Red Hope

by J J (John) Dreese

  Weeks of meetings established the basic concept of how this adventure would officially operate. The main launch platform wouldn’t be Earth. Instead, it would be the International Space Station. Starting the voyage so far out in space would minimize the impact of the fuel-hungry Earth-to-space launch phase. Just getting away from the dense atmosphere of Earth gobbled up valuable fuel.

  This plan threw some flies into the ointment. Even with the amazing lifting power of the Viper9 rocket, the Mars-bound ships would be too heavily loaded with fuel and supplies to be launched from Earth up to the orbiting International Space Station all at once.

  Instead, all of the fuel and supplies would be sent up ahead of time over the span of many months and many smaller launches. Unfortunately, the International Space Station was cramped and couldn’t hold all the extra supplies. A smaller storage capsule would be designed and permanently attached to the Space Station to act as an orbiting storage closet.

  Keller’s engineers came up with the detailed design of the smaller storage capsule. They named it the Storage Wart because it looked like a strange growth on the Space Station. The Science and Transport Modules, to be shipped up later, would be called the Big Turtle and Little Turtle respectively. The “Turtle” nickname came from their faceted outer shapes that were covered with flat solar panels. They looked like huge shiny black turtle shells.

  Although Keller had very smart designers working for him, their ultimate skills were not what he needed to produce the Turtles quickly. As much as he hated to do it, Keller had to contact traditional defense contractors who had experience in building lightweight robust structures.

  Some of the traditional airframe manufacturers had small independent groups which could get things done much faster than their traditional counterparts. It is well known that Lockheed Martin has the Skunk Works group and Boeing has the Phantom Works group. Keller wasn’t just after their ability to build complicated things quickly. He also needed to hire the big guys because they knew how to fill out all of the government paperwork; a critically important skill.

  Fortunately he was able to team up with one of the small autonomous teams from the enormous Mayal-Maddox defense contractor who got the ball rolling on manufacturing both Little Turtle and Big Turtle. Without making it publicly known, they opened a manufacturing facility along the runway at the Watsonville Airport. The assumption was that it would make it easy to incorporate the MM10 motors if they were next door neighbors. They humorously called their secret operation The ManureWorks to reflect the aroma that sometimes flooded the region when the wind blew in from the farm fields around town.

  While half of the ManureWorks team was working on the two Turtles, the other half completed the Storage Wart section of the Space Station; it was to be launched in early Spring. After just a few weeks, it would be used to house the fuel, food and other supplies until the two Turtles were lifted up into orbit.

  Just prior to launching the Storage Wart up to the Space Station, the president asked for a closed-door meeting with the lead engineer on the design team.

  The rather modest manager was excited to meet the president.

  “Hello Mr. President! It’s an honor to meet you. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this whole project.”

  The president gave his political uncommitted smile.

  “I think we’re all excited for it. And by the way, thank you for coming here today. This meeting is to discuss a small change regarding the design of the so-called Storage Wart.”

  “But we’re basically done. It’s almost ready to be launched,” explained the engineer.

  The president elaborated.

  “Well, it should be a simple change. All that I need you to do is add a storage box on the outside of the Storage Wart. Roughly four feet wide by twelve feet long and maybe two feet deep. I have some blueprints here from one of my Pentagon guys. Just give it a 28 Volt power source and my guys will do the rest.”

  The president handed a large envelope over to the engineer who pulled out the blueprints and carefully unfolded them on the desk. He held his head as if in pain while he looked over them. He looked up at the president.

  “You’re asking me to add a blank box that could contain anything?”

  “Yes, that is one way to look at it, but we’ll let you know the exact weights and mass properties before launch.”

  The president paused and then continued.

  “Look, in order to get this entire mission funded so quickly, we had to shift some budget away from military programs. The only tradeoff the Pentagon asked for was this container. My Secretary of Defense tells me that it’s just a small extension of our military preparedness. That’s all. I mean, it could be a radar dish for all we know! In the grand scheme of things, it’s a small detail, right?”

  The lead engineer was exasperated.

  “But Mr. President, this could add a month to the build! This might cause everything to be late.”

  “I know. However, this is a matter of national security and I need you to do this. You love your country, right? Can you make it happen?”

  “Um, let me think about it and I’ll talk with the team. I don’t think they’ll go for it. I’m sure Mr. Murch would be upset with anything that may delay the launches.”

  The president shook his hand and said, “Thank you for your time today. Please rethink your position on this. I know you’ll do your best.”

  The meeting ended. The next day the lead engineer received a phone call from the IRS about some questionable deductions he’d included on his tax returns two years before. He was warned not to destroy any tax records or paperwork; the IRS might have to investigate even further back, especially during the time he’d started a small business that eventually failed. The agency was considering whether to ignore these issues or not. They might act. They might not.

  The lead engineer scheduled an emergency meeting with Keller and convinced him that the added compartment was crucial and important enough to delay the entire mission a few weeks. Keller agreed. The issue was never discussed after that. The IRS never called the lead engineer again.

  Production went surprisingly smooth aside from the special presidential favor. The mating of the MM10 rocket motors went without a hitch thanks to the design software they were using. Everything fit together like puzzle pieces. Very large and expensive puzzle pieces.

  On the Ides of March, the Storage Wart sat perched atop a Viper9 heavy lift rocket. Just before sunset, it was launched up into orbit and attached to the International Space Station. The Storage Wart was ready to hold all of the fuel, food and oxygen that would ultimately be transferred to the Turtles later on.

  Throughout the months of March, April and May, supply missions were being flown to the Space Station using the new Viper9 rockets from Whittenberg SLS. Everything was being tucked away in the Storage Wart.

  The large Science Module, also known as Big Turtle, was mounted on a Viper9 Heavy Lifter rocket and sent up to the Space Station on Memorial Day. Once it arrived, the laborious work of transferring supplies from the Storage Wart to the Big Turtle commenced. Moving large heavy objects by hand while floating in space turned out to be cumbersome, but the Space Station staff completed the supply movement without much complaint.

  The idea of establishing a long-term living outpost on Mars had been scrapped by the Mars Exploration Board due to the inability to keep it stocked with food and oxygen. The crew would have enough supplies to last them about one month. After that, they would return home.

  With the Turtles utilizing the MM10 rockets after leaving planetary orbit, the trip there would take about 28 days and the trip home would take about 31 days. The difference had to do with the changes in orbit location between when they landed on Mars and when they left from Mars.

  Long before any of the launches occurred, functional mockups of the Science and Transport Modules were built and located in a large warehouse next to the Murch Motors/ManureWorks factories. It would give the astronauts a pl
ace to train and get used to the equipment.

  At some point in time, a Russian Soyuz rocket would be sent over to Florida and installed on a one-of-a-kind launch platform that would only be used once. Since the Viper9 couldn’t yet launch people into space, that task would be left up to the Soyuz rocket. For years it had proven to be a reliable way to get crews up to the International Space Station.

  Prior to the start of construction of the Turtles, though, Chris faced the task of completing his team of astronauts. After more extended interviews and searching he finally assembled a group of top notch people. Keller got his wish to be onboard. The Russians got their wish too.

  Chapter 10

  The first three members of the Mars crew mission came together quickly. Adam and Molly both accepted the challenge and Keller simply assumed he was included by default. The Russians demanded that NASA include a cosmonaut after Keller nixed his deal with the Russian Defense Bureau.

  Chris searched far and wide to find the perfect Russian Cosmonaut. With the team now complete, he brought them together at a training facility near the Watsonville Airport. They would spend the next several months working and training together. On the night after they all arrived, Chris Tankovitch recommended that the four crewmembers have a meal together in order to get to know each other better.

  Keller arrived late even though his beach house was literally just a few minutes away. Everybody else had already ordered their food. He sat down and opened a menu.

  “How would you like your coffee, darling?” asked the waitress at the Denny’s in Santa Cruz.

  Since this was to be their grand introduction to each other, Adam chose the familiar Denny’s restaurant as a place to meet. He always thought it was a comfortable place to talk and share stories. Mostly, he liked the weight of the dense coffee mugs and the clunk they made on the table.

  The waitress was getting impatient with Keller and asked again, “So how do you like your coffee?”

  He grinned up at the waitress and answered, “I like my coffee like I like my women. Caffeinated.”

  The waitress laughed and then winked at Keller as she walked away. Adam stirred his coffee with a clink clink and broke the silence, “So. I think this meal is the start of something great. This group is going to change history.”

  Keller blurted out, “Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. This meal is the start of a long gastrointestinal struggle; I have a very sensitive stomach and I don’t see any organic food on this menu.”

  Keller was noticeably fidgety.

  Adam recovered from Keller’s statement and continued, “It’s okay, you don’t have to eat anything. Now, I know we’ve all heard a little bit about each other and I figured this would be a good place to tell the whole story. I’ll tell you about myself and then we’ll go around the table, okay?”

  Adam looked over his glasses at everybody to see if they were in agreement.

  He continued, “So, my name is Adam Alston and I am still barely thirty-something years old. I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. My claim to fame is that I was on the shuttle STS-123. That was the shuttle mission to fix the Trelm88 satellite back in 2008. After that, I wrote a book about space travel; it sold modestly well in technical niche markets. Let’s see, I have a degree in engineering and another in geology from Texas A&M. My main specialty at NASA though was mission safety. I’m guessing that my shuttle experience and geology are the main reasons NASA wanted me to lead this mission though.”

  Yeva Turoskova was new to America and new to this group. Being Russian, she did not enjoy small talk at all. However, she was willing to oblige on this occasion. She sensed that Adam was done and nodded her head.

  In her broken English, she said, “I too have very similar qualifications as you Adam, but my work in fossil recovery is thought to be a helpful skill here. It is funny that you mention the Trelm88 satellite. I was on the mission that launched it in the first place.”

  Adam smiled, “Really? That is a small world.”

  Yeva replied curtly, “We launched it okay. Americans messed it up during a follow-on maintenance mission. Then they had to fix it on your mission in 2008. So, you broke it, you fixed it. Barely.”

  Adam was taken aback and said, “I can’t comment on that. It’s classified.”

  He guzzled some ice tea and continued, “So Molly Hemphill, tell us about yourself.”

  Molly, naturally bubbly, said, “Sure, let’s see, I graduated from the Air Force Academy with a degree in Flight Sciences and then went on for my medical degree at Purdue. Um, I worked on the first Biosphere and I’ve done years of research in life support systems for extended-stay missions. Just like this one. I guess that made it an easy decision for Mr. Tankovitch.”

  Her effervescent personality came through and she put her hand on the table to let them know she was going to divulge something else about herself. “To be honest, I was on the fence about this mission, you know? It seems extremely risky and I’m not the risky type. But I knew I’d kick myself if I said no. I’ve tried hard to avoid regretting anything in life. So, in this case, I had to go for it.”

  Keller’s jaw dropped and he asked, “You try to do what?”

  “I want to avoid missing great opportunities. You know, I don’t want to look back on life and say I coulda, shoulda, woulda.”

  Keller smirked. He said, “Well that’s like saying you want to avoid learning. Regret is natural. It’s just something that happens when we choose one path over another and things turn out crappy. The more regrets you have early in life, the better off your life gets later on. Believe me, I know a lot about regret.”

  Adam jumped in. “Okay, okay. I think she’s saying that she doesn’t want to waste this one-of-a-kind opportunity.”

  Molly got serious and said, “Thank you Adam. That’s a good way to put it.”

  Keller pointed his finger at Molly.

  “I gotta say, Molly, I do like your charisma.”

  Keller smiled and looked at each one of them. He took a big slug of coffee and continued, “Okay, my turn I guess. Let’s see. I never went to college. I ran a burger joint for years and then stumbled onto a friend who was making computer games for fun. I offered to help him turn it into a real company and it did very well. Then we sold it for a fortune and I tried my hand in other companies for many years until I started the rocket motor company called Murch Motors. I guess that makes me the least qualified person on this team; maybe even in this country.”

  Everybody laughed and nodded in agreement. He was right.

  Keller added, “However, you will be riding on my vehicle designed by my engineers. So, I get to go for free; think of me as your sugar daddy.” He held up his hands to make air quotes around the word sugar.

  Then Keller stood up and said, “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go see a man about a horse. Oh, if the waitress comes back, can you order me a salad with lettuce only?”

  He walked off toward the restroom and locked the door behind him. Keller pulled a pill from his pocket and threw it into his mouth. Then he cupped his hands to catch water from the sink and wash it down. He looked in the mirror. He was doing well.

  The waitress came back with the food and asked, “Where’s the chatty one?”

  Adam explained, “He’ll be back, don’t worry. He has to; he’s paying the bill. Oh, by the way, could you bring him a salad? Lettuce only please.”

  They were all digging into their food when Keller finally sauntered back to the table and sat down.

  Keller saw them eating their non-organic chow and he said, “You like to live dangerously.”

  After he sat down, he continued chatting, “Hey, the bathroom here has one of those fancy ultra-violet hand dryers. Man, they may look like a work of art, but they sure look like they’d spread the plague in a heartbeat. Give me paper towels any day.”

  His barren meal arrived.

  Molly looked up and said, “Well, you know, on the Mars spacecraft we’ll be using antibacterial reusab
le towels. As well as those ultra-violet hand dryers. For what it’s worth, research shows that they are very effective. And there is no such thing as a paper towel up there in space. Things are different in long-term habitats like that.”

  Keller chewed his salad and thought for a bit. When Molly wasn’t looking, he stole a tater tot from her plate. “I guess that makes sense to avoid disposable things. Every ounce of weight carried to the space station costs over two thousand dollars, so I guess those paper towels would cost a ton of money.”

  He chewed some more and asked, “So you’re all getting the one million dollar bonus, right?”

  Everybody stopped chewing and looked around the table. They observed each other to see if anybody gave a hint that they were getting more or less. It was silent. Poker faces were on full power.

  Keller added, “That’s not really a question. You are all getting that bonus. It was my idea. I had to make sure we had the best people here; mainly because you had to take up my slack since I’m not an engineer. I just make money magically appear. And rockets. I make them appear too. It’s a skill.”

  Even Yeva smiled. Keller had the gift of gab. In one fell swoop, he bumped their egos and made a self-deprecating statement. He was far more skillful than he let on.

  Yeva stopped chewing and motioned with her fork while saying, “You do not deserve to be on the mission Mr. Murch. You have not earned it like we have.”

  Adam interjected, “Hang on now, let’s be diplomatic.”

  Keller spied a challenge. He laughed and said, “Well, let’s look at it this way. With my technology, this entire mission is being planned and launched in less than a year, maybe even half that. If you had to wait on the defense contractors alone, you’d be lucky to get a design approved in less than six years. By then, you, Yeva, would be considered too old for this type of mission. Not only do I deserve to be on this rocket, but you should be thanking me.”

  He smiled as if he’d just won a battle. Then he continued.

  “To be honest, this was supposed to be an American mission only. Yes, it’s true. Adam, I don’t think you knew that. We had to invite a Russian because I sort of shafted the Russian Defense Bureau out of $20 million in a deal that was no longer, um, strategic for Murch Motors. That’s one of the reasons why they weren’t going to let us use the Soyuz to launch astronauts anymore. However, they suggested Yeva and she seems very qualified. Yeva, you are our Fast Pass to the Soyuz launch vehicle.”