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Part X
April 8th, 2001
CONCLUSION
Eric tried to look casual as he worked his way through the line of the Port Vandenberg cafeteria. When he got to the hot meals, he stopped and waited. The older man serving the food looked up. "What's it gonna be?"
Eric smiled. "How about a trip to Mars, Walt?"
"Son of a gun! Eric, right? How'd you find me?"
"One of the guys at the abandoned office building in Santa Barbara tipped me off," Eric said.
"Yeah. I had to get out of there. Too cold."
A young woman behind Eric slid her tray into his. "Hey! You guys gonna talk all day?"
Eric ignored her. "Walt, come on over and join me for lunch."
Walt Podolski laughed. "I gotta finish my shift here, son."
"You're fired. Come and join me."
Walt started to take his apron off, but the young woman objected. "Hey! You can't just walk away!"
Eric reached over to his left, grabbed two ham sandwiches and dropped one on the woman's tray. "Here, have a sandwich. It's on me." After he slid his smart card through the reader, Eric made it a point to select the same table where he'd eaten the last time he was in that cafeteria. He looked out the window at the puffy cumulus clouds and remembered his second day as a cab driver, the day his career had suddenly evaporated. He tried and then tried not to call up the ache he had felt as he remembered watching one of the shuttles accelerate down the runway and climb into the sky.
Walt walked up to the table and sat down with his tray. "How long has it been?"
Startled, Eric came back to reality. "It was November of 46. Five and a half years ago. I was all of eighteen."
"Oh, man," Walt sighed. I was in that homeless dive too long. Now I got some money saved. I'm ready to buy a small town house."
"Still want that farm on Mars?" Eric asked, munching on his sandwich.
"Well, sure. But I ain't got enough money for that!"
"You do now. I've been putting money away ever since I graduated from the Academy."
Walt reached over and gently grasped Eric's left hand. "Looks like a wedding ring. You married?"
"Yep. Since last June."
"Well, then, you got no call to be giving your hard earned money away to an old man. You got a wife now."
"You saved my life Walt. I keep my promises... Look there! Another shuttle is taking off. Want to be on the next one? How much stuff do you have?"
"Not much. Coupla suitcases worth."
"We can go to your place, then I have an errand to run. Then we're going to Mars, Walt."
"Okay, kid. I ain't gonna turn you down."
"Good. Tell you what. When we're around people? Call me Commander."
"I'm ready when you are, Commander."
The inside of the bar was smaller than Eric remembered it. He told Walt to stay put, walked around the far side and peeked at the tiny dance floor where Lieutenant Harris had been pinned to the wall by a drunken miner on that eventful night more than five years ago. When he came back, he escorted Walt to the front of the bar and pointed to a wooden booth. "That's where a young starship lieutenant put wet napkins on my face and poured Lagavulin into me after I saved her life."
Walt furrowed his brows. "What was she to you? Did you marry her?"
"Oh, no," Eric said. "She was killed in combat soon after that. But she was an inspiration to me that I'll never forget. You saved my life, but she saved my soul."
The bartender walked over, cleaning his hands on his apron. "Hey there. We ain't open yet. Come back at four."
"Sure," Eric said. "I was just showing my friend here something. By the way, do you have a new bottle of Lagavulin?"
"We only sell by the glass. When we're open. You gotta go to a liquor store."
"I'll buy a bottle from you. How's two hundred bucks sound?"
The burly bartender squinted. "Two fifty. Cash."
"No one has that kind of cash!" Eric feigned astonishment.
"Cash. I got one more bottle. Twenty years old."
Walt reached into his pocket. "I have some cash."
As they walked out of the bar, Eric admired the bottle. He whispered to Walt. "I'll pay you back for this."
"It's on me, son, ah, Commander." Walt put his arm around Eric's shoulder and they walked back to their cab.
No sooner had Eric and Walt had sat down in the gate area of the Vandenberg Shuttle to the Schirra than the pilot came sauntering in and looked around. Eric recognized her right away. It was the same young woman with the fuzzy brown hair stuffed into a baseball cap who had taken him up from Edwards. Eric stood up and approached her.
"Excuse me, ma'am. Are you our pilot?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Can I ask you a favor?"
"Hey. Ain't you the flyboy who sat next to me out of Edwards last year?"
Eric smiled. "That's me."
"Well I hope you ain't gonna ask me to sit up front again! I'm still cleaning nose grease off the copilot window."
"No. I won't be sitting up front. But I do have a favor ask."
"Yeah, yeah. Everybody wants a favor. Do I look like an escort girl?"
Eric ignored her comment. "I'm traveling with an older man. His doctor requested that we keep the liftoff under 2 g's. Can you do that?"
"What's in it for me?"
"A clean pilot record. No messy paperwork. Thanks from the United States Air Force."
She paused and started to smile. "Easy enough. I can do one point eight."
"Thank you, ma'am," Eric said and bowed his head slightly with respect.
"You gonna kick the tires?"
"Huh?" A twinkle came to Eric's eyes. He looked at her for a second and remembered. "Yeah. Sure. I could do that. Just to make sure they're okay."
The pilot took off her baseball cap and slapped it on Eric's arm. "Yeah. Just to be sure." She turned her head and winked at him as she walked to the spaceway and down the ramp to the shuttle.
Lieutenant Colonel Forney stared at Eric in disbelief. "What do you mean you have a passenger?"
"It's very important to me. An important promise. I wouldn't be here without him. By the way, congratulations on your promotion, sir."
"Commander. This is a ship of war. Put him on a tourist ship."
"Colonel. This man saved my life. It's pay back time. I'm taking him to Mars personally."
"The hell you are!"
"The hell I am!" and quickly added "Sir!" Eric stood firm and looked the XO with fire in his eyes.
Forney reflected for a second and calmed down. "We have no place to put him."
"Alana and I will sleep in the brig for one night."
"The brig, huh?" The Colonel sighed. "Your favorite place, isn't it?"
"One night. I'll only need two hours on Mars to take him down to the surface and return."
"Commander... if I didn't know you so well...."
"Thank you sir. I'll bring him aboard." Eric turned to leave.
"Commander?"
"Yes sir?"
"Did you get a chance to spend some time with your father?"
"Yes sir. Two weeks. Thank you for asking sir."
"Very good. By the way. I'd like to meet this passenger of yours."
Eric saluted and left briskly before Forney could change his mind.
As Eric and Walt walked down the ramp at the Nirgal Vallis spaceport, Eric was amused to see a young man, carrying far more baggage than he should. They held back and watched the struggling young man gain momentum as the bags carried him forwards, but the one-third gravity kept him from getting a good footing. Finally, he reached the end of the spaceway and tripped on the carpet. The young man and his bags went flying into the gate area.
The tallest, thinnest young woman Eric had ever seen stood over the young man. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and her hair swished back and forth as she laughed hysterically. She was in a white jumpsuit that clung to her body, and it revealed -- not much of anything. Eric looked at her for a second as they made eye contact. Then, abruptly, she broke the contact and looked down at the young man on the floor amongst his bags.
"You must be Trip," she said with apparent disgust. She folded her arms and looked down at him with a look of pity, waiting for him to stand up. He reached up with his arm for a helping hand, but the young woman wrinkled her nose and stepped back.
Walt turned to Eric. "These Martians ain't all that friendly it seems."
"Guess not. Look. I don't have much time. You okay from here?"
"Sure."
"I have another promise to keep now."
"You'll make it this time. I know it."
"Damn right."
"I'll probably be long gone when you return from that star. Tau Ceti is it?"
Eric took a deep breath. "Who knows? In this gravity, you might live to be a hundred and fifty."
"Come see me then. It'll be a damn fine yarn you'll have to tell."
"I promise. Take care Walt."
Eric sat near the front of the ready-room of the Schirra between Lieutenant Colonel Forney and Second Lieutenant Rogalle. When in uniform, she always had her hair in a French braid that Eric loved. He had a hard time keeping his hands to himself on this formal occasion.
Surrounding them were thirty of the ship's officers and senior enlisted personnel. Captain Kelso, whose sandy hair was beginning to show signs of graying, looked weary as he stepped to the podium. He waved his hand over the projector and brought up a display of the mission profile.
As the Captain spoke, nervous chatter in the room came to a halt. "As most of you know, on November 22nd, 2050, the starship Slayton was destroyed engaging the ETs. We had originally planned this mission for last August, when all of our ships had been retrofitted with the new Tokamaks and gluon fuzzball shields. However, recent developments have encouraged us to slow down the schedule. The benefit, in addition to generous family leave time, has been additional time to develop new offensive weapons which Colonel Forney will tell you about in a minute.
"The purpose of this mission is to bloody the nose of the ETs. The President and Congress feel that we've taken enough casualties and that it's time to inflict some damage ourselves. I know that some of you have mild misgivings about inflicting casualties on an extraterrestrial race with which we have never communicated, but the feeling is that unless we do so, this barricade will never be lifted and they will never initiate communication with us. In support of that strategy, Space Command has elected to keep the Glenn in near Earth-Mars space for defensive purposes, should we succeed all too well in our objectives.
The Shepard will accompany us. If we succeed in breaking free, we will assess the situation and make a decision on Tau Ceti.
"Colonel Forney?"
The towering Colonel Forney stood up and had to duck a little as he avoided the overhead fixtures on his way to the podium. He cleared his throat. "We have made some significant improvements to all the Slayton-class ships. Each has two new Tokamaks with roughly a thousand times the power output compared to before. One nominally powers the shields and weapons, and the other is used for propulsion and maneuvering. In addition, after the Fermi Lab scientists heard about the fuzzball shield, they immediately began working on a nuclear tipped missile using that technology. Not to be outdone by Lawrence Livermore, they have, uh, affectionately named it the ET furball. Basically, it's a close-in missile with a 150 megaton nuclear warhead, capable of 20,000 g's acceleration, and protected with its own short duration fuzzball shield. Because of this, the radar cross section is considerable, but we also believe that if it is launched at close enough range, it will be able to hold track and outmaneuver the massive ET ships. We have eight of these.
"For this trip we are also armed with our own short range defensive antimissile missiles and six dozen new toys developed by Lockheed-Boeing -- gravitational mines. These devices are designed to send out a gravitational ripple which, at short range, should be able to buckle and disrupt any small physical objects aimed at us.
"The Shepard is similarly equipped.
"Finally, Lieutenant Rogalle here has been instrumental in developing a new fluctuating maneuver sequence that is random in four-space instead of three-space. Our simulations indicate that it will be much more difficult for the ETs to lay any kind of radiative flux on us. That's why we've prepared for a more gritty close in engagement.
"We'll be getting underway in about two hours. Captain Rushkin of the Shepard reports that he is ready to proceed. I recommend that over the next five days, while we are still well short of the combat zone, that you get plenty of sleep and study the new material on your vid-pads. That is all. Any questions?"
One of the chiefs spoke up. "How can we track the enemy through this shield?"
"Random openings in the shield, lasting for less than a microsecond, allow radar pulses and sensors to operate."
The ship's analyst raised her hand. "How far do we have to be from that furball to be safe ourselves when it explodes?"
"I am told five hundred kilometers. Any more questions? No? Dismissed."
On May 28th, 2052, the starships Schirra and Shepard, separated by 200 kilometers, closed on the magic distance of 30 astronomical units from the sun at just under one hour 44 minutes Right Ascension. From a distance, each appeared as a deep red, glowing and shimmering cylinder that masked the presence of a ship underneath.
Commander MacDonald walked onto the bridge and took his position in his couch. To his left were Captain Kelso and further around was the XO, Lt. Colonel Forney. The ship's engineering manager and analyst quietly and solemnly took their places.
Eric looked up at his holo screen to make sure everything was just as he wanted it. He heard Captain Kelso query his engineering manager over the link. "Status?"
"Speed is 2.97 percent c. Both Tokamaks are running at 104 percent of rated output. Gluon fuzzballs are deployed."
Kelso scanned his displays, watching carefully. "Steady as she goes."
The ship made a deep, slow vibrating sound as the Tokamaks forced enormous amounts of energy into local space. The tension on the bridge was high, but no one was showing it. Most of the humans who had ever faced the ETs before and lived were on these two ships. Eric took deep breaths and tried to relax. An hour went by. Then two.
Suddenly Eric's displays lit up.
"General Quarters!" Kelso said firmly.
Eric looked up to see seven ET ships closing on them. His heart jumped a little. The ET''s always seemed to have sense for how many ships they needed to deploy, and it was never an overwhelming majority. Eric feared for a second that they had changed their strategy and were planning a major onslaught in an attempt to destroy both their ships.
He heard radio chatter as the Shepard moved into position, and they began their maneuvering sequence.
"This time. This time... we're gonna kick your ass." Eric said under his breath.
The ET ships accelerated rapidly from behind and closed. At 120,000 kilometers, all seven ET ships opened fire. Colonel Forney called out the action. "There are four on us, three on the Shepard. We're taking proton and quark beams now. But the hits are infrequent."
Kelso focused intently on his maneuvering screen and initiated a second, more energetic evasive maneuver.
"Excellent," Colonel Forney said. "The flux has now dropped to almost zero."
There was a quiet few seconds while everyone on the bridge waited for something to happen. But nothing did. The occasional shot the ET's landed was fully blocked by the shield.
"Hold your fire, Eric," Kelso said sharply.
Two of the enemy ships accelerated, moved closer, and continued to fire in vain. After a coordinated maneuver by the Schirra and Shepard, Captain Kelso ordered Eric to open fire. Eric and his counterpart on the Shepard opened up with everything they had. The Tokamaks surged, pouring enormous power into the shield, literally ripping an enormous flux of gluons right out of the vacuum of space. With power to spare, Eric fired every radiation weapon on board. The display in front of Eric lit up with a brilliant symphony of light of every color. Four Gamma-ray lasers targeted the two ET ships that were more distant trying to weaken their shields. Meanwhile, the four Quark Bullet weapons went after the closest two ET ships. The Shepard did the same.
Nine ships danced through space, lighting it up with energy of every sort. Several minutes went by. "Engine status?" Kelso asked.
"Running well. No problems. Hull at 300 lateral g's. Within tolerance."
They waited. Eric watched the enemy ships rotate around and try to better anticipate their movements, but Rogalle's new maneuvering logic made it impossible for the ET ships to radiate them significantly. Sixty seconds went by. Then ninety seconds of continuous fire, but no ship on either side was damaged in the slightest.
Then the radiation from the enemy ships ceased. Captain Kelso smiled, but ever so slightly. He thought, was that it? Was that the best the ETs could do?
"Cease fire." Kelso said. "Continue evasive maneuvering."
"I think we did it," Eric said.
"Don't get overconfident, Commander," Kelso admonished.
"Oh, shit." It was the Shepard's engineer on the link. "Tok Alpha has gone down. An energy spike. I'm diverting all power to the shield."
"We're moving in to cover you," Kelso said.
"Maneuvering is down to one percent," the engineer said. "We'll be back online in... 14 seconds."
Forney yelled. "Two ET ships approaching fast. Near collision profile!"
The Captain of the Shepard jumped in. "I see them! Sound the collision alarm!"
Two of the ET ships left the others behind and matched the Shepard's highly subdued maneuvering, firing as they came. Eric trained all his weapons on the ET ships and opened fire, but nothing was happening. "Range, 2,000 kilometers. Closing fast," Eric said. The closer the ET ships came, the better his computer could predict their movements. Still, their shields were holding.
Eric listened to the two Captain's confer. "I think they're going to launch a missile" Kelso said.
"I agree. Drop the mines," Captain Rushkin said.
"1,000 kilometers." Eric reported.
"Launch four furballs," Kelso ordered. "Two on each."
Eric watched his screen literally light up. Amongst the heavy directed energy fire between the four ships, mines started exploding, indicating that indeed several small objects were on their way towards the Shepard. Then, Eric saw a blur of antimissiles emerge from the Shepard.
"We have power!" the Shepard's engineer announced, and Eric saw the stochastic pattern of the other ship kick in instantly. What ever was coming their way had missed. Or was too late.
Everyone on the bridge of the two Earth ships glued their eyes to the holo screen of the tactical situation. The two ET ships immediately jumped into an erratic evasive maneuver and veered away sharply. But they had come too close, and the much more maneuverable furballs had locked on. Captain Kelso merely squinted at his display to maneuver the Schirra quickly away from the ET ships. "Separation is 2,500 kilometers," Eric said quietly.
Eric watched his display while what looked like hundreds of anti-missiles emerged from the two enemy ships. His display indicated that his own furballs were pulling more than 21,000 g's trying to avoid the anti-missiles and stay on track. Eric began to radiate the ET's missiles with Quark Bullets, picking them off rapidly. The Shepard added their fire as well. Suddenly everything was happening very fast.
In a few seconds, it was all over.
"We have debris!" Eric erupted. "ET debris! Good old honest... d-e-b-r-i-s!"
"We're maneuvering away from it," Kelso announced. "We're clear."
Eric looked up at the screen. "I have two debris clouds. Estimated mass is, um, 25,000 tons each." He wanted to jump up from his couch, but he remained calm, assessing his sensors. "Four ET ships have pulled back. One is paralleling us at long range."
After ten minutes of inactivity, the two Earth ships canceled their evasive maneuvers and resumed their original course. The ET ship shadowed them for two hours from over a million kilometers, doing nothing. Finally, after two hours and ten minutes, Eric's communication display lit up for the first time. "Captain, we have an incoming modulated radio signal. It's text."
"Put it on our displays."
Now that you can defend yourself,
we wish you good fortune on your journey.
May we peacefully escort and communicate?
"Yeah, right," Eric thought to himself. "And you can shove..."
The ship's analyst spoke up. "Captain? How would you like to respond?"
"Cancel General Quarters. I'm going to take my time on this one," Kelso said and sighed. "Let them stew for a few minutes."
Alana walked up to Eric as he stood at the two meter wide holo portal in their quarters. He pressed his nose against the surface, even though he knew it was a projection and not a view of real space. They were still traveling too slow for the stars to form a relativistic cone of space forward and aft, and so his entire view was filled. Brilliant pinpoints burned like tiny diamonds on fire, crisper and clearer than the clearest night of stars ever seen on Earth. Eric gazed at Tau Ceti, glowing steadily at 3rd magnitude, then rotated the display 90 degrees. The Milky Way spanned across his view and stood in ghostly background to the shimmering red glow of the Shepard which he could see paralleling them several kilometers away. Alana approached Eric from behind and locked her arms around his waist. "What are you thinking?"
"Our first anniversary is coming up soon."
"Just a few weeks."
"How would you like to celebrate?"
"Dunno. We'll think of something. Speaking of celebrating..." Eric turned around within her cradled arms and pushed Alana's blonde hair away from her face. He kissed her on the forehead. "I have this twenty year old bottle of Scotch. I was saving it for the time we made the ET's feel some... pain. "
"Now, now. We have been talking to these nice beings for days now. You know why they had to set up that barricade. Be nice."
"I'm trying."
"Besides I hate Scotch. It makes me cough."
"It's supposed to. It's good stuff!" Eric said, laughing.
Alana looked at Eric straight in the eyes, tugged on his waist, and squinted at him in a scolding fashion. "Living in the past again, are we? Whose St. Christopher medal is around your neck?"
"Yours."
"Keep it there."
Eric reached up, held Alana's face in his hands, and leaned over to kiss her, full on the lips. "I promise."
Copyright 2001 by John
Martellaro, All rights reserved. Quantum Threads banner
artwork by Tracy Haynes.
About the Author
John Martellaro lives in Colorado at 2,800 meters above sea level with a Ph.D. wife and two cats, Nikki and Data. He holds a B.S. in Astrophysics and an M.S. in Physics. His hobbies, include amateur astronomy, downhill skiing, bicycling, and listening to piano solos. His personal Macs are a B&W G3/400 with a flat screen Studio Display and a blueberry iBook.
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