AMERICA ONE - NextGen (Book 5) Page 21

  The last problem in the cavern was the third Matt spaceship. Commander Joot had worked powering the dead systems back into life. It had taken a few days, but the ship was flyable. Unfortunately, more sand had to be moved for the cavern roof to open. Ryan was worried that if they opened the roof, the sand might prevent it from closing again. So the decision was made to set up another shield at the entrance they had used, to prevent anybody getting into the first level, and to leave the ship in its graveyard. It was imperative to make sure that the sand was replaced in the crater to make sure nobody could find the cavern. Ryan thanked his lucky stars that there were not cameras in space filming his every move inside the crater.

  Now there was nobody left in the crater to fly the Chinook except himself until any pilots returned. The Dead Chicken would be arriving at the newly flattened airfield on the third day, and Jonesy and Maggie were returning in SB-III with Joot, Captain Pete, Jonesy’s father, Dr. Nancy, Suzi, Mars and Saturn a day earlier than the Galaxy. VIN would be in control of the mother ship while Captain Pete had a vacation with his bride-to-be on Earth. They were to be married.

  Until SB-IIIs arrival, there was no way in or out of the crater without using outside help, and Ryan certainly didn’t want others to see the pile of ingots growing as the kiln worked fifteen hours a day.

  The shuttle silently arrived above the crater fifty hours later, and it was time to dig in the hole and get out of Dodge.

  Captain Pete, thin, white and totally weak, was utterly shocked to see how brown, fit and muscular Ryan and the ground crew had become. The new visitors were pleased to feel the hot sun again, and that night, over beers and barbecued chicken, stories abounded from the newbies on living in space. Jonesy’s father loved the ship, the lower “gravity” levels the electromagnetism caused. It helped him transport his aging body around easier.

  Next morning, the commander headed down to the third level and was impressed to see that one half of a row of chests had been used up. One sixth of the gold in the cavern had been melted into ingots, 500 of them, 13,000 pounds ready for shipment. On the last day, as new astronaut Bob Mathews and Joseph Jones Senior closed the hole, the completed ingots were flown down in the Chinook in three loads to the supply depot and placed into dozens of thick wooden boxes, old munitions cases supplied by the Israeli military.

  One fifth of the gold, ten munitions boxes, were heading back to Israel. The rest were to be packed into the rest of the munitions cases, and then reloaded back into the Chinook to head to the runway. The Dead Chicken wouldn’t sneeze at a load so light.

  It took two more days to fill the deep hole, level the floor of the crater, and make it look like nothing was out of place.

  SB-III lifted off to return to space with the remaining 500 gallons of ethanol, and the last Dewar of extra liquid hydrogen in its aft hold, while the crew compartment was filled with any remaining luxuries and supplies. Commander Joot and Elder Roo lifted off in the Matt craft with 500 gallons of extra ethanol, and half a ton of gold chests aboard. There were no spacecraft left inside the crater, and nobody on Earth should have seen any of the craft enter or exit the atmosphere.

  Ryan’s remaining supplies were then flown down to the leveled airfield where Bob and his girls were checking over the big bird. The last of the supplies of tents, porta-potties, and the kiln were transported out of the Pig’s Snout, the Chinook working hard as the large Russian helicopter arrived over the crater, and within a couple of hours lifted the two Caterpillars down to the runway.

  The only item of equipment remaining was one of the Israeli camera systems. One camera powered by solar panels had been hidden high up on the crater lip. It had an upward delivery dish, painted in sand-camouflage, and would send any captured feed to the mother ship as it passed overhead. The camera was well hidden, the solar panels painted in matte black, and they had a non-reflective coating on the glass. The system would be activated by movement, and Ryan wanted to see who would come calling.

  The second camera system given to him by the Israelis was packed in the Dead Chicken, to give eyes to their new base in Australia. They could gather any feed daily when the Earth revolved, with the crater underneath the departing mother ship. Both Igor and Ryan knew that they would lose any feed about 200,000 miles out into space, but that was still a month away, and both were sure that sneaky eyes would be in the crater long before that.

  On the final flight out of the crater and having a ride in the Russian helicopter lifting out the second Caterpillar, Ryan, Igor, Mars Noble and Saturn Jones said goodbye to the Pig’s Snout.

  Some would never see it again, some would, but it was time to move on.

  Chapter 14

  Good Day Australia

  Ryan and his crew had now been down on Earth for nearly two months. He was quite shocked at how much had taken place in such a short time. To many of them, it now felt like the odyssey had been nothing more than a dream, and Commander Joot was proof that it hadn’t.

  Many of the crew had often thought about whether to remain on Earth, or to return with their family to the other planet. What Commander Joot had told him about the tribe began to niggle Ryan – how the old tribe had visited the Matts thousands of years ago, which the commander thought were living on Mars. Ryan was beginning to wonder if he should have left a weapon for the remaining crew to protect themselves. They had the stun guns and Allen Saunders’s .44 Magnum, but that wasn’t much against possible modern alien weapons.

  This tribe ate people, were rather warlike, and he wondered about their weapons. It was nearing time to go home, as it would still take America One six months to reach the red planet.

  But for the next few weeks, Australia was to be their new home. Suzi had asked for more topsoil to increase the farming area, if Ryan was thinking of returning with more inhabitants. He was, and wanted to launch at least ten tons of the richest topsoil he could get for Suzi. Also, because Mars was drawing closer to Earth on its orbit around the sun for the next several weeks, it wouldn’t matter if they left now or in a couple of weeks’ time. The flight distance would be much the same.

  Being in Australia would be safe from any more attacks from the Big Bad Three, and he was looking forward to visiting the country he had heard to be very friendly and beautiful.

  The Dead Chicken could still take more cargo, once one of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the two jeeps, and most of the remaining supplies were forklifted in from the supply depot halfway to the crater. The runway was now hard-packed dirt 4,000 feet long. It had piles of broken tarmac each side of the new blacktop, and the surrounding area still looked like an old battleground. The balance, that is the second Bradley and the remains of any fuels and gases, was to be picked up by an Australian C-17.

  A second Chinook from the Libyan Air Force arrived to pick up their helicopter and to present Ryan with a few gifts: dates and other delicacies from Tripoli. The Libyan government was paid several of the gold ingots to cancel out any debts and to protect Ryan’s territory.

  Fifty-nine days after returning to Earth from Mars, the crew left for Australia. The C-5 Galaxy was certainly not a stealth aircraft, and everyone knew that they were back on everybody’s radar as they climbed through 30,000 feet.

  Jonesy’s Gulfstream, flown by Kathy Richmond and Monica, caught them up as they left Ryan’s airspace to the southeast. They exited Libya together and flew southeast over the Red Sea.

  Ryan’s family had really had a good time in Israel. They had lived in a beautiful hotel in Tel Aviv, learned to scuba dive in Eilat, visited Jerusalem, and as Kathy told Ryan over the radio, were ready to leave. She and their two daughters had witnessed Martin Brusk set up a deal in Tel Aviv to form a new car production company. He and his family was staying, but had sent a message via Kathy that he now needed those container ships to be packed up in California to head through the Panama Canal to his new home.

  “Astermine Airways, one former U.S. Air Force Charlie 5 requesting fuel, over,” said Bob Mathews as he saw
a radar blip on the edge of his screen six hours later. They were 100 miles south of the Maldives.

  “Copy that, Astermine Airlines, and G’day to you,” came an Australian voice over the radio. “We have you on radar at 36,000 feet and 158 miles northwest of our position. We are descending through 38,000 feet and will have our bird ready to clean your windscreen and fill up your tanks in 58 minutes. Due to our extended flight to get out here, we have enough A-1 quality Aussie fuel for you for only five hours of flight. A second tanker will be ready to intercept you 150 miles off the north Australian coast at the following coordinates to top you off for your last two hours of flight into your new base. I heard your new base is hot, damn hot, and the only people around there, mate, are aborigines and kangaroos. The air conditioning is in, and operational, and I heard there is the odd cold beer down there. You could have picked a better spot.”

  Most slept as night closed in around the lone aircraft. The Gulfstream was flying 12,000 feet higher, at a slow, economical cruise 50 miles behind the C-5. It had the range to cover the flight nonstop.

  A new day beckoned the two aircraft to the southern continent as it appeared over the horizon, and so did the northwest coast of Australia, 38,000 feet below the C-5 and 49,000 feet below the Gulfstream still many miles behind the larger aircraft.

  Hot coffee was the first order of the day on both aircraft as they flew over land for the first time in eleven hours. Bob Mathews was flying with Captain Pete, enjoying himself in the copilot’s seat as their third desert opened up in front of them.

  “I still don’t know why you guys want to go and dig yourselves a hole somewhere in the middle of the solar system when you can see all the Earth’s beauty like this,” Bob said to the man next to him.

  “I know,” Captain Pete replied. “With Ryan it’s either in the middle of a darn desert or in the middle of nowhere on Mars. I’m beginning to think that we are all missing out on something. He was talking about an island. Find us a nice one, and maybe he’ll let some of us retire down here when we get old.”

  “Can the shuttles make a flight from Mars to Earth?” Bob asked.

  “All of our craft can, even Asterspace Three. They all have emergency long-range supply cylinders that can be attached for extended flight. The mining craft will be cramped during a long flight, but Ryan left orders for new crew compartments to be built by the builders on Mars so that each craft can return to Earth solo in an emergency. Now that we have found more shields, all our craft can reenter Earth’s atmosphere again.”

  “You giving all our secrets to our Earthling pilot here, Captain Pete?” asked Ryan as a joke when he entered carrying two mugs of freshly brewed coffee. Igor behind Ryan had some baklava for the pilots on a plate.

  “Maybe it is time to teach you something about spaceflight, Bob,” added Igor. “You have us on a direct heading to our new base, correct?”

  “Within seventy feet off to the side of the new runway, where the directional homing beacon is beeping at us from,” Bob replied. Ryan and Igor had cups for themselves and sat in the rear cockpit engineer seats.

  “As you know Bob, planet Mars is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, easily visible with the unaided eye as a bright red object,” began Igor. He knew that Bob knew most of what was about to be said, but kept it simple anyway. “I’m sure you have navigated your fishing boat using the red planet. Every two years or so, Mars and Earth reach their closest point, called “opposition,” when Mars can be as close as 35 million miles from Earth. Instead of pointing America One directly at Mars, like you are pointing this aircraft at the beacon, Captain Pete will boost the orbit of the mother craft so that it’s following a larger and larger outgoing orbit around the Earth until we reach about 300,000 miles. Then with our rear ion thrusters blazing away on full power, he will direct the ship to a point where Mars will be at the exact time we will reach the same point. The faster and more use of fuel, the shorter the distance. Remember the ion thrusters take a couple of weeks to get us up to speed, but once we are cruising at over 35,000 miles an hour, we can intersect that future position of Mars. Our fastest cruising speed is about 70,000 miles an hour. We have never travelled that fast yet, and these speeds are not very fast in terms of space travel, and a waste of precious fuel if we go any faster than 40,000.”

  “The older NASA unmanned craft just completed hundreds of orbits over a longer period to reach the same intersection,” added Ryan. “We intersect the planet faster than any other craft before us, and reach the mark in space, all calculated by computers.”

  “The shortest journey time from Earth to Mars at perfect opposition would take between 159-180 days depending on the spacecraft completing the journey,” continued Captain Pete, enjoying his breakfast of baklava and coffee. “But since there is no perfect opposition time, what I mean is that we must begin our journey at least two months before opposition; we will travel further than the 35 million miles, as we will reach the planet after opposition is passed. Understand?”

  Bob nodded.

  “We will end up traveling more like 45 to 50 million miles in a curved line before, during and after opposition. Our total journey will be about 115 million miles, including the orbits at both ends. The three shuttles are far faster than America One, as she is the slowest of all our craft. It all really just depends on how much fuel you’re willing to burn to get here or there. More fuel, shorter travel time. Also, like your aircraft’s ‘Top of Descent’ when going in to land, we need deceleration time: two months for America One to decelerate from about 35,000 miles an hour down to about 24,000. This adds to a longer and further point of intersection with Mars, or Earth, as they are both moving rapidly on their separate orbits around the sun. The reason the smaller craft are quicker is due to their abilities to speed up or slow down ten times faster than the big ship, with the power and size of their thrusters. Liquid hydrogen is a far more powerful fuel and thrust medium in small craft. Thanks to these blue Matt shields, it is now possible to push the small craft the whole distance with 50 percent less fuel at far shorter times, and reentry is now possible, as well as departure.”

  “So if you had fuel supplies on Mars and Earth and you have stealth on your side, why don’t you set up a shuttle route between planets? Say, a two-year round trip so that some of your crew could visit us?” replied Bob. “Say, it takes you six months to get here, and you leave a couple of months before the next opposition to Mars. That will give your crew more than a year to relax on your new island, go fishing, and allow some of us Earthlings to visit you guys before your return journey. I certainly don’t want to leave Earth forever, but I would enjoy spending two years on a round trip ticket. I know that none of your astronauts really want to leave forever, but you could start the first interplanetary bus route. Maybe something to think about?”

  “Something certainly worth thinking about,” said Ryan. Sometimes new ideas came out of nowhere, and now Ryan knew why Bob Mathews was working on his island idea. He wanted to see his friends again.

  “A visit back to Earth gravity for more than a year could help with our bone loss and the other bodily problems we are certainly going to face in the future,” Igor added.

  “Now that interests me, and I’m sure it will interest our doctors,” replied Ryan.

  “And our biologists,” remarked Igor.

  “And my buddies, your astronauts,” smiled Bob.

  “I believe, Mr. Mathews, you have been working on this plan for some time?” Ryan queried Bob, looking at him sideways.

  “Ever since I heard those alien blue shields saved so much fuel,” he replied. A dull beeping sound began filling the cockpit. “We are at ‘Top of Descent’ for our new base; I have to get back to flying this chicken. I hope I have the use of it when you guys are away. I’m sure I could start an airline or something?”

  “Astermine Airlines certainly doesn’t sound as good as Virgin, but you will need to fly supplies onto our island once it has a runway,” replied Ryan. “
Have you noticed how much international currency we have aboard?”

  Bob Mathews easily brought the C-5 in to land using half of the 6,000 feet of newly tarred runway twenty minutes before the Gulfstream came in. His idea gave the crew real excitement once they all had a briefing two hours after the second aircraft had flown into their new base. Kathy and Monica had taken it easy on the long distant flight, on an extremely slow cruise at high altitude to complete the flight without refueling. They had flown 350 miles further than the C-5.

  SB-II, with its newly completed made-in-space crew compartment, and using its shield vertically, landed on the new launch pad twelve hours later, only a few hundred feet from where the new housing was. Two large hangars on cement bases were already completed so that the shuttles could be towed out of the hot sun. SB-II, flown in by Allen and Jamie Saunders, had arrived with Jonesy, Maggie, Jonesy’s mother, who had decided to attempt a reentry, and the rest of the technical crew who hadn’t yet made it down. Since the techies had completed the second twelve-person crew compartment while in orbit, they needed R & R.

  Michael, Penny Pitt, VIN and Vitaliy were still up in America One with Dr. Walls and were enjoying the meetings of all the NextGen. The kids from both tribes now constituted the majority of the crew, now numbering sixty versus the thirteen adult crewmembers aboard. Dr. Walls, as well as Commander Joot and Elder Roo, were in charge of the children, and only VIN and Vitaliy were in charge of the bridge. SB-III was still docked onto the mother ship and had two technicians, who had already been on vacation in Nevada, servicing her. It was time to allow the crew to relax.

  The world below America One had been quiet. VIN, as stand-in Commander, still had SB-I and three of the mockup craft orbiting around the globe, and that was enough to keep the bad countries below in check.