The engine design was inherently safe. The propulsion reactor basically sat non-critical with any waste heat removed by radiators into space. When a computer controlled valve opened and supplied liquid hydrogen to the fission core it went critical and heated the fuel causing it to rapidly flash to a super-heated gas for propulsion. When the fuel valve was shut by the flight computer or human control, the reactor went sub critical and simply shutdown. It was actually a pretty simple and inherently safe design. Since it used liquid hydrogen as fuel, the plan was to use ice mined on the moon to manufacture the hydrogen as well as oxygen for life support. Bringing the fuel up from the moons gravity well was going to cost a fraction of the cost to bring it from Earth as was presently being done. First though, the Lunar Space Station and the Lunar Base at the Lunar South Pole had to be established. All of that depended on a successful test of the ILC that was getting ready to happen today.
Mike finished going his checklist for the third time in the past two hours as Major Hank Jenkins did a somersault and landed in the co-pilot seat beside him.
Hank buckled in and gave a grin to Mike. “Man, are you ready to make history?”
“I was ready two hours ago, all this hurry up and wait stuff sucks. Only ten minutes left to go now.”
Mike flipped a microphone switch and called to his other two crew members. “You guys have ten minutes. Better get strapped in and ready for the ride.” He flipped another switch and spoke “Alpha control, this is ILC-1. All preflight checks are done and we have a green board. Reactor one is at forty percent power and we are switching to internal power, and releasing the umbilicals. Requesting permission to undock and maneuver clear of the station.”
“Roger that ILC-1, you are cleared for maneuvering. You guys have a safe trip and see you back in four days,” came the reply over the radio.
Mike gave a thumbs up to Hank who flipped a switch that released the four magnetics grapples holding their ship to the construction scaffolding that extended from the space stations main tube. Mike fired the ship’s maneuvering thrusters and the ILS-1 slowly floated away from the station. They wanted to get to a safe distance of about five thousand meters before starting the nuclear propulsion reactor for the first time.
Mike knew that down in Houston there was quite a crowd gathered for this first flight. David Honstein, head of NASA, General Robert Seale, head of the USSF, as well as the President of the United States were all gathered there. He hoped that it would be a good show for them and did not turn into a funeral wake for him and his crew. As they slowly drifted away from the station, Mike could see that all the viewports facing them on the space station were crowded with crewmembers watching them. The scaffolding holding the almost complete ILS-2 on the opposite side of the station was empty of workers as a precaution until they left Earth orbit.
“Three thousand meters from station,” Hank informed him. “About six minutes until we are clear to fire this baby up.”
At that moment the radio call system chimed and an unexpected but familiar voice came over it. “Crew of the ILS-1, this is President Paula Montgomery here in Houston. I wanted to tell you myself that all of us here in Houston as well as the entire nation are watching and praying for you. What you are about to do has never been attempted and much of our planet’s future depends on the success of your voyage. I wish you Godspeed and good luck. We may be down here on Earth, but we are there with you in spirit, cheering you own.”
“Thank you Madam President, we won’t let you down,” Mike replied.
“Five hundred meters to ignition point,” stated Hank. “Reactor two expansion chamber is open to space, fuel pumps are on line and pressure is steady, crossing five thousand meters in ten seconds.”
Mike flipped his internal radio back on. “Ok, men, let’s take this baby for a spin and see what she can do, standby for acceleration. Open injection valves for twenty five percent fuel flow on my mark. Mark,” he said as he braced himself.
Hank punched in the orders on the flight control computer and the four fuel injection valves slowly opened. The computer display started showing increasing flow rate. “Propulsion reactor is going critical; temperature is at two hundred degrees centigrade and rising.”
Almost unnoticeable at first, a slight vibration started though out the ship. The ship was noticeably moving away from the station at an increasing rate through Mike’s external view screens. A faint blue/white glow could also be seen behind the ship beyond the exhaust nozzle when he looked at a rear view video camera.
“Core temperature is at four hundred degrees centigrade and rising, all systems green,” said Hank as he continued to monitor his displays.
Mike could feel the slowly building acceleration pushing him back into his seat. His acceleration meter was reading about zero point eight G. “Slowly bring us up to fifty percent power,” Mike ordered. As Hank slowly throttled the engine power up, the acceleration increased noticeably and the vibration continued to build. It was not a teeth rattling vibration like the rockets they rode up to orbit on, but a more subtle sense of immense power being released behind the rapidly accelerating ship.
“Core Temperature is at nine hundred degrees and still rising, all systems nominal. I am showing one point eight nine G’s acceleration. At this power level, we need eleven point two minutes to reach projected mission velocity.”
Mike was rapidly checking over all his instruments. He knew that four redundant computers were monitoring everything much more rapidly than he ever could and beaming that data back to mission control, but old habits were hard to break.
“Core temperature is about steadied out at eleven hundred degrees,” Hank informed him.
Mike knew the simulations had predicted about eleven hundred and twenty eight degrees so the reactor was running a little cooler than expected.”
“ILC-1, you are looking good, looking good, guys,” called Houston Control over the radio.
The G forces they were experiencing were definitely more than they had been exposed to since they had taken a shuttle up to the space station fifty days ago and Mike found he had to take slow labored breathes.
“Ten seconds to fuel cutoff,” Hank said. “Four, three, two, one, cutoff. All injection valves are indicating closed. Core temperature is slowing dropping, deploying radiators. Looks like that burn used about four percent of our fuel. That is pretty much on the money as far as the simulators had calculated.”
The vibration had stopped. The waste heat radiators had deployed and they were at zero-g again. Mike thumbed his radio mike. “Mission control, this is ILS-1. We have reached projected mission velocity and are on trajectory to the moon. We’ll see you guys back at Alpha in four days.” Releasing his radio mike button he could hear loud cheering in the back ground as mission control acknowledged him.
“Core temperature is continuing to drop. Looks like it works as planned,” grinned Hank. “Now let’s get something to eat. I was too damn nervous to eat before we left.” Hank released his straps and kicked out of his seat toward the back of the cabin. One of the specialists had turned on a music player and Mike could hear the old Pink Floyd classic, “Dark Side of the Moon,” playing in the back of the ship.
The future was looking bright to Mike as he turned his gaze out the view port to the dark of space. Today, they were celebrating, but somewhere out there, a interstellar visitor was coming and its trip through the solar system was going to cause all hell to break lose. They still had twenty one more years to prepare for its arrival and they were going to need every bit of it.
Chapter 26
June 3rd, 2023
Washington, DC
President Montgomery made her way to the situation room in the White House. She had been awakened by her chief of staff and an emergency meeting of the Security Council had been called. Elliot Dewey announced her presence as she walked in, but she motioned for every one there to remain seated. So far, she just had General Robert Preston, NSA director and General Frank Dieter, the cu
rrent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the room. She turned to the White House aide that was leaving the room. “Bring me a coffee; make it black and strong please.” She took her seat as the Secret Service agent at the door shut it. “Ok, gentlemen, what the hell is going on?”
“It looks like the Russians are making their move for some warm water ports Madam President. We have been expecting this for some time. The Russians have been massing almost seventy five percent of their armor and mechanized infantry divisions just north of the border with Georgia and Azerbaijan for about two months now. At seven am local time there this morning they crossed the border into both. From what intelligence we have on the ground, there has been no resistance to their incursion. Obviously, the governments of both Georgia and Azerbaijan had been aware of the plans.”
“The Russian forces are not slowing down but proceeding at best possible speed to the border with Iran. Iran is mobilizing their forces and moving them north but they will be lucky if they can dig in north of Tehran and try and hold a line. Russian fighters are already attacking Iranian air bases and gaining control of the skies over Tehran. There are reports of wide spread cruise missile attacks on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Bases. Depending on what their objectives are, and what kind of resistance the Iranians put up, we estimate they will be knocking on Tehran’s door in about a week. After that we are not sure what their intentions are,” said General Dieter.
“Ok, so the Russians are going to pound the Iranians,” replied President Montgomery. How does this affect us?” “Well,” said General Dieter. “We have no assets except for some liaison staff still in place in Iraq and of course our advisors in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Since we withdrew our naval battle groups we have no real capability in the area at all. I do not think that there will be many tears shed here at home for the Iranians.”
“There is the possible threat of the Iranians responding with a nuclear weapon,” said General Preston. “We do not know for sure, but the best intelligence the Israelis have shared with us is that Iran has been able to produce two, maybe three crude nuclear bombs. They do not have the capability to mount them on a long range missile but they could possibly air drop one on the invading Russian forces. The other concern would be that just as a spoiler the Iranians would lob a couple at Israel rather than lose them to the Russians. Israel has put their forces on alert and they are calling up reservists. The biggest risk is that if Iran throws a nuke at Israel that Israel may throw some back. If any of those hit any Russian forces then this may get out of hand.”
“Ok, best guess, what do we think the Russians goals are?” asked the President.
“The Russians are going to need a warm water port after E-Day,” stated General Dieter. “The Baltic Sea and the Black Sea as well as their ports in the Pacific are going to probably freeze over and stay that way. We estimate that about ninety percent of greater Russia is going to be covered by permafrost and glacier. They will not be able to feed their population or support themselves. They are desperate for land in a warmer climate for their population. We think they will pour every resource they have into this invasion. Our best guess is that they will try and subdue Iran, then turn west and do the same for Iraq.”
“They still have the large naval base in Syria and as of yesterday they were having large naval and amphibious exercises on the eastern Mediterranean. It is probable that those forces will land in Syria and be rapidly re-enforced and they will subdue Syria. Since the Syrian Revolution ended in 2014 there has been no real government in power and the loose confederation of groups that have been attempting to govern can put up no major resistance. We believe that their ultimate goal is to take over Syria, Iraq, and Iran.”
“These moves will give them access to the Mediterranean as well as the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. They will have good supplies of oil, a warmer climate, and warm weather ports available. We believe they will start moving large portions of their ethnic Russian population into the conquered areas and forcing the displaced Iranians to flee into Afghanistan and Pakistan. The native Iraqi’s will be forced south into Saudi Arabia or north into Turkey. They will probably leave Afghanistan and Pakistan as a buffer between them, India, and most importantly, China.”
“So, what do we do in response?” asked the President.
General Preston spoke up. “Well, we advise doing nothing. We have no great love of the Iranians and the Iraqis are so busy killing each other they are no one’s reliable ally. In the end, the region will probably be a lot more stable than it has been for hundreds of years, assuming of course that the Russians are successful. We do recommend that you give the Russian President a call and tell him we would appreciate him keeping his hands off Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as they are technically still our allies even if we do not have any forces in the area that can help defend them. Since we have withdrawn all our oversea forces, and reduced our navy to two carrier groups tasked with costal defense, we no longer have an effective way of projecting any real military power.”
“How are the rest of the major players taking this General Preston?” the President asked.
“Pretty much, they are going about business as usual. Most of the European countries are busy moving their industry and population into African Countries that are eager for the influx of money and the boost it is giving their economies. England and Canada are still moving large groups of their population to Australia and since most of that traffic goes through the Suez Canal they will be watching things very closely. Oddly enough, China has been very quiet about the whole thing. They are probably relieved that Russia has pulled most of their forces off the north China border and moved them west for this operation.”
There was a knock on the door and an aide to General Dieter entered and gave some sheets of paper to the General. The General briefly scanned them and then looked up. “This is starting to get ugly. We just thought China was being quiet. Twenty minutes ago, they launched a massive air assault on Taiwan. Intelligence satellites show that their entire navy and amphibious forces are putting to sea for what appears to be a forced amphibious invasion of Taiwan. It gets even worse. North Korea has commenced a rocket and long range artillery bombardment of Seoul and their forces are advancing across the demilitarized zone. South Korean Forces are mobilizing and they are calling on Japan to honor their mutual aid agreement. Regular ground units of the Chines army are also moving to the borders with Myanmar and Vietnam. It looks like all hell is breaking loose.”
“Do we have any assets at all over there that we can help Taiwan and South Korea with?” asked the President.
General Dieter shook his head. “The fast attack submarine Virginia just left a port visit in Hong Kong yesterday. She could head north and attempt to interfere with the Chinese amphibious force but with the entire Chinese Navy putting to sea she would be outnumbered and outgunned. She might get lucky and sink a few ships but we would probably lose her in the process. Since we are down to only a dozen fast attack submarines now, it would not be wise to stick our nose into that hornet’s nest. Unless we want to threaten them with nukes there is really nothing we can do about any of this.”
“We knew that this could, and probably would happen when we withdrew our forces and started drawing them down so we could put the resources into the Space Force instead. Everyone who has a stash of guns is starting to jockey for position in what will be the new world after E-Day.”
“So basically we just have to sit here and watch,” said the President. “Please put all our forces on alert. I am going to make some phone calls to some of the other world leaders, not that I expect that it will do any good. We used to be the world’s police force and now that we left the neighborhood the bullies are out in force. Please notify me immediately of any new major developments.”
Chapter 27
June 9th, 2023
Washington, DC
President Montgomery fell into her bed after her evening national security brief. She had been
getting two briefs a day and she was physically, as well as mentally exhausted. The past week had all but drained her. The Russian Forces advancing south through Iran had been brushing aside Iranian resistance with very few losses until they were about twenty miles from Tehran. At that point, the desperate Iranians had lobed a short ranged missile with a nuclear warhead into the vanguard of the Russian armored units at the forefront of the invasion. The result had been the near instantaneous vaporization of a full Russian armored division.
Russia had furiously retaliated by nuking Tehran with a neutron bomb. Neutron bombs had been banned back in the nineteen eighties due to the fact that they killed indiscriminately while causing very little physical damage to the landscape and target area. They had been considered too perfect a weapon, one that would encourage a nuclear war and all countries had agreed not to build them. Obviously, the Russians were no longer keeping any of the old treaties. Nearly the entire population of Tehran had been killed outright or had absorbed a lethal dose of neutron radiation from the warhead. The Russians then commenced executing every Iranian man, woman, and child they encountered. It soon became evident that they were committing self-righteous genocide against the Iranian people in retaliation for Iran using a nuclear weapon on their forces.
Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) Page 19
