Man's Hope

by Zellmann, William

  Space travel has been described in many ways, but one word most astronauts and cosmonauts seem to agree on is "boring." For a few treasured hours every day, each spacer had his machines to monitor and adjust, his readings to take, his log entries to make. But aside from that few hours, and rather abbreviated mealtimes, they were largely left to their own devices.

  Though he complained endlessly, Dolf came to look forward to his daily 'reports', and the preparation for them. The others began to devote more and more time to monitoring radio and TV signals from Earth in their various languages, and feeding particularly negative ones to Dolf, for inclusion in his daily report. At first, there was a lot of hysteria and misinformation for him to deal with, but as time went on, those being interviewed learned that falsehoods and exaggerations would immediately be exposed. Hosts began having more and more trouble booking guests willing to make false or exaggerated claims about the mission.

  Dolf claimed to be writing his book, but he was rarely seen using the communal docking station. He could usually be seen with his nose buried in his tablet, reading and occasionally scribbling notes on the touchpad.

  If anyone could be said to monopolize the docking station, it was Yoshi. When he was not typing madly on the keyboard, he was huddled by himself in a corner of the cargo bay, where he had created what the others jokingly referred to as his 'nest'.

  Ron Mbele spent day after day tinkering with the ship's mechanical systems. This bothered Yuri considerably. He continually professed a fear that Ron would "break something and kill them all." David, however, considered it a good sign; if Ron was constantly checking, it reduced the chance that something really would go awry without anyone noticing.

  Total opposites in personality, David and Yuri turned out to be very close. They learned that they were both deeply interested in computer gaming, and both considered themselves chess experts. The two spent hour after hour up in the pilot's compartment, deep in one game or another.

  Raoul was the group's self-appointed 'morale officer'. He had a seemingly endless supply of jokes, few of which were printable, and had even been known to lure Yoshi out of his 'nest'. He had frequent long talks with all the crew, and jollied them along, but the merry eyes glinted with a sharp intelligence. Dr. Jerroult was staying involved with his patients.

  Early on, Dolf had millions of listeners around the world, but as the crew settled in, time began to drag, and their most vocal opposition faded, so his reports faded in listenership. Still, he kept doing them; he knew that in a few months, as they approached Carter IV, listenership would pick up again.

  Except for Yuri's reports on the reactor, none of their reports to Alcântara were coded or otherwise concealed. When the dehumidifier that condensed the moisture from their breath failed, and the humidity began to climb dangerously, Frank received frantic e-mails from around the world. Luckily, Ron had been able to repair it. He claimed it was "easy" but David reported that he had worked on it for over an hour before deciding to replace it with a spare; then he had immediately set to repairing the original, with a lot of free and mostly useless advice from Earth.

  Finally, the day came when they must reverse their attitude, to use the ion engines to slow them, instead of accelerate them, so they could match orbits with the comet. By this time, there was a several-second light speed lag between transmission and reception, but they managed to have an executive conference with the crew, Frank, and a number of mathematicians from Alcântara. Frank and David were concerned about shutting down the ion engines during the reversal. They were not alone. Most of the crew felt that they should adhere to the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other words, the ion engines were purring along perfectly. Why take the risk of shutting them down, flipping the ship, and then relighting them? What if they didn't light? What if some did and some didn't?

  Dolf was in this camp. He was confident he could handle the orbital perturbations involved in executing a "skew turn," a reversal with the engines still driving. Frank and David finally agreed reluctantly, with David specifying that he would throttle the engines to minimum power by reducing the electrical power they received before the turn was executed.

  The moment arrived. David reduced power to the engines, and then simultaneously applied max power to the starboard nose attitude jet and the port rear attitude jet. The starfield in the windshield began to rotate slowly, then more rapidly. Suddenly David was scrambling to power the opposite attitude jets to stop the rotation. It took several blasts of the jets to steady the ship in its new orientation. They were too far out for those on Earth to help. It was up to Dolf to verify their attitude and position, and to compensate for the inevitable inaccuracies the maneuver had introduced.

  Then he had to transmit his data to Alcântara and wait while they ran his computations through the big computer to verify them before giving them to David to execute. Dolf was gratified that their answer matched his own. He passed it to David, who made the corrections and then boosted the engines back to maximum.

  Morale aboard the ship soared. The reversal meant they were more than halfway to their goal. Their orbit was calculated to approach the comet from the side, avoiding its coma. Once they were within a few miles of the head of the comet, Dolf could relax a bit; the actual approach and "landing" was David's responsibility.

  They were still weeks from that point, however. There was plenty of time for morale to slip to its previous levels.

  They were only ten days from reaching the comet when Ron asked to speak with David in private. He nodded, and he and Ron went up to the flight deck, which was unoccupied at the time.

  "We have a problem," the big black man began. Before David could respond, he continued. "I have been running inventories of our supplies, so I'll be prepared for their use."

  David nodded. "I know. I'm very impressed with your thoroughness."

  Ron gestured impatiently. "Please! This is important!" He took a deep breath. "We're missing two kilos of blasting explosive."

  "What!" David straightened. They had over five hundred kilos of blasting explosive, for use on both the comet and the asteroid. "Are you certain?" he paused. "I'm sorry, Ron, of course you are. Any ideas?"

  Ron shrugged. "Only the obvious; search the ship. We may have a saboteur aboard."

  David nodded. "All right, Ron. I'll take it from here."

  The scarred face crinkled into a brilliant smile. "Good luck!" He nodded and backed down the ladder.

  David called Yuri and Raoul up to the flight deck, and told them the situation. Yuri's face became even more dour and threatening. Raoul's frowned in concentration. After a moment he said, "Well, if I had to pick one, I'd have only one suspect."

  David smiled weakly. "C'mon, Raoul, Yuri's not that bad tempered!" Raoul gave him the quick, weak smile the joke deserved. David sighed. "Okay, Raoul, who's your choice?"

  The chubby man shrugged. "I'd say Yoshi. Ron is the one that reported it, you're active in investigating it, and Yuri . . . no. Not Yuri. That leaves Dolf, Yoshi, and me. Dolf is almost religious in his devotion to this project. If you thought it was me, I wouldn't be here. That leaves Yoshi. He's a loner, unsociable and uncommunicative. I'd say the first place to check is that 'nest' of his, in the cargo bay."

  Yuri jerked a nod and started for the ladder. "Hold it, Yuri," said David. "Ron said he's got two kilos of explosive. That's enough to turn us and this ship into drifting dust, if he set it off in the right spot. And we don't know how it's rigged, if it is. He may have a remote trigger. We have to get to it without him knowing about it.

  "Here's what I suggest," he continued. "You and Raoul go below. I didn't see Yoshi there, so he's probably in his 'nest'. We've got to lure him away from there and into the passenger compartment without creating suspicion."

  Yuri nodded. "I suspect a computer problem."

  Raoul brightened. "Now that you mention it, I've been having some problems with the tablet interface recently."

  David nodded. "Good I suggest
you tell Yoshi immediately. I have an errand in the cargo bay, myself. Yuri, I'm sure we can count on you to make sure I'm not disturbed?"

  Yuri's dour face was stone. He nodded. "And I will make certain his hands do not go near a pocket."

  David's eyebrows rose. "An excellent thought. Raoul, why don't you let me go into the cargo bay first? You can come in after a minute or so."

  David entered the cargo bay with his tablet in his hand and a puzzled expression, as though he was planning to check on something. He stayed well clear of the explosives storage locker, and began poking around the foam-encased ion motors intended for use on the comet and asteroid.

  After a minute, Raoul came in, obviously looking for Yoshi, who was ensconced as usual in his padded 'nest'. Raoul spoke to him for a moment, and proffered his tablet. Yoshi inspected it carefully, then handed it back and began extricating himself from the maze of crates that formed the walls of his 'nest'. He and Raoul went into the passenger compartment.

  As soon as the hatch closed, David hurried to Yoshi's 'nest', and began searching. It took him about ten minutes to find it. Yoshi had loosened a corner of a crate and dug out enough foam plastic packing to accommodate the explosive.

  The four blocks were neatly arranged in a cube, with a timing device on the top. David recognized it as a timing device used to set delay on rocket engines. With a huge sigh of relief, he verified that the timer had not been set, and there was no apparent remote control. He removed the detonator and the trigger, and returned the explosive to its locker. Then he went forward to the passenger compartment. Yoshi was engrossed in a tablet; apparently, he was trying to diagnose Raoul's problem. David nodded to Yuri, who returned his nod and tapped Yoshi on the shoulder.

  "Yoshi," he said quietly, "I must speak with you."

  The little man frowned. "What is it? I'm quite busy."

  "I'm afraid it's quite important. We have discovered that some explosive is missing."

  Yoshi's eyes darted to the hatch, saw David standing in front of it. "There's no cause for worry, though, Yoshi. I found it."

  Panic surged in Yoshi's eyes, and he tried to surge to his feet. But Yuri was on him in an instant, locking his arms behind him. Raoul handed Yuri a short length of cord, and Yuri bound Yoshi's wrists.

  David looked at the man, whose attitude was suddenly a mixture of desperation and despair.

  "But you must see," Yoshi said excitedly. "We have to do it! We cannot let man do it again! We have polluted our world with nuclear energy and radiation. We cannot allow the pollution to be spread into space as well! That abomination tucked in the middle of the ion engines on our stern must be destroyed!"

  David shook his head. "Even if it destroys our ship and ourselves as well?"

  "Of course! We do not matter. Man must not be permitted to pollute the purity of space with his obscene radioactives!"

  David looked at Yuri and shrugged. "The 'purity' of space."

  Yuri looked disgusted. "Have you been in orbit recently? The place is a junkyard. And I suspect a lot of the older stuff is radioactive."

  By now, the entire crew was crowded into the tiny passenger compartment, and everyone was talking at once. Yuri rolled his eyes, and pulled Yoshi over to his acceleration couch. He put the slight Japanese into the couch, and snapped the safety belts into place. With his hands bound behind him, Yoshi was helpless.

  David waved for silence. He explained what had happened, stressing that the bomb had been disassembled. By the time he finished; Yoshi was receiving some very black looks from his shipmates.

  "The big problem now," he continued, "is what to do with Yoshi. We have no place to lock him up, and we certainly can't just release him.

  "Put him out the airlock," said Ron, "with or without a suit. It won't matter either way. He tried to kill us!"

  David frowned. "And who's to be the executioner? Any volunteers?" The silence was deafening. "That's what I thought," he continued. "None of us are killers."

  Dolf spoke up. "He's safe enough where he is, for the moment. I suggest we consult Frank. Of course, that means the rest of the planet hears about it as well. We should get a lot of input!"

  There was much more discussion, of course, but no one had a better idea.

  "Good lord," Frank said. "How good is your evidence?"

  "Conclusive," Dolf replied. "The Commander found the bomb and defused and disassembled it. Yoshi doesn't deny it; he's trying to talk the rest of us into finishing the job."

  "Why?" Frank replied in a puzzled tone. "What possible reason could he have?"

  Dolf thought hard. The reactor was the only secret they had. But it was also the very core of the reason for Yoshi's act. He looked at David, who sighed deeply, and then shrugged. So much for their secret.

  "To prevent man from polluting the cosmos, he says"

  "Polluting it with what?" Frank's voice was still puzzled, but there was no way to tell him without telling the rest of the world, and no code words that wouldn't be obvious.

  "Nuclear energy and radioactives," Dolf replied in a level tone. He might as easily have been saying, "marigolds and daffodils." He wished that were what he was saying.

  Silence dragged. Frank was certainly aware that a very large cat had been let out of the bag.

  Finally his voice came, dully. "I see. Well, we'll put out a storm watch, and batten down all the hatches. I expect a very heavy storm over the next few days.

  "As for what to do with Yoshi, I'm afraid I can't be much help right now. But I'll bet we get lots of advice very soon. For the moment, I'd check and make sure Raoul is well equipped with sedatives."

  They signed off a few moments later. No one seemed to have much to talk about.

  ***

  Frank's storm hit within hours. Suddenly every newscaster on the planet was reporting that Man's Hope was a nuclear ship.

  Talking heads interviewed each other. "Experts" were unearthed and interviewed, and the wilder their views, the better. The Man's Hope website was down for several hours due to sheer volume of traffic.

  The next day, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN demanded that the UN Atomic Energy Agency launch an investigation of Brazil and the Alcântara launch site to find out if Brazil had a secret nuclear program. Brazil denied any knowledge of the reactor aboard Man's Hope, and reminded the General Assembly that they already possessed a nuclear power plant, and there was nothing secret about it.

  But the U.S. Ambassador demanded that the UNAEA investigate, and inspect the Alcântara site. Brazil reluctantly agreed to allow the UN Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, a majority of whom seemed to be American, access to Alcântara. The inspectors were disappointed that they were not given access to the buildings on the launch site. They had, however, been carefully guided by Brazilian military personnel who insisted that they run their Geiger counters around and over the outside walls and curtained windows of every locked building to verify that there were no nuclear materials there.

  In the General Assembly, Brazil produced the head of the UNAEA, who was forced to admit that the inspection was sufficient to establish that no fissionable material existed at Alcântara. Unsatisfied, The U.S. demanded that the UN Security Council censure Brazil, and impose sanctions, claiming that the Brazilians had "interfered" with the UNAEA inspectors.

  Luckily, the Russian people had been some of Frank's most enthusiastic supporters since it had been announced that Frank was going to launch a Buran, and launch it using an original Energia Booster. When Frank's hundred million dollar investment in the Kliper/Parom project hit the news, one wag on Russian TV said it was a good thing Frank was not on the ballot for President of Russia, because he would be elected in a landslide.

  The Russians had watched the U.S. persecution of Frank in amazement and puzzlement. When the U. S. proposed the actions against Brazil, the Russian UN Ambassador actually laughed aloud, and asked the U.S. Ambassador if Frank had stolen his girlfriend or something. Russia, China, and France vetoed the American proposal.
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br />   Claiming puzzlement and disgust, Brazil announced to the General Assembly that it was cutting all trade ties with the U.S., since it was obvious that Brazil was under diplomatic attack by its northern neighbor.

  Frank was amazed. This went far beyond professional jealousy or bureaucratic resentment. It was as though the U.S. government had declared war on Frank Weatherly. He tried to contact a number of friends and acquaintances in Washington; he finally succeeded in reaching an old friend on his personal cell phone after office hours. He asked him what was going on.

  The man laughed. "Frank, you've made an enemy of the President of the United States. This President campaigned on support for the space program, and he tried to raise NASA's budget by fifty billion dollars. He was making quite a fight of it, too.

  "Then you came along, and in less than two years, with a piddling two billion and some obsolete Russian hardware, you made NASA look like a bunch of amateurs. Hell, you're still making them look like amateurs. The NASA Director has been on the White House carpet three times this week. This reactor brouhaha is the best news the President has had in months. You're going to be on Washington's hate list until this President leaves office. You might find some opposition Senators or Reps that might talk to you, but that's about it. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't call me, either, for awhile. Especially my office number."

  Frank stared at the buzzing receiver, stunned.

  The U.S. wasn't finished, however. The U.S. Attorney General filed charges against Frank and the entire crew of Man's Hope before the International Court of Justice. They were accused of nuclear terrorism, violation of UN Treaties concerning nuclear power in space, and crimes against humanity in exposing the people of the Earth to the possibility of nuclear and radiation dangers had there been a malfunction during liftoff.