by T I WADE
Aware that his time table could be disrupted for the next week, Ryan had added extra supplies for SB I’s longer journey, using the space designated for the second crew. The badly needed extra repair crew was rescheduled to go up three days later, with the hope that once the cloud had passed 22,500 miles, Asterspace III could at least meet SB II part way.
As usual Jonesy brought his craft in for a perfect landing and really enjoyed being back on terra firma. The desolate desert around them looked like heaven as the tractor pulled them back to the apron and Hangar Six.
Three days later, SB II launched with the load schedule back to normal. Jonesy and Maggie enjoyed their break, even using the swimming pool during the cold weather; they had arrived weak and in bad condition. Ryan’s team learned that being cooped up in small cockpits played havoc with his crew’s fitness.
SB I had followed the cloud for its entire flight and was still 2,000 miles lower than America One when Captain Pete Gregory reported seeing debris rising up to meet them, had called in all the spacewalkers and closed down the entire ship until the cloud passed. There wasn’t much to do, except for VIN who was taking aim at the odd piece coming towards them, using the radar to pinpoint the target to disintegrate it. At the same time, the internal areas of the cubes were coming along under Suzi’s guidance.
When the shuttle arrived with the replacement corridors, the first accommodation units could be welded and bonded together into their permanent positions on the ship. First they needed to install the 400-foot long electrical elevators so crewmembers could be elevated from the center to the two levels. These elevators had three floors to service, each 200 feet apart.
The accommodations could only be used once the space ship was rotating. All units had an upper sleeping area with horizontal beds, and an open plan system below; the lower area accommodated a seating/kitchen/communal area, a marine-type forced air toilet and a shower with wash basin. There were no windows to the outside. Nobody would want to see themselves going around and around in space, and they wouldn’t notice the rotations if they couldn’t see them. Only the Bridge, library, and several other areas had windows, or portals to see out. The rotations would begin once the thrusters had been completed and were operational in about a month’s time.
VIN waited for the thousands of pieces of debris to attack them. During the time frame Maggie had estimated the debris would reach them, he saw less than 100 pieces fly past. He obliterated all he could see, as well as any he could follow on the radar, another 100 pieces before they seemed to end.
Ryan then gave orders for the three spacecraft to align the space ship into a real earth orbit, increase her speed and then descend by 1,000 miles per day. For the first time, America One began orbiting the earth like the ISS.
Asterspace III, refueled and ready to go, descended to meet up with SB II, still in Nevada. She passed SB I four hours later still on the way up.
Six days after SB I docked at America One, SB III was ready to launch for her next cargo flight. SB I was due to reenter, SB II had met up with Asterspace III and was only two days behind her sister shuttle for reentry. America One was already 6,000 miles closer to earth, at 25,000 miles an hour, and was orbiting earth once every eighteen hours. Things were happening fast at Astermine while the world had forgotten that they existed.
The space junk had calmed down and Ryan and his team still had eighteen flights to go to transport all necessities from Nevada. Only then he could fly up luxuries—beef, pork, four tons of frozen milk, and another four tons of butter. If at any time danger lurked, it would be the ground crew’s turn to go up. Astermine needed sixty days to leave earth, and he had eight days to go. It was January 7th, only one week to go before the president’s promised visit.
Chapter 23
America One becomes a real spaceship!
Slowly, Ryan watched as the days approached January 15th. Earth was in a mess. The rumblings from billions of people about lousy communications went on and on. Normal daily business continued, but companies that depended on the Internet for business dissolved into “has-beens”. Department stores became the places to shop again and landlines the way to communicate if one couldn’t afford very expensive satellite cellphone charges.
The former president’s team of civilians and older statesmen calmed down the Chinese, telling them that a world catastrophe had been averted by nuking the asteroids. Their anger was reduced to a mere simmer when they were promised help with a new station, once the USA got itself out of chaos.
Most North Americans and Europeans found this new way of life very frustrating to start with, but learned to relax a bit as time went by. Much of the world returned to using slow, antiquated systems to carry on their jobs. It seemed very slow and very labor intensive. The U.S. mail system doubled in volume, bringing in well-needed funds to deliver mail instead of emails.
Ryan’s landline rang for the first time in a week. It was the FBI.
“Mr. Richmond, Joe here. We need a little help with what we discussed. I heard the air force troops are doing well on your airfield. I hope my team arrived OK.”
The C-130s from Nellis had arrived within twenty-four hours of Allen Saunders telling him that they would. The air force troops dug in defensive positions, and the command took up headquarters in the buildings Ryan had built for Customs and Excise; that group had not returned. The air force seemed to be happier out there at the end of the runway, than in Ryan’s more comfortable accommodations.
The air force had flown in in two more C-130s a day later with tents to increase their base camp and supplies for their stay. Ryan immediately fell in love with the two Bradley Fighting Vehicles delivered on two large military flatbeds. He had them positioned, fully armed and with all their backup arms and ammunition in Hangar Three to protect the C-5. He asked Allen Saunders for two more, and the retired general replied that he would see what he could do. Ryan also wanted driving lessons, which was finally allowed before Allen returned to space with his girlfriend Jamie as his permanent co-pilot.
A couple of days later, many of the FBI agents arrived in C-130s thanks to Allen’s contact in the air force and several more dozen arrived in FBI SUVs.
Before Allen Saunders returned to space flying SB II, Ryan and two of his American scientists completed four hours of driving lessons and weapons control in the Bradley.
The day Allen flew into space, exactly ten minutes after the C-5 took off before dawn, Ryan and his men started the two new toys and, with one of the air force supply trucks carrying the spare ammunition, they drove the 24-ton vehicles, one by one, onto his new hydraulic cement-slab door and descended into the depths of his new cavern thirty feet below ground. The opening, still surrounded by two of the remaining walls of Hangar Seven blocked any inquisitive eyes; there were only three half asleep guards at the end of the runway at this early cold hour.
The two Bradley Fighting Vehicles joined the two silver Audis, already garaged in the large cavern. It took two truckloads and ten of his ground control team—the only ones who knew about the secret cavern—an hour to load the ammunition onto a spare troop carrier to join the vehicles down below.
The cavern wasn’t empty anymore. Over Christmas, with trucks arriving everyday with Christmas supplies, nobody noticed trailers being parked inside the first gate and then disappearing the next day. Ryan had one of his trucks that could connect up to the trailers take them in Hangar Seven during the early hours of the morning. He now had a dozen trailers inside the cavern with liquid gas and specially prepared stored cans of food for extremely long-term storage.
Twenty-four hours later and just after midnight, two more military trucks arrived each hauling another Bradley, which he personally drove from the front gate and over the brow into Hangar Three, hoping that the air force personnel, still asleep, wouldn’t miss the first two he had made disappear.
Now with his cavern half full of supplies, he watched the clock click down to the possible attack on his base.
Jon
esy and Maggie were flying up in three days to return with VIN. They were also prepared to help end the war of all wars in the Middle East if necessary.
The world had changed so quickly, Ryan wondered what would have happened if he had never gone to DX2014, and this breakup had occurred without their prior knowledge. He was sure that observers at Hubble would have seen the asteroid’s destruction and would had recorded the entire lead-up to the disaster before their telescope disintegrated soon after the third set of nukes sent out millions of deadly missiles. There now wasn’t one operational telescope in orbit.
The boss of Astermine still felt an occasional pang of guilt every now and again, wondering if the asteroid would have still broken up if he had never visited it.
“Yes, Joe, I have my lasers descending towards earth,” Ryan replied getting his wandering mind back to the telephone conversation. “They are currently at the mid-level space altitude of 12,000 miles and I have increased their descent speeds up to 2,000 miles per day.”
“We have approximately 75 hours before the Iranian military force of over 800 armored vehicles reaches within 150 miles of the Israeli border. The Iranians were joined by 200 tanks from Syria, too many for the Israeli military to handle without accurate guidance systems. Like us, they are down to a few hours a day to use their GPS guided weapons. It seems that there is a lull in the Syrian war. At the 150-mile range Israel will respond with everything she has to destroy this advancing force, including EMPs or even nuclear force. We must stop the armor before that happens, or it is too late for the Middle East. We are really worried that Israel will use their nuclear weapons, which could destroy the whole area, including Jordan and other countries susceptible to nuclear fallout. In addition, the North Korean army is getting ready to advance its armor into South Korea, so we need to shock them into sending their soldiers back. The Pakistani and Indian problem, thankfully, seems to have sorted itself out.
The current president has sent the Secretary of State over to Israel to try to broker a deal, just like the last time Israel was attacked from Gaza fourteen months ago. We know what happened then, the second or third takeover of the whole area by Israel. Nobody thinks that the Secretary of State being there will deter the attacking Iranian army. The president has also tried to call the Iranian government several times, but to no avail. Israel and the United States only have surveillance over the area for five hours a day instead of seven, since that latest satellite went offline 24 hours ago.”
“So, what happens if Joe Bishop or Tom Ward decides to enter my airfield in twelve hours?” Ryan asked.
“I doubt that will happen,” replied Joe. “There is too much going on. The cleanup on the West Coast is a mess, and there are riots and battles between the police and civilians everywhere. I hear Joe Bishop is in the midst of the trouble in Los Angeles. Tom Ward is in Langley trying to find information on FBI operations, and we are following his leads into our computer systems. The president has daily meetings about the two looming crises and General Mortimer is currently in Seoul checking on the Korean problem. Maybe the White House janitor is available to attack you, but I think that you have a lot more time, at least two more weeks. So, Ryan, when will your lasers be operational?”
“In seventy-three hours,” replied Ryan, relieved at the latest information. If anybody knew what was happening, Joe Everson knew. “I know it’s going to be close, but my arming procedures are extremely complicated to rush, so I can’t get the laser into position any faster. What I can do, is to get one laser closer to earth, into a 500 mile range within the next seventy-odd hours. Joe, you do understand that the lower the orbit, the quicker each orbit is, and the less time the laser will be available over the problem areas.”
“How long will the laser be able to fire into targets in the Middle East once in range?” Joe asked.
“At 500 miles, I would say 25 minutes overhead and 50 minutes once we have visual and before the ship heads over the other horizon,” Ryan replied.
“So, how many times could that laser of yours burn a hole in a tank’s armor, or another type of armored vehicle?”
“Wait one,” replied Ryan and had a quick discussion with his Russian crew. “Sorry about the hold Joe, my guys say it will take a full seven-second burst to harm a large tank. That is our maximum burst, once every 27 seconds, and bursts from the second, lesser-powered laser, once every 67 seconds.”
“So, let’s say you have forty minutes of firing time over Israel. You could give me 150 strikes before you’re out of range?” Joe asked.
“My scientists say 157 strikes from the time we have targets visual at 500 miles or lower in altitude, and double that at 1,000 miles. At 2,000 miles we are looking at accuracy of five to six feet, which I believe is too inaccurate to hit such a small target,” Ryan added.
“So, at 1,000 miles, your accuracy will be twice that at 500 miles?” Joe asked.
“Correct, and with twice as many strike possibilities due to more time,” added Ryan.
“I want you to hit the Iranian tank’s aft engine compartment, just behind the turret. We have one shot per target. Some targets you will disable, some maybe you won’t, so I need your lasers at as low an orbit as possible to increase your fire rate. Can you organize a 400 mile orbit above earth?”
“I must get with my guys and see how low we can go in the time stated,” replied Ryan.
For the next two hours he met with the best brains in the world of space. He had one of the large rear hydrogen thrusters out of the three ready for testing on America One, and it would help the spacecraft at full thrust to increase the descent.
For anybody working outside the space station, speed and descent didn’t matter. They wouldn’t notice it, so he asked the two craft close to the space station to dock up and increase the descent with a seven minute test of the large rear thruster to 4,000 miles per day. At the current 12,000 mile altitude, he could be in range in the allotted time, if the thruster ignited.
The rear thruster successfully ignited seven hours later, at midnight on January 15th, and America One began her dive through empty space towards Earth while several spacewalkers still controlled the spiders to continue welding the cylinders, one by one.
Captain Pete Gregory left the hard work to control the Bridge for the first test. The other two experienced crew had arrived to take his place on the last shuttle. The Bridge was still a mass of wires, but operational enough to give computerized commands to the ship’s first thruster.
VIN entered Cube One to visit Suzi as the ship’s thruster was fired for the first time. It wasn’t a big deal and the captain didn’t need him. With a complete space suit on he wanted to visit all seven of the cubes; it was the first time he had some free time since the explosions of the asteroids two weeks earlier. Suzi was standing on the walkway waiting for him as the round door slid open to the first cube from the Bridge connected to its outer wall.
Since the craft was not rotating, everybody on the middle walkways could get about on foot. Away from the walkways, people just floated, pushing themselves around, or walking on the newly laid metal strips fitted in the first five cubes. Everybody floated to work inside the ever-growing length of vertical and horizontal corridors, several now with atmospheric and heated conditions. Even one of the nine elevators worked. It was hard to float in an elevator and watch one move up or down.
“It is good to see you fully suited Herr side-gunner,” said Suzi, kissing the front of VIN’s helmet before she was helped on with hers by another team member. Cube Seven was about to come online and the stores were ready in the last arms of the usual three sealed cylinders. Now they could walk through the entire ship on the connecting walkway.
Cube One was a mass of growth; the sunlight was bright and, apart from the narrow metal stripped-section breaks, the cube was beginning to look like a six-sided greenhouse.
Suzi pointed to a couple of her team standing or kneeling at different angles rearranging hydroponic plastic tubes. Another was walking a
round the roof right above VIN’s head pulling what looked like onions out of plastic covered soil beds. It was still hard to see soil and other objects right above one’s head, and not watch them fall to the floor. Then he realized that the gravity might be off in this cube, and he would be connected to the magnetically striped walkway by the metal pads underneath his space shoes.
“Is the gravity off?” asked VIN.
“Ja, I know it is hard to tell the difference these days,” replied Suzi. “I turned it off an hour ago to suit up and allow for soil transfer and picking of vegetables for tomorrow’s first meal. We now have crops ready to eat, and I’m hoping that if the kitchen is finally installed and operational by tomorrow evening, we can have our first meal of space-grown vegetables.”
“It would sure beat the pouches for a change,” remarked VIN through his intercom. He, Suzi now in her helmet, the few guys working in Cube Seven, the spacewalkers outside, and the crew on the bridge could hear conversation through the intercom system. The rest walked about without suits on.
“Something home grown will be a luxury,” added Fritz working somewhere else in the ship.
“I was told French onion soup could be our first meal,” said another crewmember.
“Does that come with the usual cheese on top?” VIN asked Suzi adding to the conversation as he walked along the magnetic strip of the walkway towing Suzi, who preferred to float.
“We do have a little, but it depends on if Ryan can get the six extra shuttle flights of special goods up here,” replied Suzi.
“I thought there were only four luxury flights?” interjected Fritz.
“Fritz, where are you? It is very weird talking to somebody you can’t see, or even know where they are,” VIN responded.
“I’m working in the kitchen area on the midlevel above the Bridge, putting together the second kitchen cylinder. I am about 200 feet directly above you if you are still in Cube One.”
