by T I WADE
“About 100 of your gallons of what you call vodka, from here to your ship, and 500 gallons from Earth,” Roo replied a few seconds later.
“Does it have a blue shield?” VIN asked.
“Of course,” replied Roo. “Commander Joot told me to tell you that is why our spaceship uses so little fuel inside the atmosphere of the blue planet you call Earth.
“And weapons?” asked Jonesy not thinking.
“What are weapons?” asked Roo looking at the tall Jonesy, then at VIN for an answer. VIN just smiled back, not able to answer that one.
“Fueling this ship will get you on the wagon at last,” joked Maggie, elbowing her husband in the ribs.
“Daddy needs to stop drinking that horrible smelly stuff,” added Saturn, now nearly six. Her father said nothing. Maybe he had to give up something to fly this beautiful beast, and there was still beer and wine.
“Roo, ask Commander Joot if he can fly it,” asked Jonesy.
“He is the only one who can fly it,” replied Roo. “He needs to teach somebody how to help him. He needs more people to fly more machines, and he said that there is a second space ship on the little planet, and one on the red planet you call Mars. The same name of my best friend here,” he added ruffling Mars Noble’s long hair.
Both Mars and Saturn spent hours with Roo and Tow. They were still the best speakers of Matt on the ship other than the Matts themselves.
The small ship was totally dead, and Commander Joot walked over to a control console, pressed a few buttons, and the ship began to glow.
“The commander thinks that it will take several weeks before the ship has power to fly; he doesn’t think it is broken, just needs to power up and fresh fuel, and he would be grateful for 100 gallons of the liquid Mr. Jones drinks,” Roo said to Suzi, smiling.
“It will take eight weeks to make that amount, so tell him not to rush, Herr Roo,” smiled Suzi.
Without power they were unable to enter the craft. They left the ship to power up and Commander Joot said that he would return to check the ship when it had power and fuel.
Since many of the Matts were children, or at least under the age of 30, which was child age to them, they joined the other kids in daily lessons.
After Mars Noble and Saturn Jones, Fritz understood Matt as well as Roo understood English. Both men began to teach language class together, often disputing words in their different languages in front of the kids. Igor taught electronics, Martha and Petra taught astrophysics and astrobiology, and Suzi normal biology. Chemistry was also covered as were mechanics, propulsion engineering, computers and the solar system. Classes were organized by age, with about 10 students in each. Starting school at three, the kids were immediately immersed in a challenging and difficult curriculum; it was as tough as any high school, and later, university, for those over nine. They learned fast and hard.
Other than Mr. Rose and Fritz, there were only two single crew members among the Tall People and five single adults over 40 among the Matts. Among the children there were an equal number of Matts to Tall People, and luckily, the Matt children were predominately boys and the Tall People girls. Somebody in the solar system had worked hard to unite the two races.
It was a day of celebration when the first tots of vodka were again available to the crew because it meant there was also fuel available for Commander Joot’s ship.
A huge door in the roof of the cavern opened above the sixty-foot long craft, the inner atmosphere was released, and the commander, wearing a teen-size spacesuit, rotated the spacecraft to exit the base on Enceladus for the last time, closing the cavern behind them. Much of the pure alcohol fuel produced for the launch was made up in America One from the Matts own still, but with Suzi’s produce.
VIN was also suited up and watching the launch from the shield on Enceladus; he and three other crew members were loading Asterspace Three 800 yards away. He couldn’t believe that a door so large could slide open. It looked like something out of a James Bond movie when the small ship rose from beneath the surface of the planet.
Captain Pete, watching through his telescope half a mile away, described what was happening to VIN. VIN was right about the Bond dramatics. Pete told him that a 75-foot square slice of surface just disappeared underneath the adjacent ground like a sliding door, the craft exited, and then it closed. Any loose debris on the door’s surface had been displaced, so he could just see the outline of the cavern roof. He also told VIN that there was no way he could ever have seen the door on the surface. VIN and Commander Joot had actually searched for the roof door days before the launch, failing to find any clues that they were standing on a massive sliding door.
Jonesy, also suited up and squashed up tightly in the rear co-pilots seat, was surprised by how simple the spaceship was to fly. Like a commercial aircraft, it was all “fly by wire” and controlled by one side joystick on the right side of each seat. Although it was slow, and not very powerful compared to his shuttle, it slowly rose out of the moon’s atmosphere, and began orbiting to gain height to reach America One.
Even though Jonesy had the controls for a full two-hour orbit of the twelve hour flight, he still didn’t know how the craft flew. It had no auto-pilot, no weapons, few controls on the console in front of him, no heads-up display like he had on all Ryan’s craft, and it flew slow, very slow, more like an old vintage car. Jonesy thought it looked more beautiful than powerful.
It also didn’t have a docking port but Commander Joot deployed its shield before they left the moon’s surface and was able to stick the ship to the inside wall of America One’s shield. Hans the German had to retrieve both men by spacewalking to fetch them out of the ship’s cargo bay, as there was still no atmosphere inside the shield around the mother ship.
They always had shields with atmosphere to exit and enter when traveling, which is why the Matts didn’t have full spacesuits.
Ryan had learned that the shield and an atmosphere were always placed on each base before it was built, so that the builders in charge of their mining machines could work without suits.
Enceladus was totally empty a month after Joot’s ship was docked. The only remaining item was the black box that would keep the shield and atmosphere inside for as long as it had power. Commander Joot assumed that the shield would still be working for another 2,000 years at least. It had already worked perfectly for that amount of time. Igor expected the cold fusion plant down there, would last even longer.
They left the soil behind, as well as an ample supply of frozen food and 100 gallons of water in the event anybody returned. In addition, 50 gallons of fuel were left, much to Jonesy’s complaints, just in case. The life span of the fuel and food was unknown, but records were kept for future travelers.
For another two months, the crew worked on the area of the planet that had the water ice and filled every canister, twice over.
The Matts seemed happy aboard ship. They blended in well with the routines and didn’t seem unhappy to see Enceladus, their home for several generations, disappear behind the ship as it headed towards where DX2017 would be, just over 3 million miles away, and farther out in the solar system. The little blue planet was being turned by Saturn’s gravitational pull, and the two planets were about as close as they would be every fifty years, heading in the same direction. Captain Pete calculated that they would fly in formation for about six months, before the faster moving DX2017 turned inwards towards the sun, cut across Saturn’s orbital path, and began its journey back towards Earth and Mars.
Three months later and two months before Mars Noble’s sixth birthday, America One went into orbit around the familiar small blue-grey cannon ball. The surface of DX2017, or “Dook” as the Matts called it, wasn’t blue anymore but nearly black, due to the loss of sunlight. Also, the temperature on its surface had dropped 30 degrees to minus 197 degrees Fahrenheit.
The shield could be seen from the mother ship’s orbit, and it stood out brightly, a pin prick on the planet’s surface.
The globes on the planets were directional beacons, and Jonesy explained that even without auto-pilot the Matt ship flew itself in outer space. Commander Joot had allowed the ship to head towards the beacon taken from Mars; he had repaired the globe after a few months of work and it was live on the Bridge of America One. Igor had tied the power delivery systems into the ship’s reactor.
VIN, Fritz, Roo and Commander Joot were the first to be transported down to their old home by Jonesy and Maggie. Saturn Jones, also nearly six, had entered Second Grade aboard ship, and would be under Suzi’s care while her astronaut parents were away.
They planet was the same as when they left, although it was cold and wintery inside the shield. The atmospheric temperature inside the shield had decreased to 46 degrees.
“Too cold to grow much,” relayed Suzi from above.
The atmosphere inside the docking port was still closed and separated the above and below ground atmospheres; temperature below ground was 61 degrees, cool, but not uncomfortable. In addition, the air cleaning systems below had rectified the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels; the atmosphere and pressure was high in oxygen, but still perfect for their arrival.
VIN opened the docking port to allow the warmer air out. They weren’t staying long, a week at most, but at least the shield could be warmed for its colder path through the solar system. Captain Pete wanted to set course for Mars, which was getting farther away by thousands of miles per day. Saturn and DX2017 were still heading away from the sun at a diminishing angle.
Commander Joot saw the damage VIN had done to get Roo and Tow out of the system and was still amazed that the two Tall People doctors had been able to revive them without the machines designed for the procedure. He turned the control console upside-down showing the cryonic controls, and VIN shrugged his shoulders, now knowing how to work the system.
“Remember VIN, we Matt People cannot use the sleep chambers since all of us have already been asleep, except the guards Dot and Sew, who we will send to sleep tomorrow. Only a new Matt generation can use them. But 12 of you Tall People can use the sleep chambers here in an emergency; Roo and I will be your guards whenever that happens.”
VIN nodded. The two old men who had stood guard for the others decided to go to sleep on DX2017 with two young guards of their own, a very high privilege for a young Matt, until the cannon ball arrived close to Mars in about eleven and a half years. The two old men expected to live another 20 years and wanted to enjoy retirement on Mars; they would save the four years it would take to get there on American One.
Two of the Matt boys, Fot and Kat, were being prepared by the group for the eleven-year guard duty; they would be equipped with sufficient supplies and Suzi spent the 48 hours before they departed to teach them crop production. They would also be left with their gold boxes, and enough knowledge to survive the short duration.
Joot opened the dimly lit passage to the flight cavern so he, VIN, Roo and Fritz, all fully suited up for protection, could do through to the other side which had little to no atmosphere. They managed to open the door, enter, and quickly close it before too much air escaped. Hunched over, VIN and Fritz and the two shorter Matts headed along the passage to see if the spaceship was operational.
The same alcohol was there, but there was only ten gallons of it and it was useless fuel.
“We should have brought Jonesy to sample this ancient stuff,” laughed VIN “but he didn’t want the backache from walking through the tunnel.”
“I still can’t understand… So many of you people drink our fuel,” replied Commander Joot, his English getting better every day. “I can understand why your Chief Astronaut Jones go crazy, and always has bad vibrations. We never drank the fuel, but what interests me, Astronaut Jones not drink the liquid fuel you use for your ships. Maybe this little fuel on planet cause for Commander Put’s problem. Maybe the start of all our problems. Maybe not enough fuel made on blue planet. Maybe why big Matt problem and death, no more fuel from Earth. We cannot make fuel in space. Fuel making equipment never used on white moon. Big problem!” Roo nodded at what his commander was saying and VIN began to see the whole picture.
“A little too cold to drink liquid hydrogen at minus 180 or so degrees below freezing, even out here in space,” laughed VIN.
“I’m sure a little too cold, even for Jonesy, but, he would try if there wasn’t anything else!” smiled Fritz.
The commander could fly this ship out this time; it was still powered up, and when they returned with 100 gallons of freshly made fuel a few days later, Jonesy, VIN and Fritz watched as the cavern roof opened sucking out the remaining atmosphere, the cold air blasted in, and the craft exited vertically and then towards the blue shield half a mile away, where Asterspace Three was being unloaded with fresh supplies for the two remaining Matts on guard duty.
The roof door closed above VIN’s head and he and Fritz walked the painful distance through the corridor to return to the first base.
America One’s accommodation units were pretty full with the visitors. However, with four of the Matts disembarking, there would be more room for the longest leg of the odyssey back to Mars, and finally mother Earth. Many wondered what was going on inside and above the atmosphere of their old home. Even the Matts wondered. Many of the Tall People began to ask themselves if they would want to stay when they reached the blue planet, home.
They were just over halfway through the odyssey, at their farthest distance from Earth, and they hadn’t heard from Earth for a couple of years. Captain Pete heard odd, unrecognizable chatter coming from the direction of Earth a few times, but it was intermittent and usually only lasted for several hours. Only one or two words were clearly understood. One three letter word, war, was heard a couple of times, but that didn’t surprise anyone aboard; it was one of the most commonly used three letter words on Earth.
The two old men were sent to sleep. The doctors and several others were in attendance at the freezing of the two, a more rapid two-hour process than the twelve-hour period it took to defrost the sleepers. The system worked perfectly. The planet’s cold fusion unit was up and running, the second Matt ship inside America’ One’s shield was somehow tied to the first one, and the crew prepared to leave DX2017’s orbit.
One day later than Captain Pete wanted, they finally saw the little planet disappear off the radar. The ship’s nose was facing directly towards a bright star called the sun and the four Matts and tons of supplies were left behind in the desolation of outer space.
Chapter 24
Mars
Halfway into the odyssey, the crew had developed specialized teams to keep the 400-ton life support system around them, America One, working. It didn’t really matter whether they were orbiting a moon, a planet, or travelling in a straight distance, life aboard had to be monitored every second.
Seven more children were delivered by the doctors, completely filling the family accommodations. Three marriages took place, the most significant of which was the first union between Matt and Tall People; a tall Fritz Warner and a diminutive Tow married the second year into the return journey. The seventh child—and sixteenth baby girl—joined the crew two years later when Tow delivered the first Homo floresiensis/sapiens baby. The birth was celebrated for days.
Kathy and Ryan had a second baby girl, Pluto Katherine, in the third year and five other couples had daughters in the fourth. There were no other Matt babies born on the flight to Mars.
Two of the young Matt men became Elders, the third highest rank in the Matt system and the most important day in the life of a young male. Roo was the first to be promoted by Commander Joot to Elder status, Elder Bon the second. Attainment of Elder status accorded the two young men the opportunity to choose wives and start
families. A third, Elder Doo, had been in command of the base on Enceladus, and Elder Bon became his second in command.
Elder status also opened the way to possible Commander status, but only Elder Roo was interested in achieving this most difficult rank which would take ten years of concentrated study directly under Commander Joot.
Even though there were more females on board than males, none of the young Matt girls were ready for marriage which required that they be at least 35 years old, and the older generation was too old for the boys to marry. Of course, there were dozens of young Tall People girls, but the eldest was only 15, too young to be considered.
Out of respect for his new rank, Elder Roo was permitted to enter the Bridge alone. Until then, only Commander Joot and Tow had been given the privilege of walking onto the Bridge at any time.
Research and experiments into new sciences continued, often with the older more knowledgeable Matts assisting in their areas of expertise. However, only the highest ranked males received the advanced education necessary to understand how some of their systems worked, a rank held only by Commander Joot. Joot had promoted a very old and feeble temporary Commander Get to be in charge of the new base on Enceladus, but the man died within the first month.
Commander Joot enjoyed teaching, and Roo joined his daily two-hour class with Igor, Boris, Ryan, Martha, Petra, and the heads of the ship’s other departments. Igor was disappointed to learn how little the commander knew about the shields; he seemed to know as much as the commander did.
Everyone on board became fluent in English and Matt within the first year of travel. Many Tall People had difficulties with the numerous clicks used in Matt, and the Matts struggled with several sounds in English. Used daily, however, difficulties with a second language dissolve, and a few Matts, including Commander Joot and Elder Roo, began to learn German and Russian as well.
Four years, and 118 days after leaving DX2017, the crew on the Bridge saw the red planet of Mars appear on the radar screen 300,000 miles ahead of them. They were traveling at 60,000 miles an hour.