AMERICA ONE (47 page)

The good news arrived from
Astermine Two
that she had managed to get out of the crater and Ryan was excited to hear Jonesy’s description of a way to get
Astermine One
back to earth to get her new engines.

Ryan also decided to add
Astermine Two
’s crew to work on the third shuttle, SB III as he called her, as the team had very little to do.
Asterspace Three
was also having her new engines fitted.

He wanted this shuttle armed with a laser addition and modified to accept four of the new more powerful hydrogen thrusters coming out of the production line in a few weeks. With two first-stage rocket motors, two larger second-stage hydrogen motors, four of the new hydrogen thrusters and the latest ion drives, this third shuttle would be able to whizz around space like a kid’s toy.

“Maybe a defense spacecraft built like an Air Force gunship could be an important weapon in space
,” Ryan thought to himself.
“There will soon be no more Mr. Nice Guy.”

****

Twenty long hours later, VIN and Jonesy exited their craft to unload some of their cargo. Jonesy had worked out that they should be able to get out of the crater with four of the canisters removed, 1,800 pounds of weight.

They spent another two hours loading more of the shiny rocks into a few of the empty canisters Maggie had brought. Her liftoff had helped them slightly as it had piled up the silver rocks around her landing area, a hundred feet away. The first two canisters were filled in the first hour from blown piles of small rock; the sweeper quickly vacuumed them up and threw them into the silver containers.

“Firing up the thrusters,” Jonesy stated later. They had entered the craft, cleaned up, and eaten a pouch of stew, and an orange juice. VIN had cleared out everything else in the rear holds of
Astermine One
. There wasn’t much, but here and there he piled up what he thought was another 100 pounds of unnecessary items.

“My partner says that we should get out of this hole this time,” VIN stated to the ladies who were anxiously waiting higher up on the surface.

“It’s like fixing a flat tire and hoping the darn repair works when you drive off,” Jonesy added. “Fifty percent thrust…60…70…80…90…100,” stated Jonesy. VIN noticed that he wasn’t playing around much this time as the fuel gauges showed just over a quarter full. They had used up a lot of fuel on the last try. “She’s floating sideward again, but climbing slowly. I’m going to redline her!” and he pushed the throttles hard forward. The limiter showed the thrust at 106 percent and they were rising, very slowly.

“The crater wall,” suggested VIN.

“Yes, partner, count me the distance to the wall, altitude 30 feet………..35 feet……38 feet, she’s easing away.”

“Crater wall about 70 feet and just as high above us…about 60 feet,” VIN added calmly, but he felt a lump in his throat. If they hit the wall, they would be no more.

“Altitude 50 feet….57…63…65 feet. VIN, are we going to make it? Like take off, there will be a point of no return.”

“I think we passed that already,” replied VIN we are about 40 feet away at 70 feet altitude, Press the gas pedal as hard as you can! Jonesy the front wall of the crater is a little lower than this side; can you at least point her in that direction?”

“Not yet, partner! I’m waiting until we are ten feet away from the wall and then I want to push us off with the right hand thruster. Count the distance, kid…75 feet and rising.”

“Twenty feet; it’s getting close and now I can’t see the top of the wall anymore we are too close…15 feet….12 feet… we are as close as you want to be; the wall is just outside the window, Jonesy!” shouted VIN his eyes now glued to the thruster on his side. Suddenly it turned outwards and the blast hit the wall of the crater several feet away.

“Oh crap we are going down….87 feet….85 feet….81 feet…; VIN, how far are we away from the wall?”

“Twenty feet, Jonesy!” VIN shouted back and he watched the thrusters push downwards again.

“We are steady at 75 feet… climbing through 76….78… 81… Distance, VIN?”

“Fifteen feet and closing again!”

“Still climbing, I think she’s releasing…83 feet….85 feet, VIN, how is that wall?”

“Ten feet again, and we have about ten feet to go.” VIN watched the thruster point towards the wall again, but not at such an angle. “About seven feet and we seem to be crawling up the wall ever so slowly…still about seven feet, one foot to the top…I can see over the top, but we are edging over again. Five feet!” He watched the thruster turn sideward slightly and the craft now seem to stop in mid-space.

“Altitude at 90 feet and steady, we have tons of room on the other side, I’m starting the ion drives. It took several seconds before they were at full power and the craft was still not moving. “I’m propelling her sideward again away from the wall, but want to see if I can gain a little forward speed, dip down and then head into a climb. We will have one chance at this partner. Call out the distance!”

“Four…. 5……maybe 6….7….9…..12….14….18 feet!”

“Altitude 87 feet….85….84 feet,” added the pilot. VIN!”

“Twenty-feet…..30…. about 40 feet………55 feet!”

“OK, I’m bringing her to face the other side of the crater. I’m hoping the ion drives bloody well flutter against the wall. VIN!”

“About 80 feet, where we started; the craft is turning 90 feet…watch our butt Jonesy….about 100 feet!”

“Eighty-two…. 80 feet….78 feet! VIN, do we have enough room?”

“I would say about 150 feet and I can’t see the wall anymore. We must be right hand to the wall. Jonesy our fuel gauges are hovering just above empty!”

“Not something I wanted to know about, kid…here we go!” and VIN watched as his side thruster point downwards again. We are climbing; I think no fuel in the tanks is helping….105 feet….107 feet and we are moving forward.”
Astermine One
glided out of the opposite lip of the crater less than a dozen feet over the surface of the asteroid.

It wasn’t over yet. “Thrusters down to 90 percent, we are still climbing away 189 feet, 210 feet, we are out of the pull, thrusters down to 60 percent. Maggie where are you, we are coming round, I need to get her down quickly!”

“On your starboard side about 300 feet from us; surface looks flat and clear of rocks,”
stated Kathy.

“Roger that; coming in fast, I have you visual…thrusters at 50 percent, ion drives off.”

Jonesy brought her in and fast, like a helicopter dropping off troops in a battle. He even flared out the 140-foot craft as one would a helicopter, and Maggie was sure that the legs would break as they hit the surface and bent. Slowly the legs took the force, the craft stopped its downward movement, and
Astermine One
came to a rest with no broken legs.

“Well done, Mr. Jones, perfect flying!”
shouted Maggie and he smiled as a bead of sweat slid down his face. He switched off the overworked thrusters, hearing applause from the other craft. He looked over at VIN who was just sitting there: ramrod straight, his face white.

“We did it, kid!” Jonesy stated.

“We could have taken off all our cargo and it would have been easier,” he stated.

“Well, my calculations were a few percent off, the pull stronger than I thought, but we are out and it worked. Now, as long as we haven’t damaged the engines, we came in at 45 percent power, so I reckon we can get off here with at least eight tons of cargo.”

****

Ryan was ecstatic when the message came through from
Astermine Two
that both craft were out of the crater and stated that he needed a drink, and a bottle of Vodka mysteriously appeared from one of the desks.

****

The latest message from Ryan that morning informed them that they needed to sit tight for another week. Both men didn’t seem to mind, as it decreased the workload somewhat and they could take it easy. They decided to still head over to the other craft and go down into the crater.

The two men spacewalked across to
Astermine Two
. The gravity certainly wasn’t as heavy up here; actually, VIN strode too hard on one of his first steps and bounced off the asteroid a foot or two. Sleeping conditions had also changed; they felt light, and although they did not float off the surface of their chairs, they awoke often thinking they had.

Maggie and Kathy were happy to welcome them into their craft, once they had removed the full canisters from her hold, and they squashed in for the flight back into the crater.

Before they left, both men had to sit in the second room. It was not pink as they had been told, but had two narrow naval-type bunk beds with extra shelves and storage underneath. A small two-foot wide aluminum desk was on one side and what looked like a tiny bar refrigerator on the other. Jonesy looked at Maggie inquisitively, who opened it to show him real food! Fruit, the promised bottle of vodka, a half-full bottle of real orange juice, and several packets of cookies looked back at him. On a shelf above the fridge was a single-cup coffeemaker. His mouth hung open when he saw the stash. He and VIN were certainly traveling third class!

This time Maggie had no problem getting the empty craft down. The space walkers still had two hours of walk time, and they managed to get a dozen of the light canisters into the third hold and the rest of the heavy canisters into the fourth hold. This time Jonesy calculated that they had closer to six tons on board, plus his and VIN’s weight.

Maggie was not shy with the power this time, and they left the crater floor at 95 percent power and shot up into space 200 feet before she reduced the thrusters to 20 percent power and brought the craft in to the same landing place next to the canisters.

Jonesy immensely enjoyed feeling the extra power of
Astermine Two
after their close shave with the crater wall the day earlier.

They still couldn’t all sleep together in the bigger unit, so even though their three hours had been used up, they headed back to their craft after the girls had given them each a mouthful of the gift from Ryan.

Over the next several days, Jonesy and VIN were flown into the crater where they filled the rest of the empty canisters from
Astermine Two
with the lighter silver rocks, which seemed endless. The sweeper worked well and, as a team, with VIN guiding the sweeper and Jonesy hauling the canister next to it, they filled two canisters an hour. After three more days lifting everything they had out of the crater, they piled up everything that was staying behind, and left the crater for the last time. They had time and the two men took a day off spending time in
Astermine Two
’s compartment. Clean and tidy, it felt like a tent and they were camping and enjoying each other’s company, out of their suits and enjoying the real food.

The next day VIN and Jonesy emptied and reloaded thirty of the lighter canisters into
Astermine One
’s holds, securing them down.

It took another two days to load the canisters into
Astermine Two
. The heavy canisters were now a third of the weight, but each one of the sixty canisters in both craft returning home had to be properly secured in the holds.

They then took over the fuel cylinders allocated to them and spent three hours carefully transferring the liquid hydrogen into their permanent fuel tank from outside.
Astermine One
ended up with half- full tanks of hydrogen fuel, enough to lift off and get back to earth. It would have been touch and go if they had left earlier, but the delay saved them flying time back to earth.

Maggie still had full tanks once all of her cylinders had been emptied and she could always tow them, or Jonesy tow her, when they were close enough to
Ivan
.

After the last day of packing rocks they left, eleven days past the original departure date, 900,000 miles closer to earth, and their trip twenty-four hours shorter.

It was time for another day off and Jonesy did his numbers for Ryan. He would only send them to him once they were space borne. He had six tons aboard.

Maggie’s load of the eighteen canisters of platinum and twelve of the shiny rocks weighed out at only 14,000 pounds, or seven tons, far less than the original twenty tons Ryan had anticipated. VIN had also cut the analyzer out of the hold in the crater, after disconnecting it from their craft.

“Thruster on, tanks at half, here we go, hold thumbs girls, and he pushed the throttles forward to gain output. Fifty percent….60….70…getting light….85…..95 percent, we are off and out of here!” shouted Jonesy enthusiastically.

“Thruster on, tanks full, watch this power, Jonesy
,” stated Maggie.
“Forty….45 percent, we have lift off and going home! I’m already looking forward to a real bath.”

In formation, Maggie allowed Jonesy to lead. He wasn’t wasting time. Jonesy had allocated half of his fuel for liftoff, and he had only used half of that, so he used the extra hydrogen with the ion drives to accelerate. Within an hour, and by the time he let the computers take over, he was well over 30,000 miles an hour.

A day later, the thrusters were pointing forward, already thrusting once an hour to slow them down. They were heading directly to where
Ivan
would be seventy-two hours from then.

Ryan sent them dozens of congratulation messages, even when he was told of the lesser cargo weight on board both craft. His fifth message duplicated what Jonesy already surmised, that they would go on their second mining trip with the more powerful thrusters installed in
Astermine One
, and return with thirty full canisters. Ground control had computed 90 percent power for a full twenty-ton load for a liftoff above the crater.

The cargo manifest made Ryan even happier after VIN reported that they were returning with six tons of platinum, a ton of iridium, six tons of rhodium and about half a ton of palladium.

Ryan sent them a message six hours later saying that their load was worth three-quarters of a billion dollars and the six tons of rhodium, at today’s prices worldwide, was worth more than the other three metals all put together.

They rested over the next two days and then began preparing to meet up with
Ivan
. As they neared to within twenty miles, they could see the first five sides of the first cube welded together. It far outsized the original
Ivan
by nearly three times, and they were surprised at how big the new space station would actually be. The first cube was floating with a long cord attached to
Ivan
and
Ivan
was kept in trim by the two shuttles on her sides. Jonesy remembered that they were ten days late and that the shuttle must have just arrived.