GALACTIC SURVEY (COLONY Book 3)

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Good evening, my fellow Arcadians.”

  There had been some grousing about the design work on the hyperspace vessel being split off, but that quieted down after Gannet’s kickoff talk. They had all the vehicles, and all the action would be here. The people still at the hyperspace facility were not, by and large, office types.

  Both groups bent to their tasks. Both groups made good progress on their portion of the project, freed from the concerns of the other portion.

  ChaoLi kept a close eye on both groups as they kicked off. It looked like her splitting the project was going well.

  All The Playtoys

  The hyperspace operations facility at the Arcadia City Spaceport was a maelstrom of activity for the next several weeks. It took ten shuttle flights to orbit to get all eighteen additional RDF satellites, six deployment vehicles, and twenty-four large JATO bottles to space.

  Dragging the payloads out of the assembly rooms. Latching them together on the shuttle pads. Landing the shuttles on them and latching them for transit. Preparing the shuttles for orbital operations. There was always something going on.

  Attaching the deployment vehicles and their RDF parasites together into their deployment configurations in orbit took more days of work, with mission control supervising some of the work from the ground. They simply did not yet have enough space-capable pilots.

  Justin Moore and Gavin McKay spent more time in orbit than they did on the ground during this period.

  Finally, the RDF missions were assembled and the hyperspace ships were back down on the ground being prepped for their missions to Amber and Earthsea.

  All they needed now was their mission profiles.

  JieMin had been spending much of his time playing with his bubble model, and following his vision in selecting deployment locations for the RDF satellites. He took to using another set of bubbles one hundred and twenty-two light-years in diameter, to ensure his RDF locations were within detection range of potential colonies. He placed those bubbles to encompass as many of the possible colony locations as he could, to increase the overall rather dismal odds as much as he could.

  JieMin finalized his location selections and transmitted them to John Gannet.

  ChaoLi was working on the flyby approach. The original idea was to fly through the system collecting networking data. The issue was that they didn’t know where in the system the planet was in its orbit. They could fly through the system on the other side of the sun from the planet, transit a hundred million or more miles away, and not pick up any data at all, even though they might have given away their existence.

  The other problem was the inverse, though at lower odds. They could fly through the system closer to the planet than they intended, and be within pickup or shoot-down range of the planet and any orbital facilities it had.

  They decided to play it safe, and, despite additional complication, stop a few hundred million miles out to reconnoiter the system and locate the colony planet.

  The hyperspace ships would then make their high-speed flybys of the colony planets by going back into hyperspace to get closer and build their exit speed. They would only be going two million miles an hour in normal space, but that was probably enough as the hyperspace ships would be several million miles from their target planets for their flyby.

  ChaoLi had her staff finalize those mission profiles and send them to John Gannet.

  Monday four weeks in, Gannet pinned down Bellamy.

  “So how are we doing?” John Gannet asked.

  “We’re pretty close actually,” Chris Bellamy said. “We had to convert the mission profiles we were sent into actual instructions, and then design all the fallback responses for various scenarios, then simulate all of those to test our instruction files. We’re not done, but we’re close.”

  “When can we launch?”

  Bellamy took a deep breath. Gannet knew she hated to commit – all project managers hated to commit – but time was moving on. It had been four weeks now since the groups had separated.

  “Next week. I feel really good about early next week.”

  “Call it, Chris. I want a day.”

  Bellamy considered before answering.

  “OK. Tuesday for the RDF deployment, Wednesday for the hyperspace ships.”

  “All right. You’re on.”

  Fixing the date wasn’t done without a certain amount of grumbling from the people on the project. Any time a hard date got set, it put pressure on people to move things along. And as critical events approached, the anxiety ratcheted up.

  “Launch thirty-two spacecraft within two days. Sure, why not? We got anything else we can shoot up while we’re at it?” one simulation tester groused over lunch.

  “Well, there’s really only three kinds,” another said, “and all of the one are parasites to another. So, really, it’s only two different kinds.”

  “Yeah, but they all have to be checked. All the telemetry has to be gone over. All the flight profiles checked. Memory. Computer. Checksums. The whole thing, on thirty spacecraft.”

  “I can’t argue with that. But we’ll get it done. We’re close as it is.”

  “I hope they just do them one at a time, so if something goes south, we can pause while we check the others.”

  “Oh, I think they’ll do that.”

  “These are all leaving from low Arcadia orbit, aren’t they?” ChaoLi asked at her weekly meeting Friday morning with the Operations Group management.

  “Yes,” John Gannet said. “A hundred miles or so.”

  “Can we launch when they will be most visible in Arcadia City? Like just after dawn or so?”

  Gannet looked to Bellamy, who consulted the orbit schedule.

  “It’s a ninety-minute orbit, and they should be overhead at seven-thirty and again at nine. Which is best for you?”

  “With the sun on them against the dark sky, seven-thirty is probably best. Will we be able to see the JATO bottles fire off?”

  “Oh, I would think so, ChaoLi,” Gannet said. “When we test fired several of them, they produced a lot of smoke and steam. They should be very visible.”

  “Excellent. Let’s do that, then. So everybody can see. We can announce it in advance, and get some great publicity.”

  “If everything goes according to plan, that is,” Bellamy said.

  “Oh, publicity is publicity,” ChaoLi said. “If everything is successful, we are making great use of the public’s money. If things are unsuccessful, it’s because we don’t have enough money. It’s all in how you spin it.”

  Bellamy laughed.

  “Well, that’s your department, ChaoLi. Mine is making sure it’s the former and not the latter.”

  On Tuesday morning, ChaoLi, JieMin, and the boys had an early breakfast and went up on the roof of the Chen apartment building to watch the launch of the deployment vehicles and their RDF satellite parasites. Rob Milbank’s office had announced the launch times the night before, and there were a number of other people up on the roof and the other roofs nearby.

  Also on the roof were Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu, seated on pillows on the roof. Attending them were their heirs apparent, David Bolton and Chen YongLin, who would become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu when Chen MinChao and Jessica Chen-Jasic retired.

  LeiTao and ChaoPing and their husbands DaGang and JuMing were also up on the roof for the launch.

  Everyone was looking up, directly above Arcadia City, where a scatter of tiny white dots looked like salt grains spilled on the tablecloth of deep-blue sky.

  “Coming up soon,” JieMin said, checking the countdown in his heads-up display.

  “This is very exciting,” ChaoLi said.

  They only had a few more minutes to wait before one of the salt grains emitted a plume of smoke and headed away from the others in a white streak. That streak stretched out for a few minutes, then it stopped, and restarted.

  “Second JATO bottles ignited,” JieMin said.

  The streak was moving faster now, and, a
fter a few minutes, it, too, disappeared. They could no longer see the white dot that was the deployment vehicle and its parasites.

  “Too far away to see now,” JieMin said.

  Another salt grain erupted with a plume of smoke and headed away from the others. It, too, had a break in the plume at a few minutes, then disappeared after the second streak.

  “Two away,” JieMin said.

  Four more times, a deployment vehicle and its parasites ignited the JATO bottles and streaked away from Arcadia. They all headed in more or less the same direction. Once they were in hyperspace, they would change course for their destinations.

  After all six deployment vehicles had departed, there were only two dots remaining where there had been eight before.

  “Those last two are the hyperspace ships,” JieMin said. “They won’t leave until tomorrow morning.”

  “And, without the JATO bottles, won’t be anywhere near as showy,” ChaoLi said.

  “No. Their regular rockets are less impressive, at least from here.”

  Jessica’s tea girl came up to them then.

  “Chen Zumu requests you both attend her.”

  “Of course,” ChaoLi said.

  ChaoPing and her husband led the boys back downstairs while ChaoLi and JieMin walked across the roof to their seated superiors.

  “Chen Zumu,” ChaoLi said with a small bow of her head.

  “Ah. ChaoLi. And JieMin. You know David Bolton and Chen YongLin, of course.”

  “Yes, Chen Zumu. Good morning, David. YongLin.”

  She bowed to them both, and they bowed back.

  “I called you over to congratulate you both,” Jessica said. “We are off to find the other human colonies now. That is an exciting and major accomplishment.”

  “Thank you, Chen Zumu,” ChaoLi said. “There were many people involved in this achievement.”

  “Yes, of course, though none so much as you two, I think. In any case, congratulations to you both.”

  ChaoLi and JieMin bowed to her.

  “Thank you, Chen Zumu,” they both said.

  All over Arcadia City, people watched the launches and cheered.

  Rob Milbank and his wife Julia Whitcomb watched the launch from the patio of their home before he headed in to the office.

  Karl Huenemann watched the launch with a bunch of project people and their spouses up on the roof of the office building downtown. Huenemann supplied coffee, tea, and donuts for everyone. Wayne Porter and his wife Denise Bonheur were there, with her sister looking after the kids this morning.

  At the hyperspace facility at Arcadia City Shuttleport, the sudden release of tension from the successful launches resulted in cheers. Gannet and Bellamy provided donuts, coffee, and tea for everyone, as well as a fruit punch. Many opted for the uncaffeinated fruit punch, as they would be getting to bed early again today in preparation for the launch of the hyperspace ships at dawn the next day.

  After their little celebration, most headed home. Mission control would fire up again late this evening, working up to the launch of the missions to Amber and Earthsea in the morning.

  Wednesday morning saw ChaoLi and JieMin back up on the roof. This launch would be much less spectacular than yesterday’s, and the roof was less crowded. Their own boys were downstairs in their twelfth-floor apartment getting ready for their day. Two early days in a row had been one too many to arrange.

  The Chen family management team, too, was thinner. Only Chen Zumu was on the roof this morning. She had two other pillows there and invited ChaoLi and JieMin to sit with her.

  “I thought that you two would not miss this morning,” she said as they sat.

  “No, Chen Zumu,” ChaoLi said.

  “It will be less spectacular today, though, Chen Zumu,” JieMin said. “The hyperspace ships’ rocket engines are much cleaner burning, without the smoke plume, and they are smaller. They burn for a longer time - seventy-five minutes - and the ship’s velocity will actually be greater than that imparted to the deployment vehicles by the JATO bottles, but it will be a much less spectacular launch.”

  “So I understand,” Jessica said.

  Waiting for the launch, they could see the last two little dots now, bright against the still-dark sky in the light of the rising sun. JieMin was watching the countdown in his heads-up display.

  “Less than a minute now,” he said.

  When the first hyperspace ship launched, the little dot got a bit brighter, then started, slowly, to move away from its companion. It accelerated, but at nowhere near the rate of the deployment vehicles yesterday. It continued to move off, gaining speed as it went.

  Then the second dot grew brighter, and started off after its sibling. It was falling behind the first launch, whose speed had been steadily growing, but it was also on its way.

  “And tomorrow they make their hyperspace transition,” Jessica said.

  “Yes, Chen Zumu,” JieMin said. “And then Friday the deployment vehicles will make theirs.”

  “Remarkable,” Jessica said. “I am happy to have lived to see this day.”

  Jessica lowered her head to look at the two.

  “It will be another two years or so before MinChao and I retire. Perhaps on the one-hundred-twenty-fifth anniversary of the colony. In three years. I hope to see a hyperspace vessel completed before I retire.”

  “That should be about the right timeframe, Chen Zumu,” Chao Li said.

  Jessica nodded.

  “The design of this vessel is our new priority,” Jessica said. “We need to make sure the mundanities are taken care of as well as the exciting bits.”

  “In what way, Chen Zumu?” ChaoLi asked.

  “Supply of the vessel. Getting passengers to and from the vessel. How we mass-produce such vessels so the first one isn’t the only one. We cannot afford to hand-build them all. These are the things you two need to concentrate on now. The exciting bits will be taken care of by others. You two need to make sure the more mundane essentials are covered as well.”

  “Yes, Chen Zumu,” ChaoLi said. “We will take care of it.”

  Jessica nodded.

  “Well, that’s as much jiggling of your elbow as I’m going to do today,” she said with a smile. “Thank you for sitting with me this morning.”

  “Of course, Chen Zumu.”

  On Thursday, mission control noted the loss of carrier on each of the hyperspace ships in turn as they reached the safe transition distance and began their journeys to Amber and Earthsea.

  On Friday, mission control noted the loss of carrier on all six of the deployment vehicles in turn as they reached the safe transition distance and began their journeys to their deployment locations for the RDF satellites.

  Once those transitions occurred, the operations group was at loose ends for at least three months.

  All the playtoys were on deployment.

  Mundanities And Vision

  It was another Monday morning kickoff meeting of sorts at the operations group. Gannet was on the floor.

  “OK, everybody. That was great work. In six weeks, we got everything buttoned up, all the mission profiles loaded, and everything out the door.

  “Now we have at least three months before anything comes back. Meanwhile, the design group is downtown drawing up plans for the big hyperspace vessel.

  “What do you think are the chances the blue-sky types are going to design a vessel that can be serviced, loaded with cargo and passengers, keep its passengers alive, and actually be operated at a profit?”

  Gannet waited for the laughter and the shouts of ‘zero chance’ to die down before continuing.

  “Right. Well, it turns out I agree with you.

  “So what we are going to be doing while we wait for all our wayward children to return, eh?

  “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to draw up a set of requirements for the hyperspace vessel to accommodate those needs. How much supplies? How does the crew get at them? How do they get carried aboard? H
ow do the passengers get carried aboard? How do they embark and debark in zero gravity? What are the environmental requirements?

  “There are a lot of questions that need to be asked and answered before any ship can be built that will actually prove useful.

  “And there’s one more question. How do we build a bunch of these ships, without having to assemble them all in space, by hand? The first one perhaps, but after that?

  “So have at it everyone. What questions need to be asked and answered before we can sign off on the design of a large hyperspace vessel?

  “Because they may have the design, but we have the signoff.”

  Karl Huenemann had encouraged Gannet to provide him with the operations group’s requirements as they were being assembled, so the design group could start building in such considerations from the start. He got the first list of questions and possible answers two weeks after Gannet’s challenge to the operations group, and passed them on to the design group.

  Wayne Porter looked at the requirements in dismay. So many things he hadn’t thought about!

  A couple of them really threw him. The hyperspace drive had to be located on the center of mass – or near it – so the resulting thrust wouldn’t just spin the ship in circles. So much for the open tube design.

  How did the crew get supplies into the ship? Presumably the supplies came up in containers. Did they transfer supplies into internal holds while in zero gravity? That didn’t sound like a lot of fun. If not, how did they get into the containers while under way?

  Same question for passengers, really. How did they get into the ship in zero gravity? At least some of them could be assumed to have never been in space before. Worse than herding cats, it was herding floating cats.

  He was at something of a loss when he got a meeting request from Professor Chen JieMin, at the university. He had seen Professor Chen at the restaurant two months ago, the day he received his promotion to the design group. Professor Chen requested a meeting in Porter’s office, so Porter sent an acknowledgement and waited, not knowing what the famed mathematician could possibly want.