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AMERICA ONE

“A.S.S.”

(Astermine’s Secret Society)

Book VIII

T. I. WADE

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The AMERICA ONE Series

Copyright © 2013-1015 by T I Wade.

All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States of America.

No part of this book or eight-novel series may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address T I WADE., 200 Grayson Senters Way, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526.

T I WADE’s books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: T I WADE, 200 Grayson Senters Way, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526.

Library of Congress Catalogue-in-Publication Data

Wade, AMERICA ONE/ T I Wade.

Library of Congress Data.

Editor— James A. Doak, Hayden, Alabama, USA

Proofreader— Pauline Nolet, Ontario, CAN

Cover design— Elizabeth Mackay, California, USA

Formatted by

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Contents

Note from the Author

Dedication

Chapter 1  Where It All Started—A.D. 2030

Chapter 2  Two Dollars

Chapter 3  A New Spaceship

Chapter 4  Jonesy and Ryan

Chapter 5  Launch of ASS-One

Chapter 6  Okay, We Have a Spaceship—Now What Do We Do?

Chapter 7  Space—Here We Come

Chapter 8  Mars Looks Nice at This Time of Year

Chapter 9  Mars Is Really Orange, Or Is It Still Red, Or Is It Burgundy?

Chapter 10  The Martian Club Retreat and Visit to Mattville

Chapter 11  Dr. Paul Jones

Chapter 12  Human Waste, Sludge and Topsoil

Chapter 13  Mattville

Chapter 14  Ceres—Wow!

Chapter 15  Captain Mikey Noble—2040

Chapter 16  Ryan, Jonesy and One Other—2043

Chapter 17  Bella Noble, the Retreat and Wow!

Chapter 18  Saturn

Chapter 19  Enceladus

Chapter 20  And Now For The Rest of The Story

Books by the Author

About the Author

“A.S.S.”

It all started when several, mostly male, human space voyagers travelled through the vast distances of our solar system and had far more time on their hands than was fruitful.

This is their story, and why life sometimes gives us a perfect pitch at the perfect time.

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Note from the Author

I believe that this is not a standalone novel. Since I created the series, I have all the storyline in memory, so cannot see from the reader’s point of view.

I would recommend readers start at the beginning. AMERICA ONE Book I “One Man’s Dream” is a good start for the fictional human exploration of our Solar System. Starting at the end of the story isn’t logical, unless you are the type that sneaks to the back page to see the end before you start?

All I can say is that reading the seven novels that got “A.S.S.” here would be more fun and will fill you in on the characters, their backgrounds and why “A.S.S.” happened in the first place.

It is not possible for me to describe all that happened previously during the writing of the seven-novel series of AMERICA ONE.

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Dedication

I dedicate this whole story to my son, Alexander, and all the Millennials like him who dream of traveling through space one day.

It was Alexander who led me into sci-fi writing, and I believe this story, although weak in astrophysics, could be pictured well in the reader’s mind.

I believe I can write a more creative story than an astrophysicist, but unfortunately know very little about the workings of astrophysics. For that I apologize to you who know more than me.

I didn’t offer ship drawings in the series at all. Alexander wanted detailed and graphic designs like a Millennial would, but I feel—let the reader imagine his or her own ship. Let the reader build their own ship in their minds, and one day their ship may go to space, not mine.

Thank you, Alexander, and all you Millennials out there. It is you and your children who will take us humans out to the planets, moons and stars, and boy, I wish I could be there.

T.I. WADE

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Chapter 1

Where It All Started—A.D. 2030

General John Jones’s mind did not work like many human minds. Nor did he forget anybody or anything that went against his way of thinking. This was especially prominent during his first few days at Astermine when he had innocently asked Mr. Rose in the bar for a beer on a quiet Tuesday night.

He and VIN had just been hired. They were getting accustomed to their new life at Nevada Base, and about to learn the laws instigated by Ryan Richmond, their new boss about drinking. Jonesy remembered that night perfectly, even three decades later when he chatted to Ryan and VIN on the island in Australia. At this time he had several demands and ideas for later life.

“You made a promise to yourself not to get stuck without a bottle of beer ever again?” Ryan asked him, a smile from cheek to cheek. “Just because I banned drinking during the week?”

“Do you want to know how many times I had to hear the bleeding story, and the promises through the decades of my partner’s mumbles,” added VIN, smiling as much as Ryan was.

Kathy, Ryan’s wife, brought out three ice-cold Aussie bottled beers for the men on the hot afternoon porch at the right moment. There was a big smile on her husband’s face and she headed back in, got a beer for herself, and headed out to join the men outside. As far as Kathy was concerned, if it was that funny, she had better hear it as well.

The foursome were getting on in years, all four had recently retired from Astermine in Nevada and would live out their lives on Astermine’s private and beautiful Island just off the eastern coast of Northern Australia. They were fit, healthy and tanned, apart from VIN’s and Jonesy’s modern prosthetic legs, which didn’t change color like the rest of their bodies.

The two men and their wives had just returned from a fishing trip and were as dark as sailors could be.

“You men may continue. Remember, I was part of your world, and if it is so amusing, I want to hear,” Kathy stated, taking the chair next to her husband as the men had gone quiet when she had reentered.

“Actually, I think Mr. Rose was the real instigator of A.S.S.,” stated VIN, smiling at Kathy, “the day Mr. Rose refused Jonesy a beer at the bar. Remember, Ryan, the half dozen or so beers that had been quarantined in the bar fridge from my silver Audi, and Jonesy and I were refused our own beer?”

“I remember.” Ryan smiled, remembering when security had come to him with the bottles of beer. He had ordered them placed in the refrigerator and that the two men could drink them during the allotted weekend drinking hours.

“I had a real problem at that time,” continued Ryan. “A few of the Russian and German scientists were coming to work drunk in the mornings and I had to put a stop to it.”

“VIN and I weren’t Russian nor German,” added Jonesy in his usual dry way. “Just two guys wanting a beer, and boy, I made sure that it didn’t happen again.”

“I think we lost count of your illegal drinking escapades throughout the solar system, Mr. Jones,” stated Kathy dryly. Jonesy smiled sweetly at one of his best friends. Kathy and Maggie, his wife, were much alike, ex-USAF transport pilots, and had worked together before both had been persuaded to join Astermine.

“And you still don’t know half of them, young Kathy.” Jonesy smiled back.

“I think being caught in ‘The Office’ was the most fun I had the entire trip to Saturn and back,” added VIN, enjoying his cold beer. The others smiled as they remembered the party in “The Office”, a small part of the ship that had actually been Ryan’s office, and directly off from his apartment, and which had been turned into one of the ship’s four new escape pods.

The bored crew of America One, the mother ship, had had four escape pods designed during the journey to Saturn, with enough rocket power, fuel, oxygen, food, water, and survival equipment to each get a section of the crew back to Earth from as far as Saturn if necessary. They had been modified throughout the decade-long journey around the solar system, and “The Office” had been the only one used and had actually saved two crewmembers, getting them back close to Earth.

Suzi, VIN’s wife, arrived with Maggie, Jonesy’s wife, as the foursome’s raucous laughter could be heard over at the neighboring houses.

“My husband making an ass of himself, Kath?” asked Maggie as both ladies entered the coolness of the shadow of the porch. Maggie walked, her legs still strong, and her own. Suzi, who had lost her legs in a motor vehicle accident many years earlier, rode in a hoverchair, the latest wheelchair for her that had been designed by Dr. Smidt and his team at Astermine in Nevada.

“Just being his cocky usual self,” replied Kathy as she got up to get another round of beers and snacks from the kitchen. Ryan pulled up a chair for Maggie. Suzi was already happy and seated in hers, which was silent, moved no air, and used some sort of electrical antigravity system to hover quietly.

The aging group still had an interest in what Dr. Smidt and his team invented and gave them. If it worked, whatever it was, it was good.

Ex-Captain Pete, the ex-captain of America One, and his wife, Dr. Nancy, part of Astermine’s medical crew, could be seen walking across the grass towards the house, and Ryan headed in to help Kathy bring out more refreshments.

“Like ‘Dead Chicken Freight’, Mr. Jones? The name you had painted on the sides of our old C5 Galaxy,” joked Ryan, returning, placing cold bottles on the table and bringing up more chairs for Pete and Nancy.

“Oh, not A.S.S. again?” Pete smiled as he thanked Ryan and Kathy, and helped himself and Nancy to a cold beer.

With the entire retired group only being together when Jonesy and VIN returned in their luxurious fishing cruisers back to the island a couple times a year, the topic of conversation was always happy and joyous, and it was a very friendly and noisy gathering.

“Heard from Saturn or Mars?” Nancy asked Maggie, asking about their next generation (VIN and Suzi’s son, Mars, married to the Joneses’ daughter).

Dr. Nancy had despised the secret drinking going on during the voyage, the acting of adults like mischievous children, and always did her best to change the subject.

“Currently with Roo at Mattville,” replied Maggie. “They’re working with the crew on what to add to the town to increase its size. Their return window opens next week, so I assume they’ll be on their way back to Earth in a few days. Also, they’ve taken the coffins from Mattville to the Retreat, where Jonesy’s parents are. It was a suggestion from Jonesy, as he wants to make it into a communal cemetery. Speak to him if you want to know more. A pretty sad task, I was told by Saturn.”

“For once from your husband, my dear, a pretty good idea,” replied the doctor.

“Did they travel in America Three?” asked Pete.

Many of the retired space personnel on Astermine Island, just off the Queensland coast, had little interest in going back to space or what was going on out of sight of the blue atmosphere of Earth. The War of The Worlds, the final era of their space travel, and then the famous visit to the White House to receive medals had happened two years earlier.

“Yes, and will return with Lunar and Mark aboard America Two,” was Maggie’s answer. Lunar was Ryan and Kathy’s eldest daughter, and Mark Price, an ex-Australian Royal Air Force pilot, her husband.

“I hear James (Lunar and Mark’s elder son) has his eye on America Two,” stated Captain Pete, who had been America One’s captain.

“Yes, he’s doing well at flight school and expects to travel back to Mars in America Two on her next voyage in 2032,” stated Ryan.

“Mark Allen (their second son) has his eye on America Three,” added Kathy. “I don’t think Lunar wants both her sons to be away for such long flights, but you know with boys, you can’t stop them, can you, General Jones?”

Jonesy smiled dryly back.

“It seemed you guys were away a long time this fishing trip?” Dr. Nancy asked VIN.

“Seven months,” replied VIN.

“Seven fantastic months with only good weather wherever we went, Nancy,” added Suzi. “We saw so much. After heading through Port Moresby, we headed over to Dili in East Timor, then up to Singapore.”

“It was just too hot once we got close to the equator,” added VIN.

“Bob Mathews and the girls caught up and joined us, and our three ships headed back down towards Jakarta, fishing around all the islands south of Singapore for a month,” continued Suzi. “We took on fuel in Bandar Lampung, then headed west straight across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius.”

“A very pretty island,” added Maggie, enjoying her cold beer.

“Ten days of peace and quiet, and no wind for most of the journey,” stated Jonesy.

“We fished from Mauritius, up the east coast of Madagascar, and reached our favorite spot in the Seychelles a month later,” continued Suzi.

“It had changed for the worse,” stated VIN. “Dirt and unhappy people everywhere, so we headed back down south, fished through the Mozambique Channel, stayed in the cities of Beira and Maputo for a week each, then headed back to Mauritius because Maggie enjoyed the island so much.”

“I really enjoy a complete sea horizon, so we headed really slowly back to Perth,” stated Jonesy, looking at his empty beer bottle with distaste. He was handed another. “Bob Mathews wanted to fish Mauritius for another month, so VIN and I headed back. Too many flies in Perth, so we refueled and then headed across the Bight to Melbourne, Sydney, then back home.”

“The rolling seas really worked our two ships hard between Perth and Melbourne,” stated VIN. “The only part of lousy weather the entire trip.”

“Thanks for the beer,” stated Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy as they got up to leave. “See you guys in a couple of hours. Remember, the barbie is at our house tonight.”

“When is Bob expected back?” asked Dr. Nancy. “I need to give him his annual checkup.”

“About a month, Nancy,” replied Maggie.

VIN and Suzi also got up to leave, and Jonesy suggested to Maggie that she and Kathy join the Nobles. He wanted an hour alone with Ryan.

Ryan smiled. He sort of knew what was coming, as Jonesy was never boring.

“Astermine is still wholly owned by you, right?” was Jonesy’s first question.

Ryan nodded that it was.

“Astermine still owns all the bases outside Earth’s atmosphere, right?” was his second question.

Ryan again nodded that Jonesy was correct.

“What are you going to do with the property rights?”

Ryan again smiled. Jonesy had never talked property before. This could be interesting.

“You wanting to go back to space, John? I don’t know if there are actual property rights up there, like here on Earth,” replied Ryan. “Want another beer? I think I might need one.”

Jonesy nodded that it was a good idea.

General John Jones had thought long and hard about what he was going to say and had kept his ideas to himself, his wife not knowing what his devious mind was working on, and finally how to present it to Ryan. His ex-boss returned with two more beers and fresh snacks.

“Well, you, or Astermine, has the rights to every base we ever built or defended?” Jonesy asked.

“You’re too old to go and fight, and there are no more enemies, John. You got them all. I believe we have the rights to our bases. Up to our last America Two and America Three flights to Mars and Ceres respectively, we have been the only humans ever to reach our properties or planets.”

“There are others up there? Other humans than just our own Astermine employees?” Jonesy asked, rather shocked.

“Yes, Max Von Braun has become the first mayor of Mattville. I and the residents approved Max. Your old buddy in crime Dave Black returned with America Two and will head security until further notice. To answer your questions, yes, fifty new residents, all scientists and builders, headed across with Dave. I believe that hundreds more residents will follow in the next decade. America Two will return with more gold to keep Nevada Base liquid in cash flow, and so will America Three two weeks after her.”

“So do you or Max or Roo own Mattville?” Jonesy asked.

“The residents own Mattville, and it is not for sale, John.”

“Good, I didn’t want Mattville. I want the Martian Club Retreat,” replied Jonesy straight out.

Ryan smiled at his friend. “Unfortunately I have just leased out the Retreat to a new company that has ties in both the States and China. A sort of friendly gesture to the Chinese Premier, you might say.”

“So you do own the properties, or at least Astermine owns them?” Jonesy replied, getting his answer indirectly.

Ryan thought about it and seemed to nod his agreement after several seconds. “The Retreat was closed, as you know, and I didn’t expect it to ever reopen again. It’s just a bad memory, an old base, and nothing compared to Mattville and what it is about to become. What do you want to do with the Retreat?”

“I have fond memories of the place. Remember, my parents are buried there. I have asked Saturn and Mars to organize the burial of all our friends in the same place, around my parents. So does my partner have fond memories, and we would like to keep it open,” Jonesy replied.

“I thought you are done with space travel?” asked Ryan.

“Maggie, VIN, Suzi and I are. Maybe one last trip, but our kids and future grandchildren aren’t, and I think the first real piece of real estate owned outside Earth by humans will one day become valuable.”

Ryan agreed with that train of thought. “So you want to purchase the Martian Club Retreat from Astermine as an Astermine-crew cemetery?” Ryan suggested.

“You got it.” Jonesy smiled dryly.

Ryan thought for a few minutes. He didn’t actually have plans for their first base on Mars. There were too many horrible memories of his crew dying from the attacks.

“And Ceres Base.” Jonesy interrupted his train of thought.

“What!” replied Ryan, looking at his friend seriously. “I suppose you want Nevada Base, the Dead Chicken and everything else I spent a lifetime building?”

“No,” replied Jonesy. “Just the Retreat and Ceres Base. A cemetery and Ceres Base for Saturn and young Mars Noble.”

“What do they want to do with Ceres Base?” Ryan asked, totally not getting Jonesy’s direction.

“Well, it doesn’t really belong to Astermine. VIN and Mars captured the base. It was built by the Matts, so I assume VIN and Mars have more rights on the base than Astermine. If that is so, then the Matts have rights on the base too…”

“Just give me the reason,” replied Ryan.

“Ceres could become an asteroid-mining mecca under the right leadership, a resupply station and central point for anybody wishing to mine the asteroid belt. Mars and Saturn want to turn it into a business.”

Ryan smiled. It was a direction he hadn’t thought of yet, and yes, Jonesy was right. The NextGens were already visualizing what he hadn’t yet. This idea certainly hadn’t been without their help. He smiled. Ryan Richmond liked the Ceres idea.

Jonesy felt for his wallet, pulled it out and drew out two U.S. dollar bills. He placed them on the table and put away his wallet.

“My partners and I have saved long and hard for these two payments,” he stated with a straight face.

“Your partners!” Ryan smiled.

“Yes, Roo, VIN, Mars, Saturn, Martin Brusk, Dave Black, Vitalily and a few others who don’t want mention,” replied Jonesy with a straight face.

“Oh yes, A.S.S., Astermine’s Secret Society, or many of its members. Roo and Martin are members too, huh!” Ryan smiled broadly. “Never knew that. I suppose your grandchildren are also part of these illegal dealings. What, may I ask, is the two dollars for?”

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Chapter 2

Two Dollars

“Ryan agreed to sign any papers. I wanted both deals for a dollar each. He thought, agreed and nodded his head.” Jonesy smiled, sitting on his boat with his old friend Martin Brusk a few weeks later.

He pulled out a file of official-looking papers and handed them to Martin.

“Ryan now knows I am part of A.S.S.?” Martin asked.

“He thought it really funny. A guy who never travelled through space with us, you and Roo, who is a Matt and never partook in alcohol,” replied Jonesy.

“You purchased two pieces of alien real estate from Astermine for two dollars? Unbelievable. What do you want from me?” Martin asked.

“Simple, build A.S.S. a ship with Franklin’s new more powerful engines to get us around the solar system faster than any other ship.”

Martin looked at Jonesy in shock. “Do you know how much a spaceship costs?”

“More than two dollars.” Jonesy smiled. “I will take over ownership of the Martian Club Retreat after the current occupant’s four-year lease runs out, but as far as these papers show, I am the actual owner of Astermine’s Ceres Base, as of a week ago.”

“So?” returned Martin. Jonesy thought, and Martin looked around while Jonesy worked out a reasonable answer.

Martin looked across the garden to the marina, and at the boats. Jonesy’s fishing boat was certainly a luxurious-looking vessel at over eighty-five feet. Martin had been shown that the ship had enough cold storage for an army, four large cabins and two massive entertainment areas inside and outside. Maggie and Kathy were sitting and sunning themselves on the outside bridge, the ship’s upper control deck in the small, three-berth island marina.

Bob Mathews hadn’t returned, and VIN had gone out with Suzi and Captain Pete as crew for a day’s fishing. Jonesy was alone with Martin, who had arrived in his robotic flown aircraft, or RFA, a few hours earlier from Tel Aviv. Jonesy reached his answer.

“Only VIN, Saturn and Mars ever checked every inch of the inside of Ceres Base,” Jonesy began after several seconds of paging through one document. “The loss of my legs stopped me from going down, and once the fight was over, Ryan had little interest in checking out the base. He did once for a few hours, with Kathy and Maggie, once the Matt bodies had been buried. Martin, that first attack on the Martian Club Retreat changed the boss. Don’t get me wrong, Ryan is as brave as they come, but he is not a warrior, especially when his crew are lying dead or dying around him. Something changed in him that day the Matts attacked. Anyway, we A.S.S.’s in attendance had a meeting aboard ship about Ceres being in the best position for an asteroid-mining base. Everybody agreed without actually inspecting the base itself. I think that Ryan, about to return to the blue atmosphere of Earth and retire, forgot Ceres Base actually existed on the way home.”

“You found more gold on Ceres?” Martin asked.

“No, not really.” Jonesy smiled back. “We counted about a hundred bars of pure gold on Ceres in total, but what we found—and of interest to you—is many times that in rare earth metals.”

“You mean supplies of iridium, osmium, palladium and lithium? All of the same metals on Mars,” replied Martin excitedly.

Jonesy nodded.

They both knew that Astermine’s America Two was only returning with gold from Mars for the next two flights to help the U.S. economy.

Nobody, including Martin, had expected America Three to return with anything of value from Ceres for Nevada Base and Martin’s ongoing spaceship building. Especially now he had just been told the base belonged to Jonesy. He knew America Three had already left the dwarf planet and completed part of its return journey via Mars.

America Three had left Earth for Ceres a year earlier with four hundred tons of building supplies and fifty builders to repair the damage from the war.

Jonesy also knew that after the second promised transportation of building equipment due the following year, any future supply flights to Ceres would be cancelled by Dr. Smidt in Nevada.

“How much is the value of a hundred bars of every rare earth metal you need?” Jonesy asked.

“A spaceship,” replied Martin eagerly.

“Well, in that case—”Jonesy smiled “—I will have to order half a ship from you, or maybe a smaller ship, as I promised Franklin half of the metal for the first three production orders of his latest plasma thrusters.” Jonesy smiled like a spider to a fly and his eyes rolled upwards. “Maybe half a ship…or wait…a smaller ship with the big new engines could work?” Jonesy added, playing Martin along. “Yes, a small cargo freighter/fighter with four massive new plasma engines. That will give me the fastest drag ship in the solar system!”

“Do you know what those new engines with larger fusion reactors will produce in power?” Martin asked Jonesy. “Four of those plasma engines, each using its own fusion reactor system, could double the cruising speed of America Two, getting her there faster than any ship before her, in half the time. They could turn a smaller ship into something very deadly.”

“Perfect! Then when can we do business?” Jonesy smiled, feeling like he had just won the chess game. “The faster the acceleration power, the more powerful the stopping power. All our NextGens are able to fly such a ship, and Mars and Saturn can fly anything.”

It so happened that Martin had been working on the design of a ship for himself, but had halted due to lack of future rare earth resources, as Ryan had told him they would only be arriving in six years’ time. He decided to allow Jonesy into this secret.

“I can produce a small thirty-five-ton freighter with what designs I have. The hold will be no bigger than six to eight thousand cubic feet, less than a quarter of Ryan’s mother-ships’ holds.”

“Better than nothing, and VIN and I have a blue shield box stashed away, the one that was collapsed during the attack on Ceres,” added Jonesy. “Martin, just keep it between us. Even Mags doesn’t know, nor Suzi.”

“Wow! That gives you heavy-load capabilities in atmospheric conditions here on Earth. With my new designs, I’d say you could haul as much as fifty tons of cargo and have stealth-flight capabilities from the blue shield, all at the same time. Jonesy, I need something stronger than beer. You got any Scotch?”

For the rest of the afternoon, the two men redesigned Martin’s next spaceship. Holographic drawings of Franklin’s new plasma thruster drawings showed big and powerful engines weighing in at five tons apiece. After a few hours of work, the smaller ship was redesigned to suit Jonesy’s needs and ended up looking like the bigger sister to an ancient British Airways Concorde.

Franklin’s four rectangular engines would be fitted below the two stubby wings in pairs on each side and could be rotated 180 degrees for braking in space without the actual ship turning around. Ten small vertical takeoff engines, smaller at five hundred pounds apiece and with the help of the blue shield, would be enough to get the fully loaded ship up horizontally to fifty thousand or even one hundred thousand feet. At this altitude, the ship could rotate into a more vertical direction and the plasma engines, although not powerful in atmospheric conditions, could assist in taking her up and into orbit.

The smaller Astermine shuttles had looked much the same, and over the previous decades, Jonesy had flown each one of them. He had mentally recorded all changes he would have added to better their flying capabilities. There was nobody on Earth who knew how to fly a spaceship better than ex-USAF General John Jones.

Jonesy had already figured out that Martin would need the metals, and how to get enough of the metals on the next arrival. He then explained to Martin what metals he could expect to finish Jonesy’s ship.

An hour before dusk, VIN’s ship could be seen entering the marina entrance through the sea walls, and they put away their designs and shook hands at their new agreement. The girls couldn’t be told about the latest A.S.S. developments. It was a guy thing!

VIN was told and shown the designs once the men got together later the next day. They had first had to clean and freeze a few hundred pounds of fish VIN had returned with.

Martin, excited to get started on redesigning and production, reckoned that he would need Franklin’s engines in about six months, and the ship would be ready to be tested three months after that.

VIN had smiled looking over the sketches. He noticed and stated to the other two that their new ship would be at least one and a half times larger than SB-IV and V, the largest shuttles Astermine had ever made.

Word came through from Franklin about Dr. Smidt enquiring about newer plasma engines a month later, and due to their agreement and the vast amounts of metal he was going to receive as payment, Franklin apologized to Dr. Smidt and told him about the lengthy delay in production. Dr. Smidt would only receive similar engines five years after Jonesy’s new spaceship’s maiden flight.

Jonesy and VIN spent the time they had doing what they loved. Fishing in their boats took them to many corners of the southern hemisphere, and often the island had only a few retirees on it. Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy spent time in the U.S., with Nancy lecturing at John Hopkins and several universities up and down the East Coast.

Often Ryan and Kathy had the island to themselves, loving every minute of the peace and quiet, and once or twice a year headed over to visit Dr. Smidt at Nevada Base.

The Richmonds always coincided their visits in their personal RFA, as they were now called, with the spaceships returning to Earth. Very few people actually flew aircraft anymore. The only flight school for humans was at Nevada Base, and most of that training was for spaceflight not atmospheric flight.

Several months later, America Two returned from her journey to the red planet. America Three had caught up to her sister ship en route and was only a day behind her.

With Ryan and Kathy, Jonesy, Maggie, VIN and Suzi flew with them, as Mars and Saturn were returning with Lunar Richmond aboard America Two.

The island group flew via Tel Aviv to pick up Martin Brusk, who now also had an interest in watching the shuttles arrive with the cargo.

Jonesy hadn’t told Ryan, Dr. Smidt, Igor and Boris that he had had the cargo inside America Three on Ceres changed. As usual, Jonesy had insiders inside his new base that had been deaf to what Dr. Smidt and Ryan had wanted loaded aboard for America Three’s return flight to Earth, via Mars. Twenty tons, or 10 percent, of the ship’s entire cargo was now Ceres rare earth metals instead of the expected Mar’s Base gold aboard America Three. Five tons aboard this flight was a deposit for Franklin, who also needed supplies, and the other fifteen tons was for Martin.

Ryan certainly wasn’t happy on the flight across when he was quietly told of this change of plan put into action by Jonesy and his secret society members. Ryan had promised the U.S. government in Washington three hundred tons of gold, and the Chinese Premier, now a close ally of the U.S., the balance of one hundred tons.

“Each country will have to accept the missing ten tons; beggars can’t be choosers,” Jonesy told an angry Ryan. The bosses at Nevada Base hadn’t been told either why Jonesy needed the metals ASAP. Dr. Smidt certainly wouldn’t have been happy if he had known that it was for a secret spaceship and thrusters he wanted, ordered by General John Jones himself.

For the entire six-hour flight over to Nevada from Tel Aviv, an angry Ryan badgered his old buddy why he had needed this change so badly. One thing Ryan was, was inquisitive, and he never found out until years later.

As the RFA vertically landed silently outside the flight school, Little Mikey Noble, now a young man, ran out of the school to hug his four grandparents. At nineteen he was nearly a space pilot first class and would be crewing with America Two as assistant pilot and security officer on her next flight.

His buddy James Richmond Price, Mark and Lunar’s elder son, was several minutes behind Little Mikey to hug his grandparents. He had been in the flight simulator and had to “land” on Ceres first before he was allowed out of the school by the school’s chief commander, Shelly Saunders, who allowed the other half dozen pilots the rest of the day off. James was also bound for Mars on the next flight and would be assistant head of the flight bridge, under his mother.

Excitement abounded as several other older Astermine FirstGens walked or hovered out to meet the aircraft.

Dr. Smidt looked older to Jonesy, but Igor and Boris looked like they hadn’t aged.

“You guys still running the universe?” asked Jonesy, happy to see all his old buddies, especially his grandson. Most of the people who had started with Astermine were in their late sixties like VIN and Suzi; seventies like Jonesy, Ryan, Martin, Kathy and Maggie; and early eighties like Igor and Boris. Many of the men couldn’t leave their work and didn’t want to.

Dr. Smidt, also now in a hoverchair, was in his mid-eighties and the oldest on the base, and was guided out by a student pilot Little Mikey’s age. The student was Chinese, one of the best new pilots in Astermine and son of the Chinese Premier.

It was certainly going to be a party later, but first they stood away from the arriving shuttle, SB-IV, and welcomed the first spacecraft back. It had Lunar, Mark, Saturn and Mars in it, with Martin’s valuable load. Not only could Jonesy change the cargo manifest, he had the power to make sure his cargo came down first.

As usual the four astronauts were weak from their two years of space travel, and hover beds were ready to take them into the medical unit before they were allowed to meet their families.

After an hour-long medical, the norm for all arriving astronauts, the hoverbeds were guided out to meet the waiting crowd.

It was certainly noisy, and screams of excitement and laughter abounded as everybody at the base wanted to welcome their astronauts home.

A couple of hours later, by the same pool the astronauts had always frequented after space travel, drinks and barbeque were ready as the flyers relaxed their gravity-tired and weak bodies in the warm pool water.

As usual, the several A.S.S. members got together at one end of the pool, much to the smiles and nods of Suzi, Maggie and Kathy. The members of A.S.S. needed a meeting and they were left alone as the others partied. Most of the rest of the staff didn’t realize that a secret meeting was going on.

“You want to go over and join them, love?” Kathy asked her husband.

“No, let the kids have their secret society. What problems can they make up now?” Ryan smiled at the girls around him. “I think the solar system is safe enough, and they can’t do much to change its status quo.”

Unbeknown to Ryan, the meeting would change the status quo of the entire solar system, as Jonesy, VIN, Martin Brusk, Little Mikey Noble, and Saturn and Mars in the pool had a real poolside meeting.

“It took me twenty calls to Vitalily in Ceres and the same to Dave Black in Mattville so you guys could get the twenty tons of rare earth metals on the flight,” stated Jonesy, looking up every few seconds to see if they would be interrupted.

“Martin, I got that extra pallet load of the osmium you wanted so badly aboard without anybody’s knowledge,” stated Mars Noble.

“That was a complete extra ton,” added Saturn “and we really came in heavy this afternoon. Mars and I flew the shuttle down so Luna or Mark wouldn’t notice her heavier-than-normal flight characteristics.”

“That’s my girl.” Jonesy smiled.

“I’ve never felt the controls so heavy,” added Mars, smiling at Jonesy. “I reckon one more ton and we would have made a fifty-foot hole in the Nevada desert once we had tried to level out at fifty thousand feet.”

“Why are you so desperate to get this extra metal, Dad?” asked Saturn. “We could have brought in more on our next return in four years’ time.”

“Martin?” asked Jonesy, to give them the answer.

“Top secret, guys. This is not going past us here, at least for a decade or so.” Martin Brusk looked at each person and got a nod in return. “Your father and I have designed and nearly completed a spaceship that will run rings around all Astermine’s ships.”

The youngsters looked at Martin as if he had totally lost it.

“A spaceship, a whole spaceship just for us at A.S.S.?” Mars asked. Even his son, Little Mikey, was stunned at the news, but Jonesy wasn’t going to allow Martin the whole limelight.

“Yes, a really fast ship to supply our new space bases,” added Jonesy. Now the rest looked at Jonesy in shock.

“We have more bases in space, other than Ceres?” Saturn asked her father excitedly.

“Yes, Ryan signed over the Retreat to me in four years’ time, and a restaurant and bar in every establishment Astermine owns or will own, even down here on Nevada Base, starting next year.”

“What do we want with restaurants?” asked Little Mikey.

“A.S.S.’s continuing business of supplying liquid, fine foods and entertainment to travelers in need across the entire solar system.” Jonesy smiled. “Just a little plan I have spent a few decades on.” This time even Martin Brusk looked at Jonesy strangely. VIN nodded and smiled at the others to back up Jonesy’s plan.

Only VIN, Jonesy’s partner, knew of such a plan. VIN had worked on the plan often with his partner while back in space, outside their mining vessel and corded to their “on autopilot” space shuttle while asteroid mining years earlier.

“Six months, guys,” continued Martin. “My cargo hauler is arriving in a few hours’ time and will head back to Tel Aviv with the metal you so kindly brought with you. It has taken my entire workforce three months to change the ship from my original plans to what Jonesy wants, and boy, she is going to be one hell of a fast ship.”

“Who is going to fly her?” Little Mikey was the first one to ask.

“I think your father and mother.” Jonesy smiled. He always appreciated Little Mikey, who was as direct as he was and didn’t mince words.

“But we are on schedule for the next America Three flight to Mars with Pluto Katherine and Gary in thirteen months’ time,” stated Saturn.

“Good, you just stay on that flight, Mom, and I’ll be next in line,” stated her son, who had to duck a smack to the head by his weak father. The rest looked on and smiled.

“I’m sure Pluto Katherine and Gary can use Mark Allen and somebody else instead of Saturn and me,” suggested Mars eagerly. He was referring to Ryan and Kathy’s second daughter and her husband, and second son, who was about to get his wings a year after Little Mikey and James, his elder brother.

“Daad!” responded Little Mikey.

“It sounds like a lot will change in the next thirteen months, son.” Mars Noble smiled at his teenage son.

“First you get your wings, boy; then you resign from Astermine,” added Grandpa VIN. Grandpa Jones nodded his head in agreement.

“Who is resigning from Astermine?” asked Kathy Richmond, walking up to the secret meeting.

“I am,” stated Saturn quickly. “Time to become a real mother.”

“A bit late for that, Saturn.” Kathy smiled, looking like she wasn’t satisfied with Saturn’s answer.

“Hey, Aunt Kath, there are more pilots than ships. You have Lunar and Pluts, who are the captains. You don’t need Mars and me anymore.”

“Me neither,” added Little Mikey rapidly, a bit too quickly.

“Space Cadet Noble, are these pilots putting ideas into your little head?” asked Kathy, smiling and looking at the guilty faces and now knowing that Ryan had been right. There was a real conspiracy going on here. Right under their very noses. “Martin, you involved with this as well?”

He smiled weakly.

“You have James and Mark Allen looking at being captains after Aunties Lunar and Pluto Katherine retire. I‘m feeling like I don’t have much chance to captain a ship,” added little Mikey. “It’s not like anybody has put in any more orders for new space freighters lately, ma’am?”

“Okay, I understand now, a resignation of every pilot who isn’t a Richmond. May I assure you that only the best pilots will captain the ships as long as Ryan and I have a say in Nevada Base and the flight school. Space Cadet Noble, if you are the best pilot on your graduation day, you will have first opportunity. Ryan wouldn’t want it any other way.”

With that, Kathy headed back to her husband, still smiling at the ass that group was making of themselves. She had never taken the actions of one of her best friends, Jonesy, seriously throughout the voyage around the solar system. To her and Ryan, the actions of the group had been a comedy and had added greatly to the enjoyment of otherwise a very long and boring flight.

“Just as you thought,” stated Kathy to her husband, who smiled at what she told him. “A new conspiracy by the aging pilots who, thanks to Jonesy, never seem to get out of their teenage years. Now it seems we could lose some of them as astronauts. I reckon we might have an opposition company to Astermine in the solar system.” Kathy headed over to grab two more cold beers and then lay back on her lounge chair to listen to her husband’s answer.

“Perfect,” replied Ryan. “More the merrier out there. Kath, it was our job to open the solar system, not administer it. The Russians and Indians are going up soon. China will be first, though, and Dr. Smidt, Igor and Boris reckon that over a hundred long-distance asteroid mining ships are being built by these countries at this very moment. Australia has three mining ships to be built at Martin’s plant in the next decade, and the U.S. has three other companies ready to build once we get enough rare earth metals back from Mars. With the price of rare earth metals going through the roof, it won’t be long before we need to return with more white metal than yellow. Dr. Smidt asked me just this afternoon to change the next shipment to fifty percent gold, fifty percent rare earth metals, especially osmium.”

“It is very weird that nobody knows what SB-IV brought down in cargo. I thought you are da boss here in Nevada, darling?” asked Kathy.

“Apparently not by what Jonesy told me on the flight over.” Ryan smiled in return. “Just that the cargo is not the gold from Ceres I was expecting. It’s the other metals, but I was never told of any other metal supplies on the dwarf planet. Maybe that’s why Jonesy wanted the base so badly? It doesn’t really matter. We have a dozen more shuttle loads arriving in the next few days with the gold.”

“Do you think Jonesy and his pirates are building a spaceship?” asked Kathy. “Martin seems in and very excited over there, and now he has a flight incoming to pick up this first load.”

“I wouldn’t put it past my old friend. One thing I will say about General John Jones is that he is a forward thinker and sees opportunities you and I wouldn’t. Now you say that we could be losing some pilots. That makes me think I’m on the right track. Kath, I gave Jonesy what he wanted because I want him, or them, to succeed. It will just help out in the big plan of things and whatever they are planning. There isn’t a bad soul among them.”

“I thought you might understand what’s going on.” Kathy smiled.

Ryan looked at her happily. “Even though I’m retired, I still find it necessary to at least guide our massive family forward, and yes, I do have ears, big elephant ears, on the ground. It is not for us to administer the future of others. Give them just enough rope to succeed, but not too much to hang themselves. I just wish I knew what metals were in that shuttle. What is so important…for Martin…it has to be building metals.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 3

A New Spaceship

To the A.S.S. group, the nearly built spaceship in one of Martin’s massive build-hangars at his airport in Tel Aviv looked fast and formidable.

At 480 feet long and her body 25 feet wide, she looked like a big, long silver cigar with wings and a short tail. The yet unnamed ship could never fly in atmospheric conditions due to her stubby short wings and tail.

She had been designed to only fly in Jonesy’s blue shield from liftoff to touch down, either in atmospheric conditions or in space. She looked a bit like the old Concorde, a sleeker version of the Astermine shuttles, and the newest and fastest spaceship on Earth was completely different. Also her struts without wheels or solid legs held her underbody only seven feet off the ground. Just enough room to fit her four six-foot square engines, two underneath each wing, and her underfloor cargo elevator.

“I see you took much of the last shuttle design and added it to this one,” Mars Noble stated, looking at Martin.

“No, not I. Jonesy is the reason it looks much like an Astermine shuttle. At least Ryan and Dr. Smidt didn’t patent their designs,” Martin replied.

“Those engine bays are massive,” added Saturn as her husband, father, and VIN looked at the silver beast. “Also, plasma engines are nearly useless in atmospheric flight. How come you said they will assist launch from fifty thousand feet?”

“Pure brute blast and raw power,” replied Martin. “With two hundred fifty megawatts each, the exhaust movement rushing out of the rear of each engine can give boost in atmospheric flight, and as long as they are in a blue shield, they will assist in climb if there is a vacuum inside. This new ship has a larger unit that can suck ninety-nine percent of the atmosphere out of the blue shield before liftoff.”

“What about top cruise speed?” asked Mars, looking at the empty engine bays. The engines themselves were only arriving from Texas and New Mexico in several weeks’ time, from their friend Franklin’s two production factories.

“Computer printouts show that at full acceleration for five days, one hundred twenty hours, and once the ship has left Earth orbit,” stated Martin, looking at a printout in his hand, “the forward speed will equal America Two’s fastest cruise speed of one hundred twenty thousand miles an hour. I believe the maximum safe forward cruise speed for this ship will be around twice the speed of Astermine’s cargo ships, depending on what the shield itself can handle. That is for you astronauts to find out.”

“Wow!” stated Mars.

“And remember the faster you go forward, Mars, the more you have to slow. So if it takes you three weeks to get to your desired cruise speed, then it will take three weeks to slow,” added Martin. “And remember fuel requirements.”

“Well, since Mars and Earth can be as close as thirty-five million miles, we could get there in three days?” joked Mars loudly, knowing that he was making a fool of himself.

“You forget acceleration, which will add time if it takes us three weeks just to get up to speed, and the same for deceleration,” stated Saturn, whacking her husband across the head playfully. “I’d say two months quickest from liftoff to touchdown, which halves the current America Two’s flight time.”

“Correct,” added Jonesy, “but what these new, more powerful engines offer us is that we can fly at any time. We don’t have to wait for the twenty-four-month opposition window anymore. We can fly at any time to and from Mars as well as Ceres. Actually, we can leave at any time for any destination except Jupiter or Saturn. I think the furthest we want to travel is back to Saturn. We’ve done that already in America One, and the way I worked it out, our shortest flight to Saturn in perfect opposition to Earth is two hundred eleven days. The longest flight would be at its furthest reach, about two hundred ninety-seven days to cross more than a billion miles. Only the slowdown and slower travel through the ninety-million-mile-wide Asteroid Belt will slow this ship down on her way to Saturn or Jupiter.”

“Understood about the further planets, but let’s first work on Earth and Mars,” added Mars Noble. “Mars and Earth, furthest apart, say two hundred fifty million miles, plus six weeks for increase and decrease of speed. The longest flight to Mars will still take less time than any Astermine ship on their shortest trip to the red planet.”

“Plus or minus five percent of duration due to the curvature of the flight path as the planets change position,” stated Saturn, giving her husband no quarter.

“And you call yourselves astronauts.” Martin laughed, looking at the married couple. “Fuel restrictions. That is your major problem. There are no gas stations to ‘fill her up and clean the windshield’ out there.”

“I was thinking of that.” Jonesy smiled. VIN already knew that his partner of a couple of decades had thought of little else.

“Yes, with a beer and liquor store, restaurant and night club all in one space building. Eight of them across the solar system,” added VIN. Nobody had heard this part of Jonesy’s plan yet. Jonesy nudged VIN, and both smiled at the others.

“Three weeks to slow down to get your gas tank filled and windshield cleaned, and three more weeks to get back to cruise.” Saturn smiled. “These so-called gas stations of yours, Dad, had better be several million miles apart.”

“Yes, my next order, Martin, was to be a couple of much larger liquid hydrogen freighters to supply my space stations/convenience stores,” added Jonesy. “I worked out that about six would do.”

This time Martin looked at Jonesy in total shock. “You mean a space tanker the size of that hydrogen ship Kawasaki Heavy?” Martin asked Jonesy, thinking of the largest hydrogen tanker on the planet.

Kawasaki Heavy was now the oldest of three very famous tankers, which had survived the wars a decade or so earlier, and was again ploughing the seas between Australia and Japan. On each trip Kawasaki Heavy delivered 160,000 cubic meters of Australian liquefied hydrogen gas to Japan.

“Martin, how much liquid hydrogen will it take for our four new plasma thrusters to complete a six-week full-journey cycle?” Mars Noble asked.

“Ten thousand cubic meters per three-week cycle, times two, equal to eighty percent of the internal space of this ship,” he replied, pointing to the unfinished silver spaceship.

“Wow!” added Saturn. “How long will it take to fill her up at one of my father’s gas stations a hundred million miles from here?”

Martin thought for a full minute before replying. “I’d say two days, maybe five, depending on if the refilling station is on solar or liquid hydrogen power.”

“Martin, I spoke to the Australian Prime Minister a few weeks ago,” continued Jonesy. “They can supply me a million cubic meters per year, starting next year.”

“At what price, Dad?” asked Saturn.

“A hundred dollars a cubic meter,” Jonesy replied.

Martin smiled at that. “Only a tenth of what jet fuel costs today,” he added. “Not bad, Jonesy.”

“Yes, but the Australians want to be paid in rare earth metals for the heavy discount. Contract is for ten years,” replied Jonesy. “All this talk is making me thirsty. Martin, does my new transport here have its bar fitted? Or should we head back to the bar in your office? I need a cold beer.”

“So it takes sixteen million bucks to fill up one of those ocean tankers?” Mars Noble added as the group, still chatting, headed for Martin’s office.

“And two million bucks to fill up our new ship!” Saturn continued, aghast at the costs. “Even though it now costs far less than the shuttles and mother ships cost Astermine to fill up, Dad, where are you getting all this money to pay for this?”

“From the stuff on Ceres,” was the answer. “Give me a cold beer, and since you are all ASSes, I’ll tell you my plan.”

Cold beers were quickly handed around, and everyone sat and got comfy in Martin’s large and luxurious office.

“Go on, Mr. Jones. I’m really wanting to hear about these six fuel freighters you want me to build. You are not my only client, I’m sure you understand that?”

“No, Martin, but I’m the only customer who currently pays you in the metal you so desperately need,” was the return remark. “From what VIN told me, and since I never saw the metal stores on Ceres, I believe I can fund the beginning of our next adventure. VIN, Mars, you counted the bars for me?”

“Yes, unfortunately neither Mars nor I know what the metal bars are apart from looking the same and being in separate piles when we checked them after the battle,” replied VIN.

“We didn’t either when we needed to pack them a year ago,” added Mars. “Saturn and I weren’t allowed to say a word to anybody. We did manage to figure out the osmium pile from what you told us, Martin, and we made a note on each of the eleven pallets we had lifted into cargo and brought into Nevada Base last month. Saturn and I do know that there are still thirteen pallets equal to one Earth ton each of the osmium metal still on Ceres.”

“At two thousand eight hundred fifty US dollars per troy ounce, a ton per pallet, about one billion U.S. dollars for the osmium currently on the current world market,” replied Martin. “Jonesy, you need to get it down here before Astermine increases their REM cargo hauls and drops the market value. Apart from osmium, the most valuable two metals I need have always been iridium and rhodium. These are currently triple the value of osmium to purchase from China and are as rare as shark shit. You gave me half a ton of each, and they’re worth more than the osmium. In total, Jonesy, and since we are family here, your shipment, or the cost of this spaceship of ours, is just over five billion dollars, half what I would charge Astermine in U.S. dollars.”

“You gave Franklin five billion just for plasma engines, Dad?” Saturn asked, looking at her father.

“Yes, dear, fifty percent up front for his three production loads of engines, and to keep Astermine and any other company or country at bay for at least a few years. We will need the same engines for our fuel and booze transporters. The first four were the first ones off the production line, and I believe Franklin will produce eight to ten engines every eighteen months. Now before I go crazy with zeros, my plan is to quite simply give all the future asteroid miners and travelers in our vast solar system a beer when they need it. A poker game or a steak dinner when they want one, and dancing girls or other forms of entertainment when they get leave and return to one of my fine upmarket establishments across our new area of operations.”

“You going into the pimping business, Dad?” asked Saturn in shock.

“No, darling, sex I leave up to the adults. I just make it possible. That is not pimping. What I get involved in is nothing more than supply and demand.” Jonesy smiled. “Now back to my plan. All ships will leave Earth and head out into the solar system with full tanks, filled up at a supply station in orbit around Earth. Martin, I will need a few shuttles to get the liquid hydrogen into orbit and will organize a second blue shield for this ship. I know of one hidden away at the Martian Club Retreat.” Everybody nodded and Jonesy smiled and carried on. “It will save a lot of size and weight if all ships using our gas only need fuel for a one-way flight, correct?” Again everybody enjoyed their beers and agreed with him.

“So you build a gas station at the end of everybody’s journey?” asked Little Mikey, looking at his grandfather. “Like that story—‘thanks for all the fish’? Whatever that meant.”

“Well done, boy, I knew you had it in you. Now let me finish. We will place a gas station where ships will need them. Definitely Mars and Ceres. Ceres because we own the station and there will be many needs for the hydrogen fuel. From mining itself, getting to and from the asteroids, and then getting their goods home. So Ceres and Mars will each have a station. Then the next need is to and from Jupiter and Saturn.

“We learned on our flight to Saturn,” stated Mars Noble, seriously this time, “that due to the low density of materials within the entire asteroid belt, the odds of hitting an asteroid while travelling through are estimated to be one in a million, at less than forty thousand miles an hour.”

“The unmanned spacecraft Dawn estimated one in a billion decades ago in 2011 or 12, I think,” added Martin.

“Yes, but it all comes down to the size of the ship and its speed through the asteroid belt,” added Saturn.

“Well said, my dear,” stated Jonesy before the astronauts changed the subject he was explaining. “Remember, I was aboard on a damn long flight and certainly don’t want to do it again. I spoke to several of my friends at Astermine in Nevada when you guys arrived back from Mars. The major issue of the asteroid belt is whether we ever get to break down the blue shields, and if the ships travelling through the belt use one or not. Much like a condom, it protects the ship from the outside.”

“I think you got that the wrong way round, Dad.” Saturn laughed.

“Depends on your sex, darling.” Her father smiled. “Anyway, we have to assume that many of the future mining vessels, hundreds of them, will not use shields, including our tankers, and will have to travel through space and especially the belt at slower cruise speeds for the couple of weeks it takes to get through. That means that a gas station just outside the belt, or shall I say four gas stations at four outward points on a circle where the belts might be less dense, will stop much of the deceleration requirements for the ships. Then two more stations, one on one of Jupiter’s moons and the same on one of Saturn’s. Eight stations in all. “Gee, why is it so hard to say one’s piece with all you guys around?”

“There is water in them moons,” quipped Saturn Noble.

“Of course, my girl.” Jonesy laughed. “Look at all that water in that lake we found inside the red planet. I hope that by the time I am buried, on Mars, and I’ll tell you that story later, that most of our company hydrogen fuel is made in space, not here. Less gravity and less cost once we get systems out on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn to mine and produce hydrogen from the underground water.”

“I assume you want astronauts for these tankers of yours, Granddad?” asked Little Mikey Noble.

“No, I want astronauts for that silver beauty out there. As far as the boring schedule of carrying fuel across the solar system, I reckon robotic pilots can do that crappy work.”

“What about our robot-flown ships being commandeered and stolen?” asked the young man.

“Mikey, how many pirates have you heard about running around stealing liquid hydrogen tankers out there?” Jonesy asked, looking at his grandchild kindly.

“None, Grandad. But maybe in twenty years or so.”

“Well, my boy, maybe in a hundred years. If I have all the fastest thrusters available on the world market, there is no way they can keep up with you, and the blue shields will protect our ships. We will make sure that once there are pirates out there that we are ready for them.”

“The Matts could run the Jupiter operation, maybe the Saturn moon’s operation as well once it is established,” suggested Mars.

“Now you guys are catching up.” Jonesy smiled. He knew they would catch him quickly. “I got a message back from Roo in Mattville just last week, saying that he thought my idea a good one, and he is prepared to travel to Jupiter and discuss the opportunity once we are ready. I’d say ten, fifteen years after that silver baby out there launches and becomes our transportation. First we need to set up Mars and Ceres and make sure we have strong bases on both planets before we head further afield.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 4

Jonesy and Ryan

It was a week later, and after Jonesy, Mars and Saturn had returned to join Maggie on the island, Jonesy managed to get Ryan by himself again.

Little Mikey had returned to Nevada Base to complete his flight studies. Six more months and he would be a commissioned astronaut. That was when he would retire from Astermine.

“So what part of me do you want today, General Jones?” Ryan smiled. “I’m still pissed off about that cargo change you didn’t tell me about.”

They were sitting on Jonesy’s boat, and the others, including Kathy, Maggie, Suzi, VIN and Saturn, had been flown by Mars into Sydney to do some shopping for the weekend. Neither Ryan nor Jonesy had any interest in shopping.

Since they were all competent pilots, Astermine had ordered a couple new human-piloted jets from Martin Brusk’s company. It was nearly impossible to find any aircraft that were designed to be flown by humans anymore, and for twenty million apiece, Astermine had also ordered a dozen twelve-seat self-pilot jet transporters for the staff. Ryan’s jet had just arrived, he had named it Tesla, and Mars was dying to try it out.

This was the same jet Little Mikey had flown back to Nevada. Mars had flown it back. It would always be based on the island.

What differed from the Gulfstream Jonesy had owned a couple of decades earlier was that these fast little transporters launched up to near space altitude before returning to Earth above their destinations. By doing this on longer flights, and above 125,000 feet, they could easily travel at Mach 5. Sometimes the shorter flights, just below the speed of sound, took the same amount of time or even longer.

“The cemetery part,” Jonesy replied to Ryan’s question. It was a hot afternoon and both men were sitting on the rear lower deck in the shade, the two usual brown bottles frozen in their hands.

“The what?” asked Ryan, knowing that whatever Jonesy had in mind would be good entertainment for this lethargic afternoon.

“Remember my parents and all our old friends up there are buried either in Mattville or outside the Martian Club Retreat,” replied Jonesy.

“Of course I remember. Your parents were really nice people. How they got a kid like you, Jonesy, I can’t figure that one out.”

“I know that you’ve signed the papers for me to take over the Retreat once your contracts are completed,” continued Jonesy. “But I was wondering if that meant the ground around the Retreat. You know, the whole plateau?” Ryan smiled at Jonesy. It was going to be a good afternoon.

“It’s not like Astermine owns the red planet. There is no real estate agreement in play here. I think your question could be better answered by God. I’d say he has more say about solar system property than I have. Maybe try him instead of me. A suggestion would be to try him through God@God.com,” joked Ryan.

“So when I take over the Martian Club Retreat in a few years’ time, I can build a real and bright cemetery, or at least a fancier burial plot for everyone?”

“I’m sure you can start tomorrow if you want,” replied Ryan, enjoying his cold beer. “The contracts Astermine made for the current scientists up there only covers using the outside area for experiments in the two blue shields, not any further. Also, they won’t have as good outside space suits as we had on our last voyages to the Retreat.”

Jonesy smiled at what Ryan mentioned. He knew he had the Retreat locked down, and nobody, including God@God.com, was going to interest themselves in what he built on the plateau. What Jonesy was really after was the blue shields that had been asked for by the scientists to be able to experiment outside.

“If I build a walled cemetery outside, then it would sure look nice inside a blue shield?” he suggested, smiling to Ryan and opening up another ice-cold beverage at the same time from an iced bucket on his right, which was full of beers.

“Oh, so that’s what this afternoon is all about?” Ryan smiled, nodding his thanks for the cold frosty beer.

“What do you mean?” asked Jonesy innocently.

“You want the blue shields?”

“Well,” replied Jonesy, thinking for a few seconds on what to say, “since the shuttles aren’t running so much anymore, you know, fighting the Matts or asteroid mining, I thought that Astermine could loan me a few?”

“Loan!” Ryan laughed. “Jonesy, Astermine would never see them again whether we sold them, gave them, or loaned them to you and your bunch of pirates.”

“I’ve counted ten blue shields over the years, plus the several needed on Mattville. I’m sure there are more I didn’t see. Astermine uses five here on Earth, two permanent shields for the cargo ships America Two and America Three, and two for SB-IV and SB-V, which takes cargo up to the orbital supply station for the ships. You use one for recruit pilot training on a temporary basis. I’m sure you still use several in Mattville for repairs, and there are two at the Retreat. That is eight that I know of, so I thought that I could borrow one for a few years, until I can get the two at the Retreat.”

One thing was sure, Ryan knew Jonesy was extremely truthful and always told it like it was. He thought for several seconds before he replied.

“You tell me what you want to use all three shields for, and if it sounds like the best idea I have ever heard, I’ll put in a request with Dr. Smidt, Igor and Boris.” Jonesy now knew that he had poor Ryan at checkmate.

“Two liquid hydrogen gas refilling stations in orbit around Mars and Ceres, and a third shield around the tanker to get it there,” was Jonesy’s simple answer.

Even though Ryan was on his third beer, what Jonesy had just said really shocked him. He shook his head. He looked at Jonesy, smiled, looked down at the deck beneath his feet and shook his head again.

“Jonesy, you know that hydrogen gas stations in space was one of my suggestions years ago, I believe on the bridge on America One with Captain Pete, the officers and all the astronauts. That was what, a decade ago, and now you remind me of something I felt was so important, yet, or at least at the time, nobody responded with any interest.”

“Well, you gave me the idea, boss.” Jonesy smiled. He knew what it was like to checkmate Ryan. He had done it a few times.

“Tell me your plan,” asked Ryan, and Jonesy got some snacks and for half an hour told Ryan a tiny version of his overall plan. He didn’t say anything about his new ship. Nor did he elaborate on any ideas other than his want to supply liquid hydrogen from Australia to the red planet and Ceres.

“So you have a ship?” Ryan asked once Jonesy was finished.

“Not yet, but Martin has agreed to build me a ship,” Jonesy replied.

“How will you get that weight up into orbit? Liquid hydrogen isn’t light.”

“A smaller shuttle taking up smaller amounts at a time with the help of a blue shield,” was the reply. “The empty tanker is launched inside a blue shield, heads up and connects to one of the old build stations, one of the orbital build stations Astermine doesn’t use anymore. The frame and station that built America Three would be perfect. I’ll just send up siding to make a large hydrogen supply tank. While the freighter is ploughing its way to its destination and back every opposition, the smaller shuttle can refuel the supply tank. I’m sure I can get the same supply tanks made in Mattville, and one day on Ceres, which will give space frontiersmen there a chance to fill up and not have to take the return fuel with them.”

“Jonesy, you never cease to amaze me. At least Astermine can help you by anchoring your orbital tanks at what we already have up there, and how you are going to pay for all this, I don’t know?”

“Well, you paid Maggie, VIN, Suzi and me pretty well. I’m sure I can take a loan from Maggie, sell some of her unwanted diamonds from our asteroid-mining days, and VIN can do the same with Suzi,” suggested Jonesy, looking at his old boss innocently.

“Okay, how much do you need?” Ryan asked jokingly, feeling for a “not there” checkbook in his back pocket.

“A hundred million dollars will do, pay for part of the tanker, and Astermine could at least offer one of the older supply shuttles Nevada Base isn’t using.” Jonesy smiled like seeing a fly in his web.

Ryan smiled. Now he saw Jonesy’s plan. He actually liked the fuel-station idea and realized that he had been played by his ex-chief astronaut to get Astermine to part with money, a few shields and a shuttle. It wasn’t a bad idea, but he explained to Jonesy that there was only one unused blue shield. He could loan the two already up at the retreat, and even Ryan himself didn’t know how many shields Astermine had in total. Several had been destroyed during the battles on Mars and Ceres.

Jonesy knew. He knew that there were the ten that Astermine knew about. He actually knew of twelve or more. There was the one spare at Nevada Base, and he had two blue shields on Ceres. Roo, who was up in Mattville and a member of A.S.S., knew of a spare up there, and of course, there were the two outside the Retreat that this afternoon’s dialogue was all about.

With at least five possible shields, nearly half of what Astermine owned, he could run a fleet of ships around the solar system and give his parents the best cemetery they deserved. He wanted to make the cemetery so nice that everybody would want to be buried up there one day.

Jonesy smiled. He liked it when a plan came together.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 5

Launch of ASS-One

“Jonesy, I am really busy,” stated Dr. Smidt after answering the holophone on his desk. He was staring at a three-by-three-inch head and shoulders holograph of a very suntanned Jonesy directly above his phone on his desk, and Jonesy was looking at a pale Dr. Smidt above his own holophone.

“I need a few favors, Doc,” added Jonesy.

“Don’t we all, my friend?” The good doctor smiled as his face went even whiter. The only time Jonesy ever called was to ask for something.

Dr. Smidt himself had been a member of A.S.S. for several years, after Jonesy had got him drunk one night on the long journey to and from Saturn, and much to his drunken surprise had heard himself accept the nomination to be a member of this misfit organization.

VIN; Vitalily, the ship’s chief mechanic; Captain Pete; Dave Black; Mr. Rose, his now-deceased best friend; and even young Saturn Jones, not even old enough to drink, had been there in “The Office” when he had accepted.

Dr. Smidt hadn’t really regretted joining this group. He was German, after all. He liked a cold beer or glass of Mr. Rose’s red wine as much as the next guy, but A.S.S. had given him many sleepless nights, especially after Ryan had made him head of the Astermine operations at Nevada Base. Now his bad dreams and sleepless nights were coming true—Jonesy needed favors.

“Ryan has given me authority to borrow the unused blue shield and a shuttle that can fly liquid hydrogen into orbit. When can I collect the shield, and what shuttle is available? I will need both towards the end of the year, Doc.”

“If you remember, Mr. Jones, you crashed your shuttle during the battle on Mars. We lost SB-I and SB-II during the battle on Mars. And we lost Astermine Three, as it was used as a bomb in the third cavern. That leaves me with three shuttles and one remaining asteroid-mining/supply vehicle, Astermine One. Astermine Two had an accident inside the new welcome center in Mattville last year, and is now needing repairs. I need two shuttles each to travel with America Two and America Three. Astermine One cannot reenter Earth’s atmosphere. I only have one shuttle for pilot training when one of the ships is in orbit around Earth. Jonesy, I don’t have a spare shuttle.”

“I thought you might say that,” Jonesy smiled. “Doc, after the second and final cargo haul to Ceres in January next year to the base on Ceres, which now belongs to me, only one shuttle needs to be docked on America Three. Ryan is supplying the building materials for the second cargo flights, as he promised, and from then on, it is only cargo returning to Earth. So when America Three returns, you can give me the one you won’t need. If I’m not mistaken, the two mother ships will fly to and from Mars together from then on.”

After another twenty minutes of discussing future possibilities, Dr. Smidt finally agreed that Sierra Bravo Five, or SB-V as she was called, would be directed Jonesy’s way. SB-V had been the shuttle Mars Noble and Saturn Noble had flown most of their flights on, and was the biggest and easiest to refit with a liquid hydrogen fuel cargo tank.

Jonesy smiled as the holograph died. Another part of his plan was organized and all he really wanted now was to live long enough to see his master plan come to fruition and fly his new ship to Ceres on her first flight. He typed a number into the holograph and reached a number in Israel.

“Holograph Design and Manufacture. How can I direct your visual, Mr. Jones?” stated a pretty female holograph above Jonesy’s machine.

“Benyamin Goldstein, please, Adiva. I need to know if he has my final designs ready for viewing.”

“He is on the manufacturing floor. I’m sending you across now, Mr. Jones.” The pretty girl’s face faded and was replaced by an older man’s.

“Jonesy, I thought you might be calling this week. I have a few designs to show you. I liked the one of you in full uniform, but you might get some flak from the U.S. government, wearing a full USAF general’s uniform.”

Benyamin Goldstein was head of one of Martin Brusk’s newer companies in Tel Aviv. Now that holograph phones had completely replaced the antiquated talk phone a decade earlier, companies had sprung up around the world to design the use of holographs, as cell phone companies had designed apps twenty years earlier. Benyamin’s company produced gravestone holographs, and thanks to Jonesy’s muddling ideas, had begun to produce holographic statues of living people as well.

Benyamin pressed a few buttons on his mobile holograph and a picture replaced his face. Jonesy smiled.

He smiled because the still, full-color holograph was of him dressed in full air force uniform, and he had his right hand, not in a salute, but shielding his eyes from glare as he looked intelligently off into the distance.

The second holograph was Jonesy in the same pose, but looking up hatless into the blue sky. The third was copied from a picture VIN had taken a few years earlier, Jonesy in full space suit without helmet, looking forward seriously.

Jonesy knew they looked cheesy, but who cared, they weren’t for Earth, but for the future cemetery at the Martian Club Retreat.

Three more holographic designs appeared, of Jonesy in different statue-type positions, before Benyamin’s face returned.

“The second one, me looking up. Can you get it closer and just show the head and shoulders?” Jonesy asked.

It took several cuts and resizes before Jonesy was happy, and he ended up with a powerful holograph of himself looking skywards. Everybody would think it pretty cheesy, but Jonesy liked it. It was for his headstone on Mars, and he would be lying dead underneath the holograph anyway.

“Now, I have three completed holographs from the photographs you gave me of your parents,” continued Benyamin. “I have one where we sat them together on a park bench. Maybe you’ll like this one?”

Headstone holographs, six feet high and which made the deceased very lifelike, weren’t cheap. At one hundred thousand dollars apiece, Jonesy ordered three. The one of him, and one each for his parents’ gravesites outside the Martian Club Retreat. He didn’t like the one of them sitting together. They didn’t do that often when they were alive.

The first four of Franklin’s new plasma engines for ASS-One arrived in Israel the day before Jonesy received the latest news on even newer engines about to hit the market—EmDrives. Martin Brusk holophoned to tell Jonesy the good, and bad, news.

“NASA has finally agreed to help a British company manufacture one test EmDrive,” Martin told Jonesy once he had stated that the plasma engines for ASS-One had finally arrived from Texas.

“You mean those microwave popcorn-makers designed thirty years ago at the beginning of the century?” Jonesy responded, not believing what Martin was telling him.

“I suppose so,” replied Martin, impressed that Jonesy knew anything about them.

“The verdict when Ryan, Dr. Smidt, Igor and Boris were talking to Franklin about the plasma engines before we built America Two was all about Newton’s third law,” continued Jonesy. “That’s why I call the microwave engine a popcorn maker. I can even recite Newton’s third law for you. We discussed the impossibility of this engine ever producing forward movement in a vacuum.”

“You can recite Newton’s third law?” replied Martin, pulling Jonesy’s leg.

“Yes, Mr. Know-it-all.” Jonesy laughed. “The third law states that for every action or force in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B also exerts an equal force on object A. The third law can be used to explain the generation of lift by a wing and the production of thrust by a jet engine. So I don’t believe you.”

“Well, they have fought over this possible violation of Newton’s third law for over two decades now,” continued Martin. “The twenty years of turmoil spread across the planet also hindered the advancement of proving this EmDrive doesn’t violate Newton’s law, and finally NASA has agreed that it doesn’t. Enough to build a test engine, of which I suggested to a few friends at NASA that I could test the engine once it is built.”

“And I will assume ASS-One will do the tests?” added Jonesy. “How will this popcorn cracker help my ship, Martin?”

“Fuel savings, Mr. Jones, fuel savings.”

“Okay, I’m interested,” replied Jonesy. “How much? I just wish we could break through into antimatter or negative-matter engines. I read once that less than a few milligrams of antimatter would take me anywhere I want to go far and fast throughout the solar system.”

“Agreed, but we are nowhere close to anything antimatter yet, except with your blue shields that Nevada Base might have a breakthrough with one day. I’m a firm believer that the Matts hold the secret to antimatter, and never believed that it could ever be used as a propellant across the solar system.

“Going back to this EmDrive, my figures show that if the engine thrusts as the designers reckon it will do, you could turn off your plasma thrusters several days earlier. The journey, or acceleration to your cruising speed, will take a week longer with only the plasma thrusters than if you kept the plasma engines and one EmDrive on for the full duration, but you could save twenty-five percent of the acceleration fuel needs for a few extra days of travel. So you save a week of thrust on acceleration. Now, if you also decelerate with the popcorn cracker or maker, as you call it, another five percent of the hydrogen fuel usage could be saved during braking. I want to set up a tail design engine mount for the EmDrive to turn one hundred eighty degrees in space to help you accelerate and brake. It could save you one day in twenty in braking time. In total, and if this new motor does what it is supposed to do, you could save a third of your hydrogen fuel needs over extremely long distances. And, Jonesy, it runs on fusion power, of which ASS-One has more fusion power than any other ship in the solar system.”

“Interesting.” Jonesy smiled. “How big is this new gadget?”

“Small,” replied Martin happily. “As I suggested, it could be integrated into the tail of the spacecraft, like the Boeing 727s of the last century. It weighs in at around half a ton.”

The test engine was completed two months later and promptly arrived to Martin Brusk, whose team was about to complete Jonesy’s ship. Martin, a forward thinker, had already designed the new tailpiece that would be mated with the new engine, and for the next month, now putting his completion date a month overdue, he reworked the tail section and fitted the new engine and its controls into the cockpit.

At about the same time as the long hours of work by Martin’s crew came to an end on ASS-One, Dr. Smidt was shocked and very surprised after the passing out parade by the base’s new astronauts. The letter was the first resignation letter ever to land on his desk, and it arrived exactly twenty minutes after Astronaut Mikey Noble had received his space wings.

The letter had been written by hand, and with rapid goodbyes to all at Nevada Base, the new astronaut was gone the same day, with the rest of his family, even before dusk, and another shock for all—even before the bar was opened to celebrate the new astronauts’ wings. The base’s own RFA this time, and the aircraft that had brought the Jones and Noble families in for the parade had already lifted off for its return journey to the Australian island, via Tel Aviv. Dr. Smidt hoped it would return one day.

Three hours later a rowdy and happy bunch of Jones and Nobles disembarked at Martin Brusk’s main production facility. Since the Robot-jet pilot couldn’t drink, the rest had celebrated little Mikey’s success, and a half-awake Martin was quite surprised to see his clients rather intoxicated as they deplaned onto the dark tarmac. It was two a.m. in Israel, and Martin, told three hours earlier to expect them, was not used to clients arriving at odd hours. The much quicker modern international flight arrivals were still difficult to sort out with the shorter time differences.

“No, you can see your new ship in the morning. I have booked you guys comfortable rooms at the closest hotel. My associate here, David, will escort you in the Robo-Bus to your hotel. You can party there for days, months if you wish, but I’m going to bed, Mr. Jones. Goodnight.”

With that, Martin smiled at the rowdy, partying bunch, turned and headed back to his Robo-Drive Tesla.

As expected, it was closer to midmorning when the bus returned with a much quieter bunch of visitors, who looked the worse for wear after their flight of partying.

Martin knew why the Nobles and Jones had been in a party mood. Little Mickey Noble was now the third-generation active astronaut in the family.

“You are not going to allow my old friend General Jones here to test-fly your new ship, guys?” Martin asked, the others shocked.

“Not if we can help it.” Maggie smiled at Martin’s worried face.

“Grandpa needs to move over and give us young’uns a chance for experience,” chimed in the new astronaut.

“Over my dead body,” remarked the new astronaut’s mother, Saturn.

“And mine,” added her husband, Mars.

“Martin, you got a handlaser handy? It looks like I have to mow down a few upstarts so I can test-drive my new ship,” stated Jonesy seriously.

“Well, I’m not doing another orbit of Earth, especially if an old fossil is flying the darn thing,” added Maggie.

“Dad, let’s compromise. Saturn and I fly her, and you and Mikey sit in the engineer seats,” suggested Mars Noble, as diplomatic as his father and mother, who looked on, enjoying the usual Jones bull crap.

“Herr Jones, I don’t think the Earth police would even allow you to drive a self-drive car at your age,” joked Suzi Noble in her wheelchair and really adding to her natural German accent.

“I think we should head out shopping and let these kids play,” added Maggie, and Suzi smiled and nodded at that.

“Partner, I assume you don’t want to watch the test flight from down here?” added VIN Noble.

“You should know, Marine Lieutenant Noble, that I am going up there, hell or high water,” remarked Jonesy to his partner of nearly thirty years. VIN had been in the marines when he had lost his legs in an IED explosion in Iraq.

“We can always strap Dad down in the cargo compartment, Martin,” added Saturn. “I wouldn’t fly without my dad. It is, after all, his ship, and maybe a little space sickness might make him want to stay at home more with Mom.”

Martin smiled and led them into the well-lit hangar. The silver bird stood there looking at the group like a vulture, its cockpit lowered to allow its pilots access.

“Pretty,” remarked Mars Noble.

“Wow!” was all his son, Mikey, could get out.

“A fast-looking ship,” added Saturn. All apart from Mikey had seen the ship before, but not completed and with its four plasma engines attached, as well as the new EmDrive in the tail.

“Refueling will be complete in about three hours,” continued Martin. “Her flight controls are copied from the Astermine shuttles, Saturn, Mars, young man, so apart from her size, she should feel like the Nevada shuttles you are used to. Here are extra copies of takeoff procedures. I know some of you have studied them for months now, but a quick refresher over food certainly won’t hurt. The new EmDrive will not be tested on this maiden flight, and your ceiling will be one hundred kilometers for this single rotation of the planet. Flight time is expected to be sixty-five minutes.”

For the experienced astronauts, this was an easy flight, as they had completed it many times before. For Little Mikey, he was happy to be sitting in the engineer seat. With either of his parents in command, he was secure, and he knew which one would be the ship’s first flight captain.

“A little brunch, then you can suit up. I have five suits ready.” Martin headed them into a small and comfortable area while the refueling was completed.

“Fuel pressure to all four engines?” Saturn Noble asked her husband sitting in the left pilot seat three hours later, once the new ship had been towed out by a robotic tractor to a launch area half a mile from the hangar. Mars checked the LED readouts above his head and gave her the answer.

“Light up blue shield,” Saturn ordered after checking that the little metal tractor was heading away from the ship. Mars ignited the blue shield stored in a secure metal container directly underneath the middle of the ship behind them, and they continued going through their ground checks while the blue bubble grew and slowly became visible from outside and began enveloping the ship. It took a lot of power to make the blue shield become alive, and the tiny vibration through the ship from one of the large cold fusion reactors twenty feet behind the large cockpit increased slightly. If they hadn’t been wearing helmets, which weren’t necessary after this maiden flight, they would have heard the fusion reactor’s hum increase from near silence to a faint audible hum around them.

All five astronauts aboard were wearing full suits, including helmets. Martin was sitting in the middle, on one of three jump seats behind the two pilots, and he wasn’t going to miss this ride for anything. VIN had really wanted to go along, so had Suzi, but they had been regulated to the second flight the next day.

Several minutes later the vibration decreased somewhat as the whole ship was enclosed in the blue bubble, and the first of ten rocket engines was fired up to a low howl.

The four main plasma engines were totally useless in low atmospheric conditions, and the fuel in the tanks aboard was just to get the ship over the Karman line, one orbit, and down again. Without the blue shield, these ten engines wouldn’t have budged the heavy ship, but somehow the blue shield’s inner vacuum decreased the gravitational drag on the ship. As the air was sucked out of the bubble and into tanks by the ship’s engine, the spaceship itself lightened up, and after a minute of all ten rockets running, the several people outside several hundred yards away watched ASS-One gently lift off for her maiden voyage.

“Vertical liftoff configuration, Mars. Vertical climb stage A, climbing at five feet per second, sixty percent power,” stated Saturn as they felt the ship leave terra firma. The ground outside began to fall away as she gave her second command. “Increase to vertical climb stage B: twenty feet per second, sixty-five percent power.” On her orders Mars increased the power to the ten thrusters. It was a full minute before she gave her third command.

“Vertical climb stage C, forty feet per second, seventy percent power,” ordered Saturn while watching the ground slip away far beneath them as Mars increased thrust to 70 percent. Saturn looked at her console; it was just blue sky outside.

From the ground, Maggie and Suzi looked at the ship as it ever so slowly began to climb. Once Saturn had given her third order, only then did the ship look like it could actually climb out of Earth’s atmosphere.

Her fourth order at one hundred feet per second, increasing the throttles to 75 percent power, made them rise much faster.

It seemed an eternity for the five astronauts inside, taking the ship a full ten minutes to get to fifty thousand feet. By this time powerful binoculars had to be used to keep the silver bird visible from the ground. The second fifty thousand feet was completed ten times faster than the first.

At fifty thousand feet the four plasma thrusters were ignited, and ever so slowly they propelled the ship forward as the ten thrusters still took her up at over one hundred feet per second.

“I wish our old maiden voyages were this easy on the body,” commented Jonesy through the ship’s intercom.

At 150,000 feet, it seemed that the plasma engines found some sort of new power and the forward speed increased through five hundred miles an hour.

“Forward cruise stage A, rocket thrusters seven, eight, nine and ten changing from vertical to face thirty percent rear,” ordered Saturn as she changed the direction of the four rear rockets on the rear of the ship’s hull. Their climbing speed didn’t change, but the forward speed increased. Slowly the ship changed from vertical takeoff to a steep forward climb.

Two minutes later, all ten engines were facing to the rear, and their forward speed increased rapidly.

By the time they reached the Karman line, sixty-two miles above Earth, twenty-five minutes after takeoff, ASS-One was levelling out at 17,450 miles per hour.

To Jonesy, it was one of the softest and slowest launches to space he had ever done. He mentioned how comfortable the flight was to Martin.

“Any slower than that I could climb a ladder quicker,” remarked the ship’s new backseat driver and ship owner to its manufacturer.

“All required to conserve liftoff fuel,” responded Martin Brusk, smiling broadly in his helmet now that his new ship had achieved orbit, and he was still alive.

Maggie and Suzi weren’t sitting around waiting for the flight to return. They had flown into and out of orbit many times, and didn’t want to sit around contemplating. Instead they headed into Tel Aviv with David as a guide and enjoyed a couple of hours of shopping. They returned to a noisy, happy and already tipsy crew two hours after ASS-One had returned.

“It looks like Suzi and I are flying us up tomorrow,” stated Maggie to the group as they quietened down to welcome back the ladies.

“I was hoping you would say that, Maggie,” added Martin.

“Grandma, you with me as copilot?” suggested Little Mikey. “I’ve only drunk one beer.”

And so it was the next day, with a hungover Saturn and Mars watching from the concrete apron, Maggie, who was delegated to be Little Mikey’s copilot, not the other way around, headed into space for a longer, three-orbit flight at 120 miles above Earth.

Maggie had wanted to go into space one more time. This was her last flight until she would be taken up to the cemetery by her own grandson at the Martian Club Retreat, a few years after Jonesy.

The new spaceship, Martin’s seventh space shuttle to go into space, flew as programmed. For two weeks after the two test flights, Jonesy told anybody who was prepared to listen how hard it had been thirty years earlier to fly into space.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 6

Okay, We Have a Spaceship—Now What Do We Do?

That was what many of the Jones and Noble family members asked General John Jones now that the ship was ready to travel around the solar system.

Jonesy hadn’t told anybody of his complete plan. He hadn’t even told himself, and now that phase one had been completed, he needed to rethink what the fastest spaceship in the solar system could actually accomplish. The gas stations were not part of this plan. He had so many ideas; the problem was covering them all. Like Jonesy himself, his plan was an ongoing work in progress.

Ryan was also interested in what Jonesy’s plan was, now that he had heard from several in Nevada that there was a new competition spaceship to Astermine’s control of the solar system. Nevada Base had watched the test flights, realizing that the test flights had originated from Israel. It was for pure enjoyment and pleasure that he began to hound his ex-chief astronaut for news, and he smiled when Jonesy often tried to elude his holocalls, and when the phone was finally answered by his ex-chief astronaut, holophones showed all facial emotions.

“Come on, Jonesy, I’m not the enemy. I’m not the Russian Space Agency, nor the U.S. government of old. I’m your ex-boss and interested in how your plans are coming along.”

“What plans? I’m in retirement,” Jonesy responded, looking guilty on the holophone.

Jonesy was again in Israel, and the Jones house, down the street from Ryan’s, had been awfully quiet for the last couple of months.

The old talk-only phones could hide one’s facial expressions, ones feelings of not exactly telling the truth. Holophones always showed the communicators on both sides, for security purposes. The holograph of the caller was shown before the phone needed to be answered, and this safety system had got rid of all the planet’s pesky sales and unimportant calls years earlier.

Ryan could see Jonesy was trying his best not to say more than he wanted to. He smiled at his ex-chief astronaut. It seemed Dr. Smidt in Nevada also gave Ryan less than all the news these days, and he had decided to get Kathy to visit Maggie when the Jones couple returned from wherever.

“Okay, I’ll let you in on my new project,” replied Jonesy, knowing that he had to say something.

“I take over Ceres Base next year once you have kept your side of our bargain and delivered the second shipload of building materials. I need a ship to get there and back. Also, Ryan, as we discussed, my parents are buried on Mars, outside the Retreat. I would like to visit the graves now and again while I’m heading to Ceres. I don’t take over the retreat for another two years. That’s all.”

“I understand you wanting to fly to Ceres and, of course, visit your parents, Jonesy, we’ve gone over that before, but I’ve heard that billions have been spent on a new ship. Even my old buddy Martin sidesteps my questions about what he is building for you. I didn’t know it was so secret. What type of ship, other than a shuttle, is needed for you to visit Ceres? Also, you wanted the use of a shuttle from Astermine. Why do you need two ships? Is it to do with the gas stations?”

Again Jonesy tried hard not to commit. “When my project is ready, I’ll fill you in, Ryan, okay?”

Ryan nodded, smiled, and seeing the usual Jonesy body squirm made his day.

“I look forward to that day, Mr. Jones. I really hope it’s not the actions of your secret boozing society I have heard so much of but know so very little about. Or I might have to tell Dr. Smidt and the U.S., Russian and Chinese governments that there are a bunch of drunkards trying to take over the solar system. Let me know, General Jones, my old friend. Signing off.”

Jones looked up and smiled after Ryan’s smiling face left his holophone.

“You can’t keep much away from Ryan,” suggested VIN, listening in to the call but out of the holophone’s visual range.

“Just a few more months and we’ll be far ahead of Astermine, NASA, Russia and the Chinese space companies. I always want to be ahead of the pack,” replied Jonesy. “I need Vitalily to get to Ceres with his boys from Mattville. I have ideas for a new headquarters and asteroid-mining center on the dwarf planet, and we need to fly ASAP. Partner, you coming?”

“I thought we were opening a bar on Ceres first?” VIN asked his partner.

“Yes, and Mattville, and the Retreat. Hell, I’m going to try to open one on Jupiter if I can. Roo will be my partner there, and I’m sure he could persuade a few of his kind to partake in alcoholic sustenance.”

VIN nodded his head in agreement. They were sitting at Martin’s hangar bar, enjoying the first cold beer of the day.

They had just completed the fitness program for the day. Especially at an older age, fitness was paramount in heading up to space. It was late afternoon, and the others had headed into Tel Aviv to shop after showering. They had all tried on new space suits earlier that morning.

Suzi still used prosthetic legs to complete her running, as she had done since her first days in the Astermine space program. It was the only time she ever connected up her legs, other than to walk around a craft while in space. She hated using them on Earth and preferred her hoverchair.

Her husband, VIN, and Jonesy with his newer legs always wore them.

“I don’t think getting the Matts drunk is a good idea. They’re pretty warlike without the stuff.”

“I was thinking the exact opposite.” Jonesy smiled at his partner. “I reckon that if I can get them into a bit more fun—booze, hangovers, dancing girls, poker; you know, everything that makes us humans lazy couch potatoes, and a new soft life for them—we could wean the meanness out of them.”

“Well, Suzi and I are excited to make one last trip with you.” VIN smiled. “You know she finds zero gravity more comfortable than here on Earth. I would like one more flight. Mars and Saturn will fly us there, with Little Mikey hankering at the bit to captain ASS-One. He’s going to make one hell of a chief astronaut one day. Gee, it could be one hell of a finale, our last flight together, partner, a fun ride to see the Retreat, your parents’ graves, Michael’s and Penny’s and the Saunderses’ graves, pick up the boys at Mattville, and then head over to Ceres to design the dwarf planet to one day be the Mecca of the East, or shall I say the solar system. Plus we can rile Martin on his first long-term flight.”

“Now you’re thinking like my old partner.” Jonesy smiled, stealing two more beers from the under-bar refrigerator.

“How do we get dancing girls out there?” asked VIN.

Jonesy smiled. “Ever heard of Playboy magazine?”

“Closed down decades ago, when we were young, bud,” was VIN’s reply. “I looked at a couple in Iraq, but haven’t thought about the magazine since.”

“I’ve been thinking, after talking to Martin’s guys about my parents’ holographs for their graves. Check this out.” Jonesy turned on the holophone and dialed into a private computer account on his work computer back on the island. Benyamin’s smiling face appeared. VIN could see it was a recording.

“Are you sure about this, Jonesy?” Benyamin stated. “Mr. Brusk will fire my butt if he ever finds out.”

“He will not find out until I tell him, and I will pay well and say I forced you against your wishes, Benyamin,” VIN heard Jonesy’s reply in the recording.

“Okay, top secret, Jonesy, please don’t tell a living soul. I got this recording from a basement late-night bar in Tel Aviv. A really bad place.”

To VIN’s total surprise, the holograph changed to a girl pole dancing. The music was provocative and the girl young and very beautiful. She was half naked and there was a rousing cheer from the onlookers in the dark club around her as her top was loosened by her hand and it dropped to the floor. Now all she had on was a tiny G-string, something VIN’s getting-old eyes had to really look hard to see.

Jonesy smiled at seeing his partner’s face at the holograph. His partner watched every move, as a man would, and he knew what was going through VIN’s mind. The holograph ended as the girl’s G-string began to be loosened by the smiling girl, who was looking directly at the camera both men were watching from. She winked once and Benyamin’s face returned. VIN’s upper body shot back like he had been hit by a blast.

“Wow!” was all VIN could say before the recording continued.

“We have so far got the dancer you saw into very high definition, or VHD, and nearly life-size on our latest holopodium floor. The girl is five feet ten inches tall, so a little tweaking and a slightly larger round podium and I think we could have the dancer life-size on our next model.”

VIN then heard Jonesy reply to Benyamin.

“How long? We plan to fly into space within the month, and I want my order fulfilled.”

“I have three more dance recordings for you, one without the pole and set up on a private and professional stage. Pretty heavy stuff, even for me, Jonesy. We finished editing yesterday and I will have three podiums ready for you with all four dance routines loaded,” replied the recorded Benyamin. “Two of the girls have accepted your offer of employment and want ten percent of the five million dollars up front. They still have commitments and will only be ready to leave in a year. Maybe your second flight to wherever. I still don’t understand why you want the live girls and their podium recordings, but you are you, Jonesy. The project, I must say, has been…interesting…and rather enjoyable…and I’m sure Martin will respond in an interesting way when he finds out. See you when you arrive next week. Shalom.”

“Wow!” was all VIN could say for the second time.

“I think that the three podiums will certainly excite miners to frequent my bars,” stated Jonesy, smiling at his partner.

“And they’re flying with us, the podiums, I mean?” asked VIN.

Jonesy nodded and smiled. “Respecting my parents, I had Benyamin keep the naughty podiums separate from the two grave podiums going up on my parents’ graves. And partner, you are the first person to know about these. For heaven’s sake, don’t tell Maggie. These podiums have cost me millions.”

“What cost who millions?” asked Maggie, walking into the bar area with Suzi in her hoverchair. Maggie had several packages and boxes. Suzi just had one package on her lap.

“Hello, dear, back already?” mused Jonesy, doing his usual Jonesy squirm. “I was telling VIN how much the holographs cost for my parents.”

“Big and bright enough to be seen halfway across the solar system,” mused Maggie, grabbing two cold beers, one for herself and one for Suzi from the bar.

“They cost you millions?” asked Suzi, also noticing the usual Jonesy squirm. They had worked long enough together to know when the whole truth and nothing but the truth was maybe not coming out of Jonesy’s mouth.

“Yes,” replied Jonesy, grabbing two more beers for VIN and himself as the others walked in.

“I suppose I need to restock the fridge?” asked Martin, seeing the opened and empty bottles of beer.

“Nothing is too much for my parents, and money means nothing to me anyway,” Jonesy continued.

“I smell some sort of rat in here.” Suzi smiled. “Maggie, do you also smell something not right?”

“Apart from these two old and tired Boy Scouts still trying to be Boy Scouts, nothing out of the ordinary, or shall I say different from the usual crap you and I face on a daily basis, my dear.” She smiled at Suzi and they clinked their bottles together.

“Something I need to know about?” asked Martin. “You are in my office, General Jones, and, I have heard, using my employee Benyamin more than I expected. He asked for a new order to be put off for a couple of weeks due to having to perfect your many holographs. You only had two parents, didn’t you?” he continued, opening beers for Mars, Suzi and himself.

“How did your space suit fitting go?” Jonesy asked Martin a few seconds later, to change the subject.

“And why do you ask?” replied Martin. He knew that he wasn’t going to get any more out of the old man. “All suit tests this morning were satisfactory, except that Suzi wanted more room around the knee area. We are giving her another inch.” That was the last tests needed before liftoff next week. “Jonesy, you still haven’t told me what your cargo is to Mars and Ceres?”

“I did,” replied Jonesy. “As I told you. One bulkhead full of liquid hydrogen fuel for Mattville for Dr. Smidt. A second for Ceres, and ten pallets of wood and building supplies and equipment. Three pallets of liquor, and one pallet of other luxury items. Twenty-eight tons in all. Oh yes, there is another pallet I have decided to take with. It is small and weighs in at five hundred pounds.”

“When is this last cargo arriving?” asked Martin.

“It’s already here, packed and sealed.” Jonesy smiled.

Martin looked at him, questioning. “Your two grave holopodiums for your parents don’t weigh five hundred pounds?” Martin questioned, but as usual, he was ignored by Jonesy.

Fitness training was now part of every day, and Jonesy, VIN and Suzi always came in first on the cross-country run. They had the more powerful metal legs to do so, and usually Martin was at the back, always working to catch the astronauts, who always enjoyed staying a few steps ahead of the newbie.

Little Mikey, just out of flight school, was the fittest of them all and could catch his grandmother, Maggie, easily, but not his other three grandparents wearing their metal legs. It was so frustrating, as he had always been first in flight school’s daily jogs, but here on the best legs the scientists at Nevada Base could produce, three people well over forty years his senior could outrun him at faster speeds than the best sprinter could run. He sometimes wanted a set of these legs.

For Little Mikey, his first flight into space would be far different than he had been taught in flight school. First, three of the seven crew were half metal. Some he reckoned had more metal than brains. Then Martin Brusk had never had space training and was going along for the ride. The only still-active astronauts were his parents, Saturn and Mars, and he was also very secure with his Grandmother Maggie’s flying abilities, even at her age.

Still, he reckoned he was heading up to space with an old-age home, not the young, strong and beautiful astronauts he had expected during flight school. Maybe it was time to get a long-term girlfriend.

Jonesy had weekly conversations with Roo in the Mattville town on Mars, as well as Vitalily and Dave Black at the same location. He didn’t have many allies on Ceres. There were only three astronauts remaining on Ceres, of which two were Vitality’s men, and one man from Dave Black’s Mars security detail. Vitalily had returned to Mattville with America Three on her last trip. There wasn’t much to do on the dwarf planet now that they had tidied the base up and inspected every inch of underground space. Supplies were needed to build. Vitalily’s men had over the months steadied the internal atmosphere pumped in daily by the Matt systems back to livable conditions.

As his two men had told Vitalily through the Ceres-Mars communications link, they were ready to have a vacation on Earth. They also gave Vitalily, who sent the information to Jonesy via his secure Mars-Earth link, the exact internal base measurements and what was needed to fix the place up.

Jonesy, VIN, Mars and Saturn knew that there were still one or two Matt fighters in the base. VIN and Mars had captured three during the battle, and two had been found by the three men. Three of the ships had headed back to Nevada Base inside America Three to be pulled apart and studied.

The Ceres team had helped unpack the tons of supplies to clean and shore up the damage done during the battle and, with Vitalily and three others, had helped Mars load the metals Martin had wanted into America Three for its return flight.

Mars and Vitalily had searched the base from head to toe and had found several empty caverns Mars explained must have been spacecraft hangars for the craft that had attacked them during the battle. There were five massive empty caverns the size of a large supermarket in a hexagon shape around the central base where the three doors had opened to outer space.

Due to boredom after Mars and Vitalily had left, the three men had checked and counted every pallet of metal bars a dozen times. Unfortunately they couldn’t tell, and didn’t have the information available, what the metals were, and that was why Martin was keen to be part of the voyage. He could tell the final numbers of which metals. Martin did know in advance from Jonesy that there were still hundreds of thousands of metal bars on dozens of pallets inside Ceres Base.

Martin Brusk also knew that it would take ASS-One several flights to bring all this valuable rare earth metal back. He also knew that all this metal would make him the richest man in the world, unless Ryan brought back all the metal from Mars, a couple of hundred times as much, and kept it for himself. Ryan wasn’t that kind of guy, but it would be nice to be the richest man on the planet, until he thought his thinking a little immature.

Martin had organized the several departments to be run in his fifteen-month absence by the department heads. He already had a few self-fly orders, orders for asteroid-mining ships from three countries, and of course, Jonesy’s first liquid hydrogen supply space tanker craft. The first of its kind.

Unfortunately, and thanks to his best customer, Jonesy, he could only purchase the older and less powerful engines from Franklin’s company. This company was now the largest space plasma thruster company in the world, and although there were several other companies making different engines, Franklin’s plasma thrusters were the most efficient engines on the market.

What really made Martin smile was Jonesy’s cargo. After all the new inventions and new and modern building materials, he had to take wood to build with. He hadn’t taken much interest in Jonesy’s ideas, and apart from wood for bar counters, he couldn’t understand why wood, of all materials, was so necessary. Some of the newer nanoplastics and metals were ten times lighter than the top-quality wood Jonesy had sourced. Redwood from the western United States was heavy.

These cut square logs were over fifty feet long, cut from one tree, and Martin hated to know what the wood had cost Jonesy. It seemed to him General John Jones was the richest man in the world now and was doing his best to spend it all.

Then there were the pallets of the world’s best quality Irish Scottish, U.S. and Canadian whiskeys, and Russian vodkas. Cases of wine, red and white. Beer-making equipment, dried hops, barley and yeast, and all Ceres needed to make its own beer.

Martin hadn’t been to Mars or Ceres and couldn’t understand how Suzi, as a biologist, with the late Mr. Rose had grown so much inside the seven cubes inside America One on the decade-long journey around the solar system and in the depths of the Martian Club Retreat. Martin hadn’t been there, and it suddenly clicked why Jonesy needed Suzi to go along on this, her final journey in space. They were going to make booze, lots of it.

Unbeknown to Martin Brusk, one of the world’s most successful businessmen for three long decades, he was about to get a big lesson on making money, big money, from years of planning by one of his best friends, John Jones. The launch was only two weeks away.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 7

Space—Here We Come

“Full fuel pressure to all four engines,” Saturn Noble ordered her husband sitting in the left pilot seat.

“This is it, my first real spaceflight to another planet,” thought Martin Brusk in the same seat he had used for the maiden and third test flight of ASS-One. The maiden flight had been a quick whip around the planet at the border of space. His second flight had been three orbits of Earth at 150 miles above the planet. Now he was heading with the best astronauts in the world all the way to Mars and then Ceres, and hopefully back home.

“Light up blue shield,” Martin heard Saturn order her husband sitting in the right seat. Martin was sitting with VIN and Suzi in the three jump seats right behind the two astronauts. These jump seats could be removed once in flight. Little Mikey Noble was sitting in one of two engineer’s chairs, his chair right behind Martin. Jonesy was in the second engineer chair behind VIN, doing the same as Little Mikey—monitoring the ship while Saturn and Mars piloted the craft.

The engineer’s chairs, which had been used on the four test flights, were for secondary flight control if needed, engineering of the craft’s flight, and the gunner positions for the two recently fitted lasers that had been purchased from Astermine in Nevada by Jonesy. Martin smiled at how General Jones seemed to wangle everything he needed out of poor Ryan Richman and poor Dr. Smidt, Martin’s best friends.

“Vertical liftoff, configuration Mars vertical climb stage A, climbing at four feet per second, eighty percent power. Mars, increase power to eighty-two percent,” stated Saturn as Martin felt the ship leave terra firma.

On this flight the ship was fully loaded, and it would be a different flight with full fuel and fuel cargo out of Earth’s atmosphere. Now he would find out if his latest ship worked according to plan.

“Increase to eighty-four percent power, Mars,” ordered Saturn.

“Roger, hold her at eighty-four percent power. Climb is now five feet per second.”

Martin knew well what the ship’s parameters were. With a full flight crew, passengers, full cargo and full fuel, 85 percent maximum power should be needed to get her off the ground inside the blue shield.

It was amazing, this Matt-made blue shield. ASS-One couldn’t get off the ground with full power and empty of all cargo and fuel without it. They still didn’t have a full complement of passengers, though.

Several more jump seats for liftoff could be folded out from the walls down the twenty-foot corridor to the cargo hold. With Jonesy’s input, they had designed the new ship from the front to the back.

First, the cockpit could seat seven in total, and there was room to move around, more like a bridge than a cockpit, as the three jump seats folded into the floor when not in use. The open area between the two astronauts flying the ship was twice that of the Astermine shuttles at four feet wide, and the cockpit was like the head of a viper, a triangle.

The two engineer sections were in the rear of the cockpit and next to the forward walls of the first two opposite sleeping apartments. The walls were nine feet wide, and the corridor in between the six apartments, three each side, was seven feet. There was a lot of room compared to the ships Jonesy and VIN had first flown asteroid mining in. This cockpit/bridge felt like a small mother ship’s control center.

The floor of the cockpit area was twelve feet above ground, but could hydraulically be lowered seven feet closer to the ground under the craft.

Facing aft, at the rear end of the third apartment on the right, was a six-foot-square exit cubicle/elevator, which could be lowered to ground level. This was the entry/exit door to the spacecraft and had been designed so that Jonesy, taller than six feet, could be elevated, with three others all standing up in full space suits, into the craft at a time. There was also the entry/exit cubicle with a larger eight-foot-square cargo hatch that worked on the same principle in the cargo bay. On the other side of the forward cubicle was a food preparation area, or kitchen.

In Astermine’s shuttles, the escape hatch in space had always elevated itself upwards through the roof of the ship. Jonesy had never understood this and had designed the downward entrance exit to ground level.

On one side of the cubicles was an airlock entrance, and when opened, the crew or cargo could be moved in or out of the ship.

All this Jonesy and VIN had learned from being cramped up in the asteroid-mining craft decades earlier, which had been designed by scientists who weren’t over six feet tall in space suits and had never been to space.

The main ceiling of the cockpit was over six feet high, but sloped down to the windows in the front and sides where the crew sat for takeoff.

Each of the apartments had four horizontal space beds, two each side one above the other, and four lockers at one end for personal storage. All four beds could be reconstructed into vertical sleeping units for zero-gravity spaceflight.

The reason for horizontal beds instead of the usual vertical beds only as were in the Astermine shuttles was the ability to sleep horizontally in low-gravity conditions, like on Mars and Ceres.

The other corner behind the door was a three-by-three-foot vertical spacebath and toilet. On the opposite wall was a metal desk with folding metal chair. There wasn’t much else needed for private space travel in zero gravity.

Every object in the cockpit was of a metal material that was high in magnetic ability. The mother ships had used centrifugal force to give the crew gravitational conditions through the long cruises. Unfortunately on all smaller craft, there would be no centrifugal force, but magnetic boots, sealed cups, and having nearly everything metal magnetized did give them some comforts.

The floor throughout the ship was metal, which gave their metal-soled space boots a connection to walk on.

“Vertical climb stage C, forty-three feet per second, ninety-six percent power, Mars,” Martin heard Saturn state to her copilot. It was slightly faster than the forty feet per second expected, but she was one percent above the expected power climb for stage C. He heard Saturn ask Mars to reduce power by one percent.

“Forward cruise stage A, rocket thrusters seven, eight, nine and ten changing from vertical to face thirty percent rear,” continued Saturn.

“Forward cruise stage B, rocket thrusters one to six changing from vertical to thirty percent rear,” she added a minute later as the nose of the ship began to climb higher.

At this time she was just calling out her flight movements, as much of the actual flying was now in the hands of the rockets beginning to push them upwards at an accelerating speed.

“Forward cruise stage C, all ten rocket thrusters at one hundred eighty degrees to flight direction. Guys, flight angle seventy-nine percent to vertical. We are heading out,” she added for the crew.

The stress on his body wasn’t as hard as astronauts like VIN and Jonesy had dealt with on their first flights into space under the raw uncontrolled power of rockets during the last century. He went back to daydreaming as he felt the ship rapidly increase its power-climb angle and he began to lie on his back more. He thought about the ship’s design to while the time away.

Behind the cockpit was a four-foot-diameter area that gave access to three separated supply chambers. The first was the crew’s provisions for the first three months of space travel. The second unit was for the return flight, or escape-pod food and water and fuel provisions, and the third the main and spare cold fusion reactors.

Jonesy had designed the entire forward cockpit up to the end of this area to be used as a detachable escape pod and had enough fuel, provisions and power to get the entire forward part of the ship back to an Earth orbit from either Mars or Ceres.

The forward part of the ship in escape-pod configuration couldn’t land on Earth, or any planet, but it was expected that the crew be rescued in orbit.

Behind this separation unit, the end of the cockpit area, was the seventy-foot-long cargo bay.

The rear end of this cargo bay was where the stubby wings began and the cargo bay was about the same length of the living space aboard ship.

Here, arrangements of pallets of cargo and dozens of bladders of fuel or water were stored. The seventy-foot-long counters and logs for Jonesy’s bars were tied down securely.

The rest, the rear four hundred feet of ship, was fuel tanks, extra thruster motors and two more cold fusion power units.

The middle, never-ending and smooth silver four-foot-diameter corridor went through to the rear end of the ship like a tunnel where the five fusion reactors and their five deuterium and tritium fuel containers were stationed.

Hatches could be opened at many intervals to check for wear around the sausage-looking internal fuel tanks, and gravity made the movement down the tube harder than in space. Also the forward area of the cockpit could be opened under the console in atmospheric conditions only to pack or remove longer pieces of cargo like the bar counters.

The first shivers of weightlessness enveloped Martin’s body as the feeling of rapid acceleration declined. Martin knew that 40 percent of the fuel tanks aboard the ship were already empty. ASS-One used 43 percent of her entire fuel to get the first sixty miles from the surface of Earth. A billion miles or more would be easily travelled with the remaining fuel. This fuel, once in orbit, would be moved through to the rearmost fuel tanks by the engineer, not that weight was a problem anymore. It was just a safety measure to keep the fuel as far away from the living area as possible.

“A well-controlled exit,” stated Jonesy to Saturn and Mars, and now they could take off their helmets. “Tell your mother, Saturn, that we are in our first circuit, and that we depart Earth orbit in three hours.”

Jonesy could have told his wife the exact same thing, but it was the flight captain who should send any reports to Earth, even though ground control already knew it from their telemetry. Even then, it was good to hear from the ship already far over their horizon, and that all was okay aboard. Saturn sent the message, put the ship on computer autopilot, and removed her helmet.

Mars and Saturn had the first cabin on the left, Little Mikey had the next to himself, and Jonesy the forward cabin on the right. VIN and Suzi had the cabin behind Jonesy, and Martin the last one behind theirs.

Suzi’s and Saturn’s longer hair mushroomed out as they let it go free, even though they had both cut their hair shorter for the flight. The men had all decided on short marine-style haircuts. It was far easier in space with little to no hair.

“A little too much power on vertical stage C,” stated Jonesy to Mars.

“Yes, it seemed that the throttle readout is not as accurate as predicted, Martin,” Mars responded. “I’ll check it more closely when we power her out of orbit.”

“What are our fuel reserves at?” asked Martin, still buckled in his seat. So were the others as they got used to no gravity again.

“Forty-two point eight three percent used on launch,” replied Mikey from the engineer’s chair.

“Forty-three percent should get us to first engine cutoff with full crew,” replied Martin. “It seems that my numbers will be perfect with a full crew aboard for launch.”

“Every drop is now a hundred times more valuable than back on Earth,” added Jonesy, getting out of his seat. Pushing himself off his seat, he expertly floated himself towards his cabin. “I’m going to take a nap. My legs always seem to hurt when I go into space these days.” With that, he opened the round float door, a smaller round float-through door in the middle of his cabin door, and disappeared.

Martin looked at Mars, then VIN for an answer while Suzi smiled, happy to be weightless, and she headed to her cabin to get her legs off. Mars smiled and let his dad answer.

“Ever since Jonesy was put to sleep in the Matt cryogenic chamber, his legs have hurt. The crew had to fold them backwards at the knee to fit him in he was so tall, and he slept for years in this position. You know Jonesy. It wouldn’t worry him if it didn’t hurt.”

“What do we do now?” Martin asked, still seated and buckled up as the others all began floating everywhere.

“Whatever you want, without bumping around the bridge.” Mars smiled as he disappeared into his cabin, and within seconds Martin was totally alone in the cabin he and Jonesy had so laboriously detailed.

It was a totally new moment for Martin. First the ride, his third, was so effortless, thanks to the blue shield. He could see outside the side and forward cockpit windows. These windows were also slightly bigger than on the Astermine shuttles. He had used a new form of nanosilicone armored glass that was far stronger than any glass previous. On this ship the glass was one and a half inches thick, half an inch thinner than any space glass before. Suddenly he felt very alone in a spaceship that was driving itself around the planet he had lived on all his life, and nobody was checking the controls, the readouts, or checking to see if they were at the right altitude.

“Guys, excuse me. Anybody want to check anything?” he asked anybody who was in earshot.

Little Mikey pressed his head out through his float door and looked at the poor builder. “Mr. Brusk, how many warning alarms are there on this ship you built? A thousand, maybe two thousand?” He smiled and his float door closed. Little Mikey was halfway out of his space suit and Martin thought to do the same.

“Speed perfect, nose heading away from Earth, hydrogen thruster power at eighty-five percent, plasma thrusters at ninety-two percent. We are beginning to leave Earth orbit,” stated Mars Noble to ground control and an empty cockpit three hours later. He knew well that sleep was the first thing most astronauts wanted to do once in flight. It seemed that the launch tired the body more than anyone thought, and half the crew were over normal spaceflight age anyway.

“Do you have an ETA for orbit exit on your readouts yet?” Maggie asked from ground control over a hundred miles below them.

“Seventeen minutes to directional flight away from planet,” Mars replied.

“How is everybody? Asleep, I assume?” Maggie asked.

“Affirmative,” Mars laughingly replied. “Martin was the last to go. We heard this little squeak about being alone in the cockpit, and Mikey told him it was sort of normal, and he headed to get out of his suit. I checked on him an hour ago. He was asleep on the ceiling of his cabin. I carefully slid him into his sleep chamber and tied him down. I’ll vertical his bed when he wakes up.”

“Give the poor man a break.” Maggie laughed back. “He has been in the space program for such a long time, knows about as much as us astronauts, but reality sometimes takes a bit of help to kick in when his feet have always been on the ground.”

“Heard from Ryan, Mum?” Mars asked. “Nevada Base is certainly monitoring the launch, and I’m sure they are following us.”

“Funny you ask.” Maggie smiled. “Ryan holophoned Jonesy twenty minutes after launch. I assume Dr. Smidt or Igor or Boris told him about the launch from Israel space. I answered it, and he was quite surprised that a Jones was still on the planet. I told him he already knew where Jonesy was, and that he would be back in a year or two. I told him that I would be flying back to the island alone in a few hours, and I invited him and Kathy for dinner tomorrow night Aussie time. That told him where everybody else was, and he actually asked if VIN and Suzi were aboard. He was quite surprised that they had gone along. He didn’t think that Suzi or I belonged to A.S.S., and I told him we don’t. That really got him going. Tell Jonesy that I think Ryan is rather jealous that he is not in the picture. Kathy actually got on the phone and asked why she wasn’t invited to Mars. Anyway I know what to tell them, and whatever the plan is. My boy, fly safe, good luck and God speed. Speak to you again when I get back to Australia. Out.”

“Heard that,” stated Jonesy, floating out of his cabin. Mars knew that Jonesy would wake up after hearing Maggie’s voice. “Kathy I can understand wanting to come along, but Ryan, he wouldn’t. He’s done with spaceflight.”

“Agree,” replied Mars.

“Anyone checked on Martin?”

“Yep, found him curled up asleep in his long johns on the ceiling of his cabin.” Mars laughed. “I got him settled.”

“He’ll be out for a full eight hours. I feel the same but want to watch us leave orbit. It was always my favorite time of every flight, when the nose points to a nothing place in space. Apart from VIN and I relaxing at the end of our cords on our mining flights, we weren’t allowed out of America One. On this flight I can do what I want. We have better suits than twenty years ago, and I think I might enjoy being da boss of da flight,” he stated happily, floating in his long johns and swinging himself into the left pilot seat to monitor the readouts.

“I think decent dress should be part of the daily requirements,” joked Saturn. “You might scare my mother-in-law, floating about in your underwear, Captain.”

“General to you, darling. Doubt it, she’s a biologist and been around me for longer than you have breathed oxygen, and I agree, I’ll sort out flight rules once we’re out of orbit. Remember, our exercise equipment is in the roof of the corridor behind us, so there will be different forms of dress worn by everyone at different times. Saturn warned me how strict you are during flight, young Mars. I am da boss on this flight, flown over several billion miles, and don’t need to hear any crap from some youngster who can’t shave yet.”

Mars smiled at that one. It was always fun to be with his father-in-law. He was forty, had shaved for over half his life, and it was always interesting what could come out of Jonesy’s mouth. He got back to business.

“Angle from orbit beginning to increase. We are leaving orbit.”

“Hopefully we’re not dead when we leave orbit, young Mars. You think it’s a little early for your father and me to go sunning outside in our suits?”

Mars nodded his head at Jonesy in disbelief and concentrated on taking them out of orbit.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 8

Mars Looks Nice at This Time of Year

Jonesy did set up rules of flight twenty-four hours later. By this time Earth was a smaller blue planet behind them as they headed for an empty place in space the planet Mars would be in ninety-eight days.

Ninety-nine days to Mars was half the required amount of time that Astermine’s mother ships would take at perfect opposition. Even then ninety-nine days was still a long time.

Exercise was needed by each crew member for at least four hours a day, and Martin realized how easy it was to bike upside down from the roof.

When Jonesy had ordered the three exercise bikes, three treadmills and two elliptical trainers set into the roof of the corridor between the apartments, Martin had thought he was mad. The width of the corridor was only seven feet, which made two exercise machines alongside each other very tight. He solved that problem by spacing the machines, not alongside, but diagonally behind the other. This made just enough room for all the machines to be used at once, although not all the machines were needed at once with the amount of crew on this trip.

The weirdest to Martin was walking on the treadmill upside down. Everybody was tethered to their machine and the tethers tightened down while exercising. There was no rush of blood to the head. It felt completely normal even though the rest of the crewmembers looked like they were sitting in the cockpit on the roof.

He was also surprised when he was strapped into the treadmill how the effort of actually walking the special NASA-designed treadmill was far more exercise than he had thought. His legs had to actually help step the rubber walkway along, and within five minutes, he was beginning to sweat.

It took him days to get used to the really interesting phenomenon of space travel.

The other astronauts, even Suzi with her prosthetic limbs, floated up and climbed on and off each of the three types of exercise machines daily.

Martin smiled a couple of hours after the first crew’s exercise night. They were all relaxing strapped into the cockpit seating when Jonesy pulled out a bottle of whiskey with its special sealed cap that needed to be sucked hard to drink the liquid inside. He made a toast for the flight.

“VIN, my old partner, a person who I have done this often with. Saturn and Mars, official members of the Astermine Secret Society, I hereby toast that we may ‘Splice the Main Thruster’ together again, as we have done on all our voyages through space. I am proud to invite two of our newer A.S.S. members, Martin and Little Mikey, to be offered to ‘Splice the Main Thruster’ for the first time with us in space. And finally to our guest, a nonmember but still dear to our hearts, Suzi Noble. You can still join our club and become an official member, and since you are a guest, you may take the first drink.”

“A load of absolute schiezze as usual, Herr Jones,” joked Suzi, but she did hold her hand out to take the bottle. She took a good swig and handed it back to Jonesy.

What Martin didn’t know was that one’s head hurt really badly the next morning from drinking in space. Little Mikey found out the hard way as well, and the head pain also reminded Suzi why she hadn’t joined A.S.S. in the first place.

For the others, it seemed that the hangover pain was expected, and although quiet, they got on with their daily routines.

It was a week later when the new astronauts watched in disbelief as the two older astronauts totally relaxed at the ends of two hundred-foot cords outside the ship. Lying on their backs with their hands behind their heads, they waved and acted if they were sunbathing in the sun’s rays.

By this time Earth was a small blue dot on the horizon behind the ship, and both men watched their home in the distance.

“I think I can see Australia,” stated VIN, who still had perfect vision.

“Look at the island and see what Ryan is doing,” joked Jonesy.

Suzi wasn’t interested in trying out her husband’s space hobby and thought it a waste of suit oxygen, but Mars and Saturn, and then Little Mikey and his grandfather Jones, to teach him the ropes, tried out the sunbathing routine over the next few days.

Martin wasn’t experienced enough yet to tempt fate, nor did he really have an interest in lying out in the middle of nowhere and pretending he was getting a tan.

Another week into the flight, Earth grew even smaller, and for the first time Martin felt what all the other astronauts had done once in their flying lives. He felt very alone. Little Mikey, far younger, considered the project pure adventure and didn’t feel the internal loneliness Martin did once Earth looked really far away. All his family, most of his friends and all his work colleagues lived on that little blue ball of light in the middle of nowhere. The moon had actually become a star.

The last time he had seen Israel was as a piece of brown land in the rear corner of one of the cockpit windows, and now there was so much distance behind them and nothing ahead of them.

Communications with Earth were growing less and less. Martin did spend thirty minutes a day being told how his dozen or so companies were running, and he always spoke to his space headquarters in Tel Aviv or his atmospheric aircraft/car headquarters in California. It felt for the first time in his life that he wasn’t a part of or in control of his businesses anymore, and over the next couple of weeks, his daily communications decreased down to shorter and shorter daily reports. Also holographs didn’t work in space yet, and communications were back to verbal radios.

Jonesy and the others spoke daily to Maggie, who was patched in at the house from the island’s airport radio tower.

“I can now see why this space travel made you a sodden bunch of alcoholics,” Martin said to the others in week four. They were nearly a third into the flight, and once a week, the crew “Spliced the Main Thruster”, as Jonesy called it.

For Martin and Little Mikey, it was harder and harder to keep themselves occupied. Reading was the biggest way to pass time. Movies got old once one had seen them a few times. Music never got boring, and he had enjoyed Frank Sinatra until Jonesy began to play the Crooner for several hours a day. During this time, VIN wore earplugs, and the rest of his crew quickly followed suit.

Martin did enjoy chess, and a couple of games a day with Mikey or Mars was a lot of fun and a time consumer.

“Maggie only allowed you Sinatra for one hour a day, General Jones,” stated VIN to Jonesy in the fifth week, after even he and Suzi had had enough.

Jonesy ignored the comments and smiled, listening to his favorite singer. Suzi retaliated by increasing her favorite music’s volume when it was her turn. Bavarian Oom-pah music made Jonesy’s skin crawl, and during week six, a compromise was reached on one hour per day, per person.

As with all spaceflights, each day became a routine of exercise, reading eBooks, playing chess, and trying to stay out of each other’s way. Pastimes like computer games became boring and were forgotten by the younger members of the crew.

Martin had the hardest time. The other six crewmembers were family and naturally seemed to get on better with each other. Often Suzi had several stern words to say to Jonesy, and she seemed the best crewmember to put him in his place when he needed it. Martin couldn’t imagine how the crew had survived for a decade to Saturn and back, but he kept reminding himself that the mother ship had been far larger and that there was far more to do.

The daily transmissions to Mattville became clearer and faster as the Earth transmissions began to slow and take longer to reach Earth. It was really hard, Martin realized, to have a conversation with someone on Earth when he had to wait longer and longer for a reply.

The ship maker did spend an hour every day with Mars, who as copilot was in charge of checking the daily flight details on his shift.

The days were broken up into twelve-hour sections in week seven. The crew all finally agreed that there was more room if half the crew slept for twelve hours and the other half ran the ship and did their routines and exercises.

Jonesy, VIN, Suzi and Little Mikey were happy to spend twelve hours together, and Mars, Saturn, and Martin the other twelve. This meant that music had to be played softer in the cockpit, and solved the problem of what the crew called “Sinatra Stretch”, Jonesy’s natural ability to stretch his allotted music time over the days.

Finally, Jonesy had had enough and decided that by finally relenting to wearing his uncomfortable headphones, he could listen to his favorite songs as long as he wanted. Maggie had reminded him of the Christmas present she had purchased for him for the flight during week six, and where he had packed them away. The crew seemed to get on better after that.

Outside, nothing ever changed. The sun always shone twenty-four seven. It never got bigger or smaller, and there was absolutely nothing to look at outside the ship. Martin worked on designing the gas transporters sometimes when he and Jonesy were together for a few hours. The designs became extremely detailed and would be sent back once they arrived at Mattville.

Everything Martin remembered about workdays, daylight and dark, and his old life began to recede into ideas of remembrance, and in week eight, he began to want this never-ending flight to end. It would soon, they were over halfway, and the first sign of a color change on Mars suddenly made him the happiest man in the solar system.

ASS-One was already braking for its meeting with the red planet, and during week ten, the planet grew from a star to a dot, a little red dot.

Jonesy and VIN celebrated by spending an hour in suits and corded in their favorite position alongside the ship at 112,000 miles per hour. Mars and Saturn took their place an hour later and enjoyed the view, telling Martin afterwards how beautiful their ship looked from outside. There was no way Martin was going out there.

Little Mikey persuaded Suzi to head out with him, and they celebrated by taking a wide-angle snapshot of the ship for Martin. He thanked them, but was still not putting a leg into a space suit for the occasion. He did celebrate with a mouthful or three of vodka later that Saturday night as the A.S.S. members did every Saturday night, knowing what it would do to him the next day. At least he could sleep it off; the gas transporter ship design was complete.

“Mars looks nice at this time of year,” stated Jonesy for no apparent reason as he looked at the larger red dot of Mars through the right-hand cockpit window. Mars was still off to the right side of the ship ten days after Jonesy’s second and last space tan, and this unorthodox statement made Martin think what season it was back at home.

“What do you mean nice at this time of year?” he asked Jonesy. They were playing a game of chess in the forward cockpit seats, and as usual, Jonesy had made his opponent think of something else other than the game in front of him. Jonesy just smiled, looking at the metallic chessboard and pieces. Martin quickly realized this, and his quick mind searched for a response.

“How are you going to make Ceres a mining town?” he asked Jonesy, knowing what was close to his opponent’s mind.

Jonesy smiled. A “red herring” from Martin was easily noticed, and Jonesy played on, beating the man soundly.

“Mayor Max Von Braun, how is that underground town of yours doing?” Jonesy asked his old friend a week after his last chess game with Martin. By this time Mars was a planet pretty much in front of the ship and was growing larger by the day, and they were in the final week of slowdown before heading into orbit around the red planet.

“Doing well, Jonesy. Good to hear your voice again, you really sound close, and as you know, we’re waiting for the next shipment of supplies from the two mother ships next year from Earth. Matt ruler Roo is here with me, with his wife. He wants to say a few words about our new welcoming station.”

“Hello, Mr. Jones,” stated Roo, as he always did to Jonesy. Roo had been the shortest man on their voyages together, Jonesy the tallest. This had always been a joke between the men once the Homo sapiens had given the first Homo floresiensis ever met a sense of humor.

The first meeting of the two alike, but not exact, species of man was a long story. It had taken Jonesy a couple of years to teach Roo what a sense of humor was on the journey to Saturn and her moons, and they had become close friends. Roo was the only Matt, as his race called themselves, to join A.S.S.

“Are you still as short as the last time I saw you?” joked Jonesy.

“I think I have grown an inch, Mr. Jones, but as I told you long ago, we grow slower, and it will take me at least two hundred years to grow one inch taller than you.” The Matts were much shorter, but lived three to five times longer than the average Homo sapiens. “My wife sends her regards to you and your crew, Mr. Jones. Tell VIN and Mars that I will try to communicate with them once you and I have finished talking. We have been very busy down here in Mattville and you will be surprised how much Mayor Von Braun and I have accomplished. Mr. Jones, I want to tell you officially that the old landing cavern that was destroyed in the wars has been rebuilt. We will be calling it ‘Welcome Station’ once it is complete in seven months’ time. The walls are complete and are made of gold to stop cosmic radiation. Actually, all our inner walls are made of layers of gold…”

“Why are you telling me this officially?” questioned Jonesy once Roo had stopped talking and as usual hadn’t ended what he was saying.

“So you don’t steal our new gold walls, Mr. Jones,” came the honest reply. Jonesy and the crew aboard ASS-One burst into laughter, as did many down on Mattville. Once Jonesy collected himself, he continued.

“What makes you think I’m coming all this way to steal your gold, Roo?”

“Because you Tall People believe it is so valuable, Mr. Jones, and Mayor Von Braun wanted me to remind you that all the gold down here belongs to Astermine, not A.S.S.”

Both Max Von Braun and Roo were members of A.S.S., and it seemed Ryan or Dr. Smidt were certainly worried about their massive supplies of gold reaching the wrong hands.

Jokingly Jonesy asked Roo how thick the gold layer was on the walls of the new station. The answer of eight feet thick silenced the entire crew aboard the spaceship. Most knew how large the cavern was, and that was a lot of gold.

It was twenty minutes later when both VIN and Mars had their mental thought capabilities awoken, and both began to practice mental telepathy once again. Something they couldn’t do between each other and hadn’t done for many years.

Jonesy might have taught Roo how to be funny, but Roo had taught VIN and Mars how to talk without speaking. Little Mikey did not have the same blood group as his father and grandfather, Rhesus negative, and looked on as smiles came onto the two older men’s faces. It seemed Roo’s sense of humor was as good as the two men’s mental telepathy.

Nine days later the ship left orbit and descended into the weak Martian atmosphere towards the eight-foot-thick pure gold walls of Mattville.

First, though, they would visit the Martian Club Retreat and land on the plateau. ASS-One was far too large to enter the new welcome center of Mattville, and nobody had thought to build an outside landing area, not that the ship needed it.

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Chapter 9

Mars Is Really Orange, Or Is It Still Red, Or Is It Burgundy?

“Yes, Martin, the color of the planet’s surface changes quite a bit the closer we get to its surface,” stated Suzi as they headed around the planet forty miles high on their second orbit. Even though they were wearing full space suits, nobody had put on a helmet yet.

Jonesy was still the most experienced astronaut on the flight and had taught all the youngsters how to fly here, inside the far weaker Martian atmosphere than on Earth. Both Mars and Saturn had been his first students, but this was a first for Little Mikey. Mars had offered his father-in-law his right-hand copilot seat out of respect for the flight into the atmosphere. Saturn and her father as copilot took the ship in, both astronauts very experienced in Martian atmospheric flight.

“Decrease forward speed to Mach three thousand, altitude to stay above thirty-five miles until the first marker,” stated Jonesy, with Saturn rolling her eyes. She had done this a couple of dozen times.

“Once a teacher and a parent, always a teacher and a parent,” she thought to herself. Her father couldn’t help himself.

Over the years of flying, Astermine and its astronauts had recorded markers on all flights from the first entry into the atmosphere, and computerized markers had been saved on latitude and longitude positions once the computers aboard America One, the first mother ship, had stayed in orbit for a couple of years and had mapped and photographed the entire planet.

There were a couple of hundred miles between the mostly underground base of the Retreat and the entire underground base of Mattville, and in this short distance, Mars’s surface topography changed entirely. From an entirely flat surface with massive impact craters and old meteor hit sites around the Retreat, to hills and high mountains dotted around Mattville.

Slowly, as they descended, landmarks were remembered and pointed out to Martin. Jonesy had the ship nose-down for the descent, and a perfect view of the surface far below could be seen through the cockpit windows.

“See that canyon, the largest one straight in front of us,” stated Jonesy.

Martin nodded.

“That is the deepest canyon we ever found, over fifteen thousand feet deep, and below a covering of red dust is an open watering hole.”

“It was a real shock to find water in liquid form on the surface,” added VIN.

“How can that be?” asked Martin as the canyon passed beneath them.

“The added atmosphere pressure at the extremely deep depth, I was told,” added Suzi. “I’m a biologist not into physics, and it seems that the canyon is so deep that there is a strong atmospheric pressure down there, enough to keep water in a liquid form during Mars’s warmer months. It was really a wonderful sight when the red dust cover was cleared away and I first saw the water glinting in the sun. Maybe the best sight I ever saw on this empty planet.”

“The canyon on our right,” interrupted Jonesy. “That is the Retreat’s canyon and where we are heading, Martin, Mikey.”

“I wonder if that old NASA Rover is still there, son. What was its name?” asked VIN. They had both kept track of an old NASA Mars Rover that had spied on them during the early days over a decade and a half earlier. Mars responded that the Rover’s name was Opportunity. He hadn’t forgotten.

Half an hour and a third pass later, Saturn stilled the ship and hovered over the crater. The two blue shields were now visible ten thousand feet below them, and Jonesy worked the radio to warn the base of their arrival. He had tried twice already, but had had no response to their calls. Mattville had heard his calls and told them that it sometimes took them a week to get in touch with the ten scientists at the Retreat.

The scientists were not good at monitoring the base’s radio, except when there had been a dust storm for three months a year earlier.

While on hover at ten thousand feet, Mars retracted the blue shield, as their thrusters would have to spray downwards and clear the dust off the landing zone before they could land, or the dust could mess up the thrusters on takeoff.

By touching and mating the shields together once theirs was extended again, and overlapping a small part of the shield walls, the astronauts would be able to walk inside from one shield to the other. There was atmosphere in both the Retreat shields, and Jonesy noticed that the inner shield still covered the corner and main entrance to the “porch”, as it was called. The rest of the base was inside the wall of the impact crater.

As the craft lowered and glinted in the late-day sun, tiny shapes in the blue shields could be seen looking up at them. They were humans, ten of them, and what could be seen through the two blue shield walls looked like heavy green growth, and ten humans with no space suits.

They seemed to know the rules, and as the ship descended and the thrusters made a massive and powerful dust storm, the ten figures could be seen slowly stepping through the shield wall into the porch, and the last one closed the outer door behind them.

The dust, with the thrusters on high power, blew out rapidly and, due to the extreme pressure, bounced off the blue shields. The blue shields would accept any particle travelling softly, or very slowly, including the human body and any cargo, but as soon as particles were rapidly blown about, they bounced off the walls.

Ten minutes later the plateau below them was as clean as if a vacuum cleaner had cleaned the rock, and the massive dust cloud hundreds of feet in every direction slowly began to disperse.

Saturn brought the ship down while Mars extended the shield.

“Sorry, we had nobody covering the radio,” stated somebody from inside the base as Mars pushed the buttons on the console to begin filling the shield with the same Earth air they had pumped out on takeoff over three months earlier.

From Earth they had travelled in a vacuum inside the shield, and now hundreds of cubic feet of perfect Earth atmosphere was pressurized into the growing shield. Suzi questioned if the air would smell any different from the manufactured air in the Retreat shields that might have been here for a few decades?

“General John Jones, ex-United States Air Force, with a crew of six aboard ASS-One. It will take at least eight hours for our shield’s atmosphere to stabilize, so we will come across in full suits, over.”

“ASS-One, hey! Never heard of a ship with such a weird name. Sounds cool. Yes, of course, Jonesy. You know we’re not used to visitors, so give us an hour and we’ll clean up and make ourselves and the base presentable. I’ve heard you all have been here before, so the outer door and decontamination chamber are ready for you,” stated the same voice, a male who seemed British with a fancy accent.

“I don’t think you should state the ship’s name, Dad. He also seemed to know your voice?” questioned Saturn with a broad smile after she heard the reply from the Retreat. “They might think you’re insulting them, especially if they don’t speak American well.”

“Their problem,” replied her father, stone-faced, getting up and grabbing his helmet while Saturn went through her close-down routine.

Jonesy, VIN, Suzi, and Mars had been here on the plateau outside the Martian Club Retreat many times, and gradually all the familiar sights came back to them. Nothing much had changed. Saturn stayed to close down the ship and set the computer to open the shield fully and continue to pump in the air.

“It doesn’t look any different from when we blasted out of here between the dust storms,” stated Mars, helping Suzi ready her helmet. Once his mother was done, Mars helped Saturn with hers, as she would join them once finished.

“Well, we had to hover and move at least a foot of dust before we could land,” added Jonesy. “Less than some of the bigger storms. I remember there was around three feet of dust after that real big one kept us prisoner here for a year and a half.”

“It seems the dust covering was a little less than average,” added VIN, helping Martin with his helmet.

“It doesn’t look like there has been a big storm from my window,” added Suzi through the intercom as her helmet was already on her head.

It took a good ten minutes to have all seven helmets secure and tested before the crew readied themselves to walk on real ground again. Saturn would stay behind and finish her job.

The experienced Mars walkers would hold Martin and Little Mikey steady, as a jump of excitement could lead to a high bounce of twenty to thirty feet.

Jonesy, VIN, Suzi and Little Mikey headed into the exit elevator first, which would take them down to ground level and, with still no atmosphere, would open once depressurized.

The atmospheric air inside the elevator compartment would be sucked out, cleansed, and then would be pressured back into the chamber once the door closed behind them.

Even though the group had been to Mars often, it still took getting used to the lack of gravity outside on terra firma, which was less than inside the ship without their magnetic soles, which stuck them to the ship’s floor enough to steady their movements.

Jonesy looked around. The vista looked exactly the same as it had years earlier. What pleased him was that all this…nothing…was now his, or about to become his. He surveyed his new property like an experienced property purchaser.

Through the small but growing shield wall, he could see the outside porch area of the base, a long flat extremely heavily protected building whose roof and three sides had two-foot-thick padding of what Ryan had described to him decades ago. It was the same material that was the hull of ASS-One.

Jonesy struggled to remember what the material the thick protection part of the porch’s wide and flat roof was made of. “Honeycombed…liquid…hydrogen-filled…carbon nanotube structure…with a layer of carbon graphite each side, and doubled or tripled in layers…if I remember what Ryan told me,” he thought to himself. The entire front wall of the porch, the large and thick see-through nanosilicone glass panels, had been made in the mother ship America One while it was in orbit around the planet. He remembered how good and precise the Astermine scientific team had been all those years ago. Jonesy also remembered that looking out through the windows was like looking through a clear glass bottle, although everything was slightly distorted with the thickness of the wall.

He knew that the slight increase of cosmic radiation inside the porch was still safe for humans, as long as they didn’t live on the porch twenty-four seven.

The usual layer of dust had built up slightly outside the blue shields, and since he had lots of time, Jonesy decided to get two of his holographs down. He asked Mars to get the two holographs marked “Mom” and “Dad” out of the cargo hold.

Ten minutes later the glass-sided elevator lowered itself from the bottom of the ship a few feet above his head, and Martin and Mars Noble descended with the two holographs.

“I reckon it’s going to be dark in a few minutes,” suggested VIN to Jonesy, looking at the sun sinking over the horizon, the canyon wall.

“Just enough time to get over there and see if they work,” Jonesy replied.

“Of course they’ll work, Mr. Jones,” quipped Martin, helping Mars pick one up while Jonesy grabbed the other one. They were light. On Earth they had weighed eighty pounds each. Here on Mars they were around fifteen pounds and easy to carry.

Martin was shown how to very slowly slip through the blue shield wall, and for the first time in his life, he stood outside the protection of Earth’s atmospheric conditions as it grew dark on the plateau. The wall was still growing outwards, and he stopped and stood still while the others watched.

Within two minutes, the wall had expanded and enveloped his whole space suit until he was back in the shield again. He then tried to move his leg through the wall too quickly and it felt like he had kicked a wall.

“Slowly, Martin,” stated Suzi, helping him through for the second time.

The color of the light changed from being blue inside the shield to rustic browns, reds and oranges outside. Martin was quite shocked at the amount of color changes there were. The dust was mostly a reddish color, but here and there were small glistens of light, or pebbles that stared at him with a dull orange, and others that were dark burgundy, many actually already black from the sinking sun.

“Quite a change, huh!” commented Suzi as she stood next to him.

“This is real space?” Martin asked Suzi.

“Except for the weak Martian atmosphere, this is pretty much outer space. Look up, the dust has mostly gone.”

He did, and to his amazement, the sudden vista of stars above his head was the clearest, sharpest, and most lit-up version of the Milky Way he had ever seen. It was about ten times better than he had ever seen on Earth.

“It was amazing to us who ended up visiting the asteroids and meteors for mining,” continued Suzi as Martin looked up in awe. “There, it was even better and clearer than this, Martin. On the asteroids it felt like you were really one amongst the stars. Here, the Martian atmosphere still weakens the view. I remember the first time Maggie exited the mining shuttle on the first asteroid. For ten minutes I couldn’t understand what she was doing, until I could exit and watched her jumping up a few feet in little weak jumps, trying to catch a star.”

“Little jumps?” asked Martin, still gazing upwards as the darkening sky made the bright lights, billions of them, even brighter.

“Ja, I learned the hard way. I thought what she was doing was fun, and I jumped high, forgetting how powerful my prosthetic legs are. I sailed up over two hundred feet and landed the same amount away from the craft. I was lucky I didn’t tear my suit or hurt myself, and learned a valuable lesson.”

“Are you two going to stargaze all day, or do you want to see the holographs activated?” stated Jonesy, ruining their special stargazing moment.

The others had all exited the shield wall, and the four others were walking away from the shield and porch to an empty spot to the left of the base. They followed on, Martin making sure that he didn’t take too big strides or put too much power in his step, and as Suzi told him, laughing, he took little steps, more like a shuffle. He slowly got used to the way to walk on Mars.

The crew followed Jonesy, who carried one of the round holographs by himself. VIN carried the other while Little Mikey walked too hard and kept taking steps a couple of feet high. He was certainly enjoying himself, laughing every now and again.

“Mikey, are you going to act like a drunk kangaroo, or are you going to learn how to walk on this planet, boy?” Jonesy asked as the young man nearly collided with him. The area around them was now lit up from above like a bright full African moon on Earth, and there was no moon in the sky. “Asteroids and moons are twice as hard to walk on as this gravity.”

Jonesy was right. Martin felt like he was a walking meandering drunk who didn’t have control of his legs, while the others, more experienced, walked as if they were back on Earth.

“Here are the graves,” stated Jonesy.

Martin stopped and saw two very old and petrified-looking wooden crosses standing up in a bed of dust. They had been walking through at least a foot of light powdery dust for the last several feet.

“I’m going to have to clean and get a blue shield over this area, or I’ll never find the graves again,” continued Jonesy. “VIN, we’re going to have to clear this area as soon as we get an extra shield from our secret stash inside the Retreat tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen to the holographs once the dust covers them. Martin?”

“You didn’t tell me or Benyamin about all this dust,” Martin responded. “I’m sure this dust stuff will get in the way of the holograph projection once it’s covered. We need a shot of compressed air or something to keep them clear. Ever get any wind around here?” That got two good hearty laughs from four of the group.

“Martin, we’re going to use a blue shield to protect my parents’ graves, one Ryan doesn’t know about, comprehend? We have a few friends buried in different places, you remember them, my friends both the Pitts and Saunders, who will one day be buried out here,” added Jonesy. “Actually, with this beautiful vista, I think this could be a good resting place for me.”

“I agree, and me!” stated Martin and all the others at the same time.

“An Astermine cemetery for A.S.S. members and all our friends,” added Jonesy. “I bet even Ryan and Kathy would want their bodies brought up here. I had actually forgotten why I placed my parents here in the first place. This area away from the porch was always the most beautiful place on the whole plateau. Partner, while you and Mars headed out looking for that NASA Rover Opportunity, I used to come out here and think. There is a rock, or it should be here.” Jonesy walked a few steps, and suddenly he rose out of the dust and stood on a rock that was as high as the dust. It was also flat.

“That’s correct. I remember your rock. You were with Maggie, VIN and me when we buried your parents here, Jonesy,” continued Suzi. “I remember you saying that there was nothing to eat the bodies out here, like ants and bugs. I always remember that sentence. You were resting, sitting on that rock, and what you said hit me like a ton of Martian rocks.”

“Would that hurt in this weak gravity?” Little Mikey asked jokingly, but was ignored.

“I’m sure the cosmic radiation isn’t good for your parents,” stated VIN, trying to clear some of the dust away from around the crosses with his gloves and making a dust cloud ten times bigger.

There was nowhere to leave the two holographs, other than one on the rock Jonesy had found. He set his down and with his gloves pressed the few buttons to set it going.

Suddenly a full-color holograph of an older couple in their seventies erupted in the dust above the podium. It was very bright against the darkness and dust, a lifelike size, and Jonesy and the others stood back to take it in. The picture was a still, single shot of Jonesy’s parents sitting on a chair in a park on Earth somewhere.

“Maggie took that photo in Colorado Springs,” stated Jonesy. The others hadn’t seen the holograph yet, apart from Martin.

“It looks far brighter here than we saw it on Earth,” Martin stated. “I thought you had shelved that picture of your parents together?”

“Yes, but I decided on it until I could get a real tomb up here. What do you call them, an aboveground tomb?”

“A crypt or mausoleum,” answered Martin.

“Yes, the holograph is very bright out here. Far brighter than on Earth. Martin, how long will the battery last?”

“It’s our latest lithium battery. I think a year at least, I’d say two years at the most, depending on these cold subzero temperatures out here, but there is a power coupling to any power system you might have here. It’ll take seven days to charge a flat battery, and that, Jonesy, you’ll have to sort out the power connection yourself. I’m already out of my comfort zone of knowledge up here.”

“We’ll figure it out. The photo was the last one I took of them before we all left for Mars. They were showing Maggie and me around Colorado.”

“The external power supply from the ship will power it up, but that cable is only a hundred feet long. This seems a hundred yards or so from your landing area. I can get you a special cable in with America Two next year,” added Martin.

Jonesy nodded.

As they walked back to the Retreat, Saturn walked up and joined them, and they could see a couple of excited faces peering and waving at them from inside the building. Jonesy turned around several times to admire his handiwork, his brain already working out the requirements for a full-blown cemetery.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 10

The Martian Club Retreat and Visit to Mattville

“Welcome, Earthlings, and Jonesy. We have American lager, English bitter, red wine, white wine, vodka, German schnapps, and American rye whiskey…and Panama Red. What’s your fancy, astronauts?” stated the thin, long-haired and hippy-looking seventy-year-old British-sounding character, who shook hands once their gloves were off, as he welcomed the crew to the Retreat.

“Hi, Paul, you look thin, but well.” Jonesy smiled once he had removed his helmet. The other crewmembers, apart from VIN, who smiled, looked on in shock. Jonesy knew this guy?

“Paul, may I introduce you to my daughter, Saturn; her husband, Mars; Martin Brusk, who built our ship; my partner VIN you know; and his wife, Astronaut Dr. Suzi Noble. Lastly, Astronaut Mikey Noble, my grandson.”

Paul bowed and still the crew was shocked.

“You’re already running this base, Dad?” Saturn asked.

Jonesy smiled. “Have been for over a year and a half now, and ever since I got Paul as part of the science team under Dr. Smidt’s supervision.”

The shocked crew looked at Jonesy. VIN smiled. They didn’t know anything yet. “First we clean up; then we go forward,” suggested Jonesy, and they knew the way to the change room.

They had entered the building through the closer entry chamber. One had been built in each end of the long porch.

Before the blue shields, these had been the two direct exits out to the Martian atmosphere. Now this one they had entered was rarely used, as the scientist team, not wearing space suits, only used the one with the direct exit to the shields. Both exit chambers still had radiation sanitation units where the outer layers of the space suits were cleaned of cosmic ray radiation.

The crew entered four at a time into the chamber. It was sealed, air pressure pumped in and with it a pressurized ionized water jet shower that washed the outside of the space suit. The shower lasted three minutes, and the water was then sucked from the lower area of the chamber to be cleaned.

Dr. Smidt and his team had invented the radiation cleanser while on the journey to Saturn. After the thirty-second cleaning process, the valuable fifty gallons of water was ready to be used again. Within seven minutes, all seven of the crew were inside.

“I saw high hop towers in the shield when we landed,” stated Jonesy, continuing the conversation to his crew as they helped each other off with their still-wet suits in the changing area. Little Mikey and Martin were quite surprised that the other astronauts each had a six-foot-high one-foot-wide locker with each of their names still on the locker door. There were several lockers with scratched-out names, and Suzi motioned Little Mikey and Martin to use those.

Inside Little Mikey’s and Martin’s lockers was a used and old-fashioned USAF one-piece Nomex green flight suit at least a decade or two old. There were also slip-on, soft, low boots with metal studs in the soles, gloves, and several other pieces of clothing. There was only one change room with two separated areas. All the astronauts wore the usual long-john undergarments.

The newbies were shown by Suzi how and where to recharge and hang their zipped-back-together complete space suits and helmets in the change room’s sterilization chamber. She had helped design this change room two decades earlier. These suits were enclosed in a sealed cubicle that sterilized them for any remaining contamination.

Each astronaut then used a private shower cubicle and change area and used special soaps to wash themselves from head to foot.

Once dry and dressed, they walked through a metal security door that checked them for any contamination from outside or from the spacecraft. They were all clean.

Martin laughed when Jonesy put on an old U.S.A.F. general’s patrol cap with one star on the forehead. VIN had one as well and showed the rank Martin knew to be U.S. Marine first lieutenant. VIN then looked at Jonesy, stood erect and gave him a perfect salute. The others laughed.

The older scientist Paul entered and smiled seeing the change in the astronaut crew. They looked human again.

“Oh goody, real humans,” Paul exclaimed. “Jonesy, I have much to tell you. Did you bring our ordered luxuries and hydroponic supplies as you promised?” the old hippy added, hugging the man an inch taller than he was.

“Of course. Have I ever let you down? We’ll unload them tomorrow, once our atmosphere is up.”

The girls walked in from their section.

“Before we go any further, Dad, Paul the hippy scientist, please fill the rest of us in. Who are you? I remember you from when Mars and I brought you out here three years ago in the mother ship,” demanded Saturn.

“Of course, darling.” Her father smiled, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Everything in good time. Paul, you mentioned a beer, is it cold?”

They were guided out by a smiling Paul to the large open-plan porch area, where four Chinese-looking people, two men and two women, and five Caucasians, three women and two men, were excitedly waiting. Paul did the introductions.

The Chinese scientists were introduced first. Two female biologists and two male astrophysicists and, by their looks, seemed married pairs. They were all good in English and bowed to the astronauts as they were introduced, each stating their full names, since Paul seemed to know them and introduced them by their first names only.

“Doctors Xiaoxi, Pei, Xiáng and Shun,” stated Paul, holding out his hand to the person he was introducing. Each smiled and bowed at their introduction. “May I introduce my fiancée, Jenny Smith, from Oxford University, England, astrobiologist. We attended university together during very different years, and now she’s as good a wine farmer, yeast specialist and beer brewer as me,” continued Paul unabated, and she smiled sweetly.

Saturn was surprised, Paul-whoever-he-was’ wife was still very pretty, in her fifties, she reckoned, and at least a dozen years or so younger than the hippy guy.

“Doctors Joe and Mary Pierce from Berkeley, astrochemists, and Professor John and Dr. Miriam Smith from Oxford, both biologists.

“General John Jones, ex United States Air Force,” began Jonesy with his introductions. Martin Brusk, ship manufacturer and businessman.” A few of the scientists breathed in loudly when they heard who Martin was, one of the most famous men on Earth. Jonesy continued. “First Lieutenant VIN Noble, former U.S. Marine Corps; his wife, Dr. Suzi Noble, a German and an astrobiologist, and both extremely experienced astronauts.” The biologists especially breathed in and acknowledged her. Suzi was famous in their field. “Astronauts Saturn and Mars Noble, our kids, who were part of the crew who flew you guys out here three or so years ago, and lastly Astronaut Mikey Noble, my grandson.

“A vely good family astronaut team,” stated one of the Chinese men, bowing again.

“I owned one of your electric cars in England years ago,” stated Paul to Martin as Paul guided the astronauts away from the scientists.

“Excuse my French, Paul, but you didn’t introduce yourself?” stated Saturn again to the older man. “You never introduced yourself to me three years ago either. You stayed very far away from me and my husband.”

“I see your daughter is certainly a chip off the old block.” Paul smiled to Jonesy. “A real Jones, I see. Would you like to do the honors, old boy? I doubt they would believe who I am.”

Jonesy smiled at VIN, then asked VIN if he would introduce their friend. VIN laughed.

“Saturn Noble, meet your uncle Dr. Paul Jones, five years younger than your father and a man who your grandfather threw out of the house in Colorado, as he did your father.” VIN continued as several mouths hung open. “Your uncle Paul headed over to England straight after being expelled from his last year in high school, I believe for something I was never told, and around the time Jonesy came out of the Air Force Academy. I met him when he and Jonesy and I met in Las Vegas when we were in our first year with Astermine.”

“You mean the English professor Dr. Paul Jones, schooled at Oxford, ex-head of the biology department at St. Petersburg University in Russia in 2017, and who was fired, then disgraced and expelled from that country for growing marijuana the next year in 2018?” asked Suzi in shock. The others looked at him and Paul smiled back.

“The Dr. Paul Jones who designed the first self-fly robotic spacecraft in Britain in 2021?” asked Martin, also in shock. “I thought you were more into physics than biology?”

“Yes, old boy, majored in physics, minored in biology, did a DPhil in astrophysics at Oxford, but was forced to take the biology chair in St. Petersburg, as a certain government wanted me there. And it was January 2023, not 2021.”

Suzi became angry at her husband. “How come you didn’t tell me Jonesy had a brother who is a biologist like me?” she demanded.

“He’s not. I made a promise, in case Jonesy’s parents ever found out that he was in the States when they were alive,” VIN responded. “After that I just forgot that Jonesy had a brother; it was so long ago. It’s been over twenty years since we last met.”

“Sorry, it’s my fault, Suzi,” stated a more solemn Paul. “And no, I do not have a doctorate in biology, but I have read all your reports and papers, and am proud to have met your husband. I made these two men swear an oath never to tell anybody, even their families, that they ever met me. It’s a long story, but when we first met, I was sort of working for two governments, and later I was classed as a drug criminal in the States, or at least as far as the FBI or CIA were concerned. I can’t remember which. After being fired from the university, again for drugs, I began working for the Russians at the Russian Space Agency. The Americans put a reward on my head, so I came here to get away from a few unhappy international characters who wanted to expire me before my due date. I am not a very good person, I’m afraid, in many politicians’ eyes.

“The other half of my brother’s story, he might tell us later over a beer or several. Even I don’t know why two countries wanted him dead.” Jonesy smiled, patting his younger brother on the back hard. “But he is the best hobby brewer I ever knew, except for you and Mr. Rose, Suzi, and since he needed a place to hide, I thought he could set up our society headquarters for me up here at the Retreat.”

“I think I might take you up on that schnapps, Herr Dr. Paul,” stated Suzi, holding on to her husband’s shoulder. She was feeling dizzy with this shock, still trying to fathom that Jonesy had a famous brother in her own field, and her husband had known about this all along.

“Excellent idea,” replied Paul, rubbing his hands together. “We have much to show you. Suzi, I’m sure you remember this entire base. It is now many times bigger. Remember the half dozen mining robots you guys left up here? Well, they have worked nonstop for three years now, and we have over four acres of ground-floor area on each of the two lower levels of the base.”

Suzi stumbled and VIN grabbed her. Eight acres of space for green growth! An astrobiologist would consider this amount vast, and it made her want for more than one schnapps. It was time Jonesy showed the A.S.S. members, and nonmembers, how big this organization really was.

“Like Saturn, I want your entire history, Herr Doctor Paul Jones,” stated Suzi, looking at the brother. “I think your story could be very interesting. I have listened to many audios of your lectures. They never impressed me. Something wasn’t quite right.”

“Come, everybody, let us tour the underground levels; then we can enjoy the nectars of the Martian gods,” stated Jonesy’s brother, always smiling, and the group was led towards the only staircase that would take them down into the depths of the Retreat.

The ground level was clean, freshly painted and very tidy, the astronauts who had been here before noticed. This was where Ryan Richmond’s dreams of living in space had come to an unhappy end, when the poor man had seen many of his crew dead and injured, broken and in pieces after the Matt attack on the base decades earlier.

The walls had been blackened by the incoming maser blasts that had killed many as badly as a microwave could do. Each of the four astronauts who had been here before had lost friends in this attack. Now it was clean, with three of the four walls painted white. It looked more like being in a hospital than in a cave.

VIN and Jonesy both noticed that the door to the base’s defense command center, a secret area on the base, was closed. It was completely hidden from wandering eyes by a system the Matts had invented. That whole wall was made of a matte silver material the Matts had in all their bases. They nodded to each other. This area would remain closed, as there were still remains of the attack in there.

When the mining robots had eaten out the space underground decades earlier, they had done it with precision, and the walls had perfect corners to the roof and floor. The astronauts had first lived in curtained-off sections on this and the middle floor. The lowest floor had been the supply and power room.

Now they could see on the ground floor that eight new house doors were in one of the walls on their right, and Paul explained that the robots had dug out one-bedroom apartments for the science crew when they had arrived.

With the next visit by a mother ship a year earlier to Mattville, a shuttle had arrived with doors, building supplies, plants and hydroponic growing equipment asked for by the science team.

The two large mother ships, as they were called, couldn’t land on the red planet, and shuttle pilots had brought the equipment down to the two bases. Mars and Saturn had stayed in Mattville at the time, uninterested in visiting the Retreat.

Suzi breathed in hard upon seeing the vastness of the lower floor as they entered the sealed-off vegetation section. Even VIN, Mars and Jonesy were shocked at the size of the growth area. Four acres of cave was at least four times bigger than the inside of the largest supermarket, like a large Costco on Earth, and the green growth wasn’t only on the floor, there were plants hanging on the walls surrounding the room and from the ceiling. It was so far away that the end wall looked like a horizon.

There were pipes everywhere, and the ceiling was about twenty feet high, twice as high as when they had left.

Also the lights, hundreds of large underground growing lights, lit up the entire area like a supermarket. It was bright and perfect, and Martin Brusk actually felt like he was on Earth in some massive greenhouse. He jumped gently to make sure he was still on Mars and was caught by VIN and Suzi before hitting his head on the ceiling.

The third level was identical to the middle level except that it looked like a young, start-up vineyard out of California.

Apart from a walled-off area where the fusion reactors were and a sealed room that was a twenty-thousand-gallon enclosed water cistern, this was the first complete wine farm on Mars. Paul showed them the rows upon rows of hydroponic-grown vines that also hung from the roof. It was weird for Martin to see that the vines on the roof grew as straight as the vines on the floor. Suzi was impressed.

The four acres of growth seemed to go on forever and the underground chamber looked larger than what VIN and the crew had found in Mattville and Ceres, apart from the underground lake.

“Mattville been bringing you in water supplies as I asked Max Von Braun to do?” asked Jonesy.

“Yes, it took two years to fill the cistern at two hundred gallons at a time. The vessel arrived once a week with supplies and the water pumped up from their underground lake,” replied Paul. “We have managed to keep our farming water losses at less than 1.75 percent per cycle, and it takes the twenty thousand gallons three weeks to cycle through our entire piping system. We have had four more deliveries to keep our growing water stable at twenty thousand gallons. We still use the old four-hundred-gallon water tank for ourselves that was put in on our first visit.”

“How are your bubblers doing?” Suzi asked.

“Bubblers?” asked Saturn and Mars together.

“Doing well.” Paul smiled. “Our current plant losses, mostly due to plant drowning, is less than one percent. Youngsters, air bubblers are systems that allow air to bubble past the roots in a hydroponic system so that the plants roots have air, like in the ground on Earth,” Paul explained.

“I brought you your order. You wanted five thousand more of those bubble things?” asked Jonesy.

“Yes. Growth, wear and damage, and we are out of reserves. Our next supply will give us two acres on our new level four, once the miners are done.” Paul smiled. “I want to have level four at two acres of new vineyard before the team is due to leave next year.”

“Oh, I assume those see-through traffic-cone-size things in the cargo hold are those bubblers?” suggested Martin.

“No, those are the hydroponic cones for the plants. The bubblers are a tube of air that goes in through a hole in the bottom of the cone,” explained Suzi. “These cones are double the size I used on the cubes inside America One. The reason is that there is a decent gravity here, which means better growth than the zero gravity in space. By the way, Herr Dr. Jones, we don’t have any new plants in our cargo bay?”

“Yes, Suzi.” Paul smiled. “We are becoming self-sufficient in new plant growth from grafting and growing from seed what we need in here. We are extremely worried about plant contamination from new plants from Earth, but might need a new, fresh and strong crop of vines, hops, and barleys once level four has been dug out in a year’s time.”

“Ja,” replied Suzi with a smirk. “I see everything you’re growing is alcohol related.”

“We will have to supply a whole solar system of thirsty miners one day,” replied Jonesy.

“What happens if Dr. Paul here invents a robotic scientist, Dad?” Mars asked.

Paul laughed loudly. “I already have. There should be eight small robotic machines in your cargo hold, inside secure wooden pallets.” He laughed. “I need to replace this human crew when they leave.”

“There will always be a need for somebody to supervise the bloody robots no matter how much they take over from us humans,” stated Jonesy. He didn’t like robots; they were taking over everything, including his love of flying. One day, he had told VIN, they would take over fishing. “We can’t supply millions of space people with the fruits of liquid pleasure. Thousands, yes; millions, no; so I’m not catering to the masses.”

“What are these new robots?” Suzi asked as the rest of the science crew arrived in white shiny plastic-looking suits to work on the third level.

“The whole team inspects each plant or vine once a week. It takes the team three days, seven hours a day to inspect each plant, and half a day inside the two blue shields,” explained Paul. “They are a bit behind due to your arrival and will work down here for a couple of hours before dinner. The new robots made by Martin here are top-secret designs, and even Jonesy doesn’t know what they do. They will do what we do—inspect the plants—and will work slower but twenty-four hours per day, recording each plant’s health from an electrical readout from a minute chip in the plant itself.”

“You’ve placed electronic chips in plants?” asked Suzi, rather shocked.

Paul laughed again.

“Are they like our mining robots?” VIN asked.

“VIN, they are very fragile, thin machines that float more than walk in this weak atmosphere. They have tiny wind fans that move them around. Gee, they wouldn’t move an inch off the floor in Earth’s gravity. They need to be recharged for three hours once a week and will monitor the health of each plant from visual and electronic information downloaded in their software systems. Suzi, yes, something our Chinese scientists had been working on for a couple of years before I met them, and together we designed the first machines and ordered them. I asked Jonesy for a reputable manufacturer last year, and one of Martin’s companies in California designed them for us. They worked on ideas from watching workers working with vines in the Napa Valley. Martin is now working on robots that will harvest and actually do the manual work to produce wine.”

“At ten million bucks a machine, I might add. Paul, they better work, or I’ll bring your expiry due date forward myself,” grumbled Jonesy.

“Of course they’ll work, Mr. Jones. My company made them,” added Martin, smiling at Paul.

“Let’s go and have that promised beer and schnapps, and I’ll bore you with my life’s story,” declared Paul. Even Jonesy was looking forward to this.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 11

Dr. Paul Jones

It seemed there was a good supply of alcoholic beverages already stored for Jonesy’s new business to supply the whole solar system with tempting treats.

“We expect the first two acres of new vines to produce their first crop next year,” began Paul, climbing the stairs with the astronauts. “There are two acres of vines on the second level and four acres on the third. The vines on the second level are now two and a half years old, and from Dr. Noble’s research paper on ‘astro-grown vines and wines’, we expect our first grapes next ‘summer’. We’re going to begin lowering our internal temperatures in level two and level three for our second ‘winter season’ next week. We also have an acre of potatoes down there on the roof of level two for our vodka, which will also be stimulated by our reducing temperatures and making them feel they are going into winter. Hops is grown in a separate area of level two, as you saw the towers. Our barley for the beer grows on the rest of the roof and three of the four walls of level two. Our vegetable garden is the fourth wall. Level three’s ceiling has sections of corn, rye, and barley for the whiskey and beer. Level four will produce two more acres of vines, two roof acres of each rye and wheat for whiskey, rye, I think, and more potatoes for vodka, which is the easiest to manufacture.”

“I’m glad my research here at the Retreat and in the seven growth cubes on America One has helped you,” replied Suzi. “I know you’re more of an experienced beer brewer than wine farmer, but as we learned in this base years ago and during our voyage to Saturn, as long as you stick to temperatures, pH levels, not too much water, the correct light parameters and weekly inspections, you will get a crop. Remember, the grapes will not get bigger than half the size of Earth grapes. Something to do with the difference in gravity for growth, and the vines hanging from the ceiling and walls will give you even smaller sizes and amounts per bunch. The potatoes aren’t so effected by the lack of gravity, and it was clever to not take new samples from Earth. Rye is the easiest to grow.

“You will have to quarantine level four from the rest of the base if you’re going to import plants from Earth. You will also have to rid yourself of weak plants, any disease, and insects. Funnily enough, we had three gnats and a fly that survived our journey from Earth. It took us years to get rid of all the Earth diseases and gene weakness. It’s good that you’ve split so many new vines from the supplies we left here in dormancy. You should be able to begin grafting new stock during your next ‘spring’ for the unfinished level, but build a sterile area around the vines. I assume you have both blue shields producing your crops for beer brewing?”

“Just one, actually, and here we have two hundred gallons of both beer types we produce, ready for tasting,” replied Paul, smiling, opening the sliding door and leading them into one of the ground-level supply rooms that had a walk-in refrigerator, where ten vats stood. The astronauts quickly noticed that they had just walked into a much colder room.

“Why just one?” asked Suzi innocently. “I saw green growth in both shields.” The others looked at Paul for an answer. They hadn’t got close enough to see any more than green produce and the tall eighteen-foot-high hops towers in the one shield. Paul smiled and looked at Jonesy, who tried hard to keep a straight face.

“Well?” asked Saturn. “I bet I know what you’re growing in the other blue shield. It’s not such a big deal, and it is legal now in forty-three states.”

“Panama Red,” Paul replied, smiling from ear to ear.

The older generation knew what he was talking about. The youngsters didn’t. VIN looked up and rolled his eyes. Martin was shocked. Suzi gulped. She wasn’t a supporter of Cannabis sativa. Her German upbringing and working for several years with Dr. Nancy aboard the spaceship, who also wasn’t a supporter of marijuana either, even for medical use, had caused her not to be a supporter.

“Why?” asked Suzi, shaking her head from side to side.

“Because I am an expert in Red’s production, produced Panama Red inside my large loudspeakers at boarding school at the age of seventeen, and was expelled from high school. I was getting to that.”

“But why are you wasting a whole shield for Cannabis sativa?” asked Suzi again.

Paul looked at Jonesy.

“Well, it still may be illegal in seven states in the U.S. and many countries, but it is not illegal up here and in the asteroid belt,” stated Jonesy with a straight face.

“Not only are you brewing booze and wanting to pimp girls, you’re now getting us into the damn drug trade as well, Dad?” asked his daughter angrily. “I thought we were going into the booze business, not wrecking the future of the solar system, and the only solar system we have, mind you, but no, you…you, General fancy-pants John Jones, are going to make this whole solar system as ass-scratchy as Amsterdam in the Netherlands.”

“We are, every member of A.S.S., in the same boat here.” Her father smiled while Suzi and Martin looked on quite shocked. VIN and Mars just smiled; they had expected several outbursts from either Saturn or Suzi. The girls didn’t know everything, but nobody could put anything past Jonesy when it came to preplanning. “Paul, get us a round of your best, and let us tell these skeptics about how A.S.S. is going to operate.” He headed for the nearest of three old German picnic benches just outside the see-through nanosilicone wall of the walk-in refrigerator that had been brought in with America One years earlier. The crew had drunk many good beers on these sturdy tables and bench chairs.

As usual, they had to drink out of sippy cups, much like babies were given. Gravity on Mars was only 38 percent of Earth’s.

Even though there was normal air pressure inside the base, the lacking gravity didn’t hold the liquid inside a glass as well as on Earth. When moving the glass or mug, even slowly, the liquid easily escaped, as it weighed so much less, so it was just plain easier to drink out of a bottle, or babies’ look-alike sippy cups, hundreds of which filled all the spacecraft and bases in and around Mars and beyond.

Also, when decanting the brown liquid out of hundred-gallon silver vats, it was hard to get the slow-flowing liquid through the neck of a bottle. It was much like syrup or honey on Earth, and a wider cup or mug was easier.

Paul pressed a green button on the side of the vat’s control panel, air was forced into the top of the large upside-down vat on legs, and the liquid ejected out of the vat and into a cup when he pressed the button.

Jonesy had asked Astermine in Nevada to design and make ten of these vats for Paul a couple of years earlier just before he had retired, and the shuttle from Mattville had delivered one at a time when they had arrived on the planet a little more than a year earlier.

Once all the metal mugs were full, Paul made a toast to his brother and the crew who had come such a long way to give him and his team some company. Jonesy suggested that the other scientists join them for a party, but Paul told him that they had another couple of hours of work to do, and they were working as fast as they could. He wasn’t the crew leader, more of an outcast, and the Oxford professor was the team leader and worked the others hard.

“Time to tell us your life, Uncle Mr. Jones,” quipped Saturn, not letting the poor man forget.

“Yes, even I want to know more than I have had to strangle out of you in the past,” added Jonesy, smiling at his younger brother.

“I remember once in Las Vegas, Nevada, when Jonesy nearly strangled his brother to death,” added VIN, laughing. “It seems that Paul can sure keep a secret. It was at the Monterey Bay; we had a weekend off.”

VIN sucked in and enjoyed his beer. It was very good, as tasty as the beer Suzi had brewed at the Retreat. She had drunk a good portion of hers and raised her mug to Paul, acknowledging that the beer was really good.

“Okay, okay, fans,” joked Paul, smiling. “Just don’t tell anybody outside this planet and room. The others don’t know much about me, and it is better that way. Tell anybody, and I’ll have to kill you.” This time he wasn’t smiling as much.

“Just bloody well get on with it.” Saturn smirked. “Once a Jones, always a bloody Jones.”

“As I have already told you, I was evicted out of my senior dorm room for the growing, not the merchandising, of marijuana. I was at a posh high school, a private military high school, in Connecticut. I suppose it was the reason our father never spoke to me again. And John, since most of us are not space suit worthy, I cannot head out there and clean Mom’s and Dad’s graves. I have wanted to visit them often, but it’s a little difficult up here.”

“Dad told me he was paying an arm and a leg for your schooling,” stated his older brother. “It seemed you pissed Dad off more than I ever did, by being expelled, and that I couldn’t believe.”

“I think so, and I suppose like others, I was a stupid prick at seventeen. Anyway, my dorm mate, Michael, was expelled as well. He was British and his father pretty superior in the Royal Air Force. Whatever a four-star general was in the air force in Britain. Michael wasn’t expelled for growing marijuana, but for not telling the authorities that I was growing it. Poor Michael didn’t even know, and he suggested we both head to Britain. I already had my first passport, as Mom had applied for it when I was sixteen and secretly sent it to me. Michael was far wealthier than me. Since Dad would have shot me on sight, I thought it best to agree with him. Mom gave me permission to fly, so he paid for two tickets, and we flew to England.”

“Didn’t anybody look for you?” asked Suzi.

“I thought they would, but it seemed that only my mother knew of my disappearance, and I’m sure Dad was so angry, he didn’t care. Anyway, Michael lied to his parents about me being the reason for his dismissal, his father caused a hassle with the school for years afterwards, and he and I completed our schooling at the local high school just outside Farnborough in the south of England. We both excelled even by British standards. Anybody need a refill?”

“Just get on with it,” replied Saturn. “Dad, you know how to work the vat, I’m still thirsty.”

“Michael was accepted into Oxford, and it seemed his father had some pull at the university, as Michael wanted me to join him. We were good friends, and given the size of their massive country estate, the old man could afford for both of us to go there. ‘Try to speak the Queen’s English,’ Michael’s father told me. ‘They don’t like Americans very much at Oxford.’ So for the break before we headed up there, I had elocution lessons. I entered Oxford and excelled for my first four years, specializing in physics and biology. So did Michael, funnily enough. I had promised Michael I would not grow anything illegal and kept my word. I tried sending a letter to Colorado one year, but it was returned unaccepted. In the meantime Michael’s father had been promoted and was now in a powerful position in Whitehall, to do with MI6, the British version of the CIA.

“It seemed natural that Michael would be invited into MI6, since his father nearly ran the secret institution, and again I tagged along once I was done with my doctorate eight years after entering Oxford. Michael headed to MI6 two years before I was ready to join. I was the typical university lifer. I met Jenny during my last year. It was at a beer-brewing club, she was just a kid at the local high school, and we became friends. Professor Joe Pierce was also a friend and a year ahead of me during my postgraduate time. Mary was a year behind me. We all knew each other, and it was through Jenny years later that I learned about this four-year scientific journey to Mars with Astermine Co.

“Going back to MI6, the basic course was tough and demanding, but Michael and I had both played rugby, English football, at the English high school and at Oxford. We were both fit when we separately entered the world of ‘smoke and mirrors’, as I always called it.”

“How could you have a doctorate in both physics and biology in eight years?” demanded Suzi, knowing that something was amiss.

“Totally agree, Suzi, but I’m getting to that. Please bear with me. I became an agent for a small division of MI6. This part of the story is where it gets complicated and top secret from the British government’s point of view. At the time, the Brits were politically paranoid about two countries, the U.S.A. and Russia. The United States, I later learned, was just as paranoid about the Brits, and even though they were best friends, the two countries had problems with being overridden through NATO doctrine. The U.S. always came out as the big powerful brother and little Britain the useless sidekick. The Brits knew my history well by now and wanted me to spy for them in Washington. I was American, after all, and with a bit of language work could become one again. I was thirty and at the turn of the century found myself working inside the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Michael and I had also studied Russian in a Russian-speaking club in Oxford. He headed to Moscow.” Paul got up and refilled his, VIN’s, Mars’s and Jonesy’s mugs in the refrigerator. All this talking was thirsty work.

“I’ve talked more to you guys in the last few hours than I speak to the Chinese scientists in a month or three,” he continued, handing out the full sippy cups. “Let me continue. My job was to try to gather information out of the Pentagon, find new moles, and work a couple of older moles MI6 had in there. I did well, dating my first new mole, a very pretty young New Yorker. Her name was Amanda, and she was a personal assistant to a top-ranking officer. She had this fondness for British-speaking men and I, it seemed, turned her weak at the knees. I nicknamed her Randy Mandy. I managed to get some interesting information out of her about CIA operations inside Britain, as her officer was the Pentagon connection for British, Dutch, French and German NATO affairs. Then September 11th happened, and suddenly the Pentagon knee-jerked into high security.” Paul took a long suck, smiled and continued.

“It became tough and I tried to get more out of Amanda. At the same time my other two moles, much older moles and officers themselves, began to clam up. One suggested that I go home, back to England, and quickly; the other police organizations like the CIA and NSA were walking through Washington like Nazis. I didn’t heed their advice. My boss didn’t allow me to change, so I carried on. Of course, I was found by one of the agencies secretly checking the Pentagon’s civilian staff’s private phone calls. We were actually in bed when the SWAT team arrived and carted us both away. Randy Mandy and I had done nothing wrong. I was a representative at the British Embassy. A friendly country, and I thought a good catch for her. They thought differently until they realized I was an actual American citizen. Once they found out I was the son of an American air force colonel, I was kept in solitary confinement for several days. I believe they didn’t know what to do with me and had broken the law about the length of time they could keep somebody without charging them.”

“Didn’t the British try to get you released?” asked Martin Brusk.

“Of course, my embassy was threatening to tell the British newspapers that the American government was holding American/British diplomats illegally. I mean, I did have diplomatic immunity, but that didn’t scare the guys holding me. They laughed in my face. An American having British diplomatic immunity, they joked. One reckoned it was Cuba for me, to make me disappear. Then Michael’s father got involved when he was told where I was being held. He flew over and threatened Washington like they had never been threatened before. He even got the British Prime Minister on the phone to Washington. The guy in the White House quietly changed what was happening to me and got me released. It was going live in the British newspapers the next day or else. I was ordered to shower and get dressed, and blindfolded, I was driven from the Hoover Building to Langley in Virginia. It took about twenty minutes or so in the back of a hard van.

“Suddenly, everybody became very nice. My blindfold was taken off in an interrogation room, and an old man in an expensive suit walked in and asked if I would like to be released. I said it would be nice. He asked me to sign a document. Of course I asked what it was. He told me that I would now be working for the CIA and that I was not to tell my British friends. ‘That, or you disappear and your drug-ridden body will be found floating in the Potomac or Thames, your choice,’ the man told me, smiling. Of course, with a choice like that, I agreed and signed. I was again blindfolded and driven back into Washington, my blindfold taken off, and I was allowed to exit a block from my Washington apartment.”

“Wow, just like the days Ryan, Jonesy and I played with American authority.” VIN smiled.

“I remember when I flew to Cuba and got Ryan out of prison,” added Martin. “The ex-U.S. President himself was there in a small Gulfstream and had ordered him released. I took him home. He was badly beaten up. All in a day’s work for the police forces of the free, democratic country we lived in. That was why I moved to Israel a few years later. It was safer there.”

“To cut a long story short, I never saw Amanda again. By the time I got to her apartment, where we had been caught, it was empty and for rent. I asked where she had gone, and the super told me that she told him she had been promoted to a field base somewhere in Alaska a week earlier.

“I was drilled by my MI6 guys, who were angry at Washington’s lack of respect, and I never told them about signing the document. I was returned to London and a month later joined Michael in Moscow.”

“Dad never told me about being spoken to about your situation in Washington,” stated Jonesy.

“Yes, because I told them never to harass my parents. I told them they were good American citizens, not like them, the trash I had recently met,” replied Paul. “I signed the papers he gave me once he promised that no police agency in the United States would hassle Mom and Dad because of me. ‘That, or you disappear and your drug-ridden body will be found floating in the Potomac; sorry, the Thames is not an option for dirtbags,’ I told him.”

“I’m sure the guy laughed at that one,” replied Jonesy.

“He did too.” Paul smiled back. “Some of them seem to have a real sense of humor. So for the next decade and a half I worked doing basic surveillance work in Moscow, sending back reports to the British and Americans. My Russian was getting natural by this time, and then the CIA wanted me to apply for the head of the faculty of biology at the university in St. Petersburg. They flew me back to Washington and told me to organize a move without letting the Brits know. The Brits who were still running me wanted me in Moscow. Michael and I seemed to be doing a good job there for them. It was my old friend in the fancy suit again, who I learned was pretty high up in the organization. Unfortunately, Michael was attacked on his way home the second night I was back in Washington. I got word through my Internet feed direct from his father in London. He survived, and the attack had been made to look like a robbery. Usual for Moscow’s special police.”

“Was it? Want another beer?” Jonesy asked his brother while getting up to pour another round. Martin abstained. Three was the maximum he could stand in a hangover the next morning.

“No, after much information gathering by the embassy staff in Moscow, it was police related, as their DNA gave them away. They had tried to kill him, three dirty, tramp-like looking men, but he had retaliated. Michael was very quick on his feet and had enjoyed boxing for a few years at Oxford. I wasn’t anywhere as fast as he was, and he had knocked me out twice once I had been persuaded to join the boxing club. We practiced together. I gave up after the second time I came round, thinking that I was losing most of my brain cells in this stupid sport.

“Michael lost a hand in the fight. A very sharp blade that was aimed at his throat from the last man standing. He blocked the lunge, then clobbered the bloke with a left uppercut as the man got him in the gut with the knife. Then he collapsed. We all carried emergency GPS beepers that would get a rapid squad to pick us up if we were in trouble. He pressed his as he hit the ground and passed out. Our guys were there in twelve minutes in a small van and found that plainclothed Russian agents in two black Range Rovers had already arrived and were picking up all the bodies. With shields drawn, our guys went in and rescued Michael’s body, which was about to be placed in one of their vehicles. The embassy guys had a system that had worked before, and as usual, the Russian coppers never knew who was friend or foe, or who was more superior. Our guys used their embassy badges, ripped the bleeding Michael out of their hands, and carried him to the van. The Russkies did nothing but look on. They were never as fast and creative as the Brits, who could sell ice to the bleeding Eskimos at a moment’s notice.

“One of our guys checked the back of their other Range Rover, which was still open, and swapped two of the unconscious guys while Michael was being carried into the van. They rushed Michael out of there, he was bleeding badly, and they saved his life stitching him up at the embassy. I read the whole report a few days later when I was ordered to return to London. It seemed I wasn’t very welcome in Moscow, so I went to visit my pal in hospital in London, then over to the States.”

“Didn’t they ask where you were going?” Mars asked.

“Of course, but I gave them a story about following a Russian lead into New York, and the CIA made up a story the Brits believed. Some poor Russian defector disappeared in Brooklyn around the same time. He wasn’t liked by both countries, and I just hope it wasn’t a cover-up for my story. Michael told me that the apartment we shared with two pretty embassy girls had been trashed by the time our guys got there an hour after leaving him with the embassy medical team.

“My chief at MI6 suggested I not return, which gave me the excuse to suggest St. Petersburg and that there was a position I could apply for at the university there.”

“It seemed you didn’t like the British?” asked Martin.

“Oh, I did.” Paul smiled. “Ninety percent of all the work I did was for the British, real successful work. What I did for the CIA was all ‘smoke and mirrors’, making them think I was actually achieving something. So I applied and the CIA made up my history, taking out my physics doctorate from my history at Oxford and replacing it with biology. The Americans had several people working in Britain. All of a sudden, I had papers, had lectured at all the best universities, and was a professor at Berkley. Overnight they turned me into something I wasn’t, and of course, all to get the job.”

“But why St. Petersburg?” asked Suzi.

“Ex-President Vladimir Putin went there, and the faculty of political science was an incubator for the future political followers of ‘possible Czar’ Putin. Once MI6 heard that I had the job, they suddenly were overjoyed as well. Everybody except my old friends in Moscow. My Russian was fluent, I could pass as a Muscovite except for my name, and I began relearning postgraduate bloody biology to be able to teach. It was hard, and my first year I let my team do most of the teaching. Of course, when the news broke in Britain that I was heading the Russian university’s biology department, it became international news. That was the beginning of the end.

“The second year I thought myself good enough. I hunted down political science professors and gathered quite a bit of information on sons of powerful politicians attending. I even met Putin himself when he visited, greeting all the staff he knew and us newbies. Being British, I was last in the queue to meet him. The university didn’t want me to meet their fancy alumnus, but it seemed Putin wanted to. The man, a few inches shorter than me, shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye. He said one sentence to me, in English, ‘I hear, Professor, that you don’t stay long in one place.’ That was it and he headed away with his usual smirk.

“A week later ten pounds of marijuana was found under my bed in my apartment. I hadn’t grown the ruddy stuff since high school, but there it was, I was so informed by a very angry vice-rector for academic affairs, who burst into my class to drag me out. She was a very pretty lady and we were getting close to hitting it off. It took the dean less than fifteen minutes to dismiss me. I never even managed to see the bloody stuff or even return to my apartment. Within the hour, a crappy little Russian car, with my already packed two suitcases, was outside to collect me. Two smelly mountains of men made sure I was driven to the airport and back to Moscow. I again was imprisoned for a week before I saw anybody. He was well dressed, definitely Russian police, and spoke perfect English. ‘You will be fired and expelled from your position in the university in two weeks’ time,’ he told me, offering me a cigarette. I never smoked.”

“Never smoked, what do you do, make brownies?” asked Saturn sarcastically.

“Yes, but I rarely touched the stuff, messed me up like I believe the hangovers Martin gets from drinking alcohol, right, Martin?”

Martin nodded.

“I loved brownies in high school, but had headaches for weeks after trying to smoke the stuff. But let me finish, guys, please.

“See, Saturn, your uncle Paul isn’t so bad?” stated Jonesy, slapping his brother on the back, then his daughter.

“John, let me finish. It was like déjà vu in Washington. I was asked politely to work for Moscow or—then I interrupted him and suggested to him, ‘Be found in the Moscow River.’ He smiled and suggested that could be the best alternative.”

“You could become a river rat in your next life,” joked Mars.

“Well said, my boy, and I was getting pretty good at sidestepping watery and certainly drug-ridden deaths in rivers, so of course, I joined up and became a triple agent. Do you know how hard it is to keep three political camps happy? My chances of pleasing everybody were about as good as peeing in the wind and staying dry.”

Suzi laughed at that joke. Saturn thought it quite funny as well and smiled.

“Moscow wanted me back in my old claim to fame—astrophysics. The Russian coppers knew what the CIA had done, and that I was already a double agent, so they sent me to work at Roscosmos Headquarters, first in Moscow for two months, then out to Plesetsk Cosmodrome, as the CIA and Brits were hunting the capital for me. I was not allowed out as a civilian. I was still a prisoner while in Moscow. Once a month I was allowed to go shopping with my two guards. Plesetsk was where the Russian unmanned military flight center was, and yes, Martin, my learning there and stealing their designs for myself and then the Brits was why I managed to build the first robotic-piloted spacecraft. Then, Martin, I designed the first robotic-piloted atmospheric commercial unmanned jets in 2024, a year before my Russian scientist friends. My first redesigned spacecraft launched in January 2023, and was a complete success, but from that day on my expiry date became immediate with the Russians. You purchased the designs from a shelf company of mine in 2023, remember?”

“One hundred million dollars, a hefty payment. That was your company?” Martin asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Yes, unbeknown to the Russian coppers, I had several admirers and scientist friends in Plesetsk. They got word to the British Embassy, and Michael’s dad sent in some special guys, and we actually flew out in the recently completed Russian prototype computerized-flight jet. I persuaded the boys in green that it was a quicker way to get out. We flew in atmospheric flight out of Russia and over to Norway at ten times the speed of sound at 120,000 feet, much to the surprise of the camouflaged lads who came to get me. I had preprogramed the three flight computers months earlier in case I had a chance to escape. I then spent a year in Britain, perfecting the mistakes. I told Michael’s dad everything from day one and he was very British about it. I had done well. Michael, his son, was on my side, and sorry, Martin, Britain did get a secret copy of the plans. Unbeknown to you all, Britain’s race to the asteroids is ahead of even the Chinese by, I believe, a year. I am still in touch with London, and Michael now heads the astronauts being trained somewhere in Scotland.

“Finally, with my disappearance from the university, the CIA believed I had gone rogue and put a reward on my head. The Russians, not to be outdone, and with the loss of their prototype, doubled the reward for my capture. I finished my work in Britain under the guidance of Michael’s father, spent a couple of years in Israel hiding, then met Jonesy and VIN in the Seychelles two years ago. We have been in contact since our couple of meetings in Las Vegas many years earlier. At that time I was being recruited by the CIA and had a weekend off.”

“How did you get back in contact?” Mars asked.

“I had searched for my brother,” stated Jonesy, “and funnily enough, a contact friend of Ryan’s, an inside man in Langley, called him and mentioned this Paul Jones guy who had stated in a report that he had a father and a brother in the air force. He thought Ryan might want to recruit him, as he was an astrophysicist. Ryan told me that he had a meeting with him set up, I told him it could be my brother, and VIN and I were sent to meet him in Vegas.”

“Well, that’s the show, folks.” Paul laughed, always jovial. “The staff will have completed their work by now, and it’s time to make dinner. Who wants to help?”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 12

Human Waste, Sludge and Topsoil

“My presence is not really needed here at the Retreat for the next few months,” stated Paul over dinner that night. Suzi and Saturn had helped Paul and his fiancée make a very fresh and very welcomed salad for the whole crew in attendance. The astronauts did most of the talking. The scientists weren’t a conversation-type bunch. Suzi had asked for and harvested a few potatoes, and she had produced a tasty German potato salad to go with it. Three of the Retreat’s chickens, already slaughtered and frozen, had been thawed and cooked for the guests in the newest space rotisserie oven.

“I thought you might need a break.” Jonesy smiled.

“It would be nice, John. Professor Pierce here has brewed beer since we met at Oxford. Mary Pierce, the best in the business, produces our vodka—unflavored Russian gin, she calls it—and even makes her own herbal tonic for her ‘gin and tonic’ from the cinchona plant they brought along from Peru. Far better than Schweppes and tastes very British. She redistills a part of our neutral spirit with berries from the two juniper bushes that were brought along especially. We still have all the plants we arrived with in a separate quarantine until we feel they are cleansed from Earth diseases. Suzi, all the greenery we brought with us is in confinement on level three. Our Chinese friends, Doctors Wang Xiang and Wang Xiaoxi, run the scientific readouts on plant health and guzzle the beer like thirsty cowboys, and Jenny is fab at growing vines, making wine, and knowledgeable about producing Red and whiskey. Not all taught by me.”

“Yes, we actually haven’t covered half of the subject matter we were meant to.” Professor Pierce smiled. “Thanks to Paul here, we have really gone off our programed track of four years of astrochemical experiments, and we have had so much fun doing so. Thank you, General Jones, for getting my old pal on our trip here.”

“We are so looking forward to getting back to normal gravity again next year, though,” added Mary Pierce. “We are a little old for this, and Joe needs to retire and garden. So do I.”

“We are also looking forward to getting back to China,” stated Dr. Wang Xiang. “We have learned so much from Dr. Paul and Jennie, and we hope marijuana is now legal in Beijing. We want to introduce the Panama Red into all of China.”

“I enjoy making cakes with it very much. Makes us velly happy,” added his wife, smiling broadly.

“Well, there goes China,” stated Saturn, straight-faced, who had warmed to her uncle somewhat. He shrugged his shoulders at her and smiled back.

“John, I would really like it if I could visit Mattville, maybe even Ceres with you,” stated Paul. “Hopefully renewed space suit training isn’t too long a drawn-out education. Actually, I really want to visit Ceres and see what you have planned for there. If I remember, you told me you had an empty cavern or two you wanted to begin production in. I just so happen to have a few dozen grafts here ready for a new farm, and the team has been rapidly cultivating the outside shields with new topsoil for the pods. We have more than ten meters cubed of perfect human-waste-added topsoil for a new project.”

“How can that be?” Suzi asked. She had written the first-ever European paper on astro human waste disposal only a couple of years earlier.

“Suzi, the team has been adding our waste from the human waste bioreactor in far higher quantities than your paper suggested—actually fifty percent to fifty percent topsoil, five times what you recommended in your astro human waste disposal paper of 2027. We have also added our chicken and rabbit waste in more rapid, one-month intervals from our animal waste composter, also much faster than what you suggested in your paper.”

“What are your results?” asked Suzi, fascinated. “I tried higher amounts of our stabilized HW sludge, but found the soil far too high in nitrogen and phosphorus for perfect plant growth, even after four or five months.”

“Yes,” answered Dr. Jiang Pei, the female Chinese biologist. “Dr. Noble, we Chinese have used human waste in agriculture far longer than the West, and our ideas on the subject helped our team increase slowly and use one hundred percent of our human waste into topsoil production.”

“Unfortunately,” her husband added, “we had a problem after the astronauts left us here. We were all too embarrassed to ask for help. Nobody felt experienced or safe enough to use the space suits to take out the waste canisters to the waste hole outside the base. So we worked hard and made sure we used enough not to have to wear a space suit.”

“I was told you went through full space suit training?” Suzi asked, putting her hand to her mouth.

“It was in the course they were going through,” interrupted Mars Noble. “That was until the departure liftoff window was moved up six days due to lousy weather predictions in Nevada for the launch date. Pluto Katherine’s husband, Mark, completed the suit training while in flight. The scientists completed half the course at Nevada Base and the other half, five days of training, inside America Three, if I remember rightly.”

“Understood and we all agree, but after two month’s living here, with the sealed waste compacter room full, we had all begun to feel insecure about this part of our training and didn’t want to go out there,” continued Paul.

“A few of us felt that a fully qualified astronaut should have been left with us here to keep us in training,” added Jenny.

“Tomorrow we will make sure each one of you has thirty minutes of space suit time outside, and it will be mandatory, so give up on the booze,” Suzi lectured. “Always remember the eight-hour rule, no drinking within eight hours of flight or space suit usage. Now how did you manage to increase my HW waste percentages and produce a useable topsoil? I really love it when others better my work.”

“More time, a year,” responded the two Chinese female biologists together.

“Ja, of course!” responded Suzi immediately, excited. “High nitrogen decreases in soil, especially extremely high amounts in free-range chicken farms, from dangerous amounts for cattle to safe amounts in two, three years? I didn’t have enough time to further my experiments.”

“We were never here for more than a year at a time when you started your HW experiments,” added VIN.

“Yes.” Suzi nodded. “I think twelve to fourteen months due to wind storms, but not two, three years. Maybe your experiments needed time, time like it has taken Jonesy to mature and become a decent human being,” she joked.

“My calculations are that ten percent waste to ninety percent topsoil would take four months to dissolve,” continued Suzi to the two Chinese biologists. “I tried a twenty to eighty percent mix, but it was still unusable after six months. Then we had to leave.”

“It would take seven months here on Mars with the lesser gravity, Dr. Noble,” replied Dr. Xiaoxi. “I had studied a fifteen to eighty-five percent mix for our thesis back in Beijing, and our Earth results were four months, same as yours, due to more powerful Earth gravity. It was ten years before we read your paper on astro waste, but understand China, Dr. Noble. Our work never made it into papers like in the West. Our old government kept all our research secret. The time doubles for each twelve percent of waste added to clean topsoil here on Mars, completely different than on Earth. Twelve percent would have composed on Mars in four months. Eight months for twenty-four percent, sixteen months for thirty-six percent, thirty-two months for forty-eight percent. We began to use our new topsoil in month thirty-three, the thirty-third month after we began our fifty-fifty research. That was only a few months ago and it is still a very strong solar soil for Dr. Paul’s Panama Red.” The two Chinese ladies giggled.

“After the ladies reckoned that they had an answer to rid us of all our waste, we have mixed it this way now for three years, and have another ten tons of it maturing over the next couple of years, shall we say.” Paul laughed.

“My juniper trees are hardy and are thriving in it,” added Dr. Mary Pierce. “It seemed to still burn tiny test vines, though, but time again will reduce its strength.”

“Sounds like a crappy gin and tonic to me.” Jonesy laughed. “Give me a whiskey any day.”

Joe Pierce laughed out loud at Jonesy’s remark. “Our rye is also thriving, and so is our barley with the latest sprinkling of Chinese solar soil.”

Jonesy rolled his eyes. He didn’t need to hear that.

“TMI,” added Saturn, her face becoming white.

It was weird sleeping in the Martian gravity again for the astronauts. The conditions made for horizontal sleep, and one had to be careful to move very slowly and carefully or tie oneself down with straps. Twice Martin found himself on the floor of his room, and it had hurt enough to wake him.

The scientists, using the much older Retreat base space suits, had their thirty minutes outside the blue shield. As before, the current group of scientists had cordoned off an area three feet from the inside of the shield wall to make sure none of them accidentally penetrated the deadly outside. There was also no growth in this area, which had a sterile-sprayed sand dune where the outside Martian dust had slowly penetrated.

After getting over their misgivings, and being used to the extremely low gravity, they made much noise and nervously joked more like children than adults during their walk. Suzi had to wear her legs during the visit to Mars due to the gravity, and she led the walk.

Earlier that morning the men had unloaded the twenty-five pallets, twenty Earth tons, of supplies for the Retreat. Two of the pallets had been the eight small robots Paul had ordered. They had weighed just under half a ton in total, including their packaging on Earth. The expensive pallets of wood for Jonesy’s bar weighed a lot more, and even in Mars gravity, the heaviest weighed in at over 250 pounds.

Martin had worked with Jonesy on a new system of unloading heavy cargo from underneath the spaceship. The sealed hydraulic cubicle lowered the pallets one at a time in the now perfect Earth atmosphere inside the shield. The elevator could lower cargo into open-space conditions, but being inside the shield made it much faster, not having to depressurize the compartment and then repressurize it for the next load. Each of the pallets had a dozen tiny rocket thrusters inside them, the size of a thumbnail, and with an old model aircraft remote control, something Mars had practiced with before leaving, the thrusters walked the pallets into the entrance inside the first blue shield. The pallets fitted into the entrance chamber like a glove, the outer door closed, and then the pallets one by one were brought into the Retreat with no outside contamination.

Now tired, Jonesy, VIN and Mars enjoyed the scene from the inside while Saturn, Suzi, Little Mikey and a cocky Martin Brusk led the seven scientists around the plateau.

“There still are petrified remains of broken Matt fighters down here when we look down the walls of the edges of the plateau,” stated Saturn as they led the group holding hands in a line around the large plateau. “I saw part of a tail and I think part of their blue space suits still connected to a broken helmet about twenty feet below me. The suit now looks black like burnt charcoal.”

“Roger, Saturn darling, just don’t leave the plateau. I’m not coming to rescue you,” Jonesy acknowledged the message over the radio next to him and continued chatting to the other two. Since Suzi was out, the three men were having a private A.S.S. meeting.

“I want to build a really nice redwood bar and back unit against the back wall of this area. I want it at least thirty feet long, with fifteen to twenty seats along the bar, and there will be enough space for a line of comfortable chairs and couches along the glass so we, or visitors, can look out at the landscape while sipping cocktails. In the far corner of the porch we could have a couple of casino machines and tables, or if the Retreat becomes our headquarters just for club members, a couple of poker tables. I chatted with Martin before we left Earth, and he has designed Paul’s robotic flight systems into a small Martian-atmospheric cargo transporter that could run between here and Mattville on a daily basis, as long as there are no storms. I want to bring the bar in on our next flight. The one we have aboard is for Vitalily and his boys on Ceres.”

“How big is this new ship?” VIN asked.

“Small, much like Martin’s robotic jets flying around Earth. The thickness of the outer wall is three times the Earth jets, but without pilots, it could still handle six passengers, or about an Earth ton of supplies, each way. I would say about half the size of my old Gulfstream, more like one of those old Cessna propeller jobs.”

“Where do the robots sit?” asked Mars.

“Unlike the Earth jets Martin builds, this is the first ship to not have a ‘pilot’ cockpit. He told me that the robotic-flight computers are in the floor of the aircraft and everything is fly-by-wire, or wireless. He calls it a PHDC, which stands for planet hybrid delivery craft, and the forward two passengers will actually get the old pilots’ view in front of the craft. The whole frontal cabin area is made out of a thinner version of the nanosilicone windows here in the porch.”

“Sounds like it can deliver basic supplies, but not large cargo,” VIN added.

“Correct, Mattville will still have Astermine One that can bring over larger cargo or groups when needed. Because Astermine One is staying here is why I had to work Dr. Smidt so hard for one of the other shuttles. He has no plans to increase his fleet, yet.”

“So you’re still thinking that this will become our headquarters?” VIN asked. “I think Suzi and I will want to be buried out there with the others and your parents. She mentioned it to me last night.”

“Me too,” added Mars. “The rest of humanity can stay on Earth as far as I’m concerned. The view up here is far more beautiful, and I’m sure Saturn thinks the same. I’ll make sure I get you and Mom up here, Dad, and you do the same for me if I go first. You never know when your time is up, especially up here in the solar system.”

“Ryan and Kathy said much the same thing,” added Jonesy. “Once the sightseers are back from their Martian walk in the woods, I want you to come with me, Mars, and we can take up the ship and blow that damn dust away from the cemetery. Paul and Professor Pierce fixed us up with six sixty-foot-long emergency power cords before they headed out, and we can splice them together and wrap them well for outside use. I reckon we could get the extra shield up around the graves by nightfall.”

“To my bar idea in this room. The old interior in here was eighty feet wide and the same long,” stated Jonesy, returning and dragging long cords. “At the same time the skin was added, the rear fifty feet was separated by this middle wall and the space suit supply and sterilization room and change rooms were built. It was massive in here, but there is still thirty feet of width in here, minus ten for the bar area, to make a walkway and a comfortable lounge area. Even with a thirty-foot bar, partner, we can still have a forty-by-thirty-foot space on the end of the porch for our casino, dance floor, poker area, whatever we decide on.”

“We are lucky that the engineers decided not to make the outer glass walls vertical,” added VIN, reminiscing about the old days. “The walls are twenty degrees off vertical, which helps the heavier winds bounce off. If you look carefully up at the roof, you can still see the panes of nanosilicone underneath the silver covering. Jonesy, I think that because of this design this building will stand here for a very long time. It was really beautiful to come out here before the outer skin was added, though. Inside the shields, the blue coloring screws up the natural view, but with clear glass around you, it was like standing on Mars without a space suit on.”

“You know about the secret Matt area the scientists don’t know about, Mars?” Jonesy asked.

“Sometimes, Jonesy, I can see why Ryan used to get so mad at you. I grew up here, remember. And yes, I even remember when this whole place was open. Dad, I used to sleep out here as a kid, watching the stars, with several friends. We used to camp out here in makeshift tents. Remember, you taught me to fly right out there?”

“Sorry, son, it seems age dulls the memories. I can’t even remember when I had real legs.” Jonesy smiled back. “There are still remains of our crew in there, several parts we couldn’t find out who they belonged to, so before Ryan knew, I ordered it closed, and it must stay that way. I will get Roo to put the remains into a coffin one day and bury it with the others in the cemetery.”

“I do remember having real legs.” VIN smiled. “When I came to in Baghdad, the doctor looking down at me was absolutely beautiful. An angel, I thought she was. I would have married her right then and there, but was a little drugged at the time.”

“She was about to tell you that you had lost your legs, partner. That was after you had lost them not before,” quipped Jonesy.

“Oh,” replied VIN. “Okay, maybe this age thing does screw up the memories. I assume you’re right.”

“Here I am in the middle of the solar system with a bunch of geriatrics,” joked Mars, getting a smack on the head from both older men.

“Herr Jones, your holograph isn’t working. It’s covered in dust and sparking,” stated Suzi over the radio. “I’m bringing it in.”

The meeting was adjourned due to the crocodile line of adults getting nearer, and it was time to get them back in through both doors this time. Jonesy jokingly reminded Mars that the entrance hatches fitted four at a time, and Mars happily told his father-in-law that yes, he had walked through the entrances a few times. Again he got a whack on the head from the older man.

“VIN, get these guys out of their suits, showered, and then rested. This one-brain-celled kid and I are going to clear the cemetery, dust off my holograph and set up the blue shield. Mars, get into your suit.”

By nightfall, the dust storm the ship had created had semi cleared, the four-hundred-plus-foot-long spaceship making short work of the dust, and the bright holograph could be seen inside the new shield from the outer side window wall of the porch. The blue shield was growing, and the old petrified crosses could now be seen inside the walls a hundred yards away. The next morning would be the short trip to Mattville.

After a meal of scrambled eggs, small Martian tomatoes and rye bread, space suits were climbed into for the short twenty-minute flight to Mattville. Jonesy wanted to first land halfway there.

Just under two hundred miles from the Retreat was Lookout Mountain, a high mountain with a flat top that they had used often before. The view was fantastic on a good day, and today was one of those.

As usual Jonesy grumbled when he was forced to sit in one of the jump seats as Mars and Saturn took the ship up and carefully away from the Retreat. He still wanted to fly so badly, and he had his long-lost brother, Paul, on board to show what his new aircraft could do.

The view from the top of Lookout Mountain was the best view Martin Brusk and Paul Jones had ever seen. Martin had been to the Grand Canyon in Arizona a couple of times, and this view was ten times deeper and far vaster than standing atop the canyon on Earth.

“ASS-One to Mattville Control, ASS-One to Mattville Control,” stated Mars Noble over the radio as they slowly cruised towards the first town on the red planet.

“Mattville Welcome Station to ASS-One, Mars Noble, I suggest you tell your father to rename his ship. We are a clean organized town of good people down here and don’t like any riffraff,” joked the voice of Mayor Max Von Braun a few minutes later, after the radio operator that side had stated that he was calling the mayor up to the radio room.

“Howdy, Max, your old pal here,” stated Jonesy, helmetless and knowing that his voice would be recognized by his old friend. Max and Jonesy went back to the very early days at Astermine. “First, you don’t need to throw spit on my new ship. Martin Brusk won’t take lightly to his piece of art being insulted by the likes of you. Secondly, any insults against me and my crew will mean that we just might forget to unload your one-ton shipment of hydrogen fuel and a few luxuries you know I would bring you and friend Roo.”

“Sounds like age isn’t looking after you, old buddy. Grumpier than when we last met. There is the flat landing site, the same one you guys used when we first flew here, a mile out from our new dome. Maximize your shield once on the ground and I’ll have Astermine One fly out to pick you guys up. Joey Doune will fly out. You remember him, he was on my team on America One and Two. How many of you?”

“Eight,” replied Jonesy.

An hour later, on the ground and with the shield extended, the old Astermine One mining cargo ship could be seen rising out of a new but still partly bare and gold-colored dome and turning to head their way. Sixty percent of the new dome was underground, and they could only see the top part.

Astermine One landed with its entrance hatch inside ASS-One’s shield, which meant that the crew didn’t need helmets, even though they took them with them.

Flying a few hundred feet above the still-open welcome center, Jonesy could see that a blue shield filled the hole of the very blue and orange-looking hole in the ground as Joey slowly and gently took the mining ship in.

“The walls and floor of the cavern are complete,” stated Joey as the ship slipped ever so gently into the blue shield inside the cavern.

“Is it true the gold is eight feet thick?” Mars asked the pilot.

“The minimum we thought was needed,” replied Joey, smiling. “Forty-eight tons of gold. You guys know that we have so much of the stuff up here, we could plaster eight-foot walls around every hole and tunnel in Mattville and we would still have enough to weaken the gold price on Earth to zero.”

“How is Astermine Two?” Jonesy asked.

“A mess,” replied Joey as he began to descend into the large chamber. “She hit the roof door, which hadn’t opened enough. It wasn’t the pilot’s fault. He had been given clearance to exit, but the door had jammed half open. He tried to stop his ascent, but clipped the door with the tail and roof of the ship. It just collapsed slowly to the floor of the cavern. To cut a long story short, she would be fixable at Nevada Base, but up here she is now spare parts for this old girl.”

The inside of the cavern looked spectacular, even though all could see it wasn’t finished. There was still scaffolding in areas, and piles of transport cases and plastic containers in another area.

“What the hell is that, a train?” Jonesy asked as they touched down.

“Dr. Smidt sent that with the last cargo,” continued Joey. “Max suggested an underground train. He was actually joking at the time, but you know Dr. Smidt, he has the sense of humor of a cold refrigerator and thought Max was serious. Lo and behold, this twelve-compartment underground trolley arrives. It even has a robotic engine and a caboose. Now we have two of the four new mining drones digging tunnels so that we can actually put it to use. You wait, Jonesy, you haven’t heard what’s inside those packing cases yet. It’s a water barge, thousands of pieces of a damn water barge. We up here definitely think that Dr. Smidt has lost it.”

As Joey silenced the thrusters, Max Von Braun, Ruler Roo and his much taller wife the ex-President of the United States, Joanne Dithers Roo, and several old friends were ready to welcome them. In perfect atmospheric air, Joey opened the exit hatch, and still helmetless, the astronauts unbuckled themselves and headed for the tiny exit in the side of the mining ship. Jonesy went first.

“General John Jones, looking solar pale and a couple of years older than I last saw you,” stated a happy mayor, and Max gave him a hearty handshake and a bear hug. Jonesy then hugged Joanne, who was only a few inches shorter than him, and then bent down for Ruler Roo, ruler of the Matts in Mattville, who was only five feet tall. Everybody knew each other apart from Paul. Martin knew most of them from Earth, and he was congratulated on his first spaceflight. Most were shocked to find out that Jonesy had a brother and that Paul had lived a few hundred miles away from them for the last three years.

Paul could see that there was a lot of comradery between the two groups. He was very shocked to see the ex-President of the United States of America was living up here in Mattville. Also Ruler Roo, a very short misshapen little man, was her husband. He didn’t look human and Mars noticed Paul’s dilemma and quickly explained that Roo was a Matt, called Homo floresiensis by an older generation of Earth people.

Of course Paul had heard about these people once he had joined the team for Mars, but hadn’t yet met one.

“Watch this.” Mars smiled. Paul looked at Mars. His eyes seemed to go clear, and suddenly Roo was pulling at Paul’s arm. Somehow it seemed Mars had made Roo walk over to them.

“Dr. Paul Jones, brother of General John Jones, Mars told me that you are a far better person than your older brother,” stated the small man, looking up at him.

“He did?” Paul asked, looking at both men, who were smiling at him.

“He also said that you are an expert in growing Panama Red,” continued Ruler Roo. “Dr. Jones, can you tell me what Panama Red is?”

“Cannabis sativa,” replied Paul, looking at Roo and then Mars, totally confused.

“VIN just told me to stop messing with you,” stated the smaller brown man, smiling and winking at VIN, who was standing by the ex-President and watching them from several feet away.

“Maybe I should give up producing this Panama Red,” mumbled poor Paul. “Thank god I don’t smoke it.” The others laughed and it took Mars and Roo several minutes to explain that they were communicating telepathically. Paul refused to understand and wasn’t himself for quite a while.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 13

Mattville

To the astronauts, other than the new visitors, Mattville had bettered itself in many ways. Everything inside Mattville they had seen so far was nice, very nice. The crew got out of their suits in a five-star change area, and this time there were two separate rooms. They showered and were given warm winter clothes. Max had explained that they now had four seasons in Mattville, and that the crew needed to put on warm clothes.

“This month is late fall, the daily temperature is around sixty-nine degrees and during the evenings falls to fifty-five,” Max explained. The astronauts looked at the mayor as if he had lost it. They were heading back in to the town’s main “meeting area”, as it was called, once they looked earthly again in normal clothes. “To make our tourists as comfortable as possible, we increase lighting during the day, make it look like night for ten hours every twenty-four-hour period, and increase and decrease the daily temperatures every hour to copy seasonal temperatures on Earth. It is nice to have a daily schedule, especially for the crew.”

This “meeting area” was like a lounge off of the large entrance cavern and had a thick glass entrance chamber like at the Retreat. Through large glass windows the astronauts could see the gold walls and the landing pad where Astermine One still sat. The old ship was being washed down by people in yellow hazmat suits.

The cavern was massive, it had been carved out to more than four hundred feet across, and now that they were on the ground, the gold walls looked very warming through the thin blue shield wall that was stretched over them. When Astermine had first arrived at this enemy base, a massive explosion had decimated the cavern to where it was just a large hole in the ground. Now it was a cavern again, sealed by the gold walls, and still 30 percent of the walls had to be covered by rock and soil outside to add to the protection from cosmic radiation. The robotic miners were doing a good job.

Here in the meeting room it was warm. It seemed that places where people met were heated more than the corridors, as if the corridors were the outside.

“Dr. Paul Jones, I thank you for your gift of fifty-nine gallons of beer,” stated Max, who seemed to feel that an official speech was now in order. “We are opening the beautiful oak barrel you brought as I speak and will dispense the first Martian beer we have tasted since we all lived at the Retreat. Suzi, we missed you.” There was much laughter from the crowd of at least twenty friends who had waited for the astronauts to emerge from the change rooms.

“And your chocolate cakes!” shouted someone.

Max continued with his speech. Cheers were shouted a few minutes later as sippy cups were handed around, and the Astermine crew who had arrived and old friends who lived in Mattville drank a pint to celebrate their togetherness once again.

“We are ready to give you a tour of Mattville,” continued Max as everybody drank. “We did have Earth-imported champagne ready for your arrival. As you know, many of us here would much prefer beer from our old base than the far-better-quality produce imported from Earth.” Again there was much laughter. “Unfortunately, Suzi, Dr. Jones, we haven’t had the chance to grow much here in Mattville. We don’t have the needed topsoil. I hear our old friend Martin Brusk here could solve that problem soon with a shuttle that can robotically fly between your growing farm at the Retreat and Mattville daily, and I hear it is an electrical/hydrogen hybrid. Do you have any sterilized spare topsoil?”

“I don’t think you need to go any further on that subject, and you do have the ingredients to make topsoil. Just don’t ask me, I’m becoming a carnivore,” injected Saturn distastefully. Max looked at her, not knowing what she was talking about. The other visitors laughed, Suzi smiled at her daughter-in-law, and Max decided not to push it.

“As you all know, we have more electricity than we can use here, but unfortunately our hydrogen fuel right now is less than our wine stocks. Thanks to Jonesy, we have another ton of fuel, which must last us until America Two arrives next year. Ladies and Gentlemen, much has changed in Mattville I since you left. Everything underground has changed for the better except the low gravity and the underground lake.”

“When are you going to sort out the gravity,” joked Jonesy. He was ignored by Max.

“The underground lake and the second and third areas of Mattville, where the last two battles were fought on this planet, are off-limits and not available to be toured by anybody. They do not have safe atmospheric levels. We decided to close those areas at the original wall, Mars, where you and I broke through with the mining robot that day of the battles. When the shuttles arrive to pick up the gold destined for the mother ships, they go in through the middle cavern door we now call Mattville II, and all the loading of pallets is done once the shields in that area are fully operational. I didn’t want new crewmembers or our tourists meandering into those massive caverns and getting lost. Remember the difficulty, Mars, you, I and Vitalily had getting to the third cavern and back? Also, the cryogenic chamber we left untouched next to the third command center is still operating. I suited up with two others and checked it about six months ago.”

“Yes, and I would like to inspect it and release any Matts still alive in those sleep chambers,” added Roo.

Max nodded and continued. “The air system in Mattville II, as we now call the middle cavern, has been operational since last week. I went in with a crew and activated and extended the seven blue shields in there. Mars, remember that stack of fifteen black boxes we found in the second base?” Mars nodded and Max continued. “I asked for a few of those black boxes to be returned from America Two before she left for Ceres, in case we needed to open Mattville II, and we call the third cavern entrance Mattville III. Many of them were empty boxes, nothing inside, but I’ll get to that later.”

“I knew Astermine had more shields than Dr. Smidt wanted me to know about.” Jonesy laughed. “So he didn’t lie to me. They weren’t on Earth, they were up here, but useless, right, Max?”

Max nodded. “Yes, and I believe we will need all the working shields we have to be able to walk around the two bases until we can redevelop it and seal the entire area from the outside. We will need to test the temperatures and air pressure for a couple of months for stability after we set up the two permanent shields inside the caverns like we have here in our welcome center cavern.”

Max then reminded the visitors that the three astronauts had walked doubled over down the five-foot-high tunnels. Mars, he and Vitalily had been in the bases during the battles. They had saved Jonesy’s and Maggie’s lives when the two astronauts had crash-landed SB-III inside the third cavern.

Mars Noble interrupted Max and told the others that it was also the first time he had heard Max Von Braun say that he wanted to become mayor.

“Now all our walkways, as we call them, are over seven feet high,” stated Ruler Roo to Jonesy.

It was time to show the visitors Mattville, and it seemed Jonesy’s height had been the measure of what height the tunnels should be. The sippy cups were all emptied and the visitors were allowed to head out of the meeting area first, and the rest followed.

The original corridors were higher, much wider, and carpeted, Mars and the others noticed. There were hundreds of feet of soft carpets, lighting, and the walls completely smooth rock. The carpets, they were told, had metal flakes in them, which kept the metal-soled shoes still attracted to the same magnetized metal floor underneath, as on all the spacecraft. Mars and several others felt the rock and realized the bare rock walls had been sprayed with a coating of see-through nanosilicone.

“That silicone layer is an inch thick, flexible for future earthquakes, and can withstand several tons of weight,” stated Mayor Max as Mars felt the wall for a second time. “Mars, we walked or shall I say crept down this tunnel a few times, remember?” Max added once they continued downhill and passed the connection area where two tunnels fed off from the single incoming corridor. It was the same place, and the downward slope was still there; Max and Mars had used the little train down to this point. This part of the corridor was the lowest area, and now two pressurized doors were open and positioned at the entrances to the corridors leading back towards the town.

Max pointed to the far area of the carpeted and softly lit tunnel several hundred feet ahead of them. “Up there on the left was the first of the three holes that destroyed the atmosphere in here, remember?”

Mars nodded that he did. It looked so different. There were several well-dressed people in thick fur coats and black leather boots walking up and down the tunnel in both directions, and some even had small dogs. It was as if they were in a city’s luxurious underground level, where the population of those cities walked in the dead of winter.

“We now use this as a walking area until we open up the corridor to Mattville II. These two doors will be closed when the wall is breached,” Max added. “Let’s walk back through the rear walkway.” He headed into and up the slope of the second corridor. Mars knew where they were going. They headed towards the quiet room he had found with the one lone tree and a small river that had led to the finding of the underground cavern far below them.

This area had also changed. The tree was still there, as was the river of water seeping out from the rocks, as he had first found it. The room was still enclosed, and as they entered through a new glass door, Mars heard soft music and saw that a couple of park benches were in the room. Also the river had been narrowed, disappeared into a silver collector and didn’t exit through the hole in the floor to the underground lake anymore.

“We’ve built a collective system that funnels the water through the top of our water tanks,” lectured Max. “If our water supply tanks, five of them holding twelve thousand gallons each, need to be topped up, they are, and then the flow of water goes through to the underground cavern and lake. We have three more tanks arriving next year, which will allow us to increase our population, until we can open the lake cavern below. We have been producing and pumping atmosphere with our recently delivered machinery into the cavern for two years now, and the pressure has risen only 98 millibars to 428 millibars in total. We have asked Dr. Smidt for more pumps and air tanks, but it seems it will take at least another decade before we can get that massive cavern down there up to a minimum of 713 millibars, or equal to about fifteen thousand feet above sea level on Earth, for us to safely breathe and begin working down there.”

“At least with an increasing air pressure you know that the cavern is sealed,” stated Suzi, with everybody agreeing with her.

“This quiet room is called the reading room, and next door is a small library of eighteen hundred books America Two brought us on her last visit,” continued Max. “We can read anything from Earth in broadcasted electronic matter that is six hours old, but holding a paper book still seems important to many, especially our guests.”

“Where do all these people live?” asked Saturn.

“That is our next part of the tour. Follow me, please,” answered Max, and the crew walked through the quiet room to the small library, across the small room and out to a whole new part of Mattville the visitors had never seen.

The Astermine crew who lived here had already faded away to go about their business.

The visitors were shocked to see that they had walked through the library and into what looked like the walkway of a shopping mall. They looked around and up in wonder, not believing what they were seeing.

It wasn’t very big, about a couple of hundred feet long, and it was an open-plan hole in the mountain that stretched up four floors above the walking area. Looking up, it looked more like an open-plan hotel foyer.

There was a couple having a cup of coffee outside a coffee shop, and at the end were empty chairs and tables, four sets of them that looked like outside seating of a restaurant. To the visitors it felt as if they had just walked into a Las Vegas hotel casino.

“This was the first area the old mining robots dug out,” continued Max. “They started on this massive square hole in the mountain three months after America Two and you guys left for Ceres. This is the first of two accommodation units we have. This first mall, First Street we call it, is for our tourists, and our second mall, exactly the same as this one, is behind the ten-foot-thick end wall over there,” he stated, pointing to the end wall of the mall, which had a lone door. “The second mall is our crew quarters and stores. You guys have half of the top tourist floor up there for your visit, and everything you need is already in your apartments,” Max said, pointing to the top floor.

“How many tourists do you have?” Dr. Paul asked. “And who are these tourist people?”

“Ryan Richmond had an idea that could offset the furniture and fuel costs for the journeys to and from Mars,” answered Jonesy. “Very weird, but true. Sorry, Mayor Max.”

“Last year America Two arrived on her first visit with all the furnishings for these two areas. From doors, windows, music speakers, LED lights and cable, beds, carpeting, and apartment furniture to restaurant and coffee shop equipment and supplies, wood paneling, and five-star hotel furnishings to make Mattville into a fancy hotel and a nice place to live. Before the mother ship arrived, we had two years to mine out the caverns and ready the hole for fitting. Our fifty tourists were shuttled down a week after we received their apartment furniture in the first two shuttle loads. The entire crew worked day and night in shifts to change this mall from a perfectly cornered, silicone-sprayed rock skeleton into what you see today. Of course, it was still very incomplete when the tourists arrived.”

Saturn Noble turned to see four noisy middle-aged and well-dressed people exit what looked like a pub two doors down the mall, and her mouth hung open.

“Are those the two blonde female earthlings who I think they are?” she asked Max, shocked.

Max laughed. “Yes, Saturn, they are the two sisters who own the largest hotel chain in the U.S., and they are with their husbands, I was told. We have fifty guests. All extremely wealthy and each paid Astermine many millions to be the first tourists on Mars.”

The four laughing people walked towards them, nodded and entered an elevator. To the astronauts, the earthlings looked quite drunk.

“Pub, heh!” remarked Jonesy.

“Everything you see here, all the finery, carpeting and furniture was paid for by these fifty guests.” Max smiled. “Ryan is still a very clever businessman, and thanks to these people we have the same quality furniture and fittings in our own crew quarters. We do live a comfortable life up here, guys, and I have been told one hundred to one hundred fifty tourists will be on the next incoming flight when these fifty VIPs return.”

“How many tourists can you house in this unit?” Jonesy asked.

“The ground floor has ten large convenience locations, five each side. A coffee shop, English pub, Italian restaurant, American diner, the library, a thirty-seat cinema, a men’s and women’s clothing store, a gift shop and a pharmacy. The second floor holds offices, a large lounge and game room, a sauna and fitness center, a spa and a three-lane bowling alley. The top three levels hold ten apartments each side. Sixty in total. They are all one-bedroom apartments with everything except a balcony. There is no view.” Max laughed. “We can currently house one hundred twenty guests, and Nevada Base knows this. You saw our new railcar in the Welcome Station?”

The visitors nodded.

“We have two of our four robot miners digging a rail tunnel to Mattville II, and we hope to open that area once it is safe. Two more miners are currently digging a third mall, and then a fourth mall that will run parallel to our first two behind the end wall over there.” Max pointed to the wall on their left. “Like they did during digging this first mall, the hole is sealed off and the miners carry the rubble outside through an open tunnel to the Martian surface and pile it up against the outside of the gold cavern wall, a square meter at a time. We cannot run out of room in this massive mountain, just maybe the utilities to run it. Thirty of our staff enjoy running the shops, enough to keep the fifty guests happy, and Roo and the Matts help out as much as they can.”

It was amazing, the amount of room the miners had bitten through. Martin had supplied eight new miners on the last flight, as the toll on the continuously working robots was pretty bad. The original miners that were in the Retreat and Mattville were now spare parts for the newer versions of themselves.

Martin mentioned that a dozen of his latest-design robots were arriving on the next flight, from robotic waiters the crew had met on the island in Australia to robotic mobile cooking ovens and more miners to help heap the outside earth up as a thick protection around the Welcome Station that still had part of its new gold wall showing.

The elevator opened, now empty, and all nine in the party could fit in. It took them up to the second level. Max explained that Dr. Smidt had sent two of these smaller elevators and a massive one to get to the cavern below one day.

The spa and other amenities were the same as in any five-star hotel. The pool looked inviting, and up here the air was warmer.

Their apartments were better than anybody had seen in any hotel. Each unit was the same size and had a bedroom, bathroom and lounge area. There was a coffee maker, and Max explained that all the food down below was free. Even tips weren’t necessary.

The mother ship had certainly brought a lot of gear from Earth. The crew knew that the larger mother ships could carry twenty times as much cargo and crew as ASS-One.

“I will leave you to get some rest,” stated Max as they were shown to their units. “This floor is empty of guests. Current time is 4:30 p.m. Mattville time, and I’m ‘buying’ Italian in the restaurant at six thirty.” With that he asked Mars to be prepared to go with him and search through the areas of Mattville II and III the next day. Mars nodded and Max headed off.

That night the food was excellent. There were three other very famous couples in the restaurant with them, actors and singers, and they kept to themselves. Max and Mars didn’t drink as much as the others, as the next day there was much space suit time to do.

Joey flew Max and Mars across to the second cavern in Astermine One the next morning. The others were happy to enjoy the amenities of the best hotel in the solar system. Astermine One had a mobile cavern door opener, and from outside they watched the large door of the second cavern open upwards.

“A reminder, Mars Noble, we haven’t really touched much in here, the shields to the gold room are operational, but we are going to have to wear suits for the rest of the tour,” stated Max. “We cleaned up the mess inside the shields when we landed to load the gold. Outside the blue-shielded areas, it is just as we left it years ago.”

They exited, wearing suits and helmets, one at a time through the ship’s small crew side hatch. Feeling safer than on their previous visit, Mars opened the globe room and then the command center. Nobody could have entered this area without having the blue shields operational in the corridor or the shield in the cavern. Max had made sure that nobody could have moved, as they had turned the shields off and moved the black boxes into the opposite corridor leading to Mattville I.

The air in the two rooms was still breathable, which meant that the systems were still working beneath the base. Nobody had yet found out how long these cold fusion power systems would last, but word was a very long time.

The globes were black and looked dormant. So was the command center, the console having the usual power lights on.

They then went into the base’s three supply rooms, where all the supplies, food and water had been stored. Again there was atmosphere, and none of the food or water had been touched in the third room. In their first visit they had found the first two rooms were being farmed, lit up by two of the shields. Max and Mars had turned the shields off, and now those rooms, even though they had perfect atmosphere, were just a layer of soil without the specialized lighting conditions the plants needed for growth.

“These two areas could certainly be started up again once we extend the accommodations into here,” stated Max. “We believe the soil could be contaminated, so we haven’t moved it.”

“They were feeding a lot of people from this area. Might there be more farming area we didn’t find on the first visit?” asked Mars. “We know that the electrical supply rooms upstairs are empty, since we carried everything out on our first visit, but we had better check them, after checking the food storage room.”

They could see that all the fresh food in the third room was nothing more than blackened waste, and only grains and the water jars still had the same quantities as the last time they had visited three or four years ago.

As expected, the electrical rooms were nearly empty. There had been no movement by Matts in this area either.

“Remember we thought we had hit the jackpot with thirty-two black boxes from this supply room?” Max asked Mars.

“Yes, I remember counting them a couple of times to make sure, and then relayed the information to my father up in the mother ship. I still can’t understand where all the shields are. Jonesy always counts them, and he rarely gets over twelve shields being used by Astermine, and I think he has maybe another dozen for A.S.S.”

“When we carried them to the ship, we didn’t notice any weight difference, as the gravity here is so weak. They were packed away on board the mother ship with the other electronics that we didn’t know what they were, and they were delivered to Nevada Base in sealed asteroid rock containers. We received several back, but five of them were empty when we checked. Also twenty-two of them were empty boxes when Dr. Smidt and his crew went through them. Down there they could tell the difference in weight, and Dr. Smidt and then Jonesy, I heard, were depressed for weeks afterwards.”

Mars replied that he wasn’t told that.

The next room to search was the Matt toilet, and Mars remembered there was only one. In here the oxygen was good, and as he had done the first time, he removed his helmet to test the air. This time there was no smell of use. He had Max refit his helmet.

The last massive room, which was more of a rough cavern than a room, opposite the toilet door was as when they had left it. The mound of soil was still there, and so were the soft cloths covering the square shapes of silver metals. Up to now America Two had only removed gold from the next cavern and had left this one intact.

“As soon as we can, we must get my mom or Dr. Paul in here to check on the soil. I know nothing about soil, and it could all be dead,” suggested Mars.

“Yes, I often wanted to fly over here and collect all this soil for Mattville, but didn’t really know if it was useable or sterilized. Moving it could have brought radiation or disease into Mattville, and even though the systems were producing air in here, the shields were off,” Max replied.

“Let’s head into the gold room. Just the yellow eye candy in there is worth traveling all the way from Earth to see.” Mars laughed.

“Yes, we actually remelted the gold door hatch in the vein of gold to Mattville III so that it couldn’t be opened from that side. I check it every time I go in,” stated Max as they headed down to the lower level and approached the Martian gold mine of the Matts.

Max pushed the red glowing panel and both men stepped backwards as the large door slid open. As with the entire base, the massive cavern inside the door was lit up as a supermarket would be. It seemed the glow from the lights in the base never went off, or they went off when the doors were closed and no movement inside was detected.

Carefully they descended down the hundred stairs to the floor of the mine. Mars noticed that this time there weren’t tools lying around like they had seen last time.

“As I said, we cleaned up this area and packed the tools away carefully. If they were moved, we would notice, and no, nobody has touched them,” Max said, looking at Mars.

Mars noticed in the next cavern, the massive ingot supply cavern, that many of the pallets of ingots in the gold lines were gone. It was a very small amount compared to what still was in the cavern, though. The mounds of gold stretched back and to the sides of the cavern walls a couple of hundred feet to each side of them, and what had been taken was a small hole right in front of them.

“I remember each square mound of ingots is 15 by 15 by 15 high—3,375 ingots,” stated Mars to Max.

“How much did they weigh on Earth?” Max asked. “Nobody ever told me.”

“Ten kilos, or twenty-two pounds, about eighty percent of an Earth gold ingot,” Mars told Max.

“Well, we loaded forty thousand ingots, about thirty-six and a half of these square mounds, and I was told it took twenty shuttle flights down to Nevada Base to carry it all down.”

“Remember we took up about a hundred or more ingots of all the different colored silver metals we could see as well as a couple dozen ingots on the first trip when we headed back to Earth after the battle on Ceres?” replied Mars.

Max nodded.

“That was how they knew how much weight was possible to load.”

“Okay, I get it now. Dr. Smidt doesn’t tell us much up here, except what he thinks is necessary,” replied Max.

“Has Jonesy told you about our still-top-secret find on Ceres?” Mars asked Max.

Max shook his head, showing that he hadn’t been told.

“Come, I’ll show you.” Mars led Max into the second, smaller storage cavern. In here there were complete and unfinished mounds of gold and many silver mounds. Mars counted forty finished mounds of gold and about the same in several different colored silver metals. In this much smaller cavern was about a tenth as what was in the larger one. “Treble this and that is what we found in Ceres, which now belongs to A.S.S., us and Jonesy.” Mars could hear Max cough loudly into his helmet through the intercom. He watched as Max’s helmet misted up. The poor mayor was speechless. “I counted 840,000 ingots of metal on Ceres,” continued Mars, making the poor man cough again.

“We took back two thousand ingots of silver REMs for Martin, and that has now returned. ASS-One, our ship, used up all we had on Earth and those two thousand ingots. We will be taking another two thousand ingots back from Ceres when we return, and somehow need to get America Three back to Ceres at least three times so that we can fill her up for Martin. Jonesy has so many ships on order that it will take at least about eighteen hundred tons of these rare earth metals to just complete his orders.”

“That makes us members of A.S.S. very rich,” replied Max, still in shock.

“Well, you have to be on Earth to enjoy it.” Mars smiled as Max got himself back together again. “I don’t believe money means anything up here.”

“How much is that stuff from Ceres worth?” Max asked.

“If I told you, I think you would die a horrible coughing death in that suit of yours, buddy,” replied Mars. “Just say over a few hundred billion of whatever you want it to be worth. It doesn’t matter, unless, Mayor Max, you want to retire on the blue planet. Remember, up here it’s only good for the walls of the welcome center or for Martin or some other guy to build ships up here one day. And imagine what the Matts have on their other planets. Jonesy reckons that all this here and on Ceres is maybe a drop in the ocean compared to what they have elsewhere.”

“I don’t feel very well,” replied Max, his face white inside his helmet.

“Nor did I when VIN told me.” Mars laughed. “How are we getting to the third cavern if you sealed up the gold tunnel?”

Instinctively for humans, they exited carrying an ingot of gold in each hand and an extra one each for Joey. They headed back to the cavern where Joey was waiting for them as Max closed down the blue shield boxes as they left.

“You guys were out ninety-seven minutes…and thanks for the gold. I just need a place to spend it,” joked Joey as he opened the cavern door and flew them out of the second cavern and ten minutes later approached the third cavern.

Max and Mars rested, taking their helmets off during the flight. They had packed a light lunch and quickly enjoyed it. Max handed Mars a simple map showing the design of a Matt base Mars knew so well. This map of the base with no name looked slightly different and reminded him of the base on Ceres. It had three large caverns connected to the exit cavern, and he knew that they were spacecraft hangars.

“Remember the three Matt builders we saved?” asked Max, his mouth half full of food.

Mars nodded.

“It took time, but Roo managed to get as much information out of them as they knew. It seemed that the Matt builders were not told as much as the Matt pilots and commanders. Roo explained to me that he had learned from them that Matt builders are a Matt who can’t speak telepathically due to being a slightly different breed from the other Matts. Something to do with two separate tribes of Matts from their Earth days, and it seemed that the Matt builders didn’t fit in, other than to do all the hard grind of building. Roo told me that these three were the first builders he had ever met and was quite surprised to be called a royal Matt by them. This is the map of the third base, and we don’t have a map of the second base because these three hadn’t been part of the second base’s building. They were very young, only thirty years old, Roo told me, but they had known about the gold tunnel for escape. The others hadn’t escaped, they told Roo, as they were older than and not as fast as these youngsters.”

“I did get shown where to find the remote door openers by them, though,” added Joey. “I picked this one up from the third cavern and they fixed it for me to work from the ship.”

The third cavern door began to open as Joey approached head-on, with him using the remote. Max reminded Mars that he had been in here with Joey and Pete once only, and very recently, to check on the cryogenic room, which was still active.

“That’s right, the wreck of Asterspace Three is in this cavern,” stated Mars as he prepared to get his helmet on again. “Igor or Boris flew it in like a bomb and it was robotically flown from the mother ship. We lost so many ships so quickly. SB-I and SB-II in and around the second cavern and Asterspace Three in this one. You guys haven’t cleaned up, right?”

“I flew us in. No new shield in the cavern at that time, buddy,” stated Joey.

“The lack of a shield let the air escape until we had the cavern door closed again, and we used full suits to check in here,” continued Max. “The atmosphere was virtually nonexistent once the door was closed. I’m sure the same is going to happen today.”

“No new shield again and there is the atmosphere escaping like a moving wind of dust,” stated Joey. “I’ll hover for a minute as the rush seems to clean out any new dust. Certainly no Matts alive in there unless they’re in a protected area.”

Joey brought the ship in to land carefully and slowly, dodging the broken parts of several spacecraft, and put her down. He faced her outwards towards the closing door and was ready to leave at a moment’s notice. This time Joey handed a laser pistol to both Mars and Max, reminding them that there were no shields in this base. The pilot then waited until both men had their helmets on and could speak to him through the ship’s intercom.

“I can keep her thrusters at minimal if you want, Max? That gives you guys twenty-five minutes before my fuel gets low, and you both know we have very little of that commodity.”

“We can do a quick sweep of the entire base, and if we find nothing, you can close her down, Joey,” replied Max. “We have lasers and both of us know how to handle them.”

Joey nodded, and the two men exited through the side hatch.

Mars looked at the map, and Max had brought a new gadget with him. It was a new door opener, designed at Nevada Base, and had a small compartment the size of a helmet that fitted over the Matt door opener on every wall next to the door. Air was then pressurized into the compartment. Mars had been shown it back at Mattville and looked forward to seeing it in use.

The door opener did as the helmets used to. The air around the door opener was tricked into thinking that there was air, and it opened, letting all the air out of the globe room and the command center, whose door was still open. There were no Matts or bodies inside, and the place was still as trashed as their first visit. Mars went straight to the command room’s console, turned it over and, with the lights a steady blue on the cryogenic chamber interior controls, knew that the Matts sleeping inside were still safe.

“They certainly wouldn’t destroy their sleep controls,” he stated over his intercom. He telepathically sent the information to Roo, who immediately thanked him.

“You can tell Roo they’re okay, then,” suggested Max.

“Already have.” Mars smiled. “If we set up and open a shield in both the caverns, then we won’t lose the atmospheric pressure every time we need to come in here. Max, we’ll never be able to open the sleep chamber until there is a stable pressure.”

“Let’s check the entire place out before we change anything,” Max replied.

“The electrical storage room, I’m sure, is still empty,” suggested Mars, knowing this, as they had cleaned it out the last time. He tricked the door, and it opened to reveal that it was. Next were the three storage rooms, which were empty of any growth, but still had mounds of soil. “Max, we carried that wooden box thing back through the gold tunnel with fifteen black boxes or something. I can’t remember much from there. Did we ever put it in the shuttle?”

“We did, but I forgot to get the case aboard America Two, and Joey and I checked the contents when we found that most of the cases from the middle cavern were empty.”

“And?” enquired Mars.

“All empty,” replied Max. “We sent the other electrical stuff back with the gold cargo two years ago.”

Slowly they went through all the rooms, even the toilet. There was certainly nobody alive inside the base. Then they tried the only door down to the lower level. The map showed a staircase to a large cavern, which showed blocks that both Mars and Max reckoned to be the power units. This door wouldn’t open.

Only the three spaceship caverns remained to check, and they had been closed since the day they had taken over the base. Large amounts of air escaped from each large hangar where the Matt space fighters had been kept, and all three were empty.

Mars looked forward to telling Jonesy that they had exhausted all the Matt fighters on Mars during the battle, and he was sure Jonesy was still keeping a tally.

Max was now interested in reactivating the shield black box in the cavern, Joey closed down the thrusters, and an hour later they left the cavern with the shield growing behind them. Max reckoned that it would take at least a few weeks for the atmosphere to get back to its regular conditions.

On the way back, they activated the second shield box in the middle chamber and soon the entire base, or bases, could be ready for habitants.

Mars reported to the rest of the crew once he was back into normal clothes, and this time he wanted to try the top-quality champagne from Earth. Jonesy wanted a beer in the English pub, and everybody moved into the dark interior and sat by an imitation fire in the fireplace.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 14

Ceres—Wow!

“We have Ceres visual through the cockpit windows,” shouted Saturn Noble to an empty cockpit on their ‘morning’ of day sixty-nine of their flight from Mars. She had looked up from a paperback she had been given by Mayor Max as a gift when they had departed the red planet. Squinting slightly, she noticed that the dwarf planet they were aiming for wasn’t just a bright light in the distance anymore. The light had grown slightly and looked like it had substance. It took time, but slowly the others emerged from their apartments aboard ASS-One.

“You woke us up just to tell us we’re a few miles closer to Ceres?” asked her father, who arrived last.

Suzi, VIN and Jonesy were always last, as they had to decide whether they were going to put their prosthetic legs on or not. Put on the legs with the metallic shoes so they could walk around the cockpit magnetized to the metal floor, or float around without legs, which really pissed Saturn off.

As Saturn had often mentioned, it didn’t look very professional with three half bodies of the seven-person crew floating about the cockpit without legs, and sometimes not even fully dressed. She had given orders that on her watch, everybody would look as whole as possible and wear flight suits.

Unfortunately, Jonesy had found out that floating around always gave away the lack of legs, even if he was hiding the fact by wearing a flight suit. Saturn had been quite bullish about how the crew looked, for morale purposes in case the space shark was about or real aliens were spying at them from some asteroid somewhere.

Mars was asked if his wife needed therapy, and it got to the stage that he couldn’t figure out whether he was right or wrong.

“I’m so glad this is only a seventy-two-day flight,” Saturn added, looking at the motley lot. Her husband Mars’s long hair floated around like a girl’s. Martin Brusk looked the most human of all of them. She was impressed. Even for a newbie semi-astronaut, Martin always looked like he cared about his appearance. VIN, being an ex-marine, was nearly as neat as Martin. Her father was the worst. Little Mikey looked like a lost teenager, and her mother-in-law, Suzi, had slowly gone from being very neat and tidy to I-don’t-care. Saturn reckoned that the crew needed boot camp to get themselves back to looking like professional astronauts.

“You look very professional this morning, dear,” stated her mother-in-law, adding fuel to the fire.

“Of course, I’m on duty. I should look like an astronaut,” Saturn returned unhappily.

“Well, I’m not on duty, nor are the rest of us, so we don’t need to look like astronauts,” added Jonesy, taking a peek at the reason his daughter woke him up and the readouts on the cockpit console.

“Or humans,” mumbled Saturn.

They had left the orbit of the red planet forty-eight hours after Mars and Max had returned from inspecting the two bases.

Even though ASS-One was faster than any other ship in space, twice as fast on longer flights, the astronauts still used windows of opportunity to fly. Jonesy’s ship didn’t have anywhere to refuel, except back on Earth, and this three-legged flight was already pretty tight.

This was the reason they had left Paul in Mattville. They didn’t have enough fuel to return home via Mars, and Paul wasn’t too keen to go back to Earth yet.

Paul was lucky, though. Astermine One was due to be flown to supply the Retreat in a couple of weeks’ time, and at least he had luxury accommodations for the rest of his visit. He did speak to Jenny over the radio daily and organized his team to fill dozens of silver asteroid canisters stashed at the Retreat with the rich topsoil to be brought back to Mattville.

It took Paul’s crew a week, and they had half of their growing pile of their strong topsoil packed in thirty canisters, all Astermine One could carry. Naturally Mayor Max and his biologist crew were warned about the soil, how strong it was, and Paul made sure the Retreat’s samples of the fruits of their labor from the blue shields was added to the returning shipment.

“Dad, you’ve been very quiet about what we’re going to find on this marble in front of us,” stated Saturn as everybody looked at her.

“Ja, Jonesy, what is the big secret on Ceres?” asked Suzi. “Are we flying into luxury like we found on Mattville? That swimming pool was divine.”

“Okay, I don’t know,” Jonesy replied, strapping himself into an engineer’s seat, as Mars had taken the right-hand copilot chair and smiled at him before Jonesy could get there. “You guys talked to Vitalily and his six guys when they returned to Earth two years ago. Martin, you weren’t on the island, so I’ll tell you the story.

“Vitalily and his mechanics crew of six remained on Ceres when we returned from the last battle four years ago. He was keen to stay. He liked the place, and Earth could wait. I told him that I thought I had ideas for the planet. We discussed the position of Ceres and that one day it could become a center of asteroid mining. He agreed with me, adding that if a station or supply center was to be set up anywhere in the Asteroid Belt, it would automatically become a center for trade. Martin, I never got down to Ceres, as I was still recuperating from the loss of my legs. Saturn darling, the new legs are sometimes a real pain in the ass to put on. The biggest find on Ceres was frozen ice. Mars, tell the story, you saw the caverns two years ago.”

“Martin, the base there is exactly the same as the third base on Mars,” began Mars once his father let him proceed. “The only difference I have ever seen in the bases I have visited is that their main military bases are larger and have several caverns where their fighters are stored, rather than the smaller bases with only the one large cavern. Ceres has the largest caverns of all the bases. The only cavern I have seen bigger than the Ceres fighter caverns is the mine cavern inside Mattville II. These caverns are narrow and very long. My dad and I went through Ceres Base very quickly after the attack to make sure Vitalily and his crew wouldn’t be surprised once we had left. Dad?”

“Being head of security on America Two and the first person to ever enter a Matt base,” added VIN, “I have studied every possible hiding place there could be. The Matts are very precise when it comes to base design. Their bases are all the same except for the caverns, as Mars stated, to hold more aircraft or even have an escape cavern, which I found on the first asteroid DX2014. Remember that one?” VIN asked Martin, and he nodded.

“Where is DX2014?” asked Jonesy, realizing that he had totally forgotten about the nicknamed “Solar Bus”, the Matt asteroid that orbited past Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter and sometimes Saturn once every seventeen years or so.

“Six years since we woke you up,” thought VIN. “Eleven years from Earth, wherever that is.”

“I must remember that, a little over a decade, hey. A free ride to Mars and Ceres. That baby could transport a dozen mother ships’ worth of stuff.”

“Two years to Mars, another six to Saturn, snail mail,” suggested Suzi.

“Not a problem if there’s no rush to get the job done.” Jonesy smiled. “Mars, continue.”

“Have you a map of Ceres?” Suzi asked Jonesy.

“No, but there is one waiting for us. Martin, unfortunately Vitalily and crew have had a faulty radio since Mars and Saturn left them there with the building crew two years ago. We have the newest and best equipment for Vitalily on one of the electronic equipment pallets in the hold.”

“I would assume the rest of Vitalily’s supplies is vodka?” Suzi replied sarcastically.

“Da, that was his last word to me a month or so before we left Earth.” Jonesy smiled. “Suzi, how did you know? No, Martin, I haven’t been told much about what has happened on Ceres. Astronaut Mars Noble, tell Martin and remind your mother what you saw when you and Saturn arrived two years ago, please.”

“I didn’t go down on our last visit with the supply ship,” interrupted Saturn. “I was in charge of the ship in orbit, and our visit was only ten days. Mars and Gary Darwin flew the shuttle up and down once every forty-eight hours.”

“The crew loaded and Vitalily’s guys emptied the shuttle’s cargo bays down there as fast as they could,” began Mars once Saturn had shut up. He winked and blew her a kiss. Saturn, and her highly strung attitude, was just the way he wanted her. “The blue shield was up in the one cavern Dad and I had gone into to finish the battle. Most of the time we loaded and unloaded, but I had a few hours on the last day to be toured around. Gary was busy checking the cargo manifest, so Vitalily and I sneaked off. It was a shock. We wore full space suits, and I was taken completely by surprise when Vitalily showed me the cavern full of metal ingots. It took a long while to count it. Vitalily told me to keep the treasure a secret and to only tell Jonesy. Jonesy smiled when I told him, and he seemed to have suspected that there was treasure on Ceres. I suppose we should have all realized that there would be gold or rare earth metals in every Matt base we conquered. Jonesy told me that A.S.S. already had a plan for Ceres and that the find would make it easier and affordable. It was two years later when I noticed that there were six new robot miners in the Ceres cargo manifest on my next flight there in America Three.”

“In the year Vitalily and his guys had been there,” continued Jonesy, telling the story, “they tidied up and repaired the command center VIN and Mars blew up, cleaned the three caverns up, and that was it. There was so much debris to clear that it took them a whole year. Remember, it isn’t always easy cleaning up in near-zero g.”

“I saw that your new design of Ceres showed eight caverns, I assume using the three that were the old fighter hangars,” added VIN.

“Five more were to be dug out,” continued Jonesy. “So far, and with the work completed on my phase one, Ceres is a mining base not a five-star resort the tourists of Earth would want to visit, except it’s not a bad idea to get them to pay my costs. I think I’ll chat with Ryan again when I get back.”

“Why eight caverns?” asked Martin.

“Easy, old pal. You were the eighth and final company to ask for mining rights on Ceres.” Jonesy laughed.

“Mars, you said there were gold and metals down there?” Suzi asked, the only non-A.S.S. member and not knowing what the others knew.

“Not much gold, a few hundred bars, but metals, yes, and enough to pay for a few ships,” replied her son tactfully, and his mother looked at her son, then Jonesy sternly.

“Doesn’t the metal then belong to Ryan and Astermine?” Suzi asked.

“It could.” Jonesy smiled. “But since two members of A.S.S. found the small amount of metal, I think we have a say in ownership.”

Suzi nodded gently and thought about that answer.

“Also Ryan has signed over the entire base to A.S.S., Suzi. I think that now A.S.S. does have right of ownership, and it’s not the wealth we’re after, but the affordability to turn Ceres into a mining mecca of the future.”

Suzi acknowledged the reply and seemed to accept it.

Two days later Saturn set the ship up to orbit the light-colored dwarf planet. Martin had been told to look at the misty color of the planet, and it had reminded him of a cloudy marble he had once treasured as a small kid. In some places its color looked like the color of a head of an espresso, on other seeable parts, light creamy granite. He already knew the mist around certain areas of the planet was water vapor.

After her second and rapid fifteen-minute orbit, the ship was ready to descend closer to the surface of the planet. Saturn took her down as Jonesy, who had been trying the radio for days, finally managed to get a very scratchy response from Vitalily. They were all all right, but had very limited supplies of food.

The crew on Ceres had been told by the radio in Mattville the estimated day of arrival, and Jonesy was relieved to hear his friend’s just audible and faint voice again.

Vitalily asked for the ship to be landed in a new cavern. Cavern four, he told Jonesy, had been dug out by the new miners and had been made large enough for ASS-One to fit in. There was no roof door, but a shield had been activated a month earlier and filled the cavern. The air was ready to breathe, and the crew didn’t need suit helmets.

“So we aim for the hole with a blue shield sticking out of it?” Saturn asked Jonesy.

“It seems so. I think I heard through the static that the new cavern is one mile from the other three caverns and we will easily see it, as the top of the shield is above ground level.”

On the first pass directly over the base, and at a forty-two-mile altitude, the shield was still too small to see with binoculars. The laser cameras picked it up easily and shone the blue-colored hole on their monitors. The water vapor seemed far more in abundance than on their first visit and sometimes blinded the ship from the surface. This made Saturn bring her in far slower than the previous orbit. The whole planet was slightly less than 600 miles in diameter and approximately 1,850 miles in circumference.

Thirty minutes later, Saturn slowed to zero and brought the ship to a direct hover over the blue shield five thousand feet below them.

“Remember when there were bogies all over these skies, Dad?” Mars stated to VIN as the monitors showed the entire ground setup below them.

“Yes, there’s the burnt-out automated maser platform in between the two closed caverns, down there.” His father pointed.

“The sun is pretty bright here compared to Mars,” suggested Martin. “How far are the closest water vapor plumes from the base?”

“About a hundred miles in several directions. That’s why I assume the Matts built their base here,” replied VIN. “This seems to be the largest dry area of this tiny dwarf planet, yet Vitalily stated that he had found a wall of pure water ice inside one of their new caverns.”

“We seem to have arrived at the right time, daytime, and there’s a powerful glow from the bright-colored surface down there,” added Saturn, also looking at the base below through her console monitor.

“The slight glare is also due to the plumes of water vapor getting in between us and the sun,” added Suzi. “Mars, you promised me we could go and see one of those plumes before we leave?”

As usual, Saturn brought ASS-One in very slowly, penetrating the blue shield and into the well-lit cavern.

There was a large group of dozens of men dressed in flight suits in the next shield, watching as the ship gently touched the ground inside the cavern, and Saturn kept the thrusters on idle while Vitalily and his crew approached the ship and tied down the feet with cords so that it couldn’t leave terra firma. The gravity on this piece of rock was only 3 percent of Earth’s, whereas Mars had a gravity ten times that of Ceres.

There was a metallic floor inside the cavern, Vitalily had told them, but Saturn had wanted the feet tied down as an extra precaution. Jonesy knew she was a damn good pilot.

“Martin, no games on this planet or you will hurt yourself,” stated Saturn as she closed down the thrusters.

“All the walkways have metallic carpets, so you all wear your metal-soled boots, and we wear our legs at all times,” added VIN.

“Also it’s far colder here on Ceres than on the red planet without space suits,” added Mars.

“And I suggest you astronauts dress and look like astronauts,” added Saturn sarcastically. “We don’t want to scare the crap out of the new workers, do we?”

“Now, now, darling,” stated Jonesy. “Remember A.S.S. owns this base, and yes, we will all make a decent appearance.”

Even though they knew that the planet had little to no gravity, it was still a lot to get used to, and they were lucky that the metal shoes stabilized their movements.

The group of men didn’t enter the blue shield in the cavern due to possible cosmic contamination from the ship’s outer shell, and it took several minutes for Saturn to close down the ship.

Once she was ready, the presentable astronauts left in a group and headed gently through the blue shield wall into the next shield, where the men had gathered to welcome them.

Jonesy got a massive bear hug from Vitalily, which he later said could have broken several of his ribs. Vitalily’s Russian crew of six knew all the approaching astronauts, except Martin Brusk. The other forty or so men just waited to one side. They recognized Mars and Saturn as the two astronauts who had flown them here.

The arriving team was welcomed with bear hugs. Even Suzi, who was asked by a couple of the Russians if she had brought a chocolate cake with her. It so happened that all she needed was a kitchen of sorts to get to work.

“Frozen milk from Mattville, Vitalily. I am ready to spoil my favorite Russian bear, and the other bears,” she answered, smiling broadly.

“Jonesy, you are such a welcome sight. You brought us vodka, da?” Vitalily laughed loudly.

“Would I be caught without some?” replied Jonesy, knowing that would be the first sentence out of his buddy’s mouth. He reached into his flight suit’s leg map pockets and brought out a bottle from each leg.

“Herr Jones!” exclaimed Suzi.

“What!?” he replied. “I know some of these guys want cake, but they will certainly need to toast it down. Vitalily, I got these in Brisbane, Australia, for you. Strongest bottles in the liquor store.”

There was a rousing applause, especially when Jonesy stated that there were several cases of liquor in the supplies they would unload the next day.

“Good to see you, old friend. Where are we, Vitalily? This is one of the new caverns, right?” VIN asked as his body was hugged by the bear they often called their friend.

“Da, the first one dug out to your new ship’s size, although not yet finished,” replied Vitalily, laughing and happily hugging Suzi, Saturn, then Mars. “This is your personal and private A.S.S. entrance to Ceres Base, as you asked Jonesy—A.S.S. cavern four and A.S.S. personnel in here only from next month. Astronaut Little Mikey Noble, I presume. Young man, you have grown and look quite the astronaut. Last time I saw you, you were on Saturn’s boobs.”

Saturn took a swing at her friend, smiling. He could get away with murder, it seemed.

“Suzi, you joined A.S.S.? About time. And I assume you are Mr. Brusk, the maker of this ship?” stated Vitalily when he got to Martin Brusk. “I have seen your picture on American Internet before it broke.”

Martin was introduced and many of the welcome committee seemed interested to meet the famous man.

There were just too many of the new build crew to introduce, so Vitalily turned to the large group and pointed to the astronauts one by one. Once he had shouted out loudly, introducing them all, he explained to the builders that he had some bad news for them.

“Sorry, but with only two bottles, there is just about enough for us Russians. You builders will have to wait.”

“I don’t think so,” shouted VIN, and on cue and smiling, he brought two more bottles out of his flight suit pockets. So did Mars, and then everyone looked at Little Mikey, who smiled and did exactly the same.

“Okay, we now have enough for everybody,” whooped Vitalily loudly. There was much excitement, verbal thanks from the builders, and Vitalily stated that everybody should follow him.

Suzi rolled her eyes, expecting a mile-long walk underground to the old area of the base. She was wrong. Vitalily headed for a lone staircase inside the second shield and headed downwards.

“There are no exits that I can see from this cavern, except this one,” stated Saturn to Suzi, who both had looked around for a tunnel. Jonesy smiled at them.

Following Vitalily, they descended the four flights of stairs and into what looked like a football stadium, or the largest bar area they had ever seen.

“You have a bar in here?” asked Suzi.

“Da, unfinished, and we would use it if we had anything to use it with,” replied the happy Russian.

The astronauts, even Jonesy, were shocked at the size of the perfectly dug-out, ten-foot-high roofed chamber underneath the new landing cavern.

It was big, about the size of a football field, and rectangular. The astronauts gazed at the large unfurnished cavern. All it had was a stone column in the middle, about sixty feet square, and around all four sides, an unfinished bar made out of redwood.

“Jonesy, this is what we could do with the wood you sent us in America Three two years ago. Welcome to your first bar in the solar system, two hundred ten feet of bar area from the red American wood you sent. I don’t understand why you only sent thirty bar stools?” inquired the Russian.

“I wanted a seventy-foot bar, Vitalily, and I have another seventy feet of wood,” Jonesy replied, shocked at the size of the bar. It was bigger than he thought possible.

“Well, you have four seventy-foot bars now with the new wood.” The Russian laughed. “Look at the bright side, four times the amount of miners can now order drinks.”

“Well, some of the wood was meant to be made into a back bar, like the diagram I sent with the wood,” added Jonesy. “But, hey! Four times the business and I’m not going to complain. I can always get Mikey to fly in another load of wood.”

Little Mikey Noble smiled. He helped himself to the first new bar stool in a line that still had its protective plastic covering, and sat down at the half-complete redwood bar. It was going to be interesting to see how Vitalily was going to dispense sixty or more drinks in a gravity that wasn’t even kind to sippy cups.

He strapped himself in and looked down the seventy-foot surface of the unfinished bar counter. It was so long that it looked like a runway.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 15

Captain Mikey Noble—2040

His personal and private bar chair wasn’t as new as the day he had first strapped himself in on his first visit nearly a decade earlier. It was still the first bar stool in the line closest to the staircase up to the cavern, and nobody apart from Captain Noble could sit in it.

“A beer and a double vodka, Sasha,” shouted Mikey to the older-looking-than-last-flight Russian bartender he had known all his life. At twenty-nine, he was one of the youngest of mostly men in the cavern he remembered so well from the day he had first entered. The bar was noisy; the closest barman of half a dozen smiled and grabbed a cold one out of the fridge.

“Hi, old friend. You forgot to pay your bar bill on your last visit, Captain,” joked the Russian as they hugged over the bar counter. Mikey knew Uncle Sasha to be nearly fifty years older than him. “You fly alone? Where is your crew?”

“I have a robotic copilot who thinks she can fly better than me, several cargo robots, a shuttle that I can fly, and a dozen computers who do everything, including play chess. I don’t need crew, Sasha. Maybe I’ll bring along my wife one day when I’m married. How much was my tab…old friend?” Mikey replied, smiling and watching as the old man prepared his double vodka in the latest NSD (Noble schnapps dispenser).

“One thousand and eight dollars U.S., or ten one-ounce REM (rare earth metal) coins of osmium, palladium, titanium, cerium or neodymium, or five one-ounce coins of gold or dysprosium. How do you want to pay?”

“How about iridium?” Mikey asked as his beer was served in a normal beer bottle, except that it had a teat-type fixture on the top. The teat was pressed in by the tongue and pressured beer was ejected.

Sasha looked at his holographic account organizer, or HAC, on the back bar. Mikey could see his account and next to it all the daily values of all the dozens of currencies accepted by the bar. Much like his holographic mobile phone in his pocket, the HAC glowed, showing lists of values against numbers.

“We haven’t had many iridium coins in lately, and they are very valuable,” replied Sasha, putting what looked like a sippy cup on the bar in front of Mikey. It held peanuts instead of a liquid, and this was how snacks and hard foods were now dispensed on Ceres. “A one-ounce coin of iridium will cover your tab and your drinks today, young Mikey.”

“And if I haven’t got the money?” Mikey asked.

“I will have to report you to A.S.S., Captain,” replied Sasha, looking as mean as he could as Vitalily walked up to them.

“Captain Noble, my old friend, heard you just got in. Congratulations on your promotion…sir!” Vitalily smiled, saluting jokingly. Mikey noticed that Vitalily was getting old, very old, and his bear hugs, thanks to his age, were finally getting weaker. “Jonesy has finally given you the wheel, heh? It is about time that old man took it easy, and how is your grandfather? Sasha, I’ll have what the boss is having. Put it on his tab.”

Mikey smiled. “Still beating us all up, Vitalily. How much do I owe now?” he asked Sasha, who smiled back.

“I don’t know, take it up with the management. I now suppose that is you, Vitalily?”

“Nyet, Captain Noble, the new CEO of A.S.S., is above my head now.” The head Russian laughed. “Boss, I can still remember you in diapers? Now you are da boss. Age is certainly not kind. Sasha, get a vodka for yourself, I think us old men need it, and we can celebrate Little Mikey’s promotion.”

Mikey Noble pulled several coins out of his flight suit pocket and smacked them on the bar.

“As the boss, I suppose I need to set an example. Even the boss pays, Sasha, or he doesn’t get a drink, understand? I hadn’t forgotten, just spent too much here last time and forgot to get paid. Sasha, which coins do you want?”

The barman looked over the coins and picked the one that had iridium engraved on it.

“Three osmium, two gold and two palladium coins. You won’t get far with that change,” was Sasha’s reply.

The two old Russians got their drinks, stood to attention and saluted their NSDs to Mikey, with him nodding thanks, drunk.

The couple of hundred miners and pilots in the bar didn’t notice and certainly didn’t care what was going on at the cordoned-off VIP corner of the bar. Most were drunk or doing their best to get that way as the half dozen holographs of semi-naked dancers twisted up and down their poles on the large stage in a corner of the bar.

Little Mikey enjoyed the smooth, killer strength of the Retreat’s best brand of vodka; then he tipped his NSD up to his mouth, pushed the plunger with his hand on the opposite end, and chased beer down behind the vodka to cool his throat.

He chatted with the two old Russians as Sasha refilled the NSDs for a second round. Then he raised his NSD to the large lifelike holograph of his grandfather Jonesy behind the bar, put the front of the NSD back into his mouth, and pushed the plunger all the way in. The two old men followed suit.

The vodka again burned the back of his throat. The Retreat vodka was far stronger than the average brewed on Earth, as it was brewed on Mars. For some reason he hadn’t yet asked his mother about, alcohol brewed in lower gravity in space was stronger than its counterpart brewed on Earth. Again he chased it down with a beer.

Mikey had flown directly from the Retreat and hadn’t had a drop for 121 days on this, his first flight in ASS-T1, Astermine’s new liquid hydrogen/cargo transporter.

“How are these new NSDs doing?” Mikey asked Sasha, flipping him an osmium coin.

“Great! Your mother’s latest design works perfectly, Mikey. Unless the drunks miss their mouths, which happens now and again, all the liquid is plunged into the mouth. Also the cleaning of the NSDs works well. We separate the two parts and wash them separately,” Sasha answered.

“She wanted me to tell you guys that she will have the beer bottle version ready by my next flight next year. I gave a test model to Paul at the retreat, and he’s trying it in between his test bongs.”

“His what?” asked Vitalily.

“Paul has been trying to perfect the smoking of his Panama Red for a decade now. He told me two months ago that he reckons he can mass-produce this new bong of his, which bubbles the smoke of the pot through a liquid-filled purifier section of his smoker. Any guesses what he’s using as a purifier?” Mikey asked.

“Beer?” suggested Sasha.

“Vodka.” Vitalily smiled, and Mikey nodded.

“Pot and vodka bong. All in one, huh!” carried on Vitalily, thinking. “It would work better than these hookahs Paul provided a couple of years ago for his weed. Our sales have dropped by ten percent just over the last year.”

“Is that a group of female miners only over there?” asked Mikey, now feeling the effects of the liquor and looking at a table about fifty feet away. The tough-looking females were seated and standing around one of the four imitation fireplaces. They were leaning or sitting in comfortable armchairs and couches, and all eight or nine of them were smoking hookahs.

“Da,” replied Sasha. “From Brusk Mining Corp. Very strong Israeli girls, and already three guys have had to be taken to the infirmary for getting too close to them. They are as mean as any miner in here.”

“How is our new transport ship?” asked Vitalily.

“As slow as the old painful Astermine mother ships, and she carries half the hard cargo, three hundred tons, and of course, the two hundred cubic meters of liquid hydrogen,” replied Mikey. “I dropped off fifty tons of cargo and eighty cubic meters of fuel at Mattville, and you have the rest. One hundred and twenty cubic meters, or 31,700 gallons, should do you until my next visit.”

“Thank God, we’re down to our last fifteen cubic meters,” replied Vitalily. “What about the equipment to make our own fuel?”

“Two hundred tons of equipment on fifty pallets, thirteen billion dollars of the latest hydrogen factory from Australia, and that includes the largest fusion reactor ever made on Earth. That reactor alone is half the cargo value and will not only run the hydrogen plant, but ten of these bases. I’m taking the smaller ones back to Mattville II on my way home, so you won’t see me for at least eighteen months. I’m glad there are no pirates out here yet.”

“How come the new CEO of A.S.S. gets to fly the slow ship?” joked Vitalily.

Little Mikey smiled. “My mom and dad are still holding onto flying ASS-One for another year. With her new engine upgrades, she’s nearly twice as fast as before. Actually, they’re due in tomorrow, a thirty-nine-day flight direct from Earth.”

“You didn’t answer my question?” Vitalily smiled.

“Okay, Jonesy promoted me instead of my dad. He wouldn’t fly this slow boat, nor would my mom, so as long as I fly every new ship we get, at least once around the course—Earth, Mars, Ceres, Earth, I am CEO. Only this time I must head back to Mars. The cold fusion reactors going back to the red planet are too big to fit in ASS-One’s cargo bay. Vitalily, I need some more cash. You have some for me?”

“And your last paycheck. Follow me.” Vitalily laughed and Sasha opened a part of the bar counter to let them in. Little Mikey took a quick look around from behind the bar while the elevator arrived from below. It was loud and busy. The other five barmen, all Vitalily’s old team of mechanics, waved, smiled or nodded at him. They wanted to come over and hug him, but business was brisk, and they would all get together before he left.

Mikey remembered the first time he had stepped into the largest bar in the solar system. It had been completely empty and the back bar area nonexistent. Now the redwood bar shone with varnish and drinks, with at least eighty to a hundred men in just the one area he could see, and the group of girls by the fire. “How many customers have you ever had at one time?” Mikey asked Sasha.

“We beat our record of 483 a few weeks ago and counted 497 bodies in the bar,” was the reply.

“With Brusk Mining Corp filling up the eighth and last cavern a few months ago with their third ship, we can now house 2,400 people in the base at any one time,” added Vitalily as the elevator announced its arrival.

Little Mikey had delivered the small six-man elevator, one of three, on his second flight to Ceres in ASS-One. He had copiloted for his father, Mars, as Saturn was pregnant with his now younger brother, who was about to start astronaut school in Nevada the next year.

On that flight, they had brought another 150 bar stools and two tons of bar decorations, refrigeration, under-bar equipment, and the four hydrogen fireplaces on a direct flight from Earth. The second wood order was to be delivered by America Three on her final flight to Ceres, which arrived a month after they had left for Earth.

It was after his third flight to Ceres in 2033, again with his father, that the final wood parts, chandeliers, and the 28,000 square feet of metal-floor nonslip rubberized red carpeting arrived to finish the flooring.

Still, in 2033, no miners had yet arrived. The first mining crew of forty Indian miners was brought in by ASS-One in 2035, and thirty-three days later, seventy-five American miners arrived in America Three with the first Indian and American mining shuttles connected to her docking ports.

The miners had finally arrived two years after the bar was finished, and Mikey remembered how big the empty and ready bar was without bodies filling it. He, Jonesy and Mars had been the first men to be given a drink at the unfinished bar on their first visit, and it was to be Jonesy’s last flight into space, except for his coffin being delivered to the Martian Club Retreat years later.

When Mikey drank his first beer, he couldn’t believe that such a large cavern could ever be filled with so many people. It was also the first time he had ever gone down in Vitalily’s new elevator to the lower floor twenty feet below.

The only reason they needed elevators in such low gravity was to carry up large stocks of supplies from the warehouse below.

Cavern four, or “The Ceres Bar and Grill” as it was officially named by General John Jones at the opening ceremony in 2035, was the center of Ceres Base. Directly above the bar was the entrance cavern for the A.S.S. ships to enter to load or unload.

Mikey had to park the larger transport ship on the surface, and the liquid hydrogen was piped down into holding tanks below ground. The transporter had its own shuttle to ferry the hard goods from the surface into the cavern. From there the sealed pallets had their protective covers washed down and sterilized before being taken down in the other two elevators to the storerooms on underground level three. All this was done in a secure environment, and non-A.S.S. personnel were not allowed close to cavern four.

From there the liquid hydrogen was tanked into refueling trolleys to fuel up ships, or back into a gas and dispensed for running mining equipment. Often it was siphoned into 7-pound (250 pounds Earth) tanks for sale.

The bar and shops were twenty feet directly below cavern four. The bar was three-quarters of the area of the second or main level, and the rest was a gathering area and short walkway with several shops selling many different luxury goods.

This main gathering area had five corridors heading out in different directions for six to eight hundred meters. Each corridor had a small computerized train against one wall with half a dozen seats facing both directions so that lazy miners could fall into the comfortable captain’s chairs and be whisked to the drinking hole, or drunk miners swept back to their company accommodations.

At the end of the corridors were the mining stations, eight of them, which had been dug out on two levels to house up to four hundred mining staff. Three of the smaller stations were the old Matt base with their three cavern exits, and they used one corridor. Each of the eight sections of Ceres Base had an entrance ship cavern with blue shield and roof door, exactly like the main A.S.S. cavern.

The mining stations each had their own small cold fusion reactor for power, piped in water, metal floors, and were on two levels. The upper cavern level had the ship entrance, offices and storerooms around it while the lower level had housing, cafeteria, infirmary and everything else the company needed for its workers. Company police controlled the comings and goings of their men, and often were called into the bar to untangle them from fights.

The miners’ housing was basic and simple. Without the entrance cavern, each mining station was smaller than the bar’s area, and Jonesy had wanted it this way so that the more luxurious A.S.S. section, the middle section, was far more comfortable and appealing than where the miners actually lived.

Most of the time, the majority of the company miners were out in ships, on asteroids for weeks or months at a time, and only a portion of the company men were on Ceres for rest and relaxation, and mostly only for a week or two.

The lowest, third section of cavern four was many times the size of a football field, and was directly below the bar. Cavern four, floor three was divided into two sections.

Vitalily’s elevator took them into the 125,000-square-foot A.S.S. storeroom, which was sealed from the company’s open storeroom to the public supply store by six-foot-thick walls and steel doors. In the storeroom all the supplies for the bar, the grill, and the store were kept in 115,000 square feet at fifty-degree temperature conditions. Part of the storeroom separated by a nanosilicone wall was a 10,000-foot freezer section.

The store on the other side of the thick rock wall was the A.S.S. Public Supply and Rental Store. This store, the only supply station on Ceres, sold everything the mining companies needed for long stays out in the asteroid belt. It stocked over ten thousand items, from liquid hydrogen tanks, space suit parts, drinking water, food pouches, hundreds of different asteroid mining tools, and space suits to old-fashioned toothpaste and soap. This 120,000-foot store was the biggest in the solar system, not including Earth.

Vitalily led Mikey past the two heavily armed robot guards his grandfather VIN had designed years earlier on Mars and into a separate chamber where the money was stored. The only other large door in this small chamber was behind a two-foot-thick titanium wall with a small window and thick bars. The door led to a wide corridor and to the cavern that had the remains of the rare earth metals VIN and Mars had found on their first visit.

That cavern had been sealed off from the rest of the Matt base, and the robot miners had dug this new tunnel directly into Vitalily’s A.S.S. control office.

Here was where every single one-ounce REM and gold coin in the solar system was made. Even the red planet had now started dealing in REMs.

For the rich tourists it was fun, and of course, on both planets, the exchange rate from Earth currencies into REMs was controlled by A.S.S. Only Vitalily was allowed in this room with the new boss.

“Good to see you, Uncle Dave.” Mikey smiled to another old friend.

“I hear congrats are in order…boss; now hey! Here you go, young Mikey, your last year’s paycheck you forgot, and since you will be in flight for this year’s paycheck date, I’m sure I can give it to you in advance.” The aging Dave Martin smiled, giving the young man an electronic pad through the thick titanium bars to accept Mikey’s minute identity disc implanted in the middle of his right thumb. “You have twelve iridium and twenty-five gold coins in each pouch, as usual. Let me know if you want a pay rise, Mr. CEO, for next year.”

He pressed his thumb on the small electronic tab twice, and he was given two leather pouches of the iridium and gold coins through a slot in the wall.

Mikey, as well as everyone at A.S.S., was paid this way, even the older members on Earth.

Mikey would take back several pay pouches for the members living on Mars, and Mars and Saturn would also get paid and take the leather pouches back to Jonesy and VIN. Even Dr. Smidt and Martin Brusk, as well as every society member, were paid for any work done for A.S.S. once a year.

Mars and Saturn, flying ASS-One, the faster ship, would also take the different currencies of Earth money collected from the mining companies and miners back to Earth. This annually amounted to tens of millions of several types of dollars, yen, won, rubles, shekels, German marks, British pounds, French francs and Indian rupees. The old European currency the euro was long gone, and even though the bar still had a few hundred old euro notes, they were worthless on Earth.

There were no credit or electronic payment systems on Ceres, just hard cash. The mining companies could pay annually for their bases and supplies electronically in advance on Earth, and ninety percent of the larger payments were paid there. Their men would be paid with massive amounts of Earth currency brought up into space, or the one-ounce REMs of gold coins, depending on which had the best exchange rate. But times were a-changing and the Ceres Bar and Grill was open to anybody, and several independent mining ships had begun asking permission to fly into A.S.S. airspace on both Ceres and Mars.

Little Mikey had plans for Vitalily and his team to begin mining another cavern a hundred yards from cavern four, and to mine out a small hundred-unit, hotel-style room-and-board facility directly off one of the tunnels leading out from the gathering center.

“As organized as ever.” Mikey smiled, shaking his coins and thanking the man. He looked inside the steel cage where the only American permanently living on Ceres worked. Dave Martin looked as old as the Russians he lived with. He spoke fluent Russian and Matt and was an early member of A.S.S. on board the flight to Saturn in America One. He hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since Dr. Nancy had warned him on the mother ship decades earlier that he had liver cancer. She had removed part of his liver and told him to either drink and die quickly, or stop and live. Dr. Nancy never minced words.

Jonesy had trusted this man from the early days on America One, and since the man had no family on Earth, he was happy to live out his days on Ceres and run the financial computers of A.S.S.

Dave Martin had been in VIN’s, then Dave Black’s security detail since the first flight by Astermine decades earlier. He was also ex-USAF, three years younger than Jonesy, and had actually known Jonesy when both of them, as young men, had met at Andrews Air Force Base in 2005. Dave Martin had been Jonesy’s paymaster back then.

“I suppose you want to see what you’re taking home, young man,” Dave asked, knowing that only Jonesy, Mars, Saturn and Little Mikey had access to his area of command. The young man nodded. “Vitalily, please close the door behind you as usual.” Dave smiled, and Vitalily exited the room and the automated door shut behind him.

Six feet of door around the barred window lifted up and an entranceway opened so Mikey could walk through. As soon as he was in with Dave, the door shut behind him. This was the door Dave entered by. The six robot guards in total took the REM ingots on pallets up to the ship, usually in the dead of night.

The tunnel was over two hundred feet long and Dave suggested this exercise several times a day kept him alive. The tunnel was well lit, with the usual metal floor carpeting.

Two robot guards were at attention inside the cavern, which now was about a quarter empty of what VIN and Mars had found on the first visit nearly two decades earlier. Dave looked at the computerized holograph on a desk by the entrance and checked the cavern’s contents.

“You guys have withdrawn one cargo load of 2,000 bars on the first flight on America Three, and five cargo loads each of 10,000, or ten metric tons, of REM since. The beginning amount was 841,244 ingots when I arrived here, of which 12,000 was gold ingots. No gold ingots have been sent to Earth yet. I have turned 12,400 REM ingots and 9,525 gold ingots into coins, of which we still have 8,000 of each coin in storage and ready for use. After melting five ingots into freshly stamped gold coins yesterday, there are 2,475 gold ingots remaining. Please sign here, young Mikey, unless you want to count the bars, 568,844 REM ingots and 2,475 gold ingots.”

Mikey signed. He wasn’t going to count them all.

“That section is my cargo, I assume?” asked Mikey, looking at an area of one hundred smaller pallets that were packed and separated from the others.

“The robots set up one hundred three-metric-ton Earth-weight pallets for you last week,” continued Dave. “It took them two days with all six robots working twenty-four hours a day. So I have three hundred thousand ingots for you to take down to Earth in this big ship of yours. As you know, we have much less iridium than the other nine metals Mr. Brusk wants, and we had nineteen thousand ingots of iridium in storage. You will be taking twelve thousand ingots on four pallets.”

Mikey could see that Dave loved his job. He reckoned that these thousands of ingots were like family to the old man.

“How do you want me to get them loaded into the transporter?” Mikey asked Dave Martin. “Weight isn’t a problem here, and I think the transporter’s shuttle can lift ten pallets at a time.”

“Two robotic guards can carry one pallet out to the elevator. The bar closes at midnight Ceres time, and the emergency pressure doors from the corridors to the gathering hall will be sealed and locked an hour later.”

Dave told Mikey that it would take two nights with four-hour shifts for the robots to get all one hundred pallets up to the cavern. They would then load the shuttle ten pallets at a time, and Mikey would need thirty minutes to fly into the transporter’s cargo area, where his own cargo robots would unload the pallets into the dry hold. The transporter cargo area wasn’t in a shield, nor was his ship for security purposes, and the cargo bay would be pressurized once in flight.

“Martin Brusk should be happy with this load you’re taking home, young Mikey,” suggested Dave, leading him out of the cavern and back down the corridor.

“Yes, Grandpa owes him about half of the cargo for the next ship, and the plasma thruster guy gets a fair amount. The rest is going on the Australian market for retirement income.”

“Retirement income, who the hell is retiring?” Dave laughed. “We’re all about dead already.”

“I know you don’t have family, but the relatives of the members who do will get a retirement package. Two guys died last year. Dr. Joey Johnson from the biology lab at Nevada Base passed away, and Captain Pete.”

“Didn’t know Johnson that well, met him on the flight to Saturn a couple of times, but sorry to hear about Captain Pete. He was the best captain Astermine ever had, and it was Dr. Nancy who kept me going. What happened?”

“Easy, just died peacefully in his sleep on the island, sleeping next to the doc,” Mikey replied.

“You took his body up to the cemetery at the Retreat?” Dave asked.

“Yes, he and Dr. Joey had both asked for the ride. I dropped the coffins off with Paul, who now runs the Retreat’s resting place. It has become very beautiful. There are aboveground tombs already there, I carried up several new ones on this flight, and we put the two men to rest in the Astermine section. We set up the two new holographs plus one for Bob Mathews and two new ones for Jonesy’s mom and dad. There are also holographs showing the colors of Astermine, white and blue waving flags, at each of the four corners of the cemetery. I expect to be taking up a few more members of Astermine soon. Jonesy has offered that any of the America One crew and any of the Nevada scientists can be buried at the Retreat. Over sixty of the living team at Nevada Base accepted the offer. Grandpa has also suggested building a building around the blue shield. I think taking up the supplies is my next job, unless I can get Dad to retire early from ASS-One.” The young astronaut laughed.

“How are the aging geriatrics on Earth?” asked Dave.

“Getting old, as old as you and Vitalily,” joked Mikey, which made Dave laugh out loud. “I think the Earth gravity is harder on the body than up here on Mars and Ceres. Your ex-boss Dave Black headed back up to Mattville with me on this flight. He has been given a year or so to live by Dr. Nancy. Some cancer, I was told, and he wanted his last year on Mars. The others are on their last lap, except Grandma Suzi, Dr. Nancy, Grandma Maggie and Aunt Kathy Richmond, who seem to defy age. VIN is in a hoverchair now, his metal legs were getting too painful to put on every day, and Grandpa Jonesy should be in one by the time I get home. Ryan Richmond walks with the help of a Robo-cane. I haven’t visited Nevada Base for a couple of years now. Mattville is treating the Homo sapiens well. Roo is now the boss of Mattville I and II, and as you know, A.S.S. owns Mattville III.

“Max Von Braun returned to Earth for a sabbatical last year, and I will be taking him back on my next flight. Roo looks the same, Joanne, his wife, has completely white hair, and Paul seems to be continuously happy smoking his bong. That Panama Red might be keeping him alive. As you know, since you visit Mars every now and again, the poker games have become a monthly event at the Retreat, and Paul has asked for help, as he and Jenny cannot host the tournaments anymore. Paul still wants to visit Ceres, like you want to join the next poker game at the Retreat. Unfortunately, you guys might run out of time before we have a ship fast enough to get both of you there and back again.”

Again Dave laughed his usual loud laughter.

Little Mikey knew how Dave loved his poker. On his third flight to Ceres with his father, he had taken Dave Martin back to the Retreat for the first Intersolar A.S.S. Poker Tournament in 2035 five years earlier.

For two weeks the best poker minds in the galaxy played. America Two had arrived a week earlier, and its captain and crew hadn’t understood why Dr. Smidt, Igor and Boris had all suddenly decided to travel on this flight with Captain Pete and a few others of the old guard, as well as three of Nevada Base’s scientists who had never been to space in seven decades.

Jonesy and VIN weren’t really poker players, but Dave Martin and Vitalily had headed to Mars with the returning ASS-One to represent Ceres.

The Retreat was represented by Paul and Jenny, the only two of the original scientists left at the base. Mattville had been represented by Roo, Dave Black and Max Von Braun, and Jonesy had made sure that the sexiest holographs made by Benyamin and the best booze in the entire solar system were available for the contenders.

With pure skill, Dave Martin had won the tournament, betting vast amounts of REMs from Ceres.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 16

Ryan, Jonesy and One Other—2043

As with the laws of evolution, time takes its toll on humanity. Even the best humans have to go and connect with their higher beings somewhere out there. Our solar system is just a drop in the ocean in the universe, and some of Astermine’s aging scientists and astronauts began to travel further than they had ever travelled before.

Mars and Saturn had just arrived home from a cargo flight to Mars in ASS-One, and Little Mikey was three days out, also on a return flight from Ceres in his latest top-secret ASS-Two when he heard about his grandfather’s passing.

Even before his first and second, his last he promised himself, boring slow-boat transporter flight and the deliveries of the two largest amounts of rare earth metals ever delivered from space, he had ordered a new ship in his first week as the new CEO of the Astermine Secret Society a few years earlier.

Without his parent’s knowledge, he, Martin, and the now housebound Jonesy had fun designing a new ship via his ship’s radio for the next few months while Mikey was on his way to Mars and Ceres. They designed the latest ship, a secret, smaller, faster ship that could surf the waves of space at even greater speeds than ever before.

On his first return a few days after the New Year at the beginning of 2041, he had shuttled down 116 pallets of rare earth metals to Martin in Tel Aviv. Captain Mikey Noble had, as the new boss, carefully fitted and loaded sixteen more pallets of metal ingots than planned from the storeroom on Ceres. As soon as it was possible, he headed back with bar and store supplies for his second run, and returned with what was needed for his new ship while Martin was actually building it. He had emptied the Ceres metal stores of over half of its reserves.

Just on these two flights alone, he had seventy percent of A.S.S.’s total iridium stock, one of the more important metals Martin needed for faster ship designs.

Little Mikey had already thought up an idea for the fastest ship in the galaxy before he had even become CEO. He had much time to think and design alone in space, and he had enjoyed the free time spent with Martin and Jonesy over the radio that each flight gave him.

Dave Martin had begrudgingly released more metal when Mikey realized that there was more room in the transporter than Jonesy and Martin had planned for both the return journeys.

The new CEO was darn good at math, as it had been by far his favorite subject at astronaut school. He had figured out that since the hydrogen fuel tanks at either end of the mid hard-cargo compartment were heading back empty, he could program the robots to slide in metal by carefully pushing in eight pallets and laying them on the flat floor of the empty tanks. The tanks were already in a vacuum, and it wouldn’t make much difference whether they returned back to Earth empty or not. The added weight on Ceres wouldn’t hamper the liftoff. The extra gravitational pull on Ceres was only one and a half tons.

The transporter wasn’t built to ever again head into Earth’s atmosphere and hassle with Earth’s gravitational pull, so the added weight on delivery didn’t matter. Little Mikey had the ship’s shuttle on board for the transport of cargo back from orbit to the surface, and Martin had two more shuttles on Earth that had helped fill his cargo holds before departure.

It fascinated Mikey what Martin’s scientists did with the metals. Martin’s scientists mixed the iridium with osmium and made it into an alloy for hundreds of applications, including the compass and directional systems inside the dozens of computers on board each ship.

Much of the ship’s equipment was built with the platinum and palladium brought down from Ceres. With the platinum the iridium was used as a hardening agent. Platinum-iridium was used for equipment that operated at higher than normal temperatures, on faster ships, especially around the hot side and massive main thrusters.

The palladium went into the production of ceramic capacitors, and part of the stock was delivered to Australia for the production of the ship’s cold fusion reactors.

Martin Brusk had been good at planning the loads of metals for the new ship design he, Jonesy and Little Mikey had begun working on due to Mikey cancelling the balance of Jonesy’s original transport ship order a few years earlier.

The two newer cargo shuttles were fully automated drones, flown from Martin’s headquarters on Earth, and their light alloy cargo robots were very versatile and could be controlled by the shuttle’s main cameras and computers. This meant that the two shuttle pilots flying the two older cargo shuttles were about to be made obsolete, and the shuttles minus the human astronaut’s weight would save slightly on fuel costs.

The shuttles had been designed to head up into orbit without blue shields and with three tons of hard goods or the same weight in their separate liquid hydrogen tanks. On their return, much like all the shuttles so far, they would land on a long runway with nine tons back in Israel, with three of the metal pallets on each flight.

Little Mikey also had plans to turn the transporter into a fully robotically flown spaceship. To him and other astronauts, it was far too boring a ship to fly, and much of the metal on Ceres had been relocated back to Earth already. Mikey also knew that his grandfather’s idea of gas stations was already totally obsolete with the new fuel-making systems A.S.S. was about to freight into the solar system.

Mikey had figured out that the new water-to-hydrogen plants he had delivered to the two resupply points on Mars and Ceres would produce more than enough fuel in the next few years.

Jonesy hadn’t realized this, and it meant that the ships plying the routes between the celestial bodies only needed enough fuel for the outbound flight. Little Mikey’s latest flight in his new ship had been to deliver a resupply mini-robotic fuel shuttle to refuel the incoming ships in orbit around the planets if need be.

Jonesy had nodded his head in interest a couple of years earlier when Little Mikey had told him of his new plan for an even faster ship. The older man had always loved speed, not that you can see speed in space, and Jonesy was very proud of his grandson. He knew that he had been right when he had promoted his grandson to succeed him as the society’s second CEO.

Mars and Saturn Noble hadn’t been that interested in the promotions. They were together as a family aboard their ship and were happy to work together. They were not interested in playing chess with a computer or designing ships, and were already thinking along the lines of retirement. The pleasures of Earth were still a big pull compared to going to space.

Three days after hearing the news about his grandfather’s passing, Captain Noble landed ASS-Two in Tel Aviv. His new girlfriend, Bella, a British girl a few years younger than him and the daughter of one of Martin’s department heads, rushed into his arms.

Mikey was weak from the lack of gravity for the seven months of travel, even though he had filled part of the new ship’s cargo hold with powerful strength-conditioning equipment and had a routine that allowed him to walk on his own, albeit slowly, once he landed back in Earth’s demanding gravity.

The aging Martin, who was now also riding a hoverchair, would be flying with them to the island where the funeral was about to take place. As they entered the robotic-flight jet, Martin told Little Mikey that Ryan Richmond himself had suddenly died the day before, only forty-eight hours after Jonesy, and that Boris in Nevada had beaten Jonesy to his ultimate retirement by less than a week. Mikey told him that he had heard the bad news about Boris over the Astermine frequencies.

“How come three men in less than a month? Jonesy was fine when I left,” Mikey asked Martin, tired, weak but happy to be holding his girlfriend’s hand.

“It happens, and many say things happen in threes. I know Ryan had quite a bit of pain to bear with his legs,” replied Martin. “I spoke to Kathy just last week and she had told me that Ryan was really having a bad week, due to the loss of his old pal Boris. Jonesy, on the other hand, Kathy added, was really in a party mood last week, toasting his old buddy Boris, and seemed happy and told Maggie and Kathy that he had had nightly dreams of walking on Mars again. We all knew Jonesy would never make another flight. Many don’t realize how hard it was for me to take the wife and daughters to Mattville on your last flight. For them it was certainly an adventure, and space travel doesn’t agree with old age.”

“How is my grandmother?” Mikey asked.

“Working through it and as tough as ever, I was told by VIN yesterday, Mikey. I think they both knew it was time, and Maggie and Kathy just keep on gardening, and I hear still play tennis once or twice a week. We men are the ones hit by old age more than the opposite sex. I have a black suit and shirt and tie in the jet for you to change into, Mikey.”

The young astronaut slept much of the way. It was still a three-hour flight from Tel Aviv to the island off the Queensland coast, and the automated flight computers had to get in line and wait an extra ten minutes due to the heavy traffic arriving from many different places.

Martin’s jet was greeted by Mikey’s parents, who were still weak from their own flight to the red planet. Mars and Saturn were excited and happy to see their son again. Mikey noticed that his father now had a touch of gray hair around his ears, and so did his mother after he looked very carefully. They hadn’t yet met Bella Thatcher, but knew her father well. Martin Thatcher ran the outer hull department of Martin’s spaceship factory.

The arriving astronauts were all sad about the death of these important people in their lives. It seemed the entire first generation of Astermine were one big family, and they had lost three in one week.

Jonesy was Saturn’s father, and Mikey could see his mother’s face was pale and slightly puffy from crying. He put his arms around his weak mother and gave her a couple of big bear hugs.

“One from me and one from old but still strong Vitalily,” he told her, which made her smile. Saturn had always been Vitalily’s favorite niece, as he called her.

“How are VIN and Suzi taking it?” Mikey asked his father, also giving him a bear hug.

“Mom seems to be better off than Dad. VIN and Jonesy were partners for so long they were like an old married couple,” joked Mars.

“I need a hoverchair, please!” ordered Saturn and immediately an automated hoverchair swung out from somewhere close to the buildings, and she sighed as she sat down in it. “Mikey, how do you manage it? You only landed a few hours ago,” added his mother. “We’re still struggling after three days.”

“My new exercise equipment on board ASS-Two,” he stated. “Mom, I’m also about to keel over so…hoverchair!” he shouted, copying his mother, and he sat down with relief several seconds later. He had really trained hard for the final two weeks of flight, at least six hours a day, but still he couldn’t handle the hard and unforgiving jolt of Earth’s gravity. It always seemed like somebody pulling him down to the surface of the planet. His father wasn’t much better, and Bella asked the others how many hoverchairs they actually had on the island. Nobody knew except Martin Brusk, whose company made them, and he had left the jet in his own hoverchair.

“One for every person who lives on the island plus twelve for visitors—forty-nine chairs,” he replied.

Bella, who wasn’t going to be outdone, had never tried a hoverchair before and happily shouted for the next one in line seconds before the next jet’s reverse thrusters drowned her out.

The next self-flown jet that screamed down the runway with its reverse thrusters had Chinese markings and looked larger and as modern as Martin’s latest mode of transport. Martin always flew in his latest models.

Mikey knew who was in this jet, one of his best friends from flight school, the son of the Chinese Premier. He was quite surprised, as the rest on the apron were, as the aging Premier himself came out of the door first once the aircraft’s automated stairs had descended and set themselves down on the apron.

Two bodyguards came down the stairs first, then the Chinese Premier exited, and then his son, who looked as weak and frail as Mikey. The astronaut had just returned from space as well.

Mikey knew that Astronaut Jon Lee Jong was on Earth. They had met up for several beers twice now on Ceres, and his old buddy from flight school was the delivery astronaut and CEO in charge of the Chinese mining operations on Ceres. Jon Lee Jong had left for the return journey three weeks earlier than Mikey.

Since they didn’t know each other’s flight schedules, it was always a surprise to see who was drinking in the Ceres Bar and Grill.

Mikey had had drinks with his best friend for two nights on Ceres before the modern and smallish Chinese transport ship had headed back to Earth. One of Martin’s mining ships was also docked in their cavern, and two of his old flight school graduates were the astronauts on that flight.

Martin’s mining-supply ship was the exact same model as the ASS-One and far slower than Mikey’s new ship, ASS-Two.

Mikey had left last, three weeks after the Chinese vessel and eighteen days after Martin’s ship.

He had hailed and passed Martin’s slower transporter fifty miles off her starboard side as the ship was slowing and a day from entering its first orbit of Earth.

He hadn’t caught the Chinese transporter, which had really surprised him, and had seen Commander Jon’s ship heading into Earth’s atmosphere a day behind his parents, two days earlier than he was due. He wanted to find out more about his friend’s ship.

Several of the astronauts floated over to say hello to the VIP guests, and hoverchairs were called for both the VIPs.

The last jet to arrive was from Nevada Base, and Mikey was happy to see his younger brother in command of the self-fly flight. Astronaut-in-training Cadet Johnny Noble was in his last year of his ten-year flight school curriculum. He had the privilege of flying Boris’s coffin and the aging uncles from Nevada. The airport would have run out of hoverchairs if many hadn’t brought their own. Dr. Smidt was aboard as was Igor and several of his department heads.

Mikey and Johnny had spent very little time together as brothers, common in this day and age of long-distance spaceflight. The brothers had chatted often over the radio while Mikey was in flight. It seemed Johnny was more reserved than his older brother, had never been part of A.S.S., and seemed destined to be an astronaut for Astermine. Astermine had one mining ship and had rented one of the caverns on Ceres from A.S.S., and it seemed that they were there more for exploration than mining.

The Astermine stocks of gold in Mattville II were more money than the company ever needed in a lifetime of spaceflight, and Dr. Smidt was more interested in getting Astermine to link up the Matts on Jupiter and Saturn than in mining asteroids.

Dr. Smidt’s America One and America Two were still flown by Ryan and Kathy’s daughters, but only flew supplies to Mattville on Mars when needed. They were both docked at their stations in orbit around Earth when the news had arrived of Ryan’s passing. Lunar and her sister, Pluto Katherine, were both in Nevada when their father had passed away on the island and had immediately flown together with their families, arriving before the others.

The Nevada jet was the last of a dozen incoming flights to land. Several prominent businessmen and a few of the current Australian government officials had already arrived for the funerals. So had scientists and space personnel from NASA, the British Space Agency or BSA, a jet of scientists and astronauts from India, and one from the new Russian Space Program.

Many of the Astermine-trained astronauts and younger scientists worked for these countries, and to many of them all three of the departed were like fathers. Only two of Mikey’s class of graduates would not be there. They were flying the Australian mining transporter to Ceres and had been travelling for thirty-four days.

The people in black gathered around the three coffins placed together under the large tent erected for the occasion, and eulogies were done for all three of the departed. One of the group, Dr. Nancy, was in Boston, lecturing at one of the universities, and she had a holograph of herself watching the proceedings from there. Her husband, Captain Pete, who had been the first to pass away a few years earlier, had been the captain of America One. The funeral was also broadcast to many friends on Mars and Ceres.

Igor spoke on behalf of Boris, his lifelong friend. From the podium, he told the gathering about how they had met at university, both studying aerospace engineering, the closure of their part of the Russian Space program a few years after they had graduated, and then touring American universities on a lecture circuit.

They had been introduced to Ryan Richmond, a young university student, and accepted jobs with little to no pay for the opportunity to have U.S. visas. They had become citizens and moved with Ryan to California, where they had started Astermine. Both men had been at Astermine ever since, and Igor went on to announce Boris’s achievements in the company.

VIN Noble gave Jonesy’s eulogy. Often, the crowd of nearly seventy laughed aloud as VIN recapped the story of “the life of VIN and Jonesy”, as he called it. He told how they had first met, their drive across the country, and being turned away at Area 51. Here, the guard had directed them to this new company several miles away, and how they had been employed by an intrepid company boss. He went on to comical stories about sunbathing out in space affixed to cords, mining the asteroids that collapsed beneath them, and he mentioned the biggest secret meetings ever on board America One in “The Office”. Jonesy had inadvertently saved Captain Pete’s and Dr. Nancy’s lives by providing enough liquid food, entertainment and resuscitation, as Jonesy had called it, for their extended flight back to Earth. He told the gathering that Jonesy was the only man in space who might have met a space shark, but nobody had verified this deed yet.

He thanked Jonesy and Maggie for their friendship, and he spoke for everyone who had ever belonged to Astermine. VIN also mentioned that their grandson, Captain Mikey Noble, was now CEO of A.S.S. and that he flew a ship very few had ever seen. It had been designed by Jonesy himself, the best non-qualified spacecraft engineer in the solar system.

Finally, VIN explained to the crowd that his partner and friend had been the best pilot, astronaut and spaceship designer the world had ever seen. He smiled at the crowd and told the gathering that he had only heard it out of Jonesy’s mouth once, and that it was thanks to his family and friends around him that Jonesy had succeeded in what he was best at—flying and understanding the plane or ship around him.

Lunar Richmond, Ryan’s elder daughter, gave her father’s eulogy.

“My father was a geek, maybe one of the first,” she began, dry eyed and strong like her mother. “He knew he looked like a geek from the first days he could remember. He had his glasses broken as a young kid in school and had realized then that he would never be walked over ever again. My geeky father, who wore glasses, stood up to the might of the CIA, the NSA, two corrupt U.S. Presidents, and told Congress and the Senate often where they needed to go to have fun. He was imprisoned in Guantanamo as a terrorist and released by an ex-U.S. President who flew there himself to get him released. He was given a medal at the White House and had Presidents and Premiers of many countries as friends. He drove fast cars, fast aircraft, and fast spaceships. Not only did he drive them, he designed and built them. Now, because my father was bullied at school and decided it wouldn’t happen again to him, Astermine is the wealthiest company in the world. Only twelve countries have more wealth than Astermine. Maybe General John Jones said it once, but my father said it every day, that it was all thanks to the team around him, and he liked it when a plan came together.” The group enjoyed that remark as Lunar nodded respectfully at Maggie Jones.

“Every day he thanked his people around him for their contributions. He stood by his crew when they needed him, and the crew stood by him when he needed them. On days our family members died in battle, my father felt more pain than anybody. Ryan Richmond was scared of open spaces. Many of you never knew that. As a child my father suffered from agoraphobia, yet he has travelled as far in the solar system as any of us here today. He often said to me that he could never have completed God’s requirements of him without the help of family, and my father had a very big and good family to help him achieve what God wanted him to do. ‘My last request,’ he told me and my mother several months ago, ‘I want to be buried in the most peaceful corner in the cemetery at the Martian Club Retreat, and in the opposite corner to Jonesy, as Jonesy can sure talk a lot.’

“Thank you, and as all three of these special people would want it, drinks are free and plentiful for as long as you want to stay, and the happy party will continue until the last guest departs. Let us remember our departing family by enjoying ourselves.” Wiping a tear from her eye, Lunar stepped away from the podium and the funeral continued.

“What about this new ship of yours, young Mikey?” asked Dr. Smidt a few hours later. A crowd was relaxing in the shade of the bar tent in comfortable couches with the ever-necessary swimming pool in close proximity. Most of the business done at Astermine had been done while resting in a pool somewhere.

“Yes, my boy. Why all the secrecy?” asked Mars as several others heard the topic and gathered to listen. Mikey looked at Martin, who smiled, and Martin gave him a thumbs-up. They had known this question would come up and had discussed it on the flight.

“A.S.S., or the Astermine Secret Society, as you know so well, Dr. Smidt, is a society determined to make sure that every human who braves going out into the solar system will have as many of the comforts out there as he or she has on Earth,” Mikey replied very diplomatically.

“Ja, sounds like your grandfather speaking,” joked Suzi. “Nothing more than brainwashing.” The others laughed. Little Mikey smiled and blew his grandmother a kiss.

“Bullcrap, son,” his father added, smiling and hoping he was putting his elder son into a corner. “You didn’t answer Dr. Smidt’s question.”

“If you would let me finish, Commander Noble, sir,” replied Mikey, bowing to his father. “Every human who braves going out into the solar system will have as many of the comforts out there as he or she has on Earth, in the freshest and fastest possible way.”

Commander Jon Lee Jong spoke up. Even as the son of the Premier of China, he was as much family as the next man, having spent ten years in Astermine’s flight school.

“Commander Noble, sir, I believe Mikey’s last sentence is his answer. His ship is far faster than ours, and we built our ship to be the fastest in the solar system. He caught up with me in nineteen days on the return flight from Ceres. I watched his ship on the radar, catching up daily.”

“How come all the ships travelling to Ceres are faster than our Astermine mother ships?” asked Dr. Smidt. His mind didn’t work the same way as the Jones family.

“Because Dr. Smidt my husband worked out a contract with Franklin and the plasma thruster factory,” replied Maggie, smiling at the older man. “He purchased all their new thrusters for twelve years, and he sold to the Chinese Space Authority the engines planned for the liquid hydrogen transporters that weren’t needed anymore.”

“Is that why we have received no new thrusters for over a decade?” asked Dr. Smidt.

Maggie nodded.

“Whoever is in charge of placement at the Retreat’s cemetery, please place me close to General Jones. I have a couple of questions to ask him,” stated Dr. Smidt, straight faced, and the group roared with laughter.

“Nineteen days Ceres to Earth is fast, son. How come your ship is so nimble?” Saturn asked her son. She looked rather put out that her elder boy had a faster ship than hers.

“Yes, I was lucky that the hydrogen fuel plants sent to Mattville and Ceres Base several years ago have proved so productive.” Mikey turned to one of his old bosses, Dr. Smidt, and toasted his bottle at the older man in respect. He emptied the beer and the robotic waiter came up to give him a new one. Mikey continued. “Thanks to Dr. Smidt and Astermine at Nevada Base, my grandfather’s plan of liquid hydrogen fuel transporters became obsolete when we only needed to carry fuel for a one-way flight. That meant smaller ships with smaller fuel tanks, and a problem with the last of the twelve of the ordered thrusters arriving at Martin’s plant in Tel Aviv. I needed a smaller ship that could fly to the Retreat, land, pick up supplies from Uncle Paul, and deliver them to Ceres at least once a year, maybe twice.”

“Twice is impossible, a flight from Earth to Mars and Ceres and back to Earth, twice, impossible,” stated his father, Mars, quite shocked.

Mikey smiled at him. “No, Dad, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Mars, Earth, twice in twelve months.” Both Saturn and Mars coughed out their beers at Mikey’s reply. So did all the astronauts listening. That was impossible. Most of their ships couldn’t handle that trip once in two years. Martin smiled and held a finger to his lips. He liked it when the others around knew he was now the best builder of spaceships.

“Explain, son, please?” asked Mars.

“Less than half the size of your ship, and with six engines, Dad, not four. Jonesy sold four engines to China, and Martin and I are in production with an even smaller shuttle-type long-range ship with the last two remaining thrusters. Dr. Smidt, I believe you will be getting new engines very soon from Franklin. What type of engines, I don’t know, but my grandfather paid heavily for the fastest ship in the solar system.”

Three weeks later, ASS-Two, with more humans aboard this time, left Earth from Tel Aviv, with four coffins destined for the Martian Club Retreat. Bob Mathews’ coffin was also heading to his final resting place and had waited a few years to join his friends Jonesy and Ryan.

Bella Anne Noble, nee Thatcher, had been in training for space travel for a year at Martin’s space company and wasn’t an astronaut, but she would have time on board to learn the final arrangements of space travel. Little Mikey’s chess set wasn’t used as much on this flight, a flight to the Retreat he had promised his grandfather years earlier.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 17

Bella Noble, the Retreat and Wow!

It was a happier ceremony two weekends later when Captain Mikey Noble married Bella in the same tents where the funerals had taken place.

He had planned it this way to get married on this stay at home, and he had proposed to Bella the day after the funeral. Nobody had left the island except the Australians, who had been flown out on their robotic-flown jet as the sun had gone over the horizon. There were no problems with drunken driving if nobody was flying a Robojet.

The Indians and Russians had left early the next morning, and the Chinese had happily stayed. Even the aging Premier enjoyed the ambiance of the island and was put up on VIN’s luxury fishing cruiser.

It was at breakfast when Mikey asked for quiet and shocked his new wife-to-be to death as he asked her to marry him in front of about fifty prominent people. It was a fifty-fifty shot whether she would want to marry an astronaut, a future husband who would be away a lot, but she said yes.

They received a rousing applause and again when Little Mikey stated that since he was leaving for Mars in three weeks, the date would be rushed and asked for the ceremony to be the weekend before his next launch date.

Mikey and Bella were staying next to his buddy Jong and his father in Jonesy’s older luxurious fishing cruiser. The young astronaut had been given the keys to Jonesy’s fishing boat on his promotion to CEO. Jonesy was too old to enjoy it, apart from sitting on the aft deck drinking beer, and he had wanted Mikey to have it as long as he could sit on the back and do what he did best.

Maggie had little interest in using the boat, as her fishing days were also done. She would happily sit with her husband on the aft deck, enjoying the sunshine and just being together.

Mars and Saturn had been given Bob Mathew’s older but still beautiful and elegant boat when he had died several years earlier. Beth and Monica, Bob’s crewmembers, had also more recently passed on and were buried on the island.

The girls had wanted to stay on Earth, but Bob’s wish had been to join the rest of the crew on Mars. There weren’t any bugs up there. He had always hated bugs unless, of course, they helped him catch fish.

The three coffins were in a walk-in freezer, and Boris’s coffin had arrived frozen to the island. Astermine looked after their own, and there wasn’t much to do between that day and takeoff time. It was time, though, to extract Bob’s coffin from the island’s cemetery, and a day later he joined his pals in the freezer.

Slowly the astronauts grew stronger as the days passed, and all the necessities arrived for the big day. Kathy, Maggie and Suzi needed something like this and really went to town organizing what was to be shipped in from Brisbane and Sydney.

It was also surprising that many of the guests from the funeral decided that an immediate extended vacation was in order and asked to stay for the two-week duration. There was nothing important in Nevada, or even Tel Aviv, to warrant the guests returning home, so they stayed.

Many went out fishing on the three boats, the island’s marina organizing and holding three tournaments.

With one prize of a valuable iridium coin per tournament for the biggest fish, VIN, Mikey’s brother Johnny, and the two Chinese guests won the first two-day tournament forty miles out from the island, catching a 483-pound black marlin. They also won the second one-day “Bring it in, we want fresh fish to eat” tournament closer to shore, catching a 48-pound wahoo. It won by a pound over Mikey’s crew, and wahoo and mahi-mahi were plentiful for dinner that night, and several evenings after that.

The third “Only the Big One” tournament was three days long, and the boats could cruise further out and closer to Queensland’s best fishing areas. The Mars and Saturn Noble boat caught a 611-pound black marlin a hundred miles further down the coast.

It was hooked by the Chinese Premier himself, but he was helped with the massive task by his son and finally Gary Darwin. There were eight excited fishermen on this boat, Mars and Saturn, Lunar and Mark Price, Pluto Katherine, and Gary Darwin. Gary Darwin was an Australian and needed the extra day of this tournament to get to his favorite fishing grounds he had fished as a kid with his father.

Little Mikey knew that Gary knew the waters and followed his father’s ship, often being radioed that he was a cheater by his father sailing south ten or so miles in front of him and over the horizon.

Mikey had thought his crew would surely win that day, and on the third day with Bella and two of his astronaut buddies one of them caught a 591-pound black marlin. VIN had also thought his crew had a good chance with a 575 pounder, but was beaten by both the younger crews, and the 611-pound marlin.

The tournaments were formed to keep the active minds off the dearly departed, and there was much jibing and laughter, and also secrecy over the radio waves as to what was biting.

Bella’s parents were flown in on the Thursday from Tel Aviv with Martin’s family two days before the wedding, with her wedding dress. The Robojet was full of flowers, clothing and Middle Eastern delights like baklava.

A second Robojet flew in from Tel Aviv on Friday with more of Bella’s family from England and colleagues via Tel Aviv, and a third jet arrived from Nevada Base, every seat filled with eighteen of Mikey’s and Johnny’s friends.

It rained the whole of Saturday, but by putting all the tents together, the wedding was still held outside in the windy and stormy conditions. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate, nobody really minded. For the astronauts, often cooped up in steel tubes for long periods, any weather was nice weather.

The bride and groom got soaked after the ceremony and enjoyed running around in the rain. Mikey had spent much of his elder life inside metal cans heading here and there, and there was no way he was going to let a bit of lousy weather ruin his special day.

The soaking before the expected first dance to holographic music, especially set up on a stage, was delayed by an hour while the bunch of adults acting like kids got completely soaked in the heavy downpour. The soaked bouquet was thrown by the drenched bride, her red hair blinding her, and she nearly knocked one of Mikey’s buddy astronauts unconscious. The rain had turned the large flower arrangement into a deadly object.

It was also found out that Martin’s company’s hoverchairs did not like the rain, and a few decided to shut themselves down with the wet conditions, leaving their riders laughing in the puddles on the soaked grass.

Martin, a little unhappy about the misuse of his hoverchairs, finally got the guests heading into the clubhouse to change into dry clothes.

The bride and groom also dressed in more comfortable clothes, and they arrived back to the largest and most beautiful holographic screen ever seen. Martin had flown in parts of a twenty-five-foot-long holograph and powerful speakers in the transport jet, and now after an hour delay, he had the entire Israel Chamber Orchestra up on the holograph playing loud music to cover the noise of the continuing downpour.

Luckily there wasn’t a camera placed to return the scene from the island, as the musicians would have been shocked to see the happy crowd of comfortably dressed guests, many still looking like they had just been dunked as witches.

Mikey smiled, thinking of the fun everybody had on his important day, as he went through his early morning checks. The rest of the crew were still asleep.

It wasn’t any lighter or darker outside than any other time, but Mikey liked to stay on Australian time. First, it was earlier than in Israel or Nevada, if anyone needed to communicate with them, other than the family on the island. Also, it was the same time now used at the Retreat and on Ceres.

Mattville still worked on Nevada time aligned with Dr. Smidt’s time for communication purposes.

The rest of his wedding day had been fun, even though the rain hadn’t let up. The newest guests stayed on a day or two more, and the ones who had stayed since the funeral begrudgingly left the island, back to their own lives, the next day.

As he checked the several directional computers, he smiled at what his father had said when he had seen ASS-Two for the first time. He was still asleep on board with Saturn in one of the four apartments. For Mikey, who had flown by himself for the last decade, it was certainly nice to have family company on board.

Instead of speaking to Jonesy and Martin about ship design and instrumentation several hours a day, he could now get to know his mother and father again. Two people who were very dear to him and who he had spent so little time with since he had become an astronaut.

Either they or he were flying spaceships since the first day he had spent at the Astermine Space Academy.

Mars floated into the cockpit area and grabbed the handhold next to the coffee machine.

“Oh, you are awake. I cleaned all the sippy cups, Dad,” stated Mikey, checking the speed and collision warning devices.

“What coffee did you grind?” Mars asked, smiling and nodding at his son.

“The Kenya AA Blue Mountain,” Mikey replied, looking through the front windshield at nothing but millions of stars. “It seems we have company, an asteroid in front of us, about point three million miles off our eleven o’clock, and we’re catching it pretty fast.”

“I still can’t fathom that you actually ripped the blue shield off this ship,” replied Mars, floating towards the other forward-facing seat with two sippy cups. He handed one to Mikey.

On the last flight home Mikey had refueled for the first time on Ceres. This meant that he had more than the minimal amount of fuel to get home, and he could leave the rear thrusters on high power for longer.

On the outbound flight to Ceres, he had achieved a top forward speed of Mach 199, or around 141,000 miles an hour, in three weeks and had safely cruised at this speed for two weeks before turning the engines around 180 degrees. It had been the fastest speed any human had ever flown, and he had covered forty-seven million miles in the two weeks of cruise duration.

Mars ASS-One had reached 125,000 miles an hour at its fastest speed, but it took a couple of days longer than Mikey’s smaller ship to reach this cruise speed and had less time in cruise before its engines were reversed to begin slowdown.

The secret of rapid spaceflight was the ability to reach cruising speed as fast as possible and spend less time in slowdown mode.

Captain Mikey Noble had felt the first vibrations through his ship at Mach 223, 159,000 miles an hour, on the return flight three weeks out.

He had decided that he still wanted to get married and closed down the engines just to cruise. The ship was still accelerating and the vibrations got worse. He could see the blue shield creasing and shivering, and then suddenly it was gone, and the ship returned to smooth flight.

Without the shield it meant that any particle in space the size of a pinhead would pass right through the ship at the speed he was travelling, and he immediately rotated the thrusters to reverse and engaged them on full power. He did have an extra blue shield set up and ready, the only one left in A.S.S., and he could extend it once he slowed.

Nothing happens fast in a vacuum, except death, and he waited three hours before the acceleration stopped at 161,000 miles an hour. It took twelve more hours before the ship had slowed to 157,000 miles an hour.

He tried to activate the original shield again, and unbelievably it worked. The shield had seemed to just close itself down, and the blueness around the ship began to slowly extend again. He couldn’t understand the physics of the shield’s collapse. There was no drag against the shield in the vacuum in space. There was no reason that it should be feeling any resistance to what speed he was cruising at, except of course if he hit something of substance. The reasoning was far above his level of education.

The extending shield still seemed to struggle and took another three hours before the ship was completely enveloped and he was protected again. He shut down the reversed thrusters at 155,000 miles an hour, turned them around, opened them up to 60 percent power and allowed his forward speed to climb back to Mach 223, 158,500 miles an hour, before closing them down again and allowing the ship to cruise. He had used up a large chunk of his fuel to reach Earth, and he suddenly realized how close he had been to ending his career, and life, earlier than expected.

The shield continued to vibrate slightly at this high speed, he could hear a faint hum, but did not collapse, so he again slowed down by five hundred miles an hour. At Mach 222, the shield seemed happy.

He believed that he was at the fastest cruising speed any ship could travel through space using one of the blue shields, and sent the saved information back to Martin Brusk on Earth. Without the shield any piece of space rock or trash could destroy his ship entirely.

Mars was completely flabbergasted when he was told how his son had nearly killed himself once they had launched on the current flight. Saturn was quiet and listened to her son, proud of his achievements of extending the known science of spaceflight.

“Without these Matt shields, we would still be struggling to get to Mars and back,” she added to the story once Mikey was finished.

“We would have been beaten by the Matt fighters,” added Mars. “I believe the Retreat would have been destroyed, and Mattville would never exist. We wouldn’t have visited Ceres, made it to Ganymede, or made the extended voyage around the solar system.”

“We would still be stuck in Nevada, trying to develop a space program, Ryan would have run out of money long ago, and we humans would still be stuck on Earth,” added Saturn.

“We have much to thank the Matts for,” stated Mars.

Mars and Saturn were on this flight, as Roo had sent a message that finally he had managed to speak to his own people telepathically for the first time since the battle on Ceres.

Ruler Roo had been trying daily from Mattville and had telepathically sent a message of peace and wanting to meet out into the expanses of the solar system.

Mars and VIN Noble, having a phenomena even Dr. Nancy couldn’t prove but agreed that it was possible through both men having a rare blood group, were able to speak and hear Roo and the other Earth Matts. Both men had been taught by Roo in perfecting their telepathic skills.

Unfortunately both men had lately let their rare skill slide. Roo was a good friend, but there wasn’t that much to think to each other about. Both Homo sapiens used their normal way of speech on a daily basis, and so their skill faded.

Roo had worked with Mars each time he had arrived with supplies or new tourists in Mattville, and the short ruler of the Matts on Mars had suggested that they try to befriend his people further out in the solar system where the unfriendly Matts stayed to themselves.

It seemed that even though these minds could communicate with each other, communication could be closed down to certain minds. Like a computer, maybe the Matts could use firewalls, or just tune their minds to a communications distance, or close out certain pitches or tones certain Matts made. This had happened often since they had first met at the Retreat decades earlier.

Roo had told Mars and Saturn on their last visit to Mattville two years earlier that he could and did communicate at any time to his mother living in the Sahara Desert on Earth, but he couldn’t communicate to any other Matt who wasn’t on Mars or Earth. They thought it was a distance factor until Roo finally got his clear and short answer that they could meet. Roo also told them of the passing of Fritz, an older member of the crew aboard America One, who had married Roo’s mother Tow.

The Astermine staff in Nevada hadn’t heard from Fritz since he had got married, left Astermine and had gone to live with Tow at the old Matt underground base in the middle of the Sahara Desert. The base was inside a mountain called the Pig’s Snout, where the Matts had lived in lush vegetation conditions some ten thousand years earlier. Fritz had been part of the early employment era of Igor and Boris by Ryan, but had had a bad accident in China and had never fully recovered mentally.

“I still can’t believe you had this ship made without telling me?” asked Mars, sucking from his hot sippy cup.

“It was a test design that worked perfectly, except for the shield being ripped off. Remember, Dad, your ship can attain Mach 222 as well. You just need a longer flight and acceleration duration to get her up to a Mach 222 cruise. It’s weird, but Mars and Ceres have sort of become too-short flights to use any faster ship than these. My cruise time to Earth last flight was only fourteen days. If we went any faster, we would go from acceleration and straight into slowdown mode without ever having a cruise portion of flight.”

“That would be perfect,” added Saturn, floating in, her long dark hair all over the place. “Imagine a no-cruise zone in between Jupiter and Earth?”

“What is a no-cruise zone?” asked a still-sleepy Bella floating in behind Saturn. She was still enthralled with weightlessness, found the long exercise sessions she had to do daily tedious, but really enjoyed the excitement of space travel. Saturn gave her a sippy cup full of coffee and explained to her what they were talking about.

“How long will we be in cruise to Saturn, and I was told the Matts live on Jupiter?” she asked her husband once she understood.

“Well, they do,” replied Mikey, “but Roo was in contact with a Matt ruler on one of Saturn’s moons, and they are allowing us to visit them there. It could be their head base or something. Ceres is not on the outbound route due to its orbital proximity at the opposite side of the sun compared to Mars and Saturn, so we are only refueling there on the way back. Ceres is on her way around towards us, but her orbital duration is 1,680 days. Ceres will be in a better but not perfect position to refuel on our return flight nineteen months from now.”

“Jupiter is not in position for a visit,” continued Saturn as Mikey stopped, turned and concentrated on a beep from the control console. “This flight has been planned for the direct flight to Saturn from Mattville. Ceres takes a long time to circumnavigate the sun, but Earth circumnavigates in three hundred sixty-five days, far faster, and the reason we can reach Ceres every year or at least every second year. The dwarf planet is so much easier to travel to than Earth to Mars, and we need Mars on the same side of the sun as Saturn when we leave the red planet for her.”

“We have closed on that asteroid out there to a quarter of a million miles, and we will pass on its starboard side in seven hours at a 105,000 mile distance,” explained Mikey. He acknowledged to the computer that he had received the post, checked the map plan of their computerized flight, and got a readout. He studied it against the last readouts for accuracy, then answered Bella’s question.

“Nice thing about space travel is that the planets are constant in their orbits. That often makes our departure window extremely small for the shortest flight time. Unfortunately the Asteroid Belt, or Abelt as we call it, is part of our second leg from Mars to Saturn and really slows us down for the first fifth of the flight. Distance to Saturn the planet, not her moons, will be 766 million miles. Roo hasn’t been given our final destination yet. We could cruise to Saturn in 206 days if the Abelt didn’t exist. ASS-One would take 226 days, Dad. But due to our reduced speed through the main section of the Belt, it adds 21 days to the flight duration. So ASS-Two, our ship, will complete the flight in 226 days and ASS-One would complete the flight if she was racing us in 259 days. Bella, the only difference in flight times is due to acceleration power and slowdown, or reverse power of our thrusters. America Two, Astermine’s mother ship, would take 479 days to complete the same voyage, as she would have to catch up to Saturn, which begins to orbit further away from Mars during her longer flight time.”

“A little too technical for me.” Bella laughed.

“Totally understood,” stated Saturn to her new daughter-in-law. “We were born and raised in this environment, and to us it is like basic math, as long as the ship’s computers spit out the information. It would take us weeks or months to work out the same calculations the computers continuously work on and update.”

ASS-Two was on her third day out from Earth orbit, and Bella enjoyed seeing the blue planet recede and slowly grow smaller.

Mikey had forgotten what it was like to have company, especially special company, and was happy to allow his parents help do the hundreds of daily checks and chores around the ship. His ship did have the smallest cargo bay in the three-ship A.S.S. fleet, and it held spare parts, supplies of oil, and two new mining robots, an elevator, furnishings for the fourth new wing for tourists, and a hydrogen and a second oxygen-producing plant from water as a gift for the Matts on Saturn.

VIN and Roo had explained to Mikey and the crew over the radio on his previous flight how warlike these Matts were, and VIN had suggested that they might be entering into a trap as retaliation for the Homo sapiens stealing Mars and Ceres away from them.

Mikey, now good friends with Roo, had agreed with Roo that the telepathic connection be followed up on. It had been Jonesy’s wish that A.S.S. extend its tentacles as far as Saturn, and it wasn’t much use getting that far into the solar system if they were to be attacked at any time.

After having several conference calls with Jonesy, Mars and VIN, Mikey had agreed to arm his ship, and Dr. Smidt had been contacted.

Astermine still had the best and latest laser weaponry on Earth, and VIN was surprised to hear that Astermine in Nevada had a few new modifications to the laser weapons he and Mars had used against the Matts decades earlier. VIN and Mars still had the best and only maser weapons in the solar system that could be mounted on the A.S.S. ships from the captured Matt fighters from the war.

Unfortunately, Dr. Smidt had heard rumors for years now that he wasn’t getting any of Franklin’s modern thrusters due to A.S.S., and he was certainly not a happy German when VIN called him. Jonesy didn’t call this time, as he believed that the poor doctor had certainly had enough of him.

Dr. Smidt was a member of A.S.S., but he also ran Astermine, and it was difficult for him to keep each foot in a different camp.

Franklin’s company had delivered the first contract of a decade’s worth of twelve engines to A.S.S., and Jonesy had set up a second contract for four more engines halfway through the contract period.

These modern plasma thruster engines were handmade by Franklin’s company of a hundred employees. There was no other way to increase production, and the company didn’t really want to. Franklin’s company scientists were getting old, like at Astermine, and few knew that the man himself was at one time the most launched astronaut in NASA.

Other engine manufacturers had sprung up due to the market’s lack of economical thrusters, but Franklin’s company’s plasma units were still the most powerful and most economical engines by far.

Dr. Smidt was not happy to trade lasers for engines, Jonesy found out when Dr. Smidt asked VIN to speak to who Dr. Smidt thought had been the boss a year earlier. VIN had smiled and handed the receiver to his partner.

Jonesy was honest with the German scientist when he stated that he had four engines on order, two were for ASS-One, Mars and Saturn’s ship, to increase its cruise speed, but he could let go of two engines for two lasers, but he had to get the okay from Captain Mikey Noble, A.S.S.’s CEO, first.

Dr. Smidt had learned Jonesy’s negotiation tactics well over the years he had lost to his friend, and immediately demanded all four engines from Mikey a month later when they discussed a contract for two lasers or no lasers.

Mikey wouldn’t budge on four. Each engine had cost ten billion dollars of REM, and two of those for two lasers that maybe cost a tenth of each engine was a tough nut to crack. This time Dr. Smidt did a real Jonesy and didn’t give up.

The engines actually used a quarter of the REM supplied for manufacture, but the balance of the engine cost was recouped by Franklin’s company for top dollar on the rest of the valuable metal every country in the world except China needed.

It was all four or nothing, and Mikey had to break the bad news to his parents that they would not be getting the two extra engines and larger wing design he had promised.

Mars had shrugged off the loss when his son told him the full story. Saturn was angry, as she wanted the fastest ship in the solar system, but ordered Mikey to negotiate four lasers, one for each engine.

If she wasn’t going to have the fastest ship, then a battle-worthy battleship would be second best.

It was time to recruit younger Johnny Noble into the fight. The young cadet was still too young to partake in alcoholic beverages in the United States, and liquor was now banned at the Astermine base in Nevada by Dr. Smidt.

Johnny had happily joined A.S.S. a year earlier as a new family member, and was Jonesy’s new representative at Nevada Base since Dr. Smidt didn’t want or seem to have the patience to listen to Jonesy anymore.

Johnny was more like his mother than his father and took on tasks given to him like a dog ripping a shirt apart. He hounded Dr. Smidt. He followed him everywhere, asking for an answer on four lasers for four engines. He communicated the forty billion engine cost versus the four billion laser cost to Astermine to the good doctor.

Dr. Smidt knew that Johnny was in his last year of astronaut school, was a formable pilot, and could be the star of his ten-year class.

They went back and forth for a couple of days, and Johnny smiled when Dr. Smidt said that he would do the deal if Cadet Johnny Noble signed a ten-year contract with Astermine as an astronaut.

That was a little too much, but Johnny knew that at least the deal was getting closer. He discussed the ten-year contract with his parents and Jonesy, and Jonesy said no way, if the young lad wanted to fly the best ships in the solar system versus the oldest and slowest, he was needed at A.S.S.

Dr. Smidt had a problem. He didn’t have four lasers, only three in his first contract with the manufacturer, but he had ordered three more for the three new Astermine mining ships, which were already being built at Nevada Base.

These three ships would also be fitted with the new engines if he could angle them out of any company, or A.S.S.

There were ten-year delays at most of the engine manufacturers worldwide as well. The poor scientist really found himself between a rock and a hard place. It was now either engines or lasers, for a couple of years anyway.

Also Astermine’s four eldest astronauts, Ryan’s daughters and husbands, were showing signs of retirement, and that meant he would shortly lose the experience of these space travelers to teach his new astronauts the ropes of travel between Earth and Mars.

Most of the astronauts from the last three cadet courses had left Astermine to work in the new asteroid mining companies popping up everywhere. His mistake, and he knew it, was that he had pointed Astermine’s future towards Mars and the growth of Mattville, and had missed the boat to the asteroid mining in Ceres. This meant he had had little need for new astronauts until he had decided to join the others and lease one of Ceres’s caverns from A.S.S. for the Astermine Mining Corp.

Astermine didn’t need the money from mining, the company was already the richest REM company in the world. Its stocks of the silver metals were only now being transported back to Earth. Ryan had promised so much gold to the friendly governments around the world that it had taken a decade to transport the yellow metal, which had decreased in value 55 percent since Astermine had flooded the market.

The first REM shipment would be arriving next year. Franklin’s engine company had somehow managed to strangle the REM market on the blue planet, and Dr. Smidt had to purchase the REM requirements for the mining ships from them.

So it was engines versus lasers, and the tiny company that manufactured these extremely powerful space lasers were much like all the other new space companies—not interested in rapid growth—and kept their production down to three laser guns and electronics per year.

Just the electronics and computerized aiming systems that were fitted into the ships weighed in at just under two tons, and each weapon and its extremely technical systems took months of work to manufacture. It certainly wasn’t an easy task, and they kept their production top secret, only selling to companies they trusted not to break down their technology and sell the tech to other companies.

Dr. Smidt had learned well from Jonesy and had contracted five years of laser production just to make sure every fast gunship out there wouldn’t have the same weapons.

What took Dr. Smidt over the edge to do the deal was the suggestion thought up by dog-ripping-the-shirt Johnny that by Dr. Smidt taking the deal, he was really hurting Jonesy with a forty-billion-dollar loss, and his poor grandfather was only getting four billion of product in return.

The clever doctor didn’t know where Jonesy had got all this money in the first place, but had bet many that there had been a metal stash on Ceres. That certainly answered the question why Franklin and Co. had so much REM to sell. He was having to purchase at higher than usual costs from them until his own first shipment of REM arrived the next year.

To metaphorically kick his old friend and adversary in the nuts was an opportunity that would please Dr. Smidt greatly, and he finally agreed to sign the deal, with Johnny’s grandfather VIN Noble only. VIN was the only man he trusted in A.S.S.

A.S.S. was disappointed to only get three of the four lasers, and they would have to wait another year or more to get the fourth one. At least it meant that ASS-Two would get its two engineer consoles in the cockpit up to an excellent attack and defense capability before the flight to Saturn. Two Matt maser guns had been carefully pulled out of the Matt ships captured on Mars, and had been transported back on the transporter’s last flight. Mars and Saturn would get the only Matt maser from the captured ship on Ceres on ASS-One when the fourth laser arrived.

The third Earth laser would be fitted to the transporter by Martin and his team of weapon experts while in orbit around Earth. The transporter was now waiting for Johnny to complete training, and he would fly the newly armed ship with one of the more experienced astronauts on the next supply run to Ceres.

Both ships were planned to rendezvous there in eighteen months or so, and the transporter and ASS-Two were to return with the last cargo of REM. The large and slow transporter was then to be sold to the highest bidder, its gun diverting to ASS-One.

With the two lasers from Earth and two masers from the Matt ships, ASS-Two wasn’t only the fastest ship in the solar system, but also the most powerful as far as weaponry.

The new lasers used a small-size cold fusion plant each. The masers used far less power than the lasers and were hooked up to the backup fusion system on the ship.

Compared to the power of the old lasers used by Mars and Saturn during the War of the Worlds on Ceres nearly two decades earlier, these new lasers had an accurate range of eighteen thousand miles and were twice as powerful as the older versions at this range. The cameras and targeting systems were twice as fast and could semi-accurately target an enemy ship seven thousand miles further out than its accurate firing range. The recharge fire rate at full power was down from sixty seconds to forty seconds.

The Matt masers had only a semi-accurate twelve-thousand-mile range and, after tests in orbit, were found only to be really accurate up to nine thousand miles.

It was time to test the weapons at range and the meteoroid or piece of rock off their port side would do nicely. Mikey slowed his ship for two hours, then arced its trajectory around the front of the rapidly moving asteroid. Nothing happened quickly in space, and as he kept the ship turning, he came in behind the asteroid at three times faster than it was travelling.

Mars and Saturn were at the engineer/weapon consoles and patiently waited. Bella was in the copilot seat, watching for the first sighting of the asteroid that showed to be about five thousand yards wide and would appear at their eleven o’ clock.

After waiting for five hours, it was over in minutes. ASS-Two caught up with the meteoroid; the lasers opened fire once at twenty thousand miles and again at fifteen thousand miles two minutes later.

At ten thousand miles, they opened up with all four weapons, and the monitors showed the rock break up into hundreds of smaller pieces. Within a minute they had passed the mass of shrapnel on the starboard side and were well away before the rocks had spanned out enough to be a danger to them.

Poor Bella had seen nothing, not even a glow of an explosion. She, like the others, had followed the meteoroid’s demise on screen.

The crew were happy, the new additions had worked well, and at least they could defend themselves against multiple enemies.

It seemed forever to Bella Noble. The days turned into weeks, and there was no day and night, only night outside. Her daily exercise routine took four hours, and apart from playing computer games, reading or chess, there was very little to do.

The other three took it in their stride, telling Bella how short this flight would be compared to what they were used to.

She began to sleep twelve hours at a time and tossed and turned, if that was possible in their vertical double bed. The tight double bed was more like a large zipped-up sleeping bag, and she and Mikey held on to each other to stop from floating into each other continuously during the night. Any movement in the warm bed meant that the body seemed to gently move around for hours afterwards.

Gravity, or the lack of it, began to needle her, and she, like the others, looked forward to the gentle 38 percent of Earth’s gravity on the red planet.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of drinking coffee, eating scrambled eggs and all other meals from pouches, and exercising for hours on end, the excitement of seeing the red planet begin to grow in front of them lit up the aura inside the ship.

To Bella it seemed that the others, including her husband, came out of hibernation as soon as the red planet began to grow.

ASS-Two entered orbit a few days later and immediately headed down to the Martian Club Retreat. There was supposed to be only Paul and his wife, Jenny, at the retreat, but the Noble family was surprised to see three Mattville shuttles in the blue shield parking bays. There was the expected fourth blue shield that now covered the cemetery slightly off from the main building.

Bella was in awe at seeing a planet she had dreamt of seeing since childhood. As a small girl, she had followed the stories in the media about the space race and how Astermine and its bunch of astronauts had been born in space, visited Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and had returned safely to Earth.

Now she was amongst the astronauts, but in a newer generation. At this moment, looking over the first human base camp on Mars, she was silent and mesmerized by the flying abilities of the astronauts. Up to now the flight computers had done most of the work.

Since the free parking was taken, Little Mikey, with Saturn as copilot, brought ASS-Two down very slowly and connected up their shield with the second parking shield.

“It is dark, night,” Mars Noble told Bella as she stretched forward from one of the engineer/gunner chairs to see through the forward windshield. “We’re coming in as a surprise for Paul and Jenny, and it seems we could be a very real surprise, as we are having to park so far away that nobody will notice our arrival from inside.”

“So we don’t need to wear suits?” asked Bella as they felt the touchdown gently vibrate through the ship.

“Correct, our shield will have its Earth atmosphere pumped into it, and the other shields all have pressure and air to breathe, so we very slowly walk through the shield walls from one to the other.”

“Is there a doorbell?” joked Bella, and Mars nodded. She had brought up a good point.

“No, but the entrance cubicles aren’t locked.” He smiled back at her as Saturn decreased the thrusters to idle for the first time in months. Mars was already pumping air back into the shield. “And since the shield is over the closest airlock, we can walk through once we are checked by the electronics for any external suit or clothing pollution. It’s quite safe.”

Twenty minutes later, with the ship’s surveillance systems on alert, Mikey operated the elevator to the surface of Mars ten feet below the floor of the ship, and all four astronauts touched terra firma.

Even with the gravity two-thirds less than on Earth, Bella still felt heavy. It felt like her body had put on a hundred pounds of weight since she had left Earth.

“That is why we astronauts and the others who live here love Mars,” stated Mikey, putting his arm around her while still in the elevator. It stopped and the hatch opened out to their shield that had protected them for the last forty-five million miles or so.

“One step for woman, and one step for all the earthlings who will never have this opportunity,” stated Bella as her boot touched the Martian soil for the first time.

Saturn laughed at her speech, giving her a high five. “Yes, it’s about time women are remembered on Mars.” Saturn laughed as they exited the elevator, and from a remote on Mikey’s belt, he sent it back up. “As usual with Homo sapiens, it seems the men are always in a majority when it comes to ruling others.”

“I thought our old President, ex-President Joanne, is up here in Mattville?” Bella asked.

“She is, but I noticed she was beginning to look frail on our last visit. The Matts seem never to age and outlive us by hundreds of years.”

Slowly, they moved into the parking shield where the three shuttles were parked. Bella looked back before she moved out of the first shield and was shocked how big ASS-Two was compared to these tiny shuttles. Even though the newest ship was the smallest in the A.S.S. fleet, a third smaller than ASS-One, it was still a massive ship.

She had followed the history of flight and had been surprised to learn that her husband’s ship was as big as one of the ancient Boeing 747s that had ruled the skies several decades earlier. Only the ship’s wings were much smaller, only a third of the length of the old 747 wings, and were swept-back delta wings looking more like the wings of a fighter jet, with its three massive engines below each side.

As she moved through the shield wall, she looked at the three shuttles that looked like toys compared to the ship behind her.

Wanting to look at the Brusk-made shuttles, she tread down too hard, thinking she was on Earth, and suddenly she was two feet in the air. Mikey already had her hand and pulled her down. She smiled at him and thanked her husband.

The shuttle opened as she touched the automated door handle. It glowed green and the shuttle’s door opened.

“I haven’t seen one of these non-Earth shuttles either,” stated Mikey, peering in next to her. “Six seats, that’s it, and the rear half is cargo space. Why are all three parked here? That is all Martin sent up to Mattville I and II.”

“I suppose we’ll shortly find out,” added Mars.

“Let’s go and scare the crap out of whoever is in the bar area,” added Saturn, always the mischievous one.

They entered the third shield that looked to Bella as if it was a tropical jungle of large bushes and she knew exactly what was being grown in here. Paul Jones’s “Panama Mars Red Exclusive” was famous and fetched more money than some of the REM ingots, pound for pound, on Earth. All of the Panama Mars Red was sold through the store on Ceres, and often the miners returned to Earth with their year’s pay in Panama Red. Often they could treble what their paychecks were worth, especially in the states in the U.S. where marijuana was still banned.

“The Professor’s Weed”, as it was nicknamed on Earth, as every type of marijuana had a nickname, had come a long way since he had started growing it on Mars.

The best weed came out of the two blue shields for some unknown reason. Where she was standing was the most powerful weed buds ever grown, with its delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or TCH for short, reaching a percentage of 30.01, enough to knock a person out. The two acres of weed from the lowest level underground had an average percentage of 29.87 THC. Even this weaker growth was still 0.7 THC stronger than anything ever grown on Earth, as far as legal measurements were concerned.

After noticing the difference, Paul Jones had renamed his two growths of the desperately wanted green stuff to Panama Mars Red Exclusive and Panama Mars Red Underground.

“Where does all this go?” asked Bella, snapping off a flower and smelling it.

“Ceres,” replied Mars Noble. “Ruler Roo and the elders of Mattville banned smoking it several years ago. People were beginning to go against the smell of it. Many smoked the weed, messing up the underground air system, and people started getting high off other people’s smoke.”

“They banned it from cooking two years ago, as security were starting to find unconscious bodies in the walk areas. Bella, don’t eat that flower,” added Mikey. “One person, a tourist, died after falling over a high balcony right into the outside seating of a coffee shop. He hurt three others, and he still died even though they stopped his fall and the gravity is so weak.”

“He died of a damn heart attack,” added Saturn as they walked through the jungle and found the door to the interior of the building.

“This shield sure smells different to the other two,” added Bella. “I’m feeling rather light-headed.”

“Warned you not to eat the flower.” Mikey smiled as they neared the thick nanosilicone window instead of activating the door.

The crew outside were shocked at what was going on inside. It looked like a poker tournament in some location in Las Vegas, not forty-five million miles away on Mars. Mars, Saturn and Mikey looked on, gob smacked at the décor inside. Bella, not knowing what to expect, just smiled happily. She couldn’t understand why she was feeling so good all of a sudden.

“It’s a bloody poker tournament!” Bella stated to the others in her most British hyped-up accent.

“A bloody tournament, hey!” mimicked Mars. “Look, there’s Ruler Roo, Dave Black, and all the old generation of Mattville here at one time. Four damn poker tables. Even Grandma Jenny is playing and smoking and drinking.”

As he said that, Saturn began pounding on the glass. The outside crew knew that the noise or vibration of the pounding wouldn’t reach through the foot-or-more-thick see-through nanosilicone window, but it seemed the movement caught Dave Black’s keen eye. Dave Black was facing them. He looked up.

The fat cigar he was smoking fell out of his mouth as his face when completely white, and his mind tried to fathom that there were things, people, something resembling humans outside, banging to get in and staring at him. His cards fell onto the table, and the other four card players looked up at him and then in the direction he was looking.

All five humans looked at the visitors with open mouths. Paul Jones was one of them and actually fell back in his chair.

“There are aliens…people in my marijuana shield outside.” The four outside could see his mouth scream as he and his chair toppled backwards. Only Roo looked up and smiled at the others’ surprise and total shock.

“I suppose you warned Roo?” stated Saturn to her husband. “Why ruin the joke? We could have gotten everybody.”

“At least we’ll have one heart attack less.” Mars smiled back as Roo gave them a thumbs-up, laughed out loud at the Homo sapiens around him in total disarray, leapt out of his chair, and like a kid ran for the entrance/exit chamber.

“When did you warn him?” asked Saturn.

“About thirty seconds before we got to the window.” Mars laughed.

“In your mind speak, I suppose?” added Bella. She hadn’t seen this trick her father-in-law could do, but it had seemed to work. The little dark man the size of a ten-year-old was running for the chamber.

After much noise and the putting out of whatever was smoking on the lush carpeted floor—the whoosh of a glass of liquor had flared up as one man had been lighting an old type of pipe and had dropped the lit match—the poker players tried to assemble themselves as the four astronauts marched in.

Roo was like a ten-year-old jumping up and down, so excited to see Mars and Saturn.

“Little Mikey, you look so big,” stated Roo, reaching up to hug his friend after the elder two. “This must be your new bride. Hello, Bella Noble, and the little fruits inside you.”

Bella suddenly didn’t feel as good as she had done seconds earlier as she bent down to get her hug.

“Little fruits inside?” she asked Roo, her face going white.

“Yes, two little balls of life about the size of my finger,” replied Roo, smiling and holding up a very small little finger.

“How…how…do you know that?” she asked as her excited husband gathered her up and gave her a hug of congratulations.

“Scared the living daylights out of us, you bad-mannered people,” stated Paul Jones, happy to see his family.

The scare over, everybody got in the act of hugging, laughing and welcoming the new arrivals. It was pandemonium for several minutes, and retribution for the joke played on them was mentioned time and time again.

Mars simply told them it was Saturn’s fault. Mikey tried to comfort Bella, who was crying like a baby, and Saturn just smiled and hugged everybody, saying her father would have been pleased at the scare, it had worked so well.

“You have John with you?” Paul asked Saturn.

“Yes,” answered Saturn. “Also Uncle Ryan’s and Bob Mathew’s coffins. Paul, Bob was a guy you never met, but Dad thought that flying flew out of his butt. Boris is also with us, one of Ryan’s first employees and the man who invented the first mining robots so that you could have all this, Uncle Paul.”

“We also have their holographs,” added Mars Noble with the ruler of Mattville on his back like a kid.

Jenny was happy to see females for a change and welcomed Saturn and Bella to the retreat.

“Men getting you down?” asked Saturn, and Jenny shrugged.

“We can laser the lot of them if you want.”

“No, thanks. I often think that murder could be the best way, but crazy company is better than no company at all on this rock,” Jenny replied. “We got the supplies from you on your last visit two years ago, so now the retreat is as luxurious as Mattville. I think most of the men prefer to live here, as you have noticed. Actually, the three shuttles flew in yesterday for a weekend of poker. If you don’t know, it’s Saturday night here on Mars, and we had just started the night’s play.”

“Oh yes, our weekly ‘Splice the main Thruster’ night. You brought new furniture here, Mom?” Mikey asked his mother.

Mikey had headed to Mattville, picked up the wine, liquor and weed, and refilled their water-to-hydrogen fuel system here on his last flight, which had been a week or two before his parents had arrived in the slower ship.

The young astronaut suddenly realized that the large bar and poker area was as blue as inside a shield, stank of smoke, and that he had just been told that his wife was pregnant. He asked if he could take his wife to their room.

“Of course, my boy,” answered Paul. “Follow me.” He led them inside the cavern wall of the base and to the upper floor that had been blown apart in the war.

Mars noticed that the whole top floor of the inner cavern had changed. Instead of the gray and cold metal floor, there were Afghan rugs, massive ones over lush carpeting, and where the two large food storage rooms had been on his last visit was now a seventh door facing him. It looked as if he was in a five-star hotel. He looked up and saw that there were seven more doors up the stairs on the second level on the back and front side opposite the old Matt command center. Those rear upper rooms had also been storerooms. Now he knew why Jonesy had wanted to keep this area secret years earlier.

“We store all the crops and finished product downstairs now,” stated Paul as the newcomers looked around.

Mars and Saturn couldn’t believe the changes as a fancy glass door whooshed closed behind them, sealing off the stink and smoke from the massive outer bar area.

“Saturn, you remember how this place looked after the attack? All the dead bodies?” Mars asked, and she nodded in disbelief.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t here. I’m sure it must have been a blackened bombed-out crater,” suggested Paul. “It was Jonesy’s last flight, and he told me that he wasn’t going to be bettered by Astermine and Mattville. You didn’t know you had brought furniture?”

“No,” replied Mars. “I mean, yes, furniture was on the manifest, but it was all in balsa-wood cartons, and I thought it was just ordinary supplies.”

“John told me that he sent an order to the fanciest hotel supply company in Singapore or Taiwan, I believe,” continued Paul. “The Chinese Premier, Jon I think his name is, told him where he got his furniture made. He ordered all this, plus he sent me new design programs to be fed into the new mining robots. We cleared everything out of here once you, Mars and Saturn, had left, as it was meant to be a surprise for every member of A.S.S. We sealed down the area once the robots had finished an underground tunnel to the first shield. They took a couple of months to mine out and fill in the new floor plan up here.”

“I walked in here once they had cleaned it completely and thought I had just walked into a new empty hotel foyer,” added Jenny. “Only Paul and I were here, and the cleaning robots got to work; then they moved every piece of furniture into each of the twenty-one large rooms. How Martin Brusk designed those machines, I just don’t know. Not one scratch, not one chip of wall.”

“Your rooms, Mikey and Mars, are on the upper level. They’re larger than the bottom one Jenny and I live in, and the other six next to us are sort of visitors’ hotel suites. Each room has a name on it, and yours are the newest ones in the front. I think you’ll be impressed.”

If Mars and Saturn thought it was funny to see the white faces on the poker players, Paul and Jenny got the same when they entered their suite and watched the Nobles’ faces whiten.

“Each of the original A.S.S. members, including Dave Black and Roo, have the upstairs rooms,” explained a smiling Paul Jones. “Mikey, you are CEO, so you get one as well. All the visitors or newer members like me, Charlie Daniels and Pete Mullins have the lower floor. Mikey, you’re next to Dr. Smidt’s room. Mars, Saturn, you’re next to your father and mother’s. Jonesy had the next room to VIN and Suzi, and it’s now kept for Maggie if she ever visits.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 18

Saturn

“Those furnishings Jonesy freighted up for our rooms still want me to shake my head in wonderment,” stated Mikey to his mother.

Saturn was sitting in the copilot seat as usual. It was early morning, day seven. They had left Mars orbit a week earlier, and once again the red planet had receded into a small red dot behind them.

This time their cargo space was absolutely full. Every square foot was taken with a complete and ready-to-fly Matt fighter from Mattville II in the cargo hold as well as the ship’s shuttle for cargo transportation. Nothing was that heavy in space. The maser-armed fighter was ready to be launched out of the large underside cargo doors.

Everything else, including the shuttle in the cargo bay, was strapped to the bay’s floor, ceiling and walls to make sure only the fighter would depart the cargo bay once the bomb bay doors, as Mars called them, opened outwards.

Much of the rear part of the cargo bay still had the cargo from Earth, a small water-to-hydrogen production plant as a gift for the Matts and one of the older, less powerful plasma thrusters removed from one of the defunct Astermine shuttles.

The Matts had made many futuristic inventions, like the cold fusion power systems, the blue shields and the glowing silver walls found in the secured and closed-off areas of the bases on Mars. The idea of the gifts was to give the Matts faster travel than their weak alcohol-fueled engines, and to show a big hand of friendship at the same time. Hopefully with faster travel the two tribes could unite more often and become friends.

The crew of ASS-Two still didn’t know where they were heading and had only the order to go into a high orbit around Saturn. Roo would then be contacted. Mars still had the idea that the rendezvous was nothing more than a trap. The aggressive Matts had always attacked before.

Ruler Roo had joined the flight to Saturn to meet, befriend and converse with his tribe. He would be away from his aging wife and grown-up kids for three years on this flight to Saturn, Ceres, Earth, and only then travel back home to Mars. On Earth he would visit his mother, Tow, in the Pig’s Snout, the inside mountain village in the Sahara Desert where he had been born.

Back on Mars, the A.S.S. crew had shocked the poker players to near death when they had squashed their noses flat and beaten the outside of the glass where the games were being held.

The players had shocked the astronauts when they were shown to their new A.S.S. apartments at the Martian Club Retreat. These apartments were now their official Martian homes, and with 38 percent of Earth’s gravity, they could live in them much like living on Earth, as long as one was careful.

The units each had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open-plan kitchen, lounge and dining room. An office and communications center, or third bedroom, was off the lounge.

Bella and the others had gasped at seeing their luxuriously furnished apartments with real beds. The furniture looked like something out of a palace, and each apartment had a slightly different theme. Most of what they had been given was antique.

Real Middle Eastern rugs, French-style tables and couches, massive holograph screens, richly textured wallpaper, and family pictures on the walls made each room look so well decorated.

“Maggie and Jonesy had flown around the world for two months in a Robojet, picking out each piece at auctions and stores about three years ago,” Paul told them.

As usual there were wall switches everywhere in the apartments, and one of the switches turned on life-size holographic statues of each of the owners of the apartment. Only Bella’s was missing, and Mikey made a note-to-self to get Martin’s company to make one of her.

The crew had a few days to enjoy their new units, but the first day was busy. It was the burial of the four newest members of the cemetery.

Mikey was surprised how the building of the cemetery had grown under its blue shield. The new see-through but still unfinished nanosilicone wall around the cemetery was nine to ten feet high, and he was surprised that it was quite dark inside the cemetery with no holographs glowing when they arrived with Paul. They all carried the coffins in a line with full space suits on.

Building had stopped, Paul had explained, as the four builders from Mattville I and younger members of A.S.S. under Dave Black’s supervision had taken a week off and returned home to produce more bricks. Each twelve-by-twelve-by-eight-inch window brick was made in one of only twelve individual brick kilns that had been at the retreat when the America One crew had made the outside building of the retreat over two decades earlier.

At that time, building the Retreat, they had used dozens of individual brick kilns aboard the ship to build the Retreat’s outer building, but the destruction of America One by the Matts had destroyed all the kilns, except the dozen that had been shuttled down to complete the job a few weeks before the attack.

The scaffolding was still up, and Mikey noticed that the walls angled inwards. Jonesy had wanted an igloo-shaped building, and the igloo shape was starting to take effect. Paul told them that it would take about three years to complete and should be ready for viewing on Mikey’s next flight.

The circular cemetery grounds were about one hundred feet in diameter and felt really big inside its blue shield. Mikey could see that the top of the roof, once complete, would be about the same height as the cemetery’s diameter. Paul had stated that it would take another 12,800 bricks to finish the outer wall of the building, and each of the twelve kilns produced one brick every twenty hours.

There was a twenty-foot-high centerpiece and common area in the middle of the plot, and golden arches led off from the middle area about sixty feet in diameter. Each arch, and there were six of them, headed into a separate internal section with the same see-through brick dividing walls. There was a lot of gold on the arches in these sections, and the angel atop a column centerpiece in the middle of the cemetery was a large holograph three-step stage. All the holographs were off and dark.

They had all donned space suits and helmets to walk the hundred yards to the blue shield. Paul was now experienced, quite happy to use his suit, and often walked with Jenny in her suit around the open plateau on a nice day. Paul told them that one of the robotic miners had begun to dig a tunnel from underground level two of the Retreat to the cemetery and this new entrance would be complete by the end of the year. This tunnel was to stop the necessity of using the suits to get over to the cemetery.

Unfortunately, he added, it seemed the robot had hit extremely hard rock, something that looked like granite, twenty feet into its dig.

Not believing that he had just found granite on Mars, Paul wanted some of the cream-colored rock chunks the miner had brought out sent with ASS-Two to be tested on Earth.

Ryan’s coffin, on orders from his last will and testament, was to be placed on the opposite side of the cemetery from where Jonesy and the others would be put to rest. He had also joked about peace and quiet and had asked for a special area for the Richmond family.

The Richmond family now had one of the six sectioned areas with a six-foot-high nanosilicone completed wall around their section of the lot. It had an arch and the name “Richmond” inscribed on the front on the arch. The entire arch section looked very regal.

Inside was a raised centerpiece. It was an altar tomb on three steps and was adorned with what looked like a holograph on top of it. The sliding stone door of the tomb was open, and there was room for two coffins to fit inside, one for Ryan and one for Kathy, Mikey assumed.

“Jonesy planned all this out the year before he died,” Paul told the others. They were still wearing suits, but had taken off their helmets. It was cold inside the blue shield, a minus temperature, and all the crew could see their breath coming out of their mouths. “Ryan and Kathy have center stage in their section, and the children will each have an altar tomb built in a circle around the parents, like a clock. Jonesy wanted the same for the Jones and Noble families. Let us entomb Ryan and say a prayer; then we will head over to the Jones section.”

Ryan Richmond was laid to rest, the young thick-glassed boy from Nevada who allowed nobody to bully him and had taken humanity into the solar system. Ryan Richmond rested with the most magnificent view of the solar system he so loved, and with the peace and quiet he wanted.

There were three of the exact same altar tombs as in the Richmond section in a U-shape in the Jones section. One had its sliding side door open. The crew remembered that John and Paul Jones’s parents had been the first couple in the cemetery over a decade earlier. Also where the Richmond tomb was on three steps from the ground, the Jones tombs were on only two.

“Mom and Dad have been in theirs for several months now,” he stated, patting the middle tomb. “This open one is for John and Maggie. Jenny and I will have the third one,” stated Paul.

With a second prayer, the founder of A.S.S., the best pilot Astermine had ever known, was laid to rest, and the tomb’s door was slowly closed. Most of the astronauts in attendance were flight instructors and family members. General John Jones hopefully also smiled at the view above his head. It was the most perfect view anyone could want.

“What about the Astermine crew?” asked Mars. “Bob Mathews and Boris. The others who don’t have such fancy accommodations.”

“Also is there a step missing in my family’s section?” asked Saturn.

“Jonesy wanted Ryan and Kathy to be higher than everybody else in the cemetery. I assume rank gives one height,” suggested Paul. “The Noble, Saunders and Pitt sections, where we don’t need to go today, has one tomb and two steps. The Astermine crew section is the larger section over here. That section covers one half of the entire burial area.”

The last two coffins were carried into the larger section. This area was also separated with a six-foot-high wall like the others. It had a golden arch that stated “Astermine”, and here there were several small, single-person altar tombs and several double tombs, all raised only one step off the ground.

“My father and his idea of rank,” stated Saturn, shaking her head.

Still, it was pretty, well laid out, the mosaics of different-colored stones on the ground very neat, and there were pretty colored stones around each tomb. It certainly looked like a cemetery.

“If the rock the robot found is granite, I’m going to get that mechanical monster to slice it in three-inch-thick tiles and cover the whole cemetery floor with it. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have two Astermine crewmembers already in attendance from Mattville, and Mr. Mathews and Boris will be entombed in these two tombs,” stated Paul, who pointed with his space glove to two single open tombs.

Bob Mathews and Boris were laid to rest, and again the crew noticed that there were smaller dark holographs on the top of the freshly closed tombs.

A short prayer for the two men was said loudly by Paul, and then everybody said the Lord’s Prayer. As they finished, Paul pushed a button on a controller he had pulled out of his suit pocket, and suddenly the entire cemetery lit up as all the holographs went live and the dearly departed looked young and full of life as their still holographs clicked over different poses every few seconds.

Bob Mathews was sitting in a fishing chair on the back of his boat, and the holograph showed him smiling with one pose with his rod low, the next the rod had moved up, and the third was with a stiff grin and showed his rod vertical and he was leaning back, catching a fish.

Boris, on the other hand, wore a white suit and leaned over a table with a pencil in his hand. His poses showed him scribbling. The other two already in this section were a man and woman. Mars and Saturn recognized them. One was tending vegetables, the other cooking a brick in one of the kilns, but neither could remember their names. They looked closer at the tombs and found their names inscribed here.

“The two Saunders coffins and two Pitt coffins are arriving on the next two shuttles,” explained Paul. “You have their holographs in your hold, and we were waiting for your arrival. They will be buried in their family sections,” he added, pointing at their sections.

The holograph in the center was beautiful. All of the lights were about six feet tall except on this one. The center holograph was much larger and lit up the whole cemetery. The lights were at least fifteen feet tall, were wrapped around the column, and showed a forest of green trees. The angel on top of the column and above the “trees” looked like she was floating above them.

Ryan looked majestic standing on the Nevada runway, looking up with one hand shielding his eyes and the other holding a radio close to his mouth.

Jonesy had his U.S. Air Force flight suit on, a one-star general rank on his epaulettes, and he was standing to attention. He looked about thirty-five years old.

“You should be able to see the lights of this cemetery from a low orbit,” Paul suggested, and he was right.

After a couple of days enjoying their new rooms and entering the continuing poker tournament, with Jenny Jones winning the only prize of a bottle of California wine and six Cuban cigars, the crew packed the supplies into the cargo hold for Ceres and, with several Mattville friends aboard, headed over to Mattville II.

The cavern was ready for them, and the door opened with the usual shield inside. Mikey had closed down his shield, hovering over the cavern door at five thousand feet, and ASS-Two had fitted into the cavern with less than ten feet to spare front and back. He had needed assistance from the ground to maneuver the ship in very slowly.

Ruler Roo stated that he would be back early the next morning for the departure and headed off on the underground train to spend his last night with his family. The others were happy to use the new astronaut accommodation in Mattville II, which wasn’t nearly as nice as their homes at the Retreat.

Mars and Saturn, fully suited up, supervised the loading of the one Matt fighter into the hold. ASS-Two had to rise up twenty feet with Mikey using its thrusters on extreme low power. The fighter was wheeled underneath, internal pulleys hauled the ship into the cargo hold, the doors closed, and Mikey brought her down again.

For the astronauts underneath, the power of the thrusters in the shield had felt like a couple of old helicopters beating at them from overhead.

Then it was dinner and bed. Roo joined them early the next morning for takeoff. Joanne, the U.S. ex-president, and their grown-up children came to say hi and bye to Joanne’s old friends and to wish them bon voyage. It would be a long three years that Roo would be away from his family, and the crew could see that he was physically upset.

Bella joined the two astronauts in the cockpit. Since Roo had told her she was pregnant, she didn’t grab for a sippy cup, as was her usual habit.

“You sleep well?” Saturn asked her daughter-in-law.

“Not as well as I did on the red planet,” Bella replied, floating over and pulling out a cold orange juice pouch from the large refrigerator at the rear of the cockpit area. “Are we there yet?” she joked. “Roo and Mars still asleep?”

“Men, they like to sleep their lives away,” replied Saturn.

“And what am I, Mother?” asked Mikey.

“You had the last shift, son. If it wasn’t for me waking you five hours ago, you would be in the land of nod just like your father.”

As with space travel since the first days she could remember, Saturn knew that there was always somebody, preferably an astronaut, awake during flight at all times. Bella did a shift now and again, and Roo had also done shifts. The non-astronauts usually did the first evening, five-hour shift together from nine to two. Then they woke an astronaut, who did the second shift of the night until seven.

There were only two shifts per night. Most of the crew were awake until ten or so anyway. The second shift was always the lonely shift, and each astronaut rotated and did it twice a week and one three times.

“Both Mars and Roo only went to bed at eleven, after that really long chess game of theirs,” stated Bella, getting comfortable in an engineer/gunner chair. “I went then as well.”

“I know. I had three hours’ sleep, completed first shift, watched you guys go to bed, then woke Mikey and had four hours,” replied Saturn. “I reckon we humans only need about seven hours a night.”

“Well, we’re seven days from the ABelt, and I’ve turned our thrusters one-eighty to begin slowing us down,” added Mikey.

“At what speed do we go through the asteroids?” asked Bella.

“We’re slowing from Mach 127 down to Mach 99,” replied Mikey. “From the computer surveys of the belt in front of us, our long-range radar shows a relatively dense concentration for the first eight to ten million miles, and then it clears out for the next eighty-one million miles. The area of the belt we’re going through is thirteen million miles narrower on this trip than the saved information from the America One’s onboard computers two decades ago. Captain Pete headed through at Mach 75, then increased to 90 over the last period.

“Here we are heading through a denser amount of asteroids, but our ship is ten times smaller. The computers suggest Mach 100 for the first ten million miles. That will take us 140 hours, or close to six days; Mach 125 for the next twenty-five million miles, or 280 hours of travel; then Mach 175 for the remainder. Including acceleration, the third part should take us 397 hours, or sixteen and a half days. Then I expect we will accelerate up to our maximum cruise speed about thirty-five days after we enter the belt. From there we should reach a distance orbit of Saturn, just outside Saturn’s G ring, in two hundred fourteen days. Total flight time on our computers shows eight months and six days from us leaving Mars orbit.”

It seemed forever because they were going so slow, only thirty-five times the speed of a bullet on Earth, and it was weird, the crew only saw two asteroids closer than twenty miles throughout the flight through the ABelt. There were often hundreds, even thousands on the long-range radar, but when they shortened the radar scope down to minimum range, there were often only a dozen or so within a hundred thousand miles of them.

The astronauts did watch duty twenty-four seven through the Belt, and two of the three often slept during the day while one of them and both Roo and Bella continuously checked the monitor readouts.

The collision warning only went off once, ten days into the denser area, and they saw an asteroid the size of a mountain on Earth lazily glide by as they passed it about fifty miles away on their port side. It was all alone and with no other asteroid within a hundred thousand miles of it.

Even though they couldn’t detect speed outside the craft and the idea of movement was nothing more than what it stated on the monitors as the ship’s forward speed, just the thought of going slowly seemed to hurt.

Once they began to speed up on the other side to Mach 220, or 157,000 miles an hour, there seemed to be a sigh of relief from the entire crew. Now they were going somewhere.

Roo had been right, and soon the crew had a real dilemma on their hands. Two months after leaving Mars, Bella began to get morning sickness. As Roo had told her all along, she was going to give birth to twins, lucky her. It was very rare for a Matt to give birth to twins, virtually unheard of, and twins to the Matts meant extreme good luck and prosperous life, crops and mining for two decades.

Bella hadn’t believed Roo any more than she would believe a quack, but she listened to him, and Saturn, who took what Roo said seriously, began to brush up on her midwifery.

Mikey was more shocked and worried than anybody else. He was about to become a father, and all of them could be made extinct by an attack by millions of Matts at any time. As Bella’s morning sickness continued, Mikey got more and more unnerved.

Mars and Saturn told him how so many of the Astermine crew had been born on America One in space decades earlier, and on the ship’s way to and from Saturn. That journey had taken seven times longer, as they had stopped off on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, which had been in a fly-passable position. Jupiter was orbiting on the other side of the sun during this flight.

Many of the Astermine crew born in space still lived in space. After growing up at the retreat on Mars, many were totally shocked when they returned to Earth’s punishing gravity and, apart from the sunshine and seeing real rain, longed to head back to the more comfortable gravity conditions they were used to on Mars and Ceres.

Everything grown on Mars seemed greener, fresher tasting and stronger than the produce they received from Earth. The red wines made underground at the Retreat tasted fruitier, even though they were presented in gallon bottles. Paul’s Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon were smoother and had more alcohol content, 17 percent on average rather than the 14 percent in wines brought up from Earth for wine tastings. Paul did not do well with white wines and gave up after a decade of trying.

The Russian vodka, aptly named “Jones”, was a killer. Paul’s version and clone of Jack Daniels, “Jack Mars”, had a smoother taste than any of the Tennessee whiskies on Earth. Also it was only bottled in one-gallon jars and sold in Mattville for $1,150 U.S.

A gallon of the best quality Jack Daniels on Earth sold for one hundred and sixty dollars less, but Jack Mars on Earth fetched $10,000 at auction and was much smoother with zero hangover effects.

Paul had tried to produce champagne, but like his whites, he had failed miserably, as many of his bottles exploded or were flat after opening.

The beer he brewed was out of this world, though. Paul’s forte was growing wheat, barley, hops and the yeasts to make beer, and he did it perfectly every time.

Paul only produced two beers, and they were bottled and sold on Mars in half-gallon glass jugs. His lager’s alcohol content was a constant 7 percent and his English bitter 7.5 percent. Even with thousands upon thousands of excellent breweries on Earth, when Paul’s lager showed up at shows, consumers bid vast amounts for the contents as well as the half-gallon bottle that was also made on Mars. Paul made his own half- and one-gallon bottles at the Retreat.

The gin “Gordons & Juniper”, made by the first scientists and perfected by Jenny after they had left, tasted so much of juniper berry that Paul couldn’t make enough of it. It was always the first liquor to run dry on Ceres. The Brits drank it like water.

ASS-Two had a case of six bottles of each liquor on board for themselves, fifteen dozen cases of each for Ceres along with fifty cases of wine, and a dozen cases of each liquor as a gift for the Matts.

Roo had tried to tell them that he was the only Matt in the whole solar system who drank alcohol. The Matts used pure alcohol for rocket fuel, and still Jonesy had suggested that getting them drunk wherever they would meet could be the last resort and escape plan if Homo sapiens and Homo floresiensis ever met up again.

Jonesy had also made Roo promise to teach his Matt buddies how to have a sense of humor. It had taken Roo several years to learn what and how a sense of humor could be used. Nobody knew whether Roo actually found anything funny, but he had learned when to laugh and return with witty antidotes.

As the weeks went by, Bella grew and Mikey worried. As flight commander, he should have thought this might happen, but Bella had been adamant in joining her husband. He had actually forgotten about the possible results of consummation of marriage on Earth, and on Mars.

The fact hit him between the eyes halfway to Saturn.

It was a Saturday night Australian time and the crew were having their allotted drinks once a week. Being members of A.S.S., they had to keep up with the society rules, and “Partake in something liquid on important and unimportant occasions” was A.S.S. rule number two.

Rule number one was “Love thy neighbor and fellow society member whilst drunk or sober.” Rule number three was “In times of uncertainty, death, danger or unhappiness, drink, and give your neighbor or enemy one too.”

For this occasion, Saturday night had always been secret club night on America One and on Earth, and every member of A.S.S. had done their best to attend, or at least celebrate the weekly meeting wherever they were. “Splicing the Main Thruster” brought the club together once a week, and Jonesy had stipulated that it would be a weekly rule, for ASSes to enjoy Saturday night anywhere in the solar system.

Because Mattville was on Nevada time and not Australian Sydney time like the island, the official A.S.S. time, the A.S.S. members there cheered the society during Friday lunchtime.

It was part of life for all in Mattville that the work week always ended early on a Friday. The pubs and bars got busy with mostly a dozen or so elderly men who came in for their Friday lunchtime drinks. Even the mayor and Ruler Roo, when he was in town, could be found in one of the houses of liquid repute at this time of the week.

“Bella, you’re going to give birth only after we meet the Matts,” stated Mikey all of a sudden.

“We worked that one out weeks ago, boy.” His mother laughed. Even though Bella was the newest member of A.S.S., she was not partaking in alcoholic beverages due to her condition.

“Mikey, if you got your face out of your directional monitors more often and actually opened your mind during exercise, you would know these things,” added Mars jokingly, clinking his sippy cup to his son’s.

“I should have thought about our actions,” continued Mikey, getting depressed again.

“Bullcrap, many good people have been born in a spaceship, some of us in this ship included,” injected his mother. “What movie shall we watch tonight?”

“And no more popcorn!” added Bella. “It has taken me all week to track down the kernels lost during last week’s movie.”

“I want to watch that really old classic The Martian again,” suggested Mars. I just love how NASA gave him, whatever the actor’s name was—”

“Matt Damon,” injected Bella.

“—real Earth potatoes to take to Mars to eat. Potatoes! Real potatoes! Hundreds of them, and they complained about the launch weight. The eyes by themselves would have grown just as well.”

Bella was large by the time the rings of Saturn could be faintly seen a million miles in front of them. By this time communications back to Mars took many minutes to reach the red planet and then return.

Mikey had flown his ship like a pro and had saved a little of the expected fuel usage gauged back on Earth. He still hoped the Matts wouldn’t direct them too far.

Titan was where he, Roo and Mars reckoned the Matts lived. It was one of Saturn’s largest moons, three-quarters of a million miles from the planet, which meant better gravity conditions to live with. Titan also had more rock than ice.

It was well known from forty or so years earlier that most of Saturn’s moons had more ice than rock. Enceladus reputedly even had an underground ocean.

Mars, Saturn and Roo had visited Titan. Both Mars and Saturn had been five when their parents had walked on the moon, and Roo was only several decades older, but still a youngster for a Matt.

“Any telepathic word yet from the guys who invited us?” Mikey asked Roo; then he looked at his father.

Both shook their heads that they hadn’t heard a word the entire flight.

“I send greetings every day and tell them that we are on our way,” Roo replied.

“Bella, time for your weekly checkup,” stated Saturn, and the older woman motioned Bella into the vacant apartment they were using as the ship’s sick bay.

Saturn was the best medic on board. As a young girl she had been fascinated when she had helped out Dr. Nancy and Dr. Rogers on board America One. She had helped nurse crewmembers back to health and learned what injection to give for what sickness the crew came in with.

If she hadn’t become an astronaut, she would have definitely become a doctor, but the Joneses had the flying bug in them, and Saturn’s flying bug was stronger than any medicine she had handed out to patients.

America One had become a sterile ship over time once any diseases from Earth had done their rounds and disappeared. One by one any virus or bacteria brought from Earth either did its round then died, or became dormant in the different circumstances aboard ship.

The same was happening aboard ASS-Two. The ship had an extensive array of vaccines and medicines to halt the usual human sicknesses. During the last few months aboard ship, all coughs and colds brought from Earth had disappeared. Anything more dangerous would be a problem, as Saturn was a nurse, not a surgeon or doctor.

All the others were trained in medicine use, and the basics like sewing up stitches, CPR, and using the two defibrillators. Nobody on board could do much more, and Bella, about to have a baby, was at least part of their training. There was nobody to help them. They were more than 750 million miles from the nearest doctor.

Still, the ship’s medicine cabinet, under a horizontal bed, was six feet by three feet wide and two feet deep. The cabinet had everything: syringes, an electronic saw, strong painkillers, smallpox to yellow fever vaccines, cold medicine, and anti-radiation pills.

Once a month the astronauts discussed what to do in different types of medical emergencies. Of course, giving birth on this trip was the most chosen emergency to discuss and plan for.

Roo waited patiently, trying as hard as he could to get a response out of the Matts somewhere ahead of them. Mars did not try, Homo sapiens was not the right communicator in this situation, and Roo wasn’t overly perturbed.

“It is quite normal,” Roo stated to the crew as they neared the F ring, the outermost ring of Saturn. They were still slowing and Mikey did not want to stop the ship. That could be a real negative if this was an ambush. They would be a sitting duck, so he had brought the ship’s forward speed down to Mach 75, or 53,500 miles an hour.

From the last battles on Ceres and Mars, they knew that the fastest speed ever attained by a Matt ship was around 51,000 miles an hour inside and around the Martian atmosphere. Outside it could be faster, but like all ships, increases in speed in space was a slow acceleration unless full rear thrusters were used, and like all ships, maximum thrust could only last as long as there was gas in the tank.

A couple of hours later, the astronauts had a meeting. It was time to either make contact or think about heading back.

“I think we should aim for the closest moon, Mimas, and orbit it for forty-eight hours,” suggested Mars. “Roo, what do you think is the problem?”

“I don’t know. I feel them, my tribe. Many Matts are close by, and I’m sure they will contact us.”

“We have nine days before our window to Ceres opens, and from then on our straight line to Earth begins to close,” added Mikey. “We have time, but I would prefer to be on our return journey within seven days. Seven days would be perfect and save us using up fuel reserves.”

“Well, Mimas is 140,600 miles away, and we can make it in fourteen hours,” stated Saturn. “I agree with Mars, but we need a larger moon to orbit so that we can have a higher orbital speed and a better chance of catapulting away in an emergency. I would suggest Enceladus on our port side, as she is coming up towards us while Mimas is on our starboard side and heading away.”

Saturn worked out a few calculations and found that it would be a slightly shorter distance to reach the larger planet than Mimas. Orbital math was sometimes very weird.

The decision was made, and with Roo trying to get a response from anybody in the vicinity, including any possible other aliens, Mikey turned the ship towards the larger moon, and thirteen hours later they went into a high hundred-mile orbit around the white and icy surface of Enceladus.

Whether it was pure coincidence or they had hit the jackpot, a few minutes after the completion of their first orbit, somebody filled Roo’s and Mars’s mind with noise.

“We have contact!” exclaimed Mars excitedly to the others, who all looked at Roo. He was deep in thought. Mars closed his eyes and listened to the slow telepathic conversation between the two Matts.

“How did you know which moon we are on?” was the question from a Matt who sounded to Mars like he was very, very old.

“We do not know which moon you are on. We have picked this moon to orbit and wait for you to speak to us. Who are you? Where are you?” Roo asked.

Mars and Saturn had spoken Matt since childhood, and Roo had always been their friend ever since they had first met. Every crewmember on America One had learned Matt, but only VIN and Mars Noble could do it telepathically. Even Jonesy and Vitalily spoke it fluently. Vitalily had enjoyed learning a new language and had really worked hard to get the first taste of good Russian vodka down poor Roo’s throat.

“Matt High Commander Jey. I am in charge of all Matts everywhere, including you, Ruler Roo of the red planet.”

“I am privileged to meet you, High Commander,” replied Roo. “What do you want me to tell the Tall People? There are four on our ship.”

“Tell them that it has taken us Matts a long time to forget the death of so many Matts on the red planet and the white moon in the rock belt. We understand that the Tall People have better ships and weapons than we do. Now you have one ship, and you still come here knowing that we could send many more fighters than your one ship. So we believe that your ship must be very powerful and also very fast to have reached us in so short a time. We believe we cannot capture and destroy your ship. So we don’t think it is worthwhile to attempt to fight you. Ruler Roo, friend of the Tall People, why have you tried to contact us? We did not want to contact you or those ungainly Tall People.”

“Thank you for letting me speak, High Commander Jey,” Roo replied very diplomatically. Mars, his eyes closed, looked like he was in meditation to the other crewmembers. “The Tall People never wanted to fight you on the red planet. You killed many of them on the red planet as well, and they followed you to the white planet in the rocks to show you that they could destroy you everywhere if you threatened them again. High Commander Jey, we, the Matts, lost two hundred eighty-seven fighters and over four hundred pilots fighting the Tall People. Four hundred good Matt pilots and copilots. The Tall People only lost four pilots. My friends are good people.”

“And now you send one ship?” replied the Matt commander.

“The Matt forces lost two hundred eighty-seven ships, the Tall People lost two ships, High Commander, and this ship is so many times more powerful than the two ships they lost. The pilots on this ship know that you could attack this one ship, but they are young warriors, as brave and as ruthless as you, and are not scared. Please understand.”

“Are the pilots the same who killed all our pilots on the red planet?” the high commander asked.

“No,” replied Roo, winking at Mars. “These are the children of those pilots. Please understand, High Commander, the Tall People only live very short lives, not like us, and those pilots are already buried on the red planet. These children do not wish a fight. They have brought you gifts. They have brought you gifts because you gave them so many gifts that made them even stronger than they were.”

“We gave them gifts?” the high commander asked.

“Yes,” replied Roo. “The blue shields, the mined metals on the red planet. The walls of our bases they can now copy for their own bases, and the power systems that power all this. High Commander, you have made the Tall People so strong in space, and they want to thank you and give you gifts that will make you strong like them. And they want to be an ally of yours, and hold you, High Commander, in high esteem.”

The communications stopped for a few hours, and Roo and Mars waited.

“We have one bogey below us, about to orbit Enceladus, and it’s rising up towards our altitude,” stated Mikey three hours after the communications had ended.

“Time for us to go and meet this guy in our Matt fighter. Roo, you coming?” Mars asked, knowing exactly what needed to be done.

They were already prepared and had their suits on. Saturn hugged and kissed Roo, then her husband for several seconds before she helped him on with his helmet. Bella gently hugged both as well, and then helped Roo on with his.

Once they had fitted their helmets and begun the life cycle of air and heat, Saturn guided them one at a time through the ship to the rear of the cargo area. Roo entered the rear seat of the fighter first and prepared to meet his God.

Mars entered the forward seat. He was always squashed in these small fighters, but once he was flying, it didn’t matter. Both were apprehensive. The lone fighter coming towards them was exactly the same fighter they were in, except it could be a single seater or a twin.

“Saturn, Bella, you get on the guns now,” said Mars to his wife and daughter-in-law. They were as good as anybody on the new lasers, as the crew had found out shooting asteroids any time they were within range.

“I intend for you to return home in one piece, darling,” replied Saturn. “Removing the air from the cargo hold.”

It was important always to suck in and recoup as much breathable air as possible. Opening the doors would certainly instant freeze anything in the hold, but the only liquids were alcohol, and they could handle the sudden drop in temperature. Everything else that wouldn’t stand the 250-degree change was packed in safe freeze-proof containers.

“Opening the bomb bay doors,” continued Saturn. “Go and use your best manners now, and say hi to that fancy-pants high commander for us, Roo. Tell him we have itchy fingers on the triggers.”

Touching the side thrusters, which Mars already had pointed vertical, the fighter slowly lowered itself inch by inch below the larger ship and exited the cargo bay. Saturn closed the bomb bay doors as soon as Mars said to do so.

Like the Matts, flying their fighters was mostly telepathic commands. There were manual controls on the Matt ship if the pilot needed it, and Mars found it easier to fly using these controls.

“Lone bogey at eighty-nine thousand feet altitude and coming round on its second orbit,” stated Mikey. “It looks like it is going around one more time. His third orbit will take twelve minutes. Over.”

“Copy that, son. Remember our plan,” stated Mars, firing up the alcohol-fed engine and immediately heading down at a steep trajectory. He was going to have to complete at least one, maybe two large orbits to get down to the fighter’s altitude far below him. “They get us, you go home. They fire at us, you fire at them. Simple, but, guys, please don’t start the war while Roo and I are down there. We’re not telepathically connected to you. That’s what really worries me. Remember my code words. ‘Commander Jones’ means everything is okay. ‘May Day’ or ‘Commander Noble, we have a problem’ is code for get out of here, fast. I have flight controls and am heading down through 520,000 feet altitude. Over.”

Both ships headed around to the other side of the planet, and both were gone for less than a minute. Enceladus was small, ten times smaller than Earth’s moon and about the size of the British Isles. For some unknown reason, the south pole of Enceladus had a proposed diapir underneath its surface.

A diapir is a type of geological intrusion in which a more mobile and deformable material is forced into brittle overlying rocks. Much like a pimple, diapirs commonly intrude vertically upward along fractures or zones of structural weakness through denser overlying rocks because of density contrast between a less dense, lower rock mass and overlying denser rocks. The density contrast manifests as a force of buoyancy. The process is known as diapirism. A lava lamp illustrates diapirism well.

This well-known phenomenon is what causes jets of salty water eruptions into space, or water volcanism that forms an ice volcano on moons.

The crew had studied all the moons of Saturn from their computer databases once they had gotten out of the Asteroid Belt, and few moons were more interesting than Enceladus and Titan.

The Cassini spacecraft, many decades earlier, had taken photographs of the jet plumes of salty water. It was common knowledge that somehow heat from the center of Enceladus was causing these plumes, which added to the rings of the mother planet.

“Heading through 400,000 feet at 47,500 miles an hour and have you visual again,” stated Mars.

“Bogey is now rapidly climbing through 110,000 feet and is several thousand miles behind you at 49,800 miles an hour,” replied Mikey, his face glued to his monitors.

“Laser computer shows a difference of eight thousand miles between you, and closing by one thousand miles every five minutes,” added Saturn. “I have both lasers armed and locked on him.”

“Don’t make a mistake and kill him. He could be a friendly Matt like me,” added Roo. “I am about to try to communicate with him.”

Roo tried, but got no response on the telepathic waves. Both ships continued to close.

“Bogey has you in range,” stated Saturn a couple of minutes later. “Maser counter shows no bursts yet.”

The Matt ships only had masers so far, and ASS-Two had a system that could see the invisible firing of a maser gun. The lasers from the laser guns aboard ASS-Two were vivid red lines of light inside and out of any atmosphere, but the masers could only be seen inside an atmosphere, and there wasn’t much of that around this moon.

“Still no fire. I reckon that is the longest time they have ever had us in range and not fired,” continued Saturn.

“I asked the Matt pilot to remember that there is a Matt on board the Matt fighter ship coming down to his altitude,” stated Roo. “I’m sure the high commander would not kill me, yet. He knows I would like to talk to him.”

“Better keep talking to him,” suggested Saturn.

Slowly the range between the two fighters closed as the altitudes came into alignment. Mars slowed slightly and let the other fighter close in behind him.

“He could terminate us with one shot right now,” he stated to Saturn now high above them.

“Likewise,” she replied, not joking this time.

“Bogey is five hundred miles behind you and closing. Speed—50,900 miles an hour, altitude—175,000 feet, and he is holding it there,” Mikey added.

“Our altitude is 189,000 feet and will descend to 175,000,” replied his father. “I will slow to forty-five thousand miles an hour and allow him to catch up. Another hundred miles closer and I can hit full reverse thrust and he will go flying past us.”

“Always a surprising maneuver,” replied Saturn. “You can bank in behind him and show that you could have blown him out of space as well.”

Mars did just that, and in the twenty seconds it took to close down and reverse the thrust in the Matt ship, the bogey behind closed.

As expected, the rear fighter rushed past their ship with only a hundred or so feet to spare between them. By that time Mars was already changing the thrust to forward and, on full power, followed the bewildered Matt pilot now only fifty or so miles in front of them.

“Not a bad move for a rookie,” joked Saturn. The stress had certainly left her quickly.

“Coming up to full power, we are approaching. Closing down power to come alongside,” stated Mars. “Roo, wave and say hi when we have the pilot visual.”

Slowly Mars reeled the other fighter in and came up on its port side less than fifty feet away. The single bogey pilot wore the usual blue suit and helmet, and his helmet turned towards them as Mars slowly brought his ship in closer.

Mars looked the ship over. He had studied and flown these Matt ships since he had been a teenager. Nothing had changed, and he realized that the bogey had no maser barrel sticking out underneath the pilot. The ship was unarmed, and he was sure the pilot had seen the large maser barrel sticking out of his ship directly underneath him. Saturn relayed the information to ASS-Two and there were sighs of relief aboard.

“Follow me to the surface,” stated the other pilot in Matt through both minds, and he turned his ship over and headed down in a near vertical bank.

“Roo?” asked Mars.

“Do as he said, follow him, Mars. His voice is not the high commander’s, but the man sounds very old.”

“Saturn, Mikey, I have been asked to follow him. You both okay with that?” asked Mars. They had no choice. This was what they had come nearly a million miles for. Mars bravely hit his left side thrusters to full power, this lifted his left wing hard, and he pointed the fighter’s nose down, warned Roo to hang on, and followed the other fighter already a few hundred miles ahead of him.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 19

Enceladus

“Nothing but what looks like ice down there,” stated Mars as they approached the moon’s surface.

At ten thousand feet above the moon’s surface, the Matt pilot several miles in front of him had slowed from fifty thousand miles an hour to less than five hundred over the last twenty minutes. It had taken three more orbits to decrease speed enough to low-orbit the planet, as it was so small. The ship in front’s right wing dropped slightly and he turned gently. They were turning towards what Saturn radioed and told him was the south polar region.

“It looks like he is heading towards what the scientists on Earth call the Tiger Stripes. These ‘Tiger Stripes’ are where most of the water volcanoes are,” added Saturn.

“Yes, I can see three geysers, or water jets, from my cockpit,” added Mars. “We are descending to a valley and we are heading into it by the look of it. The pilot in front is slowing again. Now we are flying really slowly at two hundred eighty miles an hour. I’m having to move the thrusters into forty percent hover mode.”

“You are entering the top of one of the Tiger Stripes,” added Mikey, looking at a moving map of the moon contrasted under the position of the moving fighters. “It looks like he’s about to fly into the stripe called ‘Alexandria Sulcus’. It is about ninety miles long, a mile wide and forks four-fifths of the way down. It looks about fifteen hundred feet deep from my map.”

“Wow! Those jets are powerful, the liquid soars out and up at a really fast rate,” continued Mars, looking and flying at the same time. What they were seeing was really beautiful, but he had flying to do. “This view could beat Alaska any day. One is about twenty miles from us on our port side, and that plume goes up as far as I can see. Fifty, a hundred miles higher than us at surface level. It is really bright down here with all the ice. We are now heading down into the depression you called Alexandria whatever. It’s like a long canyon, and we are slowing to one hundred miles an hour. I am in eighty-five percent hover mode. I see the fork you said was there, Mikey. It’s about ten miles ahead of us, and it looks like their base. I can see a dark round shape in the wall like a target, and bet it is a cavern door. Yes, it’s opening up and I see a blue shield inside. Speed down to full hover at fifty, and Commander Matt, or whoever he is, is preparing to enter.”

“Keep on comms, darling. You don’t need to take off your helmet to talk to them. Let Roo do that. Think to them and talk to us,” stated Saturn nervously.

Mars followed the fighter in gently through the wall of the blue shield, where there was more than enough room for both fighters to land. The cavern was identical in size to the three Matt caverns on Mars, and he turned 180 degrees and positioned his fighter facing the door. Expertly, while dozens of blue-suited Matts looked at his ship, he touched down as softly as he could.

“Ruler Roo, you fly very well,” stated the voice of the high commander through Mars’s brain.

“I am not flying our ship, High Commander, but my good friend Mars is, one of the children of the Tall People,” Mars heard Roo reply.

“That is impossible!” the high commander replied. “The Tall person would have to think to fly the fighter from the red planet and speak our language perfectly.”

“He does both as well as we Matts do, High Commander. I taught him as a baby to speak as soon as he could talk,” replied Roo. Mars could see that the other fighter’s floor door was opening, and the pilot undid his shoulder straps and was helped to stand by two blue-suited Matts who had run up to help him. Mars smiled. It was like having a group of midgets four to five feet high running around. The lone pilot had long flowing white hair, and he nodded to the other ship as he was helped away.

To Mars it really looked like a bunch of young school boys in fancy blue uniforms. He decided not to open his ship just yet as the cavern door began to close. For once in space, it was brighter outside than inside the cavern.

“What is the Tall Person boy’s name?” asked the older voice.

“Mars, Mars, can you hear me?” asked Saturn over the radio at the same time.

“Yes, clearly, as good as outside. I’ll wait for the door to shut and will try again,” replied her husband. The door shut, and he could just hear his wife. Saturn now sounded a million miles away, but at least she responded. They were still in communication.

“Commander Mars Noble,” Roo replied. “Commander, one rank below yours, High Commander. Mars is the name the Tall People call the red planet. Noble is his family name and in Tall Person means truth and bravery. He is a very truthful and brave young boy, High Commander, and he will be respectful to your higher rank.”

“Commander Mars Noble of The Tall People from the blue planet, I would like to welcome you to the palace of our people. If you come in peace, we will offer the same to you. Respond if you can.”

“We come in peace, High Commander Jey, and yes, we have always wanted to be at peace with your people. Unfortunately that opportunity was never offered by your pilots on the red planet,” Mars thought sincerely to the high commander.

Mars looked out at the Matts to see if they had heard him. They had backed away from the fighter suddenly upon hearing his voice; they looked at each other and many held a hand to their mouths. The Tall People’s voice to them was rough, gruff and powerful sounding.

“Commander Mars Noble, how many pilots do you have aboard your ship in orbit around our white moon?”

“Three, High Commander. My wife, my son and my son’s wife.”

“A wife in Tall People language is a female, High Commander. A son is the same as we use the word,” added Roo.

“You have female pilots? You are only a boy, Ruler Roo states, but you have children? How many Earth cycles around the sun are you old, Commander?”

“Ruler Roo is my teacher. Ruler Roo is eighty-four Earth cycles old. I am forty-nine Earth cycles old. My son is thirty cycles old, High Commander. We Tall People usually only live one hundred cycles, so I am pretty old for Tall People and already halfway through my life,” Mars replied. He was starting to get cramped and verbally asked Roo if they could exit the ship.

“High Commander, it is difficult for Commander Mars Noble to sit in this ship. He is far larger than the person the inside is supposed to fit. Please, may we open the fighter door?” Permission was given, and Mars told Saturn that it seemed it would be a peaceful visit, before he thought to the fighter and his and Roo’s seats lowered themselves downwards.

Nobody came to help the two as they undid their straps, but hands were held to many of the Matt mouths when Mars stood up and they saw his six-foot frame. Roo in comparison was twenty inches shorter than him.

One white-haired Matt stepped forward and was immediately helped by two others. The man was old. His white beard and hair were as white as the ice outside, and he was helped forward by his two assistants. Mars began undoing Roo’s helmet.

Forty steps later the old man in a blue suit stood four feet tall in front of the two newcomers.

Roo had his helmet off and suddenly Mars couldn’t hear what was said. He saw Roo bow to the leader, and the leader walked up and put a hand on Roo’s shoulder, then he felt Roo’s silver space suit.

“Roo,” thought Mars.

“Yes, Mars, I must give my greetings. High Commander, Commander Mars Noble cannot take off his helmet, or he loses contact with his ship, and then his female will be angry. Commander Saturn Noble, the commander’s female, could destroy this entire moon with the weapons they have aboard if her man is killed. Please understand the anguish of his female aboard the Tall People’s ship.”

“Ruler Roo, I believe you, and understand well how a female can think, I give my word as high commander of all the Matts that Commander Mars Noble will not be harmed while he visits my palace. Commander Mars Noble, please tell your female my message.”

Mars nodded and bowed like he had seen Roo just do.

“Commander Jones, darling, I have a peace treaty, and I will be out of contact for twelve hours. If I do not send a message every twelve hours, the situation goes from Jones to Noble. Understand? Over.”

“Copy that. A real relief from up here. Did you tell them we would blow them up?”

“No, Roo did. I’m taking off my helmet for twelve hours. Love you and the family. Out,” Mars answered and began to take off his helmet, hearing Roo tell the high commander that Commander Mars Noble would need to sign in to his ship every twelve-hour period in his Tall People language.

Mars removed his helmet and looked down into the very old eyes and face of the leader of the Matts. He bowed again and the old man nodded. This time he spoke to Mars verbally in Matt. He asked how Tall People greet each other, and Mars put out his right hand to Roo. Roo turned and shook hands with Mars.

Again Mars looked around at the Matts and then down to the short man in front of him. Most of the surrounding people were getting over their shock at seeing a real alien for the first time. The high commander seemed not to want to shake hands, so Mars left it at that.

“You look so young for a middle-aged Tall Person,” stated the old man verbally, and he turned and then mentally asked both visitors to follow him.

As usual, the air smelt different to what Mars was used to. Also his voice had gone an octave higher and he remembered that the Matts had more helium in their air than on Earth.

As they passed through the other Matts, hands came out to touch the silver space suits. At the first hand Mars thought that the Matt wanted to shake hands, but the Matt suddenly withdrew his hand, not wanting to be touched.

“I feel like I’m watching Planet of the Apes,” thought Mars to himself in English. “Actually, I feel like I’m playing a part in Planet of the Apes.” It was one of his most favorite film series.

“I could get offended,” joked Roo, thinking in English.

As usual, the corridors were made for five-foot-tall people, and Mars’s back began to feel like when he had walked down the corridors when he had entered Mattville for the first time.

Not a verbal or mental word was said by anybody other than the high commander, and Mars asked Roo in Matt if the other Matts could hear them.

“Yes, they can all hear your thoughts, Commander,” thought the old man without looking back. “Only we three have been given permission to speak on this wavelength. Also you cannot hear them think. It is through different channels and frequencies that we communicate. That is why Ruler Roo only heard from us when we allowed his messages to be answered. Can your female or your son not hear your thoughts?”

“No, but my female verbally speaks Matt as well as I do. We respect your tribe and speak to Ruler Roo respectfully in your language. Ruler Roo taught us both as children.”

“Maybe I should look at Ruler Roo with a little more respect than in the past. He seems to have done well to teach the blue planet people our language,” thought the high commander, entering what to Mars looked like a square elevator.

“Ruler Roo is a good Matt,” thought-replied Mars, feeling slightly better. “He has looked after your tribe on Mars well, and they are growing in numbers on the red planet. We are waiting for your permission to open the sleep chamber on the red planet and wake up your people sleeping there.”

“I was hoping that there were some of our people that had gone to sleep after your attacks. I will signal Ruler Roo on the red planet when the time comes and we are ready to speak to them.”

There was as little gravity on Enceladus as there was on Ceres, and the roof of the cubicle they were walking into was a little higher, but only six feet high. His head touched.

An old Matt entered and worked on straps on the floor. He placed straps over each of his ruler’s shoulders, then over Roo’s. He didn’t want to touch Mars’s straps until Mars heard a reprimand from the high commander. There was a quick verbal apology and the man loosened the straps as far as they would go, but still would not touch Mars, and Mars had to again slouch down a foot to get his straps over his own shoulders. He noticed men getting into more see-through cubicles, two on each side of theirs, and Matts were scrambling in and getting strapped down. They fitted five to a cubicle in theirs.

With his back hurting, Mars clicked a timer on his suit’s arm and noticed that each cubicle was in its own square tube, and the floor and roof weren’t see-through. He stretched and was surprised that the straps on his shoulders stretched and he slowly stood up, his head at a slight slant against the roof, but his back felt relieved.

“It seems we are going down, Mars,” thought Ruler Roo.

To Roo, it felt like when Mars had flipped over the fighter and had headed near vertical down to the moon. If they had been on Mars or Earth, the sudden drop would have made him sick as the cubicle suddenly dropped beneath his feet and headed down extremely rapidly.

Mars could see the other four cubicles were at slightly different heights as they dropped, but they were all going down together.

The rock suddenly disappeared, and Mars realized there was a wall of what looked like ice now surrounding them, and the temperature on his face went quickly to near zero.

It was hard to tell speed, but the odd rock or object he could see stuck in the light, see-through blue ice passed at great speed. It looked like they were doing at least a hundred miles an hour.

His stomach felt ill. Even with the gravity only a few percent of Earth’s, the pressure in his stomach, which was just lower than his throat, seemed to increase as they went down. He could feel gravity growing gently in his stomach.

After a few minutes, the cubicle began to slow, and the difference in speed could be felt through the stronger gravity conditions. He reckoned on a five-minute trip so far and checked his readout. That meant the elevator shaft was around eight to ten miles long if they had approached such speeds.

“I asked what the elevator speed is,” thought Roo, and suddenly Mars realized Roo could hear what he had been thinking, in English. “In your units, the elevator travels at one hundred fifty miles an hour. We are twelve miles under the surface and will enter a liquid sea in a few seconds.”

Mars shook his head. Enter water? And suddenly he felt the chill disappear. His face began to warm, and the ice outside began to glow with light. The ice now had a faint reddish glow to it.

Suddenly they were out of the ice and in what seemed a lake of the clearest water he had ever seen. It was as clear as the ice above, and now it seemed he could see forever, and still the elevator went down. The reddish glow brightened and now came from everywhere and colored the liquid around them in reds and pinks.

The readouts on his suit had changed somewhat, from icy cold conditions in the ice to now nearly fifty degrees Fahrenheit in the elevator, and he couldn’t see any heating system. The heat was coming in from outside.

Again they slowed, and at a slow speed they gently entered a blue shield.

The cubicle finally came to a halt, and Mars could see they were on the rocky bottom of what looked like an underground sea. All the cubicles came to a halt, and like elevators on Earth, everybody disembarked. The entire ride had taken twelve minutes.

“Welcome to Jericho, the old city of the Matts,” stated the old man verbally in Matt.

What shocked Mars was that the word “Jericho” sounded like “Jericho”.

“You are in no danger down here,” continued the high commander. “Here we have a very peaceful city, where Matt high commanders have lived for over ten thousand of your Earth years. I have been in command here for three hundred of those years, and my father for three hundred fifty years before me. You have a short time here, Commander Mars Noble, and please understand you will be able to talk to your female at any time you choose. We live under a sea that is very large, half of this moon, and is about a quarter the amount of water you have on your blue planet. We also built our base on the red planet because of its closeness to the undersea lake Ruler Roo told me you have already found.”

“You said Jericho?” asked Mars in Matt, even though the word “Jericho” sounded the same in both languages. “It sounds like the same name of a city we have in our language and our history books.

“Yes, Commander Mars Noble, we Matts founded Jericho on Earth fifteen thousand Earth years ago. We were the founders of our great city and were defeated and taken over by people like you, tall dark people, a few hundred years later. That is why many of us Matts hate Tall People. It is in our history books. Come and sit down. This is my younger female, Pul, and many of my children.” There were twenty males and one female, and most of the “children” looked old and had white hair.

Roo and Mars followed the high commander into a room, and Mars suddenly felt like he was somewhere in the Middle East or inside his apartment at the retreat. They sat down on large cushions and Mars suddenly realized he hadn’t been crouching down anymore. The ceiling of the cave with a solid roof of what looked like pure gold was twenty feet above his head. Also the “children” stayed out of the large and richly decorated room.

“Ruler Roo, you must visit Tow soon,” continued the old man. Mars looked at his friend and could see the immediate shock on Roo’s face. This high commander spoke to Roo’s mother! “She tells me you haven’t spoken to her since you left the red planet. She is forbidden to speak to you about my contact with her. Tow is our Matt keeper of our blue planet’s second home—the Pig’s Snout—and the only Matt who still resides on the blue planet, Commander. Ruler Roo, that is why we had no interest in harming you when you arrived. Your mother Tow wants to see you. Tow is my first and eldest female child.”

Roo coughed at that statement, and his dark face went white with shock, but the old man went on, unperturbed.

“The men who came down with us are many of my male children. I had twenty-two sons, Commander. My eldest son died on your red planet. Not in the war with you, but in a separate accident earlier than your arrival. He was ruler there many years ago. My second son flew you down. My third son was commander of the white planet you fought over, and my fourth son is commander on one of the moons of the large planet between the red planet and this white moon. We have noticed that you Tall People used our tiny gray transport asteroid that enabled us to travel from the blue planet to all of our outposts centuries ago. It is our transport, Commander, please leave it alone.”

An older white-haired female entered with what seemed food and drink, and the commander introduced her as Tal, his older female. Tal bowed to the tall man in front of her and then to Ruler Roo, putting her hand on his shoulder. Mars suddenly realized that this shoulder thing must be a family communication.

Also, it seemed like on Earth, females followed the lead of the males.

“We Matts have a large problem throughout space,” continued the high commander. “We rarely have female children. Only one in ten, sometimes twenty is born female, and I have two females to attempt to produce female children. Two out of twenty-four children, one from each of my wives, is not a good omen. Tal knows that Ruler Roo is the child of Tow, her only female child.” Tal put a hand on Roo’s shoulder and smiled kindly at him. Roo was still in shock to meet so many family members he never knew existed up to now. It seemed that Roo hadn’t understood why the high commander had put his hand on his shoulder either, up to now.

“We have the opposite problem, High Commander,” replied Mars. “Our first voyage to this planet, we had about the same numbers of children in our ship as your children, but so many more females than males. We believe it has to do with the lessor gravity than on the blue planet. Both our tribes come from the blue planet, so we think gravity, or the lack of it, is the problem, and it may affect our tribes differently.”

The high commander thought about what Mars had said and after several seconds nodded that he accepted the possibility. Mars was offered what looked like raisins and, after tasting the fruit, realized they were dates, not raisins or old-looking grapes. The old man continued.

“That is why we kept the Pig’s Snout for thousands of years. Our tribe there was having females on Earth, and one of our ships travelled to Earth from the tiny asteroid and collected female children and put them to sleep until they reached us here. Over time the Matts on Earth changed their ideas towards us. They thought we were eating the children we collected so many. We have never eaten meat and never will. Without those females from the blue planet, we would never have survived out here, and then we find you Tall People using our transport system for other purposes. Even sending your people, many of you, to sleep and using the same sleep chambers we used. The use of our transport asteroid made the ruler on the red planet very angry and he decided to rid space of you Tall People. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand your weapons and your very fast ships.”

“You still use the same ships and same fuel?” asked Mars.

“We had very clever men many generations ago. Unfortunately we lost many of our plans when this planet was hit by a large asteroid five thousand years ago, and it killed many of our top scientists. They worked on the surface and the asteroid killed twenty-five of our oldest scientists when it destroyed the surface base. Since then we have rebuilt the surface base three times when asteroids landed close by. We lost many of our original designs and ways to build our fighters. Understand, our metals came from the white planet and the red planet, both planets you recently took away from us. There are few metals of use here. Now we mine the big red planet and have supplies once again.”

“High Commander, we found many old designs inside the scientists’ gold chests. Nobody I have shown them to could make any logic out of them,” stated Ruler Roo.

“They are of no use because we left false designs on the blue planet in case the Tall People found them one day,” replied the high commander, nodding. “You are correct, they are of no use to anybody, and all the details are misleading. Tow told me that the Tall People collected them and took them away. That was planned a few thousand years ago.”

“So you have no new ships or designs or weapons?” asked Mars. The old man looked at him and wondered if Mars really wanted an answer from him. The young were always so straightforward.

“That I will not tell you, Commander, but I will say one thing. If you keep a peace with us, the Matts, we will keep a peace with all Tall People who visit us. My word of honor as high commander. The Tall People will not be made war with until they make war with us. Understand?”

Mars turned and saw the twenty or so sons of the old man nodding at what he had just said.

“Commander Kig, my last son. You will be the next high commander. You already know that you will live longer than all your brothers. I expect you to rule for three hundred years when I die, and you will give this rule of mine to your children one day.” Mars suspected that he was talking to a man about Roo’s age.

“As ruler of the Matts on the red planet, I will tell my children,” added Ruler Roo, “and I’m sure my mother will know soon on the blue planet.”

“Commander Mars Noble, you Tall People are very warlike on your own blue planet. How do we know you Tall People will not want war with us one day?”

Mars looked the old man straight in his small brown eyes before answering. “I cannot give you my word. I am not the ruler of the Tall People. We have hundreds of rulers wanting to fight each other, and have done so since you Matts were living on the blue planet. All I can offer you is my generation’s peace, maybe the peace of my children. I know I can offer you peace for a short time because the Tall People on Earth will take twenty-five to fifty years to travel out here. Maybe they will be peaceful when they arrive, maybe they won’t, but right now everything the Tall People want can be found in the rocks around the white planet we call Ceres. We need metals just like you. I cannot offer you eternal peace. What we can do is make sure your ships and weapons can defend you when Homo sapiens arrive in your part of space.”

“You can give us a new fuel for our fighters?” asked the old man.

Mars took a sip out of a straw sticking out of a different style of closed cup before answering. It tasted just like passion fruit.

“I cannot offer you females, High Commander,” added Roo, thinking it was as important. “We have the same problem as you have here. I married a female Tall Person, and still we have only two sons.”

The high commander nodded and looked back at Mars for his answer.

“We have brought you gifts. Knowledge we use to move faster through space than you can. We make fuel from that liquid out there, water.” There were several gasps from the younger generation in the outer room.

“We also make our fuel from water. That is why we live here,” the old man replied. “I was told you drink our fuel. Maybe that is why you live such short lives?” Mars couldn’t help but smile at that one.

“So do I,” added Roo. “I have grown to enjoy the fuel, and do not think I will live a shorter life because of the fuel.” This time the high commander looked at Roo with total amazement on his face.

“You do? We fly through space with this fuel. Do you want to die in space because you drank the ship’s fuel instead of the engine? Fuel causes fire. It explodes. It is dangerous and you drink it, Ruler Roo?” The high commander shook his head in disbelief, but Roo, being part of A.S.S., wasn’t going to back down. Jonesy hadn’t made him a semi-alcoholic for nothing.

“It gives the body pleasure, makes the brain happy and thoughtful, and I will not die before my children, High Commander. We have brought you some to try. If not, you can use it as fuel. I do suggest that you do not drink the Tall People’s fuel, though. That is a hundred times stronger and will destroy this whole planet if it explodes.” This time Roo himself got the crowd outside jabbering to themselves. The old man put his hand up for quiet.

“What use will be this fuel you drink? Can we use it in our fighters?”

“If you wish,” Mars replied. “We have also brought you several gifts of our technology as an offer of peace between my family and yours. A complete fighter engine and its designs so you can make more and use our fuel technology. You will be able to copy the engine and make your ships faster, better, and produce as many as you want. You have the metals and technology to make these engines. All you need to learn is how they work and how dangerous they are. We have also brought you manual-operated electronics for your fighters, electronics and what we call computers that can design and make the parts for your new ships. We have brought you a couple of space suits and materials you need to make them. Now your pilots will be able to go outside the bubble and into the cosmic radiation of space, wearing our suits like Ruler Roo and I can.” Mars made the sons outside excited again.

“These suits you wear. They can take you outside our blue shields?” the old man asked.

“Yes,” replied Roo and Mars together. This reply seemed to excite the old man more than the engine and fuel. He thought for a minute then replied.

“You prove to me that you can walk outside in your metal-colored suit, and I will believe all you have said.”

Mars was still holding his helmet, and suddenly he heard squeaking, as if there were a few mice close by. He looked around and realized that the noise was coming from inside his helmet. He couldn’t understand how he could be twenty, maybe twenty-five miles under the surface of this moon, and somebody was talking through his helmet. He excused himself and put on his helmet just to hear the noise. Roo saw what he was doing and, excusing himself, did the same.

“Mars, Mars, can you hear me? We have a problem. Mars, Mars!”

“Wow! I can hear you so clearly. What is the problem?” replied Mars, not thinking there could be a serious one.

“It’s Bella, she has gone into labor, and I’ve tried, but I cannot seem to help her. There is bleeding, and Bella is in pain. I don’t know what to do?” Nor did Mars, he was an astronaut not an obstetrician. He sat there dumfounded, not knowing what to do and trying to calm his panic at the same time. He heard Roo think-tell the high commander what he had just heard. Suddenly the high commander clapped his hands.

“Tal, Pul, we have a baby to give life to, get the room ready,” he stated loudly in Matt to his two wives, and they rushed off.

“Mars, we need to get the ship here. My family can deliver the baby or babies,” he told Mars, looking at him and thinking to him in English.

“Saturn, how long do we have?” Mars asked his wife.

“How the hell do I know? I’m not a damn doctor! Little Mikey was a three-hour labor. As long as Bella is in labor, I think she has a chance.”

“Mikey, get that ship down here. You have our coordinates from when we flew in. I’m coming to the surface. Worst case, Saturn, you can release the shuttle and fly it into the cavern. Mikey, move as fast as you can without hurting Bella. Saturn, you stay with Bella. Mikey, put the ship on an autopiloted dive to lower orbit and you ready the shuttle. Maybe we can bring the whole ship into the cavern.”

“No way,” replied Saturn. “The shuttle idea is better. I’m not putting all we have in danger.”

Mars took off his helmet and looked at Roo. Roo hadn’t heard what he had said, as he didn’t have his helmet on.

“They can bring in the shuttle from a low orbit. Saturn refuses to land the ship. Mikey can bring her down and hover at about five thousand feet. That’ll take about ninety minutes. They can carry Bella aboard, and Mikey can fly her down into the cavern. We can go outside and make sure they’re above the right place by using my suit’s directional beacon. Can we head back to the surface, please?”

Roo relayed the message to the high commander, who actually looked worried, and Mars remembered that these Matts seemed to take childbirth very seriously. He nodded and Mars didn’t remove his helmet, but began to latch it onto the top of the suit. He needed communications to the ship above.

“Heading into our first orbit, ETA at five thousand feet in ninety-six minutes!” stated his son into his headphones desperately. He could hear the stress in Mikey’s voice.

“Roger, I’ll be waiting outside. Head for my suit beacon when you get coordinates on it, Mikey. If you can’t hear me, it’s because I’m moving in an elevator,” replied Mars, already heading for the cubed elevator.

Mars completed his helmet connection, then with Roo’s help headed for the elevator. A few female Matts carrying what looked like blankets and pans walked past him as he was guided to the middle cubicle he had come down in.

Just like the way down, the way up began to accelerate rapidly once the four of them this time were strapped in. He could feel his stomach drop as it sped up. He looked about. They had already left the blue shields along with three other elevators heading up.

They were in the middle elevator and the high commander was with them. Pul, the old man’s younger wife, was also with them, and he felt her small hand gently touching his space suit, feeling the material. The next-door elevator had one female in it, with what looked like a bed hovering inside the cubicle. The other held a male, also with what looked like a hoverbed.

It seemed these people had a complete fascination with the silver space suits. The Matts always wore their blue suits. He hadn’t seem one without a blue suit, and maybe that was the fascination. He and Roo were wearing something different.

This upward flight seemed to last for eternity this time. As Mars always did, he had set his timer, and he noticed that it was taking longer than on the way down.

“Pul told me that they haven’t had a childbirth for a long time. I think she said twenty Earth years, and we have certainly made them excited,” thought Roo to Mars in English. Roo wasn’t wearing his helmet.

“How come I didn’t hear her speak?” Mars asked Roo.

“She is not permitted to speak to you yet. Since I am her family, she is permitted to speak to me. It seems they are much more disciplined here on this moon compared to what I remember on Earth. Sometimes your head wanted to go mad, there were so many people speaking at once.”

Twenty-two minutes later they reached the surface. Mars hadn’t heard from the ship above, and as he exited the elevator, he tried to speak, calling Mikey. There was a faint garbled response, and then silence.

“Roo, please ask how I can get outside. My suit is ready for exit.” Mars waited and heard Roo ask the few male Matts who had waited for them inside the cavern. They looked at Roo, then up at Mars in shock. They didn’t know of an exit.

The cavern was identical to the caverns on Mars and Ceres, so Mars walked up and pressed the manual button on the outer wall, and the massive cavern door began to open by sliding upwards. The blue shield was tight against the wall of the cavern and he made sure his ship was where he had left it. There wasn’t room for the shuttle to land. It was twice the size of a Matt fighter, and Roo asked the Matts to move their ship out of the cavern.

As on the two other planets, a smaller internal door inside the cavern began to rise, and a small robot trundled out, tied itself to the front leg of the fighter and, once the door was fully open, pushed it slowly backwards into a second, smaller cavern that Mars noticed had rows of three fighters in a line, about fifteen to twenty rows deep. The fighter that had flown up to meet them was the only one missing. He looked around the cavern and noticed there were four more doors, closed. He did the math.

“At least one hundred fighters,” he thought as Mikey’s voice filled his helmet. It was far louder and clearer this time.

“Completing first orbit, slowing through Mach 2,300 forward speed, full reverse thrusters, and Bella is moaning and still bleeding but alive.”

“Copy that, Mikey, mind the vapor plumes and don’t worry about fuel. I’m sure our reserves will be enough,” replied Mars as he climbed up the ten-foot-wall of the open cavern door and looked out. There was no going out this way. He poked his head out of the blue shield and looked down, then up.

“I have your suit beacon flashing on and off, but I can’t get a reading on it,” Mikey added.

“The cavern door is in a vertical wall of ice,” replied Mars. “It drops down about three hundred feet in a sheer drop. Even with this gravity, I don’t know if I would damage the suit or not.” As he said that, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“The high commander told me about the original entrance,” stated Roo. “Please follow us, Commander.”

Mars did, and he was led back to the middle cubicle he had just exited. Instead of going down, this time it ascended at a much slower speed.

The cubicle rose about a mile above the cavern before it came to a halt in an empty and very small room inside what looked like rock. Mars had noticed that they first travelled through the same colored red rock, then pure white ice for a few hundred feet, then back into rock for the last hundred feet.

“We have to wait a few minutes,” thought Roo to Mars in Matt, Mars assumed so the high commander could understand what he was explaining to him. Roo was helping the commander on with his helmet. Inside the cubicle were just the three of them. “There is a blue shield expanding outside, and then this cubicle can exit the mountain.”

Several long minutes later, the cubicle went up and then slowed and stopped. Above them the shaft suddenly lit up. The cubicle had reached the surface, and even though three sides of the cubicle still showed rock, the forward wall with the door was bright and looked outside.

The sunlight off the very white ice made the sunshade on his helmet go dark. It was bright, even though it was filtered through the wall of a blue shield.

They waited another few minutes, and somehow the cubicle knew when it was safe to open its door. Mars checked his readout as the door opened. The temperature inside the cubicle dropped 150 degrees in a few seconds. The air in the blue shield was breathable, but the heat was not up to human conditions at minus 92 Fahrenheit or minus 69 Celsius. It seemed that the high commander’s suit could withstand such extreme heat and cold, but not the outside’s cosmic radiation.

There seemed to be air movement inside the shield, so Mars assumed the blue shield was being warmed inside from vents around the cubicle shaft, the hot air travelling up the shaft and warming the inside of the shield. He assumed the air was also being drawn from the shaft.

As he looked out, the shield stopped growing. It was still very small, but there was enough room for a dozen or so men to stand in it. To Mars looking out, he felt like he was on top of a white mountain and that he should have skis on his feet, like in the old James Bond movies he often watched.

“Now you have the opportunity to show me the wonders of your suit,” stated the high commander to Mars.

The commander handed him a cord and told him it was most probably slippery out there. Nobody had been out here for several years, except to make sure the blue shield worked.

The cord was tied to the cubicle, and Mars stepped out onto the ice inside the shield.

The top of the mountain several feet above his head was the highest point for miles around, and there were what looked like rocks jutting out here and there from the ice. The mountain was narrow and fell away on three sides. The cliffs were steep and the door had opened to a flat area only a few hundred feet wide.

“We are heading around at 115,000 feet and could be out of radio contact for a minute or two. We are going around the opposite side to you. I think I saw your suit flash up on the scre—” The voice of his son disappeared.

Mars’s suit boots had their usual rough metal bottoms for walking on magnetic surfaces and his feet felt secure in the little gravity that there was. He walked slowly and carefully to the wall of the shield. He checked his suit. It was ready for the outside, and the temperature inside the shield was now at minus sixty-five.

He stepped through the blue shield slowly and watched the temperature on the readout monitor on his left forearm drop suddenly to minus 179 degrees.

As usual, the suit’s machinery could be faintly felt on his skin revving up to full power to compensate for the temperature change. The ice outside was just as firm, but he still held onto the cord. The cord began to freeze and he let it go. It stood straight out where he had let it go, completely frozen, and he scraped one boot on the ice. It was still firm.

“How’s this, Roo?” he asked Roo. “Coming out to join me? The gravity is dangerous, and a breath of wind could blow me away like a leaf on a tree. The cord is frozen, but it won’t snap, I think. Depends on what it’s made of. I’m taking out my pick just in case. You carefully walk to me. I think there’s enough room for ASS-Two to land and adjoin shields. Can you ask the high commander to increase the size of the blue shield? Double the current size will allow room for Mikey to land, and then we can transfer Bella directly into that elevator thing.”

As he spoke he noticed that the high commander was quite shocked at what he saw, and even tried to hold Roo back when he exited the cubicle.

“I have your suit coordinates on my monitor,” stated Mikey. “Bella is weak, she is still losing blood, but okay, I think. What do you want me to do, Dad?”

“Home in on me, son. I am with Roo on top of this mountain. Pump air and heat into your shield to the max. We’re doing the same up here, and you can bring her down and adjoin blue shields. Down here it’s damn cold, so get Mom to wrap Bella up in something really warm. There’s a soft animal skin, that black bear skin, on our horizontal bed. Get Mom to wrap her in that, then let her drive. You can help me and Roo get Bella out of the side door, and there is an elevator that will carry her down to the hospital staff waiting for her.”

“Roger, copy that. At forty-seven thousand and dropping like a stone at nine hundred ten miles an hour. I’m setting up the directional computer to head for you. Mom got your message,” replied Mikey.

He felt Roo touch him on the shoulder and turned to see the high commander still in the elevator, just standing there totally shocked at what he was seeing.

“Roo, tell the high commander that we will land our main ship up here. It looks like we have several minutes of sunlight. Ask him to get the nurses or doctors or whatever up here, and we’ll carry Bella into the cubicle for them. From here they can send her straight down.”

The high commander wasn’t going to miss his first view of a Tall People ship. He exited the cubicle gingerly, it closed, and the small blue-suited figure stood there alone as the lone elevator disappeared.

Several minutes later the sun was just touching the horizon as Mars saw a glint of something on the left side of the sun. ASS-Two grew quickly and approached at speed. Mars knew Mikey was on full hover on his side thrusters with rear engines in full reverse, slowing the ship down. Out here the ship looked massive compared to the fighters down below. About twenty times bigger. America One must have been a really big ship. Even ASS-One, his own ship, was one and a half times bigger than Mikey’s.

Mars had checked out the area. The jagged rocks were about two to three feet tall in one area and wouldn’t touch the underneath of the ship. It would be close enough to the struts or engines, though, and Saturn would need eyes on the ground to help her land.

“One mile from you, Mars, cutting off reverse thrusters. I see the blue shield. I now see you and Roo, it looks like, outside. Trying to get in before dark. Hitting landing lights. Your mountain is really high. I hope you don’t have to walk down it. Over.”

“Use as little thrust as possible. You could blow me and Roo off the mountain. We will head back into the rear of the shield. I don’t want us to blow away. I’ll get you down. What is your outside shield temperature?”

“A balmy fifty-five degrees. Bella is wrapped and ready in Mikey’s arms. I gave her a painkiller. Mikey is fully suited up. I’ll put the ship on auto hover and help him out. Then I’m out of here.”

“Roger, good idea. Mikey, there’s a hoverbed coming up. Place her in that and head straight down with her. I don’t think we can all fit in the elevator. It’s a ten- to twenty-minute ride down. Let the Matts take you down, and Roo will go with you. It’s safe. Their boss is standing up here with me. Over.”

Saturn was a Jones and her flying as good as her father’s, and she brought the ship in, turning slightly following Mars’s orders.

“Hover…down five feet…keep her still…down five more feet. Saturn, you have ten feet to go…down five feet…you’re moving slightly forward…okay, down the last five feet…you’re down, hold her there.”

“I need thrusters to hold her here, Mars. She wants to lift, so, Mikey, the door is opening, the shields are connected. I’m compensating the autopilot, then coming back to get you out,” Mars heard his wife say.

As she said that, he saw the cubicle return in the corner of his eye. The jagged rocks were within a foot of the ship’s engines and could get caught on one of the rear legs if the ship moved. Mars told Saturn that, and he saw Mikey climb out of the side hatch, Saturn waved at him briefly, then she disappeared as Roo and he walked through the shield walls to help him.

They helped Mikey keep his feet. Bella wasn’t heavy in this gravity, but it was still cumbersome to carry her wearing full suits. She smiled weakly at them, and they helped her through the two walls then to the cubicle.

Mars turned and saw ASS-Two slipping sideward slowly, and as it was about to touch a rock, Saturn lifted her upwards at speed, and the ship and its blue shield around it turned, its nose dipped, and it disappeared down one of the sides of the mountain and wasn’t seen again.

The hoverbed was ready, and a second Matt with a helmet on was waiting for them. Mikey placed Bella on the bed. It held her even though it was a foot short, and Mikey and Roo squashed into the cubicle beside the bed. There was no room for the high commander or Mars, and the door closed and it disappeared downwards.

High Commander Jey and Mars looked at each other, and Mars sat down on the ice with his back to the cubicle wall to wait. The old man copied him and sat down beside him and began thought chatting.

“A very beautiful ship, Commander. Our females will look after your female. You have only been here a short time, and it has been very interesting for me. You say the person flying your ship was your female? Our females are not allowed to fly our ships.”

“They are the best pilots, High Commander. My female can fly all of our ships better than me and my son.”

“You have more than one ship, Commander?”

“We have three in our fleet, that one was the smallest ship. The company we used to be with when we met you Matts for the first time has nearly a dozen ships. Their cargo freighters are a hundred times the size of the one you just saw. Our first ship, your pilots destroyed orbiting Mars. We lost many friends that day.”

High Commander Jey said nothing at the mention of the destruction and began to take off his helmet.

Mars looked at his readouts, the internal temperature was forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. It had quickly gotten dark outside the blue shield, and he wanted a report from Saturn before he took off his helmet.

“Heading through fifty thousand feet and will resume orbit, darling,” stated his wife a few seconds later. “How is Bella?”

“Don’t know. The Matts live miles below the surface. The elevator wouldn’t have reached the bottom yet. I’ll relay any information as soon as I get it. Roo and Mikey are with her.”

“You okay?” Saturn asked. “You still outside?”

“Outside but inside the shield. I’m going to head out in a minute to look at the stars once the light has completely gone. I’m having a chat with the king of the Matts.”

“Was he the other Matt I saw?”

“Yep.”

“Rubbing shoulders with royalty, heh, while your wife has to work. Typical man,” Saturn replied, smiling and very relieved.

“They don’t allow their females to fly,” Mars replied. The high commander could see that Mars was talking to someone through his visor so kept quiet.

“Well, when I get down there, I’ll give him a piece of my mind,” was the reply.

“We’ll have to tie the ship down next time,” replied Mars. “She was sliding pretty badly.”

“Mom, Dad, we’ve reached the bottom. They’re taking Bella. Should I follow?”

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” replied Saturn. “Your suit has no radiation on it, so you’re safe. Don’t let them tell you otherwise, son. Understand?”

“Yes, Mom. I’m taking off my helmet. Roo has his off, and I’ll let you guys know what happens.”

Commander Mars Noble and High Commander Jey sat outside in the blue shield, chatting. It would take half an hour for the elevator to return, and they discussed the solar system, the universe, Earth and their new friendship while watching the heavens from a blue shield on the moon of Enceladus.

Mars did show off the suit again and headed out along the frozen cord to watch the most beautiful sky he had ever seen.

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Chapter 20

And Now For The Rest of The Story

Ruler Roo took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. At 341 years old, his eyes weren’t as good as they had been a couple of centuries earlier. His longish white hair fell into his vision, and he swept it back.

“This getting old crap is certainly not for sissies,” he thought to himself as he stretched his painful body in his chair at the large redwood desk at the Martian Club Retreat. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and tiredly thought of days gone by.

All his old friends were still close by, not literally, and the cemetery had filled up over the generations. Every single person resting in there he had a history with.

Jonesy, VIN and Ryan, the first three Tall People who befriended him in different ways. Ryan always treated him as an equal even though Roo was two feet shorter than Ryan. VIN was shocked when they first messaged each other telepathically, and Jonesy got him drunk and taught him how to have a sense of humor. It was because of Jonesy that he was sitting at the Retreat today. The Martian Club Retreat still belonged to A.S.S., and he was A.S.S.’s president, its last president, and had been for two hundred years.

Ruler Roo’s mind was still as sharp as it was centuries earlier when he was with his friends, and the only thing he now really hated about being a Matt, not a Tall Matt, was that he had outlived his friends, his family, and all the people he had ever known. He was now the oldest person on Mars, Earth and Ceres.

There were three Matts older than him on Enceladus, and only two on Europa, Jupiter’s moon, where most of the Matts lived today.

Today was New Year’s Eve on Earth, and tomorrow would start a new millennium. The year 2300 could be the start of a few changes in the solar system.

His head keeper, Commander Mov, arrived, bowed and gave him a cup of tea.

Mov and the others had been awakened in the Matt base’s cryogenic chamber, found by VIN and Mars and the Tall People two and a half centuries earlier. Roo smiled at remembering watching the Matts waking up and seeing him for the first time.

Ruler Roo had asked to be alone with two Tall Matt nurses when the Matts walked out of the cryogenic chamber once the door opened at the right temperature and had the correct atmosphere mix outside the door.

Even he had been shocked that only children and three young females walked out of the door and into the command center. There had been thirty-three young Matts and three females that had walked out to him. The nurses had thirty-six hover stretchers in lines of six and blankets ready, and the arriving Matts in twos and threes were ordered to lie down on a stretcher once a blanket was wrapped around them. They all seemed strong, as they had only been asleep for eighty years or so, he couldn’t remember.

The Tall Matt nurses had been primed for what would happen, and as the sleepy bodies came out of the steamy room, words and questions erupted into Ruler Roo’s head only. The Tall Matts couldn’t converse telepathically.

It had been discussed back on Enceladus with High Commander Jey when Ruler Roo and the astronauts had visited for the first time three decades earlier that all the females, and there should be many of them, be returned to his palace. They were in dire need of more females after seeing the birth of Bella Noble’s triplets.

Roo telepathically gave him the good news once all the sleepers were peaceful and resting after their ordeal.

He sipped his tea and saw that dusk was setting on the plateau outside, and the powerful holographs from the cemetery began their usual glow and made sure that the plateau around the Retreat was brightly lit twenty-four seven.

He had been writing his memoirs now for seven years, and he was getting towards the end. A few more weeks of writing and he would be caught up.

There were none of his old friends who would read his life story. That didn’t worry him; he wasn’t alone at the Martian Club Retreat. There were the twenty-four Matt males who looked after the Retreat, and his third wife, Vox, had lived here for two centuries now, and Roo was happy.

Here was where all his old friends were, even his mother and first two wives, and here was where he wanted to end his days.

Roo was in mourning when High Commander Jey had decided it was time to open the sleep chamber. Roo’s second wife, Jenny, had died a year earlier and had been placed next to her first husband, Dr. Paul Jones, in his tomb, and he only had a crew of seven Tall Matt biologists come one day a week to tend the crops underground at the Retreat. Other than them, at that time he lived alone at the Retreat.

The Enceladus Matts had taken thirty years to design and build their new spaceship from the plans and equipment Mars Noble had given them. The first one off their production line the Matts had given to Commander Mikey Noble as a gift, and to test. Mikey hadn’t wanted to give it back it was so fast.

Now they had a powerfully driven and armed ship that could fly to Mars at a good speed and pick up the survivors.

The Matt ship had left three months earlier, and then High Commander Jey had given the word to wake the sleepers in Mattville.

Ruler Roo gave High Commander Jey the numbers. Twenty-four young male Matts under the age of thirty. Eight young females under the age of thirty. The ninth young Matt female was still a baby at twelve years old. The other three were Matt female adults, thirty-five, forty, and forty-two respectively.

The new Matt ship was already in orbit around the red planet, and Roo had cleared the landing in cavern three through Commander Suzi Noble II, the mayor and defense chief of Mattville.

High Commander Jey was worried about the baby. His females didn’t think the baby would survive the three-month journey back to Enceladus and asked Roo to look after the baby after Roo had pleaded to keep the female baby, Vox.

Enceladus didn’t want the males either, they had too many, and Roo was asked to also keep the males and incorporate them into his tribe on Mars.

Within twelve hours of waking, the new ship, which looked a little like the old ASS-Two, floated in to the cavern in Mattville III, and one of the high commander’s sons, who Roo had met on Enceladus, ordered the females to board his vessel.

Commander Suzi Noble II and Roo were there to welcome the Matt commander, who was happy to greet her as one of the triplets born on Enceladus and now all grown up. The visiting astronaut in his short silver suit gave Ruler Roo a touch on the shoulder and his orders from the high commander. That was the last time Roo saw the Enceladus Matts for many years. He was brought back to the present.

His third female, Vox, arrived, gave her husband a hug, and placed a few cookies and a slice of his favorite chocolate cake next to his teacup.

“Freshly topped and cooled and ready to eat,” Vox thought to him, smiling, and he returned the smile excitedly. It was what he had been waiting for. She left him with his thoughts. Thinking of Little Mikey’s eldest daughter, Suzanne, made him think of his best friend.

Victor Isaac Noble, VIN for short, had died a year after VIN’s family—Mars, Saturn, Little Mikey, Bella and the triplets—had returned from Saturn. He looked back through the pages of his writing and found that it had been 2045.

That was 255 years ago, and still he headed out to VIN’s grave every day and sat there talking to him.

Telepathy was a weird phenomenon, and sometimes he thought he could hear VIN’s laughter at his news or an answer to his questions. Maybe it was his own mind going bananas, as VIN had always told Roo.

Suzi, VIN’s wife, died two years after VIN, as did Maggie Jones and Kathy Richmond a year later in 2147. They had always been an active bunch, and all three now lay with their husbands entombed at the Retreat.

In Kathy Richmond’s will, she had asked for the internal partitioning in the Retreat to be taken down. Her husband had had enough peace and quiet from Jonesy and it was time to unite the cemetery.

She had never visited the cemetery, even when her husband’s coffin was brought in, but had seen photos sent by Roo. Kathy wanted everybody to be together, and carefully the master builders from Mattville had broken down the inner walls, and the entire cemetery was made open plan and was now expansive and beautiful inside the thick see-through nanosilicone igloo walls.

The stone and floor work of granite had been refurbished under the watchful eyes of Paul Jones, who had joined the rest of his family a year later in 2148.

Jenny Jones had been many years younger than Paul, and his passing had been hard on her. They had worked and played very well together, and two years after Paul’s passing, Roo had married Jenny. She had moved into Mattville with Roo until her death twenty-three years later.

As she had wished, Roo placed her next to Paul, and he always visited her grave after visiting his family site. Joanne Dithers Roo, Roo’s first wife, had passed away a year after he had returned to Mars after visiting his mother at the Pig’s Snout. It was the same trip that he had met High Commander Jey for the first time in Enceladus.

Now Joanne waited for him, alone in her double tomb. His children, the first Tall Matts ever born, were next to their mother, and Tow, his own mother, had been buried ninety-eight years ago. Roo would be placed between his first wife and his third wife, Vox, and close to his mother.

Vox would be laid to rest at least a century after him, and he expected to be the second-to-last person to go to sleep in the most beautiful place of flowers and light in the whole universe.

Tall Matts had many of the benefits of both tribes; unfortunately extremely long life was not one of them. Most Tall Matts grew taller than the Matts and did live longer than Tall People, but not as long. The average lifespan of Homo sapiens in 2200 was one hundred years. A Tall Matt doubled that, and Matts sometimes reached four hundred years.

High Commander Jey had died at 399, twenty years after his youngest son High Commander Kig had taken over the reign of all the Matts in the solar system. Jey had been ruling for close to 300 years. He and Roo were close friends and had been since that day Bella’s babies had been born on Saturn.

Bella and her girls also lay in the cemetery with Little Mikey, and all had lived good and fruitful lives.

The only Matts still alive, apart from Roo and his tribe, lived around Saturn and Jupiter.

On Mars, they had lived, bred and died, and ninety percent of the 150,000 population in Mattville was now Tall Matts. The others were Tall People visiting from Ceres, a few dwindling from Earth, and the odd Matt freighter pilot delivering produce from either Enceladus or Europa.

The twenty-five Matts and Ruler Roo living at the Retreat were the only real Matts living on Mars, and his staff had no interest in visiting Mattville and marrying Tall Matts.

There had been several Tall Matts on Earth, but they had not enjoyed the violent life and growing pollution on the blue planet, and had returned to Mattville to live and work.

Ceres was a busy place. There most of the population of twelve thousand were Tall People. Mostly miners or pirates, and there were reports of a ship destroyed there every few months.

These miners didn’t go back to Earth anymore, but lived in the old mining camps. The camps had been turned into villages over a century earlier, once the companies had lost their wars back on Earth.

Miners still went out mining, but more and more found other jobs on the dwarf planet. There wasn’t much need for mining anymore due to the upheavals on Earth. A.S.S. still ran the Ceres Bar and Grill with a large contingency of heavily armed guards. They even had a space force of armed space fighters.

Two more old friends of Roo’s in the cemetery were Dave and Vitalily. Both from Ceres, Dave had died the same year as Vitalily and about a year after VIN Noble.

Little Mikey Noble had brought their coffins, and the coffins of all the other Russians who had run the retreat over several years, and now they all lay peacefully watching the hundreds of holographs dance every night in the Martian night’s sky.

Around the time of the deaths of so many of his older friends, he had taken over Mattville as mayor, and Little Mikey had taken control of Ceres with his many friends, mostly family and the astronauts from his space cadet course.

In those days, Ceres was peaceful, and for ten years, the astronauts arrived and departed, always having a few of them in charge while the others travelled. These astronauts all made massive fortunes from the day-to-day drinking and gambling at the Ceres Bar and Grill.

A.S.S. was making so much money from Mars and Ceres that the organization had to leave Earth in 2050. The governments and banks were losing money, and they didn’t want A.S.S. bringing in its metals and money anymore, wrecking the status quo of Earth currencies.

A.S.S. didn’t care. They were rich and they managed Ceres and Mars, calling the outposts their own. Bella had been running the society on Earth while her daughters were in school and while Mikey did his rounds in faster and faster spaceships.

The Noble family left Earth for the last time, with most of Astermine heading to Mattville after closing down the partly destroyed island off the Australian coast. It had been attacked twice by foreign governments, and Australia wanted them gone.

Nevada Base had also become a thorn in many a politician’s side. It was forced to close down a quarter of a century after Dr. Smidt had been placed at the Retreat.

Astermine and A.S.S. weren’t very welcome on Earth anymore, and from then on, communications between the blue planet and the rest of the solar system decreased over the decades to very little.

Tourists still arrived up to 2100. Extremely rich tourists who ran the large companies on Earth. They arrived thinking they could purchase, steal or cohort to take over the Martian property, until they realized that they had no chance of getting anything, apart from the luxuries they paid heavily for.

Thanks to Commander Mars Noble befriending High Commander Jey, and the birth of Bella’s female triplets on Enceladus centuries earlier, life between the two tribes had worked well, even after Mars’s death fifty years later. Saturn survived him by five years, and they were now all happily chatting to each other in the Noble tomb section less than two hundred yards from where Roo sat.

High Commander Jey had promised that he would keep his word to Mars Noble and that his Matt scientists would design a better ship.

They did a decade later, and Little Mikey tested it and was given the ship as a gift, the fastest ship in the solar system.

Not only did they hand over to Little Mikey a new ship, there was also a new shield. For still unknown reasons, this shield was red, not blue, and with this shield Mikey took his new ship’s speed up to Mach 400 before the shield imploded on itself. Commander Mikey Noble still holds the speed record in the solar system for flight—285,249 miles an hour.

Mikey survived the shield malfunction and, with his new Matt-made liquid hydrogen fusion thrusters, could reach Ceres from Earth in forty-one days. Earth to Mars was his quickest flight in thirty-nine days at perfect opposition, and he could reach out to Enceladus at the Saturn-Earth opposition in sixty-nine days.

The old Astermine ships still travelled in their old blue shields, but A.S.S. and the new Matt freighters doubled their speed with their more modern cold fusion/plasma engines and new red shields. This red shield saved Mikey’s life from pirate ambushes several times.

No ship, except the new Matt ships like Mikey’s, could reach these speeds. The fastest Earth ship was still less than half the speed of Noble-One.

Roo got up. It was time to walk and take his empty plate back to Vox. He headed to the kitchen, where he knew he would find her.

He had learned from Jenny how to grow food in the massive underground caverns, and he had passed on what he knew to the new crew of Matts, who would outlive him.

They now had even bigger underground caverns and grew what they needed for the large population in Mattville. It was said that Tall People still ate animals on Earth, but in space the entire population had converted to being vegetarians.

He had really enjoyed his slice of cake, and Vox had perfected Suzi’s old recipe. After years of begging, Suzi had finally sent him the recipe, telling him it was impossible to make it if he didn’t have milk. Suzi had used frozen milk by the ton when she had travelled the solar system, and once the communications and freighters from Earth stopped and supplies ran out, so did the frozen milk supplies.

As mayor, Roo had ordered three prime young bulls and two dozen cows, a dozen cockerels and a thousand egg-laying chickens. Little Mikey, although completely shocked, had delivered his cargo safely to Mattville a year later.

In the meantime, the robot miners had built a massive sunlit cavern for the new farm animals, over twenty acres in size on a lower level in Mattville, under Mattville II. Mikey had then built the same on Ceres, and now they could interbreed their cows and chickens from two different farms. One thing the people on Mars and Ceres had was unbelievable amounts of underground space to mine out. They could never run out, as long as the air systems could cope. Those new air systems they purchased from the Matts on Europa.

The two planets grew food for the animals, and surprisingly, both planets still had fine herds and animal breeding competitions every decade or so. Some say there were even feral chickens in the deep and darker areas of both cities. All this because Roo had wanted Suzi’s chocolate cake.

Roo returned to his desk and sat down. He had a few hours before the Robo-shuttle was arriving with his dozen or so current friends for their weekly poker tournament. Roo had kept up all the habits of A.S.S. He celebrated with a few drinks on Saturday night, and most weekends the latest old cronies from Mattville flew in for drinks and poker. Even Vox enjoyed her weekly glass of red wine.

Paul Jones’s Panama Red was long gone, and the blue shields outside were parking lots.

Roo was the richest man in the universe. He now owned A.S.S. outright, and he had rooms full of Earth paper and metal coins by the millions. Like Earth, the solar system still used money of all sorts for business. Even Roo didn’t know what he was worth.

The peace had been completely united between the Noble family, A.S.S. and the Matts with the birth of the three girls on Saturn.

Roo had often told his friends that female twins born on the same day was a message to the Matts of following increases in crops, mining and happiness. It had only happened three times in the sixteen-thousand-year Matt history.

What Roo hadn’t foreseen was triplets. Word of a second baby, a second baby girl, being born to the Tall People female had spread around the palace city like wildfire.

Before the second girl, Katherine Nancy Noble, even uttered her first cry, Matts began to sing and skip and dance, patting each other on the back as if they were the reason for the omen.

She was placed next to her two-minute-old sister, Suzanne Jupiter Noble, and the females in attendance began to clean up until Bella groaned and was acting as if she was about to give birth again.

Completely shocked, the six Matt females readied themselves, and the lead female checked and delivered Maggie Anne Noble a minute later, and with shaking hands, they cleaned and dressed the baby in a blanket.

They were too scared to give the word out, and first told High Commander Jey, who, with Mars, had made it down to the delivery room.

Mars was shocked at what the news did to the old man. He smiled then screamed with delight, then began dancing around all the staff, and then like a young man ran out of the private area and screamed the good news to his people.

To Roo, it seemed that from that day on, the friendship between the Nobles and the Matts was sealed in stone. He had never seen his own tribe excited and mentally drunk as if they were Tall People winning an international sporting achievement back on Earth.

To Roo’s complete surprise, the prosperity of the Matts around Jupiter and Saturn grew for the next few decades. They lived like happy people, and everything went well for them. It had made Roo think that, as the Tall People believed, there was a God, a supreme ruler of the universe somewhere out there.

Thirty years after that day, Suzanne Jupiter Noble became the mayor of Mattville. Katherine Nancy Noble became mayor of Ceres, and the third triplet, the cleverest of all three, Commander Maggie Noble, became commander of A.S.S. and took over from her father, Mikey.

Life was good on Enceladus, Europa, Mars and Ceres during this time, but life was not good on Earth.

The Tall People, always arguing or warring with each other, were causing more pollution than the planet could hold. His mother was still alive at this time, and for two decades the population of Earth decreased in numbers as they killed each other until one side won and peace resumed for a short while.

From many sources, word got out that the weather was changing, the skies dark with smoke across the globe, and for fifty years after the last war, freighters and mining ships from Earth stopped arriving in Mattville and Ceres.

It seemed that planet went through times of extremes. Roo’s mother seemed safe and happy alone in the Pig’s Snout. Every now and again a few Matts would secretly visit her from Saturn, and the day before Mayor Noble gave up her position and retired, a Matt ship arrived at the Retreat with the coffin of Roo’s mother.

Commander Faz, Jey’s second-youngest son, was in charge of the ship. Roo knew how his mother was at all times and had known when she had passed away a year earlier.

Commander Faz and his crew of five helped Roo bury his mother in the cemetery. They didn’t need their new fancy space suits anymore, as they carried the coffin and entered the cemetery grounds from the hallway below.

It was the first visit by a Matt to the Retreat since the battle, and they were shocked at the luxury Roo lived in. It was as nice as the palace under the sea on Enceladus.

The cemetery and the holographs of a few of the Tall People they knew blew them away, and Roo gave them designs for holograph production and to be able to build a cemetery from the A.S.S. archives.

“The blue planet has dirty air, the gravity is horrible, and there are silly little slow space fighters running around killing everything that moves, Ruler,” explained the commander to Ruler Roo as he and his crew sat with Roo over dinner. “I don’t know why those Tall People have to kill each other all the time. High Commander Kig has taken precautions in case they reach the other side of the Asteroid Belt. We will know if any ship enters that space weeks or months before they arrive at our bases.”

“Yes, those Tall People can be such beautiful people, but they have so little intelligence when it comes to peace. It seems that we were once like them here on the red planet,” added Roo. “I remember when the Tall People complained to each other that we Matts were so warlike.”

“How could that be?” asked Commander Faz. “They are the ultimate death machine. They kill each other for any reason big or small. Sometimes for no reason at all. It is as if they can’t help it, and now you say we Matts were like them. I don’t believe it, Ruler Roo.”

“You are young, Commander, so is your crew. Yes, I was here when the nicest Tall People the Matts have ever met were attacked time after time by our red planet commander at the time.”

Roo smiled as he remembered how the young commander didn’t believe him until he had told the whole story. He even toured them around the cemetery and told them how many Matts each Tall Person lying there had killed.

He did remind himself not to mention the number of kills by Mars and Saturn Noble. They were heroes on Enceladus because of their friendship to the departed High Commander Jey, High Commander Kig’s father. The Matt commander would not have believed it anyway if Roo had told them.

He looked at his watch as his memories faded. It was five, and it would be dark in an hour, and his guests should be arriving any minute. Vox would be dressing and would help him look after his guests. He had a good female, as good as all the females in his long life.

Maybe he had ten minutes to go and see if VIN Noble was talking to him telepathically this evening. He poured himself a glass of Jack Mars and headed down the elevator to the walkway to the cemetery.

Ruler Roo, the second-to-last member of A.S.S., was quite looking forward to joining his friends in the cemetery. There was no male to take his place. No more ASSes, as they called themselves, and the Retreat and cemetery was set up with enough power for their next inhabitants when they arrived one day, maybe never. He knew Vox would look after herself, and Commander Mov would take over as ruler of the Matts of the red planet, but he wasn’t an A.S.S. member.

A.S.S. would die with him and be buried with Vox.

Hopefully the crowd in the cemetery was having fun, playing poker, and he was sure that Paul Jones was smoking his Panama Red and Jonesy was pouring everybody a glass of what Ruler Roo had in his hand.

Roo slowly headed down the walkway to say hi to his old friends.

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Books by the Author

AMERICA ONE Series (General Reading)

AMERICA ONE: One Man’s Dream—eBook, Paperback and Audiobook

AMERICA ONE II: The Launch—eBook, Paperback and Audiobook

AMERICA ONE III: The Odyssey—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE IV: Return to Earth—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE V: NextGen—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE VI: NextGen II—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE VII: War of the Worlds—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE VIII: A.S.S. Astermine’s Secret Society—eBook and Paperback

INVASION USA Series (General Reading)

INVASION USA I: The End of Modern Civilization—eBook and Paperback

INVASION USA II: The Battle for New York—eBook and Paperback

INVASION USA III: The Battle for Survival—eBook and Paperback

INVASION USA IV: The Battle for Houston…The Aftermath—eBook and Paperback

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INVASION EUROPE—out 2016–17

Altruism (General Reading)

Altruism—eBook and Paperback

The Banker’s Club (General Reading)

The Banker’s Club I: Defaults—eBook and Paperback

The Banker’s Club II: Acquisitions & Withdrawals—eBook and Paperback

The Book of Tolan Series (Adult Reading)

Banking, Beer & Robert the Bruce—Hardcover and eBook

Easy Come Easy Go—Hardcover and eBook

It Could Happen– eBook draft format only—completed version out 2016–17—eBook only

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About the Author

T I WADE was born in Bromley, Kent, England, in 1954.

His father, a banker, was promoted by his international bank to Africa, and the young family moved to Africa in 1956.

The author grew up in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and a fictional depiction of his life is humorously described in his novel EASY COME EASY GO, Volume II of The Book of Tolan Series. Once he had completed his mandatory military commitments, at twenty-one he left Africa to mature in Europe.

He enjoyed Europe and lived in three countries: England, Germany and Portugal for fifteen years before returning to Africa, to Cape Town, in 1989.

Here the author owned and ran a restaurant, a coffee manufacturing and retail business, flew a Cessna 210 around desolate southern Africa and finally got married in 1992.

Due to the upheavals of the political turmoil in South Africa, the Wade family of three moved to the United States in 1996. Park City, Utah was where his writing career began.

To date, T I Wade has written eighteen novels.

Please visit:

facebook.com/TIWadeAuthor

for more details.

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