Launch (10 page)

Claire monitored the ship’s status on her maneuvering
console while David flew. She usually felt a thrill when the spectacular image
of Earth’s blue and white ball appeared on her monitor. But this time, she felt
anguish that forced her to take several deep breaths.

David docked with the orbiting fuel tank,
filled the ship’s tanks with all they would hold, and then he filled the
non-pressurized passageways with fuel. That fuel would be burned first.

He moved the saturated starship clear of the
orbiting tank, carefully aligned the ship on course, and fired the engines at
maximum thrust.
Origin
began its flight on a path that took light 250
years to travel.

The news that Claire and David had begun their
journey flashed around the world. They received wishes of Godspeed from the
other members of Team Thunder, NASA, and the President of the United States.
People from many nations sent messages of encouragement in a variety of languages.
Some sounded a bit like English.

▼

As the starship burned off fuel, computers
gradually reduced thrust to keep acceleration exactly equal to gravity on
Earth, one
g
. Then each Earth day,
Origin
flew almost 1.9 million
miles per hour faster than the day before. Each Earth month, the ship flew
almost 56 million miles per hour faster than the month before. The goal was
more than 670 million miles per hour, very close to the speed of light.

The cabin was quiet and free of vibration as
Origin
hurtled through space. Claire thought it felt like being back in their quarters
at NASA.

Life for Cougar and Buni settled down to a
relaxed routine, a relief after the long, hectic days before launch. Computers
flew the ship and scanned space in all directions, but Cougar Flight did not
rely completely on automation. They established a staggered sleeping routine
whereby one of them would be awake to monitor the systems much of the time
while the other slept. Yet every day, they had at least one meal together. Frequently
they made love and slept together, especially after a massage or an exciting
dogfight with the maneuvering controls in the simulator mode. The days, weeks,
and months passed with a relaxed routine of work, sleep, study, love, laughter,
fun, and ever more blinding speed.

NASA did not want the mission to get far from
Earth if Cougar Flight was not in perfect health. Every week, and the day
before
Origin
reached near light speed, Claire gave David a physical
examination. With a few special instruments and his enthusiastic help, she also
gave herself a physical examination.

As the starship approached the speed of light, Claire
and David were wearing their spacesuits and belted into their maneuvering
consoles, and everything aboard was secured and ready. All five onboard computers
crosschecked each other, because error could not be tolerated. If engine thrust
was shut down too late, the ship could exceed the speed of light with unknown
and possibly fatal consequences.

Claire watched the countdown on a precise
digital clock that seemed to slow down. Each second seemed to hang separately.
Then she realized she was weightless and the engines had shut down precisely on
time. The stars on her display were a comforting sight. If the ship had
exceeded the speed of light, the screens might have gone blank.

“I see stars,” Claire said.

“Me, too.”

“I still don’t understand how we can travel two
hundred and forty-nine light years in only four hours of ship time if we’re not
exceeding the speed of light,” she said.

“Because of our speed, one hour to us equals
more than sixty-two Earth years,” he said. “Time dilation is complex. I can’t
explain it better without a lot of math. We can do that after engine restart if
you like.”

“No, thank you. We’ve been through that. But the
fact that we are, in effect, traveling at more than one-half million times the
speed of light just boggles my mind.”

“It boggles my mind, too,” he said. “Just think
of it as a special gift to us because you are so beautiful . . . and sexy.”

“Kissing the blarney stone you are.”

“That’s not all I’d like to kiss.”

She smiled. “Later.”

David ejected a test missile from the ship.
When it was a safe distance away, he fired it. The small missile accelerated
rapidly at a slight angle that would take it away from
Origin
’s course.
All signals from the missile stopped as it reached light speed and vanished.

Claire asked, “Is it in another dimension now?”

“Maybe,” David said. “I think we’ve
demonstrated it’s possible to exceed the speed of light and that results in
loss of contact. What happens beyond that, if it’s possible to come back, and
whether people could survive the trip, are more questions to be answered.”

“Why didn’t NASA program the missile to come
back if it lost contact?”

“Too dangerous. Our primary mission is to
explore Minor and its planetary system. We could be highly vulnerable to
missiles whizzing around at light speed.

“This experiment was a success by the standards
NASA set, so I’m not going to fire the second test missile. We'll be passing
near here on the trip home, and there’s no point in taking unnecessary risks.”

Before the half-way point,
Origin
began
a programmed roll until side two was facing Minor. The three other sides of the
ship, including side one, were now shielded by side two. The floors in the cabin
rotated into a position parallel to side two. When the engines restarted, it would
be the year 2300 on Earth, and the starship would begin slowing at one
g
.
Again, it would feel like normal gravity to Cougar Flight.

Joanne and Michael and everybody Claire and David
had ever known were gone, deceased. Claire thought of their friends sorrowfully
and wondered what they would find when they returned. Would Earth be decimated
by war or disease or overpopulation? Would it be a better world?

Another checklist confirmed everything was
ready to start engines. Only three engines would be needed for braking because
most of
Origin
’s fuel had been consumed. Here again, a precise start
time was critical. A small delay could cause them to miss Minor by billions of
miles, but the engines fired exactly on time.

David said, “Side two facing Minor. Engines
E-one, E-three, and E-four using nozzles E-two. Engine E-two is shutdown. One
g
deceleration. Your ship.”

“Roger,” Claire said. “Side two facing Minor.
Engines E-one, E-three, and E-four using nozzles E-two. Engine E-two shutdown.
One
g.
My ship.”

After a dinner that became a remembrance of
friends gone forever, they comforted each other in bed. Each was now the only
living soul the other knew.

During the months of deceleration, David found
eleven planets orbiting the star Minor. Except for one oddball planet in the
eighth orbit, the planet distribution in the Minor System was similar to the
Solar System: The densest planets were near Minor, and gas giants were in the
outer orbits. Two planets orbited each other as they orbited Minor in the
fourth orbit. Both were in the green zone where life similar to life on Earth
was possible. One of the two emitted a weak radio signal.

“What kind of signal is it?” Claire asked.

“The signal resembles L band radar, used for
long range surveillance.”

“Can it see us?”

“We’re much too far away now, but it could see
us when we get close,” David said.

“Could it be military?”

“Yes, and it could be linked to an attack
system. We’ll take precautions.”

▼

The planet in the third orbit was relatively
close to Cougar Flight’s direct course to Minor, from where they would begin
their year of exploration. To avoid backtracking, Claire detoured to put
Origin
into orbit around Minor-3

M3 was in Minor’s hot zone. It was smaller than
Earth. The cracked surface was predominately sulfur yellow with bizarre
patterns of green, blue, orange, and brown. Black scars radiated from dozens of
erupting volcanoes. Lava boiled at the bottom of a deep canyon almost 500 miles
long. The thin sulfur dioxide atmosphere did little to prevent asteroid and
meteoroid impacts, and the planet was pockmarked with craters.

“Wow, Buni, look at that! Have you ever
imagined anything so incredible?”

He shook his head. “No. We’ve been preparing for
this moment for a long time, but nothing has prepared us for the emotional
impact of actually being here.”

“We need to learn more languages,” she said.

“Why?”

“We’ve got a long way to go and a lot more to
see. We’re going to need more adjectives.”

▼

After surveying the planet and releasing a
satellite in polar orbit to make detailed observations, Claire transferred
control to David for the next leg.

On the way to Minor-2, he released two
star-survey satellites to coast into orbit around Minor. One satellite would be
in a polar orbit, and the other would be in an equatorial orbit at a higher
altitude. NASA hoped the satellites would get simultaneous pictures and
measurements of spectacular events such as stellar storms from two different
viewpoints.

Minor-2 and Minor-1 were too close to Minor to be
surveyed from the ship. David released heat resistant survey satellites to
coast into orbit over each planet. He then approached Minor-2 on its dark side
and used the planet to shield
Origin
from Minor’s extreme heat.

M2 was covered with impact craters, like an
orange version of Earth’s moon. It was less than half the size of Earth and
took less than three months to orbit Minor. Because the planet rotated slowly
on its axis, the side toward Minor was seared while the dark side was frozen by
the cold of space.

From the shelter of M2’s dark side, David
studied Minor-1. It was a seething ball of molten metal, mostly iron, about the
size and composition of Earth’s molten metal core.

“This just gets weirder and weirder,” Claire
said.

“What?”

“Hiding behind a planet to spy on a blob.”

“It’s a good thing that M2 is here. We can get better
pictures and more information about M1.”

“Why is it just molten metal?” Claire asked.
“Why not a planet?”

“It may have been a planet like Earth at one
time,” he said. “But because Minor is so close, its energy may have blown the
lighter parts away, leaving just the heavy molten metal.”

“Why doesn’t it get blown away, too?”

“It probably will be over time, bit by bit.”

From Minor-2, Claire flew
Origin
toward
the two planets that orbited each other as they took a little more than a year
to circle Minor in the fourth orbit. Each planet was about the size of Earth,
and each was the other’s moon. David designated the slightly smaller planet Minor-four-a
and the larger planet Minor-four-b.

M4a was the source of the radio signals. Smoke
particles, suspended in the upper atmosphere above the weather, blocked most of
Minor’s heat and light. As a result, the planet was dingy and cold.

Hazy glimpses of ruined structures that
appeared to be manmade could be seen through occasional breaks in the cloud
cover below the murk.

Clouds covered the source of the radar signals,
but
Origin
’s infrared and radar imaging systems revealed structures at
the site. A probe dropped to the surface reported that the planet’s atmosphere
and frozen surface were highly radioactive.

Claire felt the hair on the back of her neck
stand up. “Nuclear winter?”

“Looks like it,” David said.

“Earth could be like this when we get back,
couldn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Claire shivered.

Analysis showed the mixture of gases in the
atmosphere could be breathable. Surface air pressure was calculated to be in
the normal range for Earth, and gravity was 3% less. The cold could have been
tolerated with warm clothing and heated structures, but the radiation was a
killer and would be for thousands of years.

Claire put a survey satellite into polar orbit
and started
Origin
toward Minor-four-b. Then she transferred piloting
duties to David.

Cougar and Buni took advantage of the short
trip to M4b to microwave two servings of meatloaf. They and the other Team
Thunder astronauts liked the recipe Leah Taylor had given to NASA.

David asked, “Could anything be alive on four-a?”

“It’s hard to see how, but organisms could be
buried deep in the soil undergoing who knows what mutations caused by the
radioactivity. I don’t know what’s creepier: that frozen, radioactive horror of
a planet or the mysterious radar signals, reaching out, maybe begging for
rescue.”

“They could be a warning,” David said.

She nodded. “That makes sense, too.”

▼

From space, the blue and white marble of M4b resembled
Earth, and Claire’s pulse quickened.
Origin
’s monitors revealed two
large, irregularly shaped land masses on opposite sides of the planet, and the
center of each was near the equator. Lush green foliage covered much of the
land. Surface temperatures averaged above 90 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator
and well below freezing at the polar ice caps. Gravity and planet density were
a little less than Earth’s. Oceans covered more than two-thirds of the surface.
The atmosphere contained ample oxygen for animals, but plants were the only
evidence of life on the surface.

David dropped a probe into the water near a
reef. When pictures of creatures that resembled fish came back, Claire
exclaimed, “Wow! Look at that! Let’s go to the beach!”

“Fantastic,” he said. “I wish we could.”

▼

David’s mood was light when they left Minor-four-b,
and he resolved to come back. But as he began acceleration for Minor-5, he
noticed that no transmissions had been received from the satellite over M4a for
more than four hours. He started a program to send interrogator signals to the
satellite every five minutes. A half-hour passed with no response, and David
changed course back to four-a.

The satellite’s last transmission had been
received from an orbit that would have taken it over the radar site. David flew
Origin
slowly along the satellite’s last course in the upside-down
pyramid position. He and Claire used the nine sensor arrays from the three down
sides to search for the satellite. Partial thrust from all four engines kept
the starship suspended just above M4a’s dingy atmosphere.

Approaching the site of the radar, monitors
displayed an infrared bloom on the surface, an indication that something had
exploded or a missile had been fired. David assumed the worst and immediately
accelerated straight up at nine
g
s. When the missile broke out above the
cloud deck below, the race was already on, and
Origin
was losing; the
attacker was accelerating at more than ten
g
s. The starship had the
power to easily outrun the missile, but the acceleration would have killed Cougar
Flight.

David ejected the remaining speed-of-light test
missile and fired it almost straight up. Without taking time to rotate the
ship, he then switched engine nozzles and used nine
g
s of thrust to
accelerate sideways.

The gimbals supporting Claire’s and David’s couches
spun them to new positions in response to the abrupt change in direction.

The attacking missile began a turn toward
Origin
,
wobbled toward the test missile, and turned back to follow the starship.

Still going up, the attacker passed the
starship’s altitude, and David switched engine nozzles again, to nine
g
s
straight down. The distance between the hostile missile and the ship widened
rapidly.

David watched the attacking missile make a wide
turn. That gave him hope that the attacker was an anti-satellite missile: fast,
but with limited maneuverability, no more than necessary to hit a satellite in
a predictable orbit.

Then, with
Origin
diving toward the
planet, an infrared bloom of another missile launch appeared directly ahead.
David immediately switched engine nozzles to accelerate the starship away from
both attacking missiles and the radar site. He hoped that if both missiles were
on the same course behind him, he would have a better chance of evading them. They
might even collide with each other.

Planet M4a’s gravity accelerated the dive of
the first attacking missile. Though it tried to turn toward the starship, it
did not pull out of a dive before entering the planet’s atmosphere. Friction
turned the missile into a fireball just before it vanished in an atomic blast.
The force of the explosion was contained by the atmosphere, and
Origin
’s
shields protected it from the radiation.

David zigzagged and yo-yoed to lead the second
missile away from the radar and into a screaming dive. It too blew up in the
atmosphere, leaving
Origin
without a scratch.

David reduced thrust, flew the starship around
to the dark side of M4a, set course to Minor-5, and transferred control to Claire.

“What were those things?” she asked.

“I think they were fission-powered,
anti-satellite missiles. He shook his head. “No wonder that planet is a
radioactive nightmare.

“I’m glad to see the last of M4a.”

“We have to go back to finish the survey at the
end of the mission.”

“Did nine
g
s make you crazy? How are we
going to do that?”

“Fast and sneaky, like a cat in a barn full of
hunting dogs.”

She laughed.