First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (5 page)

...*...*...*...*...

Luigi
looked over to the Senator and smiled. "Senator, it's a pleasure
to see you again, how can I help you?" He was still feeling out
the political side of things but kept a firm suave appearance up.

The
Senator chuckled. "Well son, I was looking over your plan and I
was curious. You’re not following the Apollo model?"
Senator Kingsforth asked.

Luigi
shook his head. "The Apollo model called for a shotgun approach
sir, we shoot the crews all over the place, they do a little science,
then return. We are following the Antarctic model."

The
Senator looked confused. Luigi smiled. "At first the Antarctic
was explored by the shotgun approach, but then Mcmurdo base was
established. From it explorers centralized there, building a
beachhead, and infrastructure to be able to explore every inch of the
continent," the younger man explained, using his hands to help
in his description. The Senator's face cleared.

"Biggest
bang for the buck?" he asked slyly.

Luigi
chuckled. "Yes sir, we want to give you and the tax payers your
money's worth. We are hoping we can build a base that can support
dozens of people, and allow them to explore the planet in detail."

The
Senator nodded. He wasn't at all sure about this, but it was
interesting. The party was behind it and the Republicans were torn or
in full retreat. "I'm still not sold on the package, but it does
sound much better than the ninety day report or some of the other
reports NASA has tried to pass," he said dryly. The kids were
alarming, NASA was moving at truly breakneck speed. No one had seen
such activity since the days of Apollo.

Luigi
sighed. "Yes sir, we've done our best to keep it simple, using
as much off the shelf hardware as we can get away with." He
waved to the model sitting on his desk. "So far so good, and
with the international partners we should see some improvement in
foreign relations as well."

The
Senator nodded. "All right, good to know, I am going to finish
my tour, then I'll get back to you with some questions." The
Senator shook his hand then motioned to Wendy who smiled slightly.

"I'm
looking forward to it Senator," Luigi called as they left.

 ...*...*...*...*...

“Konnichiwa,
Mister Ambassador,” Luigi bowed to the Japanese ambassador who
had one heck of a poker face. He was starting to get used to the
international position he now had. Playing tour guide was annoying
but if it helped them in the long run...

Then
the polite mask broke into a small smile as his eyes twinkled.
“Konnichiwa Doctor Irons. It is a pleasure to meet someone
named after one of my countries greatest heroes.” The
Ambassador bowed then the three of them sat.

“I
would like to thank you for convincing your country to open the Mars
program to international support,” Luigi said. The ambassador
nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

“Luigi,
this is insane, we have countries bidding to help out. I mean Bolivia
too!” Nick looked up eyes wide. “Everyone is in on it!
They all want a piece of the action! The Chinese are matching us or
giving us our debt bonds back in compensation! Russians and European
Union are on board and the Japs are going nuts!” Luigi
chuckled. “It is all over South America and Africa too. We
already have a geologist from South Africa on board! He flew in out
of the blue last night, just showed up at our door this morning!”

Luigi
chuckled again. “My god, we're really going to do this!”
Nick looked flabbergasted.

“Looks
that way. We have enough for two flights, and part of our secondary
agenda,” Luigi smiled.

“Secondary
agenda?” Nick asked confused.

“Well,
you don't think we're doing this as a single photo op do you? I
agreed to do this, but I want to change the world,” Luigi
replied lazily. Wendy smiled.

“I
think you already have,” Nick shook his head.

“Maybe,
but we have to make it work now,” Nick cautioned. Luigi
chuckled. He could just imagine the egg on his face and his
supporters if this failed. A lot was riding on this.

“Oh,
ye of little faith. We got the first mission already in the works. We
took the plans to a full paper study last week. We should have the
final blueprints by the end of the week. The first test flight is in
four weeks.”

“Luigi,
did anyone tell you you’re nuts?” Wendy asked. She shook
her head. Even she had been shocked by the speed things were going.
Everyone wanted in on this.

“All
the time. Never stopped me then, won’t stop me now,”
Luigi smiled as he retorted. There was steel in that smile along with
the natural charisma he oozed.

“Good.
You’re going to need all you can get,” Doctor Zubrin
replied from the doorway.

“Boss
this man is a genius,” Nick grabbed the young man's shoulders
and shook them good naturally.

“Why
do you think I hired him?” Zubrin asked as they chuckled.

Politics and Planning:

Bob
studied the communications report and grunted. "Three minutes
one way when the planets are closest together, up to twenty two
minutes at opposition." He shook his head. "Damn."

Luigi
nodded. "Yeah I was reading that too. It's too bad we couldn't
use that quantum entanglement teleportation device Vienna is working
on." He'd been getting all sorts of hair brain propositions in
his inbox lately.

Zubrin
looked up disgusted. "Not that thing. Teleporting to Mars?"
He shook his head.

"No,
I was thinking more along the lines of information. Ones and
zeroes..." Luigi gave Bob a look. "Here me out. According
to the theory, it is instantaneous. An ansible or FTL communications
method with no limit on distance. Now if we had it on both ends..."
Luigi suggested.

Bob
nodded. "Okay, yeah, the first true ansible link. But that would
be expensive."

Luigi
sighed. "Yes, and each time you use it, you use part of it up,
so after a couple messages..." He shrugged.

Bob
nodded. "Right. I bet it would be expensive to replace too."
Luigi nodded glum.

"Not
to mention the conspiracy nuts would have a field day with it."
Nick laughed.

"Yeah."

Bob
sighed. "Okay, back to the drawing board with that one, at least
for now. We're just going to have to stick to good old fashioned
methods until something better comes along,” he sighed. "You
were talking about going totally paperless?" He looked over to
Luigi who nodded.

"As
much as we can get away with. We can fit a lot in a memory card.
E-books, manuals, interactive tutorials, movies, music, the works.
They weigh a lot less too," Luigi replied. Nick nodded.

"I
am not sure how the astronauts will take to using e-books, but we
could save a lot of weight." Nick looked down at his tablet and
then up with a smile. "See? We're using them already. Luigi has
instituted a paperless office for some of the departments and putting
copies on a central server for public viewing within the agency has
sped cross pollination and cut down on problems. We still have turf
fights, but it is not as bad as I expected." Nick looked up and
smiled.

Mario
chuckled. "Yeah, you mean it's not as bad as it was before I
started threatening to butt heads."

Nick
chuckled. "Yeah, like that helped." He shook his head.

...*...*...*...*...

"Wait,
veggies? Fruit? No real food? No coffee?" Mario leaned over and
stared at the suddenly nervous nutritionist.

"Um....
I thought you knew, it is a requirement that you all go vegetarian."

He
wrinkled his nose. "Bully on that," he growled. Wanda
sighed.

He
turned on her. "No honestly. No meat?"

She
patted his belly. "I've been meaning to put you on a diet anyway
dear. You’re starting to put on weight," she teased. He
looked hurt.

She
ignored the pout to turn to the nutritionist. "Well um ah..."

Mario
raised a hand, still locking eyes at his wife's eye line. "Point
of order. No one has to eat what they don't want. Bag what they want
chicken, meat, whatever. TV dinners if you have to." He watched
as the nutritionist turned red.

"Really!
You’re going to be on a new world you would think you would
want to set an example for the people back home to step into the
future and stop harming animals." He turned to her.

"Miss.
I don't know you. What I do know is this. I am an omnivore. I eat
veggies, but I also eat meat. I don't care about all the arguments
that meat is bad for you. If I busted my tail all day, I want to come
in to a dinner of my own choosing. It's that plain and simple."
Luigi chuckled. Mario turned on him.

Luigi
had his hand over his mouth. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"You’re
no help," Mario growled. He turned back to Wanda.

"Well
really, it's no big deal. You could use less protein and caffeine
anyway," Wanda said. He froze.

"Okay.
No meat, no sugar, no Caffeine, no CHOCOLATE."

She
froze with her mouth open. "Now that's not fair," she
glared.

"If
we have to suffer for science dear, I don't see any reason you
shouldn't as well," he replied sweetly. She held the glare. His
eyebrow rose.

"Not
funny. You expect me to go three years without chocolate
or
caffeine?"

He
smiled. "We could use the weight for other things. It has no
real nutritious value as the lady will point out." The
nutritionist tried to back up to keep out of the argument.

Wanda
turned a look on her then back to her husband. "
We'll
discuss this later." She sat up straight and stared forward.

He
nodded. "Glad that is settled." He turned to the
nutritionist.

"Poll
each of the astronauts. Have them fill out what they would like.
Comfort food and or ethnic food. We can't bring it all in large
quantities, but I am sure one or two meals a week won’t break
the budget," he ordered. He'd had enough of her little political
ax grinding. The lady sighed. "Besides, we are importing fish
anyway." Mario sat back hands behind his head. "Think I
should bring my fishing pole?" He turned to Luigi who shook his
head.

"Only
you would want to fish in a fish tank. And no Mario, the fish come on
the second flight, not the first."

Mario
sighed. "What we give up for science," he mock grumbled.
Luigi chuckled.

...*...*...*...*...

The
squat heavily muscled balding man came into Luigi's office and stood
at attention. Luigi looked up and shook his head. "Chief, this
is a civilian post, and I happen to be a civilian. Why don't you cut
it down to what we civies can handle?" Luigi asked with a slight
smile. The chief scowled a bit, and then lightened up. "Beer?"
Luigi turned and opened the fridge behind his desk.

"Yes
sir."

Luigi
tossed him a bottle. "Corona's all I got." Luigi took
another out and popped the top. "Have a seat chief; we have a
lot to discuss."

The
chief turned and sat down. "You wanted to see me? Something
about training? I can train the guards but that is a bit of overkill
sir."

Luigi
shook his head. "No some higher ups recommended you after I put
in a request. I want you to work on the teams going to Mars."

The
Chief's eyebrows rose. "You’re kidding. Train those
pansies?" He chuckled.

Luigi
smiled. "Well, I happen to be one of them and yes, I know I
don't even come within a mile of your records." He waved as the
chief looked startled. "Don't worry about it chief, we're not up
to training for combat, I want you to work on unit cohesion and
teamwork."

The
chief nodded. "You know, in the Seals we usually beat on buds
until they get with the program."

Luigi
sighed. "Yes, you will also be in charge of the exercise regime.
It looks like we will have a three week period for general training.
Nothing that can cause permanent injury. I want you to go over the
hardware and see if you can write a lesson plan that uses that,"
he waved.

"I
need additional eyes sir, one DI won’t cut it," the Chief
said thoughtfully. He wasn't sure why he was going through with it.
Right now it'd be something to tell his grandkids... and it'd look
good on his resume.

Luigi
nodded. "Good point. If you know any former trainers who are
willing to push around some NASA nitwits let me know. If not we can
find other sources."

The
chief nodded taking a pull of the beer. "Budget?" he asked.

"I
budgeted twenty mil for physical training and trainers."

The
chief's eyes widened. "Bit much for one team."

Luigi
shook his head. “Six teams actually, about thirty six people."
The chief looked confused. Luigi took a pull of his beer and sat
back. "Go ahead and ask it Chief."

The
chief chuckled. "Okay, I'll bite, why so many?"

Luigi
smiled. "See that wasn't so hard. The primary team, back up,
secondary team, their backups, third team, and alternates. We might
as well get them all in one shot."

The
chief nodded. "Facilities?" he finally asked. Luigi sighed.

"We
can use the tanks here at NASA for water training, and I have some
pull if you want a base. I am sure we can borrow some facilities,
General Aster said we could."

The
Chief nodded. "Can do."

Luigi
nodded. "You mean
must
do. We need everyone ship shape
and pulling together or it will all come apart in a crisis."

The
chief nodded thoughtfully. "Any chance I can go the Mars as
well?"

Luigi
smiled. "I'll put in a good word for you Chief. I don't think we
will be splattering any Martians though." They both chuckled.