by T I WADE
As the shuttle became one, the astronauts learned her controls. Like an aircraft’s or spacecraft’s, each took time to test, and then changes needed to be made to the instruments when the pilots noticed any irregularities.
Day after day, week after week went by, and finally the new shuttle was ready for its first atmospheric space flight. Unlike the smaller shuttles, it did not have heat bricks on its underside, relying on blue shield-atmospheric entrances only.
The next job for the build crew was to finally remove any telltale signs that the heat bricks had ever been glued onto the smaller shuttles.
Word had got through from the shield design team that it could be possible to build more shields sometime in the future, and from now on it was either shield reentries or the spacecraft had to stay in orbit.
The first test flight for SB-IV was to Australia in atmospheric conditions, as there was a Cold Fusion plant waiting for her on the island. Up to now the spacecraft had relied on Plutonium-238 battery reactors beneath their bellies to power the shields in space and in atmospheric conditions. At least 28 megawatts were needed for each shield to activate, and the “238” in its heavy lead case had been “borrowed” from SB-II which lay dormant, having her new thrusters connected in one of the Nevada hangars.
Six and a half pounds of Plutonium-238 had been lost with the mother ship explosion, and the remaining plutonium had been redistributed among the mining craft. Each still had ample power for another seventy years. The smaller craft had still twenty-four ounces of the radioactive material in new anti-radioactive lead battery nullifier cases below their bellies instead of the usual two pounds.
All the lead cases were inspected and tested with Geiger counters on a weekly basis while down on Earth.
“We have thrusters idling at five percent power,” stated Saturn, who was adamant to be the new shuttle’s captain. Mars had also wanted to test-fly her, but had lost out to “Jones” determination. Saturn was in the left seat scanning the gauges while Mars followed her checks, acknowledging each pre-flight check.
“Fuel pressure systems at 100 percent boost, fuel directional feed on all five tanks for side thrusters only, oxidizer systems at full boost. Gauges reading normal, air pressure perfect inside the thrusters, waiting for twenty degrees of heat for launch,” added Saturn over the intercom. There was nothing to do but wait ten seconds for the temperatures to climb.
The three new laser guns and their aiming systems, the exact same models and systems as the single guns in the smaller shuttles, had been attached last over the last two weeks. Mars’ job once airborne was to align them. He could only fire them after installing the new and larger 60-megawatt Cold Fusion plant waiting for them on the island. Twenty-eight megawatts were needed to expand the blue shield, ten megawatts were what each of the three lasers needed at full firing speed, and two megawatts were to run the ship.
The fitting of the system to the new shuttle would take the five build crew members, already heading across the Atlantic in SB-I, a week to set up. Then Saturn was to give her her maiden flight—one and a half orbits of Earth—before returning back down to the Nevada base.
Mars, Saturn and the entire astronaut crew had already spent months studying the far more intricate laser system. Three separate onboard aiming computer systems could fire each laser at two or three targets or align all three lasers onto one target. It only took a second for the gunner to lock his/her targets. The computers analyzed the target and then fired the lasers up to ten times a minute. The target alignments could be done by the gunner, but it would take several seconds longer for manual locks on targets. She was certainly a mean beast, though. As deadly as all three of the smaller shuttles, and with far more power from the Cold Fusion plant.
“Mars, if you think this is a fancy setup, you should see the designs for the twelve-gun laser firing systems on the new mother ships,” Captain Pete had told him one night a few days earlier over a barbeque and a beer. “These have been designed to need a crew of two directly on computer monitors directed by a “Firing Master” on a third computer who gives the computerized orders of fire.” Mars couldn’t wait to up his skills, but the visit to the red planet was first. Saturn brought him back to the present.
“Temperatures ready, increasing thrust to 10 percent…15…20…30…35 percent, we have liftoff with full fuel load and zero cargo. Heading skywards at 30 knots…50…90…170…290… 300. Steady lift at 310 knots per hour, altitude 3,000 feet and climbing,” stated Saturn calmly.
She was concentrating, and finding the larger shuttle much more stable to fly. The crowd below, all with ear muffs, as there was no shield extended on this flight, watched as the silver bird headed into the blue sky with the same noise as an old Air Force jet had once done on afterburner. It really hurt their ears, and they were standing 800 yards away from the shuttle’s launch pad.
The new launch pad was one of the old cube missile sites laid years earlier that had been cleaned up and readied for this launch. This test was to test atmospheric flight above the speed sound and inside Earth’s atmosphere.
Mikey Noble was far away from the rising shuttle and his parents. He was now on a bottle and in the infirmary with a very happy Dr. Nancy looking after him. She had not allowed Saturn to take her son on a test flight.
“Altitude 35,000 feet, changing thrust from vertical to 5 degrees forward thrust, 85 percent above horizontal. Power at 36 percent,” continued Saturn over the intercom to Ground Control. The crew in Ground Control were watching all the gauges on computers. Forward speed, zero… 15 knots…. 40 knots… 105 knots… 200 knots. Thrusters at 45 percent above horizontal, altitude climb dropping to 180 knots per minute…170…150…forward speed climbing over 340 knots, over.”
“SB-IV, you will get 100 percent wing lift and forward flight stability at 490 knots,” stated Ground Control. “Keep her thrusters at minimum 25-degree thrust above horizontal until you pass 490 knots, over.”
“Copy that,” replied Saturn. “Ground Control, we have just gone through 495 knots and I am decreasing thrust above horizontal, 25 degrees… 15 degrees… 10 degrees… We are flying straight and level.”
“Hold on. We are still at 5 degrees above horizontal. I’m showing a decrease in altitude by several feet per minute on the altimeter, over,” interjected Mars.
“Copy,” replied Ground Control quickly. “Problem noted. Keep her at a 10-degree thrust above horizontal, and see what happens when you’re close to the speed of sound, over.”
“Roger,” replied Saturn. “Ten degrees above horizontal, speed increasing through 500 knots, increasing thrust to 40 percent. Forward speed rising through 595 knots.”
“Altitude climb now 50 feet per second and rising,” added Mars. “Thrusters reduced to five degrees above horizontal, now zero degrees above horizontal and we have straight and level flight. At least we know her flight trajectory with an empty load and without shield, over.”
“Roger, we have recorded your complete settings and estimate a ten-degree thrust above horizontal until 660 knots with a full payload and without shield. We understand that totally new flight data will be given with shield usage and that is for Test Flight Two, over.”
SB-IV easily went through the speed of sound. It became quieter in the cockpit. Six hours later the shuttle made a perfect landing on the island where the build crew had just arrived and was setting up to attach the 500-pound power plant to the underside between the shuttle’s wheeled landing gear.
Mars smiled as the happy robot found tires on the new machine and within minutes of landing had towed the shuttle into the first empty hangar out of the hot sun.
It was time for a break, and Bob and the two ladies were waiting for the Noble family in the cool hangar.
“A spot of fishing, family Noble?” stated Bob Mathews to Mars.
“We have six days, Bob. What can we catch in that time?” Mars replied.
They enjoyed a week’s fishing, catching enough to return to a fish diet.
Unfortunately the time came to return, and a day’s flight checks were needed to see what had changed with the power switch from thrusters to power plant.
The lights glowed brighter, as did the dashboard and console dials. Even the LED readouts were brighter. The ship seemed to be in a new power phase, and the return flight was much the same in atmospheric conditions.
SB-IV’s return was observed by the same crew who had watched her leave, the only differences being the new lump under the shuttle’s belly between her leg struts and the darker, sun-tanned color of Saturn and Mars Noble.
“We have thirty days until our launch for our mission to Mars,” stated Lunar in the crew and scientist briefing the next day. “The Nobles so kindly brought us two more Cold Fusion plants back for SB-II and SB-III. It will take a week to connect and test SB-III on her new power plant. Then we need a maiden flight for each of the two shuttles through a complete space flight orbital test. The crew and I have decided to bring the Mars launch forward by 21 days so that fuel can be saved on the outbound flight. This is just in case more fuel is needed on the planet by the ships before The Martian Club Retreat is up and running and producing its own fuel. Crew, we have to think, and teach our Earth scientists how we think in space. Fuel conservation, production times, storm possibilities, etc. The main reason I have brought the flight forward is due to the possibility of a storm when the mission arrives. Therefore, if there is a storm, a three-month delay can be made with enough fuel to orbit for that time and then safely return our crew to Earth.”
“How long can the storms last?” asked one scientist who was rather new.
“Up to two years so far,” replied Lunar.
“The longest storm on Mars was recorded in the early 1970s, several decades ago, and was five years in length,” stated Jack Dempsey. “Mars seems to go through cycles of what we believed was atmospheric instability. The instability lasts for five- to seven-year cycles, and two cycles have now been recorded on Mars. The instability, we believe, is a large storm in one area, and then it mysteriously disappears, or moves, as it is then recorded on another area of the planet. The first storm we know of was viewed in the 1970s, the first time we actually got a view of any atmospheric storm on Mars.”
“Are they so frequent?” Saturn Noble asked.
“We believe that the red planet goes through phases of atmospheric activity lasting ten or twelve years,” continued Jack Dempsey. “The time between the activities could be a decade, or it could be a thousand years. That, we haven’t had time to record yet. My personal estimation is that much like here on Earth, the climate has small changes, but any major changes takes thousands of years. I believe the activity you witnessed could be halfway through a phase, or over. You were there for part of the cycle, and there could be decades of calm before the next storm.”
“Thank you, Mr. Dempsey,” stated Lunar. “Unfortunately, as we learned in our space travels, we need to be ready for any problems. Mission Commander Noble, you will have 90 days orbiting the red planet before you need to return to Earth. You will have 64 crewmembers in total on board. It’s going to be squashed on the flight. Next, accommodation. As we had before in the smaller shuttles, the forward cargo bay will have a new crew chamber inside. As in all shuttles, there will be connecting hatches to the cockpit area and to the aft cargo compartment. The two docking ports will give access to the forward crew compartments and aft cargo compartments inside SB-III and MS-I. Since we are the proud owners of two Matt ships, they are now to be call-signed Mike Sierra I and Mike Sierra II, or MS-I and II. SB-III will hold fifteen crewmembers in the same crew chamber we returned to Earth in, MS-I will hold eight. Since the Matt craft’s accommodations are smaller, our smallest crewmembers will stay in her. The commander and his family will stay in the new ship’s captain’s quarters. A second private room with attached infirmary will be added inside SB-IV for Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy and will be the medical center for the mission. Crew, the medical facilities will be pretty basic compared to our old medical hospital aboard America One, so you need to be really careful throughout the voyage. Luckily, we had moved most of our medical equipment down to the base so it was not in the destroyed ship, but Dr. Nancy will have to work miracles in such a confined space.”
“And we have three pregnant Matt ladies coming with us,” added Dr. Nancy. “Since we astronauts all completed midwife courses while on Mars, I might need some help since my two knowledgeable nurses are not coming with me.”
“We have Ruler Roo, his son Jo, and 25 pure Matts, seven families returning to Mars to set up a permanent base again,” continued Lunar, nodding at the doctor. “Not included with them are three mixed families totaling nine members who wish to return, plus seven single Matts and three Tall People. That is a total of 46 crewmembers who will stay and rebuild our base while the ships return to Earth. The balance of the crew are 6 astro-biologists and four build crew mechanics. Dr. Nancy and young Johnny Walls, who is to be your security second-in-command, Commander Noble, makes 58. Captain Pete is counted in the six astronauts, two to a ship. There is no way I can leave an escape ship there for the crew staying on the planet in case an evacuation is necessary once you return to Earth, Commander Noble, and they all understand that. We need all our craft here on Earth until both mother ships are built and we have mined any nearby asteroids. Pluto Katherine and I have my father’s dream of a scheduled flight in both directions between Mars and Earth every opposition. That is about twelve years away, and the crew who are staying understand all this.”
“What about returning crew?” asked Mars Noble.
“The 6 astro-biologists must make a decision on who stays to grow food. Some may want to stay, or they can teach the crew to tend the crops,” continued Commander Richmond. “We believe that once the three available shields are set up with vegetation, and the internal areas of food production established, all 6 biologists can return with you. Four of the crew are build crew and will continue working on VIN Noble’s robotic program, to have robots outside tending the gardens while they are there. They will return with you. Your crew will have one new, large Cold Fusion plant with you, Commander, as purely backup to the two we already have up there. Two of your build crew will be in charge of getting this power system connected up as a backup. SB-III and SB-IV will also have their own Cold Fusion plants installed by the time the Mars mission leaves.
“Back to our missions here. With the loss of the three shields going to Mars, we have to compromise with the remaining shields here on Earth. The mining expedition will only have one shield once the four ships are in orbit, and two of the shields that are launched around the mining craft will be returned here for the build mission. That leaves us only two shields to get flights into orbit for our building program. Estimations for new shields are still years away. The scientists working on that part of the program with Dr. Pete have only broken the surface on new shield production.”
The briefing lasted for several hours and was the last real meeting of all the senior crew and scientists for a couple of weeks.
Three weeks later it was a different atmosphere on the airfield. Goodbyes were said and tears flowed between the crewmembers heading back to Mars for good and the Astermine crew staying behind. Astermine was a close-knit family of nearly 200 people who had been born together, lived together across the solar system, and now were splitting up.
Gifts, small treasures of luxuries found in and around the States, had been sourced for the departing family and friends. Everyone knew each other’s likes, and chocolate, flowers, special plants, and handwritten cards changed hands.
Two weeks earlier, SB-IV flown by Saturn passed her first space flight. It had been the easiest flight she had ever done. Mars launched SB-III the next day with Lunar as co-pilot to test SB-III’s new thrusters and power plant. Inside the shield on both launches very little was different. It was when Mars retracted the shield during the first orbit and hit the gas that the forward thrust of SB-III jumped higher than ever befo
re. Her third orbit of Earth was at over 61,000 miles an hour. She had beaten her space speed record by over 10,000 miles an hour. Mars deduced that SB-III was at least 10 percent faster than her larger sister SB-IV and smiled that he had the faster craft and his wife didn’t.
Now was the time for celebrations once both craft had successfully landed back on terra firma. President Joanne, as she was now called, Martin Brusk, Prime Minister Soames and Mary Collins had all been invited for the test flight weekend, but only the President and PM could not attend.
Martin marveled at how the virtual core of a spaceship he had handed over to Astermine was now a sleek, deadly space fighting machine. It was totally modernized from what he had built. He was extremely jealous at the mighty amounts of firepower from its three lasers and dying to see them in action. That would happen the following day.
Saturn had taken up Pluto Katherine and a newly promoted Intern Astronaut Gary Darwin as crew for the test shoot around the base area.
Pluto Katherine was good on the guns and had not only leveled a few old rusty trucks on an old defense mound at 500 miles distance when she was hovering over the Pacific at 100,000 feet, she had melted what was left of the trucks onto the surface of what was left of the foot-thick cement.
An hour later, the new, more powerful single laser of SB-III, at 1,000 miles, did as much damage to another group of rusty vehicles dragged into an empty area of the base for the fireworks display.
“I now declare our mission to Mars inside the seven-day window as of tomorrow morning,” stated a proud Lunar Richmond to the gathered spectators once the show was over. “To us at Astermine, that means that all other less essential work ceases and everybody on site gets to help ready our craft and personnel for long-distance flight. We will have dinner and a party this evening after this announcement.”
“When do the shuttles return?” asked Mary Collins, looking around for the arrival of the returning ships.
“There is the new shuttle coming over the horizon at 10,000 feet now,” Lunar replied, pointing to the western horizon. “Mary, Sierra Bravo III will be landing in thirty minutes. Martin, you can head over to your ship in the hangar once it is inside and see what you helped build now that it has had its maiden space flight and test shoot.”