One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

  “That’s kind of the way I see it David. It’s a great big shit sandwich and we have to eat the whole damn thing. Lets try to enjoy it because we are going to eat it no matter what!” He extended his hand to the Commander and a new Chain of Command was established.

  Otto pushed Old Gray hard cruising at just over a hundred miles an hour. The trailer was tracking well and the engine temp was sitting at one hundred and ninety-five degrees. He switched on the CB radio and kept an eye on his rear view. After about ten minutes he spotted flashing lights coming up behind him fast. But they were still far back; He keyed the mic on all stations. “Is that you Wild Smoky? Over.”

  Vic was pushing his hummer to one hundred and twenty miles an hour. He knew he would catch up with Otto well before the gas station. “Ten four. Switch over to channel ten my friend, over.”

  “Copy that, going to ten now.” He shot back and switched to channel ten. “I was getting worried that you bugged out, over.”

  “Can’t get rid of me that easy. Had to stop for a few more rounds of ammo, three new guns, and a stun gun. You know, Toys. Over.”

  “Copy that, over.”

  “Who dropped what Otto? I switched on CNN while I packed. All hell is breaking lose back east. They say millions have died and whatever it is got carried to New Orleans on a flight and it has wiped out Florida and the lower eastern seaboard too. All air travel was suspended worldwide and there is rioting in major cities across the globe. Over.”

  “Shianne doesn’t think it’s a weapon, but no one is sure. We just have to ride this one out. We don’t have time right now to look for answers. It’s time for action. First things first, get us to the Moon. We should be safe there. Then we can start thinking about whom, or what, did this? Over.”

  “Well if we have days, you need to slow that old gray truck down a bit. If you blow the motor on the way it will do us no good. Fuel is up about fifteen miles or so. Let’s top off, then I’ll take the lead. I’m sure I can get us an escort all the way through, but I don’t want to look as if I’m chasing you, over.” He said with a chuckle.

  “Copy that, over.” Otto had to keep from laughing. He was glad he had run into Vic along the way.

  Vic was true to his word; they had a clear ride all the way to the base. At times the escort grew to six cars, Otto sent out his thanks to all on channel ten. They were all glad to help. He was glad they didn’t know just how short their lives where going to be. But there was no saving them all and he realized that.

  * * *

  The guard at the gate was ready with an M.P. escort out to Loading Dock 1. As they pulled up at the loading dock a small army of armed men went to work off-loading the cargo from the truck, trailer and Vic’s Hummer. It all had to be packed into shuttle cargo containers for the trip. Once loaded they were lifted into the cargo hold of G-1 and bolted down. The work was going so fast they would have to rush to get suited up for the crossing.

  Otto noticed the beefed up security right away. He had been on base many times and had never seen everyone on base armed as they were now. Crews were building machine gun positions every hundred yards or so along the parameter fences and there were snipers on the roofs of every building along the runways.

  “I see you have been busy!” Otto stated as a fact when he walked up to his son embracing him.

  “Well I had a good teacher Pop. Something about thinking outside the box started to set in around here right away.” Joshua admitted as he started heading Otto and Vic towards Suit Up.

  “Vic I’m glad Dad found you. We need good men on the Moon.” Joshua greeted his friend then added. “If you will fit!” Trying to make light of the situation. He knew he was going to have to keep smiling through this or it would drive him mad.

  * * *

  The Galaxy class shuttles, five in all, where unnamed because of the squabble that had erupted between the countries that had helped to build them. After six months of infighting and waiting for world leaders to come to an agreement, the request to just number them as they had come on-line was submitted by China. Empress May had made the suggestion to stop the squabbling. Even that took a week to decide. It was as if it was a schoolyard full of bullies trying to prove who had the most power. In the end cooler heads prevailed.

  Vic and Otto walked into Suit Up and everyone on staff simply stopped working and stared at Vic. No space suit had ever been made for a man as tall as he. “How do we get him to the Moon?” Joshua asked the Flight Suit Controller.

  “Well Commander, if he is to go today I only see one choice, we put him in a live cargo container and ship him up like livestock.” The room held its silence for a few seconds longer then burst into laughter.

  “They make the Galaxy’s big enough to carry 3 busses end to end, but not big enough to carry me.” Vic stood proud as he growled his comment and the room burst forth with more laughter. “Will I fit on the Moon base? Or do we have to build a new one just for me?” He knew the world was not built for men his size. Even the Hummer the state had given him as a patrol car had to be customized to fit his frame.

  Vic was placed into a live cargo container along with an extra nineteen men and lifted into the cargo bay and bolted down. The base personnel had installed restraining straps to hold them all down in Zero gravity as they crossed. A communication link was installed so he could talk with the flight crew on the way up, and Joshua took advantage of his captive audience from the start. “Did you hit the john before you got in there Vic? It’s a long way to the Moon, wouldn’t want you to have an accident on the way.”

  “Yea” Otto added. He had to join in on this fun. “We wouldn’t want you to have to sit in a pool all the way to S.M.B.”

  “Must I put up with this abuse?” Vic shot back. “You know I’m armed in here. I am an officer; I could jail you once you open the container.”

  “No jails on the Moon Vic, did I forget to mention that?” Otto informed him as the rest of the men that where being taken to the Moon checked in, took their seats and confirmed they were ready to go.

  “Got to go now Vic, its piloting time” Joshua cut in. He switched off the COM link to the container and switched over to his Crew Chief.

  “Chief. I want you to assemble your best loading crew of men and get them here on alert. Each is to pick two women and train them both how to load the shuttles during these turn-round’s. At the end as this starts to hit the west coast the whole male crew will be transported to the Moon for service there. Make sure all are ready for the move on the last flight up. The female crew will stay behind to keep the base operational. Can you take care of this Chief?” Joshua was getting ready for a war that would last years.

  “I have your back Jackal and all will be in place before your ship touches back down.” As he disconnected from the Com Link Joshua noticed someone running out to the Chief with a holstered sidearm for his use. Things were progressing quickly and he liked it.

  Within five minutes Vic was feeling the weightlessness of space. The cargo was the farming equipment Otto had gleaned, medical supplies, dehydrated foods and the three living units. Not a heavy load, but all vital supplies.

  As they were pulling out of loading dock one, Galaxy three was pulling in to take on cargo. It was going to get real busy at both bases for a while.

  While lifting off Joshua and Pete watched as all the shuttles in the fleet where being readied for flight in there storage area. The base Commander was taking this seriously, just as Joshua needed him too.

  He punched two on his cell phone. “Shianne Chisholm here, how may I help you?” She answered her cell phone.

  “Hi sis, hold on a sec.” He handed the phone to his father. “Dad it’s for you.”

  “Hello Little One, I can’t talk for long; your brother thinks he can fly this thing. But I still think he’s faking it.” They both laughed.

  “You’re in the air then?”

  “Yes pest, we took off just a few minutes ago, and what are you doing?”

  “Well
Dad, I’m driving a truck. A dump truck.”

  “What are you talking about?” He knew she could drive a truck, she had learned to drive behind the wheel of Old Gray, but he wondered what she was doing driving one now.

  “I’m doing what you raised us to do; I’m helping out with this. It has to be done; there must be millions of bodies just here in New York. We are taking the loads to the docks. There’s no other way to dispose of the biomass without mother natures help. Its bad Dad, no one was doing anything so I just started to get some of us moving on this. If we don’t get it cleaned up it will start killing all the women from disease. Plus when I decide its time to get out of here a two and a half ton dump truck will be of some use I’m sure.”

  “Understood, I just hadn’t thought of that side of it yet?” As he expected his offspring were looking ahead. “Where did you find a dump truck? And why are you not heading to the lab with Ashley?”

  “I found a dump truck that was now driverless. I figured it could get me out of town better then any other method I can think of short of an airlift. It has a full tank and I will top it off all the time to make sure its there if I need it to make a run for it. I’ll get through this, the temperature is in the eighties, so we will have to give this up in a few days; I expect the fly’s to clean up most of this mess. There is no way we can get to it all in time.” Her voice cracked with stress. “I’m just glad that you two are safe. And in a few days when things start looking like its time to I will call Ashley for a ride.”

  “That’s great Shianne, we have a little surprise for you.” He teased her trying to cheer her up.

  “What’s that Dad?”

  “I ran into Officer Price on the way to the base. He is here with us too.”

  “Cops in space, what will you think of next?” Shianne chuckled. “Tell him a said hi and to watch your back. Well Dad, I need to get back to this, I’ve got a full load, and it’s time to dump it. Have to concentrate on my driving, this place is insane.”

  “Ok Little One, stay in touch.”

  “I will. Did you hear from Ashmo yet? She is trying to figure it out and her lab is on it. She thinks it’s a virus, airborne and growing. She had a helicopter out here a couple of hours ago taking air samples. She said it was contaminated with it. When they opened the sample at her lab it infected the air. Killed all the men in the lab in just a few minutes. They don’t know how it got out. But it’s spreading from there now. She doesn’t think this is going to burn out in the sun. She thinks it will become a part of the atmosphere here on Earth. There will be no stopping it. Our only chance is Joshua getting men off the planet. He has to get as many off as he can.”

  “Don’t you worry Shianne; Ashley will get this figured out. She’s the best there is. She won’t stop until she has it solved.”

  “I know, but from the driver’s seat it looks hopeless.” She exhaled in resignation. “Dad I’ve got to go now. I’m on the road already. I’ll buzz you back in a day or two. It’s going to be real busy until we get this finished. It’s the only way we will be able to open up the road leading out of town, right now they are all jammed with cars and dead bodies.”

  “I understand Shi Baby. You have your pistol with you right?”

  “Yes pest. I have it on my hip, with one in the chamber. Four extra magazines, I’m fine. I even found a shop that was still open and I picked up a box of shells just to be safe.”

  He could hear the frustration in her voice. But he knew she was safe and that’s what he needed to hear. He was glad she had thought to get some extra rounds just in case she needed them.

  * * *

  Ashley led a team of seventy doctors and professors who worked in the biotech industry. They looked for diseases and viruses in underdeveloped nations and made cures for them. The team had saved countless thousands of lives throughout the years they had worked together. The fact that it had made them all rich was just a byproduct of their work and good management.

  They where the most sought after biotech team on the planet and they had more work then they could keep up with. The need for help brought them to the very pit of the most backwoods places on Mother Earth. They even cured viruses that attacked livestock a few times. After all, feeding a country without cattle or sheep would be a problem.

  Their support staff was a small army. Close to a thousand personnel were on staff to do all the legwork that was needed. Pilots for planes, jets and helicopters, drivers for anything with wheels or tracks, a fully staffed two hundred and sixty-foot ship, The First Responder, with a full hospital and research laboratory onboard. The main lab was stationed in the remote forest of Pennsylvania on a four thousand-acre reservation. The land was given to them by the US government, in trade for a cure to the biological weaponized strain of anthrax.

  Ashley caught the news on its first broadcast as the story of the deaths spread. She dispatched a pilot to collect air samples right away. She thanked God it was a woman pilot on duty at the time, now they had the sample and they were trying to figure out what was going on.

  Ashley had the lab director finding all the best female scientists on the planet and they were being transported to the compound under military escort for their security and to assure that all that were needed reached the compound. Ashley was staffing the lab for war because she knew it had just arrived.

  5 Reality Starts Sinking In

  She called her brother right away. “Joshua Chisholm here.” Was all he got out when she cut in?

  “Hi Josh, you have Dad right?

  “Yes he is with me, we also have Vic Price. Dad found him along the way. We are just breaching the atmosphere. What’s up Ashmo?”

  “I just talked with General Kelly; it sounds as if the military is at a loss for what to do next. I think you are the only one thinking straight right now. If I were you I would just do what needs to be done and forget your Command Structure. We need to get as much of what will be needed off the planet as soon as possible, how many men do you think you can you get off before it reaches the west coast?”

  “Twenty-five hundred if we are lucky, even then we will be pushing it.”

  “How many women would you have off planet?”

  “A thousand or so, I’m relying on you to figure out how to get them off later on. Right now I’m just trying to save as many men as possible. Do you know anything yet?”

  “Yea, I’m terrified. That’s about it so far. Tell Dad I love him for me, I have to get back to the grind stone.”

  “Will do; remember to think outside the box Sis.”

  “Will do; one last thing, we don’t want the Moon populated with a bunch of warmongers. We need men of intelligence not killers to help bring us back from this”

  “I called your old friend Jack Wilks out at UCLA. He is sending us our people. I didn’t want a military force on the Moon either.” He assured her.

  “That’s my Bro, always thinking on his feet, I’m out of here Joshua, Keep in touch.” She didn’t wait for his reply and hung up. It was time to get back to work.

  The rest of the flight was uneventful. Joshua worked on the list of supplies that would be needed on the Moon and accepted his father’s input and knowledge in this department. The list grew long and large in minutes. They doubled up on everything just to be sure they would have enough on hand.

  They knew they were fighting against the clock. So as this list was made it was emailed down to Vandenberg for filling. Joshua was pleased to find out that the Base Commander had also started his own list. First on his list was transporting his own family to Moon. It had a note next to it telling Joshua that they would be ready by the time he returned with Galaxy One from the mission he was piloting.

  * * *

  Being his first time in space Otto was truly amazed with the view from the cockpit. Pete trained the ships telescope on the ranch so that Otto could get a bird’s eye view of the place. He was glad to see it from this height. But then it saddened him to think he may never walk its green fields agai
n, never feel grass beneath his feet, never hear the far off bellow of a bull at dawn. He had to choke back his tears and face reality, he was being saved and as normal, he was being shown that the best made plans of men meant nothing to the sands of time.

  “Can we make these crossings any faster?” He asked as he watched the clock slowly ticking away.

  “We have the ship at max speed now Pop. We are pushing it as hard as we can. With the work Shianne did on the drive systems on the Galaxy Class Shuttles, they can go twice the speed of the old Voyager Class ships! So we are making good time. But it is close to a quarter million mile trip each way. It takes some time to cross Dad.” Joshua understood, he felt it too, like they were sitting still with the end of the world at hand.

  “How long do we have before you set down on the Moon?” Otto started his clock.

  “Five hours Dad. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.” Jackal answered.

  Otto had a few things he wanted to know while crossing to the Moon. “I want a full report on S.M.B. All of it Son, I need to know what is going on there and what we need to get ready for this flood of personal and supplies?” He was going to reach S.M.B. ready for whatever was to come. “Pete put me through to the Base Commander on S.M.B. right away. Its time we get to know each other. Then I want to see all the blueprints of the base and if you can find me a list of supplies on-hand that will help. Lets get rolling boys it’s us against the clock and nature is the one giving us any extra time. Anything over thirty days of missions and we are going to be standing too close to the line as it advances. Lets not waste a single second, agreed?”

  As one they all agreed to start the ball rolling to save mankind from the hell that had just landed on Earth.

  * * *