The Hermies Incident

By Isaac King

After years as a poster boy for space station children, Bill Smiths orderly life is turned inside out by events that defy rational reason. His natural pension for physical interaction with fellow crew members and his innate technical abilities are strained to the breaking point in his need to protect his sanity, if not his actual life. To overcome what appear to be impossible odds and a clear organized conspiracy at the highest levels of government, Bill and his nemesis, Juanita Alvarez, become entangled in a roller-coaster ride of stress and emotional involvement, bordering on a criminal conspiracy of their own.
What appears to be wrong becomes right, what appears to be bad becomes good, and what appears to be legal becomes truly illegal. In this epic battle of right and wrong, our characters moral and physical strengths are tested to the breaking point. In the end, the never-ending struggle of all living things to exist and prosper is confirmed without regard for mankinds concept of right or wrong. Open the front cover, immerse yourself in the unfolding story, and pray for a revelation. I think you will find it very hard to put down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496939166

Isaac King

Isaac was born at home on December 13th 1942, during a severe blizzard attended only by a neighborhood midwife as the 6th of 8 children of Johnie Elisha King and Zelda Boyd. Home was in the mountains of Kanawha County West Virginia in the Carbon Fuel coal mine town of Jochin located on the left fork of the left branch of Cabin Creek. At the brilliant and all knowing age of 17, Isaac quit High School in December 1959 with passing marks to enlisted in the USMC. On December 14th 1959, with reluctance, his father signed the under age enlistment form. Formal USMC training at Paris Island started on January 13th, 1960 in the 1st Battalion, D Company, Platoon 104. Isaac graduated boot camp on April 13th, 1969; graduated Camp Geiger, ITR May 10th, 1060; graduated NAATC, Millington Tennessee, Helicopter Mechanical school on Sikorsky HRS-2s on November 9th, 1960; graduated Marine Corps Sea School, Portsmouth VA on December 21nd, 1960; joined the USS Boxer, LPH-4 as a crew member, V-1 Division, R-8, flight deck crash crew. This 2 year tour including the blockage of Cuba and the JFK Presidential Cruse. While aboard the Boxer, Isaac obtained his GED and completed a radio and TV repair course from ITR along with numerous Navy related fire fighting and damage control schools. On January 4th, 1963 Isaac was transferred to the Marine Corps Air Station, MAC-26, HMM 262, New River NC and assigned to the ubiquitous Sikorsky UH-34D "Ugly Angel". On Apr 17th,.1963, he was reassigned to MAC-26, HMM-263, New River NC and on May 22nd, 1963 he was detached to the USS Hermitage, LSD-34 in support of SU #2, HMM-262, a six aircraft Helicopter squadron for deployment to the Mediterranean. On October 6th, 1963, he moved back to MAC-26, HMM-263 and on January 13th, 1964 he was released from active duty and transfer to the inactive reserve at MARTC, NAS Glenview IL. On September 1964, he once again enrolled at East Bank High School in the 12th grade and graduating in May, 1965. Early employment included Buta Pure Oil, the Carbon Fuel Coal Company laboratory technician and Carbon Fuel Company number 20 Slope Mine while attend formal schooling. September, 1965, he enrolled in the Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Science program at what was then called WV Tech. On May 18th, 1967 Isaac married his college sweetheart Patricia Myers and in May 1970 he was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. He also secured employment with the Naval Electronics Systems Command in Washington DC in May 1970 as an engineer in the Marine Corps Electronics Division. On March 15th, 1971 he and Patricia were divorced. In September of 1974 he enrolled in the VPI Electrical Engineering Master Degree program, became the program manager for two major USMC tactical search radars at NESC. In 1980, Isaac moved his employed to Systems and Applied Sciences Corporation as director of their newly formed Engineering Division for “Star Wars” programs. In 1981 he left SASC and joined Raytheon as the chief off-site engineer for systems development at McDonald Douglas in Huntington Beach CA. In May 1984 he returned to Raytheon and on May 13th, 1984 on the way home married his long term girlfriend Vicki Stride in Reno NV. In 1995, Isaac and Vicki were divorced, he gained custody of his two sons, his employment with Raytheon ended, and he started Ike's Bytes. In 2006 he sold Ike's Bytes, his home, said good by to family, and moved to Florida where he currently resides with his girl friend Teresa Cole. After 71 years of preparation, Isaac finally put pen to paper and the results are this gimps into the weird and exciting world of his mind. This book is total fiction and in part the culmination of Isaac's entire life starting with his brilliant decision in 1959 to quit high school and join the Marine Corps. He suffered all that is reveled hear and much much more to provide you, the reader, with this small escape from reality. Please enjoy.

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© 2014 Isaac King. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/07/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3917-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3916-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014916124

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter A—In The Beginning

Chapter B—Bill’s GAA Path

Chapter C—What Happened

Chapter D—Trashed Quarters

Chapter E—Quiet Time

Chapter F—Commanders Call

Chapter G—New Job New Life

Chapter H—O.K. Who Said That

About the Author

Chapter A

In The Beginning

B ill stared out at space through the small view port in the employee lounge. The universe looked so safe from this vantage point. He could stand there for hours, suspended in time, wrapped in a mental security blanket like a three year old with a quilted huggie. Never once did the magnitude or expanse of the space before him, or its inherent dangers, enter into his thoughts. After all, he was the proverbial poster child for space kids. He had spent almost all of his life on board this massive station.

Bill’s livelihood was a direct result of a major failure in the early Moon, Mars colonization program. In the 21st century the need to colonize the Moon and Mars was a driving force for mankind. Government committees and commercial interest convinced the public and themselves that expansion into space was not optional and that there was free gold in space colonization.

To this end an inspired transportation concept was put forth by the premier organizers, scientist, and technocrats of the day. This plan consisted of hundreds of standard antimatter propulsion ships running back and forth from the Earth, Moon and Mars on direct routes supplying the colonies with people and finished goods and returning with gold and rare minerals much more valuable than gold.

Leading scientist of the day insisted that the antimatter problems would be resolved any day. And even today, they still hold to this dream. Well, as we know, the antimatter propulsion system proved to be more difficult than human technology could muster up at the time so the concept leaders developed a save our ass plan based on a more conventional means of propulsion. After all, time was money and the failure to produce the antimatter drive had already caused enough delays.

At this point, The lead designers needed a serious long term fallback position. So, with no admission of failure on the part of the much touted antimatter approach the current system emerged. This redesign resulted in the birth of the Earth Mars Station (EMS) and Heavy Earth Freighter (EHF) system we know and love today. The current system was originally designed to be only a fall back system to keep the program going until the antimatter boys got their ducks in a row. Still a dream in the works even today. Who knows, it could happen!

From this major turning point on the designers put a spin on all marketing and press releases. Without admitting anything and with no visible fan fair, the great inspired antimatter concept changed to the more conventional inspired HEF/EMS Concept. The system now in place. The hype was so great they actually convinced themselves and their investors that they had gained in the transition. After all, they now had an EMS which would become a major profit generator as a transportation, amusement and vacation center as well as an industrial and commercial complex. Clearly a great improvement over the now unmentioned design from years back. The hype and struggle to keep the attention on the EMS resulted in a system designed for a capacity that never materialized. Just for completeness they are still dreaming of the original antimatter drive. So much for working warp drives and worm holes.

Anyway, from its inception the fallback HEF/EMS system served its planned functions better than expected in all areas except for return on investment. The excess capacity of the EMS and an unrealized traffic load reduced cost effectiveness to a negative value. It was however, a critical link between the earth and its budding colonies on the Moon and Mars. Without it, the colonization would not and could not have occurred. In recent years, with Mars approaching self sufficiency and a population in the hundreds of millions, the present need for the EMS is not as clear cut as it once was. This fact was making its continued existence a hot political potato within the Earth, Moon, and Mars political arena.

The ARC Concept

Starting at day one, the political structures of earth could not agree on or fund any reasonable Mars Moon exploitation program. This lack of focus and initiative on the part of the fragmented earth governments and agencies resulted in a number of major corporations forming a multinational Advanced Research Corporation (ARC) whose sole function was to fund and manage a private and vast Moon and Mars exploitation program.

It took over a hundred years of planning, testing, prototyping, building and unknown trillions of asset expenditures. With a minimal involvement by any earth social or government organization the ARC went on to generate the first EHF ships and the EMS along with all the systems required to support them. Finally, after a tremendous and unprecedented amount of time, money, and effort on the part of the free commerce ARC organization, the EMS based transportation system was placed in service and the exploitation of the Moon and Mars began in earnest.

Over the years of development the system had changed from the original concept of hundreds of low cost antimatter ships operating from any international air port or space port to a system of Low Orbit Ship (LOS) using gravity assisted long rail and electromagnetic launch tube technology and conventional chemical rocket system launched from only three Terra sites. The five LOS sites were located China, Europe and the US and one each on Mars and the Moon. Each site used the natural terrain and gravity to gain their initial velocity, rail gun technology to achieve a significantly high velocity launch from a tube structure and standard chemical rockets to push the LOS to a sustainable but low earth orbit.

Once in a stable low earth orbit, the LOS could maneuvered to a waiting deep space capable Earth Heavy Freighter (EHF) waiting to take on cargo and personnel and offload cargo and personnel to the LOS for the final return leg to the Earths surface.

A major feature of the overall system was the standard fuel cell. All fuel cells for the LOS and EHF were identical and interchangeable. A single cell could boost the LOS into orbit. Once in orbit, the tanks could be joined end to end and refueled to supply the much larger EHF or simply cut up for building materials for EMS construction. Refueling was generally done by the Moon or Mars due to the much lower gravity and the ease of lifting fuel to orbit. Some tanks and tank parts were also used by the colonies on the Moon and Mars. Nothing was left in space or jettisoned to burn up in the earths atmosphere.

A single EHF could service numerous smaller LOS launches and in theory, more than one could be in orbit at any time. When fully loaded, the EHF would return to the EMS and again take on cargo and personnel and offload cargo and personnel. The organizational aspects of the system are very similar to the early Earth aviation systems. A bit more labor intensive and complicated but it had functioned for many years with little or no serious problems.

Dark Clouds Forming

The redesigned concept made the large space based EHF a key asset of the entire system. They interface with the LOS ships and the EMS and provided the basic ability of the system to continuously move cargo and personnel from Earth to Mars and the Moon with the EMS hub as the central station. They were the key to solving the problem of the missing long range antimatter ships. If that approach had panned out, they would not have needed the intermediary EMS HEF components. Unfortunately the multi teared system was not efficient and to date it had not achieved profitability.

By the time the ARC stockholders accepted this reality, they had so much invested in the system that they could not abandoned the program without bankrupting many earth nations and economies and the impact on the political situations around the globe would have been devastating.

After years of financial disasters and to avoid a very possible global financial and political meltdown, the ARC turned over all ownership, operation, security, and regulation of the entire ARC complex to a United Earth (UE) established Central Space Station Administration (CSSA) made up of the USA, China, the EU, Russia, and India.

Fig 1: ARC EMS Concept

EMS%20-%201.jpg

Of course, the ARC stock holders had to be compensated in some fashion [can you smell a government bail out] so the ARC to CSSA transfer agreement was passed. This agreement included in its thousands