Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (124 page)

They all
laughed, except Abby, who just rolled her eyes.

“Debra
Connelly, MSNBC. Can you give us your itinerary following your return to Earth?
And do you have any press conferences scheduled following your return?”

Jeff
nodded. “Sure. Um, I can give you an overview, but you can get the precise
details from our Mission Control Center in Newport.” He shrugged. “We just work
here. We’ll be splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at around 9:30 am local time
about 500 miles southwest of Hawaii on the 12
^th
. Then we have about
a day and a half transit on the
USS Makin Island
up to Pearl Harbor, and
we’ll be in Honolulu for two days, during which I believe there are several
press conferences scheduled. Following that we’ll be flying back to Newport for
some well-deserved R&R and food that stays on your plate.”

“Mike
Williams, CNN. From everything we’ve heard over the past two and a half years,
it’s been a long, arduous, and even dangerous trip. Are you glad you did this?”

Jeff
nodded. “Hi Mike, good to see you. Uh, yeah, at least so far as I’m concerned
it was very worthwhile. As I said earlier, it’s hard to describe. I remember a
conversation between Spock and McCoy in one of the Star Trek movies that went
something like ‘You mean I have to die in order to discuss death?’ It’s kind of
like that. I’m not sure what to say about it. Am I glad I went? Yes. Would I do
it again? Knowing what I know now, probably not. Living on Mars was okay, but
more than a year in space to get there and back was hard. In other words, Mars
is okay, but space kind of sucks.”

 “I agree
with Jeff,” said Susan. “This much time in space has been really hard on all of
us, but Mars was fine; it’s just very different. Once you get used to it,
suiting up to go outside is not that big of a deal. It’s like dressing warmly
to go outside in any cold weather climate. But the rigors of this much time in
space has been difficult. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I go again? I don’t know.
I’d have to think very long and hard about that.”

Gabe and
Abby nodded.

“Barbara
Edgeworth, Washington Post. How did all your equipment and facilities hold up?
Were there any unanticipated problems?”

Jeff
laughed. “Yeah, plenty. More than we care to remember. Still, I think that all
in all everything held up very well; in most cases better than expected. We
certainly had our share of glitches, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We had
contingencies, backups, spare parts, etcetera, for just about everything except
Abby taking a dive into a crater. We weren’t entirely prepared for that little
evolution, but we got by.”

“David
Stewart, space.com. Can you update us on the status of the sample return
mission and when we might get our first look at Martian rocks?”

“JPL can
probably answer that better than we can, but we can give it a shot.” Jeff
turned to Gabe. “You want to take this one?”

“Sure.
Though the sample return ascent vehicle lifted off the day after we did, it
remained in orbit for more than a week while JPL took their time thoroughly
checking out the return booster before docking it with the vehicle. Then the
booster was fired placing the vehicle in TEI, or Trans-Earth Injection. The
trajectory it’s following is a little longer and slower than ours to better
accommodate placing the vehicle in orbit around Earth for final capture and
transfer of the samples down to JPL. Orbital insertion should take place in
about a month. I’m not certain about that, but as Jeff said, I’m sure JPL can
tell you. Because of their mass – about 1,250 pounds – I believe the sample
cases will be transferred to Earth a few at a time probably over a period of a
year or so in concert with ISS resupply missions. Again, I don’t know when the
first samples will arrive; probably spring or summer of next year. Our part of
the bargain was to simply collect rocks. How and when they get here is a matter
that’s entirely in the hands of JPL and NASA.”

“Ellen
Hamilton, Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Can I ask each of you what the first thing
you want to do is after landing on Earth?”

They all
laughed.

“Well,”
said Jeff, “our options will be a bit limited since we’ll be splashing down in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so I’m going to assume you mean once we get to
Hawaii and real land. I don’t know… maybe take a shower, change my clothes, and
go find a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Or a New York steak. Anything that
hasn’t been freeze-dried.”

Gabe
smiled and shook her head. “Um, let somebody else watch Ghita while I get a
good night’s sleep on a bed that doesn’t need to be bolted to the floor to keep
it and me from floating away.”

Susan
nodded. “That does sound good. However, being a bit more pragmatic than these
two, I think learning to walk again in Earth’s gravity will be near the top of
my priorities.”

Abby
chuckled. “Oh, that’s easy. Find a hot tub, an open bar, and a room with no
alarm clock.”

“Howard
Conners, New York Times. There was a great deal of concern about forward and
backward biologic contamination before you left. Did you find any evidence of
either?”

Jeff
nodded toward Susan. “You want to take that?”

“Okay.
The short answer to that is no. It is possible that there may yet be some
biologics that we brought with us still surviving in the habitat, though I
doubt it. Of the nearly 100 Earth origin growth cultures we prepared then
exposed to Mars atmosphere, none survived much more than 15 seconds. And of the
several hundred cultures we attempted to grow from Martian samples nothing ever
grew. And microscopic inspection never revealed a single biologic or any sign
that one ever existed on Mars. Further, we’re all fine. No signs of anything
unusual or unexpected. And we were first exposed to Mars two years ago.”

Chrissie’s
voice and video cut in from the Newport MCC. “Ladies and gentlemen I’m going to
cut this short as we have some housekeeping items for
Ares
. There is
another brief press conference scheduled on the
USS Makin Island
immediately following recovery and a lengthier one in Honolulu after the
Makin
Island
docks. In the meantime, we’ll leave the voice link up and video from
the MCC if you wish to monitor it. Thank you. This is Mission Control, Newport.

“
Ares
,
Newport.”

“Go ahead
Chrissie. Over,” said Jeff.

“We’re going to have a shift change here in just a
moment. The White Team is coming on. Heidi will be taking over as FLIGHT and
Paul will be CAPCOM.”

“Roger.”

“And
Ares
,
we’re anxious to see your final stowage plan and how much difference there is
from the Flight Plan. We need to work on your center of mass.”

“Rog. We
still have a lot of stuff to stow and we may be strapping some of it to the
kitchen table. Gabe’s working on it.”

Chrissie
laughed. “Understood. Whenever you can get it to us.”

He looked
over his shoulder and gave Gabe a questioning look.

“Nags.
Like you said, I’m working on it.”

“
Ares
,
Newport.”

“Hey,
Paul,” said Jeff, “how’s the White Team today?”

“Not bad,
not bad at all. Heidi hasn’t whipped any of us within an inch of our life in
more than a week, so we’re doing good.”

Jeff
laughed.

“Jeff,
with Gabe’s concurrence we’re going to cancel this post lunar course correction
burn. It doesn’t appear necessary.”

“Rog. She
and I were talking about that earlier today and figured that’s what you’d do.
She’s over there nodding her head right now.”

“Okay.
We’re still planning on a short burn of the SPS after Sundancer and stores
module jettison just to tweak your entry angle.”

“Rog.
Understood.”

“Oh, and
when you have a chance can you switch over to B/D Roll?”

“Yeah,
sure.” Jeff hit the intercom button. “Abby, Newport wants B/D Roll.”

“Okay,
give me a minute or two. I need to get into the CM.”

“Rog. No
hurry.”

“
Ares
,
Newport, can you go to Omni Bravo?”

“Omni
Bravo.”

“And can
you try the High Gain on Pitch 38, Yaw 290, Reacq, and Narrow?”

“Uh,
yeah. Pitch 38, Yaw 290, Reacq, and Narrow.”

“Perfect.
That’s got it.”

Friday, October 12,
2018

1344 UTC (T plus 934
days)

“
Ares
, Newport, good
morning.”

Jeff yawned and reached for his mic
switch. “Yeah, Chrissie. Where the hell is it morning?”

“It’s morning here, and it’s
definitely morning where you are going to splashdown in about six hours.”

“Terrific. What’s up?”

“We’d like you to go to Wide on the
High Gain Antenna.”

“Yeah, okay, give me a minute.
Okay, Wide. Um, Chrissie?”

“Yeah.”

“Apollo 16 was up here for 12 days
and their approach journal was something like 80 pages. We’ve been up here for
two and a half years, can we try not to make this a proportional thing, or
we’ll never get home.”

“Understood. Heidi and I are
working on it.”

“Excellent.” Jeff hit the intercom
key. “Alright everybody, reveille. Get out of bed. Six hours and we’re back on
that bluish-green hunk of dirt beneath us. Abby, man the CM and answer all of
Newport’s fool requests. Gabe, make sure everything is where it’s supposed to
be. Sue, get me a tranquilizer.”

“
Ares
, Newport, 15 seconds
to Sundancer/storage module jett.”

“Rog, Newport,” said Jeff, “we’re
on it.”

“High gain power is off,” said
Abby. “Fuel cells pumps Off. We’ve got some Master Alarms coming up here. CB
ECS Rad Control Heaters Open. CB Rad Heaters Overload, and more Master Alarms.
God, I can’t push this fucking button fast enough. Waste H
₂
O dump
open… blah, blah, blah.”

“Just jettison the damn thing,” said Jeff.

“Alright… Gone!”

“Newport,
Ares
, Sundancer
and storage module are space junk. Spin them up and get them the hell away from
us.”

“Rog. Sundancer RCS firing
retrograde.”

“We see it, she’s moving aft. Okay,
Chrissie, we’re gonna start on the CM/SM separation checklist.”

“Rog.”

“Alright boys and girls, we have
about 22 minutes to CM/SM sep, and 51 minutes to splashdown. Let’s move like we
have a purpose. Gabe, you have the P61?”

“Working on it.”

“Okay, Abby and I will take the
checklist. Sue, twiddle your thumbs. But do it quietly.”

“Rog. Quietly twiddling.”

“
Ares
, Newport, your
altitude is 5,931 nautical miles and your velocity is 21,874 feet per second.
And we’d like to conduct a VHF check at this time.”

“Rog,” said Jeff, “standby. Sue,
job opportunity. VHF transmit and receive ON, S-band OFF.”

“Rog, Newport, this is
Ares
on Simplex A.”

“Roger,
Ares
, read you loud and clear.”

“Rog, read you the same. Morning
Chrissie.”

“Hi Sue. How’s tricks?”

“The usual. All I can see from this
seat is Jeff’s butt.”

“Roger, butt.”

“Abby,” said Gabe, “can you see the horizon?”

Abby glanced out the port
rendezvous window. “Yeah.”

“Where is it?”

“31.6 degrees.”

“Excellent.”

“
Ares
, Newport, we have you
at 3,214 miles, 26,053 feet per second, and CM/SM sep in two and a half
minutes.”

“Copy,” said Gabe.

“Okay, we’re at sep attitude,” said Abby.

“Rog,” said Jeff.

Abby shook her head. “Earth looks
bigger than I remember.”

Jeff glanced out the window and
laughed. “Biggest rock we’ve seen in a while.”

“Sure is.”

“Next time we do this,” said Susan,
“I want a window.”

“Next time we do this,” said Gabe,
“you can have my seat. I’m gonna stay home.”

“
Ares
, Newport.”

“Go ahead, Newport,” said Jeff.

“We just received confirmation from
the
USS Makin Island
that all recovery and support forces are on station and
airborne.”

 “Rog. It’s comforting to know we’re not going to
have to swim home.”

“Well,” said Abby, “shall we get
rid of the Service Module?”

“Looks to be about time.”

“Okay, here goes. I understand
there’s a little bump here.” She raised the safety on the CM/SM SEP switch and
flipped it. There was indeed a bump. In fact, quite a bang. “Ouch.”

“Ugh, that hurt. Are we separated?”

“Yeah. There she goes. See the RCS
jets?”

“Uh huh. Newport,
Ares
, we
have CM/SM sep.”

“
Ares
, Newport. Say again.”

“We have CM/SM sep.”

“Roger, copy separation.”

“Also, we had a good horizon check
and the CMC looks great.”

“Roger,
Ares
, copy. Also…
let’s see, um, your velocity is 30,300 feet per second, you are about 16
minutes from entry interface and just under 29 minutes from splashdown. Oh, and
in eleven and a half minutes we’ll be passing comms over to ARIA.”

“Roger.”

“Look out the window,” said Gabe.

“Huh?” said Jeff. “What?”