by T I WADE
The two shuttles were heading into Washington for two reasons. One was to deposit funds into the Canadian Embassy in Washington in trust to pay for Joanne’s campaign, and the other was to take Joanne south to Atlanta. The Embassy had a contact in Philadelphia who could melt down the freshly made ingots into pure gold coins, as these were the most valuable currency in the world at the moment. This contact could mint a tenth of an ounce, a quarter, a half and a full ounce gold coin.
Both shuttles had a total of four tons aboard. Since it was Matt gold and Ruler Roo had wanted to have the valuable resource spent wisely, it would support the beginning of a successful bid for his wife for the White House.
With the timing right—and SB-I high above them—they had ten minutes to land directly on the Mall in a high-security area set up by the Canadian guards and unload the gold. As far as Washington and the politicians were concerned, there was nobody powerful enough to enact any law about spaceships landing on historical landmarks.
The landing site was about a mile from the Embassy. Mars could see two armored cars and hundreds of guards dressed in white as they came to a hover directly over the rebuilt Capitol Building. This time they didn’t have the blue shields extended, in case a crowd had formed. For anybody who knew what was going on, this would be the first time in history that American civilians would be able to see the space shuttles that had done so much damage to areas of their country over the last few decades.
Lunar had asked for secrecy, but as they came over Capitol Hill in formation at 1,000 feet, many in the area saw that a spaceship landing was to occur right in front of Congress. Even members of both the House and the Senate found viewpoints to watch the ships of Ryan Richmond, the most powerful man in the world, arrive.
Saturn brought down SB-III and Lunar SB-II. Mars had warned that nobody, not even the Canadian troops, could help with the unloading except to drive the small crane they had requested to lift the four pallets out of the roof cargo doors once they were open.
Joanne, watching from 100 yards away without the shields, had to hold her hands over her ears as the first craft descended. She had seen them often on the island, but this was the first time she heard and felt the force of the thrusters in atmospheric conditions without the shields.
SB-III came down with her thrusters on vertical, with more power and air movement than four large helicopters. As Saturn brought her in, vortices of dead leaves formed and thin dead branches of trees and hats were blown in a growing dust storm.
Even then the crowd grew rapidly upon seeing something new for the first time in decades. Joanne realized how large the shuttles actually were. They wouldn’t have been out of place in any airport, and were bigger than many of the mid-size jets she remembered as a young student.
The thrusters slowed to a stop. As the roof doors opened, an astronaut without a spacesuit climbed out of the hatch of each shuttle. Joanne waved, but she was too far away. Mars climbed out of the lead shuttle and motioned the crane to come forward.
“Debbie, want to meet the best-looking man from Mars?” asked Joanne smiling, and Debbie nodded excitedly. Joanne moved forward as Mary Collins told the guards to let her through. The two ladies approached the large shuttles as the first pallet of gold exited the roof of Mars’ craft.
“Joanne, congratulations on becoming a real politician!” shouted Mars as he waved them over.
“Debbie West, Mars Noble, the best-looking man from Mars,” she joked, introducing them.
“Are you old enough to fly that, young man?” joked Debbie, shaking hands and feeling at least a decade older than the teenager she saw in front of her.
“Sometimes, but she is currently in the control of my wife Saturn, who is younger than me and four months pregnant, so she will soon let me be her captain again,” he replied. That shut Debbie up for a few seconds.
“I was about to go to university at your age, Mars,” was all she could respond with.
“I understand that, “replied Mars. “I finished my degree last year. It’s far quicker when you start school at three years old.
“At three!” exclaimed Debbie.
“That’s right. We didn’t have television, computer games, parks, sports, or whatever you guys do down here, so education was a way to pass the time.”
Mars watched as the second pallet was lifted out and into the second armored truck, which then headed off to the Embassy.
He looked at the Canadian troops dressed in white. They were a mean-looking bunch, well trained, with pistols as weapons. Some had red berets, some green and one or two white. They seemed to be a mix of special forces. They were all checking the perimeter and looking at him with the same amount of interest.
Then he remembered he had a bag of Martian rocks in the cargo bay. He had collected several dozen as a child when his father VIN and he had walked around the planet. Some were just a reddish brown color, others were green and a few black. VIN had made him throw most of them away when he tried to carry them back to the base, but he had been allowed to keep the small ones the size of marbles.
“Saturn, be a darling and throw my bag of rocks out of the side hatch. I’m sure they might be of interest down here,” Mars shouted over his handheld.
The thrusters had been completely shut down so that the crane could unload the first two pallets, and once SB-III’s roof doors were shut, he heard the hum and the wind grow as Saturn returned her thrusters to idle.
His bag of stones fell out of the side hatch. Lunar Richmond, who was walking forward to chat, picked it up. The stones weren’t heavy after the gold, but they did weigh a few pounds.
The crane rolled over to the second shuttle parked behind the first and Penelope Pitt opened her roof doors.
Lunar, another fresh-looking teenager, was introduced to Debbie West. Debbie told Lunar of the respect people always spoke with about her father and that she was keen to meet him.
“Sometime in the future,” smiled Lunar. “He’s pretty busy right now.”
Again the gold was unloaded as the first armored truck returned. When the pallet touched the ground, a guard using a lifter picked it up and placed it into the rear of the truck. Mars looked at his watch. They still had seven minutes. He shouted to the crane driver to lift the gold out of the roof doors, even though the second truck hadn’t yet arrived.
“The pilot needs to start her engines,” he shouted to the man who waved. “Here, Debbie, have a nice little green stone from the Martian surface. I collected them as a kid.” He gave her the stone.
“It looks like an emerald,” Debbie explained, holding her hand to her mouth.
“Whatever that is, I just like green,” Mars replied. He saw the second truck approaching, so he walked over to the closest guards on the other side of where the large crowd was standing.
“Hi, I’m Captain Mars Noble, Astermine Space Force, and you are?”
“Master Warrant Officer Jack Warner, Canadian Forces, Special Ops Regiment, sir!” he stated, saluting. Mars smiled and saluted back. The policeman was at least six inches taller than he was, even taller than Jonesy.
“Nice to meet you. Here is a small stone from Mars. I collected them as a kid and picked it up myself.”
“Thank you, sir. My young son loves astrometry and I’m sure he will really be excited getting a real Mars rock.”
Captain Noble went over to a dozen more soldiers and handed out rocks. He turned back to see the truck about to receive the fourth pallet, so he headed back to the crowd and handed a few stones to the soldiers on the closer side, and then to a few outstretched hands.
He didn’t know what the stones were, only that they were a pretty green, blue or a dark red color. He handed the remaining few to Debbie to give out.
“I think it’s time to head back to get some more stones, Joanne. Want to come with me? We have a fancy new shuttle nearly ready, twice the size of these.”
“Mars, I can’t go all the way to Mars. To see my father, yes. I’ve had the best education e
ver with you guys. I can’t. I have to get this country of ours back on track. I know somebody who will want to go. He and a tiny boy are in Canada, and he will never forgive you if you leave without him.”
“We’ll talk in the shuttle, Joanne. We gotta go. Ms. West, you help Joanne get this house in order, and Astermine Space will be coming and going from this country very soon.” He hugged Mary Collins and headed back to the craft.
Debbie West smiled two hours later when she watched the early evening news. The first news van had arrived as the two craft took off, and the headline was “Teenage Astronaut Hands Out Dozens of Martian Emeralds and Rubies on the Mall”. She had given out the last dozen or so herself to the people and to a few guards. By the time the piece aired, Joanne was with her father in Georgia.
SB-III flew into Georgia with Joanne aboard. Saturn arrived at the coordinates given to them by the South and circled a shabby-looking Robins Air Force Base, 100 miles outside Atlanta.
They had timed it so that SB-I was a minute from arriving over the horizon. Lunar was also ready with her laser, this time circling at 150,000 feet with her shield semi-extended.
There were hundreds of armed guards. Keeping the shield extended in case they were shot at, Saturn landed at a large cordoned-off area where a car was waiting for them. Mars would be going with Joanne. Only he and Joanne deplaned once Saturn reduced the shield.
As soon as the two were out of the shuttle, the shield grew again around the spacecraft, much to the amazement of the hundreds of soldiers in several dozen ancient-looking trucks and jeeps. Then the spaceship, as totally silent as when it had arrived, quickly disappeared vertically upwards into the blue sky.
A Marine lieutenant was there to escort them. He didn’t seem very talkative after Mars told him that there was enough firepower up above to destroy everybody on this base and half of Georgia if need be, though he himself was unarmed.
The old rusty Air Force car didn’t drive far. It stopped at what seemed to Mars to be the Officers’ Club or bar, still on the airfield. The door was opened for them and they headed in.
Ex-President Dithers was at the bar having a beer. He seemed excited to see his pregnant daughter walk through the door with a younger man.
“Joanne, you look so healthy, and a few months along I see. I assume you are married, and is this the young man?”
“No, Father, this is Captain Noble, Head of Security for the Astermine Space Force currently visiting Earth.”
“Head of Security, my butt. He isn’t old enough to shave,” he replied, walking up to his daughter, who seemed to take her father’s hug gracefully.
“Well, he did shave up most of your airplanes last week,” replied Joanne, not taking any nonsense from her father. They were a cut off the same piece of meat after all.
“You are to blame for the injuries of thirteen of my pilots and 147 of the country’s finest aircraft?” he asked, getting angry.
“No, sir. I believe I was responsible for only half of your aircraft. The others were destroyed by female astronauts, both younger than me. By the way, this whole airfield is toast if anything happens to Ms. Dithers Roo here.”
“I know your voice. You bullcrapped that pilot to shy away from targeting his missiles. We haven’t seen him since. What the hell do you guys have up there that can blow away everything in front of you?”
“Right now everything we’ve got is targeted to take out the whole of Georgia,” replied Mars. “What you saw last week, Mr. Dithers, was just a few scout ships. The real fleet just arrived from Mars 48 hours ago. I was what you would call the advanced scouting group. Hell, sir, there is enough up there to blow away this whole country and turn it in the Atlantic if you want us to.” Even Joanne was impressed at the bullcrap spewing out of Mars’ mouth. He should be running for President, not she.
“Father, don’t mess with these guys. They have fought Martians, aliens, 500-mile-an-hour hurricanes and God knows what more. Your old fighter aircraft were sitting ducks, but Astermine’s lasers are so accurate from 20,000 miles that not one of your pilots lost his life. Twenty thousand miles, Father, not the paltry few hundred your missiles needed. We have five minutes before we need to call in to get our ride back up. I have come to ask you to join in the elections at the end of this year. I have asked the powers to be in Washington to allow you to run as a Presidential candidate again, as an independent if you wish, or with any party you choose. You will even be able to have your own party. Since you tried so hard to get the four-year terms trashed, I have done that to give you a second chance to sit in the White House.”
“I can run again? You organized that? Who will I be running against? Want a beer, young man, or are you old enough to drink?” he joked. Nobody thought it funny.
“President Downs, me with the Individual Party, you if you have the guts to run against me, and anybody else who can get a party together before election time. Once again, Father, the United States of America is going to have free and fair elections, not the crap you tried to force on the people. Now, you know exactly how much I love you, but thank God it’s time to leave. You have time to think over your options.”
“Or what?”
“This nice young lad here who you just insulted will blow away you, your army, and anybody else who wants to get fried if you try and attack anybody ever again. I think it is as good a deal as you gave this country. Let’s see if you have the testosterone to eat your own apple pie, Father.”
With that, she gave him a halfhearted hug and walked out with Mars trailing behind. The car was waiting, and Mars called in his wife on the way back to the airstrip.
Chapter 12
New Blood
A month after Saturn Noble had dropped Joanne back at Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington, the gold was well over half out and smelted into ingots when word came through that ex-President Dithers had taken his daughter’s suggestion to run for office.
The gold carrying had been back-breaking work. The crew of twelve carried and smelted gold until the colors orange and yellow made them ill. Two of the three shelves were empty and a dozen pallets of gold ingots stood out on the sand. The shuttles had already taken over 70 one-ton pallets down to the Dead Chicken.
To take a day’s break, Bob Mathews, Beth and Monica had taken up the massive aircraft for a test flight. Unfortunately, harm had been done to the instrumentation by the vacuum of the shield. Several systems were dead or didn’t want to work properly. After the test flight the crew reckoned that she should be flown back to Nevada and repaired. The air-refueling system could be operated manually, and so could a few of the dead systems.
Beth reckoned that she was pretty safe to fly, but a direct flight was all she was prepared to fly in her. Taking a load of gold wasn’t a problem for the aircraft, and Astermine got permission from Washington to fly the Dead Chicken into U.S. airspace.
Lunar Richmond also promised the sweating crew that once the gold was out and the second Matt craft flying again, nobody would need to visit this place in the desert ever again.
“Once we get to a hundred tons of cargo, I think you guys should fly into Nevada and get our old Chicken re-feathered,” Lunar told her crew over cold beers that night. It was a Saturday, and the next day was to be the first day of rest for two weeks. The crew were tired but strong. Saturn was now in charge of smelting, since she didn’t want to carry any more, and Captain Pete, who had been working on the shields in his mind while he worked, finally started jotting down requirements for shield production. It was time for him to return to Nevada and begin working on his research with the scientists there. “Just one more week, crew, and I think it is time to visit that fancy restaurant in Henderson, Bob’s Diner, again. We should only have a week or two’s work after that. Then it will be up to Bob and Johnny to open the hole so that we can get the cavern roof open. I think we will need both Mars and Roo for that mental attempt.”
The day off was fun. The crew played music and relaxed. But it was back to work
on Monday, and they grinded like crazy to get 100 tons of gold for the Chicken to take over to the U.S. They completed the last pallet the next Saturday afternoon.
Lunar didn’t want anybody else in the Dead Chicken other than the crew. Two Australian air-refueling Airbuses arrived to help the C-5 across the Atlantic. They needed a large slice of their own fuel to get to The Pig’s Snout, therefore two planes were needed. A couple of hours after they had arrived early Sunday morning, the three aircraft took to the sky for the Dead Chicken’s friendly return to U.S. soil.
The cavern was closed down, the generators filled up and the entire crew left in the two shuttles for the same destination. Their flight would only be two hours; the C-5 would be crossing over Ireland when the two shuttles landed in Nevada.
Sergeant Meyers was warned ten minutes before their arrival. The crew returned to a far busier airfield than last time.
Everyone stated how brown and healthy the astronauts were. The scientists who had known the kids since birth also noticed that Pluto Katherine was holding hands with a new guy who happened to be Australian. He was very good-looking, brown, his eyes blue and his sun-bleached hair blond. Lunar was also with company, and even though she thought it not proper to act like her younger sister, her new guy was often seen with her.
As usual, gossip went around the six large hangars that Ryan could soon be a grandfather, and that he should return to sort out his daughters. Saturn’s stomach was getting large, and she was now flying as Mars’ co-pilot.
Saturn was the epitome of health. So was old man Mathews and his two female pilots when the Dead Chicken landed 14 hours later.
“Monica flew blind most of the way over Africa,” stated Beth to Lunar over a cold beer in the pool later that night. “We had to go back to the very basics of flying. Lucky for us, a New York station had a powerful radio transmission we could lock onto 900 miles out from the coast. Then over central Kansas, a Las Vegas radio station was powerful enough to direct us in at 38,000 feet. We said goodbye to the second tanker 1,000 miles out of New York with close to full tanks, and headed her in. We were already five minutes into reserves when we landed, but Bob knows his Chicken so well.”