Chapter 1

AMERICA ONE—Her Final Hour

“America One bridge to Mars Control. Bogeys, five of them, heading down the canyon, the same canyon you guys saw them in the first time several months ago,” stated Captain Pete into the bridge’s communications system.

“Copy that,” replied teenage Penelope Pitt on late afternoon radio duty down at The Martian Club Retreat. She pressed the single red button on the command console that would alert the whole base of incoming craft and waited for the rest of Captain Pete’s message.

“The five Bogeys are flying in a line and currently abreast of Lookout Mountain. The ship’s computers didn’t pick them up early enough to locate their base. This group seems an hour or so earlier than the last flight, and they are traveling extremely slowly. I assume the timing reason is for a sunset approach. If I were the commander of an aircraft carrier down on Earth, I reckon this looks like a surprise attack to me, over.”

“Copy that, Captain Pete,” replied the alert Penelope. “Alarms ringing. Ryan heading up to the command center now. All three shuttles about to light up. Accurate ETA for the astronauts, over?”

“Thirty minutes to arrival at your base, all five ships currently 1,000 feet above the planet surface. I believe they will head east, then turn towards you once they are due south of the base. Hold on, Penelope, their speed has reduced down to 180 knots. I don’t believe they can actually fly so slow in these limited atmospheric conditions. Maybe they have tires and are driving instead of being airborne, they are hardly moving. New ETA to your position; 39 minutes at current speed, over.”

“We’ll be ready for them,” stated the radio operator on Mars.

“I cannot see where the spacecraft originated from through this damn shield!” stated Captain Pete to Dr. Nancy. He sounded frustrated.

They were sitting on the bridge of the virtually empty ship built 20 years ago. Since then they had travelled over a billion miles in her together.

“Why don’t you turn off the shield?” suggested Nancy, sipping her sealed sippy-cup of freshly-brewed hot chocolate. She had just finished baking a chocolate cake for Captain Pete’s birthday the next day, up in the kitchen on the mid-level.

The two crewmembers were the only two awake aboard the near-empty spaceship. “Turn it off. I’m sure your laser cameras will pick up their next takeoff, if there is one, more accurately without having to search through the shield wall.” That gave Captain Pete an idea.

Two hundred miles high and orbiting Mars several times a day, the crew aboard the mother ship didn’t work on the same times, night and day, as the base on Mars some 200 miles below them. Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy ate, slept and worked on the bridge.

They had floated in and tied down their bed and much of the furniture from their apartment, and had made the bridge home, even though there was less artificial gravity from the centrifugal force of the rotating accommodations 700 feet above them.

The view out of the massive windows was very romantic while lying tied down in bed, and far better than no windows in their apartment. Just off the bridge was a space bag bath and a space toilet, and that would suffice for their needs. Ryan had been told and didn’t see why the lovebirds couldn’t have the best wedding suite aboard, until life became normal back on the ship one day in the future.

The rest of the ship, apart from Mr. Rose and a couple of his biology crew working in the first few cubes, and a few other scientists and mechanics in the science areas, was quiet and desolate, miserable and empty. To the captain, his beloved ship had never been the same since their arrival and the entire crew had begun living on Mars. It was his ship, his home, and the bridge was where he was most comfortable.

Life was much of the same for Dr. Nancy, his new wife. She had the medical research station still up on the middle, medical level and had much work to do to continue the long-term files of each and every member of the crew.

“Ryan gave specific orders never to close the shield, but you just gave me a fantastic idea. I’ll reboot everything to Ryan’s office and we can head up there. Since we completed the build of Ryan’s escape pod on the first return to Earth several years ago, it has never been used but to store our latest computers, the ship’s servers and all our information. Nancy, reboot your computers directly to “The Office.” Let’s go, we have thirty minutes or so to launch.”

“Why do you guys need a new project?” Ryan had asked several years earlier at a build and mechanic meeting in the cafeteria a week after they had left Titan and were heading back to Mars.

“I need a project to keep the mechanics busy,” Vitalily replied, smiling at his commander. “We have all our ship’s ion drives and hydrogen thrusters working at absolute peak performance. That old American goat, General John Jones, has our engines working so efficiently that we have nothing to do.”

Jonesy was listening in on the meeting. He had been part of the mechanics crew since leaving Mars for their odyssey years earlier, and with the mechanics had serviced, checked, and refined every working part of the mother ship’s propulsion units, even the small side thrusters so many times that several were hoping for a major meltdown or mechanical problem to alleviate the growing boredom.

“How do you say goat in Russian, Mr. Know-It-All?” Jonesy, smiling, asked Vitalily, one of his best friends. Vitalily wasn’t bad for a Ruskie, and after working hundreds of hours together listening to the whine of the engines, each had grown a respect for the other’s experience.

“Kozel is the best I can match it with English language,” replied Vitalily, always with his serious look on his straight Russian face.

“So how do you say nanny-goat, you lousy excuse for a vodka-drinker?” Jonesy then asked. The rest just looked on, bored, and smiled. Thanks to Jonesy, the Russians aboard ship had nearly as good a sense of humor as Roo had, now several months into his voyage.

“Koza,” replied Vitalily. “Why?”

“Because if I am a kozel, then you are a goat far worse than me, Vitalily. If I am a goat, then you must be a koza, a nanny goat to us Americans, the female version of what I am.”

The others smiled as Vitalily tried to think up a return to the insult Jonesy had just laid at his feet. His face never lost its straightness, just his eyes showed his brain’s search for another insult.

“Let’s get back to your first suggestion, Vitalily, and as far as the ship’s log and inventory are concerned, Mr. Jones, we have no goats or nanny goats currently aboard our spaceship.”

“Oh, da! My crew need work, Commander. We have a couple of years before we reach Mars, and I need my crew to be sharp and practiced.”

“Vitalily, then why don’t you stick a thruster to one of the supply pods and whizz around space trying to work out the Big Bang Theory?” Jonesy continued.

“Thank you, Mr. Jones,” interjected Ryan. Jonesy could sometimes be a handful to deal with, and the idea of Mr. Jones becoming bored made Ryan want to act. “Vitalily, as long as you keep our American friend, Mr. Einstein here, busy as well, I’m open to ideas. Our mother ship has six supply pods ready to be picked up by the smaller craft to return to Earth in an emergency. Why should our esteemed mechanics crew add a thruster to them, Mr. Jones? They are not meant to be self-propelled.”

“It was just a joke, boss,” replied Jonesy.

“I have an idea,” added VIN. He had entered the cafeteria to get a snack after being relieved on the bridge by Captain Pete. “We learned in Iraq that we had to be better prepared than we thought when the crap exploded around us. Humvees had to be armored. The number of IEDs was growing faster than that of the trucks to replace the destroyed vehicles. We began driving with water in the trucks’ wheels. We sat on sandbags inside the vehicles. We had to think out any new ideas to keep ourselves alive.”

“Not many IEDs out here off the beaten path I think, Mr. Noble,” remarked Jonesy, not quite finished with his lesson on humor for the day.

“General John Kozel Jones, aka, kozel with two blunt horns for short, or would you like it to be koza instead of kozel for your middle name? You are beginning to bleat as bad as a damn Russian nanny goat,” smirked VIN.

Vitalily liked that return and memorized it for the next encounter with his American friend.

“We are trying to have an adult quality mechanics meeting here, not a scene from Dumb and Dumber,” added Ryan testily. “Let’s get back to work, shall we?”

“You just gave me an idea for a weak link we might have,” VIN replied. Ryan nodded for him to continue. “We need the supply pods to be lifted out and attached to one of the shuttles or mining craft, right? What happens if we lost one mining ship, the mother ship suddenly needs to be evacuated, and we have to feed our crew on a long journey back to Earth? What happens to the extra supply pod?” Everyone thought for a few seconds.

“We could get the mechanics to set up a system where a shuttle could collect two pods instead of one?” Ryan suggested.

“Or, as I said, fit one of our old mother ship’s thrusters to one of them and leave the Ruskies adrift so there is more of Mr. Rose’s vodka for the rest of us?” added Jonesy.

“Ok?” suggested Ryan, ignoring the humor of his Chief Astronaut. “We do have several thrusters of different sizes aboard. Mr. Jones, I believe if we fit one of those large thrusters to an escape pod, even the shuttles would have a problem chasing after it.”

“My view to increase permanent vodka supplies exactly,” Jonesy replied, smiling at Vitalily’s still straight face. His friend was very deep in thought.

“The Russian Space Agency never angled away from brute power,” Vitalily replied. “The more thrust the better. But the older mining craft thrusters, the one that couldn’t get my American friend here off the asteroid, one of those could be used as a safety thruster. With power and guidance on board, the supply pod could travel in formation with the returning craft, not attached to any of them.”

“Just like a drone in Iraq,” smiled VIN. “I liked those guys.”

“Sounds like an idea worth working on. We could do tests on one, and one day the supply pods could be controlled delivery drones, like that shipping idea the Amazon guy, Jeff Benzes, or Jeff Bezos, I think his name was, had decades ago.

“Yes, I remember those delivery drones,” laughed VIN. “After the third collision over someone’s house, the idea was scrapped. Many believed it was just an advertising stunt anyway. Maybe we can prove them wrong and show that it does actually work.”

“Do you ever use your office off your apartment?” VIN asked Ryan.

“No, never spent more than an occasional look,” Ryan replied. “Why?”

“The supply pod attached above your office is the only one that has a room directly beneath it. If you don’t use your office, then maybe the crew could use it to test ideas on affixing thrusters?” was VIN’s reply.

It sounded crazy, but over the next few meetings, a sound idea came to the group.

Ryan and his family moved into a temporary apartment while the ideas were worked on in his old unit. His forward apartment on the upper level became a club for the mechanics.

With years of time to keep busy, nobody was in a rush to get anything finished, and often the wives had to go in search of their husbands. It seemed the “men only club” now used the space as a secret clubhouse and often had vodka parties in there, once Mr. Rose or Suzi came out with the next batch. It was two months later when the plan came together.

The entire mechanics’ crew and several of the astronauts’ crew had completed a successful commando raid on Cube Two’s storeroom right under Mr. Rose’s sleeping nose, silently extracting five gallons of the latest brew from the locked confines of the storage room. They were on their second nasty toast to all Earth politicians when Allen Saunders silenced the club.

“Why don’t we attach this office permanently to the supply pod? Ryan, it could be your secret escape pod, just like in those old James Bond movies.”

“I think we need new movies,” laughed Ryan. “We are all stuck in the twentieth century, like the old movies we watch time and time again.

“Not a bad project,” added Vitalily. “It has merit. Months—no, years—of work and it could be fun, no?”

“So when Mr. Jones here tires of my command, he can lock me in here, press a button down on the bridge, and suddenly Commander Richmond floats off, away from the ship, never to be heard of again?”

“I think your sense of humor has just been born, boss,” remarked Jonesy, agreeing with the idea.

“Except that you have a thruster to return to laugh in his face,” added VIN, smiling.

Everyone looked around the small office. Only six of the fifteen or so club members could fit into the office at any one time, it was that small.

“Larger than what my partner and I had for our first visit to the asteroid in Astermine One,” added Jonesy. “Nearly twice the size and height.”

“Could be a real decent Man Cave,” stated VIN, winking at Jonesy and downing his third shot.

“You could even fit in a few young heavenly beauties and several of these large bottles of vodka,” returned Jonesy, winking at Vitalily.

Of course, by now Vitalily wasn’t keeping up with the humor, and he looked back at his friend, trying to figure out what was being said.

“Man Cave, my foot,” exclaimed Kathy Richmond, who had walked in with Maggie, helping Suzi, to see what their men were up to.

“Ja, and why do you think Herr Richmond needs a Man Cave?” asked Suzi of VIN, who blushed sheepishly.

“Heavenly beauties and vodka? Is that all you can come up with, Chief Astronaut Jones, you dirty old man?” added Maggie Jones sarcastically.

“I’m not a dirty old man, darling, just a happily drunk, sexy senior space citizen,” remarked her husband, smiling.

“It is now time you guys get down to remodeling my living quarters, or this boys’ club is history,” stated Kathy sternly, her hands on her hips. “I’m getting rather tired of you old men having your midlife crises instead of running this ship like real military personnel would.”

“Hear, hear,” added Maggie. The men said nothing as they witnessed Suzi notice the date mark on the five-gallon vodka bottle’s label.

“Herr Rose and myself are now making this a dry ship for the next 90 days, due to stealing and bad crew behavior,” stated Suzi angrily. “I’m sure Frau Commander Kathy Richmond can take over the command of the ship while the crew and its commander are drunk. Maybe your big project should be more drunk jail cells for you and the crew, Herr Noble?”

With that, Maggie picked up the half-full remains of liquid, and the ladies, helping Suzi, stormed out.

The club didn’t end there, but the work did begin in earnest.

The girls kept their word, and within the three months’ dry time, the office was separated from the ship and left floating next to the mother ship. A double, radiation-safe wall was built onto the rear wall of the office with a docking port to reconnect the “office” once it had its thruster fitted directly onto the part of the rear wall of the cylinder right above where the office was positioned. The same radiation-safe double wall was added to the new outer wall of the Richmond apartment, and Kathy and Ryan, minus an office, moved back in once the work was finished.

Now the outside work began on the new spacecraft nicknamed “The Office.” This time it was thruster work, and the unit was floated back to the rear of the ship, where the mechanics could spacewalk to it from their station just in front of the ship’s massive rear thrusters.

A decision was made to attach only one of the old Astermine thrusters to the supply pod itself, not to the added room which was connected below the twenty foot pod like an upside-down submarine. If this was done, the office could be reattached to Ryan’s apartment, and it could still be used as his office.

Power and distance weren’t factors in the design, but one 250-pound outside hydrogen fuel tank was added into the supply pod and connected to the aft wall, as well as to its four side thrusters.

“Why do we need more than 100 gallons of hydrogen fuel?” Ryan asked, five months into the project. This time the meeting was on the bridge, the cafeteria was still out of bounds for male get-togethers apart from meetings with the whole crew, and the Richmonds were back in their apartment. The club now met secretly in Ryan’s old office. It wasn’t much fun with spacewalking to get to and from the craft, and it was tiny, but at least the project kept the crew happy.

“Fuel supplies for an emergency,” suggested Igor.

“There is never too much fuel,” added Jonesy.

“I just think 250 gallons of liquid hydrogen is a bit much for a weak single thruster which will never be used,” concluded Ryan. “The supply pods are meant to be transported by our small craft, not by themselves. Liquid hydrogen is a very slow-to-make fuel. We don’t have an excess to just add 250 gallons to every emergency pod. One hundred gallons is enough for the test pod. If you want to fill it with something, tie in an exercise bike, more supplies, water or something. What is the current inventory aboard each supply cylinder anyway?”

“Continuously growing,” stated Boris. “We added our latest grey and black water filtering systems into them a year ago. That decreased the water supplies needed per pod by 50 percent. Down from 5,000 gallons to 2,500. We have increased the selection of dry food, included dried fruits, and currently the pods have enough supplies for 30 people for 360 days. There is simple accommodation for ten people inside the pod. The other 20 crewmembers would be living in the cargo bays of the shuttles or Astermine craft. Squashed in like sardines, we can take up to 250 crewmembers in the six escape systems, including those living in all the small craft.”

“Where are we going with these pods in 360 days, Alpha Centauri?” Jonesy added.

“No, Mr. Jones,” smiled Igor. “Home from the furthest part of our solar system if need be, and before you say something, yes, we are already halfway through our journey and closer to Earth than we have supplies, but there is no need to decrease the limit of supplies just yet, and we will need to rotate the older dried food through the ship’s food system every few years.”

“I had an idea about the Russians cruising around the solar system in one escape pod to save our vodka supplies,” Jonesy continued. “Can I make a motion to include our wives to go with the Russians? We’ve been dry for 60 days longer than they promised.”

“Good news on the vodka topic,” smiled Ryan to his bored Chief Astronaut. He had enjoyed a dry ship; the crew had returned to normal behavior, and it was time to allow a tot or two again every now and then. Ryan had been working on his wife for a while now. “Mars is still 18 months away. We may splice the mainbrace once a week from this month-end. The female crew commander has agreed to three tots per person per Saturday night, including three glasses of beer or wine. Gentlemen, we will celebrate our first party in 15 days’ time.”

As promised, the first party was a rounding success. Everybody including Jonesy behaved and Saturday night became party night once again.

A year later the new craft was complete. The only difference Ryan could tell from the inside of his smaller apartment was that he had a complete Soyuz docking port in the wall where the door to his office door used to be. Since the old television sitcom was being aired in the cafeteria, a few nights a week during this time, Ryan’s new addition to his apartment, his new mini-office/‌command center, and the supply cylinder/‌pod, the whole unit was officially named “The Office.”

This was the same docking port Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy now headed to years later. Nancy had never seen the alteration to the Richmond living quarters, but did reboot all her information to the servers inside “The Office.”

Since it could be colder in there than inside the ship, Pete gathered their blankets and cover off the bed. Dr. Nancy couldn’t resist taking all her paper files, and she stuffed them into her briefcase. She had been about to take a shower and asked Pete if he could wait. He explained that speed was the essence; more alien spacecraft could take off at any time and he needed to be outside the shield to see where they were coming from more clearly. He explained that she could use the old-style non-gravity-use bath bag aboard the supply pod if she wanted. Nancy had put up with the vile way of washing living on the bridge, so she put her nose in the air and decided on which fresh clothes to take.

Rebooting all her latest information to the servers and grabbing the chocolate cake, she ran after her husband.

“It’s a docking port!” Nancy stated to Pete, once they arrived in the Richmond apartment.

“What did you expect? Limo service and a doorman? We are entering a complete escape pod. Darling, it is only for a couple of hours until I can see their home base, compute the coordinates, and relay them to Ryan. We’ll be back before you know it.”

It was much colder inside as Pete headed into the old office. He could also feel the pull underneath their feet decreasing. The rotational pull of the ship on the upper level was disappearing, as he had halted the rotation for flight purposes. Captain Pete wasn’t as good an astronaut as Jonesy and VIN were. He and his wife had flown the mining craft and spacewalked for experience, but it wasn’t something he or she liked very much.

Nancy followed him in as he heard Jonesy’s voice over the radio blaring through the whole vessel, “Thrusters active and warming, laser active.”

When he had left the bridge, Captain Pete had relayed to Ryan, now in the control center on the planet, that the incoming ships were 18 minutes out, speed 180 knots, altitude 1,000 feet, and they were beginning to spread out. “Three have broken off and seem heading north” were his last words before someone interrupted him on launch. He decided to tell base control his new intentions from aboard the escape pod. Time was running out.

Pete had worked on the new “mini command center” from Day One. He had helped place the three main computer control screens in a triangle in the middle of the room. They, at 42 inches each, filled the center of the office. Each screen was on a command console and each had a different purpose. One was for the control of the escape pod. One controlled the entire bridge of the mother ship and the third was the exact laser firing command console as was on the bridge. He had stated that the controls were overkill, but Ryan had appeased the build crew and allowed them to fill the room with everything they wanted.

He smiled as he saw the drink holders. Each console had two drinks holders—Jonesy’s idea—one for beer and one for vodka. He sat down at the first desk, switched to the camera under the bridge following the alien ships, and spoke to the planet below him.

“Two minutes to arrival. They are descending into the crater and will be approaching you from their usual position. Three of the alien ships seem to be circling about ten miles north of the crater.”

There wasn’t much more he could do. The command center at The Retreat would have the alien craft visual in seconds and were already tracking the incoming craft on radar. It was time to find the alien base of operations, so he climbed across to the pod’s control seat.

Within a minute, the docking hatch was secure, and he had the single thruster warming up above him. He was still watching the camera locked onto the ships and saw that some of the craft was going in to land. He felt relieved. He hoped they were on a peaceful mission, but something was gnawing at his gut.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Nancy had become completely weightless, so he tightened his seatbelt. She looked very beautiful as her long blonde hair streamed out in all directions as it usually did.

Every now and again communications from below shouted themselves across the speakers, interrupting his train of thought. He increased thrust and detached the hatch connection. With his wife’s hair now standing straight up, he knew that the mother ship’s roll had completely stopped, and the tiny craft gently propelled itself away from Ryan’s apartment.

Captain Pete heard VIN get permission to remove his helmet as he saw the ship disappear behind him through the large windows which covered half of the walls of “The Office” on each side of him. He neared the shield wall and gently headed through it, his rear thruster at 10 percent.

Slowly the large supply pod, looking like an airship right above his head, slipped through the shield wall into the blackness of space and he turned all the pod’s cameras. Again, for the lack of something to do years earlier, the crew had added three of the most powerful cameras to the bottom of “The Office” in case Ryan ever wanted to use it as a command center. These three cameras were as powerful as the ones underneath the floor of the bridge, and he was surprised how clear they were now that they were out of the blue shield.

The ship drifted away as he saw that the rear of the escape pod several feet behind his small room had exited the shield. He added thrust to 30 percent and slowly they drew away from the mother ship. He didn’t want to go far even though they were in complete safety.

Captain Pete wasn’t a competent pilot like the astronauts. His biggest worry was reattaching the pod to the mother ship. This needed expert flight control, and in his training, he had practiced with Jonesy in SB-III about a dozen times.

“VIN, command your men to shoot down that alien craft before it destroys all our farms!” shouted a wild Ryan through the radio. Captain Pete knew that he was picking up the intercom from Ryan’s helmet. It wasn’t as strong as the radio, and at 200 miles, he was at the limit of the intercom’s range.

Captain Pete forgot to cancel the thrust of the rear thruster as he floated up and pulled himself over to the mother ship’s laser control station to look through the infra-red and heat cameras already locked onto the base’s coordinates. This saved both their lives.

At 68 knots the pod floated away from America One as he heard VIN’s reply.

“All robots, the visitors are destroying our shields. Shoot before they deploy their shields.”

He could now see all the movement below very clearly and locked the mother ship’s laser remotely onto the attacking spacecraft. Igor’s voice was next, giving him the order he was waiting for.

“Get back to the safety of the base! Your suits could have holes in them. Captain Pete, you have permission to fire.”

He checked the three cameras on his screen from underneath the bridge and set up the laser. Each of the three cameras showed him different information from the battle below.

“Three aliens, two miles south and incoming rapidly to the base,” he stated over the radio, completely concentrating on the battle on the screens in front of him. He watched as the first of the three craft exploded and moved his laser to the next craft. He was again beaten to firing. Somebody was faster on the draw than him below; he knew it would be Maggie. He reacted quicker and the mother ship’s laser took out the third craft. He wasn’t going to be beaten just yet, and he smiled to himself.

“Five more alien craft coming from their base area, heading through 20,000 feet, 10,000 knots, moving fast and heading straight for us in America One. ETA five minutes ten seconds, over,” Captain Pete stated to the crew, and he checked the pod’s computer readouts for the alien base coordinates. He smiled as new coordinates flashed upon the screen.

Yes! He had their base! Somebody had just taken off from an area of the planet.

“Commencing fire at the incoming ships,” he stated to the radio feed while saving the coordinates. As he checked the new area again for any movement, he saw that one of the shuttles was in the general area from where the new aliens had come from. It was not in the correct position, and Captain Pete was about to give the astronaut the corrected coordinates when Jonesy blew up the first craft of the new flight. Not about to be outdone, Captain Pete aimed at the third craft and took it out as the rest of the alien ships broke away and headed out in all directions. Then he heard Jonesy over the radio.

“Captain Pete, close down your shield; that is what they are after.”

Nine minutes had elapsed since they left the shield, and he looked through the window at the mother ship as Nancy floated down through the hatch to join him from the pod above.

“We are so far away from the mother ship,” she stated, looking out of the window. “Are we heading out for a romantic encounter in space?” she added, not knowing about the battle going on below.

“America One is only about 10 to 12 miles away. Sorry, I forgot to close down the rear thruster. We are totally safe, darling, and nothing is going to happen to us.”

Captain Pete was so wrong. As they both looked back at the mother ship floating in its rosy blue glow, it lit up and exploded into a bright vivid white and blue atomic explosion, and Captain Pete instinctively pushed the small rear thruster to maximum power.

Chapter 2

Oh, Crap!

“Oh, crap!” were the only words out of Captain Pete’s mouth as the fireball that was once his beloved command vessel mushroomed out in all directions. Nancy was silent, her mouth gaping open as the light from the explosion hit them.

Captain Pete held on for dear life, but the blast wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked.

The pod hardly vibrated, except a silver piece of something twice their size whizzed by a hundred yards or so under Captain Pete’s feet, all the outside cameras went dead, and the internal lights went out.

It must have been a miracle, for none of the parts of the exploding ship hit them. What had saved them from death was that the pod was over 12 miles away from the initial blast, and the explosion had been so intense that much of America One had disintegrated within the explosion of the 400-ton ship and the untold energy from the exploding shield around it.

Captain Pete was in total shock. The radio was dead, so were the cameras, and suddenly he could see an eerie pink glow around the craft. What he didn’t know was that the burst of energy around them was frying anything that was attached to the outside of the pod.

Then space went black around him, and all that was left were the console dials looking up at him. Seconds later dull yellow emergency lighting began to glow dimly and light up the small room under backup battery power.

“Where is the ship?” asked Nancy, still looking out of the window. She still hadn’t moved since the explosion seconds earlier.

“I don’t know,” replied Captain Pete. It was eerie, quiet and silent inside the small ship. Odd pieces of silver metal began to float past the windows, mostly slivers of light reflecting from the dull light inside the craft.

“Pete, where is the ship? Where is Mr. Rose and the crew? They must be safe somewhere. Pete!”

“Nancy, sit down. I’ll try and contact somebody. Maybe the crew on Mars can see the ship,” he replied. Both astronauts were in total shock, their minds refusing to acknowledge what they had just witnessed.

“America One to Mars Control. America One to Mars Control. Are you reading me, over?” There was no response from the radio apart from horrible-sounding static. America One to anybody. Can you hear me? Over.”

Captain Pete sent out a Mayday request, the only thing his fried brain thought to do. The static never changed, and it was if the whole universe had suddenly unplugged itself from around them.

“Nancy, I need to inspect the supply pod for damage. We could be losing atmosphere.” He unstrapped himself and floated upwards through the hatch into the twenty-foot-long, eight-foot-wide cylinder.

The inside of the pod was neat, with had pallets of stores and large gas cylinders neatly lined up along the floor. He saw three spacesuits on the far wall. Upside down on the ceiling were living quarters and the exercise bike that Ryan had jokingly suggested be placed into each pod instead of the 250 reserve gallons of liquid hydrogen Captain Pete really would like to have right now. His body went ice cold when he remembered he only had 250 gallons of fuel aboard. As a captain, his mind automatically began working out the distance to the only place of safety other than The Martian Club Retreat, planet Earth.

“Pete! Pete! I’m sure Ryan will send up Jonesy to find us!” shouted Nancy from down below.

Then he saw a large bright glow lighten up the inside of the supply pod from the hatch connecting him to “The Office.”

“What was that, Nancy?” he asked, his stomach in his mouth.

“A bright explosion, a massive explosion down on the planet’s surface,” she replied. He hurriedly pulled himself through the hatch to the room below and looked in the direction she was pointing. They were about to head over the horizon, the pod still orbiting the red planet as the mother ship had done. The computers weren’t providing any information, but he was sure that the light had come from the direction of the alien base, not their base. He got back on the radio and tried in vain to contact anybody. For now they were very alone.

For hours he tried. The computers were working. Somehow the crew on the planet must be tracking the pod’s whereabouts, but nothing else was working. He had forgotten about the pod’s solar wings until the dull emergency lights dimmed, and he pushed the button to uncover the solar wings from the outer wall of the pod and extend them towards the sun. To his relief the system worked, and within an hour, weak radiant energy from the sun was being fed into the pod’s energy storage system.

Nancy screamed a few hours later when the white LEDs lit up the small room again.

By this time they were back over The Martian Club Retreat and Pete was doing his best to communicate over the radios.

“Sorry, Nancy, the radar seems to be working, but it is only showing me 50 miles of range. America One, if it was out there, should be visible on the screen. Apart from one piece of debris floating away about twenty miles on our port bow, the screen is empty.”

“Are we done for, Pete, without the mother ship? The good news, I did bring your birthday cake,” Nancy replied glumly.

“So far, we have expected external power. The temperature is normal in here at 68 degrees, so the heating systems must be working. I checked the air systems are working. We have no radios, but the computers are recording our flight. We are in the exact orbit that America One was, and I think that pink glow of whatever-it-was killed our radio antennas outside. The cameras are dead, but thanks to Vitalily, we have large windows. Unfortunately, thanks to Ryan we only have 250 gallons of hydrogen for the thrusters. At full power, that is about 60 hours of juice. I cannot answer all your questions right now, but I believe I will see my 65th birthday tomorrow, and I look forward to your cake.”

“What about the rest of the crew? Shouldn’t we cruise around and search for them?” Nancy continued, doing her best to compose herself. After all, she was with the captain, not some dumb arse like General Jones.

“I think we should check out the one piece of debris out there but even the search lights are dead,” he replied.

Captain Pete was tied into “The Office’s” command chair. He had tried the controls for the mother ship, but they showed failure notices on everything he tried. It was the same with the laser controls, but he left them on in case something changed. He changed course in a wide arc and began closing to the large piece of debris now in front of them.

He didn’t get too close, but he brought the pod within a hundred feet of the radar blip and found a part of his destroyed bridge floating like it was at the bottom of the sea. Nancy had found a LED torch in the storage pod that was just powerful enough to give them a dim view of the old control center of America One. Part of the bridge was still intact, but empty inside. It looked like the blast had ripped out its entire innards, as the inside of the cylinder was as clean and shiny as the outside wall. There was absolutely nothing else floating around, and they now both knew that the mother ship was no more.

Nancy said The Lord’s Prayer aloud for all the crew she now knew hadn’t escaped. She also said the names of each of the eleven crew members she had medically checked over during the last few days.

“Did you know Mr. Rose only had months to live?” she asked her husband. He looked at her questioningly. “Since doctor/‌patient confidentiality doesn’t exist anymore up here, he was dying of cancer, and had been since Dr. Rogers and I found it after we left Titan. It didn’t seem to worry him, he just sort of shrugged it off.”

“The crew died instantaneously. So would have we if we had been aboard or any closer to the ship when it exploded,” replied Captain Pete.

“Well, we had better hurry up and get rescued, or Mr. Rose will outlive us if he is still alive. I might even be gracious to General Jones if he appears on our radar monitors.”

He didn’t, and for three days they waited for rescue. Captain Pete did have his 65th birthday party 24 hours after the destruction of the mother ship. Dr. Nancy had rummaged in the pallets of supplies and found some dried fruit and a few bottles of beer to add to the birthday party.

To Captain Pete, his last supper tasted wonderful, and he was just happy to be alive to enjoy such a delicious cake. It was worth living for.

While his wife was upstairs trying to get used to biking upside down, he pored over the information the computers gave him.

The crew aboard the mother ship had recorded daily the amounts of fuel aboard the mother ship and what the crew had in storage down on the planet. He then told Nancy the bad news, that the reason that she hadn’t seen Jonesy’s sarcastic face was because there couldn’t be enough fuel to come and save them after the fuel the shuttles had used during the fight.

Water gathering would be next on Ryan’s to-do list, then the crew’s return to Earth. There was not enough extra fuel to come and see if anybody was still alive. Ryan, or whoever was in charge down there, and the astronauts would have certainly seen the explosion in space from the ground. He gently explained to his wife that he hadn’t told anybody of their movement into “The Office.” Everybody down there would think them to be dead.

During most of his 65th birthday, he worked the computers, working out a way to reach Earth. They couldn’t enter the Martian atmosphere. The pod and its small room below wasn’t made for reentries to any planet. Their only choice was to return to an orbit around Earth and pray somebody other than a destruction cube noticed them.

Captain Pete, not knowing that Ryan was unconscious and near death, tried to work out the best time somebody might find them hanging around in low orbit around home.

He knew that they had just missed the closing of the window for the last Mars/‌Earth opposition. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he could wait two years for the next time Earth and Mars were closest, and anyway it would take them years to cross the threshold with one underpowered thruster and 239.75 gallons of fuel.

He spent hours working out the supplies. Each item or food type in the cylinder was recorded on the computers. For 30 crewmembers, they had 358 days of supplies. If the air filtration system and the heaters worked, they had enough food and water to last them for at least a decade. That eased his tension a bit. He could live well into his seventies, and Dr. Nancy could see 60.

On the third day, he spent a dozen hours poring over scenarios of planet opposition. Since each opposition was 779.94 days, they were 58 days behind the last opposition, and that really didn’t help him.

Also, the real problem was that the two planets didn’t get close at the same place in space, but opposed every two years 48 degrees further around on their similar orbits around the sun. The last opposition 58 days earlier meant that he and Nancy were currently 61,555,330 miles from Earth. At the next opposition in 721 days’ time, the planets would be 79.977 million miles apart and well over 272 million miles from their current position.

The second opposition, in 4 years’ time, was not even thinkable; the location over 396 million miles from their current position.

It is maybe now or never, Pete thought. If they got off the Mars bus right now and headed for Earth, it would take them a year reach the position Earth was in at the moment, and Earth would be in a totally different position in space every hour, day, month, and next opposition. Nothing was still in the solar system. Even the sun most probably moved.

Unfortunately, Mars was now pulling them away from this closeness to Earth’s orbit as it also orbited the sun. He would need an exact date to detach them from the red planet and then line up to reach Earth at its closest point to that position on its next annual orbit.

Captain Pete’s next problem was that Earth was moving at 66,559 miles an hour on its way around the sun. Up to now, Jonesy and the other astronauts’ craft had always had this pre-programmed into their computers, and their forward speed always showed as forward speed above the speed of Earth.

Mars unfortunately travelled slower through space at 52,113 miles an hour on a parallel course to Earth, so that when they left orbit, their speed through space would be in a sideward direction, not an immediate forward movement towards Earth’s closer orbit to the sun.

Without the computers and his experience sending America One around the solar system, Captain Pete wouldn’t have had a chance of being one percent accurate, but over time, with trillions of computer calculations, he got answers.

The only big problem was that he couldn’t estimate the speed of this snail, “The Office,” compared to the massive thrusters of the mother ship. That was the $64,000 question. How fast could this tub go, leaving enough fuel for any braking maneuvers at the end of the journey and to keep the side thrusters in control during the long flight? He had no choice but to have faith in the numbers. He decided on a 25 percent thrust for 64 hours instead of full thrust for 14 hours, once they got away from orbiting Mars. The lower thrust seemed to use slightly less fuel but increased the connection time to Earth’s orbit by 57 days. To Captain Pete, they had more time than gas.

He also realized that now was as good a time as any. Once they reached an orbit of Earth, and they had a few gallons of fuel, they could stay in orbit until somebody noticed them.

“We need to make a decision, Nancy,” asked Captain Pete on their fifth day. He was tired out and didn’t care if he never had to do a math problem ever again. “We have two choices, both pretty remote in success. We either wait for them to see us from down there, or orbit Mars until the second opposition in 719 days, or we leave orbit now and work on getting to within a near passby with Earth on her next or her second orbit, praying that we’ll be close enough for her to sweep us up and take us along. What should we do?”

“What are you telling me, that we can hang around here for a year or three, and then attempt to get to Earth, or we leave right now? As one not in the astronomy field, I can’t for the love of Mike think why we should wait around for General Jones to show his face, and then when he doesn’t, we leave. Let’s go yesterday. At least crashing into Earth’s atmosphere will be a quicker, warmer, more satisfying death than dying out here in the middle of nowhere.” And the decision was made.

Before the dust storm even got close to The Martian Club Retreat, Captain Pete fired up the rear thruster and left Mars’ orbit for a place in the solar system Earth might be in 499 days, if he had the speed to get there in time.

Chapter 3

We Are All Going to Die!

For the first 48 hours at quarter thrust, the speed of the supply pod increased from 52,200 miles an hour as it left Mars’ orbit to 55,000 miles an hour. Through the large windows surrounding them, they watched as the red planet began to edge away from them. On the second day it was noticeably smaller than during the first.

Captain Pete now had very little to do. He had programmed the estimated course into the computers, made sure the thruster was at 25 percent thrust, and watched as the fuel gauge stayed on full. His new ship had used full thrust for 90 minutes just to get away from their orbit and must have used a valuable gallon or more just to do that.

He had exited at the perfect time, using his orbital speed to propel them away from the red planet’s gravitational pull. They wouldn’t have escaped Earth, he already knew that, but they weren’t orbiting the blue planet, now a star off the starboard bow and heading away from them at over 3,000 miles an hour.

Captain Pete needed to get close to Earth within 500 days, before it turned away from him to go around the other side of the sun, where he couldn’t follow. The problem was that after 55 hours and at 56,100 miles an hour, their forward speed to their destination was only 1,100 miles an hour. They were moving faster sideways to Earth’s orbit, which would help them over time, but would reduce in speed slowly.

The readouts showed that it would take them 875 days at their current speed to connect with Earth on her orbit, 145 days into their third year from then. As their speed increased, the travel time would shorten.

“We are all going to die!” joked Nancy on Day Three after leaving orbit, when Captain Pete told her the bad news. He had just explained that their forward speed had increased by 1,000 miles an hour over the last several hours and their flight time was still 770 days: two years and 40 days. And that was not all; the fuel gauges showed 90 percent full. He had closed down the thruster after 64 hours, wanting to save the fuel for the end of the journey. “So what are we going to do, lover boy? Watch Earth spin around us year after year until we bump into it?”

“I think you put it in a nutshell. At least Mars is now a slightly small planet. Look at the bright side. We could see the moon on Earth in about a year,” smiled the captain. At least he was with the only person who really mattered to him, they had all the time in space, and it was certainly an adventure of a lifetime.

Over time the pod’s forward speed increased slightly to just over 4,300 miles an hour forward speed, and the sideward movement had reduced to 53,000 miles per hour, which he had expected. The computer readouts didn’t change much, and Captain Pete began to learn what Jonesy and VIN had put up with on their journeys to mine the asteroid. They had been cramped in such a small space on their first trip, and he had seen the tiny area they were to survive in.

The captain also remembered much about what the two men had told him, how they survived, and what they did to alleviate the continuous boredom.

Nancy was the doctor. She set them both up with bike riding upside down for two periods of three hours per day. There wasn’t much else they could do in zero gravity conditions to stay fit except make love. So they worked with the supplies, unpacking them and completing new inventory lists written out by hand. During the first year, they completed listing half their stores and then tired of the boring work.

A few highlights had been exciting though. At some time, somebody in the biology department had added items to the stores. Since the other five storage pods and the crew compartment, which had its own storage supplies, had been down on Mars since their arrival, the biology team members and others had decided to hide secret stashes here and there.

Mr. Rose must have hidden some of his fine Swiss chocolate. Suzi must have been the one to add a bottle of German Schnapps. Or could it have been Dr. Petra, or Dr. Martha? Somebody with Russian interests had stashed several cans of caviar and two bottles of the original Russian vodka Jonesy had never found.

It was the 100-pound tank that stated “Hydrogen Gas” on the side that really excited Captain Pete. The extra bottle of hydrogen even in gas form could give another several hours of fuel at full power to the thruster. He wondered who had added this to the stash. Maybe it was Ryan himself? Once they got tired of taking each bag and storage bin apart, they decided to leave the rest for the next year and watch movies instead.

The computer system had all the mother ship’s movies and old television shows stored on the servers. They could play every computer game invented before 2015. Eve and SimCity was Captain Pete’s favorite, while Nancy was happy to reread every medical journal ever published on Earth and America One. After several months, she reckoned that she had at least 3 PhDs in medicine.

They both relearned Matt so that they were fluent in it, and Captain Pete tried to make head and tail of the information added to the computers from the Matt “Inventor” boxes by the physics team. There was quite a bit on the blue shields, and after the first year, he reckoned he had a PhD in pure physics, and he now understood how they worked, in theory. It was all about electrical impulses and dying nanites.

It was three weeks after Pete’s 66th birthday that their forward speed headed over the 4,350 mark and their sideward movement to Earth’s next passby dropped under 49,900 miles an hour. It was also the day that Earth passed in front of them 31 million miles ahead of them. They were exactly halfway home.

They could see Earth; it was just another star in the heavens directly in front of them. The view outside their craft was totally three-dimensional, not the two-dimensional view they had been used to while living on Earth in their younger days. The moon was not yet visible, but over the months, Earth passed in front of them from port to starboard, so slowly that they hardly ever thought it actually moved. Since they were travelling slower than the planet in front of them was moving through space, it gave them an idea of how slow they were actually moving.

Their sideward speed hardly wavered, and Captain Pete was counting on this speed to bond them with Earth as it sped by on its next orbit.

The worst nightmare of the journey was the zero gravity. Aboard the mother ship, the electromagnetic batteries in the floor of the bridge and caps and metal shoes kept them feeling normal. The rest of the ship rotated twice a minute, giving them enough centrifugal force pull to make it feel like gravity was holding their bodies to the roof of the cylinders above. On the upper level it had been pleasant and had certainly kept their bone loss down. Now they thought they could feel the more rapid depletion of calcium in their bones and worked harder and harder to stay fit.

They made love often, sometimes not getting out of their strapped-down bed, or read or watched movies. The real nightmare was that they were vacationing in Hotel California and the boring vacation would never end.

“I’m sure there must be more surprises in the pallet of supplies we haven’t touched yet?” suggested Captain Pete with little to do one day, fifteen months into the voyage. Nancy looked up from her reading and like a lazy cat stretched. Yes, she needed some amusement. She had already read Dr. Rogers’ paper on “Blood Clotting In Zero Gravity Conditions” twice.

She unstrapped herself from the horizontal bed they had built out of pallets in the middle where the three consoles had once stood, using mattresses from upstairs, and floated semi-naked into the supply pod.

Captain Pete had rearranged the office to only one computer terminal and had packed away the rest which weren’t needed.

“I wonder what goodies we might find in this one,” she stated, trying hard to get excited.

It was more to alleviate boredom than anything, but as before they found the odd luxury that excited them. Again there was a can of caviar and a bottle of vodka. This time the box had Igor’s writing on it, stating that the contents were his and not to be consumed.

The most exciting item was a handheld radio. Captain Pete had often thought that there should have been a communications device somewhere in the supplies and he had not yet found it, until he smacked himself on head.

“Of course!” he shouted out loud. “Each of the three spacesuits have radios. Nancy, I think I have Alzheimer’s. I keep forgetting everything.”

“No, you don’t,” she retorted. “Maybe call it “Old Timer’s,” but I know for a fact that you have nothing more serious.”

“Who would put a handheld radio in here?” he asked his wife, looking at the most powerful handheld the ship had, which had come from the last visit to Earth.

“I would bet my money on General Jones,” replied Nancy, not looking up.

“Why Jonesy?” asked Captain Pete, his brow wrinkled.

“Remember your prohibition days on America One? The days the girls took over the ship since the crew were found drunk in the room below?”

“Yes, Kathy Richmond kept the boys off the booze for over 150 days. Why?”

“Well, the boys still had meetings, I believe in here, and we did find three empty bottles. Somebody was drinking up here, and there has been vodka stashed all over these supplies. Who would be the first name that comes to mind about hiding liquor during prohibition? And we haven’t found his stash yet? Lover boy, you don’t need to answer that question.”

They found Jonesy’s stash in the wall unit containing extra fire extinguishers, once they began looking in earnest for it. Nancy knew it was Jonesy’s, as three and a half of the four bottles had been drunk and there was a note in Jonesy’s handwriting telling of certain death if anybody touched the remains in his last bottle.

Captain Pete read the note, saluted General Jones, swigged a decent amount, and let his wife finish the last bottle. She and General John Jones had never got on well together.

Chocolate and candy were the last items found with a kilo of coffee beans Suzi had stashed away for Ryan. They had a decent amount of coffee remaining, a year’s supply, and another kilo could come in handy.

A couple of months later, they had a party, eating caviar and drinking a bottle of vodka between them, when Earth rounded its orbit and began coming towards them. They could see a very small star orbiting the blue planet now only 10 million miles away through the ship’s telescope.

They didn’t know that back on Mars the NextGens had just loaded the old timers into the chambers of DX2017 and were heading back. Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy had been flying a supply pod and Ryan’s old office for two years.

This time the blue planet moved visibly daily. Their forward speed was 4,410 miles an hour with a sideward speed which had reduced over the two years to less than 49,000 miles an hour. Captain Pete was ready to swing into action. He needed to increase their sideward movement to a minimum 66,000 miles an hour to equal Earth’s as it passed them by. He could change direction and divert the forward speed into sideward motion, but he was still 10,000 miles an hour short. This was why he had closed down the thruster at 90 percent fuel capacity. He still had several hours at full thrust with the now two liquid hydrogen fuel tanks they had found as backup. It would be touch and go to speed up to be attracted by the fast-moving planet.

He knew that the pull of the much larger blue planet would certainly help in the attraction but could also hinder them unless he turned into its forward direction at precisely the right time: when the planet was directly in front of his nose. Everything rested on the moment when Earth began pulling them in and their forward speed increased.

It happened four weeks later. He awoke one morning to see that their forward speed had increased by 180 miles an hour overnight. He was quite shocked at how fast it had happened and decided to give an hour at full burn to test the thruster and help increase speed.

Over the next 24 hours, with the blue plant clearly visible off their port bow and the moon now a star, their speed had doubled and was still increasing by 5 miles an hour. He had 16 hours of burn left and still needed another 5,000 miles an hour. He and Nancy began to pray.

His next task was to change the ship’s direction by 5 degrees in the direction the planet was moving. Again he added another 30-minute burn at full power. Their forward speed climbed slightly with the use of the thruster and some of the remaining sideward slip turned into forward speed. Earth would now pass by them in a week, 590,000 miles in front of them.

Captain Pete didn’t sleep for 24 hours and recalculated the equations and angles hundreds of time.

“Nancy, we are going to be 1,000 miles an hour short if I don’t change something,” he stated to a tired wife who had also lain awake most of the night. “We are at 55,000 miles an hour, not including the 5,000 miles an hour we will add once we turn her nose tomorrow. I want to add another 30-minute thrust. It seems that the earlier I do it, the faster the planet will pull us in. We are 411,000 miles out from a low Earth orbit. What do you think?”

“You are the captain, lover boy. I would prefer to crash and burn than miss the boat altogether. Put the pedal to the metal.” He did.

Instead of 30 minutes, Captain Pete gave the thruster 90 minutes at full power, burning up valuable fuel. Their speed climbed as Earth grew larger and larger in their port side window.

“She’s moving like an express train,” shouted Captain Pete. This was the most exciting flying he had ever done.

“Who? The planet? Or us?” shouted Dr. Nancy back while biking upstairs.

“Earth. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. It’s the first time I can actually see rapid orbital movement as a planet passes us by. We are at 159,000 miles and she’s going by like an express train.”

“Well, do something about it, you oaf,” replied his loving wife.

I’m turning to convert full sideways speed into direct forward speed. I’ll engage the thruster in 30 minutes,” he replied. “It seems we might have backup, darling!”

“How can we have backup out here? Is that General Jones coming to get us?”

“No, but the moon is presently directly behind Earth and orbiting in our direction. I’m going to try and get us between it and the Earth. At least if we’re too slow for an Earth orbit, we could enter into an orbit around the moon. Oh, this is so exciting!”

Captain Pete was like a kid in heaven. Even if they didn’t live through this, this was certainly worth living for. He powered up the thruster and once it was ready gave her full thrust. Thirty minutes later he turned directly in the direction the blue planet was heading. For two hours it pulled them in, and he gave chase. He watched as the altitude above the planet decreased, and his forward speed increased. At 140,000 miles altitude, the planet was just off to their starboard side, and he angled his projection another degree. At their forward speed of 66,300 miles an hour, the planet was getting away.

He had one hour of fuel remaining in the first reserve fuel tank when he topped 66,400 miles an hour. He was now coming in behind the planet and their altitude had dropped to 131,000 miles.

“We are 210 miles an hour too slow, and she is now ahead of us by 131,200 miles,” he stated to Nancy, now sitting next to him.

With the thruster at full power, the fuel headed down to empty. Fifty minutes later he asked Nancy to head upstairs and transfer the fuel from the liquid tank to the first of the two gas tanks. At 64,500 miles an hour and directly behind the planet, they were now being left behind.

The tank was exchanged at 64,510 miles an hour and he allowed 30 more minutes at full power but only reached 62,525 miles an hour. Something was pulling them back, and he knew what it was.

“Do you know, the moon is going to hit us up our rectum if we are not careful,” stated Nancy after floating down and looking the opposite direction Pete had the Earth in his sights.

“I know. We are now 230 miles an hour too slow. Even if I used all our remaining fuel, we can’t achieve orbit. I’m going to aim for a moon orbit. In her orbit around Earth she will come around the side of us in about 200,000 miles. I’m leaving 50 minutes of burn time to lock us into an orbit, and then I have a plan.”

“Care to enlighten me?” asked Nancy as he shut off the thruster. Now the pull from the moon was slowing down his speed towards Earth. They were 136,000 miles behind the planet and the distance was growing. He worked out that they were 100 fuel gallons too short to land the ship on the blue planet.

“The moon is going to catch us up in her pull, right?” Pete said. Nancy nodded at what her man was telling her. “Then we wait until we hear chatter on the radio, and when the moon is in front of Earth instead of behind it, we use what fuel we have left to head backwards towards Earth instead of trying to catch it up.” Nancy thought it sounded logical, even to a surgeon.

Thirty-one very tiring hours later Captain Pete fed much of his remaining fuel into the thruster and Ryan’s old office went into orbit around the moon.

Chapter 4

Is Anybody Ever Going to Finally Arrive?

The new view through the office windows was breathtaking. It ignited a new romance and, for the first few days after Pete had rested, kept them busy. Their orbit was strong and constant. It had to be with only half of one of the reserve tanks of hydrogen gas remaining.

It took Captain Pete a week to calculate that with absolutely minimal correctional thrusts, their new orbit would stay stable for a maximum of 25 months. Then all hell would break loose as the craft would gradually begin to spin out of control. They could end up a mess on the moon’s surface with the old American flag there becoming their gravestone.

Captain Pete wasn’t worried, though. At least they could die in peace with a view of home outside. That was far better than it being a star and the surface of Mars rushing up to meet them. Also somebody was going to see a faint dot orbiting the moon one day and hopefully get into radio communications.

Then he began to realize that it might be time to repair what he could on the outer skin of their craft. Any communication was better than none, and currently they only had about 200 miles of range with the handheld radio. It was time to do something that had become a phobia in him—the art of spacewalking.

“Nancy, I have to go out there soon,” he stated one morning over a breakfast of dried fruit, dried cookies and one of their last hot cups of coffee.

“Not something you really want to do?” she replied, knowing that he didn’t want to go out there anymore than she did. Also, her main fear was all the radiation he could bring back with him on the outside of his spacesuit.

“Well, I suppose if we ever want to see our old home, somebody has to go out there. Do you want to pick straws?”

“Not in your lifetime,” responded his wife. She wasn’t going outside and had stated that fact a number of times during their long and boring voyage across the solar system.

For a couple of weeks he tried to keep himself busy doing odd jobs like clearing up the storage area, but every time he cleaned up an area, supplies like extra radio antennas and spare outside parts kept peering up at him from where they were stored.

After a month, he couldn’t stand being such a coward anymore and prepared one of the suits for exit. Each of the seven supply cylinders had a jetpack attached to one suit, so that was the suit he prepared. The problem was that he had never used the system before.

“Hopefully you have the brains to tie a cord to the outside of the docking port like VIN used to?” Nancy asked the night before his odyssey. “I can’t do it for you, as the inner hatch will be closed, and you need to make sure the ‘D’ ring is secured and tightened down, or I’ll wave, watch you float away and then you’ll crash and burn on the moon’s surface alone.” Sometimes his darling wife was as soft and romantic as a rattlesnake.

“I have done this before, I just don’t like being locked into the confines of the suit. It is such a confined space,” he replied. “I heard that many of the astronauts really enjoy just going out there and relaxing, watching space go by. Saturn told me it was her and her father’s favorite pastime to alleviate the boredom of flight. They got the idea from VIN and Mars.”

“Well, don’t get any romantic ideas of me heading out there with you,” replied Nancy sternly. “Lover boy, you don’t even have room inside your suit for a hard-on, and I figured out that spacesuits are the best chastity belts ever invented. By the time you get out of the suit, the raving lust for quality sex is long gone.”

Nancy wasn’t helping Pete make the leap, but he didn’t expect anything else from his lovely wife and he made sure that raving lust for quality sex would not raise its head on the morrow.

“Remember to dampen a few pieces of cloth to wipe me down when I enter,” stated Captain Pete, giving her his last orders as he suited up. “We can always store them in a sealed container and add any others if I need to do this again.”

It was seconds before she helped him on with his helmet that her concern for him rose to the surface.

“You just come back to me now and give me orders. It will be worse in here without somebody to talk to. I’ll go mad quicker than what I’m doing right now. When we get down to Earth, I’m not coming back out here for anything, including all the tea in China.” Pete looked at her talking into the handheld with a sideways look. Sometimes she came out with very odd and old sayings, things his long-dead mother used to say.

The inner hatch closed behind him. Three antennas and a space tool kit were strapped around his upper right leg, and 100 feet of cord. Going through the small hatch made his sense of confinement even worse and he operated the outer hatch as soon as he had the cord’s “D” ring attached to the connection inside the hatch.

He drifted out of the rear of the office, attached the “D” ring of the other end of the cord to the outside connection, opened the other ring and secured it to his belt. He checked that both rings were secure twice, then he closed the outer hatch.

Captain Pete had a difficult task ahead of him. All the antennas, three of them, had been placed on top of the supply pod twenty feet above him, and nobody had thought to weld a ladder up the side of the pod. He had no choice but to push away from the side of the ship and learn how to maneuver himself upwards. He placed the thin two-foot-long antennas under his left arm and allowed himself to drift outwards.

Pete grabbed hold of the two controls of the jetpack and nearly gave himself a headache as the pack moved him forward and he nearly collided with the side of the ship. He closed his eyes and tried to remember how the computer game handheld devices worked and was surprised when he opened his eyes several seconds later and realized that he hadn’t moved more than a foot but was now inverted and staring at his wife through a window. Her shocked face added to his dilemma. Slowly he righted himself up and headed in the right direction.

Captain Pete began to notice that the entire skin of the craft looked dull, sort of blackened as if it had gone through a fire.

He reached the first place where one of the antennas had been located and found a melted glob of metal. He grabbed a screwdriver-type instrument from his leg pack and took a couple of minutes to pry the molten metal off the ship. Underneath, the fittings were not melted, and he managed to open two large butterfly nuts and within his first hour had a new antenna erected.

“I have one antenna attached and in hard-on position, Nancy. Try the main radio. See if the static noise has changed.”

“Negative, just the same old static, darling, no radio BBC or anything new,” she replied, talking into the handheld after a few minutes.

“I’m by the middle antenna location. This one is completely melted to the pod’s skin. I’m scared that if I use too much force I could damage the outer skin—it’s only aluminum. Floating to the most forward one.”

The antennas were about ten feet apart, and this one was right on the front edge of the supply cylinder. Again he tried to pry the molten glob off the connection. He couldn’t budge the metal without floating into space and figured out a way to affix himself to be able to pry it off. On the front side of the pod was the melted remains of a massive camera, a foot below the antennas. He wrapped the cord around what was left of what looked like the infra-red camera. He wrapped the cord tightly around it and this time managed to send the glob spinning off into space.

Pete was now sweating inside the suit, and he turned down the inside temperature several degrees.

“Two hours of spacewalking. You have 60 minutes to hightail it back in here,” stated Nancy.

“Copy that,” replied Pete. “I have one of the nuts loose and am working on the second one. I think it’s melted with the surface of the thread. I’m going to try and connect the antenna with the one nut.” He monkeyed the new antenna onto the short stem it was meant to fit over, but couldn’t secure it down, so he grabbed the same screwdriver and began hitting the melted screw, bending it downwards. He was surprised how soft the metals were. After a dozen hits, the nut was unrecognizable. He jammed the antenna down on the stem and managed to tighten the other nut down so it would have a connection and be stable.

He thanked the space god that there was no wind out here to undo his master work when Nancy piped up from inside.

“I think something in the static has changed. I’m sure I heard a few human tones, or somebody saying something. Maybe I am going crazy, Pete?”

“Well, it will take several minutes for any radio conversations to reach us out here so far from Earth, but give this second antenna a few minutes to catch something and maybe we will have the BBC News after all.”

“Well, that is Asia below us, not Great Britain,” replied Nancy, checking the blue planet.

“Ok, the Chinese BBC News then, but we won’t understand it,” Pete joked, feeling more confident than he had since they had begun orbiting the moon. He didn’t want to tell Nancy their chances of being rescued. They weren’t much, if anything at all, on the Richter scale.

He had been outside the vessel 155 minutes when he reached the outer hatch. He opened the hatch and was about to connect his suit’s “D” ring to the inner hatch and enter when Nancy’s high-pitched scream made him freeze.

“Agggggggh! Pete, Pete, I think I heard somebody talking. They said something in gibberish, maybe Russian. Pete, Pete!”

“Oh, crap!” Pete replied. “You scared the crap out of me. Nancy, I think I’ve made a small mistake.” Pete’s mistake was that he was no longer tethered to the spacecraft and his reaction to her scream—he had pushed his arms out or something, as he was already two feet away from the side of the craft and heading away. He froze.

“Pete, Pete, I see you. Where is your cord? You are floating out there without your cord.”

“Yes, I realize that, darling. I’m doing a VIN Noble and sort of showing off,” he replied, trying to make it a joke. He could see her face. She wasn’t talking into the hand radio, and her face had gone awfully pale.

“Pete, use that jetpack thing! You are already ten feet away,” shouted Nancy.

“I will, darling, if you would stop shouting in my ear and making me deaf. My ears are still ringing from your first scream.”

“Hurry, Pete, you are floating away,” cried Nancy, holding her hand to her mouth.

As his head cleared, and his wife shut up, he regained control of the jetpack. He checked its energy gauge. It was near empty and he pushed both levers forward. Pete’s backward movement stopped and he began to slowly move forward, but he was heading down and would pass under the craft. He tilted up both controls and he stopped in mid-space and began to go into a reverse somersault. He stopped that and a warning in his suit began a silent beep. He was running out of energy.

Captain Pete closed his eyes and kept them closed, mentally making himself go forward until his helmet softly collided with something. He grabbed onto the open outer hatch and more relief went through his body than ever before in his life. He still didn’t like spacewalking.

His wife was angry and crying when he entered the inner hatch, her cloths ready to wipe his suit down. With his helmet still on he could hear her whimpering through the ship’s intercom. Something had changed: she wasn’t using the handheld and he could hear her. Something was working.

“You stupid oaf!” she stated once she helped him off with his helmet.

“Hey, lady! You scared the bejesus out of me with that scream, and just at the wrong moment,” he replied, trying to calm her down.

“But how could you? I forgot to pick up the radio.” Then what he had said clicked in her brain and she smiled. “The big radio works.”

Once he had been wiped down and was relieved to finally get out of his suit, he floated it up into its storage rack for it to recharge. When he floated back down, Nancy had a bottle of vodka, Jonesy’s last half-bottle, for them to swig.

Being weightless, they had to keep a finger on the top of the open bottle, and then they passed it to each other, shaking the bottle so the contents would move around inside and at the exact moment taking a swig. They were pretty good at zero-gravity drinking by now.

Three months later, the same day that seven spacecraft left Mars, Pete realized that even with the radio working, they couldn’t get communications with anybody on Earth. He had tried every channel, given out Maydays daily, and still nobody had replied from Earth. It was his 68th birthday and time to figure out when to head towards Earth.

They had ample supplies, ample heat and energy. Only one unit, an air filtration system, had gone down inside the pod, and he had repaired it twice before it failed for the third time. Now he had no more spares to repair it, and the air inside the supply pod was becoming stale and stinky when they exercised up there.

Pete and Nancy spent the next month moving the exercise bike down and rearranging the office so that they could breathe the cleaner air inside the lower portion of the craft while working out.

Then they tested the upper air for over a week and found that it was decreasing in quality very slowly, and they decided to spend less and less time up in the larger area.

It was five weeks after his 68th birthday on Nancy’s next birthday that he finally got down to doing new calculations on using 50 pounds of hydrogen gas to leave orbit and head for Earth.

“Darling, we will run out of fuel after one complete accelerating orbit and it should catapult us in the direction of Earth. The moon’s pull is far less than we had on Mars but it is going to take us 90 percent of our fuel to speed up to get the catapult effect towards Earth. If the fuel runs out before we get to our exit point, we will be out of control and just head away out of orbit.”

“Is there a gas station anywhere close?” joked Nancy.

“I wish. A hydrogen gas station. Just ten more gallons could get us into a high space orbit around Earth. We need twenty gallons to get into a low space orbit, but our radio should transmit and receive from as far as 200,000 miles out.”

“So we head the 40-odd-thousand miles closer to Earth and send out a Mayday if we have a 200,000-mile range,” replied Nancy, arranging the warmed dinner in two plastic containers so that the pouches couldn’t float away.

“Not so easy, girl,” Pete replied. “At 40,000 miles distance from the moon, it will slowly draw us back. Our forward speed would decrease over time and within a year or so we would end up in the dust by the flag. If we get closer to Earth, it will drag us in until we fry into French fries entering the atmosphere. We are sort of between a rock and a hard place.”

“Well, we get as close to Earth as we can and let God make his or her decision on which planet we die on. Or NASA flies up a shuttle and rescues us. Simple,” smiled Nancy. To her, space travel was as simple as brain surgery was to her husband.

“Well, I agree, and somebody should be arriving in from Mars soon. Gee, we’ve waited three years already. I just hope we didn’t miss them, but I’m very afraid we did. They might hear us in Australia, and Mars or Saturn might come up and rescue us. That is if the cubes are non-existent. Too many maybes for me, but if they have already arrived, I’m just hoping that they have cleared up the cubes and have somebody patrolling in orbit. Nancy, that is our only chance, but we must wait 78 more days until the moon and Earth are in the perfect position for us to head out.”

It was a long wait. Captain Pete couldn’t leave before the due date and he often turned the side thrusters off during the night when they were asleep and motionless to save fuel. Every morning he was surprised to see how little the craft had rearranged itself, a millimeter or so without the side thrusters, but there were minute changes and he turned them off for three days, only to get a shock from the way the craft’s angles began to change after 48 hours.

On average, the side thrusters worked once a day, normally two going off for a second or two to keep the craft stable. They used so little fuel that it didn’t really register over the final month.

The day finally came, and after 48 hours of computer calculations, he fed thrust through the aft thruster for 58 minutes. As Earth appeared dead ahead, he hit two of the side thrusters and they powered away from the moon. Now he programmed the side thrusters to keep the center of the blue planet in his center. They were ahead of Earth in its rotation and over the next week the moon gradually headed away.

“Not good news I’m afraid,” stated Captain Pete two weeks after they had left moon orbit. “We are being dragged along by the pull of Earth, but we are not quite out of the moon’s pull yet. Our paltry forward speed towards Earth has reduced in the last 24 hours from 65 miles an hour to 64.5.”

“But we are going faster than Earth, right?” she asked.

“Correct, but the planets are still orbiting and the moon is now on our port bow, not behind us. We are beginning to be pulled sideward, not backwards.”

“How far have we travelled from the moon?”

“Nearly 22,000 miles from our orbit, or 215,000 miles from Earth.”

“But we are still going forward, are we not?” Nancy asked. Pete nodded. “And the moon is getting further and further away from us on its own orbit, right?” Again Pete nodded. “Darling, I bet you didn’t add that equation into the computer calculations, that the moon would get further away from us than we would get from it?”

That gave Pete new ideas, and he spent another day working on new parameters to the calculations. He gave up. It was getting too complicated, but Nancy in her innocence was right. The pull from the moon was drawing them off course, but it was getting weaker by the day.

Three days later he had no choice but to use 99 percent of the remainder of the fuel for two minutes and change course to keep Earth in his sights. At 66 miles an hour, they neared Earth. Two weeks later they were within 191,000 miles of the planet. Unfortunately, he only had 29 days of side thrusters left and still he did not get a reply from anybody. They were done for in 29 days.

“America One to Earth, America One to Earth,” stated Pete over the radio hour after hour, a dozen times a day. There was still no response.

With ten days of side thruster control left and their speed now increasing by a mile an hour a day due to closing with Earth, their time was running out. He was halfway through the year to his 69th birthday, and now he knew the age at when he was going to die. Nancy was a solid person to have around, but after three and a half years of playing poker with the solar system, they were down to their last hand and their last quarter-bottle of vodka.

He had tried to add the vodka to the fuel tank, but he could not open the tank. It was sealed, and nobody had explained to him how it opened. It was sealed and pressurized, the opening was outside, and that didn’t help Pete add the remaining vodka to the tank. So it was time to drink it, and they did.

They ate a hearty meal—there was no use saving the best parts of the stores anymore—and they went to sleep quite drunk and in the warmth of each other.

“That is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen,” said a familiar voice over the radio. Captain Pete thought that he was napping on the bridge on America One and turned over to continue his warm comfortable sleep. The second familiar voice brought him back to consciousness.

“I don’t ever want to leave Earth again, except to return to the moon to see this eclipse again.”

“I don’t ever want to see the moon or an eclipse again,” added Nancy still semi-asleep.

Captain Pete released his strap and floated out of bed and shook his head, holding onto the command console. Was he dreaming? Had he heard Lunar and Pluto Jane Saunders? He looked at the console and then at the speakers around the room. They were silent.

Damn, it had been a trick of his imagination. Damn! And he wanted to throw something at something until the clear voice of Saturn Jones filled the room, as clear as if she were parked next door.

“And by the way, I have excellent news for all now that we see Earth filling our windshields.” Captain Pete pulled himself into the chair, strapped himself in and pinched himself while he listened to Saturn’s rosy and happy voice tell the other astronauts that she was expecting a baby, Mars Noble’s baby. Nancy, now sitting up in bed but still strapped in, mentioned to Pete that maybe he should try the radio.

“America One to SB-I, II or III. America One to any spaceship out there, do you copy, over?”

“Whoever is playing a lousy joke, I don’t find it very funny, guys,” replied Mars Noble.

“Me neither,” added Saturn Jones.

“Mars, Saturn, this is Pete. We are stuck out here in Ryan’s office and supply pod. Surely you can see Nancy and me on your radar? Please, over.”

“Captain Pete! Is that you? Don’t bullcrap me. If this is a joke… Captain Pete! I have a tiny dot on my radar, about 50,000 miles ahead of us. I thought it a piece of debris or something. If that’s you, you are not moving, over,” stated Saturn Jones.

“How many debris dots do you have on your screens?” Pete asked.

“Just the one,” Saturn replied. “Captain Pete, please be you!” Saturn’s voice filled with emotion over the radio.

“Affirmative, we are days from death here, Nancy and I. Saturn, Mars, whoever, please come and get us now before we both go crazy. Forward speed 59 miles an hour, yes, 59 miles an hour, and we are losing our fight to reach Earth by a mile an hour a day.”

“Roger, Captain Pete. Break, break all craft. This is Mars with Saturn in SB-III. You all heard that. All craft turn 180 degrees for reverse thrust at full power, we need to reduce speed fast. Target 48,800 miles on an angle of 27 degrees. Captain Pete, can you hold out for another couple of hours?”

“My boy, Nancy and I have held out for three and a half years, so two more hours is fine with both of us. Nancy, put on your best dress. The Coast Guard is coming to save us!”

Chapter 5

Thank God

Mars Noble looked out of SB-III’s cockpit window at the ungainly craft 100 feet off his starboard bow. It looked like it had gone through the wars, and he saw two old friends waving at him.

Captain Pete thought the reversing pregnant-looking shuttle, with its supply pod underneath its belly and what looked like a Matt spacecraft latched onto its roof, the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

“Where are Jonesy and Maggie?” Pete asked, waving at the shuttle’s cockpit windows and now speaking through the handheld to SB-III’s intercom so that nobody on Earth would hear them.

“Asleep,” replied Saturn.

“Ryan and Kathy?” asked the captain of his commander.

“Also asleep, cryogenically asleep on DX2017,” Saturn answered. “Dad wanted to be young enough to go fishing and so did several others. Thirty of the oldest members of the crew are to be reawakened when the little planet bypasses Earth in eleven years, one month’s time.”

“Dr. Rogers, Nurse Martha, also asleep?” asked Dr. Nancy.

“Yep!” replied Saturn. “Dr. Walls is our flight’s resident doctor in SB-I.”

“Mars Noble, we beat you guys getting here in this lousy excuse for a spaceship?” joked Captain Pete.

“You don’t know the storms we faced trying to get off the planet, Captain,” replied Mars seriously. “And we lost many good friends in the fight. We all thought you guys were dead. Now I can see how you survived. What are you two doing in that James Bond escape pod for Ryan anyway?”

“I wanted to see the location the alien craft were coming from. I couldn’t see clearly through the shield, so Nancy and I headed outside the shield in this to get a better view. I didn’t have time to tell you guys before the explosion fried all our antennas. I had to go out there and modify our radio reception last year.”

“Did you get the exact location of their base? We blew up part of the area they were firing at us, but maybe they had more than one base. Michael Pitt was close to the area when it went up.”

“Yes, that was one of the last things I saw, but he was about 30 miles due south of where the last alien craft appeared out of the planet’s surface. Now, how are we going to get a ride back to Earth, Captain Noble? SB-III looks like it is all packed up for a long vacation.”

“You have a complete docking port on your rear. I was about to release the Matt craft we found on DX2017 in a few hours anyway. I’ll bring my flight forward. We have a plan of action. We have orders to follow, from Ryan, and I’m going down in the Matt craft with Commander Roo, first to case Australia and our base while the shuttle lasers stay up here and back me up. Ryan told me not to trust anybody down on Earth except Bob Mathews, and to get in contact with him before the rest of the craft descend. He had wanted me to head down with you, but he didn’t know you are still alive. Captain Pete, I would sure prefer to have you as co-pilot instead of Commander Roo. He is too peaceful a person.”

“I’ll be happy to head down with you, Captain Noble. I know how to get hold of Bob. We have all America One’s bridge communication records with us here in the office.”

“That’s makes my day. Saturn, we will transfer the Matt craft passengers into the shuttle and then I’ll get her off our roof,” stated Mars Noble to her sitting beside him and over the intercom so that everybody could hear. “That will take about three hours, since we don’t have a docking port. Each crewmember will have to spacewalk with attachment along a tight cord to the shuttle’s docking port one by one. Once I’m away and empty of crew, Saturn, extend the docking hatch and lock it onto “The Office.” It sounds like Captain Pete has had fresh spacewalking experience. When we are in orbit around Earth, he can come and join me in the Matt craft to head down. I will then extend my shield to go invisible and follow you into orbit. Captain Pete, did you copy that?”

“Copied that, Captain Noble, sounds like a good plan.”

The six crewmembers aboard the smaller Matt craft were two mechanic crewmembers with their wives and teenage children. They had been chosen since they all had spacewalking experience, but after nearly six months, they were happy to get off the ship. One by one Mars helped them move along a cord set up between the two craft 30 feet apart.

On his final return to the ship, he had a canister of supplies that would last him in orbit and down on Earth if he needed water and food.

Nancy was extremely happy to enter the larger confines of the shuttle, slipping on metal shoes to walk and using her weak legs for the first time in 42 months. There was still no gravitational pull on the shuttle, but it did have its electromagnets along the entire floor.

She was greeted by by the crew with screams and hugs. Then Captain Pete floated into the craft with all the astronauts aboard first standing to attention and saluting, then rushing up to hug him.

“Saturn, you now look even uglier with that monstrosity attached to your docking port,” laughed Mars as he entered the Matt craft. SB-III did not look like a shuttle anymore. It had its pregnant belly below it, and now Ryan’s office and second cylinder locked vertically and facing upwards from its roof docking port. It had been tight, but the second cylinder pod was also facing upwards twelve feet and its rear side was only a foot away from the side of the shuttle. Saturn had done a great job attaching her vessel to the other, creating the ugliest-looking spacecraft he had ever seen.

Once everything was in place, the rear thrusters ignited and the flotilla of spacecraft continued on their journey towards Earth.

Chapter 6

Australia, Here We Come

Commander Roo had not been happy about the change of plan. He had been told explicitly by Ryan to head down to the surface of Earth with Mars Noble, and Roo took his orders very seriously.

He refused to have his orders changed, and that brought Mars Noble back inside SB-III to take command of the situation.

Roo was adamant about following orders. Who was this young kid to give him orders? He was a commander and Mars Noble only a captain after all. It was, funnily enough, Captain Pete who agreed with Roo, explaining to Mars that after all, orders were orders. Mars was now a man, and Captain Pete was his mentor. He wasn’t going to argue, so Commander Roo was going to head down. That ended the argument, but Saturn Jones knew what to do.

Since her man was back in the co-pilot’s seat, she spent a few hours chatting with Roo. He and Mars returned to the Matt craft as ordered by Ryan six months earlier, and an hour later they all headed straight in fast and entered into their first orbit of Earth, a pretty high orbit at 5,000 miles.

“I see space items through the laser camera,” shouted Penelope Pitt a day later while completing their fifth orbit. The heavens seemed clear, but all three laser gunners were still at the ready. Everybody remembered the previous vicious attacks by the cubes when they were kids.

One or two faint blips had appeared on all their radar screens but only during certain parts of their orbits.

“I see one blue shield orbiting Earth,” continued Penelope Pitt, now flying SB-II in the lead next to the Matt craft which had its shield already extended. “There is one other blip on my screen. I see it, and the other radar contact. I’m adjusting the laser locking device onto it. Yes, there is another blue shield. We have two up here, which means that there are no cubes in orbit. There can’t be.”

“Crew of Astermine to Australia, do you copy? Over,” stated Saturn Jones into her radio mike. The reply was fast. They had been noticed.

“G’day, Astermine. I need to get my boss. Glad to hear you guys have returned, out.”

The reply was rather blunt, but Captain Pete told Saturn in the cockpit that it was usual. They waited half an orbit before the radios blared out a new message. That made them jump, as Australia was on the other side of the planet, and that meant only one thing: there were communications out in space. The others began searching the radar screens for any other blips at higher altitudes.

“Astermine, good to hear you guys are back. We have been waiting years for your return. Your new home is at the following coordinates… 20 miles off the northeastern Australian coastline. There is a 10,000-foot airstrip, 30 feet wide, ready for you. Your new base has all the electronics and radio beacons you might need to land. Within 24 hours, we can have the base restocked with fresh produce, and we are issuing orders that no one is to visit until you invite us. Is Ryan there? This is John Soames, President of the Australasian government, and I would like to welcome him home.”

“Negative. The boss is on the next flight. This is just the first group of craft returning,” replied Saturn. “It seems there is no welcoming committee up here? Over.”

“No, great news, your attack ships have defended space perfectly since you left. The Chinese managed to hit one of your spacecraft with a nuke, one of the last they sent up. We believe that the nuclear-armed countries have used up most of their missiles trying to get those spaceships of yours, only hitting one. Ryan will be surprised to learn that he has virtually emptied this planet of all nukes and cubes, and the world is a far safer place than when you left. We count six craft returning, over.”

“How did they see all six craft?” Saturn asked over the intercom.

“I think I see something on radar,” replied Penelope Pitt, also using the intercom and not the radio. “Yes, there it is. I thought I saw something hours ago. I see another, there is a second one. The computer is telling me 22,500 miles altitude. There is one over central Australia and one over the Mediterranean, somewhere above Egypt or Israel.”

“There’s a third,” added Pluto Jane Saunders, co-pilot in SB-II. “It is right over the United States. Somebody seems to have satellites in space. I just thought the blip was radar shadows or something.”

“This is Lunar Richmond, Ryan’s eldest daughter, in command of one of our arriving spaceships. It seems somebody has new satellites up here, Mr. Soames.”

The Australasian Prime Minister went on to explain to the returning astronauts that the Australians, Israelis and the Canadians had recently launched new satellites, and once again planet Earth had 360-degree communications 24/7.

What surprised Captain Pete was that John Soames told them that the new satellites had recorded the incoming craft about 200,000 miles out, and that seemed on the border when the kids had found him. It seemed that he and Nancy would have had somebody to talk to on the radio if the Nextgeners hadn’t found them first. Of course, whether anybody on Earth had a spacecraft to come and fetch them was another matter.

The entire crew listened in as John Soames told them that planet Earth was a sort of peaceful planet once again, but that didn’t satisfy Mars Noble or Commander Roo.

“Commander Lunar Richmond, I think it better that Captain Pete takes my place and descends to Earth with Captain Noble. I also don’t trust what the man is saying, like Commander Ryan suggested,” stated the lead Matt over the intercom. With only a range of several hundred miles at maximum, nobody should be able to hear them. Saturn smiled, but said nothing. Her talk of danger going down there to Roo had worked. He was not a warlike person.

Over the next few hours, Captain Pete spacewalked again. The small Matt shook the captain’s hand halfway along the cord stretched between the two craft, and both men continued in their opposite directions.

“Mars darling, Captain Pete has Boris’s Taser devices, and Allen’s .44 Magnum, just in case,” stated Saturn as she watched the captain reach the other craft 100 feet away.

“Keep your love notes to yourselves, SB-III. Keep your intercom work professional,” admonished Lunar Richmond from SB-I. Saturn smiled again and confirmed that she had copied the order. Poor Lunar was more pissed off than the others that Saturn carried Mars’ baby. Up to then, Lunar had hoped she could sweep the man away from her adversary.

“America One to Bob Mathews, bridge of America One to Bob Mathews, do you copy? Over.” stated Captain Pete twelve hours later. Lunar had accepted the Australian offer to refresh the produce at their new home. That would take 24 hours and nobody was heading down until Bob Mathews told them it was safe.

It took several calls, and only when they were directly over their new base did he get a response.

“Pete, Pete, reading you clearly now. You must be directly overhead. I don’t see any big glinting spaceship up there. Is that really you, Pete?”

“Three Marlin, two Barracuda, one Stingray, over,” stated Pete, reading the line from the computer readout made up between Jonesy and Bob before they had left.

“Yes, I remember. Three King Mackerel, two Dorado, one fat Wahoo and a jolly old good time. I think that is what I was supposed to say. I am getting old, Pete. Will be a year closer to seventy next month, over.”

“Only you and Jonesy could have put that lousy rhyme together, Bob. How are you and the girls?”

“We three are still fine, healthy and happy fishing our lives away. I didn’t catch if you have spoken to Australia yet, but speak to John Soames. He is the new leader of the free world, and whatever he tells you is truth. There are three satellites up there. Australia is a great place for you guys, as is the island accommodation the girls and I put together for you six years ago. Do you still need the runway, or are you guys able to do what you did when you left the last time? Over.”

“We have progressed since then, as usual extremely well-armed and ready to take on the whole world if need be. We’ve experienced weapons on Mars that could crack this planet in two with one shot, so we are ready. Bob, Ryan stated that we need to get certain answers from you if you were under duress or something and being forced to say good things to bring us down. Please say the five answers to the five words I give you. As you know, the world is listening in to this conversation. Each one of the five words with the best answer gives us an accurate idea of what to expect, over.”

“Go ahead, Pete, I’m ready.”

“Peace?”

“Five,” replied Bob.

“Health?”

“Four.”

“Trust?”

“Four.”

“Safety?”

“Five.”

“Truth?”

“Four.”

“Thanks, Bob. How far are you from our new home?”

“Oh! About 17 hours on a fast cruise. Beth, take in the lines. We are heading for the island. Sorry, Pete. We’ll be there in, say, 20 hours, tied up and on the airfield waiting for you, over.”

“Copy that, Bob. There is only one craft coming down. I will be aboard. I want to see only three people on the runway, you guys, no more. I don’t want to see anybody else. Prime Minister Soames gave me his word, over.”

“If he gave you his word, that is good enough for me, buddy. See you in 20. Out,” replied Bob Mathews.

“So, Captain Pete, tell us all those answers. Nobody knows what you two were yakking about,” asked Lunar Richmond over the intercom.

“Lunar, Mars, I, or whoever was in control of the bridge on America One would have been prompted by the computers to ask Bob those questions. They were hidden away on all your computers and Bob’s radio voice should have activated all your computers on what to ask. I just knew them by heart. Check your Return to Earth file, Lunar.”

“Ok, the questions and answers are staring me in the face. I see them on my screen now. The answers were all one to five. What does fours mean?”

“I think that Bob Mathews doesn’t like politicians, any of them. His health is not what it used to be, and it is safe and peaceful down there, over.”

Twenty four hours later, Mars Noble hovered the Matt craft at 10,000 feet directly above the runway below them. As they descended inside the blue shield, and it was his first real atmosphere reentry, they could see the three spectators once they reached 5,000 feet.

“That you down there, Bob?” asked Captain Pete, using a handheld radio.

“G’day, Pete. Affirmative, old buddy. You flying that soap bubble, or do you have Jonesy or Maggie as your chauffeur?”

“A young kid. You’ll meet him once we land. Still fives and fours down there?”

“Affirmative, still fives and fours across the board. I didn’t think Ryan would make you guys go through all this protection crap, but I suppose being away for so long makes one uneasy.”

“Roger that, and remember all our last returns. Nobody loved us then either,” replied Captain Pete. “Mars, take her down.”

“You got that kid Mars Noble flying you around? What happened, Pete? Too old to fly, old man? The kid was knee-high to a grasshopper last time I saw him.”

“Captain Mars Noble to you, Colonel Mathews, sir, and we are descending, over,” smiled Mars as he was handed the radio and continued their descent.

“At least somebody up there has taught the NextGens some manners. Kid, place her about 50 feet from the forward hangar. It is hot, damn hot down here, and we have automated systems to wheel her into the shade, over.”

“Wheels. Wheels, Colonel! I think we astronauts are better than wheeling craft around. I don’t have wheels on this craft. Open the hangar doors and I’ll reduce the shield and hover her in there. Did you hear that, Captain Pete, wheeling spacecraft around?”

“You wait, kid, you are going to be wheeled around too, don’t forget that,” replied Captain Pete, and for the first time in a long time Mars suddenly remembered the horrible, painful pull of the gravity on Earth. He had forgotten all about it.

Captain Pete hadn’t forgotten. He was dreading the pain; he had just spent 1,000 days in absolute zero gravity, and it was going to hurt, really hurt.

As promised, Mars landed, reduced the shield in the simmering hot sun, then lifted the craft a few feet off the ground, checked to see that the hangar door was high and wide enough, and gently floated the Matt craft into the cool shady hangar.

He was also the first to exit the craft 30 minutes later and nearly crumpled to a heap on the floor as the two women, Beth and Monica, grabbed each arm, turned him around and sat him in the wheelchair.

They unscrewed his spacesuit’s helmet and he tried to smile at the welcoming committee. Bob Mathews was right. It was hot, damn hot, and he could already feel beads of sweat running down his brow.

Captain Pete was far weaker, and Mars had explained that to the threesome as they helped the old captain out of the bottom hatch. Mars, sitting in the wheelchair, was also shocked at how weak his mentor was. The poor man’s body was acting like a rag doll, and Beth even had to hold the captain’s head up. His neck muscles weren’t able to do so.

“Right, off to the swimming pool with you two,” commanded Bob Mathews, far older-looking than Pete remembered. The man’s hair was pure white against the brownness of his tan. Bob actually looked more like an Aborigine than a white man. “Beth, Monica, get your swimsuits on. Pete might need help to stay afloat.”

To Mars the water was warm and felt like the temperature of liquid blood. His brow was still sweating once he was in the warm water, and after he was able to change into his bathing trunks behind a curtain. Even this was hard work. His spacesuit had been removed by the ground crew. He only had a shirt and shorts underneath, but just getting these two items off was really strenuous.

There were no medics this time. They hadn’t really been needed on the previous visits, and nobody had thought about inviting any. Dr. Walls and Nancy would be down on the next flights, and Captain Pete then realized how many little things Igor organized for everyone.

As usual they were thirsty, and each was helped to down an iced bottle of water. To Mars it tasted like heaven.

“Is the boy old enough to drink beer?” Bob asked Pete jokingly, holding two dripping six packs of beer. Pete smiled and nodded and Mars had his first ice-cold beer on Earth. He preferred the taste of water, but the beer was a sustenance that Jonesy believed made him strong, and he did believe a few things Jonesy said.

Over the first hour, a little of their strength returned. After chatting with the two astronauts for a while, Bob headed over and lit the barbie, as he described it to Mars, waiting to feed them.

A silly-looking robot emerged from one of the buildings with trays of what looked like slabs of whole cows, and Bob slapped massive T-bone steaks onto the roaring flames.

“Like your steak charred, Pete, if I remember rightly?”

“A steak, yes, Bob. A whole damn cow, no,” laughed Pete. He had able to hold his head up again on his third beer, but Beth stayed close just in case. To her, Pete had an extremely white, pretty shriveled-up, bad excuse for a human body, and she was glad she hadn’t become an astronaut. Even the young kid was as thin as a bean pole and didn’t weigh more than 100 pounds. She remembered seeing other thin bodies grow into normal shape only days after arriving, and they were used to getting only half of their friends back in weight each time they returned.

Their diets were just as small. Pete finished four mouthfuls of meat and potatoes, the kid five. “I think we should get a medical team in for the next crew arrivals,” suggested Beth over bottles of water when everyone was back in the pool five hours later. The two astronauts had managed an afternoon nap in cots inside a fully walled veranda next to the pool. Both were hungry and slightly hung-over, but a hair of the same dog, a cold sunset beer, brought them back to life.

“I think we should delay the next flight in for an extra 24 hours, Pete,” stated Bob. “We are going to need your help to cart the crew off the ship if there are more than a dozen.”

A radio was always nearby, and Pete suggested to Nancy that the next flight in wait another day, as Mars was in no position to help people off the craft, and he himself certainly wasn’t strong enough to help.

Lunar Richmond reminded Mars that Astermine One was the next ship due in and it would have only 16 crew aboard. It would first dock with SB-II, then SB-I, and transfer a few crew, as there was not enough room. Then it would release the supply pod, and the supply pod under its belly would remain in orbit. Pluto Katherine Richmond, who had seven hours flying inside a blue shield in the Martian atmosphere, was bringing her in with herself as co-pilot, and with the doctor. Lunar and Dr. Walls had already made the spacewalk across to the small mining craft.

Pluto Katherine, Ryan’s younger daughter, was one of the best Astermine craft astronauts, and once they were down and rested, Lunar was to head up with Mars to return the black box with the blue shield for Asterspace Three, which would follow Astermine One. The Matt craft would bring in the remainder of the crews on each flight down.

“What is the 1,500 gallons of ethanol for?” Bob asked Mars once the radio work was done.

“Remember Commander Joot?” Mars asked.

“The little bushman fellow, sure,” replied Bob.

“Well, he was killed in an attack on our base on Mars. It was an older tribe of his kind of people who attacked us. I know nobody ever explained to you that the Matt craft we arrived in runs on ethanol.”

“No kidding,” replied Bob. “Old Martin Brusk spends his life making electric cars work, and these old guys ran their spaceship on ethanol?” Bob shook his head. He still needed to be told much of what had happened, and with Captain Pete’s permission, for the next three hours, Mars told the three pilots the entire story since they had left Earth.

“Phew! Pete, you got all the way from Mars to the moon on a couple of hundred gallons of liquid hydrogen,” remarked Bob, not believing what Mars was telling him. “You should have used Jonesy’s stocks of vodka you found in the stores. Since he is cryon-whatever asleep up there with Ryan and the rest of our generation, he certainly doesn’t need it. And, Pete, 13 years? Do you know how old us two old guys are going to be when those kids up there resurface and return? We are going to look like their damn parents.”

“Think about my father and me,” added Mars. “I will be 13 years older, and much closer to his age. If we let them go around the solar system a few more times, I could be older than VIN!”

“Didn’t think of that, mate,” replied Bob trying to figure out this astronaut stuff. It was far easier to fly planes, and go fishing, and he was already too old to fly anymore anyway.

It took Captain Pete another 48 hours to get strong, and he and Mars were ready when the pinprick of blue shield came into view thousands of feet above them.

“That’s right, Pluto Katherine, you are about over the airstrip. Hold your craft in hover mode once your forward speed hits zero, and as Maggie taught us, first get your craft absolutely stationary before you descend.”

“Mars, I can’t get her below 25 knots forward speed. I touched the thrusters and we shot backwards at 55 knots. I touched the thrusters again and we shot forward at 35 knots. We are currently heading forward at 25 knots and sideward to port at 40 knots. I think I need to bring her in a circular pattern over the airfield. I can always set her up for a forward landing down the tarmac, over.”

“Roger that, Pluto Katherine. A good idea,” replied Mars, worried. She was good, but only Maggie, Jonesy, and now he had blue shield flight experience in Earth’s atmosphere. Even he had used all his experience to get down, and even in the Matt craft, he hadn’t held her perfectly stable until sweating the final few feet.

Slowly Astermine One came into view circling the airfield in rapid circles. They had no other choice, as she had been designed never to return to Earth and had no heat bricks on her underbelly.

“Three thousand feet and forward speed increasing to 50 knots,” stated Pluto Katherine Richmond.

“Are you still slipping sideways?” Mars asked.

“Negative, the circling has rectified that problem.”

“Pluto Katherine, this is Bob Mathews. Did you ever learn ‘downwind’ and ‘finals’ on your flight simulators on America One? Over.”

“Roger, Uncle Bob. We played attack games with Spitfires and P-38s in the simulators. We had two of them, and when we came in to land, we had to follow approach patterns to the airfields, over.”

“Great! Then follow the same pattern, a left-hand approach pattern. Head over the airfield and then begin your downwind leg for about a mile at about 2,000 feet. Work on flying in a straight line. Then turn to port 180 degrees to line up to the runway at 1,000 feet and bring her in on finals, over.”

“Copy that, over.”

“Those craft don’t have an undercarriage with wheels,” Mars told Bob.

“We’ll get to that problem when she is over the runway,” replied Bob.

They watched as the silent soap bubble changed course and at about 2,500 feet flew over them. Not a sound could be heard, and even the island birds had gone quiet.

“About one or so miles out, 1,200 feet, forward speed 63 knots, Bob?” stated Pluto Katherine.

“Bring her around in a left turn 180 degrees, aim for about 10 to 20 feet of altitude at the beginning of the runway. There is zero wind, temperature about one hundred degrees. I want to see what that soap bubble of yours does when it touches the tarmac, over.”

They watched as the craft turned in and like a normal commercial jet with a soap bubble around it approached the simmering runway. Pluto Katherine came in perfectly. Her playing computer games had certainly paid off, a commercial pilot couldn’t have done better.

“Eighty feet, 78 knots,” she reported as the runway began to slip by under her nose.

“Bring her down ever so slowly,” stated Mars.

About a quarter way down the runway the blue shield touched the surface, bounced the ship up a foot or so, and Pluto Katherine pushed her down again. This time she kept pushing her controls forward and the shield began to flatten below the craft.

“Speed decreasing to 35 knots… 31 knots… 28 knots, altitude 10 feet. The legs are about to hit,” stated Lunar, helping her sister.

“Close down the shield now, Lunar,” ordered Mars. She did so, and slowly the blue shield disappeared. A scraping sound could be heard as the shield slowly disappeared, and at 15 knots, Astermine One had sparks flying out from her short tripod legs.

“Shut everything down, Pluto Katherine. Lunar, close down your power. You are starting to veer off the black top,” ordered Bob.

“Roger, everything closing down, still moving,” stated Pluto Katherine calmly. The skidding spacecraft, with sparks still flying off its feet, slowly came to a halt nearly in front of the hangars with only a couple of feet before the front leg would dive into the grass and dirt at the side of the runway.

Astermine One was down. They only had five to go.

“A couple of good old rubber tires would have helped,” suggested Bob as they pushed five wheelchairs toward the craft that was never meant to return to Earth.

Aboard was Joanne Dithers Roo, her husband, Dr. Walls, his son, the two Richmond pilots, two of Suzi’s younger group of biologists and eight Earth children, all pale and weak. In fives, the team sweated and transferred the crew to the shade and air conditioning of the veranda room by the pool. They were all stronger than Pete had been and within hours the children were moving around in the warm pool water as dinner was prepared by both Beth and Monica this time.

Earlier, Mars had used full thrust on the mining craft’s thrusters and had managed to get her a few feet off the ground. The power from the thrusters would have destroyed the hangar, so they parked it outside the second hangar. Bob used an old tractor to drag it screeching on its tripod into the shade of the hangar.

They managed to get John Soames on the radio that night, as Joanne desperately wanted to speak to him.

“Mr. Soames, what happened to my father? Just the straight truth please,” she asked once introductions had been given.

“Ok, Ms. Dithers. Your father, President Dithers, ran the United States until Congress finally forced him out of power at the completion of his third term as ‘President For Life.’ That was about three years ago. The U.S. had gone nowhere for his term as President. Two years ago, a new President, a President Roger Downs, contacted the Canadian government begging for troops. It seemed that parts of the South—Texas through to Florida and as far north as South Carolina—were wanting to break away from the north. Your father was in control of this breakaway. He had set up shop in Texas and wanted to return to rule. Canada sent in 10,000 soldiers and helped keep the southern troops from taking over Washington. Remember, Ma’am, there have been no new weapons made in the U.S.A. for decades now. The United States Air Force is virtually grounded, and the southern troops are even worse off when it comes to modern weapons. It is standard issue for all our Australian and Canadian troops to have laser hand weapons, and their orders were not to get involved, but to protect Washington. They had just rebuilt the Capitol Building, since our friend Ryan destroyed it on his last visit. That is where the country stands right now. The Canadian troops are still there, and it is quid pro quo on both sides, a sort of stalemate. I believe your father needs a strong word. So does the new President, and the country could unite and come together again. Your father, I believe, has his current headquarters in Atlanta, and we know that everything flyable on both sides has been readied for another attack. We have been waiting for this battle for a year now. Ms. Dithers, that is all I can tell you, except that Ryan’s old airfield in Nevada is still there and still in one piece. Our new satellite, actually the new Canadian satellite, took photos of it just last year. Other than that, the Americans are starving. Their population is down by a third since your father took power, and there are more Americans living in Canada and Mexico than ever before. It is the perfect time to go and wring a few necks, kick some arse, and get that great country back onto the railroad tracks again.”

After that, other messages were relayed back and forth and the Prime Minister was thanked for his efforts.

Two days later, with the Matt craft refueled, Mars and Pluto Katherine Richmond headed back up to space with the black box. Lunar Richmond was needed to be commander of the new Earth base, and Pluto Katherine was the right person to get the next mining craft down on the same tripod-type legs.

This time 20 crewmembers could fit into the larger space inside the mining craft, and Mars could fit a co-pilot and six into the Matt craft’s hold. With them, Penelope Pitt was going to bring in SB-II. The shuttle had landing gear, and without its supply pod, which was latched to the other two pods still in orbit, could return with or without its shield extended,. Mars and Penelope decided, with shields extended, and behind the Matt craft, she would also make a vertical landing with her co-pilot and 25 passengers.

This time Pluto Katherine would come in last, as her craft would block the runway. Mars landed on the apron as he was still getting his act together, and Penelope came in for a perfect vertical landing.

Pluto Katherine bettered her first attempt, stopping a foot away from the edge of the runway and exactly in the same place.

The swimming pool was beginning to fill up with bodies, and Monica was the resident lifeguard of the small pool. It was only half the size of the old one in Nevada, and not all the crew could fit in at any one time.

These two flights brought with them the remnant of the FirstGen mechanics who were not asleep. These mechanics, servicing and refueling crew, had worked in Nevada and at The Pig’s Snout, and were the main team that prepared the shuttles for launch. They were needed to help the youngsters, and once strong, went about getting ready to service and refuel SB-II, as everything they had ordered was waiting for them in the hangars. They were all about the same age as Captain Pete.

Mars again returned with Pluto Katherine 72 hours later and brought the next two craft, Astermine Two and SB-I, with Pluto Jane Saunders and her younger sister Shelly flying the shuttle. Again, and now with new knowledge on how to do it, both flights were a success.

Finally, two weeks after Mars set foot on Earth, SB-II, her engines serviced, refueled and ready, headed up under Penelope Pitt’s guidance, secretly surrounded by a blue shield, to take over protection duty. Saturn Jones, with the last 25 crewmembers and Dr. Nancy, reentered Earth’s atmosphere having several excited voices from below telling her how to fly her shuttle. Within 200,000 feet above Earth, Saturn Jones had told them all to shut up!

Chapter 7

Joanne Dithers Roo—First Visit to the U.S.A.

Dr. Nancy, like Pete, needed more care than the others. She was frail, weak and couldn’t keep her head up. The others, used to the steel shoes and electromagnetic pull of the floor of the shuttle, were better off, and needed less assistance.

Nancy, being helped by both Beth and Monica, was shocked how thin her man still looked, but he was again strong, tanned and extremely irresistible-looking.

To Mars, Saturn was her usual straightforward self. She tried hard not to be wheeled into the newly formed medical unit. Dr. Walls had set up the “arrivals unit” 24 hours after his own arrival.

Bob Mathews was a little disappointed that none of the arriving astronauts were as enthusiastic about fishing as the old crew had been, and once everybody coming down was down, he and his two ladies, who weren’t really needed anymore, headed out back to their fishing grounds for a few days.

Mars Noble was the only one who really wanted to spend time on Bob’s luxurious 75-foot fishing boat. Unfortunately, he also wanted to be by Saturn’s side and stayed, much to her appreciation.

Also, Mars was quite interested in the new gadgets that seemed to pop their heads up in different places without warning. He had left his father’s new robotic troops back guarding The Martian Club Retreat, and down here, there seemed to be new, tiny robotic things everywhere.

A robotic pulley headed out to meet the incoming shuttles and somehow connected itself to the forward wheel struts of the landed craft and moved them into the hangars, with nobody controlling them. Then, food in the kitchen was ordered by pressing a button on a menu and minutes later the food on a warm plate exited a slot for pickup.

Also, a twin-tracked robot, which reminded Mars of the old bomb disposal robots he had read about in his history books going back thirty years, brought out beers or glasses of wine on trays whenever somebody verbally ordered something.

It was interesting when sitting by the pool with Saturn during her second day, she suggested that French fries and a cold beer would be great for lunch, and a few minutes later one of these tracked things, looking like R2D2 from Star Wars, came out with her order.

Mars, usually full of jokes, verbally asked for a blonde, a whole roast chicken and a bottle of Dom Perignon 1959, a bottle James Bond used to drool over in the Bond movies. Twenty minutes later, a robot drew up to his sun lounger with a bottle of beer that had “blonde” imprinted on its label, a still-sizzling whole roast chicken, and a cold bottle of Australian champagne with two glasses.

“Sorry, sir, we are out of Dom Perignon 1959, but I have texted an imail to headquarters to try to procure a bottle for you,” stated an automated-sounding, sexy female voice. The voice certainly didn’t match the ungainly-looking robot, but he and Saturn burst out laughing.

“What is an imail?” Mars asked the robot.

“I don’t see why I am so funny, sir, and an imail is short for instant mail.” With that, the robot deposited the tray next to the sun lounger and unhappily returned to its station.

What brought back memories to both of them was a day later when they headed out to the main hangar, big enough to fit in all three shuttles when they were on the ground. The robot that had wheeled in the craft to the hangars, buzzed up to the couple and asked their names and what aircraft they wanted. Saturn thought for a second and smiled.

“Jones. Can you tow out my aircraft? It is a yellow Gulfstream jet.”

“Immediately, Mr. Jones. Please walk out another 50 feet to the middle of the apron.” The robot headed away with gusto. It disappeared and nothing happened for several minutes. Then the furthest hangar door, a hangar nobody had gone near yet, began to open, and out came the robot pulling the Jones family vehicle behind it.

They watched with fascination as the robot turned and brought the shiny yellow jet right in front of where they stood.

“I’ve checked the tanks. Fuel at 97 percent in both tanks, latest MPI (Major Periodic Inspection) completed October 2029, 25 months ago. Engines hours 191 on both engines. Aircraft ready for flight, sir. Please begin ground checks for takeoff.” With that, the robot disconnected itself from the front wheel strut and within seconds had buzzed back to its hole somewhere. Saturn looked at Mars.

“Well? Shall we go for a ride?”

“Can you still fly something so ancient as this?” asked Mars.

“Don’t insult my father’s ride, Mars Noble. All three shuttles are older than her,” replied a menacing Jones with her hands on her hips.

“Maybe you still can,” he joked. “Let’s go and buzz Bob Mathews in his ship. Maybe he’ll appreciate some company.”

With that, they completed the ground checks, headed into the still new-looking and perfect interior of the aircraft, and with her two jets screaming and awakening the whole island, they headed up and away.

“Jones family ride to Sierra Bravo II, do you copy? Over.”

“See you on radar, Saturn,” replied young Hillary Pitt, the shuttle’s co-pilot and Penelope’s younger sister. “Penelope is asleep. I see you, a small dot heading east away from the island; 87 degrees, 470 knots at 6,000 feet. I’m heading over the horizon in 5 minutes. Thanks for checking in, over.”

“Anybody else showing up on your radar, Hillary?”

“A couple of marine ships, one smaller dot about 130 miles due east of you and a larger blip about 29 miles north of the first dot. There are no aircraft anywhere apart from you on my screen, over.”

“Copy that, we are out for a joyride in my dad’s plane, heading for the small dot, and will then return to base over,” added Saturn.

“Copy that, will pass it on to the next protection detail behind me. Have fun, hope that good-looking Noble is with you. Out.”

Both flyers knew there wasn’t another shuttle behind her. They had all arrived into Earth’s atmosphere inside the blue shields, so nobody apart from Bob and his ladies knew who had arrived. Thanks to the shields, and without radar signatures, nobody outside the base knew who was on the ground and who was up in space. Ryan had wanted it that way, at least until everyone knew for sure that they were safe.

Unfortunately, radio communications could be studied to find out where they had originated from, from orbit or from inside the atmosphere, so having one craft up there was enough to keep everybody guessing.

The Gulfstream headed up to 10,000 feet and they chatted as they approached Bob’s dot on their radar screens in front of both pilots.

“We need to speak to Martin Brusk soon,” stated Mars.

“I think we should invite Martin and Mr. Soames at the same time, once Dr. Nancy is stronger,” replied Saturn.

“Ryan said that he would be the only guy to trust to find out all the new technology to construct a new shuttle and then America Two.”

“I was chatting with Captain Pete last night, and he told me about his ideas on a round, wagon-wheel-style America Two,” added Saturn, beginning to reduce their altitude. “He said that the outer wheel could be further out from center than the outer level on America One, and at the same revolution, the centrifugal force, our artificial gravity, can be exacted to the gravity here on Earth. This will save us being so weak when we or our next generation return to Earth one day in the future.”

“Has he thought about the increasing of the Coriolis force in a large round wheel, instead of the small cylinders?” replied Mars, searching out a dot on the sea below them “That was the main reason America One looked as ugly as it did. Unfortunately, Ryan, Igor and Boris knew what they were doing when they built the cylinders instead of a continuous rotating wheel, and the small cylinders were easier to build.”

“Hopefully you remember Dr. Petra’s centrifugal force class during our third-year astro-physics course, Mars?” asked his wife. “Remember the class on centrifugal force versus Coriolis force? Our most commonly encountered rotating reference frame is the Earth, or Mars, or any other planets or moons. Captain Pete used Earth as his example last night. The Coriolis effect is caused by the rotation of the Earth and the inertia of the mass experiencing the effect. In space, when a falling object is traveling toward the outside of a round wheel, the wheel will continue to rotate underneath it until it touches. Because the Earth completes only one rotation per day, the Coriolis force is quite small on this planet, and its effects generally become noticeable only for motions occurring over large distances and long periods of time, such as large-scale movement of air in the atmosphere or tidal water in the ocean.”

“No, I haven’t forgotten, Saturn, but I remember Igor’s class on cylinders versus wheels, and the size the wheel has to be to decrease the Coriolis Effect to equal our small 8-foot-high cylinders. We did that class in Cube One, remember, which wasn’t spinning as fast as the outer level and both forces were virtually non-existent. It is all mass, not weight. As far as anyone knows, there is no way to produce gravity other than with mass. Things that have mass have a certain amount of gravity and will interact with other things that have mass. By rotating any spaceship in space, you would not create gravity, you just simulate it. Remember the mass of a brick in space is the same as on Earth, except the properties of directional pull around it have changed. There, Saturn, I can see Bob’s boat.”

They ended their discussion as Saturn swooped down like an eagle towards the boat at 600 knots. She pulled back the stick and swept over the boat with 200 feet to spare. They could both see Bob waving at them from the fighting chair at the rear of the boat.

“You guys think you can sneak up on us, Saturn Jones?” laughed Beth on the radio. “We also have radar, you know. I saw you twenty minutes ago. We even heard you talking to someone in space. We have five radios on this boat ready to catch anything going on around us. Bob is shouting hi to you from the rear. He told me to tell you to parachute down and get the plane to autopilot home. The Australian Air Force have fancy new autopilot-drone capabilities on all their aircraft. The Israelis invented them a few years ago.”

“We want some of those!” stated Mars excitedly.

“Bob, come home, we are missing you, and we want to invite Martin Brusk and Prime Minister Soames to the island, but we need to have you there as well,” added Saturn.

“Suddenly you guys are in a rush. I want another day’s fishing,” stated Bob, coming to the radio. “Feeding a couple hundred of you weak space guys fresh fish takes a while. We caught 110 pounds of Dorado yesterday, 130 pounds of Wahoo the day before, and I reckon another few hundred pounds of whatever is biting today or tomorrow will give you a few fresh meals when we return to the island. We’ll be back in 72 hours. Saturn, Mars, if you are going to invite Martin, also invite Mary Collins, the third and Canadian daughter of the ex-U.S. President who saved Ryan from jail all those decades ago. She is now Secretary of Defense in Canada, and I think Joanne Dithers needs to speak to her. Between them, you will have three of the most powerful people on Earth.”

“Copy that, Mr. Fisherman, sir! I’m sure my father is rolling in his cryogenic chamber thinking about fishing with you,” Saturn replied.

“I’m sure he would roll around more, young lady, if he knew you were flying his favorite toy!” joked Bob. After a waggle of wings on their next flyover, they were told to get lost, they were scaring the fish.

It was hours later when Pete called Prime Minister Soames. The NextGens had decided to promote Captain Pete to “Head of Foreign Affairs” for Astermine Island, their new country. He offered the invitation to him, and the other two VIPs Bob had suggested. The reply was that it would take a week to set up and they would be all arriving on separate aircraft.

The crew got stronger and prepared the Matts for their first official introduction to the new official human beings of Earth. More than a third of the crew were Matt or had Matt blood. Bob and his crew had been surprised at the number. They had only met ex-Commander Joot on the last visit. That worried Commander Roo, who was being forced by his wife to take the Matt position of Supreme Ruler. If he was going to be the leader of his race and be introduced to three important people, Ruler Roo needed to be a leader of his people, she explained to her husband. He reluctantly accepted his wife’s orders, and Tow, his mother, was extremely proud of her son.

A party was held around the pool that night, with an excited Roo being presented with one of the heavy gold Supreme Ruler cases, one that his wife had stored on SB-III when they had left the planet. It had only became extremely heavy when they tried to pry it out of the cargo hold on Earth.

Since newly-elected Supreme Ruler Roo had been totally ruined by a General John Jones, he got rather drunk that night. His wife Joanne packed him forcibly off to bed, with his hand held by young Jo Dithers Roo, their six-year-old son. He didn’t argue much. His wife’s slightly protruding belly holding their second child gave him a reason not to fight the orders. He was still a peaceful Matt after all.

Bob Mathews returned and put fresh fish on the menu for the next few nights. Every single crewmember, even many of the vegetarian Matts, wanted to try fish for the first time along with many youngsters on either side.

SB-II reentered after its week patrolling space, and SB-I headed up to the Pitt sisters to take their place. This time SB-III also launched for space while the three VIPs would be on the island. Saturn’s shuttle was flown by the Burgos sisters. Jane Burgos, the elder sister to Jenny, was a natural, had more time flying with Jonesy in SB-III than even Saturn, and apart from Mars Noble, was trusted by Saturn to fly her ship. The Pitt sisters needed a break.

Thanks to the blue shields and many of the astronauts now experienced in using them in Earth’s atmosphere, fuel usage on launch, a week of orbit and reentry in one of the shuttles, empty of cargo, was only a tenth of the old-fashioned launches Jonesy and Maggie had done out of Nevada.

The Australians had placed a massive 500,000-gallon above-ground liquid hydrogen Dewar at the side of the southern end of the runway for Astermine which gave the crew more hydrogen fuel than ever before. Next to it stood a much smaller jet fuel tank, as many of the world’s aircraft still relied on jet fuel to fly. The hydrogen system was so large that it even was powered by its own mini Cold Fusion power plant.

Any ethanol needed could be replaced at any time. Mars had asked for a fill-up of Matt juice at the same time the guests were invited, as he had used most of it in his four launches to return the black boxes.

The crew got excited when news filtered through from Martin Brusk in Tel Aviv that he had the plans completed for a new shuttle Ryan and Igor had asked him for years earlier. Many of the outside parts were already made and just had to be bonded together with the thrusters Ryan would choose. Martin didn’t know that Ryan was fast asleep nearly a quarter of a billion miles away.

Captain Pete, who knew about Ryan’s suggestion to Martin to build him a shuttle, was not excited about the news, telling the more senior flight commanders over drinks by the pool at sunset that it also meant that others on Earth would have access to the same shuttle design, and soon they wouldn’t be alone in space.

“Igor,” Mars replied, “although fast asleep, still has a few tricks up his sleeve.” He told Pete that he and Igor had chatted long and hard before the older scientist had gone to sleep aboard DX2017.

“The laser system is still an Astermine secret,” added Lunar.

“So are the thrusters that Igor had made in a friend’s factory somewhere in Russia,” added Saturn.

“And our new shuttle will be energized by the spare Cold Fusion power system that we returned to Earth in SB-I’s hold until it is needed aboard America Two,” smiled Mars Noble.

Mars thought himself quite knowledgeable until Dr. Nancy, who was standing in the warm water next to her husband, told them that Captain Pete had figured out on their three-year journey back from Mars how the blue shield worked and, with the right equipment, could reproduce them. All their jaws dropped. He smiled as they realized that the most important secret they had could now be reproduced here on Earth. They all raised their glasses to the aging captain, who clinked his glass with his wife first. Nancy reminded the kids that she and Captain Pete might be two of the only astronaut remains of the older generation not asleep, but their grey matter was still in perfect working order.

Three totally different new and modern-looking aircraft arrived within hours of each other. Martin Brusk’s aircraft came in totally silent. Prime Minister Soames arrived first in a small white three-engine jet with an old fuel transporter, an Airbus, tagging along several miles behind. The crew watched its landing with much interest. It was really weird to see a large ancient flying machine land. Bob Mathews recognized the air refueller from his last flight over to Australia.

The Canadian jet, also unmarked and white, was double the size of the first one. Mars assumed it needed to be larger for the much longer range out of Canada.

The Israeli jet came in so quiet that the astronauts thought it had run out of fuel. It was as quiet as their own craft with the shields around them. Mars watched as the jet headed south and entered the downwind leg of the airfield’s pattern. It had two very small rear engines underneath the raised tail. Not the usual size engines a corporate jet like Jonesy’s Gulfstream had slung in the same place. Also, the rear edge of the aircraft’s larger than usual tail glowed blue as if there was an electric field pushing it along.

The jet didn’t use the runway, and Mars suddenly remembered where he had seen the same configuration; it was in an old movie series, Back To the Future. The aircraft came in now with its underwings crackling faintly with the same blue light, its two tiny jets had gone vertical like an old VTOL aircraft, and the small aircraft lowered itself just like a helicopter onto the apron in front of the gawking astronauts. For the first time since the older generation had gone to sleep, he realized that Astermine’s technology, once well ahead of the others, was being matched.

“Ryan giving them that Cold Fusion reactor, I think, has changed everything down here,” stated Captain Pete next to Mars as the captain also watched the new craft.

“I wonder if it is going to bite us in the butt?” Mars replied as the jet, or whatever it was, gently touched down on its own landing gear.

“I think so,” replied the captain. “Our best scientists will be asleep for another 11 years, and the rest of us here are certainly not up to the likes of Igor, Boris, Ryan or Vitalily. It looks like Astermine and Israel might have to work together from now on, whether we like it or not.”

“An interesting new craft,” added Prime Minister Soames, joining the two Astermine men. They had already greeted the Prime Minister, and Mary Collins still hadn’t exited her craft, as it had only landed 10 minutes earlier. Both men nodded. “Thanks to Ryan’s generosity, we have very new equipment in our Freedom Alliance. Martin told me about this new jet only a month before you arrived. It has a mini Cold Fusion plant in its underbelly, produces an unimaginable amount of electrical power, and as Martin told me, is the world’s first hybrid Tesla airplane.

Mars and Captain Pete naturally walked forward as the aircraft’s rear door opened and an older-looking, grey-haired Martin Brusk exited. He waved and hand-signaled them to come over.

“Like my new baby?” he smiled, shaking both men’s hands. “Hi, Captain Pete. You look very thin, nobody feeding you? You, young man, must be young Mars Noble. You have certainly grown into a good-looking young man. Where are Ryan, VIN and Jonesy?

“Still in space, sir,” Mars replied. “Unfortunately they are quite a way away and will not be down on Earth for a little while.”

“Ok, what about Igor and Boris? Is everybody still out there?”

“Yes, sir. Captain Pete, Dr. Nancy Martin and a few of the crew are the only FirstGen to be in our arrival. All due to an alien attack while we were on Mars, and I cannot say any more. Ryan told me to tell you to be patient, and that you would understand, sir.”

“Don’t call me sir, call me Martin. Prime Minister Soames, Defense Minister Collins, good to see you two again,” said Martin, shaking their hands as they walked up. Captain Pete introduced himself and Mars to the lady they had never met.

“Heard much about you, Captain Pete, and your father, Mr. Noble,” she replied smiling. Mary Collins was young, only about 35, Captain Pete reckoned. Pete and VIN Noble had met her father often when he had been the ex-President of the United States of America and when they had been based in Nevada in the early days.

Saturn, Lunar and Pluto Katherine walked up, and Captain Pete introduced the three young girls to all three visitors.

“Looking forward to meeting your fathers one day,” Mary told the three girls in front of her. The girls were very thin, and looked a few years younger than 20. She was surprised when Captain Pete told her that she was among four of the most experienced astronauts in the world. “Any of you three slips of girls offering an old lady like me a ride into orbit and back one day?”

“Captain Mars Noble and Commander Lunar Richmond are the ones to ask, Ma’am,” replied Saturn Jones.

“Excellent, thank you, Ms. Jones. At least I know who to rub shoulders with for a free ride. An old friend of mine, Scott, was with CBS in New York when Ryan—your father, Ms. Richmond—took him up into space more than a couple of decades ago.”

“I’ll be happy to fly you up when I’m given permission, Ma’am,” said Pluto Katherine Richmond. “I have to get the ok from my elder sister, though.”

“May I ask how old you are, young lady? Twenty?” asked Mary of the tiny girl who looked far less than that.

“I’ll be 17 next week, but don’t worry, Ma’am, I’ve been flying spacecraft since I was seven.” Pluto Katherine made Mary’s face go pale, and due to the heat, they all headed in for the coolness while the little robot pulled the aircraft out of the sun and into the second last hangar down the apron.

“I just can’t understand why your parents would start your flight training at so young an age. Could you see out of the windows?” asked Mary Collins to the three girls as they received large glasses of iced lemonade, Saturn Jones’ new favorite drink.

“We didn’t need to for the first year, Ma’am, as we only trained in flight simulators until we could see outside the cockpits,” replied Lunar Richmond seriously.

It was time to introduce the politicians to the Matts. Captain Mars Noble prepared the visitors with a speech once everyone had a drink in their hand.

In the veranda room by the pool, only Lunar Richmond, Mars Noble, Bob Mathews and his two ladies, who had been introduced to the three VIPs, and the visitors were in attendance. The room couldn’t fit in everybody.

“I would like to tell you visitors a story if I may. I would like to introduce Supreme Ruler Roo, the ruler of a Homo floresiensis tribe of people who lived here on Earth over 10,000 years ago. Ruler Roo, as we call him, is the husband of Joanne Dithers Roo, who is the only daughter of the previous U.S. President you all know so well. We call them Matts, why, I don’t know. In turn they call us Tall People.”

There was a large gasp from Mary Collins as Joanne and her short husband walked into the room. The crew had decided to give a little aplomb to the introduction, and Ruler Roo and his wife were dressed in white robes with Ruler Roo carrying the official solid gold Ruler staff and gold pendant and wearing a Ruler’s jeweled chest brooch. To Mars, who hadn’t seen him decked out, he did look like a very young ruler of a very old country in North Africa or the Middle East. The only part of Roo that now looked out of place was his four-foot height next to his five and a half-foot-tall wife, and the fact his face and head still looked like that of a child.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Supreme Ruler Roo is over 75 years old and was born 7,000 years ago, so please don’t think of him as a child ruler.”

Again there was a gasp from Mary Collins, as she could see Joanne, a girl she had actually met while she was a teenager. Joanne was still in diapers at the time, but now was pregnant by a husband at least 50 years her senior, and he was so short. Then walked in two doctors, one who she remembered as Dr. Nancy Martin.

“Dr. Walls and I are here to answer your questions on why there is a discrepancy in Supreme Ruler Roo’s age, and when he was born, and where this fantastic race of Earth people came from.” The three visitors were still too shocked to reply, except Martin Brusk.

“Are we expected to bow or kneel in front of a Supreme Ruler?” he asked.

“Neither, just shake my hand, Mr. Brusk. I have often seen your picture on our computer screens aboard America One,” replied Roo in perfect English, and smiling kindly.

“Think of our dear friend, Ruler Roo, as you would India’s Mahatma Gandhi without glasses,” smiled Dr. Nancy. “They are both much the same man, peaceful, kind and even with matching skin color. May I introduce Ruler Roo’s mother Tow, and the ruler’s first child Jo, a boy.” Tow was next to enter with young Jo Dithers Roo holding her hand.

“Tow, as we all Tall People and all the Matts call her, is over 110 years old, born in the same time Roo her son was, and Jo was born on Mars six years ago,” continued Mars Noble, saying his introductory lines. “Tow, and then Roo, were the first Matts my father VIN Noble met; he saved their lives on a small blue asteroid/planet we call DX2017. That is where my father is working in space, and will be for just a little while longer with all our FirstGen, our first generation, our parents, and who, for reasons I cannot say, are not with us today. Dr. Nancy please.”

“Prime Minister Soames, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Brusk, the Matts are not Homo sapiens as we are, but a species that was dying out as we Homo sapiens came into being 10,000 years ago in certain areas of the world. They are Homo floresiensis, a race of people whose remains were found in Indonesia, and we believe that the Bushmen in Southern Africa might be the only direct descendants of the Homo floresiensis group of people. Any questions so far?”

“Are these people Africans?” asked Mary Collins, an African American herself.

I believe the answer is yes, Ms. Collins. By the way, I believe we have met. This tribe originated from the Sahara Desert, when it was a lush and green tropical paradise 10,000 years ago. The only major difference between our two races is that their size, jaw, necks and head differ slightly from ours. That, I believe, is down to the time difference between the birth of our modern race and theirs. The Matts were and still are a peaceful vegetarian race of nomads who found a home in the Sahara region of Africa and lived long enough to learn about physics and electronics we only dream about here on Earth. These lessons were learned from an even older Matt tribe who lived 10,000 years before them, and we met some of them on Mars. By the way, Short People, or Matts, and Tall People/‌White People grew to be on friendly terms on America One, and you may thank them for your Cold Fusion. The Matts gave Ryan permission to give you the science as a gift.” Both Prime Minister Soames and Martin Brusk both bowed, thanking Ruler Roo, who smiled and bowed back.

“Yes, Dr. Martin,” stated Mary Collins. “I met you at a medical conference at the University of Toronto Medical School. 2013, I believe. I was a freshman. My second question, why the term White People? Surely you had African Americans aboard America One as crew?”

“Funny enough, Ms. Collins, we only had one African American aboard America One, Captain Michael Pitt, ex-United States Air Force, and oddly enough his father was half white. To honestly answer your question, I believe the reason was that over 70 percent of our crew were not Americans. We had crew from several countries which are not known to have populations of African descent. It was a factor I realized going through medical files on the crew, and the point you made only hit me a few years into our odyssey, as mine were only medical observations. I believe Ryan never saw that situation. He wouldn’t, but I was told that several dozen of the science team who worked in Nevada were African American, but had no wish to go to space. Sorry, Ms. Collins, I hope I have answered your question respectfully.”

“May I assume that cryogenics is the reason that these people are still alive?” asked Prime Minister Soames.

“Correct, Prime Minister,” replied Nancy. “They do in fact live longer than we do, three times longer. Their childhood is over 30 years, and their records we found in the Sahara Desert showed one of their rulers living 350 years. When many of the survivors were found, skeletons of guards were also found. When the Matts went into cryogenic sleep, young guards were always placed to wake them up before the guards themselves died. It was a way to get around the solar system and not age at the same time. The reason that we have brought over 100 Matts back from cryogenic sleep was that something had happened to the guards and the sleeping crew were not awakened. Also, we have found out that any human body can only be put to cryogenic sleep once.”

“Somehow many of us have survived to meet you Homo sapiens, the new leaders of Earth,” stated Roo in perfect English.

Mars Noble said the same line in perfect Matt, to show that both sides were fluent in each other’s language, and Mary Collins became excited telling the gathering that she loved languages and hoped that she could learn to speak this old language one day.

“Our entire crew who returned to Earth with us are ready to meet you. Please turn around,” asked Commander Lunar Richmond.

With the introductions and short meeting over, the visitors turned to see the entire crew of America One exiting the apartment building on the other side of the pool and lining up in one solid group as if they were on a parade ground. Most of them were growing teenagers, or short people, and only a couple of dozen young boys turning into men were over five feet tall.

The three VIPs met and welcomed each astronaut to Earth, and while that was being completed with Lunar and Saturn, a lunch of fish was to be served in the veranda room. Mars and a couple of the new robots that he now knew how to control set a table for lunch for twelve.

Prime Minister Soames and Supreme Ruler Roo sat at the ends, as Heads of State, while the others joined the sides. Apart from the two leaders, Mary Collins, Martin Brusk, Joanne Dithers, the two Richmond sisters, Saturn, Mars, Captain Pete, Dr. Nancy, and Bob Mathews made up the table.

“Are you missing your father?” Martin Brusk asked Saturn Jones sitting next to him.

“Yes, there always seemed a more interesting atmosphere aboard ship when he was around,” Saturn complimented her father.

“What about you and your father, Mars?” he then asked.

“The same. VIN and Jonesy always were a pair, and they often turned flight briefings or security meetings into howling laughter sessions,” Mars replied.

“Ms. Richmond?” asked Martin.

“Jonesy was my instructor for over a decade. Thank god for autopilot, Mr. Brusk. Sometimes he and I would keel over with laughter during flight training. Something my father didn’t often understand,” Lunar replied.

“What was that, Jonesy’s sense of humor?” Martin asked, smiling.

“My father is a straight-thinking scientist, Mr. Brusk. He is also a damn good pilot, but you could always see the light-heartedness of the astronauts versus the straight faces of the scientists like my father, Igor and Boris,” smiled Lunar.

“I used to crack up just seeing the scientists’ straight faces while watching the antics of the rest of the crew at flight briefings,” added Pluto Katherine Richmond. “Lunar and I were always flight crew, and often the briefings on the bridge were the funniest part of the day.”

“Some were most spectacular,” added Captain Pete. “I’m also part of the flight crew, not the real brains of the scientist side, but they eased into humor over time.”

“It must have been a very long time in space?” asked Prime Minister Soames.

“You can say that again. Time sped past differently than on Earth, and one had to see the funny side of life to keep one’s sanity,” added Dr. Nancy. “Even I got used to General Jones, but for the record, it took a decade.” That made all the young astronauts laugh out loud.

The three visitors could see how well the entire crew got on with each other. There were no secrets, even when Supreme Ruler Roo added that Jonesy taught him what was funny and what wasn’t, and that over time, even he laughed as often as the Tall People did. Mars invited Roo to explain his first hangover with the help of Jonesy, but the ruler just smiled and explained that his mentor, Commander Joot, never forgave the Tall People for drinking rocket fuel, as he called it.

That led Martin Brusk to ask about the Matt craft. He was shocked to learn that it was the same fuel as the Tall People crew would drink aboard ship—ethanol.

“Let’s get down to the business of the day,” suggested the Prime Minister. “I’m sure we can learn everything we need over the barbeque tonight. Ms. Richmond, what are your father’s wishes? What does he need us to do to help you? And Ms. Dithers, Captain Pete and crew of America One, what do you want from me, Martin Brusk, or Mary Collins? We have ties into three different governments, and each one can help you in different ways. We want you to stay on Earth this time. Thanks to Ryan, his scientists and to all of you, your bravery and your space odyssey, the tables of world power and domination have changed to countries who never thought a change was possible two decades ago. Ms. Dithers, you may make a difference in the downhill slope your country is tumbling down right now. The whole of Europe is now with us in our Freedom Alliance, and as far as population is concerned, we beat the U.S.A. and Russia, and are catching China. China was always the aggressor. We all believe that they had the most to lose out of the big three. Millions have died. Their politics are in disarray, and even we don’t know who leads China anymore. Their space program came to a halt once your ships in orbit beat them. Heads rolled. We believe that currently we have the only space program here on Earth.” The Prime Minister took a long drink of water.

He was slightly overweight and looked pretty unfit to Mars Noble, who looked the man over closely. The grey-haired Australian looked about 50; he certainly ate well and sure didn’t get enough exercise.

“Thanks to Ryan’s offer of Cold Fusion, we have a new energy that we have mastered, copied in all three countries, and produced working prototypes, big and small. Our countries have clean air with far less pollution, thanks to your father, Ms. Richmond. This island, as you have called it Astermine Island, is yours, a gift from the Australian government. I understand that you have ships still in orbit protecting you down here. As far as I am concerned, and I’m speaking for my government, you are free to come and go as you please. If you want to continue your own protection in space, that is your decision. If you are going to continue with launches, we will continue to supply you with hydrogen, as long as you take up our new satellites until we have our own full time space program in a decade’s time. We hope that you and your crew, Ms. Richmond, will take our friendship for what it is worth, and that we are still firm friends when your father returns. Ms. Collins, I’m sure you have something to add, but it looks like lunch is about to be served. Thank you for returning, astronauts.” The Prime Minister held up his glass for a toast. Everyone copied.

Plates of fish were served by two of the robots, and they were fast and efficient. During the break, Mars Noble had a chance to ask a question.

“Mr. Prime Minister, Bob Mathews told me that all your aircraft have new autopilot systems that don’t need a pilot in the aircraft. Something like a drone aircraft my father told me about. Can we get some of those systems for tests?” The Prime Minister looked at Martin Brusk for the answer.

“Since Israel has not given you a gift in thanks for the Cold Fusion system given to the country, and since we manufacture most of these new gadgets, I’m sure something can be arranged, Mars Noble,” Martin replied. “Ms. Collins?”

“Well said, Prime Minister, Mr. Brusk. Astronauts, the Canadian government received the first working Cold Fusion prototype from Israel two years ago. Currently 10 percent of Canadian cities are now powered by Cold Fusion, and three of our worst polluted cities have changed for the better. With cleaner air and a cleaner environment compared to coal and other pollutants, we are most grateful. We do not use oil, apart from propane and natural gas, at all anymore. Nor does Australia or Israel, I believe. Many countries in Europe will also be under fusion power in the next decade. My main reason for coming was to speak with Ms. Dithers. Since the America One crew is a closeknit group, I’m sure Ms. Dithers doesn’t mind me talking to her in front of everyone here?” Joanne nodded that she agreed.

“I know what you are going to ask, as does everybody here, Ms. Collins,” Joanne replied.

“Yes, Ms. Dithers, your father hasn’t changed his ways since you left. He has tried everything he can to continue being the U.S. President, and unfortunately the new President Downs is the exact opposite man to your father. He is an introvert, a conservative tree-hugger, you might put it, and has very little interest in keeping the United States of America whole. As long as our Canadian troops keep him safe in Washington, he has little interest in taking on your father. Unknown to him, we are pulling our troops out towards the end of this year, just before the next elections. I believe that you are the right person to go into Washington and take over the reins. We all need the U.S.A. to return to being a powerhouse. Only the U.S.A., Ms. Dithers, has the power to produce more than we Freedom Alliance countries can. They have the old manufacturing infrastructure that, with our help, can be quickly modernized back into production within a decade. The American people are hungry and jobless, and they need somebody they can trust to run the country. So do we. For that opportunity, we would like to help you, Ms. Dithers.”

“Why me?” Joanne asked her directly.

“Three reasons, Ms. Dithers. Ryan told us before he left that he had gotten to know you well enough that he would return if you controlled Washington one day. Secondly, you have a way with your father we don’t. Thirdly, Ms. Dithers, you have a following in the U.S. I believe it is something you don’t know about yet. Somehow, you became popular with the masses over time. Even when you were many million miles away on Mars, your leaving the country, talking back to your father before you left, and being brave enough to go and live on a foreign planet gave you a still-growing following in many areas of the United States. I was told by NASA that the remains of its employees was one of the reasons for the continuance of your popularity. Like an icon, or a modern day Joan of Arc, there are many Americans waiting for your return.” That kept Joanne silent for a minute or two. This was all news to her.

“The movement is called the CDM, or “Change Washington Movement,” is it not, Ms. Collins?” Joanne asked.

“The new unofficial and banned ‘Individual Party’ was born out of the CDM, yes. How did you know its name, Ms. Dithers?” Mary Collins asked, her face showing surprise.

“A party? Sorry, I don’t know about any party, but I started the movement a couple of years before I met Astermine in Nevada. We had just named the new movement the CDM, and I was actually travelling on my first mission to Nevada to ask Mr. Richmond to join my movement. After arriving in Nevada, I changed my mind and asked to go along with him and America One instead. For weeks before I headed into Nevada, I spoke at several NASA installations around the country. I was on a speaking tour promoting change in Washington, and it was directly against my father’s administration. That was when the CDM was really born, in Washington with my main supporters. I also spoke to a dozen large universities from the East to the West Coasts, and to large gatherings at the steel mills and other large companies. Oddly enough, my next meeting engagement after Nevada was at the Tesla Headquarters in California. I saw Mr. Brusk and his family drive up in a Tesla wanting to speak to Mr. Richmond. I believe that made me ask Ryan if I could go with his crew. I’m certainly glad I did. And, Mr. Brusk, I was most disappointed that you didn’t come with us.” Martin smiled at the younger lady, but said nothing. “Well, I’m glad my movement didn’t fizzle and die with my departure, Ms. Collins. How many people did you say?”

“About one in four Americans, Ms. Dithers. About 70 million Americans inside the U.S., Canada and Mexico are hoping that you will return one day. The new political party’s name is the ‘Individual Party’, but it has been banned and made illegal by Congress. I still call it the CWM Party, and it is much like the Tea Party decades ago. Many in Washington are refusing to acknowledge that there is a third party that could be represented at the next elections. I believe the new party has twice the number of followers your father has and ten times what the current administration think they have.” That shocked everybody around the table. Mars watched his old friend Roo trying to fathom how many people that number was. It was sure more than his tribe.

“I will decide over the next few days, Ms. Collins. As a family person, I must speak to my husband, who is the ruler of his tribe, and I am four months pregnant with our second child.” The Canadian Defense Minister nodded and smiled. The room went quiet for a few moments.

“Martin, I’m sure you need to say a few things,” offered the Prime Minister.

“I’ve said what I came to say, offering Ryan and his crew our help and friendship. Ryan has always paid for everything he has purchased from us. We have a few gifts ready for him in return, but need to ask whoever is in command about gold. The reason I ask is that gold has become the most valuable currency on Earth since most of the paper currencies became worthless, and many countries need gold reserves to partake in international business. Therefore, we are all looking for gold to hold up our new currencies, and I know that Ryan has a few tons stashed away somewhere. Supreme Ruler Roo, I would assume the gold Ryan gave us during his last visit belonged to your tribe?” The table was quiet, and Joanne Dithers replied on behalf of her husband.

“Mr. Brusk, Ryan and I discussed this eventuality with Commander Joot, my husband’s mentor and previous leader of the tribe. Before he died, the commander offered all their gold to Ryan for whatever he needed when he returned to Earth to look after the Matts, as well as Ryan and his crew, if the Matts decided to return with us. Commander Lunar Richmond has a list of all the precious metals Astermine owns, and those that are stored from the asteroid mining. I have an amount, an approximation of the gold the Matt tribe are willing to offer the planet for a new tribal area of choice. Please understand the Matt tribe is what you see here. They are only 99 people of pure descent and thirty-three of mixed descent. So several hundred acres, like an island like we have here, is all they want.”

“I’m sure we, Australia, can find a new island for Supreme Ruler Roo, Ms. Dithers,” interjected Prime Minister Soames.

“I was sure you would offer, Prime Minister,” smiled Martin Brusk. “Israel doesn’t have land to offer, but we can share in the gold to compensate for our most latest ideas you are interested in.”

Mars smiled at Captain Pete. Ryan had told him in front of Captain Pete one day that it wouldn’t take the politicians long to bicker and barter like vultures over road kill.

“How much gold are we talking about, Ms. Dithers?” asked Martin.

“We will make available five tons of pure gold for tribal purposes and another five tons for utilities, or whatever is needed to purchase.”

“Is that all?” Martin asked a little sadly.

“That is a small part of what the Matts have, and we can always negotiate for more in future,” replied Joanne, smiling and acting like real politician. That made the two men relax.

Mars knew that there should be at least ten times that amount in The Pig’s Snout. Ryan had told him, and it was virtually impossible for anybody to steal it. They would need a full spacesuit to enter the old cavern.

After dessert, the room relaxed. Everything, Lunar Richmond reckoned, was going according to Ryan’s plan. Ryan had foreseen much of what was happening and had been said over lunch, apart from the crowd waiting on the North American continent for the return of Joanne Dithers. Even she was shocked at the news.

It was still rest time for several of the astronauts, especially the ones needing to regain strength, and the meeting was to be convened again as the sun was about to set. The average daytime temperatures, often over 100 degrees, were still taxing on the thin astronaut bodies.

For years they had been used to softer temperatures in the high sixties, low seventies, and the energy-stealing constant pulls on the human body had been from near zero to nearly half of what was down here on Earth.

Saturn still felt like she had a “brick” in her stomach, the way she had described how heavy her body felt to her parents on her last visit. Mars was already far fitter than she was, being down on Earth days longer. They roomed together and had done so for the last year. It was time to talk about marriage.

“I think since I am already pregnant that we should ask Prime Minister Soames to send in somebody to marry us ASAP,” Saturn suggested, lying on her back on a large bed, nestled in the crook of Mars’ left arm.

“I think so too,” replied Mars, staring up at the ceiling.

“Also, it will get the other girls off my back,” added Saturn. “Every day, I feel that they want to ask me whether we are still an item. We might as well put any ideas they have to rest.”

“Maybe the Prime Minister should allow some young good-looking male aircrew to help us here. I’m sure interesting young pilots should entice our lady astronauts to look further afield than what we have here at the moment. Dr. Walls, Bob Mathews and I are the only single old-enough guys here at the moment,” joked Mars.

“Quite an interesting selection,” joked Saturn. “One young, juicy and tender fruitcake and two old fruitcakes with experience all over them.”

“That is not nice, Saturn. One day you will have young astronauts or space cadets looking at you like an old fruitcake,” replied her husband-to-be.

Three hours later, the crew who had met over lunch rejoined the whole crew for a barbeque by the pool area. The decreasing temperature, still above 100, was continuing to tax the older crewmembers, and the ones who had met over lunch headed back into the veranda room for casual conversation. Joanne Dithers was the first to make a statement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my husband and I have discussed all our possible scenarios peacefully together during this afternoon. I would like to state that with Ms. Collins’—and Canada’s—help along with the help of the Australian Prime Minister, and with my mentor, Martin Brusk, obtaining backing from other important countries in Europe, I would like to officially run to be the next President of the United States of America.”

Everybody in the veranda room stood and applauded the feisty young lady as she sat down. Everybody in the crew who knew Joanne and understood her destiny knew that it was the way Joanne should continue her life. It took some time for the noise and congratulations to cease. Then Saturn Jones made the next statement.

“Thank you all. Give me a minute please. Captain Mars Noble has asked me to marry him. I would like to become his wife. Prime Minister Soames, we are not of any particular religion, but we both believe in God. Could you arrange somebody to fly over and marry us? Like maybe tomorrow, or at least Saturday?” Again there was standing applause, and word headed to the outside congregation that it was actually going to happen, for real!

Mars Noble blushed and accepted the pats on the back along with all the noisy retributions, whoops and jokes when the jealous astronauts told him what to expect when marrying a member of the Jones family.

He also had something to say to the group, as he had met for half an hour with Saturn, Lunar, Pluto Katherine, Captain Pete and Bob Mathews. Mars had suggested an idea of allowing the Australian Air Force to base a few pilots and new aircraft on the island to give the Astermine astronauts more experience in atmospheric flight. The group had agreed to allow four pilots and mechanics to join them on the base for a one-month period for flying lessons.

The suggestion of Australians living on base pleased Prime Minister Soames, and like any Australian, he joked with the astronauts that there would be an endless line of men wanting to spend a month with such a group of pretty girls.

Saturn piped up that all the men should be single, and that got her a second round of rousing applause and much laughter from the others.

As the beers went down, the party loosened up and the food, the last of Bob’s fresh fish grilled on foil, was rapidly consumed. The temperature dropped slightly to reasonable settings, much was said and there was a lot of new comradery as everyone enjoyed themselves.

Prime Minister Soames and Martin Brusk were going home the next morning. Ms. Collins decided to stay another day to discuss Joanne’s decision with her. It certainly wasn’t going to be a walk-over in Washington. She also told everybody that the current U.S. President still had just over a year of his term left, and that was perfect to set up a new election campaign.

Mars and Saturn woke up to one of the two jets taking off just after dawn the next morning. Mars had a groggy head. Saturn felt much better, having had only one beer due to her pregnancy.

Over breakfast in the veranda room they were joined by Bob Mathews and his two crew ladies. Lunar Richmond arrived a few minutes after the three sat down and joined the table. As usual, the two robots brought in the breakfasts as they were verbally ordered.

Mars was just like his father, always worried about security, and stopped any discussion while the robots were in the room.

“Mars, laddie,” stated Bob as the second robot server left the room and the door automatically closed behind it, “there could be a dozen bugs in here if anybody wanted to listen in to our conversations.”

“Not with the scrambling devices we each have on us,” replied Mars seriously, pulling a small box the size of a pack of cards out of his flight suit pocket. “Maybe there are new gadgets down here, but believe you me, Bob, we had stacks of time up there to produce new gadgets as well. This little box was put together by Boris on my father’s orders. No bugs within a large area will pick up anything other than static if one of these are around. The reason I don’t say anything while our little metal friends are in the room is that they could be recording our conversation, not listening in like a bug.” Bob rolled his eyes, but he was used to the cloak and dagger stuff around Astermine personnel.

“I liked our idea about offering a few outsiders the chance to join you here on the island for a month, Mars,” Bob continued. “I don’t think you have much to hide down here. Ryan kept all his secrets up in space, so I think that you working with outsiders here gives the Australian government the feeling that you are willing to work with them.”

“I believe my husband-to-be wants the Astermine female astronauts to realize that he isn’t the only good-looking man around here,” remarked Saturn, smiling at Bob and then at her best friend and adversary, Lunar. Lunar tried to ignore Saturn’s bad judgement on humor and thought about breakfast. With all these yummy treats not seen aboard America One or at The Martian Club Retreat for many years, it was hard to make one’s mind up.

“Don’t worry about Saturn, Bob. Her humor is about as bad as her father’s,” stated Lunar and winked at Mars while she said it, just to get back at her best friend. The two older girls, Beth and Monica, laughed at the catty rivalry of the two young female astronauts.

Mary Collins arrived with Joanne Dithers Roo and joined them. “A good Canadian/‌Australian morning to all of you,” she stated as Bob Mathews and Mars got up to pull in two more chairs.

“G’day!” responded the Astermine crew, copying the funny new Aussie accent.

“I’m very excited,” stated a bubbling Joanne to the others.

“Better you than me, kid,” replied Lunar, smiling at Joanne.

“Better you than me too, kid,” remarked Saturn. “I hope you are a good politician. Maybe you can change my father’s favorite saying.”

“‘The only good politician is a dead politician’,” remarked Mars, having heard Jonesy’s favorite saying being told to him at many briefings on the bridge.

“Yes, I’ve heard Jonesy say that often,” laughed Bob Mathews. “He said it to one of the U.S. Presidents when he had F-16 pilots chasing him as he headed into orbit in SB-III years ago. Sorry, Ms. Collins.”

“No insult taken, Mr. Mathews, young Saturn. My father even told me that General Jones said it to him, straight to his face a couple of times,” laughed Mary Collins. “Of course he was directing the remark towards another politician, not towards my father at the time. Off the record, I do not consider myself to be a politician. Minister of Defense is more of a job promotion, not a political appointment.”

Breakfast was merry, and everyone headed off in different directions. Mars Noble went with Bob and the girls to check out the fishing boat. It was time to go fishing again, but Mars wanted them to wait a few days so that everybody could attend the wedding ceremony.

Saturn got word that Saturday would be the day, in two days’ time. A few guests and a man of the cloth were flying in for the weekend.

Once Lunar had checked out what she had wanted to, she located Mars to discuss whether any of the shuttles should return for Saturday. It didn’t seem that an orbital visual above them was so necessary anymore.

“Well, Ryan told me to make 100 percent sure that we are safe, and then some,” Mars told her as they walked down the hot runway away from any possible listening bugs. “It would be interesting to get some of those new autopilots Martin Brusk offered us. Then we could turn the shuttles into drones and control them from down here.”

“I think we will have some soon. Martin is returning for the ceremony and hopefully might give you something as a wedding present,” joked Lunar. “But as commander of this mission to Earth, I believe the risk of something or someone wanting to attack us has diminished, enough to test the waters and have no craft in orbit for a short 48-hour period. Of course nobody but us will know that. Only we know what is up here. Nobody will see the two craft enter inside their shields, and even if they did, they don’t know how many more we have up there.”

“Plus they don’t know what our dummy craft, the old cargo units we have up there inside their blue shields, are equipped with,” added Mars. “To anybody who is following our movements, it will look like we still have spacecraft orbiting. Also, if we offer to take up a first cargo for Soames, he will at least feel his friendship is working. I reckon that we bring down the two shuttles and once the weekend is over, get two of the rested astronauts to go up in SB-II after we ask if there is any load ready to take up.”

“By Monday afternoon at the latest,” suggested Lunar.

Mars nodded. He knew that they were safe. Very few, if anybody on Earth, were tracking their launches or knew how many craft Astermine had in and around the planet. Soames had stated that he had seen six ships at one time on the radar. That still worried him, as the only time he believed that their ships had all their shields down was when they had picked up Captain Pete. Even the Matt ship he was piloting had its shield down for a short time when he had lifted off SB-III so that Captain Pete could be connected, and that had only been for several minutes before his shield was reactivated.

“You know, Lunar, I still can’t figure out why Soames told us that he saw six ships arriving. The only time we had our shields down was when we hooked onto Captain Pete. Weren’t all our shields down for the same period of time?”

“No, while you were launching the Matt craft, I ordered SB-I and Astermine One to extend their shields. I was actually worried that somebody might be counting us. At that time, we had eight blips on radar including “The Office” and your Matt ship. Two were shielded at different times, so that was when they counted six ships. Remember, Mars, they knew about our three shielded craft orbiting Earth. One was shot down, and I believe that they are monitoring the other two craft with cameras from their satellites above. If they were watching our approach, they would still have seen six ships. Captain Pete’s was docked on SB-III and you were inside SB-II’s shield. They don’t know that we have more ships, and nobody has counted the ships in our hangars, unless that little robot is feeding back information.”

“Well said, Lunar,” replied Mars. “I’m going to check up or blow a few circuits with my buddy to see if that is how they are counting our arrivals and departures.”

“Well, the three arriving Astermine craft would not have been recorded by the little robot. We put those away ourselves,” continued Lunar as they reached the hangar area again. “Unless it has a camera, it hasn’t recorded all our arrivals.”

“Jones… I want to talk to the robot,” stated Mars to a bewildered Lunar, and suddenly the tow robot headed out at speed towards them.

“Do you want your aircraft, Mr. Jones?” Asked the robot.

“Negative, I want a list of all the landings and takeoffs on this runway during the last month. Do you have any video feed recorded?”

“I do not, Mr. Jones, my camera system was disconnected five weeks, three days ago. Do you want a printout on paper? I have no way of downloading the information to any servers. My imail was disconnected at the same time, five weeks three days ago.”

“Paper will do, thank you,” replied Mars.

As the robot headed back after printing out a long list on a sheet of paper, both Mars and Lunar looked through the list. All aircraft the robot had moved was there, even the dozen supply aircraft that had arrived before Mars landed. All landings were recorded except the three Astermine craft and Martin Brusk’s aircraft which also hadn’t had wheeled landing gear.

The list also showed that as far as the robot was concerned, nobody was checking up on them. An hour later Lunar ordered the two shuttles to reenter twenty four hours apart.

Mary Collins stayed even longer for Saturday and had a wedding dress flown in for Saturn once her measurements had been taken. It arrived late Friday night, and the girls spent that evening helping the semi-flustered Saturn Jones get ready. Bob had stayed and the men had a bachelor’s party by the pool. They toasted all the men somewhere in the heavens above them, knowing it would have been better if the bride could have been given away by her father.

The shuttles landed secretly and Mars had short-circuited the robot for the two landings. The shuttles had been put away by the old tractor which could only be driven by Captain Pete or Bob Mathews. The youngsters hadn’t learned how to drive a stick shift!

Late Friday night guests began arriving. A party was begun for the visitors. On a warm but rainy and windswept day, Saturn Jones became Saturn Noble. With much merriment the day was a happy, successful occasion.

Bob Mathews was proud to give the bride away, and Captain Pete was honored to be Best Man.

It was a sobering two days for Lunar Richmond, as it was the first time since anybody could remember that not one shuttle patrolled the space above them.

Mary Collins had had her husband and two young daughters fly in with the dress. Martin Brusk brought his wife and youngest daughter with him. Apart from the various pilots, the group were the only ones on the island. Mary’s husband shocked Supreme Ruler Roo and all the young Matts, when the largest man ever seen walked off the aircraft. Roo put his hand to his mouth when the giant of a man walked up to him and bowed. Roo, one of the smallest people on the airfield, was introduced to the giant by Mary. Mary saw Roo’s shock and laughed.

“Bob is an offensive tackle on our country’s football team. He is nearly seven foot tall, weighs more than I can carry, and is as harmless as you are, Supreme Commander.”

Everybody met everybody during introductions. Even the pilots who had flown in the Prime Minister’s aircraft were introduced as guests for the weekend.

Since the two young Australian pilots were male, they were paired up as escorts with Pluto Katherine Richmond and Penelope Pitt. The two Canadian pilots, also both male, were paired up with the two Israeli Air Force female pilots, as there were no others on the airfield their age.

Pluto Katherine Richmond was very impressed with her “guest.” He seemed a nice young man, six foot tall, seven years her senior at 24, single, blond, with the most vivid blue eyes she had ever seen. Likewise, Penelope seemed enthralled by her pilot. Only Lunar Richmond was an older astronaut without a date, something Dr. Walls noticed, and he offered to be her beau for the occasion.

Saturday turned into Sunday, and it was a late breakfast with the wind and rain still not giving up. The radios blared around the airfield just after breakfast as somebody suddenly asked for flight instructions. Mars was the first to reach the control room to hear the weird-sounding request.

“Astermine Field, this is India Alpha Foxtrot 787 dash 9, a Boeing 787 out of Tel Aviv for Martin Brusk. We are thirty minutes out and are wanting to speak to Mr. Brusk, over,” stated what Mars thought to be a very mechanical-sounding pilot.

“Roger, India Alpha Foxtrot, copied that. Wait one, over.” Mars ran out, nearly cannoning into Martin on his way into the command center. “We are expecting company?” Mars asked, thinking about all Astermine’s firepower within a hundred yards of the command center.

“Your wedding present, young man, and the aircraft is not landing, but will be dropping a package by parachute on its way into Sydney. We don’t have that many aircraft with the 787’s extended range that can take off from Tel Aviv, fly over Darwin, drop your present here and then fly into Sydney. These are the last aircraft we ever received from the United States, fifteen years ago. Also, young Mars, it is a drone, a transport drone. The aircraft has no pilots aboard, only small lightweight robots that do all the loading and unloading. We reconstructed our military 787 fleet with cargo doors that open in the center floor of the aircraft between the wheels, and cargo, up to a pallet of supplies, can be ejected while in the air. Your present is not so big, but the plane will fly over at 1,000 feet and you will see our modern way of supplying our troops in the field.”

That appeased a worried Mars a little, and he followed Martin out. Over the radio, he could hear one of Martin’s female pilots talking the drone aircraft in. As stated, it swept over once, and a parachute blossomed out of its underbelly once the falling object was away from the aircraft. The package wasn’t that big, the size of a large box, and it bounced on the grass beside the runway as the aircraft disappeared out of sight. Mars and Saturn Noble were presented with three new autopilot systems, just as Lunar had suggested.

“An expensive present from me personally, and they don’t come cheap, Mars, Saturn, Lunar. These three units are the first of the latest systems made by a friend of mine’s company for the Israeli Air Force. It is a project we have been working on for the last couple of years. You can control an aircraft through satellite link with a headset inside this paper-thin helmet with glasses as far as the satellite link reaches. Everything is fly-by-voice, and there are no other controls. Ten space-friendly cameras the size of a pencil need to be installed around the aircraft for it to work, and all the cockpit readouts are in front of your eyes. There is no joystick for the first time ever. Australia only got their first prototype units about a year ago.”

“Wow!” was all Mars, Saturn and Lunar could say.

“Why three, Martin?” asked Captain Pete.

“At twenty million dollars apiece, I managed to get one each for Ryan, Jonesy, and VIN, three men my country owes favors to, but you might as well have fun with them until they return. Hopefully by then we will have more to give them and you can keep yours,” Martin smiled.

“No way!” Lunar replied.

“Any backup systems that can track these systems?” Mars asked, always wary. Mars knew that Martin didn’t know that the Matt spacecraft could only fly with hand controls with pure mental telepathy, something only a few could fly the aircraft with. It was something in his DNA handed down to him by his father. He made a note to think about trying to figure out how that system worked.

“Normally, yes” replied Martin, “but like the robot who controls your aircraft here on the apron, any communication devices have been disconnected, a sort of friendly trust between Astermine and Israel. I make sure of it, Mars Noble. There is no way anybody on this planet can track your spacecraft, with or without these autopilot systems, so learn to trust the old friends of Ryan Richmond, young man.”

The rest of the weekend went off pleasantly. Eventually the aircraft began leaving the airfield, and Mars Noble felt for the first time that he was actually married.

Joanne, with Roo and Jo, accepted a ride with Mary Collins and her family back to Toronto. Prime Minister Soames, still jokingly jealous that Mars had as modern equipment as Australia did, left next.

Lunar had been quite surprised to see her younger sister walk out to the aircraft an hour earlier with the good-looking pilot and even help him ground-check the whole aircraft. She noted that Penelope Pitt hadn’t got on well with her date after all, and he walked out to check the aircraft alone.

Martin was last and wanted a private word with Lunar and Mars before he left.

“I want you two, and please bring everybody you wish, to visit my airfield and base in Tel Aviv when you have a chance. I have left instructions with your ground crew on how to connect the cameras to the spacecraft you choose, and how to place the main computer inside a six-inch-cubed area of your cockpit. Remember, guys, there are a lot of miles between here and Tel Aviv, where I live. For your spacecraft, it is a short flight. I have my own airfield with hangars for security, and you can come and see the parts we have made for you, as well as my new space shuttle, which could be ready to fly by year-end.”

“Thanks for the invitation. I’m sure we will be there shortly,” replied Mars and the girls. They all hugged his wife and daughter, and then Martin himself before he climbed the stairs. Mars already knew that they would be there sooner rather than later to see what Martin had in his hangars for them.

The silent jet took off vertically up to a hundred feet, turned and swooped away as a helicopter would but without making a sound. The astronauts were trying hard to hear a noise, any noise, but apart from a light cracking sound in the air, the aircraft was as stealthy as one of their shuttles inside a blue shield. An hour later SB-II took off to continue patrolling.

The weekend had tired the crew, who were still not up to shape for constant Earth-life. Bob and the girls departed to do what they really enjoyed while the crew rested. Mars promised that he would join them on the next fishing trip, but there was work to do.

Chapter 8

Russia, Nevada and Israel

The island was paradise, many learned over the next few days. Now that they were stronger, most went for daily walks or began running around the island. Nobody was really interested in Ryan’s old idea of running around the runway, but most found that any workout strengthened them in ways many of the younger kids didn’t know was possible.

Also, a difference in thinking began to be noticed by the older crewmembers and the doctors which concerned the crew. Several of the Matts, including Roo’s mother, who hadn’t left with her son, and a few of the younger kids didn’t seem happy to be on Earth. A couple of the younger astronauts even offered to take extra turns on orbit patrol, to be able to return to the comfort of space.

Mars and Lunar were too busy to notice, and the doctors thought it a passing phase for the newcomers. Mars inspected the Matt craft closely, but even with the mechanics removing as many parts as they dared, he couldn’t figure how the craft worked by telepathic control.

Captain Pete joined the build crew to discuss the blue shields and what he understood about how they worked. He explained what he could while they fitted out the three shuttles with their new autopilots.

A week passed before Mars called Martin Brusk by satellite-linked radio on the international frequency he had used when they had arrived. He asked for the same type of earthmoving equipment to be shipped to what was left of the airfield by The Pig’s Snout. He also needed 1,000 gallons of ethanol, the same amount of hydrogen gas, and tents and equipment in the crater as before. Mars also warned Martin Brusk that he was to be allowed to watch operations, if he signed a letter of confidentiality, and that he should prepare to be shocked by what he would see.

Lunar then called Mary Collins at her office in Toronto. She was relayed to Mary’s office in Ottawa, a few hundred miles northeast. Mary told her that she often worked in both cities, and that the Canadian government was in the middle of a large restructure. Joanne Dithers Roo was still determined to go forward, and the U.S.A. had little to no modern security systems checking on air or spacecraft flying in or over the country. She warned Lunar that they could be met with resistance by certain military factions, maybe the old NSA, but she doubted that.

Once Martin had asked for a week to get his side sorted out, Lunar, Saturn and Mars worked on their first world visit.

Forty-eight hours later, Mars took the Matt craft up, surrounded by its blue shield, with Captain Pete as co-pilot.

Lunar was Saturn’s co-pilot with Dr. Walls and his son Johnny, now fifteen and the strongest and second-tallest man in the crew at five-foot seven. They headed up in SB-III inside blue-shield conditions an hour later. Pluto Katherine was happy to be left as commander-in-charge back on the island and watched as the two remaining shuttles launched inside their shields an hour apart. Lunar didn’t want any of their secrets on the ground when the crew was away. Nobody trusted the new autopilot systems yet, but Penelope Pitt and Jane Burgos were going through simulator training with the new hats on, watching the manual launch from the ten new cameras outside each shuttle.

Once in orbit, the crew used only the intercom, which couldn’t be picked up by any higher satellites.

“Listen in, astronauts. Our first stop is in Russia to check the thrusters. Igor told me a whole team of scientists is building them for us,” said Mars Noble. “I’m going in first, then Saturn and Lunar an hour after me. SB-I and SB-II, you ride shotgun 17,000 miles apart up there. Remember, Lunar, Saturn, it is November in the Northern Hemisphere, cold and most probably the ground thick with snow, so our blue shields could easily be seen at low altitude. That is why we are going in vertically from 50,000 feet. We are heading for an old unused airport called Magadan-13, an old small airport 7 miles north of Magadan, a very isolated town on Russia’s East Coast. The coordinates are 59 degrees, 37 minutes, 24 seconds north, 150 degrees, 55 minutes, 18 seconds east. Please repeat coordinates and enter them into your computers. It is imperative that Lunar and I get backup while we’re on the ground, over.” The astronauts did as instructed. “Magadan was where Igor was born, and we are to pick up two of ten new thrusters that, according to Igor’s directions to me, should have been ready a year or so ago. Ryan has already paid for them. They come with two of the men who designed and built them attached. They are Igor’s nephews. He said they could be trusted, but for us to make sure.”

“You guys are taking on passengers?” asked a shocked Shelly Saunders in SB-I.

“Yes, our first two new build crew members, the guys in charge of building and fitting our new engines, as well as on the new shuttle. Igor told me that there should be another 25 scientists, 25 build mechanics and five ground crew ready for uplift when we are ready,” Mars answered. Up to now only Lunar, Mars and Saturn knew about his mission.

“Where are we taking them?” asked Captain Pete over the intercom, squashed into the co-pilot’s seat behind Mars.

“To our second stop. That is why you are with us, Captain Pete,” smiled Mars. “To teach us kids how to drive a car.” Mars waited for Pete’s shocked reaction, and it came as expected.

“You want me to do what! Teach you to drive a car? Where are we going to find an old car I can drive in this day and age?” And suddenly Captain Pete knew where the second stop was.

Mars headed down and saw nothing but white ground just before the sun set over the western horizon. Telepathically, he wanted the craft to descend and watched as the ground, an unused runway, came up to meet him.

America One Shuttle to Pa-Pa Bear, do you copy? Over,” asked Mars over his handheld radio on a frequency Igor had given him. There was no response, so Mars was sure nobody knew where they were. Both Captain Pete and he were wearing full spacesuits without helmets, and as usual the suits were turned off for the long flight. He tried again and this time got a load of Russian blasted at him.

“Speak Russian?” Mars asked Captain Pete.

“A few words from Igor and Boris over the years,” replied the captain.

“Speak English?” Mars asked the man on the ground, while hovering 10,000 feet above in the blackness of night.

“Will get English speaker. Wait two minutes, America One people” was the reply.

Five minutes later a voice sounding like Igor’s came over the radio.

“Where is Igor?” the man asked.

“Still in space,” Mars replied.

“Where are you? I cannot see you,” asked the same voice.

“About 10,000 feet above your airfield,” continued Mars. “I’m running low on hover fuel, over.”

“You have code?” asked the Russian.

“Affirmative. 69, 11, 23, 101 Stalin Street, apartment 12, over.”

“Correct, you are welcome. I will put on airport lights. Land close to the middle hangar front door.”

“What was that code? it sounded familiar,” asked Captain Pete.

“Igor’s birthdate and place of birth,” Mars replied, now physically flying the spaceship.

“Lunar, you are cleared for hover at 50,000 feet. I see the airport lights below me, over.”

“Roger that. I have the lights visual through my laser cameras. Currently at 150,000 feet 100 miles west of you.”

To the surprise of two onlookers coated up and outside, a blue soap bubble began to grow and glow, came out of nowhere above them, and silently landed on the cement apron 100 feet from them. The weird-looking spacecraft was nothing they had ever seen in their lives before.

“Is that you in there, friend of Igor?” stated one of the dark figures through a handheld radio outside the badly-lit building.

“Affirmative,” replied Mars, keeping the ship on idle.

“Bad news, your ship in that bubble is too small to take two engines.”

“Copy that. You must be Sasha, over.”

“No, Dimitri. Sasha is standing next to me.”

“I have a second spacecraft coming in to be loaded. Do I need to help you? Over.”

“Nyet, we have a truckload of men coming. The engines are large but only weigh one metric ton each. We have them in three parts, and we have crane.” As he said that, an old truck that looked like somebody had just driven it out of the far distant past arrived with a dozen men huddled together on its open back.

“50,000 feet, have you visual, Mars. Who is riding shotgun up there?” Mars heard Lunar.

“Hillary Pitt at your service, Ma’am, just coming over the western horizon now. You have 21 minutes before I head out of laser range, and ten minutes of down time before Jenny is able to train her laser on you, over.”

“Dimitri, get the equipment out here. You need the crane to lift each piece at least 16 feet into the air. We have 20 minutes before we leave, ok?” asked Mars.

“Da, my men can do that in 20 minutes.” Mars heard the man give out rapid orders in Russian.

Two minutes later the larger form of SB-III came down 50 feet from his craft, right in front of his cockpit, and his wife smiled as she faced him, their eyes meeting. Her shield began to get smaller, and an old lift crane exited the opening door of the large hangar and headed directly towards SB-III. Saturn and Johnny, who had trained loading the shuttles on the Mars base, and with the help of his father, would be in charge of loading and tightening the pieces down.

Dimitri, tell your men do not, I repeat, do not touch or get near the blue bubbles. You will die, over,” stated Mars. He heard Dimitri scream orders in Russian, nearly blowing his ears out.

“I told them. My brother and I are ready to go with you. My father will have our suitcases here in his car in a few minutes. I need to ask you one favor. We have a scientist, our best man, who is in hiding here. We need him badly, and so does the government. They are searching for him and could be here any day. Is there room for him to join us? I believe he is the best astro-physicist in the world and as good as Igor and Boris. He is Boris’s youngest brother.”

“Affirmative by me, Mars,” stated Lunar over their intercom. “They are to stay in the hold anyway, as we are not heading back into space. First piece in and tight, I’ve been told, over.”

“Affirmative, Dimitri,” replied Mars to Ground.

“Da, I have second favor to ask you, friend of Igor’s.”

“Another enemy of the state?” Mars asked.

“He has wife. They married now for one month. Elena is my second best astro-physicist. That is all the favors I have to ask.” Mars ok’ed the arrangement and watched as the next pieces went into the open-roof cargo hold of SB-III. Even though she was an old lady, the shuttle still looked fine with her clean sharp lines. He wondered what the next shuttle would look like when the sixth piece was lifted into the cargo hold, and he saw four dark figures standing ready for boarding, each with a suitcase in one hand. The car that had brought the other two people and the suitcases a minute earlier had dropped them off, sped around and quickly disappeared.

“Dimitri, you need to enter the same spacecraft as the engines, and you must enter with the crane. We are not heading out of the atmosphere, and some of our crew lived in that same cargo hold all the way back from Mars. We checked for radiation inside the cargo hold before we launched, and it was clean. You will be safe and warm. I believe there may be food and water for you in there for our next three-hour flight. You will have communications with me. The door to the cockpit will be locked but there is an intercom device by the forward door. Now hurry, we have three minutes before takeoff.”

All thrusters on both craft had been on low idle throughout the loading process, and Dimitri’s men had worn ear protection. Mars watched as the crane hoisted the four passengers and their suitcases into the hold on top of a pallet. The others stood back as the crane reversed, and the shuttle’s roof door began to close. As soon as it had, the blue bubble began to grow around the shuttle.

“Sixty seconds to going out of laser range, I see your bubble expanding, Saturn,” stated Jenny Burgos high above them and now about to go over the western horizon.

“Copy that, Jenny. Shield extended enough to increase thrust. Thirty percent… 50 percent… 58 percent… We are off terra firma, going vertical. Coming, Mars darling?”

“Roger, wife, 40 percent thrust… We are away and going vertical about 500 feet below you. Heading up to 100,000 feet as planned. You ok in there, Dimitri?”

“We ok. It is very quiet, and much warm. Have we left Russia yet?”

“Affirmative. Currently heading through 10,000 feet at a rapid climb,” answered Mars. “You won’t feel any g-force due to the blue bubble, Dimitri. Over.”

“We want to analyze this blue bubble you have. It must be a very new invention, no?”

“Not really,” laughed Mars. “It is about 20,000 years old.”

The two spacecraft invisible to the world below them headed out to sea in an eastward direction at 150,000 feet. It was the first time they were actually doing a complete shield flight inside Earth’s atmosphere, and their speed easily increased to 3,000 knots forward speed due to the lack of air resistance.

“Your fuel situation, Mars, please?” asked Saturn, an hour into their flight. “We have three-quarter tanks, at 35 percent forward thrust, and using very little on this leg, over.”

“I’m at just above half and should make The Pig’s Snout after our next stop. Computers show we are over Anchorage, Alaska, and we need to change direction in three minutes, Saturn, over.”

“My readouts show the same. We are an hour from our next destination, out.”

“SB-II to SB-III, I see your change in direction,” stated Hillary Pitt. “There are absolutely zero blips on my radar all the way down to your next destination, over.”

“Copied that. Confirm no blips at all. The airspace is pretty quiet around here,” replied Mars.

“Shelly Saunders will be over the horizon in 30 seconds. I’ll see you on the ground on my next pass, out.”

It was Mars again, actually Captain Pete, who was going to test the “waters” for life in the Nevada Desert. It was still pitch dark with no moon, and the land 100,000 feet below them was covered in clouds. To their relief the cloud layer was at 20,000 feet, and there were holes in the clouds, not that it really mattered. They still had two hours of darkness before sunrise, and the crew wanted Captain Pete on the ground before then.

Silently, within the shields’ blue glow, both craft descended vertically to 20,000 feet. Saturn began to hover as Mars descended into the murky depths below and disappeared.

“It seems our shield can be seen from about 5,000 feet,” Saturn stated to Mars. “I’m looking through all our cameras and see four hot bodies outside through the heat and infra-red cameras. Zero movement through the night vision lenses. The other shows blackness, no light. Hold on! I see movement on the runway through all cameras. Zooming in… It looks like a herd of quite large animals running away from your LZ position. Four heat signals with four legs each.”

“I believe they could be deer,” suggested Captain Pete.

“I wouldn’t know,” replied Saturn. “You are the Earth expert, Captain Pete.”

Mars continued his descent and gently brought the craft into land under Saturn’s guidance 50 feet from a large building, what remained of a large hangar Captain Pete recognized as Ryan’s old command center.

“Know your way around, Captain Pete?” asked Mars as he closed down the shield and stilled the thrusters. Captain Pete couldn’t get out through his belly hatch exit until the thrusters were off.

“Like the back of my hand, Mars. Do I need to turn on my suit?”

“Negative, cool air should move around freely inside your suit from your open neck area. You can take off the mid-section if you need to pee out there, or just pee into the bag inside the suit. Are you sure you remember this base?”

“As I said, like the back of my hand. I spent 18 months here, and I have the handheld radio, torch and Allen’s .44 Magnum for protection. The eastern horizon should be getting bright in about 30 minutes, plus your extended shield and Saturn’s shield should give me enough light at least to look around the near vicinity.”

“Remember to purge the underground cavern Ryan told me about as soon as you get out,” added Mars. “At least you can open that in about 30 minutes if you need a place of safety. You have the controls,” Mars reminded the captain.

Captain Pete opened his hatch and his seat descended through the underbelly of the craft. He illegally stepped onto U.S. territory without a passport. It already felt good to be home. He closed the hatch behind him and ran from the spaceship directly to the nearest wall of the nearest hangar, activating the cavern controls as he did so.

Mars watched him move away, then re-ignited the still-warm thrusters, extended the shield and just sat there. A minute later the second bubble appeared above him, 50 feet to the east. Saturn touched her craft down and waved at her husband. They were totally safe inside the shields.

“So far I haven’t seen any movement,” said Captain Pete.

“Me neither as I came in, but my radar is now partly trapped with all these buildings around me,” added Saturn.

“The underground cavern is purging, and I’m ready to look around, over.” The intercom went quiet, and every so often the torch light could be seen moving in different directions. “Ryan’s old command center is a mess. There is a bird’s nest in part of the remaining roof. I’m by the pool and accommodation area. The mess hall is empty and littered with rubbish. The pool is empty and full of dirt and sand. I see eyes, red eyes… Ok, it was some sort of skinny dog. Certainly wasn’t a wolf, it was brown and mangy. Saw a cat scurry away. Heading for the apartments.”

“I think I see light on the horizon,” stated Mars.

“Apartments on the ground floor haven’t been lived in,” stated Captain Pete several minutes later. “First two, doors were closed but unlocked, and there was our old furniture inside. Third one was locked, and the fourth looked the same as the first two. It’s eerie around here. I’m going to head over to the kitchen. If somebody was living in that third room, the kitchen would have been used.” Ten minutes later he reported in. “Kitchen looks like it has been used sometime in the past, although there is a fine layer of dust on everything. There is no food in the storage areas, and no electricity. I’ve tried several switches. There are no dirty dishes or rotten food or anything. I think I see dawn coming out of the window. I want to check out a few hangars next.”

Captain Pete walked around the apron for the next few minutes. Sometimes he waved, as his black silhouette could just be seen, and sometimes he just walked to the next hangar. He visited all six hangars that the crew had left years earlier before he reported in.

“Only Ryan’s command hangar has been damaged. Maybe a hand grenade or something. The others are closed, and the insides empty. So far I don’t believe anybody is living here, except maybe in the third room, but I think a check of the security buildings by the main gate and the condition of the wire fence will tell us more. Heading there now, Mars.”

The radio went quiet for 15 minutes before a fainter Captain Pete came back. Now the sun was only minutes away from raising its head over the eastern horizon. “Inner gate security buildings locked and sealed. Outer fence is whole and I could see no holes for the 100 yards I walked it in both directions. No sign of damage, but there are tire marks, fresh tire marks, and they lead behind the outer security building and—oh, crap! I see an old jeep parked behind the building, and oh, crap again, a light has just gone on in the building.”

“Who’s messing around out there? This is a restricted area.” Mars heard someone shout out pretty close to Captain Pete through the intercom and his heart leapt into his mouth.

“Who wants to know?” Mars heard Captain Pete reply. “I recognize that voice. Is that you, Sergeant Meyers?”

“Sounds like somebody I used to know. Could that be you, Ryan, or Jonesy, or you, Captain Pete? My hearing is not what it used to be. Walk into the light so I can see you… Captain Pete, is that really you? You have a spacesuit on. Fall out of a spacecraft? I haven’t heard any spacecraft around here for several years now.”

Pete spoke into his radio. “Mars, the man here is Sergeant Meyers. Give me five. I’ll leave the handheld on so that you can all hear us.”

“Who is Mars? Where is he?” asked the old grey-haired man looking around as Pete walked up. Sergeant Meyers was dressed in warm civilian attire apart from a combat cap on his head, and had at least a week’s worth of growth on his face. He also had a sawn-off shotgun and two pistols in his belt, and the shotgun was instinctively aimed at Pete.

“Mars Noble, VIN’s son. He is piloting the spaceship sitting on the apron. I’m checking to see if it is safe for the crew to disembark, Sergeant.”

“As safe as it ever was, Pete. A group of us have guarded this place ever since you and then the military left this base. Where are Ryan and the boys? How come I never heard you arrive?”

“A long story, Sergeant. How many others are on base? I don’t want anybody getting shot now.”

“Just me last night, Pete. A few of the boys headed into Tonopah to rustle up some whiskey and play a few slots.”

Together, Pete and Sergeant Meyer locked the outer gate and returned to the apron as the astronauts closed down their engines.

“That a new spaceship, Captain Pete? Never seen that one before. Is that big fella getting out of it Mars Noble? Where’s my old boss, the lieutenant? Did he make it into space and back?” Meyers asked as they walked up to the most interesting spaceship he had ever seen. It was smaller than the shuttle he recognized. This new ship looked like an eagle, or a buzzard. It had the same hooked nose.

“Many of the old guard are still in space, and yes, the lieutenant had a great time. All are alive and ok and will be for some time, Sergeant. It’s a long story. You deserve to hear it, but we need a sitrep (situation report) on this base from you first. Captain Mars Noble, meet Sergeant Meyers, one of my old buddies and Lieutenant Walls’ second-in-command.

Captain Pete wasn’t surprised when the old soldier suddenly stood to attention and saluted the man fifty years his junior. Mars smiled and did the same, returning a crisp and expertly performed salute.

“Sergeant Meyers, my father always spoke highly of you and your men. Are there any others?”

“Sorry, sir, the remains of us old guys are still into gambling, women, and whiskey. So maybe I’ll have to get them into shape again. Some are at home, and some are in the nearest town. It gets a little boring guarding this base, and it seems that the men need more and more R&R (Rest and Relaxation) as they get older,” stated the sergeant, still standing at attention.

“At ease, Sergeant,” smiled Captain Pete. “We are not on parade. Do we have any ladders or cranes on base?”

“Negative, sir. The soldiers took just about everything when they finally left five years ago. There is very little apart from the furniture in the rooms and utensils in the kitchen. We don’t feed ourselves in the kitchen. The electricity was cut when the soldiers left. We have one large generator we all chipped in and purchased at Home Depot before it closed its doors in Vegas about four years ago. It was on closeout special. We eat in our barracks most of the time. Who is that young girl exiting the shuttle’s side hatch, Pete?”

“Commander Lunar Richmond, Ryan’s elder daughter,” replied Pete.

“Must be the next generation running the show. All us old guys are past it, apart from you, eh, Captain Pete?” Again Sergeant Meyers faced the young girl, stood to attention and saluted the new commander as she walked up. She smiled as Mars had done and returned the salute. “Nevada base pretty clean, reasonably secure, and ready for your inspection, Ma’am!”

“Sergeant Meyers, at ease. What the dickens are you still doing here? We were all expecting a flattened base and just an old runway. Haven’t you got better things to do with your time?”

“Sorry, Ma’am, but the boys and I love this old place. Remember, I wheeled you into the medical center the last time you arrived, a wee young thing at the time. To answer your question, we all helped a space company grow from nothing to the best space company in the business. The government wanted this place so badly, it was the best thing to see their faces when they arrived to get nothing, twice. Your father, Ma’am, was the best boss anybody could ever ask for. He paid us so well that we have never wanted for anything, and we all survived the real hard times over the last decade or two. Tell Mr. Richmond the boys and I, and nearly a hundred of the crew who used to work and live here, and who are still in the U.S., often return. We let them in, and they wander around like it’s an old museum or something and then go away happy. Even a group of Russian scientists somehow sneaked into the United States and arrived here one afternoon to visit. They stayed a month, fed us vodka, gave me an address, telephone number and radio frequency to contact them on if anybody returned, and now here you are. Actually, three of the old German scientists from Munich, the ones who designed your father’s first prosthetics, Captain Noble, arrived for a week two years ago and brought a bottle of that horrible-tasting Schnapps with them. It’s still in the kitchen. This place is like a shrine for many. And do you know how much work you’ve given me to contact everybody now that you are back? I had better go and radio the boys. I’m going to need some help calling everybody.”

“Before you go, Sergeant, a damage report, please?” asked Captain Pete.

“Extensive damage in the control hangar only. We have kept the rest as best we could. The swimming pool was ruined by the soldiers, and we didn’t have the manpower to clear the dirt they pushed into there with front-end loaders. As soon as you guys left we set up camp outside the perimeter and had the others take our vehicles. We watched from outside atop the small hill by the dirt road. The stupid asses arrived by road, tore down the two main gates with their Bradleys, headed straight for the main hangar and threw in grenades, killing two of their own crew before the screams stopped them. Then they went from hangar to hangar, searched all the quarters and realized that only their staff were on base. We dug in and made a camouflaged viewpoint on the hill, that tiny speck over there.” He pointed to a tiny hill where the dirt road which connected the base to the main highway ran past the outer fence. “Within 24 hours of you guys flying out, the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, and even Air Force One arrived to search the place from east to west and north to south. I was told a year later by a buddy who was on guard here that the President was looking for his daughter. We were outside the grounds and missed their initial searches by a few hundred yards. It was close. Over time, more and more troops moved in. They set up base here for about two years. Then during re-election time, the base suddenly emptied overnight. We gave them a month, then we returned, purchased the generator at Home Depot, the largest gates we could find, and repaired any holes in the outer fence. We took up temporary residence, taking three-day shifts so as not to make too much dust up and down the dirt road.”

Sergeant Meyers then turned to Captain Pete. “Captain Pete, Martha, my wife, died two years ago, and I didn’t want to live with her ghost at home, so I sold out, got nothing for my house and moved in here. Room Three. Two of the boys, Joey Jenkins and Bob Holloway, also moved in permanently when their wives died last year. They live on the second floor. We have six guys left who guard this place. The rest have passed on. Once a month we all get together for a party, bringing in food and drinks with the remaining wives. Other than them, Captain Pete, only the returning scientists and others who worked here have been allowed in, and we have warned many who have tried to get in. Current area population, us three, about a dozen coyotes, and a herd of deer who move in and out. How they do it, I don’t know. I had better go and tell everybody that Astermine is once again in business.”

“Sergeant Meyers, we are currently here illegally,” said Lunar. “Please keep our being here top secret. We could get an unwanted visit from the nearest Air Force or army base.”

“Not much chance of that, Ma’am. Creech Air Force Base became a ghost town about three years ago. I headed into Vegas less than a year ago. There is hardly more than a car or two on the roads these days, only a few electric cars, as there is no gas in the gas stations, and hardly any more electricity. Vegas has blackouts for days. I went past Nellis Air Force Base and was shocked to see two guards but no aircraft, personnel or any trucks or base vehicles. The place looked deserted. I haven’t seen an aircraft, military or civilian, pass overhead here since the military left. I haven’t seen a speed cop for years. In Tonopah, where I used to live with Martha, there is only one police station and a dozen cops who share one old gasoline Dodge police cruiser.”

“How do you have fuel?” asked Captain Pete.

“We filled up one of the airfield’s underground fuel tanks with 5,000 gallons when we returned years ago, Captain Pete. It cost us aplenty, but it was the best move we ever made. We also purchased a couple hundred bottles of fuel additive, and so far it has worked well. We still have a thousand gallons or so.”

Again Sergeant Meyers snapped to attention as more arrived from SB-III to join the group talking in the middle of the apron. One of the female crew had a spacesuit on, and Captain Pete remembered that the poor ex-Air Force sergeant knew that anybody in flight gear was an officer.

“Sergeant Meyers, Captain Saturn Noble-Jones. Remember Dr. Walls? Your lieutenant’s son, young Johnny Walls, his grandson, and four Russian scientists we picked up a couple of hours ago in Russia.”

“A couple of hours ago, wow! Captain Noble, congratulations, I’m jealous. Saturn, your father and Maggie were always my best buddies. How are they? I remember you were a real cheeky little thing last time you visited us,” he joked. Saturn punched him gently on the arm as she had always done and then gave him a hug. They had been best of friends on base. “Dr. Walls, good to see you, sir. I remember you in diapers. Johnny, you have grown into a good-looking and strong young man. Your grandfather must be real proud of you. Saturn, you still owe me a flight into space. Remember, you promised me last visit? You told me to stay alive long enough for you to become an astronaut, remember?”

“A small gift in thanks for your looking after my father’s dream, Sergeant,” stated Lunar happily.

Sergeant Meyers jumped and kicked his heels together like a cowboy. With shotgun in hand he headed back to the guardhouse chatting to his old friends Mars and Saturn who wanted to know everything that had gone on since they had left.

The others followed to find a room for themselves and the four visitors. A planned visit of a couple of hours was turning into a few days.

It was 60 hours later, just at sunset when the two craft, under the watchful eye of Sergeant Meyers, his crew of two, two new arrivals, and the four waving Russians, silently ascended with shields extended and slipped away from the airfield.

Much had been done in the short time. Captain Pete shocked Sergeant Meyers when he opened the underground cavern. Meyers knew of the cavern, but he didn’t know that it had the small door just outside the partly destroyed hangar and in the cement of the apron. He had walked across the area thousands of times not knowing that an underground entrance was there. He had often helped move equipment, but through the larger door where Hangar Six had once stood. Now that area was bare, with no hangar. He had been one of the dozen members of the security detail that had helped move equipment into the C-5 last time it was loaded, but even he didn’t know how to open the door, nor would he have told anybody about it.

Once the LED lighting was turned on, the interior was as clean as they had left it, apart from the same rotting smell they had found last visit. Several more of the freezers had stopped working and piles of dried remains or dust was all that was left of their contents. Pete and Lunar decided to leave the small entrance open to get rid of the smell overnight. There were no more secrets to the base.

The fuel seemed useable. Sergeant Meyers whistled when he saw the remaining Bradley, arms and ammunition, and still enough real old food to feed a small army. That night they defrosted some steaks, a pork roast, and several frozen chickens to see if the food would poison them. They even found a freezer full of ice cream, something new the NextGens had become fond of on the island, and the next morning nobody felt ill.

They spent the next day taking stock and, after wheeling out several generators to light up the base and turn on the large kitchen refrigerators and walk-in freezers, reckoned that they had enough supplies of everything they needed including frozen water to last a hundred or so crew for at least a month or ten.

The large loading door was opened to work on, eventually start, and drive the remaining Bradley out, which was Mars Noble’s first verbal-only driving lesson, and why Captain Pete had flown with them. Mars had thought that he had seen the two Bradleys in the desert when he was younger, and Captain Pete told him that they had only flown out one from Nevada. The second was due out on the second flight that had never materialized. The second Bradley in the Sahara was an Australian one on loan. The Bradley was a powerful vehicle, and they hitched to a military trailer and drove out weapons, ammo, a dozen freezers, water supplies, and dried food by the ton, just in case.

Sergeant Meyers was handed a machine gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and he kissed the weapon’s barrel sweetly.

The four large generators were then pulled out by the Bradley driven by Sergeant Meyers and the old tow vehicle driven by Captain Pete that had towed around the “Dead Chicken.” To Mars, there was a very interesting group of vehicles down there, and he drooled over the beautiful but dusty silver Audi R8 Sergeant Meyers told him was his father’s. He knew which car he wanted to learn to drive on. Captain Pete laughed as he drove out the old Ford truck with the crane to unload the new thrusters out of the shuttles hold.

“You need a few lessons before you drive that powerful beast. I suggest Joanne’s old Volkswagen first,” shouted Captain Pete as he drove the smoking old Ford up onto the ramp.

The four large diesel military generators were on their own wheels, and once started, gave ample power to the whole base. During the second night, the entire base lit up like a small town once the generators were started. The battery systems were mostly dead, but several battery rechargers stored underground gave them life. Captain Pete reminded Lunar to ask Martin Brusk for a small Cold Fusion power plant. They should have a spare one available if Martin’s aircraft was powered with one.

A really interesting find was the bounty from the missions to DX2014. Valuables from the asteroid mining mission Jonesy, VIN, Suzi and Maggie had brought home during their last flight to DX2014 were in plenty. Captain Pete knew that Ryan had given part of the haul to the U.S. government, Libya, Israel and Australia, but he was shocked at what was still down in the cavern. Three aluminum canisters were full of hundreds of small rough diamonds, about five to ten carats each. There were also a couple really massive diamonds that didn’t fit into a canister. He didn’t want to think what they were worth.

There were several steel pallets of gold that had been melted into small 5-kilo bars in one of the hangars. The sizes were different, but he reckoned that there were a couple of tons of the yellow stuff. He now knew a way how to pay the incoming staff and to purchase supplies. A couple of dozen aluminum canisters held what looked like the rare earth metals. He was correct when he looked closer and saw tiny labels with the type of metal and the weight inside the canister. There was at least a ton of platinum, and a canister each of several others.

There was so much in the cavern that it was impossible to take stock in one day, so he did what he could and, with the help of Lunar, Dr. Walls and Johnny, covered about a third of the cavern. The fancy automobiles could stay until the next visit, so Captain Pete closed down the cavern until they returned.

Several of the old crew were already on their way back to the base. At least Astermine had gold to pay them, but it seemed that the crew all had deep pockets. Several of the incoming crew suggested over the radio with the security team that they bring or pick up supplies on the way without even knowing if they would get paid or not. Sergeant Meyers told everybody to bring what they could. There weren’t many large retail stores open, but several told the sergeant and his guys that they could drive or find an old truck or two, and they all had enough means to pick up supplies on the way.

The American population had been living hard and frugally for many years now, and in the land of opportunity the wealthy had ways, means, and friends with which to bring in supplies.

Lunar and the crew were shocked to see the first massive 18-wheeler truck arrive two hours before they were about to launch. It was one of the experts her father Ryan had contracted from NASA when the shuttle missions had come to an end. He had been in command of Astermine’s thruster department, and he let down his tail gate to allow ten head of black and white cows out.

“Joe Pullen, Ms. Richmond. I was your father’s chief thruster programmer. I have ten milk cows for you and enough feed stocks for the cows for a couple of months. I purchased a dairy farm for my eldest son from Ryan’s pay, and he has done very well. At least we’ll all have fresh milk. There are always more cows and feed stocks if we need to increase our supplies.”

Joe was introduced to the four Russians, and it seemed they had all heard of each other. Immediately he was shown the new engines flown in from Russia, and Joe Pullen suddenly seemed the most excited man on the base.

A second 18-wheeler arrived an hour later out of Northern California. This time the 40-foot shipping container on its bed would have made Suzi and her crew very happy. It was full of hydroponic vegetables and plants, and an older-looking Bud Small, part of the crew who had designed the spaceship space guidance systems, stated that he was ready to start work. He had invested into a new way of vegetation production based on ideas studied from Suzi and her team, and now he had a thriving company in California that worked hundreds of these containers and produced vegetables for city folk as far south as Los Angeles.

Lunar shook her head, remarking to Mars and Captain Pete that this base would be humming within a few weeks.

“Mars to wife. Currently cruising at 250,000 feet, heading 77 degrees, speed 3,600 knots, I’m above St. John, New Brunswick. ETA Tel Aviv, 1 hour 33 minutes, over,” stated Mars over the radio system and not the intercom so that Saturn could get a fix on his position.

“Roger, husband. We are three minutes behind you, still over Halifax. Have your transmission fix, over.”

“Saturn, didn’t this use to be the most frequently used flight lane in the world? You know, all U.S.A. flights going to Europe and back? I remember Jonesy telling us that most nights there were solid lines of aircraft flying in both directions. Remember that?” he continued but this time over the private intercom.

“Well, I don’t see one aircraft below us as far as my radar reaches,” Saturn replied.

“Me neither, it looks like this planet—or at least the northern hemisphere—has come to a grinding halt,” added Mars. “In Australia, there were always a couple of blips on the radar when we flew in or out.”

“We haven’t seen very much movement up here either,” added Shelly Saunders, directing her communication through the intercom so as not to give her position away somewhere high above them. With all the blue shields active, they couldn’t see each other on radar either until the computer picked up a radio transmission and worked out from where it had originated from. This was why they always gave each other their positions relative to the ground and did not fly in formation.

“Unidentified aircraft, this is Canadian Air Traffic Control. State your intentions, over,” ordered somebody new over the radio. Mars had let the cat out of the bag.

“Astermine spacecraft to Canadian Air Traffic Control, we are at 250,000 feet and I believe not in Canadian airspace. We are heading towards Europe. Give our regards to Defense Minister Mary Collins, over.”

“Roger, copy that, Astermine spacecraft, out.”

“Mars, we should keep our flights secret,” stated Lunar over the intercom.

“I think it’s a positive signal to many that we are flying around the planet, Lunar,” stated Captain Pete from behind Mars. “We are free to orbit Earth. I believe we have few enemies down there, so we might as well fly around inside the upper atmosphere to show interested parties that we are confident to do so. At least we kept radio silence over the U.S. so nobody knows we were there.”

An hour later Mars again broke radio silence. Martin’s control tower replied to his call seconds after a panicking Israeli Air Force wanted to know who and where they were, as the incoming craft were not on their radar screens.

Martin’s airfield radioed the Israeli Air Defense Command telling them these visitors were expected and had pre-arranged flight plans into his private airfield. Then the radioman gave the two craft their coordinates for landing.

The weather was clear and the sky blue when Mars descended vertically from 100,000 feet. The airfield became visible and grew as he brought the craft down. Thirty minutes after the first radio call, a Matt spacecraft landed on non-Astermine-controlled land for the first time. There were a dozen onlookers, Mars and Captain Pete noticed as the shield was closed down. No robot tow vehicle came out to meet them, as the Matt craft, like Martin’s aircraft, had legs, not wheels.

“Matt craft to orbital patrol, we have landed. You have my coordinates. We need constant eyes on the two grounded craft once Saturn lands, over,” stated Mars into his handheld radio to make sure that everybody listening knew about their overhead protection. He and Captain Pete were sure that there were hundreds of radios in and around the Middle East listening to Israeli radio chatter.

“Copy that. All Astermine craft orbiting Earth, take heed of the ground situation. All orbits need to be perfectly stationed. Mars, good luck. Out,” stated Penelope Pitt from far above.

SB-III touched down five minutes later in the same location as the two previous craft. Mars thought that it was his wife’s joke to face him every time she came in.

“Martin Brusk to our visitors, welcome. I understand your security concerns and would like to remind you that you are safe on my airfield.”

“Copy that, Martin, but we have our orders from Ryan, and we take our orders seriously, over,” replied Mars, still sitting in the cockpit seat.

“Completely understood,” replied Martin.

“Martin, we need your word that our two spacecraft will not be boarded by any unauthorized personnel while we are on the ground, over,” added Lunar Richmond. “Any person or vehicle who gets within 20 yards of either aircraft will be immediately fired upon. No warnings will be given. Since we destroyed half the U.S. Air Force on our last visit, you know the strength of what we have in orbit protecting us.”

“Copy that. I understand my friend Ryan’s orders perfectly, and I will tell all my personnel here on the airfield that it is certain death if their image of any type is seen from space while you are on the ground. Now exit and come over. I have some fresh coffee and baklava and a new space shuttle in a hangar for you guys.”

Four members of the crew exited, and as the astronauts not wearing spacesuits walked away from the two spacecraft, the blue bubbles began to grow. Mars could control his ship mentally.

Lunar apologized to Martin, and so did Mars when they shook hands in the airport’s small terminal building. “Fresh orders from your father?” Martin asked. Lunar nodded but said nothing, trying hard not to tell a lie. The orders were orders, only many months old.

Lunar, Mars, Captain Pete and Saturn sat down to have coffee. Johnny Walls had reactivated the shield around SB-III. He and his father had been trained as many of the crew had been back on Mars and could fill many positions.

Johnny Walls was happy. He was training to be an astronaut and this was training. Also, the young man was getting a precise world geography lesson flying around the planet sitting in one of the shuttle’s rear cockpit seats.

As was customary in many parts of the world, the crew sat down to first eat and drink and chat.

Mars carried his handhelds and was ready for any reports from space.

“I thought our modern VTOL flight hybrid aircraft was the latest, but after seeing your two craft land vertically from what you told me, 100,000 feet, totally silent and in those blue bubble things you use, I think we are still decades behind Astermine here at Tesla Space,” stated Martin drinking a freshly poured cup of coffee. The good coffee brought back memories of the times they didn’t have coffee supplies on Mars, so most had drunk the stuff aboard the mother ship. “I will assume those bubbles are your stealth mechanisms to hide you from everybody down here? Do they hide you from each other?”

“Yes, they work 100 percent perfectly,” replied Mars.

“Interesting,” replied Martin. “Mars, may I ask what sort of gas you pump into the bubbles to expand and contract them?” Mars looked at Lunar and Captain Pete to see if he could answer. Captain Pete decided that he would answer.

“I will tell you this about the blue shields, Martin, no more. They are over 10,000 years old and work with electrical energy, using billions of nanites, and melting plasma. They have a vacuum inside the shield that can have a mix of atmospheric gases pumped in to mimic conditions and pressures similar to what we humans need here on Earth. They have a perfectly accurate and natural light spectrum, good enough to grow food inside an atmospheric shield on the Martian surface. If anybody walked through the shield into one of those bubbles right now, they would be walking into a vacuum and die. Also, the blue shields are the protection we have used against the cubes for the last two decades. Currently those two spacecraft are 100 percent secure. That is all I will say right now.” Martin nodded and thanked the captain.

“The first craft—that is not one of Ryan’s? I don’t recognize it, Pete.”

“Correct, Martin. That is a Matt craft, Supreme Ruler Roo’s spacecraft. It runs on ethanol and works on telepathic flight controls, something only Ruler Roo, VIN and Mars Noble can control. It seems to be hereditary. Dr. Nancy can telepathically speak to Ruler Roo, and VIN or Mars can hear her thoughts, but often Dr. Nancy cannot reply, except through Ruler Roo himself.” Martin shook his head.

“I can’t believe it, Pete. A craft centuries ahead of our technology that flies on alcohol? It just doesn’t add up.”

“It does if you hear the Matts’ history and what they had to power their craft, but we will discuss that at a later date.”

“I knew that I would be shocked to the core today by you guys,” smiled Martin. “I’m sure you are not telling me ten percent of what you know.”

“It will take a long time for us to bring you up to speed, Martin,” added Lunar. “I think that Captain Pete has said more than he should, but since you are one of my father’s best friends, you have our trust. All I ask is that you don’t break our bond of trust, as the information will stop dead in its tracks.” Martin nodded.

“Whatever you have told me in this room will go no further without your prior knowledge. I still owe your father, Lunar, my business for helping me get it out of the U.S.A. when we did. I would have died there with much of the country’s business. Soon the time will come for all of us to go and rebuild the good old U.S.A., something I’m itching to do.” Everyone nodded.

Now it was time for Martin to surprise them. They headed out keeping off the apron, and they headed towards one of Martin’s five large hangars. He stopped everybody and told them that what was inside the hangar was his gift to Ryan, but since he wasn’t there, his crew were the next best group to hand it over to. He raised his right hand, and somewhere, somebody in control of the airfield opened the large hangar door.

The crew’s mouths dropped when they saw what was inside. It looked like an exact replica of Ryan’s three shuttles, but bigger.

“Exactly twice the size of your shuttles now. It doesn’t have to fit into the Dead Chicken, and by the way, Bob Mathews’ old darling is in the next hangar. We painted her white, since she doesn’t belong to the U.S. Air Force anymore, and named her the ‘Dead Chicken Freightliner,’ a joke for Ryan, Jonesy and Bob. Saturn, your father asked me to do it, so blame him when you see him, not me!” he laughed. “But let us back get to Sierra Bravo IV. She has four vertical thrusters behind her wings, two rear hydrogen thrusters and two rear xenon ion drives. The four center thrusters are multi-positional and can propel her upwards, forwards and backwards in five-degree imcrements. Her four rear engines are only forward-directional, and she has six small side thrusters along her fuselage for space travel alignment. She has been built with the same aluminum-lithium alloy outer body layer as your shuttles, but from a new company here in Israel. The outer skin layer is a full one-inch thick versus your shuttle’s half-inch outer skins. The alloy has cobalt, vanadium, silicon, tungsten, boron and titanium, except that we added a five-percent mix of both osmium and iridium and increased the titanium the same amount, all for extra strength. We are now very short on many of the rare earth metals and hope you guys can help us out. We need osmium and iridium for our next build pretty badly.”

“We have stocks of all you need apart fromcobalt and tungsten,” replied Captain Pete. “Those should still be easy to procure down here on Earth.”

“Thanks, Pete. The carbon graphite layer is also double thickness relative to your craft, and these extra thicknesses are necessary for the larger mass of area inside this spacecraft, including a thicker two-inch honeycombed, carbon nanotube structure. Before I bore you guys—I know I’m talking to the pilots and not the designers and builders—let me say that these plans came to us from Ryan. He actually designed this ship before he had to tighten his specifications down to mate the shuttle to the cargo area of the C-5. This was your father’s first plan for your three shuttles, Lunar. He gave them to me before he left Nevada, in case he never returned. At that time he didn’t expect to return. Let’s go inside. It has a walk-in entrance door underneath the cockpit, not the small cockpit side hatch you guys squeeze in and out of.”

Martin pressed a button on a hand control unit, and a door opened on the side below the high cockpit windows, lowering vertically from the top like the Gulfstream’s, becoming a staircase as it touched the ground. “An idea we copied from Ryan’s Gulfstream,” added Martin.

“That’s right. I forgot my father also has an old atmospheric Gulfstream jet,” stated Lunar.

“Well, it has changed a bit for the better, young lady. I arrived for the wedding in your father’s old jet.” That shocked all the astronauts.

Martin climbed in up the short flight of stairs through a small sleep compartment and rest area into the cockpit. The cockpit looked identical to the smaller shuttles’ but it was wider, the roof a few inches higher, and it had a tiny one-room captain’s cabin behind the cockpit wall with a door and space for beds. There were also three jumpseats on the rear wall of the cockpit instead of two.

“Room aboard for at least ten crew for long flights. These controls are basic compared to yours,” continued Martin. “Ryan didn’t give me his latest secrets in that department. These controls can fly the shuttle in atmospheric conditions only, but you guys are the expert pilots, and I’m sure Ryan has extra control gear stashed away somewhere. Her fuel type is identical to yours, either liquid or gas hydrogen, xenon for her two ion drives which we haven’t tested, helium and a spare tank for whatever secret fuel you guys have. I’m sure she might even run on ethanol, banana skins or whiskey,” he joked. “We estimate her cargo hold to carry double your mass at full vertical thrust, but with a limit of six tons into orbit from Earth. We have not flown her into space. We can’t, as we don’t have the knowhow or powerful enough thrusters to get her higher than a straight flight level of 60,000 feet. Nor vertical launch capabilities higher than 150,000 feet. She needs far more powerful thrusters than she has at the moment, and I know Ryan has a more modern thruster. He built them on your shuttles before he left Nevada.”

“Can she fly?” asked Mars excitedly.

“Fly, yes. Travel planet distances, no,” replied Martin. “We have everything she needs for low atmospheric flight up to 60,000 feet. Her outer body is ready for space travel, but she needs hundreds of modifications only Ryan’s build crew can give her. Mars, she flew secretly from here to your father’s airfield in the Sahara and back twice last year, no further. She could fly around the planet at about Mach 2. Her wings are fixed, not retractable, and three times larger than your smaller shuttles’ wings, as she doesn’t have to fit them inside an aircraft’s cargo bay. Due to her larger wing size, she is as much an atmospheric flying supersonic rocket as she is a space traveler. Let us continue the tour.” The astronauts mentally judged that she could still fit inside a blue shield on Mars.

They walked through the rear cockpit door to an empty space Martin said was designed for a docking port he didn’t have. As with the smaller shuttles, its purpose was to open and extend outside the top of the craft for docking. Captain Pete thought that he had seen two docking ports in the stores in Nevada, but said nothing. “The tail of the aircraft is semi-retractable for space travel, as it is higher than the maximum extension of the docking port.”

The cargo bay looked like the smaller shuttles, except larger and higher. Martin opened the roof doors, as well as side doors on one side of the shuttle.

“The roof doors and internal davit can rise out of the hold on hydraulics, extend 30 feet, and load and unload the ship’s cargo on Earth and up in space. It has a one-ton lift limit on Earth, fully extended. Each of the new panels for America Two fit in here and weigh one ton apiece. As Ryan’s team built into your smaller mining craft, these side doors allow for cargo movement from the side of the spacecraft.”

The cargo bay, Mars and Captain Pete noticed, was longer and could fit in larger pieces of machinery. Martin’s ship also had crew quarters in the rear with space for six vertical beds, or three horizontal beds. This area already had space “heads,” a small kitchen, and ample storage space for long distance travel, the astronauts noticed.

“The only design change, astronauts, is that the fuel compartments are below the cargo bay and fill the entire floor underneath us, up to the rear wall of the cockpit,” Martin continued. “The fuel tanks hold 240 percent of the fuel you carry in your shuttles. If Ryan could get his boys together, you could have her completing her maiden flight into orbit within a year or so. She has taken me ten years to build, and I’m dying to go up with whoever is her test pilot to orbit space a few times. Lunar, here are the controls to your new shuttle. Once she is out of here, we will start on a second body build.”

With the tour ended, he gave the shuttle’s door controller to Lunar and bowed jokingly. Lunar didn’t know how to respond, but hugged Martin silently.

“Can we move her somewhere else?” Mars asked, excited to fly her. So was Saturn, and she immediately headed forward into the cockpit. The left seat needed her butt imprint in it. It was her new ride.

“Mars, you guys own her now. My debts to Ryan are complete. I would just like to be helped with all your modifications when my ship becomes ready for flight. Captain Pete, are you ready to see the blueprints for America Two and America Three?” This time it was the captain’s turn to looked shocked. “Come on, Pete, do you think Ryan and I are friends for nothing? He left all his plans for me, even his design for the real ship he wanted to build but which was too big a project for his first mother ship.”

“Tell me, it’s the wagon wheel design?” asked Captain Pete.

“Yes, it’s the 360-degree design and we already have twenty of the 240 outer panels that will one day fit inside this shuttle’s cargo hold. Yes, Pete, the new ships will be built in space, not here on Earth. The gravity wouldn’t allow for a build down here. We are completing the outer panels at four per month, and will increase to eight if the finances and resources allow. Tell Ryan he already owes me close to $150 million, old U.S. value for America Two—the shuttle is my gift to him—and I’ll take it in rare earth metals, gold, diamonds, or even the flight secrets he keeps hidden from me. Actually, Pete, give me the specifications for those blue shields and I’ll pay for the entire body build of both mother ships.”

Pete smiled. “I’ll ask Ryan when I see him next.”

As unexpected as the last stop in Nevada, this visit was also extended for another 48 hours. Under Martin’s persuasion, the blue shields were closed, and SB-III was pulled by the same type robot as on the island into the hangar where the still really massive, pretty and very white-looking “Dead Chicken” now resided. There was even room for Mars to hover in the Matt ship. Mars laughed when he saw the large brown letters “Dead Chicken Freight” along both sides of the old aircraft and the abbreviation “DCF” on each side of the massive tail.

“Looks like my dad’s humor and artwork,” Saturn joked as she stood by her husband.

“We don’t have anybody here on Earth old or young enough to fly her,” said Captain Pete. “I was never certified to fly anything the size of her.”

“I’m sure Beth or Monica or all of them could ferry her back to the island,” stated Lunar.

“Well said,” replied Captain Pete. “We need a few more hangars there anyway. There’s tons of room, so we might as well order them.”

Mars, as soon as he realized what was needed, got Hillary Pitt on the radio. Shelley Saunders was asleep and her co-pilot was in orbit above them on her shift. He and then Lunar gave orders that released her from her current patrol altitude to move upwards towards the supply pods all latched together on a similar orbit, but higher. He asked her to hook up to the docking port of Captain Pete’s old ship “The Office,” as that was where the extra blue shield had been stored once the mining craft were all down on Earth safely. They didn’t want the extra shield lying around on the planet.

This, she worked out, would take at least twelve hours to accomplish and then SB-I was to reenter to deliver the shield to the airfield and launch back up again.

The next morning he got Beth on the radio, patched through from SB-II above the Indian Ocean, and asked her if they were still confident to fly the Dead Chicken from Tel Aviv back to the island. He told her it was a sight to see. Bob’s old girlfriend was now a bright white color.

“Bob’s eyesight is not as good as it used to be,” said Beth, “but being several years younger, both Monica and I have perfect vision and could still fly her with Bob in the engineer’s seat. Bob would love a flight in his old darling,” she laughed.

On finding out that their fishing boat was already on its way back to the island, and only a couple of hours out, Mars suggested that they fill Jonesy’s Gulfstream’s tanks and fly over to Tel Aviv. It was within the aircraft’s range. With three very competent pilots, they could fly and rest at the same time. Saturn could fly the Jones family vehicle back with Johnny Walls as a co-pilot under instruction, which pleased Johnny no end. Mars also asked Beth to bring Penelope Pitt, who was on a break from orbiting, and the Burgos sisters with them; he needed more astronauts.

A few hours later, with its blue shield glowing, SB-I could be seen high above the airfield.

“Running out of support up there,” stated Martin, watching with Pete and Mars outside on the hot apron.

“I don’t think so,” responded Mars, trying to look relaxed, which he certainly wasn’t. “That Matt craft in the hangar. It has all the firepower we need, and there are six more of them up there,” he lied, winking at Captain Pete. They never knew when friend Martin was just making a comment or gathering vital information. Ryan and VIN had taught Mars well—always leave the enemy on the wrong foot.

Saturn and Lunar had taken off ten minutes earlier in SB-III and were at 30,000 feet. This time a faint shadow could be seen by the radars in the area, as they had their shield semi-retracted and the laser ready for action. Martin smiled at Ryan’s professional crew. “The Israeli defense system is nearly as good as you guys. You never leave a hole in your movements. Well done, Mars. I’m going to put in a recommendation to your father when I see him.”

Nobody had told him what was about to happen, but when he saw Astermine’s security arrangements, he knew something important was about to be delivered.

This time, as the shield disappeared around SB-I and the side hatch opened, Dr. Walls and Johnny ran up with a large box of fresh fruit, a sealed thermos of hot coffee, sandwiches, a whole slab of baklava—something the young space astronauts flying the shuttle had never tasted—and several other items of fresh food. A black box, which looked like a briefcase of some sort, Martin guessed, was handed to Johnny who immediately headed for the hangar the other aircraft were in. He used the door opener, and as the second shuttle took off he disappeared inside. Still, nobody would tell him what was so important. He would learn soon enough, as Jonesy’s Gulfstream jet was heading over the Indian Ocean in their direction.

Seven hours after SB-I had disappeared into the blue sky, the Gulfstream came in to land. The sun was setting as the aircraft was refueled and then added to the complement inside the Dead Chicken hangar, now filling up with aircraft.

The next morning Martin’s private airfield came alive as the hangars were emptied of all the aircraft leaving. Bob Mathews had already set up a refueling point over the Indian Ocean for the C-5. The Australian air tankers were ready to get airborne in Darwin, and he had laughed out loud at seeing his old girlfriend’s new livery.

The smaller craft were pulled and hovered out first. Mars had no choice but to fly the Matt craft. Saturn had no choice but to fly her father’s aircraft back home and wasn’t happy that Lunar got the left seat in the new shuttle.

The C-5, looking more civilian than a military aircraft, headed out first with Beth and Monica flying and Bob Mathews being chauffeured in one of the rear engineer seats. He had sadly accepted that his flying days were over.

Saturn and Johnny Walls headed out 30 minutes later and would catch up and fly with the larger aircraft, but at a much higher altitude.

In the meantime, the new SB-IV went through a complete and careful ground inspection with the remainder of the astronauts present. Once the checkup was complete, Lunar and Jane Burgos entered the larger shuttle as the heat of the day mounted. Penelope Pitt and Jenny Burgos readied SB-III for launch, and Mars was back in the Matt craft with Captain Pete.

Martin watched from the control tower and was surprised when the astronauts said their goodbyes. He was completely shocked when he saw the same blue shield begin to extend from the very ship his team had just built, and then knew what had been in the black box or briefcase.

The shield enveloped the entire craft, as did the shields on the other two craft.

Mars Noble launched vertical first, ascended, and disappeared into the cumulus clouds at 8,000 feet. The smaller shuttle was next, and Martin crossed his fingers when Lunar began to increase thrust. Although the flight tower’s window was open, he could not hear any noise from the engines. Most of his personnel had worn ear protection when the two maiden flights had occurred.

“Lunar Richmond to Ground, thrust at 75 percent and heading vertical.”

“Only seventy-five percent thrust. It took us 95 percent to lift off!” exclaimed Martin Brusk as he watched his latest model Tesla slowly leave the apron. The blue shield enveloped it totally and within seconds it had disappeared into the cloud base. “Also, we have zero radar transmissions of you up there. Lunar, Mars, you didn’t tell me where you are going, over.”

“Oh! Martin, she is flying like a dream. I feel I’m flying a mother ship, this cockpit is so large. We are heading out of your airfield, and we will be in touch. Martin, thank you for everything.” And that was the last he heard from them for nearly a year.

Chapter 9

New Ships in Nevada and The Pig’s Snout

The three craft moved up to high altitude. Lunar, with the help of the shield, reached 90,000 feet, the highest the craft had ever flown. Pushing the wing thrusters from vertical to forward thrust, she steered the ship in a north-west direction at a slow 1,200 knots, first over southern Europe, then the cold Atlantic and towards Iceland.

“How is she flying?” Mars asked, once out to sea over the north Atlantic two hours after they had taken off. There was no intercom in the new craft, and this was the only radio communication they would make. The pilots knew the designated direction, height and heading each was expected to take, but not what Lunar’s ship could actually achieve. Mars didn’t want any radio communications that Martin or Israel could pick up, and a short transmission over the Atlantic would keep everyone guessing. They could be heading to Canada or over the North Pole down to Australia.

“Flight Level 90 (90,000 feet), speed twelve hundred and forty knots, ETA two hours 20 minutes, out,” responded Lunar curtly.

From that the others could figure out where she was. Mars was 60,000 feet higher than the new shuttle and 1,000 miles ahead. Penelope was 50,000 feet higher than Mars, and 500 miles ahead of him. They throttled back slightly to keep in touch with the slower ship.

Mars descended into Nevada two hours before the sun was to set. Since nobody new was expected around the old base, and they were flying with the sun, he had no choice but to land in daylight.

Totally silent, on a cool winter afternoon, there wasn’t anybody to meet him. As he descended to the apron in front of the hangar, he noticed a dozen or more large trucks and several old cars parked between the two gates. They had only been away 72 hours and the parking areas were filling up.

Penelope landed several minutes later, and her blue shield disappeared as Mars ejected himself. As she exited, Sergeant Meyers and one of his armed guards headed over to Mars to greet him.

“Didn’t see you come down, young Mars, but saw the second landing. Who is that young girl? She isn’t Saturn?”

“Penelope Pitt, Michael and Penny’s firstborn,” replied Mars. “Sergeant, we need the old C-5’s hangar doors opened, and the tow vehicle. We have a new shuttle heading in.”

They waited. It took an hour before the blue shield could be seen, a pinprick in the sky at high altitude. Slowly Lunar brought the new shuttle in and placed her right outside the large hangar, now open and ready.

“That’s a big beauty,” remarked Sergeant Meyers, driving the old tow truck himself, ready to tow the new shuttle in. He towed the larger shuttle into the hangar before Lunar exited, and then proceeded to tow in SB-III once Mars had hovered in the smaller Matt craft.

The new shuttle was big, about the size of an old Boeing triple seven, Sergeant Meyers told the astronauts. They looked at him weirdly. The astronauts didn’t know the aircraft he was describing, and he shrugged his shoulders remembering that some of these kids hadn’t even been born on Earth.

Once the astronauts were ready, and the hangar doors closed, they went with the sergeant to be introduced to the arriving crew.

Lunar noticed that all of Ryan’s original build crew who had arrived seemed in their late sixties and seventies. A few were even in their eighties, and many had brought younger family members with them. There were 48 of the old crew, another 60 were on their way, and 20 new members, experts in their fields and the NextGens of the scientists and designers. That didn’t include the four Russians, who told Mars that through the new satellite radio hookup there were a dozen more scientists wanting to be picked up with the remaining thrusters back in Magadan, Russia.

It seemed the word of work was getting around, but lucky for the Nevada base, electronic communications were 99 percent non-existent in their part of the world.

Over the next few days, more and more of the old crew arrived. All the tools, molds and equipment stored underground were hauled up. Within a week, three of the six hangars on the airfield were being readied for work. In the meantime, Penelope had gone back to Australia in SB-III to exchange with Saturn, who then flew the refueled shuttle into Russia to pick up two more thrusters and a few more scientists.

In Magadan, Saturn, Johnny Walls and young Jenny Burgos, as co-pilot, met up with Mars and Lunar flying SB-IV, who were also visiting to pick up more thrusters. Four of the new thrusters could be fitted into the larger shuttle, and the Russian thruster crew were told to start on six more, and that they could have unlimited amounts of engine orders from other parts of the world once word got out. The thruster build crew of 40 Russians suggested that they all move to Nevada. They could be closed down at any time by the local Russian authorities.

Mars had a better idea: Australia. He suggested the Australasian base would be better, as Ryan did not want the whole organization to be in the U.S. just yet. The thruster crew was ecstatic. The only problem they could see was how to organize shipping small parts from the dozen or so Russian small company suppliers. Mars suggested that they could be relocated as well. With that, another enjoyable vodka party was missed by the sleeping Jonesy. The astronauts, apart from Saturn who was starting to show her pregnancy, were allowed six shots each by Lunar, as they would be flying the next day.

Both of the designs of the new mother ships showed five rear-facing thrusters in the “hub” of the wheel each. SB-IV had been designed to have six, four underneath the wings and two on the rear. As the mechanics told Mars and Lunar, the three smaller shuttles could also have the more powerful wing thrusters installed. Mars suggested that their current engines could be passed down to the mining craft sitting in Australia. The Russians needed funds to pay other companies for parts, and again gold was the more appreciated currency.

Now the new shuttle’s engines and electronics could be pulled out and reconstructed with what was needed to get her into shape for space. All the astronauts knew that with six of these large and extremely powerful thrusters, her straight-line travel speed in space would be far faster than any craft they currently had. Saturn was adamant she would be her captain.

It was surprising what American supplies were being trucked in when they returned from Russia, and what contacts the old crewmembers had back in Nevada around the globe. The range of food and drink supplies was certainly not as varied as when the airfield had begun decades earlier, but it was enough to keep the workers happy.

It was time to visit The Pig’s Snout to gather payment for the Russians, the Astermine crew, and working capital to build all this merchandise. Mars wanted to learn to drive a car, and so did Saturn and Lunar. It was priority when they returned to the Nevada desert.

Sergeant Meyers, currently the most knowledgeable car enthusiast on the airfield, and a rusty Captain Pete spent a week working poor old Joanne’s Volkswagen beetle, whose manual gearbox was put to a noisy screeching test daily, teaching the young astronauts how to drive the most difficult vehicle they had ever tried to maneuver. The Volkswagen, even with its old soft top down, was the most impossible vehicle they had all tried to command.

During the second and third week, many advanced to driving the Audis and electronic Teslas. Compared to the old Volkswagen, these were so much more modern, and the rapid acceleration and instant maneuverability easier to fathom.

The long, 10,000-foot airstrip now had its share of motor cars riding its length. Even Captain Pete, who was pretty lacking in remembering his advanced driving abilities himself, had to get instruction from Sergeant Meyers on how to drive a fast car.

Even though Meyers told them that Las Vegas was pretty much a very quiet town, they still wanted to see the famous landmark themselves, so a parade of cars left the airfield one morning and headed down the old potholed highway towards Vegas. The cars saw one old motorcycle heading in the opposite direction during the whole journey down to Creech Air Force Base, and the newly “licensed” drivers enjoyed missing the holes in the old and weathered asphalt.

Sergeant Meyers drove with Captain Pete in Ryan’s silver Audi. Now that the Audi engines only ran on alcohol, the only gas station was back at base—or at a liquor store.

At the old Creech Air Force Base, they stopped. With the security gates gone, they drove right in.

Their own base looked better than what they found at Creech. The hangars and buildings had been ransacked for anything of value, and it would certainly need a complete facelift to ever be occupied again. There wasn’t one building that didn’t have major damage. Thin dogs of all sizes ran off in every direction as they toured the old base Captain Pete knew so well.

As they drove closer to the city, a few more people could be seen. Everybody stopped and gawked at the line of four vehicles, two red and two silver. Mars noticed that many of the other cars on the roads were old, and all had damage, or what he had learned about in chemistry: rust.

Many were old tractors, and families waved as they passed. Sergeant Meyers was well-armed and had made sure the kids could shoot an ordinary rifle before they had left.

To Captain Pete, who had spent many days on the Strip, the dusty and weathered street was lined with the same old, damaged casinos. It looked like a ghost town.

“As the dollar lost its value, the tourists stopped coming,” explained Sergeant Meyers in the passenger seat of Pete’s Audi leading the line of four cars. “The flights into Vegas slowed and then stopped all together. Gas stations ran out of fuel as they weren’t resupplied. Over a decade, this place went from the Strip as we used to see it to being an unoccupied area. The police still operate, I believe, and shoot first around here. The rich headed out, then the casino owners felt threatened by the hungry and the homeless and left town with hundreds of trucks full of equipment. The insides, I’ve been told, are bare and empty. I’m sure they are full of people you don’t want to meet. The surrounding area is pretty much as you would remember it, the suburbs. Food still gets through, but Vegas has lost over half of its population. Ryan used to have lunch with Jonesy and VIN at that casino.” He pointed to a large, dirty-looking tower of a building. “We are going to head south down the highway to Henderson. I have a buddy who has a restaurant there and owes me a few favors. It’s protected by guys I know.”

They headed down an almost empty highway that ran through the city and reached an area that seemed detached from the city itself. Barbed wire fence surrounded it and men inside a high wire were guarding two large steel gates across the road.

“Who wants in?” shouted one man from inside the wire.

“Joe Meyers and friends for lunch at Bob’s Diner, Hal,” shouted the sergeant, climbing out of the front Audi.

“You got something for us, Joe?” was the answer.

“A tiny diamond the size of your pinky nail,” he shouted back, still standing outside the car, and the gate opened.

“Good enough for a visit, Joe. I’ll take one of those electric cars if you have one extra?”

“Go find yourself your own horse, Hal, these belong to us.”

Once Captain Pete saw the cars outside Bob’s Diner, he felt like he was back in the States. The range of a dozen vehicles looked like he had never left the country. Old Mustangs, Dodge Chargers, several hybrid/‌electric vehicles, and even a sleek red Ferrari was parked outside the old diner next to a rusty and faded green John Deere tractor that looked a hundred years old.

They locked the cars and walked in, as a crowd gathered outside to see the new cars. They carried their arms and were relieved of them at the door by a pretty girl who sat them at a booth with a broad, sweet smile. Menus were presented, as if the world still worked properly.

Pete couldn’t believe the difference between here and the Strip. The inside was half full with about two dozen men and women either drinking at a long bar or eating at the dozen or so tables in the small diner. To Pete, it seemed Sergeant Meyers knew most of the people, as he waved or said howdy to many. To Lunar, Mars and Saturn, it reminded them of the old movies they had watched on their travels, except this diner looked partly out of a western and partly like a more modern diner.

The astronauts were dressed in old civilian clothes that they had found underground, which had to have been worn by their parents. The cotton was heavy, and not what they were used to.

A man came up to the booth. “Hi, Joe. You brought some friends, I see. What currency are you paying with today? Your choice is gold or jewelry. You know we don’t accept paper anymore.”

“You know you owe me a few favors, Bob, and I told your brother at the gate that I have this little raw stone for you,” He tossed over the tiny diamond he and the group had picked out of one of the underground canisters.

“Is it real, Joe? Is it one of those old Richmond asteroid stones? I’ve always wanted one of those.”

“Yep! One of the smallest he gave me, Bob, before he left,” replied the sergeant.

“Bob here used to be Ryan’s neighbor when he was a kid here in Henderson,” laughed Joe, telling the others. “They even went to school together.”

“Heard from him? I hope he comes back. I see, Joe, that you and these youngsters are driving his old vehicles. Something happening I need to know about?”

“No, they needed a drive. They’ve been standing at the base for years. A few of my grandkids here and my cousin Pete from California came to visit, so I suggested we head over to Bob’s for lunch.” Bob nodded at the introductions and looked at the stone.

“Good enough for a couple of meals, Joe. You guys have what you want, and return someday for another meal. This stone must be all of five carats. Also, Joe, I have a case of vintage Budweiser and a fifth of Jack out back, to pay you for what I owe you.”

Lunch was certainly interesting. They weren’t hassled by anybody. The steaks were as large and as tasty as on the Australian island. and the cold American beer brought back memories for Pete. The kids decided not to drink. It was hard enough driving these mean machines without alcohol consumption, so the case of beer and the bottle of Jack were reserved for the base.

The group thanked Bob for the meal. Nobody talked to them, and nobody asked who they were. They looked like a few rich old fogies and a couple of kids in fancy cars out for lunch. The rich had certainly decreased in numbers, but this was America, and there were still places money brought everything they wanted.

The ride home was just as uninteresting, and the crew realized how lucky they were to have the island. Mars really wanted to go fishing, but it was time to head into the Sahara and do some mining.

The new shuttle was taken out of action to be taken apart. The build crew had 21 months before the next Mars/Earth opposition when, Mars told them, he would be returning to the red planet in it.

The smaller shuttles were refueled and filled with stores for the African desert. They didn’t know what they would find. With the section leaders in charge of their departments hard at work and Sergeant Meyers and his six old guys on guard, the two spacecraft inside their shields launched themselves from the desolate base and headed eastwards at high altitude.

Martin had told them before they had left his base in Israel that the exact same two earthmovers had been placed inside the sandy crater as had been used before. So had drums of diesel, two tents for accommodations, a military cooking area, toilets and two large generators ready to power up fridges and freezers for their arrival. The old airfield was now pothole-free, as the Israeli army had filled in the holes, and the tarmac for aircraft.

The Australian Prime Minister had offered air tankers for refueling if any were needed, and had explained that with most of the cars on the road in his country electric and no airlines flying for the last decade or more, there were large amounts of jet fuel stored around his country.

Only the farmers and truckers still used diesel, and Martin had a factory in Brisbane working on electric trucks and tractors.

Chapter 10

Joanne Dithers Roo Goes to Washington

Canada was cold and snowy. Ruler Roo had never seen such cold white stuff in his life before. Nor had he been outside where the air pinched his skin. Joanne had seen a white winter a couple of times before, and she explained to her bundled-up husband and son that life on Earth had been tough for many for millions of years. He had been lucky to see only warm conditions on Earth. Roo had never felt the icy cold before.

Mary Collins was happy to have them in Toronto. A large and luxurious private house a few blocks from her house had already been equipped, and even Joanne was impressed with her family’s temporary “Canadian Residence,” as she called it. The house had five bedrooms, and Roo immediately stated that he was ready, if he had to make a whole new tribe, to fill all the sleeping rooms. The house was as big as one section of America One or half of the base on DX2017.

Joanne mentioned that this was far larger than her living conditions before America One, as she had spent most of her young life in universities or on the road in motels. Mary had made sure that the accommodations were good enough for a future President, and she told them not to worry about food or shopping. There was fresh food in the refrigerator, and they didn’t need money.

Young Jo Dithers Roo was to be homeschooled by either a homeschool teacher or, as Joanne suggested, by his father.

They had a pleasant day together before Joanne’s first trip to Washington, which Mary warned was not going to be so pleasant. Mary and a few other important members of the Canadian government were going with her.

Joanne expected to be housed in a private house several blocks away belonging to the Canadian Embassy. The Embassy would be their office for a few weeks. Joanne was told that a few of her Washington supporters had been contacted by the Canadian Embassy, and a “March of Support” for her return had been suggested to be held on the same day as their meeting with the U.S. Congress, the third day after their arrival.

“We haven’t told your supporters, Joanne, where you are staying, in case they cause an embarrassing situation for the Embassy,” Mary told her. Joanne understood, still not believing that her small party had grown so large. Her father must really hate her now. “They will not know if you are staying in Washington, and our Canadian troops protecting the city have been placed on a higher alert. Congress, the Senate, and the White House are going to scream when they hear of our intentions to withdraw our troops, and scream again when you are introduced to them.”

“Where are my supporters supposed to meet?” Joanne asked.

“On the Mall outside the Capitol, the same place your father became President,” Mary replied, smiling.

The accommodations were as luxurious in Washington as in Toronto. Roo and Jo were to stay in Canada until some momentum had been gained and it was safe for them to join her.

The townhouse was well equipped, but much smaller and had no garden. Joanne was introduced to three ladies who would reside with her. Debbie West, an experienced girl who had worked in the Capitol Building all her life, Jody Foster, Joanne’s very own personal assistant, and Sherry James, her bodyguard.

All three girls were about her own age, all professional, and that first night, they enjoyed a delivered-in dinner and a bottle of Californian Merlot while getting to know each other.

The girl who had worked in Washington, Debbie West, told Joanne that she had been one of the up-and-coming Capitol women, and had worked in several different departments in the Capitol. She had spent two years as a Senator’s personal assistant, and then a year as the PA for a Congressman who had then been promoted to House Speaker while she was with him. The previous Speaker had died in a bad car accident. This all happened under President Dithers’ time in office.

It seemed Debbie West hated ex-President Dithers as much as Joanne did, as the President had forced her boss, the new Speaker of the House, to step down due to political lobbying and unproved scandals. The man was disgraced and had left in disgust, going back to Tennessee to retire from Washington only a year after he had taken office.

Once President Downs was elected, her next job was as an assistant to a U.S. Congressman, who had recently retired a few months’ earlier. Now she was ready to help Joanne, as Debbie West herself had been an inactive member of the illegal “Individual Party” since the House Speaker had been forced to retire.

Joanne looked forward to working with Debbie and told the wide-eyed ladies about her travels around the solar system. It had been explained to Joanne that Debbie would not be at the first meeting in the House chamber due to everyone knowing who she was.

The troubles could be seen in the traffic crawl to Capitol Hill for the meeting with Congress. The Washington streets, usually empty of people, were amassed with thousands, mostly young people and students who were converging on the Mall. The wide street was thick with people as the Canadian Embassy car inched its way through the crowds down the famous avenue.

Its windows were dark so nobody could see in, but as the vehicle made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue, the Canadian Embassy flag received cheers and the car was slapped on its roof by a few.

Joanne was shocked at the masses. The early morning news had already shown the Mall with thousands of young people congregating and several dozen Washington police on horseback trying to keep order. Mary told her in the car that the Canadian troops had vowed to cause trouble with the local police force if violence was used against the masses.

Finally they were allowed into the secure area where they could be dropped off. With passes already around their necks, Mary, Joanne, Jody her PA, and Patsy the bodyguard were allowed through the metal devices. The Capitol Security Guards checking Joanne’s visitor tag and it seemed that the last name Roo didn’t put out any alerts, but the Dithers part of her name made the second security guard look up at her twice inquisitively. Joanne just shrugged her shoulders, smiled, and saw the guard let the name comparison with another famous politician ride for now.

Joanne and her personal assistant were seated on a table six rows back from the front with Mary Collins and a second member of the embassy staff, a defense advisor, she had been told when they had been introduced in the Embassy car.

Congress was brought to order and the Speaker introduced the special session; the first 45 minutes was for a discussion asked by the visiting Canadian Defense Minister.

“Defense Minister Collins, on behalf of the House, welcome to Washington again. I believe it has been 11 months since you graced us with your presence.” As the Speaker went on, Joanne sneaked a peek around the room. There was nobody she recognized, absolutely nobody, and nobody knew who she was either. Her stomach was showing her 4-month-old pregnancy and she felt keen and strong sitting in the Capitol for the first time since she was 10 years old. The last time had been at her father’s first inauguration to President, out on the front steps. The Speaker’s voice brought her back to the present. “I apologize for the crowds out on the Mall and in front of the steps. They started gathering before dawn in the icy cold and so far have been well behaved. It seems to be some sort of illegal march on the Capitol. We have been told it is supporters of the “Individual Party”, a political party not represented in this Chamber. Ms. Collins, we have also heard that the Canadian Protection Forces have been ordered by your Embassy to leave the marches alone. I for one cannot fathom why your Embassy would get involved in affairs of a political nature and an illegal march in Washington, so I hope that after your speech, you could tell us why. Defense Minister Collins, I give you the floor.”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank you for your welcome and the welcome of all your members of Congress. As you and your members know, Mr. Speaker, you have had elite Canadian Military soldiers protecting the House and the Senate, as well as the White House and other important areas in Washington. You asked us for our help two years ago to aid you in protecting the U.S. Capitol by repelling a possible attack from the forces belonging to ex-President Dithers from the south. That attack has never materialized and it is time our troops went home.”

Immediately there was a commotion as the members all began talking or shouting. It took a while before the Speaker’s gavel quieted the House.

“Defense Minister, you know that if your troops leave we will be vulnerable to an attack,” replied the Speaker, flustered. “We believe that that is exactly what Dithers is waiting for. We cannot allow you to remove our protection. The President himself will be vulnerable.”

“Yes, I understand that, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow morning I have a second meeting with the Senate, and after that I have an appointment at the Oval Office. I will say the same to the Senate and to the President as I am going to say here today. Canada has no interest in the politics here in Washington. It is not our say what goes on in this country. All we can do is to continue being neighborly and help our friends out. Mr. Speaker, two years ago Washington offered to help us with the costs of stationing 30,000 of our finest here and around Washington. You gave us three old Air Force bases to house our troops, but as of yet, we have not received a cent of the $20 million U.S. in gold you offered to pay us per year to keep our troops here. Any U.S. food and supplies provided to our bases has now come to a halt, and we are now forced to supply everything our men and woman need from Canada by air. This is beginning to hurt our economy. so I will be pulling out our troops by year end, if the two years of assistance you promised us is not met within 14 days.”

“Defense Secretary Collins,” replied the Speaker, “you know that it takes time to receive payment through our government channels. We are not as gold-rich, might I say, as we were a couple of decades ago. With gold being the main international currency, we unfortunately have our hands tied. Ever since we sold most of our gold reserves three decades ago, this country has been in financial difficulties. It was two administrations back when the hard times in our country began. Then it was the war in space with the Russians, Chinese, Iran and North Korea against us that broke the camel’s back. We are growing as a nation again under President Downs—he is up for re-election again this year—and I ask you to keep your troops in and around Washington, at least until the President is reelected for his second term. He is the only hope we have to sustain new growth in this country.”

“Mr. Speaker, my Canadian government has also crunched the numbers on the election coming up. We have estimated that ex-President Dithers could actually beat President Downs in popularity, something I cannot fathom. If the ex-President is taken out of the picture, the President at best might get 9 percent of the vote, if this whole country goes to the polls.”

“Yes, maybe,” replied the Speaker, smiling, “but approximately 70 percent of this country won’t bother to vote, and President Downs’ supporters certainly will, to keep Dithers down south.”

“Our worry, Mr. Speaker, and one of the many reasons we want to withdraw our troops, is the unhappiness in this country that could be caused by your current President being elected for a second term. Nothing has gotten better for Joe Citizen here in the U.S. during his first term in office. We in Canada cannot see it getting any better if the current President stays for a second term, and the situation will worsen for our men and women stationed here.”

“So, Ms. Collins, what can you suggest we do to keep your forces here? We here in the House are worried that this country could end up in a second civil war if your troops leave. At least a civil war here on the East Coast.”

“I suggest that you allow an open election, allow any political party to state its mission and allow new blood in through a larger variety of new political minds belonging to more parties. Allow the American population to say how this country is run, and who can be elected for the first time in a century. We in Canada achieved this five years ago, and look what it has done to our economy. Mr. Speaker, I wouldn’t be standing here speaking to you today if we hadn’t opened up our political arena to all of our citizens.” There was absolute silence as the Canadian Defense Minister, who had been seated throughout, stood and turned around 360 degrees very slowly, and then faced the Speaker. “A final note if I may. Mr. Speaker, I am the result of open and equal politics, something this great country can’t remember for generations.”

With that she sat down and pandemonium ensued. Remarks, good and bad, abounded as everybody got a few words in. Mary Collins calmly drank from the glass of water in front of her. The Speaker continued.

“What politics you have in Canada is not Washington politics. It would not work here in Washington, Ms. Collins. I have been in this House for 35 years, and there is as much freedom for the American public to vote in free and fair elections as in Canada.”

“Then what about the congregation, the citizens on the mall? What about the unbanning of more political parties so that the people can vote for who they want to, not two parties with a group of politicians who have been primed for Washington for decades?” she replied calmly.

Again there was noise, and the Speaker worked his gavel hard. “I’m sure the group out there are insignificant and have nothing to do with free and fair elections. Ms. Collins, we have 235 million Americans to deal with, far more than you have in Canada.”

“Yes, Mr. Speaker, I am so glad you brought up this very important reason we want to return our troops to Canada. There are over 33 million Americans who reside in Canada on temporary visas, thanks to the Canadian government’s lenient policy towards them. Our Embassy in Mexico City has stated that there are a further 40 million Americans living there, mostly illegally, and none are happy with this country. Thousands are crossing both borders daily. We cannot stem the flow, nor can Mexico. You would have a real situation here, Mr. Speaker, if we sent all those people back. Our problem is not only the safety of our troops here in Washington but the steady increase of people we do not want in Canada.”

“I doubt that you can do anything about the current situation, Ms. Collins,” replied the Speaker. Her time was coming to an end. It was just business as usual and he was thinking of the Danish pastry he always enjoyed at this time of day.

“I have one suggestion, Mr. Speaker. If Washington agrees to it, then our troops will stay. If you don’t, my government has no choice but to pull our men and women back to guard our borders and expel the increased flow of new Americans to our country, due to our re-election estimations in your country.” With that she sat down.

“Will the House give the Canadian Defense Minister an extra five minutes to hand us her suggestion? Please vote,” added the Speaker, and numbers began showing on the electronic board on the wall behind him. It was quite rapid and the “yes” votes beat the “no” votes by double. Mary Collins smiled gently. The House was worried. “Defense Minister Collins, you have the floor again. We have a problem outside. The Capitol Police have warned us that they believe the crowd has grown to over a million. I have received a note that the crowd is wanting a Ms. Joanne Dithers Roo. You have 5 minutes, Ms. Collins. The Capitol Building, for safety reasons, will be closed for the day once you are done.”

“Mr. Speaker, I have one suggestion: the unbanning of the third political party in this country. May I introduce to you Ms. Joanne Dithers Roo, the founder of the Individual Party. May she say a few words?”

“No, she may not, Defense Minister. That is an illegal party. I’m sorry. Thank you for coming. The session is over; the House is now closed for the day.” His gavel sounded and the Capitol police immediately entered to organize the exit. The Canadian Defense Minister and her group were cordoned off from the members, who were all talking at once, and immediately led out of the chamber for safety reasons. They were escorted directly to their car waiting outside, and the car drove out of the Capitol and through the swarming masses.

“It didn’t go well?” asked Joanne.

“Actually it went better than I expected, Joanne. The vote told me everything I needed to know. I was hoping we just got to the vote. Our first evacuation of our troops will now begin in a few hours, it will be all over the news, and our evacuation will continue until they agree to unbanning your party. I’m tired of helping people and having our hand bitten at the same time. Heavy-handedness in another country is not a decent way to get things done, but we in Canada are being swamped by more and more Americans every day, and with the elections it will only get worse.

Within 12 hours the pull-out of the Canadian troops was all over the news. The masses on the Mall were now camped out in the cold, and the Washington police didn’t know what to do. The numbers now stood at nearly 2 million and still growing.

The meeting with the Senate was much the same 24 hours later, and the Capitol was again worried, as the crowd had now filled the Mall all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial. They were not interested in change either and begged the Defense Minister not to pull out her troops.

Then it was off to the White House, a place Joanne’s father had lived for over a decade. They walked in to meet the President, who was the largest man she had ever seen. She smiled when she thought what her husband would say about this man. Mary’s husband had been tall and strong. This man was short and wide, very wide.

All the current President was interested in was for the Canadian troops to stay to protect him. Canada had promised to keep troops in Washington until his re-election. He would try and put a word in for party reform to both the House and the Senate.

Unfortunately that wasn’t enough, Mary Collins told him directly. She had no respect for this man, and she told the President about the press conference she was holding back at the Canadian Embassy in about an hour.

Joanne was aghast at this man. All he wanted to do was to live at the White House and be protected. When Mary Collins asked him what he was going to do with the border control problem, all he replied was that it wasn’t his supporters leaving the country.

They achieved nothing and left. The Senate hadn’t been introduced to Joanne, nor was the President, and now it was time to get things moving.

“Members of the press, welcome to the Canadian Embassy,” began Mary 30 minutes after they had returned from the White House. For several minutes she explained what had gone on in the two meetings on Capitol Hill and the White House, and due to their lack of assistance, that by year-end all Canadian soldiers would be out of the country. They hadn’t been paid, and Washington was doing nothing to solve their dilemma. Then she asked for questions.

“Defense Minister Collins, Pete Miles, CNN. What do you believe is the cause of the largest crowd ever seen on The Mall? Word out there is that they are all peacefully waiting for a special someone to speak to them. Can you tell us more?”

“Great question, Pete. Yes, there is someone here to speak to the crowd. As we speak, a communications system is going up on the Mall, and my associate here will speak to the crowd through the wireless connection to their cell phones and portable devices from the Lincoln Memorial in about three hours. May I introduce to you Ms. Joanne Dithers Roo, the daughter of ex-President Dithers. As you all know, Ms. Dithers Roo is the Founder of the “Individual Party.”

There was silence as nobody said a word. It was true! The ex-President’s daughter had returned from outer space, was married, and pregnant. Now this was real news.

Then everybody wanted to ask questions. Mary Collins stated that Ms. Dithers Roo would speak in two hours from the Lincoln Memorial, and that 3,000 Canadian troops would make sure that the speech was not interrupted by the local police forces. They were to stand guard outside the perimeter of the crowd who had arrived over the last few days and were peacefully wanting to be spoken to by the leader of their party.

A dozen questions were then answered. The press reporters hadn’t been allowed to bring cameras into the conference, or were allowed any imail or transmission devices on them. The idea was to give the news stations as short a time as possible to get the word out, and try and delay the local police from disrupting the speech. The reporters would get the feed live.

Mary Collins also knew that Joanne’s father would be watching the speech. It had been set up for him as much as for Washington.

The car made it through the throngs of people to a point close to the steps of the famous memorial where a couple of famous speeches had been delivered in the past. A large force of a few hundred Canadian soldiers in their usual white U.N. military uniforms was there, and a corridor was ready for the VIPs to walk through.

Joanne was surprised to see that she would speak behind what looked like an armored glass panel, and she still hadn’t finished working on her speech. She had written three speeches and thrown away all of them. She carried short directions of what she wanted to say on a mobile device Jody Foster had given to her.

A loud, rousing cheer went up when the four ladies exited the car. Mary Collins stayed inside the vehicle. She had done her bit, and now the fate of the United States of America was in the people’s hands once again.

She thought back to her father, also an ex-President, Ryan Richmond’s friend, and wondered if he would be pleased at what she had done for his old country. The U.S.A. wasn’t her country; she was Canadian-born. All she wanted was for the Americans to stop illegally entering her country and to have the old friendship back that had once existed between both countries. As always, there was a lot riding on this speech.

This time Debbie West was with the group and led the way. Sherry, her bodyguard, walked in front of Joanne protecting her as the four ladies walked up to the Lincoln Memorial and sat down in the seats in the front row waiting for them.

The crowd was silent. Some had nearly frozen to death waiting for something to happen during the last couple of days.

Only six hours earlier word had gotten around that a speech would be made on the side of the open area opposite to the Capitol Building, and like many times in its life, the steps were prepared, made secure and seats arranged.

The crowd headed that way, but since they would all be able to hear through what they carried, it wasn’t a real problem to get close.

Debbie West did the introduction. It had to be an American.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as many have said here on these steps before, I would like to introduce you to a special person. A person I believe you all want to meet. A person who has travelled further than anybody else here today, and a person who is ready to give you hope and a future. May I introduce to you all, Ms. Joanne Dithers Roo.”

The noise was deafening. The crowd, in unison, made enough noise that it was impossible to hear anything, let alone say a word. For the first time in Joanne’s political life, she felt the absolute power of leadership. She smiled and waited until the crowd quieted enough for her to speak.

“Thank you all for coming to the Mall. Thank you, so many of you, for putting up with the cold just to be here at this occasion, an occasion the Lincoln Memorial has seen before. I really want to thank you for showing your support for the Individual Party by keeping this a peaceful march. Please, please keep this togetherness peaceful. Let us show our solidarity by peace.”

For ten minutes she told the crowd what she had done, where she had been, and why she was happy to return.

Joanne then explained the lack of flexibility she had witnessed in the House, Senate and White House. She explained that with the elections about to get into full swing, politics in Washington was going to change forever. This brought loud cheers and enough noise that she took a minute’s break.

“I now have a message for my father. Ex-President Dithers, you are still my father and family. You have a following in this country, and a large following at that. I want to meet with you in a place of safety, just you and me. I want to sort out our differences and become a family again. You have had your time as President. You served longer than many of the Presidents who have run this great country. Now it is time for another Dithers to lead this nation into prosperity, happiness and security. That, Father, is me, your only daughter, and I am willing to meet to discuss how you can help me get this country of ours back on track.”

For the rest of her speech she explained how she would encourage business to return to the U.S. to give jobs to the people, and how the whole solar system was ready for advancement. Space exploration, in the future, could give every American a job, a house, and security.

She was done. She again thanked the crowd for coming, pleaded to them to disperse peacefully, and asked them to gather support in their communities for the year-end election. The Individual Party would be on the election ballots.

The crowd roared with approval, it was deafening, and the dozen or so television cameras recorded her first political speech. The best one she would ever make.

Chapter 11

Gold and Battle

Mars landed on the runway as Saturn landed inside the crater with the other shuttle. She had Johnny, Dr. Walls, and Lunar with her. They were ready to radio Beth and Monica to haul in a planeload of supplies, including smelting equipment for the gold chests.

Captain Pete mentioned that this airfield was totally devoid of life. There wasn’t one dog or animal that ran away on their approach.

The runway was as pockmarked as the road to Las Vegas, but at least areas of fresh black tarmac showed where the holes had been.

Mars and Captain Pete, wearing spacesuits but without helmets, walked as much of the hot runway as they could before it got too hot, checked in all the remains of hangars and buildings, and found absolutely nothing. They then lifted off and headed over into the crater.

Someone had already erected one tent, and Saturn’s crew had the radio on and ready. Nobody had been there for a while, as Mars found Saturn clearing a layer of dust off the tables and chairs. Pete saw that Dr. Walls had a small quiet generator going, and that SB-III already had its protective shield up.

Looking at the silver shuttle, Captain Pete thought back over the years. These shuttles of Ryan’s had covered more miles and landed in more different surroundings than any craft that had ever travelled on Earth.

He remembered them hovering into the Mars base, and on DX2017 when he had spent time down on the asteroid. He had seen them on Titan and Enceladus, when he had peered through the cameras of America One at them far below. Now in a few short days they had been to three countries on Earth. Currently SB-III was in a desolate crater in the middle of nowhere, a desolate desert that was most probably 300 degrees hotter than the other deserts in space. Then he realized that the planets were all desert, and so were the several other locations he hadn’t been to see SB-III land. He hoped Martin’s new shuttle was as sturdy and robust as this shuttle now standing in its protective shield high in a crater in the Sahara Desert.

Later that evening, as the sand around them cooled, they heard from the Dead Chicken that she was in the air. She would be refueled over the Indian Ocean, and her crew were twelve hours out.

Mars told Beth that there was no shade of any sort on the airfield. There was a refueling system connected to an underground tank and an old tractor had been left to move the massive aircraft around. He had an idea how to hangar the old bird, as he had taken the extra blue shield with him. It would be a big mistake.

They worked for several hours in shirts and shorts, their bodies now used to the gravity. They were also used to the heat, as the Nevada desert and the Australian island had been hot, and they readied the camp for more supplies. The freezers, three large chest freezers, were still pretty empty, as were the three refrigerators once the supplies from Nevada were unloaded.

There were no mosquitoes or flies up on the crater, and many slept part of the night outside until the cold desert made them move back under the tent. The NextGens didn’t realize that the hot desert could get so cold at night.

SB-III was on the tarmac the next morning as the C-5 could be seen on the horizon coming in from the east on final approach.

What Martin had not told them was that somebody had built a new storage area much closer than the 30 miles to the airfield. The new storage location consisted of one hangar with drums of diesel fuel, more generators, and a tarmac area so that a helicopter or two could land. Flying over it early that morning, and not seeing it on the way in, as it was camouflaged, Pete remembered that Ryan had set up a storage facility before the destruction of the airfield by the Chinese bombers a decade earlier. It seemed that the repairers had also refurbished this location, maybe by accident.

There was no way the C-5 could get in here, but at least the supplies could be kept closer to the crater, resulting in less shuttle fuel usage.

Beth, Monica and Bob walked down the C-5’s front loading ramp to greet the crew. SB-III looked small compared to the massive bird; the shuttle had been in its gut many times decades ago for its first launches into space. The newly painted Dead Chicken shone extremely brightly in the sunlight as the front loading area opened upwards.

“Less than a quarter load,” stated Bob, shaking hands. “We brought in an old jeep and a rusty flatbed desert-track truck the Prime Minister sent in case we need to travel across sand. Also, we have a yellow forklift which will help us unload. It can even lift itself onto the rear of the truck. Mars, Pete, we were refueled a second time just before we reached the African coast, and the C-5 has half tanks so that we can get out of here in a hurry if need be and be refueled on the way home. How long are we staying? It’s going to be hot out here without shade for the poor girl.”

“As long as it takes to remove the gold, Bob,” Mars smiled.

“Do you know how much gold is down there?” he asked, already knowing.

“No, but it is now or never,” Lunar added. “How much gold can this chicken carry?”

“Two hundred and fifty tons, but there is not that much down there. My father reckoned on 150… maybe 200 tons of the stuff. Soames told me that the latest gold price in Australia is 2,000 old U.S. dollars per ounce in Australia, compared to $1,875 in the rest of the world. It looks like we could have a bidding war on our hands.”

“Does he know that there is gold in the crater?” asked Lunar, quite shocked.

“No, I think Martin is the only one who knows it is somewhere around here,” replied Bob seriously. “To the rest of the world, if there is more of Ryan’s gold, it could only be on several bases of his, or like I told PM Soames, in space or buried like pirate treasure on a deserted island somewhere. That is if this place hasn’t been fully excavated by interested parties searching before we arrived. I bet somebody has dug into the crater, Martin, the Israelis or the Australian army, but I don’t think they would have dug deep enough. We will only know that when we either find gold or we don’t. Mars, was there any evidence in the crater of digging?”

Mars said that he couldn’t see any evidence, apart from a tent that was already erected, there were supplies, and the earthmoving vehicles had already been lifted up into the crater.

Captain Pete then explained to Bob about the new storage facility a couple of miles from the crater walls.

They all peered inside the aircraft’s hold. Apart from three vehicles, several large military tents, beds, piles of blankets, refrigerators, freezers, suitcases, pallets of water, beer, and several large 20-gallon plastic containers of alcohol for the Matt craft, there wasn’t much. There was one very important piece of equipment Mars had ordered from Prime Minister Soames—the small Cold Fusion plant now produced in Australia. It was the same model that Martin had in his aircraft, and it was the size of a large box, weighed 1,000 pounds, and was on its own small steel pallet.

They had also received one of these 30-megawatt units on the island for power. Over the last few weeks, the build crew on the island had modified the Cold Fusion plant’s protection layer and designed an outer layer around this one which made it impervious to non-atmospheric conditions and totally space-proof. Now it could be activated inside the shield. The fusion plant had arrived with a big generator, large enough to kickstart the reactor.

This power unit in a box could power 2,700 homes, and the build crew knew that it was powerful enough to power up a shield.

The water was very important, so the pallets were rolled out onto the tarmac, and once the truck was out, the forklift lifted the valuable water onto its rear bed. Once the alcohol and some of the supplies were crammed on, the truck, driven by an excited Lunar Richmond, and with her cab full with Johnny and Bob instructing her on desert driving skills, they headed towards the supply depot over twenty miles away. The jeep to be driven by Captain Pete was filled to capacity next. Once it disappeared in the same direction as the truck, only Saturn and Mars were left on the hot asphalt.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” she asked her husband, helping him into his full spacesuit.

“I hope so,” he replied just before they added his helmet. “I’m not sure what stresses or pressure will be put on the airplane. I hope that these shields can protect and not harm these atmospheric craft. At least somebody will need a full spacesuit to get in to steal it, which should relieve the aircraft of much of the hot sun all day. We are going to be here for at least a month.”

With that, Mars had his helmet screwed on and headed over to the aircraft. He connected the large-wheeled generator to the Cold Fusion plant on the tarmac directly underneath the C-5. The plant began humming, and he disconnected the generator. With Saturn’s help he pulled it to the closest square of shade.

He was surprised when he turned on the blue shield. It grew and slowly inched along the whole aircraft. Only a foot or two of the outer wings were outside the shield once it stopped growing, and Mars stepped through the shield. The blueness inside reminded him of the red planet, and part of him yearned to return.

The Dead Chicken was sealed like the spacecraft were normally, maybe not as well, and he wondered if the sealing against atmospheric conditions kept the aircraft protected.

Once everybody was up in the crater a couple of hours later, they checked the sand for any clues as to whether somebody had dug recently. When they realized that the top layer of blown sand covered any evidence, Bob Mathews fired up one of the two earthmovers.

Bob had reminded Saturn that he and her grandfather, John Jones Senior, had done this the last time, and he was the only one in the current group who knew how to drive an earthmover. Johnny Walls watched what Bob did with a keen eye. He seemed eager to learn, but there was no way that Johnny could learn how to work one of these massive beasts within a day or two. Bob remembered exactly where he had dug before. The rest watched as the powerful machine began to dig into the sand surface, move sand and open a hole.

This time there was no rush, so the rest of the crew rested, sunbathed and watched as Bob worked 6 to 7 hours a day for the first three days. Once he was done for each day, Bob gave driving instruction to young Johnny.

Johnny, with Bob and his father’s help, slowly got the second earthmover moving, but it took another couple of days before Bob thought he could safely drive down the steep road into the hole.

As before, Bob had made a flattened path down into the hole, and it looped down and around the four sides. Johnny slowly inched his mammoth machine forward and went deeper, and then made sure that he kept to the middle of the flattened incline as he brought up his first shovel of bright white sand.

Mars couldn’t believe how deep Bob needed to go. Day after day they went deeper and deeper until, on the ninth day, both drivers returned beaming from ear to ear and told Mars to get his suit on.

Saturn wasn’t being left behind, nor was Lunar. Even Captain Pete donned his suit to solve his anxiety problem of there not being any gold left as Bob drove back down carrying Beth and Monica, along with shovels and brooms to clean away the last layer of sand.

An hour later, the four astronauts were carried down in Bob’s Caterpillar front bucket.

Bob had the handheld so that he could speak to the suits. “The door area is the part cleared. Mars, you need to use your telepathic skills somehow to open it, or we need to blast it. Commander Joot thought hard enough to open it the last time. Hopefully you can do the same. There should be a blue shield right underneath the door as you open it. We three will head back in case it is dangerous. Shout if you need help or have a problem.” With that his earthmover and its two female passengers headed up and out of the hole.

Ruler Roo had prepared Mars to open the door. “Think of the door. Look at it, study it, control it, and then close your eyes and command it to open. That is the way I was taught how to do it. If you can’t, then you will have to come and fetch me in Canada,” Mars remembered Roo telling him.

The girls had done a good job clearing away the last grains of sand, and the square edge of the flat horizontal door could be clearly seen.

Mars stared at the door. Roo had drawn a diagram of the door for him, and it looked exactly as it had done on Roo’s drawing. He concentrated on the door. The others stayed quiet. Nobody wanted to fly to pick up Roo.

I see the door vividly in my mind, thought Mars to himself. He really concentrated on the door in his mind and commanded it to open. Nothing happened. He tried again and again, until he remembered Roo telling him to actually open the door with his mind. Then he remembered which side of the door would open, concentrated on that part and made his mind open the door. He pictured the door opening, but was distracted by Saturn shouting into his ear that the door had vibrated. He opened his eyes and gave her a stare. She apologized. He looked at the door again for a full minute, made sure that Captain Pete had the tent nail ready in his hand to keep the door open if it moved and closed his eyes. This time he could see the door vividly and watched as a third party in his head as he saw his mind opening the door.

“There, the peg is in, Mars,” he heard Pete state calmly far, far away, and that brought him back to the present.

He looked at his handiwork and saw that the heavy-looking door was held open a foot, the length of the metal tent nail.

“I moved that?” he asked, not believing the power of his own mind. “Funny, I can only move Matt-made things with my mind. I’ve tried to move our things on America One, and here on Earth, but it just doesn’t work.”

“It took time, but the door suddenly rose out of the roof and opened just enough to allow me to get the nail in,” replied Pete.

“I will never think you a shallow-thinking husband ever again,” added Saturn, slapping him on the back of his suit gently. “Also, I think I must take a break from these suits, unless I can find a bigger one. The baby and I won’t fit in here much longer.”

As expected, a blue shield began rising out of the hole. Mars and Captain Pete opened the door fully, and one by one the astronauts headed through the shield wall and into the cavern. Even though they were in a vacuum, they could still feel the gravity of Earth. It was certainly not like being in the shield in space.

Mars immediately closed down the upper shield and opened the door in the floor to the second level. There was a second shield, and he did the same as before and opened up the third level. Here there was no shield.

They could look at the upper cavern once they had found the gold if it was still there, and with the shields in place, it had to be.

The gold, the Matt’s wealth if they wanted to start a new home on Earth, had weighed on all of their minds ever since they had all returned to Earth penniless, and each breathed a sigh of relief when the shelves of gold boxes of all sizes were found on the third level.

“This is going to take months!” exclaimed Captain Pete, walking between shelves of thousands of gold chests.

“We were warned,” stated Lunar. “Each box has to be taken up three flights of stairs by us.”

“No, once the shields are gone and the air safe, Dr. Walls, Johnny, Beth and Monica can help us,” replied Mars. “That makes eight of us, and one month of work instead of two. Maybe we should get a few more shuttles with more crew over now that orbital patrols could be a thing of the past.”

Lunar wasn’t prepared to give up on their protection in space just yet, but a couple of the build crew on the island didn’t have much to do. They discussed who to fly over as they ascended the stairs to the outside to allow fresh air to circulate. Moving gold certainly wasn’t spacesuit work.

Penelope Pitt landed in her shuttle the next day, and Pluto Katherine back on the island was ordered by Lunar to let the newer astronauts do a few stints in space with just one shuttle instead of two. Penelope was ordered to fly over and drop Pluto Katherine, who had been out of the excitement for too long, and anybody else who had nothing to do. Penelope would return and take over control of the base, her first real stint as Earth base commander.

The shuttle arrived 36 hours later and there was a shock at who was on board. Apart from four of their crew, Pluto Katherine had brought two good-looking Australian Air Force pilots to help. Lunar’s face had paled as she calmly asked her sister why she had brought non-crewmembers.

“Lunar, this is Flight Lieutenant Gary Darwin, the guy I have gotten to know while you were having fun over here. The other good-looking Aussie is Flight Lieutenant Mark Price. Both are high-security cleared and, remember, flew their Prime Minister in for the wedding? He gave them and two others permission to spend a few weeks with us, as you allowed them to do.”

“G’day, Commander Richmond,” said both men together, standing to attention in Australian flight overalls and saluting.

Lunar, tanned, sweaty, filthy and wearing an Aussie sunhat, a white tee-shirt, khaki shorts and boots, didn’t know whether to salute them back in her state of work clothes, but her quick eye looked both men over.

As she gave them a halfhearted salute back, she noticed both men to be late twenties, dark and tanned like she was, and both were thin and tall, slightly taller than Mars Noble, maybe more like VIN Noble. They both were in the same flight overalls, had blue eyes and it looked like fair hair under their caps. They were also very handsome, and suddenly she realized how dirty she was, and how sweaty and dirty the rest of the crew were.

“Nice to meet you guys. Sorry we look such a mess.”

“No problem, Commander,” stated the really good-looking one, Mark. “We also have females in our group back in Canberra, and often we all have to get dirty together. You know? Assault course, runs, fitness training. I must admit you look far healthier than when we first saw you. If you remember, Flight Lieutenant Darwin and I flew in our Prime Minister on two of the three visits when you guys first arrived, Ma’am.” Lunar shook her head that she didn’t.

“And may I add, Commander, what a pleasure it is to fly in one of your space shuttles,” added the other man standing next to her younger sister, and she now remembered seeing them together on the island during the last visit. “What we fly and what you astronauts fly is the difference between scrap metal and the latest F-23 stealth fighters we have. Anytime you and Captain Richmond want a few guys added to your ranks, we are ready, Ma’am,” he added, saluting again and smiling at Lunar at the same time.

“Get out of uniform. There is work to do. And stop calling me Ma’am. Once you are out of uniform, call me Lunar. I must be five or six years younger than both of you,” replied Lunar, flustered over her predicament. “I’m sure you are not used to saluting higher-ranking officers far younger than you.”

Penelope had a tour of the old Matt base with the others, once the crew had changed and cleaned up. She knew about the interests of Pluto Katherine, had no interest in the man who had taken her to the wedding, and was surprised to see her commander flustered for the first time ever. Something was going on here, and she thought that more Aussie pilots should be allowed onto the island. There was a large bunch of young and single girls after all, and these Australians seemed nice guys.

“We now have a dozen strong hands to complete our mission,” stated Mars Noble over beers that night after it cooled down. “It will only be a few weeks before we can leave this place, even though it feels safe and very peaceful. Also, living with a bunch of female astronauts can certainly make a man grey-haired at a young age,” he joked as the beers went down.

“More peaceful here than at our Canberra base,” added Mark Price.

Both the men were still in awe at how these kids lived and at the amount of underground gold inside the cavern. What really interested them was that they were in an alien base. A real alien base with its own spaceship here on Earth, and what they had seen in there was far better than any museum.

To Gary Darwin, the Astermine crew’s friendly faces were always happy, and he and Mark had spent an hour with the younger Captain Mars Noble on the first level. Mars seemed young enough to be their baby brother as he described what was in the cavern like an expert alien instructor. The alien cavern was as large as the largest hangar they had ever seen back home, and had blown them away when they had first entered.

“You mean this ship, like the one above in that bubble on the surface, can still fly, and it flies on alcohol… Whiskey?” asked Mark Price, not believing what he was hearing. This was like a Hollywood movie.

“Yep!” replied Mars.

“Penelope, how do you fly them?” asked Gary. The three of them were down in the cavern with Mars and Penelope Pitt.

“Telepathically,” replied Penelope. “Only the Matts, Mars here and his father can fly them. General Jones can as well, as they do have manual controls, but not anywhere as good as Mars. These spacecraft don’t have any instrument gauges at all, only rudder pedals and a joystick. Mars here is a natural alien pilot,” she joked.

“How will we know if we can fly them?” Mark Price asked.

“If you can open this door to the next level,” joked Mars, walking over and closing the open horizontal metal door down to the next level.

“How do you mean? Open a steel door with our minds?” asked Gary Darwin, not believing what he was hearing.

“Yep, that’s right. Our friend Martin Brusk could have his small jet, Ryan’s old Gulfstream, flying telepathically if he knew how. I don’t understand why I can, but it seems to be in our blood. All the Matts we have saved, my father, Dr. Nancy back on the island, and I are Rh Neg, Rhesus Negative.”

“So am I,” stated Gary Darwin.

“That’s right, Gary, you and I both have the same blood type,” added Mark Price. “Back home where I come from in Queensland, several old Aborigines I met call it monkey blood.”

“I heard the same thing; monkey blood,” replied Gary. “Mars, if that’s all we need, I’m ready to fly.”

“Me too,” added Mark excitedly. Mars was impressed, but they had to open the door first.

They both tried, and neither could move the horizontal door down to the next level.

Even Penelope was surprised when Mars concentrated on the door for a full minute and slowly, as if on hydraulic arms, the door began to open.

“Ouch!” stated Mark. “You are giving me a headache. What is that clicking noise?”

“I’m also getting a noise in my head,” added Gary. “It’s like getting an electrical shock.” Mars’ concentration was broken and Penelope, who had received no pain in her head, rushed forward to stop the heavy door from slamming shut.

“Wow!” said Gary, shaking his head from side to side. “I’m sure I heard you clicking or swearing at that door to open, Mars.”

“Me too, but it was like faint radio crackle,” added Mark. Mars nodded.

“That’s how it starts, guys. Matt Ruler Roo, married to Joanne Dithers, and his mother Tow made me work for an hour a day to better my skills at telepathy. After much practice, we had silent conversations between us, and none of the Tall People knew that we were actually communicating with each other.”

“Tall people?” questioned Gary.

“That’s what the Matts call us. They struggle to get over 5 feet tall,” replied Mars. He knew that the pilots could have been introduced to Roo back on the island.

They moved down to the second level, and both Aussies mentioned that each level of the cavern was nearly as big as a rugby field. Mars Noble didn’t know the size of a rugby field; he hadn’t even seen a real football field, only old football games on fields from 2015 backwards on the screens on Mars.

The third level with all the gold was an added shock to the newbies. They had seen a pile of gold chests in the camp, but that amount paled compared to what was down here. This treasure, Gary mentioned, was real Indiana Jones treasure, and Mars nodded. He had watched that film series over a dozen times.

The air was fresh and smelled clean as they climbed back up to look the alien spacecraft over, each hauling up a small chest to the upper level.

The craft had been powered up on the last visit by Commander Joot years earlier. Mars telepathically opened the small door to the forward cockpit in the underside skin as he would have done on the same ship above ground. Again the two Aussies were shocked. They both tried to close the hatch on Mars’ command but couldn’t.

Mars opened and closed the forward and two aft hatches several times in Matt, a language the other two didn’t speak, showing off. The two forward hatches were the pilot seats. Both Aussies squeezed into the small pilot spaces when he allowed them to enter, and then he closed them inside the spaceship.

The third hatch was the cargo or passenger compartment. The pilots could crawl through to the cargo area one at a time once the backs of the pilot seats were flattened. Once the pilot seats were flattened, the whole pilot area became a crawl-through space.

Once they had checked over the few controls, he showed the pilots how to think with him, both staring at him.

“Gary, can you hear me? Mark, can you hear me?” He thought hard in English this time and said the sentences a few times. He got a babbled response from Gary. “Gary, tell Mark to lower his seat, then he can crawl through to the rear compartment.” Again it took several tries before he saw Gary’s mouth work as he verbally told Mark an order. Mars “thought” the seat backs down and the two pilots crawled through to the rear compartment. This area was the size of a decent-sized room in a house, over twenty feet long, several feet wide and of course five feet high.

Mars received another gabbled response from Gary and thought he heard a second voice. When he opened the underside cargo door, both pilots fell out onto the cavern floor.

“I’ve seen more controls on a glider or sail plane,” laughed Mark.

“There aren’t any, apart from directional flight and turn controls,” added Gary. “I see what you mean about telepathically flying one of these babies. The cockpits are really cramped, but I want to learn, Mars, really want to learn!”

“Me too,” added Mark. “Bloody glad I don’t suffer from claustrophobia, mate.”

“A fair dinkum piece of metal to fly, though, Mars!” continued Gary excitedly, and Mars realized that he might have to learn another language.

“Not bad for a 10,000-year-old spaceship, guys?” he asked before carrying his small chest up the last set of stairs, leaving the two pilots with their mouths hanging open.

It took a week of hard work, sweating 8 to 10 hours a day, to make a dent in the mass of yellow chests. All twelve healthy members of the team carried the chests up. The girls brought up the smaller chests while the stronger men hauled up the larger ones. The largest Commander chests took two men to get them up the stairs, and Bob and Johnny Walls spent the week moving the chests up to the surface in the earthmover’s front bucket.

During the second week, Pluto Katherine and Dr. Walls began smelting the gold and turning it into ingots.

The blue skies never clouded over, the sun was always hot and the crew darkened as the days passed.

In the third week, they had emptied the first of the three lines of shelves. It was time for a few days off, so instead of carrying gold, the crew helped make ingots and drank cold beer in the shade of the tents.

The food, water and beer supplies were diminishing rapidly. It was time for a resupply, so Mars took his Matt craft down to the supply depot, also giving Gary his first flight.

Over the three-week period, Mars, Gary and Mark had worked hard on their mental skills. It took thought, concentration and hours of trying. During the third week Mars and Gary Darwin could communicate, but Mark Price was still struggling to “say” something. It was frustrating for him, as he was the more senior pilot of the two with a hundred or so more hours of flight time than Gary.

Gary and Mars had begun to communicate. First with one word, then two, and as the thoughts became clearer, three words. Mark was still a faint gabble to the other two, but he didn’t give up.

Also, in the first three weeks, everyone could see a growing relationship between Gary and Pluto Katherine. It was a sort of romantic comedy being played out by two youngsters in the middle of nowhere. They tried to hide their interest in each other until one day Lunar just told her sister to get on with it.

To the older generation, like Dr. Walls, Bob, Beth and Monica, who all smiled at the young antics, they saw through Lunar’s remarks to her sister as trying to hide her own growing interest in Mark Price. They were a more serious couple, their ages were closer, and both walked around the work day discussing space, command, and what Lunar’s father had been like as a commander. Neither of the two young men were told where Ryan was or that he would be asleep for another decade.

Also, after the three weeks of gold-carrying, Lunar, with Mars’ acceptance as Head of Security, drafted an imail to Prime Minister Soames. In the message, it stated that the first amount of gold would be available on the island in 48 hours, two tons, and that they needed more supplies of ethanol, food, water, and beer. The total was about two tons of supplies they were prepared to pay for, delivered to the island.

She got a reply an hour later saying that the Prime Minister was glad that her trust of his country was growing, the supplies would be on their way within a day, and he was looking forward to the first shipment of gold.

Mars readied the Matt craft to travel back to the island with just over two tons of gold and an excited Gary as co-pilot. Lunar was becoming softer towards the two newbies. They had worked hard, were strong and seemed trustworthy.

The craft still in the underground cavern would be launched once the gold extraction was completed. Then, the hole in the sand could be widened and the cavern roof door opened somehow. Increasing the hole size was a large task that would take several days of moving thousands of tons of sand, as the cavern roof opening was twenty times the area of the door they were using.

Gary learned to wear and use a spacesuit, and was fitted into one of the three large spacesuits on site. He wouldn’t need a helmet, as the shield wasn’t a danger once the craft was closed and sealed.

“Activating shield, warming thrusters,” stated Mars telepathically in English to a squashed Gary behind him. Gary was getting better at communications, but was still shocked as the shield grew around them.

The shield had been deactivated by Mars before they could use the ship. He had to wear a helmet to deactivate it. Afterward Gary had helped him off with the helmet.

Gary heard Mars telepathically as clearly when was Mars wearing his helmet as when he wasn’t. The 2.1 tons of gold, the extra to pay for the supplies, was on two steel pallets brought up from the supply depot below and placed in the cargo hold. Both men were quite surprised how small the gold amount was. The cargo hold was virtually empty but would be fuller with fresh supplies on the return journey.

“Engaging thought, Gary. I will be thinking in Matt for takeoff,” Gary heard, and suddenly the Matt language was ringing through his brain, a language he was also beginning to learn just to fly this spacecraft.

Mars had reckoned that it would take both Aussies at least a year to be able to fly this ship. Not only did they need to communicate with it, they had to learn the correct language to communicate the orders to the ship.

Pluto Katherine waved as she saw the bubble begin to float off the sand. The takeoff was completely silent outside the shield, and Mark excitedly told Lunar, standing next to him, that these craft were as stealthy as any craft could ever be in the future.

“Wait until we make them totally invisible to the naked eye. Now that would be real stealth,” she replied smiling as the craft rose skywards.

Inside, Gary really wanted to say something, but he had been told not to disturb Mars. He watched as, without any sense of actual movement, the crater formed far below them. At an incredible speed the crater grew smaller until it was just a dot on the creamy sandy surface below them.

“Ok, I can think in English again for a few seconds,” he heard Mars in his brain between hundreds of clicks from someone or something else. “I needed 99 percent thrust, as we are fully loaded. We are currently heading through 50,000 feet and aiming for 150,000. That will take another 2 minutes. The craft is giving me verbal height and speed. How, I don’t know, but it has some sort of computer that speaks out all I need to know. I picture the destination in my mind. This ship has landed there several times before and it will make itself stationary directly above its landing zone. It will descend once I give it permission. Flight time to the island, one hour.”

Gary shook his head. It was like being in a science fiction movie. He had played the sci-fi game “Eve” for several years when he was a rookie in the flight academy, a decade earlier, and this weird unreal type of flight reminded him of the old game he used to love—until real flying took its place, of course.

An hour to Australia? When he had flown the Prime Minister over to the Sahara Desert, it had been a twelve-hour flight. Even in an F-23 Stealth, the flying time on afterburner would be over two hours. And it would use up all its fuel in 13 minutes on afterburner anyway.

How fast could we fly this stretch, Mars? You know, at full throttle, he thought.

“Gee, I don’t know, but with 500 gallons of fuel, and the shield, I reckon on five, ten, fifteen minutes at the most. I’m flying slowly in case our cargo wants to move around. Remember there is no vacuum inside the cargo hold, and we do feel the gravitational forces around us in here. I do feel a massive difference in atmospheric flight. Everything seems a bit more sluggish. Did you get all of what I said?”

“Yes, everything. Wow! Five minutes. Mars, you have to show me that speed sometime. That must be Mach 100 or even more!” Gary thought back, and Mars went back to Matt and the craft accelerated. Gary was shocked at the speed this bird could do, as well as what Earth looked like at 150,000 feet altitude. The highest he had ever reached was 70,000 feet.

Much of Australia came into view below them. A group of spectators grew as they closed, and Mars put her down gently in the exact spot he had taken off from. He laughed when he saw the little robot head out to tow them in. It quickly realized that this was one of the craft that didn’t have tires as it bumped into the shield, bounced off, and like a dog licking its wounds headed back to its hideaway.

Mars closed down the shield and waved at the girls and four male faces he didn’t recognize watching him through the cockpit glass. He mentality “thought” the floor of his cockpit to open, and then Gary’s.

To the Aussies watching, they were shocked to see one of their own climb out of the rear seat wearing most of what looked like a spacesuit.

“Remember, Gary, everything you have seen is top secret. You say one word to your pals and you will be flying Earth machines for the rest of your life,” Mars thought, and Gary looked at him. “Confirm that you heard what I thought, please.”

Gary replied telepathically, acknowledging what Mars had just said, and added that there was no way that he would lose this opportunity.

As usual, once he was away from the growing shield with Gary, the female astronauts all lined up to hug him. They knew who was flying the Matt craft and were quite shocked to see an Aussie as co-pilot.

Mars hugged Penelope Pitt, who had returned a few days earlier in SB-II. She told him that an aircraft would be landing at the airfield the next morning. Mars didn’t hangar his ride yet, but gave Penelope an order to get the girls to form a line and help him unload the cargo, ingot by ingot, once he was out of the suit. Only then would he hangar the spacecraft.

Gary was tight-lipped about what he had seen.

The gold was unloaded within 3 hours by the crew, and Mars started up the thrusters and floated the craft into the hangar.

The new Aussies had been ordered to stay away by Gary, and once the ship was inside the hangar the doors to the hangar was locked.

The girls were all happy to see Mr. Noble. They were very surprised that he was now the much darker skin color of Ruler Roo, very darkly tanned, and his blue eyes glinted out of his head like headlights. His frame was strong and muscular, much like the Aussies on the airfield, and the astronauts realized what a lucky girl Saturn Noble was.

The next day, an Australian Air Force transport aircraft arrived with the ordered supplies, hauled in the gold pallets with the base’s forklift and was gone in two hours.

The current shuttle flying security in orbit was given the base in Nevada as its reentry destination by Mars, not the island, and the new coordinates and flight details given to the astronauts.

Mars was enjoying a blissful relaxing swim when Penelope Pitt ran out of the command center and handed him an imail on a reader. It was from Joanne, who was still in the States.

The imail news from the United States wasn’t good. Joanne’s father had refused to speak to his daughter, let alone meet with her, and had promised retaliation if she entered his separate country south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the border of his territory. Mars was told that Joanne’s father had a decent amount of air support, far more than existed in the north, and that he could be about to use it on Washington.

Penelope then handed Mars a second imail, received few minutes after the first. This imail was from Mary Collins.

“Dear Mars and Lunar, I hope you are achieving your plans and dreams back on Earth. I need your air support, as things are not going well here in Washington. As expected, we began removing our Canadian troops as a warning to Capitol Hill and the Oval Office, but had to stop yesterday once Joanne and I heard from her father. We believe that an attack on Washington by aircraft from the south could happen within a day or two. The southern force have most of the old U.S. Air Force fighters, and the forces under President Downs could not stop an all-out air attack. The old President, as Ryan found out, is purely egotistical and will stop at nothing to regain control over this country. He needs to be stopped, and once his air force is destroyed, only then will he have to come to the discussion table with his daughter. I will leave up to you how you can force his hand. The fewer deaths the better, but you will need to stop this attack. Washington believes that his aircraft will fly out of Georgia and Texas. Our Air Force cannot leave Canadian airspace. That would be an act of war. We need this one operation to get power over the whole country. Your Friend, Mary Collins.”

Within three hours, SB-II, now at The Pig’s Snout, was ready to launch with Lunar in command. The third shuttle, SB-I, which was about to reenter, was ordered to stay up in orbit as it was needed as backup.

Gary wasn’t on this trip, as Mars didn’t want any Australians involved with shooting down U.S. aircraft. The planet was in a big enough mess as it was, so Mars returned with Shelly Saunders in the Matt craft. They flew over to The Pig’s Snout at full speed to pick up SB-III.

Once Saturn’s co-pilot was in SB-III, Lunar had Shelley Saunders and the two shuttles headed into space.

“I hope it’s not weeks of just orbiting Earth again. This patrolling stuff is starting to get pretty boring hanging around in space,” stated Mars over the intercom as they reached the K�rm�n Line and headed into a low orbit at full thrust.

“You can go back and carry gold anytime you want, Mars,” joked Lunar as she cut her thrusters down to minimal power.

“I was actually enjoying the hard work. Once one is fit, the body seems to become one with the pull of gravity. Know what I mean?”

“Well, this is the last time I’m running around space like a lunatic,” added Saturn. “I’m getting too heavy. My stomach is beginning to get in the way of flying, plus I feel space sick.”

“Jane Burgos in SB-I. Saturn, at four months, you still have a long way to go>. You and your sister maneuver into our usual defense orbit. I see you on radar. We are only a thousand miles ahead of you and we need at least 15,000 miles between us at this altitude. Keep your scanners on the lower half of the United States. I don’t believe we can expect trouble from any other area. Mars, stay on heavy thrust, and you can lead. We need at least one bird over the area, Pacific to Atlantic, at all times. Out.”

Over the next 12 hours they aligned themselves with the needed orbit and, spacing themselves accurately, waited for their scanners to light up.

The aircraft movement around the world had increased slightly since they had arrived back from outer space a few months earlier. The shuttle astronauts on defense duty had logged most of the atmospheric flights far below them during each orbit. The scanner computers could record all flight movements over 5,000 feet.

Most were small slow aircraft, and now around 200 flights a day was the norm worldwide, the computers showed. Most were in the Middle East, then Australia, Russia and lastly Western Europe. Europe beat the U.S. with 21 flights a day, all mostly old transport aircraft. The world’s airlines had been dead for longer than a decade, and it would take the same amount of time of start them up again. Only four countries on the planet were back in aircraft production: Israel, Canada, Australia, and France in Europe. The United States, once the largest manufacturer of aircraft 40 years earlier, needed a far larger rebuilding program and would need the latest ideas from the other countries to catch up.

For two days, the only flights seen over the U.S. were again transport aircraft or small private propeller airplanes. It was on the third day of orbiting when Lunar’s co-pilot Shelly woke up the intercom.

“SB-II here, I see 15 small, fast blips climbing out from middle Texas. They have just headed over 5,900 feet and heading due east. I have laser lock on the lead aircraft, over.”

“Copy that,” replied Jenny Burgos in SB-I, the next in line. “Seven minutes and I will be over the western horizon, over.”

“Leave some targets for me,” stated Mars having a floating meal with his rosy-looking wife. He was over Africa and would need 22 minutes to get into view.

“I see fifteen more aircraft heading northeast from Arkansas,” stated Lunar. “Another 12 are rising out of northern Florida. They are all on meet-up directions, over North Carolina by the look of it. I have three minutes before I head over the western horizon, over.”

“I see your targets and have another 12 rising out of Georgia. All the same tiny blips, fighters I reckon,” added Jane Burgos riding the laser cameras in SB-I. It was then that some voice on the ground came over the radio.

“Pa-Pa Bear to all air bases, we have incoming from the south, at least 20. ETA 25 minutes. Scramble all fighters.”

“This is Astermine’s Sierra Bravo II, above you in orbit, to whoever,” stated Lunar, far ahead of Mars and Saturn. “We have several spaceships in orbit above you. If you scramble fighters we will not be able to tell one from the other. Do you want to handle your problem down there, or do you want us to make sure nobody gets to Washington? Over.”

“Pa-Pa Bear to Sierra Bravo II, can you count how many?” asked the voice.

“So far, 60 and growing, fighters from many different states, ETA all about the same time, 21 minutes from now, over.”

“We would consider it a better advantage for you up there. We can handle that many but not much more,” was the reply.

“Well, I’ve got bad news for you,” interrupted Jane Burgos. “I have 30 more climbing over 5,000 feet, close to the eastern coast of North Carolina, and a second group of 20 from eastern Texas, a second wave. That makes more than 100.”

“Once they cross the North Carolina/Virginia border, they are only minutes from Washington. You have our permission to fire once they are in Virginian airspace,” stated the voice from Earth.

“Well, that is about a minute away for the closest aircraft,” suggested Lunar, counting hard numbers. “They are heading in waves. Hold on, a new flight is taking off from Georgia. My computer counts 130 aircraft, all small jet fighters in total. A third group, about 20, are climbing out of somewhere in southern Virginia. That makes the lead strike force of nearly 150 aircraft all heading towards the Washington area, over.”

“You have our permission to fire,” stated the voice.

“And you are?” queried Lunar.

“General Joe Bradley, Chief of Staff, the Pentagon. I have the permission of the President of the United States of America to give you this order.”

“Ok, guys, we got that recorded. Remember what Jonesy and VIN taught us. Go for a wing or the tail. Let the pilots bail out. Did you copy that, Mars?” stated Lunar over the intercom, not the radio.

“Copied, Lunar. Laser lock on forward three aircraft rising out from Virginia,” added Shelly Saunders, Lunar’s co-pilot.

“Copy that. Seven minutes to horizon,” added Mars.

“Permission to fire, first group from North Carolina heading into Virginia. There is about two minutes before the next group gets to the border area,” continued Jane Burgos.

“Wait one,” replied Lunar over the intercom and changed to the radio.

“To all aircraft heading towards Washington, please reverse course. You have 30 seconds before we take each one of you out. Now twenty-five seconds, or you guys will need parachute assistance. Confirm you copied this warning, over.”

“You shoot down my aircraft and that is an act of war. These are American aircraft. You have no right to intervene, whoever the crap you are, lady,” stated a new voice.

“Please hold, new voice. General Bradley, we are the official Air/‌Space Force of the Individual Party, Joanne Dithers Roo’s party. If you get us unbanned in Washington, we can sort out these perpetrators. They don’t seem to have any manners, over.”

“That needs an Act of Congress. I cannot unban a political party,” came the reply.

“Well, astronauts, we had better go home. Cancel all targets,” replied Lunar sarcastically.

“Hold on. I will get the party unbanned. I will give you my word that Congress will do it,” replied the general.

“Bull crap, Bradley! You always were a talker, a bullshitter, not a doer, even in my administration,” stated the other voice. Now they knew who it belonged to.

“I have 98 seconds before I’m out of range,” stated Jane Burgos in SB-I over the intercom to the other astronauts.

“Take my word, Ms. Richmond, or whoever you are up there. I will have your party unbanned within a week. You have my word,” stated the general.

“And mine,” stated a weak and squeaky voice. “This is Rawhide II. I give you permission to fire on all incoming aircraft. Fox Four, Fox Four.”

“Roger that, Rawhide II. This is Lunar Richmond. I was waiting for your permission. SB-I, fire in ten. All aircraft heading towards Washington, you have five seconds to turn back. You now have over 200 aircraft in the sky. That will take us less than a minute. Turn back now, out!”

There was suddenly a mass of language over the radio as the fighter pilots all decided to either egg the others on or say their goodbyes. Some of the older pilots certainly had heard the tales of the power from space, and a dozen aircraft broke ranks and headed south, but the rest didn’t.

Then the radio shouts of alarm started as aircraft began to break up. Jane Burgos was working the laser as fast as she was taught, aiming each blast for the rear of an aircraft.

At less than 1,900 miles, it was a turkey shoot for her for a whole minute. Jane’s computer was programmed to aim only at the remaining aircraft heading in a northerly direction, and it was cocked on a half of one second burst every five seconds. She headed over the horizon 70 seconds later with nine aircraft in flames and spiraling down. She prayed that all the pilots got out safely.

“This is an act of war!” shouted ex-President Dithers in anger as Mars Noble came over the horizon in SB-III, his wife flying. They were still 7,000 miles in a direct line from the targets, very close range. By now the lead aircraft were within 180 miles of Washington.

“An act of war against the United States of America?” replied Bradley. “Dithers, you are an act of war.”

Mars held off for 30 seconds. At 27,000-miles-an-hour forward speed, he was getting more accurate by the second. He didn’t want to take pilot lives, and this gave Dithers time to order his men to use their afterburners to get to Washington. A minute later Mars opened fire.

He was as good as his father, and the lead aircraft began falling like flies. The pilots screamed, ranted, swore and complained, but one by one the lead flight dissolved.

The second group were a minute behind and Mars rested the laser for that minute, as it needed repowering.

The Air Force pilots headed in towards the area where they could fire their missiles, 180 miles, on full afterburner, and again they fell like dead birds. This time the numbers were greater. After a full two minutes of firing Mars’ laser shut itself down for 30 seconds to repower. He had damaged the pilots’ tenacity as they all watched lines of aircraft begin to disappear off their radar screens. But the brave pilots pressed on, and the population of Virginia increased with parachutes and ejector seats falling everywhere.

“I need help, Lunar, there are just too many. The laser gets heated too quickly. I think I have hit at least 40. Twenty seconds to laser activation, over.”

“I’m at full thrust,” replied Lunar.

“I need four minutes. You have to keep them away from Washington. If they release missiles, we have even more work to do,” added Shelly Saunders, Lunar’s co-pilot in SB-II 15,000 miles behind him.

“How far is missile range?” Mars asked.

“Hell, I don’t know. I come from Mars, but in my studies of ancient Earth history I learned that the latest air-to-ground missiles the USAF had were 150-to 175-mile-range. How close are they?” asked Lunar.

“The second wave, two hundred miles and closing fast, still about 20 aircraft. Third wave is now 30 miles due south and west of them, two separate flights of about 60 aircraft each. Lunar, my laser is back on line. Here goes.”

For a full 90 seconds he blasted as fast as the target-lock system could target the aircraft below. He worked from the center and then to the left and right. Sixteen aircraft fell out of the sky before the laser heated up again. There were four left in the second wave, and he was shocked as three of them turned south. There was gabbled mention of “a suicide mission,” “cowards,” and angry insults. The lead aircraft still headed north, and Mars couldn’t bring himself to fire on it. He had to think of another way. He decided to try talking to the brave pilot.

“Whoever is flying that lone fighter towards Washington. You are now alone in my sights. I’m moving further way and can’t guarantee that I won’t fry you instead of just your aircraft. Up to now we have only aimed at your tail sections. I am wanting to save your life and will give you 10 seconds to change course.” There was no response on the radio as Mars counted down the time. He still needed 20 seconds and Lunar about 90. “Come on, please, I do not want to kill you. This laser has taken on alien craft at 12,000 miles, destroyed thousands of cubes in orbit around Earth, demolished areas of the Capitol Building a few decades ago, part of the Pentagon, the garden outside the White House, a bank building in New York… And, buddy, now it is your turn to fry. You have to turn, or you are dead. What is really unfair is that you can’t even shoot at me. I am thousands of miles away and I can see your aircraft as if you are my wingman. This is your last warning.”

Mars’ laser came back on line a few seconds later as the other voice from the south ordered the poor pilot to continue forward and fire on Washington as soon as he was in range.

The worried astronaut didn’t know if it was his words or the pilot below him finally thinking about firing on his Capitol, but as he was about to take out the lone aircraft, it suddenly turned away from Washington and headed westwards as fast as it could go. Mars breathed a sigh of relief, but the third wing, over 100 aircraft, was only 20 or so miles south of where the lone pilot had turned and still. He had gained breathing space for the laser gun, and Shelly Saunders was coming over the horizon.

“Mars, I’m in range and have three aircraft locked,” said Shelly. Over the next three minutes,they took turns with their lasers for thirty seconds each to keep powered up, decimating over two-thirds of the third wave before Mars left the battle scene and headed over the horizon. Aircraft scattered in all directions, except towards Washington.

Ex-President Dithers knew when he was beat, and he ordered what was left of his air force to turn back down south. He also sent a message to Washington telling his daughter he would see her if she came visit him in Atlanta.

A week later, with the astronauts rested from flying by carrying up gold again, two of the shuttles headed west from The Pig’s Snout towards Washington.

Congress had finally listened to the Pentagon and unbanned the Individual Party a day earlier. It had taken several days and several heated arguments in both the House and the Senate.

Not surprisingly to both the parties, the President had been on the side of the Pentagon. To him, a young, inexperienced female in the nasty world of Washington’s politics would be an easy opponent to beat.

Joanne’s new legal political party would be under the guidance of Debbie West, who was going to set it up, find a campaign boss, and fill all the other necessary positions to help Joanne get elected.

The two shuttles were heading into Washington for two reasons. One was to deposit funds into the Canadian Embassy in Washington in trust to pay for Joanne’s campaign, and the other was to take Joanne south to Atlanta. The Embassy had a contact in Philadelphia who could melt down the freshly made ingots into pure gold coins, as these were the most valuable currency in the world at the moment. This contact could mint a tenth of an ounce, a quarter, a half and a full ounce gold coin.

Both shuttles had a total of four tons aboard. Since it was Matt gold and Ruler Roo had wanted to have the valuable resource spent wisely, it would support the beginning of a successful bid for his wife for the White House.

With the timing right—and SB-I high above them—they had ten minutes to land directly on the Mall in a high-security area set up by the Canadian guards and unload the gold. As far as Washington and the politicians were concerned, there was nobody powerful enough to enact any law about spaceships landing on historical landmarks.

The landing site was about a mile from the Embassy. Mars could see two armored cars and hundreds of guards dressed in white as they came to a hover directly over the rebuilt Capitol Building. This time they didn’t have the blue shields extended, in case a crowd had formed. For anybody who knew what was going on, this would be the first time in history that American civilians would be able to see the space shuttles that had done so much damage to areas of their country over the last few decades.

Lunar had asked for secrecy, but as they came over Capitol Hill in formation at 1,000 feet, many in the area saw that a spaceship landing was to occur right in front of Congress. Even members of both the House and the Senate found viewpoints to watch the ships of Ryan Richmond, the most powerful man in the world, arrive.

Saturn brought down SB-III and Lunar SB-II. Mars had warned that nobody, not even the Canadian troops, could help with the unloading except to drive the small crane they had requested to lift the four pallets out of the roof cargo doors once they were open.

Joanne, watching from 100 yards away without the shields, had to hold her hands over her ears as the first craft descended. She had seen them often on the island, but this was the first time she heard and felt the force of the thrusters in atmospheric conditions without the shields.

SB-III came down with her thrusters on vertical, with more power and air movement than four large helicopters. As Saturn brought her in, vortices of dead leaves formed and thin dead branches of trees and hats were blown in a growing dust storm.

Even then the crowd grew rapidly upon seeing something new for the first time in decades. Joanne realized how large the shuttles actually were. They wouldn’t have been out of place in any airport, and were bigger than many of the mid-size jets she remembered as a young student.

The thrusters slowed to a stop. As the roof doors opened, an astronaut without a spacesuit climbed out of the hatch of each shuttle. Joanne waved, but she was too far away. Mars climbed out of the lead shuttle and motioned the crane to come forward.

“Debbie, want to meet the best-looking man from Mars?” asked Joanne smiling, and Debbie nodded excitedly. Joanne moved forward as Mary Collins told the guards to let her through. The two ladies approached the large shuttles as the first pallet of gold exited the roof of Mars’ craft.

“Joanne, congratulations on becoming a real politician!” shouted Mars as he waved them over.

“Debbie West, Mars Noble, the best-looking man from Mars,” she joked, introducing them.

“Are you old enough to fly that, young man?” joked Debbie, shaking hands and feeling at least a decade older than the teenager she saw in front of her.

“Sometimes, but she is currently in the control of my wife Saturn, who is younger than me and four months pregnant, so she will soon let me be her captain again,” he replied. That shut Debbie up for a few seconds.

“I was about to go to university at your age, Mars,” was all she could respond with.

“I understand that, “replied Mars. “I finished my degree last year. It’s far quicker when you start school at three years old.

“At three!” exclaimed Debbie.

“That’s right. We didn’t have television, computer games, parks, sports, or whatever you guys do down here, so education was a way to pass the time.”

Mars watched as the second pallet was lifted out and into the second armored truck, which then headed off to the Embassy.

He looked at the Canadian troops dressed in white. They were a mean-looking bunch, well trained, with pistols as weapons. Some had red berets, some green and one or two white. They seemed to be a mix of special forces. They were all checking the perimeter and looking at him with the same amount of interest.

Then he remembered he had a bag of Martian rocks in the cargo bay. He had collected several dozen as a child when his father VIN and he had walked around the planet. Some were just a reddish brown color, others were green and a few black. VIN had made him throw most of them away when he tried to carry them back to the base, but he had been allowed to keep the small ones the size of marbles.

“Saturn, be a darling and throw my bag of rocks out of the side hatch. I’m sure they might be of interest down here,” Mars shouted over his handheld.

The thrusters had been completely shut down so that the crane could unload the first two pallets, and once SB-III’s roof doors were shut, he heard the hum and the wind grow as Saturn returned her thrusters to idle.

His bag of stones fell out of the side hatch. Lunar Richmond, who was walking forward to chat, picked it up. The stones weren’t heavy after the gold, but they did weigh a few pounds.

The crane rolled over to the second shuttle parked behind the first and Penelope Pitt opened her roof doors.

Lunar, another fresh-looking teenager, was introduced to Debbie West. Debbie told Lunar of the respect people always spoke with about her father and that she was keen to meet him.

“Sometime in the future,” smiled Lunar. “He’s pretty busy right now.”

Again the gold was unloaded as the first armored truck returned. When the pallet touched the ground, a guard using a lifter picked it up and placed it into the rear of the truck. Mars looked at his watch. They still had seven minutes. He shouted to the crane driver to lift the gold out of the roof doors, even though the second truck hadn’t yet arrived.

“The pilot needs to start her engines,” he shouted to the man who waved. “Here, Debbie, have a nice little green stone from the Martian surface. I collected them as a kid.” He gave her the stone.

“It looks like an emerald,” Debbie explained, holding her hand to her mouth.

“Whatever that is, I just like green,” Mars replied. He saw the second truck approaching, so he walked over to the closest guards on the other side of where the large crowd was standing.

“Hi, I’m Captain Mars Noble, Astermine Space Force, and you are?”

“Master Warrant Officer Jack Warner, Canadian Forces, Special Ops Regiment, sir!” he stated, saluting. Mars smiled and saluted back. The policeman was at least six inches taller than he was, even taller than Jonesy.

“Nice to meet you. Here is a small stone from Mars. I collected them as a kid and picked it up myself.”

“Thank you, sir. My young son loves astrometry and I’m sure he will really be excited getting a real Mars rock.”

Captain Noble went over to a dozen more soldiers and handed out rocks. He turned back to see the truck about to receive the fourth pallet, so he headed back to the crowd and handed a few stones to the soldiers on the closer side, and then to a few outstretched hands.

He didn’t know what the stones were, only that they were a pretty green, blue or a dark red color. He handed the remaining few to Debbie to give out.

“I think it’s time to head back to get some more stones, Joanne. Want to come with me? We have a fancy new shuttle nearly ready, twice the size of these.”

“Mars, I can’t go all the way to Mars. To see my father, yes. I’ve had the best education ever with you guys. I can’t. I have to get this country of ours back on track. I know somebody who will want to go. He and a tiny boy are in Canada, and he will never forgive you if you leave without him.”

“We’ll talk in the shuttle, Joanne. We gotta go. Ms. West, you help Joanne get this house in order, and Astermine Space will be coming and going from this country very soon.” He hugged Mary Collins and headed back to the craft.

Debbie West smiled two hours later when she watched the early evening news. The first news van had arrived as the two craft took off, and the headline was “Teenage Astronaut Hands Out Dozens of Martian Emeralds and Rubies on the Mall”. She had given out the last dozen or so herself to the people and to a few guards. By the time the piece aired, Joanne was with her father in Georgia.

SB-III flew into Georgia with Joanne aboard. Saturn arrived at the coordinates given to them by the South and circled a shabby-looking Robins Air Force Base, 100 miles outside Atlanta.

They had timed it so that SB-I was a minute from arriving over the horizon. Lunar was also ready with her laser, this time circling at 150,000 feet with her shield semi-extended.

There were hundreds of armed guards. Keeping the shield extended in case they were shot at, Saturn landed at a large cordoned-off area where a car was waiting for them. Mars would be going with Joanne. Only he and Joanne deplaned once Saturn reduced the shield.

As soon as the two were out of the shuttle, the shield grew again around the spacecraft, much to the amazement of the hundreds of soldiers in several dozen ancient-looking trucks and jeeps. Then the spaceship, as totally silent as when it had arrived, quickly disappeared vertically upwards into the blue sky.

A Marine lieutenant was there to escort them. He didn’t seem very talkative after Mars told him that there was enough firepower up above to destroy everybody on this base and half of Georgia if need be, though he himself was unarmed.

The old rusty Air Force car didn’t drive far. It stopped at what seemed to Mars to be the Officers’ Club or bar, still on the airfield. The door was opened for them and they headed in.

Ex-President Dithers was at the bar having a beer. He seemed excited to see his pregnant daughter walk through the door with a younger man.

“Joanne, you look so healthy, and a few months along I see. I assume you are married, and is this the young man?”

“No, Father, this is Captain Noble, Head of Security for the Astermine Space Force currently visiting Earth.”

“Head of Security, my butt. He isn’t old enough to shave,” he replied, walking up to his daughter, who seemed to take her father’s hug gracefully.

“Well, he did shave up most of your airplanes last week,” replied Joanne, not taking any nonsense from her father. They were a cut off the same piece of meat after all.

“You are to blame for the injuries of thirteen of my pilots and 147 of the country’s finest aircraft?” he asked, getting angry.

“No, sir. I believe I was responsible for only half of your aircraft. The others were destroyed by female astronauts, both younger than me. By the way, this whole airfield is toast if anything happens to Ms. Dithers Roo here.”

“I know your voice. You bullcrapped that pilot to shy away from targeting his missiles. We haven’t seen him since. What the hell do you guys have up there that can blow away everything in front of you?”

“Right now everything we’ve got is targeted to take out the whole of Georgia,” replied Mars. “What you saw last week, Mr. Dithers, was just a few scout ships. The real fleet just arrived from Mars 48 hours ago. I was what you would call the advanced scouting group. Hell, sir, there is enough up there to blow away this whole country and turn it in the Atlantic if you want us to.” Even Joanne was impressed at the bullcrap spewing out of Mars’ mouth. He should be running for President, not she.

“Father, don’t mess with these guys. They have fought Martians, aliens, 500-mile-an-hour hurricanes and God knows what more. Your old fighter aircraft were sitting ducks, but Astermine’s lasers are so accurate from 20,000 miles that not one of your pilots lost his life. Twenty thousand miles, Father, not the paltry few hundred your missiles needed. We have five minutes before we need to call in to get our ride back up. I have come to ask you to join in the elections at the end of this year. I have asked the powers to be in Washington to allow you to run as a Presidential candidate again, as an independent if you wish, or with any party you choose. You will even be able to have your own party. Since you tried so hard to get the four-year terms trashed, I have done that to give you a second chance to sit in the White House.”

“I can run again? You organized that? Who will I be running against? Want a beer, young man, or are you old enough to drink?” he joked. Nobody thought it funny.

“President Downs, me with the Individual Party, you if you have the guts to run against me, and anybody else who can get a party together before election time. Once again, Father, the United States of America is going to have free and fair elections, not the crap you tried to force on the people. Now, you know exactly how much I love you, but thank God it’s time to leave. You have time to think over your options.”

“Or what?”

“This nice young lad here who you just insulted will blow away you, your army, and anybody else who wants to get fried if you try and attack anybody ever again. I think it is as good a deal as you gave this country. Let’s see if you have the testosterone to eat your own apple pie, Father.”

With that, she gave him a halfhearted hug and walked out with Mars trailing behind. The car was waiting, and Mars called in his wife on the way back to the airstrip.

Chapter 12

New Blood

A month after Saturn Noble had dropped Joanne back at Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington, the gold was well over half out and smelted into ingots when word came through that ex-President Dithers had taken his daughter’s suggestion to run for office.

The gold carrying had been back-breaking work. The crew of twelve carried and smelted gold until the colors orange and yellow made them ill. Two of the three shelves were empty and a dozen pallets of gold ingots stood out on the sand. The shuttles had already taken over 70 one-ton pallets down to the Dead Chicken.

To take a day’s break, Bob Mathews, Beth and Monica had taken up the massive aircraft for a test flight. Unfortunately, harm had been done to the instrumentation by the vacuum of the shield. Several systems were dead or didn’t want to work properly. After the test flight the crew reckoned that she should be flown back to Nevada and repaired. The air-refueling system could be operated manually, and so could a few of the dead systems.

Beth reckoned that she was pretty safe to fly, but a direct flight was all she was prepared to fly in her. Taking a load of gold wasn’t a problem for the aircraft, and Astermine got permission from Washington to fly the Dead Chicken into U.S. airspace.

Lunar Richmond also promised the sweating crew that once the gold was out and the second Matt craft flying again, nobody would need to visit this place in the desert ever again.

“Once we get to a hundred tons of cargo, I think you guys should fly into Nevada and get our old Chicken re-feathered,” Lunar told her crew over cold beers that night. It was a Saturday, and the next day was to be the first day of rest for two weeks. The crew were tired but strong. Saturn was now in charge of smelting, since she didn’t want to carry any more, and Captain Pete, who had been working on the shields in his mind while he worked, finally started jotting down requirements for shield production. It was time for him to return to Nevada and begin working on his research with the scientists there. “Just one more week, crew, and I think it is time to visit that fancy restaurant in Henderson, Bob’s Diner, again. We should only have a week or two’s work after that. Then it will be up to Bob and Johnny to open the hole so that we can get the cavern roof open. I think we will need both Mars and Roo for that mental attempt.”

The day off was fun. The crew played music and relaxed. But it was back to work on Monday, and they grinded like crazy to get 100 tons of gold for the Chicken to take over to the U.S. They completed the last pallet the next Saturday afternoon.

Lunar didn’t want anybody else in the Dead Chicken other than the crew. Two Australian air-refueling Airbuses arrived to help the C-5 across the Atlantic. They needed a large slice of their own fuel to get to The Pig’s Snout, therefore two planes were needed. A couple of hours after they had arrived early Sunday morning, the three aircraft took to the sky for the Dead Chicken’s friendly return to U.S. soil.

The cavern was closed down, the generators filled up and the entire crew left in the two shuttles for the same destination. Their flight would only be two hours; the C-5 would be crossing over Ireland when the two shuttles landed in Nevada.

Sergeant Meyers was warned ten minutes before their arrival. The crew returned to a far busier airfield than last time.

Everyone stated how brown and healthy the astronauts were. The scientists who had known the kids since birth also noticed that Pluto Katherine was holding hands with a new guy who happened to be Australian. He was very good-looking, brown, his eyes blue and his sun-bleached hair blond. Lunar was also with company, and even though she thought it not proper to act like her younger sister, her new guy was often seen with her.

As usual, gossip went around the six large hangars that Ryan could soon be a grandfather, and that he should return to sort out his daughters. Saturn’s stomach was getting large, and she was now flying as Mars’ co-pilot.

Saturn was the epitome of health. So was old man Mathews and his two female pilots when the Dead Chicken landed 14 hours later.

“Monica flew blind most of the way over Africa,” stated Beth to Lunar over a cold beer in the pool later that night. “We had to go back to the very basics of flying. Lucky for us, a New York station had a powerful radio transmission we could lock onto 900 miles out from the coast. Then over central Kansas, a Las Vegas radio station was powerful enough to direct us in at 38,000 feet. We said goodbye to the second tanker 1,000 miles out of New York with close to full tanks, and headed her in. We were already five minutes into reserves when we landed, but Bob knows his Chicken so well.”

It wasn’t good. The scientists gave the crew the bad news that it would take some time to source new parts for the aircraft. There were many C-5s around the country and some were still flying, but there was little to no transport to go and find them.

Bob Mathews suggested that the Dead Chicken be finally retired from duty. Mars added that she should have a hangar built for her here at the airfield and make the hangar the new Astermine Museum.

Everyone agreed to that idea, and the Dead Chicken was officially retired from service with Bob Mathews promising her that he would find the parts to take her up just one more time in the future.

A bottle of beer, an American Budweiser, was thrown high by Bob Mathews and his pilots at her forward face. The glass shattered and fell to the apron and the crew all said several words of thanks. To say goodbye to the massive aircraft was especially hard for Bob and the two girls. She had never once let them down.

Their work was now done. If the C-5 was retired, they were out of a job, so they would be on the next flight to Australia. Mars promised them at least one complete Earth orbit on the return flight, and Lunar gave them each a couple of ingots of the valuable gold.

“We have just reached the official border of space,” Mars told the three excited pilots a week later. They had all squashed into SB-III’s cockpit, Beth and Monica squeezed into one rear jump seat and Bob in the other. Mars had Pluto Katherine as co-pilot, as Lunar reckoned that her sister needed a break from Gary. Lunar and Saturn were flying the two Aussies back to the island in atmospheric flight, but the orbit was a welcomed gift to the three C-5 pilots who had worked so hard to make Astermine a success.

Mars, Penelope Pitt, the Burgos sisters, and the two Richmond girls were to have a week off. Mars wanted to go fishing with Bob. They had now been back on Earth for six months and nobody had really stopped to rest. Saturn wanted to have her baby in Australia, ten weeks away. That was another reason Pluto Katherine was flying with Mars. Dr. Walls had stated that it was too dangerous for Saturn to head into space so late in a pregnancy.

Work was proceeding rapidly in Nevada. The new shuttle was only several months away from its maiden flight into space. The six hangars were producing everything needed to build a new spaceship, something Martin Brusk was also working on in Tel Aviv. With the Dead Chicken now retired, the dozens of spaceship walls Martin was producing in Israel could not be flown over to Nevada.

As the crew had learned from the scientists, a large spacecraft would need to be completely built in space, preferably in orbit around Earth or around the moon.

The moon was too far a distance, Earth seemed at peace, and there were no intentions by anybody to cause trouble with anybody else in space, yet.

China was still a mess. So was Russia, and all the subcontracted companies still there wanted to be transferred out of the country. Like the U.S., resources were hard to find in Russia.

The United States was at peace. The country’s media systems, although very much smaller than decades earlier, still broadcast up-to-date news around the country. There was one television station in Las Vegas and one national news service. Strangely enough, CBS had survived the catastrophes of twenty years of bad rule.

Joanne was often seen on television traveling around the country by several different methods to give campaign speeches. So was her father. He had been allowed the freedom to travel the country, and still there were only three major parties vying for votes come election time. Most of the small parties were more state-run and would feed off whoever won.

“Can I fly the ship in space?” asked Bob to Mars.

“It’s not like you fly it much in space. There are no ailerons, rudders, or even a joystick as you know it, Bob, only the side and rear thrusters,” instructed Mars. “The tiny joystick on the right arm of each seat purely moves the side thrusters, nothing else.”

Bob sat in the co-pilot seat and tried a few small maneuvers. So did Beth and Monica. The shield gave them much freedom to move the ship around space.

Within 30 minutes, it was back into the atmosphere for landing on the island. They arrived at the same time as Lunar, much to Pluto Katherine’s enthusiasm.

For two weeks, Saturn and Mars fished and relaxed aboard boat. For him, it was bliss. For Saturn, it wasn’t exactly what she expected, and she often lay down feeling ill. The pregnancy was getting closer to the end.

“You should get a family vehicle for the family, as Jonesy always said it,” suggested Bob one morning as they set the lines for a bit of trawling. “They are making some really fancy boats in Brisbane, to the south of us, Mars. I think it will be a great surprise for VIN when he returns. You too, young Saturn,” he added as she joined them, bringing breakfast and coffee. It was a flat calm day with hardly a swell and she was hungry for the first time in 24 hours.

“Me what?” she asked.

“I think you and Mars should get your fathers a fishing boat each as a surprise when they return, whenever that is. From what I’ve seen, there is enough gold to buy a boat or two.”

Mars mulled over the idea.

“Where do we purchase a boat, Bob?” Saturn asked.

“There is a new shipyard in Brisbane. I was going to head down there and see if I could get rid of the gold ingots Lunar gave me,” he replied. “We are about 30 hours from Brisbane and have enough time to look at boats before Lunar wants you guys back.”

“Alright, let’s go,” suggested Saturn, bored with fishing and really wanting to get back to shore. She had been fine until the last couple of weeks. Both Dr. Nancy and Dr. Walls in Nevada had checked her. Dr. Nancy reckoned that she was quite normal, but Saturn would have to take things easy until the birth.

“We are doing a few hours of fishing first,” answered Bob. “We have to catch dinner for a few days before we change course, but we can trawl in that general direction.” He shouted to Monica at the helm to change course and trawl towards Brisbane.

An hour later he looked worried, and Mars asked if something was troubling him. It took him a few seconds to answer.

“I’m a little worried that the girls might want their own boats when we get there. They also have enough gold to get something comfortable, and then I’ll have to find a new crew.”

“Not on your life, Bob Mathews,” stated Beth, coming up behind them with two glasses of orange juice. “There is no way Monica and I would leave you. We have been a team since day one and I would assume until death do us part, you old goat.” Bob smiled and the worry faded from his face.

Shortly afterwards, they caught two decent-size 40-pound-plus Dorado that were enough to feed them for the couple of days into Brisbane. Bob took over control and increased the speed for the coast, much to Saturn’s relief.

The final decision, after a day of looking at beautiful plans of new boats, was to order two of the latest 75-foot models, perfect for up to eight to live aboard and long-range fishing. Even Bob thought about trading in his current one for a new one.

Mars and Saturn wanted to buy them for VIN and Jonesy primarily, but the men still had nearly a decade of sleep to get through. Their orders would take two, maybe three years to build, and at least that would cut the time down so the boats wouldn’t be ancient models when they were handed over.

Over drinks that night, Mars told Bob that he needed to head back to the red planet, but would wait until he was a father. Saturn would not let him go without her, and Dr. Nancy had explained that the baby, if born on Earth, might also need a month or two to get strong enough to travel into orbit.

Thanks to the blue shields there were very little g-forces on the human body anymore during exit and reentry, but as all doctors thought, time to become strong was always a necessity.

So the new luxury fishing “islands” were ordered with a deposit for each of an ingot of the gold Lunar had given to all the astronauts. The ingot only paid for a tenth of each luxury fishing trawler, but with the 100 tons of gold safe on the American continent, and still a third to mine, it was time to make sure everybody who was part of the team was looked after.

The new estimation was that The Pig’s Snout had approximately 220 tons of gold remaining when Mars Noble had opened the cavern door. Of that, 140 tons had been made into ingots. They still had several gold chests in other locations, including the planet Mars, and they hadn’t yet touched the treasure in the underground chamber back in Nevada. Since gold was so desperately needed around the world, it was the current currency of choice.

The Matts, it seemed to Lunar, all wanted to return to the Martian planet whenever anybody was heading that way. They did not feel as comfortable on Earth. It looked like Ruler Roo might have to leave his wife and lead his people back to Mars sometime in the future.

Very few of the Tall People wanted to return except, like Mars Noble, to visit now and again. They revisited Ryan’s initial dream to set up trading ships to head in each direction every “opposition”, or once every two years.

“My father had this dream and told me about trading ships between Mars and Earth many times,” Lunar told the astronauts once everyone was back on the island.

For the first time, Gary and Mark were allowed to join the meeting for the first cup of coffee in an astronaut briefing only. In the old days, it was the astronauts, Ryan, Captain Pete, and VIN attending these meetings, but now since only the youngsters were left, Lunar wanted the rules changed. Unfortunately they were still ejected until further notice by a majority vote from the astronauts, once the meeting got underway.

Many of the young flight crew were quite shocked that outsiders attended the first briefing with all the astronauts on Earth. They weren’t as close to the two men as the Richmond sisters were, and were not happy with the newbies being in attendance. A vote was taken swiftly.

The briefing had started with Mars angrily lecturing Lunar as Head of Security as to why the two men, both good friends of his, were at the meeting.

“I don’t agree with your reasons for allowing these two men to be in on the most inner meetings we have,” stated Mars, as the two Aussies looked on feeling bad.

“Neither do I,” added Saturn.

“I’m not for it either,” stated Penelope. “It is a total break in the protocol set up by your father, Lunar.”

“Unless they are family, real family,” suggested Jane Burgos, smiling wickedly at Lunar.

“I’m with that!” replied Pluto Katherine excitedly. “I was going to say something during this meeting.”

“And?” questioned Saturn in a straightforward manner. “Pluto Katherine, get your something out, girl, or I’m walking out of this meeting. Lunar, this is the first real time you and I haven’t seen eye to eye, and I’m sure many of us are not happy. Sorry, guys, but this is an “Astronauts Only” club.”

Lunar smiled at her best friend. “Saturn, you have your man, the only one available to us female astronauts for most of our lives, and you are married and pregnant. Don’t you think a few of us also want a family?”

Mars was still surprised that Saturn’s outburst hadn’t angered Lunar. They had had their disagreements over the last fifteen years, since they were six or seven, but their strong friendship had always kept them on the level. Saturn normally took orders from Lunar and never questioned them. So did Mars, and he couldn’t understand why Lunar still smiled.

“Ok, I have something to say, and I will keep it simple. Mark is going to marry me. I asked him, and he was rather shocked, but he had expected something. Pluto Katherine, say your news.”

“I’m getting married to Gary. We want to be together and that is that, Saturn Noble,” she announced.

“As Head of Security, I’m ordering that until they are members of our club and fully-fledged astronauts, even your future husbands will not be allowed to attend our briefings. Mark, Gary, do you know what marrying these two friends of mine entails?”

“Leaving the Aussie Air Force, mate. Resigning. I’m sending mine off today,” replied Gary.

“I imailed mine last night,” Mark added. “Lunar told me that I need to cut all ties with the Australian government, my job, my commitments to anybody in my country, and only then will I be a member of you guys. Apart from my parents, my younger brother and two older sisters, I haven’t got much other than my career, so it is an easy decision for me. That is my statement.”

“Mars, I’m in the same boat, mate,” stated Gary. “My father and my sister are the only ties I want to keep. My career, my choice of flying, my life is my decision, and I accept what I have to do. Look at it this way, Mars. I’m leaving an Air Force family for a Space Force family. Better ships, a more exciting life, a special wife-to-be, and you guys as friends. I can see the world. I can see the entire solar system for that matter, and I’m also happy to make the decision to join you.”

The group nodded and stated that they still had to leave until they were ready for membership. Once the two men had closed the door behind them, there was a rush of female astronauts to hug and congratulate the two Richmond girls.

Chapter 13

Move to Nevada

The double wedding was held on the island a month later. The family members of Gary Darwin and Mark Price were present. So was the Prime Minister, his family and a few VIPs, mostly Australian Air Force personnel.

Captain Pete was invited as Ship’s Captain to complete the matrimonial arrangements, and the best wedding dresses in Australia were flown in for the occasion.

The wedding was small. Ruler Roo, Joanne, Joe, and Mary Collins arrived on a jet from Toronto. Martin Brusk and family attended from Israel. There were only 23 non-crew guests on the important day.

The afternoon of the wedding was beautiful. Bob Mathews was honored to give Pluto Katherine away in Ryan’s place, and Martin gave away Lunar. The Richmond girls were married in the sun with the three clean Astermine shuttles arranged in a triangle on the apron around the ceremony itself. The simple ceremony was followed by the usual Australian barbeque overseen by Beth and Monica.

Lunar became Lunar Price, but still wanted to use her father’s name, and Pluto Katherine became a Darwin. With no security above them in space at all, the two Richmond daughters were happily betrothed.

It was three months later when the idea was formed to move back to Nevada, even before Joanne won the elections in November, now only five weeks away.

The time had come to move back to the airfield where the whole odyssey had begun over three decades earlier. Only Saturn, Mars, Dr. Nancy and Dr. Walls were staying on the island longer than the rest. Saturn’s baby’s birth was less than a month away, and as Dr. Nancy suggested, she was grounded, as the baby’s arrival didn’t need to be while flying.

The island’s equipment was packed up to be sent over to Nevada. There wasn’t much left apart from the crew themselves, personal belongings, and the odd new Australian here and there. The base had four new Aussie pilots sent in by the Prime Minister. This time, the third group of visitors were female Air Force pilots.

Unfortunately, the Australian Air Force had already lost two good men to Astermine, and the visiting VIPs had noticed during the Richmond wedding the amount of healthy-looking female astronauts interested in their male pilots.

Two more of their best pilots were already reluctant to leave the island; one was smitten with Penelope Pitt, and the other with Shelly Saunders. These pilot resignations couldn’t be stopped by the authorities, and another two young men begged to join the ranks at the island’s space command. Hence the reason the next group of visiting pilots was female.

This time getting married wasn’t so necessary to join the crew; the group was about to leave for the U.S.A. and the two astronauts could get married when they wanted. The second round of smitten newbies would be employed by Lunar once both Gary and Mark had recommended their security levels and flying abilities.

While waiting for the U.S. elections, the two new men, plus the already married Aussies, were put to work in the gold cave, as everyone called it. After a good rest, it was time to finish the job and get The Pig’s Snout cleared. As a growing team, the fifteen astronauts and four pilots cleared the third and final shelves of gold in two weeks of hot, hard work.

Bob Mathews and an experienced Johnny Walls worked the earthmovers. Mars worked with the group while his wife Saturn took it easy back on the island with Dr. Nancy.

Dr. Walls loved The Pig’s Snout. To him it was the fresh air, the peacefulness and the ambiance of the never-ending desert around him. One day he asked Lunar, since they were going to leave the cavern, whether it was possible for him to become the custodian of the historic site. Lunar stated that she would discuss the future plans of the old Matt base with Ruler Roo when they next met.

Dr. Walls already had grand ideas for the cavern. All the poor doctor needed was a bit of telepathy to open and close the doors, and Mars reckoned that he was sure Roo would want to have one of the Matts to do that for the aging man.

The smelter was worked hard, the gold made into ingots, and one day the gold extraction came to an actual end.

A party was held that night around the last chest, one of the larger Commander chests that had not been smelted. This one chest was to be kept as a remembrance of 10,000 years of gold-collecting by the Matts and would remain at The Pig’s Snout.

With the hard work done, and after a few days of rest, it was time to open the larger cavern roof. The Matt craft stuck inside the cavern for the last 10,000 years or so needed to be let out and flown. Bob and Johnny worked the two Caterpillars for a whole week, increasing the size of their hole until the cavern roof could be opened.

The entire crater had new layers of sand, and only the area around the tents hadn’t had sand placed here. The idea was to get much of the sand that accumulated over the last several thousand years out of the actual crater, dropped down the sides of the crater, and the large lift helicopter was ordered to complete the removal of the sand on their next visit.

Once the entire area had been cleared and brushed clean, Mars using all of his powers couldn’t open the cavern roof. Ruler Roo would have to do the job himself.

Lunar and Pluto Katherine, flying SB-II into Nevada with a gold run a few days later, got in touch with Ruler Roo in Canada. Mary Collins had set up a radio station there for him, as he was wanting to know how his people were getting along. The three shuttles were taking six tons of gold into Washington for smelting into coins, as Joanne wanted more gold to pay for her growing campaign.

Lunar was surprised that she and the other astronauts could hear Roo so well. The radio reception across the planet was getting better.

Poor Roo had had enough of snow, Homo sapiens, and Earth for a while. Much to Lunar’s surprise, he wanted to go back to the Nevada base for a break. So did his son by the sound of it, and it was organized for one of the shuttles to drop into Canada to pick him up.

The flying crew also chatted to Joanne in Washington as they closed on the Capitol. She understood her husband’s needs. They had spoken together often, and it seemed that the ruling Dithers Roo family might be spread all over the solar system in the years to come. She had suggested to her family that they move to Nevada. She couldn’t.

The gold was dropped at the same location as before, with the spectators getting a view of all three shuttles this time. Lunar, who had been relieved of her gold first, launched and went north to pick up Roo and Jo.

A day later in Nevada, Dr. Walls got the go-ahead from Roo to move into The Pig’s Snout, once a companion had been found for him.

Oddly enough they found one in Tow, Roo’s mother. She would be happy to join the doctor in looking after the family heritage site. Unlike the youngsters, she had little interest, in returning to space. Even as a Matt, she was aging, and she thought it important to keep her family thoughts of her young life and her race of people in the desert alive. She had grown up in the cavern, had given birth to Roo there, and she still thought it home.

Johnny Walls didn’t want to join his father. Instead he now wanted to become an astronaut. It was weird what driving an earthmover did to people.

The Nevada base was busy. Every inch of space inside all six of the hangars had work desks or labs making the new internal instruments and life support systems for America Two.

Captain Pete was missing Dr. Nancy, who was back on the island with Saturn. He had been working non-stop with a group of plasma and nano specialists, who had begun figuring out how the shields operated. They had the broken box that Mars’ father VIN had found decades earlier on DX2017.

Many of the departments weren’t as important as at the beginning of the odyssey. The astro-biology department was still on Mars. That department needed restocking of supplies of plant life, and the list was very long. The robotic and prosthetic departments were still on the red planet, and a group of 36 new and interested scientists were ready for their first flight to continue these programs.

The thrusters were now made on the island, as the Russians had been moved. Martin Brusk was making the outer skin pieces from the designs given to him by the old team in Nevada. He was to be paid 80 gold bars for what he was doing and given a free flight to Mars and back. The parts being made by him would take about five years to manufacture.

The second larger shuttle was partly complete and would need thrusters by year-end, so it was time for the crew at Astermine to return to real life and figure out what was going to happen until Ryan Richmond was awakened in close to a decade’s time.

“Order, please,” shouted Lunar at the first briefing back on the Nevada airfield. All the astronauts were present, as were all heads of departments. As usual, coffee and freshly baked pastries were available. This time Gary and Mark were part of the briefing. “We need to go forward, now please,” she shouted as the crew took their seats. “First, we need to set up a timeline until my father returns to see what we NextGens have achieved in his absence. I want nothing more than perfection in our successes until then. Remember, we are all aging and we only have ten years once hopeful President Dithers Roo is elected next month.”

Not everyone in the meeting knew where Ryan and the old timers were, but the mention of aging reminded the ones who did. Lunar continued.

“If Joanne loses, then unfortunately we all have to return to the island in Australia. For those who you who haven’t yet been there, I’m sure many of you would enjoy that, but my dream is to continue my father’s work here on the site where he started it all. As voted during our whole crew meeting yesterday, we counted 52 hands of crewmembers who want to return to Mars on the next available flight. Captain Pete, when is that exactly?”

“The next opposition is in one year, two months and ten days, or 436 days not counting today. The second opposition, I believe the ETA of ships returning from Mars, begins in 1,165 days. We have four oppositions before we can expect Ryan, Jonesy, VIN and the older crew back. As you asked, Commander, the ETA of our older crew is two months before Opposition Five.”

“Where are they?” asked one of the older German scientists. “To take so long a flight, they must be out of the solar system.”

“General Jonesy is setting up a bar and a VIP lounge for Astermine Airlines on Pluto,” joked Mars.

“Never Never Land,” joked Pluto Katherine.

“It is not a joke when we older people want to see our boss,” remarked another scientist, a Russian.

“I’m sorry,” replied Lunar, “Mars, sister, keep your weird senses of humor to yourselves. Herr Dr. Schmidt, my father will be home as soon as he can. Dr. Zonolov, all I can suggest is that you just stay alive until he returns. You will be rather surprised at my father when he gets back to our base here. He will have had a facelift. Now back to work. I have made a few decisions over the last few weeks. Today, I will give you a breakdown of Astermine’s schedule for the next decade. First, we will keep the island active in case we need to retreat back to it. Bob, Beth and Monica will look after our second home for us. A workforce of a dozen Australian military personnel will protect our island home and keep it restocked. We will have two scheduled flights a month from here to the island. Anybody who has down time from their department can spend two two-week vacations on the island per year. I’ve been told that Bob Mathews is organizing a fishing boat for those who are interested in sport fishing. I’m going to assume that once this U.S. election is over, we are going to work here for the rest of the time needed to build the internal structures of both the mother ships I have decided to construct.” That statement caused a commotion, as so far only one mother ship, America Two, was scheduled for construction up in space.

“Do we need two?” asked Penelope Pitt.

“Surely one the size of America One is enough?” asked Jane Burgos.

“Do we have enough crew?” asked Mars.

“One for me and one for my sister,” remarked Pluto Katherine jokingly.

“I believe with an opposition every two years between Earth and Mars, we need two, Penelope,” Lunar responded. “These new wagon-wheel design ships will be about a third larger than America One for cargo, Jane. Mars, I have spent several hours discussing crew with Captain Pete. We only need a crew of a dozen or so to maintain one of these new ships on a journey to Mars and back. They are being designed solely for this journey, and to orbit either planet easily for a two-year period.”

“What about pirates? Or those unfriendly Matts on Mars? Surely we need a larger security detail?” the young Captain Noble asked.

“More hardware, less crew, I believe, Mars. If America One had been destroyed with a full crew, imagine the loss of life. The only real threat, until more companies or countries here on Earth get to space, is other aliens we didn’t come across, or the nasty Matts on Mars. I’ll let Captain Pete give his views on the subject. We have discussed the possibilities together since we both arrived back here on Earth. Captain Pete.”

“Thanks, Commander. The blue shield is an easy target for the Matt weapon, a maser which destroyed America One. Without the shield operative, we believe that targeting is far more difficult for their maser system. The bridge, Ryan and I got the reports back from Jonesy and VIN during their earlier shuttle fight with the nasty Matts, as the commander describes them. Due to this information, the shuttle pilots closed down their shields and were telling me up in America One to do the same when it was destroyed in the second battle. Both Jonesy and VIN Noble, Mars’ father, stated factually in their last reports on the subject given to Ryan, who gave it to Commander Lunar, who gave it to me after the destruction of my ship, that the Matt targeting was pretty lame. Their belief was that these masers were designed to be accurate on opposing ships having a shield as protection, with the shield gladly accepting the maser destruction. VIN said he believed that in a straight fight between our lasers and their masers, we would be far more accurate at a longer distance. He suggested over 1,000 miles. Both astronauts also agreed, however, that the maser is a far more powerful weapon, and an exact strike on the target may not be necessary. The maser blast passing by an object in space could have a destruction radius of several miles, whereas our lasers need to strike the target.”

“Are you talking about microwave energy? Microwave blasts in space? Like a microwave oven?” asked Gary Darwin, rather surprised at this new information.

“Yes, Mr. Darwin, and please do not interrupt me. You newbies will be brought fully up to date on modern electronic space warfare long before you travel there,” admonished Captain Pete. The other crewmembers knew well enough not to interrupt the captain. “So we need to design our new mother ships and our two new shuttles, SB-IV and SB-V, with more laser and, hopefully, maser firepower as well one day and keep crew numbers down to a minimum until we know for sure that we will not have any more trouble from those guys who destroyed my ship. It really needles a good captain to lose his ship. Questions?”

“We know where the masers, or what is left of the masers, are. I would like to form a group who is willing to go first and set up our Martian base for occupancy before the next crewmembers arrive, then find out if the nasty Matts survived the last fight,” suggested Mars. “If they did, and we don’t have shields extended, it could be a fair fight and we could attempt to get some of their weapons. Who wants to join me?” Several hands shot up, including Gary Darwin’s and Mark Price’s and the other two Australians present.

Mike Jones and Paul Getty had resigned from the Australian Air Force just before the crew had left the island. They weren’t being left behind, but Prime Minister Soames had met with them personally on their last day and made them promise to return after training and become the first astronauts of the new Australian space program about to get underway with Martin Brusk’s help.

The four Australians, two married and two about to be married, were now part of the astronaut program. Simulators and other flight training equipment had been pulled out of the Nevada base’s underground cavern, its entrance now under a new secure hangar, and readied for their space flight training.

Lunar gave her husband a beady eye, and he resolved to drop his hand, his eyes pleading with the boss.

“You will still be using one of our current shuttles if you leave in the next six months, Mars,” continued Captain Pete. “I recommend you wait at least a year, or at least until closer to the next opposition, when SB-IV is fully fitted. Then you can take more than a dozen crewmembers, since there seems to be more than can fit in SB-III just in this room. Plus the closer you leave to the opposition, the less travel time you will need.”

Lunar thanked the captain and turned towards the German scientist.

“Dr. Schmidt, you have gone through the plans for America Two. You are in charge of spaceship part production here on the base and in space. Can you give us an idea when America Two could be ready to head through space?”

“Ja, danke schon, Commander Richmond. We have spent several weeks now breaking down the plans into a time log. It is helpful that the outer skin layer is so forward in production in Israel. It will be far quicker to make America Three than America Two. Our first mother ship was made over two decades ago, and with a vibrant production industry across the United States. Today, we can only depend on a few companies to make our internal systems, instead of the hundreds decades ago. I expect that we may need to set up several new departments or even companies here in Nevada to meet our needs. I understand that with Frau Dithers Roo becoming President, it will help get this country back on its feet, but it will take time, time we do not have. Commander Richmond, I have two answers for you. Our best answer: if we have unlimited funds and rare earth metals, to get our resources made locally. And a second recommendation: if we have to wait for the U.S. economy to become a manufacturing economy again.”

“I’m ready,” stated Lunar.

“Ten years, maybe eight if we have everything we need on time. Twenty years if we don’t.”

“And America Three?” Lunar asked.

“Ja,” he stated again, scratching his head. “I would say four years of manufacture in space on a single assembly line once we have enough metals. We know that we will not have the resources down here or up there for two ships to be built at once in orbit. So I would say at best 12 to 14 years from now there will be two craft for travel to Mars. That is with all the help you offered me from NASA, Israel, Canada, Australia, the metals needed for production, and parts and systems manufactured here and locally,” the German replied.

“Thank you, Dr. Schmidt. For those of you who are hearing this for the first time, Astermine Co. has gone into lengthy agreements with Joanne Dithers Roo if she gets into power. She will give us everything this country has to offer for our space program. NASA still has active production plants. So do several companies under government control. It seemed her father collected profitable companies and put them under governmental control during his time in office. Astermine Co. has agreements in place with the Canadian government by which we can get much needed systems faster than waiting for them to be produced here. Israel, through Martin Brusk, is ramping up its production in the areas we need and will produce parts for us. Australia is on the same wavelength. It seems that money still talks in this world of commerce. Dr. Schmidt, as I asked you for figures in old U.S. dollars, what will these mother ships cost us?”

“In old U.S. Dollars, and using your father’s calculations on the same plans he worked on, about $90 to $120 billion each.” Everybody gaped at the scientist.

“How do we get that sort of money?” asked Mars, as shocked as the rest.

“Easy,” smiled Lunar. “Asteroid mining, and collecting a quarter of a trillion dollars in gold from friendly asteroids, Captain Noble, just like your father, Maggie and Jonesy did. Collecting the gold in The Pig’s Snout was child’s play to what we need to do on a few asteroids. And we want rich asteroids with gold or rare earth metals.”

“Two hundred and fifty billion! That is a lot of money,” injected Mark Price, unable to stay quiet any longer.

“Well, look at the bright side. About five percent of what we need is already in storage, unfortunately not the current currency of choice, diamonds, and less than five miles from where we are seated,” Lunar smiled. “We will have to wait until diamonds regain a decent value again before we can use them to pay for manufacture. My plan is to have the first of our new shuttles, SB-IV, under the captaincy of Mr. Noble here, head to Mars six months before the next opposition. He will reopen our base and leave a small group of biologists and security there, once he has determined the planet is safe. The Mars Noble Mars mission could be a two-year mission. The second shuttle will be ready for operation by the time the Mars mission leaves, and its prime job will be to haul the parts for the build of America Two into space. This part of my plan is where we will need most of you newer astronauts. Two of the smaller shuttles, SB-I and SB-II, will aid in this project. That leaves us with three mining craft and SB-III, as well as one of the two Matt spacecraft. The other Matt craft will be docked to SB-IV and will head with the mission as a reconnaissance craft. The third part of my plan is for you more experienced astronauts. Using SB-III as protection, I want all three Astermine mining craft to head out to an asteroid to mine for gold, or as Dr. Schmidt and the scientists have suggested more importantly, rare earth metals. They tell me that the rare earth metals are more valuable to Astermine than gold. Any extra amounts of these products wouldn’t be used as currency, but in more of a bartering system, our treasure for the parts to build our ships. Martin Brusk is heading over from Israel next month to discuss what metals he would be happy to receive instead of cold gold cash.”

“So the rare earth metals we found on DX2017 would be of more value to us?” Mars queried.

“Dr. Schmidt, you best answer that,” suggested Lunar.

“Herr Captain Noble. I did much work with your father, and I believe I had the same conversation with him 20 years ago. What I said to him then is twice as important now. Approximately 75 percent of everything we are going to build into the two mother ships will need rare earth metals. Iridium, osmium, palladium, and platinum are just a few. Then we will need large amounts of cobalt, silver, tungsten and a dozen other metals. We will be able to produce hundreds of parts in cobalt, platinum and nickel in space so we won’t need to carry the heavy metal up from here. Many metal parts can be designed and produced up there with 3-D scanners and printers. Ja, so here is the bottom line in my departments. Each of those printers also needs rare earth metals to work, therefore we could get as many printers as we want from suppliers here in the U.S.A. in return to giving the company who manufactures them more than enough of the metals they need. Understand, Herr Noble? China in 2003 to 2019 produced the vast majority of rare earth metals. That was twenty years ago. Then the war began. Since then the planet has been starved of these precious items.”

“So you are saying, Dr. Schmidt, that for Earth and the United States to return to a productive economy depends on metals I have never seen before?” Mars asked.

“In a nutshell, yes. Everything produced today needs rare earth metals. Even though our technological advancement as a human race has been stagnated by selfish politics and wars for the last 20 to 30 years, small companies and research laboratories all over the world have kept advancement going, albeit slower than during the beginning of the century, and we can see modern jumps ahead in many fields in Canada and Israel. To answer two very important questions I know you will ask, rare earth metals are more valuable than gold right now for a rebirth of this planet’s industry, and without Astermine going out into space to find these metals, we will not have advancements in many modern technological fields. Yes, we could start a new Industrial Age, with smog and bad systems of old, or we can start afresh with modern, clean systems that could power the technological industry in this country to new heights.” With that he sat down. The room was quiet as Lunar allowed the information to sink in.

“I had a long telephone conversation with Joanne in Washington yesterday,” Lunar began again. “Dr. Schmidt, I, and a few of the other scientists had a conference call with her giving her our estimations of what this country will need to realign itself with the most modern technologies. Lucky for us she knew what we were talking about. It is a godsend that she spent time journeying around the solar system with us. Joanne now understands from Dr. Schmidt and the other scientists here what it is going to take to get this country back on its feet, and she has given us her word that if she is elected, she will spare nothing to help us get what we need. She even stated that NASA could be subcontracted to us. To date, we have delivered 22 tons of gold into Washington. We have 90 tons here on base, and as she stated to me, all the Matts have in gold bullion is nothing more than a drop in the ocean to what this country will need to rebuild. Therefore, if Joanne Dithers Roo is elected, one of her first goals is to get asteroid mining as large as any mining this country has ever done. She also asked that Astermine give the United States the benefit of our knowledge experience and concentrate our knowledge to get this country active again. I gave her my word that we would.”

“It’s going to take years for you Yankees to catch up with us in Australia,” stated Lunar’s husband.

“Maybe so, Mark, but don’t put this country down. Look at what my father achieved. Look at Martin Brusk, and his flexibility of electric cars, space exploration, and manufacture wherever he goes. There are thousands of Americans ready for a second chance, and Astermine will give them their chance. This country grew from nothing to an industrial giant in a few centuries. This time we are going to achieve production success in a few decades. The United States—and I’m an American first—will rebound. This time we will have good strong friends in other countries, and we will not be left behind. Jobs are scarce. The citizens of this country are hard workers and will appreciate a good job when it comes their way.”

“And look at the opportunity Astermine has,” added Pluto Katherine. “We have an opportunity far larger than our father’s. His dream was to build a space company and go to space. Our job, not a dream, is now to rebuild a whole nation, then a whole planet, and we are in the forefront of the next best industry this whole planet needs—Asteroid Mining.”

“Without asteroid mining, Earth will never reerect itself,” continued Lunar. “There are not enough rare earth metals in the earth’s crust to bring the whole world’s industry back on line into a clean, healthy and strong environment for our NextGens. We have to build this planet for our children, something the last generations lost the idea of how to achieve.”

For several minutes questions and answers went back and forth. Lunar ended the meeting with the statement that she wanted her father to be proud of every person in Astermine when he returned to Earth and nothing was going to get in her way.

Chapter 14

A New President, Asteroid Mining, and a New Mission to Mars

The election came and went, and so did the bad politicians. The two borders were crammed with Americans returning to vote for weeks before the close of the polls. Estimations were that 50 million Americans returned to vote, then headed back to their new homes. That was where the jobs were.

The Individual Party had a landslide win, achieving 71 percent of the national vote. The second closest party, a new party called the Conservative Alliance, won 19 percent of the vote. President Downs was rather embarrassed to get 4 percent of the vote, and ex-President Dithers called the voting foul and headed back to Atlanta to hide with 3 percent of the nation voting for him. Ninety-one percent of the U.S. population voted, the best numbers ever. For once the old ideas of politics were thrown out of the window.

So it was in the House and Senate with over 80 percent of the people who were entrenched and used to running the Capitol out-voted by young and new people.

In two months, the power in the United States changed hands to a far younger generation of politicians whose average age was 38 years old.

The country partied. There was dancing in the streets of every big city and small town. People came out and celebrated with their neighbors and friends. Throughout the United States of America, there was a feeling of euphoria. The old cronies in Washington were not in control of the country anymore. Even the armed forces seemed to want to change its skin. Within weeks of President Dithers Roo giving her speech outside the Capitol, the military branches and the Pentagon were full of new, younger members.

There seemed to be an actual divide between the old thinkers and the new, and age had very little to with it. The leader of the Conservative Alliance, George Path, was 80 years old, and had fought the powers-that-be on every occasion for his 50 years in Washington. He immediately sided with Joanne’s party and was elected Speaker of the House.

Joanne had nominated an old friend of hers, a person who had shared in her ideas back in her college days, as her Vice President. Between Future Vice President Jeff Bridges and her, the country was theirs to lead.

Few incriminations were brought to the older politicians in her first few days in office. But within weeks, several members of the old Congress were jailed for financial crimes against their constituents, and many got hefty sentences. Washington, it seemed, emptied very quickly of the old guard, and there was much work to do for the new President. One of her first trips was to Nevada.

“Commander Richmond, we have Alpha Foxtrot One on finals, 50 miles out and due east,” stated Jane Burgos over the field’s intercom. She was manning the traffic from the old radio tower.

As the two official aircraft had done on numerous occasions, they came in one after the other. Lunar remembered them from the last visit. Then, she was just a child.

The two old-looking small-ish jets came in and were parked on the apron. Joanne came out of the second aircraft. Jo and Roo ran up and were allowed to greet her first. They had been waiting for several weeks now.

It was a fond family hug, when Joanne, who had her three girls with her, headed over to the waiting astronauts.

“Do we call you Ms. President, Ma’am or your Royal Highness?” joked Lunar as she got the first hug.

“You call me Joanne, like you all have ever done,” replied a smiling and happy Joanne to all the waiting crewmembers. She was happy, and a tear ran down her cheek. She was happy she was with her family again.

The only person who wasn’t there was Mars. Dr. Nancy had warned him that he had better get his body over to the island, as the baby was ready, and that had been twelve hours before Joanne’s arrival.

Just as she noticed Mars wasn’t there, Jane Burgos came over the air on the field intercom. “To all crew, Captain Saturn Noble gave birth to a healthy baby boy 23 minutes ago. Dr. Nancy has sent through the news herself. Mother and baby are doing fine, but her husband is in a mess. Usual. Our first third-generation baby has arrived and is called Michael Victor Noble. I was to tell you that Captain VIN Noble’s father, Mars’ grandfather, was named Michael, and that the baby is eight pounds and ten ounces, and as Saturn told Dr. Nancy to tell us, the first of our third-generation astronauts. End of message.”

There were claps and hoorahs from the crew. They had all missed Saturn, and like Joanne, they all felt like one very big, happy family.

With her bewildered group of Secret Service personnel left by the aircraft, Joanne was invited into the meeting and conference room where coffee and cakes were ready. There she was immediately ordered to tell her story. For the next thirty minutes, she told the Astermine family of her struggles in Washington.

It had been hard, with much criticism and hatred from the old members, but she was a Dithers after all, and had brushed the scalding remarks given to her by the country’s peers aside. Joanne had smiled when in her Presidential speech she had told them to hurry out of Washington.

Joe and Roo were by her side, and the topic of Mars came up when she had finished speaking.

“Like myself, my wife is now a ruler,” stated Roo, and everybody listened. “A ruler of people who need to be ruled. It will be difficult for two rulers to be in the same family, but like my wife, I cannot relinquish my job to my people. I will be going to Mars, as most of my people want to go. My mother Tow, who I have made a commander, will be in charge of our ancestral home with Dr. Walls. I will return to visit with my wife on every occasion I can. It will be hard, but I hope that one day, once our jobs are over, my wife and I can be together again. We love each other very much, but we both have to put our people first.” Joanne wiped away another tear as her husband finished his speech.

“I have eight short years to do my job. For my husband, his is a lifetime’s obligation. When my job in Washington comes to an end, I will join him wherever he is.” She received a round of applause, and there were many wet eyes in the conference room. Life in Astermine was sometimes not easy.

For several hours, the chief scientists, chief astronauts, Lunar, her sister, and Joanne and her team sat down to plot the technological return of the United States of America to the world technology markets.

The need for the rare earth metals came up at every suggestion, as often as the word finance, and Lunar stated that she would acquire access to every bit of telescope power and asteroid knowledge stuck away in every private and government information storage system across the country.

Joanne’s team wrote as ideas and necessities came up, and the list became longer and longer. There were dozens of sites across the country that had terabytes of information and recorded details of every piece of rock in space the size of a shoe box, and larger. Most of the stored information was recorded in the decades between 2005 and 2015.

Many of the older astronomers and scientists who had worked with Ryan Richmond had friends in several government organizations who were now sifting through data that could be helpful to them.

Joanne promised that anybody who had worked in any space and asteroid projects during that time would be located and any information gathered for scrutiny. Lunar suggested that any of these people who knew vital or important information could always join her in Nevada.

Then came the discussion on defense. Thanks to Astermine, a part of the ancient airborne military protection lay in ruins in and around the country. Discussions among the astronauts determined that space superiority was the most important task ahead, and that Joanne and the American government could have access to Ryan’s old team of laser researchers and designers.

Suggestions about bettering the surrounding area became the topic on Lunar’s mind. Creech Air Force Base would be reestablished, as well as Nellis Air Force Base, and Area 51 in and around Las Vegas. This project would bring hundreds of jobs back to the city and area.

Finally, Lunar was prepared to assist in the country’s modern space-weapon development in return for all the information on asteroids. Both sides knew that it would take at least a decade of work to get these departments in the country up and running, but now was good a time as any.

With Joanne, diplomacy and discussion was easy. Everybody knew each other, trusted each other, and Lunar’s only worry was who would take over after Joanne left the Presidential chair in eight years’ time.

Joanne couldn’t answer that. She was not going to hijack the political system in the country the way the last couple of Presidents had, but Debbie West suggested that Presidential hopefuls within the Individual Party could be groomed to run at the end of Joanne’s term.

The room quieted as Penelope Pitt, a person who was dependable, quiet and reserved, put her hand up.

“I have flown billions of miles, often flown many of you around the solar system. I have taken part in the entire Astermine mission since birth. I am one of the oldest astronauts. Lunar, something is pulling me back to Earth and this country of ours. Joanne, Ms. West, I would like to be a candidate for a possible political position sometime in the future. I have had enough of flying. During our odyssey, I studied Political Science in America One’s library for over a decade. I am 22, and in eight years’ time, I believe I will be old enough and knowledgeable enough to run for something. There is nothing I don’t know about American politics, up to when our history logs ceased, around 2020.”

“Do you really want to leave us?” asked Lunar, totally shocked.

“No, of course not. You are my best friends, Lunar, Pluto Katherine, Pluto Jane, Jane, Jenny, Hillary, my darling sister, but somebody needs to be groomed for a country worth living in, and that might as well be me. Look at the bright side. At least I won’t need a pilot for Air Force One. I’ll get a more modern one and fly her myself.”

That brought laughter, and Debbie West, with Lunar’s nod, suggested that Penelope Pitt pack her bags and get ready for Washington. She did have a good connection in the Pentagon and Penelope could be Astermine’s military representative in the Pentagon to start with.

An hour after, the meeting broke up. A few sundowner beers by the pool were organized before Joanne and her team headed back to Washington. Two ancient-looking C-17s arrived from Andrews Air Force Base, and the remainder of the gold, 92 tons of it flown in on the Dead Chicken, was forklifted into the two aircraft and then airlifted back to the Capitol.

Another 50 tons of gold ingots would be picked up from The Pig’s Snout when Mars arrived back with Saturn, Dr. Nancy and the baby in a few weeks’ time. Two hundred tons of gold was to be given to the country, which left Lunar just enough to get melted down into gold coins and bits to pay her team. It was time to go asteroid mining.

Only one of the C-17s was needed to pick up the remaining 50 tons of gold in the middle of the Sahara Desert three weeks later. Dr. Walls, Roo, Joe and Tow had flown in with Lunar, who was meeting the Noble family arriving in the Matt craft with Dr. Nancy from the island.

The baby was cooed over by all the girls while Saturn looked over proudly. The desert was hot and the crew in shirts and shorts. Dr. Nancy was like a protective grandmother, and she stated to the younger girls that she now wished she had got married earlier and had kids. The female astronauts all gave her a hug, telling the doctor that she had so many children she didn’t need any more and that within a day or so she would be reunited with Captain Pete.

A few inches of sand had moved back into the hole dug by Bob Mathews and Johnny Walls weeks earlier, and they cleaned the sand for Roo to see if he had the power to open the roof. They had a day before the helicopter was to arrive.

“Mars, work with me here,” suggested Roo as he also struggled to open the roof. Even his mother was taken down into the hole to help with the mental powers needed to open the cavern. “Ok, Mother, Mars, we have gone over the way the cavern roof works. It opens in a circle from the middle and outwards so that the spacecraft can launch. Think of the middle point and with your minds, and in Matt, Mars, pull it back so that it opens.”

They tried several times, and on the last time, everyone felt the cavern roof they were all standing on vibrate and then move open a few inches. Mars was sweating, and so were the two smaller Matts, so they decided that a rest was needed. Lunch was the order of the day.

A meal was eaten on the surface, and on their third try the cavern roof opened a few more feet before grinding to a halt. Roo mentioned that sand must have got into the roof system, and Tow and several of the astronauts swept sand off the roof while others cleaned inside the roof structure underneath.

That took all afternoon, and by nightfall the roof slid open easily to reveal the silver spacecraft below.

The next morning, Mars and Roo, who was desperate to fly again, launched the Matt craft through the hole and headed straight towards the Nevada base where the craft was to begin a dissecting operation to try and find out how it worked.

Since rain was virtually non-existent in this part of the world, Tow and Dr. Walls suggested that the roof be left open a few feet for ventilation. Tow remembered seeing the roof open to allow any breezes through the accommodations, and Lunar suggested that the Cold Fusion plant stay to give the vast caverns air conditioning.

Tow laughed at the idea of modern technology being flown in to keep them cool. Happily, she led Lunar and a few others down several tunnels Mars hadn’t noticed behind an outer panel in the wall. At the ends of the tunnels were metal plates that Tow mentally opened, and the tunnels opened up to sand-blocked holes in the wall of the crater.

“We used to live here very comfortably without all your Homo sapiens technology,” she told Lunar, who helped her dig away the soft, cool sand.

Once she had several tunnels opened for fresh air, and the roof closed down to only a few feet of sunlight entering the cavern, the interior was cool compared to outside but there was enough sunlight to give the upper floor of the cavern a bright even glow.

“Now this is how we used to live,” she stated to the others excitedly. “I’m so happy to be home.”

The helicopter arrived the next day, lifted up the small Cold Fusion plant from the runway as a reserve unit for Tow, and within two days had hundreds of tons of sand out of the crater.

Young Johnny Walls, now a master at driving, used the earthmover to fill a large metal mesh blanket that had a thick layer of plastic that covered the mesh. It took about twenty loads of sand before it was ready, and the helicopter lifted up the mesh by the four corners and headed away from the crater. Once it was away, two corners of the blanket were released, which spread the sand over the desert below.

Two trips an hour and with fifty tons an hour being moved every hour, within five days, 50 hours, its job was over and the beast headed home. The level of sand inside the crater had been reduced by thirty of the forty feet down to the cavern roof, and some of the sand could be spread out to the other areas of the crater.

Another three days’ work was scheduled to be completed by the helicopter on its next visit in a few weeks. It had other jobs to do and returned to Tel Aviv. Dr. Walls needed lessons from Johnny this time on how to drive the large yellow Caterpillar, the only one remaining in the crater.

The Astermine crew left The Pig’s Snout, leaving behind the two new occupants a few days later with enough supplies for several months. Dr. Walls, under Tow’s guidance, wanted to travel the outside desert and see what was out there. The tracked vehicle with remaining drums of fuel would allow him this adventure.

At the same time the crew were enjoying the Sahara, work inside the Nevada hangars was back to three shifts per day. Every day, the security team had to use a loud hailer to turn away people from the outer gate. Everybody wanted a job, and the only suggestion Pluto Katherine, who was in charge of the base, could think of was to send them over to Creech and Nellis to clean up the two bases. She told the daily crowd that jobs would be there when the two bases were occupied in a few weeks’ time and that they had the employment news first.

For the next couple of months, the new shuttle, SB-IV, was worked on 24/7. So was the instrumentation for America Two. Many of the same types of instruments would be fitted to all the ships in production.

The latest computers were hard to find, so a quarter of one of the hangars was set up for computer manufacture. Same with the latest and much needed 3-D scanners and printers that would make many of the parts out in space.

Once information arrived from the several dozen astronomy installations around the country, work began sourcing asteroids to mine. All the crew wished for was a decent-sized asteroid rich in either gold or rare earth metals.

The asteroid the first generation had mined, DX2014, had been a freak of the universe, many astronomers believed. It had been full of rare earth metals, but its real treasure were the thousands of diamonds brought back to Earth. Now that treasure was of insignificant importance compared to that time decades earlier.

For days, the scientists and crew went over electronic information looking for an asteroid out of thousands on record. Some were too small, and some were too large. Some were useless rock, and some not. Finally one was found which was just right named 2030JD. It had been found and logged nine years earlier by Jack Dempsey.

The asteroid had visited close to Earth before, nearly 250 years ago, and seemed to be on a slow and massive orbit around the solar system. To Mars, who was looking through the information as much as the others, its trajectory reminded him of DX2017, the little blue planet where all the first generation were asleep. It was about twice the size, the color was reported to be a dull grey, silverfish color, and it was more like DX2014 in shape.

“As with DX2014, 2030JD looks like a long oval shape, like a hot dog, and it seemed to rotate very slowly, about half the rotation speed of DX2014. It seems that it could be in a 100-million-mile range within five months,” stated the head of the asteroid research team, Jack Dempsey, studying the asteroid.

He was an old man, nearly seventy, but Lunar had been surprised to learn that Jack Dempsey, when he had arrived to work at the base, had known her father very well. He had applied for the job through one of his colleagues who was already working on the airfield in Nevada. Word had got through to him that Ryan Richmond’s Astermine was back in business, and he had gathered up his dog, the only family member he had, and driven from New Mexico to the base in Nevada in an old, rusty Ford F-150.

The whole crew and many of the older scientists had been very surprised when he stated on his arrival that he had actually found DX2014 for Ryan right at the very beginning. At that time, he had been working at a large space observatory in Austin, Texas, and a couple of years later had been fired by the government on suspicion that he had leaked information to Ryan’s organization.

Jack had saved his 10 years of research on asteroids, and had used a wealthy friend’s telescope to continue his work mapping the solar system for the next two decades. This telescope was not as powerful as the ones he had been used to, but he had found a similar asteroid to DX2014 16 years later in 2030. He had named it 2030JD and put the information away in case Astermine ever returned. Now he was head of Astermine’s Asteroid Mining Research team on the base.

“Much like DX2014, there seems to be a sort of metallic aura from the black and white images taken of this asteroid. DX2014 was born deep in some exploding planet or sun, and had cooled in space. Given how the astronauts who mined it described DX2014, I believe DX2014 had been hit by several smaller asteroids over its billion-year life span. 2030JD looks to me a metal-rich Q-type asteroid. It’s just a guess that it will have the usual iron-nickel make up most asteroids have, but there is a chance that clumps of platinum and its group metals could be prevalent on this piece of rock. To sum up forty-nine years of asteroid studying, 2030JD has a 65 percent chance of giving you what you want, Ms. Richmond.”

“Is that gold as well as the rare earth metals?” asked Lunar.

“I believe that this is the asteroid, only second to DX2014, mind you, which all those asteroid mining companies were searching for between 2012 and 2016, when private asteroid interest was at its highest,” Jack Dempsey replied. “It just wasn’t noticed when the orbital satellite telescopes were still in place above Earth. At that time, with a forward speed of only 27,600 miles an hour, 2030JD was millions of millions of miles away.”

“So you estimate a passby, the closest distance 2030JD will come, is 97 million miles?” Lunar asked.

“Unfortunately a rather long flight, and I believe you will only have one shot at mining it before it begins to travel away from Earth. Since the asteroid and Earth will be going in virtually opposite directions, that distance will increase by over 70,000 miles an hour.”

“Captain Pete, your figures on travelling there?” asked Lunar.

“With Jack’s 97.155-million-mile closest distance, I have worked on Dr. Schmidt’s estimated new forward speed for our smaller shuttles and the latest velocity figures with their larger thrusters of 85,000 miles an hour. If SB-V, the second new shuttle, was ready, the same speeds would be taken into account. To arrive to the asteroid at a perfect opposition, I have figured on 160 hours of low fuel usage acceleration, ten days of slowing, and a 25-hour, 180-degree turn to equal the asteroid’s forward direction. We end up with an average 51,000 miles an hour forward speed between two empty points in space. Travel time 79.375 days. As you all know, we need to estimate at least ten days on the asteroid for mining. That was given to Jonesy and VIN when they headed out to DX2014 the first time, understanding that there was enough time for a second trip. This time we won’t have that luxury. Remember, DX2014 was heading towards Earth, not passing by. Therefore, I have added another 11 days for mining in advance of perfect opposition. One day of that is for getting settled and twenty days for mining. With the added time and the exact opposition in the middle of the 21 days, twelve days must be added to the flight and fourteen days added to the return. In total, the mission needs to begin in 91 days’ time, that will be from leaving Earth’s orbit, and the total mission will last 127 days.”

“Very close to my calculations, Herr Captain Pete, and we still have one of Ryan’s old MMAs, Magnetic Metal Analyzers,” added Dr. Schmidt. “The other was lost on the DX2014 asteroid when it broke up. My team have tested it and it is ready to be housed in Astermine One’s cargo hold.”

“Captain Pete, I assume you have allocated which shuttles will head out with the three mining vessels, and the names of the crew,” asked Lunar. Who do you suggest to be commander of the mission?”

“Captain Mars Noble would be my first choice. He learned much from his father, but he is leading the Mars mission. I would recommend your sister, Commander. Pluto Katherine is one of our best pilots. Jonesy recommended her to me for any mission when she was a youngster doing flight training with him. As her second I would recommend Shelly Saunders. Both girls have excellent spacesuit experience and are trained in spacesuits far more than the rest of the crew.”

“May we assume husbands are also part of the crew?” stated Gary Darwin, much to the crew’s amusement.

“Yes, Mr. Darwin,” replied Captain Pete, animating the way Ryan would have responded. “You will have spacesuit training and flight simulator time, ten hours a day from now until the mission leaves. So will you, Mr. Price, as it seems you have begged the powers-that-be to head out on a mission.”

There was much laughter and Lunar blushed slightly. Her husband had been pestering her for a mission, and she had mentioned it to the captain.

“No pregnant astronauts or crew will be allowed on the asteroid mission,” added Dr. Nancy, sitting next to her husband. “All astronauts who are selected will go through a full physical before training, and before departure.”

Captain Pete then read out the names of the ten members selected for the mining mission. The two Aussies were among them, and Pluto Katherine felt proud that she was commander and that they were both going along.

Then the Mars mission crew was called out with Mars Noble and Saturn Jones leading that mission. Dr. Nancy had suggested to Lunar that she and Captain Pete allow themselves one more space flight. It also meant that the two girls she thought to be pregnant could be used on this mission. There was a lot of room in the new shuttle so it would be far more comfortable for the Mars mission crew, herself and Captain Pete than the return from Mars. Both the older two crewmembers had thought to call it a day, but as had happened in many instances, the call to space hadn’t completely left them.

Luckily for Dr. Nancy, two of the who had studied by her side for a dozen or more years were not astronauts, and as far as the doctor was concerned, already as good as any doctor on Earth. One would be needed to look after the build crew and mechanics in orbit in space in a year’s time and swap around to be the medical person at the base.

That left six astronauts under the command of Lunar to fly up the supplies to the new build station that was about to be built in orbit. There was a lot of cylinders and parts already up there, and each piece was important. Even “The Office,” the small capsule Captain and Nancy had returned to Earth in, would be the build commander’s office in space.

The supply cylinders that had been used for the crew’s return would be upgraded with fresh supplies to house the thirty or so human workers up there. A cube much like the old America One cubes was being made in Israel, and its outer skin parts would be lifted up to form an in-space atmospheric production laboratory. One entire side was to open and allow parts built up there to float out once complete.

Dozens of new robots were on the drawing boards to weld and bond most of the outer walls until there was an atmosphere inside the new ship. Then the human workforce could do the rest on the internal fittings receiving them through a space lock.

Since the second mother ship had been agreed on, a second cube was to be built and sent up a year after the first one got underway.

As the meeting drew to a close, everyone realized how much work was ahead of them.

Mars and Saturn were already looking forward to returning to the red planet. Since Mars had been in space fights with the nasty Matts, he had always wondered if any had survived that massive blast when their base had exploded. Many good friends of his had died that day, and he wanted to make sure that Astermine’s spaceships, not theirs, ruled the skies over Mars. Captain Noble was also happy that Captain Pete was coming along. He enjoyed the captain’s company and perusing star maps with him.

For the next several weeks, the country seemed to lift itself out of hibernation. Every day there were new people at the gates wanting work. Sergeant Meyers handled them, sending them to the two bases. The news began to return, as did television stations.

The news from Washington was good. With new members in the House and Senate, work went through the two chambers faster than anybody could remember. New agreements were drawn up, first with Canada and then Australia and Israel. Europe, seeing this rebirth of a nation, wasn’t to be outdone, and soon aircraft and ships were again flying over the Atlantic to connect the two continents.

Even though many people were turned away from the gates, every day there was one or two acknowledgements to Sergeant Meyers and the old guards. These were returning people who had worked on the airfield, and each one was allowed in to speak to either Dr. Schmidt or Lunar.

Quickly the base filled to capacity, and even the idea of morning runs around the airfield was brought back.

One morning, Lunar headed out for an early morning walk with Mark. The airstrip was a nice walk, but often she did it as the sun set. She was surprised to see many of the older scientists around the airfield. She stopped one and asked if this was usual.

“Oh yes, Ms. Richmond. Ryan and the whole group used to run around the airfield at least three or four days a week. Of course we were all younger then, and the new kids with the prostheses, young VIN and Suzi, were a hoot.”

This gave Lunar the idea to restart the early morning runs. Excitedly accepted by the older generation, but not so eagerly accepted by the NextGens.

Chapter 15

Setup for Mars

“You have to be patient to get to the red planet, lover boy,” stated Saturn to her husband while holding baby Mikey Noble, as the crew had named him, and giving the forever hungry baby milk. The young Noble sucked food as if there was no tomorrow, and Mikey was as impatient as his father had been acting for the last month. It had been three months since the meeting when Lunar had designated the crew for the three independent missions, and since then the airfield had prepared 24 hours a day.

In each of the hangars, three shifts in every department had quickly filled up with returning and new specialists in their fields. The new shuttle was coming along and was only a week behind schedule, hence Mars’ impatience to test-fly her.

“It’s just we have so little time between test flights and the start of the mission,” replied Mikey’s father. “We are seventeen hours behind on the “Mid Fuel Storage Tank” completion schedule, and there are still millions of items to checklist before the maiden flight into orbit. The opposition deadline doesn’t change, and every day means a longer flight and a shorter stay.”

“No, you don’t give a rat’s arse about a longer flight or a shorter stay. All you want, General Bloody Noble, is to go and beat the crap out of those guys who attacked us. It has been getting on your mind for weeks now. You even mouth obscenities at them in your sleep.”

“Maybe. I suppose you are right,” he mumbled, head hanging low and thinking about what Saturn had just said.

“I want to go as much as you do. So does little Mikey here. He is our next security officer or little flight commander, is he not?” she stated, laughing and lifting him high to fly the baby above her head. He loved this. Drooling milk over his mother, Mikey Noble smiled from ear to ear. “Mars, SB-IV will be ready and in my hands before we know it. You will be mission commander, I will be chief astronaut, and we’ll have to teach Mikey how to float around in zero gravity, get him a baby spacesuit, and bring sipping bags of lukewarm coffee. I just hope we don’t get stuck up there on the planet like the last time we wanted to return.”

The new shuttle was being worked on by three build teams in eight-hour shifts. Every day, Saturn and Mars spent hours inside her cockpit testing the newly installed instruments, and especially any new systems added during the recent day.

SB-IV would fly much like SB-III, but her cockpit was far larger. Also, the captain had small but comfortable private quarters behind the cockpit separate from where the rest of the crew would reside during the expected 171-day flight to the red planet. The larger shuttle could cut the journey down by ten days due to her more modern hydrogen thrusters, but speed wasn’t the issue in space. The use of valuable fuels and supplies was.

Going on the mission with the larger shuttle was SB-III. With newly fitted larger thrusters, SB-III was to be docked upside down to the middle one of SB-IV’s three roof docking ports. On the rear port, Mars would park one of the two Matt spacecraft. They would have to be positioned at a ninety-degree angle to the front of the new shuttle to fit, and there was a three-foot gap between the wings of the spacecraft.

The forward Soyuz docking hatch, in between the cockpit and the captain’s quarters, was primarily for spacewalk exiting. The transfer of cargo and crew whilst in flight would be completed through the rear two hatches and floated straight into the waiting spacecraft.

As with all Astermine missions, hundreds of aluminum canisters would be used to transfer goods through the docking ports. The supply and mining canisters were used on all missions and were the most important equipment on every flight.

Many of the canisters had been to several asteroids, planets, and moons and many were scratched and dented but still performed their valuable service. The build crew had planned to produce another 500 of these for transportation of just about anything that fit inside them for the build of America Two in space.

As the shuttle became one, the astronauts learned her controls. Like an aircraft’s or spacecraft’s, each took time to test, and then changes needed to be made to the instruments when the pilots noticed any irregularities.

Day after day, week after week went by, and finally the new shuttle was ready for its first atmospheric space flight. Unlike the smaller shuttles, it did not have heat bricks on its underside, relying on blue shield-atmospheric entrances only.

The next job for the build crew was to finally remove any telltale signs that the heat bricks had ever been glued onto the smaller shuttles.

Word had got through from the shield design team that it could be possible to build more shields sometime in the future, and from now on it was either shield reentries or the spacecraft had to stay in orbit.

The first test flight for SB-IV was to Australia in atmospheric conditions, as there was a Cold Fusion plant waiting for her on the island. Up to now the spacecraft had relied on Plutonium-238 battery reactors beneath their bellies to power the shields in space and in atmospheric conditions. At least 28 megawatts were needed for each shield to activate, and the “238” in its heavy lead case had been “borrowed” from SB-II which lay dormant, having her new thrusters connected in one of the Nevada hangars.

Six and a half pounds of Plutonium-238 had been lost with the mother ship explosion, and the remaining plutonium had been redistributed among the mining craft. Each still had ample power for another seventy years. The smaller craft had still twenty-four ounces of the radioactive material in new anti-radioactive lead battery nullifier cases below their bellies instead of the usual two pounds.

All the lead cases were inspected and tested with Geiger counters on a weekly basis while down on Earth.

“We have thrusters idling at five percent power,” stated Saturn, who was adamant to be the new shuttle’s captain. Mars had also wanted to test-fly her, but had lost out to “Jones” determination. Saturn was in the left seat scanning the gauges while Mars followed her checks, acknowledging each pre-flight check.

“Fuel pressure systems at 100 percent boost, fuel directional feed on all five tanks for side thrusters only, oxidizer systems at full boost. Gauges reading normal, air pressure perfect inside the thrusters, waiting for twenty degrees of heat for launch,” added Saturn over the intercom. There was nothing to do but wait ten seconds for the temperatures to climb.

The three new laser guns and their aiming systems, the exact same models and systems as the single guns in the smaller shuttles, had been attached last over the last two weeks. Mars’ job once airborne was to align them. He could only fire them after installing the new and larger 60-megawatt Cold Fusion plant waiting for them on the island. Twenty-eight megawatts were needed to expand the blue shield, ten megawatts were what each of the three lasers needed at full firing speed, and two megawatts were to run the ship.

The fitting of the system to the new shuttle would take the five build crew members, already heading across the Atlantic in SB-I, a week to set up. Then Saturn was to give her her maiden flight—one and a half orbits of Earth—before returning back down to the Nevada base.

Mars, Saturn and the entire astronaut crew had already spent months studying the far more intricate laser system. Three separate onboard aiming computer systems could fire each laser at two or three targets or align all three lasers onto one target. It only took a second for the gunner to lock his/‌her targets. The computers analyzed the target and then fired the lasers up to ten times a minute. The target alignments could be done by the gunner, but it would take several seconds longer for manual locks on targets. She was certainly a mean beast, though. As deadly as all three of the smaller shuttles, and with far more power from the Cold Fusion plant.

“Mars, if you think this is a fancy setup, you should see the designs for the twelve-gun laser firing systems on the new mother ships,” Captain Pete had told him one night a few days earlier over a barbeque and a beer. “These have been designed to need a crew of two directly on computer monitors directed by a “Firing Master” on a third computer who gives the computerized orders of fire.” Mars couldn’t wait to up his skills, but the visit to the red planet was first. Saturn brought him back to the present.

“Temperatures ready, increasing thrust to 10 percent…15…20…30…35 percent, we have liftoff with full fuel load and zero cargo. Heading skywards at 30 knots…50…90…170…290… 300. Steady lift at 310 knots per hour, altitude 3,000 feet and climbing,” stated Saturn calmly.

She was concentrating, and finding the larger shuttle much more stable to fly. The crowd below, all with ear muffs, as there was no shield extended on this flight, watched as the silver bird headed into the blue sky with the same noise as an old Air Force jet had once done on afterburner. It really hurt their ears, and they were standing 800 yards away from the shuttle’s launch pad.

The new launch pad was one of the old cube missile sites laid years earlier that had been cleaned up and readied for this launch. This test was to test atmospheric flight above the speed sound and inside Earth’s atmosphere.

Mikey Noble was far away from the rising shuttle and his parents. He was now on a bottle and in the infirmary with a very happy Dr. Nancy looking after him. She had not allowed Saturn to take her son on a test flight.

“Altitude 35,000 feet, changing thrust from vertical to 5 degrees forward thrust, 85 percent above horizontal. Power at 36 percent,” continued Saturn over the intercom to Ground Control. The crew in Ground Control were watching all the gauges on computers. Forward speed, zero… 15 knots…. 40 knots… 105 knots… 200 knots. Thrusters at 45 percent above horizontal, altitude climb dropping to 180 knots per minute…170…150…forward speed climbing over 340 knots, over.”

“SB-IV, you will get 100 percent wing lift and forward flight stability at 490 knots,” stated Ground Control. “Keep her thrusters at minimum 25-degree thrust above horizontal until you pass 490 knots, over.”

“Copy that,” replied Saturn. “Ground Control, we have just gone through 495 knots and I am decreasing thrust above horizontal, 25 degrees… 15 degrees… 10 degrees… We are flying straight and level.”

“Hold on. We are still at 5 degrees above horizontal. I’m showing a decrease in altitude by several feet per minute on the altimeter, over,” interjected Mars.

“Copy,” replied Ground Control quickly. “Problem noted. Keep her at a 10-degree thrust above horizontal, and see what happens when you’re close to the speed of sound, over.”

“Roger,” replied Saturn. “Ten degrees above horizontal, speed increasing through 500 knots, increasing thrust to 40 percent. Forward speed rising through 595 knots.”

“Altitude climb now 50 feet per second and rising,” added Mars. “Thrusters reduced to five degrees above horizontal, now zero degrees above horizontal and we have straight and level flight. At least we know her flight trajectory with an empty load and without shield, over.”

“Roger, we have recorded your complete settings and estimate a ten-degree thrust above horizontal until 660 knots with a full payload and without shield. We understand that totally new flight data will be given with shield usage and that is for Test Flight Two, over.”

SB-IV easily went through the speed of sound. It became quieter in the cockpit. Six hours later the shuttle made a perfect landing on the island where the build crew had just arrived and was setting up to attach the 500-pound power plant to the underside between the shuttle’s wheeled landing gear.

Mars smiled as the happy robot found tires on the new machine and within minutes of landing had towed the shuttle into the first empty hangar out of the hot sun.

It was time for a break, and Bob and the two ladies were waiting for the Noble family in the cool hangar.

“A spot of fishing, family Noble?” stated Bob Mathews to Mars.

“We have six days, Bob. What can we catch in that time?” Mars replied.

They enjoyed a week’s fishing, catching enough to return to a fish diet. Unfortunately the time came to return, and a day’s flight checks were needed to see what had changed with the power switch from thrusters to power plant.

The lights glowed brighter, as did the dashboard and console dials. Even the LED readouts were brighter. The ship seemed to be in a new power phase, and the return flight was much the same in atmospheric conditions.

SB-IV’s return was observed by the same crew who had watched her leave, the only differences being the new lump under the shuttle’s belly between her leg struts and the darker, sun-tanned color of Saturn and Mars Noble.

“We have thirty days until our launch for our mission to Mars,” stated Lunar in the crew and scientist briefing the next day. “The Nobles so kindly brought us two more Cold Fusion plants back for SB-II and SB-III. It will take a week to connect and test SB-III on her new power plant. Then we need a maiden flight for each of the two shuttles through a complete space flight orbital test. The crew and I have decided to bring the Mars launch forward by 21 days so that fuel can be saved on the outbound flight. This is just in case more fuel is needed on the planet by the ships before The Martian Club Retreat is up and running and producing its own fuel. Crew, we have to think, and teach our Earth scientists how we think in space. Fuel conservation, production times, storm possibilities, etc. The main reason I have brought the flight forward is due to the possibility of a storm when the mission arrives. Therefore, if there is a storm, a three-month delay can be made with enough fuel to orbit for that time and then safely return our crew to Earth.”

“How long can the storms last?” asked one scientist who was rather new.

“Up to two years so far,” replied Lunar.

“The longest storm on Mars was recorded in the early 1970s, several decades ago, and was five years in length,” stated Jack Dempsey. “Mars seems to go through cycles of what we believed was atmospheric instability. The instability lasts for five-to seven-year cycles, and two cycles have now been recorded on Mars. The instability, we believe, is a large storm in one area, and then it mysteriously disappears, or moves, as it is then recorded on another area of the planet. The first storm we know of was viewed in the 1970s, the first time we actually got a view of any atmospheric storm on Mars.”

“Are they so frequent?” Saturn Noble asked.

“We believe that the red planet goes through phases of atmospheric activity lasting ten or twelve years,” continued Jack Dempsey. “The time between the activities could be a decade, or it could be a thousand years. That, we haven’t had time to record yet. My personal estimation is that much like here on Earth, the climate has small changes, but any major changes takes thousands of years. I believe the activity you witnessed could be halfway through a phase, or over. You were there for part of the cycle, and there could be decades of calm before the next storm.”

“Thank you, Mr. Dempsey,” stated Lunar. “Unfortunately, as we learned in our space travels, we need to be ready for any problems. Mission Commander Noble, you will have 90 days orbiting the red planet before you need to return to Earth. You will have 64 crewmembers in total on board. It’s going to be squashed on the flight. Next, accommodation. As we had before in the smaller shuttles, the forward cargo bay will have a new crew chamber inside. As in all shuttles, there will be connecting hatches to the cockpit area and to the aft cargo compartment. The two docking ports will give access to the forward crew compartments and aft cargo compartments inside SB-III and MS-I. Since we are the proud owners of two Matt ships, they are now to be call-signed Mike Sierra I and Mike Sierra II, or MS-I and II. SB-III will hold fifteen crewmembers in the same crew chamber we returned to Earth in, MS-I will hold eight. Since the Matt craft’s accommodations are smaller, our smallest crewmembers will stay in her. The commander and his family will stay in the new ship’s captain’s quarters. A second private room with attached infirmary will be added inside SB-IV for Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy and will be the medical center for the mission. Crew, the medical facilities will be pretty basic compared to our old medical hospital aboard America One, so you need to be really careful throughout the voyage. Luckily, we had moved most of our medical equipment down to the base so it was not in the destroyed ship, but Dr. Nancy will have to work miracles in such a confined space.”

“And we have three pregnant Matt ladies coming with us,” added Dr. Nancy. “Since we astronauts all completed midwife courses while on Mars, I might need some help since my two knowledgeable nurses are not coming with me.”

“We have Ruler Roo, his son Jo, and 25 pure Matts, seven families returning to Mars to set up a permanent base again,” continued Lunar, nodding at the doctor. “Not included with them are three mixed families totaling nine members who wish to return, plus seven single Matts and three Tall People. That is a total of 46 crewmembers who will stay and rebuild our base while the ships return to Earth. The balance of the crew are 6 astro-biologists and four build crew mechanics. Dr. Nancy and young Johnny Walls, who is to be your security second-in-command, Commander Noble, makes 58. Captain Pete is counted in the six astronauts, two to a ship. There is no way I can leave an escape ship there for the crew staying on the planet in case an evacuation is necessary once you return to Earth, Commander Noble, and they all understand that. We need all our craft here on Earth until both mother ships are built and we have mined any nearby asteroids. Pluto Katherine and I have my father’s dream of a scheduled flight in both directions between Mars and Earth every opposition. That is about twelve years away, and the crew who are staying understand all this.”

“What about returning crew?” asked Mars Noble.

“The 6 astro-biologists must make a decision on who stays to grow food. Some may want to stay, or they can teach the crew to tend the crops,” continued Commander Richmond. “We believe that once the three available shields are set up with vegetation, and the internal areas of food production established, all 6 biologists can return with you. Four of the crew are build crew and will continue working on VIN Noble’s robotic program, to have robots outside tending the gardens while they are there. They will return with you. Your crew will have one new, large Cold Fusion plant with you, Commander, as purely backup to the two we already have up there. Two of your build crew will be in charge of getting this power system connected up as a backup. SB-III and SB-IV will also have their own Cold Fusion plants installed by the time the Mars mission leaves.

“Back to our missions here. With the loss of the three shields going to Mars, we have to compromise with the remaining shields here on Earth. The mining expedition will only have one shield once the four ships are in orbit, and two of the shields that are launched around the mining craft will be returned here for the build mission. That leaves us only two shields to get flights into orbit for our building program. Estimations for new shields are still years away. The scientists working on that part of the program with Dr. Pete have only broken the surface on new shield production.”

The briefing lasted for several hours and was the last real meeting of all the senior crew and scientists for a couple of weeks.

Three weeks later it was a different atmosphere on the airfield. Goodbyes were said and tears flowed between the crewmembers heading back to Mars for good and the Astermine crew staying behind. Astermine was a closeknit family of nearly 200 people who had been born together, lived together across the solar system, and now were splitting up.

Gifts, small treasures of luxuries found in and around the States, had been sourced for the departing family and friends. Everyone knew each other’s likes, and chocolate, flowers, special plants, and handwritten cards changed hands.

Two weeks earlier, SB-IV flown by Saturn passed her first space flight. It had been the easiest flight she had ever done. Mars launched SB-III the next day with Lunar as co-pilot to test SB-III’s new thrusters and power plant. Inside the shield on both launches very little was different. It was when Mars retracted the shield during the first orbit and hit the gas that the forward thrust of SB-III jumped higher than ever before. Her third orbit of Earth was at over 61,000 miles an hour. She had beaten her space speed record by over 10,000 miles an hour. Mars deduced that SB-III was at least 10 percent faster than her larger sister SB-IV and smiled that he had the faster craft and his wife didn’t.

Now was the time for celebrations once both craft had successfully landed back on terra firma. President Joanne, as she was now called, Martin Brusk, Prime Minister Soames and Mary Collins had all been invited for the test flight weekend, but only the President and PM could not attend.

Martin marveled at how the virtual core of a spaceship he had handed over to Astermine was now a sleek, deadly space fighting machine. It was totally modernized from what he had built. He was extremely jealous at the mighty amounts of firepower from its three lasers and dying to see them in action. That would happen the following day.

Saturn had taken up Pluto Katherine and a newly promoted Intern Astronaut Gary Darwin as crew for the test shoot around the base area.

Pluto Katherine was good on the guns and had not only leveled a few old rusty trucks on an old defense mound at 500 miles distance when she was hovering over the Pacific at 100,000 feet, she had melted what was left of the trucks onto the surface of what was left of the foot-thick cement.

An hour later, the new, more powerful single laser of SB-III, at 1,000 miles, did as much damage to another group of rusty vehicles dragged into an empty area of the base for the fireworks display.

“I now declare our mission to Mars inside the seven-day window as of tomorrow morning,” stated a proud Lunar Richmond to the gathered spectators once the show was over. “To us at Astermine, that means that all other less essential work ceases and everybody on site gets to help ready our craft and personnel for long-distance flight. We will have dinner and a party this evening after this announcement.”

“When do the shuttles return?” asked Mary Collins, looking around for the arrival of the returning ships.

“There is the new shuttle coming over the horizon at 10,000 feet now,” Lunar replied, pointing to the western horizon. “Mary, Sierra Bravo III will be landing in thirty minutes. Martin, you can head over to your ship in the hangar once it is inside and see what you helped build now that it has had its maiden space flight and test shoot.”

Mars returned on schedule and was in awe when Lunar and Pluto Katherine personally showed him the carnage his spacecraft had made of the cement. The civilians had not been invited to see the end results but were being given a tour of both shuttles by Saturn.

Where all of SB-IV’s three lasers had hit the same location, one-foot-wide open holes and cracks in the foot-thick cement were evident. Where Mars’ laser had hit on the second area were only inch-wide holes.

“It seems that the three lasers firing simultaneously at the exact same target coordinates treble the strike power,” said Mars to the two astronauts gathered around. “Did the civilians see these results?” he asked Lunar.

“Negative, they only saw the hits on the trucks through binoculars. I didn’t think it necessary to actually show them the damage before they departed.”

“Good. At least we have this information secure. I think the laser scientists should analyze these hits and find out why the destruction is so intense here. I don’t know if it would ever be important, but I believe that these results should stay inside Astermine for now.” Both female astronauts agreed with the Head of Security.

The week went by quickly. Captain Pete and Mars spent much time in briefings going through the elements of the mission.

“We hope that by the time you reach Mars, we will be launching the four ships to 2030JD to begin asteroid mining,” stated Jack Dempsey.

“If we return on schedule, Jack, your team should have completed at least three missions to the asteroid and we should be rich,” joked Mars. Jack Dempsey nodded.

“Ja, and by the time you return in two years, we should have the platform ready for the building of America Two,” added Dr. Schmidt.

“Something I hope to return to see,” stated Captain Pete. “Lunar, I hope I will be considered for captaincy of the new mother ship?” asked Captain Pete.

“Of course, Captain,” replied Lunar, smiling. “Of course you will have first option. I don’t know what my father had planned for Astermine in the retirement age department, but as long as our crew is mentally able, rank and experience do mean everything. I believe you will let me know, Captain Pete, when you feel that a younger captain should take over, and I hope you reckon I’m good enough for the position.”

“And me for America Three,” piped in Pluto Katherine.

Mars smiled. The two sisters would have the best chances to be mother ship captains. After all, they ran the company, until, that is, their father returned and changed things. America Two would only be complete a year or two before Ryan returned to Earth. America Three two years after he was awake. His daughters would be fourteen years older, and it would be interesting to see how the Richmond family would sort out the new commands. He also knew Kathy Richmond well; she would be the judge of everything that went on in the Richmond household when she awoke.

Chapter 16

Mars

Tears were shed as the crew climbed aboard SB-III. She would be the first ship to launch. The other two would launch in two-hour intervals.

For weeks, every plant imaginable had been loaded into the ships. Fertile eggs, three hundred of them freshly gathered from meat and egg chicken farms as far as fifty miles away. Young rabbits, 200 of them. Fresh crops as well as trees, shrubs, four tons of rich topsoil separated in the two shuttles, flowers, bees, mites, and a thousand other items the biologists had travelled far and wide to find were carefully packed on board.

Several dozen mature red and white grape bushes were packed in as well as all the necessary ingredients to make beer. This time six coffee trees had been flown in from Indonesia via Australia for the flight. Same with the cocoa trees, as Suzi Noble’s chocolate cake had never been forgotten. Most of the astronauts had been introduced to Suzi’s delicious German double chocolate cake at a very young age.

There wasn’t much room for luxuries, and the three craft were at maximum weight for liftoff.

Jane Burgos was captain of SB-III as the silver shuttle with its shield extended headed up into space. Her sister Jenny would be her co-pilot for the mission. Saturn and Hillary Pitt were the astronauts aboard SB-IV while Mars was the captain of the Matt craft with Captain Pete as co-pilot. Once they were all in orbit and the three craft connected, the crew would all be together.

One by one the launches took place successfully and the second mission to Mars began.

With five astronauts and Captain Pete, who had spent hundreds of hours on the simulators, as a backup pilot, heading up left more time on the simulators for the remaining eight experienced astronauts and the four newbies in training; all from Australia and who were proving to be really good pilots.

“Completing first orbit,” stated Mars in the Matt craft. “Ten thousand miles behind SB-IV and closing for docking in twelve hours, over.”

“Copy that, husband,” replied Saturn, who never really excelled in radio-work management.

“We have your craft behind us on radar. Expecting our linkup with SB-IV in seven hours,” added Jane Burgos. Jane was an excellent astronaut. Since the death of her parents on Mars during the Matt attack, she and her sister had put their heads down and worked hard at becoming the best astronauts they could.

The hard work had helped them cope with their family loss, and the sisters had pleaded with Lunar to be accepted for the Mars mission. For many reasons they wanted to go back to where their parents were buried, and to get revenge if there was any possibility of doing so.

On time, the two smaller craft docked onto the larger SB-IV. Once the ports were opened, the crew could mingle.

Saturn kissed her husband as he entered the cockpit of SB-IV. He then went to the captain’s quarters to see baby Mikey, who was being looked after by Dr. Nancy. Captain Pete tagged along.

“He is getting stronger by the day,” Dr. Nancy remarked as both men entered.

“A little late to be getting any ideas,” joked Captain Pete floating in behind Mars as he saw his wife with the baby.

“Not on the drawing board, husband. Pete, get your metal shoes on. It is a little late for both of us, and who knows, we might not see Earth for a little while,” the doctor replied.

“I’m sure Mikey will enjoy having you as godparents,” said Mars, grabbing for his metal shoes which would “stick” him back to the floor of the shuttle. “He needs as much human connection as possible, and I’m glad to have you guys along for the ride. Saturn and I could get very busy once we arrive, and Mikey will be nowhere near any battles.”

“I’m sure we will come in handy,” continued Dr. Nancy. “Little Mikey here will have two more babies to play with before we reach Mars in six months’ time anyway.”

“One hundred and seventy-eight days before we orbit Mars, to be precise,” stated Captain Pete. “I think in my next life I want to be Rh Negative and learn to fly that Matt ship. Nancy, Mars and the ship seem to be in one body when he flies it. He never said one word on the way up. The craft was so fast and so easy to fly.”

“You are right. When I fly that ship, it feels like part of me,” replied Mars. “My father always told me that when he flew it, it felt like he didn’t need his broken-up body anymore. He always felt like he was bodiless, and that it was just the ship and his soul flying together.”

‘I’m sure you and VIN are going to fight over the Matt ships when he returns,” smiled Dr. Nancy.

“Thank God we now have two,” added Captain Pete.

Saturn loved her new command ship. She slowly added speed on the next three orbits to disengage them from their orbit around Earth.

Nobody was in a rush. It was weird, but even though they had lifted off a few weeks early, the flight to Mars would not be any quicker. The idea was to reach Mars as it got as close to Earth as it was going to reach. That meant a lower speed and to work the computers for the exact time of arrival once they left Earth for an empty point in space. The planet Mars would be filling the space in 178 days’ time.

The crew on board weren’t very squashed, but there were supplies, trees and plants everywhere that were closely protected by the team of biologists making sure nobody bumped, floated, or walked into them.

SB-IV, like SB-III and the old bridge of America One, had an artificial metallic gravity. Any object that could be tied to a metal nail or piece of metal structure floated by its tie. It was the same with the humans who wore the metal slip-ons on their feet. Little Mikey had a tiny metal brace on his back inside the material of his tiny overalls, and he could be left anywhere on the floor. Everybody ate out of metal envelopes that could hold food pouches. If closed, the food would stay inside.

It took time for the newbies in space to get used to the weightlessness. They often were seen charging behind food or instruments they had lost.

Hair stood vertical, and caps with straps under the neck made one look a little more presentable if they had long hair. Most had haircuts before liftoff, not wanting their hair to be a bother. It was interesting how a good old-fashioned Marine haircut helped in space.

Little Mikey seemed happy and screamed with excitement when he was allowed to float around.

“Ground Control, this is SB-IV. We are ready for departure from our current orbit in fifteen minutes. Forward speed 31,000 knots and ready to head out, over,” stated Mars over the intercom the next day.

“Roger SB-IV, we copy that,” replied Lunar from Nevada. “We have your telemetry showing 14 minutes and 23 seconds to your first twenty-minute thrust. Remember we still have 2 hours for intercom contact, three days until we begin to lose radio contact, and five days before we lose you altogether on radar.

“All systems are go, and Mars, we will expect to hear from you in approximately three years’ time. Guys, don’t do anything stupid, but if there is a delay, you have everything you need. I just hope the storms are past, and I hope you don’t see any other ships on the red planet. Remember, if you do, shoot first and ask questions later, over.”

“We are going to miss you guys, and hope to have riches and treasure aplenty from 2030JD before you return,” added Pluto Katherine.

“At least we will be nearly three years closer to our parents returning,” added Saturn from the co-pilot’s seat while feeding her son.

“Yes, Saturn, something we are all looking forward to. Think how old we will be, and they wouldn’t have gained a day of age. It is certainly going to blow minds on both sides, over,” replied Lunar.

“You are so right there,” stated Mars. “Imagine if we missed them the first go-around and we had to wait another 14 years for them. If we miss them too often, we could be older than they are in three orbits around the solar system.”

“Something not worth thinking about, Commander Noble,” replied Pluto Katherine, quite shocked at the thought.

“Older than my mother, now that would be something for the history books,” laughed Saturn.

It was on the third day that the NextGens saw Earth become smaller in the windows. The moon orbiting Earth was really small on the fourth day and transmission was only through radio communication. Less was said over the radio, as others were listening in, and the last farewells and messages of fly safe and Godspeed were given from Nevada.

By now, and after two more 20-minute thrusts on the second day, they were traveling away from Earth at 44,000 miles an hour. In 90 hours they covered four million miles, and the rear thrusters had done their job.

On Day Five, Nevada lost all telemetry from the mission, and for the next few days, most of the base walked around gloomy, as if they had just lost a family member. It was the first time the crew were really detached from each other, and many wondered whether they would ever see their families again.

Lunar often reminded the depressed crew that the Mars mission was in good hands. All the experienced crew had studied for this moment since they were three years old, and Captain Pete, the most experienced of all the crewmembers, had done this many times before. And they were only going to Mars!

Over time the mission to Mars took a back seat to the work needed for the asteroid mining mission. Even the drawings of the build station up in orbit for America Two were becoming a reality as parts were being made, logged and stacked for this important mission.

Out in the middle of nowhere the crewmembers aboard the three ships settled down for their six-month journey.

As with all missions, there weren’t the same things to do as down on Earth. Anybody who had begun to follow sport on television, or politics, or television shows lost those opportunities. Movies returned to twice a week, and there weren’t many the crew hadn’t seen before.

Study and reading became the habits of many. Dr. Nancy worked with all the interested parties aboard on nursing and medicine while Captain Pete held astronomy or spaceship command courses in another part of the conglomerate of three ships. There was the intercom that could blast through all three ships, and that became noisy during the day and quiet during sleep periods.

Humans tend to naturally want to sleep longer than eight hours, and the 24-hour periods were turned into equal amounts of twelve hours of sleep and waking for many. Everyone had the freedom to sleep shorter hours, and there were two of the crew awake aboard each of the two shuttles at all times.

A week went by and the earth grew smaller. During the second week it became the size of the sun. They all realized what Dr. Nancy and Captain Pete had gone through for two years in a spaceship that was a tenth of the size of their smallest ship.

After three weeks, the chicken eggs were hatching and one part of the larger shuttle became home to hundreds of yellow baby chicks held down to their metal cages by tiny metal rings around their legs. The biologists treated their new babies like Saturn treated little Mikey. Within a month, the sweet little chicks had grown into not-so-pretty pullets and it was getting crowded aboard ship.

The Matt craft was finally evacuated by the crewmembers, and its cargo hold was turned into a sort of zoo. Here the chickens had to be kept in larger metal cages. So were the rabbits, and every other living creature that was aboard. The bees and the mites were confined in their hives.

After month three, only the biologists ventured into the cargo hold. The systems were cleaning the air as much as they could, and the crew really looked forward to reaching the red planet.

Mikey Noble grew during the voyage. He would be nearly eight months old when he reached Mars, the youngest person aboard until one of the crew gave birth to a healthy baby girl four months into the voyage. The third baby, another girl, was delivered in month five.

“We have just picked up the red planet on our long-range scanners,” Mars Noble announced over the intercom 23 days after the third birth, a boy this time. “Our craft have been slowing for the last several days and the computers put our movement into an orbital path in 6 days seven hours. Please prepare the ship for orbital procedures. Our orbital altitude will be at 200 miles until we have scanned the Martian surface and made sure our base is still down there. Hopefully the base is as we left it. End of message.”

As if a flight was about to enter Earth’s atmosphere, the crew began sorting out their belongings and tidying up their areas of the ship. There was a new sense of excitement about the day. The flight had been a long one for the newbies, and many had realized that life aboard the red planet would have a little more room to live, but the schedules and workloads wouldn’t change much from those of life aboard ship.

Many had discussed how life would differ once the much larger mother ships travelled to and from the red planet on a schedule. Group discussions were held on life in space. By the time the newbies realized what life in space meant, they also realized how the population on Earth knew so little about what space frontier people went through. The folk back on Earth took so much for granted in their daily lives.

“If you look out of any starboard side windows, the red planet can be seen,” stated Saturn Noble over the intercom while sitting in the right-hand co-pilot seat a day later. “It is the dull star twice the size of the largest stars, and it is starting to turn red. ETA to orbit two days and seventeen hours, out.”

The three ships, still docked together, went into orbit around the red planet, 163 minutes behind the estimated time stated in Nevada several months earlier.

Some of the crew looked different. Commander Noble had grown a beard. So had Captain Pete, and several others of the male crew.

Every crewmember had used the six exercise bikes inside the two shuttles for their allotted three hours a day. All had lost weight and were working on staying fit as much as possible. One scientist had set up cargo as a floating assault course inside the rear cargo hold of SB-IV, and several had enjoyed hours of pushing themselves away from the walls and floating around the obstacles in the confined area.

Due to having time for much thought, several new ways of exercise had been designed and then shared between the crew. For example, pushups could become hard vertically or horizontally if there were several crewmembers floating above the person and forcing pressure from the opposite wall. Or, legs pushups could be made difficult if there were crewmembers again pushing down from the opposite wall. A type of basketball was invented. The ball floated in the air like it did in the water in water polo, and the team members shot themselves off the sides of the ship trying to get the ball forced down into the seven-foot-high net a foot below the ceiling.

Often several members burst out laughing at the stupid antics of others. This teamwork playing “Spaceball,” as it was called, helped keep the comradery in place.

Mars worked out for several hours a day. He and his three security personnel had more incentive to stay at peak fitness, and they worked hard preparing for their arrival.

Now the security became serious. The returning crew had not forgotten how the old Matts had tried to destroy them. Each shuttlecraft maneuver was completed as if they were being watched. It was eerie, thinking that somebody down on the red planet could be watching them as they orbited 200 miles above the surface.

For two days, Captain Pete, who had been the watchful eyes on The Martian Club Retreat for a couple of years in America One and was used to looking down at The Retreat every time it passed underneath, studied the current video and photos taken with the laser cameras. Everything looked peaceful down there, but he hadn’t seen how the base had been left for the return flight to Earth years earlier. Mars had.

“Without the shields, or any external vegetation, it is hard to see anything down there on the ledge,” Captain Pete stated to Mars in SB-IV’s cockpit.

“I took a mental photo of our base as I launched,” replied Mars. “It was a hurried departure and we only got out before the next storm by seconds. The external robotic guard house was left out, and that looks like it is still in the same place and doesn’t look destroyed or anything. I see piles of what I believe are the mounds of topsoil from the vegetable gardens. The biology crew reckon that it could be of further use, but we did get the robots to carry several tons of topsoil into the underground chambers before we closed down the shields.”

“Well, there are no telltale marks of an aircraft landing,” added Captain Pete, “but all signs could have been covered up by another storm.”

“I have sent a signal to the guardhouse for our robot soldiers to reboot and power up, and that will take them another 24 hours. If they walk out of the guardhouse once they are powered up, I believe it is safe to descend. I still think that we should take down SB-III first and not the Matt ship. At least we will be armed with one laser.”

“I like the way you designed your robots to stay outside the base,” remarked Captain Pete. “If somebody had visited and destroyed the robots, they won’t be walking out of the chamber, and that would alert you that somebody had tampered with or destroyed them. Very ingenious.”

“Well, we had so much time waiting the storms out,” replied Mars, “that we came up with so many ideas to let us know from orbit if we had visitors. It was more out of boredom than anything else.”

Twenty-four hours later, with SB-III ready to head down, the six robots, now rebooted, walked out of the external security chamber and stood in a row so that Mars knew they hadn’t been tampered with and that it was reasonably safe to descend.

Captain Pete was to command the orbital ships while Mars, Jenny Burgos, and two of Mars’ security guys, Johnny Walls and Dave Black, headed down. Saturn was not allowed to pilot this flight.

Many watched from above as the smaller shuttle descended towards the red planet’s surface. For a whole orbit both craft stayed at the same forward orbital speed as the lower craft descended until it faded from eyesight. From then on, it could only be seen through the laser gun cameras and the ship’s three cameras pointing downwards.

“This brings back memories,” stated Mars to SB-IV high above as they began to slow. “Captain Pete, I have reverse thrusters on full power. Forward speed decreasing through 13,000 knots, altitude 161 miles above the surface. We have you on radar, over.”

“Copy that, Mars,” replied the captain. “I have nothing else showing up on radar and will be heading over the horizon ahead of you and out of radio comms in seventeen minutes, over.”

During the first separated orbit, it took SB-IV in a far higher orbit three hours to get back into radio contact with the ship below, as both were still orbiting, but at far different altitudes and speeds.

“Forward speed 7,000 knots, altitude 40 miles and will hold this altitude for two hours thirteen minutes until you catch us up and come back into radio contact over the western horizon,” replied Mars. It was imperative that SB-IV was in the space above them to give them added firepower if the smaller craft was attacked on approach to the base. Captain Pete acknowledged that the younger man’s math was correct.

Again the larger shuttle orbited the red planet, and Mars began to decrease altitude again on the back side of the planet as SB-IV came back into radio communications. Now, at this lower speed and altitude, the higher shuttle headed over the horizon in far less time.

By the time Captain Pete gave him the thirty-second warning that they were about to lose comms, Mars reported back that SB-III was at seven miles above the surface at 3,000 knots and on her final orbit.

SB-IV would have two more orbits, travelling twenty times the speed and distance to SB-III’s slower, shorter distance in one orbit. They communicated each time both ships came into radio contact.

Mars took over control of the shuttle manually for the last orbit and Jenny Burgos manned the laser.

“Captain Pete to SB-III, we should be in radio contact. SB-III, do you copy?”

“Roger, copying you, Captain Pete, altitude 2 miles, forward speed 600 knots, seven minutes to target. We are descending at 1,000 feet per minute and reducing speed through 590 knots. Anything on radar up here?”

“Negative,” replied the captain. “Nothing above 5,000 feet. I have you at 6,200 feet and you are about to disappear from radar. I have your ship and the base on cameras, and still no movement on or around our base. The six robots are still standing in a line. We have eighteen minutes before we lose contact over.”

Mars headed the craft in, and slowly The Martian Club Retreat came into view as the crater expanded below them. To Mars it looked the same as when he had left more than two years earlier. The piles of old topsoil were flatter than he remembered, and the flat area in front of the crater wall looked like another storm might have come through. He aimed one of the cameras towards where Rover Opportunity had fallen off the cliff, and a partly submerged robot was still there, covered in red soil or dust. At 1,000 feet and a mile out, he could see his six robot guards still in line as Pete had stated.

“Have visual, going in,” Mars stated.

“Laser ready,” added Jenny.

The larger shuttle was now right above them and still there was nothing new on the radar screens. All knew that the radar couldn’t pick up much moving below 5,000 feet on Earth or Mars anyway.

“Five hundred feet, 800 yards out, still no movement. Everything looks like we left it,” added Mars Noble over the radio. “Four hundred… 300… 200… On hover, 50 feet… We are down on our old landing area. Sure have dust spraying out in every direction. This place needs a clean. It looks all quiet here, and I’ll just sit here for a couple of minutes getting rid of the red dust before I get my helmet on.”

“Roger, SB-III,” replied the captain 200 miles above the still shuttle. “You should have another six hours of daylight left. I can only see clear planet surface. It doesn’t look like a storm in my viewing area, so you do what you think is best.”

For twenty minutes nobody in the cockpit moved. All four crewmembers just looked out of the cockpit windows to the usual eerie and dusty Martian landscape. The temperature, Mars noticed, was a warm minus ten degrees Fahrenheit. The sun, although tiny, was shining above them through the dust cloud, and the view horizontally slowly began to clear.

After he felt sure that all was safe, he asked his two security guys to also don helmets. All three of the men had been here before and knew what to expect. Jenny was to be left manning the laser, the thrusters on idle in case she needed to exit quickly.

“Ok, guys, let’s go,” Mars ordered, and he entered the docking port first. Within ten minutes he was on the soft cleared surface as the second pair of space boots belonging to Johnny landed gently next to where he was standing.

Since leaving Earth, the whole mission hadn’t used the blue shields once they had entered orbit after leaving Earth. Mars had one of the black boxes in his hand and set it down where the closest shield had been placed in its position before they had left.

Johnny Walls had the second shield, and Dave Black carried the third shield. Mars set up his box to the power connectors still placed a few inches below the surface of the hard ground, and then headed over to the six robots.

Mars could give orders to the robots by giving them direct orders over the intercom and being within several hundred feet of them. Each order started with the robot’s number, with the word robot in front of the number.

“Robot One Chief. Any visitors since I left?” he asked, forgetting that they had been powered down.

“Electrical command equipment working at 100 percent on all six personnel. Lasers now rebooted, systems powered up and ready. We did lose power for an unknown amount of time. I cannot answer correctly, Captain Mars,” the robot politely replied in its very robotic-type voice.

“Do a complete perimeter check. Be prepared for possible ground or air attack, Robot One Chief,” added Mars. “There are three of us. Mars Noble, Johnny Walls and Dave Black. We will check out inside.”

“Hallo, Mars, Johnny and Dave. Did you have a pleasant journey to Earth? It is good to see you again. Beginning perimeter check now.” The chief robot walked off with its usual slight jerk to check the football-field-size plateau for anything that wasn’t meant to be there.

One of the two Cold Fusion plants was still active, and the protective door to the outer chamber’s airlock slid open. It moved as easily as it had done when he had closed it over two years earlier, and all three men stepped into the small room.

Mars readied his hand controller and pressed the button to slide the outer door closed. Immediately the tiny room was filled with atmosphere air, and within a minute the inner door opened into the silicon-glassed room outside the two openings into the still-sealed underground area.

All three men checked their suit readouts. Oxygen was high, carbon dioxide was normal, and so were the other gases, except for helium, which was slightly higher than normal, but still at safe levels. The temperature had cooled as the system had been left on low power. That was enough to give the outer room a zero temperature, ten degrees warmer than outside.

They were carrying radiation into the inner area, and normally the spacesuits were taken off, cleaned and rubbed down in this outer area, but Mars wanted to do a quick walk through the underground chambers. They carried damp cloths in a sealed suit bag on their waists, and carefully they wiped each other’s suit down to collect most of the radiation attached to the suits.

“Temperature inside the chamber, 30 degrees Fahrenheit, Captain Pete, Jenny. All gases are slightly low, so I’ll turn up the power first.” Mars could see that nothing had been moved. There was equipment that they had left in piles. If anybody had gone through the stuff, it would have been moved. He knew it would smell musty inside the inner area, and that with a few days on normal power, the systems would cleanse the air.

Once they were ready, they opened one of the doors leading into the underground chamber. Dave Black would stay to keep eyes on the outside while the other two checked out the inner area.

The lights were switched on as they passed through the areas, and the console in the command center was visited first to check out the systems and increase the whole power system to normal. “Feels so weird to be walking around in such weak gravity again,” Mars said to Johnny behind him.

“Better a little than nothing, like on the shuttles,” Johnny Walls replied.

“Well, it all looks like we haven’t had visitors, Jenny,” added Mars. Captain Pete was over the horizon and again out of radio reception.

“Hurry back, it’s lonely out here by myself,” Jenny answered.

“You have Dave in the sunroom who has eyes on you, and six good-looking robotic men out there with you,” Mars replied. “Better count them to make sure.”

“What do you think I’m doing out here, counting sheep? There isn’t much to look at except the crater and your six metal men jerking around,” Jenny remarked.

“Power is back up to normal. We certainly haven’t been visited, and I think our job here is done. Jenny, we’ll be out in ten minutes. I still have the lowest level to check.” Mars and his armed guard headed down the stairs to the third level, the lowest, and it was the same as the other two. Then they headed back up to the upper level, the ground floor, and checked the storage rooms.

There was the water they had left, still in its old 50-gallon, twenty-year-old plastic containers brought from Earth two decades ago. Also there were the several dozen large aluminum canisters of dried food supplies. In several more silver canisters were other sorts of greens now dried and stored from the outside shields where they had grown. He realized how close they had been to starving to death before they had left. The crew would not have lasted another storm.

Now it was time to restock the chicken area with the chickens that had grown up on the flight over, but first one of the three shields needed to be made active and the atmospheric air brought from Earth tanked into the shield. It was in the shuttle’s cargo hold and would take twenty-four hours.

Jenny headed back into the rear cargo bay to ready the two dozen tanks of pure island-caught air, as Mars had wanted to breathe air on Mars from the Australian island. Mars hoped that it would still have the smell of the sea in it when released. She readied the docking port, exited the cargo bay, sucked the atmosphere into the ship’s storage tanks and opened the roof doors.

The air tanks weren’t heavy and sort of floated down to the ground like an old air balloon did on Earth. One by one, the three men lifted the large silver air tanks. On Earth they would have weighed well over a hundred pounds, but on Mars they were easy to maneuver.

All three shields grew simultaneously as Captain Noble activated the second Cold Fusion plant. One of the farther shields surrounded SB-III as it grew. Since it had a vacuum inside the shield until the air was released, it didn’t really matter where SB-III had been parked.

What was important was that the closest shield overlapped the exterior wall and roof of the outer room, and once there was an atmosphere, the shuttle could be moved into the forward shield.

Also, the three shields overlapped each other by several feet, which meant that the crew without wearing suits could carefully pass from one shield to another once there was atmosphere in each shield.

That night they slept in the shuttle and watched a beautiful red sunset from the dust as the sun sank behind the cliff behind them. The cliff’s shadow moved across the large crater in front of them at its usual rapid rate.

The weak gravity pull could be felt in the shuttle. For once, food stayed on a flat plate, just, and liquids could be drunk out of open cups, if they were moved very slowly.

It was nice to be on Mars again, but Captain Noble, like his older generation, had learned to enjoy fishing and the blue sea, and suddenly that was where he would rather be right now. He had always thought that he would once again feel at home on the red planet. It was certainly beautiful, and the gravity soft and pleasant, but now that he had spent time back on Earth, he knew which planet he would rather call home.

This could be his last mission to Mars. The Matts and people who wanted to live here could have it.

Two weeks later, it was as if they had never left. The Martian Club Retreat was busy. All three shields had been given their atmospheres and each shield had a ship parked inside. The larger shuttle hadn’t been designed for the plateau, and on Mars the shield didn’t extend over its complete tail. Its stubby wings were just inside the walls, but it wasn’t supposed to call the surface home for very long.

Captain Pete had brought her down to empty her of all the supplies, which would take several days, and then he and a few others would return to orbit and act as an early defense system until they knew for certain that there was no intended attack by the old Matts.

It was getting to be time to go and see the coordinates Captain Pete had recorded before America One had exploded around him, but first the contents that had travelled through the solar system had to be carried carefully into wherever their new home was. The soil, plants, trees and animals and insects had to be taken out and introduced to their new environment.

The old topsoil was tested and then the fresh soil brought from Earth was mixed in with the old and nutrients added. Then new soil was placed in the inner chamber’s growing area. Moving several tons of freshly mixed topsoil was pretty hard work. Not as hard as the gold extraction down on Earth, thanks to the lesser gravity, but it took time to carry it and make beds ready for growing.

“Let’s get going,” stated Mars to the other astronauts two weeks after they had first arrived. The biologists were happy and the base was ready to grow food. The team of astronauts now had two jobs to do. First, water had to be gathered at the old watering hole in the planet. The crater was quite far away and 14,000 feet deep. The exact coordinates for landing had been recorded several times by Jonesy when he had taken the beginner astronauts on training flights to get water.

The extremely cold, unfrozen and pure water in the crater had special equipment to collect it. Silicon buckets on silicon poles were used to gather the extremely cold liquid so that the utensils wouldn’t chip or break with the temperatures.

The water was gathered, 2,000 gallons necessary for the new gardens and another 2,000 gallons to break down the hydrogen to make fuel and keep up the fuel reserves. Only once new fuel had been made could Mars head over to the area of the planet thought to have enemy.

The mission had enough fuel for the return flight in two years’ time, and enough for another 50 hours of thrust for all ships combined, but that wasn’t enough to search a large part of the planet. The first water trip would give the scientists enough raw materials to double that amount of thrust time.

The crew had discussed often how easy it was to fill up a shuttle on Earth with hydrogen fuel, but the making of the fuel and the necessary oxidizers on Mars was extremely slow and difficult.

SB-III had always collected the water, and this time the Burgos sisters, who had learned to fly the same ship with Jonesy going to fetch water, were in command. Mars Noble was taking Dr. Barbara Messer in the Matt craft. She was a tiny lady about 55 and fitted perfectly into the rear seat. She was such a small woman that she had to wear a teenager/young child size spacesuit.

Dr. Messer, the chief astro-physicist, was extremely excited to see the phenomenon that actual water was obtainable on Mars at far below frozen temperatures. The doctor, who would be returning to Earth, had begged Lunar Richmond to be on the flight just for this reason. This unbelievable breakdown in pure physics knowledge was due to the pressure of the actual water from being so deep, and why nobody who wasn’t a physicist in the crew could understand it.

As deceased Dr. Petra had explained to the astronauts when they were kids, the water being in its natural form had something to do with the heavy atmospheric pressure, the massive depth of the crater, and several other laws of physics that very few really wanted to study as kids. It tasted great though, once forced through the filtration system that the older generation had designed aboard America One years earlier. Even Mars believed that this water they collected underneath the couple of inches of red dust layer tasted better than any of the water he had tasted on Earth.

As it always looked, the red surface came up to greet him as he descended. The German doctor asked where it was. Even though it had been explained to her that it would be covered by red dust, she still couldn’t believe that they were hovering only several feet off an ice shelf they had always used.

“The planet is clear of storms as far as we can see from 120 miles altitude, Mars,” stated Captain Pete, who was heading back up to orbit in SB-IV as protection for the ground crew.

“Copy that, Captain Pete. We are going to be here for a week to fill both craft. I’ve learned to collect as much as you can while the skies are clear, over.”

“I’ll give you another update in 90 minutes’ time on our next pass over. You guys are certainly not on radar. The radar screens are completely empty around the whole planet, out.”

Wearing full suits and with helmets attached, Mars went down first and hovered over the exact coordinates Jane Burgos in SB-III gave him. He lowered the craft gently down, and once he had cleared the dust with his thrusters, landed. The shuttle, after the dust had cleared, came in, and once it cleared the remains of the red dust, the usual white ice of the landing pad could be seen.

Dr. Messer was helped out. She had done hundreds of hours of spacesuit training and, like Dr. Petra before her, nearly walked out too far and plunged into the dust-covered water. She was so excited.

For the next week working three hours on and three hours off, they filled canisters and repacked them into the two craft. All the canisters could be opened horizontally with hinges, or had an opening where water could be poured in.

All four of the crew could work in shifts since Captain Pete gave them a weather report every couple of hours.

When they were done and the two ships were full of water, the shuttle rose and left the crater. The weather hadn’t changed a bit.

With the water collected and fuel production underway, it was time to use some of the supplies from Earth to check out the enemy area. Without a shield, SB-III headed off one morning a couple of weeks after the water delivery.

This time Saturn wasn’t staying home. She was happy to fly Mars and Jenny Burgos to the area. They had ten hours of fuel to search the location Pete had recorded. Captain Pete thought he was pretty accurate on coordinates he had made during the last battle, but up to the mission not one radar bleep had come up on screen from that or any other area.

“SB-III to SB-IV, you should be over the horizon. Heading towards the coordinates. Passing by Lookout Mountain at 1,000 knots. I can see the plateau my father, Ryan and the others landed on. ETA your recorded coordinates in twelve minutes, over.”

“Roger. We came over the horizon 20 seconds ago and will be above you for nineteen minutes, Mars, over,” replied Captain Pete 200 miles above them.

Mars and the other crewmembers strained their necks looking for anything telltale once they reached the position where Michael Pitt had logged the massive blast that everybody thought was the end of the nasty Matts years earlier.

The massive crater, from the explosion Igor had reckoned was at least the strength of several large nuclear explosions on Earth, was very evident. This area had been flown over before by Jonesy, VIN, Michael Pitt and Allen Saunders spending a couple of hours looking for any movement after the blast.

They had recorded every detail they had seen: mountains, hills, open ground, and where the explosion had created the crater. Mars read through them as Saturn kept the shuttle over the crater with long slow turns.

After ten minutes and to coincide SB-IV’s next flyby, they set off for Captain Pete’s coordinates about 30 miles north. That area hadn’t been looked at yet.

“Captain Pete, we can see caves, or what look like blow holes in a wall of a hill,” stated Mars over the radio. “This hill is about three miles from the edge of the blast site, and it certainly doesn’t look natural. I may be mistaken, but there are what look like rivers of dirty red, yellow ooze below the three holes that look like they were exploded from inside out. We are still at least 25 miles from your coordinates. What do you think? Over.”

“I would check out my coordinates first. This new site is on your way back to base. Check it on the way home. You still have several hours of daylight, and there are no storms I can see, over.”

“Copy that. Will do,” replied Mars.

There was very little they could see over the captain’s coordinates. They rose up to 10,000 feet for protection and scanned the entire area a couple of times, seeing nothing but natural rock, hills and valleys. Saturn lowered the altitude by half and again nothing out of the ordinary was seen by the three astronauts.

Captain Pete gave them a three-minute warning that he was about to head over the eastern horizon, and Mars risked going down to 2,000 feet.

As SB-IV headed over the horizon, they left the coordinated area, having seen nothing, to return to the cave site.

“You want to look down there?” Saturn asked her husband.

“Hell, why not? I’m positive that those caves or holes were connected to the blast. We might find tunnels or some sort of connection to the blast area. It looks like the blast holes the waves crash through the rocks on our island in Australia. Saturn, remember Beth and Monica told us how the sea erupts through the holes from underneath and over time makes them bigger? Well, those three holes look exactly the same, except there is no sea down there.”

“And that ooze, that dirty-looking ooze looks really weird. I want to go with you, Mars,” added Jenny Burgos, helping Mars on with his helmet.

“Keep the thrusters on idle, land and face the laser towards the general area. If you see us running out of there, shoot at anything chasing us,” joked Mars over the intercom once his helmet was on and he helped Jenny on with hers.

“Funny, Mr. Noble,” remarked Saturn as she brought the shuttle in about 100 feet from the nearest hole. The hole was about thirty to forty feet higher than the level ground she was landing on, and the second and third holes were about the same level, but over 100 yards apart. Mars was right. To her keen eye, there could be a tunnel behind the holes. The hardened rivers of melted ooze looked hard, dead, and not dangerous.

The yellowy lava-looking stuff was only twenty feet or so from where she looked down at the edge of it, and suddenly it looked all too familiar.

“Do you know what that oozy stuff looks like?” Saturn asked the other two over the intercom.

“Looks like gold ooze!” replied Jenny Burgos laughing.

“If it is,” laughed Mars, “it must be hundreds of times more than we pulled out of the cavern in the Sahara.”

“Oh god, I hope it’s not. I’m sick of carrying around bloody yellow gold,” replied Saturn, not impressed.

“I just don’t understand why it oozed out of those three holes,” Mars added.

“Remember your father telling us about the silver lining in all the Matt caverns?” added Jenny. “You know, the breakdown of their silver walls? Osmium, radium, palladium and platinum? Maybe these nasty Matts lined their tunnels with pure gold. I reckon that the explosion weakened these three holes, the blast through their underground tunnels melted the gold lining, and it flowed out like water until the cold external atmosphere hardened it. I’ll bet you a month’s beer ration that I’m right.” Mars agreed that she was on the right track.

“Maybe I can have a gold-lined cave one day, husband,” smiled Saturn as she set the inner hatch to active, the thrusters on idle, and she watched her husband enter the inner docking hatch.

“It looks like it could be very possible,” replied Mars, entering the docking port. “And look at the bright side, darling. That crap is not so heavy here. It will be about 85 percent lighter.”

Mars nimbly climbed down the ladder draped down the side of the shuttle. He had done this a thousand times. So had Jenny, and once her feet landed he headed towards the yellow ooze. As he closed, he noticed that the ooze wasn’t only yellow. It had silver flakes in it. Large silver semi-melted pieces that actually looked like the wall lining inside the Matt bases.

“I think you are right, Jenny,” Mars stated, looking down at the tip of the yellow ooze. He bent down and with his space gloves got his fingers underneath a small end triangular end of whatever it was. The flow felt like it was only a thin layer on the surface of the hard ground. He stretched his legs and pulled upwards, straightening his back.

Jenny was surprised to see the ooze bend upwards for several inches before breaking off. Mars nearly fell into her, so she put her hands out to stop him from falling.

He smiled at her through his visor, holding up a piece of the yellow stuff about the size of his helmet.

“We can get this tested in the lab,” he told the two listening in.

He returned to the shuttle and placed the object by the ladder. He certainly wasn’t going to forget it, and it wasn’t very heavy. Actually, nothing on the planet was really heavy.

He beckoned Jenny to follow him and headed up the steep slope towards the closest hole. Saturn was surprised how big the hole was. As her husband got closer, he got smaller. By the time he had walked up to the entrance, the hole was three times as high as he was, all of twenty feet high.

He waved to her and could just see her looking up at him through the cockpit window.

“I have you centered on the laser, darling. I reckon I could commit the most perfect murder right now, nobody around to see the crime, so you had better behave, Mr. Noble,” she joked.

“A typical Jones,” Mars replied.

“Don’t forget I’m a witness, Saturn,” added Jenny. “You would have to get rid of both of us. This hole is sure big.”

“Just look inside and get back here, you two,” Saturn replied. They could both hear a little worry in her voice.

Mars stepped onto the yellow stuff. Both of them had walked up the side of the flow. It was about twenty feet wide and only about a foot high, and neither of them wanted to walk on it. The gaping hole was as wide as it was high, and they had no choice but to step onto the flow to look inside.

Both spacewalkers had a hand laser in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Mars shined his flashlight into the cave and couldn’t see much. He had to enter the cave to see more.

Gingerly, he entered, ordering Jenny to stay out. The yellow ooze continued into the cave for several feet, then stopped. Mars looked around. “I see a much smaller cave inside the blast hole. Less than six feet high. I’m going to have to go in further to see what is in the smaller area. If I see anything like a space shark or something, Saturn, I’m out of here.”

“Oh shut up, Noble,” complained Saturn. It was one of her father’s stupid jokes, and as kids they both had to put up with the “space shark” more times than they could remember. Actually, she missed her father very much, and she wouldn’t really mind a real space shark suggestion from him right now.

Mars headed in further. The yellow ooze felt slightly soft under his feet. It sort of cushioned his steps. He entered into the smaller area and realized that Jenny was right. A tunnel led off in both directions towards the other two holes, and he could see a sliver of light about 100 yards in both directions.

“I know it is an underground tunnel,” stated Mars excitedly. “It is only about five feet high, perfect for a Matt to walk down it. This tunnel is about the same height as the tunnel on DX2017, the tunnel to the spaceship my father couldn’t find. I think you are right, Jenny. We have found an entrance to a base.”

“You have 133 minutes of spacesuit time left,” stated Saturn from the shuttle.

“Thanks. Jenny, come to me and hold your flashlight down the tunnel to my right. That is the direction to the blast. I’m not walking three miles bent over, but I’m going to see what is down the tunnel. We need a few Matts with teenage spacesuits or Dr. Messer to walk down the tunnel. She’s so short she should be able to do it standing up.”

“Mars!” exclaimed Jenny Burgos and Saturn together.

“Jenny, once I get to the other hole, you head down the other way to the third hole. Then return to this one and wait for me.”

Jenny nodded that she understood, and he bent forward and began walking down the tunnel. It curved with the cliff. He had looked at the cliff before he had entered and saw that it stretched back the way they had flown in for about half a mile. Then the cliff and hill disappeared into a flat surface.

Mars reached the other hole, walked out and nearly got shot at by Saturn. She swore at him to tell her before he appeared, or she would become a widow. Her trigger finger was very itchy.

Once he was past the large blast hole to the outside, the tunnel began to slope downwards, and he realized that it would continue underground. The walls got dark around him as he went forward, and he realized that he couldn’t hear anybody else. He tried contacting them but didn’t get a response. “I’m going to need more people to set up an intercom connection,” he stated to himself and continued.

His back became sore, and he suddenly realized that he was staring down at tracks rising out of the dust and dirt on the floor. Not foot tracks but old rusty tracks such as he had seen on the base in Nevada—old railway tracks. They were about two feet apart. As the dust from the holes thinned, no longer covering the floor, two metal-looking tracks emerged. He flashed the light forward and the tunnel with the new tracks disappeared into the darkness 200 feet ahead of him.

He suddenly didn’t want to go any further and turned around to retrace his steps. He was happy when he could only see the prints of his space boots and the two straight metal tracks had disappeared back into the dusty floor surface.

“Mars, Mars!” He could hear Jenny calling him.

“I can hear you again, Jenny,” he replied. “I’m about fifty feet from the other hole. I’ll head out that hole and you head out from the center one. Saturn, don’t shoot. Sundance and Butch are coming out.”

“Funny, husband, I was getting worried there for a while. Jenny was calling your name for ten minutes.”

“I was just taking a walk,” replied Mars. “When a man has gotta go, he’s got to go. Actually, there are straight metal tracks in there. You know, like the ones we read about in our history books and saw at the edge of the Nevada base. It looks like a rail train track. Something used to go through that tunnel. Weird, very weird, but at least we have found their hideout.”

Saturn watched both astronauts exit the two holes at the same time. It wasn’t long before Jenny entered the inner hatch. As Mars had requested, a canister was passed through the hatch by the two girls, so he could place the gold-colored object into it. He passed it back through the hatch to the two girls, and then pulled up the soft ladder and entered the hatch.

“Sure is pretty out there,” he told Saturn as Jenny helped him remove his helmet.

“Sure, like a walk in a red desert park,” replied Saturn sarcastically. “What did you see down your rabbit hole, Alice in Wonderland?”

“Two railway tracks and much evidence of a blast, a real hot blast,” replied her husband smiling at his darling wife, who was still a Jones. “Ms. Noble, Ma’am, I saw no space sharks, Ma’am. I saw me some railway tracks and no train. Maybe the train’s not coming, Ma’am. I do declare it could be blown up,” he stated, mimicking an American accent from the south he had often heard in the older movies.

“Where did they go?” his wife asked with Jenny smiling and looking on.

“They went into the distance, beyond where my back began to hurt. Shorter people can go further, but I’m not ’til that thar train comes again.”

He placed the canister into the rear cargo hold and closed all hatches throughout the ship in case it was contaminated.

On the ride back to base with the two girls piloting the shuttle, Mars told Captain Pete, who was once again over them, that there was absolutely no signs of any enemy. There were signs that the destroyed enemy base did have a connection to the captain’s recorded coordinates or in that general area, but they needed a few new ideas on how to navigate possibly twenty miles or more of underground tunnels.

Captain Pete asked him why he thought the blast had destroyed that specific area of the tunnel. Mars came up with the idea that maybe there was a closed door or hatch further along the tunnel and the blast had nowhere to go once it reached there, an extreme pressure point. Captain Pete agreed and decided that he didn’t need to spend the next few weeks orbiting the planet if there weren’t any enemy.

SB-IV returned to the base the next day, and Captain Pete got the news with the rest an hour after he had landed. By then the crew had dissected the blob of yellow material that Mars had returned with, and the results were astounding, especially to the physicists on base.

The three crew had been correct about gold. As Dr. Messer read out the findings, the results struck Captain Pete like he had been hit by a brick. He suddenly had the answer to both the richness of the blue color of the shields and why the silver walls inside the Matt bases glowed with the full light spectrum at different temperatures.

Seventy percent of the yellow blob was pure gold, a very pure gold. Inside the blob were large and small broken flakes, lines of silver metals like wires and shards of several rare earth metals.

Included were erbium, osmium, neodymium, and iridium at exactly seven percent each. One percent was palladium. The final one percent of the blob was composed of equal parts of cobalt and platinum. Tungsten was nowhere to be found. and that had been Captain Pete’s mistake, using tungsten as the base metal to figure out how the blue shields worked.

“I have it. I have it! Dr. Messer, we need to get back to Earth immediately,” Captain Pete mumbled, deep in thought.

“You have vhat?” asked Dr. Messer, who was describing her team’s findings. To her, the captain wasn’t a scientist and had led them on a wild goose chase, getting nowhere trying to figure out how the blue shields worked.

“Dr. Messer. The shield boxes don’t need tungsten. There is no tungsten. It is the equal amounts of those four metals that is the answer. They used gold as a cheap material to line their bases. I assume they found it plentiful here on Mars. The new Matts, Ruler Roo’s crowd in space, found the correct four rare earth metals and used platinum because they didn’t have the same access to gold, or they used what they mined for their chests. The original Matts gave them the quantities, but over time the new Matts changed them. That’s why the latest Matt generations couldn’t make new shields. Somewhere along the way, they had forgotten the original recipe. Don’t you see, Dr. Messer? It is all sevens, the proper recipe. Even the gold has a seven and a zero in it.”

The short doctor of physics thought for a while. A light came on in her brain and she began discussing the revelations loudly to herself.

“Looks like you threw a rock at a hornet’s nest,” remarked Saturn to Captain Pete.

“Don’t you see, astronauts?” replied the captain, as happy as if he had just won the lottery. “Thanks to you, we have just discovered the recipe I’ve spent the last two years working on. Just like that!”

“Why do we need to return to Earth?” Mars asked, not understanding why they had to suddenly return.

“You’re right—the most important team working on the shields is right here. We can solve this problem and all we will need are more small Cold Fusion plants to power the shields we make. How many power units do we have here on base?”

“Six in total, Captain Mars,” replied Johnny Walls. “Two on the shuttles, the two we brought which are powering up the two outer shields, the Matt unit working in here and the Matt backup.”

Johnny was in charge of the Cold Fusion power systems and their usage, and had learned his new job on the flight over. It was quite astounding how much one could learn in six months with very little to do. “The two made-in-Australia plants for the shuttles give out 28 megawatts at ninety percent power, the same as the units powering the shields,” continued Johnny. “The forward shield protecting the Matt craft also needs a minimum of 28 megawatts, and that one is fed from this power plant we are using. One of the “build” guys looked over the two Matt energy plants here on base. They are much the same, but like Captain Pete has just said, put together with different metals. The crew who studied Cold Fusion with me on the journey, George, Jenny Burgos and I reckon that with the Matt power systems being larger than the Australian ones and using different metals, they get double, double the power out of their plants. We reckon that the Matt Cold Fusion power plants can produce seven times the amount of the Australian ones.”

There was silence as suddenly twenty years of study, work, and looking at alien systems suddenly became easy to understand, as easy to understand as a Rubik’s Cube. The secret to everything was “seven”.

For the rest of the meeting there was excitement in the air. It was as if the whole crew had found the meaning of life.

“Herr Noble, how much of this hard yellow gold is there?” asked Dr. Messer over a beer later that night. The first brew made on the planet was ready for sampling. Dr. Messer, even though she was tiny, being German, could easily drink all the men under the table. Bets were already made by several whether Jonesy could be drunk under the table by the pint-size doctor when he was awakened in nine years’ time.

There had been bets ever since Dr. Messer had become known by all the astronauts. She had been one of Dr. Petra’s crew, and Ryan had promoted her when the good doctor had died, ten years earlier. She had been promoted in the very room they were drinking in, the base’s canteen on the lowest level. It had taken her several years to rid herself of her shyness around the rest of the crew and show the astronauts that she was the real thing as far as German beer drinkers were concerned.

Mars Noble pondered over the good doctor’s question for as long as it took to drink his mug of beer. It was a difficult question. He worked on all the gold he had seen in The Pig’s Snout to give her and Captain Pete as good an answer as he could.

“How much gold was in the cavern?” he asked the others.

“Lunar said 220 tons, not counting what was taken out before we arrived,” replied Captain Pete. The beer was good, a real luxury, and he enjoyed it as much as the next person.

“Double that amount?” asked Dr. Messer.

“More than that,” replied Mars, hoping that he would get another mug fill. Dr. Messer and again Johnny Walls were in charge of beer rations, and Mars really wanted a third pint. It seemed Johnny Walls was everywhere, and the most enthusiastic crewmember on base. He was also a natural pilot and could drink beer as well as he flew.

Mars’ wish was granted as with the doctor’s nod Johnny refilled Mars’ glass from one of the several wine barrels they had brought from Earth to ferment and hold the fresh beer. Captain Pete and Saturn quickly held out their glasses, and so did several others listening to the discussion. Dr. Nancy looked at her husband, and then at Saturn sternly.

“Dr. Nancy, Mikey is over ten months old. He eats food. I’m not pregnant. Why the look?” Saturn demanded jokingly.

“We don’t need alcoholics in this base like a few others I know,” she stated sternly, and even Dr. Messer now felt a twinge of guilt. The crew on base weren’t going downhill if Dr. Nancy had anything to do with it. She always had a small glass of beer from every new barrel, for medicinal purposes only, she told everyone, and that was that.

“I reckon a hundred times as much seeped out of each of the three holes,” Mars stated, clearing the air. There certainly would be no more beer this day.

“I think Mars is accurate,” added Jenny Burgos, also on her third mug. “I walked on the stuff. It is about fifty to seventy feet long, twenty feet wide at the mouth of each cave and, even though we had a really small piece, it was still quite heavy for the planet’s low gravity. It alone was about four times the size of the ingots we were making in the Sahara.”

“Wow! That is a lot,” added Captain Pete. “Two hundred and twenty tons, times ten, then times three. Wow! We couldn’t take all that back to Earth. You know, we could figure out the distance of the tunnel from the amount of gold. What is the total…say, 6,600 to 7,000 tons?”

“We could work out the length of the tunnel if we knew how thick the insulation of the walls was,” added Dr. Messer.

“One inch thickness,” said Mars. “My father told me that most of the walls he had cut through on DX2017 and in the other Matt bases around the solar system were always exactly the same thickness.

“Now we are getting somewhere,” stated Dr. Messer. She was a whiz at math. Within a few minutes, given the circumference of the tunnel she worked out the answer to be 6,300 meters.

“Sounds about right from the edge of the blast area,” added Mars.

“What is blowing my mind is that my coordinates are still fourteen miles east of the ooze holes,” added Captain Pete. “If there was a door or wall blocking the blast, that means that there could be another nine times the amount of gold and rare earth metals still attached to the tunnel walls. I don’t think Lunar and Pluto Katherine need to go asteroid mining anymore.”

“Captain Pete, you had better go and tell them,” joked Mars, and the crew all smiled. If Captain Pete left now, it would be an 18-month journey back to Earth. “Dr. Messer, we can melt the gold into bars and take it home in ingots, yes?”

“Ja, we have the metals and materials to get enough heat to melt the gold. We have the correct materials to make an even more powerful kiln and melt the other metals into ingots. We have always needed this amount of heat for our silicon and hydrogen production. Metals ingots are easy. We always planned our equipment to melt tungsten which has one of the highest melting points at over 3,400 Celsius. Sorry, I don’t use Fahrenheit. That is an old system. For example, our nano-silicon glass melts at 2,798 Celsius. It took us a year to find its melting point. Osmium is 3,033 Celsius, iridium 2,446 and the rest of the platinum metals even lower. Gold, as you all know by now, is only 1064 degrees Celsius. We can separate the metals at their melting points. The last metal to melt would be the osmium.”

“So you melt them like we melted the gold and then you pour the melted metal away from the non-melted metal?” asked Mars.

“As clever as your father, Herr Noble,” returned the tiny doctor dryly.

“Do you want to take a train ride?” Mars asked the doctor.

“But there are no trains on dis planet,” replied the doctor, still not smiling.

Once she got the idea that her height had made her the volunteer to head down the tunnel, she seemed excited about the mission. Dr. Messer never seemed to be scared about anything.

“So we should make a train or an engine on rails, of sorts?” asked Captain Pete to Mars.

“The roof of the tunnel is exactly five feet high. The tunnel is four foot wide at the widest part, the floor, and the train rails about two feet wide,” Mars answered.

“We need to know the exact distance between the two tracks,” suggested Captain Pete.

“Not if we can tighten down the distance between the two sets of wheels at the site when we get there,” suggested Roo.

“Good idea,” stated Dr. Messer. “Two feet is a good start. What sort of engine can we use?”

“We have extra side thrusters. They are only about a quarter horsepower each. I’m sure one thruster front and back should give us movement,” stated one of the build crew.

“I can see poor Doctor Messer heading down the track at 100 knots,” joked Saturn, and everybody broke out laughing. It was certainly an interesting get-together. Dr. Messer didn’t yet have a sense of humor.

Roo was the only Matt in the meeting. Jonesy had ruined any Matt ideas about beer being bad in the poor man. Many of the adult Matts were not in on the discussion, as they didn’t drink rocket fuel, as they called any alcoholic beverage. They were not in the canteen and were busy doing other things. Also, to many of the older Matts they felt a bond to the older Martian Matt race and still couldn’t believe that their own kind had attacked them and the base.

For a few weeks, the excited crew worked on a vehicle that would take the good doctor down the tunnel. The rest of the scientists worked on the second shipment of yellow ooze that Mars and Saturn brought back.

The scientists ordered more for testing and smelting, and Mars and Saturn were happy to return to the tunnels, this time with Captain Pete and three of the younger, stronger males in the crew. The captain wanted to prove his theory of a wall on the other side of the holes forcing the blast through the weakest part of the tunnel.

They did find a wall less than 200 feet in on the eastern side from the blast holes. It was a solid yellow blanket of melted gold on the wall at the end of the tunnel that, as Mars suggested, could be hundreds of feet thick.

Captain Pete immediately wanted to burn into the wall, so two of the crew slowly made cuts with their hand lasers into the melted metal and pulled out chunks of gold.

Within two three-hour spacewalk shifts, they had several large foot-thick pieces that had fallen off the wall.

They had brought an engineless trolley, sort of a table on wheels to get the exact width of the tracks, and it came in handy trolleying the pieces to the entrance once the floor had been cleared of dust. The backs of the astronauts were far too sore from all the bending down to carry the blobs of metals.

Dr. Messer was also there, and as she explained to the others back at base, was fitted by the build crew to sit down and trundle through the tunnel.

Since this was the last flight before more fuel was needed, they worked as fast as they could between recharges of all seven suits. The minimum time to recharge a suit was the same amount of time taken on a spacewalk, three hours, so they rested. Since the tunnel was dark inside it didn’t matter if they worked during the dull daylight hours or the dark hours. They worked for three hours, then rested for three. It took them an hour to get everyone out and back to the shuttle.

After two days the work was too grueling. They had cut twenty feet into the yellow tunnel wall and still hadn’t found a metal wall. Mars and Captain Pete decided on shifts of three people instead. With three spacesuits going out at a time and taking over from the three returning crewmembers, one person had six hours off and slept a full eight hours.

They continued for two more days before, during one shift in the dark hours, the laser beam changed color and began burning into something thicker and more solid. By this time, they had burned a door-sized tunnel through 35 feet of yellow matter.

Everybody suited up except Saturn, who had completed a few shifts to give one person a rest but stayed in the shuttle keeping the thrusters on idle.

“We must not burn through the metal wall,” stated Captain Pete as a few of the crew who hadn’t seen the new silver color of the metal took a peek. “There could be an atmosphere on the other side, so we must think out what to do. Any ideas?”

“Ja, you must build a new wall this side, fill it with air and then see what is on the other side. We can build a new wall with a docking port back at base, no?” Dr. Messer replied.

Everybody saw her idea and agreed. Exact measurements were taken and Captain Pete stated that slightly melted gold could be used like putty and seal in any holes between the new wall and the sides of the tunnel.

Since the crew were sick of bending down and kneeling inside, Mars decided to collect as much of the metal as SB-III could carry from the veins outside the tunnel. Since the tracks would not be needed between the blast holes, a section of track a few feet long was dug up and broken off to take back to research the metal breakdown.

For two more days they worked, moving broken and cut-off lumps of gold into the rear cargo hold. By the time Mars and Captain Pete thought that it was more or less equal to four Earth-gravity tons, the hold was solidly packed with dozens of dirty-looking pieces of dull yellow rock. It had taken a week to fill one cargo hold, but when they viewed the remaining gold before takeoff, they had hardly changed the shape of the melted veins of rock outside.

“How is she?” Captain Pete asked Saturn from the jumpseat.

“She feels like she has a real gravitational pull, like back on Earth,” she replied, slowly adding thrust to her shuttle. “Sixty-five percent and we are getting light. Sixty-eight percent and we are starting to bump. Seventy percent and we are off. She seems a little tail heavy, but we aren’t flying far. Seventy-two percent and we are heading through 100 feet.”

“Even more than I’ve seen you use on Earth,” declared Mars.

“We haven’t had much Earth time on these new thrusters. Our fuel tanks are only half full, so we must be really carrying a load,” Saturn replied as she began moving the thrusters forward for forward flight. “She feels like a pregnant cow though, I must admit.”

“We must have gauged the Martian-gravity weight or something wrong,” Captain Pete suggested.

The crew was quite surprised two weeks later to learn that their estimations had been off by a massive fifty percent. The scientists had weighed every piece and done the math between gravity differences, and more like six Earth tons of the dull yellow metal had been returned.

Over the next few weeks, a storm arrived out of the blue. Since no flying was needed, it kept the crew working on melting the metals and building a two-carriage linked system like small flat train carriages for the westward journey on the rails to the blast site. This rail system would take the small doctor and two guards along the rails and was propelled in either direction by a small thruster fitted at the front and back.

Once the western length of the tunnel was checked out, they would place the carriages inside the area next to the eastern wall Once the carriages were in, they planned to seal the area off, then open the silver Matt wall, and the carriages would head in the eastern direction where the ancient Matts could still be alive.

Mars hoped that this wasn’t a long storm, as the excitement was growing as to what they would find on the other side.

For three months the storm raged outside, and then like all storms, one day it was gone. This one had been pretty violent. They could see how strong it had been by the amount of dust and red dirt that covered the flat plateau area around the shields. The dusty remains of the storm was over three feet thick around the shield walls. The Matt ship’s thrusters were first used by Mars to clear the dust of the whole plateau before they could leave.

During the storm, they had produced enough fuel to add another quarter to SB-III’s fuel tanks, and a second water collection flight would be needed. Fetching another load of water would take nearly half of the fuel produced so far. Nothing on Mars was a quick fix. Projects often took ten times longer to achieve results than on Earth.

The second water flight was completed and the crew decided that they could use some fuel for another flight to the tunnel entrances to return with more treasure for the scientists to melt into ingots. That weight, including the ingots already made, would be the maximum they could take back to Earth on the return journey.

The numbers of ingots of all seven of the metals found in the blobs of yellow were growing. Once the first load was turned into organized ingots on pallets, it didn’t look like that much, but even on Mars it was a heavy load.

“When we go, we need more than this amount of gold to take with us to Earth,” explained Captain Pete.

“That’s fine,” returned Mars. “We should take SB-IV to the tunnel entrances. We have already discussed that the safety of the new ship doesn’t really change where it flies. The shuttle is in the same amount of danger in orbit, sitting out there, or flying us around. Also, Captain Pete, this railway train we have built looks fun to ride on, and since I’m in charge of security I get the first ride on it.”

They had got this idea of the tunnel carriage system from a very old movie from the Second World War when prisoners of war had built a tunnel underground to escape from a concentration camp they were in.

Everybody was surprised one day when, on a beautiful Martian day outside, Dr. Nancy told them, while they were harvesting crops in the shields, she reckoned that a party was in order. The crew had been on Mars for a year, and it was only ten months before they were due to leave for Earth.

Since the next flight to the tunnel was leaving the next day, and nobody had thought about an anniversary, it was a good idea. They could put back the flight a few days. There was no rush, as this was Mars after all.

Over the last twelve months they hadn’t seen any enemy flying the Martian skies. Everybody had completed hundreds of hours of boring guard duty outside in the shields when there wasn’t a storm, but the daily grind of always looking out for enemy spaceships continued.

“The sand has really covered up the blast holes,” stated Mars to Captain Pete as Saturn once again took them down to the tunnel location a few days later. This time they were in SB-IV.

They emptied the large rear cargo hold of the new wall and the two carriages once they had carefully checked the surrounding area for footprints or signs of others visiting the site. With the newly blown dust and red dirt, it was easy to see if anybody had been there, except where the new dirt had already been blown away.

Nothing was amiss, except that there was a new buildup of dirt inside the tunnel which had to be moved by the two mining robots they had brought.

Mars had been angry with himself when days earlier, and back at base, one member of the crew had asked if the old Earth-made mining robots could help them gather the gold. He hadn’t even thought of them. Nobody had. They had been used by his father VIN and Jonesy on DX2014 and had lain forgotten in the base for years under other equipment. Mars had never seen the antiquated robots in action, and he was quite surprised at what they could do.

It would take a full 48 hours before the old mining robots cleared the remainder of the gold and the new dirt out of the area they wanted to make the new atmospheric cavern, so Mars got ready for his ride westward with Johnny Walls, who had volunteered to go with him.

The build crew carried the carriage contraption, followed by Captain Pete and Dr. Messer, who was suddenly not so enthusiastic about being alone with two men on the trolley in a dark tunnel. Once the wheels had been set to the width of the tracks, there were enough willing hands to help set the short two-carriage unit onto the tracks several feet in from the most westerly blast hole.

“Ten thousand meters, huh!” stated Mars, reading out Dr. Messer’s latest report.

“Do you think two hand lasers are enough?” Captain Pete asked Mars.

“What should we take in, some tanks, artillery and commandos?” joked Mars back at the captain. “I’m sure there are no atmospheric conditions left to the west. If that blast blew all this gold so far, after melting it, I’m sure there isn’t anything living down there. Johnny and I are not too keen to head into any atmospheric area. That would be asking for trouble.”

“What do you think you will find?” Dr. Messer asked Mars.

“Twisted metal maybe, a few remains of bones if anybody died. What does one find in such conditions? We only have three hours. It should take us thirty minutes to get there. That we know from the thruster tests back at base. It should be reasonably flat, and we are giving ourselves 30 minutes, 45 minutes max, once we reach something, anything stops our westward travel. Remember, the old Matts can’t enter any area without safe atmospheric conditions. There are no shields erected above ground. It looks like the massive blast hole goes deep in the ground and if there is somebody there, the telltale signs of a shield wall will warn Johnny and me.”

Three hours later, with fully recharged suits, a small bottle of backup oxygen each, a small recharge belt battery each that gave the suit one extra hour of life, and two hand lasers, the two youngsters started down the tunnel once the others had retreated back. They didn’t need the thruster to begin with as the incline and a minimum amount of gravity started their free-wheeling journey at a walking pace.

Only when Mars had passed the area he had navigated on the last search and when it flattened out did he light up the tiny rear thruster, which without atmosphere silently pushed them further into the tunnel at about 10 miles an hour.

“See anything?” Johnny asked, lying on his stomach on the second trolley behind Mars. Mars was in the same position facing forward.

“No,” replied Mars, “but there is less dust and dirt down here. The lights are giving me about a hundred to 150 feet. I see nothing except the blackened bare rock walls. They are smooth though. That blast must have torn the lining off the walls when it melted it. Hold on, we are coming to a slight bend, and it is heading down again. Better let the thruster idle for a few seconds.” Johnny was working the thruster control from what Mars wanted. “Ok, it’s straight again. Add more power. I can’t remember the exact topography above us, but I thought it was pretty flat between the blast holes and the massive crater.”

They headed down a very long, straight section, and under Mars’ orders Johnny slowly eased the throttle open. The ride was very good. The round metal wheels made by the build crew, which looked exactly like the train wheels on Earth but only 6 inches high, were riding calmly down the very smooth track at speed. The walls began to blur, and they reckoned they had reached top speed, about 25 miles an hour, when Mars shouted at Johnny to hit the reverse thruster.

“We have reached tangled metal, the remains of a wall,” stated Mars as they ground to a halt. Johnny looked up and forward. Tiny remains of a wall stuck out from the sides of the tunnel. “I reckon we are about halfway,” said Mars, looking at his external instruments. He saw that the tunnel’s temperature was only 5 degrees below zero Celsius, there were no atmospheric elements, and they had been traveling for twelve minutes. “Temperature is higher by twenty degrees since we left,” Mars added.

They ploughed on, the tracks clean, and several minutes later another jutting piece of metal less than an inch wide stuck out from the sides of the tunnel. This time, on the other side of what was left of the wall, the tracks began to go uphill slightly.

After several hundred feet, the angle became quite steep. Still without atmosphere the tiny thruster moved them forward at a walking pace.

At the remains of a third wall, they reached an intersection. Now two tunnels headed out in front of Mars. The right-hand tunnel had tracks, the other didn’t.

“I reckon we have reached something,” Mars said.

“We should have,” Johnny replied. “Time from start is 27 minutes, temperature has risen to one degree above zero Celsius, and there seems to be radioactivity around us. My suit’s Geiger counter is rising.”

“My suit is showing the same readouts, but I think the tunnel is getting lighter. I’m sure it’s lighter in here than before,” added Mars. He was right. Less than a hundred yards further they nearly fell into a massive hole. Johnny’s quick reaction to Mars’ orders to hit the brakes stopped them from going into the hole by just a few yards. The tunnel virtually disappeared, and only when both guys played their lights forward into the massive cavern did they see the remains of the Matt base.

The cavern was about the size of the cavern they had pulled the gold from in the Sahara. In fact, it looked exactly the same size, except that the blast had ripped out the floor levels, if there had been any.

Areas of faint sunlight was coming through a gaping hole in the roof of the cavern. The hole must have been at least fifty feet across. Mars thought for a while. Something wasn’t right.

“Temperature went up about thirty degrees further back in the tunnel, right?” Mars asked Johnny. Johnny agreed. “Then how come it is so warm in there with this hole in the roof? Shouldn’t it be the same temperature as outside throughout their tunnel system?” Johnny couldn’t answer that one.

There was nowhere to go. The drop below them was vertical and at least forty to fifty feet to a dark floor, so they pushed the trolley back to the junction.

There they readied it for the return journey. With his back remembering the last time he tried walking down the small tunnels, Mars led the way down the rear tunnel.

A few hundred feet down the second tunnel, another wall appeared in his light. His light was much brighter down this tunnel as the gold was back on the walls, as if the blast hadn’t blasted this part of the tunnel so badly, and the lining reflected the light very well.

Within 100 feet, a small hole on another wall appeared, one large enough for them to crawl through. It was where a door had once stood; the door had been half ripped off its hinges and its silver shape could be seen melted into the wall lining.

“It seems the blast wasn’t so strong down this tunnel,” Mars stated.

A hundred steps further on another half-ripped-open wall appeared in his light.

“Radiation still high, and temperature climbing a few degrees,” replied Johnny.

For a further couple of hundred feet the tunnel headed downwards, steeper than the angle of the tunnel with the tracks, and the temperature rose.

Then they came to a wall which completely blocked their way. Both astronauts couldn’t believe their eyes. Right in front of them this time was a see-through wall, like one of their silicon-glass walls back at base. Behind the wall was an underground stream or river of what looked like water, and it was running. Mars couldn’t believe his eyes. Here and there, lying each side of the foot-wide stream, were bodies, several of them, and they looked small, about five foot tall. Each body was a skeleton dressed in a blue spacesuit, and they were spread out around each side of the stream.

It looked surreal, like a picture of an underground cave that could be found on Earth.

“I can’t believe this—those bags of bones don’t have helmets on. I can’t see one space helmet in the entire room,” said Mars.

“There must be atmosphere in there,” suggested Johnny, hardly able to reply. “Look, there is a second wall and a door on the other side of the liquid stream.” Johnny was looking over Mars’ shoulder. “I’m sure it is. That one isn’t see-through like this one, it’s black, pitch black, not yellow like the blast on the walls. Mars, we are past our time, but one thing is weird. The temperature here, right by the wall, is 10 degrees Celsius, and the radiation is the lowest it has ever been on my readouts since I noticed it going up.”

“We need to get back,” Mars stated. Unhappily they hunched down to return to their ride.

“Water?” asked Captain Pete, helping Mars off with his helmet back in the shuttle.

“Real flowing water?” added Dr. Messer. “Impossible on the surface of Mars.”

“That’s what we thought until that water supply my father and Jonesy found had real water in it,” replied Mars, stretching after their forty-minute ride back to where the others were waiting.

They were back inside SB-IV and had just been relieved of their suits.

“And it was flowing or moving?” Dr. Messer continued.

“Ja, Frau Dr. Messer, it vas moving ever so slowly, far slower than a river would on Eart,” Mars replied jokingly and copying the way the doctor spoke. He got a halfhearted slap across the head for his attempt at comedy by the short doctor.

“Impossible,” she retorted.

“It seems nothing is impossible the longer we stay on this planet,” added Captain Pete, shaking his head.

“And I have a nasty feeling we could bring all this peace we have on this planet to an end if anybody notices our breach of the wall to the eastern side of their base,” stated Mars. “I don’t think we are ready for a fight with any enemy at this moment. Something is making the hairs on my neck crawl. Yes! I know what it is!”

“What?” asked Johnny.

“Johnny, I might be having weird thoughts, but wasn’t the gravity near the last wall stronger? Like being on Earth?” Johnny thought about what Mars had said, and slowly nodded in agreement, saying nothing. Standing there looking at the several dead bodies through the wall, it had felt like he was standing on Earth.

“Well, we have one more day before the atmosphere is ready for us to breach the wall. Maybe we should return to your river tomorrow, Mars, instead?” suggested Captain Pete.

“There is a hole in the cavern’s roof we should be able to see from above. Instead of the trolley, we should see if we can find another way in. I’m sure part of the base was built into one of the hills we saw around the blast site, and not in the blast crater itself.”

The next morning, the shuttle took off and headed downto the area where the tunnel was expected to be. Mars counted off the distance as he remembered it from the previous day.

“The fork should be down here,” stated Mars in the co-pilot’s seat, his face close to the cockpit’s front silicon glass. “Look!” he added, pointing past Saturn in the left seat. “On that ridge over there, about a hundred yards from the blast crater. There is a decent-sized hole. It looks like the one we are looking for.”

The ridge was a hundred or so feet above the blast crater that stretched out for more than a mile in front of them. There was enough space for Saturn to put the shuttle down. Then Captain Pete warned that the western horizon seemed darker than it usually was, and Mars immediately ordered Saturn to head back to base. It looked like a storm was brewing.

“Have we left anything out in the open?” Mars asked Dr. Messer, who was in one of the rear cockpit jump seats. Dr. Messer shrugged her shoulders and looked over at the head of the build crew in the third seat.

“No, Captain Noble. We only have the air tanks in the new sealed chamber with the trolley system ready to go. We make sure that nothing is outside in case the enemy flies past. The air tanks and train will be there for us when we come back. Also, the mining robots are inside the cave and we already have the gold pieces they cut up yesterday, about two tons, in the rear hold.”

“Saturn, head home, full power,” ordered the mission captain.

Reluctantly, with so much to investigate underground, the crew managed to return to the base an hour or so before the storm hit. It was a big one, so it was lucky for them Captain Pete had noticed the dust storm tens of thousands of feet above the surface.

The dust was swirling as Saturn glided the larger shuttle into the only vacant blue shield. With the storm picking up in intensity, she had to really fly well to slowly enter the shield. With the winds already clocking a hundred miles an hour, and visibility only several feet in front of her, she used all the instruments she had to expertly bring her craft into an accurate landing position.

Once the craft landed, and the pulling on the craft ceased, the base crew ran inside ready to tie the undercarriage and wings down to nails already in the rocky surface so that the storm couldn’t move her.

“Phew! That was close,” said Mars. “Captain Pete, you saved us from sitting up on orbit for the next few weeks or months.”

The size and darkness of the front wall of this storm reminded him of their last mission to the planet.

Day after day, week after week it raged, never letting up. It also gave them a warning that nobody forgot—that they only had an hour or two at the most to return to base if a storm was detected. They had food and air reserves aboard each vessel for up to a year in orbit if they were cut off from the base, but with this storm, even those supplies weren’t enough.

For sixteen long months not a second of clear air could be seen outside the shields.

They celebrated miserably on the last day they could have launched for the first opposition’s return to Earth. Exactly four months after the perfect center of the opposition window, the possibilities of reaching Earth in a year, the length of the food and air supplies aboard ship, closed until the next window would open nineteen months later. They were stuck on the red planet for two years longer than the returning crew had wanted.

Chapter 17

2030JD

“I have the asteroid visual on radar,” stated Pluto Katherine Richmond over the intercom at about the same time Captain Noble and his crew, nearly two billion miles away on Mars, realized that they weren’t going home yet.

Her remark woke up the sleeping crew on all four ships. She was flying SB-II ten miles off the starboard bow of Astermine One. Each of the three Astermine craft were a safe ten miles apart. They had been travelling for 41 days to reach the asteroid everybody down on Nevada had pinned their hopes on having all the riches they ever needed.

She was asteroid mission commander, and her sleepy husband Gary was beside her in the co-pilot seat.

“Your guard shift is over. I’ll take over command of the vessel,” Gary suggested.

They exchanged roles, as they had done for the last 40 days of straight travel from Earth past the moon to where they were to meet up with the asteroid in three days’ time. It was the last day of slowing before she turned her fleet in the same direction the asteroid was traveling so that they could come abreast of it.

Much had happened down on Earth since the Mars mission had left over two years earlier. Ryan Richmond was a grandfather two times over, not that he knew it yet, thanks to Lunar having her second son Mark Allen. Ryan would hopefully meet them in eight years’ time when DX2017 came within range to wake him and the others.

Mark Allan Richmond Price was his full name and he was with his brother James and his mother in command of the Nevada base where her crew were already flying up parts for the new mother ship in SB-I.

The U.S. under her new President was coming along. Strong ties of friendship had been made with nearly every country on Earth. Only China and Russia still didn’t want communication with the expanding West.

The only time that anybody had flown into China was eight months earlier when Lunar, aboard SB-I with a large chunk of the remains of Astermine’s wealth, flew to Beijing to pay for ten tons of rare earth metals that the build crew and several other companies desperately needed for America Two.

She had been rebuffed on this visit when she took about a quarter of what Astermine had in valuable diamonds and gold to Beijing.

On the second visit eight months later, once she could fly again after the birth, she had trebled the size of the offer and nearly cleaned out Astermine’s underground valuables. All for ten tons of the metals they desperately needed. With hundreds of rough asteroid diamonds and three tons of gold, she blatantly told the Chinese that it was all her father had.

What she stated was nearly true. Only six of the largest basketball-size rough diamonds and a ton of gold were all that was left of Astermine’s riches, and Lunar still needed working capital.

Finally the emotionless and very old-looking “President For Life” of China, who despised Ryan Richmond and everything he stood for, relented, and SB-V had to be called in on its maiden flight under the command of Penelope Pitt to take home the metals that would build half of the first mother ship and get them to the asteroid where they expected to mine the rest.

Hillary Pitt was now also about to get married. The second daughter of Michael and Penny Pitt, who were asleep with Ryan, had been quiet for a number of years, just doing what was wanted of her, flying around the globe. Penelope, her older sister, was already married. Penelope and her Aussie husband, John Malcolm, had been married at the base a year earlier. Many of the older NextGen astronauts were now married, and it was Hillary’s turn to get a new command—captain of the second large shuttle which was still a few months away from her maiden flight into space.

At 23, Hillary was a serious introvert just the opposite of Mars and Saturn, did what was wanted of her, and worked hard at being the best pilot she could be. She was also Lunar’s best friend. Lunar had kept this sought-after position for her longtime friend and confidante since the other more senior astronauts were on missions elsewhere. Her husband was a scientist and head of the Capitol’s large computer department. Joe Roles was a computer geek, had lived computers all his life, and was 30 years old, old enough to remember Hillary’s parents heading into space for the first time.

Her new commander landed SB-V on the old and dilapidated Beijing Airport runway. There wasn’t one flying aircraft, and the area that had been blasted by Astermine’s shuttles several times decades earlier was one of the country’s main cube missile production and launch sites.

The whole place looked like a scrap yard, and the astronaut realized how much firepower they had rained down on this part of the world before she was even born.

The Chinese President, an old man, had not forgotten how he had tried to destroy Astermine’s control of space and in turn had been defeated. Now his country was poor, but rich in rare earth metals as China has always had been. Over 70 percent of these valuable metals had been mined in his country, and now he needed bargaining power with the West to rebuild his country.

Penelope stayed with the shuttle while a forklift and a crane headed towards her open roof cargo bays to deposit the first of seven one-ton cargo pallets into her hold. Her co-pilot and two engineers were already in the cargo bays ready to receive the small metal pallets one by one.

SB-I’s hold, the shuttle Lunar had flown in, was already empty of its treasure that had persuaded the Chinese President to allow the deal and already had three tons of metal in its cargo hold.

The loading took an hour, and with no farewells by anybody the two shuttles launched and headed back to Nevada.

Now, as the asteroid mission began, the rare earth metals were down to less than a ton, as half of the purchased products from China had gone to outside companies. They were also in dire need of as much lithium as the mission could find, also cobalt, nickel and plutonium. Unfortunately lithium was rarer up in space than on Earth, and there was very little Astermine could get its hands on for its new range of batteries. Even Martin Brusk in Israel was struggling to find enough lithium.

Now Pluto Katherine had a heavy weight on her shoulders. She needed to find the necessary metals on this tiny asteroid in the middle of nowhere.

At less than a mile wide, it was small, about four times smaller than the asteroid DX2014 Maggie, Jonesy and VIN had mined decades earlier.

Jack Dempsey had put all his bets that this was the only asteroid within 100 million miles that could give Astermine what it needed. It was this asteroid or nothing.

“I have the roll and pitch of the asteroid set up with the computers. Going down,” stated Pluto Katherine 24 hours after seeing the rock on radar for the first time. She was only two miles from the grey rectangular rock on her port side.

The other craft, now all in formation within 5 miles of the rock, could see the shuttle slowly head towards the designated landing zone and home for the next 20 days.

“I have the clear, smooth LZ centered,” stated Gary her co-pilot. After two years of training on simulators and then the actual shuttles, he and Mark, Lunar’s husband, were as good at flying in space as the girls.

Pluto Katherine took the shuttle in, and as Jonesy had taught her years earlier on Mars, corrected the craft’s movements with the asteroid’s rolls.

“Eight hundred yards off the surface. Landing zone locked and ready. Take her in,” stated Gary.

Pluto Katherine, now with the help of the onboard computers flying the side thrusters, descended and made a soft landing on the asteroid’s metallic surface.

“No surprises or out-of-the-ordinary magnetic pulls. A low gravity pull, I believe,” stated the astronaut over the intercom. “We were not pulled in like Jonesy described on DX2014,” she added as she shut down the thrusters carefully. “We are down and secure on the surface, not sliding or anything. It seems there is enough of a gravity pull to keep us from slipping across the surface. Thrusters on idle and we are sticking to terra firma, just, over. There is a slight magnetic pull as well, I believe, but was not noticeable with thruster power.”

It wasn’t as flat as it looked from a few miles out. Now it was SB-I’s turn to direct in the three mining craft.

“We have room for one on our starboard bow Astermine One. You are number one for landing,” Gary stated. “We have room for Asterspace Three directly in front of us, but be careful and bring in your front to face SB-II’s starboard side. It will help you with the roll. Asterspace Three, you are number two. Pluto Katherine, your side, over.”

“Astermine Two, it is going to be tight, the surroundings are dark, but you can see depth, and we should have at least ten feet between wing tips. When you come in, face your ship in the same direction my craft is facing. All craft, there is no dust cloud on landing, so don’t worry about dirt in your thrusters, over.”

“Copy that,” stated Shelley Saunders piloting Astermine Two. “Confirming number three for landing.”

Within an hour, all four mission craft were down. Gary and three of the mining crew of scientists and technicians spacesuited up and within three hours had all four craft nailed down with short cords over the undercarriages and metal pegs hammered into the hard, silvery and dull grey surface.

It was dark without the sun, but there seemed to be a glow from many large stars in the heavens with the reflective glow from areas of the silvery-colored rocky areas. This made slight shadows on the areas of the darker-colored rock surface, and it was relatively easy to see any movement around them. To Pluto Katherine, the darkness was as light as a moon-filled night on Earth, but darker than daylight on Mars.

Since Pluto Katherine had walked around on Mars and DX2017, her first step on 2030JD wasn’t of importance to her. It was to her husband, though, on his first spacewalk a day later.

He proudly stepped out, saying “One giant leap for Australia, and a bloody big leap for me, mates,” while carrying a limp Australian flag. He jumped with excitement, the wrong type of excitement, and was grabbed by the two more experienced crewmembers who had walked on asteroids before.

Gary learned very quickly not to get too excited when in space, as there was just enough gravity to stand on the surface.

Once Gary was steady on the surface, he knelt down and proceeded to hammer a hole into the surface to stand his country’s flag up. His wife videoed the formal proceedings from SB-II’s cockpit window, laughing at her husband’s antics in the middle of the recording that was for Australia’s Prime Minister.

On Day Two, the crew readied the MMA. It was pulled out of Astermine One’s rear cargo bay and its table legs outstretched to stand it up.

Once that was done, half of the crew of twelve headed out to begin a search pattern. First they collected the dozen loose light-silvery-colored rocks within feet of the craft and returned them to the MMA.

It told them that the rock was nearly pure iron and of very little use to them. Iron was last on the list of necessary metals they needed to find.

“We must head around our craft in ever growing circles, as Jonesy taught us, and pick up anything bright or of a different color from the dull ones we have already tried,” stated Pluto Katherine.

The asteroid wasn’t flat, as two sides descended steeply downwards away from them, and the other two sides—the front and right-hand sides—actually grew into a hill that rose quite steeply about 30 to 40 feet above the craft. They had landed on a parallel pattern on the rock and the rear area of the asteroid could be seen half a mile behind them.

There weren’t many loose stones and rocks in the near vicinity, so on the second day of exploration, Pluto Katherine led her team up the rise.

It didn’t take them long to stand on the higher part of that side of the asteroid. From this vantage point they looked down at the four spacecraft parked pretty closely together thirty feet below them.

The rise didn’t stop here. There was another flat area about 40 feet wide and then the surface rose another 50 to 60 feet to the next rise. They still had this one more rise to climb, but here on the flat area, and in any holes or crevices, were loose rocks.

“Crew, see if you can find a different type or shape of rock, and put them in a pile so we can take them back down with us,” stated Pluto Katherine to the others. It was slow in spacesuits, and they searched for several minutes and several rocks were picked up. Then they began to climb the rise towards the next top.

Up here, they were on a very uneven area. The surface was full of loose rocks in hundreds of pockmarked holes, as if somebody had aimed at this area with a line of small artillery. They were now on the highest point of their area of the asteroid and both sides and the front area dropped steeply away from them.

The lower rise stopped them from seeing the spacecraft, and this time there was different colored stones, still mostly silver variations, and in several of the holes in the surface.

One of the crew looked over the sides heading out in the other three directions.

“Guys, come and check this out,” he stated. “There is some sort of opening below where I’m kneeling.”

The other five suits headed over and found there was a small cave-type-looking opening about two feet below where they were standing.

“It looks about three feet high and about two feet wide,” suggested Gary Darwin. “A bit dangerous for any of us to work our way in. Too dangerous. We could damage our suits. I think I could get down there, close to the entrance. The right-hand side has an edge going past it. Only a few feet wide, but if I look towards the cliff face and walk past the hole, the surface flattens out and I could then look into the hole.”

Pluto nodded, and Gary, with a cord attached to his belt, and hanging onto the hands of two other crewmembers, headed down the foot-wide slope facing the others. He reached the bottom, which was about ten feet below the top, looked up and gave a thumbs-up sign.

Then he stuck his head into the hole and described what was in there.

“Watch out for any space sharks,” slipped out of Pluto Katherine’s mouth. She had loved Jonesy’s space shark stories as a child and couldn’t but add to the moment.

“You and your sharks, love,” replied Gary. “Sorry, there aren’t any down here, but there are silver rocks. I’d say about a few hundred. The cave is larger inside than at the entrance. It looks just like a cave on Earth. It’s about six feet high, and the same horizontally. I can’t see much, but my torch, sorry, flashlight, is showing me a few different shiny rocks. We are going to have to open the hole wider to get in.”

For several minutes, he chipped away at the sides of the entrance with his small rock pick, and shards flew off around him and in every direction.

Spacewalk time was running out, so it was necessary to head back to the safety of the craft after helping Gary back up the walkway. He had one of the cave stones in his hand. As they headed down, each crewmember had a rock from the upper layer in their left hand. Once they reached the mid-level, each crewmember picked up a rock from the mid pile with their right.

A few minutes later the results from the MMA were better from the mid-level stones, but not what they wanted. The rocks from the mid-level had good traces of cobalt, nickel and neodymium, one of the needed rare earth metals. All three of these metals were on the importance list, as most of the thruster parts, connections, and hundreds of small magnets could be made in orbit for the build from these.

What was really important to Astermine was that if they found these metals in space they wouldn’t need to be launched up from Earth.

Pluto Katherine was excited. They wouldn’t be going home empty-handed. The highest level stones showed even higher trace results, and Gary kept his stone until last. He was hoping he had risked his safety for something worthwhile. “C’mon, Gary, we can’t wait out here until we all die. Put your fancy rock into the tray. Let us all see what the space shark fairy gave you!” stated his wife excitedly.

He opened the tray, let his rock slowly drop, closed the tray and pushed the box into the MMA.

As usual the computer took several seconds to analyze the rock, and finally the results showed up on the MMA’s monitor and in all the ship’s cockpits; sperrylite, 81 percent; native platinum, 11 percent; rhodium, 2 percent; iridium, osmium, palladium, ruthenium, 1 percent. There was a howl of excitement from many. They had hit the jackpot.

Sperrylite in itself was platinum arsenide and had most of the metals, but not in a pure form. It was number three on their list and needed to be analyzed.

The others shown on the monitor were the rest of the list, but a few of the knowledgeable immediately noticed that the amounts of the rare earth metals were rather small in size.

Over a celebration glass of wine, each celebrating their success in all the different craft at the same time, the astronauts felt that they had so far succeeded in their mission.

There was far less excitement the next day when, after several hours spent opening the hole, only three canisters of the valuable metal was pulled out of the cave. That was it.

“Maybe there are other caves or deposits,” suggested Pluto Katherine that night in SB-II. The crew weren’t unhappy, just disappointed that the three full canisters would weigh about half a ton back on Earth. A twentieth of what Lunar had purchased from China.

While the cobalt and nickel were still very valuable, half of the crew searched the rest of the asteroid for any signs of more treasure. Rocks and stones were brought from every corner of the asteroid but turned out to be iron ore or cobalt and nickel.

Gary even began digging into the cave floor and walls and hammered in a couple of feet, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

On the last day before they needed to leave, a small rock was found by one of the crew pretty close to Gary’s cave. It had been a foot deep in a crack in the surface, and she had levered it out with her hammer.

Excitement rose again within the crew as the stone, the size of a marble, showed the exact breakdown of rock the cave had given them. Pluto Katherine immediately gave orders for all the craft to prepare for launch. They had eight hours before they needed to leave, and forty-five canisters of the cobalt/nickel rock were already in the cargo holds as well as the three canisters with the valuable platinum metals.

The craft headed up and away from the asteroid. Pluto Katherine had the exact coordinates of where the last stone had been found, and she blasted the area in long powerful laser bursts for two hours, using as much laser as she dared in such a short period.

Twice the laser overheated, and twice her power in the shuttle dropped to dangerously low levels.

Then the crew in SB-II waited for three more hours before heading back down to the landing zone, as the asteroid showed no signs of breaking up.

The parking area was untouched, but higher up on the mid-level there were new loose rocks everywhere, dislodged by the laser-slicing of the rocky surface above. The upper level was a mess of melted holes and furrows feet deep. Some areas still glowed with heat or energy from the dozens of blasts.

“It looks safe. We still have thirty canisters to load. Let’s just fill them up with whatever is loose,” ordered Pluto Katherine as the other three ships returned to the surface.

For 48 hours they worked hard in three-hour shifts, half of the crew collecting rocks while the other half tried to catch an hour or two of sleep.

They needed to leave at the end of the designated departure window, as the asteroid was now travelling in the opposite direction to Earth. Every hour they delayed meant ten extra hours of travel. Already the crew would be 45 hours behind the deadline.

The rocks were placed into the canisters. This time the work was faster, as there were far more rocks to be picked up.

Gary and a few others worked up in the area that had been blasted. He was seven feet into a trench, picking up rocks and throwing them to the crew standing above him. The problem was that all the rocks were the same color and they didn’t have time to check each one through the MMA. It was already packed up for travel.

“One more canister from each team, then we are out of here,” said Pluto Katherine tiredly, lifting a rock thrown up by her husband and placing it into the open canister. Most of the rocks were sized between her fist and her head, and they left lots of free space inside all the canisters.

Wearily the crew headed back into the ships once the last canister had been packed away. In the time since the blast, they had packed 23 more canisters.

Discussing what they had of the new rock after they had left the asteroid miles behind them, the crew worked out very approximately that they had five tons of unchecked ore. It could be sperrylite, cobalt and nickel, or plain unwanted iron ore, and that was the main discussion with bets on what it was on the far longer 92-day journey back to Earth.

Chapter 18

We Were Getting Worried

“Sierra Bravo II to Nevada Ground Control, do you copy?” tried Pluto Katherine over the radio 89 days later, and still 400,000 miles from Earth.

Their reserves of luxury supplies were getting low. The coffee was gone, so were any goodies other than plain food packs, of which they still had several months’ supply left. The water was being recycled, so that wasn’t a problem, and still after two days of trying to get somebody over the radio there had been no luck.

“Gary keep trying,” she added, stretching and leaving her pilot seat to head to their quarters.

It would be very early morning in Nevada. Gary could see Earth now reasonably large in their forward windows. They were directly behind the planet, where the Earth had travelled, and it was moving through space at 67,000 miles an hour in front of them. The four mining craft were flying with their forward speed at 72,500 miles an hour, catching up to the blue planet by 132,000 miles per day.

Unfortunately, their fuel supplies weren’t as plentiful as the water supplies, and they were down to having enough to catch up to Earth, slow down to a slower orbital speed of less than 25,000 miles an hour, and head to the new Orbital Space Station.

Only SB-II would be going in with the crew and metals needed on Earth. There weren’t enough blue shields to get the mining craft back. They would never return to Earth again.

What was really exciting for the returning crew was that in their six-month absence there was a working production plant in orbit around Earth for the beginning of the mother ship build. Ninety percent of their returning cargo, the nickel, platinum and cobalt didn’t need to return to Nevada.

The work down in Nevada had progressed with the rare earth supplies purchased from China. There was enough of the metals for all the departments to build the new spacecraft parts and instruments for a few more months.

At 250 miles above Earth was where America Two and hopefully America Three would be given birth. The mother ships had not been designed to ever head into atmospheric conditions on Earth or Mars.

Life progressed until Lunar began to worry. They still had little to no range of communications with their ships in the solar system, but everybody was waiting for the launch of the three new communications satellites one of her Nevada departments was manufacturing. Until then, communications further out than 400,000 miles was just not possible.

Once the satellites went into orbit and were positioned in a pattern around Earth, then Astermine would have the ability to reach its ships anywhere in the solar system.

This was something that couldn’t be rushed, and Lunar had no choice but to wait until the Mars mission returned within radio range. Also, it would be necessary to have extremely powerful Earth/Mars communications once her father’s dream of having supply ships going in both directions was a reality.

When the two planets were close, radio communications across the shorter distance would be as quick as 8 minutes one way and another 8 minutes for it to return once a reply was sent. At their furthest distances, it could be closer to an hour for a message to return.

The day arrived for the return of the mining mission, and nothing was heard. They were late, a day late, and Lunar began to worry even more as all the stress of commanding her crew began to tire the young girl.

Another week went by and hourly radio transmissions went out into space for any of the crew to hear. Still nothing.

“What could delay them so long?” Lunar asked her chief scientists a few days later, and when the window of the returning mining mission was about to close.

“Many reasons,” returned a few of the scientists. Jack Dempsey also stated that they might have found something good enough to delay them, as there were no more asteroids that could be of interest to mine for another 35 months.

“Jack, you said that this asteroid 2030JD was the best chance of mining what we need out there,” stated Lunar.

“Yes, and there are millions of asteroids we could visit tomorrow,” Jack continued. “Unfortunately, Commander, we already know that most of them won’t give us what we need in resources. Even 2030JD could be a whitewash. I mean, have nothing we need. There are more chances that it could have nothing more than iron ore, but that is the risk of asteroid mining rocks that far distance away. These asteroids are whizzing by at astronomical speeds and won’t be back for decades or centuries. Remember, several companies in the era of 2010 to 2018 had exciting ideas about trapping small asteroids, slowing them into an orbit around Earth, and mining them only a few hundred miles out. That idea never got off the ground, due to never being 100 percent certain what an asteroid was made of. In those days, billions of dollars were needed just to get a mining craft and all the equipment into space. Today, thanks to these blue shields you found, it costs Astermine less than a twentieth of the cost decades ago to get ships into orbit.”

“What about DX2014, and its riches you found for my father?” Lunar asked the astronomer.

“Like winning the lottery, sorry Commander, you are too young to know what a lottery is,” Jack replied.

“I know what a lottery is,” replied Lunar. “We studied a lot about Earth and its history aboard America One. It is when one person wins a lot of money at the cost of millions of other people losing theirs. A stupid idea if you ask me.”

“I agree,” replied Jack. “We were so lucky on our first mining opportunity that I doubt we will ever find such a rich asteroid until we are permanently in space and step from one to the other searching for the wealth we want to find.”

Five more days went by and Lunar was getting very nervous. She tried to hide her worry, but her pale face and lack of communication with the entire crew showed it.

Mark ran up with the exciting news that Pluto Katherine’s voice had been heard very faintly two days later.

“We’ve heard from them,” he shouted, rushing up to their condo where his wife was trying to rest. Lunar immediately jumped up, dressed and ran with Mark back to Ground Control.

“Sierra Bravo II to Nevada Ground Control, do you copy? What is wrong with you guys down there? We are within the 400,000-mile comms radius. Sierra Bravo II to Nevada Ground Control, do you copy, over.”

The transmission was very faint and arrived with much static, but Pluto Katherine’s voice could be heard.

“Nevada Ground Control to Sierra Bravo II, we are just receiving your transmissions. Are you hearing us, over,” replied the radio operator. It sounded like the crew out in space were not, as two hours later Gary’s voice came over the airwaves, and this time he did respond to Ground Control’s call.

“Thank God, yes, Ground Control, I believe I heard you. We are currently 381,000 miles directly behind Earth. We left 2030JD 90 days, seven hours and twelve minutes ago. We were still collecting rock and left 45 hours late. That is the reason we…” and the transmission died for another hour as the reception was cut off.

“We must be over the horizon for direct communications, Commander,” stated the radio operator.

“Give us twenty minutes and we can work out their position,” added the head of Ground Control. Lunar waited, relieved that the crew were alive. She had had several nightmares about what could have happened to her baby sister. There were a million reasons why they might not come back. Space travel was never a certainty.

“Our data reckons that leaving the asteroid so late, they must be moving at extreme forward speed to catch us up, hence much of the delay,” stated the man once the numbers had been crunched. “Also Commander, SB-V docked at Orbital Build StationI two hours ago. They are safe inside and unloading the cargo.”

Lunar had forgotten that Hillary Pitt was heading up with her second load of 6 tons of cargo for the new orbital station above them. SB-I, flown by Pluto Jane Saunders, had already unloaded its cargo of two tons of gear and was expected to reenter in a few hours’ time.

“You can relax, Lunar,” added her husband comforting her. “Every mission is going to plan. The mining crew should be reaching the orbital station in a couple of days, and now we only have to wait for the Mars return.”

“We were getting worried,” stated Lunar to her sister over a clearer reception the next day.

“Sorry sis, but we had to blast the damn asteroid with the laser to get at her metals, and we still don’t know what half of our cargo is made up of. We do know that we have at least 1,000 pounds of very rich cargo, and a few tons of the two necessary metals we will leave up at the orbital station. I spoke to Hillary a few hours ago. She was docked up there and told us everything is going well. We had no choice but to increase the risk for reward. Sis, do you want us to base up at the orbital station and go through what we have?”

The scientists in Ground Control all nodded their heads, and Lunar told her,

“Affirmative. We don’t want any metals down here if we have to launch them back up again. The orbital station still doesn’t have any permanent inhabitants. I don’t want to say too much over the radio, but there are supplies up there for you. You know what to do, and we can discuss what you need to do up there once we are on our ship’s private intercom, not this radio, out.”

Two days later, the orbital station was inhabited by the returning mining mission, and the crew got busy. The MMA had been spacewalked over to the new station’s load door, and the smaller of the two doors was opened to get it inside and latched down, as it didn’t fit through a docking port.

Orbital Build StationI was a pretty simple affair. The three cylinders that had returned to Earth from Mars 28 months earlier had been docked to by the three shuttles. The cylinders were now welded together in a triangle, had docking hatches and were welded to the roof of the actual build station.

The build station was no more than one of the identical cubes that America One’s inner structure had been made with. The cube was the exact same length as the cylinders—forty feet.

The cube was also forty feet cubed, which allowed large parts of the future spaceships to be made inside. It had two special opening doors that opened one entire side of the cube, and much like a dry dock, allowed a finished part to be floated out.

When this happened, the entire breathable atmosphere inside the cube had to be sucked into large tanks, which took 48 hours. About ten percent of valuable atmosphere would be lost and would have to be replaced, but it wasn’t necessary to close the whole work bay to eject a smaller production part.

Two smaller production chambers had been built and welded to each of the larger side opening doors. These separate rooms were only ten feet cubed. The two larger twenty-by twenty-foot doors opened outwards and these smaller rooms, once unhooked from their life support systems, moved out with them. They could be still sealed, or allow smaller parts out at different times, or at the same time.

A tenth of the circular part of the wheeled spaceship, the largest builds that could be made inside the closed and atmosphere-filled cube, would be floated out when the large doors were opened. The other five large units to be built in the station were the center forward hub, the two rear engine bays and the bridge.

The smaller interior parts of the spacecraft were to be made in the two smaller rooms attached to each door, and these had external doors that could be opened separately to save the amount of atmosphere lost. The small rooms had their own smaller doors to outer space.

In one of these small production rooms was where the MMA was floated in, as there was still no atmosphere in the large aircraft hangar-sized cube.

Pluto Katherine had floated the MMA in with the help of her husband and two others through the opened door of the smaller room. Once it was inside, and with all of the canisters that hadn’t been checked on the asteroid, they allowed the air tanks stored there to begin releasing their atmospheric contents.

At the same time, the crew had locked two craft onto the two docking ports built onto the roof of the upper cylinder, connecting the ships to them and through the airlocks to the entire structure.

The whole station was connected by its four docking ports. The other two ports were underneath the cube, and the crew had to float through the atmosphere-less cube to the cube’s roof docking port to get to the accommodation area which was ready for occupancy with air and heat.

The whole setup was designed with what Astermine already had in space. The forty-foot pieces of outer wall had been either in storage below ground in Nevada or recently made in Israel. It had only taken six months of design, building, and five flights of both shuttles to get nearly everything they needed up there to open up shop.

Now all the mining crew needed to do was to rest, and wait until there was an atmosphere in the smaller room to go through the rocks and it was warm enough not to need full suits. They could work faster without them. Also it depended on how much radiation the rocks still had inside them. Geiger counters would show when the new atmosphere inside the chamber was safe.

Within a week of arrival, the bad news came down from the few of the mining crew still in orbit. SB-II had already headed down with the crew that wasn’t needed, including the three most valuable canisters of goods. The news wasn’t good.

Only five more canisters were filled with the rocks that had the platinum metals in them. Ten more had valuable cobalt and nickel, and the rest fifteen canisters were full of not-so-important iron ore.

“The mission isn’t a failure,” Lunar told her mining crew two weeks later when they had all rested for a few days getting strong again after their six-month mission. “We still have a fortune in metal from the asteroid, but unfortunately not enough to complete America Two. Jack, we have to find another asteroid, or all work stops in about two years’ time.”

“Well, as I said, you can head out to thousands of rocks and try your mining luck, like the lottery we talked about, or we can wait until JD2039 is in range,” Jack replied simply.

“JD2039?” Lunar questioned.

“Well, I only found it this year, and we don’t have records that show it ever having a name before,” the old man replied sheepishly.

“And what are our chances with this next rock, Jack?” Pluto Katherine asked. “The last one wasn’t much fun.”

“I’m not sure. Your findings on 2030JD weren’t what I expected,” Jack replied sadly.

“I think it was the way we tried to mine it,” added Gary. “We should have given the rock some C4 and then hauled the nice-looking pieces home with a rope, sorry, cord.”

“A logical idea,” Jack acknowledged. “Maybe the valuable rock we want is deep inside the asteroid. With DX2014, it was only when the asteroid broke up did the diamond vein open and the glitter escape. It was quite funny to hear how VIN Noble flew around tethered to one of the ships to gather the smaller diamonds.”

“Dr. Schmidt, when do we run out of our metal supplies?” Lunar asked her Head of Production.

“About 19 months. We will have the exterior skin of the wheel completed and the two spokes sealed inwards towards the hub. The bridge will be attached in front of the hub, and complete, but will be totally empty of equipment. The rear area of the hub will have its thrusters installed, and this area will be complete. We will run out of iridium, palladium and platinum first. Then osmium and the other metals a month or so later. Unfortunately, our copper supplies will run out first, and very little is available in the country. I have tried to source pure copper but with no success. We need 10 tons of copper for wiring our systems, and for the ship’s intercom communications. This is our major problem.”

“What could we use instead of copper?” Lunar asked.

“Fiber optic cable, of which there is none in the whole country, and believe you me I have looked, or pure gold would be good,” the scientist replied, and Lunar rolled her eyes. That valuable commodity had just come to an end. There was no more left apart froma few chests that had not yet been melted down, and that small quantity wouldn’t matter in the big picture.

“Well, we had better look forward until something happens,” she declared.

A year went by, and the Mars crew had not returned on time a month earlier. Nobody worried for another three months, as it was a big window of arrival for the crew to return from the red planet. The babies grew in size and in numbers, and life in the United States went on as usual.

Slowly the planet’s manufacture returned to good production. A ton of copper was borrowed from Martin Brusk in Israel, but after that even he was getting short.

The Orbital Space Station became busy, and in the first fifteen months of production, three out of the twelve parts of the wheel was floated out of the build center with the robots welding them together.

The hub was also coming along. The two large cylinders extending from the stem to the outer wheel were ready. They were twice as wide as the cylinders America One had been built with, and with big wide escalators up to the evolving part of the ship.

The window for a return flight from Mars closed, and the entire crew who had returned from Mars the first time put the delay down to another storm on the red planet. They were correct, but still very worried, and 20 more months would have to pass before the Mars crew would be able to return.

What was a real advancement was that the communication satellites, although several months behind schedule, were due to be the next launch into space in a few months’ time. Then they could try and communicate with the base on Mars.

Chapter 19

Damn Bogeys!

The storm went on and on. In many ways it was good, and in many ways it was not. As Mars explained to the crew several times through the 16-month storm, nobody could attack them. The entire crew could sleep without doing guard duty. The blue shields used their own light to grow plants.

It was completely safe inside the blue shields while the storm screamed outside. It was peaceful, as without a complete atmosphere outside there was no noise, just the movement of red and yellow dust and dirt against the bright blue walls. After a month or so, nobody looked at the raging movement of debris anymore.

Life went on. Crops grew, and chickens laid eggs and new chickens. So did the rabbits and vegetables replace themselves. Nature worked its wisdom at The Martian Club Retreat as she did back on Earth.

All the crew could do was to keep themselves amused, tend their crops, learn from the massive electrical library they had access to, and try to stay sane.

The daily topic of discussion was what to do when the storm abated, as it would be too early to return to Earth, unless the storm lasted years. A plan was decided on by Mars and Saturn to lift off in SB-IV as soon as this storm stopped, and to leave a skeleton crew aboard in orbit. Then the larger shuttle could do what America One had done for them on the first visit—be the eye in the sky for protection. Also, if there was another long storm around departure time, the shuttle would make its way back to Earth.

Several of the crew had planned to stay on Mars for the rest of their lives. After a new head count, 63 of the 99 crew, mostly all the Matts, were content with this being home. Another dozen or so were happy to return to Earth one more time as astronauts, and then would relocate to The Retreat permanently.

These crewmembers didn’t care if the storm raged for months or even years. The storms were a fact of life. The storms gave them safety from any possible attack from any enemy who might still call the planet home.

For others, the old cabin fever set in. Especially for the astronauts who believed that flying spaceships was their life, the monotonous day-to-day of planet living became very difficult.

“I wonder if this is a passing phase of weather on the planet, or if something like a major catastrophe is about to happen,” stated Mars in an astronaut briefing a year and four months after the storm began. They hadn’t flown for nearly a year and a half and it was very depressing for many.

“I don’t know. I just don’t want to live like this anymore,” stated Saturn Noble in the briefing. She was thin and very pale. Saturn was again pregnant. Dr. Nancy had given her the news only a week earlier. Saturn had been sick, really sick, for a couple of weeks. The poor girl couldn’t keep down any food, and the doctor had given her a complete checkup.

Many of the Tall People were sick, depressed, morbid, or plain just uninterested in life. For several this was their third storm, and for several, they would return to Earth not wanting to return.

For the Matts, they seemed to thrive on being kept “indoors” and underground.

“I have been reading up on every bit of information I can find on the history of Mars,” stated Captain Pete.

To the 25-year-old mission commander, even the confined space had made the 60-plus captain look older and more weary. Dr. Nancy had given him a complete checkup only a week earlier. “There seemed to be recordings of storms on Mars being seen through telescopes in the 1930s, and again in the 1960s. Of course the viewers didn’t think them as storms, but just that the surface of this planet just looked smoother than usual, and they couldn’t get their telescopes to pinpoint anything. Since the ‘60s, there are no mentions of any storms, so I reckon like on Earth, things happen in threes, and I just hope that this is the last storm for maybe 30 years or more.”

“Well, I hope you are right, Captain Pete, as both the shuttles are ready for immediate launch and as soon as we get an hour of any type of break we are out of here. The repaired wing ends of SB-IV are complete and both craft, and all of us, are ready to fly.”

The storm had sand-papered the end of the wings of the larger shuttle until a second Cold Fusion power plant had been connected to the blue shield it was in, and the shield had been given more power than they had ever done before. The shield had only grown several more feet, but at least the wings were now inside the shield and out of harm’s way.

“Mars, remember the crew staying behind will need another water supply before we head back,” added Saturn. The water supply was low. Since much of the liquids inside the caverns and shield were recycled, the watering of the vegetables in the shields only lost several gallons a month. They had done all they could to keep the water internally, but it still disappeared through condensation with the topsoil and the icy cold ground beneath the layers of insulation between the farming topsoil and the surface of the planet.

Large insulation sheets several inches thick had been brought with them from Earth and now the external growth area was completely separated from the planet itself. “We need two water flights to leave the crew with enough water for six years, three oppositions, and to produce 500 gallons of fuel while we are gone. As we discussed over a year ago, 500 gallons will be made here as a reserve in case something happens on our way back and we arrive with no fuel, and there is enough here for two more shuttle water flights,” Saturn continued, playing with Mikey, who was now nearly two.

“At least we will get both ships out of here,” replied Mars. “I would really like one more day to visit that underground base Johnny and I found. I’m sure there are some new secrets down there that could aid our life here at The Retreat. I still can’t believe that I saw running water, or a running liquid, in that cavern where all the dead bodies were.”

“I think we should give it one more search before we leave,” added Captain Pete.

“Will your sentries out there be able to protect the crew while we are away?” asked Dr. Nancy, walking into the room. Dr. Nancy was the only person in the crew who refused to cut her hair short. Even though they could walk on the floor, it didn’t mean that the rest of the human body behaved as if it were on Earth. Long hair floated round slowly and always got in the way, even if it was in a ponytail. Everybody except the doctor had very short Marine-style haircuts. It was just easier while in space, and the norm before launch from Earth.

Anybody could see the good doctor heading their way, as her long blonde hair always swirled about her as if she was standing on the bottom of the swimming pool back in Nevada. She loved her hair, was able to put up with it getting in her way, but always wore a cap when inspecting a patient.

“I believe so,” answered Mars. “The worst that will happen if the base is attacked when we are away could be the destruction of the three shields outside. If that happens, all growth outside stops, but the crew remaining here have enough dried supplies and internal vegetable, plant and tree production to survive. Ruler Roo has left orders with the Matts to close down the power to the shields immediately once attacked. By the way, he and Jo will be returning with us. He wants to collect Joanne and bring her back for good. I wonder if she is ready for retirement up here from her political life?” Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy nodded. “The six initial robotic soldiers are now better armed than ever before with the new 10,000-meter-range lasers we connected to them last year. The six new robots are still under training, and will be programed and ready as the backup brigade within a few weeks,” Mars replied to the doctor.

“Ok. And Mars, if we leave tomorrow?” asked Dr. Nancy.

“Dave Black is staying as Head of Security. His security detail is now completely trained in robotic mechanics, robotic instruction, and his crew of three can control the twelve machines as well as I can. Even if I were here, I couldn’t better what Dave’s crew can do. Also, I have spoken to the Matts with Roo. I think for the first time in their lives, the Matts will defend themselves aggressively against an enemy. We have etched what can happen to the crew in their thought patterns enough for them to think about defending themselves.”

“Have we overcome the Matts not firing the first shot yet?” asked Dr. Nancy.

“Unfortunately, no,” replied Saturn. “It seems that our Matts will never fire first,” added Saturn. “It seems that our guys will never think about firing the first round.”

“The old Matts certainly did a number on their way of thinking 10,000 years ago,” continued Mars. “Self-protection from their point of view. I cannot get it through their brain that firing first might save their lives. The enemy will destroy one or more of the shields before our Matt crew will get the idea, but I believe that the attacking force will get a shock from Dave Black, his crew and our twelve robots firing back. Each of the new lasers on our 12 robots, plus the four new crew lasers, are powerful enough to bring down one of their Matt spaceships at 5,000 yards.”

“We cannot lose any more shields,” added Captain Pete.

“I know where to get more,” suggested Mars, smiling at the captain.

“When the time is right, or we get attacked, or we do return to this non-stormy planet, I’ll come shield-hunting with you in those tunnels,” he replied smiling.

Twelve days later the good news went around the cavern faster than a speeding bullet. The storm had abated. There was black sky and stars above them.

Everybody knew what to do, and they grabbed spacesuits, helmets, and the astronauts rushed to the three spacecraft.

Within an hour, Mars had the Matt ship launching out of the dark crater and, with a young 17-year-old Matt astronaut as co-pilot, headed into orbit.

SB-III was 30 minutes behind, and it took Saturn an hour longer to get the crew returning to Earth aboard SB-IV with their personal belongings, and she completed final checks before also heading out of her shield and into orbit.

Dawn over the planet was a beautiful sight for the astronauts, who had felt like moles for what seemed like ever. Even Dr. Nancy and Captain Pete aboard SB-III were happy to be out of their hole. Dr. Nancy was adamant that she was never coming back.

The storm was moving very slowly over to the far side of the planet to where the base was situated, and half of the planet they could see at 200 miles was still a mass of slow swirling clouds of dust.

“I reckon we don’t have long,” stated Mars to Saturn. “I think we must do a water run immediately.” All the astronauts agreed.

Aboard the smaller shuttle was the crew ready to collect water. Even Dr. Nancy wanted to check out the watering hole with her husband for the first time and actually spacewalk over the ice mound where they landed.

Over the next twelve hours, SB-III and the Matt ship headed down and away from the larger shuttle, Saturn, Mikey and the rest watching them disappear towards the red plant.

“Still nobody except us on radar, Dave,” she spoke to the Head of Security manning the base’s intercom.

“Copy that, Saturn. The weather is beautiful down here. There has been a lot of dirt movement. The exploration crew headed out to check on the robots and the edge of the plateau. It seems that the plateau edge has extended out several more feet with the dirt buildup, and the robots are fine, but their accommodation was slightly damaged. We heard that Mars and Put are heading down to collect our water, over?”

Once the dust was cleared by Mars’ thrusters and the ice shone through the red layer, the pilots were surprised that the dust layer was nearly a foot thick this time. The Matt ship had worked for over 30 minutes on hover to clear the landing zone of the freshly moved dust.

Put was one of the growing Matts who had the interest to learn to fly. Like Roo and Commander Joot, only one or two of the young boys wanted to fly one of their ships one day. It would take Put a few more hours of training with Mars before he could fly the Matt ship from the front seat.

Mars landed, the ice seemed as secure as it always was, and Jenny Burgos flying SB-III came 20 minutes later after completing one more orbit.

“This is so beautiful,” stated Dr. Nancy being helped around the ice by two of the crew several hours later and just before sunset. “Leave me alone, I’m not that old, and capable of bouncing around here like the rest of you,” she demanded, and her husband and one other let her go.

“Dr. Nancy, do not get further than thirty feet from the ships,” ordered Mars as he helped fill the first canister with the icy liquid that somehow stayed in liquid form far below freezing. They only had time to fill the first canister before darkness set in and the temperature plummeted.

For the next two days, they filled the canisters they had brought with, and it was so beautiful that it wasn’t possible to think that any storms could possibly ruin the view.

Mars decided that instead of spending a day looking further into the tunnels, the crew should do a second water run. It was a good decision, as in the middle of the second day of the second run, Saturn, 200 miles above them, saw what looked like another storm approaching from the west.

“Water detail, it looks like a new swirl is forming. The center eye of the next hurricane, or whatever you call these storms, is now visible about 2,000 miles east of the western edge of your crater. I wouldn’t have noticed the change in the planet’s look if this new center hole wasn’t so prominent. The crater is 14,000 miles wide, so I believe you have at least sixteen hours before you had better get out of there. I will be able to give you more accurate information once we can judge its overland speed…hold on, we have new radar contact Oh God! Seven UFOs incoming towards base from the west, twenty miles out, travelling very fast. Bogeys climbing through 5,000 feet, Mars… Over!”

“Martian base to SB-IV, you won’t believe this, but we have just had a formation of spacecraft, seven flying high over the base,” added Dave Black. “Several crew said that they looked exactly like the last visitors. Suggest you return before dark. We have all the alarms going off, and the crew are heading down to the lowest level, over.”

The surprise radio messages from The Martian Club Retreat was patched through to those on the ground by the shuttle above them, which made everybody’s blood run cold for several seconds.

Mars was about to return to the water’s edge for a last bucket of water when the message came through. He checked his numbers. They had filled 23 of the 30 canisters they had brought with, and the remaining three being filled would total 25 full canisters. It had to be enough for now.

“Saturn, keep them in radar contact if you can. We’ll be out of here in twenty minutes. Jenny, warm your thrusters. Crew, close the three canisters and get them in the cargo bays. Let’s go!” The spacewalkers waddled to the ships carrying the three remaining canisters.

Within ten minutes, the cargo bays were closed and the last two crewmembers were entering the ships. Johnny had got into the Matt craft first, but couldn’t mentally turn on the thrusters. Mars wanted Johnny as backup instead of Put, who would go with the shuttle. Johnny had eyes like an eagle.

Jenny had had her thrusters warming and running on idle, which was safe for the crew outside.

Mars got into the forward seat, ignited the thrusters, and called Saturn for an update.

“Bogey’s, seven of them circling the base at about 100 miles, altitude 30,000 feet. I have seven minutes before I head over the western horizon. Storm moving towards you at about 400 miles an hour. It looks like your water collection is over. The storm is big. It covers as much of the planet as we can see from up here. I bet this isn’t the same storm. It couldn’t have run its way completely around the planet. Captain Pete, I think your one storm theory is all wrong. Bogey’s still circling. I’m increasing thrust to 80 percent, reducing altitude rapidly and will be back over the horizon at a hundred-mile altitude in 17 minutes, Saturn, out.”

“Copy that Saturn, eight minutes for thruster heat for launch, over,” replied her husband.

“Three minutes until launch,” added Jenny Burgos.

“SB-III launched first and rapidly gained height to exit the 14,000-foot-high walls of the crater, which would put them back on the same altitude as the normal planet’s surface.

Saturn was off the air as Mars lifted off the ice and headed up, surprising Johnny Walls in the back seat how fast the craft could fly. Six minutes later and halfway back to the base, and just below 5,000 feet above the Martian surface, Mars Noble caught up and passed SB-III. Both craft were flying low to hide, and they wanted surprise on their side. Most radar systems struggled to find contacts below 5,000 feet, and Mars hoped that if the enemy had the same sort of systems, that they would also have the same problem.

The Matt craft he was flying didn’t have radar like the shuttle did, and he relied on SB-III to give him information.

“Seven enemy ships 390 miles ahead of us and heading west, away from our base. It doesn’t seem that they have noticed us yet, over,” stated Jenny, her sister flying the ship, and she had the laser through her three cameras locked on the three closest enemy craft. “Commander, they look identical to your ship, except I can see a large thing sticking out of their forward area like a refueling nozzle. That must be their gun, and its looks like they have a big one, each.”

“How long until we catch them up?” Mars asked.

“They are flying pretty slow, I’d say about 500 miles an hour, we are four times that, so, say, in ten minutes, over.”

“SB-III, let’s slow so that we can surprise them closer to when SB-IV is due to come over the horizon, say, in 12 minutes. Reduce height to 1,000 feet, or until you begin to lose radar contact.”

“One thousand eight hundred feet altitude, speed 1,200 knots, seven bogeys 200 miles at 5,000 feet altitude and they are a few minutes west of Captain Pete’s exact coordinates, over,” stated Jenny to Mars ten minutes later.

We are back,” interrupted Saturn. We dropped like a stone and have been at full power for fifteen minutes. Jenny is accurate with Captain Pete’s coordinates. He is in the cockpit with me. If they have radar they are going to see me soon. Lasers looking for them now.” As Saturn said that, Jenny’s voice returned over the intercom.

“Bogey’s turning 180 degrees, heading skywards towards Saturn. They will fly over our position in three minutes.”

“Hold your altitude until I give the order, Jenny,” Mars stated.

“Wow! Blue something, like a constant laser beam, passed my cockpit window. There’s another one. They are shooting at me,” stated Saturn with much shock and surprise in her voice.

“Jenny, lock onto the rear three targets. Saturn, lock onto the three most forward targets coming your way. I see the blue laser lines stretching up. Jenny, on my count of three of three, full thrusters, head up towards your targets and start firing. I’m going up now to surprise them. Johnny, hang onto your lunch packet, here we go,” and Mars’ brain gave fast mental orders to his ship which suddenly rose its nose and at full power screamed upwards towards the enemy now visible around 10,000 feet above him, directly in front of his cockpit and about to fly directly overhead.

“Blue lasers all around us, four targets locked in twenty seconds, Mars!” added Saturn with more urgency.

“Jenny, one, two, three, go!” ordered Mars as he approached the seven Matt craft in front of him, and a second later he flew right through their formation at full speed, scattering the startled pilots in all directions.

“First craft hit, missed second craft. They are really turning hard. Third shot missed third craft, fourth shot hit second craft,” Jenny stated, firing on the locked targets as fast as she could muster.

Mars rolled his ship over on its back and turned to ride through the scattered pigeons to take their fire and saw two blobs of smoke where Jenny had hit. Now there were blue lines of Maser fire all around him as the five, then four remaining craft fired at the “hawk” flying vertically down towards them.

“I’m hit!” shouted Mars.

“Targets locked, firing now,” stated Saturn, and she most probably saved his life, as another maser close hit would have destroyed his craft.

“Two down, two to go, Jenny!” shouted Saturn “Take the one closest to the base!” she ordered.

“I can’t, my laser is overheated.”

“No problem, girl, I’ll have them locked in a second or two,” Saturn replied, wanting to see what had happened to her husband.

The larger shuttle was flying straight and level on autopilot 80 miles above the war zone, the ship on automatic so that she could use all her experience on the laser. Now it was time to save her husband’s life.

“Wing area destroyed, on full vertical thrust power, have sort of control, going down, but have control, I think,” stated Mars rapidly over the intercom and went back to mental thoughts to control his craft.

Like a spinning helicopter he lost altitude, and even though the thrusters were on full power, he still struck the flat Martian surface with enough force to bounce off the ground hard.

“Saturn, one to go. Bogey is heading west again. Twenty seconds until I have firepower back up,” stated Jenny.

“No problem,” replied Saturn, and a new blob of smoke could be seen by Jenny as the last enemy craft disintegrated several miles in front of her.

“Radar clear apart from you Saturn,” Jenny added.

“Jenny, get down to Mars’ crash site. I see his craft on camera, it’s a mess. You have fully suited up crew, so get there girl, fast!”

Jenny was a damn good astronaut, and she threw SB-III down towards the site as fast as she dared and decided on a landing zone within 100 feet of the broken ship. Since there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, it wouldn’t burst into flames, but that didn’t mean that the two aboard were still safe.

As she came in, her co-pilot, her older sister Jane, who was still suited up, and one of the build crew, Max, activated the inner hatch. Max got in and activated the docking port to go through as fast as possible.

“We are down, crew,” stated Jenny.

“Opening outer hatch now,” stated Max. “Out, hatch closed. Jane, its ready for you. Going down the ladder now.” He reached the ground within a minute of the shuttle touching down and wobbled like a chicken as fast as he could over to the broken ship.

It was cracked open in the center, the rear area had hit first, and the entire cargo bay was open to the killer atmosphere of Mars. The rear area of the cockpit screen above the pilots was also cracked, and he aimed for this area.

The first sight of the crew inside was not good. He knew that Johnny had been sitting in the rear seat. The broken screen of the cockpit had entered his suit underneath the helmet, in his neck area. Large red blood globules were spreading out in the cockpit around him.

Max grabbed what was left of the canopy and with a force of strength pulled off the see-through silicon above the forward pilot’s head. Now he could see inside both cockpits. Both pilots had injuries, red blood droplets were floating everywhere, and he reached for his spacesuit’s knife and cut through Mars’ seat belts first. He noticed that Mars’ right arm was sort of floating at a weird angle.

It wasn’t difficult to float out the forward pilot. He heard Saturn’s questioning, but ignored her pleas.

His leg was grabbed and Jane was underneath where he stood.

“Jane, give me a sec and then carry Mars back to the ship. Jenny, your sister will need help getting the commander up and into the docking port. His suit is open on his right arm, so hurry, I’ll get Johnny out.”

As Max lifted Mars out, he was shocked to see that Mars’ right arm was barely hanging onto his body just above the elbow. It had been nearly sliced off by the silicon, so he grabbed for a short cord that was around his waist, quickly applied as much force as he could and tied a tourniquet around the upper arm. Then he remembered that Dr. Nancy was actually in the shuttle a hundred feet away. “Doc, his right arm is nearly sliced off just below the shoulder, I have a crappy tourniquet around it, and blood is still flowing. Get ready, he needs you. Jane, go!”

For Jane, and the low Martian gravity, it wasn’t difficult to carry Mars over to the shuttle. Saturn’s voice was still filling her helmet.

“Saturn, shut up. I have Mars and am taking him over to the ship. Keep this channel clear!” she ordered, and Saturn obediently became quiet.

By the time she got there, two more spacesuits were out of the ship, and one helped her up with Mars while the other headed over to help Max.

Max looked at Johnny. Johnny was one of his young friends, a person who he admired as one of the NextGens. Max was thirty years older than Johnny, andhad taught him much, as Max had been with Astermine as one of the teenage kids that had headed out on “The Odyssey”. The poor boy’s eyes were glazed over. He was already dead. “Johnny did not make it, Doc. You only have one patient. I will get Johnny out of here and carry him back, over.”

Mars was handed down through the docking hatch in a bloody mess, and Dr. Nancy, who always carried a large bag of medical gear, ordered an area clear. “Pete, get his body over there, now. You find something better to stop the blood flow,” and with large medical scissors she began to cut away Mars’ cord around his arm and then his bloody suit. “Jenny, once everybody is aboard we need to get back to base. Hold on, I have most of my operating gear aboard SB-IV for the flight home. Jenny, we need to get up there ASAP.”

Within minutes, Max and his helper had Johnny’s body aboard and the outer hatch closed as Jenny took her shuttle up fast.

Chapter 20

We Can’t Go Down

It was a few days later when Commander Mars Noble found out if he was alive or not. His first mental thoughts was that he wasn’t dreaming, but there was somebody holding his hand, his left hand. He could feel that he was tied down to a bed, and that he was in space, not on Mars. The gravity was non-existent.

It was quiet. He couldn’t hear a sound. That was not normal. Even where there was no gravity, there was air, and within the atmosphere of base, or on the shuttles, somebody was usually talking, or making some sort of noise. But it was very quiet, too quiet, and he tried to open his eyes. Then he heard noise.

“Captain Pete, he’s coming around,” he heard his wife say, and he tried to squeeze the hand holding his. He tried for a second time, and then got a return squeeze. “Dr. Nancy, are you awake? I felt his hand move,” and Mars tried to smile. This was a sweet dream, or was it? Then the last few seconds of flight returned to him.

He was spinning hard, the ship wouldn’t complete his commands. He had dreamed about this several times, and then he realized that he must have been talking to the ship, not thinking to it. Then, no matter what he tried, it hit something hard, he could see red in front of his helmet, and then the dream would start all over again.

“No, no! that is not the way to fly Roo’s ship,” he heard himself tell himself, and then a weak voice came through his thoughts. It sounded like Captain Pete.

“Mars, Mars, can you hear me? Squeeze Saturn’s hand if you can,” stated Dr. Nancy, or was it Captain Pete in a very weird voice. Then he heard Dr. Nancy’s voice. It sounded like she was lying next to him.

“How can I fly this ship and squeeze Saturn’s hand at the same time,” he heard himself again tell himself. “Oh! I suppose I can do two things at once,” and he applied pressure to the hand holding his.

“I felt something,” he heard his wife blurt out, and he tried to smile.

“Mars, try and open your eyes. You are aboard SB-IV. Try and open your eyes,” he heard Dr. Nancy order him. Unbeknown to him, she was in the second bed in the medical room, nearly as weak as he was.

He tried. It was hard. His eyelids wouldn’t move. This is weird, he thought, and tried harder. Suddenly the lightness of the overhead lighting pierced eyes. It was bright, so he shut them again. Then he was again ordered to open his eyes, and slowly his eyes got used to the light and the blurred shape looking at him.

“That you, sweetie? How is Mikey?” he heard himself ask.

“We are fine, Mars, can you see me?” she responded.

“Sort of, my eyes aren’t working very well. Your face is very blurry.”

“Mars, Saturn is going to give you a sedative to make you sleep for several hours. You need rest, and one of us will be by your side, so sleep,” he heard Dr. Nancy say to him, and then peace and quiet returned to his thoughts and the flying and the spinning went away.

He awoke to see Saturn holding his son and both were staring at him. This time his eyes worked better and they came into view. He smiled and both Saturn and Mikey smiled back.

“Where’s Johnny?” he asked. “Is he ok?”

“You had a bad crash, Mars, and are badly injured. No, Johnny didn’t make it. Rest, you have just had an operation,” Saturn replied.

It took the injured commander a few more days to regain his strength. He seemed to take the loss of his left arm better than the loss of his co-pilot. Johnny was a good guy and a real loss to the team.

Saturn told him what had happened after he blacked out. So did Max and Jenny who arrived a day after he was strong enough to sit up in bed and talk.

“It seems I have a lot to thank you for, Max, Jenny” stated Mars weakly as the man who saved his life stood with his magnetic shoes on at the side of the bed.

“You would have done the same for me and any of the crew,” Max replied. “Sorry about young Johnny. He was good lad, and I believe he died very quickly.”

Mars wanted all the facts, and Saturn nodded to Max to tell the story. Max described how the ship had looked. It was a mess, and so were the two crew inside. He told Mars how Johnny had died, and how Mars’ arm was a mess dangling in space.

Saturn added that Mars had lost so much blood, and there was only one Rh Negative blood donor aboard, and Dr. Nancy had been bedridden for several days herself after she had ordered her accomplise, Saturn to take out as much blood as possible to give to Mars. Captain Pete had actually completed the operation of removing his arm and closing the wound, under the guidance of his wife.

If Dr. Nancy hadn’t been aboard, he would not have survived with such a rare blood group. Only Little Mikey was the third person aboard with the same blood group, and he was too small to give blood.

The doctor, helped by her husband, looking weak and frail, entered wearing her magnetic shoes. Mars thanked her for giving him life. She smiled back at him and sarcastically told him to look after her pints of blood. She was really missing them.

The next day, Max returned. He was part of the build crew and had a prosthetic arm with him. “Remember your father lost his right arm?” he asked.

Mars smiled. “I remember that old arm of his very well. I actually helped you build it, remember?”

“Well, we can do a few changes to this arm we made for your father, sort of turn it from his to yours, and strap it on you. He wore this one until we made a better one for him. This doesn’t have all the doodads his new arm has, but at least you will have something until we can get you a new arm made when we reach Nevada.”

Mars was still slow, very weak and his brain worked very slowly from the medications. He smiled at Max and thanked the man.

“Saturn, you told me about the fight and the crash. Was the radar clear when you left? Are the crew safe on the planet? Why aren’t we returning?”

“Radar was as clear as it was since we arrived,” she replied. “We counted seven enemy craft. They looked identical to the Matt ship you were flying except that they had one gun-looking thing sticking out of their nose, like the refueling rig of an old Earth fighter. I saw them clearly through the laser cameras. What I did notice was that two of the spaceships were single-seaters, and one other I got the camera sharp on before Jenny blew it away had twin seats. So they do have different types of spacecraft. We saw seven and we got seven kills. They got one, you. Once you were aboard, Jenny needed to return to the base to deliver the water. We had the time, as Dr. Nancy had stopped the bleeding and was already giving you blood. She beat the storm by a few hours, literally threw out the water canisters with the help of everybody at the base, and then headed up. Max went in and got you this arm from your father’s belongings.

“We headed up with the returning crew in case the storm was a big one, left the 63 crew down there who were staying, and the storm clouded over the base a few hours later. It is still there and the whole area looks like a massive hurricane is just sitting over our base. We have learned one thing being up here. Captain Pete, who has been by Dr. Nancy’s side since we got up here, reckons that the storm is much smaller than when he was orbiting a few years ago in America One. There is one big storm, and it seems to move, then stop, then move again, and it has a few smaller storms skirting around it. The big storm covers about a twentieth of the whole planet. I think it just wanders around the planet, and Captain Pete thinks it has lost much of its power. Several of the scientists down at the base liked the news we told them and a day later came back with ideas that this is a storm that looks like it will soon blow itself out. We already have bets that the base will be covered for about six months to a year, and then this smaller storm will move off, or just disappear.”

“So the crew down there are safe from attack for the time being?” Mars asked.

“And with your 12 robots, they could have easily taken out those seven craft once they were within range, so we are now stuck up here, and they are safe down there,” replied Saturn.

The decision was made that there was nothing that the crew in orbit could do for the crew down at The Martian Club Retreat, and a course was set for Earth.

They were 5 months early for the beginning of the next opposition window, and their return flight would take 271 days instead of the 179 expected trip. A position was plotted by Captain Pete, who was back in the command seat, and the two shuttles left orbit after saying farewell to the crew by intercom below them.

The only mistake Captain Pete made leaving Mars, or Dave Black on the planet’s surface, was not to check all the radio systems, which were turned off. There was no need, for they had talked down to the planet only through the intercom since they had arrived, and nobody heard being called from Earth millions of miles away. Neither Captain Pete nor Dave Black knew that Astermine now had solar-system-size radio communications directly from Nevada.

Chapter 21

Thank God!

There was no rush to get back to Earth. There actually was, inside the minds of the crew, but in space, Homo sapiens couldn’t yet bend the rules to get somewhere in a hurry. There was no way they could shorten the journey, and once the red planet had disappeared from view in the rear view mirror, life in the two shuttles, flying in formation 10 miles apart, went back to reading, learning and studying anything that took their interest.

Mars regained his health after a few weeks, and the build crew worked on his arm. Since cybernetics was a major part of working the arm from brain impulses, much of the work Mars Noble had to do was instructing his new arm to understand what his brain wanted. It was exactly what his father had learned on two occasions, when cybernetics were introduced to his metal legs right at the beginning of his employment with Astermine and when he had to learn how to use his new right arm.

There were only two of the older crewmembers aboard SB-IV apart from Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy. Max Von Braun and Paul Weathers had been part of the build crew that had studied under the even older scientists in the fields of mechanics, propulsion, robotics and cybernetics. Max, who had saved Mars’ life, and Paul had made the robots on the Mars base, serviced and kept the shuttle thrusters in perfection, made the new arm for VIN Noble, and were two of the most experienced members of the crew aboard for the mission.

They worked with Mars, as did Dr. Nancy, who had regained her strength with Captain Pete feeding her well, on getting his arm applied to the stump below his shoulder and connecting all the attachments so that cybernetic impulses could feed through to the robotic hand.

It would take Mars at least a year or more to regain full control of his “flying arm” as he called it, but by the time they reached Earth, he would be familiar with its workings.

Saturn Noble was now in command of flight and she worked with Captain Pete, who was still acting-commander in getting the crew back. Nobody thought to use the radios.

With the cargo holds full of the ingots melted from the tunnel, 33 crewmembers flew towards a hole in space where one day the earth would plant itself.

Three months later Captain Pete had very little to do. They were still more than 20 million miles from Earth. He thought it the right time to check that the three radio systems aboard were working and through the intercom, not the radio, asked Jenny Burgos in SB-III to turn on her radios for checks.

“Jenny, I want to service our three radios, then I’ll come across with Max and spend a few days with you servicing yours.”

“Copy that, Captain Pete. We are out of cocoa for Suzi’s famous chocolate cake, could you spacewalk some over when…”

“Nevada base to Planet Mission. Nevada base to The Club Retreat. Nevada base to any Astermine shuttles in space, if you hear this transmission, please acknowledge. Nevada base to Planet Mission. We have new satellites in orbit around Earth and can transmit around the entire solar system… Jack, I wish we would get a response,” stated the familiar voice of Jerry, the head radio operator from the base.

“Did you hear that or am I hearing things, Captain Pete?” stated Jenny Burgos totally shocked in SB-III.

“I heard it. Damn, we should have followed the radio protocol we had in America One—to always have all radios on. Thank God! They have satellites back up in space. We certainly have been away for quite a while.”

“Three years, nine months, and fourteen days,” stated Jenny. “And I for one will be glad to be back.”

“Sierra Bravo IV to Nevada Ground Control, do you copy? I’m ready to grant you your wish, Jerry. Good to hear your voice, this is Pete.” There was silence for several minutes as the message reached Earth, the radio crew in Nevada got over their shock and replied.

“Pete, Pete, is that you? Get Lunar, we have contact! Sierra Bravo IV, are you really out there?”

“SB-IV to Nevada base, yes Jerry, it’s your old buddy Pete. Hearing you as if we are neighbors across the fence. You know I have a habit of getting lost in space, and I seem to always get back to Earth. Tell the crew we were delayed by storms again. SB-III and SB-IV are in formation 81 days out from Earth orbit. It is fantastic that we can hear you so far out. Speed 47,000 knots, and that’s been stable for 87 days. We had to get off the planet early, so doing a slow cruise to reach you guys in 81 days’ time. The storm reappeared and cut us off from our base. Thirty-three crewmembers aboard, and we have good supplies of food water and fuel to reach Earth. The storm reappeared and cut us off from our base. Thirty-three crewmembers aboard, we have good supplies of food water and fuel to reach you, over.”

“Thank God!” stated Lunar Richmond several minutes later when the transmission returned. “We launched three communication satellites thirteen months ago, got them active about 150 days ago and have nearly destroyed these mikes trying to get a response from you guys. I assume you did not have your radios on, Captain?”

“We did not. As you and I agreed on during our last visit to The Retreat, it was decided to save them, since they just wasted power and got old at the same time. I was about to service them and Jerry then scared the bejesus out of Jenny Burgos and me. She is in command of SB-III, I’m in command of the mission and Saturn command of SB-IV. A few changes, I’m afraid.”

For several hours Captain Pete brought the ground crew up to date on the mission. No planets or places were mentioned. There certainly were hundreds, if not thousands, of earthlings listening in.

Saturn, and many of the crew, got on the radio to say hello to Lunar, Pluto Katherine and their friends back at base. Everybody was sad about Johnny Walls, and Lunar said that she would go and tell his father who was at The Pig’s Snout in the Sahara personally.

Mars sent his message saying that he was fine, looking more like his father every day and would be fit for active duty when they arrived.

“Oh Lunar, how is the new mother ship coming along?”

“Not well,” Lunar replied four minutes later. “Our mining mission did not return with exactly what was needed. Work has shut down in many departments and we are sending build crew personnel home. We are out of copper and many of the necessary rare earth metals. The gold is all gone, so is what we need to buy it back, we are in a lousy position, and I cannot say more over the radio, over.”

“You need gold?” Mars replied excitedly.

“Gold would work instead of copper wiring, yes, and everything else we went to 2030JD for,” was her reply.

“Well,” smiled Mars. “Just send the crew on a three-month vacation. We have a little of what you need, everything you went to 2030JD for, well maybe not everything, I’m not the chemistry major, but we do have supplies in our holds of most of what you need. I will not say more, so sleep well at night, Lunar, your prince in shining armor is only 81 days away.”

“Thank God!” stated Lunar again.

Chapter 22

Wake Up Time!

It had been really weird to speak to friends 20 million miles away, Saturn mentioned one morning to Lunar over lunch. The radio call had been free, a good gossip channel, real long distance, and the whole world was listening in so they had to be careful in what they had said to each other.

They had returned to Earth the week before, and as usual, the old-looking wheelchairs had to be taken out for the returning astronauts.

Saturn was still in her wheelchair 24 hours later to help Mikey and herself rehabilitate back to the nasty, heavy gravity of the home planet.

Once the returning crew had realized that they had permanent communications, they had tried to reach The Martian Club Retreat. Unfortunately, the crew still on the red planet had done as expected and turned off their radios to save them. Nobody was expected to be around until the next opposition.

“I really don’t want to go back until Mikey is really strong,” stated Saturn to her best friends Lunar and Pluto Katherine holding Mikey.

The weather on Earth was hot, the smells rich, and the real atmosphere beautiful.

“And now that I’m pregnant again, I assume I’m not much use for the next few years. Maybe I should head up command of the base here, or in Australia?”

“You are not alone,” smiled Lunar in return, and Pluto Katherine nodded.

“I’m also three months,” she stated. “It seems we girls need to stay home and keep the home fires burning.”

“It’s about bloody time, Pluto Katherine. You are a baby behind Lunar and me. Did you need to read up on what to do or something?”

Mars Noble was in the robotics department, also in a wheelchair, and the crew were looking through old cybernetic boards and hardware to see if they could better Max’s arm he had applied to Mars on the return flight. They were also discussing the robots built on Mars and how the robots the Martian crew had made could help the mother ship build up in orbit.

It had been heaven for the whole crew that had arrived back to finally be rid of the crew compartments from both shuttles after being cooped in there for nine months.

As usual, the returning crew to the ground crew had looked thin, pasty, and each one was wheeled off to the infirmary, including Dr. Nancy.

“What are the supply levels left for the crew at The Retreat?” Lunar asked Saturn.

“Well, for the remaining crewmembers, they have about twenty years of water in the system. The power plants are forever. The three external shields can produce far more than they can consume, and the base is on maximum food savings and drying in case those nasty Matts return after the storm ends. Captain Pete reckons that this one large storm and the baby storms around it has plagued us since we started having these hurricanes, or whatever they are, and by the time we get back in two years’ time, this single pain-in-the-butt storm should be closer to being gone forever. It seems that it just runs around the planet, but it is getting weaker, we believe. The crew, even if they are attacked, can lose all three shields and survive for at least a decade.”

“Good,” replied Lunar. “Since you were attacked, I’m sure that there are more, and I don’t want to risk our shuttles and crew to more of these people. They don’t want peace, and fire at us without warning, which means we are at war with them. I think the best plan is the new mother ship and all our shuttles head back as a fleet to finally rid these nasty Matts from Mars once and for all. In two years’ time, Dave Black will turn on the radios waiting for our arrival, and then we can tell them we are not coming until my father, Jonesy and VIN are back in command.”

“We should arm America Two like a battleship,” added Pluto Katherine.

“Like twenty battleships,” laughed Saturn, “and by then I should be ready for my next command. I know that Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy are done. They talked nothing else but fishing, Earth, and the islands all the way back. She nearly died giving my husband so much blood, Lunar.”

For the next two years, the departments returned to maximum production with the valuable mineral bounty returned from Mars. There was everything they needed, and if one metal wasn’t available they found ways to use another that was in plentiful supply. America Two would only be 3 years behind schedule, and Lunar stated to the entire crew that there was no return to the red planet until her father was back in command.

The ship in space grew in size, the wives had their children, and early in the two-year period President Dithers Roo swept into her second term with ease. Roo and Jo had returned to Washington to be by her side for her second term.

The country was mending. The world around them was getting strong again, and launches into space were started by other countries.

Space exploration wasn’t only important to Astermine. The rest of the world had a big enough job bringing the planet back into alignment in industry, and three years after the crew returned from Mars, basic materials began to flow into the Nevada base from rapidly growing companies across the country and the world.

The children grew, and the NextGens matured into adult men and women, and still DX2017 travelled around the solar system with its crew fast asleep and totally alienated from the happenings on Earth.

The crew on Mars had been connected by radio a month earlier than expected. They were ecstatic that there was real communications from Earth, and sad that the next visit wasn’t going to happen.

The most recent storm had lasted 11 months and then one day was suddenly gone. They had no ships to launch to inspect whether it was about to return. Nor had the enemy returned. The shields were doing well growing far more than they needed, and they had so much food in storage that they would need to reduce production in two of the shields after the next growing schedule.

Mars Noble recuperated and was given a more modern prosthetic arm with the latest in cybernetics. He could use his new metal arm as well as the old one and returned to flying shuttles into orbit with the whole family as co-pilots—Saturn with their two growing children.

When they had time off in the fourth year, they caught a ride with Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy to the island of Australia. Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy were retiring from space flight and wanted to spend the rest of their lives with Bob Mathews and crew. The Astermine fishing fleet was certainly growing rapidly.

Mars, Saturn, and family, Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy headed over to the island and had several ingots of gold with them. The gold was payment for the mission to Mars, and all the money was spent on the two ordered and ready fishing boats for family Jones and family Noble, and Captain Pete spent his on a new boat for him and Nancy.

The rest of the astronauts flew the shuttles for that year. The schedule was pretty easy, and a shuttle headed up once a week with supplies. The larger two shuttles carried up the outer skin panels of America Two, and the smaller shuttles the inside instruments and accommodation/department needs.

Time passed by happily for the Astermine crew. Months changed into years, the children began the same school curriculum their parents had learned at age 4, and Mikey Noble entered the flight simulator on his fifth birthday.

The flight seats inside the simulator, one each for the pilot and the co-pilot, could be moved down and forward enough to able a small child to do basic maneuvers. This was all that was needed for the first 18 months of simulator training.

As time passed, DX2017 headed closer and closer to Earth. The main topic of discussion in 2047, eight years after they had returned from Mars as young adults, was when they should fly to the planet to awaken their parents, the “OldGens” as they were now nicknamed.

The distance to DX2017 was the factor that made them have to wait. The map of the solar system, and the asteroid’s journey around the vast area, showed that the best time was in the last month of the eleventh year, a year and 200 days from then. Including the time they had waited to leave Mars, the exact time the OldGens had been asleep was fourteen years.

At 190,000 miles from Earth, it would be at its closest point, and Lunar decided to wait until the time was perfect, as she wanted America Two to be a gift to her father, and actually fetch the sleepers in Astermine’s newest craft.

The building of the ship was only six months from completion, but the systems still needed hundreds of flight and instrument checks and tests before it could attempt such a journey.

So the date the asteroid would be closest to Earth, the original date given to the sleeping crew, stayed as the day to fetch the rest of the Astermine family.

President Dithers Roo had ended her second term successfully in Washington a year earlier. The country had come a long way in the eight years she had been President, and the elections succeeded in giving the U.S.A. it’s second female President, one of Joanne’s closest allies, Debbie West. It seemed that the Freedom Party was going to rule for another four years, and Penelope Pitt had been asked by the new President-elect Debra West to be her Vice President.

History was being made as both the President and Vice President of the United States of America were female.

They say that good, or bad, things happen in threes.

Joanne’s father died a very unhappy man a month before the elections and was laid to rest in his favorite city, Atlanta. So did the oldest and most senior Astermine scientist in Nevada a day later, and thirdly Sergeant Meyers passed away peacefully on the base a day after the scientist was buried in the base’s new graveyard. It seemed that many wanted to rest at their place of work.

These deaths made the younger crew realize that their OldGens, mostly their parents, had been given a second chance on life, and they prayed often that they had survived.

Life for the astronauts went on as usual on both sides of the world. Everybody matured and the fishing in Australian waters was always good.

America Two completed her tests two years after Joanne, Roo and their family of two children returned to Nevada, she as a United States citizen and the first ex-President to refuse her Secret Service attachment.

Ruler Roo was ready to take up his new command as leader of The Martian Club Retreat, but was happy to wait to see the awakening of his old friends. Everybody was counting down the days to rejoining friends and family.

By the time the 31 members of the crew, who had parents asleep on DX2017, launched to join the new ship in orbit, many hadn’t slept well for weeks. The young children were not allowed on board and stayed with Pluto Katherine back on base.

Both SB-IV and SB-V launched for the occasion, as three dozen younger crewmembers were taking over the building of America Three from the three retiring crews working 24/7 currently in orbit.

The sight of the new spaceship was majestic for everyone. At nine hundred feet across the wheel structure, she could be seen floating by her build bay from 25 miles out.

The second build bay had two sections of the third ship joined together, a sixth of the round wheel section of America Three tethered to its cubed structure.

The third mother ship was also behind schedule, and fresh metal supplies were needed from Mars. They were running out, and the growing suppliers on Earth couldn’t keep up with the dwindling supplies of rare earth metals on the planet. China was still not selling their rare earth metals to anybody, especially Astermine.

It was certainly an eye-opening experience when the entire crew walked around the new ship wearing the usual metal shoes. The inside area of the ship was about a third larger than America One. There were several cargo bays instead of the growing cubes that had been the center point of the first mother ship. The cargo bays could take vast amounts of cargo across the solar system, and the two struts of the wheel were the elevators from the center point up to the wheel itself. On the inside skin of the circular wheel were a dozen docking ports for the shuttles, out of the way of the laser guns above the wheeled structure.

Above the cargo bays and on the outer layer of the forty-foot-wide wheel structure were the corridors and living quarters. This ship could easily sleep 300 crewmembers in its accommodations.

The bridge was in the middle, on the front hub of the wheel, and was about the same size as the old bridge, except that this ship bristled with laser weapons. Twelve lasers had been erected on the exterior sections of the wheel, and each could fire independently at different targets. Each one was connected to a small Cold Fusion power plant, which gave them double the firepower of the older lasers on the first shuttles. Also, new cooling systems around the barrels had been designed to double the length of time the lasers could fire.

Compared to SB-III, the first shuttle to have a laser, America Two had 24 times the firepower and double the speed of rapid bursts. She was a mighty battleship, and ready for protecting herself. Each of the twelve sections, the two struts, and center area had doors that could close in seconds, sealing off each area if there was a breech to outer space.

It was now time for the excited crew to fly to DX2017. The asteroid was 220,000 miles away, the flight would take twelve hours once they left their orbit of Earth in the mighty ship, and Commander Mars Noble was in command of the bridge when the ship moved away from its build station.

There wasn’t such an excited and scared bunch of kids in all the universe.

(Back to Book V)

Lunar Richmond told this exact story to her father when he and the others awoke on DX2017, 190,000 miles from Earth.

Ryan was still groggy. To him, he had been asleep for only minutes, and he realized that this mature-looking woman was his little daughter, Lunar. She and several others had returned to awaken the travelers, and every cabinet had opened to reveal a fit and healthy human who hadn’t aged a day in fourteen years.

“How are you? Where is Pluto Katherine?” Ryan asked once what his daughter had told him sunk in.

“Pluto is down on our island looking after my two boys, your grandchildren, Mark and James. She is also married and gave birth to her son Titan two months ago. We are both married, happily to two Australian guys, pilots, and you are the grandfather of three beautiful boys, Granddad!” said his smiling 32-year-old daughter as the IV fluid flowed through his body. He looked up to see his wife slowly approaching. She had awoken twelve hours earlier and could already walk in the soft gravity.

“How’s the fishing?” Jonesy asked Saturn as she rubbed his stiff legs and then hugged her mother, Maggie. He didn’t recognize the beautiful lady in front of him, and his legs felt weird, as if they had been stuck behind his back for several years.

“You just wait, Mr. Jones. There is an 80-year-old smelly sea captain called Bob Mathews who keeps asking for you, and he says he knows every fishing spot in the Indian Ocean. Also, you have two young boys, my kids, waiting for their grandpa and grandma to take them fishing.” That made both Jonesy and Maggie smile.

“Have you seen your mother? Is she okay?” VIN asked, still not with it. Mars Noble nodded at the same man he had put to sleep thirteen years earlier. His father, although pale and sickly looking, hadn’t aged a day.

VIN, on the other hand, saw a very strong and fit man standing in front of him he didn’t recognize.

“You just relax, Dad. Our mission to return to Earth was a total success. There are many friends waiting for you to return. You have two grandchildren, two of the best boys you can ever imagine, and who are dying to meet you and Mom. The world down there is better thanks to you and Jonesy and Ryan. I can’t wait to take you fishing and drink a few cold beers aboard our boat with you, Dad.

VIN smiled. He, Suzi and Mars were okay, and they were going home, forever.

Books by the Author

The Book of Tolan Series (Adult Reading)

Banking, Beer & Robert the Bruce – Hardcover and eNovel.

Easy Come Easy Go – Hardcover and eNovel.

It Could Happen – eNovel.

AMERICA ONE Series (General Reading)

AMERICA ONE‌—eBook and Paperback.

AMERICA ONE – The Launch‌—eBook and Paperback.

AMERICA ONE – The Odyssey Begins‌—eBook and Paperback.

AMERICA ONE IV – Return to Earth‌—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE V – NextGen‌—eBook

AMERICA ONE VI – NextGen II‌—eBook and Paperback

AMERICA ONE VII – War of the Worlds‌—eBook (September 2014)

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

INVASION EUROPE: The Battle for Survival – 2014

The Banker’s Club (Teenagers and Adults)

THE BANKERS CLUB I: Defaults‌—eBook

The Banker’s Club II: Acquisitions‌—eBook (February 2014-15)

The Banker’s Club III: Withdrawals‌—eBook (April 2014-15)

About the Author

T I WADE was born in Bromley, Kent, England in 1954.

His father, a banker was promoted with his International Bank to Africa and the young family moved to Africa in 1956.

The author grew up in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Once he had completed his mandatory military commitments, at 21 he left Africa to mature in Europe.

He enjoyed Europe and lived in three countries; England, Germany and Portugal for 15 years before returning to Africa; 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 fifteen novels.

The Author, his wife and two teenage children currently live 20 miles south of Raleigh, North Carolina.