Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (122 page)

“So?”

“I just don’t like being reminded
that I’m 24 years older than you.”

Abby pulled through the hatch from
the truss. “Would you two stop it! Jesus, you’re worse than daytime
television.”

Gabe glared at her and said, “Shut
up.” Then she gently tossed Ghita to her. “Here, catch.”

Ghita giggled as she floated across
the commons and into Abby’s waiting arms. “She’s beginning to like this. She
may be rather disappointed when we get to Earth.”

Jeff turned back to Gabe and
chuckled. “I’m gonna have to teach you how to use the laces, and throw a
spiral.”

“I don’t think she’d like that.”

“Probably not.”

Gabe pushed off from the kitchen
counter, snuggled into Jeff’s arms, and whispered. “Jeffrey, I don’t care that
you are 24 years older than me. You are the only man I have ever loved. The
only man I have ever wanted. And the only man I will ever want.”

He bowed his head, then looked into
her eyes. “And for that, I am the luckiest man in the solar system.”

She kissed him. “Yes, you are.”

He laughed and nodded. “Alright, if
you want, we can have a birthday party.”

She grinned. “Great! I’m gonna go
bake a cake.”

“From what?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“It better not be macaroni and
cheese with a match on top.”

Gabe chuckled. “I think I can do
better than that. Go play with Ghita.”

“Roger. Hey, Abby, post pattern.
Throw me the long ball.” He pushed off from the counter and Abby tossed Ghita
to him. He snagged her, turned and crashed into the bulkhead. “A little high
and long, but I’d call that one a decent reception.”

“Not bad. It’s a good thing she
likes this. Parents on Earth would be hysterical. I and don’t mean the funny
kind.”

He held Ghita tightly in his arms.
“You’ve got that right. Let’s try not to film any of this. We’d probably all
get arrested for child abuse.”

“Do they have laws against Martian
abuse on Earth?”

He laughed and cuddled with Ghita.
“I doubt they’ve even thought about it.”

“We really ought to get some video
of this for Ghita,” said Gabe. “No one else on Earth may appreciate it, but
someday she will.”

“Good point. Sue! Get in here, and
bring a camera.”

A minute later Susan appeared in
the truss hatch. “What?”

“You have a camera?”

“Yes, a D4.”

“Alright, set it to auto exposure
and 10 frames per second, and shoot this.” He reared back like a quarterback
and tossed Ghita to Abby.

After catching Abby’s reception,
Susan lowered the camera and glared at Jeff. “Are you crazy? That’s your
daughter you’re tossing around.”

“Yeah, I know. But, do you hear her
giggling. She likes it, which is a good thing. It’s nice to find something she
enjoys up here. I doubt there are many Earth kids that would find a lot to
enjoy here. Hell, they’d probably be barfing their guts out most of the time.
This is not a place that most people want to go, or should go. But we’re
different, and she’s different. Let’s make the most of it. Name me one other
person on Earth who has home movies like this. Okay Abby, slant left, on two.
Susan film it. And one, two.” He pushed off from the dining table toward the
rear starboard corner of the Sundancer. Abby led him and dropped Ghita right
into his arms. ”Great pass. You should have been a quarterback at Navy.”

“Right. And get groped in every
pileup? I don’t think so. I don’t mind getting groped, just not by every
250-pound linebacker in the NCAA.”

Jeff laughed and tumbled into the
bulkhead with Ghita in his arms. “I see your point.”

Susan sternly glared at both of
them. “Alright, that’s enough. Will you children quit playing catch with the
child?”

“Killjoy,” said Jeff. “She likes
it. She’s giggling. And it’s not like we’re playing tennis with her.”

“Some father you are.”

He chuckled. “Now, be nice. As
space fathers go, I think I’m as good as it gets.”

“I believe we need a slightly
larger sample to verify that assertion.”

“Nag. Here, catch.” And he tossed
Ghita to Susan.

“Oh God!” She let go of the camera
and caught Ghita.

“Hey, be careful with that camera.
Those things are expensive.”

“We got them for free.”

He grinned. “Yeah, but still…”

“I’ll be happy to pay for it.”

“Won’t do us much good up here,
will it?”

“Jeff, you’re weird.”

“Has it really taken you six years
to figure that out?” He pushed off from the bulkhead and drifted over to Susan.
“Here, give her to me.”

“Promise me you won’t play football
with her anymore?”

He chuckled. “Okay.” He took Ghita,
and held her close. While she rested her head on his chest he drifted back into
the middle of the commons.

Susan retrieved the camera and took
a couple pictures.

Jeff smiled, then closed his eyes
and cuddled with his daughter, gently stroking the back of her head.

“Maybe you’re a pretty good father
after all,” said Susan. “But someday you’re still going to have a lot of
explaining to do.”

“That’s a fact.”

Sunday, July 1, 2018

1619 UTC (T plus 831
days)

“Gabe,” said Jeff, “I’m sorry to be
such a dunce, but would you explain sphere of influence once more?”

She sighed and shook her head.
“Yeah, okay. You know that gravitational pull is effectively infinite.”

“Right.”

“But the closer you get to a
celestial body, the stronger its gravitational pull. And, conversely, the
farther you get from it, the weaker its pull. How much stronger or weaker the
gravitational pull is for any given spatial body is a function of the inverse
square of the distance from that body in terms of the mean radius of that body.
For example, if you are 100,000 miles from Earth you are about 25 times its
radius in distance. Square and take the inverse, and Earth’s gravitational pull
at that distance is only about one six-hundred and fortieth of gravitational
pull on the surface. You follow me so far?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Mars’ SOI is a little over
358,000 miles. Earth’s is about 575,000 miles. And the moon’s is around 41,000
miles. So any time you are within the SOI of one of those three, it has the
dominate influence on your trajectory. When you are not within those three
SOIs, or those of any other planet or moon in the solar system, you are within
the sun’s SOI.”

“Alright, I get all that. But when
crossing over the SOI boundary between any two bodies, why does our velocity
suddenly change?”

“Because the patched conic
approximations that make up our trajectory (a Kepler orbit) are two-body
problems and require the use of gravity and velocity relative to that SOI that
has the greatest gravitational influence. And velocity is relative. So when we
cross over from one SOI to another, our velocity relative to the body that at
that time has the most influence changes.”

“This is making my head hurt.”

“You asked.”

“Yeah. So that’s why we need course
corrections?”

“In part. The other main reason is
that patched conic approximations are just that – approximations. Sometimes
they need a little tweaking.”

“And that’s the reason for this
course correction?”

“Uh huh.”

“So we’re now within the sun’s
SOI?”

“Yes.”

“And will be until we’re, what was
it? 575,000 miles from Earth, and then we’ll be in Earth’s SOI till we land?”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“Our trajectory will take us fairly
close to the moon. Close enough to be well into its SOI.”

“How close?”

“I don’t know exactly, haven’t got
around to that yet as it’s still quite a way off, but probably around 1,000
miles. Close enough to get a pretty good view.”

“Will that affect our trajectory?”

“Oh yeah, big time. But we’ll plan
ahead for it. We’ll enter the moon’s SOI at a distance of around 250,000 miles
from Earth and be in it for a day or so as we pass it. Then back into Earth’s
SOI. But we’ll plot a trajectory that accounts for all that, and probably make
a couple of small correction burns to get us properly aligned for re-entry.
Abby, how are we doing?”

“Still waiting for this thruster
firing to damp down. Should be just a few more minutes. Pitch is about 0.5
degrees per second. Everything else looks good.”

“Rog.”

“
Ares
, Newport, following
your burn and resumption of PTC your High Gain Antenna should be pitch minus
20, yaw 270, and in Reacq, over.”

Abby keyed her mic. “Understood.
Reacq, pitch minus 20, yaw 270. Thank you. Out.” She released the key. “I’ll
tell you, this seven minute turnaround voice time sure beats forty-five
minutes.”

Jeff chuckled. “Ain’t that the
truth.”

“Okay. Standby for 57-second SPS burn in two
minutes,” said Abby. “Delta-V Thrust B on.”

Jeff nodded. “On.”

“Translation Controller, Armed,” said Gabe.

“Armed,” said Abby.

“Rotation Controller, Armed.”

“Armed.”

Jeff glanced at Gabe who was staring off into space.
“What are you doing?”

“Thinking.”

“About what?”

“Our mass.”

“Not sunny warm beaches and…”

“Shut up.”

“Okay.”

She thought for a moment more. “I’m summing our mass
to make sure Newport remembered to take into account the fuel consumption
during the brief SPS burn at the tail end of our TEI.”

“One minute, 45 seconds,” said Abby. “Gabe, think
faster.”

“Just a minute.”

“We don’t have but a minute. Do we need to abort
this burn?”

“Just a second.” She stared off, nodding her head
and mumbling to herself.

“Jeff?” said Abby, a bit of excitement in her voice.

He shrugged. “Gabe?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s right. They got it.
Proceed.”

Jeff and Abby sighed. “Shouldn’t you have done that
when we received the midcourse correction PAD from Newport?”

“Yes. But it didn’t occur to me then that they may
have overlooked that. It’s a small but significant number and the only place it
shows up is in the post-burn state we sent them three and a half months ago.”

“One minute,” said Abby.

“Gabe,” said Jeff, “when we arrive at Earth would
you please do that kind of stuff on a bit more timely basis?”

She smiled at him. “Sure.”

“Standby for 57-second SPS burn in eight seconds…
Mark,” said Gabe.

“PROCEED,” said Jeff.

“Got B Mode,” said Abby.

“Burning,” said Jeff. “Newport,
Ares
, we’re
burning.”

“Thrust A,” said Gabe. “And… thrust B. Chamber
pressure is good.”

Abby nodded. “Rog.”

“Ten seconds,” said Gabe.

“And in 3, 2, 1…”

“Shutdown. Ball valves closed.”

“Rog,” said Jeff. “Newport,
Ares
, we have
shutdown on the mark.”

Ghita was crying.

“Sue,” said Gabe, “pass her up to me. I’ll nurse her
while we finish up here. Abby, residuals?”

“Minus 0.1, minus 0.3, plus 0.3.”

“Great, that’s close enough. Leave them.”

“Rog.”

Susan unclipped Ghita’s harness from hers and passed
her up between the chairs to Gabe. “Here you go.”

Gabe unzipped her flight suit, worked it off one
shoulder and a breast beneath her shoulder harness and let Ghita latch on.

Jeff smiled and pointed above the flight console.
“You do know that that cockpit camera up there is recording all this? And that
it’ll all appear on some screen at NASA sometime after we get back?”

Gabe waved at the camera. “Just now I couldn’t care
less.”

He laughed. “Okay. I’ve also noticed you haven’t
been wearing a bra for a while.”

“One less thing to have to deal with.”

“Makes sense.”

“Can you put together the post-burn state and mail
it to Newport?”

“Sure.”

“Abby, shall we?”

“Yeah. Pitch one, Off.”

“Off.”

“Yaw one Off.”

“Off.”

Monday, August 6, 2018

1204 UTC (T plus 867
days)

They all sang. “Happy birthday to
you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ghita…”

Gabe tickled Ghita’s belly and she
giggled.

“… happy birthday to you.”

Abby shook her head. “Since she’s a
Martian and has never been to Earth, is this really her birthday?”

Jeff chuckled. “Let’s not
complicate matters any more than necessary. Besides, at this point I doubt she
knows or cares.”

Gabe shook her head. “Even when she
reaches her second birthday on Earth, she still will have not reached her first
birthday on Mars.”

“This poor kid will be screwed up
as Hogan’s goat,” said Abby.

Gabe glared at her. “Shut up.”

Abby held her hands up in resignation.
“Sorry.”

Gabe hugged Ghita and kissed her
cheek. “Sorry sweetie, no chocolate cake until we’re back in gravity. We’re
almost home. Just nine and a half weeks.”

Jeff sighed aloud. “Nine and a half
weeks, after nearly two and a half years.”

“I’ll tell you,” said Abby, “it’s
sure nice to look in the telescope and see that it’s still there. Would’ve been
very annoying if they’d blown themselves up while we were gone.”

Jeff laughed. “That it would. Lost
in space with no one to ever know or care.”

“Just out of idle curiosity,” said
Susan, “if for some reason we couldn’t land on Earth, could we make it back to
Mars?”

Gabe shook her head. “No. We could
slingshot around Earth and head back out, but Mars wouldn’t be there when we
reached its orbit. And we have nowhere near enough fuel remaining in the SPS to
accommodate a major course correction. Besides, we’d have no means of landing.
With the CM we can land on Earth, but not on Mars. Furthermore, we don’t have
enough food.”

“It’s a moot point,” said Jeff. “We
got off Earth, landed on Mars, got off Mars, and we’re gonna land on Earth.
Failure is not an option.” He put an arm around Ghita. “Along with the rest of
us, our little girl is going to live a long and prosperous life on Earth. I
won’t hear of it any other way.”

Susan smiled and nodded. “Of
course, just asking. Gabe, could we get into orbit?”

“No. Not enough fuel for an orbital
insertion burn. As with our Mars landing, we only have one shot at this. We
come in too steep, we burn up in the atmosphere. We come in too shallow, and we
bounce off the atmosphere and are lost in space. What’s the matter? Have you
forgotten everything you leaned in the sim?”

“That was over two and a half years
ago and a lot has happened since then. My mind is just a little boggled.”

“Don’t worry about it. Long before
we get there we’ll go through a couple of full trial runs – from final
trajectory corrections to Sundancer and SPS jettison to interface to splashdown
– just to refresh everyone’s memories.”

Throughout all this, Ghita was
having little success in trying to get a tennis ball to stay put on the table.
She’d try slapping it on the table and it would bounce up and drift off. She’d
point at it and say, “ball.” Jeff would retrieve it and hand it back to her,
and they’d repeat the process. Then she’d try just holding it in front of her
and letting go. And there it would stay. Then she’d hit and it would go
bouncing around the Sundancer until somebody could snag it.

“I think she’s a little confused,”
said Gabe.

Jeff chuckled. “You think she’s
confused now? Wait till we get to Earth.”

Gabe picked her up. “Yeah, poor
baby. This topsy-turvy world doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

Ghita clutched at Gabe’s breast.

“What’s the matter? You want some
lunch?”

“Es.”

“Yes. There’s a ‘y’ in front of
it.”

“Es.”

“Oh, close enough.”

As Jeff watched Ghita nurse he
said, “Lunch is not a bad idea. Anybody know what we’re having?”

“Chili mac with ground beef,” said
Susan. “I’ll get right on it.”

Friday, September 7,
2018

1949 UTC (T plus 899
days)

Gabe poured herself a cup of coffee
and took a seat at the table next to Jeff.

“Finally get her bedded down?”

“Uh huh. I’m getting worried about
her. I think space is wearing on her.”

“It’s wearing on all of us.”

“Yeah, but she’s only a year old.”

“What’s Sue say?”

“She thinks she’s doing fine, all
things considered. But it’s that ‘all things considered’ that worries me.”

He clasped her hands. “I know. It
worries all of us. Just five more weeks.”

“It seems like an eternity. Jeff,
please tell me we haven’t done something terribly wrong.”

He shook his head. “We haven’t.
We’ll all be fine, including Ghita. It’ll take a little longer, but she’ll get
used to Earth.”

“Assuming…” she sniffed. “Assuming
some tragedy hasn’t already befallen her that we don’t know about yet.”

“Come on, Gabe, don’t go there. We
can only deal with what we know, not what we don’t know.”

“I know.”

“Oh, cheer up. How was your
birthday?”

She gave him a tiny smile. “It was
fine. Much like every other birthday in space, which is pretty much like every
other day in space.”

He smiled and nodded. “It does get
a little old after a while, doesn’t it.”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, let’s try and stay on Earth
from now on. Let somebody else do all the flying around the cosmos.”

“Sounds good to me.”

An alarm rang on the comm console.
Both their heads snapped in that direction.

“Jeez,” said Jeff, “emergency
voice. What now?”

Heidi’s voice came over the radio
throughout the ship. “
Ares
, this is Newport transmitting in the blind. A
solar flare of moderate proportion has been detected and is bearing down on
you. We don’t have specifics, but best guess is that it will bring
approximately 60 millirads per hour for a two-hour period, and arrive at your
position in about 15 minutes. That’s six times your normal 24-hour dose. We
recommend that you immediately turn stern – SPS – to the sun and take shelter
in the airlocks.

“I say again,
Ares
, this is
Newport transmitting in the blind…”

“Oh shit,” said Jeff. “Gabe, go
grab Ghita and get in the forward airlock, right now!”

“On my way.”

He flew, literally, to the comm
console and hit the PA button. “Sue! Abby! Get in here now!” Then he hit the
comm button. “Newport,
Ares
, message received and understood, out.”

Abby came flying into the commons.
“We heard. Sue’s helping Gabe with Ghita.”

“Alright, get us turned stern to
that big ball of radiation out there, and don’t dilly dally.”

“Rog. Bus Ties, Batt B. TVC Servo
Power AC 1/Main A and Power 2 AC2/Main B. BMAG Mode, three, Att1/Rate2.
Translation Controller, Armed. Rotation Controller, Armed. Jeff, I need a
camera dead aft to see where to stop. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here.”