AMERICA ONE (43 page)

Both men studied the slow turning rock for several minutes. With the hydrogen thrusters Jonesy could accelerate the craft forward or slow it down, and first he went forward from the rear of the rock to the front with the thrusters propelling them forward.

They reached the bow of the large asteroid, and he slowed them and the front of the rock began to move ahead of them. Jonesy also had to move the craft with the slow tumbling of the asteroid in two different directions and this was taking all his concentration. It also seemed that there were certain areas where something was gently pulling them in, and he had to change the angle of the thrusters slightly to stay at 500 feet.

“It seems to have some gravitational pull. I feel the craft wanting to go closer. Power still at 15 percent.”

“The back end is coming around behind us,” warned VIN, and Jonesy compensated by following the nose of the rock down.

“There!” stated VIN a few minutes later. “There is a crater just coming into sight below us!” He pointed to a large crater about 800 feet across with a crater wall on the forward side about a hundred feet or so high. “It looks like something ploughed into that hole. It looks like this asteroid was hit by another, and the area underneath the cliff doesn’t look shiny at all.”

“Looks as good a place as any,” and Jonesy pushed the switch to extend the legs. A light above the switch went green a few seconds later showing that the tripod legs were down and locked. “She certainly wants to get down there in a hurry,” said Jonesy, using the thrusters to rotate the craft over the wide crater. He floated the craft down to within 200 feet of the rough surface and slightly to the side of where he wanted to put her down. “Any rocks larger than a foot?” he asked.

“There seems to be a rough area about fifty or so feet from the wall,” VIN answered.

“I’m going to have to take her further away from the crater wall. It seems to be pulling us in at an angle. There is quite a pull on the craft. I have the thrusters at 20 percent power, and we are still being pulled down.” He moved a dozen more feet away from hovering over the cliff, lined up the craft at a ninety degree angle to the rock, always compensating for the roll. “Here we go, partner, 100 feet to touch down. I hope they made those legs strong. Crap! We are being pulled in. Thrust power to forty percent, forty five, altitude 50 feet…power 55 percent….60….70 percent” and they landed on the asteroid with enough force to bounce the craft’s legs and make VIN’s neck muscles feel the landing as the legs took the hit. “Power down to thirty percent….twenty…ten….power off.”

“That was pretty hard!” observed VIN. “Were you expecting that?”

“Nope,” replied the pilot. “The guys back home thought that I might need 20 percent to a maximum 30 percent due to the magnet in the craft, but I don’t think they expected this asteroid to have such a strong gravitational pull. VIN, Send your message that the eagle has landed, and also tell them I needed 70 percent thrust on both motors to bring her down. I’m pretty worried that we could be stuck here. Loaded with rocks and things, I don’t see us getting off that easily, even at 100 percent thrust, empty. VIN, see what they think.”

Four minutes later there was jubilation back in Nevada upon hearing that Jonesy landed
Astermine One
on the asteroid. It only lasted several seconds until the lead scientist read the second half of the report.

“They needed 70 percent thrust to stop from crashing into the asteroid,” he told Ryan, who looked at him, his face growing white.

“What do you mean?” he asked the scientist.

“Mr. Jones needed 70 percent thrust to land her hard. That means with any load of materials aboard, and using 100 percent thrust from the two hydrogen thrusters, the magnetic pull of the asteroid will not allow them to leave.”

“Oh, my God!” stated Ryan. “Why didn’t you guys compute that the asteroid could have a magnetic pull?”

“We did,” was the reply. “We expected that 10 percent thrust would be needed to equal the electromagnet and a maximum 20 percent magnetic pull from the asteroid. Even if the thrust needed to liftoff was three times as much as we predicted, there was still 10 percent thrust remaining. We never assumed that a 70 percent thrust would be needed to just land her.”

“How much could a load hamper her liftoff?” Ryan asked.

“The magnetic force from the asteroid is not so important,” replied the man in the white coat. It will be the dead weight cargo inside
Astermine One
which will cause her liftoff problems.”

“So what would a new thrust equation show, that we are short of power?” Ryan asked.

“It is impossible to say, but I think 100 percent thrust could be what Mr. Jones is going to need to lift off with minimum cargo, say one to two tons,” the scientist replied doing calculations on a pad.

“So, our choices are to get them off with a ton or two of rock, or take them off right now and head back empty?”

“There is a third scenario,” suggested the scientist and Ryan looked at him questioningly. “Mr. Noble could cut away the electromagnet and they could pull it out of the craft, and leave it on the asteroid for later pickup.”

“Is that possible?” Ryan asked.

“It would probably take him several hours after emptying the three center compartments; the electromagnetic batteries are screwed into the floor of the craft. They could cut off parts of the metal with a mining torch and take it out piece by piece. The electromagnetic metal, neodymium, is probably a hundred times more magnetic than any precious metal cargo the same size. The electromagnetic is about the same size as ten car batteries in each of the three compartments. By cutting away pieces he could remove them, and each piece would help with lift off. If he took out the whole electromagnetic system he could reduce the magnetic pull by up to 30 to 35 percent.”

“So, Mr. Jones would still need 100 percent thrust to get off?” Ryan asked. The scientist nodded. “Let’s say nothing for now, but I want the new, more powerful hydrogen thrusters in the other two craft before they are sent into space. We need the teams to work hard and fast to finish
Astermine Two
. Can we exchange
Astermine One
’s thrusters in space?” The team around him stated that it would take months to refit the new motors in space. “How much time did it take to manufacture the magnet, and how much did it cost?”

“Six months and 3.25 million dollars,” was the reply.

“Get started on a new one that can be fitted and taken out easier. Oh God! I hope we can get them off that rock!” Ryan muttered. “Or we are going to have to use
Astermine Two
to go and get them.”

VIN looked around, still strapped into his seat. Outside the portals, the surroundings looked like they had landed on a rough and bumpy, broken up gray aircraft carrier deck. The cliff, or crater wall, on one side stood high above them, about sixty feet away, and the sun drew slight variations in color and shadow movement on the dull surface. The shadows moved eerily, like creeping snakes, as the rock rotated. VIN actually did feel a little seasick.

He got out of his seat and was surprised by how much gravity was holding him down. He metal legs felt heavy, as if he was being pulled down, and it felt nearly as strong as the pull on earth. They had no way of reading the gravity strength, but Jonesy was just sitting there, his head working out mathematical problems.

“Kid, I have this horrible feeling that somebody didn’t do their homework right, and that we are bloody well stuck here, like two mating magnets; stuck together.”

“We could always throw out all the equipment,” VIN suggested and Jonesy nodded at that idea.

“I’m sure that we might have to do that with the whole load if we are not careful.”

Since they were so connected to the rock, VIN didn’t have to get out and secure the craft to the surface. They had brought large steel pegs and a large headed wooden mallet to pound the half dozen pegs into the asteroid to tie them down.

The crew of
Astermine One
had already done a day’s work and decided to sleep before VIN would go out on his first discovery mission.

They wouldn’t experience such a thing as day and night, more like a dirty gray and black arctic night with months and months of semi-darkness. Their time clocks had changed with computer-controlled lighting turning lights on and off to replicate day and night. Now they would be scheduled to sleep twelve-hour nights and stay awake for twelve-hour days. With no alcohol aboard, Jonesy found that the extra hours of sleep made him more relaxed, and he always felt better after a couple of weeks of not drinking.

The next “morning” over breakfast, they viewed the outside of the craft through the six side portals and the larger two-foot wide by three-foot long by one-foot thick glass windshield. Nothing had changed.

“Looking for monsters out there?” asked Jonesy, watching VIN peer out of his side portals while breakfasting on a self-heating pouch of scrambled eggs and ham, and a cold pouch of orange juice, without the usual additive included.

“Do we have any weapons, just in case?” VIN asked. “You know we ex-soldiers never leave base without something.”

“Not that I know of, maybe take the mallet,” replied Jonesy looking serious. “It should pound in a few alien heads….or whatever they have on top of their necks….that is if they even have necks,” he tried to say, thinking about what could actually be out there. “Let’s assume they need to have teeth to eat you,” the older man continued, trying hard to keep his “I’m serious” look. “Or, they could suck you up like you eat that black fish egg crap!”

“Oh shut up. If you think you are so funny, Captain Jones, maybe you should go out first and scare them to death with your jokes,” replied VIN not finding his partner very funny at a time like this.

“Sorry, partner, not in my job description. Hey! You have the metal legs. If you see something, give them a karate kick to their whatevers, and then look for a head, and pound it in with the mallet. That should squash them into jelly….if they are not jelly already!”

By now he was smiling. They had discussed the chance of alien life several times during the boring trip out to the rock, and since Jonesy knew that it was his partner’s job to go out there, he had thought up weird and freighting ideas of what extraterrestrial life could look like. He looked over to his partner to see that VIN wasn’t listening anymore. He had his helmet on, and was telling Jonesy to secure it; and he wouldn’t hear anything through it.

It was time to get the docking port raised out of its shaft, so that VIN could get out, and then Jonesy realized that it was going to be hard for his partner to get out of the top with all this gravity. They had practiced this several times wearing full suits in Hangar Seven before they left. Luckily for them, the team designing and manufacturing the docking hatches had welded aluminum ladders into all the three-foot wide docking tubes so that they could do the necessary drills in a gravity situation, and tie cords to them in space.

Jonesy was already thinking about how much design had gone into this mission, and also how much had been omitted; the weak thrusters, and now the asteroid’s heavy gravity, had not been considered.

Lucky for VIN the designers also placed a folding ladder inside the top part of the hatch; when extended, it would help the astronaut float across the top of
Astermine One
, if need be. Now VIN would have to use it as a real ladder and not just for floating hand holds.

When he was on the surface, VIN would signal Jonesy to release the outer side doors on the three rear compartments.

Jonesy was already pondering how to load the craft. Now, with the canisters too heavy to just float in and out, the whole loading system would have to be rethought.

By this time VIN was in the hatch. Jonesy sealed it and checked that the intercom worked.
“Outside temperature, minus 163. I’m going to raise the docking port only three feet, the same height we used to practice on earth. Did you copy, partner?”

“I checked it before I left, but thanks. How am I going to do this one giant leap of man thing Neil Armstrong did when he landed on the moon? I might lose my footing and fall over the side of the craft,” VIN worried.

“Maybe try the words ‘one giant screw-up for mankind’”? You can’t use the same words. Make up your own. I have the camera in here filming you. Just grab your American flag, the flagpole and sort of throw them out, so that you can use both hands on the ladder. And remember, partner, with your metal legs, you are pretty heavy, and you nearly broke the ladder the last time you climbed up it at the airfield. I reckon you could weigh the same out here.”

VIN did as suggested. When Jonesy sealed the inner hatch and released the outer hatch, he climbed up the internal rungs, opened the heavy hatch, and played out the fold up ladder across the cold, shiny frozen roof of
Astermine One
and down the side until it touched the ground. Then, he slowly reversed back into the docking port and grabbed the American flag and pole. “How the hell am I going to get this flag up? Maybe I should get a stick of dynamite and blow a hole in the darn surface to place the pole in.”

“I would say that your first foray out there, Mr. Noble, is to find loose platinum rocks to place around the base of the flag pole. I hope the flag doesn’t flutter. It’s not as pretty as the one Neil Armstrong left on the lunar surface.”

“At least he didn’t have to blow a darn hole in the surface!” replied VIN standing with his head outside the craft and for the first time looking around. “It sure is beautiful out here.”

“Yeah! I’m sure it is, and if I remember, the Apollo crew had to make a rock pile for their flagpole,”
added Jonesy.

VIN threw the flag and pole as hard as he could and he was surprised to see the flag on its pole head out and then just as on earth hit the ground several feet from the craft. He was only fourteen feet above the ground and, even if he didn’t hear it hit the ground, he was sure that it would have made one hell of a noise if he were on earth. The flag actually bounced as it hit the surface of Asteroid DX 2014.