One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

  Dinner was the first real home cooked meal she had eaten in more than three years. A thick steak, a large baker with extra sour cream, corn on the cob and a Dutch apple pie with all the trimmings. Shianne even gave her a home brewed beer to wash it all down with. Ashley couldn’t remember ever being so hungry. She even asked for a second glass of milk to finish off her meal. Being home was a blessing; stress flowed from her body with each passing moment.

  Free was enjoying this time. Every word said was not about the virus here at the ranch. It was of life and longing for their father and brother. And the beer Shianne brewed was exquisite.

  Ma uncapped a beer sitting to chat with them and share this time with her girls. “What... I’m a full grown woman!” Ma said to their looks as she took her seat, beer in hand. The girls busted up, Ma with a beer in her hands. That was a new one for them all.

  * * *

  After dinner was finished Ashley fell asleep on the couch in seconds as exhaustion took its toll. Shianne covered her with a quilt and took a seat across from her to sit up watching over her. Half the family was together… it was a start!

  She was too excited with thoughts of working with Ashley to sleep. Her thoughts searched for a future she knew would come. Joshua was with a bride; dad was with a whole table of women smiling, one was a stunning Asian and she looked quite regale. They were all together as a family again. But there was this new massive family of strange faces all greeting her and welcoming her home. Her daydream made her relax and drift away to look for more of this dream so she could guide her future in the right direction.

  Ashley woke at 4:00 a.m. unable to shake a fear that held her. Even the soft sleeping sounds of Shianne’s rhythmic breathing in the chair near her couldn’t lull her back to slumber land.

  She’d been dreaming of Dad, distraught, she arose to check the time in MarCom. The clock had a sign in brass under it. ‘Moon Time.’ The clock read 4:52 Am.

  11 Baby Steps

  She had to hear his voice. Picking up the phone she dialed.

  “Hi Ashley. Are you OK?” He sounded fully awake.

  She began to cry again feeling like a child! “Baby Girl what is it… I miss you too you know?”

  ‘Damn Dad’s ESP sometimes.’ She though, she closed the door so she wouldn’t wake Shianne. “Daddy I love you so much. This is not fair!”

  “I love you too Ashmo… now tell me what’s going on? Let it out; let’s fix this thing… All of it young lady?” He demanded. The sound of his voice opened her up like a flood. He never questioned her about her work. She would give him a report now and then... “Nothing is working”. Same report for three years, nothing works.

  She just fell into it wiping her eyes. “Dad I’m so stressed … I’m so scared…. I’m scared that we will never get to hold each other ever again.” Her efforts were towards man’s survival of course, while her words held the driving emotional force she felt.

  She was surprised when he chuckled at her. “You’re so silly. I bet it will all fall in place. You need to look at it differently. All you have done is look at this through an electromagnetic scope of some type I’m sure. God knows how proud of you I am but at the same time you are an Egghead. Here I’ll lead.”

  “Dad it’s not funny… I’ve worked for twelve to twenty hours a day for the past three years and I’m still no closer than when I started. Over two thousand women are working on it full time now. We had to add housing to the lab complex to take care of the flood of personal that showed up to help out. We’ve tried everything we can think of, and tried it twice! All we found to stop it was to remove all oxygen. Then it comes back to life once we reintroduce oxygen because it’s all infected with the virus. There are eleven labs on Earth researching the virus. Everyone working full time and there was no great break threw. We are spinning our wheels; getting nowhere. As the virus-impregnated meteor came into Earth’s atmosphere over Canada it left a trail as it broke up. The damn thing laid down a line of virus that took up half the Earth’s width in a few days. We think the meteor came from someplace near Mars. But Mars has no life on it so perhaps its something that impacted Mars? We found no other species on the planet that are affected like mankind is. Even the great apes are not touched by it. I don’t know where to look next. We’ve tried everything Dad. All the known drugs, plant extracts, radiation, heat, cold, all of it. We did find when oxygen levels got too high it died. But we are talking about ninety eight percent pure Oxygen. A human just can’t survive more than a few seconds at that level. Even if we kill the virus, it’s bonded with every molecule of oxygen on the planet. So when we bring oxygen levels back to normal it just re-infects. So what’s the point? We can’t clean it from the air. It’s like someone made this just to kill men. Who would do a thing like that? I am never going to get you home to the ranch ever again and I’m pissed about it Dad. I never get to touch you or Joshua; I don’t get to tease Vic anymore unless it’s from 250.000 miles. Oh ya, that’s fun!” She took a deep breath and just ran with it. “Dad I even started to do all kinds of weird things to kill the virus, extreme cold did the trick. But turning the Earths atmosphere negative 150 degrees will be a negative thing for the world’s future and I just don’t see me pulling that off any time soon. It is weird, it infects oxygen molecules and yet if you subject it to massive amounts of oxygen it infects to a max level and then drops like a rock at ninety percent and vanished at ninety-five percent. In all the hundreds of samples we subjected to this the virus never re-infected the oxygen in the cell. But nothing can live in that so what good is it to me? How will that lead to you and the family back home for Christmas?”

  He let her wind down and fell silent before saying anything. He lived on the Moon so to him the answer was obvious.

  She wasn’t finished yet... her mind was searching for an answer and she needed him to help show her the right path to look down. “It is so frustrating Dad, we see it in samples all the time dying off as Oxy levels top out. I even put a gas mask on a rat to see if we could keep him alive in an Oxygen saturated environment and kill the virus in its body. That worked but as soon as we took him out of his air chamber he was infected again. It happened so fast we had to run tests and found it was coming to life at 89% Oxygen and grew strongest at 42% Oxygen. So everything with a need for Oxygen on Earth has this infecting its structure now. All warm and cold-blooded life are carriers. It’s in the cells of the plants and insects too. Even the Nematodes in the soil got the virus, but it only kills man. Who would make such a thing Dad? Its like they made a weapon to wipe out an entire civilization... but they had to have had a way to clean this up so the planet could support mankind again or what’s the point of it at all? I don’t know what to try next Dad? I’m at a loss! I think that if my brains spend one more minute thinking about this and wanting to get you home to the ranch and me failing you and you and Joshua being stuck on the Moon for the rest of time I will just blow up and make a Chisholm splatter across the floor!” She tried to jest being strong and brave while facing what to her was a complete failure.

  “So you see the answer Ashmo?” He was adding things up she had overlooked. “You just said it… so you have to know its right there to see. It’s just upside down.”

  She was totally lost. “What did I say?”

  “Ashley, It’s right there to see. Just step back, you’re too close.” Taking a deep breath he said. “Think Baby Girl.”

  “Dad… I called you for help, not a challenge!”

  “Just think of the bigger picture Ashley, you’re looking too close.” He reminded her as he always had, to step back and take in the whole picture.

  “Dad, if you think you know something, why haven’t you called?”

  “I just found out about it right now talking with you. I didn’t know it before now or I would have told you. I didn’t figure it out... you did. I’m on the Moon and around here we avoid things like Red Virus 101 like it would kill us all. Do you think we have a mad scientist up here playing with RV
101 in test tubes? You just told me the answer Ashley. You’re so deep in thought that you just can’t see it.”

  She could tell that he had it figured out, but what, she couldn’t begin to guess. “Dad just tell me…” “Please!!”

  “Tell me something Ashley… can a woman be given virus clean oxygen to clean the virus from her body?” He inhaled deeply.

  “Well, yes of course. In a controlled situation, it can be done. We could put her on air through a mouthpiece to keep her alive while in the oxygen-saturated atmosphere. Once however she is returned to the Earth’s atmosphere she is re-infected; so what good is that?” Came her gruff response?

  “Why is that?” He again breathed deeply.

  “Because, it’s infected all of the air on Earth Dad!” She was starting to get angry with him for playing a game with her.

  “All the air?”

  “Yes Dad. All of the air!” She answered, her voice raising an octave as her frustration grew.

  “Every bit of the air?” He inhaled deeply so she could hear him for sure.

  She was tired of this. “Otto John Chisholm, it is in all the oxygen on Earth… every little bit of it!”

  “All the oxygen on Earth you say?” He inhaled deeply again.

  “Yes Daddy…. All the air on Earth… OH MY GOD!!” She shouted.

  “So, I see you found it for yourself!”

  “You have clean air up there, air that is free of the virus. This whole time we searched for a way to get men back... ”

  “We sure do, make more of it every day and still have vast storage tanks full of liquid oxygen from Earth we harvested standing by!” He said with conviction.

  “The plant life?”

  “Right!”

  “So, we purge it from our systems using Moon air. That should keep a woman clean and free of the virus!”

  “Right!”

  “Then we can be transported to the Moon. Could it be that easy?” She asked disbelievingly. Three years in the lab and nothing, one conversation with her father and the world was about to change again.

  “Your just trying to get a hug at this point… look deeper Ashley.”

  “What do you mean Dad?” She was only thinking of one thing at this point all right, to see if it really worked. “I’ll get to hold you and Joshua again if this works. Oh Dad, it’s got to work.” Her mind was sweeping through all she would need to make this work. “I get to go to the Moon and hug my Dad.”

  Ashley started shouting. “Shianne GET UP, Shianne GET UP NOW. We are going to the Moon!” “I’ll call right back Dad, I have to make some calls.”

  “Ashley are you even going to try to see the whole picture?”

  “OK Professor Chisholm… LOOK… I’M ON MY WAY TO YOU SO STOP IT FOR NOW.” She said with finality.

  He was enjoying himself completely. “Call me once you get things going on your end. I’ll send down a large tank of our air right away. Vandenberg! How’s that sound?”

  “Great just great Dad!” Her mind was working out the details.

  He could feel Shianne’s’ confusion and added. “Now turn around and tell my other daughter that I love her more.”

  She turned to see Shianne just opening the Mar Com door. “Our Dad is a genius!” Ashley stated as fact.

  “I love you too.” Shianne shouted to her father rubbing sleep from her eyes.

  “Kisses Daddy, Bye!” Ashley said and she hung up.

  “What’s going on Ashley?” Shianne asked just as Ma made it to the door.

  “Dad just figured out how we can go to the Moon and I think it’s going to work. In fact, I know it will!”

  Shianne smiled and gave her sister that... I knew it... look. Then it hit even her, her dreams were set at home... everyone said welcome home to her. It was not the home she was thinking of... it was going to be a new home 250.000 miles straight up.

  * * *

  Joshua was impressed with the ease that Samantha handled the ship while being towed out to the runway. Her little fingers were flying over the controls switching on all needed systems completing the preflight well before the ship was lined up for takeoff.

  “Any questions before we light this thing off?” Joshua asked to make sure she was ready to go.

  “Just one question?”

  “Shoot?”

  She looked straight ahead so he could not see her face and asked. “I was told I would be flying with Con Man. What happened to him?”

  “He caught a cold virus, so Medical grounded him.”

  “And they asked you… the best pilot they have to teach me to point a ship at a planet and sit around for two weeks?”

  “And your point is?” He said.

  She had to come clean; this wasn’t going to start on a lie. “I work part time in the med lab Joshua. Pete is A-OK. I even drew his blood for the tests.”

  “Are you sure?” He was shocked.

  “Very sure.” She assured him.

  Joshua started to rant. “ I’m going to kill him! I was looking forward to a break. I haven’t had a damn vacation in three damn years!” He vented his frustration gruffly.

  “G-1, this is Moon Mission Control. You have clearance for engine start in thirty seconds, copy that? over.”

  Samantha looked to Joshua for guidance. He was Commander on this mission. “You’re flying this bird right?” He glanced her way still ready to blow a gasket.

  “Mission Control. We copy and we are ready for burn to Mars base. Over.”

  “G-1, Flight Control advises you set burn clock at fifteen minutes and thirty nine seconds. Copy? Over.”

  “Copy fifteen, thirty nine. Pre-set burn clock complete. Over.” She replied performing like a pro.

  Her heart seemed to just stop and her whole life became this moment in time.

  “Five, four, three, two, one.”

  Samantha hit the main engine ignition switch and was planted into her seat. A bright white burst of flame erupted from three six-foot wide bells of the main thrusters. Three one hundred foot long blowtorches blasted G-1 to ever-greater speeds toward the distant planet. The digital flight speed indicator became a blur of numbers as they accelerated out into the void of space.

  Samantha was spellbound as it unfolded before her eyes. She pulled up on the ships controls, the nose responded with ease. She checked the power and saw they were only running at twenty six percent. She gave it a thirty percent burst and the ship let go of the Moons gravity. Here she was a beginning, the new reality of her life in space. Her head was swimming with possibilities.

  The computer took over all control once she had cleared the Moons gravity as programmed. She felt it take control in her fingertips on the controls as she noticed the warning light come on to let her know the ship held her safely for the crossing to Mars.

  For fifteen minutes the power was poured on until the ship was at full speed. The burn clock spun down as the burn shut down.

  A view of the heavens only few will ever get to see unfolded before them. The deepest black of deep space enveloped them and a billion stars filled it all in. She had a nice view of Earth at take off. Looked like nice weather over California for this time of year there. She wondered if she would ever return to Earth again. She, like most people, was scared she never would.

  “Moon Mission Control, this is G-1, burn is complete and we are online for our mission guide line. Over.”

  A new voice came to Samantha’s ears. “This is Moon Mission Control. You have a good trip and good luck. Over and Out.” Pete wished them well.

  Both of them knew that voice.

  Both turned to look at each other at the same time.

  Without skipping a beat Samantha Responded. “Thanks Mission Control. This is G-1, over and out.”

  Joshua unstrapped from his seat stood and raising his hands high said. “And the crowd goes wild!”

  “You don’t like making this run Joshua?” Samantha asked.

  “I used to love it.” He helped her un-strap and stood her o
n her feet like she was a feather in his hands. “But for me this is trip number eleven. The thrill is gone for me. Sure it’s beautiful. Sure it’s a rush. Yes… Wow! But then it’s a long trip to a place far, far, far away. No hills to drive through, no coast to drive to. Let’s go camping in the shuttle, my normal place of business. I spend all my time in here after all so more time in here is just what I want so I can spend even more time in here.” He vented just a bit, but she heard every word of it. She understood. She wanted all those things too.

  “I’m an old vet at this and I’m looking to start something for myself, for once.” Her ears, and her heart, took in everything he said.

  “Like what Old Man?” She didn’t want to push him... but then she was there to push him her way.

  “Samantha, it’s kind of personal.”

  “We will be stuck in here for two weeks, I hope to become not just a great pilot from your training, I hope to become your friend. So anytime you need some help pulling your head out of that dark place your keeping it, let me know, OK? Because it must stink up there!”

  * * *

  ‘Wow, I like this girl. Where have I seen her? I know her, I’m sure. She said she worked in Med Lab. There was one stunning woman there. A nurse?’ His mind flashed in a millisecond. He decided to wipe the pie off his face. “OK... I’m a jerk. I’m sorry Samantha.”

  “Apology accepted” They started to get out of their space suits with each other’s help.

  “It’s just that at times, I feel like life is passing me by, I don’t have any time to date. I know it had to be done, and I did it without complaint, but a man needs things too!”

  “Things like what Joshua?” She held her breath.

  He was un-strapping the back of her suit as he said. “You know, I want to find a friend. A lover…. Oh hell… I guess what I want is a wife, a family.” He lifted the top half of her suit off with the helmet still attached and turned to put it in its storage area.

  She quickly got out of the bottom half of the suit while he turned away and when he turned back she stood before him in a skin tight flesh toned jumpsuit that fit her like she was dipped into it. “You make it sound as if you’re old and gray. You’re not Joshua. You’re not even thirty yet, and you have done great things with your life. But I do understand.” She lightly touched his hand as if pulled to him. She could feel his longing.