One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

  “Yes Sir. And you would have never found out if it wasn’t for this spy master.” She motioned toward Ton.

  “So who do you work for, me or him?” Ton asked teasingly.

  Margaret answered as best as she could. “I work for S.M.B. Just like the two of you. I knew I would get busted doing this. Otto knows everything that goes on around here.” She turned to Otto placing a friendly hand on his arm. “You’re one of a kind Otto, we are all blessed to have your guidance.”

  Otto was impressed. He had thought her a trophy woman. He was wrong, and willing to admit it. “You’re sweet Margaret. We have to find you something to do that suits your abilities. I hear you have the counting crews under control. Could you handle a loader crew leader’s position as well?”

  “You just tell me what you want done, and its done.” He could feel her fear in her touch. Something was scaring her. It moved through her hand to his mind. He could see it. It was David!

  “Do you see him?” Otto was growing more pissed by the millisecond. He was done with this bastard. Nothing had worked to change the man’s attitude. It was time to do something more permanent.

  “Yes.” She knew what he was asking. She just didn’t know how he knew. But she would not protect him now that Otto was asking her about this directly. “I see him watching me when I move through the chamber sometimes. I know he’s down there right now. I’m afraid he will try to hurt me.”

  Ton needed no guidance from his friend. His phone was in his hand and he was taking control of this situation now. He felt he had totally dropped the ball.

  “Is David in his rack?” He asked the mining shack manager. David’s bunk was in a small room in the shack so that this kind of thing would not happen. “Ok call out everyone on shift. We think he is in the Alpha Chamber. Block all exits and find him.” He hung up and placed a reassuring arm around Margaret’s shoulders. “I’m an ass. I’m so sorry Margaret. This won’t happen again.” He rose and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go see if we can spot him?”

  They all went out to the porch where they could see at least a hundred men and twice as many women fanning out in search of their quarry. At least another couple of hundred women were taking up positions around the chamber to watch for any movement and blocking all the chamber exits.

  It was Margaret who spotted him first. She pointed to the face that was looking up at them from a raised planter filled with growing corn. “There he is!”

  Ton got on the phone and had David rounded up. He gave up without a fight once he knew they had found him.

  “I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!” Screaming as he was led away, one of the miners cuffed him good across the back of the head to shut him up. He knew better than to open his mouth again.

  “I give you my word you will never see that man ever again Margaret.” Ton vowed.

  “I guarantee he won’t be leaving a cell for the rest of his life.” Otto passed judgment. He was done with David.

  * * *

  Ashley was pleased with the flow of supplies that were moving up from Earth. She had Karen at the ranch coordinating the delivery of the needed supplies on Earth.

  She now had a full crew who were inventorying everything that came up. Then it would be taken from its shipping containers, tested to make sure it was operational, and then repacked and given tracking numbers in drop containers or shipping containers. The crew wasted no space as they packed things away.

  With Karen’s help they were making sure Mars was going to have the best-equipped lab ever built. It would lack nothing. Karen was lining up the scientist’s that would be the stations personnel. She also had training programs for traveling and living in space and on Mars being implemented. It was coming together so smoothly it just seemed natural.

  27 Let’s Get Ready to Roll

  Once it was announced over the news services that Ashley was looking for the best of the best to do research, there were thousands of e-mails from around the globe requesting permission to join the mission. The top women in all fields of science were applying to help in locating a cure for the virus.

  Karen took on all the recruiting duties and began to assemble this crew at the Bio Lab on Earth.

  Free was placed in charge of their training for work on Mars, and she too volunteered to be transferred there once the base was up and running.

  With her crews handling the day-to-day work of testing and repacking the equipment, Ashley had a lot of free time on her hands. She spent it working with Shianne on the retrofitting of G-Class shuttles and on training to be a pilot.

  Shianne found that Ashley had ordered the kitchen equipment for the Mars mission and she had to lend her expertise. She removed the nozzle off one of the stove burners and set it up for a test. The supply inventory called for a ten-ton bottle of propane to power the kitchen equipment for just one year. She started it burning B.T. gas, which was a cleaner fuel and had more energy than propane by a factor of four hundred and fifty seven to one. The burner took twenty-nine hours to consume one pound of the gas when it was on full power.

  A platinum lined tank that would hold four tons of B.T. was requested and the propane was removed from the list. It was estimated that this one tank of B.T. would fuel all the Mars base chow hall needs for many years.

  She enjoyed doing the retrofit work with her sister, they where spending more time together then they had in years, and she was learning reams of information about what it was that her sister was doing for her life’s work. They spent their days chatting away as they worked together. Any subject was fair game and those working around them joined in. It started to bond the crew into a single unit.

  The only complaint they heard from the crew was a need for more men to work with. That became their standard joke as the days ran together; the work was consuming all their time. There was no time to find a man, or even schedule time if they caught one.

  * * *

  Ashley wondered what had ever happened to the proton drive system her sister had designed. A N.W.G. meeting was coming up soon. Perhaps it was time to bring up this system again. Even at the speeds Shianne and Hackett where reaching with the work they had done it was still hundreds of years to cross to the closest galaxy. This drive system was the next step for humans to take on their path through time.

  She decided it was time to bring this up with Shianne. It was time to start all of Earth reaching for this goal. She would bang it off Dad first to see what he thought. She didn’t want to push her sister too hard as she did all she was doing already for the advancement of space travel.

  She excused herself from work early so she could prepare herself for the talk with her father. She wanted to do a little research into this drive system first, to better understand what would be involved in its development. She had no idea just how big of an endeavor this project would be.

  She got online and asked a search engine to help her find the information. She knew Shianne’s work was all over the information highway and was scrolling through a list of hits that dealt with her sister’s proton drive system, when her instant massage chime alerted her to her incoming mail. Her cell phone rang. “Hello, Ashley here, how may I help you?”

  “Hello Ashley, it’s May.”

  Ashley was pleased to hear her voice. “Hi May. What’s up?”

  “Well you’re up my dear. I have an alert system attached to Shianne’s proton drive system. It lets me know whenever anyone is looking over her work. Do you think she is ready to go forward with it? She has so much work on her plate now, I’m surprised she’s even sane.”

  Ashley was blown away. She just looked at the sites. She hadn’t even entered any of them yet. And the most powerful woman on Earth was talking with her about it on her phone. “I don’t know if she’s ready May, but we must do this soon. What do you know about the system?”

  May let her have it straight out. “I know it will take every woman on Earth working as one for years to build it. It will tax steel output; take
all the skilled labor to join together for this one cause. Have you even seen the plans she has drawn up? The ship is the size of a major city. Seventy-five hundred feet long, twelve hundred feet wide, sixty decks thick. The thruster bells will be six hundred feet across and there are five of them. My people estimate it will take thousands of G-Class shuttle missions to transport all that is needed into orbit. And it will take thousands of workers living in orbit to build it. We are building superstructure components now. I plan to be ready when she’s ready to take this on.”

  As they talked an e-mail came in. It was her father. ‘Party line please’ was all it read. She had May hold as she set it up.

  “Hi May. Do you think we should get her started on this?” He started the ball rolling. “How much of the superstructure is finished down there now?”

  Now it was May’s turn to be blown away. There was no way he could know of the work they were doing on the proton drive ships components. It was all kept strictly Top-Secret, and they out sourced none of the work nor did they import any of the raw materials for this work. “Otto?” She asked the question; knowing he would know what she was asking.

  “What?” He tried to act innocent. “I know everything. Remember?” He let her stew on it for a second, and then added, to avoid her next question and answer her thoughts. “The output of steel production creates a lot of heat. From way up here it’s like a brass band playing a tune. It was not hard to figure out what was going on down there. After all, all your people are building will fit into a G-Class cargo hold; also we never ordered those beams you have stored in the warehouse just outside of base. I was just waiting for this to get rolling on its own; like you.”

  * * *

  As soon as they finished discussing starting the construction of Shianne’s system and hung up; she called Joshua’s cell number to ask were he was located. “We are inbound at this time. Supply pickup touchdown in Brazil. Do you need me to pick you up May? It’s no problemo. He… they would love to see you too.”

  “God, you Chisholms are…. Just get here, and hurry!” She hung up and started to pack. She called her advisers to begin working on a method of her ruling from the Moon. They all complained, pleading that she stay in China. “I am going to the Moon, and we will soon have a child that can take the throne when I’m gone. Is this not a good plan for our people?” She had made her mind up; she would not be persuaded to change it.

  * * *

  The Seeker rushed through space and its flight was flawless. The ship skirted three planets as it headed out of the solar system. It used them all to gain speed, and to change trajectory as it flashed by. Its true path was now set and it was eating up miles.

  She programmed it to use only one third of the Blue Thunder fuel to gain speed as it headed into space. With plenty of fuel onboard when The Seeker arrived at Hope, they would be prepared for a long visit if needed. Just a few micro burst’s of directional thrusters were all it took to keep pointed straight at Hope.

  Hackett’s program was working without a hitch. For a fourteen-year-old youngster she was a wonder of brainpower whose efforts were making a huge difference for mankind’s exploration of the stars.

  The Seeker passed Pluto like it was standing still. Heading into deep space, a small speck of light in its sights guiding it on, as it crossed the lonely void of space between suns.

  When it drew closer, the forward sensors started to pick up the sun’s orbiting planets. A gang of seventeen planets that made use of the suns energy as they raced around the yellow giant in their orbits.

  Seven of the planets acted as a forward guard unit, to protect the ten inner planets. Their massive surfaces smashed and pot marked with the evidence of thousands of impacts survived over the billions years on duty absorbing incoming objects.

  The seventh planet from the sun was a gas giant that teamed with swirling clouds of yellow and brown. Bursts of lightning flashed across its face, it was a stunning sight to behold. The Seeker took some high-resolution shots of the planet as it passed by and continued to the sixth planet.

  The green of the landmasses was clear even from the millions of miles that where still in need of crossing. Hope was dead ahead and The Seeker started to fire its breaking thrusters slowing the ship as it gained an orbit at two thousand miles. It took orbit traveling opposite to the planet rotation so that gravity would help break the ships speed without using fuel through the thrusters. After three rotations of the planet the breaking thrusters fired again, and The Seeker came to a near stop over Hope, with the planet slowly rotating below it, The Seeker got set for its mission.

  The nose cone opened up like a flower feeding on a morning’s sunlight. The inner walls of the panels where coated in photovoltaic cells and they fed power to all systems.

  First The Seeker recorded the length of the Hope day as it charged up its batteries and warmed up the main frame. It was almost the same as Earth. Twenty-four hours, fifty-six minutes and fifty-two seconds.

  Gravity was plus point, zero, zero, zero, two-five times stronger than gravity on Earth. The difference was so slight it would feel just like Earth.

  Atmosphere was exactly the same as Earth, except it extended sixty miles beyond that of Earth.

  The scanners extended out of their cradles, turning to face the planet. Long-range telescopic lens cameras lined up with the scanners and started looking for heat sources.

  The scanning began at Hope’s North Pole. The program was designed to scan for life, or signs of life. It would record air temperatures, rain or snowfall, humidity, barometric pressures, water temperatures, topographically map the surface of the planet to the nearest foot and photograph any movement.

  This equipment was the most sensitive equipment available on Earth. It would miss nothing. Hackett commented that the sensitivity was tuned so high; it would pick up a single bee in mid flight.

  If there was life on Hope, this equipment would find it.

  The main frame started to fill with its recorded information. The temp at the North Pole was a biting negative one hundred and ninety-eight degrees. Winds gusted at one hundred twenty five mph. The ice sheet was twenty-six miles thick in places. There were valleys thirty miles deep. Some of these deep valleys had liquid water at the bottom of them. There was landmass under miles of ice.

  The scanners recorded more fresh water in the first pass then all the water of Earth combined.

  The scanner width was a thousand miles and the southern edge temperatures were negative twenty-five to negative forty-six degrees.

  The second pass covered more ice and snow. The ice sheet thinned down, and the southern temp had risen from negative twenty-two to negative twenty-eight degrees. There were still no signs of life, just snow, ice and biting cold to keep it that way. The permanent polar cap was more then four thousand miles across and inhospitable, no life could flourish there year around.

  The next pass was going to change the way humans viewed space for the rest of time. First it recorded thousands of types of plant life. From mosses and lichens, to a vast forest of trees. Varying types of evergreens that grew to ninety feet high, and thick from hundreds of years of growth.

  There were huge lakes, and what could only have been an inland sea. Its northern edge was a glacier, which was depositing massive icebergs into a vast body of fresh water causing huge waves to crash to shore hundreds of feet high. The rock face cleaned from untold decades of this going on day in, day out. The lake lay littered with these huge floating ice islands.

  Massive flocks of migratory birds were in flight, while some rested on the surface of the lakes. The northern migration was obviously in full swing. The flocks numbered in the hundreds of thousands. There were small birds, five to fifteen pounds in size and there were large birds, fifteen to fifty pounds in size. Birds of prey hunted these flocks from the air, and four legged predators did the same from the ground. Fox, wolf, badgers, lions, bears. The list grew by the millisecond as the scanners tried to keep up with the flood of informatio
n that was streaming in.

  All of the animals seemed to be larger than the beasts of Earth, two to five times the size of the beasts of Earth.

  Deer, elk, goat, hogs, pigs, tigers, bobcats, the list grew so fast that the main frame started to heat up. It was trying to digest this massive flood of input that the detection equipment was belching forth. The scanners cameras recorded everything that moved, or grew, and the radar recording numbers and sizes of these beasts was more than the system could handle much longer. Hackett had hoped to find a few signs of life at best, but what was unfolding was a living planet ready for colonization.

  Even moving insects in their swarming masses were found and recorded. Everything that moved was recorded.

  It would have shut down, overloaded, were it not for the sea the scanners crossed over. The landmass it had covered was less than a fourth of the planet wide, and it contained so much life the Seekers memory was almost overwhelmed by the riot of information recorded. The seas teamed with life, vast schools of fish and sea going mammals. Seals, and whales estimated to weigh in at over two hundred and fifty ton’s. Otters, sea birds and sharks were seen feeding on a dead whale. The scanners recorded many of these sharks at over thirty feet long. A few topped fifty feet in length. These great beasts had to be the top predators of the seas. The sea was hiding most of its life in the depth of its waters so the memory had time to digest all that had just come in… it cooled a few degrees, and the temp started to fall off fast, the work was not yet done.

  The scanners next passed over an island roughly the size of Texas. Here too, there was life in abundance. The shores where covered in row upon row of basking sea lions. Like everything that was being recorded they were massive in comparison to those found on Earth and they were so thick ashore they covered the beach like a solid carpet of flesh.

  Sharks swam close by the massive sea lion herds, and bears that defied belief in size hunted the inland side of the herds. Sheer numbers guaranteed the sea lions survival even though they were constantly under attack.