by Bob Lee
Bonnie reached the end of the corridor, and stepped out into the hot New Mexico sun. On either side was a huge crowd of photographers snapping pictures. Questions came at her and the group from the right and the left. “Are you ready? What’s it feel like to know you’ll never see Earth again? Why are you taking children who have no choice?” Everyone in the group smiled and waved, and marched in their silver unitards, but didn’t answer back. They had been warned by Brother Jacobs on the way here to look happy and to keep walking. And just ahead of them was the shuttle bus to their ship.
On the way here, Jeff had explained to her and the kids that they were going to depart from Spaceport America, which was built way back in the 2010’s to support private launches into space. It was open to anyone in the public, and had become a mecca for space tourism, with daily launches for sub-orbital and orbital vacations. There were even a couple of hotels and casinos in space where you could stay for a week or just visit for a day. New weightless sporting events were available to watch live, and also televised every month to the people back on Earth. For a while, there had been competition between the private launch companies and NASA to outdo each other with space firsts, until they all realized that coordination worked much better.
Jeff had told her that their two pilots were on loan from NASA. There were never enough NASA flights, and the astronauts fell all over themselves to pilot missions from any company that would hire them. Sure, some lives had been lost in the process of executing all these private flights, and this was why the media was here at the southern New Mexico spaceport, but she had read that one third of the people attempting to summit Mount Everest had never made it back alive. Space launches had a much better success rate than that. At least, that’s what she had been told.
Everyone in front of Bonnie stopped, waiting to board the shuttle bus. “Okay, everyone. Remember to sit in your correct seat assignments,” Jeff yelled out. “Platinums in the front, Golds next, and Silvers and Bronzes in the back. It’s the same order as we’ll use on the ship, so let’s get it right the first time.”
Bonnie herded Jean and Julie, along with Lucky and Lotus, through the throng and to the back of the bus. Being married to a Platinum One didn’t mean that they had prime status. Your position in the group depended on how many new rich people you could recruit and how much money you could bring in. As she got her children settled, the dog and goat prone in the aisle, and their bags on the overhead metal rack, Julie tugged her shirt. “Mommy, why are those two strangers up front dressed so funny?”
“They’re the astronaut pilots, honey. They have to be ready to go into space if there’s an emergency.”
“But aren’t we going into space too?”
“Well, the ship is, but we’ll be nice and cozy inside it. We don’t need spacesuits,” Bonnie stated.
Sue, the eldest member of the group, leaned over from across the aisle. “Don’t worry, honey. You’ll be a real spaceman too in a little while. That’s one reason why all those people were taking your picture. You’ll even be famous as the youngest person ever to go to another planet!”
Bonnie rested both of her hands on her abdomen, and a worried look crossed her face as she looked out the window at their ship in the distance. With a final flood of lights flashing from the many media cameras, the bus lurched and started out for the runway.
CHAPTER 2
Everyone stared at the craft when they exited the bus. It looked like two giant pterosaurs mating. The top ship was a giant airplane with six jet engines, and the logo “Virgin Intergalactic” on its tail. Underneath it was a very long craft with three parts. The rear part looked like the back half of a plane with rectangular boxes under swept back wings. The middle part resembled a long tube with a checkerboard pattern painted on it, and the front part seemed as if a child had been asked to design a paper plane. It was shaped like a big grey manta ray. It had no tail, and the ends of the wings curled slightly downwards, as if the craft was beginning to flap them. The bottom half was black and the top was a bluish grey. Along its top was painted a horse with wings and the word Pegasus. Jeff, Brother Jacobs and the two astronaut pilots were standing by a ramp leading into the small graceful bluish ship.
Commander Roy Olstein addressed the group. “We have about twenty minutes before wheels up, so everyone listen closely. As quickly and as orderly as you can, board and take your assigned seats. There are compartments at the ends of each aisle to hold your belongings. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t come.”
He then looked at the back of the group where there was a pretty blond woman with two young children hanging on to her belt. The children were holding a dog and a goat by leashes. He almost shook his head as he thought, “Why am I not surprised? Like we don’t already have enough ‘firsts’ on this crazy mission. Well, I guess animals were the first astronauts, so why not also be among the first colonists to another planet?” He straightened himself and said, “Miss, there are two cages at the end of each aisle to hold the animals. Please be sure to secure them with the harnesses you’ll find in the cages so that they are not injured.”
Roy scanned the faces of the crowd in front of him. With a big grin he thought, “Well, I might as well make this good.” He made a slight bow, and with a flourish waved his left hand towards the ramp. “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard your chariot to the stars, the Pegasus! Pilot Tuttle will brief you once you are all inside and seated.”
# # #
Pilot Samantha “Sam” Tuttle stood in front of the seated colonists. The passengers were arranged in five rows of five seats each, and there was barely enough room in here for her and her bulky spacesuit. In fact, there was barely enough room for all of the people on this flight. The seats were the smallest she had ever seen. Normally, passengers going into orbit would have been wearing spacesuits in case of emergency, but the flight company, Virgin Intergalactic, knew that they would have to forgo those in order to fit twice as many people as normal into this tight space. There was a narrow aisle along the left and right sides, with small compartments for storage in the walls, and at the back of the aisles were two narrow cages where the animals were strapped down. Sam wasn’t even sure how the people in the last aisle had managed to get to their seats, but that wasn’t her concern at the moment. She needed to get everyone prepared.
“Thank you everyone for seating yourselves so quickly. Commander Olstein and I will be on the other side of this bulkhead, but there is a microphone attached to Brother Jacobs’ seat. You may relay any questions you have for us through him during the flight. You can also watch the overhead monitor which will show the view out the front of the ship, as well as our current speed.” Sam tapped the monitor over her head for emphasis, and then continued, “Please stay relaxed and think of this as a normal airplane ride. In fact, it actually is an airplane ride for about half of the trip. The hyperjet to which we are attached is the first of its kind, and so you will most likely feel a number of jolts, but I will announce each stage over the loudspeaker to prepare you. Once we reach orbit, we will experience zero-G for about ninety minutes. You are welcome to look out the side windows, but remember your training and do not turn your heads quickly while weightless or you will experience vertigo.”
A hand rose from one of the people in the middle of the third row. “Excuse me, Ma’am, but what training are you talking about?”
Sam answered, “Why, the training that is given to all civilians going into orbit.”
Brother Jacobs interjected. “Excuse me, Pilot Tuttle. As you can imagine, this venture has strained even my vast, though not infinite, resources. We could only afford to train my three Platinums, sitting here with me in the first row. But do not worry. There are three spacesuits in the hold, and my Platinums can assist you in any situation that may occur.”
“Three…spacesuits?” Sam said with a frown. “Not twenty-five?”
“Why no,” Brother Jacobs said. “That would be excessive. We are relying on you to get us to our destination
safely.”
“But everyone should have a spacesuit for contingencies,” Sam stated, not believing she was having this conversation.
Brother Jacobs stared at Sam with his grey eyes wide as he said, “The cosmic intelligence will see to us. We are ‘The Called.’ We shall endure. Do not worry, Pilot Tuttle.”
Sam realized her mouth had begun to hang open, and she closed it. She looked back at the person who had asked the question. “Well, there’s your answer. Just follow any directions the Commander and I give, and for God’s sake, don’t any of you unbuckle your seat belts or crane your necks gawking at the scenery when we’re in orbit.”
“God will have nothing to do with it, Pilot Tuttle,” said Brother Jacobs. “Now go to your flight station. We are ready to leave.”
Sam couldn’t believe this guy had just dismissed her. Sure, he was funding this flight, but Sam couldn’t believe the gall of the man! She reached behind her back and slid the door to the flight deck open. She turned, walked through the door, slid the door shut, and plopped into the right-hand seat.
Roy turned to look at his second in command. Sam was leaning on her hand, which was covering her forehead, and her eyes were closed. “Hey, Partner, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Our guests got you spooked?”
“You’re not going to believe this one. Only three of our passengers have spacesuits and have gone through any sort of training. The rest have no idea about what going into space will be like! Did anyone tell you this when we picked up this assignment at the last minute?”
“You’re joking, right?” Roy said. “You know, this is no time to be pulling my leg.”
“Well, we should be pulling out of this mission, if you ask me. How are we going to survive with these people for six months?”
Roy thought this over for a minute in silence. Then he turned to Sam. “You want to give up your one chance to get to Mars? NASA can only send four people every two years, and that’s if they’re lucky and their funding isn’t pulled. And if the guys up there at Burroughs Base have an accident, who knows when flights might resume. We’ll both be old and grey before we have any chance beyond this one.” Roy put his hand on his partner’s shoulder. “Look, I know this sucks, but it’s MARS! I’d give my left nut, hell my right one too, to go. And I know you’d feel the same way if you were likewise equipped.”
Sam looked up with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right; let’s get the checklist started. But, you know, however this works out, this is going to make one heck of a story for the historians.”
# # #
Roy turned on the cabin speaker. The flight up to 50,000 feet had gone off smoothly. The ponderous jet overhead had hauled the Pegasus up without a hitch, and they were now flying at close to Mach 1, the speed of sound.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Commander Olstein. We have reached our initial cruising altitude. You will now feel the ship drop as we are released by the mother ship. Please do not be alarmed. You will then feel a big push as our scramjets kick in. On your overhead monitor you can follow our progress. When it shows that we’ve reached Mach 4, or four times the speed of sound, you will feel a tremendous jolt. That is our hyperjets taking over. You are the first ever passengers to fly using hyperjet technology, and that is because we need the extra boost it provides in order to have enough fuel to escape Earth orbit. The hyperjets will take us to about half the speed needed to reach orbit, and will then detach and robotically fly back to Spaceport America. After it detaches, we will continue to orbit via rocket propulsion. Please be ready for the drop, and God speed.”
“Um, Roy, you probably shouldn’t have said ‘God speed.’ They already chastised me once for invoking the Almighty.”
“Samantha, there are no atheists in foxholes and rocket ships,” Roy responded. He then switched his communications radio to the overhead plane’s frequency. “Condor One, Pegasus is ready for detach.”
“Roger, Pegasus. Detach is a go. Good luck.”
“Here we go.” Roy said, and pulled the release handle.
Roy could hear screams from the other side of the bulkhead behind him. He had to chuckle as he remembered his first flight instructor. They were practicing engine out emergency landings, and as he was concentrating on final approach his instructor started yelling at him, saying the passengers were all screaming and vomiting and didn’t he want to turn around and say something to them? Roy had glanced at his instructor, who then yelled at him, “What are you doing looking at me?!! Fly the freakin’ plane!!”
Roy concentrated on maintaining a level glide heading and said to Sam, without turning, “Sam, tell our passengers to get ready for the engines to kick in.”
As Sam complied, Roy heard over the radio, “Pegasus, Condor One. You are clear for engine start.”
Roy pushed the scramjet starter button, and felt a huge jolt as they ignited. The two rectangular boxlike jets at the rear sucked in air, mixed it with fuel, and spat it out the back in a huge conflagration. He watched as the altitude display climbed and the airspeed indicator increased. Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 3. “Sam, prepare for hyperjet mode,” he stated.
“Roger, Roy,” Sam said. She flipped a couple of switches. “Engines ready to reconfigure for hyperjet mode.” She glanced over at the Commander. “This is really amazing. No one else has ever ridden a hyperjet. I remember following the NASA and Air Force WaveRider experiments when I was a kid. They would boost a small hyperjet up to speed with a rocket and then kick in the engines. The thing would only go for about a minute or two before the engines melted or it disintegrated.”
“Yes, it’s taken them a long time to perfect this and to learn how to go from scramjet to hyperjet mode,” Roy said. “The materials have to be able to absorb the heat generated by the tremendous air friction, and the combustion chambers need to be reconfigured very precisely for the air to flow in and ignite just from the heat. It’s pretty amazing that we’ll get all the way to Mach 15 without using a rocket. If it goes without a hitch, they’ll probably be able to have tourist flights to the Moon in the next year or two. Mach 4, Sam. Let’s do it.”
Sam flipped the final reconfiguration switch, and they both heard a tremendous bang. The whole ship bucked, and they were pressed back into their seats. “Whoa,” was all Sam could say.
Roy could hear more screaming from behind the bulkhead. “Oops, maybe we should have warned them again?” Roy stated with a grin. This was just too exhilarating for him to worry too much about what was happening behind him at the moment. And things were going to happen quickly now. They were already approaching Mach 10.
Roy changed the radio frequency to Mission Control. Flying commercial was very different from NASA launches, where he would be in contact with KSC for launch countdown and then automatically switched to Houston on ignition. Here, he had to rely on the people at Virgin Intergalactic to notify Mission Control of his expected contact time, and it was up to him to link up. In fact, they probably already had him on radar, since the ship was about to pass over the edge of Texas and start over the Gulf of Mexico.
“Mission Control, this is Pegasus en route to orbit, over.”
“Go ahead Pegasus, this is Mission Control. How’s it flying, Roy?” A small hi-res LCD screen lit up on Roy’s console, and the image of a fellow with a grey Mohawk filled the screen.
“Wow,” said Sam. “Those guys at Virgin sure do know how to build a ship. Even NASA doesn’t have live video from Mission Control in its spacecraft!”
“Brick, you old fart!” laughed Roy when he saw the visage on the screen. “They let any old has-been manage missions these days, I see! And let me guess…you’re channeling your inner Bobak Ferdowsi for our mission?”
“Yup, you’re a wise Owl. I even cut out this symbol for Mars in my hair for you,” Brick said, turning his head sideways to display a circle with an arrow coming out at two o’clock. “Only the very best for you space jockeys on this mission. And this historic flight will probably mean I get a presidential visit, just like Bo
bak did!”
Sam looked over at Roy. “You know him? And who’s Bobak?”
“He’s Brick Shinefield,” said Roy. “He loves dressing up as famous NASA members for special flights. Today he’s making believe he’s Bobak Ferdowsi. Bobak was a Mars mission icon, ever since he was seen sporting a Mohawk on the videos from Mission Control during the Mars Science Laboratory’s ‘seven minutes of terror’ landing to put the Curiosity rover on Mars back in 2012. He became an instant celebrity; everyone wanted to know who that ‘Mohawk Guy’ was and why NASA didn’t have more like him. He even got to go to President Obama’s inauguration and sit with the First Lady! Who would have guessed that one’s hairstyle would cause all that fuss? So Brick is dressed like him today in honor of our flight to Mars. When NASA made its first flight around the Moon to test out the new Orion Mars capsule, Brick even sported a flattop buzz cut and a white vest.”
“Wait, I know that one,” said Sam. “Gene Kranz from the Apollo days, right?”
“Hey, you got yourself a keeper there, Roy,” Brick said with a laugh. “There’s hope for the new generation yet. Anyway, enough on the history lesson. You’re coming up on Mach 15 and hyperjet separation. Our guys here are ready to remote pilot it back if the robotics fail. The lead desks here say that all of your indicators are nominal. You are go for HJ-sep and Stage II ignition.”
“Roger, Flight,” Roy said, using Brick’s official designation. He turned to Sam. “Let our guests know to prepare for orbital burn.”
