AMERICA ONE (21 page)

VIN surged forward, catching his partner in seconds. He hoped nobody had seen his spurt, it was probably a little faster than that 100 meter champion guy in the recent Olympics, and he came up on Jonesy’s shoulder breathing hard. Jonesy, not looking around added more speed not to be overtaken by this runner whoever it was, and couldn’t believe it when he realized that it was the “kid” and the wheelchair girl. He looked at them with a weird and unbelieving expression, and then returned to concentrate on the girls in front of him, pushing his legs to go even faster.

VIN spurted forward and caught up to the two girls in a few seconds. He knew Jonesy did not believe his eyes, but he didn’t care. He smiled at the girls, who slowed not believing that this Marine with no real legs could outrun them and their disbelief allowed Jonesy to quickly catch them.

Then it was the big prize: Ryan. “Let me go first,” asked Suzi and spurted ahead of VIN. He followed her watching her stride. It was so weird, this girl, who certainly wasn’t a professional runner, getting so much speed out of her legs, and hardly breathing with the effort.

Ryan was now fifty yards ahead and had only a few hundred to go before the apron. Suzi looked over to make sure that they were now out of sight of the workers, and suddenly VIN’s jaw dropped as he watched her catch up to Ryan in less than a dozen strides and then slow. She leaned over slightly to breathe down his neck. Her acceleration was so fast, that he wanted to try it and his brain gave the orders; suddenly he felt himself spring forward and catch up to both of them so fast that he had to slow down before cannoning into them.

Ryan turned around and smiled at them. “Enjoying yourselves?” he asked. “I was hoping to keep it a little secret around here, but I suppose a Suzi-without-wheelchair beating me says it all!”

After the run, many came up to congratulate them, especially the scientists from Hangar Five. Others stayed away, not believing that a human, a human who looked overweight, could run so fast.

Jonesy, who had just barely outrun Maggie and Penny, stayed away from VIN, not knowing how to handle this new man…or robot?

Over breakfast VIN was approached by a scientist. “Ryan wants you at 8:00 sharp for a meeting in Hangar Seven.” VIN nodded, thanking the man, and looked forward to seeing what was going on in a new hangar for a change.

At 8:00 sharp, he showed his name badge to the sentry guarding the side door to Hangar Seven and went in.

Much like Hangar Six, there were silver craft on short legs in the middle of the hangar, three craft this time instead of two, and in separate sterile rooms. As in Hangar Six, the craft had several white coats working outside and inside each one. These craft were smaller and slightly shorter than the shuttles in Hangar Six.

“These must the actual space craft we are to go mining in,”
VIN thought to himself.

Ryan entered with Jonesy and Colonel Sinclair. Ryan walked up to where VIN was standing, and the pilots followed him. They were facing the front of the low space craft, its three legs only about a foot long. They could see into the three forward and side windows, and into the cockpit on each craft. The flight cockpits were smaller than in the shuttles, only two seats with just enough room for the pilots to lie down flat between the instruments and the rear docking hatch sticking out of the cockpit’s rear wall.

One scientist in a full sterilization suit was working on the windows of the first one, making a six-foot tall, three-foot wide space-type docking hatch rise and fall six feet, using hydraulics from inside the craft by opening and closing a switch on the control dash.

“Welcome to
Astermine 1, Astermine 2
, and
Asterspace 3
,” Ryan said pointing to the three craft in order. “We do everything in twos or threes. We always have a backup, in case something happens to delay the movement or schedule in space.”

“Why the names
Astermine
and
Asterspace
?” asked VIN.

“The first two craft are being built to mine the asteroids in space, VIN. The third is a cargo transfer craft with an open plan cargo area,” Ryan replied.

“It doesn’t look like these guys are meant to reenter,” added Jonesy.

“Correct, Mr. Jones. These three craft, each under four tons in weight, are flown up in the belly of the shuttles and have been designed to remain in deep space to work. You remember the panels in Hangar One?” Ryan asked. All three nodded. “The plan is to get a space platform or mother ship built from those panels into space as soon as possible. The orbit of this space platform will be a geosynchronous orbit, or a geostationary orbit, far higher than the U.S. military GPS satellites and higher than all of the geostationary media or cable satellites. Our geostationary orbit will be 22,497 miles above earth, far higher than the GPS system at about 12,000 miles, and a dozen or so miles higher than the highest communications and media satellite earth currently has. We will have the highest geostationary satellite ever put into orbit.

“That is where these three craft will dock, be refueled and resupplied. They will never need to return. The two shuttles in Hangar Six will transfer supplies to our space platform or mother ship to complete it; once it is habitable, it will also be used to supply these Astermine spacecraft so they can go into outer space on different missions.

“This altitude will hide our new supply station from any ever-searching telescopes and cameras. Since the military-built GPS system looks down at earth and not into space, I believe we will be hidden from all but ground telescopes and any other instruments looking upwards. Space is very large up there at 22,500 miles. Even for powerful telescopes on earth, looking for our mother ship will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I’m planning to locate our space platform directly behind the oldest and largest communication satellite up there, and hope it will be in its shadow from much of earth. I pray nobody finds us while we are building it.”

“Can they do anything to the platform you build that far up?” VIN asked.

“No, but they can cut us off from here, hence so much security,” replied Ryan.

“Won’t they figure something out when we send up flight after flight of equipment to build this platform of yours?” asked Jonesy.

“Yes, but we will tell them first about dozens of necessary practice flights, and alternately outfox them with exits and reentries from the shuttles to make them think that we flew up one shuttle and hours later the same shuttle reenters. Hopefully, they won’t realize that it is not the same shuttle reentering. We start this charade with the first flight into space. The shuttle will be rigged to eject a load of explosives; when the explosion occurs, we say it was our first attempt, and we tell them our first mission was a failure. I expect that this ‘failure’ will enable us to launch twenty to thirty practice or training flights before they start getting edgy and want to come and see what is going on.”

“A couple of dozen flights could be a lot of equipment shuttled up there,” suggested Maggie.

“Well said, Ms. Sinclair! If I can get thirty or more flights up there before trouble begins to boil, we have a slight chance of success. Also our success depends heavily on the upcoming presidential election. I have a good friend in the current president, but the opposing candidate doesn’t like me very much. I also have some aces up my sleeve which will buy us time; three to be precise. If a new president is elected at the end of this year and we are forced to tell the government about our mining operation, it could mean the end of my control of the company. I have a plan to use our mining treasure as a financial bartering tool, and hopefully divert their interest from a couple more ‘practice’ flights, to allow us to finish our project before private parties inside the U.S. government and military intervene. Once we start flights into space, we must move as fast as possible. And by the way, Ms. Sinclair, Mr. Jones, we are going to need at least one, maybe two more teams of flight personnel within the next few weeks. This time I want former military pilots like you, Mr. Jones, or at worst, ask the Air Force for one backup crew by telling them that you guys are heading off into space. We actually need four full space crews, and a crew for the C-5. The C-5 crew doesn’t need to know our space plans. Suzi and I are spending time in the simulators and can always be used as backups to the backups, if you know what I mean, but I don’t think Suzi or I will ever be as good as you two, Mr. Jones, Ms. Sinclair.”

“I‘m still in contact with two guys who flew with me in the Air Force test-pilot program, and have since retired,” stated Jonesy.

“I know of one girl,” added Maggie. “She was a major then, and the best pilot I ever flew with, apart from Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Jones here. My friend got pregnant, was discharged, and then lost her baby. She was treated very unfairly, since the colonel who got her pregnant was the same colonel who terminated her contract with the Air Force. Several of us girls made a statement and were told to keep our mouths shut. That was about five years ago at McGuire Air Force Base.”

“I would like to meet everybody who you two would like to fly with, ASAP!” replied Ryan. “Let me know and I can send you off to find them.”

“Now let’s get back to our mission. These three space vehicles will be taken up and will remain in space in the first dozen flights, or when needed. The shuttle’s first flight will be to fly up to another space station already in space, a dormant Russian satellite in a much lower orbit. That old girl is a Russian 1980s space station consisting of four modules, two are sleep units, then a command module, and the forth a larger communal relaxation and work module which can separated if necessary. This satellite is about the size of a C-130 transport aircraft and will be pulled back to earth by gravity in about seventeen months. She has two large solar dragon-fly antennas atop her, large ones which automatically supply her basic power needs.

This re-entry is already causing a lot of worry because of its size. She was one of the first space stations programs, the space station is large, and on re-entry it could cause much damage. At one time the satellite was 50,000 feet higher than the current space station, now she is almost 100,000 feet lower and losing 10,000 feet of altitude a month. After two years of work on it up there in the 1980s, the Russians ended their test programs for long-term space exploration on the human body. Also, the International Space Station came into being in the early 90s, and they joined this program. This is where we come in. We are going to be the first to get up there, and we will propel it further into space. This mission will relieve a lot of people down here, and be a compelling argument as to why we need to practice sending up so many shuttles.”

“Did the Russians live up there to build it?” asked Maggie.

“Sort of; they sent up several rockets with supplies and crews, spent the two years working on it with ‘space spiders’ as they called them, to weld and complete it, and then the last team returned. Their seventh flight to the station exploded on lift off, which put their program on hold, where it still is. The same Russian technicians who built her are working with us here, in Hangar Four, experimenting with far more modern space spiders. These new spiders magnetically bind themselves to any outer and inner walls and will slowly weld the remaining of our space panels together from the outside and then inside into sealed cubes.

“The first three Russian scientists, my oldest employees, designed and built everything for this Russian satellite up there, and they assure me that it was completed. They did live without suits in the completed satellite for a couple of weeks before heading back to earth with the last crew. Unfortunately, the rocket that exploded was actually carrying a new crew and supplies for a longer stay.”

“So what does this old Russian ‘beer can’ of a space station have to do with our mission?” asked Jonesy.

“Simple. First, we take up some supplies and connect our shuttle with its extending docking port to one of the space station’s docking ports. Then, with the shuttle’s hydrogen thruster, we increase her orbit until both are higher and far away from the ISS; then we move the whole space station to where are going to build our new platform. In other words, we are going to salvage the station, and use it as crew quarters to build our new station. It has three separate docking bays on three separate sides where our craft can dock. The Russian satellite is currently in dormant mode, but can be made fully functional as a living environment. She just needs fresh oxygen, a nuclear battery to increase the low power output of her old antiquated solar antennae, and then our first team of scientists, builders and pilots can actually base themselves there. There are sleeping units for six. Nobody else, apart from the team heads and now you, know of this part of the plan. And, as Mr. Jones stated, this ‘beer can’ will become our first base of operations. Most importantly, we must get her far away from the International Space Station and from any other prying eyes in the sky.”

“OK! I get it now,” interrupted Jonesy. “The C-5 flies shuttles up. The first shuttles fly supplies and one or two of these small spacecraft in their holds; one is for me and the kid. We head off to bring back riches from some rock flying past while the shuttles then go up and down and use this Russian space station as crew quarters so we can build our own station, correct?”

“In a nutshell, Mr. Jones!” replied Ryan smiling. “Please remember pilots, all our
Silver Bullet
Shuttles and our Astermine Spacecraft have been designed the same way. All five or maybe six of our space craft have been built for permanent survival in outer space, have the exact same single docking station behind the cockpit, can dock with each other, or with the Russian space station, and our own, once its complete. Naturally, our own station, our mother ship, will have far more docking stations, a dozen, and the Russian station will be connected to her permanently once the necessary port is ready. Also remember that
Astermine Two
is an exact replica of
Astermine One
.
Asterspace Three
is a one-cargo bay transporter, meaning that she could head out with either, or both mining craft and be loaded up. The two-crew members will live aboard in her cockpit and her second supply compartment. The second compartment will be made usable as a second area for humans for long term flight. On shorter trips it will be a supply hold.”