Mase stepped out of the shuttle and through a small airlock door that led to the main part of the shuttle bay. The shuttles could be moved out of their small hangars and worked on by the many technicians that kept the base and its equipment functioning. As he stepped out of the airlock door, he found his secretary, Linda Arleen, waiting for him.
“Commander how was your trip to Farside?” she asked, stepping up close with her friendly brown eyes focusing on the commander.
“Just fine,” replied Mase, wondering why she had felt it necessary to meet his shuttle. Normally she would be waiting for him in his office. He suspected there must be some type of problem that had come up. “What’s going on? It’s not like you to meet me as soon as I get off a shuttle.”
“We received a message from Jane Kinsey,” she replied in a serious tone of voice. “She is at the cape today and would like a quick update on the Farside array. I think Senator Farley is still complaining about all the money being spent on the array and the telescope.”
Jane Kinsey was the current head of NASA and the chief administrator at the cape. She was also a very big supporter of Tycho City as well as Star One.
“Farley will always be unhappy with any money we spend,” Mase responded with a heavy sigh. “I think he makes a living out of trying to make our lives miserable with all of his complaining.”
Senator Farley had been opposed to the new telescope and deep space antenna array from the very beginning. If not for the money Tycho City made off the mass driver, it was doubtful the telescope or the antenna array would have ever been built.
However, due to all the refined metals that were launched to Earth daily by the mass driver, Tycho City made a tidy profit each month off the operation and had footed nearly half the bill for the astronomy projects. It also helped that much of the equipment for the array had been constructed on the Moon in the many shops and construction facilities available in Tycho City.
“Mr. Pierce called from the mass driver, and they are experiencing problems with some of the magnetic coils,” Linda added, her face showing some concern.
“Again!” Mase spoke with a frown. He suspected this was why Linda had come to meet him.
The coils had really been giving them problems recently. Jackson Pierce had been wanting to shut the mass driver down for several weeks now to do some much needed maintenance. He was afraid that if they didn’t shut it down soon, it might become too unsafe to operate.
“He wants to shut it down for 48 hours to recalibrate the coils and install the new inductor relays,” Linda informed him. She had spoken for quite some time with Pierce and had promised she would do her best to get Mase to agree to the shutdown.
Mase stared at Linda for a moment. She was a pretty brunette and her brown eyes made her look even more appealing. Mase knew that many of the eligible bachelors in Tycho City had asked her out, but she had been very choosey in who she was seen with. She had been at Tycho City for nearly eight months and had resisted getting into any serious relationships. She was also the best secretary he had ever had.
“Call Pierce back and tell him I will be out later this afternoon and he can show me the problems,” Mase said, letting out a deep breath, not sure what he could do to help the situation. “With all of our current delivery contracts, I just don’t see how we can shut the mass driver down for 48 hours unless it becomes too unsafe to operate.”
“He will be glad to hear you’re coming,” Linda replied with a nod. “I know he is extremely concerned about the mass driver or he wouldn’t have called in the first place.”
Mase thought about the situation for a long moment. He had the authority to shut the mass driver down for repairs, but it would be a last resort. He wondered if the situation was as bad as Linda and Pierce had indicated. The only way to know for sure was to make the trip out to the crater wall and do an inspection himself. If there was a potentially serious problem then he would have no choice but to shut it down.
Mase and Linda walked out of the shuttle bay and took a small transit vehicle to Tycho City. A small two-way transit tunnel connected the landing facility to the main section of the underground community. The small tunnel was nearly 2,500 feet in length, and it didn’t take long for the small electric transit vehicle to arrive at their destination. At each end of the transit tunnel was a double airlock to protect the main part of the city from accidental decompression.
Going through the airlock, they stepped out into a miraculous manmade world. Thanks to the two fission reactors that furnished their power, the main section of Tycho City had artificial gravity of nearly three quarters Earth normal. There were plans to install a fusion reactor like the one on Star One and to take the gravity up to full Earth normal in the near future.
They were in a cavern nearly 2,600 feet in length and 800 feet wide. The ceiling was 120 feet above their heads, with large lights carefully spaced to provide abundant lighting. The lights were set to provide a normal Earth environment, with eight actual hours of semi-darkness. Large Luxen braces every 200 feet reached to the ceiling to provide added support to the gently curving ceiling. Luxen was a special alloy made in the fusion reactor on Star One that had unbelievable strength. It was also tremendously expensive.
On the floor of the cavern was Tycho City. This was home to the 2,500 people that made the Moon their permanent residence. There were a number of homes, apartment buildings, businesses, and small skyscrapers that reached nearly 60 feet into the air built across the center of the cavern. There were also a number of small shops and factories on the perimeter.
Perhaps the most amazing thing of all were the numerous growing plants and trees. They did amazingly well in the lunar soil and the controlled environment of Tycho City. The cavern floor was green with growing grasses as well as small trees and shrubs. It almost looked as if you were back on Earth. The growing plants also did wonders for the air, taking out some of the CO2 and replacing it with oxygen. There were also hidden machines that quietly circulated the air and made sure the air quality remained breathable.
Mase took a moment to look around. This was his home. It seemed so Earth-like and if not for the lower gravity, you would never know you were on the Moon. He took a deep breath, drawing in the fresh air. It was like this every time he returned from an inspection trip. He smiled inwardly to himself. So much had been accomplished and there was still so much more to do.
Linda stood quietly, watching the commander. She knew how he felt about Tycho City. In the eight months she had been here, she was beginning to feel the same way. Tycho City had that type of effect on you and the man beside her had built it.
“I can’t wait for us to get the new fusion reactor installed,” she mentioned, looking over at Mase. “It will be nice to have normal gravity.”
“Yes, it will,” responded Mase, in agreement.
He had been here for such a long time that he scarcely noticed the difference anymore. In the early days, there had been no increased gravity until the first of the two fission reactors had been installed.
Linda nodded as the two walked over to a small electric car. She really enjoyed her job, and Mase was easy to work for. He was exceptionally polite and did an excellent job running Tycho City and the other operations on the Moon. Sometimes Linda didn’t see how he did everything.
Once she got home later, she needed to send a short message to her parents in Kansas City. That was the only bad thing about living on the Moon; family was so far away. She tried to speak to her parents several times a week, as well as her younger sister Karen. She was very close to her sister, and it had been hard to be separated from Karen these past months.
Mase and Linda took the small electric car to his office, which was in one of the larger administration buildings. Once inside, Mase went to his office and began working on his Farside report. He wanted to get it to Jane as quickly as possible. Once it was done, he would give Steve a call on Star One and then get a bite to eat. Then it would be out to the mass driver on the w
all of Tycho Crater. Since he was responsible for Tycho City and the Farside facility, his duties seemed never ending. However, he loved his job and would not trade it for anything. He knew that Steve on Star One felt the same way.
Chapter Two
Later that afternoon, Mase was in a small Moon Buggy, which was traveling down a recently built road to the mass driver. Tycho City ran a number of mining operations in the crater as well as in the surrounding area of the Southern Lunar Highlands.
They had found that the numerous small meteors buried just beneath the Moon’s surface were rich in various metals and in high demand on Earth. The metals were mined and then taken to Tycho City to be refined. The refined metals were then taken to the mass driver on the rim of the crater and put in pods to be hurled toward Star One and Earth. They also mined helium three, which was used in the two fusion reactors in Star One.
It was twenty miles from Tycho City to the rim wall where the mass driver was located. At the speed they were forced to drive due to the Moon’s light gravity, it took the Moon Buggy nearly an hour to travel the distance.
While they drove, it gave Mase time to think. He had been on the Moon for over seven years without a return to Earth. He wasn’t close to his father and hadn’t spoken to him in several years. However, he was close to his older brother who was a captain in the marines.
He tried to speak with Phillip several times a month and had suggested that his older brother consider coming up to Tycho City to live once he retired from the marines later in the year. Phillip had promised that he would consider it. Mase sincerely hoped his brother would take him up on his offer; it would be nice to have some family around. Phillip was married and had two teenage children.
Mase looked out the Moon Buggy’s large viewport as they pulled up to the mass driver complex. The mass driver was a long 2,500-foot rail that extended from the base of the rim wall and up its steep side. Large circular electromagnets were located every 100 feet, which accelerated the mass driver cargo pods to escape velocity.
A large metal building, where the mass driver cargo pods were carefully loaded onto the rail, covered the beginning of the mass driver. Once loaded, the electromagnetic coils would be fired sequentially to accelerate the pods. Once a pod was launched, the coils were recharged and the next pod put in place. The mass driver could be fired once every twenty minutes. A massive solar panel array, which spread out for several miles to one side of the mass driver complex, furnished power to the facility.
The buggy pulled into a small, open airlock, which closed behind them. Mase climbed out of the Moon Buggy and saw Jackson Pierce waiting for him in the small control room for the vehicle bay. From the look on Jackson’s face, he knew the man wasn’t happy. Something was definitely wrong; Mase knew he was going to hear bad news. He went through a final set of airlocks and found Jackson waiting patiently on the other side.
“Commander, I’m glad you could come out here,” Pierce began, relieved that Mase had taken the time out of his busy schedule to come out to the mass driver. “We have some serious problems that need to be addressed immediately.”
“Linda said you were concerned about the coils,” replied Mase, seeing the worry on Pierce’s face. “Let’s go to your office and we can discuss the problem. I want to know what your concerns are with the mass driver. If we have to, I will consider shutting it down for repairs. Earth won’t like it, and we will get a lot of flak from some of the companies who don’t receive their orders, but I don’t want to damage the damn thing.”
“I agree,” replied Pierce, nodding his head emphatically. “We have a serious problem developing that I fear could cause a catastrophic failure of the entire system.”
Mase knew that shutting down the mass driver would cause him a lot of headaches. Companies on Earth would start screaming immediately for launches to be restarted. Senator Farley would be up in arms, saying I told you so to his colleagues. Mase would also be buried under a mountain of paperwork. If the mass driver was becoming too dangerous to operate, Mase knew he would have no choice other than to shut it down. Safety in all the operations on the Moon was paramount, and he wouldn’t risk people’s lives just to satisfy the companies on Earth.
“So, Pierce, what exactly is wrong with the mass driver?”
“I think you will understand once I show you the results from the last few firings,” Jackson responded as he led Mase off toward his office.
A few minutes later, they reached Jackson’s office, which was set at one-half Earth gravity. Due to the power limitations, that was the maximum available for the complex, and only a few sections had the increased gravity. Most of the complex was kept at one-quarter Earth gravity.
Jackson took a seat behind his desk and waited as Mase sat down in a large, comfortable chair just in front of him. He knew he was about to severely upset the commander.
“What’s the problem, Jackson? Linda said you wanted to shut down the mass driver to conduct repairs. Is it really that bad?”
“It’s worse,” confessed Jackson, shaking his head with worry in his eyes. “We are experiencing trouble with some of the magnetic coils that are not firing at full capacity. We have had to increase the load on the other coils to make up the difference. It’s putting a lot of stress on the system.”
Jackson slid over several computer graphs, which showed the capacity of each magnetic coil on the mass driver. Four of the coils were showing in the red because they were operating at only 60 percent capacity. This had caused it to be necessary to overload a number of the other coils to 120 percent capacity in order to continue the firings of the mass driver.
Mase studied the graphs and weighed the information carefully. If one of the magnetic coils failed, the mass driver could still boost a cargo pod on its course to Star One or Earth. However, if two coils failed, the cargo pods would fail to reach escape velocity and would fall back to the lunar surface. Mase didn’t like the looks of the graphs at all. They were clearly developing a potentially serious problem with the mass driver.
“Linda said you need 48 hours to conduct repairs.”
“At a minimum,” responded Jackson, running his right hand through his thick black hair. “I would really like 72 hours so we can do a thorough preventative maintenance check on the entire mass driver system. Some of the coils need to be recalibrated, and we have the new inductors that need to be installed.”
Mase thought about this. He had been under a lot of pressure from Earth to keep the mass driver online to cover the lucrative contracts for heavy metals from several large Earth companies. He had spoken about the excessive workload being put on the mass driver to Jane Kinsey, and she had passed on his concerns to her superiors but nothing had happened. Instead, NASA had asked Mase if there was any way possible to increase the number of mass driver firings made each day. Jane had objected stringently but had been overruled by higher ups in the administration.
Due to the money being spent at Farside, she had recommended that they keep the mass driver online at least until the facility was completed and left it up to Mase as to whether he would increase the number of mass driver firings. Once the work at Farside was done, then the mass driver could be taken offline for a full system overhaul. Jane had said she would go to the president if necessary to get the necessary approval to shut it down. Mase had reluctantly agreed to this even though he didn’t feel comfortable with the decision.
Jackson was just about to say something else when the room shook violently and alarms began sounding. The lights dimmed briefly and then brightened back up. Several additional rumblings shook the room and then everything became still. Jackson’s eyes widened in sudden concern as his hand reached for the phone on his desk. It had a direct line to the mass driver building.
“Jase, what the hell just happened?” he demanded, his face ashen. “Was anyone hurt?”
Mase could tell by the look on Jackson’s face that he wasn’t hearing good news. The alarms had been silenced, but Mase could hear excited
shouts and running feet outside the office in the corridor.
Jackson stood up with a worried look on his face. “Three coils failed just a moment ago. One of the cargo pods was ejected from the rail, struck another coil, and then crashed into the side of the crater wall. Jase is reporting heavy damage to the electromagnetic control system as well as the rail itself. This was just what I was afraid was going to happen.”
“Damn!” Mase uttered with a troubled look on his face. He should have shut the mass driver down when Jackson first recommended it. He wondered just how bad the damage was. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Not that we’re aware of. We’re not showing any pressure leaks, and all personnel are in the process of reporting to their emergency stations. We should know more shortly.”
“I should have insisted on shutting the mass driver down when I talked to Jane,” Mase said, feeling angry with himself for allowing this to happen. “This is my fault, Jackson; I should not have allowed NASA to overrule my recommendation to shut the mass driver down for a few days.”
He knew that he had screwed up. He should have come out here days ago, when Jackson first started complaining, for a personal inspection and gone ahead and ordered the mass driver shut down for repairs, regardless of the consequences. This was the type of mistake that could cost people their lives!
“We were all under pressure to keep the mass driver operating,” Jackson replied with a shake of his head. “I don’t know if there is much more we could have done without shutting it down, and we both know what the ramifications of that would have been. I need to go out and inspect the damage.”
“I’ll go with you,” Mase said, standing up. “I will need to send a report to Jane as soon as I get back to Tycho City.”
Star One: Tycho City Survival Page 2