America One - The Launch

by T I WADE

  Forty-eight hours later, the Earth-Exit jet arrived, the same Gulfstream V, this time with only three crew members on board. He gave the chief pilot a small, fifty-pound wooden crate to give Martin for the loan of the aircraft. Ryan’s men loaded another twenty small wooden crates aboard, each weighing 50 pounds, and placed them evenly along the floor of the Gulfstream. Two of Ryan’s scientists, one of the older Russian employees and a European scientist boarded the jet to travel with the load to Amsterdam.

  Heavier than when the jet arrived, it took off bound for Bermuda, where it would be refueled for its flight into Amsterdam, and throw anybody watching off the scent.

  Ryan waited and seven hours later, his cell phone rang. It was his second “best friend,” Tom Ward.

  “Ryan, Tom Ward, Central Intelligence Agency. We noticed that an aircraft left your airfield and has just landed in Bermuda. Can you enlighten us as to its flight schedule?”

  “Of course, Tom. If you can keep this to yourself, I will let you know about a special surprise Astermine has for the White House.”

  “I’m all ears, Ryan.”

  “We had a large diamond arrive in the last consignment.”

  “Diamonds! I thought you guys were mining the platinum metals?” Ward responded.

  “Yes, but you never know what your robots will find up there. Our computers have recorded that an MMA in our unmanned craft showed pure carbon and what we think a volcanic diamond passing through the detection system up there. It is about one quarter the size of Cullinan I, or you might know it as ‘The Star of Africa’. It is on the British Royal Scepter.”

  Tom Ward acknowledged that he knew about the diamond.

  “I thought this diamond would be a great gift to the White House. The first diamond ever found in space. So I’ve sent one of my team to check out the companies in Amsterdam who could cut and polish it.”

  “Why would you want to donate a diamond to the White House?” Tom Ward asked.

  “Donation, Tom, first word; second word, taxes. Ready for the first phrase Tom? Something of real value for future American history, and for the American people. The first ever space diamond.”

  The call ended.

  “Well that got our 1,000 pounds of platinum, or $20 million out of the country for one more launch,” Ryan reported to his team. “I’m glad we didn’t allow all our imports to be checked by the government agents. They still owe me $130 million and they don’t seem very interested in paying at the moment. Plus, I think we may get an actual visit from Air Force One pretty soon.

  ****

  Kathy Pringle and Allen Saunders flew the next shuttle into low orbit three days later, Allen on his maiden space flight. He was totally shocked by how precisely and accurately these small shuttles flew into space.

  After completing two orbits they met up with the incoming shuttle, the Cloaking Device was switched on, and they flew upwards towards Ivan’s orbit.

  Kathy was pretty sad leaving ground that morning. Ryan had invited her to have dinner in his bungalow two nights earlier. Over a gorgeous meal of Wahoo steaks and champagne, something had awakened inside both of them. The loneliness of their past decades boiled up inside them, and Kathy didn’t leave the bungalow for thirty-six hours; nor did Ryan, for the first time since the airfield started operations. It made many scientists nervous as they waited for the boss to arrive and give orders for the day.

  A relaxed and smiling Ryan entered Hangar One late the second afternoon and sat in a dream world while everybody worked around him.

  He was also sad as he watched the C-5 takeoff with the new interest in his life, the co-pilot of the shuttle inside her cargo bay.

  Seventy two hours after he watched the takeoff, the shuttle reached Ivan; an hour earlier his man arrived back in the Gulfstream from Amsterdam.

  ****

  Astermine Three was connected to the new docking bay on the cube. Over the last several weeks, the new space station had moved slightly, pulling Ivan several feet away from the exact orbit behind the communications satellite; it had to return to its original position and the new spacecraft’s thrusters and extra fuel did just that.

  Michael, VIN, Suzi and Fritz had worked as a team for the last three days, completing the cube’s docking port. Ivan could now be attached to the second newly operational docking port once the shuttle returning to earth freed up Ivan’s center port. From then on both stations were to be connected permanently and soon access to a far larger livable hole in space would be available to everyone.

  Bill Wither’s idea worked. The third cargo bay on Astermine One was opened, air filled the cargo bay from the shuttle’s air reserves, and the large floating net was filled with hundreds of diamonds. The second cargo bay had even more diamonds, and three more nets were filled collecting the diamonds from the third hold.

  Afterwards, the twelve canisters with cargo in Astermine One were moved into Sierra Bravo I’s hold and three of the four nets were placed inside to keep within the four-ton reentry load limit. The second Silver Bullet, Sierra Bravo II, would return to earth three days later. Hiding with its Cloaking Device, it would carry the cargo from Astermine Two.

  There were still sixteen of the full aluminum canisters tied around the cube from the first mining venture to DX2014, and would return with the first upcoming shuttle; Ryan wanted all the treasure down before the Senate voted on taxing his imports.

  Chapter 8

  Diamonds by the thousands

  Ryan was anxious to get as much cargo as possible safely down on his airfield before the Senate decided on the bill to tax imports of space metals. The bill passed by Congress was the “Space Precious Cargos Bill.”

  His first shuttle entered as usual, from the west and during the early afternoon. This one had a few of the large diamonds in the one canister VIN had found on the asteroid before the breakup.

  The sunny afternoon, hot and dry, enveloped the astronauts as they were helped out of the side of the cockpit.

  Jonesy was the weakest. This trip, with far less gravity, had sapped his strength. Having spent most of his time in low gravity, he needed help to walk towards the operations center. Maggie was in a slightly better shape and, VIN using his metal legs, seemed the fittest of the three.

  Three hours later they held a briefing in Hangar One.

  “It seems that your rock, Ms. Sinclair, the one you call Diamond One is going to come pretty close to earth in about eight weeks,” said Ryan.

  “I hope we had nothing to do with its breakup,” Maggie replied looking pale and thin.

  Ryan explained that there was absolutely nothing they could have done to cause the asteroid to break apart. He and his chief scientists had discussed the facts, and he explained to his crew much of what they already knew. ”I have the scientists going through the diamonds while we speak. I need to somehow buy some more time, so I have decided to give the president a diamond, the first one to ever come out of space. I’m renting a jet out of San Diego to take the diamonds to Europe to get them graded and valued. One of the diamonds will be given to the U.S. government as a gift; the first ever diamond mined in space.”

  “The first one VIN found was one of the prettiest,” suggested Maggie.

  “No, that soccer ball-sized one, the third one I think, was the clearest and had more fire than all the others I found,” asserted VIN.

  “That size stone must be at least 1,000 carats,” Ryan suggested.

  As he said that several scientists knocked and entered with what they thought was the best of the returned cargo.

  “The extremely large one, the one Mr. Noble must have found just before the breakup, is not in this load. I’m sure it will be on the next flight. Mr. Richmond, this one we believe is the right one to give to Washington; the largest and best one of the two dozen tennis ball size diamonds. It is unbelievably clear and looks flawless. I don’t even think a master cutter could find a place to cut it.”

  “How many carats do you estimate it has?” Ryan asked. />
  “The Cullinan I, the Star of Africa is colorless, much like this one,” the European scientists explained in the same accent Suzi had, German. “The Star of Africa has a pear-shaped cut and, weighing 530.20 carats, it is the largest of the Cullinan diamonds. I believe this one is between 600 to 650 carats. If this brilliant stone doesn’t need to been cut in parts, just polished, I believe that it is the diamond you are looking for.”

  “Good. The jet is arriving in an hour; keep this diamond separate. I want every other diamond put into the crates, and I want them at the cutters in Holland before the government wants to see what we brought back to earth. Also, crate up all of the rhodium or platinum rocks we have in storage. I want this airfield clear of treasure. I want everything on this flight and out of here.”

  “Are all these diamonds going to be cut and polished?” asked Maggie.

  “Yes, this company in Holland has several experts ready to receive our stones and, hopefully, we will have a diamond to present to the president within a month. Why?”

  “I have this little one here I fell in love with, and I’m hoping Mr. Jones here might want to offer it to me one day.” She pulled the small, pure white rough diamond out of her pocket and put it on the table.

  Ryan smiled. “Ms. Sinclair, since you all did risk your lives to return with more bounty than I could ever wish for, I’m sure that I can arrange that for you.”

  “Great,” added VIN. “I just happen to have this one that found its way into my pocket,” he added, taking out a small diamond about the same size as Maggie’s. It was the second one I caught in space with my hand, and I would like it polished and made into a ring for Suzi.”

  “I should get out more, instead of being the pilot the whole time,” remarked Jonesy. “I’m the only guy here with pockets empty of treasure. Side-gunner position seems a lot more lucrative business than pilot these days.”

  “It seems that diamond rings are the order of the day,” added Ryan. I think I will get a few made into rings. It looks like we all might need them.” Ryan handed over the two stones to be packed separately for travel. Also, his crew didn’t know about his own new relationship. “To get back to business, it has taken our whole team of 100 personnel, here in Hangars One and Two, three hours to photograph and pack each diamond just from this load alone; each of the 987 stones is packed in a separate pouch. We still have more to come in two days when Ms. Pringle and Mr. Saunders return to earth.” Maggie and Jonesy looked at Ryan inquisitively.

  “Mr. Noble, we are enacting your plan. Beginning next week, and once we are ready to show the world a small part of our diamonds, I will make public that we now have our second shuttle on test flights. Our Silver Bullet III is still four weeks away from its maiden flight. I have also decided to arm it with the first laser gun.”

  “May I assume that SB-III will be able to fire at any unwanted here in Nevada at the airfield, once she in orbit?” asked Jonesy. “I want to be around when you burn a hole in Bishop’s little white jet.”

  “Yes, it means that we can defend ourselves. I would hate to ever use them apart from the initial job the lasers are meant for, to burn into rock to make caverns for future underground bases. Our main thoughts on permanent space habitation are they will be underground. My original idea was to use lasers as a mining instrument to burn deep into a planet, or asteroid, up to several miles deep; if we begin an entrance our mining spiders can burrow out a new underground home. Our team is manufacturing three more, smaller laser units that can be placed onto our mining spiders so that they can go into an asteroid, or a planet, and build us a new home, like an ant or an underground insect here on earth. I think it would also be wise to have them ready to defend ourselves from any attack. I wish I would have built my base outside the United States. I just didn’t think far enough ahead.”

  “So, the lasers are purely for homebuilding?” asked VIN.

  “Correct, Mr. Noble. I’m sure you have figured out by now that I am not a violent person. I never have been.” The crew nodded.

  The rental jet arrived on time; a slightly smaller Gulfstream IV, it could reach Bermuda and then Amsterdam. A dozen crates of diamonds were loaded aboard with the same amount of noble metals bound for other customers. Jamie Watkins, Allen’s girlfriend, and Bob Mathews were going to fly the jet with two scientists and three security guards. The white jet left for the east, without Jamie seeing that her deceased friend was still alive, and had returned from space. It wasn’t three hours before Tom Ward phoned again.

  “May we assume that your gift for the White House is aboard the aircraft which has just left U.S. airspace?”

  “Good evening, Mr. Ward. You are correct. The first space diamond is on its way to Amsterdam to be cut and polished. Once it reaches there, they will take a photograph of it and send it to the White House for viewing. I will invite the president, you, any personnel the president wishes to bring, and the media, to show the world what we brought back. As I stated, I would like to donate the first diamond from space to the United States of America, and there will be a smaller gift for the president to present to his wife.”

  “It sounds like a lot of hooey, but the president seemed to smile at the idea,” replied the CIA man.

  “Also, Astermine is increasing its fleet and our test flights in orbit, beginning next week,” continued Ryan. “Our new shuttle is ready for tests and will be joining our current one on orbital flight tests. Once it is ready to return with cargo, it will help return future loads of mined rock.”

  “I’m sure the Senate is about to pass our bill, so you had better hurry up, Mr. Richmond; we will slap your current spoils with new import duties. Giving a gift to the country is certainly not going to help you pay your importation taxes. And I will be asking the IRS to carefully examine your Federal Tax Return next year.”

  The temperature was well over a hundred as the three astronauts blissfully relaxed by the pool in the heat; the swimming pool was quiet and empty except for the three pilots. They pasted on SPF 30 and lay on loungers underneath grass-thatched shade roofs, enjoying an unlimited supply of drinks and food; the three felt as pampered as at any five-star Las Vegas hotel. They had two days off before their next briefing.

  On their second morning home, VIN wanted to take his car for a spin. Ryan agreed that his needed a good run as well and suggested they go to Las Vegas and have lunch. With Suzi still up in space, there wasn’t much VIN really wanted to do, and he knew that he would see her again in two to three days. Suzi was planning to bring VIN up to help Michael Pitt work with the panels in space. Michael had helped VIN net the diamonds, and Suzi and Michael were working to fill the second shuttle’s cargo bay for Kathy Pringle and Allen Saunders to secretly return to earth.

  Jonesy and Maggie would be the next shift to fly more panels into space. Penny Sullivan also stayed in Ivan, happy to float around with Michael during his down time. She would return soon, once the more senior crews were needed to fly three shuttles.

  VIN noticed that his car had been cleaned and looked spotless. Ryan drove out with the second Audi right behind him. They headed south and towards the city. When they passed the lone police car, both men waved and the same policeman waved back, thinking he was seeing double.

  Over lunch of a massive T-bone steak for VIN and a chicken Caesar salad for Ryan on the outside terrace of the Mandalay Bay, the news broke.

  “Astermine Inc. the company owned by Ryan Richmond, who is currently moon mining in space, has returned to earth with a bag full of diamonds,” stated the news reporter on the big screen television behind the bar. Conversation around them went silent as the several diners around them turned to look at the closest television screen.

  A picture of Ryan’s large tennis ball size diamond, now in Amsterdam, showed up on the screen, and there were gasps from the diners around them as a man in a white coat picked it up. The beautiful diamond was larger than the fist he made while holding the stone in his other hand.

  “This new dia
mond is bigger than the largest diamond on earth, and is to be donated to the White House as the first ever diamond mined in space.

  There was still silence around Ryan and VIN.

  “A federal government spokesman stated that Ryan Richmond, the space travelling billionaire who owns Astermine Inc., is giving the diamond to the people of the United States of America. The appraisal company in the Netherlands where the diamond is being polished for the ceremony to give the diamond to the U.S. president said that it is the best, most pure D-color flawless diamond they have ever seen in their 300-year cutting history. Much like the biggest diamond in the world, The Star of Africa atop the Queen of England’s official scepter, this stone will be cut and polished. The Star of Africa is about 550 carats and worth nearly half a billion dollars. This new diamond is 699 carats, and could be worth as much as one billion dollars. Certainly a nice gift for our country….Gold rose today….”

  “A nice piece of propaganda,” said Ryan.

  “I’m glad your face didn’t end up on television,” added VIN. “We would have been mobbed.”

  “Imagine if the public saw the real big one you say is in the next load?” smiled Ryan, enjoying his chicken salad. “I don’t think anybody would believe it.”

  “What are you going to do with the really large ones?” VIN asked.

  “I don’t know. I think I might keep them as a savings account. I’m sure any larger diamonds than the Cullinan Diamonds are far too big to sell, and it seems that we already have more money than we will ever need. If one diamond is worth nearly one billion, then this whole cargo could be worth well over a hundred times that. All I want right now is to get the next two shuttles home before the Senate passes the new Bill. I was told late last night that there was a lot of pressure from members in Washington to get the Senate to speed its passage, and I had a week at the most. Bill Withers suggested that the government wanted my duties to finance NASA to do exactly what we are doing, mining treasure, but on a much larger scale.”