We spread out and walked from one end to the other. I was amazed. There were several minor cracks but you would expect that in the tarmac. What was amazing is that they were level and weren’t separated.
I didn’t speak the entire time that we were walking the runway itself. My eyes were on the tarmac, but my mind was on other things. Things like if anyone saw or heard me taking off, which everyone within fifty miles would, the New Americans would know that reinforcements were headed to the settlement. That and anything that walked on two legs would be headed to Lambert to check out what went on and that could get in the way of my friends trip back and I couldn’t allow that.
So I devised this plan in my mind. One that I knew would meet major resistance by Mike, but it had to happen if I was going to give her a fighting chance of getting off this rock. All I had to do was figure out how I was going to convince her of it.
The walk back to the hanger was quiet. Even the boys, or young men as Thomas liked to call them, were in a somber mood. I don’t know if it was worry about their companions back at the settlement or they were just worn out from working their asses off or a little of both, but it didn’t matter. It suited my purpose to have a silent trip back so that I could rehash all of the arguments in my mind. This wasn’t going to be easy.
I could smell the food cooking as we entered the hanger bay. Charlie and Russell were still milling around Prometheus with a few of the other older guys. They had hooked the hoses back up and it appeared that they were topping her off. They saw us come in and headed our way.
We sat down just like the night before, but things were different. We were all tired and we all knew that this would be the last night that all of us would be together.
We ate silently for a little while until Charlie spoke up. “We’ve got you to ninety-three percent fuel capacity Steve. That’s probably the best we’re gonna be able to do under these conditions.”
“That’ll do it. I’ve got less than twenty percent normal payload and should use less than a quarter of a percent getting her lifted and turned in the right direction.” I took a breath and got ready for what came next. “We’ll start moving her at daylight and once we get her on the runway and I get everything secured, I’m going to sit there for two hours while you guys head your butts back to Nemesis.”
With that Mike almost choked on her food. “No way we leave you until you airborne!”
I was expecting it. I looked at her calmly without raising my voice, “then I don’t guess that I’m leaving then. Because when I lift that tin can, everything within miles is going to know it. The two legged natives that are within running range are going to head this direction to see what they’re missing. That’s going to slow you down. The New Americans are going to realize that you’re headed back their direction. That’s going to give them over a two hour head start to attack either the settlement or Nemesis. Their choice, either way you’re screwed. So that means that you have to be back there ready and waiting for them when I take off. They won’t be expecting you to be there and that will give you a fighting chance of getting Nemesis back off the ground again. You’ve got radios and you can hear me talking to Moonbase. If something goes wrong it won’t matter if you’re here or not, there won’t be enough of me left to scoop up off the tarmac! I’m going to sit here until I hear you contact Moonbase and there’s not a damn thing that you can do about it.”
Mike started to say something else, but Charlie spoke up. “He’s right skipper. There’s nothing that we can do for him here. We don’t have the equipment. That heap will either fly or it won’t. If it doesn’t, it will probably make the biggest fireball since Armageddon, and it won’t do Steve any good for us to be here.”
Thomas had been sitting there quietly. He put his hand on Mike’s elbow, and said “you know that he’s right. It’s hard, but if we try it any other way the only one who will succeed is Mr. Ray. Our being here or not being here isn’t going to affect that.”
Mike sat there sullenly for almost a minute. I don’t remember holding my breath but I do remember letting it out when she said, “you right. Don’t like it Steve, but you right.”
I could see the tears in her eyes as she sat her plate down and got up and walked into the shadows surrounding Prometheus.
It hurt me to see her hurting, but I didn’t know any way to make it better, but I knew that I had to try.
I got up and followed her to where she had stopped. I didn’t know what to say so I just turned her around, put my arms around her and held her. I could feel her body shudder with sobs. I knew that I was the only person to ever see her this way and get away with it. There was nothing that either of us could do except complete the mission. Not completing it left too much blood on our hands.
I don’t know how long we stood like that. I’m sure that the others saw us, but no one was going to say anything. I’m sure that they all figured out what Mike & I meant to each other.
Mike finally looked up at me, “So we have no choice, huh? I guess both of us have to come through this on alone so that we can be together?”
I could only nod. My voice wasn’t going to work, so I kissed her, long and hard. There was no resistance this time, she just melted into my arms.
I didn’t want it to end. It may not have, except for Russell. He had come up behind me and finally interrupted with a polite cough. I would have ignored him but Mike couldn’t. One day I was going to strangle that kid for not knowing when to walk away.
“Skipper, we’re ready to do that equipment check that you requested”, he said as Mike looked up.
She nodded, and managed “few minutes please” before she pushed me away and looked me in the eye. “I want to make sure that you not flying a piece of junk. I want to go through equipment checks with you.”
I wasn’t going to argue. If Prometheus’ equipment wasn’t usable, then it wouldn’t do me any good to try to take her up.
Chapter 18
I had gotten settled in to the pilot’s chair and Mike was in co-pilot. The first real item on the agenda was to run the status board.
We did a dry run of the countdown without lighting anything up. I was getting positive fuel pressure at the boosters and the guidance thrusters as well as reactive rudder and flaps. The only red light that I was getting was pressurization and that was because the hatch was still open. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because I was going to take off in full suit. No use taking any chances. We had just wrapped up when Mike reminded me of Moonbase.
It had been two days since they had last heard from us and I’m sure that they were getting nervous. I put the headset on and looked at Mike. She just nodded, knowing that I would have the sense to leave out what didn’t need to be said, with that I hit the button “Prometheus to Moonbase, do you copy?”
The response took a little longer than the typical lag, but not much, “Prometheus, this is Moonbase. Status report please.”
“Prometheus is operational, I repeat, Prometheus is operational. Have loaded every bit of usable material in cargo hold and refueled the best that we can. I have a green status board and plan on taking off at 13:30 GMT tomorrow. Planned takeoff for Nemesis is 14:00 GMT tomorrow.”
I could tell that I was talking to a technician and was hoping that one of the brass wasn’t standing around to question the takeoff schedule, but just in case I followed up with “shutting down now to conserve power.” I got a “Roger that, Prometheus” and cut power before I could hear anything else. They had no idea what kind of shape our fuel cells were in or how much fuel I had on board. That kept me from having to answer questions that I couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.
“If I don’t make it, you may have to explain why you didn’t elaborate on our plan at some point.”
I looked at Mike out of the corner of my eye, “our plan? Hell, I going to claim that I didn’t know anything about it and blame it all on you!”
Her smile was pure gold. It was another one of those times that I wished things were diff
erent. I would have given anything to forget about the whole thing just so I could look at that smile again. But that was counter-productive. I knew that part of that smile had to do with the fact that we were going to do what we thought best, not what the brass wanted us to do.
I stood up and took her into my arms. I didn’t try to kiss her, but I could have and she knew it. All I wanted to do was remember this.
Just as I was getting comfortable, I heard someone clear his throat, that fucking Russell. I didn’t have time to yell at or even glare at him before he said, “Skipper we thought that it would be a good idea if you had a chance to brief Commander Ray privately”, and with that he powered the hatch shut.
The kid wasn’t stupid after all, gutsy maybe, but not stupid. I just laughed but Mike tried to say something about a Captain’s reputation before I kissed her to shut her up.
It was almost as if it were by mutual consent, or non-consent as you may have it. I didn’t want to pressure her into something that she didn’t want to do and we both wanted to make sure that our mind was on our business the next day, not wondering if it was a good idea if we had slept with each other.
We moved to one of the acceleration couches and settled in entwined in each other’s arms. Those couches were made for one man or woman in a pressure suit. It was comfortable sleeping for a man and woman without them.
We awoke to the cabin hatch being opened. I was ready for any type of uncomfortable scene, but it was Thomas who opened the hatch. He turned and took a tray from someone who I couldn’t see and said “It’s about 40 minutes before sunrise and I thought that you two would like something to eat before we got started.”
I could see the smile in his eyes, but it was mixed with a bit of sadness. We didn’t say a lot over the fire toasted bread with acorn butter and what passed for coffee, but towards the end he started to speak. “Captain Nikolaevna you don’t have to do this. I’ve had discussions with Charlie and he informs me that he can take Nemesis up by himself. If you want you can take Prometheus back up with Mr. Ray.”
I knew that was bullshit, there was no way that taking Nemesis up was a one man operation. Especially with the jury rigged front wheel. Thomas or Charlie one was trying to give Mike an out. I had been holding my breath for less than a second when Mike spoke up, “Don’t give me that crap Thomas, you may be able to fool the doctor’s in this asylum, but you can’t fool the patients!”
Thomas started to nod as Mike followed up with, “No way taking Nemesis up is one man job, two men, minimum! We barely going to be able to hold her straight as it is, much less provide ground support for your troops”, then her voice softened, “but thank you anyway.”
He smiled, “I told them that your response would be similar to this, but I also told them that I would try. No one wants to see one of you sacrifice the other for our sake or for the sake of those under-appreciative people waiting outside the atmosphere. But I understand your loyalty to the job. I will tell them that we should honor your wishes in this matter. In the meantime, we have two of the Humvees hooked up to the tow bar and may want to get started right away to allow for any unforeseen difficulties.”
I wondered at this for a minute, until I remembered that a shuttle crawler was a single 250 HP motor with a low gear ratio. Those Humvees, were probably rated at 200-250 HP and appeared to be off road military types, which means they weighed in at almost 6000 lbs each before we loaded them down with the stuff that we had scavenged. They may not be as low geared as the crawler but we only had to go a mile, not the 3.2 miles that they used to have to do to drag Nemesis to launch. That and the fact that I could us the guidance thrusters to bump us along if need be would get us to where we needed to be.
“I want to do a walk around before we start moving her”, Mike agreed, “That be a good idea, we don’t want this can to come apart with you in it.”
I grinned, that was the kind of banter that we used to throw around before missions in Iraq. The kind of devil may care, nothing off limits stuff that gave pilots a reputation for being crazy and antisocial. The stuff that no one else would mention for fear that it would come true, we used to mention thinking that nothing we would mention could possibly come true.
There was a crowd that appeared to be trying not to wait on us as we came down the ladder. I was the last one out and knew that I should say something. I wasn’t sure what, but I started out with the banalities of what we were going to do today, the fact that I wanted to do an exterior walk around before we fired everything up. The details of exactly how we were going to get this beast to the runway. The fact that I was going to be communicating with Commander Nikolaevna via radio so that she could signal the Humvees if needed. They were attentive, but I felt that I was leaving something out.
They were expectant. I was supposed to say something momentous, something for the history books. I didn’t know what I was going to say when I started speaking.
“We spent our days on Earth chasing wealth, power and greed. Now that’s it too late to do anything about our Earthbound ways, we are spending our time in orbit trying to survive. Some of those people up there will never see a tree or a rabbit, or a bird. The meat that they eat will come from test tubes and they will never have the thrill of digging in the soil, or dropping a deer at seventy yards with a bow or the feel of blood on their hands as they dress that deer. They will never feel that because someone else will provide their food for them. They are dependent. They are dependent on other people for their food, their water, their shelter, even the air that they breathe, their very life. You are dependent upon no one. You depend on each other, that is true, but that is different than being dependent on them. No one can deny you life, or food, or shelter, or freedom unless you let them. There are those out there that will try to change that and I tell you DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN!”
I took a breath before I continued, “Do not let the New Americans hold you hostage to an ideal that should have died with the governments that were killed twenty years ago. Forge your own ideals. Fight for them, die for them if necessary, but better yet, live for them. People will follow you, they will listen to you, they will pass on what you say, for you are right to believe the way that you do, to live the way that you do. Do not doubt that you are living better than you ancestors, because you are. You may not have the technology, but you have the ideology to make this a better society.”
With that I stopped. I didn’t know anything else to say. Hell, I didn’t know I was going to say that. Some of the younger boys looked like they could have used some interpretation, but the teenagers and older men were all nodding. They understood. That was all I needed. With that I stepped down off the ladder and as the rest of my friends stood and stared at me like I had flashed their mothers, Thomas and I began the walk around of Prometheus.
Chapter 19
I inspected the hookup between Prometheus and the Humvees. Nothing fancy there, just a set of cables with a tow hook. I was worried about the cable, it was old but appeared to have been well oiled over the years, Thomas assured me that they took into account the weight of Prometheus when figuring the line.
Even with Thomas’ assurances, I wanted to make sure that I had a clear field before we got started on the tow. The cables left the vehicles just over sixty five feet from Prometheus’ nose. I informed Thomas that I didn’t want anyone within two hundred feet of the Humvees or the shuttle while we were towing. I’ve seen a tow cable break with a lot less strain on it than we were getting ready to put on it and I wasn’t going to take any chances.
Thomas started giving instructions on clearing the path and I walked toward the Humvees to give some instructions to the drivers. As I approached from the rear, I noticed that the entire rear of each vehicle was piled full with enough heavy stuff to block the rear windows. That was good. If the cables where to snap that was that many less people that I had to worry about. I had stopped to check out the hookup on the first vehicle when Charlie came out of nowhere, “Don’t worry about it. We’
ve got it hooked to the frame on both sides using case hardened steel bolts. It’s not coming loose. The cable may snap but one end of it is staying hooked to this truck!”
I grinned and nodded, “Who’s driving?”
“Bradley is driving this one and I’m driving the other one. Russell is riding shotgun with Bradley to relay my hand signals to him and Robert is riding with me. He wouldn’t hear of anything else and I was afraid to argue with him.”
“I’m going to have Mike ride with me to help me control thrusters. Do your flashers and turn lights work? I’ve got an idea.”
Charlie wrinkled his brow, “I haven’t checked. What do you have in mind?”
“Let’s check and then I’ll go through it.”
The turn lights worked on both, but the flasher module was out Charlie’s Humvee. I thought that I could make that work. I got them all together, Charlie, Russell, Bradley and Robert. “Here’s the deal. You should be able to tell if one of you is feeling more pressure on the line than the other. All I need to see is a turn light and I’m going to bump thrusters on that side. If you feel too much strain, then both of you turn on your headlights, if I see taillights I’m going to open the thrusters up to take some load off the line. I want you guys to keep your heads down and keep an eye in your mirrors. If you feel a surge like a cable broke or came loose, then you floor it. Once you get me to the first taxiway, you are going to turn left and angle towards the runway. At that point I’ll stop and we’ll unhook everything. Mike will disembark and you guys will need to get out of my way.”
Charlie nodded, “We’re not in Iraq anymore, are we?” I shook my head, “No, but I wish we were. Things would be a lot easier.”
The End of the Beginning Page 15
