Galactic Startup

by Brian Whiting

  Alex tried to think what could be worth five million dollars to destroy.

  “It’s radioactive, isn’t it?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “I don’t see how it’s worth the risk,” Alex replied.

  “I can offer you as much as ten million.”

  “Fifty,” Alex replied.

  “No. For that, we could send it ourselves.”

  “Yeah, right, and risk a rocket blowing that material over your homeland,” said Alex.

  The ambassador regarded him for a moment. He was given authority to allow up to one hundred million dollars, but he stood to earn a percentage of whatever wasn’t spent.

  “We can offer no more than twenty million.”

  Alex looked at the ambassador.

  “Pick up must be authorized in your country. The US will not allow this material in their airspace.”

  There was a roar as the helicopter started its engines, and the blades began to whir quickly. The pilot was signaling to leave with a flurry of hands.

  “Of course,” the ambassador said, handing Alex a business card. “We look forward to working with you.”

  The ambassador made a hasty getaway in the helicopter, leaving Alex to wonder what had spooked him. The guard tapped his shoulder.

  “We have company at the main gate.”

  “What kind of company?”

  “The federal kind.”

  Just as the Chinese helicopter lifted off, two black hawk helicopters descended inside the compound, discharging a dozen troops on long ropes. Another truck-load had breached the front gate, both groups converged on the hangar. Alex was agape.

  “The ship! Get the ship out of here!” he said, recovering. He sent an emergency message to Zeek and Timmy. He could only watch from outside, as the black-clad soldiers blew a hole in the hangar doors with explosives.

  Moments later, the grey hull of the Destiny rose out of the building’s roof. In seconds, it had sped away and out of sight. Alex breathed heavily.

  “What should we tell the men,” said the guard by his shoulder. “We can’t open fire on federal agents.”

  “It’s fine,” said Alex. “Stand down. The ship is safe.”

  They could hear shouting inside. The guard was communicating on his radio.

  “They are breaching the containment area. They have Amanda against a wall.”

  Alex’s eyes opened wide. He stared into the distance.

  “They want the worm,” he said softly. As soon as he said it, the soldiers were already moving quickly out of the hangar, two of them carrying a biohazard box Alex recognized. Three minutes after they had come, the troops had left in a large semi-trailer parked just outside the front gate.

  Alex was already running to the containment room. He almost collided with Amanda as she came striding out.

  “What the hell is going on around here, Mr. Prager? I thought you had the feds playing ball?” she fumed. Alex couldn’t tell if it was real or sarcastic. He collapsed to his knees.

  “Is it gone? Did they take it?”

  “They sure did,” Amanda said, looking down at him. “And I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

  He buried his face in his hands.

  “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I’m so-”

  His phone rang. He would have ignored it, but the caller ID was alluring.

  “Hello?” Alex’s hand shook with adrenaline as he held the phone.

  “Mr. Prager, I am sorry about that, truly I am. It was a breach of national security that could not be allowed to continue. You will, of course, be reimbursed for your loss.”

  “Damn you!” Now it made sense. If Alex had been the President, he might have made the same call. “There was no need to-”

  “If you would simply coordinate with your government, we could avoid such incidents. In fact, I am going to demand that you do. I will be sending a liaison to your facility. If you want to continue your project, you will need to cooperate. The United States cannot tolerate rogue actors in space exploration operating on its soil. Thank you for understanding.”

  The line went dead.

  Alex watched blankly as the Destiny returned to the hangar, recalled by the guards. He looked at Amanda, who was quiet. Her anger had been replaced by concern. She offered him a hand, and he allowed her to pull him up.

  The ramp of the ship began to lower. Out came Timmy and Zeek. Alex couldn’t look at them. He walked up the ramp and into his quarters. Leaving his crew to figure things out for themselves.

  An hour later, he emerged. He called everyone to the meeting room.

  “We need to leave,” he said to the crew, assembled around the main table.

  “Where would we go?” said Zeek. Alex looked out at the ship.

  “This thing would easily fit on a cargo ship. I think we should move our entire operation into international waters. At least until we can set up something more permanent.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Mason, darkly.

  “Eventually, we will need to be based off-world.”

  There were gasps.

  “Not right away, or even a few years from now. But today was a paradigm shift. We went to Mars and back in less than a couple weeks. There’s no reason for us to be confined here when we can come and go so easily. As long as we stay, there will be those that will try to hamper our efforts to better humanity under one pretense or another. We can be something greater than the politics of one country, or even this planet.”

  There was a silence, so Alex continued.

  “Today I was approached by the Chinese government. They want us to dispose of their radioactive waste by taking it to the sun… Twenty million a container.”

  “How big a container?” Zeek asked.

  “Looked to be about a half a fuel tanker. See, this is just one of the many ways the United Earth Fleet could change the world.”

  “I want to make the first run tomorrow. Then I want to head straight to Saturn. We’re not going to let the government slow us down. We’re going to keep moving.”

  “What about the worm?” Cindy asked.

  “They took it. It’s gone. It poses a threat to national security. I should have anticipated this kind of reaction, really.”

  “Not all of it,” said Amanda.

  There was another moment of silence. Alex reacted first.

  “Stop right there. We will talk in private.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Timmy, sitting up.

  “Someone here is in communication with the government. Renee has not released any information about the worm. But the feds knew exactly what to look for.” There was a harsh, unforgiving look in Alex’s face that had never been there before. “From now on, sensitive information goes through me alone.”

  Alex left the room without another word. He walked right up the ramp of the ship.

  As soon as he was out of earshot, he pulled out his phone and called Jorge.

  “Hey Jorge, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good, Alex. All they did was change the bandages. They’re sending me home now, actually. Gloria did an excellent job. How’s it going back at base?”

  “Ah. I’ll fill you in when you get here, space hero. Can I get you to do something else for me?”

  “Sure, what do you need?”

  “We’re going to need a boat. A big boat.”

  ***

  Alex was onboard the Destiny, heading for the dinning room.

  “Hey, Amanda,” he said as he entered. She was eating a sandwich and reading from a tablet on the countertop. She looked at him with a smile.

  “The space cowboy,” she said. “I hope you’re not going to ask me to fix you a snack.”

  Alex coughed.

  “Listen, about everything that’s-”

  “You don’t seem real to me,” Amanda said, calmly, sipping a coffee.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You. This,” she gestured at everything. “The way you act, none of it feels real. Am I serio
usly supposed to believe that yesterday you were on Mars, discovering alien life? And today it was stolen by SEAL Team Six or whatever?”

  “It was you who discovered alien life, Ms. Reese and you better believe it. This is very real.” He stepped closer, and looked into her eyes. “You, me, all of it. Welcome to your awesome, terrifying, space cowboy life. Do you think you can keep up with me?

  She was smiling even wider. “Ha! You’re right, looks like I’m the one taking the giant leaps for mankind. Question is, can you keep up with me?”

  She walked out of the dining room and headed for the science bay. Alex was hot on her heels.

  “Is that an invitation?”

  “You do love to move fast, don’t you?” Amanda made a conscious effort to hide her smirk. “This girl doesn’t move at warp speed.” She stopped just on the inside of the science room and turned to face him. They were separated by only a few inches.

  Alex was about to make a sly reply when the door shut between them. Leaving him with a smile, but alone in the hallway.

  ***

  “Open the hangar bay doors.” Alex buckled himself into his chair on the bridge.

  It felt wrong to leave the compound without Jorge. Mason had pointed out that if something went wrong with the drive, the only one who might be able to fix it now was Timmy. But Alex didn’t want to let anything slow them down, and he certainly didn’t want to leave time for the governmental liaison to arrive.

  “Let’s go pick up our container,” he said. Moments later, they were zooming towards China.

  On the way, Alex reviewed the latest video release from Renee.

  It showed their activities on Mars, starting with the release of the many rovers and ending with the dramatic discovery of the worm. She had also managed to get footage of the confiscation raid. Alex could only imagine the effect this video would have on the public. He had decided to make a policy of not checking news media, for fear of descending down a rabbit hole of self-absorption. There was work to be done.

  Within an hour they were entering Chinese airspace.

  “We got fighters approaching directly in front of us,” said Cindy.

  “It’s okay,” said Alex. “They’re escorting us to the military compound.” Alex was re-reading the instructions he’d received in his latest e mail from the ambassador.

  A few minutes later, they hovered above a nondescript military airfield. In the center of the runway was a steel, twenty-thousand-gallon container. About the size of the tanker pulled by a semi-truck.

  “I think you underestimated the size of the container,” Zeek said, mildly.

  “Is it going to be a problem?”

  “The only thing we have to worry about is if the cable is strong enough to lift it.”

  “What if we double or triple up the line?”

  “That should work”

  Timmy hovered the ship fifteen feet above the container precisely. When it wasn’t moving, the Destiny was still as stone, as if it were held by invisible supports. Dozens of Chinese military were taking pictures and video of the craft. Minutes later, the tank was safely attached and Timmy began the ascent. Lifting the container was effortless. The ship slowly gained altitude and accelerated towards space.

  NASA sent them an approved ascent trajectory into high orbit. Within moments, the curve of the Earth dominated the screen, and behind it, the endless carpet of stars.

  “Okay, how do we deliver the material?” asked Timmy.

  “What do you mean? Fly to the sun,” said Alex.

  “We’ll be boiled alive before we pass Mercury,” continued Timmy, as if talking to a child.

  “Eh. You can drop it anywhere, Timmy. All free-floating debris in the solar system gets drawn into the sun eventually. Just take us out of orbit first, then we’ll nudge it in the right direction.” said Mason.

  “Right,” said Alex, sheepishly. “Let’s do that.”

  “Setting course.” Cindy began plotting on her console.

  “Applying power.” Timmy pushed the throttle forward.

  “Power capacity at ninety-nine percent.”

  The craft began to exit high orbit, leaving the gravity well of the planet at high speed.

  “How fast do we need to go?” Alex mumbled, as the g-force took his breath away.

  “Depends how soon you want it to get there,” Cindy had a hard time replying.

  “We can release now.” Mason would have rolled his eyes, but the effort was too much.

  “Do it!”

  Jack hit the release button, and the container separated from the ship. Timmy let the container and the ship drift apart for some time, and then reapplied power to the drive on the reverse polarity, to attract the ship back towards Earth. Like a ball thrown up into the sky, the ship had left and now it was returning.

  “New trajectory towards Saturn. If you please.”

  “Course plotted,” said Cindy, who had already prepared a route to their mission destination. It took them back around Earth’s orbit like a slingshot towards Saturn.

  The g-forces around Earth were bearable at two point eight G’s for an hour. When they reached the moon for a secondary gravity assist, the pressure increased to six G’s for several minutes. Cindy had plotted a course very close to the surface of the moon at high speeds.

  Alex looked out the window as the moon zipped by. Within moments, the acceleration ceased, and he felt the familiar return of weightlessness as the drive was disengaged.

  “Activate the gravity plating.” There was a collective inhale on the bridge. Jorge had sent instructions for re-installing the plates. Only Zeek seemed unconcerned. He activated the plating after double checking that the drive was offline.

  Cindy opened her eyes after forcing them shut a few seconds too long.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing, apparently,” said Mason.

  Zeek’s finger was still on the console, slowly moving upwards. Alex dropped a pen in the air in front of him. They all watched as it gently lowered itself to the floor, as if on a pulley. Alex felt his body begin to rest into the seat cushion as well. Zeek continued to increase power, carefully checking the readings as he went.

  “Gravity is currently at point seven Earth normal on the first deck,” he said

  “What about the other decks?” Cindy asked.

  “Zero gravity.”

  “How are you doing this?” Mason asked, incredulously. “Do you understand what this means? This will revolutionize everything, again!”

  “We are at ninety four percent power capacity. The gravity deck will take a steady stream of power.”

  “How fast are we losing it?”

  “Faster than Jorge anticipated. One percent every fourteen minutes.”

  “Can we use the solar panels to compensate?” Alex asked.

  “Some of it, but not all.”

  “Let’s reduce the plating’s output. What’s our loss at point three earth gravity?”

  Zeek recalculated. “One percent every seventy minutes.”

  “That’s better. They got by on the moon with just point one six. Make it happen.”

  “Deploying solar panels,” Cindy interjected. “The further we get from the sun, the less effective the panels will be.”

  Two swing arms folded out from the top of the ship, and large sheets of solar paneling extended between them. Timmy rotated the ship to get the perfect angle on the sun’s rays.

  “We are going much faster to Saturn than we did on our way to Mars. The slingshot assist greatly increased our speed. Still… space is big, and Saturn is not exactly in an awesome position. It will take a little over a week to get there, and we will need to decelerate for a longer period then accelerating.

  “A week!” Mason and Cindy cried in astonishment. Alex and Zeek groaned in resignation.

  ***

  Won Li Wei checked his bank account, which showed the first deposit of the bonus he earned on the negotiated price of the toxic materials. In the background, th
e TV played a news broadcast about the toxic container heading towards the sun. A video was displaying what appeared to be small, fuzzy dot, exploding in various colors well before the container reached the sun. Estimates indicated the container exploded after passing the orbit of Mercury.

  Scientists speculated on what caused the explosion and what the effects in space would be. They reasoned the multitude of colors resulted from the various toxic compounds igniting at different temperatures. It was hard to see against the sun’s glare, though experts had artificially improved the rendering of the telescope footage.

  The real debate circled around whether the deadly chemicals were polluting space. Some argued that the sun was putting out more radiation than Earth ever could. Others argued that it was still a clear example of how humans, wherever they go, will pollute their surroundings. Not everyone agreed, space is filled with much more deadly and exotic substances. They believed that the sun would vaporize the compounds into their individual atomic components, rendering them harmless. Much like we do on Earth to neutralize radioactive waste, although the cost of doing would be hugely reduced by the Destiny’s technology. Few went on, suggesting we send all the waste we could, radioactive and otherwise.

  The rebuttal, that this activity would create a toxic cloud in the solar system of our burnt garbage, was dismissed as silly. Only a person who didn’t understand the vast distances and the difference in size between Earth and the Solar System would ever make such a claim. The entire planet, toxic chemicals and all, could be atomized by the sun, and still no observable effects would be seen. The sun is just too large, over a hundred times the size of earth. Like throwing a leaf into a raging fire. Won Li considered the possibilities of the ship and its propulsion drive. Now that he had money, he wanted more. Several ideas occurred to him about how to get it. One particularly tempting thought swam to the surface, and he set his plan into motion.

  ***

  In the end, Alex’s aim to keep up the tempo of their missions did not hold up well under sheer astronomical distance. The Destiny could reach speeds far exceeding any other propulsion engine, but the Solar System was big. Most of the crew tapped into the entertainment selections on the ship. Others found more creative ways to pass the time. Alex found himself spending more of it with Amanda and Jack than with anyone else.