One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

Otto used the base public address system to inform all personnel of what just happened and apologized for scaring everyone. He even admitted that things had gotten a little out of control.

  * * *

  Ton thanked the crews for their help in cleaning up his mess and told the men who started to remove the bench to keep it. It was now a piece of history. Ton felt it only logical to save it. It would stand in a place of honor to commemorate this moment in time.

  He spied Hackett just transfixed looking at the bench. She looked as if she were in a trance. “What is it Hackett?”

  “It’s called Blue Thunder. Did you see how blue it was? The heart of it looked like the sky back on Earth. It’s called Blue Thunder!” She knew the fuel had declared its name to them as it showed its potential.

  Before Ton could respond to her, Chris took command of the meeting. “I say we all go home and get on dry clothes. We will meet at Ton’s for drinks in two hours. Agreed?”

  All agreed and the meeting broke up.

  * * *

  Fred took charge of Hackett and escorted her back to her home. On the way he asked her where she got her magnificent brain? He had not checked into her parents background, he had only checked into her academics. He figured her parents must have been working with the computer crews or in the labs in some capacity.

  She grew quiet and sullen.

  “What’s wrong Little One?” He could tell she was close to tears.

  She answered him softly. “I guess I got my brain from God.”

  “Why do you say that Connie?” He could tell there was much more to her answer than he was catching.

  “Dad operates a hall vacuum and Mom waters the hall plants. If either of them gets interrupted from their work by anything at all they have to call for help to get back on track.”

  “You’re just kidding right?” He asked unbelievingly, knowing she wouldn’t lie to him.

  It wasn’t easy for her to say what she was about to say but she figured it was time to get it out. “Mom; a few days ago had a pump on her cart quit functioning. She operates one of the little water transports that take care of all plant life not in the greenhouses for Chief. She was so frantic about being off schedule by the time the technician got to her that she freaked out on him for taking his time. She screamed at him for making her late and told him she was going to report him for his slowness, told him if he couldn’t do his job right that he should get some competent help. The poor man pulled the intake out of the water tank, and the only thing wrong with it was a candy bar wrapper stuck to the intake nozzle, and it was her candy bar wrapper. But it was his fault. She had dropped it in there herself, and she knew it. But it was still his fault that she would have to work late to finish up her work. She has been ranting about this for the past three days. And Dad, he was hired on as a mining laborer when we all came up from Earth. But Steve had to let him go after just a week. Then Chief took him on in the gardens. Remember that flood that almost killed all the potatoes?” She didn’t need his answer. She knew he remembered what she was talking about. “He had tried to reprogram a timer and he did it all wrong. How could you mess up, it turns on at this time and it turns off at that time. But he messed it up. Chief fired him on the spot. It took almost six months for Chris to find him more work. They won’t even let him plug in a charger for the vacuums now.”

  “How did they get up here in the first place?” Fred asked, trying to figure this out.

  “Well, I was just nine when I got a scholarship from UCLA. I was eleven and a half when asked to come to S.M.B. and help with the programming of the life support systems. It was kind of a gift from the professors at UCLA for doing so well. I was going to be up here just a month but the virus hit and here we all are. Dad still wants his old job on a garbage truck. Not a driver, just a can man. That is one man who should not be allowed to breed again.” Her tears were flowing now as she finished venting her thoughts.

  Fred tried to cheer her up as best he could. “Well you’re under the wings of some of the greatest minds of mankind now. We will give you all the input that little walking PC brain of yours can handle without crashing.”

  He picked her up to give a fatherly hug. “My little Hacker.” He teased proudly. He had never raised a child in his life. Thousands of men he had turned into warriors. But she was his first child and he enjoyed watching her discover life. If he had a choice he would just move her living unit next to his and be there for her all the time. Though he wondered if she was teaching him more then he was teaching her.

  * * *

  Her parents were sitting watching a rerun from an old sit-com when their door opened and Fred walked in with Connie. He tried to apologize for any discomfort or fear they had felt because of the little incident at the hanger. Neither of them knew what he was talking about. They just sat through it glued to the screen.

  He said his goodbyes to Hackett and reminded her to be at the meeting. He promised Mrs. Keys that he would watch out for her and would make sure she ate dinner. She was not sitting near Mr. Keys like a normal couple. She was sitting behind him on a kitchen chair out of his sight.

  Mr. Keys seemed to be bothered by his presence. So he took his leave and started for his quarters to get dried up. The whole meeting left him uncomfortable.

  * * *

  Just as the Keys’ door closed behind him he was asked. “What was that General?”

  There stood a stunning redheaded woman holding a little ball of fire on her hip. The baby couldn’t be more than a year old. “It scared little Lindsey here out of her nap. She was fit to be tied.”

  “Just a demonstration that got a little out of hand. That new fuel we found here.”

  The woman extended her hand in greeting. Little Lindsey was all smiles as he shook her hand too. “Your Bart’s wife?” He asked.

  Bart ran the loading crane in the hanger. He was a good man and a great crane operator, a good man to have backing your play.

  Her face lit up knowing that Fred knew her husband. “Yea he is my old loader. Is everything ok down there? It sounded like thunder in our quarters. Bart went running to see if they would need his help.”

  “It’s all just fine. Bart is supervising the crews that are cleaning up our mess. They should be about done now. He’s a good man your Bart, a good man indeed.”

  He could see that she was proud of her man for having such a good reputation. “Well that’s nice to hear. Is Connie…Hackett working with you now?”

  “Yes she is…brilliant girl.”

  “Yes quite. I’m glad to see that she will be watched out for by someone like you General.”

  “Please...just Fred Ma’am.”

  “Ok Fred and please call me Kate.”

  “I’ll do that. Do you know the Keys’ well?”

  She didn’t hold back. She respected him and felt no need to sugar coat things. “There is no brain trust there. How they brought Connie into this world God only knows.”

  “We just met and I concur. They seem a little on the slow side. Where do you two live? Shall I walk you home? I could help you with that little flaming star.” He offered, tweaking her button nose sending her into fits of giggles.

  “We are here right next to the Keys’, but thank you for your kindness.”

  He pulled out his card and handed it to her. Lindsey started to reach for it so he gave her one for herself. She wanted to see if she could eat it, her little hand going directly to her mouth. “These are the numbers I can be reached at. If you ever need help or notice that our Hackett is in need of anything, call me, day or night.”

  Kate knew she had just hired on as a spy, she understood the need and was glad to do this for Fred. “I’ll keep an eye on her when she’s home Fred. If I see anything, you will get a call.” “It was nice chatting with you, get yourself out of those wet things, we will talk more later on.”

  He thanked her for her time then told her little fire top to call on him for a job, in twenty years.

  Kate stood there l
ooking at the Keys’ door for a few minutes. She knew more about the family than she cared to. She would keep a close eye on Connie for Fred from now on.

  * * *

  At 5:40pm they all assembled for the meeting except for Hackett. Fred asked they hold the meeting until she was present and drinks were served. To kill some time they all went down to look at the work being done on the Chisholm’s place.

  Otto indulged his wives by looking through all of the rooms with them and he tried to share in their excitement. He loved the base like his own home. But what he wanted was to be a family on his own ranch, to raise his children in the warm sun of southern California.

  Jill stopped dead in her tracks when she was shown the size of the fishpond in back of the unit. “Why is it so big?” She asked him.

  “What Jill? Is there a problem?” He maintained his innocence.

  “I asked for a little fish pond so I could raise a few fish. This is a lake.”

  He simply smiled and responded. “Is it too big for the fish to grow in?”

  She knew this was his way of spoiling her, and she loved him for it. “I guess we will have to get a few whales from Earth to fill it.” She shot back in return.

  Everyone laughed as she kissed him. “If that’s what I get for this, I guess we’ll have to get it expanded into a lake!” He held her close and rolled with it. “Ton, call in the diggers, this has got to be opened up a little more. This woman kisses good.”

  * * *

  By the time the tour was over it was past six. Fred was starting to worry and getting ready to go find Hackett himself when Shianne noticed he was a walking bear.

  “I’ll go pick her up.” She volunteered.

  “No, she is my responsibility I’ll get her.” Fred said as he made for the door in a mood to kill.

  “No Fred. I will go and fetch her. You might kill if anyone got in your way, and we can’t have that. I’m sure it’s just a mix up. I’ll be right back.” Shianne gently pushed him back from the lift, entered it and started on her way down.

  Twenty minutes later Shianne was back, but she was without Hackett.

  “Where is she?” He demanded. All could see that he had grown a soft spot in his heart for their youngest member.

  “She is being punished for not making her bed properly.” Shianne informed him as she started to make her report.

  Fred just went off. “She is a member of this team and the needs of the team outweigh the needs of a made bed.” He was livid.

  Shianne knew how to stop this. “Open your laptop Ton. You have mail.” Shianne said. “Set it where we can all see the screen.”

  Ton knew what to do, as soon as he spotted the prompt, he moused over to Hackett’s site.

  “Sorry I’m late everyone.” Her little smiling face filled the screen.

  “God that girl is smart!” Steve said as they all took their seats and the meeting began.

  Fred was still not happy. He wanted her here at the meeting. “The little flat screen genius Miss Hackett named the new fuel after you all took off to dry out.”

  “Well, calling it ‘the new fuel’ was lame.” She interrupted him. “Sorry boss, Continue.” She didn’t skip a beat all smiles.

  He gave her image a stern look to keep her quiet as he gave his report. “She has made the suggestion of naming this fuel ‘Blue Thunder.’ If there is no better suggestion, I say we vote at this time.” He gave them a second to make any suggestion, and then continued. “All in favor of Blue Thunder or BT gas say I.”

  All approved.

  “The motion passes; from now on it will be BT gas. Also, I would like to suggest that we honor the commander who found the first signs of past life on Mars. The late Monica Wolf, henceforth we will refer to this mission as the Wolf project. All in favor say I.”

  Again, all said ‘I’ as one.

  “So that we are able to stay on top of any changes, I will not ask for secrecy on this project. To do so would seem foolish as we are all working together we’ll need all the input we can get.” He paused for a few seconds then continued. “We are going back to Mars people.” He handed a set of wings to Ashley. “Commander Ashley Chisholm will be in charge of the Wolf Project and all information will pass over her desk.” He bowed to Ashley and took a seat.

  “I have Steve started on this project which entails the creation of new mining systems and new transports...” She looked out toward the main chamber. “…We will be digging out a chamber which will be as big as this. It will have its entrance down the wall of a deep canyon a couple of miles from the location of 3-M for housing a crew of two hundredish. We must explore quickly to determine if the virus cure is on the planet, this will take two years or less.”

  Ashley turned slightly to her father. “All supplies will be massed and transferred from here. With the storm season lasting three months, we have a window of two hundred and seventy days to dig in and make it safe for the mining crew before the storms return. We shall retrofit all shuttles to use BT gas. That will cut crossing time. Ton, we will need a suitable location for a landing strip and a means to construct the strip out of what will be on hand. Pulling this off will take hundreds of supply runs so we have a lot to do. That’s my thinking thus far, any thoughts?” She took a seat.

  Hackett stated. “The window is more like two hundred and ten days Ashley. The winds for a few weeks on both ends of the storm season are too erratic to land safely. There are winds of up to eighty mph during these weeks and we will have to put in the landing strip first.”

  Ton stood to take the floor. “That is my job.”

  “How long will it take to carve a landing strip on Mars Ton?” Ashley asked.

  “We will have it in 2 months max. So we are looking at 140 days to dig in and supply the crews wintering over the first year. They will continue digging throughout the storm season. So, come calm weather the following year, we should be good to go with supply missions.” Ton finished and took his seat.

  “At this time we have seventeen Shuttle Commanders trained on the G Class Shuttles. We will need at least thirty or it will stress any good pilot beyond the breaking point. We also need navigators and maintenance crews and a large loading force both here and on Mars, perhaps three hundred personnel total.” From his seat Joshua added. “If Shi can retrofit one of the Columbia Class shuttles for me right away we can get the pilots trained in time. What we really need is more shuttles, G-Class if we can get them. Grumman has three in construction stage at this time. We could have them completed and we could repair that one in the scrap heap also. But we will still need more. I would like a force of at least ten, if not twenty of the G-Class shuttles. That’s a big order for Earth right now. If we don’t have the ships to do the hauling, this mission will fail.” Joshua finished his report.

  Otto was biting at the bit and he took the floor by standing. “Ton, how many men do you plan to use to dig this Mars base?”

  “I have a trained crew here now Otto.” Ton didn’t understand the question at first.

  “Do you have a number my friend?” He shot back.

  “I will take a hundred fifty men to start. Then I would beef up the crew once we where ready to dig in. Why?”

  “So we risk ten percent of the men still living; to dig a hole on Mars?” Otto stated stoically. “I think not.” The room went silent. This was not a part of the equation anyone thought about yet. “We send for two hundred women from Earth. You train them and send twenty men to supervise the dig. Agreed?”

  “Agreed!” Ton fell in line with ease now that he was seeing this a little more clearly.

  “We’ll have them digging the second chamber here on the Moon to train them. We can use it in the future anyway. I say we never stop digging here. We will need a base of operation here for the rest of time; so all the training will be completed here. Will that be enough time for training so they won’t hurt themselves?”

  “That will be plenty Otto.” Ton would train them or kill them doing it.

&
nbsp; “I will publish a contract that will reward these women with the opportunity to marry after the work is finished. Let’s say a five-year contract that prohibits breeding for the life of the contract.”

  “With birth control to help any little slip ups along the way?” Linda added.

  “Good idea honey. I will leave the contracting of the work force up to you and Jill. You will coordinate with the needed Commanders to fill their labor needs.” Otto assigned them their job.

  Both agreed gladly. They wanted to be a working part of this mission.

  “We will also need a complete shop here on the Moon Dad.” Shianne cut in. “If I’m to do my work I need to be able to create things right away and to make changes to things as I go along. I can’t wait for things to be taken to Earth for manufacturing then wait for their return. It would take forever to get things done.”

  “How big a shop Shi?” he asked.

  “Big enough to house two shuttles. G-Class, with room for working around them.”

  “Ton, could you get the miners to work this into the mountain side west of the hangers? Dig to house three G-Class shuttles at a time and plenty of room for the shops. Soon as we get the diggers up here you can start their training there.” Otto looked to Ton for an answer.

  “Will do Otto.” Ton agreed without pause also thinking of sending for more diggers to make this all move forward a little faster.

  “Next we need storage and loading. We can use the hangers that are up now to store what will be coming. We will need a loader that can pull full loads. Let’s say two hundred fifty thousand pounds at a time and then walk it into the hangers for storage. Also, we need a second one built in sections to be transported to Mars. Steve how many do you need to crew this up?”

  “I could do it with let’s say twenty-five at each end.” Steve answered.

  “Ok, we will send for six hundred more women right away and begin training on whatever is needed, five-year contracts before leaving Earth! I want this all up and running in thirty days. And no more experiments that try to destroy the base.” He eyeballed Ton with a hard look.