First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (12 page)

Nick
shook his head. "Tell that to my teenager.”

Li
looked confused. "Teenager?" She looked over to him. Nick
pulled out his wallet.

Luigi
groaned sitting back down hard. "Oh great." He rolled his
eyes. "Might as well clear the rest of the day, Nick just got an
excuse to show off his girls...” Luigi groaned theatrically.
Benny chuckled. Julia slapped him on the shoulder then leaned over to
see the photos.

"She
is quite a handful now, but she was a gorgeous baby. Still is."
Nick smiled. "Here she is as an infant... look at those eyes..."

Luigi
groaned. "You’re killing me here Nick honest." Julia
wrinkled her nose at him then back down.

"Here
she is at her Halloween party last year. She was going for a punk
Goth zombie mummy I think."

"The
tutu is a nice touch," Julia giggled.

"Don't
look at me; I just pay for it all. Somehow," Nick grumbled.
Julia sat on Benny's arm rest. "Here's my most recent photo..."

...*...*...*...*...

"So
you finally met the Hans?" Zubrin looked Luigi over.

"Yeah.
Pretty reserved." Luigi picked up a beer and popped the cap.

"Chinese
usually are at first. Hell, we all are on unfamiliar ground and in
unfamiliar situations. Give it time."

Luigi
nodded. "It is going to be interesting to see how they do in the
exercises. I am not sure how well they can speak English."

Zubrin
chuckled. "Yeah. Just be glad you don't have a really mixed bag.
Indians, Pakistani, Ugandan, French, Spanish... Portuguese..."

Nick
took a pull of his beer then sputtered. "Wait, Uganda? How did
they get invited?"

Zubrin
smiled. "Politics. They didn't donate a lot, but they want in.
They are pretty far down the list though."

Nick
shook his head. "As if we can get there."

Zubrin
smiled. "You never know..."

"This
cycler plan and SSTO aren't going over well." Zubrin grumped to
Luigi. "I still say a single shot ground to Mars is a better way
to go. At least for the first dozen missions." He sat back and
sighed.

"You
and I both know we're only going to get one shot at this in our life
time. Best to get as much as we can squeeze out of it." Luigi
nodded to the mock up on Zubrin's desk.

Zubrin
picked it up. "It looks like the Venture star." He set it
back down. "Will it fly?"

Luigi
nodded. "As long as we can keep the special interest groups from
cutting funding. She'll fly only on Mars; we'll have to launch her
with a special booster here on Earth. She'll dock with a ferry and it
will transfer her and supplies to Mars," Luigi explained. Luigi
sat back. "If the space planes on this end get off the ground
then we will see the price drop to under a mil per person," he
said. Zubrin nodded thoughtfully. Already space planes were getting
more and more popular. Burtan's beauty, the Voyager series was ahead
of the pack. But already there was talk of a deal with Fed Ex for a
shipping craft, and some muttered about a few rich jet setters
wanting their own versions. Getting from one side of the world to the
other in a short time just got a lot more interesting.

"I
would love to see that happen," Nick sighed.

"We
took as much as we could from the X planes. Shape design, the aero
spike engines, carbon skin, ceramics, new fuel tanks, state of the
art flight suite... She'll fly herself and even dock with the AI on
board." Luigi nodded to the model. "She's got the latest in
diagnostics too, and she is designed for easy field repair on
Mars...or at least as easy as we can make it." He shrugged.

"If
we can make a hangar there then we can extend her service life by a
decade or two," he finished and then shrugged.

Zubrin
nodded. "Think that can be done?" he asked, thoroughly
serious.

Luigi
sighed. "With a lot of work, and the right materials, and a
healthy dose of luck, yes sir. I've got Dover industries working on
an inflatable hangar." He shrugged. "But one step at a
time."

Nick
saluted him with a beer. "Words to live by."

Testimony:

"Don't
worry about the crew from Texas; we have their support since ground
control is in Houston. They may grandstand a bit for the cameras
though," Nick leaned over and murmured to Luigi as they walked
down the path to their table.

"Oh
is that all," Luigi sighed as they took their seats. "Grilled
by a fan. Great," he sighed. He actually wouldn't mind signing
an autograph but getting the third degree from someone who was
supposed to be in your corner wasn't fun.

"So
you’re telling us, you’re going to launch a quarter of a
billion dollars of tax payer's money into space, send it to Mars and
then return it here?" The Texas senator drawled leaning over the
podium.

"No
sir, the money will go to the people who build the craft, their
families, and the shareholders of the companies responsible to build
it." Luigi felt Nick kick his shin.

Nick
grimaced. "Sir, the money will be well spent. With the plasma
rocket we can fly a payload to Mars or vice versa in under forty
days."

Senator
Friday leaned forward. The woman adjusted her glasses then smiled
tightly. "So you’re telling me young man that you’re
going to aim a nuclear tipped rocket at the Earth?? Are you nuts?"
she demanded. Nick and Luigi sighed.

Luigi
covered the microphone with his hand. "It's going to be one of
those days. Let me handle this one."

Nick
nodded. "By all means, be my guest."

Luigi
took the microphone. "Senator, the program's hardware is
designed to return our astronauts to Earth. After all, why go there
if it is a one way trip?" Several people chuckled at this. "And
no ma'am we are not going to aim it at the Earth, we are going to aim
it at where the Earth will be. Half way there the ship will coast,
then flip over. Then the plasma engine will re-ignite, slowing the
craft until it can enter orbit and dock with the space station."

Senator
Graham from Maine nodded. "But isn't that risky, you’re
talking about a potential for disaster to the station and the
public."

Luigi
shook his head. "Not at all senator, we have built layers of
safe guards into the ship, including a smart AI. If we lose control
of the craft and it cannot restore contact with us it will aim the
ship to the sun."

The
senator nodded. "So is that what you plan to do with it once it
returns to the station? Send it to the sun?"

Luigi
shook his head. "No sir, we plan on refueling it, restocking or
repairing it if necessary, then have it dock with another payload and
send it back to Mars."

Senator
Friday sat back amazed. "So, it will go what, a couple times?"

Luigi
nodded. "The reactor has a twenty year power supply. With it and
fuel we can move thousands of tons of cargo and people to Mars or any
other destination in the system." he explained patiently. The
murmurs in the gallery began to pick up and grow.

Senator
Branth clacked the gavel twice. "Let's just settle folks."

Luigi
nodded. "The Columbus and her sister ships can be used for any
mission we can think of, including intercepting asteroids like the
one projected to possibly impact Earth in four years."

Senator
Grantham nodded. He'd heard the report about that last week. It was
one of the reasons they were now having this discussion, the public
was now firmly focused on space. "But didn't I hear it was
supposed to miss us?"

Senator
Friday held her hand over his mike. "Now Bill, we need to stay
on track here."

He
waved her off. "Yes Jen, but this is important."

Senator
Branth nodded. "I want to hear more on this too, let’s
take a few minutes,” he said. He turned his attention to Luigi.
"Doctor, didn't we receive a report that the rock is projected
to miss by, what a thousand miles?"

Luigi
nodded. "Yes Senator, you did, but that has a fudge factor of
plus or minus ten percent."

Senator
Friday chuckled sitting back and toying with her stylus. "I just
love accountants and mathematicians who do that."

He
smiled. "Well ma'am, it is rather difficult to project at this
junction, if say a small asteroid impacts it, or it gets closer to
another large body, any of those or other variables could change its
course."

Branth
nodded. "But we're talking a minor thing."

Luigi
shook his head vehemently. "No sir, it is the difference between
a graze and an impact. Ten percent is pretty a pretty wide margin for
change over a three and a half year period. We are trying to narrow
it now."

The
senator nodded. "So what exactly are we looking at? A meteor
shower?"

"Haven't
you watched Armageddon or Deep Impact?" Branth sighed shaking
his head. "My grandson made me watch both over the weekend.
Scary. I am glad it is only in science fiction. Nothing like that has
happened since the dinosaurs," he said. Friday frowned.

"Actually
Senator, the last major recorded impact was the Tunguska impact in
Siberia in 1918. It leveled an area the size of New York city,"
Luigi interjected, leaning forward to the microphone. A few gasped at
this.

"So
it must have been big," the Senator replied and then nodded.

Luigi
however shook his head. "No it was an air burst, about the power
of a ten megaton fission bomb. Our most recent computer models
estimate the rock was about the twenty meters in size." Some in
the crowd gasped and murmured.

Grantham
tapped the gavel. "And just how big is this rock that you say
will come close to us?" Friday asked.

"About
two point five kilometers ma'am."

She
shrugged. "So if it hits land we are in trouble. The Earth is
seventy percent ocean. I wouldn't worry about it." She dismissed
it with a wave. "Can we get on with this?" she asked
pointedly to the chairman.

Luigi
sighed. "Ma'am, if it hits the ocean it is ten times worse. A
tsunami that would travel one hundred miles inland, wiping out
cities, towns, and villages. The sea water would contaminate the soil
for years. It would make the one in India look minor."

She
looked shocked. "So it is a big deal," Senator Branth said
before she recovered. Branth nodded in satisfaction. "Thank you
Doctor, why don't we adjourn and take a twenty minute recess. This
old body isn't as flexible as it used to be." Senator Friday
shook her head. He looked over to his colleagues who nodded. Senator
Friday was staring at Luigi.

"Twenty
minutes folks," Branth said. He tapped the gavel and got up.

"Think
we should send the Senator a copy of Deep Impact?" Nick
commented, and then hastily covered his microphone. "Crap.
Forgot it was on," he frowned.

Luigi
shut is off, and then turned off Nick. "Might be something good
for her, if you could get her to watch it." He chuckled as the
Senator stared at her brief. "I think she just got an earful as
it is," he said. Friday seemed the type that was into the Senate
to represent a power and not to govern. Now she had a lot to think
about. He nodded to Nick. "I need to use the John, see you in a
bit." He waved and walked off.

Nick
chuckled. "Bet there is a line to use it, you just made a lot of
people scared," he sighed. "Including me," he murmured
to himself.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"So,
the MAV test shot is carrying twelve tons of hydrogen, two tons of
ethylene, plus what is this? Point four tons of miscellaneous tools;
point four tons for plastic extrusion equipment, a Sabatier reactor
set, and a one hundred pound Reprap. What is this thing?" Nick
leaned over and pointed.

Luigi
looked. "Transhab. It is an inflatable dome with airlock. I
managed to get Dover industries to make one and did a switch in
accounting."

Nick
frowned. "Transhab right. A greenhouse?" he asked.

Luigi
nodded. "And airlock, oh, and accordion connecting tunnels."

"Right
greenhouse. Okay, and a rover robot, to what, test the robot that
will move the nuke for the MAV right?"

Luigi
nodded. "And an open rover with attachments. We shoe horned as
much as we could into it."

Nick
nodded. "I'll say! The Transhab thing, it is small, only three
tons but you've got all sorts of miscellaneous gear listed with it."

Luigi
waved it off. "Well, we need furniture for it right? Plus the
normal life support stuff. Don't worry about it." He let that
last drop into a mock Italian drawl.

Nick
snorted. "Okay, your funeral. And mine," he sighed. The
penny pinchers were watching the program like a hawk. "You've
got it all planned right?" Luigi smiled over behind his cup.
"Zubrin too I bet." Nick sat back. "Care to share?"

Luigi
chuckled. "You know as well as I do that the administration is
only as good as its next election. Their term is up in four years now
that they won re-election. We figure we can get maybe three manned
missions in flight. Hopefully it all works out." Luigi grimaced.
"If they would let us fly on the plasma rocket we could do ten
missions in that time."

Nick
shook his head. "You know that would never fly on the first go.
Unproven tech? Are you kidding? The compromise will work. Just give
it time and once it proves itself you can fly on it."

Mario
knocked on the door. Luigi looked up and waved him in. "I see
you've got him riled again, he still on about the plasma rocket?"
Mario asked.

Nick
sighed. "Yes, and like a bulldog he won't let it go."

Mario
chuckled. "He just told me you’re only planning three
missions?" Mario looked at his brother then sat down. "Well,
we are planning a continuous mission, with a crew every time we get a
window, but you know how congress is with funding. Once we have a
first team, public interest will drop, then people will whine to
shift funding..." he sighed.