, uh, nice breakfast this morning, though I think we’ll all be
a lot happier once we can get things assembled and dig out our kitchen and do
meals up proper. But, as I said, we’re doing fine. I think we’ll be doing a lot
better in a few days once the Sundancer’s interior is outfitted and we can, um,
get into a regular routine. For the time being it’s, uh, still kind of an
unsettling environment.”