“Back to you two though; rumor mill has it that you have been chosen as the flight crew for the Phobos mission. That will be a long flight, what about forty two days one way?”
Mike cleared his throat and looked at Hank. “Space Force has not announced the flight crew yet. The ship is almost ready to go and most of the specialists and engineers have been chosen. We asked for it, but some of the other flight teams are griping that we get all the good missions, so we may not be chosen to go.”
“That’s bullshit,” said Abe. If you are planning on sending a ship with twenty crewmen fifty million miles away, it seems to me you want to send your most experienced crew. Nobody has been to Mars or to its moons before. If the shit hits the fan and something bad happens, it will take the best we have to get the ship and crew back in one piece.”
“Sometimes Space Force does not…whoa…..who is that?” whispered Hank. Abe and Mike turned to see who Hank was referring to. A very tall, long legged, blond woman was going through the cafeteria salad line.
“That my friends, is Lieutenant Kristy Nichols. She may look hot as fire, but she is cold as ice. Don’t even think about it Hank, you’ll be wasting your time,” Abe said.
“A man’s got to try,” said Hank as he stood. “I don’t see a wedding band on her finger.”
Hank went through the cafeteria line again for a sandwich and then went and sat down beside the Lieutenant.
Abe laughed and said “he’ll be back with his tail between his legs in about five minutes.”
“I did not know you had females here at the base, Abe,” said Mike.
“Actually, we have seventeen at the moment. And every one of them is an expert at what they do. I think they try that much harder to prove they are as good as the guys. Hey, I heard that the Phobos mission has four females on its crew also, is that true?”
“Supposedly,” said Mike, “I have not seen the full crew roster yet. Hey, you were right. Here comes Hank back.”
Hank came back to their table and sat down. Abe laughed at him. “Shot down before you even made it into low orbit eh?”
“You did not tell me she is a certified flight engineer, nor did you tell me she is attracted to other women and not men,” accused Hank.
“You did not ask,” said Abe “And by the way, she is not really gay. Her husband was killed on that dream chaser shuttle crash a few years ago. From what I hear, she has been married only to her work since then. She is one fine flight engineer. She flies quite a bit on the cargo tugs between here and low Earth orbit.”
“What a waste,” said Hank, as they watched the Lieutenant get up to leave. She gave Hank a look that would have frozen the sun as she left.
“What did you say to her?” asked Mike.
“I just asked if she had ever seen the cockpit of a spaceship before. How was I to know she was a damn qualified flight engineer?”
Abe stood and stretched. “It was good talking to you guys, but I need to check on how the ground crew is doing unloading your ship. You two better catch a few hours of sleep while you can. We will have some supplies for you to carry up to Lunar One for your return trip. Hopefully I will see you guys again before you leave. And Hank, please leave my female crew personnel alone. I have enough worries without hearing complaints on how some hot shot pilot was hitting on all the girls. Maybe you need a vacation Earth side for a while to relieve your stress,” he joked. “Now, go get some sleep. The visitors’ bunkroom is the third door down after you leave the cafeteria.” He turned and headed toward the base control center.
Chapter 36
April 2nd 2032
Washington, DC
Peter and Susan finally made it back to their Washington DC hotel room around one thirty am. It had been quite the night. David Honstein was retiring as NASA’s Director after nearly forty four years of service and NASA had put on quite the going away party for him. David had been with NASA from the early days of the Space Shuttle all the way up to, and including the start of the new United States Space Force and the early construction period of the Earth Asteroid Alert and Defense Systems. He had seen NASA go from glory days to the budget gutter and back again. NASA now had been divided into the Civilian Space Science side that was mated at the hip to the Space Force and the hard core science and exploration side. The NASA Civilian Director had been David until his retirement and the Space Force commander had been General Seale since its conception. The retirement party had been full of surprises as another person had announced their planned retirement in two months and some of the prospective replacements for the retirees had been announced.
Peter collapsed onto the bed as Susan struggled to get out of her evening gown. “Get up, Peter and unzip this thing before I scream,” she begged him as she was trying to twist her arms into a physically impossible position to reach the zipper on the back of her gown.
Peter moaned and sat up. “Well, come here. Why do they design these things so they are so hard to get into and out of?” he asked.
“Because, usually they are designed by a man,” she sighed in relief as she slid the gown down off of her hips.
“Oh, I like that much better,” Peter said as he bent over and kissed her bare stomach.
“Not tonight,” Susan moaned as she twisted away from him. “It is almost two in the morning and your wife needs sleep. Now, get those clothes off and get in bed. You have that meeting tomorrow at ten before we fly back home.”
“I wonder if I could play hooky,” Peter said.
Susan pushed him back into the bed. “The new Director of JPL cannot play hooky without setting a bad example for his entourage of underlings. You have a very important position now and you have to set an example for your people to follow. Now, off to dream land for you.” She climbed into bed herself and was soon fast asleep.
Peter lay in bed thinking after Susan’s breathing indicated she was deep in sleep. The retirement party had really stirred things up. After David had given his farewell speech, he had kept the podium to announce some other upcoming personnel changes. Mike Honstein was being promoted to Director of NASA as soon as he had congressional approval which would probably take all of thirty seconds. No one had the qualifications that Mike had, and remarkably, he had no political adversaries to stall the nomination process. David had announced that Mary Beth was also retiring from her position as assistant director at JPL and the nomination for JPL director was going to be Peter himself. Peter had about fallen out of his chair as people reached over to pat him on the back to congratulate him. Having only been with JPL for sixteen years, he never would have dreamed of being promoted to that position. His head had been in a spin ever since the announcement.
Peter realized the immensity of the task before him. Not only was JPL responsible for ongoing science missions and experiments, but it had lately become the nexus of all studies of the Brown Dwarf and its very interesting orbital companion. While he was excited about all that his new job would entail, he was hesitant to give up the detailed studies position that he had held until that point. At least he would see all of the data on everything space oriented as it came across his desk. That made it a little more palatable. Susan was very excited for him, but she had not yet fully realized that the new position would require them moving to Houston to be near the new JPL headquarters. The present Cal Tech campus location was still not due to be shut down for about six more years, but all the executive staff had been moved to the new Joint NASA/JPL headquarters. He guessed they had better start doing some house hunting soon before the main population relocation campaigns began. It would be impossible to find a place to live by then and they would probably get stuck in some government built housing project. His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that there were no beaches in Houston.
Peter woke up the next morning to the sensation that someone was sitting on top of him. As he struggled to gather his senses, he realized that someone was on top of him. Whoever it was, they were obviously female, not wearing any cloth
es, and rubbing on him in a most suggestive manner. He opened his eyes to see Susan looking at him from inches away. “What are you doing?” he whispered.
“It is morning, dear, and I am not sleepy any more. I thought I would start your day off in a good way,” she whispered back in a husky voice.
Peter felt his body rapidly responding to the sensation of his wife rubbing on him. He had always loved it in the morning, he thought to himself, as she lowered herself on him.
Later on, they ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant, as Peter waited for a taxi to pick him up. As they walked to the lobby Susan gave him a big hug. “I am going shopping and will see you back here for supper.” I really enjoyed last night, and I really, really, enjoyed this morning. I love you honey,” she said with a big kiss.
As they stood embraced on the curb, Peter sensed motion behind him and jumped back dragging Susan out of the way. The taxi was sitting there. It had not made a sound pulling up and the driver was just sitting there looking annoyed. “Damn, I will never get used to these electric cars,” said Peter. “It is just not natural for them to be so quiet. I miss the old days of loud exhaust and internal combustion engines sometimes. Have fun shopping, and don’t spend all my new pay check in one place,” he grinned. “Hopefully we will be done about the time you finish shopping and I will meet you back here.”
…
Peter looked around the covered patio at David Honstein’s house nestled in the Washington suburbs. There were only five of them present. He thought back to when he was still fresh out of school and had sat in awe of these guys. Now, he felt he was almost an equal with them. The five of them present were David Honstein, the outgoing director of NASA, Mike Banscott, his old boss at JPL and the new nominated head of NASA, Mary Beth Davis, the retiring director of JPL, General Seale, commander of Space Force, and himself. When he thought of all the knowledge and intelligence in the room, he realized he was still in awe of their company.
David looked around and spoke. “Welcome to my last un-official act at NASA. I wanted to have a final informal group session before I go learn to play shuffleboard on a cruise ship somewhere. I figure I better go while there still are a few cruise ships left in the world. I want this to be sort of a catch-up session where all of us leaving and those staying and moving up into new positions share any tribal knowledge that needs to be passed on and I also want to make sure that all of you are on the same page.
In about eleven years, three of you are going to see things, and be responsible for doing things that my generation never dreamed of. I envy you, but I am also relieved that I can pass on the burden now. Marybeth and I have carried a heavy load the past ten years. You three have also been doing a tremendous amount of work yourself or you would not be listening to me right now. Mary Beth and I both know that we are passing the torch on to those capable of carrying it. This is not a formal briefing by any means, and that is why I am having it here at my house. I want it to be a face to face bullshit session so that you can all be on the same page. So, let’s get started. Peter, you go first. What is the latest information on your star and its wayward planet?”
“On June 23rd, 2043, at approximately two forty-five am Eastern Time Zone, the Dwarf Star will make its closest approach to Earth. From what the geologists tell us, we will start feeling the gravitational effects starting with large tides and minor earthquakes about five to six weeks before that. We will see increased volcanic activity in the same time period. All of this will diminish in the months after E-day. We will probably feel aftershocks and have some increased volcanic activity for at least a year afterwards. Climate change will start being felt in several months. It may be thirty or forty years before the climate finally starts settling into its new patterns. Much of the northern hemisphere will become covered by ice and snow that never melts. Over the years, as this weight builds up on the Earth’s crust, we will have more tremors and earthquakes as the crust feels the strain. Sea levels may drop as much as forty to fifty feet over the next century as the rain falls as snow and ice and accumulates. Global warming will no longer be a concern to us.”
“As you all know, after the dwarf crosses Mars orbit it will pass over the asteroid belt scattering many of those asteroids and rocks all over the solar system. It will then interact with Jupiter and eject that planet into interstellar space. Next, it will overtake Saturn and destroy that planet completely as well as its moons. Most of that mass will be added to that of the dwarf. It will then wander on out of the solar system disrupting many of the objects in the Oort cloud and causing some of them to fall toward the inner solar system. The asteroids from both the inner belt and Oort cloud are going to be a big concern for us all, but I guess General Seale can speak more about that.”
“Finally, we come to the planet that is presently orbiting the dwarf. It has officially been given the name of Elpis. Elpis was the Greek Goddess of Hope. This is where things are going to get very interesting. Elpis will settle into an orbit that puts it fairly in the middle of our Sun’s habitable zone. Although it does have water ice on its surface, we are not completely sure what the atmospheric composition will be. It is very possible that it may be marginally inhabitable by humans. At a minimum, it should at least be much more hospitable than Mars presently is. We will not know more until its frozen atmosphere starts turning to gas again. Approximately three months before E-day, it will swing around the sun, be captured, and then settle around our sun in an orbit almost eighty degrees above the ecliptic. At closest approach it will be about eleven million miles from Earth. We will be able to gather much more information about it after the dwarf has passed and left us.”
“Thank you Peter. Marybeth, would you like to go next?”
“Sure” said Marybeth, “although my briefing sort of over laps Peters. “We have just about every telescope on Earth and in orbit trained on the dwarf and its planet. The closer it gets the more accurate the specific information is going to be. The major things like trajectories and orbits we have worked out pretty well though and are not going to change very much. We have a unmanned probe that we are going to launch in about three years to try and get it into orbit around the planet Elpis as it starts to enter the solar system. The planet will precede the dwarf into the system by about four months. The probe will use an advanced fission powered VASIMR propulsion system that will make it one of the fastest traveling objects ever launched by mankind. Halfway there, it will flip its ass around and then decelerate into orbit around Elpis. The initial orbit of the planet will come within fourteen million miles of us here on Earth. Rumor has it that a “spare” Mars transfer ship might suddenly appear, and might accidently be in a position to enter orbit around Elpis for about six weeks before it will have to head back to Earth. This part about the transfer ship is all non-official rumors though,” she said, as she sat and winked at General Seale.
“I guess that means it is my turn,” said the general. “As you know, Space Station Alpha has been fully operational for some time now. We have a total of eight tugs that can transfer cargo from low Earth orbit to the station or to lunar orbit. We have four lunar landers for doing the same between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. Right now, Alpha is the command and communication hub for all of our space based activities. Houston Control no longer coordinates anything but shuttle launches or shots into low Earth orbit. Schackleton Base at the Lunar South Pole is up and functional. It is sending up full cargo loads of water, hydrogen and oxygen about three to four times a week now. These supplies cover all our needs in those areas and we are no longer dependent on Earth for those supplies. We expect to increase its ice processing capacity by two to three hundred percent by E-Day. Farside base is coming along very well. The phased array radar system is being constructed and should be operational in a little over a year. Until it is needed post encounter, we can use it for other study purposes. It is planned to be used to probe both the dwarf and the planet Elpis as they approach.”
“The Phobos mission is due to launch
in about two months. It is not meant to establish a permanent outpost on Mar’s moon Phobos, but they will do a lot of preliminary planning and exploration and determine the best way to establish the base there in the future. The Phobos base is to have a phased array radar system identical to the one at Farside base as well as having a couple of interdictors stationed there. About a dozen nuclear tipped missiles will also be pre-staged there in case they are determined to be needed to deflect any really huge objects thrown our way. On that subject, the testing of the propulsion pods for asteroids was a pretty good success. There were a few wrinkles we have to iron out, but that will be no problem. The use of photo-absorbing or reflecting solutions, or paint if you want to be simplistic in calling it that, has been tested also. We do not think that method is going to be very viable on rocks with an estimated impact time of less than four to five years. Looks like it will be robotic or human placed propulsion pods or nukes for our defenses at least for the foreseeable future.”
“In reply to Marybeth’s little hint, let’s say that we might possibly have the parts needed in orbit to build an additional transfer ship in a short period of time. That would give us three of those available as well as four interdictor class ships.”
“The last topic is the new magnetic rail launch system that is being built in the salt flats out west. Progress on that is moving along and we hope to have it in testing in a few years. The successful completion of that project will make putting crew and light cargo into space much more affordable than the present booster and shuttle method we have to use at the moment. And that’s where we stand in a nutshell,” said the General.
David sat back and nursed his beer for a minute before he spoke. “I will tell you what I think is going to happen, and I am a little worried. In a little over eleven years from now, we are going to get the crap knocked out of us as the Dwarf goes by. Some of the world governments are trying to get ready, but I am not sure how well that is going to work out. Our own government has some wonderful plans, and ex-President Montgomery did her best to get the ball rolling, but plans are only as good as the execution. Come E-day, I am afraid many of those grandiose plans will un-ravel.”
Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) Page 25