by T I WADE
There certainly hadn’t been many places a bottle could have been stored, but Maggie had forgotten that zero degree temperatures didn’t hurt alcohol, just made it less fluid.
It was a week later into the flight that Jonesy was caught with his hidden bottle, well placed at the rear of the upright freezer, and underneath hundreds of food pouches.
He was on guard and VIN, his partner had nodded off, or looked like he had nodded off in the right seat. Their wives were sound asleep, and had been for a couple of hours before he carefully undid his seat belt and metal shoes, and floated towards the freezer. He made sure that he was as silent as possible, and moved very slowly towards the rear of the cockpit. He knew the door was quiet when it was unlatched, but this time it made the smallest of squeaks and he looked around to see VIN’s eyes open and staring at him.
Jonesy put his finger to his lips and dug underneath the pouches. The food pouches had tiny metal exteriors that made them stick to each other in a magnetic environment, and carefully, and once he had his hand sliding in underneath that shelf’s pouches, he silently pulled up his bottle.
“Why don’t you offer all of us a sip over dinner tomorrow night,” suggested Maggie loudly, turned over and went back to sleep. Suzi also smiled as Maggie said her piece. It had been fun keeping their eyes on General Jones for the last week. She also looked forward to his bottle, as she would open her secret stash towards the end of the flight in a few months when the men needed a shot the most.
“SB-V to SB-III, also to all shuttles, we have something on the extreme edge of our long distance radar,” stated Kathy Richmond over the intercom about a month after Jonesy’s bottle had gone dry. They were seven weeks into the flight, had about 100 days left and were really in the middle of nowhere.
The larger shuttles had slightly more powerful radar systems, and nothing appeared on Jonesy’s monitor.
“Mine is clear,” replied Jonesy as the others came over to view the two main monitor.
“Mine two,” stated Jenny Burgos, on guard in SB-II.
“I have it visual,” stated Mars Noble from SB-IV. “Looks like an incoming asteroid, about the size of DX2017. She’s incoming from 285 degrees on our port side, 129,000 knots and really moving. Hold on, computer states that current trajectory puts it at passing us by about 3,240 miles in front of us in 17 minutes, over.”
“SB-V here, ours states 2,990 miles in 17 minutes 48 seconds, over,” added Kathy.
“I have it visual,” stated Jonesy as a pin prick of a black point entered his radar screen from the left. It was so small that it could have been taken for a piece of dust. As soon as it was picked up the shuttle’s computers analyzed its speed and direction. “My readout states about the same as SB-Vs’.”
“My readout shows 2,890 miles in 14 minutes 59 seconds,” added Jenny Burgos who was closer than any of the other shuttles to the incoming asteroid.
Jonesy did his math. The shuttles were out of view of each other 25 miles apart and all the computer readouts from all 4 shuttles showed the same information within a few percent.
“I will leave Fleet Autopilot on for another 10 minutes, over. There is no, to a slight danger. Our readouts tally, and seem accurate,” replied Chief Astronaut Jones.
Everyone watched as the speck grew slightly and rushed passed their craft 2,940 miles ahead of them. This happened at least once a week or so, and in the old mother ship, America One, the ship would have immediately, and automatically changed direction to compensate for any incoming missiles. In the shuttles, any maneuvers once the Fleet Autopilot was disengaged were done manually, and the excitement for that week headed out into space and was lost on all the radar monitors less than an hour later.
Time began to drag. Earth was now the size of a large star, and so was Mars, out of the window on the starboard side. Actually everything outside looked like a star.
The four craft, still 25 miles apart couldn’t be seen by the other craft, apart from on the radar screen. The intercom was busy every day. With nobody able to hear them in the intercom’s 200 plus mile range, the crew chatted to the other craft about everything possible to chat about.
The radio was used by each shuttle commander once every 24 hours to relay their situation back to Nevada, as well as forward to The Martian Club Retreat. Since everybody who had a radio could listen in, only the needed information was delivered towards Earth and Mars. The shuttle had a code and used it to send the information back to Nevada.
One hundred and thirty-eight days from leaving Earth, Mars was close to being dead ahead, Jonesy had been slowing the four craft on Fleet Autopilot for over a week already, and the red planet was a descent size in the windshields 600,000 miles ahead.
“Jonesy to Dave Black, Jonesy to Dave Black, do you copy, over?” Jonesy stated into the radio. His legs were back into giving him no pain, he worked out for 6 hours a day on the shuttle’s bicycle attached to the roof, and he felt fit, but tired of being in space. He had told Maggie on several occasions that this was their last flight to the red planet, and that he had had enough of space travel. She agreed with him, and both looked forward to the reentry back into Earth’s orbit in 160 days or so, and that would be that. Even VIN and Suzi had agreed in intercom communications between the shuttles, that it was time for the “OldGeners” as they were now called, to go fishing.
VIN and Jonesy had also chatted to Ryan and Kathy aboard SB-V about retirement, and the crew had noticed Ryan’s change of “staying in space” from eager to also thinking about Earth and fishing.
Igor and Boris still had zero interest in fishing and retirement. Jonesy called them space nerds, and it seemed that the two old Russians would be the only two first generation astronauts to stay in space.
“Dave Black to Jonesy, sounds like you are really close, you are so clear,” replied Dave in charge of “The Martian Club Retreat”. They didn’t use ship numbers, or base names in space. Astermine hadn’t done so since they had learned in the early days, that it was best to keep as much secret from anybody listening in, even aliens. “Dave Black to Ryan, Dave Black to Ryan, the mining robots have completed levels four and five as you asked, over.”
“Roger that Dave,” replied Ryan. “We will be leaving most of our exercise equipment with you when we return. I have three new tread mills, two exercise bikes, a rowing machine, and a stepping machine in my craft for you. Any bogeys, or storms since we last spoke seven days ago?”
Nobody wanted a storm on the planet, anywhere near the base. This whole mission would be destroyed if there was a storm during their short visit. Dave Black and the rest of the crew on Mars couldn’t tell much about any possible weather, as they didn’t have a spacecraft that could orbit the planet to check, and only could see as far as their eyes could focus inside the massive crater.
“Negative on both,” replied Dave. “The weather has been the calmest we have ever seen it over the last year. The crops are doing well in the three outside shields once we produced enough air to give them their atmospheres again. Suzi, Dr. Messer has a question for you, are you on radio?”
“Ja,” replied Suzi from SB-III. “I am here. Dr. Messer are you there?”
Dr. Messer was one of the few scientist of the first generation that had stayed on Mars. She was 8 years younger than Suzi and had been just one of the scientists until older members of the crew like Dr. Petra had passed away. Now she was Head of all Science Departments on Mars, and had been one of Suzi’s young interns since she had joined Astermine just before the Odyssey two decades earlier.
“Suzi, Messer here,” as she always called herself, and she always spoke to Suzi in German. “We are going to need two water missions during your stay. If you are leaving again in ten days, we can produce liquid hydrogen again in your absence. We currently have 1,188 gallons of drinkable water in the supplies.” Dr. Messer went on with several dozen questions, which Suzi answered one by one. “We have a problem with some of the fruit trees. I believe it has to do with the light spe
ctrum from only one of the Blue Shields. Do you have another shield with you? I think one has changed color slightly and you might need to take it back with you.”
Ryan didn’t mind that German was spoken as he listened to the base’s chief scientist talk to Suzi for several minutes. They both had a lot to say, and Ryan could understand most of what was being said. His German was a little rusty.
At least if the enemy on Mars were listening in, they spoke Matt and might understand English, but German was certainly a foreign language to them. Joanne, Ruler Roo and their two children could speak German fluently. They had learned English, German and Russian aboard America One, with the Earth Matts on its long journeys around the solar system.
“You must show me the shield,” replied Suzi in German.
Captain Pete and the group of shield scientists working on the shields had gotten far in their research back in Nevada. They could not yet manufacture a shield, but they knew how to tune them, and set the perfect light color coordinates. “We have a shield we can replace it with, and we have enough chocolate aboard to make you sick on my famous chocolate cakes.”
“Ja Suzi,” replied Dr. Messer. “I was hoping that you would hide as much good chocolate aboard as you could. The whole crew down here cannot wait until you get cooking, shatz.”
“We have three more days, and then we too can enjoy Suzi’s wonderful cake,” added Ruler Roo from one of the ships in his fluent German.
“Ruler Roo, good to hear you voice again. Give our love to Joanne and the kids. We look forward to having you all with us again, Auf Wedersehen alle,” stated Dr. Messer as she said goodbye still in German.
“Dave Black here Ryan. Tell young Noble that his robots are doing well, and that we have designed a new one for him. It is sort of working, but we need the Noble touch to get them going. We have put together three units in his absence.”
“Copy that Dave,” replied Mars Noble in SB-IV. “I have a few new parts from home base that will blow you away, over.”
“Ryan, the crew were asking why we are making so much room down here on levels four and five, and why the corridors are so wide, over.”
“We are designing the base to be like our new mother ship,” replied Ryan. “The corridors will have a walkway, a bike path, and a jogging lane, just like you will see on our visit in two years’ time. Dave ever been to Las Vegas?”
“Sure, decades ago when I was a kid, and a couple of years before I joined Astermine. I remember staying at the Bellagio with my parents,” Dave responded.
“I went with several of the crew to Vegas just before we left,” continued Ryan. “The place was totally run down. You know I grew up in the area. What hit me straight between the eyes, was how people had adapted to a weak economy and had changed the buildings to make it easier to live in them. Can you remember a shopping mall, and what they looked like inside?”
“I think so,” replied Dave Black. “I didn’t need to be in Las Vegas to see a shopping mall. They were massive inside shopping centers. Hundreds of stores large and small, and half a century ago everybody in the States went to the mall. Ryan they are on every other movie we watch down here. Remember, our movies are all from that era.”
“Sorry Dave, I forgot about the movies. Of course you know what a Mall is. Well, the people back on earth now live in the malls.”
“Why?” asked Dave with the rest of The Martian Club Retreat listening in on the PA system.
“It seems that as time went by while we were in space, shops and nearly everything closed down in the States. Even the Vegas Strip became a ghost town. The shops closed up and went out of business in the Malls. Even Walmart and Costco disappeared, times were so bad. These malls had everything people needed to move into them. The small shops became apartments. The larger stores were sub-divided and dozens of families lived together protected by their numbers. Funny, a few stores stayed, and even got resupplied. There was a massive mall in south Las Vegas where I visited a few weeks after I arrived. Dave, you wouldn’t believe it but 25,000 people now live in that Mall.”
“It must have been a big mall.” replied Dave.
“Yes, one of the biggest in the country. I remember it being built just before we left on the odyssey nearly three decades ago. This mall has the most perfect living conditions, conditions I want built into the Mars base, and you won’t believe what I found aboard our new mother ship?”
“We will have two mother ships, right?”
“Affirmative, two trading vessels, Dave, but what I saw onboard our new ship was the exact same style living conditions that I saw in that Mall in Vegas. Wide corridors. Different lanes in the corridors for walking, biking and jogging. The mall in Vegas is totally its own entity in living conditions. It has a food court, a shoe store, clothing store, and food market. The rest of the old shops are apartments, and everyone gets around the inside corridors by bike, skate boards, or walked. Even the outside parking bays for cars have been built up and been joined to the inner corridors. If I hadn’t seen the way the Mall has transformed into a perfect living environment, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“So, we here are going to life exactly the same way? That is your idea?” Dave asked.
“Yes,” replied Ryan. “The new way the people on earth are living, co-habituating in malls is the exact way we are going to live aboard our mother ships, and where you are. It will make us Homo sapiens feel more like we are at home when we travel.”
“OK,” replied Dave not yet seeing Ryan’s vision.
The long conversation ended as many of crew on both ends were trying to work out why this was so important.
To Ryan, it was easy, and seeing the way the people lived in the old mall, made him realize what had gone wrong on the first mother ship as well as on the Martian planet itself. The living quarters had not been optimized to a perfect level for habitation by humans.
Nobody really thought it that important, but Ryan wanted perfection before he retired from space travel, and he believed he had found the way. People living on Mars, or in the trading ships would live in the exact same conditions that they would be used to on earth. He even wanted to build a massive new mall on the Nevada base.
Chapter 6
Lots of Gold
“Disabling Fleet Autopilot,” stated Jonesy three days later and 250 miles above the Martian surface. They had activated all the shields in case they were attacked on arrival, and one by one the commanders took over the controls of their craft for the first time since leaving earth orbit. “SB-IV prepare for transfer of fuel to SB-II Maggie our excess fuel to SB-V, and the exchange of personnel.”
Only two of the ships were heading down to the surface. The two orbiting shuttles, full of fuel for the return flight and the extra fuel for the other two shuttles in their rear cargo bays would stay in orbit as protection. As usual there would always be one shuttle orbiting above the base on Mars at a time.
The ships heading down were to enter the Martian atmosphere with enough fuel to fetch water, and then head to where the gold was situated.
As the ships were launched to head back up with gold, they would be refueled in orbit as the gold was moved aboard to fill the forward cargo bays.
Four large nets had been brought with them, and the nets left outside in space would hold the balance of the gold until the second two ships took their fuel back for the return flight and leave enough room in the cargo bays to load the nets of gold. Sometimes working in zero gravity conditions had its benefits.
Also, the crew would take turns heading up and down to give everybody a few days at the base before heading back to earth.
“I remember teaching you as a student pilot on one of the water runs,” stated Jonesy to Lunar as they flew SB-III to the water lake down deep in the crater.
“Yes, it was the only time some of us ever flew a real first flight,” returned Lunar in the co-pilot’s seat.
“I flew three water flights during training as well,” added Mars Noble who was sitti
ng in one of the rear chairs and next to his father VIN.
“I learned much of my flying when Jonesy was bored in the Astermine flights to DX2014,” stated VIN. “I reckon I flew most of those legs.”
“Except takeoff and landings,” admonished Jonesy.
“I did everything flyable on the second trip,” stated VIN. It all seemed so long ago and everybody needed to remind each other what had actually happened. “Remember the time you couldn’t get Astermine I off the asteroid, Jonesy? I honestly thought we were going to die that day.”
“Jonesy to Maggie,” how is the weather looking up there, darling?’ continued Jonesy speaking to his wife who was now orbital Flight Commander in SB-V, 250 miles above them.
“Still a nice hot day with low clouds, and a slight chance of rain,” mimicked Maggie copying a weather announcer down on earth.
“Cut the crap lady, give me a weather report,” joked Jonesy as he took the shuttle in to, and down into the depths of the crater.
“This is “cut the crap lady” giving you the latest weather report to friends and foe alike. It hasn’t changed since you last asked an hour ago Mr. Jones! What do you expect a minute by minute report. If it changes I’ll let you know, so do your job and shut up. Love from “cut the crap lady”, out.”
VIN smiled, as did the others listening in. Maggie hadn’t taken Jonesy’s mouth since they had been married, and there always seemed an open conflict of words between her, and also Saturn when she got into the fray. It seemed that the Jones family thrived on their continuing conflict of words.
As usual the flat red area where the water was hadn’t changed. Jonesy used his thrusters and cleared the couple of inches of red dust off the surface and landed on the same piece of ice everyone had done many times.