“Have you been briefed on this already?” President Powers asked, leaning forward over the table and looking intently at Marge.
“No, ma’am,” Marge said.
Several people looked around the room, and then the president looked directly at Mr. Smith. “I think you best accompany the NASA team to Houston and ensure that we have their full input on what we have to date.”
“I was planning on exactly that,” Mr. Smith said, motioning to the chair that the admiral occupied. “In fact, I specifically asked for Dr. Jones to be seated next to me to facilitate the exchange of information. Isn’t that right, Mr. . . . ?” The man looked at the president’s aide, who nodded and shuffled through his papers, looking for the seating chart.
“I see,” the president said, returning her gaze to Marge and Rock. “Do you mind if Mr. Smith accompanies you to Houston?”
Mr. Smith interrupted. “It would be better if Doctor Jones accompanied my team to our laboratory.”
Rock leaned toward Marge and whispered while the president’s attention was on the NSA man. “This is where Tom would have asked if our good Mr. Smith really just interrupted the president of the United States.”
Marge smiled and nodded. “I miss him, though he would have done exactly that.”
“You want the entire team or only Doctor Jones to accompany you to the lab?” Powers asked.
“Only Doctor Jones will be necessary,” Mr. Smith said.
The president looked at Marge and then Rock. “Mr. Crandon, will this be acceptable to you?”
“Who, me?” Rock asked, caught off guard by the question.
“Yes, you are the acting NASA Administrator and the liaison between the NSA, and NASA is asking for one of your team members for a period of time. I understand that Doctor Jones has been instrumental in working out several issues with the Mars mission, and I don’t want to leave you shorthanded right now.”
Marge leaned in closer to Rock and whispered almost directly into his ear. “Don’t you dare leave me here alone.”
Rock looked at Marge and felt very uncomfortable at that minute. Marge was a very intelligent person, but she did occasionally do things that were somewhat awkward socially. He could feel every eye in the room on him, and he turned to look at Jack, who actually shrugged before he turned his head to face the president. “Actually, I think we all can afford to spend a day at the laboratory together. Whatever scientific discovery that may lie in store for us, it would be good to be able to prepare the mission for that eventuality, and I think it would be beneficial if the entire executive leadership team at NASA was included in whatever disclosures that will be made.”
The president nodded. “You can afford to take that much time away from flight operations?”
Rock sensed the president had a very good grasp on what was happening in his department. “I am in contact with my team back in Houston. The Red Horizon has begun its return to low Earth orbit, and the shuttle Polo Six has been launched two days ago to replace Polo Three and allow it to return to Earth and bring our astronauts back. For now, it will take over a week for them to return to near Earth space, and I think we can afford a lull for this.”
“Do you feel comfortable with leaving lunar operations as well?” Powers pressed her point.
Rock wasn’t sure anymore if she was trying to give him an exit ramp and allow him to decline again, but he wasn’t going to leave Marge alone if she felt that strongly about telling him about it with the president and every other executive staff member watching. “Most of our lunar operations have wrapped up. We’ve been conducting them now for over three years, and we’ve accomplished most of the objectives that we set out to achieve. I think at this point, they can finish preparations there without us micromanaging.”
The president tilted her head and gave him an odd look, and Rock wondered if she was taking the last word he used personally. “Very well, I’ll give you twenty-four hours, then, to review the lab work and data they have to date and then return to Houston.” Turning to Mr. Smith, she said, “I think you may very well have to set up a remote location near Houston if you wish to maximize the use of Doctor Jones’s expertise.”
Mr. Smith nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Our final presentation will be given by Admiral Nicholson, who I thought you had seated near NASA?” the president said, looking at a seating chart in her aide’s hand.
“Yes, he was seated there, but he’s by the intelligence section now,” the aide said.
Marge leaned over to Rock again and whispered, “Thank you.”
Rock just nodded and leaned back to get a glimpse of the admiral. Why would the president want him to be working with NASA? Rock thought to himself.
The admiral shuffled his own papers and opened a portfolio in front of him. “I’ll try to be brief as well, Madam President. The navy has been conducting training and exercises in preparation for the Mars mission in secret, per your orders.” The man looked at the president, who nodded.
“Did he say military exercises?” Jack leaned over and whispered to Rock.
“He did,” Rock said softly, and then louder so everyone could hear him. “What type of training are you referring to, and how does this affect NASA?”
The admiral looked at Rock and then back to the president. Seeing her nod, he looked back at the NASA group. “Our intel has reported that the Chinese are sending not only armed ships to Mars but they are having armed soldiers and officers accompany their ships as part of their mission profile. The National Security Team has tasked the military with the duty to assess their capabilities and to have a counterplan ready to deploy if necessary.”
“Wait a second.” Lisa spoke finally from next to Jack. “You’re saying that we are going to arm our astronauts too?”
“No,” the admiral said. “I’m saying that your astronauts will have an armed escort with them.”
“Hold on a minute,” Rock jumped in, not willing to leave it to his team to question the rationale for this decision. “This requires calculations, planning, schematics, ship integration, and a host of other factors, and you intend to dump this on us at the last minute?”
President Powers spoke, holding up a hand to silence the admiral. “Mr. Crandon, national security dictated this course of action, and we knew that our civilian agencies would be against this. In fact, the latest few polls out show that by a wide margin, the act of sending weaponry into space is not acceptable. We were hoping to prevent that from taking place, but in light of the Chinese nuclear attack on the moon and their current mission profile, we see no viable alternative other than to have a deterrent force to accompany your crew.”
“A deterrent force?” Rock said, his mouth hanging open.
“Yes,” Powers said. “I know you don’t approve, but the matter has been decided, and it’s important that you work with Admiral Nicholson as the leader of our special Navy SEALs unit to implement this.”
“We’re going into outer space, not across some ocean of water,” Rock said.
“Understood,” the president said.
Admiral Nicholson added, “The SEALs were chosen because they had extensive operations in water, which is ninety percent buoyant and the closest medium to actual zero gravity operations. We’ve taken the liberty to simulate this in our training using neutral buoyancy techniques. I can assure you they are well prepared for the task at hand.”
Rock shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. We have to run manifest numbers with gross weight loading as well as vector details and thrust requirements to boost the ship, not to mention survival rationing as well as oxygen and nitrogen needs and consumption. All of those have to be reworked.”
“Not exactly,” President Powers said. “The extensive science module that has been planned for Red Horizon isn’t actually what will be added to the ship. That was a place holder in case we didn’t need to execute this contingent.”
“You mean there will be no science team?” Rock asked.
“There will be a team, only not as large as the one you were thinking it would be,” Powers explained. “Anyway, I understand your consternation, but the decision has been made, and we need NASA to work with our armed forces to move this forward.”
The admiral looked at Rock with a knowing glance. “If it’s any consolation to you, we were hoping the need would not be necessary.”
“Well, that’s just peachy keen,” Rock said, leaning back and shaking his head, forgetting for a second the fact that he was literally addressing the most powerful person on the planet in such a flippant manner.
The president seemed to understand. “Let’s adjourn the meeting so that our intel folks can facilitate some sort of working group as we approach our departure window, and, Mr. Crandon, you and your staff take some time to digest this. I understand how hard it must be to have this sprung on you the way we did.”
“Do you?” Rock asked, eliciting a few open mouths around the table.
President Powers was very patient with her NASA Administrator, who answered directly to her as the leader of the executive branch. “Yes, I do,” she said. “We also recently received the report that the new Second Soviet Union will be sending specially trained Spetsnaz commandoes on their mission to Mars. Do you really want your staff and crew to face and deal with them a hundred million miles from Earth?”
There was a long pause before Jack spoke up. “In keeping with honor and tradition, and to remember our fallen colleague, Tom McClain, I’ll simply say . . . bloody hell.”
“Bloody hell, indeed,” the president repeated.
Chapter 7
Red Horizon
People’s Republic Space Command
Beijing, China
In the near future, Year 4, Day 8
The radar tracks showed the large American ship inbound from its retro burn three days earlier. Hun sat at a different table in the main command and control room with his leadership team. Lin was there as his overall flight technician, while Chon Chu handled the communications, signals, and other electronic equipment. Chang Fu had joined them from the Wenchang Launch Center. There was one more team member, but Hun didn’t trust him and the man was on break, so Hun took a moment to convene his team.
“We need to overcome the American advantage,” Hun said, aware, as were his team members, that they were being monitored. It would be all business today.
“Did the general share with you any military plans to deal with their speed advantage?” Chang asked from across the small table.
“No,” Hun said. “I’m sure the military will have their own protocols and will share them with us when they are ready. What we need to do is to calculate the differentials between that thing . . .”—Hun pointed to the far right side of the screen where a schematic of the Red Horizon was lit up for their view—“and our own three ships.”
“If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe its size,” Chon said, looking in awe at the structure that the Americans had built in only two and a half years. For some reason, only recently, the military had allowed Hun’s team to have complete access to all of their intel on the Russian and American space ships, as well as data gleaned from other associated parts of their space programs such as command and control, as well as profiles on their space-qualified crew members.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” Lin asked, looking at her boss.
Hun looked around the table at his team and felt both a sense of pride in what they had accomplished to date and a tinge of apprehension at what was to come. Taking a deep breath, he began. “There is no doubt in my mind that our roles in this program, and our responsibilities to the mission, have been elevated as a top priority within our esteemed government’s objectives. The loss of our first ship nearly two years ago demonstrated to me that we need to rely on ourselves if we are to succeed in this endeavor.”
His team members looked at him carefully, assessing if the words their leader spoke were for them or for their listeners. Lin asked the obvious. “So we have to identify a solution here, implement it, and follow through till mission completion, correct?”
“Yes.” Hun nodded. “The main issue was in assessing the capabilities of the Russians and the Americans. From what we’ve seen, the Russians will follow the same profile that we had laid out, but the American strategy was unknown.”
“They had to tip their hand with their rescue mission,” Chang said, using the old western idiom for gambling with cards, which was frowned on in Chinese culture.
“They would have reached Mars first easily, if we had not discovered their capabilities,” Hun said.
“They may still do that,” Chon said, a tinge of pessimism in his voice.
“That is also correct since exact data on their fuel burn and fuel stores is not a known factor. We can only extrapolate based on what we’ve seen,” Hun said.
“And what we’ve seen is very impressive,” Chang said, his engineering background giving him a higher appreciation for the American construct.
“I want to know if it will work,” Lin stated. “The integration of that many complex components can only increase the risk of failure.”
“They finally had a failure to rival our own, leaving at least one dead in space,” Chon said.
“That wasn’t really a failure of their system as much as it was an inherent risk of space operations,” Hun corrected. “They have actually had a perfect record for the last several years despite the increase in their space missions. One would normally conclude from the law of averages that a failure would have been imminent, yet they have avoided one to date.”
“With all due respect, sir, I don’t see the difference between the two,” Chang said.
Hun’s team brought their attention directly to him, no longer focusing on their main screen. Hun nodded. “I understand, and I don’t really want to argue the point, but my remark was that their failure was due to the risk of space operations in general, not due to an error on the part of their equipment or crew.”
Lin brought her hand to her mouth unconsciously, and his team remained silent for a moment. Hun allowed his remarks to sink in, knowing that he had just insulted someone in the military hierarchy. So much for all business.
Chon broke the silence. “So what do we do?”
Hun didn’t realize that he wasn’t breathing and had actually held his breath, waiting for this exact question. He needed it, in fact, in order to put the two statements into perspective for his handlers. Taking a deep breath, he offered something for both his team and the military. “We take the latest data that has been graciously given to us, and we find a way to increase our burn rate, resulting in greater delta-v to match the Americans. At the very least, we want to arrive at the same time, not later.”
That should assuage the monitor and allow a report that stated a solution was being worked on. “Is that possible?” Lin asked.
“We have to find a way, and we have less than two months,” Hun said.
“I don’t like competing against that,” Chon said, motioning to the Red Horizon in the corner of their main screen. “Even with the three-to-one advantage in ships.”
“That’s no advantage if their one gets there before any of our three,” Chang said.
“They’re crippled, though. At least, as far as preparations go, right?” Lin asked hopefully.
“They are,” Hun said, “but we must operate as if they still have the advantage, and we must negate that. Their efforts have been impressive so far, much to overcome.”
“Our efforts are noteworthy as well,” Lin said, conscious of the military eavesdropping on them, and the others nodded in approval at her remark.
Hun sighed, taking in his group and then looking up at the screen at a picture of the American ship. “The Americans have thought of everything. They have speed, gravity issues, radiation, communications and logistics, and a robust training program.”
“That’s to be expected when they throw a half-trillion dollars at th
e program.” Lin looked up at where her boss was looking, her voice tinged with a hint of jealously. “With that much money, it was easy for them to facilitate their lunar training base and build so many space shuttles.”
“And an additional two hundred billion a year doesn’t help us,” Chong added.
“No, it doesn’t, though our leadership has done a good job of shifting our economy to compete with the American financial advantage. While considerable, it is not the most important advantage. That is one that we possess.”
“What advantage are you referring to?” Lin asked.
Hun looked back from the screen to his crew. “Willpower.”
*****
USS Red Horizon
On approach, Earth space
In the near future, Year 4, Day 8
“Stop fidgeting. This will only take a second,” the doctor said, pulling another small vile of blood from Julie’s arm.
“I’m going to start treating you like a vampire if you keep poking me like this,” she said to him. “Have you received any news from landside?”
“We’ve heard nothing, other than to take care of you and your crew, and to insert into geosynchronous orbit when we arrive. Polo Three will swing by to take you all back.”
“Carson?” she asked.
Doctor Hill looked up from his work and looked her directly in the eye. “Yes, I heard he is piloting P3. You don’t approve?”
“That’s irrelevant at this point. What’s our ETA?”
“The same it was when you arrived onboard. We’ll be there in six more days, and then two more to transition you Earth-side. You seem preoccupied.”
“Do I?”
“I’m sorry,” Hill finished, looping the last of the taped gauze around her arm at her elbow to hold the cotton swab in place. “I’m being inconsiderate considering what you’ve gone through. The loss of Sanchez hurt us all. I mean that.”
The man turned and walked over to the cabinet to return his supplies, storing them in place. Everything had to be secured, even when the large spinning wheel that they were in provided inertia to affect a form of artificial gravity, per Newton’s law of motion. The construct could stop at any time due to necessity, mechanical defect, or any other reason, and they couldn’t have things floating around in zero gravity if that happened.
Red Horizon: The Truth of Discovery (Discovery Series Book 2) Page 7