by L. S. Wood
Let us put the Twitchel to a real test this time, and ride her as if a craving cowboy rides a raging bull. The recrafted Twitchel bird is ready to ride. Even though she does not have any electricity flowing in her veins yet. She is our lifeless Frankenstein here on earth, but let us rejuvenate her back into shape. Let us be the ones to give her life back to her when we get her back into space, and save some lives in doing it. Let us go save our friends aloft. Let’s put the Twitchel to another test, and may she never fail us.”
“Commander, sir?” “No more questions please. The chow hall opens up for us at exactly 0400 hours in the morning men. Be here in the briefing room in full flight gear by 0530 hours and ready to fly. Eat light as usual before any flight, and get plenty of sleep and rest tonight. Heaven knows we all need the rest. Remember, men, 0530 hours for a quick departure, not a minute after that. Don‘t be late!
The crane will lift the platform up on a preset time to enable us to climb aboard our bird for as early a departure as possible. Remember 0530 hours men, dismissed.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The Night Before Takeoff
The activities surrounding the flight crewmembers during the evening were writing letters back home to their loved ones. All crewmembers were instructed by Commander Anderson to write two letters. The first letter incase their mission became a failure in which case they could console their loved ones for the choices they had all made.
Whatever they wrote wouldn’t help soothe the pain, but might help heal the healing process their loved ones knowing they knew the risks of this venture. They all were at hand and willing to take that chance, to sacrifice themselves if need be in order to help save the ones that had showed them so much compassion in the first place, and saved them when in need. They had had the chance to come back home for a little visit that the others would never have the opportunity to do, and they were all thankful for that.
The second letter written told their families of the extensive training they had all been going through, and how demanding Commander Anderson was upon all of them including himself. He was a great man to serve under, and they were all very confident and happy to have the chance to serve under his command once again. They wrote of their love for their families that they would all be coming home soon, and not to worry. Everything was going to be all right. These letters were to be mailed the minute the Twitchel was safely in her orbit with the space station.
The rest of the evening and late into the night was spent contemplating over their many duties and thinking how very experimental this whole flight idea would turn out to be. It was similar to the flight of Wilber and his brother Orville’s first flight at Kitty Hawk. Only the crew of the Twitchel all hoped that this flight would last a whole hell of a lot longer than just those three short minutes the Wright brothers aircraft flew. Everything would be over in just a matter of seconds if anything were to go wrong during their risky take off.
All knowing very well that it was all very possible, more likely than not with this creature lurking in the shadows of the sky in the bright of day, and invisible to the naked eye. This damn deadly creature hiding in waiting and seeking out to destroy anything within its environmental grasp with the minutest of an electrical charge attached.
Ann laid back on her bed talking aloud to her two daughters Sarah and Amber. She talked to them along with Ben as if they were right there in the room with her and could hear her every word. She lay there between the sheets crying her little heart out. She was worrying about everything, especially the next day’s mission. She had not finished writing her two letters yet. Writing while crying and rolling back and forth on her bed as if she was in severe pain trying to compose herself so she could complete the letters.
She had had second thoughts about the safety of the mission and would have loved to have backed out that very instant, but knew deep down inside her skills were needed in order to make this as successful a flight as possible. Anyway, there were fifty-seven, no fifty-six people counting on her. No! There were fifty-seven people counting on her. She was forgetting to count everyone and needed to count on herself for a safe mission to and from the space station so she could return back home to her loving family safe. She knew everyone was praying for her safe return back home again, right along with the many town’s people in her congregation. She forged ahead with dismay writing her last letter to her loved ones back home.
Her letter to Ben had quite a few noticeable teardrops stain marks on the paper, along with a couple of ink smudges on the wet paper she was trying to write on. In her letter to Ben, she wrote to be the best father he could possibly be to their two children in case she would die. She said she must do this for them, the ones who first saved her life. Then she fell fast asleep while lying between the sheets crying.
Her Big Ben alarm clock startled her awake when it went off at the stroke of 0300 hrs. It awoke her from a dream she was having with her girls and Ben. They had been out at the town common with the other town’s people enjoying a day of games and food. She wondered if such a happy time would ever take place again in her lifetime. She jumped from her bed. She lit up the oil-fired lamp beside her bed, and then she picked up the pad of paper and ink-pen still lying beside her on her bed. She quickly finished writing her last letter to her family, put it into the two envelopes with their address on it, and sealed them tight. She would drop them off in the lobby for mailing when she went downstairs to meet the others for breakfast. She did not really feel like eating, but knew she had better eat something to keep her energy level up so she would be able to help the others fly the shuttle into its orbit.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The Time To Fly
Good morning, Steve.” “Good morning, Ann.” “Have you seen any of the crew up and about yet, Steve?” “The Commander and the Major just went in, that’s all I have seen so far. I don’t know if anyone else went in or not.”
The entire crew except for Steve and Ann were all sitting down at the table when the two walked in together through the door to the mess hall. The cook was ready to prepare any meal their little appetites so desired. He had a variety of steaks, top of the line cuts for the red meat eaters, lobsters and fish of all kinds for the ocean meal lovers, and anything imaginable for any type of meal the Twitchel crew would like for their last meal on earth before they departed for the space lab aloft in the heavens. They felt as if they were all prisoners on death row, and this was going to be their last requested meal, their special choice in food they all desired before their execution at sunrise. Was this a bad omen, or was it not?
Ann felt uncomfortable knowing they could have anything their little hearts desired, and felt as the other crew members did. The thought of it took all their appetites away like trying to drink a glass of extremely soured and curdled up milk or a glass filled with seawater.
“Ladies before gentlemen, guys.” Ann blushed as the crew all laughed. “Captain Mitchell. What will be your pleasure for breakfast ma-am?” “A single poached egg on a slice of dry rye and a very small cup of grape fruit sections on the side with a cup of orange juice, please.”
“Ok, ok. Wouldn’t you like something different like a lobster tail, steak tips, or anything, anything else at all?” “No thank you, Cookie, just the single poached egg, a slice of dry rye toast, and some grapefruit sections please”. “Ok, I got that one. Commander Anderson your pleasure, sir”? “I will have the same as Captain Mitchell please.” Every crewmember in the room ordered the same exact meal for their breakfast as Captain Ann did for her breakfast meal. “Come on you guys! Don’t any of you want a lobsters tail, or a shrimp cocktail, or anything special like that this morning?” Every one shook their heads no and said “no thank you, Cookie”.
The cook went off sputtering to himself saying poached eggs, a toast, grapefruit sections, and orange juice. I just cannot believe it. I went out of my way to get all this and got them everything possible to eat I could th
ink of for this special occasion, and all they want are poached eggs, toast, grapefruit sections and a damned cup of orange juice, I just can’t believe it. The cook had been told by his superiors to have everything and anything imaginable available on hand to eat for this crew of astronauts just in case any member of the crew wanted something extra special for their last meal here on Earth before departing on this very treacherous mission above. The head cook wanted to make sure everyone had whatever he or she all wanted to eat. He, too, was thinking it could possibly be his or her last meal. He hoped it would not be but wanted them to enjoy whatever their little hearts and appetites desired this day.
It was precisely 0515 hours when everyone was assembled in the preflight addressing conference room when Commander Anderson came waltzing in fully dressed in his flight gear. Everyone else in the room was already dressed and ready in theirs. They all came to attention as best they could all dressed up in their protective flight suits.
“At ease, please gentlemen! It is time to test our new but old bird for flight. Are we all ready to give her flight this morning?” “Yes, sir, Commander.” They all shouted out in joyful sounding unison. “Then let’s get started, but before we do, I would like to ask one simple little question of you. Is there anyone among you who has any doubts about this mission? If you do, this is the time to speak your peace of mind, not ten miles up into our mission where it will be too damn late to do so. Does anyone of you have any doubts about anyone sitting next to you, including him or herself?” He looked directly at Ann when he spoke.
This would have been an easy way out for any of the crew if they did have doubts about themselves or anyone else going along with them, and would have been a good easy way out for them to back out of the mission and save face for themselves.”
The entire crew just stood there saying nothing, nothing at all. Not a one looked to the left, or right, or around that might show they had any doubt in their minds about themselves, or anyone else in the room for the mission. “Good then. Let us get this bird in the air and give her hell.
Outside the command post sat a small diesel powered shuttle bus waiting ready and running just for the crew’s arrival so it could take them off down the roadway leading to the launching pad where their big bird was waiting ready they hoped. When they pulled up to the launching pad, the crane was already warmed up and prepared to lift them to the Twitchel’s top hatch landing platform in order for them to climb aboard their bird safely, and take their designated positions inside of her cramped cabin with cables, peddles, and pulleys.
An attendant stood ready to help the crew onto the railed off platform, and to assist them on their way up to the top of the Twitchel. Ann was a little uneasy during the accent to the landing platform of the Twitchel. Flying in an aircraft never bothered her before, but to be out on an open platform a couple of hundred feet up in the air bothered the hell out of her to no end. She felt the same way in a helicopter that had a clear-bubbled cockpit. In it she could see down to the ground through its clear glass bubbled floor. Ann, Commander Anderson, and Major Bill were the last of the crew to climb aboard the star ship, and strap themselves into their designated seats. Ann looked anxiously at the many cable pulls and the assorted number of wooden handled levers at her station she was supposed to pull on at different inflexible times in their flight, as their platform associate helped everyone over the assortment of cables to their seats to sit everyone in their own particular capsule spaces.
Commander Anderson and Major Bill felt the same as Ann about her tangled web of fear. They all looked at the massive number of cables and levered handles scattered about the cockpit cabin that looked more like a large spiders web of tangled cables, hoping whoever was in charge of using them would know which cable to yank on when the precise time in their flight came to pull on them.
“Are we ready, gentlemen?” Commander Anderson asked his excited crewmembers. “Yes sir, ready for flight.” Commander Anderson dropped the weighted green signal flag out the opened side port window, immediately closing and securing it tight with its own mechanical hand operated locking mechanism. The crew closed their helmeted facemasks of their flight suits, and turned on their individual oxygen supply lines.
They had a fifteen-minute countdown window to check and recheck everything at their stations before the initial ignition of the main solid rockets took place. A bright red stop streamer flag that they could drop anytime within the first fifteen-minute period to abort the mission if anyone decided they did not want to participate or there were any other wrong procedures of circumstance discovered in the cockpit in the last few seconds before ignition.
It turned out to be a long tedious last fifteen nervous minutes filled with wild emotions floating wildly among the crewmembers hoping this was not the very last mistake of their lives they would ever have the opportunity to make.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The Final Countdown
Four, Three, Two, One, Zero. The ground crew was ready to fire off the solid fueled rockets. They waited until the very last exact second as preplanned and may-be even a couple of extra-long seconds beyond the original ignition schedule according to Commander Anderson’s watch. Just in case there would be a red flag thrown out the cockpit and was on its way down to the ground that they did not quite see yet before lighting the booster rocket igniters.
With no red flag in sight, no abort signal dropped. Ignition, the ground crew set fire to the igniters attached below the Twitchel’s two first main stage solid fuel booster rockets. Quickly they jumped into their armored heat shielded vehicles and drove slowly away pulling the protective safety shields around the towering shuttles platforms away with them. As the safety shields opened up beneath the rockets exposing the solid fueled rockets to the open intense fire below them, the rockets at first slowly came to life. The two rockets looked at first like a couple of huge sparklers on the 4th of July spitting out a small amount of white hot sparks, and then became a couple of huge Roman candled blow torches filled with thrust. The Space Shuttle Twitchel left the security of her safe and sound birthing, shooting skyward like the beautiful eagle she was.
The ground crew did their jobs well as they watched in awe especially at this magnificent bird ascending toward the heavens above. Everyone on the ground had his or her own special doubts as to why this bird would not make it into outer space and into a perfect orbit, never mind accomplish this very special mission.
Without the aid of computer control along with its back up secondary computers, this bird had many strikes against it before it ever left the security of the launching pad on the ground. Inside the cockpit of the Twitchel, all were wet with nervous perspiration as the fifteen minutes slowly passed away for them. They would glance occasionally at one another looking for a smile of confidence, which everyone seemed to have. It made them all feel one hell of a lot, or at least a little bit better knowing or feeling that everyone around them was still confident that this mission would be a safe one, even if it was not to be.
It sure would have been a whole lot nicer to have had the electrically operated liquid cooling circulating fan and pumps running to help keep everyone cooled down and comfortable for them, but it did not, and it was hot as hell in there. It felt like it must have been 110 or more degrees inside their flight suits
They could feel the Twitchel shake and shudder for a split second, as her main thruster rockets were coming to life. Vibration after vibration vibrated everyone in his and her seats. Suddenly the solid rocket fueled rockets exploded with immense thrust. It squeezed every one of the crewmembers back into their seats almost instantly as she took flight toward the heavens.
No one had flown successfully into outer space since the big blast that had tried, or was able to come back and talk about it, except for Ann and the rest of the Twitchel crew. Now they were going to try another attempt at doing it once again. Sitting in the cockpit of the Twitchel before takeoff, the different crew
members were thinking about the stories they had all heard about the hot air balloonists who had tried and failed. The balloon and gondola rose successfully, but the pilots and their passengers all died as the result of the neutron mass snuffing out their lives instantly from them. Then there was the back yard pilot who made a diesel-powered aircraft that flew, but he had had the same deadly results happen to him, as did the hot air balloonists.
The sky above the earth had become so saturated with electrically attacking neutrons, that its immense strength took down a flock of migrating Canadian Geese flying south for the winter a couple of weeks after the big blast. It attacked and drained the insignificant amount of electrical impulses generated by the migrating birds small brains, generated in its thinking abilities and instincts.
The thrust generated from the solid fueled rockets was greater than the usual thrust generally created by the liquid fired main rockets used that could be electronically controlled and adjusted in their flight. There was no governing of this big beast. The g-force was immense as they lifted up off the launching platform. No one had ever experienced such g-force before, not even in the rocket sleds they used to practice with for their missions into outer space. Their eyeballs felt to them as being forced back into the eyeball sockets of their skulls as their flesh felt as if it were going to be torn right off their skeletal frames at any given second as they shot skyward toward the heavens above.
The initial force of the g-force lessoned the higher and faster they flew. Commander Anderson and Major Bill anticipated having to take over and release the flight controls locked securely into place, for the initial take off. The g-force exerted upon them was so great they could not have taken over the Twitchel’s flight controls even if they had had to.
If only one of the main rockets had fired, they would have had to take control of the shuttle, but with such force applied to their bodies at the time, it would have been highly unlikely anyone could have done so. If only a single rocket had fired, they would have shot up into the sky in a half circle, and would have come crashing back down to earth for they would not have been able to do anything about it.
