Thrones of Mars

By Lloyd Martin

This story uses only what we have today, or will be developed from what we have.
Some say we cannot go with the technology we now use. We can, and we will; only the will is needed.
The astronauts and cosmonauts on the Orion Program thought they were alone in building a spaceship to go to Mars and back. As they were building the ship, they found that they were being helped by minds much bigger than theirs - then they find a machine that was not made on Earth by men.
The appearance of a man working on the outside of the spaceship without a spacesuit can be alarming, so he tends to stay inside.
I reiterate:
This story uses only what is available today, or will be developed from what we now have.
There are fantasies, no death rays, superheroes, or machines defying the laws of physics.
"The mission really is establishing permanence on another planet in the Solar System."
Dr. E. E. 'Buzz' Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lloyd Martin
• Release date: Nov 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005990367

Lloyd 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 series of books: the Coniston Fowler trilogy. Since then I have written a trilogy of novellas about mans first landing on Mars, and a set of books of a James Bond type.

Book preview

Prologue

This story uses only what is available today; or will be developed from what we have now.

Some say that we cannot go to Mars using the systems we now use.

We can – and we will.

Read on and see how it is not only possible, but easier than landing on the moon with 1950’s technology.

Only the will is needed.

The astronauts and cosmonauts on the Orion Program thought they alone were building a spaceship that could go to Mars and back - when they began working on it they found that they were not alone. The ship they were constructing was now being designed by minds much bigger than theirs.

Then two astronauts on a routine spacewalk discover something completely alien; something that did not come from Earth.

The appearance of a man working on the outside of the spaceship without a spacesuit can be alarming, so he tends to stay inside.

I reiterate;

This story uses only what is available today; or will be developed from what we have now.

There are no fantasies, no death rays, superheroes, or machines defying the laws of physics.

If you want an answer to these paradoxes - read on.

… … … … …

Chapter One

F-2D echoes

Two men in casual NASA uniform stood in the Texas sunshine.

Behind them was deep, deep blackness.

The inside of the cavernous exhaust of a gigantic F2D rocket engine echoed to the sounds of their voices.

Preston Ashton was an old hand (by astronaut terms) at space work.

‘I’m not sure about getting too involved here.’

His natural expression was of warm welcoming affability. His dark eyes had long ago taken on an inverted crescent shape from so much smiling. His hair was now premature grey, but plentiful and thick. Originally from New York State, Ash moved to Texas via many postings with the USAF. During his early years he had visited every island in the norther Hemisphere. Because of all his travelling Ash had lost any trace of a New York accent.

Jake Jensen was a tall native of Texas, he still had the Texas drawl so typical of people from the Lone Star State, but he seldom wore the trade-mark Stetson.

He managed to get to the ISS on one of the last Space Shuttle flights before it was retired.

As they walked by a row of massive rocket engines Jake said,

‘Michelle you mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘I could be going to Mars at the end of this. And, at the moment, it is a one-way trip.’

‘You are only one on a short list of a couple hundred, Ash. Do you think they are sending an ark?’

Ash smiled as he said,

‘And then there are the risks involved; this is dangerous work.’

Jake stopped and turned to face Ash,

‘Jeeze, Ash. This is not like you – don’t go being a pessimist on me in your old age.’

‘No, no. It’s just that in the military we always knew that in periods of high danger it doesn’t help to get too close to anyone.’

‘Let’s be realistic here, Ash.’ He held out his hand ‘You have only a 1 in 200 chance of being on this mission.’

‘You are wrong there, Jake.’ Ash shook his head gently, ‘We are looking at sending six or eight people to Mars. That brings my odds down to less than 25 to one.’

‘How do you get it to be less than 25/1?’

‘I have been told that there will be equal places on the mission. The split I have seen is two Americans, two Russians, two Chinese, one European and one Japanese.’

‘Where did you get that from?’

‘Never you mind.’ Ash used a finger to emphasise his message. ‘My point is that with so many Russians and Chinese on the list they still only get two places each.’

‘Do we really need so many Russians on this mission? Yes, they have been very useful with their launch facilities in the past. But now we have the whole system back on US soil.’

Ash had already been to the Russian Gagarin Cosmonaut training facility at Star City, then out to the International Space Station via the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.

He paused before replying,

‘We have been working on this project for nearly four years now. Early on we found that it was going to be almost impossible to do this whole thing on our own. The main problem was likely to be the length of time it is going to take to develop the required hardware. Given that during such a long period of time we would be having changes of Government, ups and downs in the economy and other worldly problems to contend with, it is very probable that the space program would be hit with funding issues.’

‘We did the Apollo missions on our own.’

‘That was small beer compared with what we are attempting today. For a start they are still working on a one-way trip; they have still ain’t found a way to get anyone back here.’ He looked at Jake, who knew all too well that the astronauts on this mission had all signed on for a one-way trip.

Ash continued,

‘So we came up with a scheme that gave us security in knowing that the program cannot be cancelled, or cut back - international collaboration. On the face of it, it looks like countries around the world putting together their resources and expertise with a common aim. Yes, we all benefit from collaboration with each other, we always have. But this is not actually the main objective this time. The contracts and agreements reached during the preparation phase of this program were specifically designed to prevent any contributing country from pulling out. The whole program is massively expensive. We have taken on some expensive programs in the past, most of them we dare not tell the politicians how much they were going to cost when we first proposed them.’ He looked at the rows of flags fluttering in the wind as they passed, ‘This time it was different. We couldn’t devise a number, then halve it, like we did in the past. Simply because there was no way we could even guess how much this project was going to cost. So we thought of a number and used that as the lock-in penalty clause to prevent any signatory of the project to keep them on board. Then we worked out how much it is going to cost for each separate stage of the operation; and put that forward like a hire-purchase deal. Put simply, it is cheaper to continue than to leave.’ Ash was surprised that Jake did not know all this already,- ‘This does not mean that we have a blank chequebook. We cannot arrive at the end of the program with a shortfall. Our aim is to put men (and women) on Mars. If there is a shortfall of funds, it does not mean they may run out of Hershey bars. The people who land will have to spend up to eighteen months on the surface of the planet. If you cannot find resources there you will have to be supplied with food, water and oxygen. We are working on these problems right now, but we cannot afford to be short of funds at a critical stage.’

They walked a little way before Jake asked,

‘Do you think he has something?’ meaning Pav.

The older man took some time before answering,

‘Only if Xanthros has concerns in Sweden that we do not know about.’

‘Whaa?’

‘Michelle told me that Xanthros occasionally gets calls from out of town - I mean right out of town; Europe.’

‘This is an international project, Ash. We do have contacts in Europe.’

‘Not too many in Sweden; and she says that there is something about these calls – nothing she can put a finger on, but something different.’

… … … … … … …

Chapter Two

INTRODUCING ‘PHOENIX’

‘It’s a god-awful small affair.’ Sem said as they walked towards the Gilruth Centre in NASA’s sprawling complex in Houston.

Michelle had a quizzical expression as she replied,

‘Whaat? When this operation was first mentioned back in 2013 there were over 200,000 people volunteered to go to Mars one way.’

‘Oh no.’ Sem waved towards the buildings, ‘not NASA. The investigation; there seem to be very few people involved.’

Michelle led the way into the building as she lowered her voice,

‘And getting fewer all the time;’ she was referring to the recent loss of two investigators, ‘we have to keep the numbers down right now.’

They made their way along long corridors.

The young girl exclaimed,

‘But my mom did not want me to come here. She just could not accept that I had got to the final selection phase at Houston.’

Michelle listened with interest,

‘When I first applied, we heard that there were nearly one million applications to work on the Mars mission. There can’t be many people who have been in that kind of list.’

Michelle thought for a second, then stopped, and turned to face Sem, ‘My dear Sem. I happen to know of about one million who have.’

‘You do? How do you know them?’

‘You have just told me, silly.’

They walked on a little further chuckling to themselves.

Presently Sem commented,

‘I always thought that you had to be a doctor, like you, to work here.’

‘As you can now see, there are thousands of people here. They can’t all be doctors.’

The sixteen men and women selected for the Mars mission are now gathered together to learn how they are to get to Mars and back.

The small conference room was set out to receive the sixteen astronauts. Professor Mike Xanthros and Professor Jem ‘Banjo’ Stringer were preparing to give them their instructions on what to expect during their time at Houston, while Sem, a secretarial assistant, checked her list of information.

Doctor Michelle Romero entered the room carrying a stack of printed papers. She was wearing a striking outfit made up of the colours and symbols of NASA and the US flag. Mainly white, with red and blue infused into it, the skirt just above the knee, and full.

As she passed the pile of papers to Sem, she said,

‘Better keep the printed matter back until they’ve finished speaking.’

‘Ok, I see what you mean, don’t want them looking at the pretty printed pictures instead of listening to what the good Prof. has to say.’ She joked.

Michelle responded in kind,

‘There will probably be some men in this group, we need to explore their capacity for multi-tasking before we challenge them too much.’ She smiled at Sem. - ‘Listening to wise words and looking at pictures? Could be a strain on the limited male intellect.’

They laughed as they continued working.

Sem placed another box on a cabinet that ran along one wall at the front of the room as two men came in. She hoped they had not heard the jovial banter between her and Michelle.

‘I like the ‘wise words’ reference,’ said ‘Banjo’ Stringer as he let a sly grin creep across his lips.

‘We just want to make sure the hand-outs are not piled up for them to read from the opening, otherwise we would likely be fielding questions from the end before we have gotten started.’

Mike Xanthros then added,

‘Just leave the introductory sheet on the seats; we will indicate if they need more during the talk. Most of the hand-outs are for future reference and to remind them of salient points.’

White-suited people began filing into the room. The suits were more like coveralls, adorned with NASA embroidered patches. One was the new Orion patch denoting the mission to Mars.

The general hubbub died down as Mike Xanthros took position at the front of the room.

An ordinary-looking man stood before them.

But look into his eyes (if you dare) and there you get a glimpse into the soul of the man.

His eyes were the embodiment of determination and confidence. He knew exactly what he wanted, and the eyes told you that he knew that he was going to be successful in getting it.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the NASA facility at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston. There are some of you in this room who have not been here before, others are familiar faces.’ He nodded towards Collins, the Japanese scientist Hoshi Masuto and the Canadian John Garbou.

‘I am sure you will soon get to know each other as you work along with this most interesting project.’

A murmur of agreement went around the room.

‘I am Professor Mike Xanthros, Director of the Orion Project. The buck stops here. Any problems; and you can report them to me. I will then search out the section responsible and put in place any rectification procedures that may be needed. Are we clear on that?’

The assembled group mumbled in agreement, like groups do.

Half an hour later the meeting ended.

Doctor Romero turned to Sem as she picked up the pile of glossy coloured hand-outs. She handed half of the pile to the young Egyptian girl, who took it and began distributing the brochures. As Michelle turned to do the same, the pile slipped in her hand. As the colourful leaflets fluttered down she tried to save them. Most of them landed on Ash’s lap.

‘One would be enough, thank you,’ he said, grinning. - ‘What about the rest?’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Michelle replied, then followed it with a sharp cry, - ‘Ow. That hurt.’

She looked down at her left hand to see blood running from a paper cut on her little finger.

Because she was holding on to a few leaflets in her right hand, she was somewhat hampered when trying to stem the flow of blood. She tried holding the left hand in different positions to control the thin red river of blood as it made its way around her hand. The right hand began shaking as small drops of blood fell on-to Ash’s white flight-suit.

‘Here, let me get that.’ Ash said placing his handkerchief over the cut.

He could feel Michelle’s hand trembling slightly as he carefully wrapped the cloth around the little finger. The warmth and tenderness felt comforting to Michelle, who tried to play it down.

‘It’s nothing. Only a paper cut. Thank you. What about your clothes?’

‘I somehow think that there will be a lot more blood spilt on ‘em before this project is over.’

He kept hold of her hand, ostensibly to keep the dressing in place. She placed her hand on top of his as she looked into his eyes.

‘Trust me, I’m a doctor, -’ he said cocking his head to one side and gaving a reassuring smile.

Five astronauts seated by Ash all chimed up in unison,

‘We’re all doctors.’

Ash turned to them and replied,

‘Doctors I said, not dockers.’

Chapter Three

DAYS OFF

An afternoon off is a rarity for astronauts undergoing training. On one such afternoon, a group of them set off on a jaunt.

The Chinese couple made a strange picture. Win Lee was tall for a Chinese woman, just over six feet without heels; Cho Ling was only five feet seven. Sergei Pavel does not help, being six feet one and broad-built. John Garbou is average height, but of a burly stature; that emphasises the Chinaman’s height and slight build.

They discussed where to go as they walked across the parking lot as they headed for John’s car. It was his turn to drive for their afternoon sabbatical.

‘Red Bluff Road looks good to me.’ John said,

‘I hear there is an olde worlde place down there that has character, it used to be called ‘The Ship’, how about it?’

Cho answered,

‘Sounds good to me,’ he turned to Win, ‘How about you, shorty?’

‘Sounds good to me, also. Sergei?’

‘I’m game.’

They drove out of the Johnson Space Centre towards the coast. Half a mile down Red Bluff Road John took a right turn along Taylor Lake. Presently they found the restaurant that John was looking for.

‘This looks interesting.’ Sergei looked up at the timber building that looked as if it could use a coat of paint,

‘How did you find it, John?’

‘I have never been here before, but a friend of mine back in Canada told me about it. Now that was quite some time ago, so let’s hope that the standards have been maintained.’

Sergei looked around at the neighbourhood,

‘Looks like a village. There’s a good chance it hasn’t changed much. Let’s find out.’

The establishment they approached looked like an old fisherman’s retreat. The white walls were adorned with ‘THE SHIP’ painted in simple large black letters. A picture of a windjammer swung invitingly over the front entrance. An entrance was on the side leading on to the parking lot. The four people climbed the quaint steps that turned to the right as the door was approached.

Inside they found themselves walking through a large room with rugs on the floor. An arch led into a long room with a bar on one side. The group felt at ease immediately. From the bar they could see a small creek in a deep valley that was swamped with wild plants.

Sergei got the drinks and menus whilst the other three explored the premises.

John walked back the way they had come to look closer at the room they had come through. The Chinese pair moved directly away from the bar, through to a sort of room that was separated from the bar by half a wall with wooden piers and structures adorned with nets. They were looking out at the view when John came back to the bar.

‘I see you have a piano in there.’ He said to the bartender.

‘Yes, you play, sir?’

‘A little. Mind if I have a go?’

‘Certainly not, sir. It is an old Joanna, but I think it is still in some kind of tune.’

‘Well, all right. Let’s see what we can do.’ John said to Sergei.

As they turned to go back into the other room Sergei called across to Win and Cho, ‘We’ll just be in here.’

Win waved an acknowledgement.

John took up position at the piano.

Sergei looked at him and asked,

‘You sure you know what you are doing?’

‘I have always found that it always gets attention to just sit here and tap on the keys as if you know what you are doing.’

He began running his fingers up and down the keyboard. Then struck up into ‘Life on Mars’ which he began singing to his own accompaniment.

‘It’s a god-awful small affair…’

Win and Cho heard this from the other room, and quickly made their way into the piano room to join in the merriment.

‘Said the girl with the …’

The singing was interrupted by what sounded like the crack of a gun outside.

Sergei was nearest to the door. He made his way towards it. As he reached the entrance the sound of an assault rifle was heard. Sergei reeled back into the room.

The other three astronauts dived for cover behind the piano.

John saw Sergei hit the ground in front of the piano. He moved closer to find that Sergei was not moving, and a pool of blood was now spreading across the floor.

From his new position he could see out of the door. Before dodging back to cover he took a quick glance outside to see three men moving across the parking lot.

He looked back at Sergei, and without thinking moved closer to him. As John bent over the body of the astronaut he glanced out of the door to see the nearest man level his weapon straight at him.

His legs were already half-way to a crouched position. The only thing he could do was leap over Sergei, and perform a forward roll into a tabled area away from the door.

As he crashed into the tables he heard the assault rifle fire eight to ten shots. He shuddered as the rounds passed close enough for him to feel the shock waves.

The man who had fired them then came into the room. He couldn’t see the Chinese couple, but John had not had chance to find any cover.

As the man brought his gun to bear John heard a blast from within the pub.

Jacqui, the manager, had got a shotgun, and let the intruder have both barrels.

The man reeled backwards, dropping his gun.

His comrades ran for cover of the walls either side of the doorway as the unfortunate man fell back towards them. He did not move after landing in the doorway.

John Garbou did.

From his crouched position it was easy for him to roll across the floor and pick up the discarded weapon. This he did.

John knew the rifle had been fired, and he didn’t know how much ammunition there was still remaining in it. The last thing he wanted was for him to take on a gunman, only to hear the ‘Dead man’s click’ of his weapon.

He turned the selector from automatic to single shot.

Shooting from the hip he took out the man in front of him, then turned through 90 degrees to his right as he dropped to one knee in time to see the other man take aim with a handgun. Both weapons fired simultaneously.

The bullet from the handgun went wide. John Garbou’s round did not. The powerful assault rifle round hit the assailant in the middle of his head.

Still on one knee John looked around for any more threats as the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the distance. Jacqui came and stood alongside John as he called to the people inside,

‘All clear.’

… … … … … … …

Chapter Four

Sail Power

The sun beat down, as it usually did in Florida. There was a cool sea breeze to take the edge off the heat.

Michelle did her supermarket shop some eight miles from the base. There was a marina nearby with a waterfront coffee shop. She sometimes stopped at The Chris Miller Chandlery once her merchandise had been loaded into the car. This day she parked some way from the Chandlery coffee shop and sat looking at the gulls skimming the waves. Over to the right there was a large vending mobile home type of structure selling French cuisine. She wondered if the people working there spoke French to give it more atmosphere. More likely Spanish she decided. The aroma from the vendor was definitely French; she got out of her car to better smell the air. As she stood looking at the yachts, she leant on the black railings, careful to avoid the white bird droppings.

‘These yachting types seem to be a friendly lot’ she thought, ‘they must be having such a good time; they want to show their enthusiasm to people like me watching.’

One man on a yacht was waving enthusiastically and seemed to be waving at her. Then she realised that she was wearing the red, white and blue outfit that looks very patriotic and bright.

‘To hell with the embarrassment, she thought, I don’t care if I’m seen waving at boats like a child.’

So she waved back and thought no more of it as the boat made its way towards the forest of masts to the right where dozens of similar boats were moored.

Five minutes later she thought she had spent enough time trying to work out what the gulls were doing. As she walked back to her car she was trying to decide whether to grab a coffee in the Chandlery or not, when she heard a familiar voice calling out her name.

‘Michelle. I thought it was you. Can’t miss that outfit.’ Ash said as he approached the car.

‘Oh. Hi. What are you doing here? Do you live around here?’

‘No.’ he looked slightly puzzled. He narrowed his eyes slightly and turned his head a little to one side.

‘You must have seen me, you waved back.’

Michelle also looked a little puzzled, and then she looked at the water, then at Ash.

‘You! It was you?’ she gave a little wave.

‘Yes. But didn’t you know? You waved back.’

‘Yes. I know I waved.’

‘Are you in the habit of waving at strange sailors?’

‘I don’t know any strange sailors.’

‘They are all strange, my dear. They live a life between freedom and lawlessness on the high seas where they have to rely entirely on their own devices, skills and determination. Have you ever sailed?’ he asked.

‘No, the opportunity never came up.’

‘Well; now it has. Kirk and I are going downrange for a launch this afternoon. It really is quite a sight, you should come along.’

‘I don’t know, is there room?’

‘Of course there is room; this boat is classed as a seven berth that means it can sleep up to seven. I can’t help but think that it would be very cramped at that, and at least three of them would have to be midgets or children, but it is plenty big enough for us.’

Michelle was very excited to be asked to join two of the latest group of astronauts on a short adventure, but could she fit it in to her busy schedule?

‘How long would it take, I have merchandise here that may spoil if I left it in the car too long in this sun.’

‘We shall be back before the parking lot closes, as for your merchandise, you can bring anything that may spoil or defrost with you. But you must be warned, Kirk and I have been known to eat space rations for long periods of time, so when faced with proper food, we may become ravenous very quickly.’

‘Do you have cooking facilities on board?’ an idea was forming in her head.

‘Of course. And it is called the galley.’

‘Well, in that case I would be glad to accept your generous offer, on condition that I am permitted to cook you both dinner. Here, take this bag.’

Kirk was not surprised to see Michelle approach the boat at its moorings, he had also seen her on the quayside.

‘It looks as if our galley slave has come well prepared.’ He joked to Ash.

‘You guys can sail, I can cook. Let’s do what we are good at.’

Kirk replied,

‘I’ll go for that; I’m particularly good at eating.’

‘Well, you are crap at sailing.’ Ash said as he made his way below to the small main cabin that served as dining area, galley, navigation station, and shelter. Michelle was just behind Ash; this saved him from getting a friendly kick in the back from Kirk.

‘I’ll cast off and get us under way.’ Kirk called. He then went to cast off the painter from the bow. As the front of the boat drifted gently away from the quay he made his way along the length to the stern, where he cast off from there, nimbly leaping back on board with the coiled rope. He then moved to the wheelhouse just forward of the stern and started the on-board engine.

Ash quickly showed Michelle where everything lived below decks.

‘If you have frozen goods, the best place for them will be in the storage area in the point of the bow. It isn’t exactly a freezer, but we have had it insulated, and it is the coolest part of the ship. Or you could find room in the fridge and turn its thermostat down low.’

He looked out of the high set windows.

‘We will be moving out to deep water soon, I had better go give Kirk a hand with the sails.’

This somehow surprised Michelle,

‘SAILS? We are approaching half way through the twenty-first century. You two are training to go to Mars. And you tell me that we are behaving like seventeenth century pirates?’

‘With the little engine we have, we can make little more than walking pace in this sea. With the sails up we may be able to make twenty knots.’ Ash told her.

They made their way up to the open wheelhouse where Kirk was steering with the huge ship’s wheel.

‘That sounds more like it.’ Michelle was trying to fit in by feinting understanding,

‘Twenty knots. And how fast is that?’

Kirk didn’t need to refer to anything as he replied,

‘About twenty-four miles per hour.’

‘Twenty-four miles an hour?’ Michelle was surprised. They all worked for NASA, and speeds of these values did not exist at NASA.

‘I can travel at that speed on my bicycle.’ She said.

Ash replied,

‘Not on these seas, you can’t. And by using wind power we can keep it up for hours.’

Kirk looked round from the wheel. Ash nodded. He turned to Michelle who was admiring the shrinking shore.

‘Now for your next lesson in seamanship.’

She looked surprised. Kirk moved away from the wheel as he cut the throttle. The only sounds were of the ocean lapping against the side of the boat.

‘This is the steering wheel. There is nothing to hit out here, but it is important to keep going in the same direction whilst we rig the sails. When we are short of crew we normally tie the wheel down, but we have a new crew member today, so you can steer the boat.’

Michelle was somewhat taken aback; she had never been on a boat before, and now she was being asked to take full responsibility for steering it. Driving it, in effect.

‘Oh, I don’t know. What if I crash into Japan or something?’

‘You won’t. For a start, Japan is that way.’ He indicated by pointing his thumb over his shoulder, ‘And America is in the way.’

‘Well, what’s over there?’ she pointed over the bow.

‘The Atlantic Ocean. At this point it is about three and a half thousand miles across. You said we could only travel as fast as your bicycle, how long would it take you to cycle that far?’

Kirk smiled at the conversation as he began moving to the mainsail stowage behind the mainmast.

‘All you have to do, Michelle, is hold this wheel steady. Keep a good lookout, if you see another ship call Kirk or me. Nothing happens quickly out here, we will have plenty of time to react.’

He took her slightly shaking hands and put them on the wheel.

‘You’ll be ok. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you couldn’t handle.’

With that he touched her shoulder and climbed out of the recessed area as Kirk called loudly,

‘Did you tell her about the U-boat and sharks?’

Fortunately, she didn’t hear the name Ash called Kirk, but all three of them were smiling, and she felt quite at home here.

Presently the mainsail was set and filled. The yacht began moving quite quickly. Michelle looked back to see the land shrinking and losing detail. Ash came back to her. Kirk stayed midships sitting on the low roof of the main cabin, whilst he rested his feet on the chrome rail that ran all around the side of the boat.

Ash noticed that Michelle’s hands were still hold of the same spoke ends on the wheel as she had when he left her, and her knuckles were turning white.

‘There’s no need to hold so tight. Just rest your hands on the wood.’

He jumped down into the open wheelhouse and looked at the gimbal mounted compass.

‘Try moving the wheel a little to the right, you will see that it is not so sensitive.’

Michelle managed to turn the wheel quite a long way before daring to let go of the spokes she clung to.

‘You can let go. Give it a little spin.’

‘Oh, are you sure?’

‘Yes, here, let me show you.’

With that he moved closer to her. She stood as if frozen to the spot. When his shoulder touched hers she reluctantly moved to allow room for him behind the wheel. She was surprised just how reluctant she was to move, but it was ok, because he followed her and their shoulders touched again.

He was standing to her left, his tanned hairy left hand took hold of hers, which still clung on to the wheel.

‘You can let go now. If you are so attached to that spoke I can have one made for you.’

‘Oh.’ She released her grip. As her hand opened he gripped it gently, she returned the squeeze. Then he took hold of the wheel spoke she had released.

‘You can release the other one now. I can steer with one hand.

As she released the right hand and let it fall down by her side she felt his right hand on her shoulder.

‘See, one hand. He let the wheel spin one or two spokes with his left hand. The boat did not go veering off in the way you would expect a car to do.

She felt very safe. For the first time for what seemed ages she looked to the front of the boat. Kirk was looking out to sea. Then she thought, where is Ash looking? Where do you look when you are steering a boat? She knew about the compass, but what do you use for reference?

She turned to look at Ash. His sunglasses were now on his forehead. How the hell did he do that? His right hand was on her right shoulder, his left was supposed to be steering the boat. He stood a good foot taller than she did; in order to look at his forehead she had to tilt her head back quite a bit. He simply bent his head down slightly and kissed her gently.

They looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds before he said,

‘We got a launch to see. If we continue on this course we will be too far down range to see the lift-off.’

He smiled as he stroked her cheek. She could still feel his right hand on her shoulder.

Almost from a parallel universe she suddenly thought,

WHO IS STEERING?

She turned to the wheel that had no one holding it, so was turning gently to the right, then the left.

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, ‘Show me what to do again.’ She involuntarily looked back at Ash, and they kissed again, his right hand now pulling her closer to him. She felt his left hand moving around her waist. Her right hand was now around his wide back.

Then Kirk called out,

‘LAND HO! I think it is the Azores.’

Without letting go of Michelle, Ash spun the wheel almost casually to turn the boat to the right.

Michelle suddenly felt that there were other tasks that should be dealt with. They parted. Ash looked at the compass, then winked at Michelle as he lowered his sunglasses and took the wheel, but he stood back from it as he held out his hand, offering the wheel to Michelle.

‘Would you like the con?’ he said.

‘If you don’t mind guiding me.’

‘Ok, I’ll watch the compass and give you a heading. Now remember, you don’t need to throttle the thing, be gentle with it. But bear in mind that you will have to turn quite a lot to have any effect on the direction in which we are travelling.’

‘Ok. I think I’ve got the hang of it now.’

Ash consulted the compass.

‘Give me 15 points to starboard.’

‘I would give you 15 points out of ten.’ She replied as she turned the wheel easily to the right until she felt the boat begin to move. Then she stopped the wheel.

Second later Ash called,

‘Ok. Rudder amidships.’

Michelle turned the wheel to the left. Then said to Ash,

‘How do you know when it is in the middle?’

‘Just let go. Like sometimes in life you just have to let go, and don’t fight it.’

Their eyes met again and she said,

‘Yes, I know just what you mean.’

Kirk came down to the open wheelhouse,

‘Have you two got any idea where we are?’ he quipped.

Ash leaned over the side of the boat,

‘Looks like Norway to me. Any ideas, Michelle?’

‘Can’t be Norway, I can’t smell Macky-D’s.’

Kirk then realised something,

‘I can’t smell any food at all.’ He pointed towards the distant land,

‘As far as I recall, they are about to launch another Orion mission. We are a serious distance down-range, do you think they could drop off some of that delicious space food on their way past?’

‘I can take a hint.’ Michelle turned to Ash, ‘Would you take the wheel? I have more important issues that need to be dealt with.’

‘More important than controlling the boat?’

‘Yes, I have a mutiny to avert.’

45 minutes later all three were sitting in the sun eating steak and eggs.

Michelle looked at the land on the horizon,

‘How can you tell from looking at that grey spread exactly where we are?’

Kirk was first to reply,

‘It’s easy when you know what to do, and in what order.’ He held his hand, palm outermost, to face the land they could see,

‘You begin by taking an accurate measurement of what you can see, get the exact bearing, and note any landmarks. Then you take the information you have gathered down into the chart room below. There you will find charts of all sorts; these must be moved to one side so that you can switch on the sat nav.’

Ash then added,

‘There is a read-out in front of the wheel. You can see from that that we are some five miles downrange from the launch. Lift-off is scheduled for,’ he consulted his watch, ‘eighty-five minutes. What we intend to do is sail across his intended route downrange, then turn inland to get closer to the launch site.’

‘Is that allowed? I thought that all shipping was excluded downrange during a launch.’

‘It used to be,’ explained Ash, ‘but two launches ago the litigating authority ran out and they decided not to bother renewing it. They figured that just not telling anyone would be sufficient to keep most ships away.’

‘So how close are we going to be?’

Kirk looked at Ash. Eventually Ash looked up from his steak,

‘I have been to Mission Control early this morning. They reckon the rocket will travel downrange on a course of 085 degrees. So if we are out from Complex 39 at 95 degrees we will get the best view from one mile range, and the Orion will fly over our mast at about 30 miles height, traveling at three times the speed of sound.’

Chapter Five

ROBOTS

NASA use the largest tank of water in the world to train astronauts in how to operate in near zero gravity. The tank had to be that size to accommodate the various bits of equipment the space walkers needed to work on. At different times it contained large parts of the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble Space Telescope – anything that might need repair or attentions in space.

Xanthros and Ash moved towards the training area,

‘We got an old Robonaut 3 for you to play with this time.’ Said Xanthros, ‘It has been on the ISS for the past two years, and they have sent it back because a more advanced model has now superseded it. But this one is still fully functional and cleared for use in space.’

‘Or underwater.’ Ash added.

They reached the door that lead into the reception area for the underwater testing facility.

The attendant on the desk knew Xanthros, but still checked the authorised usage permit, and briefly scrutinised Ash’s credentials.

Once inside they met up with Tom Collins, Lili Gothe and Al Fontana, who would be joining them for this portion of their training.

Xanthros began by taking them across to what looked like just what you would expect a robot to look like; head, arms and torso. But no legs; this robot was mounted on a set of all-terrain wheels.

‘We’ve developed a series of Centaur rovers to carry the Robonaut upper bodies and other payloads.’ Xanthros explained, gesturing to the robot.

‘This combination mixes state-of-the-art robotic mobility with the world’s most advanced dextrous manipulation system. The cunning thing about this arrangement is that he can removed from his wheels, and be mounted on the end of the Canadarm for work in space on the outside of the structure. He can also be set tasks inside the spacecraft.’

He looked at the wheeled undercarriage, then looked back up at the group,

‘Over the next few years we’ll be sending food, water and oxygen supplies to Mars. Because of the orbit differences they won’t arrive until after you, or whoever goes, have landed on the surface. We don’t want to risk the possibility, no matter how remote, of one of these supply arks falling onto the first human settlement on another planet. So they will be landing up to 50 kilometres away. - At the moment we cannot predict the landing area more accurately than a 25-kilometre area of probability. There is no way you could go on a long-range search over such terrain.’

He turned to Ash.;- ‘I don’t feel comfortable using the term ‘terrain’ when referring to another world.’

Ash nodded. ‘Even the word ‘world’ is wrong - planet is more accurate.’

‘Quite right, but you get my drift.’

The group nodded.

‘The ultimate use for this robot combination is to retrieve the supply canisters. It comes complete with a trailer, which it builds itself out of its own re-entry capsule after landing.’

He walked around the stationary robot. ‘When packaged ready to be placed in his re-entry capsule, or for transport anywhere in space, he can fit into a cube one metre square.’

He held out his hands to demonstrate the rough dimensions.

Then a deep voice burst from the robot.

‘NO.’

Everyone except Xanthros stood stock still from shock. No one spoke as the robot continued,

‘This is a metre.’

And it held its hands out precisely one metre apart.

Tom and Ash looked at each other, Al looked at Lili, and they all burst out laughing.

From there the robot continued the commentary, it swung its arms down and moved silently to one side as its wheels individually swivelled; ‘I have full crab style steering, and the ability to build another trailer from the supply pod I will be retrieving.’

It leaned over backwards until its head nearly touched the floor behind him.

‘I don’t know what possible use it is likely to be, but I can drive across the roughest ground in this position. Small cameras mounted all around the carriage are fed into my sensory circuits enabling me to see from any position.’

It straightened up, and then twisted its torso until he was facing more than 90 degrees to the right; Lili was standing on that end of the group as he addressed her,

‘Lili, can you see what Professor Xanthros is doing?'

She had to move to be able to see Xanthros, who was now behind the robot; ‘Yes, he is getting coffee from the machine.’

The machine took up the description, ‘and now he is stirring it. Would you like a coffee, Doctor Gothe?’

‘Yes, please, cream, no sugar; -’ she replied.

As the robot turned its head towards the coffee machine the crabbing wheels moved it silently towards the coffee dispenser.

‘Excuse me, Professor Xanthros.’

The robot then operated the coffee machine, a piece of equipment that was specifically designed to be used by humans. Showing the assembled group, the level of integration it could achieve with human operations.

Xanthros turned to the robot and said, ‘Thank you Robonaut.’

He turned to face the next robot in line.

‘This one is known as Dexter. It was originally designed to perform routine maintenance tasks on the ISS, like changing batteries, replacing cameras and doing minor repairs outside the space station.’

The machine to which he referred looked like a mechanical white column with at least two arms, each one nearly the full length of a man. The arms seemed to be made up of metal egg boxes, each one providing more flexibility and attachment points.

‘It is rare to see him in warm air; his normal working and living environment is the deep cold of outer space.’

Collins interrupted at this point. -

‘I have operated this system on, or should I say outside of, the space station. It looks cumbersome and heavy, but in space with no gravity, and plenty of room it works beautifully.’

‘That is true, Tom. And because it performs so well, and reliably, we are now developing a more advanced and capable version for use on your mission.’

Lili turned to Al and whispered, ‘They are certainly throwing enough hardware at this.’

Robonaut, still standing behind her, broke in, as though she had spoken at a normal volume, and to it.

‘Not only hardware, the software we are testing now enables us to learn and develop ourselves. That is how we will be able to predict problems and design preventative measures to deal with them before they have chance to become an issue.’

‘Now this may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you.’ said Xanthros; ‘What we envisage here is that these machines, and a few more like them, will be installed on the ISS in plenty of time to prepare for their main task. They will be performing normal robotic tasks but planning for their main mission.’ He paused and took a sip of coffee to allow this information to sink in before continuing, ‘Their main mission will be to learn and develop over six years, by which time they will have torn the ISS down and reassembled it 100 miles further out.’

True astonishment spread across the people gathered there.

‘We, of course, do not expect them to do this on their own. The sixteen astronauts on the Orion Program of which you are Blue team, will have a major part to play in this endeavour.’

‘You say ... a major part,-’ said Ash looking puzzled ‘You sound like a company director talking to the staff - as if you were trying to make us sound important, but being careful not to bull us up too much.’

Xanthros shifted uneasily as he looked at the four people in front of him, then he continued, ‘You will not be in space building all of the time.’ He jerked his thumb towards the two robots; - ‘These guys will. They will be on the build twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, where they are concerned, time does not exist. They just work all of the time. And they learn, so if they say something is better done this way, we need not argue. It would be a waste of time.’

‘You seem to be talking about us, the Orion teams, and leaving out any mention of the ISS crews up there now, and the ones scheduled to go up in future,’ said Al.- ‘Are they part of the…;’ He paused for a second; ‘shall we call it relocation? Will they be helping us?’

‘No. The other astronauts will be told that these robots are there to learn, but not the reason why they are learning how the ISS is put together. They may make suggestions from time to time, but they are programmed not to get involved with the day-to-day running of the ISS.’

‘What happens if one of these guys on the ISS decides not to take any notice of the suggestion made by a learning robot? Maybe susses out that this machine has another agenda.’

Robonaut answed before Xanthros had chance.

‘On the International Space Station, we are only advisors. But when we get onto ‘Phoenix’, we must be allowed to run the build.’

‘-Phoenix-?’ Tom asked, his head turned sideways, trying the new word on for size. ‘That is what we are going to build out there, right?’

Xanthros was glad to get on to a different subject. ‘Yes, the original initials stood for Piloted Host Over Extra-terrestrial Nation Interplanetary Xpedition. Quite a mouthful, so we just called it PHOENIX. The important thing is that it means that it is the first interplanetary craft to carry man to another planet.’

Lili Gothe voiced the question that was on all of their minds,

‘What is this thing going to look like?’

Xanthros looked as if he was expecting this question,

‘You ask very good questions.’ He paused. ‘We have a part of the mission prep that is not yet complete. But you can see it. Follow me.’

He led them to a room labelled ‘CNC hologram’.

Inside they found a dark room. In the centre of the room was the projected 3D image of what they were going to be working on.

‘In case you are wondering about the strange shape of the ‘Phoenix’, there is a simple reason for it. One of the biggest problems we faced that we couldn’t find a definitive solution to was that we were sending six people further across the solar system than ever before. They will land on a planet with gravity, and there was no-one to greet them on landing. Our concern was that, when they arrive at the other end, they might not have the strength to get out of the capsule because of weightlessness weakening. The solution we came up with was to provide them with artificial gravity. The whole spacecraft rotates around its central axis.’

He tapped a consul and the spacecraft began to turn.

‘At 460 feet across, the rotation needs only be 2.5 revolutions per minute to provide 90% gravity at the Command Module positions. This is a fully functioning image. If you look closer, you will see that most parts are not fully formed. That is because they are not yet in place.’

Collins asked,

‘Am I wrong, or do I see other parts from the ISS in the -‘Phoenix’-?’

‘You are not wrong, Tom. Most of the raw material on the ‘Phoenix’ will be coming from the ISS. This part of the main cylinder, here, for instance is coming from the Destiny Module. - Here we have Unity, on the other side there will be Columbus and Harmony. The Quest airlock system will be installed alongside the bridge area here in the Blue Sarsen. - We also have the observation cupola. - and the communications aerials that can serve many purposes.’

‘You mean to tell us that we are going half way across the solar system in a second-hand car?’ asked Ash.

‘Well, you are going to build it; you’d better do a good job.-’ Lili quipped, making some of the others laugh.

‘There are several advantages of using the nodes,’ explained Xanthros. ‘They are already equipped with many useful bits of equipment, they are big enough to provide good protection from radiation, they are designed to be fitted together, and the nodes have accommodation that is more spacious than is offered by the Orion alone. The extra space provided by four nodes, each measuring 14 feet wide by an average of about 22 feet, can be used for storage.’

Tom Collins had a question,

‘Where are we going to build all this?’

The spacecraft was turning more than spinning as Xanthros replied,

‘Most of the hardware is already orbiting at 250 miles out. Of course, it is still being used by the ISS, but it is due to be decommissioned by the time we need it. To answer your question more fully, we intend to build in low Earth orbit, something like 350 miles while travelling at 17,000 mph. This will put us in synchronous orbit with the ISS. Some of the Orion missions will be one way; the astronauts will transfer to the ISS for their work, then return with the ISS crews.’

… … … … … … …

Chapter Six

GRAVITY

The ‘Phoenix’ Room’ restaurant was fairly full; people were coming from all over the site to experience this new facility. As Michelle took her coffee and made her way towards the only vacant table she could see, she saw Moira appear to be making a beeline for her.

‘Not now.’ She thought. Moira was a nice enough person but can go on a bit too much. Michelle didn’t feel like having a long gossip about nothing in particular. The place was quite noisy, and Michelle was sure that Moira’s irritating voice would be even more annoying.

Then she saw Ash weaving about with his tray looking for somewhere to sit. He was wearing the standard white coverall that all astronauts wear, but his had a pale pinkish stain on the leg. Before she knew what she was doing she found herself waving at him and indicating the empty chair at her little table.

Moira was in the same direction as Ash from Michelle’s location. She saw Michelle waving, and, like any good gossip, immediately presumed the invitation was aimed at her. Her dark face turned towards Michelle again, who seemed to beam a smile, and her eyes indicated pleasure and acceptance as Moira moved her tray as a sort of wave.

Michelle hoped she didn’t show a negative expression. Then she looked back at Ash. He hadn’t seen Moira; she was slightly behind him in the melee. He saw Michelle’s flag-like dress and turned towards her. At the same time Moira saw Ash just slightly closer to Michelle, she began to move faster in order to get to the vacant seat before Ash. In the crowded environs Moira had to dodge and weave around the tables and patrons. Trays began to be tilted. Moira adopted an almost aggressive attitude as she strode purposefully across the floor. Ash had not seen her, neither had the two men who were moving towards each other in front of Moira. In their attempt to avoid colliding with each other in the narrow aisles one of them strode out in front of the hurrying Moira. In order to avoid a direct collision, Moira swerved violently, skilfully tilting her tray to avoid spillage. She then walked straight into the second man. The contents of her tray fell noisily to the ground. All three stood in amazement at the amount of noise the clattering and smashing made. This was emphasised by the almost silence as everyone turned to look at what had happened. To break the silence a lone voice from the far corner of the room called,

‘Sack the Juggler.’

Ash and Michelle laughed as he reached the table.

‘Hi, how’s the hand?’ he asked as he took the seat.

‘Oh, it’s fine, thank you. You did a good job.’

‘No, anyone could have done it. You don’t intend playing the piano, do you?’

‘No. But will my injury impede me in my future hope of operatic pianoforte?’ She held her hand as if there were some divine task for it.

‘Are you asking if you will be able to play the piano again?’

‘Oh, yes. It is so important to me.’

‘Then I am pleased to inform you that you will be able to play the piano again in the fullness of time.’

‘Oh, wonderful.’ Michelle had a twinkle in her eye, ‘I always wanted to play the piano. Can you help me with the bassoon?’

Ash saw that he had been drawn into this trap.

‘We only have a harp, but I’m afraid it’s up on the ISS now, and I don’t think your injury will allow you to stretch that far.’

‘Ah, yes. But you are a doctor, are you not?’

‘Yes, but I’m not a paramedic, my specialist area is bacteria and antibiotics.’

‘Let me see. I know something about this.’ Michelle stroked her chin in thought before continuing, ‘In order to survive bacteria must have three things, moisture, temperature, and time. They must have time to multiply, and in the right conditions.’

Ash was impressed,

‘Luckily, in space we have the perfect conditions to kill off any bacteria; the freezing cold, and searing heat of space. No air, and absolutely no moisture.’

‘So you only have to worry about anything you may be taking up with you - in your bodies.’

‘Some of the deadliest creatures on this planet are bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. Some have now become resistant to all known antibiotics. Fast evolution rates and short times between generations give them tremendous advantages. But the main leverage they have is that they can now swap genes amongst themselves.’

He took a sip of coffee, then continued,

‘If any of us takes up a bacterium, or virus, it could spell the end of the mission before it has even begun.’

‘Wow. That is interesting. I love ‘Gee Whizz’ facts.’ Michelle enthused.

‘This place is full of them; our mission alone is one big ‘Gee Whizz’.’

‘Gee Whizz, now that is interesting.’ She now had a smile on her face.

He pointed at her,

‘Now I think you are poking fun at our esteemed mission.’ He saw the humour in her remark.

‘No, I don’t mean to. I think what you guys are trying to do is admirable.’

‘Trying to do. That is condemning by faint praise.’ He had a twinkle in his eye now.

‘No, no, no. I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant is that your mission is so complex and fraught with uncertainty that even to attempt what you guys are setting out to do is an act of supreme bravery.’

‘If we take it one step at a time, slowly, we can cut down on most of the dangers.’

‘But there are dangerous things that you will be doing that are still inherently dangerous, like space walks, for instance.’

‘Well, yes. But we can reduce the risks involved as much as possible. I was on the International Space Station for a six-week stint, but only went outside three times. And part of my job was to go out there to gain experience in working in space.’

‘You were on the ISS?’

‘Yes, there are six of us on this mission who have been on the Station. Tom Collins, Dmitri Chopov, Petre Avetsova, Cho Ling and Al Fontana.’

‘That’s only five. Who was the sixth?’

He thought for a second or two, took a sip of coffee. Replaced the cup on the table, then drained the contents before replying,

‘I do wish you had not asked that question. It is one of the closest guarded secrets on this program.’ He looked her straight in the eye,

‘So secret, even to ask is to acknowledge that there even was a sixth man. Or woman. Desks have been cleared and people moved away, never to be seen again. Just because they realised that there could have been a sixth person involved.’

She sat there, frozen and wide-eyed at this sudden turn of events. Then she saw the faintest trace of a smile in the corner of his mouth. His eyes were still steel and piercing, but his countenance seemed to soften. Then she realised the foolishness of her question.

‘It was you, wasn’t it? Of course it was. How silly of me.’

He turned his empty cup around