by L. S. Wood
Ann took one tall glass after another, drying the last few of them ever so slowly as she stood by the screen watching Ben out the window. She loved him dearly, even though he had changed drastically and who would not or had not. He had done the work of three men around her father’s farm while still finding the time in his caring heart to help many of the needy neighbors who came to him for some help. No matter how tired he always seemed to be at the end of a long hard day of work, he always managed to muster up another hour or two in strength to help those in need around the countryside on the other farms in the area to help someone out of a bind.
She gently watched him with her own soft heart. He surely didn’t know he was being watched, as he pulled his clean handkerchief from his rear pocket and began wiping away tear after tear she could see running down and dripping from off his chin uncontrollably. He suddenly slouched forward, placing his head face first down into both open hands, as his supported leg fell to the floor of the porch with a lurch.
She was trying to make the right choice for herself and other people’s lives of the world, whether to help save her friends in space or not save them, and not really giving her own family the right to intervene in her own decision of making one of the utmost most important decisions she had ever had to make as she put the last glass away into the cabinet. She looked out the window just in time to see her mother put her caring hand down onto her loving son-in-law’s shoulder as he put both arms out forward around her waist and wept like a child. Her two lovely children ran out onto the porch from around the front of the house followed by her father.
She put the dishtowel to her own weeping eyes, and knew then what she had to do. Ann had finally made up her questionable wandering mind. She was not going. She refused to put her family through another episode of grief like the last event she had caused, and even if she did come back safe and sound, she might never come back home to the same family she once knew. She ran for the closed kitchen door. She flung it wide open hard so everyone turned around startled from its almost cracking off its hinges and yelled out to them.
“I AM NOT GOING!”
They all smiled and sighed with the greatest of relief, especially Ben. He was so excited, he almost knocked his poor caring mother-in-law over in his trying to get to his feet in order to get to the one he so loved the most in the whole entire world except for his two little girls.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
The Last Mercy Mission
Four, Three, Two, One, Zero. We have ignition! The solid fueled rocket engines aboard the Omega one came instantly to life. The craft began to shimmer and shake as the hot flames shot out from beneath the tail section of the main launch booster rockets attached to the underbelly of the shuttlecraft. Commander Anderson sat at the flight controls along with Major Bill at his side. Both were getting ready if need be to help them in a straight smooth ride up into outer space and into an orbital path to linkup to the International Space Center.
The early morning weather over Cape Canaveral could not have been any better for the launch of any rocket, especially the shuttle. The sun had just crested up over the early morning horizon of the most eastern crest of the ocean shining bright, like a huge big red rubber ball all aglow up in the early bright blue morning sky. A few fair-weather clouds floated scarcely scattered about in the early blue as the temperature in air was between perfect and wonderful for the launch. The air was still without breeze with the ocean as calm as an ocean can be. If only they could swiftly make the out limits of the atmosphere before the negativity of the massive neutrons energy-absorbing field could attack them. The creature of the heavens had become very active lately for some very strange reason. It was as if it was trying to win a battle with another force over the planet, taking place by this other force field attacking it, that it was trying to win back its full control over the universe. Might it be all the electrical power man was generating below the crust of the earth’s surface, made it plausible that the earth was winning over the large neutron field by weakening it? Probably not, as it seemed to be infuriating the manmade creature into being more aggressive in movement and attack, or was it just growing in strength, and would soon one day suck all electrical currents no matter how small out of every living creature on the face of the planet and below its surface as well?
Some civilian and military aircraft now flew regular routes between cities and air bases around the country and the world. Most air travel was temporarily grounded because the threat of being attacked by the increased activity of the imperfection of neutrons. The neutron mass sought out the most minuscule energy field in living beings electrical impulses from within the brain who had sat inside the aircrafts at higher altitudes when it attacked absorbing the mainsail impulse from within them. It now was doing its best in attacking and absorbing the smallest of positively charged fields of any living being or creature living or flying above three thousand feet sea level. The littlest and largest of birds, butterflies, and insects were all falling from the sky in droves again like they had before when the immense neutron fields first invaded the atmosphere around the world. The rescue of any survivors from any of the downed aircraft if there were any was damn near impossible if there were any left alive. Without communication between the aircraft and someone on the ground, the chance for rescue was nil if not impossible. There had not been a single survivor recorded since recording of downed airplanes started just after flight had resumed. The last sighted crash of an airplane recorded was an attack by the neutron field at O’Hare International Airfield in Illinois, and luckily for some they were close enough to the ground when the big plane crashed for some of the passengers rescued from the horrific experience. The jumbo 350 jetliner was approaching from the north just returning from Anchorage, Alaska when suddenly it was engulfed by a yellowy orange and greenish sheen of death. The plane nosed up, turned over sideways, and then came crashing down on the runway on a wing tip, splitting the large aircraft in two, as passengers, luggage, and aircraft components scattered themselves all over the ground and along the runway. Of the list of 280 onboard, only twenty-two passengers were able to survive the crash. The lucky ones seated in the middle of the huge fuselage of the aircraft were the only passengers unscathed by the crash or by the massive neutron field attacking the plane. Many of the other passengers remained strapped into their seats. These passengers should have survived the crash. These passengers were lightly burnt and smoking, smelling of a strong phosgene gas odor from the massive neutron field attacking them. The ones seated in the aircraft’s middle were protected from the massive attack by the field not reaching them yet when the aircraft crash landed. If the plane had stayed aloft just another second or maybe two to three seconds longer, the immense neutron field would have had time to finish its destructive job of snuffing out human life aboard the entire craft. When the inquiry into the accident occurred, there were only a few surviving passengers left for answering questioned about the accident. The ones left alive all repeated the same exact story about the mishap. The fuselage of the aircraft echoed with a loud buzzing crackling sound before it filled up with a strange smell in toxic gas, making everyone vomit from its strong offensive and very strange stench. The eyes of all passengers instantly watered, whilst their starving lungs all screamed for fresh oxygen because of the volatile strength of the putrid gas. The descent prior to landing became unstable, everyone’s heads and arms being tossed from side to side as the aircraft twisted and turned just prior to its slamming down into the runway. It was a good thing the plane broke in two on impact for the survivors’ wellbeing. Fresh air and oxygen came flowing into the plane’s fuselage so the remaining passengers still alive could get a breath of much needed fresh air. They, too, would have surely all died from the strong putrid gas that had surrounding them that had taken their precious oxygen away from them. When the ones who could help, helped and saved everyone able to talk and move were off the plane, the very few strong men left, went back into th
e fuselage of the aircraft to help the others still strapped in their seats.
Some of the passengers, and crew were still smoking and making sizzling cooking sounds just moments after the crash. There was no help for anyone who had this strange smelling smoke and gases ascending from their lifeless bodies and clothing. They all looked like dead seated mummies, still all strapped to their seats while the ones who had tried to save them were overcome with emotion seeing mothers with their small children still strapped to their seats seated beside them, and not a single solitary thing they could do to help save anyone of them, especially the little ones. Some of the survivors sat and lie along the runway in pain waiting for rescue when it began to rain.
Every fatality lately from the neutron monster was recently recorded during a rainstorm, just prior to or just after it stopped raining. The neutron sheens of rainbow colors in greens, yellows, and reddish browns danced among the rain clouds like lightning, but there was never the sound of thunder or the slightest sounds or rumbling associated with the sheen. Only once in a new blue moon would anyone hear the muffled sounds of thunder like noises mixed within the stormy clouds above.
Lately the muffled sounds of thunder were becoming more frequent and more pronounced with every new storm that appeared over the horizon around the planet.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
Safely in Orbit
Lieutenant Marsh pulled hard on the mechanical levers to activate the detonation of explosives attached to their ends to detach the main rockets from the shuttles undercarriage. Lieutenant Marsh had taken the place of Captain Ann Mitchell as the new navigator assigned to the Omega One’s mission. The shuttle barely shook as the main thruster rockets used to get the Omega up into orbit separated from the cradle used to attach them to the spacecraft blew away. The rockets had spent their entire useful life, as the shuttle suddenly relaxed its g-force upon the crew inside the shuttle when the rockets exhausted their thrusting fuel. He then next pulled firm on another set of levers igniting the second stage rockets to finish placing the Omega One into its final rendezvousing orbit with the space station a few hundreds of miles ahead of them. The Omega shuttered slightly when the second stage rockets came to life, pushing its cargo and crew of astronauts back into their seats with more g-force, thrusting the Omega with its payload of space modules forward and upward into its needed orbit circling the globe on a well-predetermined and intended course.
Lieutenant Marsh was Colonel Anderson’s second pick as navigator, and had him in training prior to him going to see Ann just in case she said no. He really thought she would be onboard the Omega One with him this last mission into space, and was glad he had had Jim start the training prior to his quest off to Vermont. Jim didn’t have much training, but had shown great abilities in his previous performances in the space program.
As Colonel Anderson glanced back over his shoulder feeling the main thrusters depart the Omega One, he soon felt the second stage rockets come to life. This made the great weight of concern lift from off his wondering shoulders. The mission was going too good to be true, and they would be at the International Space Station on a well-predetermined time. Everything this time was going ahead like clockwork, and not like the last mission he had flown.
Breaking through the ionosphere was a spectacular sight for Jim. The star-lit canopy ahead of the Omega One out its windshield was the most spectacular, most brilliant of sights Lieutenant Marsh had ever witnessed in his entire lifetime so far, as this was his first time into outer space. He had never had the opportunity to see the heavenly display of stars upon its canopy of black this close up never before, and was totally awe struck with astonishment with its most magnificent beauty. Looking at it out the windshield of the spacecraft thinking he was dreaming for it was such a beautiful sight.
“Pressurize the cabin to sea level pressure, Lieutenant.” Commander Anderson yelled back to Lieutenant Marsh, as Lieutenant Marsh followed through with his orders as the cabin in the Omega became less hostile to the crewmembers as the barometric pressure increase.
Everything prior to charging the batteries for power were done by hand, using pressure gauges and air tanks to do the job without the customary use of computers onboard to do the job, the way Lieutenant Marsh was taught when he first joined the space program before the deadly neutron attack. Lieutenant Marsh had been hard at work preparing for this big task of his every day for the past couple of weeks, working ten and twelve long hard strenuous hours every day since. He went over his every step of his assignment, lever, by lever, and valve by valve, and doing it in his sleep at night, continually practicing when awake or sleeping. He wanted to make his first time flight into outer space a happy experience, excited to be a part of the crew. Everything he touched whether it was a valve or some different levers for different jobs on the mission seemed to turn out to be golden for him and for the Omega One’s crew. Who needed computers he thought with all these new fandangle mechanical devices affixed to the spacecraft. He turned out to be the next best navigator Commander Anderson had ever run into except for Captain Mitchell.
Not wanting to make another mistake like the one he had on the first mercy mission, Commander Anderson held onto the second stage rocket burn until they had exhausted themselves as the main rockets had done. He knew it would be easier to slow the Omega down on its final approach to the space station than waste the much preciously needed fuel in trying to catch up to the International Space Station this time with the Omega’s manually operated positioning booster rockets. That had been the most crucial of blundered mistakes he had made on the last mission, and he did not want a repeat of it this time. They had been extremely fortunate in their last mission to space, having used up all the extra jaytoe bottles of fuel and still have a successful conclusion occur for everyone at the end. The outcome of the last mission could have been a devastating one, and a whole lot different if the main battery banks had failed them.
Once the Omega One was in its final orbit and closing fast toward the space station, the crew of the Omega One began filling the dry lead core batteries with its sulfuric acid life giving solution to bring the battery banks up to full power capabilities.
The Commander had the crew position the solar absorbing electrical shields toward the sun to absorb even the minutest amount of solar power they could possibly get from the sun, and began broadcasting radio signals to the space station immediately soon as the instrument control panel in front of them came to life and they had power.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
The Happy Eye in the Sky
Using the eye in the sky for the slightest ray of hope from below, the cosmonauts watched their American friends over the past week transport a new shuttle from one of its three huge hangers at the cape out to one of its launching pads. This meant one of two things, and Commander Ivan of the space station hoped it was his first guess of a rescue mission and not just that of a restocking mission for his crew. His crew was getting ready to die out there in orbit from the lack of proper food and nutrition along with a very critically low oxygen supply they had left in their tanked oxygen system, and the plants they had onboard were not thriving the way they should be in their producing usable oxygen. The best thing for everyone onboard this time would be rescuing, and not just restocking, but the latter would be better than the alternative of nothing happening at all.
Cape Canaveral had come alive again ever since the rescue of their fellow cosmonauts in their life raft and their safe return to Florida. The eye in the sky had been busy watching several times a day in their orbit every time they passed overhead of the cape. The lonely forgotten crew of the space station was in total bliss as the cosmonaut at the telescope gave a second by second account of this launch of a new shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center to them over the station’s intercom and monitoring systems aboard the space station. The crews of the space station were lucky that they were in a position to watch the launch of the shuttle from its in
itial first burn right through its second burn, and then the eye in the sky telescope lost sight of the craft prior to the shuttle passing out through the earth’s atmosphere and into space with them. The space station’s speed in orbit took them out of sight out over the Atlantic Ocean and into their orbit around the earth to its dark side of blackness. Everyone onboard the space station felt a lot, if not just a little relief, knowing they hoped they were not the only ones in orbit now. They all had a ray of hope, a tiny sense of relief, knowing someone was coming for them or bringing them more supplies to sustain them from a failing life support system. With a little bit of luck, they all hoped, most the crew would be able to return back home to Earth if the Americans had retrofitted this new shuttle to carry more personnel back to Earth with them than the last mission did. It was only a dream for most, but one has to live on dreams sometimes just to stay alive. The thought of living longer, even if it was in space, rejuvenated the weary that had just about given up on life itself and were expecting the worst in life to happen to them in this void of heaven above their loved ones. They were beginning to think this was going to be their coffin just knowing they were all doomed to die, but not now.
Happy thoughts of going back home to Earth began to flow through the troubled minds of the ones who had just about given up and were ready to take their own lives rather than suffer the consequences of a slow death in space. They all became excited like little children at Christmas time, thinking of the coming of Santa Claus and all of his gifts. The shuttle, being the sleigh, and the gifts they were to receive would be more life supporting supplies or a free ticket back home to their families and loved ones with this crew.
