First Steps (Founding of the Federation)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Well you see, the hab is spinning." The commander picked up a can and held it up for the camera to see. "Now this cable I taped on is our tether. We spin around and around..." He whirled it around. "And around and around." Mario's face fell as he felt queasy. "And around," the commander said. Mario gulped and headed for the head. "And around..."

  The commander's eyes twinkled. "Well, it isn't really gravity it is called centrifugal force. It means we are traveling around in a circle so inertia is throwing us against the floor." He tapped the deck with his foot. "That is why we have gravity." He nodded. "Okay, now back to the speed question..."

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Mario entered the living room slash wardroom and wrinkled his nose at the girls. Tess and Wanda were curled up on the couch slash window seat, each reading a tablet. He turned to the wall screen. They had a fireplace going. “What'cha reading something good and juicy?” he demanded. He came over acting innocent.

  Wanda looked up distracted and blushed. “Oh nothing!” She ducked and tried to set the tablet down but he intercepted that.

  “Hey!”

  He ignored her protests and started to read out loud. “Oh, she put her hand on his naked chest, steam rose around them... Oh oh!” He gave her a look. “Honey you've been holding out on me!” She blushed and stamped on his foot. He yipped and dropped the tablet into her lap.

  Tess laughed. “Served you right for mocking a woman,” she growled. She nodded to Wanda who gurgled a laugh.

  “Oh grow up you big baby, I didn't step on it that hard,” she teased as he limped around.

  “Remind me to get outside of arms distance before doing that again,” he muttered. After a minute or two the pain ebbed. She shook her head and went back to reading. “Let me know when you get to the good part, you know the kissing and stuff,” he said. She looked up to see his eyes twinkling. He raised his wrist to his brow. “Oh Romeo oh Romeo...” That was as far as he got before beating a hasty retreat from the pillows the girls threw.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Wanda rested her arm on his chest later that evening. He could feel his right arm going numb, but he didn't have the heart to move it, it would disturb her. He wished this crazy craft wasn't spinning; it would have been nice to look out the porthole to the stars. "Awake?" she murmured, stirring. Her hands caressed him gently. He smiled.

  "Yeah," he softly replied. "Big day." He chuckled. A big day indeed, one more step to their new home.

  "Yeah, we finally get off the Ferris wheel," Wanda teased. She patted his chest and kissed his cheek.

  "I think you of all of us will be happy about that. Three more days to Mars," he replied. He grinned then his face fell. "I am not looking forward to three days of weightlessness though."

  She hugged herself to him. "Well, we'll have to find ways to distract you from it."

  He chuckled. "I can think of one way off the top of my head...” He pulled her on top of him.

  She looked down at him eyes glowing. "Don't make promises you don't intend to keep." Her hair fell around her, framing her oval face.

  "Well, if I have to keep a promise..." He smiled up at her and stroked her hair.

  "Later lover boy, we have to stop this Ferris wheel in an hour or two remember?" She kissed him then tried to get up.

  "Oh you’re not getting away with just a peck," he growled. She protested giggling as he pulled her down for a more thorough kiss. "Much better."

  He smiled as she gasped. "Damn!"

  He chuckled. "Later dear." He waggled his eyebrows. She chuckled as he let her up.

  "Crap, sounds like the commander beat me to the shower," she growled. She looked at the door and the noises coming from the head next door.

  "So, I guess we have more time then..." Mario captured her hand and dragged her to bed. She chuckled. A few minutes later their love making was interrupted by a knock at the door.

  "Show time in thirty you two," Tess said.

  "Damn interruptions. Put the whole mission on hold, I have a more important one on hand right now..." he mockingly growled. He grinned at his wife.

  "I promise later. We only got to do it twice in zero gee before we boosted and spun up, this time we have three whole days to get to play," she said. He sighed. "What afraid you'll be bow legged for your first jaunt on Mars?" she teased as she got up and dressed.

  "Well, one of us will be," he grinned as she flashed a smile.

  "Promises promises," she growled. She danced out of his reach when he lunged for her laughing.

  "Come back here wench!" he growled. She blew him a kiss as she exited their room with a smirk.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Crap, we have a problem folks,” Commander Bower said. The commander looked out the window then back at his tablet.

  “What's the matter?” Tess asked looking over his shoulder.

  “Part of the aero shell is stuck. It won’t deploy all the way,” the commander explained. He had been watching everything carefully and caught it before ground control had.

  Mario came into the room and looked at the tablet. “Damn, not good. Can we try to retract it and see if it will fix itself?”

  The commander shook his head. “I tried that already. She won’t budge. I'm going to have to do a space walk to fix it,” he sighed.

  “I come too. I have experience,” Tess nodded.

  “Yeah. Let’s let mission control know then start getting suited up.”

  The Han's nodded. “Can we do without it?” Li asked tentatively. His wife shook her head.

  “No, it could through our profile off, it could send us into a tumble to fry like an egg,” Mario replied looking up. “Can you two check the port holes and see if you can spot a problem?” he asked. They nodded and moved off.

  “Is this dangerous?” Wanda asked nervously.

  “Yeah,” Mario watched them begin pre-breathing exercises. The pressure suits ran at a lower atmospheric pressure then the main cabin, and were pure oxygen. Without pre-breathing to expel the nitrogen in their blood stream they would get the bends.

  “I should be the one going out there commander,” Mario said softly.

  The commander shook his head holding the mask to his face. “Out of the question,” was his muffled reply. “We need experience out there.”

  Mario sighed. “I never get to have any fun,” he grumbled good naturally. Tess gave him a thumbs up.

  As they exited the lock the commander noted the problem right away. “Yup, looks like a spar bent.” He moved slowly, clipping in to a safety ring near the lock. “Make sure you lock in your line Tess,” he cautioned. He looked back to her as she exited.

  “Da, I know this,” she replied, trying to keep from sounding testy. She carefully shut the door then clipped in. “Bad?” she asked turning slowly.

  “Not sure.” The commander tried to kick at the spar, but it didn't move. “Nope, looks like it froze the motor too.”

  Mario sighed over the channel. “We have a couple options. We can cut the spar and hope we don't need the extra support, or we can lock another spar down and scavenge another motor and swap it out.” He watched as the commander tugged at the spar. “Or we can pull the connection move it manually then lock it back in,” Mario finished.

  “What does mission control say?” the commander asked looking up to the nearest porthole.

  “Nothing yet, they are still digesting our reports. Remember there is a six minute time lag,” Mario replied.

  The commander grimaced. “I keep forgetting that,” he sighed. “Okay, let’s wait and see what they say. We have time.” He looked it over. He turned. “Nice view.” From here he could see the red orb. Beautiful but growing closer every minute.

  “I am going to check the other spars to make sure they are properly deployed and locked,” Tess replied. She moved off to the other side of the lock.

  “Don't get to far out Tess,” The commander cautioned. She clicked the mike twice.

  “Mission control says to
try a manual release Commander Bower,” Wanda called over the local channel a few minutes later.

  “Roger that. Removing the pins now.” The commander leaned in and used his driver to remove the bolts holding the spar to the side of the Hab.

  “There are two other bent spars, but they are almost deployed right. Fixing this one may fix them as well,” Tess reported.

  “Good. Let's see if this works.” The commander pulled the last bolt and then jerked back as the spars sprang up. “Damn that was close!” The spar drifted up, and then started to rebound.

  “It has a kick? We should have thought of it having a load of kinetic energy on,” Mario replied. The aero shell wiggled a little like a wave was traveling through it.

  “Catching that thing is going to be a pain,” the commander grumped. A bolt drifted by. “Shit!” He tried to reach for it but the edge of his hand hit it and is spun off into the void. “Damn!”

  “What? What happened?” Mario asked.

  “Lost a stupid bolt.” The commander sighed. “Great. Do we have a spare?” he asked.

  “Maybe. I'll check. Has the spar stopped?” Mario asked.

  The commander sighed. “No it is slowing down though.” He reached out and caught the spar. He felt his body move. He tucked his legs under him then felt the tips of his toes touch the deck under him. “Okay. Got it.” He reached out with his free hand and pulled on his safety line, slowing the bar until it stopped.

  “Good.”

  “Mission control says we need to catch the spar before it does any damage to the aero shell,” Wanda came over the net.

  “Already done Wanda,” The commander grunted.

  “Good. They say we need to check the pins and other spars when you’re done for damage.”

  The commander grunted. “Okay. One thing at a time shall we?” he asked. He set his feet under the motor mount to give himself leverage then pulled the spar down to the motor mount then pushed its opposite end out. The shell moved, and then locked out like it was supposed to be. “Got it.” Carefully he maneuvered the end back into place. “Okay Tess, I can't hold this in place and put the pin in. Can you do the honors?”

  Tess moved over until she was blocking his light. “Here.” She clicked her lights on. She straddled the spar and held it in place.

  “You have the pins in your bag. Go for it.” He clicked twice.

  “Okay first one...”

  After a few minutes he was finished. “Still missing one. Any ideas?”

  Mario cleared his throat over the net. “I grabbed something similar from the spare parts. It is in the lock now,” he replied.

  Tess moved off the spar. “I'll get it.” She maneuvered around the commander then grabbed his safety line. He watched her line wrap around his side.

  “Easy Tess, we're fouling lines here,” he ordered, forcing his professional voice into a light tone. She unclipped hers.

  “What are you doing?” he asked alarmed.

  “Relax commander, I am at the door.” He turned to see her holding onto the door. She pulled the door open then picked the bolt out. “Got it.”

  She pulled herself hand over hand back to him. “Lock back in,” The commander growled.

  “I was planning too,” she replied calmly. She handed him the bolt with one hand, then used it to snag the free end of her tether. She carefully clicked it onto her belt. “All set.” She moved over him to the other side.

  “Okay last bolt is in place. Looks good. Proceeding with inspection,” The commander reported a few minutes later.

  “Roger that. You have two hours of air remaining,” Mario replied.

  ·Chapter 7

  On Mars:

  “And three...two....one... Leg One has contact, leg Two contact, three... four... five we are down. Engines off! Welcome to Mars mankind!” The commander said triumphantly the following day. It had been a bumpy fiery ride down but now they were safe and soundly on the ground.

  Tess grinned as she unbuckled her harness. With cat like grace she twisted to view out the porthole window. “Is beautiful! Magnificent! So red!” She murmured.

  “Post checks Tess, play tourist later,” The commander called teasing her.

  “Right.” She looked over her control tablet. “Five by five, engines off and safe. Position stable, auto level engaged. No sign of leaks.” She walked through the post checklist, but burned to be outside.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Mario climbed down onto the last step, then reached out and grabbed the landing leg. "Got it." He pulled himself over and then carefully turned. "You gotta love these new suits, so much easier to move around in then the Apollo ones," he muttered as he turned around to face outward. Tess had moved off the leg to the opposite leg. The Hans stood on the last step.

  "Are we ready?" The commander asked. Mario grunted.

  "We do this for all mankind." With that signal they each stepped off in choreographed unison. Mario felt his sole dig into the soil. Tess took a second step, and then waved to the robotic camera. "YES!" The commander chuckled. "And now that the grandstanding is over, let’s get busy people, we have a base to set up and we are burning daylight!"

  Mario chuckled as they moved out. The Hans were last; they stood together and bowed deeply to the cameras. "Every group has a hot dog or two," he muttered.

  "What was that?" Li Han asked. The Hans looked up and over to him.

  "Oops, sorry, hot mike," he said. He cut the channel.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Ladies and gentlemen of Earth we would like you to consider the grand achievement today. Our countries worked together and did the impossible. They put us your representatives on a distant world in less time than anyone thought possible. With less money than anyone thought possible.” The commander droned on through his carefully scripted speech. Mario tried not to squirm. He wanted to get the speeches over with so they could dig in and get to work. All this yapping was burning daylight. He sighed softly, wanting to blow a raspberry, do something, anything to get this over with. Wanda leaned over and gave him a warning look. He tried not to roll his eyes at her glare.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “And here we take you to Union square were people are celebrating the landing of the first team on Mars!” An excited reporter turned to see the multitudes as they partied. There were hundreds of thousands of people there in various outfits and completely oblivious to the rain. “I think this is an achievement for all mankind and we should all be proud.” She turned to the camera. “Back to you in the studio Bob...”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  After the landing they took the time to finish the usual publicity shots and speeches to the camera's then went to what each termed the real work. Mario and the commander broke out the open rover and tested it. Before they were finished Wanda and Li were climbing in. "Okay so much for a test drive, I guess they are doing it for us." Mario waved as they departed.

  "Keep in sight of the base!" the commander called.

  Wanda waved her hand up in the air. "They must be pretty excited," Tess observed.

  "Yah think? Let’s move on. We need to unpack the other rovers then survey the route for the habs to connect," Mario asked. The commander was already moving out a few hundred meters and looking around. "Okay, looks like I get the next rover." Mario climbed the ramp.

  "I'll just go check the MAV nearby," Tess said and waved in the indicated direction.

  "Don't stray too far Tess," the commander cautioned. "Mrs. Han do you have a lock on each of us?" He looked up to the Hab.

  After a moment Yung Lin came on. "Yes. Reading all of you. My husband's vitals seem a little high, he must be excited," she observed dryly. The commander chuckled.

  "Yeah, I think we all are. Mario let me give you a hand here." He took the line and eased the rover to the ground. "I'll just take her out for a test drive and pick up Tess."

  Mario waved. "Two down, one to go," he sighed looking over the giant enclosed rover. "All right whinny, let’s
see if we can get you out where you belong." He removed the wheel stops and started removing the tie downs.

  "Why whinny?" Tess asked over the comm. channel.

  "Short for Winnebago."

  She chuckled. "Ah, I see."

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Mario waved his arms forward. Slowly the Hab moved in toward him. When the rover came within a few meters of him he turned and moved out another forty meters. "I think we should have this done by tomorrow," Mario said. He looked over to Wanda and Li digging nearby.

  "Eyes on the job Mario," the commander called.

  "Right." Mario checked their alignment. "You're okay, about twenty centimeters too far to the right, but this far out I'm not sweating it." The commander tapped the joystick and the rover moved slightly to the left.

  "Okay. Commander, it is way too early to get fussy wait until we are within a hundred meters or so," Mario said and then sighed as the commander straightened out. He looked over the wheels. A rock sprang out from a tire as its edge went to roll on top. "It is weird not hearing this thing crunch," he said. He shook his head. "Looking good." Mario moved out another thirty meters to where Tess was looking at things with a surveyor's tripod. "Everything okay?" he asked her.

  She looked up and gave him a thumbs up. "So far so good as you American's say." She smiled as she adjusted the laser pointer. "This is simple, point and shoot." She checked the read outs. "I don't know why we need to read it now though, changes in elevation are useless data this far apart."

  He chuckled. "Why don't you ignore that part and go check to make sure the parking spot is level and free of boulders," he suggested. She gave him another thumbs up and moved off.

  "Where is she going?" the commander asked.

  "She's going to check our parking spot and make sure it is level and clear of obstacle Commander," Mario reported as he sighted the laser onto the target. "You're doing good. Keep her coming." He waved the Commander forward.