AMERICA ONE (29 page)

Liquid oxygen and nitrogen are obtained from the air by air separation plant. In other words we get three products for storage when we separate the air in this hangar: liquid oxygen for our air breathing backup, liquid nitrogen which has a thousand uses in space, and xenon gas, a fuel for space. It is a very simple but very expensive operation. In our third section is our laser department,” Ryan added as they went through. “We need lasers for three different reasons in space. A laser is a great weapon to break up a meteor, or a rock that could cause damage to our base. Second, it is a great tool for cutting through objects, like hard solid rock, and third, it can be used as a weapon for defense. We have all three.” There was silence and Ryan continued.

“The word
laser
started as an acronym for ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’; in modern usage ‘light’ broadly denotes electromagnetic radiation of any frequency, not only Redondo Beach had successfully built and tested an electrically powered solid state laser capable of producing a 100-kilowatt beam, powerful enough to destroy an airplane. This is an electrically powered laser, and was assumed to be capable of being mounted in an aircraft, ship, or other vehicle because it required additional space for its supporting equipment. They didn’t state how this new weapon was fueled, but unknown to many at Northrop Grumman, this same idea had been researched by several German and Russian scientists as early as 1965. We have a laser that will be powered by a nuclear reactor, if and when its use is necessary.” Everybody looked at each other.

“I understand you are thinking of a nuclear reactor that powers an aircraft carrier, or even a submarine, Ours is half the size of a nuclear submarine reactor, uses plutonium-238, a non-weapons grade plutonium, but is powerful enough to emit a laser that can break up solid rock, melt steel, or any other heavy man-made metal in seconds, and from a distance of a thousand miles. I believe the U.S. military is not far behind us, but would not like to be told that we have a better weapon than they have. Their most modern tests show their laser weaponry one hundred times weaker than ours. They will never know about it once it is in space, and if we are never attacked.” Everybody nodded, pretty shocked at what they were learning. “The machinery for the laser will be taken up in parts; each part weighs less than 100 pounds.

The last hangars were Hangars Eleven and Twelve. The movement through these was pretty fast. These last two hangars were liquid gas production plants. Ryan told them that six gases would be needed in space in liquid form for concentrated storage; liquid oxygen for air, liquid argon for heat storage, liquid nitrogen, liquid hydrogen and xenon for fuel, and helium for production and manufacture. “Helium will be important in the cooling of our arc-welding by our robotic spiders in space and for some of our mining tools. Our panels will be welded together in space by a range of these gases, but mostly helium. All these gases can be found in space, as can water. This gas production equipment, though in smaller forms will be with us, ready to go into production sometime in the future.”

That was it for the day; the pilots now knew nearly everything there was to know about this project. They knew that Ryan Richmond had a dream. A dream of being the first human to live in space, and somehow they had all been roped into this plan, no matter how mad it was. It was also too late to withdraw.

The Final Frontier

The next flight was to be a practice flight to 50,000 feet, to test the maximum height Bob Mathews could fly the C-5 with a shuttle and a spacecraft in its belly.

As usual it went off without a hitch and Maggie brought the
Silver Bullet
back down to the runway in pristine condition. This time Michael Pitt was co-pilot, and Bob had released the shuttle at 54,000 feet, a record for the whole team. Jonesy had co-piloted the C-5 with Bob, and they had worked together to reach the highest altitude on record.

Jonesy, Maggie, Penny, Michael, Suzi, Ryan and VIN constantly worked in the flight simulators for the last two months, and Michael Pitt showed that he had the ability to be the fourth space pilot-in-command of a shuttle. Suzi, Ryan and VIN would be adequate co-pilots.

The other two female pilots were happy to be in Bob’s flight team, and were not interested in a permanent job. Team C-5, as the crew were now called, were kept apart from all the other flights by working only in Hangar Three.

The C-5 team didn’t seem to have any interest in the other goings on and were happy to get flight pay and do no more. Bob was getting on, this could be the last flying he might ever do on such a sophisticated aircraft, and he wanted to enjoy every moment. The two girl pilots had lives and families to go back to, would enjoy the balance of the lump sum payment given to them after their contract expired, and looked forward to getting back to their normal lives.

It was now time for the first foray into space, “The Final Frontier” as Jonesy called it, and he and VIN had fourteen days to mentally prepare for their first long stay in space.

The C-5 was checked and checked again.
Silver Bullet I
, which would be their transportation, was checked over by dozens of technicians.
Astermine One
was ready. Ryan had decided to get his mining ship into space on the first flight, a risk, but time was of the essence. Even if they couldn’t get the old satellite fired up, Jonesy and VIN could live and survive in the cramped cockpit of
Silver Bullet I
for the thirty days. Finally, the 400-pound explosive charge and 150 pounds of supplies were loaded into
Astermine One’s
cargo hold, and the first phase began to come together. The cargo was 300 pounds overweight, but the shuttle had flown with this amount of cargo. There would only be two pilots in the cockpit this time, equalizing the weight.

“Good morning everyone,” stated Ryan during the space-flight briefing; it was the second briefing of the day, being held immediately after the atmospheric-flight briefing. “Two things. First: Mr. Jones, you and Ms. Sinclair will be instructed on a new device added to your shuttle instrument panels only yesterday. Our Russian team has a new “Cloaking Device” for you which they have been working on for a couple of years. It has been ready for a while, and they finally got it installed and working in both shuttles yesterday. Its total weight is twenty-three pounds.

“The system is pretty simple. Any spacecraft in lower space orbit can be tracked by dozens of satellites and ground bases around the world. To make sure that you disappear with the explosion, this Cloaking Device will make it harder for these tracking systems to see you up there. Much like “Stealth Technology” all of our shuttles and spacecraft have been designed for minimum radar-tracking ability. All that happens is that a small electrical field begins pulsating and affects an area of about 100 yards around the craft. Much like a black hole, the radar can’t electronically “see” what is inside the field, or decipher anything to report, so it ignores that minute area of space. The Cloaking System can be operated permanently, without harmful effects to humans. You will have twelve hours to get yourselves to the Russian satellite, place
Astermine One
onto one of the docking ports, dock the shuttle onto the second docking port, and nobody should see you there once you turn the system off. On your return trip the same will happen. As
Silver Bullet II
turns her device on,
Silver Bullet I’s
device is turned off. So all the detection systems will lose one space craft and suddenly locate what it thinks is the same craft in the same location. This operation must be done within twenty miles of each other and at the same speed and altitude. Understand?” The pilots nodded.

“Second: Mr. Mathews, Ms. Sinclair, Ms. Sullivan, and Mr. Pitt, acting as flight engineer, will be undertaking a practice flight to Europe and back forty-eight hours before the ladies are due to lift off to join Mr. Jones and Mr. Noble up in space. Ms. Sinclair, you will be returning with your cargo, the first extremely important cargo needed in space. Weather for tomorrow’s tomorrow looks perfect, that is why I picked Nevada,” continued Ryan. “I don’t think there is really any more to say except, tomorrow we start our real work; we have all trained for this, more intensively, I believe, than the Air Force ever trained you. We have the world’s best team of technicians any pilot could ask for as backup and you men are now as fit as any astronaut that has ever gone up in space. Tomorrow, I begin to fulfill my dream that started when I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, actually eight years after he did so. I was born on the exact day he walked on the moon, two hours after he first stepped on the lunar surface.” There was silence in the room.

The rest of the day was taken up by check after check. VIN’s, and Jonesy’s new spacewalking suits were ready, and they were to wear them into orbit, and keep the lower half on for most of the next thirty days. VIN’s suit was snug, and the permanent connections to his legs comfortable, far better than his old plastic legs. The upper part would be too hot to wear day in and day out, and he could remove it in the shuttle in orbit, or once they had their new home powered up.

He had worn the lower portion of the suit now for days and was used to the weight of the heavier mechanics, even learning to sleep with them on. He had been told a week earlier that the prosthetics team was beginning on a new set of legs, this time with micro parts that were half the size and, once finished it wouldn’t be any bigger than what his normal legs were. This new space-suit was totally separated from his leg mechanics which meant that he could wear his new legs permanently. VIN was getting excited.

Early the next morning, the shuttle with the first spaceship inside it, was placed into the Galaxy’s hold through its nose, and the cargo locked into place. On this flight Ryan would be in the cockpit of the C-5 watching his shuttle head into deeper space than ever before.

With Jonesy and VIN already in the shuttle, Bob Mathews began the engine start sequence, while a sad-looking Suzi, Maggie, Penny and Michael Pitt waved from the open door of Hangar Three. Jonesy, with VIN sitting in the co-pilot seat, could see them through the feed coming from a camera in the C-5, although the group on the ground couldn’t see them. There was radio contact, but little was said as the engines screamed and the C-5 Galaxy taxied off the apron and onto the runway for its usual east to west takeoff.

Having the absolute minimums of fuel on board the mother plane, Bob was hoping to reach as close to the height he and Jonesy had managed to get out of her on the last practice run.

Inside the shuttle both men were quiet and subdued as they felt the soft motions of the tires trundling along the smooth runway.

Bob turned the aircraft around, completed his final checks, and as he had done a couple of dozen times, controlled the massive beast as she gained speed down the long stretch of well-lit asphalt in front of them. This time the cargo was at its maximum weight; still the C-5 did her job and headed into the still dark sky, the sun forty-five minutes from rising over a cloudless horizon.

“
Passing through 25,000 feet,”
stated Bob over the intercom thirty minutes later as the sun hit them, earlier than it would the ground below them.

VIN was quiet. He had completed over a hundred hours in the shuttle simulator, three flights in the shuttle, and was still in awe of how sophisticated this craft was. The way this shuttle flew, and how delicately Jonesy, and he as backup, had to fly her, had totally ruined his enjoyment of his Audi, which was parked and hadn’t been moved for over three months. Pictures of flat tires and an inch of dust on his beloved car went through his head as Bob’s voice over the intercom stated that they had just passed through 30,000 feet.

He had little to do as co-pilot, except monitor gauges and remind the pilot on checks every few seconds once they got into space. Until then he was as good as the car passenger Jonesy was when he drove them across the country. VIN’s first job was to open its roof doors, and help direct the shuttle while looking through a small portal in the top hatch of the roof of the cockpit. Jonesy, who would be using the thrusters, would slowly position the
Silver Bullet
next to the Russian satellite. After Jonesy raised the shuttle’s five-foot long docking port tube out of its roof, VIN would enter the tube wearing his full spacesuit and walking gear, go through the opened exit hatch, and float to the spacecraft, still in the shuttle’s cargo hold. With the shuttle’s cargo doors already open, VIN could enter the exact same docking port tube Jonesy would have wirelessly released out of spacecraft’s roof. He would enter the smaller craft and Jonesy would release the connections to the shuttle. The small explosive devices holding the cargo in place would ignite and propel
Astermine One
out of the shuttle’s hold. VIN, using its thrusters, would dock the craft to the middle docking station of the Russian Space Station.

“Thirty-nine thousand feet, ten minutes to final checks,”
stated Bob, which brought VIN back to the present and he watched as Jonesy went through the first procedures. VIN checked each procedure as Jonesy called it out and stated “Checked” as each procedure was done.

“Don’t forget VIN, you only speak to me through our internal shuttle radio, not the external radio until we are in orbit,”
Jonesy reminded VIN through the internal communications system only they could hear.

“Roger, that,” replied VIN. The reason was that Ryan didn’t want the outside world to know who the pilot was.

“Forty-seven thousand feet, turning towards the sun,”
stated Bob fifteen minutes later. Final checks were complete, Jonesy had the instruments live, the rocket igniters were ready for VIN, and turning into the morning sun gave Jonesy an added mark to set up the craft’s climb into space. On his first flight, turned onto their backs, he had realized that he only needed to make small adjustments at the beginning of the launch, and keep the sun at his back, to keep the craft aimed in the right direction. At the end of the atmospheric climb the nose of the shuttle would be pointing just above the sun’s position, and once they were in space, minor adjustments were needed instead of large ones to begin the craft’s first rotation.