The Way Home (Part 4 of The Thrones of Mars Series)

By Lloyd R R Martin

The astronauts manage to leave Mars - despite interference from the robots, and an entity on Earth. The next problem was to link in with the Phoenix - once again with no help from the robot control network. Problems on Earth caused are by a Tsunami along the East Coast of the USA This has wiped out most of the NASA infrastructure.
Added to this is the tenacity of the robots, who have been given instructions to prevent the return at any cost.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lloyd R R Martin
• Release date: Mar 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463203811

Lloyd R R Martin

Worked for BAe for 20 years on Lightning (XN726), Canberra (Venezuela), Jaguar, Tornado. Went to be professional artist specialising in military aircraft. Finished work to nurse wife, during which time I began writing the first book:The Mandalay Conspiracy.Since then I have written a trilogy of novels of a James Bond type;Shortfall to Equilibrium.Shooting the Dead.andNothing Happens.For my latest work I had to learn quite a lot about rocket science. It is about mans first landing on Mars, and why we have always been fascinated by the red planet. This book is,-Thrones of Mars,and is now available across all digital media.

Book preview

The Way Home

Part four

of

THRONES OF MARS

A novel

By

Lloyd R R Martin

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction is allowed without permission.

The right of Lloyd R R Martin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Copyright © Lloyd R R Martin 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.

This book is sold or presented subject to the condition that it shall not , by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent publisher.

Chapter 1 The Way Back

Chapter 2 Xanthros on the Net

Chapter 3 Docking

Chapter 4 Loneliness of Command

Chapter 5 The Chase

Chapter 6 Thrones of Mars

Chapter 7 Cold Dark Silence

Chapter 8 Meeting in Hilbert Space

Chapter 9 Gerald and Sarsen 2

Chapter 10 Citation

Chapter 11 DeathValley

Chapter 38

The Way Back

Ash climbed under the canvas to gain access to the capsule. The pale grey cloth waved freely in the thin atmosphere. However, this was not any ordinary cloth; this almost indestructible Graphene was to protect the delicate electronic equipment within the Mars Landing Vehicle from solar radiation. It also made the inside of the vehicle out of the reach of the robots’ communications net, which meant the robots were unable to prevent Ash and Hoshi Masuto from starting up the machine they knew as Euclid and leaving Mars to join their mother ship, the Phoenix. Likewise, Jake Jensen and Galina Danilenko were about to get the Pythagoras started. Ash and Jake still wore the sheepskin lined leather jackets they had used to protect themselves from the bitter cold of the Martian night during their foray out to the Mars hinterland. Hoshi and Galina had cold weather gear on that had been designed for use within easy reach of Homer Base during the Martian day. The temperatures out here in the dead of night were brutal, and the thermal underwear could only protect to a certain extent.

Ash flipped the emergency launch switch. This fed power to the main power bus and began the various boot sequences. Pressure built up in the fuel systems, and when there was sufficient power available, the little rockets on the ends of the rotors began to be heated, first the top set of rotors, then the lower ones. Fuel was then passed to the tips, as they began to move the atmosphere provided just enough support to allow them to rise, eventually to a horizontal position. By then the second, lower set of rotors had begun to move in the opposite direction. As the rotors picked up speed the tips produced white contrails. Because they were going in opposite directions, they now created a criss-cross pattern that twisted and cascaded down the little pyramid structures, taking with it the Graphene sheet – this meant that the two vehicles could communicate with each other automatically.

The noise levels in the Euclid module began to rise – the thing was coming to life. Ash and Hoshi constantly monitored the systems as they warmed up. There was an occasional call between them,

‘Checkout valve to engine return.’ From Hoshi.

‘Lox bubbling. Lox replenish.’ From Ash.

‘Tanks pressurised. Terminal countdown.’ Hoshi, ‘T minus nine.’

‘Ignition command.’ Ash.

‘Eight, Seven, Six.’

‘In-flight pressurisation.’

‘Five, Four,’

‘Igniters firing, four blue.’

‘Three,’

‘Lox flow.’

‘Two,’

‘Primary ignition.’

‘One.’

‘Ignition. Thrust ok. 1060 psi. We have lift-off.’

The twin rotors thrashed through the Martian atmosphere, maintaining stability by keeping the nose pointing upwards. The massive J-2 rocket engine below the capsule blasted out a flame that changed from yellow through red, then to clear blue. Rocks and dust were scattered in dead straight lines briefly, then the module shot off into the dark, dark sky.

Meanwhile the Pythagoras had followed the same procedure. Once the Graphene cloaks were removed the capsules synchronised their systems to enable a simultaneous lift-off, this prevented collateral damage caused by debris from the first big rocket to fire.

The gigantic J-2 rocket that powered the capsules into space had to be governed, not to conserve fuel, but to prevent the occupants being crushed by the tremendous g-forces created by the firing of such a powerful rocket engine.

The astronauts were subjected to eight times the gravity of Earth during the initial twenty-seven second burn, that was all it took from the J-2 to enable them to escape the gravity of Mars. Then silence and weightlessness descended upon the astronauts.

Author’s note:

If you wish to work this out, you need to know the escape velocity of Mars, the exact power of the J-2(mod), and the inertial weight of the Euclid and Pythagoras, (they were different). That’s rocket science.

Ash released her restraining straps as she turned to Hoshi,

‘Do we know exactly where the Phoenix is?’

‘Yes. It is on the other side of the planet.’

‘Can we rendezvous with her?’

Hoshi shrugged, ‘We left the planet in such a hurry that we did not have the opportunity to calculate how we were to intercept the mother ship.’

Ash removed his helmet, then Hoshi took hers off before any more conversation,

The rather battered space gloves that Ash wore looked as if they had seen better days, he punched a few buttons as he checked the shut-down procedures of the J-2,

‘We know that she left the Martian static orbit some time ago. I think she is on the other side of the planet now, and I think we know the track she will be taking in her orbit.’

Hoshi took up the line of calculus,

‘All we have to do is find that line in space.’ She consulted the main navigational computer. ‘This line is not in three dimensions, it is not even in four dimensions; first there is the height above the surface to consider.’ She punched in the information.

‘How consistent is this line? It could be almost oval.’ Ash suggested.

‘I can only go on the last information we have. When she passed over this spot we are over, that was her height.’ She pointed at the figure she had input. ‘Now we need to know where she is at this moment. That position over the surface will give us another two dimensions.’

Ash punched requests into the equipment, but came up shaking his head,

‘Nothing. There is no transponder information from the Phoenix, and I don’t think it is because she is on the other side of the planet.’

‘You mean the robots?’

‘Yes, that is why we must converse in this way, without using microphones.’

The radio then burst into life,

‘Pythag to Euclid.’ Jake came over loud and tinny.

‘Euclid to Pythag. Hi, Jake. How are things over there?’

‘Ok. Have you worked out how we are to meet up with Phoenix?’

‘We are working the problem right now. If you could take position twenty miles from us, when we have worked out the probable line of travel we will straddle it.’ Hoshi seemed to be talking to herself, ‘... the direction of travel and exact bearing has to be known, then the speed.’

 ‘Hoshi, are you on the Net?’ Ash interrupted her, Hoshi was inducted into this system because of her involvement with the electronics throughout the whole mission. The Net extends as far as Earth.

‘Not that I know. But I have my cloak here, it is probably a good idea to use it for now.’

Hoshi took out the grey Graphene cloak that covered her head and torso, making her invisible to the Net, then continued,

‘The speed is tied in with the height above the surface. In order to maintain a steady orbit, the ship will have a certain speed dictated to it.’ She typed in the last few pieces of information, then turned to Ash who was watching screens on his side of the module.

They both watched the main monitor that showed a line drawing of Mars. Then it overlaid a grid that signified the sub-divisions on the planet’s surface. The grid moved around, then a bright yellow dot appeared, alongside this appeared the name Phoenix, then a time of its last known position. This figure, and the dot changed and moved as the computer calculated the Phoenix’s position up to the present time. Then it drew an oval from the dot, describing the orbit of the Phoenix. Next various time makings appeared showing where she will be at various times. At the same time that all of this was developing there were data showing up on panels to either side of the main picture. One of these showed the speed of the Phoenix. Then two small but bright bluish white lights appeared on the screen showing where the Euclid and Pythagoras were.

‘Not bad.’ Ash commented as he assessed their positions relative to the orbit of the Phoenix ‘She should pass about 250 miles over there in about 55 minutes’ time.’

‘Feed into that the consideration that the Phoenix may be coming at us at several thousand miles per hour, and we only have the mark one eyeball to assist with docking, I think we have a better than reasonable chance of screwing this up good style.’ Hoshi joked.

Ash called Jake,

‘Euclid to Pythagoras. Hey, Jake can you see me from way over there?’

Jake and Galina both heard the transmission, they looked out of their respective windows,

‘Where is he?’ asked Galina.

‘According to the radio bearing he could be one of those stars over there.’ Jake said as he leaned gently on her shoulder. His sheepskin lining felt comforting to her, it was as if something natural from Earth had touched her. She pointed agitatedly out