Buck Rogers- A Life in the Future

by Martin Caidin

  "Yes, sir," Buck replied. "But Colonel Deering—"

  "Keep the names short, please. Every second could count in battle."

  'Tes, sir. Wilma's the old hand with the fighters."

  "She's more than that. She has six years of combat behind her, and that makes her one of the best." She studied Buck. "I understand you took her down in your last training session."

  "Lucky break," Buck demurred.

  "No way," Wilma broke in. "He did some of the damnedest flying I've ever seen. One moment I had him dead to rights, and the next second I was glowing from nose to tail with photon spray. If he'd been using the disintegrator ray, my ship would have been junk."

  "You'll have to tell me about that maneuver sometime, but not now. Your question first. We have a modified thermonuclear gener-

  A Life in the Future

  ator and a variable force field for thrust. The thermo system is pretty standard, but we don't use anything like a reactor or those atomic piston jobs so many other ships have. We feed a wire—it's about two inches thick—of lithium hydride mixed with a quark entrapment. The wire feeds into the thrust chamber, where it's bombarded by a subatomic disrupter. In that chamber, the stuff undergoes a constant, very powerful detonation. This is ejected from the aft thrusters—we have the same thrusters forward, as well—at tremendous velocity. For maximum drive, we use a magnetic bottle to squeeze down the orifice for thrust ejection."

  "Is that variable?"

  "Until we're nine-tenths of the way there, when lunar gravity becomes dominant and starts drawing us in, accelerating all the time."

  "That's that moment when you stop going up and start going down," Buck announced.

  "Hey, not bad for a space cadet."

  "If we worked propulsion all the way, without inducing several g-loads, how long would it take to reach the moon in this tub?"

  "Two or three hours. Certainly not three or four days. We'd thrust all the way out, then decelerate a short distance in. It's all a matter of playing the energy like a violin. We've got so much power now, and almost limitless fuel supply with the new drive, that fuel and time constraints are old history."

  "Our probes to Mars under the best conditions took about eight months," Buck noted. "How long with Speedboat?'"'

  "If you wanted to get there as fast as possible?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Measure the trip in hours. But we'd really be hauling through both acceleration and deceleration."

  "I like the new way best," Buck admitted. "The old way, you had to drift like a cork in a gravity stream, losing speed almost all the way."

  "Welcome to the future. Brigadier Rogers."

  Buck watched, fascinated, as the computer drew them in toward their landing moonport. Even from far out in space, he

  Buck Rogers

  saw clearly the five-starred landing grid, marked by dazzling strobes. The flight crew worked quietly and efficiently, one pilot always with his hand on the thruster controls in case of an autopilot screwup. It didn't happen. Everything went as scheduled. They used forward thrusters to decelerate and level off in relation to the lunar surface, and the power grids broadcast their microwave beams to steady the ship. Inertron activation came next, and they worked the antigrav system and energy beams with exquisite control as Speedboat lowered magically to the landing port. The cruiser settled neatly into her landing cradle.

  Buck stayed glued to the observation bow, looking at the long line of huge domes beneath which the permanent lunar personal lived, worked, farmed and maintained a major mining operation. The surface of the moon was rich in helium 3, a rare atomic isotope a thousand times more efficient in thermonuclear reactors than any other fuel, which produced gobs of energy without any radioactive or toxic waste byproducts.

  Off to his right ran the long maglev and electrical propulsion systems for firing loads of helium 3 in sealed containers off the moon. Why waste tons of fuel when electric drivers would do the job at a fraction of the cost in energy and money? The bulk carriers, like sealed railroad cars, accelerated to tremendous speed along the lunar surface. Suspended above the energy rails, they never had to contend with direct friction, and in the vacuum of the lunar surface, they whipped into high speed. The upward-angled rails shot the precious materials off into space in a curving line earthward. There they were snared by microwave beams, decelerated by an antigrav force beam, and lowered gently directly to the main energy plants scattered throughout fortified centers of Amerigo. In an unwritten agreement between the Han and Amerigo leaders, neither side interfered with the other's fuel source deliveries. It was one small step in working together instead of battling each other at every turn.

  '"Unfortunately," as Commander Regina Blackwell observed, "it's more of a sop than any real attempt to work out our differences. But when you're starving for calm and peace, a sop is better than nothing."

  Her words were prophetic.

  Blackwell had mentioned the great asteroid orbiting their home planet, but outward bound from Earth, Buck had seen no

  A Life in the Future

  sign of anything that spanned a diameter of eighty miles and weighed trillions of tons. Ancient lunar flights required first entering Earth orbit, checking all flight parameters, and then igniting upper rocket stages for the final thrust to the moon. Speedboat just went up and away.

  Seeing the dim glow of the asteroid from the Earth's surface at night hadn't made much impression on Buck. The night sky was a constant sparkling and splashing of colors as satellites and spacecraft left or returned to Earth. Now he had the chance and the time to find out just how ominous was that dark body that had become a second moon of his home planet.

  Wilma took him to the high observation control center of the lunar city. Buck had direct telescopic observation of the object to see the lights and constant activity on its surface, as well as the jets of flame from ships working in the area. On the computer holo display were all the numbers relating to distance, size, makeup, content, and purpose of what the Han and Mongols called Luo Wengui, in honor of the ancient White Horse Tibetans, a lesser band of natives in the Mongol mountain country known to be their fiercest warriors.

  "It's virtually a civilization unto itself The only gravity it has is from its own mass. It's obviously in free-fall orbit about the Earth," Wilma said.

  "It's Mongol?"

  "Brought here about two hundred years ago at tremendous expense—and loss of life as well—by what's known as the Great Asian Trio—Han, Mongol and Japanese. They used mass drivers, including funneled thermonuclear explosions, to break it free of its orbit in the asteroid belt. When it neared Earth, they went into a steady deceleration, swung it into an elliptical orbit, and then slowly circularized the orbit until it was geosynchronous."

  "That would be over twenty-two thousand miles?"

  "Close enough. It's been there all this time. They use it as a way station for ships leaving for Mars and the asteroid zone or farther out. It's got communications systems for all their countries, a crazy kind of comsat. Nobody needs something like that."

  "Then—why?"

  "Buck, it's the ultimate Sword of Damocles. Installed within the asteroid itself are explosive mass drivers to decelerate that thing if they ever wanted to do that. If the balance of power ever

  Buck Rogers

  swung completely to our side, this is their guarantee of bringing all conflict to an end. The Japanese call it the ultimate samurai sword. It would kill everybody if they ever broke it free of orbit and rammed it downward into the planet. It would destroy every last vestige of civilization."

  "I don't get it," Buck objected. "Why doesn't Amerigo hit it first? We've got bombs powerful enough to blow that thing into little chunks."

  Wilma shook her head. "The big threat is that the Mongols might decelerate it out of orbit, then drive it downward. A finale to end the world, so to speak. If they detect an all-out attack on the asteroid, that might just trigger that kind of reaction. But let's say we did what y
ou suggested. All the pieces, large and small, would mostly remain in orbit, except that so much debris would be thrown out that the Earth would be subjected to a massive wave of meteorite strikes. It would be like slinging hydrogen bombs at one another." Wilma shook her head. "No, there's got to be some other way. In the meantime, the asteroid is a death star to all of us on Earth, while the main contest goes on far from here, on Mars and in the asteroid zone. They've discovered elements in that zone the likes of which we never imagined." Wilma paused. "Buck," she said seriously, "it would even open the door to star flight."

  There was no need to answer that remark. It was left unspoken by Wilma, but the secret drive of the Tiger Men and the Golden People of Mars might also hold the keys to faster-than-light travel through space.

  Chapter 21

  Buck's time on the moon proved to be distressingly brief. He and Wilma were called to a security communications center deep within the lunar base that connected directly by ultra-high microwave frequency to Amerigo headquarters in Niagara. They looked about them to see Commander Regina Blackwell, the Speedboat flight crew, and several strangers. It didn't take more than one look to realize that these men and women weren't space pilots. Their gear, weapons, and even their individual stance told volumes about them.

  The last time Buck had encountered such a group was when he had been assigned as a forward coordinator to a combination team of SEALS and Air Commandos in a lightning-strike blow at a hidden Syrian encampment in Central America. They went in from the air and from beneath the ocean surface, and in a devastating strike, the special warfare teams decimated the Syrian defenders. Like most such battles of this kind, neither government made official comment about the event.

  Now gathered here on the moon were the team leaders of such a strike force. There was no question that they were being assembled, along with Speedboat and her complement of Asp fighters, for an important mission. Where, how, what, and when were questions Buck and Wilma would find out at the briefing.

  Buck Rogers

  It didn't take long. The microwave-beam signals from Earth came alive on large flat television screens for data display and holographic projections from Niagara. Buck and Wilma nudged one another as they recognized Commodore Kevin "Killer" Kane and Admiral Frank Bemis, the latter the commander of the Very Heavy Spacecraft Fleet, the dreadnoughts of Amerigo's space force. There were other faces not known to them, but it would all come together in the next several minutes.

  Vice President Charlotte Hasafi appeared in a hologram in the room's center. She turned slowly, surveying everyone gathered in the briefing room and giving them the opportunity to see her clearly. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am not part of your briefing, but I will present a review of circumstances and give you some background that will place your special mission in perspective. For those of you who already know what we face, please be patient. There are others to whom much of this information will be completely new."

  As she spoke, her form disappeared, to be replaced by scenes of Earth floating in space. Then this, too, faded away and Venus came into view.

  "Let me get right to the main issue we face, which often is obscured by both coincidence and deliberate obfuscation. In the very long run for our nation, even for our planet, our great hope is that one day we shall be able to terraform the planet Venus and make it a hospitable habitat, a new world for all mankind. That is a goal not shared equally by all governments on Earth. We are bound by conflicts that have drained the national energies of many peoples. Time is starting to run out.

  "No doubt most of you have accepted the planet Mars as the next major world for us. But at its best. Mars is limited in what it provides and even more so in what it can support. The planetary data are known to us all—lack of solar radiation for heat, lack of atmospheric protection against subatomic particles, a weak gravity to retain atmosphere. Much smaller than Earth, Mars still encompasses a land area as great as that of Earth, but it is all frigid desert. So for now, put Mars aside in your thinking. It is a stopgap world which one day we may be able to transform to meet future needs. The operative word is 'may.'

  A Life in the Future

  "Venus is our great hope. Those of you famihar with the debit side of Venus are aware of its searing temperatures, its crushing atmosphere, its slow rotation. It's a hfeless world, thick with poisonous gases in the atmosphere. In many respects, the fledgling Earth was in much the same condition. Unfortunately, we do not have billions of years to wait for nature to redress Venus's negative aspects. We must act on our own.

  "That program is already under way. It is undertaken at great risk, because we expended energy, manpower, and material for Venus that stripped our military strength on Mars. For two centuries, we have poured algae into the Venusian atmosphere to feed on carbon dioxide and introduce water vapor into the upper atmosphere. It has not yet rained on Venus, but we have achieved breaks in the upper clouds, and the percentage of moisture has climbed from virtually zero to several percent. Oxygen surely will follow.

  "All this, however, is not enough. Venus is cursed with a slow rotation that brought on its devastating greenhouse effect of an atmosphere a hundred times more dense than that of Earth, and a surface temperature averaging nine hundred degrees.

  "The only way we can terraform Venus into a world that will safely harbor mankind is to speed up its rotation from the present Venusian day of 243 Earth days. It is retrograde in rotation, which presents no problem except that we must speed up that rotation by more than two hundred and forty times. That will give us severe turbulence in the atmosphere, but it will also establish an Earthlike weather engine on that planet. That will be the beginning.

  "As yet, we do not have the capability to apply the enormous power to make this possible. The Tiger Men of Mars do have that capability. Their enormous energy drivers are sufficient for the task at hand. That is the immediate problem. The Tiger Men cooperate with the Mongol forces. Having survived their own catastrophe when their sun was about to explode, the Tiger Men are harsh realists. They will side with the winners in the conflict between us and the Mongols. If we reverse that situation, they will lean toward cooperation with us.

  "I will now reveal what some of you know from your own experience, but many of you do not. Most of the minor battles and conflicts in recent years on Earth and the moon, and even

  Buck Rogers

  throughout the mining outposts in the asteroid zone, have been controlled engagements, quite limited in scope. We have been content with this situation because it has drawn attention away from our plans for Venus, and the Mongols, with the Tiger Men as their allies, know that they alone possess the energy drivers for the stupendous task of speeding up the Venusian rotation.

  "Neither we nor the Mongols have major forces on Mars, but what is there is very powerful. The space dreadnoughts of Amerigo are closely matched with those of the Mongols. Where we have an edge is in our smaller, swifter, more maneuverable fighters, and the Speedboat light cruiser with its tremendous speed. The Mongols feel secure behind their defenses and big guns. They are stolid, and they have for too long a time let down their guard. They regard us with contempt as a fighting force.

  "We must change all that. The battle must be swift and decisive. We must give no quarter to the enemy. His destruction or surrender is the least we can accept. We know what the Tiger Men will do when the fighting is over, and that is to side with the victors. None of us know if they will fight alongside the Mongols. They are a race much older than we, and they consider the conflicts of war to be irresponsible.

  "But they are aware we have all banished the use of nuclear weapons. We are not seeking the destruction of Mars, but the sapping of Mongol strength and their current position of superiority. Remember this: The Mongols have an inheritance of survival in fierce and harsh environments. The Gobi Desert has long been their testing ground.

  "But in their contempt for the forces of Amerigo, they have forgotten that we, too, emerged from great battles in desert
lands. We fought the American Indians across vast plains, through the Great Painted Desert, through Monument Valley, and up and down Death Valley. We fought battles in the Mexican deserts. We powered our way through North Africa in the second great world war, demonstrated a swift killing machine in the Gulf War, and shattered the Iranian strongholds wherever we found them. The Antarctic expeditions witnessed our triumphs, and in the frozen deserts of Canada, we held superior Mongol forces to a standstill. There is no shortage of courage or skill on

  A Life in the Future

  our part. Mars is one more desert. I expect all of you to carry on a long tradition of meeting the enemy and either forcing his capitulation or bringing on his destruction.

  "May God be with you in your endeavors."

  In a blink of an eye, the holographic image vanished.

  The assembled crews separated to pair off with other men and women with whom they would serve as teams to engage the enemy. Buck had already met with Commander Regina Black-well of the swift cruiser Speedboat.

  "Commander, I understand we have twenty-two Asp fighters on board, and that you plan to send these out to engage the Mongol Zhang fighters in pairs."

  Blackwell nodded. "What's your point, Rogers?"

  "I believe, based on past experience and new maneuvers Colonel Deering and I have developed, that it would be far more effective if we engaged the enemy in an open or running fight not with two Asps, but with a finger-four formation. It provides greater firepower, breakaway maneuvering room, and protection from Tail-End Charlie for the rest of the group."

  Blackwell leaned back in her chair. "Rogers, some of what you say might make sense if I could only figure out what the devil you're talking about. Now, cut to the quick and update me."

  "Yes, sir," Buck said, grinning. "It's more like postdate than update. There was a time in the Second World War when Germany and England were battling it out in the air over the English Channel and England itself. The Germans mostly flew the Emil, their Messerschmitt Me-109E, against what was considered the best fighter plane of its day, the British Spitfire.