Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (38 page)

…

In space, about twenty two thousand miles above them, an orbital tug released a satellite that was the size of one of the rail cars in the new high speed magnetic rail system that was being built all across the southern states.  Approximately sixty feet long and twenty feet in diameter, three quarters of the probes volume was taken up by its power plant, thruster and fuel.  The tug backed away to a distance of about five thousand meters.  Back on Earth in the JPL control room, last minute checks of the probes systems were being run.

The probe director, Robby Tully, spoke on the control room broadcast system.  “Alright people, the tug is clear and all systems look good.  We are starting the drive system in thirty seconds.” 

Peter stood with Bobbi and watched the large monitor in the observation room.  He could see the team personnel quietly monitoring their system displays in the control room below them.  A live video feed was being sent down by the tug that had released the probe.  In addition, a small observation probe was hanging in space about five hundred meters from the Elpis Probe.  The thirty second countdown showing in one corner of the screen was counting down to zero.

Robby’s voice came back onto the broadcast channel; “Thruster firing in five, four, three, two, one.”  On the screen a bright blue glow came from the probes thruster.  The glow of ionized gas rapidly lengthened behind the ship as it starting moving away.  Slowly, but visibly gaining speed, it kept accelerating until only the blue tail of its ion thruster was visible.  “Thruster is at one hundred percent and all systems are good,” Robby called out to his team.  “Probe is clear, activate the EM shield now.  Shield is indicating it is up and at full power.  Ok, good job people, she’s under way.”  Robby turned and gave Peter and his sister a thumbs up. 

…

General Seale
, along with the rest of the control team at Alpha station watched the probe fade in the distance.  Colonel Mike Pierce was on the station and was sitting in control watching with him.  “Let’s go get a bit of chow before I head back to Earth, Mike.  I want your opinion on a couple of things.  I will have them bring us some lunch to a conference room where we can talk and eat at the same time.”

Colonel Pierce nodded. “Lead away, I could use a bite of lunch.” They walked around the ‘A’ ring of the station until they came to an administrative meeting room.  The General called and arranged for sandwiches to be brought to them. They settled down at the table to wait.

“Do you think the probe will make it there it one piece?” asked the General.

Mike thought for a moment and answered. “That thing is going to be moving at a pretty good clip about mid-course.  If it hits anything bigger than a pencil eraser at that speed, it will be turned into a rapidly expanding cloud of debris.  I know it has the new EM shield, and they work pretty good at keeping out the radiation from solar flares and cosmic radiation, but our shield technology is nowhere near good enough to keep out solid objects of any size.  With some luck, in about three years if it survives the trip, we can get some good observations of the planet.”   A crewman brought in some sandwiches and drinks and set them on the table.

The General told him that was all they needed, and the crewman left and shut the door behind him.

“Ok Mike, I need it straight from you.  How do you think we are doing?  Are we going to be ready after the encounter?”

Mike took a bite of sandwich and chewed thoughtfully.  “They are getting much better at making the bread in low G; the freeze dried meat still sucks though.”

The General rolled his eyes.  “I was not asking about the food.  Mike, we have known each other a long time.  You know exactly what I am talking about and I need your opinion.”

Mike stopped chewing. “Sorry, Rob, I was tossing it around in my head.  We have four and one half years until closest encounter.  Although life is always exciting for us up here, our jobs will not start getting serious for about five to six months after the dwarf cruises by the inner asteroid belt.  The Jupiter and Saturn encounters will make things even interesting. When the dwarf passes through the Oort cloud it will scramble all that stuff up out there and we will start earning our keep.  So, let me start here in orbit and work outwards so to speak. I will tell you what I have seen and what I think.”

“This is me speaking, not your base commanders.  I bounce around all over the place to wherever they need me to fly something, so I really have no ties to anyone or anything right now that would taint my observations.”

“Which is exactly why I came up here to talk to you myself,” interjected the General.

“Speaking of coming up to orbit, how was the new magrail launch system?” asked Mike.  I figured you came up just to take a ride on it.”

The General laughed.  “I did want to inspect it and experience it firsthand.  It is night and day difference from the old shuttles.  With any luck, it will completely replace passenger shuttle launches and only the heavy stuff will have to be pushed up with the heavy boosters.  A lot of that stuff is now being made in lunar orbit or on Farside base now, so those launches are slacking off.  The discovery of those platinum and iridium deposits in some of the moon craters, if they can be viably mined, will probably just about pay for all of our facilities and operations up here in space and on the moon.  There are several companies chomping at the bit to get on the moon and try and mine the stuff.  The President has pretty much said “no way” until after the encounter, however.  He does not want any private corporations to interfere with our preparations in any way.  Back to the magrail system, the next time you come down to the surface you need to come back up on the magrail launcher.  Makes you appreciate what being shot out of a gun is like for a bullet.”

Mike nodded.  The magrail launcher the general was speaking of had only been in operation about six weeks.  Recent advances in superconductor technology had allowed the system to
finally be built. Out in the salt flats of Utah, an eight mile raised rail with superconductor powered magnets had been built, making it the world’s largest rail gun.  On that rail, a magnetically suspended shuttle and launch booster would be accelerated to nearly Mach three. At the end of the rail, the shuttle and booster were thrown up into the sky.  The booster would kick in and deliver a small shuttle capable of carrying ten crewmen into low Earth orbit.  There, they would rendezvous with an orbital tug and continue the trip to Alpha station or the moon. 

The shuttle could then return to Earth, landing just miles away from the launch system on a large runway.  The shuttle could be refueled and refitted and be ready to launch again in three days.  The boosters also landed by remote control on the same landing strip the shuttles used.  With the new launch system, the cost of putting men into orbit was dropping exponentially.  Mike looked forward to riding it back up to orbit the next time he was on the ground.

“Now Mike, quit being an asshole and changing the subject.  Are we going to be ready?”  General Seale asked again.

“Things are going along about as well as can be expected, Rob.  Alpha station here is complete and already too small for the crew and the operations we do here.  After the encounter, we really need a station about four times the size of this one if we are going to keep expanding into space.  The components for the Lagrange Point station are all assembled and floating out there about fifty miles away waiting to be moved to the Lagrange Point after the encounter. 
I am glad we will be waiting until after the encounter as it would be hell to keep it on station at the Lagrange point with all the gravitational stresses from the dwarf.”

“Schackelton Base is now keeping up with all our demands for volatiles, water
, and hydrogen products.  Unfortunately, the rare gases for the VASIMR thrusters still have to come from Earth.  Farside Base is really doing well.  The phased array system there is complete and there are twelve nuclear tipped missiles staged there if they are needed to try and deflect anything big that the dwarf throws our way.  We have the three interdictors here which will eventually move to the LP station.  There are three more that are going to be ferried by remote control to Phobos base when they have a hangar built for them.”

“The last time I was there, Phobos base was progressing well.  The discovery of the ice in the caverns and cavities there was a big help.  We now know that Phobos was probably never an asteroid or a moon at all, but a comet that was captured by Mars sometime in its past.  It is more like a sponge than a solid object.  It is nothing much more than some rock with lots of ice and dust mixed in to fill the holes.  Needless to say, it fits our purposes perfectly.  Honestly though, it drives me crazy every
time I go there.  You do not know what it is like to be that close to Mars and not able to land.  We have got to do something about that after all this hoopla with the Dwarf dies out.”

“So yes, I think we will be as ready as we can be when the time comes, assuming that is, the funding does not dry up.  All this mess about Texas and the southwestern states wanting to secede really bothers me.”

The General nodded.  “Eventually, we hope that funding will not be an issue. If the President ever gives the go ahead for private industry to come up and mine on the moon and some of these asteroids that we are going to attempt to capture, the tax revenue should pay for all of the salaries and the costs to run Space Force.  Right now, the costs are about to break the country, but we really do not have a choice.  None of the other countries are willing to donate a dime to help save their own asses.  China, Russia, the New English Commonwealth, as well as the new Euro-African States are all sitting with loaded guns eyeing each other’s assets.  They have no time or money to help with a space program.  They figure they will just let us go broke doing so.  I have to say I would be happy to say screw you guys when they start whining about not being part of the mining operations when that opens up.  The United States is going to have a huge lead in space operations.  Hopefully, that will pay off.”

“So, when are you coming down to Earth again Mike?” asked the General.

“I will be coming down in June, I hope,” said Mike.  “I have to do another run to Mars/Phobos and back but I am the best man for my co-pilots wedding in June.  He is marrying one of the female engineers that he met up here.”

The General grinned at him.  “I know you swear you will never get married Mike, but there have been some unofficial rumors of a few romances you have had.   Off the record, and just between you and me, is it good in zero – G?” asked the General.

“You would have to ask someone else Rob, I have honestly never tried it.  Maybe someday you can bring your wife up and give it a shot,” Mike laughed.  Now Hank on the other hand, Major Jenkins, could probably educate you quite well on that subject, I am sure.”

“Not likely that I will ever try it,” laughed the General “You know how Peggy is terrified of heights.”  They both chuckled at that.  The General stood up and grasped Mike’s hand.  “You be careful up here old friend.  Come by the house the next time you are down on the ground.  Peggy would be happy to see her favorite bachelor again.  Maybe she can try again to set you up with someone.” 

Mike grimaced.  “Tell her no thanks to the blind dates.  That last one was a nightmare.  Did Peggy really think I would be impressed by a woman with fake boobs the size of melons? You take care Rob, don’t let all those ground lovers get in your head down there.  And don’t worry; we will be ready up here when the time comes.  Just keep the politicians off our backs.”

“I will try my best,” said the General.  “I need to go talk to the station commander before I head down.  I will see you later old buddy.”  “Safe flight General,” called Mike as his old friend left the compartment.

Chapter 44

April 17
th
, 2039

New Washington, Georgia

President Walden sat in the oval office with his Joint Chief of Staff and his CIA Director.  “So what do we know about the incident?” he asked.

Admiral Desmond, who had relieved General Walden as the military’s top officer when General walden ran for president, spoke up.  “Senator Gonzales’s private chartered jet took off from Dallas and was in route to Cancun.  His plane had left US airspace when another small private jet crossed its path astern of the Senator’s plane.  The second jet then changed course sharply and closed on the Senator’s jet.  From what we can discern from the radar data, the second jet fired two air to air heat seeking missiles.  The Senators plane was blown apart.  Only small pieces of wreckage have been recovered and no bodies have been found by the search ships.  The second plane veered out to sea after the attack.  Two F-22’s that were scrambled to intercept it found it cruising on auto pilot at low speed at an altitude of ten thousand feet.  Its transponder had been turned off and the rear access hatch was open.  There was no one seen at the controls.  Modifications had been made to the wings to mount two air to air missiles.  It appears that the crew bailed out right after they turned the plane to sea and put it on auto pilot.  Witnesses to the event say that one parachute was seen shortly after the missile explosions.  We assume the pilot was picked up by a boat in the area.”