by T I WADE
“So you are saying, Dr. Schmidt, that for Earth and the United States to return to a productive economy depends on metals I have never seen before?” Mars asked.
“In a nutshell, yes. Everything produced today needs rare earth metals. Even though our technological advancement as a human race has been stagnated by selfish politics and wars for the last 20 to 30 years, small companies and research laboratories all over the world have kept advancement going, albeit slower than during the beginning of the century, and we can see modern jumps ahead in many fields in Canada and Israel. To answer two very important questions I know you will ask, rare earth metals are more valuable than gold right now for a rebirth of this planet’s industry, and without Astermine going out into space to find these metals, we will not have advancements in many modern technological fields. Yes, we could start a new Industrial Age, with smog and bad systems of old, or we can start afresh with modern, clean systems that could power the technological industry in this country to new heights.” With that he sat down. The room was quiet as Lunar allowed the information to sink in.
“I had a long telephone conversation with Joanne in Washington yesterday,” Lunar began again. “Dr. Schmidt, I, and a few of the other scientists had a conference call with her giving her our estimations of what this country will need to realign itself with the most modern technologies. Lucky for us she knew what we were talking about. It is a godsend that she spent time journeying around the solar system with us. Joanne now understands from Dr. Schmidt and the other scientists here what it is going to take to get this country back on its feet, and she has given us her word that if she is elected, she will spare nothing to help us get what we need. She even stated that NASA could be subcontracted to us. To date, we have delivered 22 tons of gold into Washington. We have 90 tons here on base, and as she stated to me, all the Matts have in gold bullion is nothing more than a drop in the ocean to what this country will need to rebuild. Therefore, if Joanne Dithers Roo is elected, one of her first goals is to get asteroid mining as large as any mining this country has ever done. She also asked that Astermine give the United States the benefit of our knowledge experience and concentrate our knowledge to get this country active again. I gave her my word that we would.”
“It’s going to take years for you Yankees to catch up with us in Australia,” stated Lunar’s husband.
“Maybe so, Mark, but don’t put this country down. Look at what my father achieved. Look at Martin Brusk, and his flexibility of electric cars, space exploration, and manufacture wherever he goes. There are thousands of Americans ready for a second chance, and Astermine will give them their chance. This country grew from nothing to an industrial giant in a few centuries. This time we are going to achieve production success in a few decades. The United States—and I’m an American first—will rebound. This time we will have good strong friends in other countries, and we will not be left behind. Jobs are scarce. The citizens of this country are hard workers and will appreciate a good job when it comes their way.”
“And look at the opportunity Astermine has,” added Pluto Katherine. “We have an opportunity far larger than our father’s. His dream was to build a space company and go to space. Our job, not a dream, is now to rebuild a whole nation, then a whole planet, and we are in the forefront of the next best industry this whole planet needs—Asteroid Mining.”
“Without asteroid mining, Earth will never re-erect itself,” continued Lunar. “There are not enough rare earth metals in the earth’s crust to bring the whole world’s industry back on line into a clean, healthy and strong environment for our NextGens. We have to build this planet for our children, something the last generations lost the idea of how to achieve.”
For several minutes questions and answers went back and forth. Lunar ended the meeting with the statement that she wanted her father to be proud of every person in Astermine when he returned to Earth and nothing was going to get in her way.
Chapter 14
A New President, Asteroid Mining, and a New Mission to Mars
The election came and went, and so did the bad politicians. The two borders were crammed with Americans returning to vote for weeks before the close of the polls. Estimations were that 50 million Americans returned to vote, then headed back to their new homes. That was where the jobs were.
The Individual Party had a landslide win, achieving 71 percent of the national vote. The second closest party, a new party called the Conservative Alliance, won 19 percent of the vote. President Downs was rather embarrassed to get 4 percent of the vote, and ex-President Dithers called the voting foul and headed back to Atlanta to hide with 3 percent of the nation voting for him. Ninety-one percent of the U.S. population voted, the best numbers ever. For once the old ideas of politics were thrown out of the window.
So it was in the House and Senate with over 80 percent of the people who were entrenched and used to running the Capitol out-voted by young and new people.
In two months, the power in the United States changed hands to a far younger generation of politicians whose average age was 38 years old.
The country partied. There was dancing in the streets of every big city and small town. People came out and celebrated with their neighbors and friends. Throughout the United States of America, there was a feeling of euphoria. The old cronies in Washington were not in control of the country anymore. Even the armed forces seemed to want to change its skin. Within weeks of President Dithers Roo giving her speech outside the Capitol, the military branches and the Pentagon were full of new, younger members.
There seemed to be an actual divide between the old thinkers and the new, and age had very little to with it. The leader of the Conservative Alliance, George Path, was 80 years old, and had fought the powers-that-be on every occasion for his 50 years in Washington. He immediately sided with Joanne’s party and was elected Speaker of the House.
Joanne had nominated an old friend of hers, a person who had shared in her ideas back in her college days, as her Vice President. Between Future Vice President Jeff Bridges and her, the country was theirs to lead.
Few incriminations were brought to the older politicians in her first few days in office. But within weeks, several members of the old Congress were jailed for financial crimes against their constituents, and many got hefty sentences. Washington, it seemed, emptied very quickly of the old guard, and there was much work to do for the new President. One of her first trips was to Nevada.
“Commander Richmond, we have Alpha Foxtrot One on finals, 50 miles out and due east,” stated Jane Burgos over the field’s intercom. She was manning the traffic from the old radio tower.
As the two official aircraft had done on numerous occasions, they came in one after the other. Lunar remembered them from the last visit. Then, she was just a child.
The two old-looking small-ish jets came in and were parked on the apron. Joanne came out of the second aircraft. Jo and Roo ran up and were allowed to greet her first. They had been waiting for several weeks now.
It was a fond family hug, when Joanne, who had her three girls with her, headed over to the waiting astronauts.
“Do we call you Ms. President, Ma’am or your Royal Highness?” joked Lunar as she got the first hug.
“You call me Joanne, like you all have ever done,” replied a smiling and happy Joanne to all the waiting crewmembers. She was happy, and a tear ran down her cheek. She was happy she was with her family again.
The only person who wasn’t there was Mars. Dr. Nancy had warned him that he had better get his body over to the island, as the baby was ready, and that had been twelve hours before Joanne’s arrival.
Just as she noticed Mars wasn’t there, Jane Burgos came over the air on the field intercom. “To all crew, Captain Saturn Noble gave birth to a healthy baby boy 23 minutes ago. Dr. Nancy has sent through the news herself. Mother and baby are doing fine, but her husband is in a mess. Usual. Our first third-generation baby has arrived and is called Michael Victor Noble. I was to
tell you that Captain VIN Noble’s father, Mars’ grandfather, was named Michael, and that the baby is eight pounds and ten ounces, and as Saturn told Dr. Nancy to tell us, the first of our third-generation astronauts. End of message.”
There were claps and hoorahs from the crew. They had all missed Saturn, and like Joanne, they all felt like one very big, happy family.
With her bewildered group of Secret Service personnel left by the aircraft, Joanne was invited into the meeting and conference room where coffee and cakes were ready. There she was immediately ordered to tell her story. For the next thirty minutes, she told the Astermine family of her struggles in Washington.
It had been hard, with much criticism and hatred from the old members, but she was a Dithers after all, and had brushed the scalding remarks given to her by the country’s peers aside. Joanne had smiled when in her Presidential speech she had told them to hurry out of Washington.
Joe and Roo were by her side, and the topic of Mars came up when she had finished speaking.
“Like myself, my wife is now a ruler,” stated Roo, and everybody listened. “A ruler of people who need to be ruled. It will be difficult for two rulers to be in the same family, but like my wife, I cannot relinquish my job to my people. I will be going to Mars, as most of my people want to go. My mother Tow, who I have made a commander, will be in charge of our ancestral home with Dr. Walls. I will return to visit with my wife on every occasion I can. It will be hard, but I hope that one day, once our jobs are over, my wife and I can be together again. We love each other very much, but we both have to put our people first.” Joanne wiped away another tear as her husband finished his speech.
“I have eight short years to do my job. For my husband, his is a lifetime’s obligation. When my job in Washington comes to an end, I will join him wherever he is.” She received a round of applause, and there were many wet eyes in the conference room. Life in Astermine was sometimes not easy.
For several hours, the chief scientists, chief astronauts, Lunar, her sister, and Joanne and her team sat down to plot the technological return of the United States of America to the world technology markets.
The need for the rare earth metals came up at every suggestion, as often as the word finance, and Lunar stated that she would acquire access to every bit of telescope power and asteroid knowledge stuck away in every private and government information storage system across the country.
Joanne’s team wrote as ideas and necessities came up, and the list became longer and longer. There were dozens of sites across the country that had terabytes of information and recorded details of every piece of rock in space the size of a shoe box, and larger. Most of the stored information was recorded in the decades between 2005 and 2015.
Many of the older astronomers and scientists who had worked with Ryan Richmond had friends in several government organizations who were now sifting through data that could be helpful to them.
Joanne promised that anybody who had worked in any space and asteroid projects during that time would be located and any information gathered for scrutiny. Lunar suggested that any of these people who knew vital or important information could always join her in Nevada.
Then came the discussion on defense. Thanks to Astermine, a part of the ancient airborne military protection lay in ruins in and around the country. Discussions among the astronauts determined that space superiority was the most important task ahead, and that Joanne and the American government could have access to Ryan’s old team of laser researchers and designers.
Suggestions about bettering the surrounding area became the topic on Lunar’s mind. Creech Air Force Base would be reestablished, as well as Nellis Air Force Base, and Area 51 in and around Las Vegas. This project would bring hundreds of jobs back to the city and area.
Finally, Lunar was prepared to assist in the country’s modern space-weapon development in return for all the information on asteroids. Both sides knew that it would take at least a decade of work to get these departments in the country up and running, but now was good a time as any.
With Joanne, diplomacy and discussion was easy. Everybody knew each other, trusted each other, and Lunar’s only worry was who would take over after Joanne left the Presidential chair in eight years’ time.
Joanne couldn’t answer that. She was not going to hijack the political system in the country the way the last couple of Presidents had, but Debbie West suggested that Presidential hopefuls within the Individual Party could be groomed to run at the end of Joanne’s term.
The room quieted as Penelope Pitt, a person who was dependable, quiet and reserved, put her hand up.
“I have flown billions of miles, often flown many of you around the solar system. I have taken part in the entire Astermine mission since birth. I am one of the oldest astronauts. Lunar, something is pulling me back to Earth and this country of ours. Joanne, Ms. West, I would like to be a candidate for a possible political position sometime in the future. I have had enough of flying. During our odyssey, I studied Political Science in America One’s library for over a decade. I am 22, and in eight years’ time, I believe I will be old enough and knowledgeable enough to run for something. There is nothing I don’t know about American politics, up to when our history logs ceased, around 2020.”
“Do you really want to leave us?” asked Lunar, totally shocked.
“No, of course not. You are my best friends, Lunar, Pluto Katherine, Pluto Jane, Jane, Jenny, Hillary, my darling sister, but somebody needs to be groomed for a country worth living in, and that might as well be me. Look at the bright side. At least I won’t need a pilot for Air Force One. I’ll get a more modern one and fly her myself.”
That brought laughter, and Debbie West, with Lunar’s nod, suggested that Penelope Pitt pack her bags and get ready for Washington. She did have a good connection in the Pentagon and Penelope could be Astermine’s military representative in the Pentagon to start with.
An hour after, the meeting broke up. A few sundowner beers by the pool were organized before Joanne and her team headed back to Washington. Two ancient-looking C-17s arrived from Andrews Air Force Base, and the remainder of the gold, 92 tons of it flown in on the Dead Chicken, was forklifted into the two aircraft and then airlifted back to the Capitol.
Another 50 tons of gold ingots would be picked up from The Pig’s Snout when Mars arrived back with Saturn, Dr. Nancy and the baby in a few weeks’ time. Two hundred tons of gold was to be given to the country, which left Lunar just enough to get melted down into gold coins and bits to pay her team. It was time to go asteroid mining.
Only one of the C-17s was needed to pick up the remaining 50 tons of gold in the middle of the Sahara Desert three weeks later. Dr. Walls, Roo, Joe and Tow had flown in with Lunar, who was meeting the Noble family arriving in the Matt craft with Dr. Nancy from the island.
The baby was cooed over by all the girls while Saturn looked over proudly. The desert was hot and the crew in shirts and shorts. Dr. Nancy was like a protective grandmother, and she stated to the younger girls that she now wished she had got married earlier and had kids. The female astronauts all gave her a hug, telling the doctor that she had so many children she didn’t need any more and that within a day or so she would be reunited with Captain Pete.
A few inches of sand had moved back into the hole dug by Bob Mathews and Johnny Walls weeks earlier, and they cleaned the sand for Roo to see if he had the power to open the roof. They had a day before the helicopter was to arrive.
“Mars, work with me here,” suggested Roo as he also struggled to open the roof. Even his mother was taken down into the hole to help with the mental powers needed to open the cavern. “Ok, Mother, Mars, we have gone over the way the cavern roof works. It opens in a circle from the middle and outwards so that the spacecraft can launch. Think of the middle point and with your minds, and in Matt, Mars, pull it back so that it opens.”
They tried several times, and on the last time, everyone felt the cavern roof they were all stan
ding on vibrate and then move open a few inches. Mars was sweating, and so were the two smaller Matts, so they decided that a rest was needed. Lunch was the order of the day.
A meal was eaten on the surface, and on their third try the cavern roof opened a few more feet before grinding to a halt. Roo mentioned that sand must have got into the roof system, and Tow and several of the astronauts swept sand off the roof while others cleaned inside the roof structure underneath.
That took all afternoon, and by nightfall the roof slid open easily to reveal the silver spacecraft below.
The next morning, Mars and Roo, who was desperate to fly again, launched the Matt craft through the hole and headed straight towards the Nevada base where the craft was to begin a dissecting operation to try and find out how it worked.
Since rain was virtually non-existent in this part of the world, Tow and Dr. Walls suggested that the roof be left open a few feet for ventilation. Tow remembered seeing the roof open to allow any breezes through the accommodations, and Lunar suggested that the Cold Fusion plant stay to give the vast caverns air conditioning.
Tow laughed at the idea of modern technology being flown in to keep them cool. Happily, she led Lunar and a few others down several tunnels Mars hadn’t noticed behind an outer panel in the wall. At the ends of the tunnels were metal plates that Tow mentally opened, and the tunnels opened up to sand-blocked holes in the wall of the crater.
“We used to live here very comfortably without all your Homo sapiens technology,” she told Lunar, who helped her dig away the soft, cool sand.
Once she had several tunnels opened for fresh air, and the roof closed down to only a few feet of sunlight entering the cavern, the interior was cool compared to outside but there was enough sunlight to give the upper floor of the cavern a bright even glow.
“Now this is how we used to live,” she stated to the others excitedly. “I’m so happy to be home.”