 
# Per Ardua Ad Astra

## Michael Rawley©

## Follow Bill Axon to the Stars,   
Volume 1

## All the characters in this book are fictitious, and bear no resemblance to the corresponding characters in the real world.

## My thanks to my Editor,  
James Whiteshield

## Tales by Michael Rawley  
Dust Devils & Other Fantasies  
The Magic of Robert MacLeod  
Tales in the series: _Follow Bill Axon to the Stars_  
Per Ardua Ad Astra  
Per Astra Ad Galaxias  
Smith's Cloud & Thereafter

In the early part of the twentieth century, the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein proved that nothing can travel in space faster than light.

Bill Axon is a lecturer at the University of Southern Arkansas. He shares man's dream of going to the stars. That dream seems to be almost impossible because of Einstein's speed limit of 186,000 miles per second.

However, the discoveries of a colleague, a Professor of Quantum Physics, are set to make that dream a reality. Read how that reality progresses and follow Bill Axon to the stars. Discover what and who he finds there.

Although this is a work of fiction, I hope that you will find that the science is credible.

#### _Published by_ _Normist_ _  
at_ _Smashwords_

####  Contents

1. The Proposal  
2. The Airframe Arrives  
3. Testing  
4. Epsilon Eridani  
5. What! No Patent  
6. The Presidential Blessing  
7. Breaking new ground  
8. The Design Conference  
9. Group Discussions  
10. Surprise, Surprise  
11. Construction at Holloman  
12. At the Skunk Works  
13. The Prototype Shuttle  
14. Planning Personnel  
15. Steve Arrives at Holloman  
16. Filling up the Base  
17. Waiting for Palmdale  
18. Voyager  
19. Shake-down Cruise  
20. The return to Epsilon Eridani  
21. Scout or Frigate  
22. Where to Go Next  
23. Alpha Centauri  
24. City and Space Base  
25. Procyon and Beyond  
26. Tau Ceti  
27. Reaching Home  
28. Report to DC  
29. The Report Continues  
30. The Prime Directive  
31. Preparing for First Contact  
32. The Beagle  
33. First Contact  
34. Diplomacy  
35. The Seabees come Through  
36. Can Do  
37. Diplomatic Entertainment  
38. The Lost Tribe  
39. The Long Haul  
40. HD129357  
Postscript
1

## _The proposal_

If I am being stuffy, my name is Doctor William Axon Ph.D. Otherwise, it's Bill Axon, a lecturer in Computer Science at the USA, the University of Southern Arkansas in Magnolia. My undergraduate degree is in mechanical and electronic engineering, gained before the computing bug infected me. I'm also an amateur astronomer.

Late one Friday afternoon in early May, I was working in my office, thinking about my lectures for the next week. Or rather, I had thought about my lecture material and was now goofing off. My eyes were gazing vacantly at the ubiquitous Anniversary Tower as the thought passed through my mind that I had never seen ducks on the Duck Pond. I was now deciding what I would do over the weekend.

A colleague from the Physics Department came in through the open door.

"I say, Bill, Could I have a word with you?"

"Sure, James, what can I do for you?"

James Burton is a Professor of Quantum Physics at the same college. He has some advanced articles to his name, which are a bit beyond me. I know because I had tried to read some of them. Quantum Physics seems to have nothing in common with the real world. I didn't think he would appreciate being asked for the 'For Dummies' version of his articles.

"I'd really like to chew the fat with you. Perhaps bounce some ideas off you."

"Sure. Take the weight off your feet. I'm more or less finished for the day."

He sat down, crossed his legs and put his fingertips together, and said, "Tell me, Bill, do you watch 'Star Trek'?"

"Yes."

"What do you see as the main problems in building the 'Enterprise'?"

"Do you mean a working version?"

"Yes. I'd like to build a small one so that we have a proof of concept and all that."

"Well, James, you'll need the hull structure, which is airtight. As for the drive, that would probably come in two parts: what in the television series they called the 'Impulse' drive and then there was the 'Warp' drive."

"That describes my thoughts exactly. Would it surprise you to know that for some time, I've been thinking about the 'Warp' drive, to give it, its 'Star Trek' name."

"I thought that Einstein had proved that you can't travel faster than light and that a 'warp' drive was pure fiction. How do you get around that?"

"Time travel is the answer. He didn't prove that time travel was impossible. Let me give you an example. Suppose that you want to travel a thousand light years and that you can travel at half the speed of light."

"Yes. That would mean a trip of two thousand years, just for the travel time, and not counting time for acceleration and deceleration."

"Correct! Now suppose that at the same time, you traveled back in time by nineteen hundred and ninety-nine years. How long would the trip appear to take?"

"Would that be only one year?"

"Yes, and what would your apparent speed be?"

"Would it be a thousand times the speed of light?"

"Correct, again. It would appear to be a thousand Cee," James sounded as though he was leading a slightly retarded student through a thought process.

"So how do you travel through time?" I asked.

"There have been experiments using lasers at the University of Connecticut, which I have been trying to replicate. They are about the distortion of the time component of the space-time continuum. The stumbling block has always been the sub-light drive, but I think I may have come across something that I can develop. The experiments that I've been carrying out on the application of lasers to subquantum kinetics have produced a totally unexpected force."

He took a breath and continued, "So that I could measure the force, I turned the experiment on its end and mounted the whole thing on a wooden pallet. You see, to measure the force, I lifted it onto a couple of large balance scales that I borrowed from the sports department and measured the decrease in weight. The trouble is that they need their scales back from time to time. It's making my work more difficult. Now then, how can I set up a suitable environment for further development?"

"Do you mean a working spaceship hull?"

"I suppose so, although it may be a little too early to be thinking of that. One thing about it, though, it mustn't cost the earth."

"How big do you see your drives being?"

"There's just the one. It's a combination of both the 'Star Trek' drives. At the moment, it's about the size of three filing cabinets like those."

He waved at my filing cabinets. Each was about a foot and a half wide, three feet deep and five feet tall. A quick mental calculation gave a total volume of sixty-seven and a half cubic feet.

"Hmm... I wonder. Would an old airplane body suit you?"

"It might do, particularly if it still had its undercarriage, and if it didn't cost too much."

"How much is too much?"

"Almost anything, at the moment," he chuckled.

"Perhaps we could get a backer?"

"We?"

"You didn't think I'd just walk away from this did you? It's too exciting! In any case, you'll need a lot of ancillary equipment: computerized controls, navigation gear, radar and communications equipment, et cetera. Won't you?" I continued, "I've got one or two ideas that might prove helpful. How can we see where we are going at faster-than-light speed?"

"I'm not altogether sure! I think we'll find that out on a short local trip."

"Why don't you leave it with me and I'll look into things."

He agreed, thanked me for my input, and got up and left. I continued to sit while I thought through the problem of getting a suitable aircraft body and, hopefully, find a backer. I suddenly realized that I was thinking back to front. Find a financial backer and the airframe would look after itself!

I picked up my phone and rang an entrepreneur friend of mine, Steve Edmunds.

"Steve? It's Bill Axon. I think that you could help me with a problem. Do you think we could meet this evening to discuss it? No. Not over the phone. There are too many wagging ears about. The bar at the Magnuson Hotel, at eight? That's fine by me. See you then."

I decided to eat in the College Cafeteria to save time. By eight o'clock, I was in the bar waiting for Steve to turn up. When he arrived, I got both of us drinks and we found a quiet corner for our chat.

"Right, now tell me: how much money do you need and what's so almighty mysterious about it?"

"Have you watched the 'Star Trek' series?"

"Yes," he chuckled, "Don't tell me you've met Zefram Cochrane?"

"Why, who is that?"

"Only the guy who invented the warp drives in the film,'Star Trek, the First Contact'."

"Well, sort of. There's someone at work who thinks he's got a start on a combined 'Impulse' and 'Warp' drive."

"Are you serious? Exciting! How can I help you?"

"Yes, and I'm hoping that you might help us to find a backer and suggest how we could get a suitable vehicle."

"What sort of vehicle?"

"We were thinking about an old airplane body. It doesn't need wings, but it would have to be airtight and it would be neat if it still had its undercarriage."

"And how much money is wanted to develop these drives?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I'll have to ask James about that"

That was how we left it after agreeing to meet at the bar the following Monday, at the same time. That meeting would include James.

In the meantime, I spent odd moments trying to dream up solutions to related problems, like navigation and communications, and thinking how we might solve them. I was developing quite a long list of the problems that would have to be solved. I suddenly thought; how are we going to power James' drives. It is one thing to use mains electricity in the lab, but how could we do it in a closed environment, in outer space?

I saw James the following Monday, and he enthusiastically received my news about the coming meeting; it almost seemed as if he was trying to rush me through the afternoon.

We were sitting in the same corner when Steve turned up. I made the introductions and we ordered our drinks. After they arrived, I asked Steve if he had made any progress. He looked at James and asked.

"Would an executive turboprop aircraft body do what you want it for?"

"I should think so. Why, what have you found?"

"There's someone I know. I arranged someone to back him when he started up an aircraft recycling business. He has a dismantled Piaggio, P180 Avanti, nine-passenger aircraft. The body is still more or less intact.

"That would be fine if we can use the center of the cabin for the drive," replied James.

"How are we going to power the drive?" I asked James, "and how much extra room is the power source going to occupy?"

"I had a stroke of luck there. You've heard of those miniature nuclear power sources that the military are considering. I think I can get the loan of one for 'extensive testing'."

He waved his fingers as quote signs on the last two words.

"What about the radiation shielding? Won't that put the weight way up?" asked Steve.

"No. These are the extra low radiation type. What's more before you ask, I included their bulk in the volume estimate I gave Bill."

"Steve," I said, "have you had any joy in finding backers for us?"

"No. After we broke up, I thought 'What the hell'? This is the opportunity of a lifetime. If it works, it's going to make Bill Gates look like a pauper. How could I give up the chance to get in on the ground floor of an enterprise like this? I looked at what I had and what I could raise. I reckon I'm good for a million without breaking out in a sweat. If we need more, I'm sure we can get more. Anyhow, can someone explain to me... in simple terms... how your drives are going to work?"

"Well, I'm not sure," James said. "Have you heard of Miguel Alcubierre?"

"No. Who's he?"

"A Mexican theoretical physicist who suggested a form of faster-than-light drive. Let me think. Now, have you heard about the LIGO in Louisiana? That's the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. It should have detected gravitational waves."

"But in 2016, didn't they..."

"Yes but that was the effect of two black holes absorbing one another. Now everyone knows that the laws of physics break down at a black hole so that we shouldn't be too surprised at what happens when two of them get together. Perhaps a better analogy would be the Michelson–Morley experiment. You remember that?"

"Remind me."

"At the start of the last century, two physicists, Michelson and Morley, set out to measure the speed of the solar system through the luminiferous aether, that's outer space to you, by measuring the speed of light in two directions at right angles. Their first experiment gave them a zero speed of the Earth through space, but then they should have discovered a measurable speed six months later. Their experiment failed, as have all similar subsequent experiments. The speed of light was invariant. Because of that, Einstein produced his theories of relativity based on the speed of light being constant. Similarly, we should have detected gravitational waves at the LIGO. We haven't except for that freak occurrence. This leads me to believe, therefore, that we can control gravity. I think that my apparatus is making use of dark energy to do just that."

"I don't see," I said, "How does that translate into a drive?"

"It uses the concept originally proposed by Alcubierre in 1994. What the drive does, in essence, is to tilt space-time. That's all that gravity is; a tilt in space-time. I've found a configuration of powerful lasers that appears to carry out that distortion. That done, you just slide downhill. Put the tilt into overdrive and you're traveling much faster than the speed of light. It's all done with lasers, though, not mirrors."

"And how do you get a warp drive?"

"The Alcubierre drive produces a tilt in space-time. Think about that. Gravity is a tilt in space. What is a tilt in time? Time travel. That's what. Remember Miss Bright."

Steve and I were not sure to what James was alluding. He told us.

"There was a young lady named Bright,

Who traveled much faster than light.

She set off one day,

In a relative way.

And got back on the previous night."

"But surely, that's a paradox?" I said.

"It is, but suppose you could travel back in time at something slightly less than the rate of one year for each light year of movement. That, if you think about it, is warp speed travel. A tilt in the 'space' of space-time is gravity and the tilt in the 'time' of space-time is a force for time travel."

"Wow! Well, what do you need from me besides the airplane and funds?"

"We need a hangar or some other large lock-up where we can work in peace. Of course, it will have to be approved by the military as we are using a piece of their equipment. They might even be prepared to supply security for the building."

That more or less concluded our deliberations for the evening. We stood up, shook hands and departed.

# 2

## _The Airframe Arrives_

Steve reported to me that he had found a warehouse on North Vine Street, about a mile from the University, for a nominal rent. It appeared that in view of the currently depressed economic climate, the owners were delighted that we would be occupying and maintaining the building. There were several loading bays and a number of separate offices. It also had the advantage of being close to the railroad tracks.

Steve had approached the military contact that James had given him. Because we would be 'testing' their new nuclear power supply, they were very happy to provide security staff, and even any additional staff we might need.

Steve had purchased a suitable Piaggio P180 Avanti airframe at the give-away price of $17,500. The body had had been stripped of all the wings, the canards, and the tail assembly but was complete with undercarriage. The cockpit seats together with six of the passengers seats also remained in the airframe. It would be arriving on Thursday the following week. Steve told us the airframe would fit into one of the loading bays. It could make access easier.

On the purely business front, Steve told us that he had formed us into a Corporation, 'JBS Research'.

At what was now to become a regular weekly meeting at the Magnuson, Steve asked James, "How are you going to test the effectiveness of your drive?"

"I'm not really sure. Up till now, I have been using a pair of balance scales from the sports department. I use them to measure the lift when I turn on the drive. It's not an ideal arrangement as they need them back from time to time. They can't measure the lift if it exceeds the weight of the drive. I have turned up the drive too high, once or twice, and it tried to take off on its own."

"I think you'll like what we've got then at the new place. There's a large set of electronic scales built into the floor inside one of the loading bays. It had been used for weighing lorries before they left the building. It is a new model in which you can set the zero to whatever you want. Say you set the zero to 100,000 lb. Tie your machine to the platform and you can measure its lifting potential."

"That's great. The experiment, as far as the College is concerned, is a failure. I even used some of my own money to build it. Last week, I asked if I could purchase the equipment that the College contributed, as I wanted to continue working on the experiment at home. They graciously donated the parts so I could continue. They only required that I thank them in any paper I might write about it."

"Have you thought about controlling the craft?" I asked. "Does your drive work in only one direction?"

"Yes, Bill, but the drive is mostly empty space. We can build it with three pairs of drives all at right angles to each other in the same space occupied by one drive. Each pair of drives allows you to drive in both directions along one axis. Say, for example, you have one drive to move you to the left, and you have another to move you to the right. You only need one drive of each pair to move in any direction. Three controls could be made to operate only one drive in each pair."

"How about turning the craft?" asked Steve.

"That's a simple problem," I said. "We use gyroscopes! Suppose you are standing on a platform that can rotate and you put a flywheel at the center. Turn the flywheel one way and you and the platform turns the other way. Three gyroscopes can be used to keep you pointing in any desired direction."

"You make it sound almost too easy."

"It is, or almost so," replied James. "The big trick is in how you warp space-time. The rest is just a series of minor problems."

The following week saw all of James' gear moved to our new workshop. The Marines had supplied us with a young first lieutenant, Charles Groves, a lab assistant, Staff Sergeant Susan Chalmers, Corporal Benson - an electronics technician, and four mechanics who doubled up as armed guards.

On the Thursday, the airframe had arrived and had been installed into one of the spare bays. The wings together with the canards, tail, and elevators had been removed but not the delta fins. That made me wonder how airtight the body would be. Inside the flight deck had been mostly stripped although Steve told us the strippers had left the undercarriage operating system intact. It was now open to the main cabin.

I took over the job of preparing the body while James, with Susan's help, would concentrate on developing the drive. As far as James and I were concerned, we were still working at the College; but we spent every hour we could spare at the workshop. Susan suggested that we could use some of the offices as temporary living quarters. This gave our staff somewhere to stay and saved us traveling time.

One afternoon, when James and I arrived at the workshop, we were greeted by an enthusiastic Susan.

"Come and look at this."

She dragged us into what had been the loading dock and now housed the prototype drive fixed down to the scales there. Susan went to the drive and switched it on. The scales registered a lift of 34,500 lb.

"You see that? I've been making small adjustments to see how much more lift we can get. To do so, I needed to have an Allen wrench handy."

She retrieved it from her pocket. It was fixed at one end of a fine chain. The other end of the chain was attached to a large crocodile clip

"I used the chain and clip as I was making adjustments in different parts of the drive. Now watch this."

She leaned forward and clipped the Allen wrench onto the drive framework. To our surprise, the wrench sprang up in the air. The motion jerked the clip off the framework, and the Allen wrench fell to the floor.

"Now watch this." She picked up another crocodile clip from the floor. It had about twenty feet of fine chain attached to it. When she clipped it to the framework, the whole chain rose into the air.

"You see what this means, don't you?"

I was puzzled, but James was grinning. "You tell us what it means."

"I thought, that we would have to fix the drive solidly to the inside of the airframe," she replied, "to transmit the force from the drive to the body. This shows that it only needs an electrical connection. The fixing of the drive does not carry the complete lifting force. The whole ship responds to the lifting effect. Look!"

She started to remove ropes tying the framework to the scales. I looked at the scales' display and noticed that it had not changed. I looked carefully at the frame on the platform. It was then that I saw the earthing strap. The drive remained firmly planted on the scales.

I asked, "Is the drive going to be powerful enough?"

"It should be. I have had it running at a much higher level than this. We would probably want to use beefier lasers than we have here. I think we're ready to build the real thing. Now I have a question. How are we going to navigate?"

"That question is mine to answer," I said. "There are two problems to solve with navigation. You need to know what you are looking at, and you need to know where it is. Breaking it down we need to be able to measure angles extremely accurately and to be able to identify positively the object we are looking at. The rest is just looking up prepared data and doing the calculations. So far, I've collected the data and sorted out the software."

"How do you identify stars?"

"We identify stars by the relatively simple task of looking at them. Astronomers should know their sky. A more positive identification can be made by measuring the intensity of the components of the star's spectrum."

"And how many stars do you have to do that for?"

"Not as many as you might think. Terrestrial navigators use three or four known points at a time. We would probably use five or six."

"Thank you," replied Susan. "That has been a question on my mind. What else have you been up to?

"We share many problems with submariners. Therefore, I've been consulting some friends of mine who are in the service. Little things like the provision of air, water and waste disposal. I'm proposing to carry out a number of ground level tests, as soon as we can get the ship's interior fitted out."

At that moment, my cell phone rang. It was Steve to tell me that he was bringing in a visitor. I went to the front door to meet them. When they arrived, Steve introduced Adam Saunders, a patent attorney.

"I think it's time that James patented his machine while he can. Is he around?"

"Yes. They're all in the laboratory area."

I escorted them through to meet with James. He and Susan then gave Adam the demonstration. I could see that Adam was becoming more and more enthusiastic over the drive. I left them to get on with it, and returned to the P180 airframe, our spacecraft.

Half an hour later, Corporal Benson climbed into the airframe to where I was considering the controls that we would require in the cockpit.

"Mister Axon, the others have asked that you come to the conference room." I followed him and made my way to the room we had designated as that.

"Hi," I said to the others in the room. "What can I do for you?"

"We thought you ought to be in on this," replied James. "Adam has recommended that we patent the whole spacecraft, as well as the drive."

"Are we going to have any problems with the Patent Office?" I asked.

"They are a bit fussy if they think that someone is trying to put one over on them. They are apt to turn down perpetual motion machines and that sort of thing. They tend to class Warp drives in that same 'sort of thing' category."

"What can we do to persuade them of the effectiveness of the drive?" asked Steve.

"Publish pictures. Obviously, we do not show pictures of the drive itself, but take pictures of the ship taking off and landing. I understand that it can hover. That should provide some nice shots. You should also take plenty of pictures on your trial trips. Why not set up a website."

"That could be my job," I said. "I'll make a start on it today. Perhaps we should call it the 'Real Star Trek' website."

# 

# 3

## _Testing_

My first task after planning the website was to obtain the means that would enable us to identify a star uniquely. Thinking about the problem, I decided that we needed four telescopes to cover the sky without complicating the individual mountings.

I settled on seven-inch remotely controlled Cassegrain electronic telescopes, each with seven ICCDs (Intensified Charge Coupled Device) filtered to measure wavelengths from the infrared to the ultraviolet. Star data for these instruments is readily available. I loaded the data into my computers and kept a backup copy on DVD.

We mounted the telescopes in optically transparent polycarbonate blisters in both the nose and the bottom of the airframe as well as the two upper quarters. This tetrahedral arrangement gave us all round vision.

A fractal antenna and a retractable dish antenna provided us with communication facilities on and near the Earth.

The installation of the control system was progressing apace. We would not calibrate the gyroscope system until we could rotate the craft freely in space.

I had just finished marking one of my programming classes' exercises when a thought struck me. How are we going to hover? I rang the workshop and got a reply.

"JBS Research, how may I help you?" came the voice I recognized as Corporal Benson.

"Hullo Corporal, it's Bill Axon. Is Miss Chalmers available?"

"She's in her office. I'll put you through, Sir."

There was a pause and then, "Chalmers!"

"Hullo Susan, it's Bill. I've been wondering. How do we hover? Or rather, how does the craft maintain a fixed distance from another object? Or to be even more general, what controls the drive?"

"Well, Bill, to answer your last question first, the drives are controlled by a voltage of zero to ten volts. There are six separate drives in linked pairs. To engage the drive in the reverse direction, we reverse the controlling voltage. We change from a positive voltage to negative. I imagine you will solve the other questions by using some sort of radar. Does that help you?"

"I think so, but I've had another thought. Isn't having just a down pointing drive unstable, rather like balancing on a pogo stick?"

"Yes, but that's easily solved. We build the drive assembly at forty-five degrees to the three main axes. That way, we hover on three drives and use three drives for forward motion."

It took me a moment to visualize how that would work. Then another thought occurred to me.

"Does that mean that in normal travel, the three rear pointing drives are fighting each other?"

"Not really. It's the combined field that counts. It's about twice as strong as the field from a single drive. Does that give you what you want to know?"

"I'll let you know when I've had a chance to think my way through it. Thanks! Bye, now," I said and rang off.

Hmm! Radar! A couple of hours later, I thought I had the answer sorted out. There were Radar catalogs spread across my desk and I had just got off the phone after ordering seven sets. That was two on each axis and a spare. They had sent me a manual as a 'pdf' file, so I could start work on the software to match the input information from the radar, etcetera and the control system to the input control voltage for the drives.

For example, you could set the height, at which to hover, on the control system and then the radar controls the drives.

I had installed three computers in the cockpit; two are used to control the craft. The third remained a working spare, which could be switched in to replace either of the other two. Any one of them could carry the whole load of control, both of the craft's motion and the environment within the craft.

Eventually, four months later, we had completed the installation work. It was the summer break, and we were ready to start testing. The guys had started to couple up a truck to tow the craft out to the car park, when I suggested we fly it outside. They looked a bit sheepish.

James, looking a little apprehensive, said, "Are you sure you want to try that?"

"Of course I do," I replied.

What I did not tell them was that I had already tried it on my own; I had calibrated the zero on the down-looking radar. I could lower the craft to any height above 'zero' and still have room to lower the aircraft's undercarriage.

Two of the men opened the large doors to the workshop. Susan, James and Corporal Benson, our designated radio operator, boarded the craft. I turned to James and asked.

"What are we going to call her?"

"We're going to call her the 'Enterprise', of course."

"Benson, the U.S.S. Enterprise seeks permission to depart. Make it so!"

"Aye-aye, Captain," he said grinning.

I lifted the Enterprise a couple of inches and raised the undercarriage. Engaging the forward drive at the lowest level, I inched the craft through doors. As soon as we were clear of the building, I stopped and turned us parallel to the building using the gyroscopes.

I raised us up to a level of ten feet and returned to our starting height. I lowered the undercarriage and told Benson to ask someone to check our ground clearance. A moment later, the reply came back: at two and a half inches. So far, so good.

The next exercise was a rise to seven thousand feet. That was successful so we rose by one thousand foot increments to fifteen thousand feet, checking that our internal air pressure was maintained. We then descended rapidly to two hundred feet and slowly after that. I maneuvered the Enterprise to back it into its bay. Once we were in the workshop, we powered down the craft. Finally, we exited the Enterprise and decided to celebrate.

To avoid leaving any one person behind, we chose to eat in. Because we were going to continue testing the following morning, our drinks were all non-alcoholic.

The next day we lifted to five hundred kilometers and I used the gyroscopes until we were aimed just behind Mars. I asked Benson to put our base on the speaker.

I called up Steve and said "Steve I want you to time the gap in my transmission."

I kept talking as I set up our speed and distance on the drive. I engaged the drive and found that we had ended up close to Mars. By close, I mean a few hundred kilometers. It sure looked huge. I closed my transmission by asking Steve for the duration of the gap in our transmission. This would be the time of our flight as observed on Earth. From that we could calculate our speed.

It was James who broke our silence, "That was some trip. I wasn't quite sure what the effect on our sense of time would be. The Lorentz equations suggest that the time dilation would be imaginary on a moving observer."

At last we heard the reply to our question. It turned out that the time gap was thirty-two seconds. For the distance that we had traveled, that translated into about ten times the speed of light. Wow! The return trip at about half the speed of light seemed to be an anticlimax.

However, the celebrations after we landed were exuberant. This time the whole group went out to dinner at the nearby restaurant. Part of the chat at dinner was about what we had already achieved and part was about what our next adventure should be. Our companions quizzed Susan on what the drive might be capable of giving us. She amazed us by predicting that we might get anything up to five hundred times the speed of light.

This led me to suggest that we might choose Epsilon Eridani as our next target.

"It's not too dissimilar from our own Sun and is fairly close. It is less than eleven light years away. Moreover, it is known to have some large planets."

"What about Alpha Centauri? I thought that it was a lot closer," asked Susan.

"Yes, it's about four light years distant against Epsilon Eridani's ten point five two light years. It even has an earth-sized planet; however, it is a double star with a third quite close. I don't know how that would affect its planets. The earth-sized planet is far too close to its primary."

"How do you expect to detect planets?" asked Steve.

"We stop some fifty to two hundred astronomical units away from the star's ecliptic and slide sideways across the star system. Any possible planets will then move against the background sky. The computer can pick them out."

"Doesn't the light from the star tend to block out the light from all the other bodies?" asked James.

"No. The vector vortex coronagraph looks after all that. What I do need to do, however, is to install a spectrometer in the telescope in the nose cone."

"What's that for?" asked Susan.

"There's a wealth of information to be obtained from celestial bodies if you're near enough to see them. For example, it can tell you what any atmosphere is made of."

"How does it do that?"

"The atoms that make up the atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light reflected from the planet. Those wavelengths are unique to each element, so you can determine the makeup of an atmosphere."

"Are there any other measurements that we can make?

"Well, I've fitted pyrometers so we can get an idea of the surface temperatures involved. These are measurements we need to make if humans are going to land on an exoplanet."

"A what?"

"An exoplanet. It's what we call a planet in a system of a star other than our sun."

"Roll on Epsilon Eridani, then." Quipped James.

# 

#  4

## _Epsilon Eridani_

Our next test was going to be a trip to Epsilon Eridani. We expected the trip to take about seven days. Allowing three weeks to examine the star system, we decided to provision the Enterprise with fresh food for two months. In the event of a problem arising, there were emergency rations for a further month. If we did not use them, they would keep for months if not years.

Two other supplies that needed recycling are air and water. My sailing friends who were submariners were not much use as they desalinate sea water. They also made cockamamie suggestions like photon torpedoes and a periscope. However, they also suggested that I should install specimen handling equipment. That was their one suggestion that I nearly did adopt.

I struck it lucky when I consulted a fellow amateur astronomer who worked for NASA. He described a process which was being developed and I managed to borrow a prototype recycler from the manufacturers for 'testing'. It used power and water to produce oxygen and hydrogen by hydrolysis. The hydrogen and exhaled carbon dioxide is converted, using the Sabatier reaction, into methane and water. Additional hydrogen is needed for this process, which is obtained by pyrolyzing the methane just leaving pyrolytic graphite as a waste product.

Recycling domestic water on the Space Station is a well-tried process. In addition, we had two hundred gallon LOX and water tanks in the aft section. It required a lot of insulation, but insulation itself is light in weight... bulky, but light.

We had heard from Adam Saunders that the patent application was making good progress. There could not have been too many patents on space drives, particularly those that are faster than light.

At last, the day of our departure arrived. Our crew had been augmented by two of our Marine mechanics and Lieutenant Groves.

We took off and hopped between planets on our way out of the solar system. This enabled us to check the performance of our navigational controls at low warp speeds. By lunch time, we were ready to set out for Epsilon Eridani. I had planned on making the trip in two hops to check our high warp speed performance. I set the drive at five hundred Cee (the speed of light) for eighty-four hours, to take us to the halfway mark.

Contrary to some beliefs the light did not vanish as we traveled faster than light. The Doppler shift ensured that we should always see something. The wavelengths of the light from our destination shortened into the ultraviolet. What we were seeing as visible light was the infrared and radio waves.

As we approached the halfway mark, we were strapped into our seats waiting to drop out of overdrive. Suddenly we experienced a jerk and a feeling of moving off at a tangent. A moment later we had dropped to a subluminal speed. I switched to our rear view telescopes attempting to see what had caused our hiccup. At first I couldn't see anything. Then on the radar screen I saw a feral asteroid or planetoid. James was over the moon that his drive had not allowed us to occupy the same space as another body and had performed exactly as he had expected.

I spent about half an hour fixing our position. Susan and Charles also made the same measurements and essentially we agreed in our observations and our calculations. Our position was where we expected to be within the limits that we had set ourselves.

The second half of our trip was almost boring by comparison. I had aimed to drop out of warp about two light weeks away from the star or at about twenty-five hundred Astronomical units. At that distance, the comet belt of the star should subtend an observable angle in the sky. We needed to be above this ecliptic by about fifty astronomical units to detect the star's planets.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we could make out the comet belt as a faint elliptical glow.

"How do we know which side of that belt we are?" asked Susan.

"We don't," I replied. "What we do is to make a substantial movement to what we think is the same side that we're on. If the belt widens, we're right and if it appears narrower, we're wrong."

So saying, I made the move and the belt did indeed appear wider. We progressed until the belt appeared almost circular. By now we could make out the two asteroid belts of the system. We settled on a distance of seventy-five Astronomical units from the star.

Reorienting the Enterprise to point at the star, I set the computers to the planet finding mode and moved sideways across the system. It worked! The computer had picked out eleven bodies; four planets inside the inner asteroid belt, three planets between the two asteroid belts and four more between the outer asteroid belt and the comet belt.

Hopefully, one or more of the inner four planets would lie in the Goldilocks zone, where water could exist, at least some of the time, as a liquid. We decided to have a quick look at the system from the outside in.

As we expected, the first six planets were gas giants. The next, just outside the inner asteroid belt was a large rocky planet, its radius about three times that of earth. The next was slightly smaller and the last three were more earth sized. We saw what we took to be oceans on two of them and clouds on the innermost planet.

Now we were ready to have a more detailed look at the planets working outwards again. Number one has a size of about two-thirds of that of earth. It is rotating slowly so that it does not have many days in its year. Our pyrometer gave its average surface temperature as eighty-two degrees Celsius (one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit). That's not comfortable. Our spectrometer suggested that it had a thinnish atmosphere mainly of carbon dioxide. It had two small moons about a third of the size of our Moon and a larger one somewhat less than the size of the Moon.

Planet number two had an average surface temperature of forty-four degrees Celsius A bit warm, but tolerable, I thought. The atmosphere showed nitrogen, oxygen water vapor, and carbon dioxide. Its size was about ninety per cent earth size. There were two good sized moons about two-thirds of the size of our Moon. A few quick orbits suggested that about sixty percent of its surface was land and forty percent water. Most of the land surface was devoid of life, but then we were surprised to see patches of green. We dropped down to about a hundred feet for a closer look. The green patch proved to comprise fern-like plants.

We decided to make a slower scan of this planet and stop for detailed examination if anyone saw anything of interest. Most of the planet's land surface was bare rock. Quite a lot was solidified lava. When we came to a patch of the fern-like plants, we slowed to a crawl. Everybody was peering at one or other of the view screens we had which were displaying the outputs of the down pointing telescope. One of our mechanics called out.

"Can you back up a bit? I think I saw something on that orange rock we just passed."

I did so and switched the camera on the the telescope to record. As I zoomed the eyepiece lens, we saw what looked like a dragonfly. Suddenly a pink tongue flicked and the insect disappeared. An orange lizard moved across the rock and as it moved its green tail turned bright orange; the same color as the rock. We christened it a chameleon.

On to planet three. Average surface temperature measured eighteen degrees Celsius. A similar atmosphere to planet two. Perhaps thicker if the clouds were anything to go by and a much lower content of carbon dioxide. Planet three had two moons somewhat larger than those of planet two. This time, the ground cover was much more widespread and of a greater variety. We also observed a variety of tetrapods as well as a number of lower forms of animal life. We spent a couple of days cataloging planet three.

When we reached planet four we felt a degree of disappointment. The average surface temperature was at minus five Celsius, and there was little liquid water. The Ice caps were more extensive and the atmosphere was almost all nitrogen.

So far, we had spent about a day each on three of the first four planets. We covered the remaining seven in a much more cursory manner. They were nowhere near exciting as the first four. What I haven't mentioned are the pictures. We took hundreds, if not thousands. There were also quite a few hours of video. I spent some time on the return trip assembling all this data on DVD. James was going to be busy when we got home, presenting the information to our peers.
5

## _What! No Patent?_

It was after two in the morning when we landed back at our Vine Street base. We had been keeping local time, so we just fell into bed in our rooms at the warehouse. The next morning we all slept in a little late. While we had been away, Steve and the other three marines had installed domestic bathrooms in the warehouse. That was a great improvement on the factory washrooms that were all we had before,

After breakfast, I downloaded the still and moving pictures from the DVD I had made from all of them. I thought that I would put a representative selection from them on the website. Looking through them persuaded me to post most of them. The site was growing fast.

At last I had caught up with myself and decided to take a break. I went through the works to see what the others were up to and to get them to look at our website to enable me to solicit their opinions.

Mid-morning there was a phone call from Adam Saunders, our patent agent.

"Bill, I've run into a slight problem. The Patent Office refuses to complete our application. I've got hold of their senior man and persuaded him to, at least, have a look at your work. When would it be convenient to bring him out there?"

"As soon as possible, I should think. We were thinking of taking a break and getting away for a few days. So, as soon as you can arrange it."

"Right oh. I'll see when he can manage and ring you back."

"Just a minute! Would it be more convenient if we were to come to you for a meeting?"

"Great! Where and when?"

"Suppose we were to meet with you this afternoon, say at three o'clock. We aren't certified to land at an airport. Umm. I know. How about this. We will meet with you in the parking lot of the Gravelly Point Park just north of the Ronald Reagan-Washington National Airport at three."

"Fine! If I can't drag the man out there, I'll let you know."

I went to tell the others what had happened and to get us all moving.

Corporal Benson said, "I'd better fix up some sort of IFF device. We don't want to be shot down over the Pentagon."

We polished up the Enterprise until it shone. We then did the same for ourselves. Over lunch, we discussed how we would demonstrate the combined drive system to the Patent man. One conclusion that we came to was that we should arrive at the rendezvous early to increase the impact on the man when we took off. As this was going to be a 'fun' trip, we decided to take everyone along for the ride.

Corporal Benson returned after lunch with a broad grin plastered across his face. He would not explain why. He was still grinning and fitting his device when we took off. To try to avoid confrontation with the air traffic control authorities, we went to two hundred thousand feet for our trip cross-country. We would descend in a slow fashion over our destination in an attempt to not trigger any defensive reactions. Benson had his radio on speaker as we descended.

We were challenged, "Enterprise. Are you landing at Washington International? Over."

"No," replied Benson, "We are proposing to land in Gravelly Point Park, just north of you. Over."

"Thank you, Enterprise. Out."

A pretty cool air traffic controller, I thought, but then, they have to be. We landed on the grass just to the side of the car park. "Benson," I said, "How did he know to call us by name?"

"I got one of my mates, back at base, to fix up the IFF unit I installed. It sends them our name as well, Skipper."

I descended to the ground and fifteen minutes later, Adam Saunders drove up with a sour-faced passenger. He emerged from Adam's car, looked at the Enterprise and finally spoke to me.

"What's this wreck doing here? You must know I haven't got time to waste on your junk. Your allusion to the Alcubierre Drive in your application is ridiculous. Now where is this so-called drive?"

"Please enter the 'wreck', and we'll show you."

He gave me a look which should have shriveled me to a crisp, if I hadn't been trying so hard not to laugh at him. He was greeted at the door by Susan dong her 'air hostess' impression. I turned to Adam and gestured to him to follow sour face while I brought up the rear. After the door was shut, I escorted the official to the cockpit and installed him in the jump seat behind the gap between the two pilot seats.

He looked out of the side window and asked, "Where are the engines?"

"In a mid-cabin compartment." I replied.

I heard Benson mutter.

"Enterprise to Washington National. Are we clear for a vertical takeoff? Over."

He grinned and gave me a thumbs-up signal.

The take off was as smooth as I could make it. I don't think our passenger noticed. He had turned to Adam and was complaining that he was wasting time. When he turned back we had risen out of the atmosphere and the sky was a velvet black. There was a quiet gasp as he slumped into a faint. To give him his money's worth, we aimed at Saturn. He slowly regained his consciousness with Saturn and its rings filling the cockpit window.

I turned to see that Susan had been filming our guest.

"Right from when he got out of the car Skipper," She said.

I looked at Adam and said, "I don't suppose they believed Alexander Graham Bell either."

He smiled, "I heard there was talk of bribery, in that case."

"I resent that," sour face said faintly.

I gestured at the view. "There's your proof that the drive works."

He slipped into a faint again. We reversed direction and headed for Earth. Again we descended slowly on Washington so we would not be mistaken for a ballistic missile.

"Enterprise, Enterprise, this is Washington International. Over."

Benson replied, "Washington International, this is Enterprise. Over"

"We have a change for you. Can you please land just south of where you landed, earlier? There's a grassy area just south of the Roaches Creek between the airport and Gravelly Point Park. You'll see a single story building, east of the boat ramp. Can you land about fifty feet from the front of that building in five minutes. There'll be a reception committee to meet you. A friendly committee, I might add. Over."

Benson looked at me for my reaction. I nodded and he addressed the air traffic control again. "Washington International, this is USS Enterprise Wilco, out."

We hovered over the area that the controller had indicated. We could see quite a crowd gathered immediately in front of the building and off to one side, there looked to be a military band. As we slowly descended, a motorcade approached from the direction of the airport buildings. Men in suits erupted from the cars as they pulled up in front of the crowd. They formed up in a well-spaced line facing the crowd.

A slim single figure emerged from a rear car door being held open by the chauffeur. The figure walked over to a lectern facing the open space in front of the crowd. A set of aircraft stairs was standing near the lectern. They wouldn't be needed. As our wheels touched the ground, an Air Force officer approached our passenger door.

Susan opened the door. James and I emerged from the 'Enterprise'. We gave a wave to the crowd gathered as the band struck up with 'the Star Spangled Banner'. It all seemed as though we had rehearsed this arrival for weeks.
6

## _The Presidential Blessing_

An officer was waiting for us by the door. As we reached him, he said, "The President would like to meet you and all of your crew."

I turned to Susan and called to her, "bring everybody with you and come with us."

I addressed the officer, "Lay on MacDuff."

I don't think he recognized the quote from 'MacBeth'. He looked slightly taken aback and said, "My name is not MacDuff, Sir. It is MacBain."

"Then lead on MacBain."

"Yes, Sir, please come this way."

By this time, the others had joined us on the ground. As we approached the President's lectern, he stepped down and approached us with hand held out.

"Professor Burton, Doctor Axon, welcome to Washington. I was so excited to follow your exploits on the internet, from the time I was informed about it. Perhaps, you would be so kind to introduce your colleagues to me."

James worked his way through the introductions, including Adam, our Patent Attorney and the man from the Patent Office. James explained that our presence in Washington was due to the need to demonstrate the Enterprise in order to get a patent on the drive.

"And how did you enjoy the demonstration?" the President asked the man from the Patent Office.

"I must confess, Mister President, that I did not believe the application at first. The demonstration came as a shock to my system. It was quite scary."

"But it must have been a great experience. One that I wish I could have."

"Then why not let us take you, Mister President? We could take you on a brief tour and still have you home by teatime." James said.

"I'm afraid they wouldn't let me."

The President turned and looked at his bodyguard who shrugged to indicate that it was up to the President to decide.

The President looked back at James and said, "Yes, damn it, let's do it."

"Please come this way," said Susan.

She led the President to the stairs up to the Enterprise. James beckoned to the Secret Service bodyguard and we all followed the others, including the man from the Patent Office. I think he wanted to be conscious for this trip. Once aboard, we seated the President in the jump seat just behind and between the pilot and co-pilot's seats.

"Washington International. This is Space Ship One. Over"

The change in designation, by Benson, startled me. Then it dawned on me. If you have Air Force One or Marine One, there should be a Space Ship One. Good for Benson.

"Space Ship One. This is Washington International. You are cleared for takeoff. Out and have a safe voyage."

I deliberately took off more slowly than usual to give our guests an aerial view of Washington. Shortly we reached an altitude where the sky darkened. The President made a request.

"Do you think we could do a flyby of the International Space Station?"

"Surely," I replied. "Who would know where it is?"

"They would, Sir," said Benson. "I'll try and raise them. Alpha, Alpha, this is Space Ship One calling. Over."

"Space Ship One, this is Alpha. Over."

"Alpha, Space Ship One. Whereabouts are you, or rather where will you be in about ten minutes. Over."

There was a short pause, then, "Space Ship One, Alpha. We'll be about 675,000 feet above a point about twenty miles south of Hawaii. Over."

"Alpha, Space Ship One. See you there. Out."

I aimed the Enterprise seven and a half degrees north of west and our distance to 4,750 miles. I applied the drive and we were looking down at the earth with Hawaii in the distance.

I heard a soft, "Wow" from the seat behind me. I scanned the radar screen and after a few moments, spotted the Space Station coming up fast. I soon matched their speed and was moving alongside them. We could see two faces looking at us from the cupola.

"Is it possible for me to speak to them?" asked the President.

"I'll try to raise them," replied Benson.

A few moments later, he handed the President his microphone.

"This is your President speaking. I want you to know that we all think that you are doing a great job up here."

"Over," said Benson.

"Sorry, old dear. You're not our President. I'm an Aussie and Tobias, here, is British. Over."

Everyone was trying to suppress smiles, even the President, I thought.

"My fault for assuming. We still think you are doing a grand job."

He handed the microphone back to Benson who said, "Out."

"Is there something else we could show you, Mister President?" I asked.

There are two things I have always wished that I could see with my own eyes."

"And what are those, Sir?"

"One is that face on Mars."

"Ah! In Cydonia," I said, "and the other?"

"The volcanoes on that moon of... is it Jupiter?"

"Yes. It's Io, the fifth moon of Jupiter and the first of the big moons. Right oh, then. First stop Mars."

I set the course for Mars and the velocity for a low ultra-light speed. In less than a minute, we were searching the surface of Mars for the Cydonia region. We were lucky. The position of Mars was such that the 'face' really showed up well.

"Thank you," said the President at last, "It's not quite as impressive as I thought it would be. Let's go to Io."

This time, the trip took about two minutes. We reached Io quite quickly and the display was something to behold. Three multi-colored eruptions greeted us. We just sat there in wonder at the sight before us. After a while, it seemed that we all drew a breath at the same time.

"Thank you," said the President, "and now I must really ask you to take me home. Can you land the Enterprise at the White House?"

"I will if we get permission to land there. " I replied, "I'll ask when we get back to earth."

"Can't you do that now?"

"No, Sir. We'll be there long before our message."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that."

"It's one of the drawbacks of deep space exploration," said James.

"Yes, I see," replied the President.

As we floated down above Washington, Benson called the airport, "Washington International, Washington International, this is Space Ship One, over.

"Space Ship One, Washington International, over."

"Washington International. The President has requested that we land at the House. Can you arrange that? Over."

"Space Ship One. Will do. Out." We drifted north for almost three miles and found ourselves over the South Lawn of the White House. The President indicated that we should land on the front lawn instead, so we passed over the top of the White House. As we landed a detachment of marines lined up to greet the President after his first venture into space.

As the President rose from his seat, he said, "You all must come in. I know the first lady would love to meet you and hear about where we have been."

"May I be allowed to follow in about five minutes?" I replied.

"Of course! I'll ask someone to show you the way."

He led our crew and the passengers off the Enterprise.

Meanwhile, I imported the output from Susan's camera into the video I had taken of our trip. It was all raw footage, but I doubted that I would have cut much of it out if I had taken longer to edit it. Topping, tailing and burning to DVD took under fifteen minutes. Clutching the DVD, I followed a White House official to the Residence on the second floor. When I entered, the President was describing his sense of wonder at his trip.

"Come in, Doctor Axon," he said. "We were just telling my wife about the highlights of the excursion you gave me."

"Do you think that she would like to see your excursion for herself?" He looked slightly puzzled. I explained, "I have prepared a small memento of the trip. Here on this DVD. The encounter with the Alpha Space Station will not appear in the public version."

"Thank you," he grinned, "and where do you think you'll be going next?"

"That's yet to be discussed," I replied.
7

## _Breaking new ground_

We were assembled in the conference room, back at base. On leaving the White House, we flew Adam Saunders and the now friendly Official from the Patent Office back to their car at Gravelly Park. Then we returned to base.

The next morning, James opened the meeting by thanking us all for our efforts.

"My object in our recent endeavors has been to verify a theory of ultra light-speed travel. This has been demonstrated conclusively in a most dramatic way. I want to thank all of you most sincerely for your efforts in making my dream a reality. Therefore, I think that it is about time that I return to academia and that Doctor Axon should lead the group into further adventures." There was an outburst of murmured objections to James' news, mine included. He continued, "Well, Bill where do you think the group should go now?"

"Probably in the fairly near future, I think that we should replace the Enterprise with a purpose-built craft. This could mean that we have room for a bigger crew so that our explorations could be more fruitful. It would also leave the Enterprise for experimental development work. James, one theoretical approach that needs to be explored is that of ultra light-speed communications. Radio is just too slow and has too limited a range. Susan, what do you think?"

"I agree Bill. There are just two things that come to mind now. How are we going to pay for it all and secondly, how about getting some smaller craft to be carried by the main one? Like the Shuttle Craft in Star Trek. They would enable a much wider exploration to be carried out. Oh! There's another thing I thought about. Should we consider having a separate accommodation to use as a quarantine area or sick bay if it's needed?"

"Those are both sound ideas. We need more, many more before we design the successor to the Enterprise. How about we invite a group of people to a conference to explore further ideas. In the meantime are there any developments to be considered to improve on the drive."

"There are a couple of things I've discussed with James which might improve drive efficiency."

"Good. Has anyone anything else in mind. Yes, Benson, what is it?"

"I vaguely remember something about a means of communicating faster than light. Can Professor Burton explain?"

"Yes, Benson," James said. "There's a supposition that superluminal communications are possible. I think that four possible theories have been proposed, although I have not gone into any of them. Perhaps I should."

"Good. That should keep James busy. Yes, Steve."

"I thought perhaps I should mention the possibility of going public. Before we're very much older we're going to need more money than I can raise. What do other people think?"

I raised my hand to indicate to the others that I would reply.

"It seems to me that we need more coverage before we go public. I think we shan't want too much in the way of funds until we firm up the design for the next spacecraft. If we wait till then we shall get a much better response."

"That sounds good to me," replied Steve.

I looked at Lieutenant Groves.

"Charles. Is there going to be any problem in keeping you and your crew?"

"No, in fact, I think you may have trouble in getting rid of us. The Pentagon will almost certainly want to start a Space Service. Who better to staff it than the Marines with the experience of deep space?"

That more or less concluded our meeting. James was waving his arms in the air as he explained something to Susan.

Steve approached me and said, "There's something I need to talk about with you and James."

I called to James. Susan went off to experiment on the prototype drive. Charles Groves and all his men save Benson went into the Enterprise to prepare it for another voyage. Benson, I think, had gone off to the Marine base to discuss some developments to our avionics, or should that be space-ionics.

I led James and Steve into my office.

"Now, what is it, Steve?"

"There's something I want to tell you. Adam told me yesterday that the Executive can order the Patent Office to sit on an application, if it's thought that National Security would be compromised by full publication, they could publish the Patent without giving any of the usual constructional details. He thinks that this application might go that way. Do you two think that it would be reasonable or do you think we should publish and be damned while we still can?"

James said, "Steve, have you come across this sort of thing before?"

"Not personally, but I've heard about other instances. It can put a severe crimp in the profitability of any device."

"I wasn't thinking about the money, Steve, although it would be nice. I was thinking more about a trip to Stockholm."

"I think that trip may have to be postponed. What do you think, Bill?"

"The publicity we've garnered on our website might make it hard for their committee to ignore you. Although I gather that they can take up to about twenty years to verify a discovery. Perhaps we should invite their committee on a short trip."

With that thought, we closed our talk. James set out to return to college and Steve to wherever he went when he wasn't with us.

After lunch, I was examining the outside skin of the Enterprise when all of a sudden there was a commotion at the front entrance. About a dozen marines erupted into the space where I was working. They were waving their rifles about as if they were trying to watch all directions from which an enemy might emerge.

"Down on the ground! Put your hands on your head!" screamed the Marine heading in my direction.

"Just a minute. What do you mean by breaking in here and shouting like a banshee?" I was careful to keep both my hands open and in plain sight.

"Get down on the ground at once." He raised his rifle. An officer was following behind him.

"You Sir! What is the meaning of this intrusion?" I addressed the Officer while I ignored his minion.

"Be kind enough to do as you are asked."

At least he was polite!

"No, I won't. Not until you've explained what this is all about."

"Are you Professor Burton?"

"No. I'm Doctor Axon. Now, what are you doing here, Major?"

"I was told to secure this location."

He looked shocked as I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny about that?"

"You were told, or you should have been told to make this location secure, not to secure it. There is a difference you know. Yesterday, I asked the President if we could have more help here to keep the place secure."

By this time, Charles, Susan, and the others had come up from where they had been working on the drive. They were accompanied by the interlopers looking a trifle sheepish for having tried to capture their own kind.

"You asked the President...?"

"Yes. Didn't they tell you what we do here?"

"No. This operation was set up in a kind of a hurry."

"You'd better come with me. I've got something to show you."

I led him to my office and sat him down at my computer. I selected the video of the previous day's trip and fast forwarded through it to the landing at Washington International. The Major had the grace to blush slightly at the scene where we met the President. His demeanor turned to astonishment as the picture showed the Enterprise taking off.

"Is this in that wingless plane I saw in your loading bay?"

"Yes," I told him. He gazed at the screen in fascination as the sky turned black. His mouth dropped open as he watched our flight to the South of Hawaii. His reaction at seeing the International Space Station was an expression of wonder, like a small boy's expression at seeing his first bicycle. A slight grin passed over his face as he watched our encounter. I must edit out the President's gaffe. He watched the rest of our trip in wonder. Suddenly, there was a gasp as he remembered to breathe.

"I can see why you need security. That was incredible. Now, how can we help?"

I explained our concerns about a possible break-in and said that we would leave the details of his operation to him.
8

## The Design Conference

The Major left the office to tour our facility and to organize his troops. Meanwhile, before I could start anything else, the telephone rang. I picked it up and heard the mechanic who was currently manning the switchboard.

"It's the White House, Sir. I told them Professor Burton wasn't here."

"Thank you. Put them through." There was a pause.

"Doctor Axon? This is the President. I have asked the Pentagon to send you some assistance, and I wondered if they had arrived?"

"Yes. They have. Unfortunately, they were under the impression that they were securing a terrorist installation. I think we've got them straightened out now. Was there anything else?"

"Yes, I'm afraid there is. The Defense Secretary has pointed out to me how easy it would be for a belligerent nation to attack anywhere in the country, using a vessel like yours, without a chance of effective defense. The Pentagon concurs. Therefore, I regret that I am forced to order the Patent Office to not publish your patent and to place your drive on the restricted list. May I ask if you have got anywhere since yesterday?"

"We were thinking that it's time to design and build another craft. To that end, we decided that we needed to convene a conference of all the parties who could contribute to a new design."

"Doesn't that contravene the security considerations?"

"No. The whole world or at least the computer literate portion of the world... must know of our voyages by now. It's only the details of the drive that we haven't revealed."

"Oh! I see. Then what groups do you envision inviting to your conference?"

"Scientists from the various disciplines involved in exploring exoplanets. Experts from the aircraft and submarine industries... we will need them to design and equip the hull of the vessel, and, oh, I suppose that NASA will have an opinion."

"If you would like, we can arrange for the invitations to come from the White House. That way you may get some of those who might otherwise ignore the invitation. It also gives the security advisers a chance to vet the guest list before the invitations are sent out."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll get on with making up a possible list of groups, and submit it to you."

"Thank you for being so understanding. If there is anything we can help you with from here, just let us know. And now, I'll let you get on with it."

We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. While I had been talking with the President, the Major was standing rigidly at attention. He only relaxed after I had replaced the phone.

Now, I had a guest list to organize. The first task was to list the different categories of attendees. I made out a list and then sought out Susan to ask her to compile a similar list. Susan suggested that I e-mail James to get a list from him. I retired to my office to do that.

I suggested to the Major that he could canvas the opinions of all the other Marines, working on the principle of 'the more, the merrier'. It got him out of my hair, but the principle paid off. One of the Marines suggested that we should include nutritionists!

To each category, I appended a note of why we needed them at the conference and included the meager list of names that we had managed to think of, ourselves. I emailed the results off to the White House and then started to think about the agenda for the conference.

In what seemed like no time at all, the White House emailed a guest list to James and me for our consideration? The email also informed us that a venue at the John Hopkins University had been provisionally booked for the conference. It also included suggestions for a possible agenda. I rang James and he enthusiastically agreed that the White House had hit the mark.

The Agenda called for a twenty-minute visual presentation of video and still pictures. There was more than enough material in our archives to cover that length of time. The difficult part was knowing what to leave out. I thought that, perhaps, Susan could help me make the required selections. We worked all afternoon on the recorded material. After the first cull, it timed out at just over twenty-five minutes. Removing those last five minutes took the rest of the afternoon, but we made it.

The following Thursday saw us in the University auditorium. A lectern on the right-hand side of the stage stood in front of a couple of office arm chairs. The auditorium gradually filled with over one hundred and sixty participants. At the one minute before the appointed hour, we took our seats on the stage.

On the hour, the piano in the orchestra pit did its best with Ruffles and Flourishes before striking up 'Hail to the Chief'. The assembly followed our lead and rose to their feet as the President entered behind us. He stepped up to the Podium and waved for the gathering to seat themselves.

"Welcome to the Enterprise Conference," he began, "You have been invited here today to participate in the greatest adventure in the history of Mankind. Professor Burton has made this astounding discovery and with the assistance of Doctor Axon has demonstrated that life does exist outside the Solar System."

He continued to describe how the different groups within the audience would approach the individual problems in designing the next steps. He wound up his address, waved to the audience and left the stage.

After the President had left, I got up and crossed to the lectern.

"You are now going to see a short presentation, after which we will take a few questions and then break for coffee. After the coffee break, we will split up into groups to discuss the individual problems for which you have been judged most qualified to solve. Thank you."

I returned to my seat and the film started. It began with the prototype drive mounted on the electronic scales. The scales showed the lift from the drive. The screen changed to show the Enterprise in that first emergence from the warehouse and our initial trip to Mars. There was a gasp of amazement as we took off.

The trip to Epsilon Eridani took up the next twelve minutes, including my commentary on our methods and the results. The presentation ended with the highlights of the President's trip with us, leaving out the visit to the International Space Station.

James arose and approached the lectern.

"I will now take questions for about ten minutes and then, we will take a break. Before you ask your question perhaps you would be kind enough to give your name and interest group first, so that we all know where you are coming from. Thank you."

James pointed at a gentleman towards the back of the auditorium. "You, Sir. Yes. What is your question?"

The man rose and said, "I'm Niels Gentry, Head of the NASA delegation. How do you dare insult our credulity with your gross cinematic trickery? The whole idea of faster than light travel is a travesty. Einstein proved that it was impossible; just a pipe dream and a fantasy. The whole of this conference is a farce in which NASA will not participate."

With that, he turned and left his seat. Starting towards the exit, he was followed by his delegation. I noticed that four of the younger members of his group spoke among themselves, and then sat down again.

James unperturbed as usual said, "I apologize to the rest of you for that bureaucrat's behavior, and for his disbelief in the President who assured me that he enjoyed his trip to Mars and Io."

#  9

## _Group Discussions_

James Continued, "In a moment we will take a coffee break. After that, please join the Groups indicated in your invitational letters. The Brochure you found on your seats when you came in shows where each Group is meeting. Will each Group please appoint a Chairman who can report back when we reconvene at four o'clock. If any of you feel that they want to join another Group, please feel free to do so. Just let your Chairman know so that transfers don't get out of hand. Thank you."

We moved out to the adjacent cafeteria and were served with donuts and coffee. James was mobbed by a large number of the delegates. I did not altogether escape.

I was button-holed by a gentleman who said, "I'm Paulsy: Lockheed-Martin's Skunk Works. I don't see a Group designated to discuss the drives. Why is that?"

"It's really a matter of security. The White House accepts the necessity of discussion of most of the relevant aspects of our next craft but feels that the details of the drive must be kept under wraps. Tell me. What is your subject of expertise?"

"I normally deal with airplane engines. Hence my interest in your drive. Are you going to be able to scale up the power output?"

"It doesn't seem to work like that. The required power goes into providing acceleration, independently of the mass of the craft. However, I don't think that I should say any more about it, at this stage."

Before long the crowd dispersed to their various discussion rooms. I joined the hull design group in their allotted room. A large table surrounded by chairs dominated the room. There were also chairs up against the walls. I took one of the latter. The engineer I had been talking to earlier turned and saw me.

He stood and said, "Doctor Axon, may I suggest that you become the chairman of our group?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm only here to give you some thoughts for your consideration. I must then go on to some of the other groups. Why don't you take the Chair?"

This was received with a few murmurs of, "hear, hear."

I continued, "It seems that you're elected Mister Paulsy. What I wanted to say to this Group is that among the original group, we had some ill-informed discussion about the replacement for the 'Enterprise'. We were only chewing the fat, but we thought that we might need a capacity for about a hundred to two hundred people and their gear and supplies. Most of those would be specialists like Zoologists, Physicists, Geologists and so on. We shan't require a wheeled undercarriage, but the legs should make the body automatically self-leveling. Some of the crew should be classed as Marines. I think that I've covered enough to get you started."

"What about safety?" one of the group asked. "What are the risks of the hull being pierced, and what do you want us to do about that?"

"Any risk is too great a risk. Make any suggestions you feel relevant," I replied. "Oh, and don't forget to provide for shuttle craft."

I gave Paulsy my card with my cell phone number on it. "If, by any chance, you come to a stop, give me a buzz and I'll come and give you something more to chew on."

My visits to the scientific groups had a certain sameness. They should assess their staff needs and submit three estimates. What would be ideal, what would be the minimum and something practical in between. The same went for space and equipment. I also asked them to assess what could be achieved in a limited time. We could always return to an exoplanet if the circumstances warranted it.

Visits to other discussion groups followed along similar lines. All of us had agreed that these pointers were the way to go. That is, James and I, Major Groves (Yes, he had been promoted), Susan and Benson all circulated where we could at least understand the experts.

After the afternoon break, we all reassembled in the auditorium to hear the reports of the Group Chairmen. James welcomed us back and called on the Chairman of the hull group for the first report. Paulsy stepped up onto the stage and opened his notes.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. The first thoughts of the hull group on the shape of an inter-stellar craft were that it should be spherical. It would give us the maximum volume for any given surface area. The drawback here is that it would be inherently unstable if it were on the ground. We discussed various shapes and eventually agreed that the craft should be the shape of an egg with the underside flattened. Unlike the craft in the 'Star Trek' series, we felt that the bridge or control room should be located in the lower portion of the forward end."

"May I ask why it should be there?" said James.

"For navigation close to a planetary surface. You would need to navigate by eye close to the ground."

"Good thought. Pray, continue."

"We wondered about shuttle craft. How many will be required. Our own thoughts on the subject were that a fair number would be needed. We expected that most of the crew would be out exploring any earth-like world. And if they were ever needed as life-saving craft they should be capable of carrying the whole crew. Remember the Titanic. What we didn't know was how the drive could be scaled down."

"Take it that a drive occupies about one hundred and forty cubic feet. Allow one drive for each of the shuttle craft. The main hull would possibly need two or three drives."

"Another question we would seek guidance on is storage. We need to store supplies, additional equipment and also any specimens that we bring back."

"Those are questions which need to be answered by the other discussion groups."

This wait-and-see theme continued into the reports from the chairmen of the other discussion groups. We adjourned saying that we would arrange secretarial assistance to transcribe the various Chairpersons' reports. We also asked the assembly not to remain within their groups, but to mingle. We thought that doing this would engender some ideas that we could not have got otherwise.

For example; I was approached during the evening by a geologist and a physicist who asked who would be responsible for detecting any magnetism on an exoplanet. I told them that not only would I expect both groups to be responsible, but they should include the cartographers in that responsibility. Obviously we would need some get-together meetings to report discoveries like that and to cross-pollinate ideas for further exploration.

By the end of the conference, we had thrashed out the basic ideas about the new exploration vessel. It would be two hundred feet long, fifty feet broad at its widest point and thirty feet high. The bridge or control room would be on the lowest level, deck one, at the front. Above that on deck two would be the forward telescope, the Captain's quarters to starboard and the Chief Scientist's quarters to port.

Above these would be a dining cum conference area on deck three, with a smaller dining area on the top deck, deck four. The forward end of this area would terminate in a balcony overlooking the larger area. A picture window would give a panoramic view of where the vessel was going.

Behind the bridge on deck one, there would be workshops and equipment rooms. The shuttle craft would be housed in separate compartments at the stern of the craft. The specialists workshops and storage were on deck two, with the drive compartment at the stern. Living quarters would be on deck three with more storage on deck four. The galley would be on deck three behind the dining area.

The specialist groups vied with each other for workspace, but after some good-natured wrangling we arrived at an equitable compromise. The conference ended with almost a feeling of euphoria. The Hull group agreed to cooperate in drawing the vessel and producing a specification

With the final specification drawn up, the project was put out to tender. It seemed that in no time at all various quotations were flooding in.

What did surprise me was an invitation to the White House for Major Groves and myself?
10

## _Surprise, Surprise_

Charles Groves and I flew to Washington for our meeting at the White House. The time of the meeting was half past nine so we flew in the night before. After Breakfast, we found that a limousine had been sent to our hotel to pick us up.

Arriving at the White House, we were escorted to a large room in one of the basements. There we saw four civilians, a Major, two Generals and an Admiral. The Major was Major Sims, the Marine who had thought he had been sent to secure our base. He made the introductions of the others present. The Civilians were the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and the Air Force.

After a few minutes of polite chit-chat, the door opened to reveal the entrance of the President and an Aide.

"Good morning, Gentlemen. Please take your seats."

Major Sims indicated that I should take the seat to the right of the President, with Major Groves on my right.

"Welcome to our meeting, Doctor Axon. I've called this meeting on the advice of my Cabinet who think that our concerns with security can be solved by creating a new branch of the armed services, a Space Service. I told them that I wanted you to have a say in the process. What do you think?"

"I'm flattered," I replied, "But what about Professor Burton? Shouldn't he be here as well?"

"We don't think so. He has indicated to me that his interest was limited to proving his theory about his star drive. You, on the other hand, have shown a practical and competent interest in the application of his drive to the whole gamut of space exploration. So what are your thoughts on the establishment of a Space Service?"

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't make it one of the armed services. That said, it needs to be armed for possible self-defense, rather like the Coastguard Service. There's another point which makes it more like the coastguard or the navy."

"What's that?"

"The whole ethos of a space vessel is more closely related to a sea vessel rather than an aircraft, despite the start and finish of any voyage."

"What makes you say that, Doctor Axon?" asked the Air Force general.

"It's a matter of time frames and scale. No aircraft has flown for more than twenty-four hours. Ships regularly cruise for much longer periods. No aircraft have a crew of fifteen; ships rarely have less."

"Tell me, Doctor Axon," asked the President, "how would you recruit for a space service?"

"I'm no recruitment expert. I'd leave that to others. All I know is that in deep space, if you get a surprise, it's likely to be fatal. That should be taken into account when recruiting.

"What would you do to plan and undertake training?" asked the Admiral.

"As I see it," I replied, "the specialists will learn on the job. The non-specialists will not require much training. They will all have most of their training from their previous employment. For example, cooking in a space ship is not very different from cooking aboard a submarine. That is going to be true for most of the non-specialists. Mariners have also navigated by the stars for centuries. Navigation among the stars is not that much different."

"How about engineering?" asked the Army General.

"Most of that is domestic engineering that you get aboard sea-going vessels. The engineering differences in space-going vessels have already been explored by NASA. I see no problems there."

"But what about your engine room?" he asked.

"We have the trained personnel in the relevant idiosyncrasies of our drive system. Training of additional crew can be undertaken on the job."

There was quiet as the Officers tried to think of other questions.

The President gave me the merest wink before he said, "If there are no other questions, I think we can go on to the subject of who will be the core members of the new Service. Major Groves can I assume that you and your unit will be agreeable to Transfer?"

"Yes, Mister President. I am quite certain that all my crew will want to transfer."

"In that case you will receive promotion to Captain."

"But Sir, that's a demotion."

"Oh I failed to mention, that my Cabinet and I had already agreed with the suggestion that Doctor Axon made this morning that the Space Service should mirror the Coast Guard. You will transfer at the equivalent rank as a Commander and receive immediate promotion to the rank of Captain."

"Thank you, Sir. I am honored."

"Doctor Axon, Are you agreeable to be conscripted into the Space Service as their Commander-in-Chief with the rank of Commodore. We propose to use the term Commodore for the Space Service. It's a more attractive name than Rear-Admiral Junior Grade. I am sure that further promotions in rank will be soon forthcoming."

"As long as it doesn't ground me too soon. I also am honored."

My acceptance produced smiles around the table.

"Doctor Axon, the Cabinet recommended that your Service should initially be based just west of Holloman Air Force base. I believe that it's where the Allies answer to the German Buzz Bomb was tested, but I digress. Doctor, we have copies of the Boeing quotation for your new spaceship. We should like your comments so that we can proceed. We anticipate that Lockheed Martin's quotation should be available in about three days. In addition, we have a battalion of Seabees standing by to start construction on your base at Holloman."

The President looked around at the others before continuing.

"I think that about covers it. Oh, Bob Mather, here," indicating his Aide, "will be your liaison with us in Washington. I hope that is agreeable to you Commodore."

It took me a moment to realize that he was addressing me, "Yes, Sir. I'll take him under my wing."

This amused the meeting which then broke up.

Bob Mather drove Charles and me back to our hotel. There to book out and then return to Magnolia. On this return leg, we would be flying by private jet from Andrews Air Force Base to the Southern Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field. From there it is only a twenty mile drive to Magnolia and home.

The next morning, I went into the college to tender my resignation, explaining that I had been conscripted. Some of them found that was hilarious, which made them overlook the fact I was leaving without notice.

I sought out James to bring him up to date only to find him bubbling over with his own news.

"I think I've cracked the concept of long range communications," he said.

"How will you manage that?"

"By ignoring radio communications, which don't work and going back to first principles. Now then! What was the first form of long distance communication?"

"Would that be a runner carrying his message in a cleft stick?"

"Exactly! All we have to do is to bring that concept up to date and we're home and dry."

"Does that mean putting a messenger in a shuttle craft?"

"No. It's even simpler. We construct a number of small drones. They only have to be big enough to contain a smaller version of the drive with enough power for the trip. You see, while you've been gallivanting around the country, I've been working on reducing the size of the drive. Originally I was trying to create a drive small enough to fit in a shuttle craft. But then the answer to our communication problem struck me. What do you think of my idea?"

"If you can scale down the size of the drive, it'll be great. Could you remember to include a shuttle version as well?"

"I suppose so. In fact, the size that I've reached would do very well for the shuttle. How did you get on in Washington? I'd heard about your jaunt."

"Very well. They've only gone and conscripted me into the Space Service as the Assistant Dogsbody."

"Oh! I heard you were going to be a Commodore," he chortled.
11

## _Construction at Holloman_

"Let me know when I can have a shuttle drive to try out," I said ignoring his crack about the rank of Commodore.

"You'll have to let me know where to ship it. I take it your Commodore-ship will be moving his base now that he commands a branch of the Eeyoonited States Services."

"Yes, James. They're building us a base in New Mexico, somewhere around the back of the Holloman Air Force Base. Want to join up? Of course, I could always arrange to have you conscripted."

"Never in a thousand years," he pleaded. "Have pity for a poor old man."

"Man? Perhaps! Old? That will come in time. Poor? I seriously doubt that. Even without a published patent, I'm sure the dollars will come rolling in."

On that jolly note, we parted.

The next morning, I went to our present base on North Vine Street to organize our departure for New Mexico. I found a holiday atmosphere when I arrived. They had already received offers of transfer to the Space Service. That these offers came with consequent promotions had engendered the holiday atmosphere. Our mechanics would be receiving commissions as Ensigns after a crash course at the Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut.

Susan Chalmers and Corporal Benson had been offered instant commissions as Lieutenants, Junior Grade with further promotions promised when the new Space Craft was commissioned. They seemed to hold me personally responsible for their offers and showed me their gratitude. Corporal, now Lieutenant JG Benson nearly shook my hand off while Susan enveloped me in a passionate hug and kissing me on the cheek.

Susan and Charles Groves were coming with me to Holloman to get our ground base started while Benson was staying with James to fashion the message drones. The trip was about seven hundred and fifty miles so that two days driving would be an easy journey. We arranged to stop overnight at the America's Best Value Inn, on the Abilene bypass.

Arriving at Holloman, we turned into the Air force Base. The gate guard asked for our passes. but seemed dissatisfied with our drivers' licenses. He phoned for instructions and kept his rifle at the port. His attitude changed, however, when in response to a telephone call, a car drew up and a Colonel emerged. The Guard saluted the Colonel and goggled when the Colonel came up to my window and saluted me.

"Colonel Crisp, Sir. In command of Holloman Air Force Base. Welcome. We are putting you up for now in Bachelor Officers' Quarters, Commodore, Sir. If you would be kind enough to follow me."

He returned to his car and did a U-turn around the back of us. I followed him and in a few moments we pulled up outside a Quarters block. Once we were settled in, he escorted us to the Officer's Mess.

After dinner, an airman approached the Colonel and handed him a small parcel. He excused himself and opened it. Enclosed was a letter which afforded him some amusement.

At last, he said, "Commodore, I have been instructed to issue you and your colleagues with khaki fatigues. They have sent me the shoulder boards for you all and patches to indicate your Service. I'll arrange for the issue after breakfast if that suits you."

"Thank you. I'm still catching my breath. It was only three days ago that I was a civilian academic. You'll have to excuse me if I commit any breach of military etiquette."

"Of course, Commodore, I must say it hardly shows. There was one other thing in the letter. I was asked to supply you with an aircraft until you can get your own. We have a Citation Mustang available if you can give us a little notice."

"Thank you, although, at the moment, I have no idea where and when we might have to travel. And now, I think that as we have had a busy two days getting here, I should take an early night."

The next morning after breakfast, we were taken to the stores to be outfitted with our khaki uniforms. After the jackets had been selected they were taken away to be embellished with our tabs or Service Insignia. I had not seen our Service badges until they were sewn on. They displayed a wingless and tailless P180, the Enterprise.

From there I was taken to an office suite that had been assigned to us until our base was useable. In the outer office, a young female sergeant jumped to her feet.

"Commodore, I have been seconded to you while you are staying on our base. I'm Sergeant Murchison."

"And what do I call you, Sergeant?"

"I'm Kate to my friends, Commodore, Sir."

"I hope you'll be my friend, Kate. I'm Bill."

"Yes, Sir. Your mail is in your office and your emails are on your computer." Entering my office, I saw a wooden crate about one foot cubed, two large tubes of the type used for engineering drawings, two very thick envelopes and a host of smaller envelopes in assorted sizes.

One of the large envelopes was from Boeing as was one of the drawing tubes and the other set was from Lockheed-Martin. These I put on one side for later when I would have more time. One of the smaller envelopes bore the White House logo. I opened and read it.

_My dear Commodore Axon,_

_The quotation from Lockheed-Martin arrived earlier than we expected. My advisers who looked over the quotations from both suppliers seemed to think that the bosses at Boeing were not all that keen to be involved at this time. Their estimates of time to complete the work suggests this as well. However, we will leave you to make up your own mind._

_We look forward to reading your comments on the quotations._

The rest of the letter involved some personal advice on relating to the Air Force at the Holloman AFB.

I spent the remainder of the morning in examining the quotations. Eventually, I was interrupted by Charles and Susan.

"Are you coming to lunch," said Susan.

"Is it lunchtime already?"

"Yes, Sir," replied Charles. "I need to tell you about my meeting with the Seabees this morning."

"Then, tell me over lunch."

"I'm afraid there may be an embargo on shop-talk in the Mess."

"Let's go and get lunch over with. There's too much to do to waste time. What have you been up to, Susan?"

"Not a lot, I'm afraid. I've been bringing Kate up to speed with our exploits, so far. You know, don't you that you've got another recruit there?"

The talk through lunch was equally inconsequential. As soon as I got back to the office, Charles brought in the Seabees Lieutenant Commander, Chris Bollinger. We soon agreed on the scale of work needed. There would be a very large apron for parking our vessels, which would also suffice as a comparatively small 'runway' for light aircraft. Our take-offs and landings would be vertical or nearly so.

As for personnel space, we would require more married quarters than usual, together with the necessary laboratory space and conference facilities. Once I felt that he understood our requirements, I told him to get on with it, and that we would be looking over his shoulder from time to time. He seemed pleased that he was getting a comparatively free hand and left to return to his building site.

I had hardly got back to the quotations, when Kate told me that there was a call from Palmdale. I picked up the phone.

"Axon here."

"Derek Paulsy, Doctor, or should I say Commodore. You're a hard man to track down. I rang to congratulate you on your promotion."

"I'm not sure yet, that it is a promotion."

"I also wanted to ask if you had looked at our quotation yet?"

"I have it open in front of me. One thing I haven't found yet is a time scale. How long do you think it will take to build?"

"We can't really commit ourselves until we see the final design, but I think we may surprise you. We already have a mock up of a shuttle craft for your inspection. When would you like to see it?"

"As soon as possible. By the way, what materials have you used for the outer hull?

"A light-weight composite material. Why, is it important?

"I'm afraid so. The outer hull must be metallic and securely bonded electrically to the drive. That stabilizes the gravitational field within the craft."

"I see. How about giving us two or three days before you come and see it."

"Fine. Let's make a provisional appointment for Friday. Where? At the Skunk Works in Palmdale?"

"That's right. Until Friday then. Goodbye, Commodore."

"Goodbye."

I put the phone down and called Kate.

"The Colonel said that we might be able to borrow a small plane. Can you see if you can arrange it for an early trip to Palmdale on Friday?"

"For how many, Sir?"

"For the two of us. No. Make that for the three of us. You'll come too, won't you?"

"Thank you, Sir. I'd like that."

"Will you get Susan for me? Thank you."

A couple of minutes later, Susan knocked and came into my office. I waved her to a seat.

"How would you like to come with me to Palmdale on Friday, to see a mockup of our shuttlecraft?"

"So soon?"

"Yes. I gather that they built one of light weight composite material, but I told them it had to be electrically conductive, so they're going to rebuild it in a metal. They want us to go and pass judgment on the plastic mockup."

"Will we take the shuttle drive with us?"

"What shuttle drive?"

"The one that's sitting in that crate over there."

# 

#  12

## _At the Skunk Works_

Friday morning saw us up at five, and in the air just after six o'clock. Susan and I had spent the previous three days making sure that the drive we had was complete. By that I mean it had the drive itself and the controlling gyroscopes. We had the computer and the software and a twenty foot connecting cable. What we did not have was a power source and we also lacked a controlling joystick. I got over this last problem by borrowing one from the Colonel's youngest son.

We landed at Palmdale, just before eight o'clock. The air controller was a bit taken aback when we told him that we had come to see Mr. Paulsy of Lockheed Martin. He normally would not have been in work before nine o'clock. A quick phone call and we were told that he would be with us in twenty minutes. Fifteen minutes later a car raced past the end of the runway onto the perimeter and up to where our aircraft was standing.

After greeting him, we unloaded our packages into the trunk of his car. He repressed his curiosity and took us to the Skunk Works cafeteria. Paulsy explained that he hadn't had time for any breakfast and I, for my part was ready to eat something again. It seemed a long time since breakfast and lunch seemed an even longer time into the future.

After eating, Paulsy escorted us to one of their aircraft workshops. We were invited in with a flourish. My first thought was they had acquired a prop shuttle from NBC. The design was the same.

Paulsy said, "Here it is. As you requested this one is constructed of titanium. It's as near the production model as we could make it. All it lacks is the drive."

"Do you have a power supply for it yet?" I asked.

"We have hydrogen power cells, but they're only set for a domestic output voltage."

"Would it surprise you if I told you that we brought a small drive unit with us?"

"Really?"

"Yes. It's in the trunk of your car."

"Do you think it's possible to install it?"

"I'm prepared to give it a try. Let's see the inside of your shuttle."

Paulsy led us into the shuttle. The control panel at the front of the craft was unadorned except for a computer display. The walls and roof of the craft on the inside were also plain. There were compartments built into the walls.

"We've fitted the sampling and measuring equipment that your specification called for. The radar systems are also installed. All it lacks is the drive and control gear. We put in a cable duct and space for the drive."

He indicated the deck, which had a strip of removable panels between the control panel and a box-like protrusion in the center of the craft. Paulsy went to this protrusion and opened it.

"Is that going to be enough room for the drive?"

I could see that it would do, without the need to measure the inside dimensions.

"It certainly is. Can you get someone to collect the drive from your car? It's in the crate. The box with it contains the cabling and control gear. How about radar?"

"Its built into external compartments just like you showed us at the conference. The data from there is fed to a computer built behind the control panel. We weren't sure how you fed the data into your control computer, so we left the arrangements flexible."

Half an hour later, the drive was bolted into place and the connections made to the computer.

"Right. If you would be so kind as to switch the power supply back on, we'll test the system out."

I loaded the software into the computer that Derek had provided and confirmed that the radar data was in the format that we used in the Enterprise. At last I was ready and switched the computer to perform a restart.

With the power back on I watched as the computer booted up. The software started up in a diagnostic mode. When it reported that all was well it went into flight mode, waiting for the pilot instructions.

Derek Paulsy had left the large workshop doors open when the drive was brought in. The opening was wide enough for the shuttle, so I lifted six inches off the ground and turned the shuttle towards the door. Inching forward, we glided outside the building. The controls seemed a mite rougher than those on the Enterprise, but I reminded myself that I was using a control joystick borrowed from the son of the Colonel at Holloman.

I raised the shuttle to a height of twenty feet and turned it through a full circle. I then settled it gently back on the ground.

"I'll take it. You don't have to wrap it."

"just like that? I'm Impressed. Most Government outfits would want to test it almost to destruction before accepting an aircr... a craft. Do you need further tests?"

"Oh yes. We shall, and you'll be betting your life that this is air-tight. The production models will require additional equipment, but this will be fine as a test unit. The size also seems about right. The production models will need life support equipment for about eight people for about a month. They will also need scientific equipment for the retrieval of specimens and the making of various scientific measurements."

"A crew of eight seems a bit excessive?"

"Yes. That number would be realized only in the case of an emergency. I would expect the normal complement to be only three or four."

"Before you go there is some paperwork to complete. I would also like to give a couple of our people a ride. One of them was at our conference and is very enthusiastic about the whole project. The other wasn't and is argumentatively skeptic and hostile to it."

"Of course. I wasn't really expecting to be able to accept it today, but it would be most useful to do so. What do you think Susan?"

"Yes, I'm sure that there's a lot more work that I'll need to do before we finalize the design requirements."

"So, if you get your two colleagues for their ride, we'll get on with the next stage in the test."

"Right oh. I'll be about ten minutes." With that, Paulsy left us.

I turned to Kate who so far had not said anything.

"Well, Kate. What do you think of it."

"It's very smooth, isn't it? It's like flying should be."

A couple of minutes later Paulsy reappeared with two older men, one slightly overweight and the other skinnier. The thinner one had a sour face.. I got out of the shuttle to greet them. Paulsy indicated the larger of the two.

"Commodore, I'd like to introduce our Head of Design, George Morrison."

"The man said, "I'm pleased to meet you, Commodore. I remember you from our conference."

"Bill, Please, Mister Morrison. I remember you too." I replied. I did remember him too. He cut through a lot of the prevalent bull.

"And I'm George."

"Commodore," said Paulsy, "This is Mister Stark, our cost accountant."

"Pleased to meet you," I said.

"What's the mock up doing out here?" he asked.

"The Commodore brought a prototype drive with him," Paulsy replied.

"And you need the mock up out here to see if it fits?"

"Please follow me, gentlemen," I said entering the Shuttle.

I indicated to George that he should take the front right-hand seat, as I took the left. Stark sat behind George and Derek sat behind me. The girls stood at the back after closing the hatch door. I gently lifted the shuttle off the ground. And swung it round to face North.

"Wow," said George, while Stark merely said "Hmmpf".

I lifted to about ten feet and moved forward sailing straight over the gate. The gate guard watched with an open mouth. I turned east on the road that skirted the airfield.

"Derek," I asked, "do you have the phone number of the control tower?"

"Yes." He gave it to me and I called them to request a vertical take off. Once granted I flew the shuttle straight up until the sky turned black.

"Wow," said George again, while I noticed that Stark's lips were quivering and his knuckles whitened as he grasped the arms of his seat. I pointed the nose of the shuttle downwards and at that height, the Skunk Works and the adjoining airfield looked as though they would fit on a postage stamp.

"I have to have one of these," said George.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible in the near future, unless you enlist in the Space Service," I replied.

"That sounds attractive, but I'm probably too old at fifty-three."

"I'm not as old as you," said Derek, "and I am more than tempted."

"If you did enroll," I put in, "you would find yourself posted back here as Liaison Officer."

#  13

## _The Prototype Shuttle_

Even sour-faced Stark grinned at that.

Derek smiled and said. "Even that would be acceptable as long as I could go with you into space."

I could see that I needed to pay attention to the recruiting of personnel in the very near future.

I turned the Shuttle to a course of seventy degrees and set the distance of twenty-two hundred and seventy miles. We descended at a very shallow angle. We soon found ourselves approaching Washington. We continued until we were over the Atlantic ocean and turned to a course of twenty degrees. At the entrance to the Hudson, we turned left for Palmdale, ascending to fifty thousand feet.

Descending back at Palmdale, we flew at a sedate height of ten feet back into the Skunk Works. The gate guard was left scratching his head as I waved while flying over him. I settled back on the ground at the point from where we had started our flight and we emerged from the shuttle.

"That was fantastic! Awe-inspiring! All I can say is 'wow'!" said George.

"I concur," added Stark. "That trip was fantastic. There is, however, one question that has been bothering me."

"Yes," I replied, "and what's that?"

"Why did you specify the coils built into all your craft? I shouldn't have thought you would run into magnetic mines in space. It seems like an unnecessary expense."

"You've heard of cosmic radiation and solar wind?"

"Yes."

"Here on earth, we are protected from these by the earth's magnetic field. In space, we have to produce our own protection."

"I see. Thank you." Stark looked as though he hadn't been fully convinced.

"Well, goodbye Doctor Axon," said George. "I look forward to meeting you again."

I shook hands with George and Stark. They departed to return to their offices.

"Let's deal with the paperwork," I said to Derek.

"Right oh!" he replied, "I made pretty copious notes at the conference. They were used to produce the drawings in the quotation. I suggest that for now you accept this craft for extensive testing. That way you won't have to find the money for a while and we get your services in carrying out the testing."

"That seems very fair. Perhaps I should contact our pilot and let him know that we are making our own way back to base."

"Come into the office, then. I'll call the airfield."

We all trooped into Derek's office where he telephoned our pilot, to send him back to Holloman. That done, Derek prepared the papers so that we could accept the delivery of the craft for further testing.

"There. That's done. I have one question though. What is the fuel consumption and how long will it last between fill ups?"

"That I'll have to check. You see, I'm not sure of the power consumption of your engine."

"It's about thirty watts. The total consumption will be about four hundred watts."

"That low! Then I should think that you will get about a fifty hours flight time out of one tank. We have installed a consumption meter or rather it measures the pressure."

He whipped out a calculator and keyed in the figures.

"Oh my! Correction, that should be about a hundred hours of flight time. We use industrial grade hydrogen fuel cells, They use a nickel-tin catalyst. How are you going to get your hydrogen?"

"We can produce it by electrolysis. The power plants of the main craft are nuclear so that power isn't a problem. One thing occurs to me though. One hundred hours of flight time translates into about five and a half light-years of travel. That wouldn't be enough to get home in an emergency situation."

"How about, if we fitted long range tanks?"

"Yes. That just leaves the problem of making sure that we keep the tanks topped up."

"We could make the topping up automatic, when you park the shuttle."

"Yes, that would do it. How safe would all that hydrogen be?"

He smiled and said, "I think we can make a container that would survive a crash that you couldn't."

The return trip to Holloman took only twenty minutes. To avoid creating any sonic booms by traveling at supersonic speeds, we ascended to a height where we wouldn't generate any. Most of the flight time was taken up ascending and descending.

There was an uproar when we got back to base. Charles Groves told us that Bob Mather had rung, saying that the President wished to summon me to Washington. I must ring him back. When, at last I got through to him he was agitated.

"Bill, the President is going frantic. So many of the Scientists from the conference have been swamping the White House with calls. He needs your input. When can you get here?"

"I can be there in twenty minutes. Is that soon enough?"

"I don't think I can set up a meeting that quickly. Instead. Do you think you could be here in the morning for a meeting at, say, half-past nine."

"As long as I can land on the White House lawn. I take that will be on the back lawn this time?"

"Yes, that's right. Can you call in on 343 MHz when you are approaching."

"Okay. I'll have to get them to install radio communications. The prototype shuttle didn't come with any. If I can't, I'll call you back."

I asked Kate to get the Base Commander

"Colonel Crisp here. What can I do for you, Commodore?"

"I took delivery today of a prototype craft, but it comes without any radio communications. Can you help by fitting some for me?"

"Yes, of course. Where is the craft at the moment?"

"Sitting outside my office. I wasn't sure where to put it."

"Hang on. We'll be around there shortly."

A few minutes later, a car drew up outside the office, and Colonel Crisp emerged. He stood looking at the shuttle and scratching his head. I went out to meet him.

"Tell me, have you been raiding the property shop at a film studio?"

"No," I said with a chuckle, "it's just that the Skunk Works design team copied the shuttle from the Star Trek film. It doesn't have to be as aerodynamic as your aircraft, Colonel."

While we were talking, a pickup drew alongside us disgorging a Lieutenant and a Sergeant. They stood at attention as the Lieutenant saluted the Colonel.

He returned it and said, "The Commodore requires an aircraft radio system in his... craft. How long will it take?"

"About twenty minutes, Sir. Say half an hour to be sure."

"See to it, please."

"Thank you," I said. "Perhaps when they are done you would like to see it put through its paces?"

"Thank you, Sir. I'll be back, then, in half an hour."

Twenty minutes later to the dot, the Lieutenant entered my office and saluted.

"I'm happy to report the installation is complete, Commodore, Sir. I have also included IFF."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to show me how to operate them."

"Of course, Sir. When would you prefer."

"How about now?"

He agreed and we left the office and entered the shuttle. He explained the procedure and it was the same as that used at sea. I found it familiar from my experience sailing on the water. As he concluded his instruction, the Colonel returned. I indicated the front right-hand seat to him. I asked the Lieutenant to shut the door in the rear of the shuttle and for him and the Sergeant to take the rear seats. I switched on the computer. After it had booted up and run its diagnostics, the control panel appeared on the monitor screen.

I cleared our take-off with the control tower and lifted straight up. Once clear of the atmosphere, I aimed just off the moon and set the speed to five million miles per hour. That is about 0.7 percent of the speed of light; quite slow, in fact. Five minutes later, I slowed to a crawl and we circled the moon. I was pointing out the features on the surface, just like a tour guide. The return trip was taken at the speed of the trip out.

When we were back on the ground, we found we had been absent for less than half an hour. The Lieutenant asked,

"You seemed to be applying power as we circled the Moon. I thought that orbits were essentially unpowered?"

"They can be, but if you don't want to take the time for an unpowered orbit, you can assist or oppose the force of gravity.

"I see, I think!"

The Colonel suggested that I put the Shuttle into a lockup bus garage which I did. Then we went to the Mess for dinner.

#  14

## _Planning Personnel_

The next morning saw Susan and I taking the Shuttle to Washington. We did our high-level hop to avoid creating a sonic boom. Bob Mather was on the back lawn of the White house to greet us.

"We've got a problem for you to solve. Many of the scientists who attended your Conference have been on to us wanting to know when they can go into space?"

"Hold on! Let us get our breath back after our trip. How about a cup of coffee before we get down to business?"

"I'm sorry. Of course. Let's go to my office."

Once we were settled in his office with a mug of coffee in our hands, I asked Bob.

"Now, Bob, what is your problem?"

"It's these scientists. They seem to think that all they have to do to get a ride into deep space is to whistle as they would for a cab. They are all bending the President's ear. And he's starting to growl at me. What can we do?"

"First of all, let's make it clear that no civilians are going into space. To fly, they'll have to join up."

"That's going to cause an uproar with the older and more senior scientists. What do you suggest for them?"

"As I see it, we can organize the science people as a group within the Space Service, but not in the chain of command. They'll have their own command structure. I suggest that we organize them into two branches. Environmental scientists and life scientists each with their own commander. Give the senior scientist a rank of Lieutenant-Commander and his two group leaders a rank of Lieutenant. That way they won't be able to feel slighted by not being in the chain of command of the spacecraft."

"How about those who don't want to enlist? Those who are too old or too senior."

"We'll invite them to form an advisory body, to interpret and evaluate the data we gather. They can also suggest, but not command, what we do next."

"Yes, that seems like a good idea."

"Why don't you get the President's Science Adviser to help you evaluate the inquiries and applications?"

"I'll do that. Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Yes, I'd be grateful if you would keep me in the loop so that I can vet them. One of the last things you want in deep space is to have incompatible personalities in close proximity."

"Right! I think the President is in today. I'll see if he's free." He picked up his phone and dialed. "Is he free? Tell him we've got the answer to one of his problems."

Bob quickly got an invitation to the Oval Office for us, and we went visiting.

"What's this Bob? I'm told you have the answer to all these queries about a free ride into space."

"Yes, or rather, Commodore Axon has."

"Good! Now, what do I tell them?"

"Tell them to apply to join the Space Service and put them on to Bob. He can send them an application form. That way they make themselves subject to Service discipline."

"And if they balk at enrolling?"

"Bill suggests putting them in a ground-based body that is only advisory in nature."

"That sounds like the answer. Make it so, Bob."

We left, returning to Bob's office.

"Now where," he asked, "do I get some Space Service application forms?"

"Get some from the Coastguard and the other services, then make up your own. If you like, you can send the result to me and I'll vet it."

"Thanks, I will. Have you got anything else?"

"I know it's a bit early, but who gives the go ahead to Lockheed Martin for building the spacecraft?"

"You do... or rather you tell us to go ahead and we tell them."

"Right, Bob. Make it so.," I said with a grin.

With that sorted, we set out on the return journey to Holloman. When we got there, I decided to show my face in the office before going to lunch, in case I had been missed. I should have gone straight to the Mess. No sooner than Kate had told me that there was nothing that wouldn't wait until after lunch, then the door opened behind me.

The Seabees Major rushed in, saying "Commodore, can I have a word, Sir?"

"Yes, Chris. Come into my office," I said, and he followed me. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got a quick report, Sir, and a couple of questions."

"Fire away."

"The hangar and apron that you specified are finished and your three bedroom house should be finished by tomorrow. Three barracks, two male, and one female are well under way as are the Bachelor Officers Quarters. We've also laid out streets for family houses for about two hundred people. Do you have specifications for the workshops yet?"

"Not really. How about making a generic workshop building until we know exactly what we need. What is your other question?"

"I've been told about your shuttle. What about hangar space for that?"

"Yes. Good idea, and I think we will bring the Enterprise down here as well. That's a Piaggio P180 with its wings removed. Now, Chris, let's go and get some lunch. Breakfast was such a long time ago."

After lunch, Chris persuaded me to inspect his work so far. He drove me back to Route 70 where we turned southwest. About three and a half miles down the road we turned right onto a recently surfaced road, passing a noncommittal sign reading 'Holloman S. S. Base.'.

About a mile and a half down this road it branched. The right-hand branch was as yet unsurfaced, but the left continued for a further mile before reaching a large concrete runway about one hundred and fifty yards wide by about a thousand yards long.

"It's axis is along the direction southwest to northeast and is long enough for small visiting aircraft. The direction copies the direction of the main runway next door. If you have visitors in bigger 'planes, they could land over there."

"You have been busy in such a short time. Well done."

"Now, about the hangar for smaller craft. I suggest that we build it next to the first but make it narrower. About fifty feet, Sir?"

"Yes, that should do it. Now what about an office block."

"Yes, Sir. We thought the first office block should be half way along the runway with The Officers' Mess this side of it. That way you could use a 'golf cart' from your house along there."

He indicated a house being built at the far end of the runway.

"Oh, Sir," he asked, "I had wondered why you had specified hangar space for two spacecraft and housing for two crews, but conference facilities for only one?"

"The short answer to that Chris, is that we should rarely have more than one craft here at any one time."

"How soon, Sir, before you expect to want to take occupation?"

"That depends on how soon we manage recruit the Base support staff. I had better get on with that. Can you give me a lift back to my office?"

"Of course, Sir."

That concluded my first visit to our new Base. I was amazed at what they had accomplished in such a short time. My first job, when I arrived at my office, was to ring Bob Mather.

"Mather, here, what can I do for you, Commodore?"

"It's 'Bill', please Bob."

"No, Bill, it's 'Commodore' until we've established that this is not a business call. Now, what can I do for you, Commodore?"

"Our Base will soon be ready for occupation. What do we do about Base support staff?"

"How do you mean?"

"Cleaners, cooks and bottle washers and so on."

"Ask the Air Force Base Commander if he'll lend you some. I'll make it right with the people here. You may even get some volunteers, particularly if there's a chance that they might get into space."

"Thanks. I'll also need someone to command the Base. In other words, to be in charge of all the housekeeping chores."

"I see," chortled Bob, "How about that fellow who was with you on the Enterprise? Was his name, Edmunds?"

"Steve Edmunds? I don't know if he would be interested. I'll ask him. What happens about recruiting him?"

"It's more or less up to you. Of course, it'll have to receive approval at this end, but you can use that as a safeguard if you think you've made a mistake. What I will do is to send you a batch of unit flashes. How do you like them?"

"Fine. They'll remind us of our humble origins. Thank you and goodbye for now, Mister Mather."

I rang off before he could reply.

#  15

## _Steve arrives at Holloman_

I asked Kate to get me Steve Edmunds on the phone.

"Hello Commodore, I had begun to think you had forgotten your old friends."

"No, Steve, I've just been too busy getting settled in. I have rung you with an offer to join the Space Service."

"Whatever as? I enjoyed our flights, but what do you think I could do for you."

"I'm getting to the point where I need a competent administrator, and I thought of you."

"Tell me more. Life has become somewhat dull since you disappeared."

"Things are getting quite exciting down here. They're accelerating to the point where I don't think I can keep up much longer. I need help. How would you like to come down here and look the place over?"

"Right, give me a couple of days to tidy my affairs here and I'll drive down. You know my email address, so send me directions, and I'll see you in a few days. 'Bye for now."

I returned to my inspection of the drawings from the Skunk Works. By now, I realized that I needed input from the potential crew, Thinking I should go and inspect the new base, I was about to leave the office when the phone rang.

"Axon."

"Commodore Axon?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"Oh my name is Long, Thomas Long."

"What can I do for you Mister Long?"

"I currently work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I've been working with some of my colleagues on coastal charting with the Coast Guard. That's where we heard about the start of a Space Service. We were wondering if you had any vacancies for cartographers?"

"Yes, we do, indeed! There are a lot of planets out there that need mapping. What you should do is to get onto Bob Mather at the White House. Ask him to send you application forms. In the meantime, why don't you consider how you would map a brand new planet and what equipment you would need. Remember that on a new planet there is no G.P.S."

"Thank you, Sir. We'll do that. Thank you for talking to me."

"I look forward to receiving your applications. Goodbye."

While I had the phone in my hand, I thought I would ring Bob Mather and find out how the application forms were progressing and why he had told my last caller to contact me. It turned out that his application forms were not quite ready.

"In any case," he said, "you told me to keep you in the loop."

That made me chuckle. I told him that in the future, that would only apply to Lieutenant-Commanders and above. After we had chewed the fat for a few minutes, I decide to seek out Colonel Crisp to see if I could borrow or even steal a few bodies to run our base. I finally caught up with him coming out of the briefing room where he had been sitting in on a flying exercise.

"Colonel Crisp, can I have a word with you?"

"Of course, Commodore. I know that neither of us is Navy, but as the sun is over the Yardarm, why don't we adjourn to the Mess?"

"A good idea, especially as I have a favor to ask of you."

"I suppose you want to borrow my men to staff that Base of yours?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Your White House friend, Mather. He called me earlier today to see if the idea was feasible."

"And is it?"

"Yes. I've spent most of this afternoon with some of my officers sorting out names. When do you think that you'll need them?"

"Fairly soon, I should think. As soon as Lieutenant Commander Bollinger says we can start moving in, we will do so. I want to thank you for all your help."

"That's okay," he smiled "but I'll expect to get another ride out of it."

"I'm sure we'll accommodate you, Colonel. For how long do you think we can borrow your staff?"

"As I see it, You'll sort out your needs, and by that time, the troops will know if they want to stay or come back here. Then I can review the staffing here and return any surplus bodies to where they came from."

At that moment, the Seabees Lieutenant Commander entered the Mess. He saw us and came over.

"Sirs, may I have a word?"

"Yes, Chris," I said, "What can we do for you?"

"Hrmph," said the Colonel. "In the services, Sir we only use first names between officers of equal rank. I thought I ought to tell you."

"Thank you, Colonel. I'm not sure that the Space Service is going to be so formal. We'll have to formulate our own customs."

"Of course, Commodore, but may I respectfully remind you that this is an Air Force Mess."

"Yes, Colonel. Point taken. Now, who would like a drink before Dinner?"

When we had been served, I asked Chris, "Lieutenant Commander, what was it that you wanted to say to us?"

"While we have still a lot of building work before us, I do believe that there's enough for you to get started. Have you got anyone yet to command the Base?"

"Not yet, but I hope to by the end of the week."

That hope was fulfilled when Steve turned up on Friday. He had been escorted to my office where he was announced by Kate.

"Commodore, Mister Edmunds is here."

"Come in, Steve. Come in. How are you?"

"All the better for seeing you, Bill. It was getting far too quiet in Magnolia. I was glad to receive your summons to be the gofer assistant to the assistant gofer, Commodore, Sir! I like your secretary. I see she's Air Force. Will you be able to keep her?"

"I hope so. She's very efficient. Now Steve, let me take you across to our new Base. I want to show it to you."

I told Kate we were going to inspect our new Base and she asked if she could come too. I told her she could and Kate hopped into the rear seat of Steve's car. Fifteen minutes later we were driving down the entrance road to the Base. A lot more buildings greeted us than I had seen on my last visit.

As we approached the fork in the road, I could see several houses that had been built near the right-hand branch. We turned left and passed four three-story barracks to our left. On the right-hand side of the road, there were three buildings. The center building was single story, but with a larger footprint than the outer two double-storied buildings.

Arriving at our short runway, we turned right onto a road which ran alongside. There were two hangars on the far side of the runway, one large and one enormous. Three large buildings on the right faced the road. As we came up to the first one, we were waved down by Lieutenant Commander Bollinger.

"Oh it's you, Sir. I thought it might be a civilian."

"It is, Major," said Steve. "I've come to see if I want to enlist."

"Steve, this is Lieutenant Commander Chris Bollinger, in charge of constructing our Base. Chris, this is Steve Edmunds whom I am trying to conscript as our Base Commander."

"Welcome to Holloman Space Service Base, Sir. I hope it meets your expectations?"

"Why don't you join us?" said Steve, "You can show us around."

"Thank you, Sir." He said as he got into the back of the car. "Over the other side of the runway are the hangars. The larger is for the new space vessel, and the smaller is for the shuttles. It has an upper floor for small parts storage and workshops."

"We are also going to keep the Enterprise in the smaller hangar," I added.

"On our right," continued Chris, "is the Officer's Mess. The next building contains the Senior Officers' offices and the control tower. Just around the corner at the end of the runway is the Commodore's house."

"Which would be mine?" Steve asked.

"Did you see the house where the entrance road branched?"

"Yes."

"That one, Sir, is yours."

#  16

## _Filling up the Base_

"Is that furnished or unfurnished?"

"It has all the basic furniture essentials, Sir. If you want anything else, please contact me."

"Right then. We had better go and inspect the Commodore's house first. By the way, Are the Base Exchange and the Commissary up and running yet?"

"No, but they will be by late tomorrow."

By now we had driven to the end of the runway and turned into the drive of a house set well back from the end of the runway. The Seabees Major handed me a key indicating the front door. I opened it, and the other three followed me in. To my surprise, we were greeted by the batman that Colonel Crisp had loaned me.

"Your house is ready for occupation, Commodore. When do you want to move in?"

"I don't know yet. I'll tell you soon.

We were soon exploring the house and poking our noses into everything. The decor seemed minimalist, but everything essential was present, even down to a couple of vases of flowers.

I turned to Steve and said, "Now how about we inspect your dog kennel."

"It's not a dog's kennel, Sirs!" exclaimed the Lieutenant Commander.

"But it has to be," I said. "You see it's a home for the Assistant Dogsbody."

"Oh! I see, Sir."

We drove back down the runway road and as we approached the building with the Control Tower, Chris asked if we wanted to inspect it.

"May we?" Asked Kate. "I want to see where I'll be working."

"Yes let's," I said. "I must admit to some curiosity, myself."

Steve parked the car and we all trooped into the office block. Chris led us up the stairs to the second floor where there were four offices facing the runway with more facing the other three directions.

"The middle offices are for your secretaries and the corner offices are for the Commodore and the Base Commander. Follow me, please."

Chris led us through what was to become Kate's office and a connecting door to mine. They seemed to be almost fully equipped, except for a noticeable lack of filing cabinets.

"As you can see, there are no filing cabinets. We're trying hard to realize the paper-free office. Any paper coming in can be scanned and recycled. Any documents that must absolutely be retained can be scanned and sent to a registry. There'll be no need to retain them in the office. You'll notice that all the phones have a video capability. That goes for all the base. Next month, I believe that the other Base will be upgraded to the same."

"I'll be interested to discover Colonel Crisp's opinion on that."

"I believe, Commodore, that the good Colonel is in two minds about the new system."

After a quick visit to the Control Tower, upstairs from our offices, we headed back to the car. Back down the runway road we passed the laboratories that would be allocated to the scientific teams. At the end of the runway, the road turned left. The three buildings on our left were the Officer's Mess hall, Followed by the Commissary and Base Exchange. It also provides storage for the Mess Halls. As we passed, we could see there were deliveries being taken in. The third building held the other ranks Mess Hall on the first floor and the Non-Commissioned Officers' Mess Hall on the second.

Finally, at the round-about, we came to the Base Commanders house. A quick visit showed that it was furnished to about the same standard as mine. It was time to return to the Air Force Base. We dropped Kate off at the office and proceeded to the Mess.

We were greeted by Colonel Crisp.

"How is your new Base coming along?"

"Just fine. I expect that we'll be out of your hair by the end of the week. One thing that impressed me was the video phone system. I gather that you'll be getting them as well soon. What do you think of the idea?"

"I'm not sure. The only good thing about is that you can turn off the camera. I may get used to it, but I doubt it. How do you feel about it?"

"It strikes me that it could be beneficial. You can often get addition information from the expression of a person you're talking to."

After that, things went much faster. We moved into the new Base. The remaining marines from Magnolia moved down to Holloman. To do so, I flew Susan to Magnolia in the shuttle, which she flew back. I flew the Enterprise back with our passengers. Major Sims was coming as the Base commander. Oh, Yes. Steve had turned down the post and had opted instead for the job as my Adjutant, so the house at the junction at the end of the road into the base became the Major's, now transferred to the Space Service with promotion to Captain.

As soon as we had settled in properly, we invited Colonel Crisp and some of his officers over for a tour and a dinner in our Mess. It proved to be a successful visit.

Events seemed to accelerate even more after that dinner. I was bogged down in meetings, interviews and making decisions to keep the construction of our next space vessel on course. The pace was so furious that I would be hard put to recollect all the details. Fortunately, Kate kept impeccable records and even more fortunately she decided to transfer to the Space service. I would have become lost without her. I was soon joined in this never-ending chase to keep up with events by Captain-designate Groves and by Lieutenant-Commander John White, a cosmologist who had been selected to recruit and oversee the scientific contingent.

He was soon joined by Lieutenant Gerald Shaw in charge of the Environmental Sciences and by Lieutenant Barry Thompson in charge of the Life Sciences. I gave these three the unenviable task of sorting through the remaining applications for the scientific posts, reserving to myself the last word on the appointments.

One task that I reserved to myself was the design of the shuttle craft flight simulators. They were much simpler than aircraft flight simulators in as much that they did not need to shake the trainees about. The space drive maintained the gravitational conditions of the home planet. We did not know as yet whether that would hold if it was necessary to switch the drive off on an alien planet.

The flight simulators had become necessary because we had recruited the Cartographers that had been attached to the Coast Guard. Thomas Long, their leader, had been appointed a Lieutenant Junior-Grade, and his colleagues, Eric Charlton, and David Maltby had been appointed Chief Petty Officers.

They had recommended that their shuttles should use synthetic aperture radar and should, at the same time, also map the planetary gravity. Derek Paulsy, at the Skunk Works, said that the modification to the shuttle design presented no problem and he suggested that we used the same on the parent craft.

Once I felt that they had learned all they could on the simulator, I took them up in the shuttle. I was waiting for Derek Paulsy to contact me to say the first of the proper shuttles equipped fully with all the scientific equipment that we had specified. As soon as he did, the cartographers and I flew to Palmdale to accept delivery. Thomas and I flew the new shuttle back to Holloman while Eric and David brought back the original shuttle. One improvement that had been carried out on the new shuttle was that the fuel cell power supply had been replaced with a nuclear cell, even smaller than the one used on the 'Enterprise'.

During the next three weeks, they carried out a survey of Earth as a rehearsal for mapping an exoplanet. By orbiting the poles at about the height of a synchronous orbit, they completely mapped the planet in eighteen days. Comparison with maps already in existence showed that the method was viable with very little error.

While the Cartographers were off doing their thing we were putting other people through the shuttle simulators. My aim was that every member of the crew should have at least some experience in piloting the shuttles.

#  17

## _Waiting for Palmdale_

I had a phone call from Bob Mather at the White House.

"Hi, Bill. I'm calling you to congratulate you on your suggestion about recruiting your scientists into the Space Service. We have had about fifty enlistments and the suggestion that the others interested should form an advisory body have mollified the rest. I do hope you're not going to tie yourself to following their advice."

"No! We won't have any such commitment to follow their advice. I will, however, consider their advice, provided that there isn't too much of it."

"I doubt that they will be able to come to any sensible conclusion before you take off on your first expedition. After that, they will be always digesting the results of your trips. How is the craft coming along?"

"Derek Paulsy has really been pulling out all the stops. It should be ready for the equipment installation in about six months. Although on second thoughts, it might present an interesting exercise in navigation."

"That will be just about the time that the staff should be finished with their crash course at New London."

"How are they taking to Service life?" I asked.

"Most of them are taking to it well. Many of them are college graduates and that makes things simpler. They're soaking up the required information like sponges. What's more they seem to take the regular students along with them. How are the miniature drives coming along?"

"James has the problems with the shuttle drives licked and the drives for the message-drones are just about there. The problems associated with message capsules are the retrieval methods, but I think that we're nearly there with those also. It all seems to be coming together for the first training cruise in February."

"And what have you got in mind for after that?"

"Probably Tau Ceti. It's more or less in the opposite direction from Epsilon Eridani. I anticipate coming home first to digest the results of the training cruise."

As you can guess, Bob and I were in regular communication with each other. One event that made our day was the arrival of four young Petty Officers. When I heard where they were from I put them into training on the shuttle simulator. I had upgraded it to include the data for the Solar system together with what we had on the Epsilon Eridani system. They could practice searching for and cataloging data for a real planetary system.

The real climax to the incident was when they told me about Doctor Gentry's reaction to them handing in their notice to NASA and told the good Doctor where they were going. I even thought of issuing an invitation to him to take a quick jaunt in the Enterprise, but I didn't want him to suffer apoplexy.

A lot of our recruits were commuting between our Holloman Base and the Skunk Works at Palmdale. I think that the new spacecraft was the largest thing that they had ever built there. Incidentally, Derek Paulsy had enlisted, and as I had promised him, I had posted him back to the Skunk Works. Just before Christmas he had moved his family to Holloman as he expected to be leaving Palmdale for here early in the new year.

Christmas was a happy time at the Space Service's Holloman Spaceport. We were looking forward to accepting the new spacecraft in the new year and then to going on our first cruise. James joined us for Christmas and was welcomed as the father of deep space exploration. Christmas was only eclipsed by our New Year's parties. The Officers' Mess entertained the Officers from the Base next door and their ladies.

Charles Groves had received his promised promotion to Captain, and Susan Chalmers had been promoted to Lieutenant-Commander as the Executive Officer. Our Scientific group was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander John White with Lieutenant Gerald Shaw in charge of the Environmental Sciences. His opposite number in charge of the Life Sciences is Lieutenant Barry Thompson.

Early in February, we flew the Enterprise down to Palmdale with three new drives. They were being installed before the outer hull could be completed. The guys at the Skunk Works had certainly worked their socks off in order to complete the new craft up to the stage that they had. Another four weeks and we could take delivery. The marine mechanics who were amongst our first recruits were our engineering shift commanders. They had stayed at Palmdale for those four weeks, helping with the installation of the drives.

The living quarters and other domestic equipment were also installed during this period, leaving only the scientific equipment to be installed back at base.

Finally, the party who were delivering the craft assembled for the trip to Palmdale. They were going down in the Enterprise. Captain Groves was in command with Lieutenant-Commander Chalmers as Chief Engineer and acting First Officer, Lieutenant Paulsy, Second Officer and Lieutenant (junior grade) Long as helmsman.

The three engineers were already there. The Enterprise was flown by CPO David Maltby who would fly back alone. Upon their return, they were greeted by the turnout of every last person present on the Base. Even the Seabees had gathered to see the return. I was standing on the edge of the apron with the Seabees' commander, Lieutenant Commander Bollinger.

"That's a magnificent sight, Commodore. I see why the hangar has to be so huge."

"I agree," I replied. "We'll have to give your lads a free ride as a reward for all their hard work."

"Thank you, Commodore. They will certainly appreciate that. I'm certainly looking forward to it myself. Have you chosen a name for her yet?"

"Yes, but I'm waiting for approval from on high. I've invited the President to bring the First Lady to perform the naming. I hope you and your crew will be able to attend?"

"You bet Sir. We wouldn't miss it for the worlds."

I noticed that when the vessel was landing that they had installed wheels. Later in the Mess I asked Derek Paulsy why they had used wheels instead of just the feet originally specified.

He said, "It was just as easy to do, and it will make it easier to maneuver the vessel on the Base. If we need to set down on sloping ground, the wheel struts are self-leveling. The wheel brakes will prevent the vessel from rolling."

The next two weeks were spent in installing the scientific equipment and fitting us all up with dress uniforms. A light blue-gray color had been chosen with the style and insignia comparable with those of the Coast Guard. I had also received a second star. I was now a Rear Admiral.

At last the day of completion arrived. The base was shining like a new pin. We had sent the Enterprise to Washington to pick up the President, the first lady, and the accompanying dignitaries. These included a couple of members of the Cabinet and several inhabitants of the Pentagon. The party also included Bob Mather, who told me that although he had been following our proceedings remotely, there was nothing like seeing for himself.

Space Ship One set down on the Apron at five past eleven. We had borrowed the band from the Air Force Base. The President and the First lady emerged from the Enterprise and walked over to the platform with the extra wide steps that was to act as the naming lectern. Its construction had been a contribution of the Seabees to the day's celebrations. As our visitors appeared, the Air Force band struck up with four ruffles and flourishes, followed by 'Hail to the Chief'. The President waved to the assembly.

The actual naming ceremony was to be followed by a tour of the vessel and a short flight, but first of all, the President inspected the troops. My Adjutant, Steve Edmunds and myself accompanied him on his walk round, as did the Commander of each group we inspected.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise was moved to the far end of the apron and our new craft was moved up to its position in front of the naming lectern. As we went round the assembled groups the President did not speak to many of the crew members. He would be seeing more of them a little later. He did, however, spend more time with the base staff.

At last, we returned to the lectern and the President escorted the First Lady up the steps to the platform at the top. The band struck up with the theme from 'Star Wars'. The party that had come with the President followed us up onto the platform, while Lieutenant Commander Bollinger had a quick word with the First Lady, explaining the setup and how she could work it. First, however, the President stepped up to a microphone facing the crowd.

"My fellow Americans. Today marks the auspicious start of the newest branch of the United States' Services. That the Space Service exists is down to the productive genius of Professor Burton. He was ably assisted by Doctor, and now Rear Admiral, Axon who now leads the Space Service. Their first economically produced space ship 'Enterprise' now gives way to the purpose built vessel which we are here today to see named."

He turned to indicate the First Lady, who stepped up to her microphone.

"I name this vessel, the Space Ship, Voyager."

#  18

## _Voyager_

"And may God keep safe all those who sail in her."

With those words, the First Lady pressed the button that swung a bottle against the hull of the Voyager. It burst with a satisfying display of froth. The expression on her face suggested that it was not always so satisfying.

A cheer went up from the assembled crowd. The First Lady turned and the cheering renewed itself. She waved. The President took her arm and they led the platform contingent down the steps. I moved up to their side and escorted them to the Officers' Mess for lunch.

After lunch, we gave the crew time to board the Voyager before we took ourselves for the grand tour. I accompanied the President and the First Lady. The party that followed us round included Captain Groves, Lieutenant-Commander Chalmers, and Bob Mather. We started the tour on deck one, the lowest, at the stern of Voyager. I explained that there had been some minor changes from the specifications arrived at the conference held in Washington. For example, the conference had not anticipated the inclusion of a flag officer aboard.

At the stern, there were twenty shuttles encapsulated down both quarters. Susan and I demonstrated how we entered the shuttles and then went on to show how we dispatched the message drones from the stern. Forward of the shuttle bays are the heavy mechanical workshops, specimen storage for geological and biological specimens and the laboratories. Forward of the laboratories are the quarters for the non-commissioned scientists

It was the First lady who spotted large unused areas on deck one. I explained that these areas concealed the components of the undercarriage. Further forward still we arrived at a large conference room. Then in the bow we entered the Captains office to starboard. I told the party that my office to port was identical. Between the two was the bridge. The main obvious difference between our bridge and those in Star Trek is at the front. Ours has a large observation viewport with screens above it. There isn't an ops position and the helmsman is sunk well below the eye line of the Command positions.

"Isn't it like the bridge of the 'Star trek' ships?" asked the President.

"Yes," I replied. "They got that more or less right, even though they put it in the wrong position on the ship. Have you noticed that there is only one position in the lowest part of the bridge? That's for the helmsman. The seats on the level behind the helmsman comprise the command level. They are for the Captain, First Officer and myself. Back here are the remaining bridge positions. Let's go up to deck two. We will have to climb up the steps though as I'm afraid we don't have Star Trek's turbo lifts... yet."

I led the party out of the bridge and up the port-side stairs. Deck two is principally engineering. Forward are a pair of forty-inch Cassegrain telescopes, which are used stereoscopically or independently. Instead of the all round telescopes that I had installed in the Enterprise, we had a better coverage of small video cameras with five hundred-to-one zoom lenses. Behind the telescopes, in the center of the vessel is the drive room and the adjacent workshops. The drive room held two complete drives in a fore and aft layout. We had found that by using this arrangement we could dispense with the flywheel that we had used on the Enterprise. At the stern of deck two are the engineers' quarters.

Climbing to deck three, we entered the forward lounge, which also served as the Mess. The large view port in the bow gave a good view to the front of the vessel. The front half of the Mess is double height. The Officers Mess on deck four stops short of the bow giving a magnificent view out of the panoramic bow viewport. I explained to the party that the slight tint to the port was due to the metallic layer which preserved the essential conductivity that existed throughout the surface of the hull.

Behind the Mess is the kitchen with food stores towards the stern. The rear half of deck three is taken up with the crew quarters and the quarters of non-commissioned deck officers. Ascending to deck four, we saw the Officers' Mess. It overlooked the panoramic viewport on deck three. The two senior officers had quarters on either side, the Captain to starboard and myself to port. The aft half of deck four behind the officers' quarters was taken up with the machinery space as the height there was diminished.

After the tour, we adjourned to the Officers' Mess, where the First Lady commented.

"I didn't see any recreational facilities. Shouldn't you provide something?"

"There's a gymnasium on deck one. Apart from their computers with games and reading material, we hope that they won't need anything else. Remember that we shall be on a scientific expedition, not a pleasure cruise and that they will spend a lot of their time in absorbing all the data that they discover."

"I see, but how about the non-scientific members of your crew?"

"The same facilities are available to them.

The President asked, "Could you please explain to me why the descent of the Enterprise seemed to to take much longer than the ascent?"

"Yes. You see when we take off our only limit is to not create a sonic boom. That means that we can climb to our traveling height in about a minute and a half. The cross country trip can be equally short. It's when we come to descend that we must be more circumspect. We don't want to be mistaken for a ballistic missile. That's why, after we drop to about twenty thousand feet, we slow down to drop at about three thousand feet per minute. After all, it only adds about seven minutes to the trip. That's a small price to pay for not being shot down."

Later, we escorted the Washington party back to the Enterprise for their return trip to Washington. Half an hour later, we were back at our base.

The following morning, I held a meeting. Present were Captain Groves, his First Officer, Commander Chalmers, Doctor Jean Spencer and the three senior scientists.

I kicked off the meeting by asking, "How do we assess that any planet we find as suitable for human habitation?"

Lieutenant-Commander John White spoke first, "Gerald, you start with the environmental requirements."

Lieutenant Gerald Shaw spoke, "The required factors include a breathable atmosphere, a magnetic field of approximately Earth type magnitude, some volcanic activity, but not too much, a temperature range that is not too far from temperate, gravity that is Earth-like, and duration of days and years that are not too unlike Earth's. Preferably it should be rich in resources, be biologically suitable and finally not too cut off from the rest of humanity. I think that covers most of the environmental requirements. Barry, over to you."

"You already mentioned the atmosphere," said Lieutenant Barry Thompson. "Its composition should approximate Earth's. If there is native life, it should not be too detrimental to human beings. Hopefully, it should be DNA-based so that we have some understanding of how it all works. That makes the generation of useable soil possible. I suppose the magnetic requirements you mentioned are to protect humans from radiation from the parent star."

"Doctor?" I asked.

"Until we get some idea of any pathogens we may encounter, I suggest that first landings are carried out in space suits which can be disinfected with suitable sprays upon the explorers' return."

The remainder of the discussion was about the equipment we had and how to interpret the measurements that we took.

#  19

## _Shake-down Cruise_

Our plans for a cruise to Epsilon Eridani were put on hold until suits could be provided for planetary exploration that would give us protection from exoplanetary pathogens. For now we decided to do a practice cruise around the Earth itself.

I had been summoned to Washington to address the Advisory Committee that had been formed at my suggestion. An initial open meeting had decided that an annual conference open to all would suffice for most, but that a committee of sixteen should meet monthly.

It was the inaugural meeting of this committee that I had been invited to address. I opened the meeting by welcoming the attendees and told them that in future I would be unable to attend all their meetings. However, I softened the effect of this by promising that the results of their discussions would be examined carefully by the Space Service and that in turn we would supply them with results of our explorations.

Note that I didn't say all our results. I felt that there could easily be some information that needed to be kept under wraps. It was to be quite a while, but eventually I would be proved right. After the usual extended discussion, the committee concluded that the principle goal of any expedition should be the search for habitable planets. That was more or less the conclusion I had already reached.

The next day I visited the White House to discuss what should be the next step for the Space Service. I felt that it was too early to say. Until we had some experience with the Voyager, we would not know what other factors would influence future design. Again the emphasis was given to possible colonization.

"Admiral," asked the President "how do you see the future of exoplanet colonization?"

"It seems to me that we need a Voyager class vessel to remain on a planet long enough to assess the possibility of colonization. The initial surveys could be carried out by a much smaller scout vessel. The implication is that one of these smaller vessels needs to be matched by several of the Voyager class."

"How many do you think?"

"I imagine it could be in the ratio of about four to one or even six to one. Maybe even more."

"And what do you see happening then?"

After a planet has been assessed as being suitable for colonization, a much larger ship still needs to be used to carry the potential colonists. It would be used as a base for the colonists until they could stand on their own resources. There would need to be a fourth class of vessel; a small fast mail carrier with perhaps some cargo carrying capacity. I think that should be enough ideas to be going on with."

"Do you think we should open recruitment to other nationals? How about the recruitment of colonists? Should they include other nationals?"

"Eventually," I replied, "we shall have to. I hope that by then the need for secrecy will be past. In the meantime, I think we should be able to keep the details of the drive under wraps. It isn't as though its existence is the secret. As I see it, the bottleneck could well be the recruitment of suitable personnel for crews and the scientific groups, or would it be cost of building a space fleet?"

"How much," asked the President, "do you think the Voyager cost?"

"Well, Its about the size of a small aircraft carrier, so I suppose its cost must be in the region of billions of dollars."

"You would be pleasantly surprised. It cost less than a hundred million. I think that your fleet is a distinct possibility. It will all depend on what you find with Voyager. We must look into providing you with such a scout vessel."

That more or less put an end to our discussions. I decided to return to the Space Base via Magnolia so that I could see James Burton and keep in touch with what he was doing. He had mentioned that he had made considerable progress in small drives for the proposed message drones.

He had reduced the size of the drive to a cube about twelve inches on a side. In a six foot long drone that left plenty of room for the control system, for messages and even for some specimens.

There were two control problems. The first was the practical problem of retrieving the drone. The second was the security problem in that only the recipient should be able to retrieve the drone.

The first problem was solved by controlling the drive so that the drone goes into an orbit around the destination star, half an astronomical unit in radius. That avoided the problem of the drone ending up on the opposite side of the star from the recipient.

The second problem was solved by the exchange of encrypted beacon signals.

Two days later, the Voyager returned to base. They had been somewhat shy about cruising over other countries and had taken themselves off to Mars. A number of the crew disembarked before Voyager was backed into its hangar. A few minutes later, John White entered my office wearing a wide grin and waving a slab of rock at me.

"Look what we found on Mars!" He waved his slab of rock under my nose.

When I had a chance to look at it more carefully, it seemed to be the outline of a fossil. I wasn't sure whether it was a leaf or some kind of animal.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Its an early form of trilobite. We found it in the Cydonia region. The rock strata shows that it lived about four hundred and fifty million years ago."

"How do you work that out?"

"All the Solar system is the same age, so we can use the same method of dating rocks as we do on Earth. In fact, we've already done that with meteorites that have been thrown up on Mars and have landed on Earth. You realize what this means?"

"No. What does it mean?"

"Not only that life has been found on Mars, but that it has followed the same pattern as here on Earth. It seems likely therefore that life has followed the same pattern elsewhere in the Galaxy. What do you think of that?"

"We'll just have to go and see. We know that there's life on Epsilon Eridanus B and C. There could even be life on D. How soon do you want to go?"

"I'm ready, now, but my wife may have something to say about that. Also, the Voyager needs replenishing. We only took a week's supplies. Let's plan on setting out on Monday."

"Let me check with the other Departments and I'll let you know. Are your people ready for the trip?"

"Ready and waiting. I think we're all looking forward to it. By the way, what do you think we should do with this trophy?" John asked, indicating the rock.

"There will be more, so as this is the first solid proof of extraterrestrial Solar system life, let's mount it in a glass case and present it to the White house."

That's exactly what we did. We did, however, make a number of copies which were donated to various museums and institutions.

While the Voyager was being prepared for the return to Epsilon Eridani, we held a number of meetings to discuss what we had learned so far. Everyone agreed that a proper study of a planet called for a much longer stay than had been allowed for during the shake-down cruise. I conducted a poll which asked the participants how long did they consider necessary to study any one planet. I was working on the principle that while people as a whole disagree on a topic, the mean average of their opinions can be surprisingly accurate. The result of the poll was for a cruise of seven and a half months.

As a consequence, I set the cruise to Epsilon Eridani C to be six months in duration. Realizing that I had a second crew to find in the near future, I transferred some of the officers and crew off the Voyager so that we could plan the next vessel.

#  20

## _The Return to Epsilon Eridani_

The Voyager set off for Epsilon Eridani C under the Command of Captain Groves. However, Lieutenant-Commander Chalmers together with Lieutenant Paulsy and Lieutenants (junior grade) Benson and Long were replaced. They had been retained as potential crew for our proposed scout vessel.

The Voyager was equipped with twenty message drones which were to be dispatched every two weeks. Meanwhile, back at base we were planning the next vessel. It was to be much smaller than Voyager, but larger than the Enterprise. We soon settled on a length of about one hundred feet long by about forty feet wide and twenty-five feet high. That would give us three decks and accommodation for a crew of about twenty. I sent a note of the discussions to Bob Mather.

Three weeks later, our communications office reported that they had detected the beacon of a message drone. It was recovered by a spare shuttle and we gathered to learn how the expedition had fared. Voyager had found and landed on Planet C. The three Cartographers had set off in one of the shuttles to map the planet. They expected to be finished in about a week after the report.

Other 'away missions' were examining the geology and the biology of the planet. As yet, they had not probed specimens C. The three Cartographers had set off in one of the shuttles to map the planet. They expected to be finished in about a week after the report.

Other 'away missions' were examining the geology and the biology of the planet. As yet, they had not probed specimens for DNA, but were about to do so. Voyager had proved suitable and so far they said that they had no recommendations for improvements.

The next day I received an urgent telephone call from George Morrison at the Skunk Works.

"Can you find time to come down here, Admiral? We have a lot to discuss. I've had a letter of intent from the White House and we need to thrash out the details."

"How about today? I have a few things that must be cleared up first, but I reckon I could be there by lunchtime."

"That will do nicely. I look forward to seeing you. Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye."

Within twenty minutes, I had cleared my desk, and was in the shuttle that I had kept as my personal transport. Another twelve minutes and I was shaking George Morrison's hand.

"I still can't get used to you coming all the way from Holloman so quickly. How do you adjust to it?"

"It comes with practice. Now you said something about a letter of intent from the White House. What have they told you?"

"They are calling for a design for another spacecraft. I understand that it is to flit among stars looking for planets that the Voyager can study in more depth."

"That's right. I should think that we'll need several craft of the Voyager class for each of these smaller crafts. Their task will be to ensure that the basic factors for human habitation are met. The Voyager class craft will carry out a much more detailed study of planets that the new craft will have selected."

"That's how we understood the problem. How many crew do you see for this new craft?"

"I'm not sure yet, but it will probably be between twenty and thirty. In fact, we may want to revise the number after a few initial missions."

"Right, let's go and get lunch, then afterward we'll show you the drawings and models we've got. You know, the whole idea of what you're doing has captured the imagination of our designers. They all seem to be pulling design rabbits out of their hats."

After a magnificent lunch, we adjourned to his office where a number of models of different shapes were lying on a table against the side wall. There was even one like the craft in 'Star Trek'. George indicated one of them that resembled our Voyager.

"One of our designers seemed to think that we had got it right when we built the Voyager. That maybe so, but some of our other designers thought differently. I think that that one," pointing at the 'Star Trek' model, "was added as a joke."

"Do you have any internal layouts for these?"

"Yes. Over here. He led me over to another table where drawings were laid out. There were not only engineering drawings showing the internal layout of the craft, but also illustrations of how the designers thought the interior should look. We spent a couple of hours going over the drawings. After a while, George called in two of the designers and we spent a further two and a half hours thrashing out all the points that arose. By the time we had finished, I was more than satisfied and told them as far as I was concerned, they could go ahead.

George replied that my agreement was all they needed and that they would swing into action. I thanked them all and set out on my return trip to Holloman.

The next six weeks were spent in organizing the crew for our new exploratory vessel. It would be commanded by Lieutenant Commander Susan Chalmers with Lieutenant (junior grade) Benson as her Executive Officer, Navigator, and general gofer. Lieutenant Derek Paulsy would sail as the Chief engineer as would Lieutenant (junior grade) Thomas Long as Officer-in-charge of the Science Group. Doctor Lieutenant June MacTavish, elder sister of one of the nurses on the Voyager would be the Medical Officer.

In charge of the Galley would be Chief Petty Officer 'Chubby' Chubb. He lived up to his name and had already proved to us that he was proficient at his job. In addition to the two engineers, two cooks and four scientists we would be carrying a very small detachment of Space marines; a recent addition to the Service.

The next message drone arrived home with the news that life on Epsilon Eridani C was based on DNA. They also included the high-resolution maps of the planet. The poles were indicated and a line of zero longitude had been selected. Other lines of longitude and of latitude were shown with a few measurements of magnetic declination. More were promised later. The rest of the report was an introduction to the biological taxonomy of the planet. They compared the state of the planet to the Permian period on Earth.

Back at base we were gathering in the scientific equipment required for the new craft and shipping it off to Palmdale for installation. Reports from Lieutenant Paulsy at the Skunk Works indicated that the hull was almost complete and that they had reached the stage of installing pipework and all the cabling. In about another month, they should have finished it and have it ready for delivery.

It was time again for me to attend the next meeting of our advisory Committee. This time I took Sergeant Murchison with me. I'm glad I did, for when we entered the Conference room I discovered they had elected a new Chairman. I was greeted by Niels Gentry.

"Ah! Good morning, Admiral, please take a seat," indicating a single chair with arms opposite himself.

I held the chair for Kate to seat herself and then looked around for a chair for myself.

Seeing none, I said, "Mister Chairman if you'll excuse me, I'll be back in a minute.

I left the room before he could reply.

A few moments later, I returned carrying an armless chair I had 'borrowed' off the Agent guarding the door. After I had sat down next to Kate, the chairman spoke.

"It was good of you to join us, Admiral. Perhaps we can now proceed with the Meeting."

"Of course, Doctor Gentry. What can I tell you?"

On the contrary, Admiral. You were ordered to appear before us so that we can tell you what you are to do. You are not to return to Epsilon Eridani. Instead, you are to assess the system of Alpha Centauri. Is that clear?"

It seems that every time I see the Doctor, he is destined to make me lose my temper.

"What is clear, Doctor, is that you have not understood the purpose of this Committee. It was called an advisory committee for a reason. Voyager has already returned to Epsilon Eridani C and here is a digest of their first four reports. Good day to you, Sir. Good day, gentlemen."

I dropped the folder with reports on the table in front of him.

We got up and left. Still fuming, we sought out Bob Mather and advised him what had happened. He took it in his stride and sought to calm us down. He succeeded and we left the White house for the Base in a much better frame of mind.

#  21

## _Scout or Frigate?_

Arriving back at our Holloman base, I realized that the working day was over and that it was approaching dinner time. I, therefore, dropped Kate off at the Non-Commissioned Officers' Mess before returning to the Officers' Mess. Entering, I saw that George Morrison had decided to visit us.

"Hi, George. To what do we owe this visit of yours?"

"I've got a present for you," he said, "and I thought that I'd deliver it personally."

"So what is it?"

"It's a surprise, and you can wait until after dinner." he said and grinned at me.

We then went into dinner and the conversation became more general. After dinner, he led me and a small crowd out of the Mess. We went across the road and across the runway to the smaller hangar. There we were greeted by the sight of our new exploratory craft.

"I see why you couldn't give it to me in the Mess," I said to George, "How on earth did you manage to build it so quickly?"

"Enthusiasm and overtime," he replied.

We went around the bow to the starboard side. Halfway down the side, a door to the craft lay open with stairs built into its inside, just like those in a small corporate jet aircraft. We climbed into the hull and turned right towards the bow. We entered the bridge and I saw that there were three positions in the front sunken section. I raised my eyebrows in query at George.

"It was thought that when you're exploring planets you might want to use two bow lookouts looking directly at the view," he said.

"This bridge looks as big as the bridge on Voyager. How did you do it?"

"We put the ready rooms behind the bridge instead of along each side. We've only put in four shuttles and quarters for thirty-two crew. That number results in some doubling up, although we haven't had to introduce any hot bunking."

"Hot bunking?" asked Steve, "I don't think I've heard that term before."

"Yes. It means the sharing of bunks where two or more users are on different shifts and, therefore, don't need to sleep at the same time. Now let's have a look at the laboratories. We have equipped most of them. We've been in touch with your science group. They've been most helpful in suggesting equipment that is either smaller or better than the corresponding equipment in Voyager. Now let's go up to the drive and Mess deck."

We climbed to deck two, where George explained that the chairs in the Mess were a compromise between upright dining chairs and more relaxing armchairs for lounging. I tried one and agreed that he had probably made the right choice. The tables were adjustable in height to make them suitable for both uses, dining, and lounging. Behind the galley, we entered the drive room. It led to the engineering store and workshops.

Going forward again we climbed to the quarters deck. George led us into the Captain's cabin. It seemed empty at first. The cabin walls, like the rest of the craft, were finished in sky blue while the deck had a grass green finish in some soft material. George then demonstrated the hidden features of the cabin. He pulled a bunk out from the wall, followed by several chairs, a desk complete with a computer screen, a pull-out keyboard, and a mouse pad arrangement. He showed us the built in wardrobe and the communications panel.

Opening another door, he said, "This is the head for this cabin. Most cabins have their own head, although a few have to share. To supplement the communications, we have produced these," said George producing a gizmo which I recognized as being more than similar to the communication badges worn by the characters in 'Star Trek'. "I'm continually being reminded how right Roddenberry was with his effects."

"I can't see our Medical Officer using a salt cellar, though, as a diagnostic device," I replied.

I'd overlooked the fact that Doctor June MacTavish was one of our tour party.

"You'd be surprised, Admiral, Sir, at what we use at times," she said. "Have you not heard of placebos? Salt cellars as diagnostic devices could also be classed as placebos."

George then led us into the central core of deck three. "This is your domain, doctor. It's small, but very well equipped, and as you've seen, you don't have to go far to make house calls. Well, that concludes the tour. What do you think of her, Admiral?"

"It seems to be just what we want for a quick look at any star system. How much more remains to be done on her?"

"A week should see you out in space. There're all your stores to load. By the way, our fly-by-wire people said I should congratulate you on the software you used on Voyager. They said they couldn't improve on it. They've done their best, however, to expand on its scope. For example, they've added infrared imaging and low light imaging to your cameras. The navigation software is completely automatic now. They also added black box features in case the worst should happen."

"I sincerely hope that won't be necessary," I replied.

"So do I, but we have to prepare for the worst case scenario. The history of flight has taught us that."

The next morning another drone from Voyager announced itself. The news was all good. They had planted some grass seed in the virgin desert when they had arrived and it was just beginning to sprout. They had also attracted one of the creatures, about the size of a small dog, which had become their pet. They had classed it as a dinosaur, a small raptor. The geological team was making progress in typing rock samples from various sites over the planet. Potassium-argon dating suggested that the system was of the order of three point six billion years old. So far, they had accumulated data on two hundred and twelve species and had obtained a genome of thirty-six species. The whole crew remained in good health and spirits and were looking forward to further exploration.

I forwarded the report to the White House with the recommendation that Bob Mather should be asked to present it to the Advisory Committee. I really did not want to cross swords with Doctor Gentry again.

The naming ceremony could not be attended by the president and First Lady due to a prior engagement. Bob Mather would attend but had no suggestions to offer a replacement for the First Lady from the Washington hierarchy. I told him that if he could get here under his own steam, I would make sure to have him returned to Washington.

He then said, "Why don't you ask the commander of the Air Force Base if his wife would officiate?"

"That's a good idea, Bob," I replied. "I'll get onto him at once."

I did that and Colonel Crisp was delighted that I would ask his wife. Two days later we were gathered in the Mess. A large contingent was coming over from the Air Force Base to see the Colonel's wife name the new craft.

"Why is the name misspelled?" she asked.

"That's because it is named after a ship of the British Navy," I replied. "That's why it's spelled like that. It was commanded by a very famous explorer. Just remember that the 'U' is silent and you'll get it right."

At that moment, Bob Mather, representing the White House, entered the Mess. I was surprised to see him accompanied by Doctor Gentry. He gave me a wry smile from behind the Doctor. After I had carried out the introductions, I led the party outside where the craft awaited us and the Air Force band was playing a selection from the works of John Philip Sousa. As we appeared the music stopped and the band struck up the Washington Post. We crossed to the stairs leading to the Podium. When we reached the top Ada Crisp turned to the crowd and waved.

"We are gathered here today," she said, "to name this latest addition to our Space Fleet. May she assist in the exploration of the Galaxy and keep safe all who sail in her. I, therefore, name this spacecraft, 'Endeavour'."
22

## _Where to go next?_

Ada Crisp turned to me and asked, "Where will you go first?"

"We haven't yet determined wh..."

"But my Committee has," interrupted Doctor Gentry, producing a sheet of paper, "and here is your itinerary."

I didn't accept the page he was holding out, although I knew that I would have to at least look at it before too long. I led the naming party back to the Mess where lunch had been laid on. During the lunch, Ada Crisp encouraged me to tell her about our experiences with the Enterprise. Perhaps interrogated would have been a more accurate description. I could see that Doctor Gentry was becoming more and more frustrated by his lack of opportunity to present his itinerary.

At last the reason for the interrogation became apparent when Ada explained that her two eldest sons had asked her to get all possible information about the Space Service. They had been bitten by the space bug ever since I had borrowed their younger brother's computer joystick to take to Palmdale with me.

I turned to the Colonel and said with a grin. "But think, Colonel, they'll be reaching higher if they join the Space Service."

I told Ada that I would send her a copy of the simulator training software that we used to train our shuttle pilots. Ada beamed at me while the Colonel muttered "Traitor" under his breath."You know. You have almost convinced me to transfer. However, I have grown too accustomed to keeping my feet on the ground. So, what with one thing and another, I think I'll pass.

After lunch, I bit the bullet and approached Doctor Gentry.

"You have a list for me?"

"Ah, yes. Here it is. You are directed to assess these systems in the order given," he said, as he extracted it from his briefcase.

He handed it to me and I scanned the list.

It read:

_Star systems to be visited by the Space Service_

Seven planets:  
 _HD10180 in Hydrus._

Six planets:  
 _Kepler-11 in Cygnus, HD40307 in Pictor._

Five planets:  
 _55 Cancri in Cancer, Kepler-20 in Lyra, Kepler-33 in Lyra, Kepler-62 in Lyra, KOI-500 in Lyra, Tau Ceti in Cetus._

Four planets:  
 _Mu Arae in Ara, Gliese 581 in Libra, HR8799 in Pegasus, Gliese 876 in Aquarius, Upsilon Andromedae in Andromeda, Gliese 676A in Ara, KOI-94, KOI-730 in Cygnus._

Three planets:  
 _82 G Eridani in Eridanus, 61 Virginus in Virgo, HD 69830 in Puppis, 47 Ursa Majoris in Ursa Major, HIP 57274 in Ursa Major, HD 181433 in Pavo, HD 37124 in Taurus, HIP 14810 in Aries, HD125612 in Virgo, PSR B1257 +12 in Virgo, Kepler-9 in Lyra, Kepler-9, Kepler-30, Kepler-37 in Lyra, HD 31527 in Lepus, NU2 Lupi in Lupus, HD 134606 in Apus, HD 204313, Kepler-42 in Cygnus, Kepler-68._

The list was obviously copied. Almost certainly, off the internet, and then I grinned. I had recognized the specific page as I had found it during my researches. I looked at Doctor Gentry squarely in the eyes.

"I would recommend, Doctor, that you don't give up your day job in order to become a travel agent."

"Er? What makes you say that?"

"You've just handed me a list of stellar systems that have some planets in varying numbers. They are in all directions and up to almost three thousand light-years away from our solar system. The round trip, to take in that one system, alone, would currently take about eleven years. That's just not practical. A lot of the rest of the list is almost as bad. The order given is also a grave mistake. It's like giving someone, with a long weekend holiday, an itinerary that goes to China, then Poland, and finally back to Burma. As I said: 'Don't give up your day job.'"

"Hrmph!" he replied and backed off.

I turned to the Crisps and explaining why I had to return Bob Mather, and doctor Gentry to Washington, I asked them if they would like to come along for the ride. Ada was delighted to be asked and the Colonel grinned his acceptance.

I led them out to my personal shuttle and made Ada comfortable in the co-pilot's seat. Colonel Crisp and Doctor Gentry took the seats behind us while Bob Mather took one of the drop down seats built into the wall of the shuttle. We took off and at an altitude of about two hundred thousand feet, I asked my passengers.

"How do you feel about taking the scenic route?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ada.

"Look over there," I replied. "That thin crescent near the sun is the moon. It's in a good position to view the side we never see here on Earth."

I increased the speed of the shuttle, and in about ten minutes we were passing the moon. Stopping at about eight thousand kilometers above the surface of far-side we got a truly magnificent view. I took a photograph of the view and promised Ada that I would give her a copy of the picture. Twenty minutes later we landed at Andrews Air Force Base. I thanked Doctor Gentry, and Bob Mather for having attended the naming ceremony, and they disembarked. Another ten minutes, and I was dropping the Crisps off at their house.

The next few days were taken up with fitting the Endeavour with its final equipment and stocking it with supplies. I also kept my promise to Ada Crisp and sent her a framed photograph of the far side of the moon inscribed from the Captain and the crew of the Endeavour.

While the Endeavour was being prepared, I was working on our itinerary. I had taken five of the nearest stars to the Solar system whose classification was either F, G or K. and planned a circular route to visit all five systems. The total travel time at 500 Cee would be just under ten weeks. Allowing for a maximum of two weeks in any system, that came to a total of twenty weeks, or about four and a half months. Of these half would be spent in travel and half in exploration.

Another report had come in from Epsilon Eridani to the effect that they reckoned about another three months would see them ready to return. The report asked if I wanted them to leave a permanent detachment behind. My reply suggested that this time they should all come home and we would discuss it when I saw them.

At last, the day of departure arrived. The ground crew had towed the Endeavour, floating at an altitude of a few inches, out of the hangar. It always surprises me how such a large vessel can be moved by so few people. Moving incredibly slowly it emerged from the hangar. One of the people towing had flicked his rope around a low-lying bollard. The Endeavour gracefully rotated around the bollard as center. As it turned, the man on the forward rope dashed to a bollard towards the stern of the Endeavour to brake it. Once it was stationary, the Endeavour lowered to the ground and the ropes were removed.

As Lieutenant-Commander Chalmers and I walked over, the door flopped down displaying the integral boarding steps lowered into position. Boarding, I was greeted by a line of our six Marines and Petty Officer "Chubby" Chubb who was piping us aboard on his Bosun's pipe. Going forward to the bridge. I wonder where that came from. I proceeded to the bridge.

"Admiral on the bridge!"

"As you were," I replied, taking my seat on the chair to the right of the Captain's center chair. The Executive Officer, Charles Benson, took the left-hand chair.

"Helm, Have you set our destination coordinates?"

"Aye-aye, Ma'am."

"Then lift to five hundred thousand feet."

"Aye-aye."

Five minutes later.

"Change course."

We were on our way to Alpha Centauri.

#  23

## _Alpha Centauri_

Forty-five minutes later there was a clunk that was more felt than heard. Charles turned to Susan and asked, "What was that?" Others of the bridge crew were looking nervous.

Susan looked at me, so I replied. "That was the drive avoiding a body in the Oort Cloud. Do you remember, Charles, the feral planetoid we didn't hit in the Enterprise half way to Epsilon Eridani?"

"Yes. This bump was almost as much as that."

"I think that you would find, Charles, that if we stopped, we had passed a fair sized planetoid. Anything less and we probably wouldn't even feel it."

"Thank goodness," replied Charles, "that had me worried for a moment."

Just then, our Chief Engineer, Derek Paulsy, rushed onto the bridge, "What was that?"

With a calmness that he hadn't shown a minute before, our Duty Engineer, John Munro told him, "That was something in the Oort Cloud we just passed."

There were no more surprises until we slowed to a sub-light speed three days later. We found ourselves at about a hundred Astronomical Units from the two stars, Alpha Centauri A and B. The third, much dimmer star, Proxima Centauri, is about 13,000 Au from the other two, and could be seen as a dim red spot. One large rocky planet was known to orbit about B, but so closely that any life on it would be impossible.

We proceeded to adopt our planet-finding procedure by looking for the plane of the system and moving off to one side or the other. Looking at the system, we moved across it. Any bodies in the system show up as minute 'D' shapes which move against the distant background of stars. Twenty minutes later after moving across the system we had tagged three planets that we thought orbited Alpha Centauri A, two orbiting B and eight more that we thought might be orbiting the pair. There was no obvious trace of an asteroid or cometary belt. It looked as though between the pair, the two stars had swept the system fairly clear.

We designated these planets: Aa to Ac, Ba and Bb, and A-Bd to A-Bk. We were too close to the two main stars to see if there were any planets attached to Proxima Centauri, but we could always explore that star later. The next step we decided on was to take a quick look from the outside of the system in. We started with planet A-Bk.

This planet was a small gas giant with rings and two small moons. Planet A-Bj was a slightly larger gas giant with rings and three medium-sized moons. The next three planets were similar but larger with more moons. Then came two large ring-less gas giants. Planet A-Bd was smaller and icy.

There was a large gap to the next planet, Ac, which proved to be very disappointing. It was small, cold, and had no atmosphere.

Then we hit pay dirt. Planet Ab was verdant, temperate with an oxygen-rich atmosphere and with about forty percent of the surface covered with water. We were closing for a closer look when Chief Petty Officer Phyllis Hollis on the Science position called out, "I think you'd better slow down. The radiation is rather high."

"Helm, stop," ordered Susan.

"Is it natural?" I asked.

"No. I don't think so. It has all the earmarks of a catastrophic nuclear incident. It would have killed most advanced kinds of life. That's a very high level of radiation," said Phyllis.

"How high?" I asked.

"I would guess you'd last days on the surface, rather than weeks."

"What would be a safe height?" asked Susan.

"I'd want to remain above the atmosphere, in case it's hot too. Say, above a hundred thousand feet. I'll carry on monitoring the radiation level."

"Right. Helm, descend to one hundred and twenty thousand feet."

"Aye-aye, Ma'am."

"Hollis, If the radiation rises to too great a level, tell the helm to increase altitude. Got that, helm.

"Aye-aye." they replied in unison.

"Helm. Descend slowly along the coastline. "

"Aye-aye, Ma'am."

Most eyes were on the screens showing outputs of downward pointing cameras zoomed out to their maximum focal length. There was something slightly strange about the vegetation. It was as though the plant life had exploded into as many possible variations as it could. Unfortunately the greenery below covered up any signs of advanced life. Not that we were expecting any with the radiation present.

Lieutenant Thomas Long spoke, "wouldn't a desert environment be more likely to display any human remains? I mean the remains of anything civilized."

"Did anyone see any desert on the approach?" asked Susan.

"I thought I did, on the far side of this continent," said Thomas.

"Helm, come ninety degrees to starboard," ordered Susan.

"Aye-aye, Ma'am," replied the helm.

The ground remained a lush green as we traveled inland. However, after about five hundred miles, it started to thin out a bit. There was what looked suspiciously like the line of a road,

However, it was all but obscured by the sand. Eventually, we spotted a rectangular lump near the line and we slowed to examine it more closely.

"That was a building," said Phyllis. "I'm almost sure it was."

"Helm," said Susan, "keep on, but slow if you see anything of interest."

"Aye-aye Ma'am." replied the helm.

About a hundred miles further along, what might be a city skyline started to appear. As we got to about five miles from the city, there was a bend in the road at a turn off leading to one building standing alongside a number of ruins. The total impression of the group was that of a college campus. The lone standing building looked as though it could have been some assembly hall or even a library.

"How safe is it, Phyllis?" asked Susan.

"It should be safe enough for two or three hours. I've got some film badge dosimeters here. How many people will be in the landing party?"

"Two," I said, "I think it ought to be just you and me. If need be, we can call for backup."

"Right. We should wear suits," Phyllis said as she handed me a film badge.

"I'll meet you at Shuttle one."

Ten minutes later I had wriggled into my space suit and entered the shuttle. CPO Phyllis Hollis was already in the shuttle. She slid into the copilot's seat as I took the left-hand command seat and called for the outer door to be opened. Easing the shuttle out of Endeavour, we came round to face the apparently undamaged structure. I landed at the top of the broad steps that ran along the front of the building. We got into the airlock and evacuated the air into the shuttle. I opened the valve to the external atmosphere and opened the door at the rear of the shuttle. The large double door to the building was open on one side. That was fortunate as they had welded themselves into a fixed position over the years since they were last used.

We squeezed through the opening without too much trouble and entered a high atrium. There was a staircase on each side. On the right side, there was what looked like a long receptionist's desk. Opposite, leaning drunkenly against the wall was a board of the sort used on Earth to indicate the principal directions in a building,

Behind these, a small corridor led off on each side and right at the back of the atrium stood open double doors. With an extreme feeling of deja vu, we crossed to the double doors and entered.

The view in front of us screamed: 'library'. Shelves in rows disappeared into the background. The shelves nearest to us appeared to house boxes. I lifted one down and put it on a conveniently placed desk. Opening the box showed a number of dark cylinders. They were made of some hard substance. In appearance, they were matte with shiny ends. I looked at one more carefully. The matte surface was made up of a number of very fine grooves, or more accurately one groove that covered most of the cylinder.

Alongside the cylinders was an object which, when I pulled it out of the box, proved to be a book. The pages were much stiffer than you would expect in a terrestrial book. Putting it aside for the moment, I looked inside the desk to see if I could find any apparatus that would fit the cylinder. I found two machines. I examined them both and saw they looked as though they fitted cylinders of several different sizes. One of the machines had a flexible cable attached to it and that led me to suppose it required an electrical supply for power. The other machine had a handle which made me think that it might be powered by clockwork.

Putting these aside, we moved further into the room. As in an earth library, the books presented a varied appearance. There was a group of about thirty volumes which put me in mind of an encyclopedia. I looked at one volume taken at random from the collection. As far as I could tell, it confirmed my earlier impression. The pages dealt with a variety of subjects. This was obvious from the illustrations. What looked like individual articles started with what appeared to be the same character. We decided to add these books to our collection.

Another prize I found was a collection of three large volumes. There were no illustrations, but the initial characters were in the same order as in the encyclopedias. I thought that I had found a dictionary, and added the three volumes to our growing collection.

We then carefully climbed the staircase to the upper floor. Beside some offices, there were many more books. These however appeared to be fiction. The covers were illustrated with a variety of subjects. Some were extremely lurid. Others illustrated violent action. The overall effect generated feelings of homesickness. We collected as many illustrated books as we could.

It took eleven trips to load all our trophies into the shuttle, after which we returned to the Endeavour.

#  24

## _City and Space Base_

Once back on Endeavour, I called a meeting to describe what we had found and to discuss how to proceed. Phyllis claimed that her main task was to determine how to decipher the reading material that we had acquired. Of course, we might have no means of knowing how the language would sound unless the cylinders proved to be our 'Rosetta Stone'. Charles Benson volunteered to assist her.

At last, we were under way towards what we had taken to be the ruins of a city. So it proved. A few of the buildings towered up to six or seven stories, but had once been much higher. The quantity of surrounding rubble showed that. The extent of the ruins reminded me of Los Angeles, which would put the population around three million. I decided we should examine a home in the suburbs if we could find one that had not fallen into too much disrepair.

Too many of the domestic buildings looked as though they had been constructed mainly of timber, which had rotted away. In addition, in the dormitory suburbs, plant life had largely taken over leaving only house-shaped mounds lining what was left of the streets. Eventually, we came to a house with a large paved drive in the front, and patios that looked as though they were made of concrete, around the other three sides.

This time, our away team comprised Lieutenant June MacTavish, our Doctor, and Petty Officer Robert Wells, our Physicist. They were away for about three-quarters of an hour. When they returned we rose to fifteen thousand feet, an altitude at which we felt was outside the influence of the radiation. Some of us gathered in my ready room to hear their report. We left the microphones on so that their report would be recorded as well as heard throughout the Endeavour. Robert kicked off.

"There was only one skeleton left in the house. It looked almost human in appearance."

"One notable exception to the human look was that what we took for hands were funny looking. They had five digits," added June. "but I think it looked like three fingers and two thumbs, both opposed."

"Right. We think that he had been the gardener. There were what looked like garden tools where he was sitting. There was also a tumbler and a bottle beside him. It looked as though he had just passed out and then died."

"Anything else of interest?" I asked.

"Yes," replied June. "I searched their sleeping quarters. It looked as though they had left in a hurry. There were light and fancy clothes left spread around. The only hardwearing utility clothes I found looked as though they were just about worn out. It looks as though they packed and left in a hurry, knowing that they wouldn't be returning."

"I found a room that was either an office or study," said Robert. "In it was this leaflet in that plastic they use as paper. Here it is. It suggests that they were being evacuated into space. This diagram suggests that their destination was the second planet of the companion star. Their written language, although it's completely strange, looks as though it is constructed in the same manner as ours. I think that here," pointing to the back page, "this leaflet shows a spaceport or something like it, in that direction." He was pointing off the port bow.

"It seems," continued June "as though the family was the father, mother and two almost grown children going by their clothes. There's also either an older sister or other relative or a female servant. I lean to the latter idea. From the size of the gardener, it looks as though they were about twenty per cent taller than us. Here is a family picture album I found. To further determine their size, I also measured one of the doorways that appeared in one of their pictures."

I decided, following the discussion, that we should move to the Space Port, as our next point of exploration. Lifting to twenty thousand feet, we spotted what we took to be as our destination. As we approached it, the more we were convinced that we were right. As we descended to the Port, some twenty-five miles or so from the City we could see that it was surrounded by a high wire fence.

The strange thing about it was that it appeared to be surrounded by a drift of snow or white sand.

A closer inspection showed that it was a line of sun-bleached skeletons. Obviously there must have been a last minute panic effort to board a space ship before the atmosphere drenched the area with fatal radiation. Moving towards the office buildings, there were some spacecraft laid out horizontally fronted by plaques on stone bases. They looked remarkably like the Apollo craft displayed at NASA. There seemed to be little more that we could discover and I decided that we should take off for the second planet, Alpha Centauri B to see if the survivors reached there safely.

We took a leisurely trip to our destination to give us time to discuss the implications of what we might discover. Would they still be a space-faring race or would they have reverted to primitive savages or even died out? What should our response be to any of these outcomes? Eventually, we decided to 'wait and see'. The 'Star Trek Prime Directive' came up in the discussions. I, for one, favored it. We could always contact any race at a later time.

The next problem was to select a height for our observations. At a height of three hundred thousand feet, we would be unobservable to naked human eyes on the surface. However, those eyes wouldn't be human and we wouldn't be able to discern much ourselves. We settled on a quick survey to map the surface from a height of fifty thousand feet. That would give us an idea of how careful we had to be.

At that height with our optical systems we had an observable resolution of eight inches. An infrared camera would even help us to see through clouds. Our survey showed that the emigrants had prospered and had spread over a large portion of this world. We could see a fair number of sailing ships, both in their ports and on their high seas. Near one larger center of population, we even saw what we took to be a railroad. It looked as though they were reaching the era of an industrial revolution.

To decide what to do next, I held a meeting of the senior crew in my ready room. The rest of the crew attended via the courtesy of the ship's intercom system.

One of the questions that I felt needed answering was if these people were the descendants of the refugees from Planet Ab, how had they changed in the time since they left their home planet? We kicked the ideas around until we came up with an answer. I'm not sure who finally triggered the solution. I think that it was one of the Marines. All we heard was a disembodied voice over the intercom.

"It's a pity you can't go back to school there."

"That actually sounds like a good idea," said Phyllis. "Couldn't we monitor the classrooms in a school?"

"If their schools are anything like ours," I said, "we should choose a school in a small community. That way we could find a wide age range in one classroom. I think we need to explore the outlying areas to find what we want."

That's what we did. We cruised around until we found a comparatively isolated community with a small one-room school. In the middle of the night, we installed a video camera, microphone, and transmitter where they were unlikely to be found. The hidden camera coverage included the instructional board at the teacher's end of the classroom.

The setup was powered by disguised photo-voltaic cells on the school roof and would record only while anything was going on in the classroom. The information would be stored until the transmitter was tripped, when it would disgorge its accumulated information. Naturally it was Charles Benson who designed and produced the apparatus.

We tested the system by letting it gather sounds and pictures for a week and then uploading the information. Charles told us that if this week's upload was typical, we would have about a year's capacity in the storage. That seemed enough for our needs.

Phyllis, in the meantime, was going wild over the small sample we had acquired so far. She pronounced that it was the same language as used on the irradiated world with minor variations that were only to be expected over a long period of time.

I felt that the time had come to move on. Proxima Centauri, or Alpha Centauri C was only a few hours travel from the two primary stars. Disappointingly it only had three small rocky planets with no atmosphere or other signs of life.

Leaving the Alpha Centauri system, we headed for our next star system, Procyon.

#  25

## _Procyon and beyond_

Twelve days later we arrived at the Procyon star system. It is another binary star system. The primary star, Procyon A, has a large habitable zone between two and four Astronomical units from the star. The second star is at an average distance of fifteen Astronomical units from the first. We soon discovered the two planets, one of which was in the habitable zone, and that was one more than I expected.

Let me explain. Procyon B has an obviously elliptical orbit. At their closest, Procyon B almost grazes the habitable zone around Procyon A. Thus a large portion of space outside this habitable zone has been swept clean by Procyon B, a white dwarf.

Planet two is roughly an earth-sized planet. It appeared to be in the mid-Paleozoic era, ripe for colonization. We spent three days, mapping and cataloging. There were no real surprises and so we decided to leave further exploration to a Voyager class craft. We pressed on to Tau Ceti.

The trip from Procyon to Tau Ceti took another twelve days. On day three of the flight, Phyllis came to my ready room, her excitement making her incoherent.

"Sit down, Phyllis, and then calm down and tell me. What has got you so excited?"

She spluttered for a few more seconds, before saying, "It's the language on Alpha Centauri B-a. You know I'd already shown that it was the same as the language on A-b, with the small variations that you would expect after what they had been through."

"Er... yes?"

"Well, as I started to learn the language, I was struck by the similarities to the Indo-European languages. You know I took comparative linguistics as a minor subject at college. At the time, it was a relaxation from my other studies, but I found it fascinating. This language is going to fit with human minds, and that is going to make it easier to learn."

"So, how are you progressing with it?"

"There are thirty letters in their alphabet. Thanks to the monitoring in that school, we get to know how each of their characters sounds. It turns out that the language is phonetic, like Spanish, and that makes it easier. The Encyclopedia you rescued from planet Ab gives us a knowledge base that we couldn't obtain in any other way. I think that very soon I'll have to stop what I'm doing and sit down and scan the whole of those volumes onto DVDs. Incidentally, remember the leaflet we found at the house we explored. It gave the name of the planet they were traveling to as Osmum."

"Would it help if I could recruit some assistants for you?"

"Oh, yes. That would be great. How soon do you think you can do that?"

"In about twenty minutes. I'll post a note, and put a request for help on the ship's news. That will free you to start work on a primer for the Centauran language.

Phyllis left my ready room like a puppy with two tails. Perhaps I should have mentioned our ship's news before this. We broadcast throughout the ship any news, such as our progress and anything of note that we had discovered. We also put the news on the ship's intranet. For off-duty crew members who were asleep in their bunks, they could access the news on their computers later when they were awake.

I was relaxing with my coffee after lunch when our Catering Chief Petty Officer 'Chubby' Chubb approached me.

"Excuse me Admiral, Sir," he said. "Might I have a word, Sir?"

"Of course, Chubby. That was an excellent lunch."

"Oh, Thank you, Sir. What I wanted to ask you, Sir. Is it alright if I volunteered to help with this language thing for Petty Officer Hollis? I was good at languages at school. I even thought I might be a translator before I became interested in cookery. How about it, Sir?"

"I'm sure Phyllis would appreciate your help. I hope you realize that most of the work will be in copying a set of encyclopedias into a computer. That will give Phyllis time to work on a language primer. However, she will probably be glad to have someone on which to try it out."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll see her after I've prepared dinner."

He returned to the galley. In the meantime, I was mulling over some of the problems that Phyllis would face, but from my point of view. Scanning the pages of the encyclopedias produces only pictures. There are computer programs that extract text from pictures, but it would need modification before it would recognize Centauran text. We could also modify a text reader program to recognize Centauran alphabetic characters.

Once I had my ideas sorted out, I needed to know the Centauran alphabet so that it could be incorporated into the ASCII system. Contacting Phyllis, I explained what I needed. She said that she had what I wanted and would be with me directly. Two minutes later there was a knock on my Ready room door.

"Come in."

"Afternoon, Admiral," said Phyllis as she entered holding a sheet of paper. "I think this is what you wanted."

I took the proffered paper to examine it.

"The Centauran characters are followed by an earth equivalent sound character. It sounds very much like a Spanish language with Gallic overtones. I've included what we know so far of their punctuation. There may be more to come."

"Thank you. How is Chubby's assistance working out?"

"Oh, great. He's a real asset. He's a great help with sorting out the school videos."

"I thought he would be scanning the encyclopedias."

"No! He roped the Marine squad into doing that. They've settled down to the job with enthusiasm. I think they were feeling like a third leg and this job has given them a feeling of being part of the team. At the rate we are going, they should have finished by the time we get home. I've also got one of the Marines scanning the Dictionaries."

"Have you sorted out their numbering system yet?"

"Yes. It's a decimal system like ours. They may have two thumbs on each hand, but they only have three other fingers."

"That may be enough to get us started on learning their language."

"How do you mean?"

"Numbers are an integral part of many sciences. Take the periodic table, for example. If you can find the Centauran equivalent, it will not only tell us how they named their elements, but give us an idea of how far their chemistry has advanced."

"Yes. I see that. I'm going to have to rope you in on to our team."

"Why don't you feed me your data and I'll see what I can make of it? Remember my Doctorate is in computing. I've several programs that should prove useful to the project."

"I'll get onto it right away. I hope you don't find the quantity too intimidating."

With that she left. I examined the paper she had left me. The numerical characters were easy to convert to Ascii, but I thought for a while about what to do in respect of their alphabetic characters. Finally, I realized that the order should reflect the order that the Centaurans assigned to them. It would enable me to use a sort function in any of my programs.

The next task was to produce a font that could be used to extract the characters from the scanned pages. I pulled out a box I had brought with me, containing my collection of copies of useful programs. Extracting a true type font editor, I loaded it into my computer and started to produce the glyphs of the Centauran characters. I decided to produce two versions, one monospace font, and one proportional font. I thought that would do for the time being.

The next task was to write a program that would split each graphic file into its component graphics and text and to combine them into a PDF file. Then repeat the whole process over again until it ran out of input files. I tested my program on a group of ten of the scanned pages to verify that it worked. That went well. The program transposed all ten files in fifteen seconds. Before long it had caught up with the Marines' scanned files.

Eight days later we had reached Tau Ceti.

#  26

## _Tau Ceti_

Tau Ceti has or had been believed to have five planets. We performed our planet finding ritual and increased that number to ten. The habitable zone was supposed to lie between the orbits of planets four and five. However it proved to be bit broader than had been previously thought.

Planet four had small areas of open water and the land was mainly desert. There were patches of lush vegetation, and we could see signs of a monsoon. It was not long before we had completed our initial survey. Most of the vegetation appeared to be fern-like. Other than that, there seemed to be little of interest to us. We decided to leave further exploration of planet four to others.

As we approached planet five, we were surprised to detect far more heat than we were expecting. There was a considerable amount of gray cloud cover. Thomas Long and I took a shuttle down to about five hundred feet above sea level through a gap in the clouds. We were surprised that the water temperature was only ten degrees Celsius. Turning towards the land, we approached it with caution.

The land glistened with a network of bright orange lines as lava flowed all over the surface. As it poured into the sea, it hissed in a horrible manner. We turned to follow the coast. The volcanic conditions continued for hundreds of miles. Eventually we reached some land that was cool enough to support plant life.

As we approached we saw that the land suddenly split and more molten lava welled up through the cracks. We'd had enough, and flew upwards through the cloud cover to return to 'Endeavour'.

We docked the shuttle and proceeded to the bridge. I called a meeting to discuss our findings. The upshot was that we would conduct a radar mapping of the planet, then continue on our journey, The survey showed that some sixty-five per cent of the planetary surface suffered from vulcanism.

The next star system on our itinerary was Epsilon Indi. It lay some thirteen days travel from Tau Ceti. We soon settled into the activities of travel over these excessive distances. The Marines under the command of their Corporal, Brian Jones, continued transcribing the Centauran encyclopedia into a computer graphical format before they passed them onto me to convert them into word processor files. Petty Officers Phyllis Hollis and 'Chubby' Chubb continued their efforts in learning to translate the documents. Between us we were beginning to produce the encyclopedia in English.

Lieutenant (JG) Thomas Long had produced computerized maps of the planets we had visited. Although in my mind, I was not sure of the value of the map of Tau Ceti Five, except to determine how great the effect of tectonics were on the planet.

Phyllis's primer in the Centauran language was making progress. There was feedback between the groups working on the different aspects. For example, the groups were using the font that I had derived from the various sources: the school videos, the encyclopedias and the dictionaries. One of the problems that had occurred to me was whether to order the thirty characters of the Centauran alphabet in their native order or in the order to correspond to the sounds of the terrestrial alphabet. I decided to go with the order the Centaurans used and write a program to translate their writings into terrestrial characters.

It was almost an anticlimax when we arrived at the Epsilon Indi System. Planet scanning discovered ten planets, an asteroid belt between planets five and six and a cometary belt on the outer limit of the system. The habitable zone existed from forty one to eighty one per cent of the distance of the earth to the sun. Planet two fell almost in the center between these two limits. It was about ninety per cent of the size of the earth, which gave it a gravity of about three quarters of earth normal.

When we closed in to explore it further, we found about sixty per cent of the surface to be water. The land was mainly distributed between two continental islands, one a good bit larger than the other.

There were were no real surprises when we explored the smaller continent, and its outlying islands. It put me in mind somewhat of Australia. There were mountains near the coast on one side, coastal forests and interior scrub lands and deserts.

The larger continent was the surprise. It was positively Jurassic. Dinosaurs of many types were roaming freely. There were giant Sauropods up to about three hundred feet long. How do I know? Well, they were slow, almost stationary, while they were grazing on the vegetation. We approached, using a sextant until it subtended a right angle. Then we checked with a range finder. At a distance of one hundred and sixty five feet their length was twice this. Three hundred and thirty feet long! Wow!

This world would certainly appear in our report. Paleontologists were going to have themselves a field day carrying out their studies here. It looked as though the smaller continent would provide them with a secure base location. Meanwhile, the crew were photographing as many species of dinosaur as they could identify as well as some they couldn't.

One incident, worth mentioning, was when we were cruising at a low altitude just below the top of a cliff. Someone had spotted a nest which contained five small pterosaurs. We were filming their behavior when we heard a screech that nearly blew out our eardrums. At least, that's what it sounded like. A massive pterosaur flew up to our bow, trying to scare us away from her brood.

The noise was excruciating as the pterosaur continued to hover just outside our bow. Thomas Long was first to respond.

"Turn on our headlights and set the external speakers at maximum volume."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

He then growled at the pterosaur. Yes, he actually growled with the loudspeakers set on their maximum output. It stopped the creature in its track. The wings paused in their beating and a look of horror passed over its face. With a quick glance at its nest, it turned and flew off. Its further glances at us, its hesitant flight, and weird screech made us think that it was trying to lead us away from its nest.

Finally, we decided to move onto the last stop on our voyage, 61 Cygni. This is a double star system with about eighty six and a half Astronomical units between them. This leg of our journey would take nearly three weeks, so Phyllis and her helpers finished scanning the encyclopedias. They were also making good progress on the dictionary.

It was in this part of our voyage that Phyllis completed Volume One of her Centauran language primer. It contained a vocabulary of some four thousand words. Phyllis envisaged that her second volume would increase this number up to some fifteen thousand. She hoped that the language for this second volume, derived from the encyclopedia and the dictionaries found on the original home planet, would not have changed too much on the planet where the Centaurans now found themselves.

We arrived at the 61 Cygni star system, and went into our planet finding process. This time we positioned ourselves further away from the plane of the system at about two hundred Astronomical Units. This way we could examine both component systems at the same time.

The two stars rotate about a common focus in elliptical orbits. The effect of this is that over a period of some seven hundred and twenty two years, the apparent brightness of each varies by a factor of more than two from any planets of the other. Both stars are type K; 61 Cygni A is a K5 and 61 Cygni B is a K7. This means that, while the size of the habitable zones are somewhat similar, the HZ of A is about thirty per cent larger than the HZ of B.

The upshot of all this means that there are two planets in the habitable zone of 61 Cygni A and one for 61 Cygni B. All three planets met the various criteria for human habitation. In addition, they appeared to be in the early Cenozoic Era and ripe for colonization. We spent the next three weeks in mapping the worlds and exploring for planetary resources.

At last, the time came to turn towards home.

#  27

## _Reaching home_

The main question that occupied my mind on this last leg of our trip was what to do about the inhabitants of the Alpha Centaurus system. To what extent would either of our races be xenophobic? I must ask our crew for their discretion until this point can be resolved. Thinking about it, I could now understand the point of Star Trek's 'Prime Directive'.

I thought I knew what the range of reactions would be at home. To see if I could determine what the Centaurans reaction would be, I consulted Phyllis.

"Phyllis, have your studies of their language given you any idea what the Centaurans would think if we showed up on their doorsteps?"

"Not specifically, but I think that their encyclopedia showed that they had been visited on their home planet by some form of unidentified flying objects in the past. There didn't seem to be any antagonism in the entry. Are you thinking of visiting them in person?"

"I'm not sure, but it may be possible that we'll be pushed into doing so. I'm still of two minds as to whether we should intrude. Remember Star Trek's 'Prime Directive'. Do they even remember their origins on a different planet?"

"Oh yes! I haven't told you yet, but it is taught in their history lessons. They remember and abhor the thought of armed conflict. Did you know that the settlers were all chosen from both sides in their last world war?"

"No. How did they do that?"

"The selection of their opponents was made from their prisoners-of-war. They were all youngsters of both sexes. Most of the home group were similar, They also had a selection of families who had children. That's how the family whose home we visited were included. They became the leaders of the colony."

"Don't you think that their experiences are likely to make them xenophobic?"

"No. One of the points made in their history lessons is that soon after they landed, they were visited by aliens. People something like them. Help was offered, but it was turned down at the time. The Centaurans wanted to make it by their own efforts. However, the visit was not a one off. The aliens were invited to visit again and they pop in, roughly every eighty years. That's translated into our years. In their terms, it's about once a generation or just a little less frequently."

"You have been busy, Phyllis. What else have you discovered about these visitors?"

"Not a lot. They arrive in a small craft and stay about ten days. Now, can I sign you up for lessons in learning Centauran?"

"Yes, I think I should. After all, we may be coerced into making contact. Thank you."

Phyllis got up and left.

In the remaining days of the trip, more and more Centauran was to be heard all over the ship. It was almost getting out of hand. Aside from learning the language, I was helping to prepare a report of our whole trip. This normally would have been Susan's task. However, as I was aboard, we prepared it together. I was pleasantly surprised at the way she had blossomed from those early days of the Enterprise.

Eight days later, we set down on the runway at our Holloman Base. We were immediately directed to our hangar as they were also expecting the return of the Voyager. Once we settled in our hangar with drive shut down, we were ready to disembark. A group of carts stood by to deliver us to our destinations.

Together with some of the others, I opted for walking to the Mess. It was pleasant to be able to stretch my legs without having to use a treadmill. We had hardly settled down with our drinks when a breathless Ensign approached me.

"Admiral, Sir," he gasped for breath and started again. "Admiral, Sir. The Voyager should be landing in about five minutes if you want to come to the Control Tower."

"Thank you, Ensign. If you would kind enough to tell them I'll be along in a minute."

Leaving the Mess, I crossed the road to the Headquarters office block and climbed the stairs to the control tower on the fourth floor.

"Admiral in the Tower!"

"As you were. Any sign of them, yet?"

"Yes, Sir. They stopped to report in and to make sure we were ready for them. They're coming in, now."

The bulk of the Voyager descended slowly, not more than fifty feet away from the front of the Control Tower. As it hovered a foot above the runway, a Petty Officer in a low tow vehicle coupled and then maneuvered the craft into the hangar.

I descended to my second-floor office suite, greeted Kate, and asked her to get Bob Mather on the phone.

My phone soon rang, and I answered.

"Axon."

"Ah, Admiral. We're glad you have returned safely. A lot has been going on here while you've been away. How soon can you get here for a conference?

"Well, we are going to need some time to prepare and coordinate our reports. Who would be at this conference?"

"The President, a member of his Cabinet and possibly advisers. Oh, and your nemesis, Doctor Gentry, will be there with his cohorts."

"Oh! A pity. That's probably far too many. Do you think we could arrange to meet with the President before the conference... well before the conference?"

"Let's say we do it this way. You and your team arrive in DC the day before the conference. That's so we can make an early start. In that way, you'll be free the evening before to brief the President in private."

"That sounds fine. Can you make it early next week so that we can prepare our reports. You know that the Voyager has also returned? Their report should be interesting."

"Fine. I'll speak to the President as soon as I can. Could I tell the President what the subject of your talk will be?"

"You can tell him, in confidence, to consider the 'Prime Directive'. He should understand the reference. Got it?"

"I think so. 'Bye for now."

I returned to the Mess to find that the officers from the Voyager had joined the celebrations. After greeting them and arranging a meeting for the morning, I went home.

A good night's sleep in your own bed works wonders! I arose bright and early the next morning. After a good breakfast in the Mess, I walked over to the administrative building which also held the control tower and my office. Situated on the second floor are the offices of the Base Commander, Captain John Sims; our secretary, Chief Petty Officer Kate Murchison; and my own.

I entered through Kate's office.

"Good morning, Admiral," she greeted me.

"Good morning, Kate. Please arrange a meeting for me with the people on this list at ten o'clock this morning."

I handed her the list of the senior officers and scientists on both the Voyager and the Endeavour. While I was sorting out my notes, there was a phone call from Bob Mather.

"Hi, Bill, I've done what you wanted. The two of us are invited to a family dinner on Sunday night. We can have a chat with the Man after dinner. How many people are there in your party for Monday morning?"

"There will be eleven in total."

"My! You will be bringing your guns to bear on Gentry! I'll be booking you all in at the Hay-Adams Hotel. It's handy for the Monday morning meeting at the House. Your party could even walk there in four or five minutes."

"Oh, will you make that reservations for twelve. I'll invite my secretary to take the minutes for me. I'll get her to email you a list of those in our party."

"Okay! I'll see you Sunday evening at, say, six o'clock."

#  28

## _Report to DC_

Our meeting that morning, brought us up to date with each others activities and enabled us to combine our reports for the following week. When we came to the Centauran data, the meeting grew more animated. The pictures and video that we shot produced so many questions that I asked Phyllis to produce enough copies of the encyclopedia, dictionary and the language primer to give everybody at the meeting, a set each.

After lunch, Captain Sims, the Base commander, brought me up-to-date on what had been happening locally. The first stage of the construction of married quarters had been completed by the Seabees. The families of staff that had been recruited from the Air Force Base, had been moved in. In addition, some of the scientists' families had also been moved in.

There were too many people to transport to DC in the Enterprise,so the rest of the party travelled in a shuttle. We landed at Andrews Navel Air Station and from there, a pair of stretch limos took us the last twelve miles to the Hay-Adams Hotel on 16th Street NW. Entering the lobby, I found Bob Mather waiting for me.

"Good evening, Admiral."

"Good evening, Bob, I take it that you're here to escort me?"

"Yes. Dinner is in thirty five minutes, and we can't leave it to the last minute to arrive. How soon can you be ready?"

"Give me twelve minutes to freshen up and change and I'll be ready to take on anybody."

I took the proffered key from him and made for the elevator. We had arrived wearing our fatigues. Our dress uniforms had been delivered only two days before and had yet to be worn for real. They were blue in a lighter shade than used by the Air Force, but otherwise followed the Coast Guard uniforms in basic design.

Ten minutes later, after a quick shower, I was back in the lobby dressed in my finery. Bob gave me the once over, before he grabbed my arm and dragged me out to a limo waiting to take us to the White House.

Over dinner, I described the voyage of the Endeavour. The President and the First Lady were saddened and then excited by the tale of the Centaurans.

"Is that the reason you told me to consider the 'Prime Directive'?"

"Yes, Sir, although from what we've discovered since, they appear to have been receiving regular visits over the years. As far as we can calculate, their final conflict and exodus occurred between three and four hundred years ago. They've lost a lot of their scientific abilities over those years, but they still retain some knowledge of what they've lost."

"Do you think that they would accept assistance from us?" asked the President.

"We know that they've turned down assistance from their other visitors. They seem to want to make it on their own. I think that they've been grateful for the interest that the visitors have shown them, but they still want to go their own way."

"Do you think that they would tolerate or even welcome a visit from us?"

"I just don't know, Sir. I think we'll probably have to continue observing them from space until we find out what their reaction would be."

That's how we left it. Bob drove me back to our hotel saying that he would pick up our party at a quarter to nine the following morning.

At breakfast, the next morning, I told my party that the head of our so-called Advisory Committee was antagonistic to the Service. I told them of my encounters with Doctor Gentry and how annoyed he had been with the four of his staff that had left NASA to join the Space Service. I suggested, therefore, that they need not reply to his questions unless that I indicate that they should. There were several nodding heads while I was talking as they had heard of my run-ins with the good Doctor previously.

We were waiting in the lobby when Bob's limos drew up. After the drive which hardly seemed worth it, we were driven up to the entrance of the White House. Bob led us to the Conference room, to find that we were the first ones there. John White and Thomas Long set up the computer and projector for our report.

We were all sitting on one side of a long table, and were facing the door when it opened. Doctor Gentry entered talking over his shoulder to someone. He turned seeing us for the first time. He stopped so suddenly that the person behind crashed into him.

"What... What is the meaning of this? Admiral Axon, I demand an explanation."

He stood with one hand on the back of a chair. The other members representing his Advisory Committee crowded in behind him. Before I could reply, Another door opened and the President entered, followed by Bruce Gordon, the Secretary of State, and Bob Mather. Our Party stood.

"Please be seated," said the President taking his place at the end of the table.

The Doctor and his colleagues scrambled for their seats.

"Now Bob, will you start us off by making the introductions, please?"

"Yes, Sir. Starting from your right is Admiral Axon, Head of the Space Service. Lieutenant-Commander Chalmers, Captain of the Endeavour, Captain Groves of the Voyager, Lieutenant-Commander White of the Voyager, Lieutenants Shaw, Thompson and Spencer of the Voyager, Lieutenants Long and Benson of the Endeavour and finally, but not least, Chief Petty Officers Hollis and Murchison of the Endeavour."

I didn't correct his error in attributing Kate to the Endeavour.

Bob continued, "On this side of the table we have Doctor Gentry, Professor Hodges, Doctor MacCardle, Doctor Ramin, Mister Davies, Professor Bonhomme and Doctor Dunne."

"Before we start," I interrupted, "I must ask that everybody here keep our reports confidential until we agree otherwise."

"I concur," said the President, "Is there anyone who disagrees?"

Doctor Gentry and Doctor Ramin looked a little reluctant, but eventually added their nods to those of everybody else.

"Admiral," the president began, "perhaps you would be good enough to start with a summary of what your reports contain, so that the members of the Committee know what to look out for when we get to the details."

"Yes, Sir." I replied, "Gentlemen, the Voyager report concerns itself with the planets of the star, Epsilon Eridani, which is some ten and a half light years from the Solar system. The third planet out is comparatively earth-like. The fourth planet could also be colonized. The crew of Voyager have been carrying out a detailed examination of these two planets, their physics and geology, their fauna and flora."

"How soon could it be colonized?" asked Doctor Dunne.

"I would recommend a slow trial, with a small number of colonists, supported by a Voyager class craft. We are obviously going to need a fair number of this type of vessel in this stage of exploration. Now the Endeavour has been taking a quick look at five different star systems. Of these, two are unsuitable for colonization; one because one continent is inhabited by dinosaur-like creatures and the other because of violent vulcanism. Both of those systems will provide an interesting source of study. Two systems have planets that are suitable for further study. The last system has a planet that was inhabited by sentient beings. However, they suffered a nuclear conflict that exterminated all the noticeable fauna on the planet."

"Is this planet ready for colonization?" asked Doctor Dunne.

"No. It's still fairly violently radioactive. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of a nuclear winter, as the planet is still home to abundant flora, quite like earth is today. The good news is that a small number of the population escaped to safety. They managed to settle on the planet of the companion star."

The opposite side of the table descended into chaos as they all started talking at once and raising their voices so that they could be heard. Finally, the President broke in.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. Please let the Admiral continue his report."

#  29

## _The Report Continues_

The President turned to me and said, "please continue, Admiral."

"As yet, we don't know how many people arrived at their new home. However many there were, they seem to have thrived. We gather that the colonists were derived from both sides of their final conflict. They were mostly young adults, with a few families thrown in for their depth of experience."

"How did you discover all this?" asked Professor Hodges.

"We explored a library on their home world, albeit briefly. We also chose a home to visit which happened to belong to one of the families chosen. Then on their new world, we found a small school that we could bug. We spent a week monitoring the output from the schoolroom, before moving on. The bug can record data for about a further year."

"But how did you interpret your data? There's no Rosetta Stone to give you a translation," asked Peter Davies.

"From the home world library, we acquired a set of encyclopedias, a set of dictionaries and a number of audio books. We learned more from our bug on their new world. You see we selected a school in a remote location so that it would be small enough to include a full range of students of all ages. The results of that showed us that the language had not radically departed from that of their home world."

"I think that the time has come," said the President, "to show us the display of your trips."

I directed Lieutenant-Commander White to give his report on the third planet of Epsilon Eridani. He started with the map of the planet showing where the Voyager had landed. For the first visit to the planet, there had been a rigid rule on the wearing of environmental suits outside the craft. This included the quarantine of anything brought into the vessel. We had equipped the Voyager with low-pressure laboratories so that no air would escape as people used the air locks.

There followed details of the geology, fauna, and flora of the planet, including a number of genomes. Finally, the report showed the planting and raising of terrestrial crops. In addition, a small number of volunteers had exposed themselves to the atmosphere of the planet.

Doctor Spencer took up the tale of how she had monitored the volunteers. Despite extensive testing, she had been unable to detect any harmful aspects of the planet.

Lieutenant Barry Thompson took over. He explained that they had discovered that life on the planet was constructed around DNA. This implied that the fauna could be directly compared with the life on earth. It also suggested that life found elsewhere among the stars would also be likely to be built on DNA. They had classified over five hundred animal species and had extracted genomes for ninety-eight species. They had achieved almost as much with the flora.

Lieutenant Shaw continued the report from Voyager. The geology held no surprises. It was too early to determine where the major tectonic plates were, as most of the volcanoes were dormant. However, the presence of tectonic plates was evident by numerous mountain ranges. The planet's magnetic field was stronger than earth's by a factor of about fifty per cent.

That completed the report on the Epsilon Eridani system. John White summed up and said that the next stage would require a colonists' support vessel.

The President thanked him and said, "Admiral, you visited some interesting planets that were not suitable for colonization. May we hear something more about those."

I nodded to Thomas Long. He stood and described the Dinosaur planet of Epsilon Indi. Doctor Ramin's eyes lit up while Thomas described the giant sauropod we had seen and its length.

He was interrupted by Doctor Gentry, "I suppose you measured the length using a tape measure?"

Thomas looked at me and waited for my nod. I gave it and Thomas continued, "No Doctor Gentry. We measured our distance from the creature using a range-finder, then measured the angle subtended by the ends of the creature. Knowing those figures, we then..."

"I understand the calculation, boy. I'm not uneducated!"

"Oh? I didn't know that... Sir. Now, Tau Ceti has two planets in the habitable zone. There's nothing remarkable about planet four, but planet five suffers from rampant vulcanism.

"Thank you. Now would you be kind enough to tell the meeting about the planets found which could be colonized?" the President asked.

"Yes, Sir. Procyon is a double star with both components in close elliptical orbits. Consequently, they only have one possibly suitable planet. Epsilon Indi, on the other hand, has one definitely suitable planet plumb in the middle of the habitable zone. There are two continents. The smaller has no dinosaurs that we could find. Finally 61 Cygni is a triple star system. There are three habitable planets around two of the stars."

"Thank you, Thomas. That was a good summary. Gentlemen, you will find further details in our report. Now, Petty Officer Hollis, would you please give us the book on Alpha Centauri."

"As you know, gentlemen, The Alpha Centauri system comprises three stars, A, B, and Proxima Centauri. The latter is a red dwarf some thirteen thousand Astronomical Units distant from the other two. That distance translates into about twenty-eight light days. The other two stars share eight planets which orbit about the two stars' center of gravity. Alpha Centauri A has three more planets and B has two. The inner planet of B is inside the habitable zone of its primary, so we didn't have too much expectation of the other."

"Get to the point, young lady," interrupted Doctor Gentry.

"As I was saying... we concentrated our initial efforts on the inner planets of primary A. Planet three was too small and too cold. The innermost planet is too hot for free water, but planet two was smack in the middle of the habitable zone. There was plenty of plant life and we flew down the coast of one of the continents. We were closing for a closer link when the radiation alarm went off."

"How dangerous was the radiation level?" asked Doctor Dunne.

"Safe enough for short periods, But I wouldn't want to be on the surface for more than about three days. At that stage, we had seen no sign of sentient life. In fact, we saw no animal life at all. We turned inland as someone thought they had seen signs of a desert. Once we reached the desert, we saw signs of what looked like a road."

"How do you mean? A road is either a road or it isn't," said Doctor Gentry.

"You seem to forget, Doctor, that aliens do not use the same technology as we do. It looked like a road from the straight lines in which it was formed. We followed this might-be road until we came to what seemed to be buildings. The Admiral and I formed an away team and went down to explore."

Phyllis looked at me and I took up the tale.

"The buildings had mainly fallen into disrepair. There was one however in a fairly good condition. On Earth, it would probably be taken for an assembly hall, theater, or a library. As it happened, we found that it was a library. It was remarkably like its Earth equivalent. We discovered what we took to be a thirty volume encyclopedia and a three-volume dictionary. There were also collections of audio books. We took as many as we could handle."

"And where are they now, Admiral? When can we see them for ourselves?" asked Doctor Gentry.

They are still too radioactive. We have scanned them and stored them on our computer. We have made digital copies."

"And what use is that? How can anyone read an alien language? How can you even know what it sounds like?" demanded Doctor Gentry, working himself up.

"Fen fi gath ta!" said Phyllis loudly, in Centauran.

"What did you say, young lady?" asked the Doctor.

"I think she asked you 'what do you know?', Doctor. I don't speak Centauran as well as the Petty Officer."

#  30

## _The Prime Directive_

"But how can you know?" spluttered Doctor Gentry.

"We went to school," I replied. "Here on earth, in the smaller communities, schools can only afford one teacher in a one-roomed school. The same is true on Beta Centauri. We spent a week in a school with classes of all ages less than adult. Don't you think, that with the smart crew we have, that we could learn their alphabet and how it sounds? Once we had that and a few words as well, we could make progress with the encyclopedias and the dictionaries."

"What we have to decide, Doctor," said the President is whether to inform the public of the existence of the Centaurans and whether to inform the Centaurans of our existence."

"Of course we must. I can't wait to inform my colleagues of these exciting discoveries."

"May I point out, Doctor," said the President, "that you agreed to keep the proceedings of this meeting confidential until we decided to publish them."

"But this is too important not to..."

"Doctor, be quiet. Now Admiral, you appear to disapprove of contacting the Centaurans. Can you tell us, please, why you are of that opinion?"

"Yes, Sir. It has always been my idea that knowing that another race is more advanced than yourselves is a recipe for disaster."

"Why is that?"

"If another race has 'been there, done that', why should we 'bother'. It could lead to cultural collapse, or at least, a racial inferiority complex."

"I think that the human race is more resilient than that, Admiral. You show too poor an opinion of us. Don't you think?"

"Perhaps, It could be that I just didn't want to put it to the test."

"That's a valid point of view, Admiral, but I feel that the time has come to test the opinion of the meeting. May I have a show of hands, firstly, on whether to inform the people on Earth that you have discovered another sentient race."

The vote on this question went fourteen for, four against, with two abstentions. The abstentions were the President's and mine.

"Now," continued the President, "we come to the question of whether we inform the Centaurans of our existence."

This time, the vote was nine for, seven against and two abstentions.

"I must remind you," the President continued "that these votes are not decisive. That can only be determined by the Cabinet. However, these votes do give me some idea how their decisions may go. Thank you."

With that, the meeting broke up to proceed to a prearranged lunch. The President indicated that I should wait behind. When everybody else had left the room, he asked.

"Well, Admiral, if the Cabinet decides to contact these Centaurans, are you prepared to carry out their wishes?"

"Yes, Sir. I'm actually in two minds about such a contact, seeing that they have also been contacted by another race, but I felt that I had to raise the point."

"If we get the go ahead, how would you proceed?"

"I think that I would need the Endeavour but wouldn't use it to land on their planet. I would probably take Chief Petty Officer Hollis with me, as her language skills would be useful."

"I think you're right. We'll have to wait and see what the Cabinet decides. I know where my money lies. Now let's go and get some lunch."

After lunch, Bob Mather took us back to our hotel to book out and then to Andrews Field to return to our Base.

The next morning at our planning meeting, I suggested that we should assume that we would be contacting the Centaurans and to plan for that event. One suggestion from Lieutenant Benson was that he should bug our uniform caps. That would enable the people aboard the Endeavour to monitor us while we were on the ground, by seeing and hearing what we would. I gave him the go ahead and we passed on to discussing how much we should tell them about Earth and its peoples.

Much to our surprise, the Cabinet had not only decided that we should make first contact with the Centaurans, but that another Voyager class craft should be built as well. That would mean more work for Bob Mather recruiting for another crew. Of course, we would be splitting the crew of the Voyager across both vessels with all the promotions that such a split implied.

The State Department had wanted to make me a fully functioning Ambassador with all the trimmings. In turn, I had said that this first visit should be just to say 'Hi, nice to meet you', and to play it by ear from there. Reluctantly, the White House agreed.

One consequence of the breaking news about the existence of the Centaurans was a sudden surge in individuals wanting to enroll in the Space Service. Another was the interest expressed by the seats of learning in their language and current culture.

The burst of interest persuaded the Government to build not one more Voyager-class craft, but two. There was going to be a shortage of qualified crew members, As a consequence, there were a fair number of promotions among the current members of the Service. Captain Groves was promoted to Commodore. I even got another star out of it for myself. The next six months were spent in recruiting and training. Much to my surprise a few of the officers on the Endeavour turned down a promotion to the new bigger craft. Phyllis explained that the Endeavour was at the cutting edge of exploration, and they didn't want to settle for the second best, as they saw it.

This didn't seem quite fair, so I sought and obtained a number of promotions for the crew of the Endeavour. Susan Chalmers became Captain Chalmers. Derek Paulsy was promoted to Commander. Charles Benson and Thomas Long became Lieutenant-Commanders and so on down the chain.

One morning Kate informed me that Charles Benson and Derek Paulsy had been called to a meeting in Washington with Professor Burton. I expected them back, but a week later they had still not returned. I wondered what they were up to. Still, if James Burton was involved they couldn't be in too much trouble.

Another three weeks and I had brief glimpses of them visiting the Base. When I did catch a glimpse of them, they exuded an aura of smug self-satisfaction. Finally, I could stand it no longer and asked that they report to me 'as soon as it was convenient'.

Another four days and Kate announced on our intercom, "Commander Paulsy and Lieutenant-Commander Benson are present as ordered."

"Send them in, please."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

The door opened and the pair entered, marched smartly up to my desk where they halted and threw me a salute so smart that it would not have been out of place given to a South American dictator.

I returned their salute, in as an off-hand manner as I could manage, "tell me. What have you two miscreants been up to for the last five weeks?"

It was Derek who answered me, "Professor Burton has produced a new drive."

"What's new about it?"

"Its top speed."

"And what is its top speed?"

"Its only eight times faster than the present drive."

"When will they fit the new drive into the Endeavour?"

"Never!"

"What? Then what's the use of it?"

"The whole point of it is that it going to be installed in a new craft, which will be larger than the Endeavour. The State Department thought that the Endeavour wasn't grand enough to make first contact. Look, here are the plans," He laid the plans out on my desk. It had four decks, like the Voyager but was slimmer. "The emphasis here is more on protocol than on scientific exploration. Note the size of the dining room. They expect us to entertain alien species."

"How long will it take to build this craft?"

"It will be delivered for outfitting next Wednesday. They expect we'll be on our way the following week."

#  31

## _Preparing for First contact_

Derek Paulsy's prediction was incorrect, as it turned out. The Palmdale works had run into some snags with fitting the new drives. The initial setting up of the drives was proving more difficult than had originally been thought.

Although we used the term 'warp factor', it did not mean to us exactly what it did to the followers of 'Star Trek'. One of the problems was that they have more than one definition. We had discussed it right back at the beginning and came to the conclusion that a simplified definition would be preferable. Our definition of the term became one plus the logarithm to the base ten of the velocity relative to the speed of light. In simple terms, 'one' times the speed of light is warp factor one, which is the same as the 'Star Trek' figure. Just tack a zero onto the speed factor for every increase of one in the warp factor.

Thus, the new drive increased our top speed from warp three-point-seven up to warp four-point-six.

I had thought about splitting the crew of the Endeavour with the new 'diplomatic' craft and couldn't think who to leave out. I, therefore, decided to transfer the whole of the crew of the Endeavour to the new craft. Even so, that would still leave a few posts to fill.

At last the delivery day arrived. We were no longer sending a crew to Palmdale to collect our new vessel. They now had their own spacecraft pilot who would deliver. At just about a quarter past nine o'clock, the tower rang down to say the delivery was on final approach. I went outside to watch it descend and found myself in a crowd of others who had heard the news.

As it descended head-on, the outline from the front of it put me in mind of a large version of a Boeing 747 with a height greater than its width. There was a gaping mouth formed by the bridge's viewing windows. Our previous craft had a width more than their height. It came to a halt, hovering just above the runway. The undercarriage emerged from the underside and the craft settled down, like a mother hen on a nest, as the drive was turned off.

I got the impression looking at the tinted bridge windscreen that there was a crowd on the bridge. That impression was confirmed when the door opened and a party, led by George Morrison, emerged. I went to greet them.

"Hullo, George. Nice to see you. Did you have a good trip down here?"

"Yes. I still find it disconcerting though, to travel so quickly by going so far out of the way."

"To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?"

"I heard you were naming the craft tomorrow and I thought I'd join the well wishers."

"Thank you. In the meantime, there's something I want to show you. We've started a sort of museum, here. It shows a lot of what we've discovered so far. Apart from the videos and the still pictures, someone built an animated model of the local group of stars. There are buttons which light up the stars in different ways according to which of a number of buttons you push. For example you can select the systems that we've visited, you can select systems that lie in a given classification. It should be a wow with visiting junior astronauts. I'll take you to the museum, and then I must leave you. There's a lot to do before tomorrow."

When I reached my outer office, I asked Kate, "Where are Paulsy and Benson?"

"In your office," she replied. "They needed your input on something."

I entered my office and greeted the pair, "And what can I do for you two today?"

It was Charles Benson who answered me, "We want your opinion on this. What do you think?"

I accepted the gizmo that he handed me and turned it over examining it.

"What is it?"

A female voice from inside the device answered, "It is your personal communication device connected to your new spacecraft, Admiral. In addition, it enables me to locate you as long as you remain in range. For example, I perceive that you are currently in your office on the second floor of the Control Tower block. I also perceive that Commander Paulsy and Lieutenant-Commander Benson are in the office with you."

"What do I call you?"

"I have no name. You may call me 'Computer' if you wish to address me."

"What other skills do you possess?"

"I can carry out a number of routine functions aboard your latest craft and I am currently studying Centauran. I may be of use to you as a translator on your upcoming trip."

"Thank you. That's all for now."

Charles Benson took up the conversation, "All you have to do is to remember to put the main unit in your pocket and to pin on the comm unit on your shirt. As you see, the design is based on the later comm devices of 'Star Trek'. The central circle is a button which can be used for silent communication. One press is used to alert the system and will put the ambient sound at your location upon the bridge. Two presses will be taken as an alarm."

"I take it that the new craft is full of super computer?"

"No, Sir. It's not as large as a super computer although it does not fall short by much. It uses a lot of the new hardened chips to keep the overall size down. It's located behind the drive room over the shuttle bays."

"Perhaps, if Kate doesn't have anything more for me to do, you could give me the guided tour."

"Of course, Sir," they said in unison.

I led the way over to the craft waiting on our runway. The platform for the naming ceremony was being arranged where the compulsory bottle would not cause any damage when it was broken on the hull. The stepped shapes at the lower portion of the stern showed where the shuttles would emerge.

We boarded at level one. To our left, there were a few laboratories along the corridor which led to the shuttle anteroom. Forward led to a wide staircase, two ready rooms and the bridge. This was, of course, narrower than the bridge of the 'Endeavour', but it was slightly deeper.

Climbing the staircase to deck two we turned forward to the ship's lounge and took in the view through the panoramic windows. Aft of the staircase was the visitor's dining room, the drive room, and the ship's computer room.

We climbed to deck three where the crew's Mess had its own panoramic windows. Aft of the Mess was the galley with a dumb waiter to deck two. Aft of the galley were the store rooms.

The crew's quarters were all on deck four.

The next morning, the whole of the service was drawn up on the runway as was the Air Force band from the base next door. They were playing selections from the 'Star Trek' films. Colonel Crisp, and his wife, Ada, formed part of the welcoming committee. Lieutenant Commander Bollinger and his Seabees were drawn up across the end of the runway.

The Enterprise as Space Service One floated gently down onto the runway. Its door opened and the President paused at the open doorway to wave at the assembly. We had been plagued this time by the press and television crews. The band broke into 'Hail to the Chief' as the President and the First Lady descended to ground level. They were followed by the White House party comprising Bob Mather, the Secretary of State and members of our Advisory Committee.

The President looked across at the Service members drawn up with the crew of our latest addition at the front and indicated that he would like to meet them in front of the cameras. I smiled and invited Colonel Crisp to accompany us. We crossed over to the line and starting with Captain Charlmers, the President had a few words with each them.

Colonel Crisp's slight puzzlement at being invited to be a part of the inspection party lasted until we reached the end of the line. There, at the end, were our two newest Ensigns, James and Brian Crisp.

Having inspected the crew, we rejoined the naming party. I escorted the First Lady up the steps of the naming platform. I handed her the envelope with name of the new craft inside. She opened the envelope, read the name and gave me a slight grin.

The First Lady stepped up to the microphone and said, "I name this ship; The Beagle."

#  32

## _The Beagle_

"And may God keep safe all who sail in her," The First lady said, and turned to me with a smile as she added, "you always seem to surprise me with your ship's names, Admiral."

We turned to descend the steps as the assembled Service people gave the First Lady three rousing cheers. We led the whole naming party over to the Mess while the crew of the Beagle crossed to their craft and boarded it.

Once we all had our drinks to toast the Beagle, the First Lady said, "Why the Beagle, Admiral? It seems to be so inconsequential a name for such a groundbreaking vessel."

"The name Beagle commemorates another explorer who collected alien species. It was the name of the Barque that carried Charles Darwin on his epic voyage and led to his 'Origin of Species'."

"Where do you get such ideas?"

"The books I read as a boy led me to take an interest in the sailing navies, mainly British and American. It also led me from there to the hobby of sailing. One of the books that ended up in my library was written by two British Naval Captains during the Second World War. They had been tasked with finding names for all the little ships that were being built. Their book gave the history of all the names that had been used for Navel Vessels, all the different ships that had been called by each name and their various battle honors."

"My. That must be an interesting tale."

"Yes, it is. The book has been updated so that it goes all the way from before the British King, Alfred the Great, and down past World War II to our latest Fleet Aircraft Carrier."

When we had finished our drinks, I led the party outside to give them the grand tour of the Beagle. The party were impressed by the latest addition to our Space Fleet, but the item which caught all their attention was the communication system. Most of them had had no interaction with artificial intelligence apart from those frustratingly idiotic phone answering systems and they could hardly be described by the word 'intelligence'.

For once, Doctor Gentry didn't say anything to upset me. He even suggested that we should invite dignitaries from the Centaurans back to Earth.

Another of his Committee, Peter Davies, asked me, "Do you know the extent of your vocabulary in Centauran, Admiral?"

"I suppose it must run to about two and a half thousand words. Why do you ask?"

"I was just trying to assess your ability to achieve a successful first contact. I think you need a somewhat wider vocabulary, Admiral."

"Don't forget that I shall have Lieutenant Hollis with me to help with translation. Her vocabulary is about four or five thousand words. Do you think that that will sufficient?"

"Yes, that should do fairly well."

"In addition, we'll be electronically connected to the Beagle. There we have another ten thousand words besides the full resources of their dictionaries and encyclopedias."

"But those came from their world of origin. Do you think they are still relevant?"

"Yes, unless there are any concepts which they have forgotten and then redeveloped and renamed."

"Then may I make a suggestion?"

"Of course."

"You should consider adding to your vocabulary, under the influence of hypnosis. I can recommend an expert in the field. It would probably take no more than a week."

"Thank you. Have you got a telephone number for him or her? I'd like to make contact."

"I can do better than that," he looked around the Mess, "Ah, Julian can you come here a moment?"

Professor Hodges joined us, "Julian, the Admiral has desired to avail himself of your services in order to expand his vocabulary of Centauran. Can you help him? It needs to be soon, as he is planning to return there in the near future."

"Yes. I've been hoping for this opportunity ever since the Admiral described their visit. It seemed that hypnotic education would improve his abilities to communicate with the natives."

"Can you tell me how long this is going to take? We were hoping to take off towards the end of next week."

"That depends upon how many words you need to cover. How many would it be?"

"About twelve thousand for me and about ten thousand for Phyllis. I want her to be included."

"Yes, that can be done. I can't give you a cast iron guarantee, but what I have planned is to give you a number of short sessions of say five hundred words each. You should be able to absorb about three or four such sessions each day. If successful you should have all fourteen thousand to hand by the time you leave. In addition, I can prime your mind so that you can add to your knowledge at the same rate."

"Thank you, Professor, for your offer. May I invite you to stay with me while you are here?"

"Thank you, no. It would be better if I could mix with others on the base. I'm sure Doctor Gentry will insist on a report from me at his next Committee meeting. I would not like to say anything out of turn."

"I appreciate that. I'm sure, however, that you'll find our bachelor officers' quarters comfortable."

It proved so. The next day, the morning was spent making up the lists of words to be used in the instructional sessions. Phyllis Hollis and Chubby Chubb were helping to form the lists. The Professor had lists of words for which he wanted translations. After Lunch, he gave the three of us our first hypnotic session.

I had my doubts as to the effectiveness of the training, Firstly, I was fairly sure that I could not be hypnotized. Many times I had seen it on feature films and hadn't felt the slightest urge to succumb. He approached Chubby first and after telling him that he was going to be put under the influence, tapped him on the shoulder. Chubby slumped and was helped to sit down in a chair already placed behind him.

When my turn came, the tap on the shoulder felt like an irresistible blow, although there was no hurt. The recitation of the words seemed to run into one continual sound and I wondered how I was going to separate the sounds, let alone remembering any of them. It seemed as though there had been no time at all before the Professor was trying to grab our attention by waking us up.

For the next week, we repeated the process twice before lunch each day and twice each afternoon. A funny thing puzzled me. I had no inclination to use my allegedly found knowledge. Neither did I hear the other two do so.

At last the day of departure arrived and we all boarded the Beagle.

#  33

## _First Contact_

This time, the trip to the Alpha Centauri system took a mere nine hours. I had already decided that we should first upload the data from the school and study it for a while. It proved to be interesting as we understood it much more easily. Their history lessons indicated that they knew of their origins and now abhorred the thought of armed conflict. It gave some small measure of confidence in what we were about to attempt.

The next decision to be made was where to land. Our observations of the planet had suggested that their largest town was their capital and that the largest dwelling housed one of their leaders. Moreover the enclosed grounds that encompassed the dwelling gave us a suitable landing area for our shuttle. Hollis, Chubb and I had an early night so that we could make a landing before dawn on the following morning.

As we descended, I realized that the landing spot I had chosen was occupied by what I took to be a hen run. Sliding slightly further away from the house I landed the shuttle quietly and gently. We then sat back and waited for someone to appear and take notice of us. Soon after sun up, a door opened and a young woman appeared, wearing what looked like a beige tunic over a sage green top. Wooden clogs encased her bare feet.

The young woman came down the steps and crossed to the run. I was surprised and a little irked, that we were ignored. After spreading some grain around on the ground and letting out the birds, she returned to the house.

About ten minutes later, the door opened again and a gray haired man emerged. He was wearing a dark brown tunic which was shorter than the young woman's. It was open showing that he was wearing a maroon shirt and dark brown bell-bottom pants.

He paused on the back deck, before descending and crossing over to examine the exterior of the shuttle. The tinted windows ensured that it would be difficult for him to see us inside I opened the door at the rear of the shuttle, and approached him.

Speaking in Centauran, I greeted him with, "Good morning."

"Good morning... er... Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"We are explorers," I replied, "and we wanted to meet you."

"Where are you from?"

"A world that's around another star."

"Are you from the world we came from?"

"No. We came from a star much further away."

"Then how do you know my language?"

"We have been to these stars before. We landed on the world you came from. We found books in your language and found that you had left your world. We found you here and studied you. We then went home to tell others what we had found and to study your words. Now, we have returned to meet you."

"Did you come all this way in such a small vessel?"

"No. this is one of the several small vessels carried by a larger one. It is still up there," I pointed to the sky.

"Have you eaten this morning?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "We wanted to come in the dark so that our coming down would not frighten anyone."

"How many of you are in this machine?"

"I have two companions."

"Then please bring them into the house for a first meal."

I called to Phyllis and Chubby to join us, and the man led us into his house. We passed an open kitchen door which gave us a view that a Victorian would have found familiar. We were led into a dining room where the tables and chairs bore tool marks betraying their manually made origin.

"I must apologize," the man said, "I did not introduce myself. I am called Kah."

"We have two or more names," I replied, "a personal name and a family name. May I ask if that is the same with your people?"

"Yes, it is, but it is usual not to give a family name. Its origin betrays on which side your family was in the last war on the homeworld. We are usually known by our personal name and in many cases by a name acquired during your life."

"In that case, I am called Bill," I replied.

"Phyllis."

"Tom," said Chubby. I had never known his first name before.

The young lady we had seen before came into the room and Kah said, "Weem, please tell Mel that we have three guests for our first meal."

"Yes, Kah."

She departed, and Kah turned to me again.

"Tell me, please. How did our home world seem to you?"

"It was overgrown with plants. We saw no sign of animal life, but we were only there for a short time. We did not explore over a wide area. The harmful leftovers from your last conflict could be tolerated for only a few days at the most. We sent down two people at a time, only. We did that twice. The first time we found a place of books. The second time, we visited a home, in the town near the spaceport. By chance it had been the home of somebody who was coming here."

"Do you know whose home it was?" Kah asked excitedly.

"No. All we found that it was a family with either two or three children. We only found discarded clothing to guide our thoughts. The pictures around the house only showed four people. We assumed that they were the parents and two children. The fifth person didn't seem to be a family member, but we were only guessing."

"I think you found my family home. The journals kept by my family told of how my ancestor was made the leader of this colony. They were the only family permitted to bring a servant with them. Most of the colonists were single young people of both sexes. They were expected to marry and breed the next generation."

"How many of you reached here?"

"Of the five thousand who set out, less than two thousand landed safely. Today we have over a hundred and seventy thousand people. That is what our population came to when we last had a count."

At that point, Weem and another lady entered the room bearing food. They placed before us plates of what looked like bacon, fried eggs, and hash browns.

"Bill, this lady is Mel, who keeps the house for me. Mel, these are Bil, Fillis, and Tom, visitors from another star's planet. They are not our usual visitors but are from elsewhere."

The ladies now joined us at the table, as we started to eat, I could detect differences in taste to their terrestrial equivalents. It tasted good but different. We finished our meal with a dark brown drink. Its taste put me in mind of chocolate and raspberries.

As the meal drew to a close, Kah said, "Bil, may I ask what are the reasons for your visit?"

"Well, firstly, to let you know that we exist and that we have discovered you. Then, to find out if we can help each other by exchanging information or by more direct help.

"I am sure that there is a lot that we could learn about each other. What I am not so sure about is whether we should. There have been other visitors who have offered to help us. We have turned down their offers of help. We need to make it on our own if we are to escape racial cultural collapse."

"What I think my people had in mind is that some industries need a kick start unless you want to struggle for ages, only inching forward. For example, electrical power..."

"I'm afraid I don't know that term."

"Are you familiar with the power from water wheels?"

"Why, yes. We use water wheels to grind our grain."

"Well, like water, electricity can be used to turn wheels. It can be produced by turning wheels that can be powered in a number of ways. By wind power or by water power. Besides turning wheels, electricity can be used to make heat and light for us and our houses."

"Come to think about it, I think that I've read about something like that somewhere."

Well, for example, we could give you some small wind-powered electricity generators that would get you started. If you like, we could advise you on how to develop your industries. What I don't want us to do, is to push you in a direction that you don't want to go."

"That sounds reasonable. Let me consult my Council first. And what would you want in return?"

#  34

## _Diplomacy_

"I'm not really sure. The leaders of my land did not instruct me to look at any one thing. I believe, however, that some of our teachers would welcome the chance to study you and your world. If there was a house suitable for, say, six to ten people with enough land to be able to land a shuttle craft like the one outside, we would be delighted. Maybe you would like to send observers to study our home world. Perhaps we could discuss this later?"

"Yes, we will. At the moment, however, I have a council meeting to attend shortly. Would any of you care to accompany me?"

"I would," I replied, "What about you two?"

"I'd like to observe the Council meeting," said Phyllis."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to stay with Mel... particularly if she is going out to buy food," said Chubby, reverting to his other occupation.

"Very well. I'll leave you with her then. If my other two guests are ready, then, we'll be off."

We rose and Kah escorted us out of his house and down the track that passed by it. We came to a building set back somewhat, with a broad set of steps leading up to an imposing pair of open doors. The doorway opened onto a spacious vestibule with a dark corridor opposite the doorway. We were led down the corridor, and Kah ushered us into a room with a large oval table. There were three men and two women already in the room.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As you see, I have brought some space visitors with me this morning. I won't introduce them yet to save me having to do it again in a few minutes. Ah, Horj. What have you got on our agenda this morning?"

"Mostly it's the usual collection of agenda items. The main new item is the need for additional water supplies for the village of Krust. It's outgrowing its present supply."

While this was going on, I was getting aid in translating some of the words from our computer on the Beagle. I found that I knew most of what was being said. The computer just filled in the words that I didn't know. Seven more people had entered. There were now seven men and five women. Kah Indicated that we should take the seats in the center of one long side of the table. I seated Phyllis and took the seat on her left. Meanwhile, Kah had seated himself opposite me with the other members of his Council on either side of him.

Kah opened the meeting.

"I would like to welcome this morning, Bil and Filis. They are not the usual visitors to our planet. They come from another star system. They tell me that this is their second visit to our system. In their first visit, they landed briefly on the Homeworld. They did not stay as the radiation was still too dangerous for a longer stay. They also made a brief visit here to check that we were still the same people and that we still spoke the same language."

There was a sound of "Huk, huk," from the members of the Council. It was a bit disconcerting at first, but then I translated it as "hullo, hullo."

As the greeting died down, Kah spoke, "Horj, you have a new problem for us this morning?"

"Yes. The village of Krust has grown since they started mining coal there. They don't want to put in more pipes as it means digging up the farmland to lay them. Also, there's a shortage of lead to line the pipes. There's more water at the source, but we are taking as much as we are able."

Kah turned to me and asked, "Bil, What are your thoughts on this problem?"

"It seems to me," I said "that there are three possible solutions. The pipes could be replaced with bigger pipes. The level of the source water could be raised by means of a dam, which would increase the flow through the existing pipe, or you could look for a supply further away. You could even use a mixture of these methods."

"That seems to sum it up nicely. Which way would you recommend?"

"I would need more details about the lie of the land and the distances involved before I could make a recommendation. However, there is one thing that troubles me. On my world, lead has been found to be a subtle poison. Its use has been banned where it might be consumed by people. Do you have what we call 'cement'?"

"What is this see-meant?"

A voice in my ear muttered, "Sorry for the delay. The word you want is 'mush'."

"I believe you call it: mush."

"No, I don't think I know what that is. Do you know, Horj?"

"I'm not sure. I think I came across the term once. It was something that they used on the home world. Can you tell us more, Bil?"

"Yes. It's a man-made powder that you can mix with sand, stones, and water. Then, like mud you can mold it into any shape. When it dries out, it becomes as hard as rock. It's a not very pretty rock, but it is really useful."

"Can you help us to make some of this see-ment and show us how to make water pipes?"

"I'm sure we can give you some help. You would need to do a lot of the work yourselves. Firstly, though, do you have a map of the area so that we can make an estimate of what is needed to complete the work."

Kah said, "Gir, do you have your map with you?"

One of the ladies delved into a bag before answering, "Yes, Kah, here it is."

Kah laid the map out on the table in front of me and pointed out the village of Krust and the lake that was the source of their water. I took out my camera tablet and switched it on as well as the loudspeaker on my comm's unit.

"Computer, can you see the output of the camera?"

"Yes, but please hold it a little higher so that I can see all of the map. Captain Chalmers will now make a survey of the area in order to estimate the materials required. Please ascertain how many inhabitants there are now and what is the expected extent of the increase.

"Can someone tell me the size of the present water pipe, how many people it served and how big the population is going to be?"

Gir said, "it's about six tads wide." She held up her hands to indicate a square about fourteen inches on a side. The original population was about one hundred and ninety. It is expected to increase to about nine hundred. Does that help? Do you need to write that down?"

"No, thank you. Our ship that is overhead has a machine that hears everything that I hear and remembers it all. The crew will reproduce that map and will survey the area. Then we can sort out what we can do to help you. Computer?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Gir indicated a pipe approximately fourteen inches square."

"Thank you, Admiral."

One of the men, Sil, said, "I'd like to meet that young lady."

"You shall get your wish," I replied. "as I am inviting you all to a meal on board our ship."

#  35

## _The Seabees Come Through_

After the Council meeting, Kah escorted us back to his house. Standing there was a panting horse-like creature. Beside it was a nervous man who appeared to be a messenger waiting, cap in hand, for Kah.

"What is it, man. Speak up."

"Sir. There's a huge shape moving around in the sky above Krust. I was told to ride and let you know so that you could help us."

"Calm down. It's all right. These visitors are going to help us to increase the water supply to Krust. Go into the house and tell Mel that I've invited you to the mid-day meal. Then, after the meal, I would like you to go to the coal mine office on Loos street. There, if you would be so kind, ask Joom to visit with me."

The midday meal was excellent, although there was a slightly strange taste to it. When I mentioned it, Chubby said that it was the different herbs that went into the cooking. After we had finished, the man from Krust went in search of the mining manager, Joom. A short while later they came in.

"What did you want to see me about, Kah?"

"I believe that the reason you're not starting the mine by Krust is the lack of sufficient water?"

"Yes. They're already short. They can't accept any more people until the water supply is increased and can't spare the people to do anything about it. I can't see a way round the problem."

"Let me introduce our new visitors to you then. Bil, Filis, and Tom meet Joom, our coal mining leader. Bil says that they will need additional labor if they help us."

"Oh good! There are signs that there is an ample supply of coal in the ground at Krust. The current shortage is getting worse, and, what's more, it's pushing up the price of coal to too great an extent. How many men will you need Bil?"

"I don't know yet, Joom," I replied, "let's wait and see what we can do to help, first."

I tapped the comms badge on my chest and said, "Susan, Bill here."

After a short wait, "Yes, Bill what is it?"

"When you have assessed the water supply situation at Krust, can you send a drone home requesting the services of Lieutenant Commander Bollinger and his men. Don't try and assess what materials are needed. That's his job. Just send the parameters of the problem."

"Right, Bill. Will do."

"Well, that's all we can do for the moment. I think I'd like to visit the site soon."

"How long will it take," asked Kah, "Before you hear what you are able to do to help us?"

"Several days, I should think. If we are able to help you, can you tell me who owns the land we may want to work on?"

Kah looked somewhat taken aback. "We all do. The state owns all the land. People lease the land they need. If the state needs land that is leased, we buy the lease back."

"Are you sure that you would get a reply so quickly?" Joom asked.

"A reply, yes, but actual help may be many more days in coming."

"I had better get back to work now that we may be getting help. There's a lot to organize if we are to be ready. Thank you, Bil. Thank you, Kah." he said and left.

"Now, Bil," said Kah, "What do you people do for leisure? Do you have what we call music?"

"Ah, yes," I grinned to myself, "I think that's what you call a protracted series of atmospheric pressure variations that are pleasing to the mind?"

Kah paused a moment while he processed my words before he realized that I was pulling his leg.

"Nicely put. You had me wondering for a moment. What I wanted to say is that there's a concert tonight, here in our town. Perhaps you three would care to be our guests?"

"Thank you," I replied on behalf of the three of us. So after an interesting evening meal, the six of us walked into the center of town to the hall where the concert was to be played. The music put me in mind of Beethoven with overtones of Mozart.

That night we walked back to Kah's home where he insisted that we stay. I felt that this was native hospitality rather than keeping us where he could see us. We had had a pleasant day of first contact.

Next morning, we were breaking our fast when my comms unit alerted me.

"Bill, Bill, this is Susan."

"Yes Susan, what is it?"

"We've had a reply from Earth. Can you get your ugly carcass out to Krust pronto. Lieutenant Commander Bollinger will be here in about five hours and will need landing instructions."

"How come? I thought they would take weeks rather than hours."

"I don't know. You'll have to ask them when they arrive."

Kah smiled when I had translated the news.

He said, "I think we had better get going. It is some way to Krust. If we leave now we should just about get there before they arrive."

"We can use our Shuttle. The vessel sitting outside your back door. It will get us there a lot quicker that way. Who else do you think we should take with us?"

"There is Joom, of course. I also think that we should take Ger and Horj. After all, they are involved in this project."

He dispatched Mel to invite Joom and Horj and sent Weem to invite Ger to join us for the midday meal. Later, the party was assembled, and after we had discussed the situation at Krust, we sat down for the midday meal. After we had eaten, we boarded the Shuttle. I took the front left-hand seat and invited Kah to sit beside me. Ger and Weem sat in the two seats behind me while the others used the drop down seats along the inner sides of the craft.

I raised the Shuttle to a hundred feet and following Kah's directions, made off at a steady pace of about eighty miles an hour. In less than a quarter of an hour, we found ourselves approaching a village.

"That's Krust," said Kah.

"I think we should descend onto the heath over there on the right of Krust," said Horj.

I lowered the Shuttle to a gentle landing.

"Am I glad to be back on the ground," said Horj, "that was too exciting for me."

"We usually travel a lot faster than that," I said, smiling. "particularly, when we know where we are going.

"That was more than fast enough for me," replied Horj.

"I think that I would like to try a faster trip," said Ger.

"I am with you there," said Weem.

I had spotted another Shuttle descending. It landed beside us, pointing in the same direction. We emerged from our Shuttle to meet Captain Chalmers from the new arrival.

I had just made the introductions, when my comm Unit broke in with "Admiral?"

"Yes, computer?"

"The Endeavour has arrived and is asking for landing instructions."

Looking towards Kah for confirmation, I replied in Centauran, "It should land directly in front of the two shuttles."

"Aye-aye, Admiral."

We all looked up to watch the Endeavour descend. I frowned as I tried to make out what I was seeing. Eventually, I could make out what my eyes were telling me. As it sunk in, I started to roar with laughter. Our hosts looked at me as though I was losing my mind. This +only served to make me laugh all the harder. As the Endeavour touched down, I fell to the ground still laughing.

#  36

## _Can Do_

I had been laughing my head off as the Endeavour landed, for there were about forty shipping containers arranged in one layer trailing behind the spacecraft. They were in pairs, end to end with their doors on the outside ends of each pair. Twenty pairs positioned laterally were trailing the Endeavour. As the Endeavour landed and switched off its drives, the cable towing the containers sagged from its rigid configuration.

Three officers emerged from Endeavour and approached us. The group was led by Lieutenant Commander Bollinger who came to attention and threw me a snappy salute.

"Seabees reporting, as ordered, Sir."

"At ease, Commander."

"I didn't realize that the free ride you promised us when the Voyager arrived at Holloman would be a working ride."

"There's rarely such a thing as a free lunch, Major. Now, what have you brought with you?"

"We managed to squeeze in a whole company. I thought that would be enough to get started. We can always go back for more. We have a water treatment and filtration plant and about four miles of pipe for a terrestrial population of fifteen hundred people. Do you know what the consumption is locally?"

"I doubt that it will be currently that high. They collect and carry their water from a central point. Now Chris, let me introduce you to the leader of this colony. Kah, this is Chris, our builder of almost anything. Chris, this is Kah who is the leader of this world."

"I am pleased to meet you, Sir," said Chris.

"As am I," replied Kah. "What surprises me is that you all seem to speak our language so fluently."

"That is largely due to the efforts of Phyllis and Tom," I put in. "When we were here before we gained a lot of useful experience at one of your schools. That, and the comprehensive information that we gathered from the books we found on your home world gave us a good start in learning your language. Another point that I should tell you is, that on our world, there are many languages. Being used to exposure to different languages has helped us to learn a new one."

Kah looked round and called Joom.

"Joom, come here, please."

"Yes, Kah, what is it?"

"I would like you to meet Chris, the builder that the visitors brought here. He is going to solve your problems.

"Hullo, Chris," Joom said. "Does that mean you will be building the housing for our coal miners?"

The Admiral... er... Bill only asked us to provide the water supply, but we also put up buildings. How many people would there be?"

"We think we need about seven hundred people to run the mine. There are presently about two hundred people in Krust."

"Now I need to know what sort of buildings would suit your miners."

They wandered off, deep in conversation.

Kah smiled at me and said, "I think that Joom may be imposing on your generosity. You only offered to upgrade our water supply."

"We're glad to help if we can.

"Thank you, Bil, and now perhaps you would be so kind as to introduce me to the others of your people waiting there."

I called Captain Groves and Lieutenant-Commander Shaw over to be introduced to Kah.

"Gentlemen, come over here and meet Kah, the Leader of this planet. Kah, may I present Charles who commands this other Spacecraft and Gerald. I'm sorry Gerald. I don't know your current job?"

"I'm now the first Officer on the Endeavour, Admiral. Expansion is providing quite a few of us with promotion." He turned to Kah, "we're very pleased to meet you, Sir."

"And I, you. You continue to amaze me with your fluency in my language."

"I don't think that any of our people who have difficulty in learning the language," said Captain Groves, "will be coming here."

"The point that I find amazing is the towing ability of the Endeavour," I added.

"Ah," said captain Groves, "It's the development of an effect discovered by Captain Chalmers, when you were preparing the Enterprise. The electrical connection ensures that the containers form a rigid part of the craft."

"And what about all that?" I asked as I pointed to the heavy machinery that was being unloaded from some of the containers.

"Those machines were made for the planets around Epsilon Eridani to develop the colonies there."

"How are they powered?" I asked.

"They use Sterling radioisotope generators," Gerald replied.

"When we got your message drone," said Charles, "we thought we would try the machines out here."

"I'm very glad you did," said Kah. "I wonder, Bil if I could ask you to take us home. I'm sure that Ger and Horj have things to do."

We made our farewells to Charles and Gerald, before reentering our Shuttle. The return trip was made much more quickly than the outgoing one. After dropping off Ger and Horj, we returned to Kah's house. As we prepared to return to the Beagle, Kah invited us to join them for their evening meal. Needless to say, we joined them.

During the meal, we discussed what we had seen at Krust.

"What were those large yellow constructions we saw coming out of those boxes at Krust?" asked Weem.

"They were machines that we use to help us in building things," I replied.

"But why are they yellow? Asked Weem.

That's so you notice them easily and keep out of their way. It's a safety thing," said Phyllis.

Kah said, "They didn't seem to have wheels. Why is that and how do they work?

"Oh, they have wheels all right, but they carry their own track or roadway that is wrapped round the wheels. It enables them to travel over ground that ordinary wheeled vehicles couldn't use."

"You are doing so much for us," said Kah "and I wish that there is something we could do for you."

As I told you, there are things that you can do for us. Perhaps you could tell me of your other visitors?"

"They only come rarely. About once every generation. They don't tell us much about themselves. I gather from our records that they usually ask for population numbers and the state of our industries. They offer to provide us with machines, but we've always felt before that they would expect us to serve them in some capacity or other. That is something that we don't feel with your people."

"I'm flattered. When we spied on your school, I got the feeling that you didn't like visitors, but some of my people insisted that we made contact. A number of them would wish to impose on your people as you feel that your other visitors want to. If ever you find that anyone of our people is being too much of a burden on you, myself included, please tell me and I'll do my best to stop it."

"Thank you, Bil."

After the evening meal, Kah said, "You asked me where the other visitors came from. Come outside and I'll show you."

We went outside and walked away from the house. Kah stopped and looked at the night sky.

"You see that bright star up there."

I looked up in the direction he was pointing and saw Arcturus in the constellation of Bootes, the herdsman.

"Yes, I see it."

He held his arm at an angle of forty-five degrees pointing in a direction of half-past ten o'clock.

"You see those two fainter stars in that direction." He extended his forefinger.

"Now look in this direction," pointing his other arm in at a right angle to the other. "Now look from the first fainter star in this direction. "Go about one-quarter of the way from the bright star to the first faint star. The visitors say that there's an even fainter star there. That's where the other visitors come from. They say that light takes about two hundred and twenty-four of our years to get here."

I tapped my comms badge, "Computer, did you get that? The bright star is Arcturus and the first fainter star is Izar. You may know it as Epsilon Bootes. Kah is pointing to the right of the line from Arcturus and Izar."

"Got it, Admiral. The best star fitting the location described is HD129357. The distance is one hundred and fifty-four light years, our light years. It's apparent magnitude is 7.8.That is why you can't see it with the naked eye."

"Thank you computer. Kah, if your other visitors told you true, we now know where they come from."

"What will you do now you know their location?"

"I think we might just drop in on them."

#  37

## _Diplomatic Entertainment_

The next morning, Phyllis asked Kah, and his ladies for swabs from the cheeks inside their mouths. Taking these Phyllis returned to the Beagle, hoping to extract the Centauran genome. Tom accompanied Mel to the market. He was planning the feast that we had promised the Council. As for Kah and myself; he was showing me the records of the visitors' stops at his planet.

The visitors' craft were circular and about seventy feet in diameter. While they came in groups of nine, only one usually landed on the planet. On average they stayed for about ten days, although they had, on occasion, stayed longer. The visitors were reported to be slightly shorter than our hosts, who are somewhat taller than us. Their heads are slightly larger than ours and their skin has a light greenish tinge. Kah said that their blood was reported to be green, but that he had no information about the shade or hue.

Our talk was interrupted by the messenger from Krust. Joom was sending for timber to build the miners' homes and other mine buildings. Kah wrote a note to authorize the delivery of the timber, and directed Joom's messenger as to where to deliver it.

Meanwhile, I consulted Kah, as to whether shore leave for the crew of the Beagle would be welcomed by the local population or even tolerated by them. One problem that immediately arose was, what do we do about local currency. Kah suggested that he should enroll some members of his Council to accompany our shore parties, to explain their presence, and to bankroll their visit. When I demurred, Kah pointed out that we had not yet charged for the work we doing at Krust, and that the value of that work would more than compensate for the expenses of the visiting personnel.

We discussed the need to get our fiscal experts together to thrash out an exchange rate. In the meantime, we would watch the interactions going on at Krust, where the Endeavour was docked on the ground. There were bound to be some contacts there.

After the midday meal, Tom Chubb came to me.

"Admiral, do you think I could have a word, Sir?"

"Of course, Tom. What is it?"

"I've got a proposed menu for your approval," he handed me a sheet of paper.

I took a quick look and said, "Thirteen courses! Isn't that overkill?"

"They'll be very small portions, Sir."

"Tell me, what was your thinking behind this menu?"

"Well, I wasn't sure what they'd like, so I thought that this would be a solution to the problem."

"Perhaps, another way of determining what suits the Centauran taste would be to invite our hosts to a meal like this, and get their opinions before we issue an invitation to the whole Council."

"That's a good idea. Will you invite them, Sir? Mel is going to help me."

"I'll do that. Have you considered that they may be susceptible to some earth foods?"

"How do you mean, Sir?"

"Well, some foods that we like may contain substances that are poisonous to them. Take theobromine, for example."

"Theo... What's that, Sir?"

"It's the substance in chocolate that can poison dogs. It's also poisonous to humans, but usually we limit our intake and it's only about a third as poisonous to us as it is to our pets. If I were you, I'd consult Doctor MacTavish."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll do that."

He left me wondering if there was any danger of poisoning our hosts. I would hate to become the first terrestrial interstellar mass murderer.

Two days later Phyllis put my mind at rest.

"Admiral. Good news! Do you know that the Centauran genome for all practical purposes is identical to the human genome."

"But what about their hands?"

"It would seem that one of the genes can be switched into one of two,(or even more perhaps) modes which control the development of our forelimbs. That means that our culinary tastes should, therefore, be similar."

My next visitor was Lieutenant Long, who amongst his other responsibilities is our cartographer. He was carrying his thirty-inch tablet computer which he placed on the table in front of me.

"I think that the Centauran leader would be interested in this as well. Is he available?"

"I think he's in his office. What have you got to show us?"

"We've completed our initial survey of the planet and there's something strange that he may be able to explain."

"Hang on here and I'll see if he's available."

I crossed over to Kah's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in? Ah, yes, Bil. What is it?"

"My map-maker has come down to show me something and he thinks that you would be interested in it, too."

"Give me a moment and I'll be with you."

I returned to Lieutenant Long. A couple of minutes later, Kah came to us and said, "Now who is this?"

"This is Thomas. He says that he has something that would interest you."

"And what would that be Tomas?"

"Well, Sir, we've been mapping your world, and I've printed out this map for you."

"Why, thank you," Kah examined the map on the table. "Does this represent the whole of our planet?"

"Yes, Sir," replied Lieutenant Long.

"A question occurs to me. If this shows the whole planet, why is it flat?"

Thomas looked at me. He seemed lost for words.

"Perhaps you could explain it, Admiral, Sir? I'm not sure I could do it in Centauran.

"You've hit on the problem, Thomas, some translations can be difficult. Kah, there are several ways to represent the larger portions of a planet on a flat sheet. We call this the Mercator way of mapping. Sizes at the top and bottom of the map are enlarged, but the good thing is if you take the direction of one place from another on the map, it will take you there. It's not always the shortest route, however."

"I see, I think. Thank you, Bil. Thank you, Tomas. This is interesting. It appears that our planet has one large area of land with a lot of small areas around. We can see some of those from our coast and have built ships to explore them. Have you any more surprises for us, Tomas?"

"Yes, Sir. Do you see this island, here?" Lieutenant Long pointed at an island off to the Northwest of the main continent.

"Yes."

"Now look at this. It's an enlarged picture of a part of that island. Do you see those figures, there?"

"Yes, what are they?"

"They would appear to be people, just like you, Sir."

"Do you think that they are lost members of our colony who didn't make it here? Or are they aliens to both our peoples?"

"I'm not sure, Sir. Look over here. That shadow looks like some form of spacecraft."

"Ah, yes. I see what you mean. I do believe that it looks like the craft we arrived on. It's been a long time. I was taken to see one when I was a boy. It was considered a part of one's education. Yes, it does look very similar. I wonder if they would welcome us into their lives?"

Perhaps we should go and see, Sir?"

"Do you have any idea of how many there are, Tomas?"

"We think that there are roughly two thousand of them, Sir."

"Thank you, Tomas. Bil, do think it would be possible to visit with them?"

I'm sure, Kah, I'm sure that going there would be no problem. Do you want to invite them to move here?"

"It's probably too soon to make up our minds about that. However, I do think that we should contact them."

We decided to leave our expedition to the island until after our dinner for the Council. By inviting Kah and his ladies to a try-out dinner two days beforehand, the dinner for the whole Council was a resounding success. One of the highlights of the evening was the encounter of Sil with our super computer. Our artificial intelligence had been given not only a voice, but a face as well. The attractive female face on the monitor screen captivated Sil and it was difficult to break up his conversation with the computer and drag him off to dinner!

#  38

## _The Lost Tribe_

The dinner with the Council and their spouses was a great success. Chubby's original idea of thirteen courses had been slimmed down to a respectable five after the thirteen course sampling meal with Kah and his ladies. I am afraid, however, that Sil lost his heart to our ship's computer in the predinner tour of the Beagle. The face displayed on the computer monitor convinced Sil that the computer must be a real girl. He was lost.

The next morning was spent checking up on Lieutenant Commander Bollinger's task of providing water and housing for the coal miners at Krust. The installation of the treatment plant and the first three miles of the supply pipe were well under way. In addition streets around the living quarters had been laid out, and the road into the mine area had been pegged.

That afternoon we got down to the problem of making contact with the lost colonists on the island to the North-west of the mainland continent. Their island was approximately the size of Madagascar on Earth. Kah asked to be included in the initial contact party, and while I had reservations, I agreed to take him with us.

The party would comprise Kah, and myself, Phyllis, Sergeant Brian Jones, and four of his Marines. We discussed some of the problems we might find. Would they be pleased to see us, or would the meeting initiate the start of fervent nationalism? How would the cultures clash?

Time would tell, so we planned to set out first thing the following morning. With eight in the shuttle, we were comfortably full. Brian was flying the shuttle with Phyllis and his Marines. He picked up Kah and me at daybreak. After I introduced Brian to Kah, and Brian introduced his Marines, we boarded the shuttle and took off.

Ten minutes later we were slowly descending through the clouds above the larger of the settlement's two villages. At first, they didn't see us, but as we circled looking for a suitable landing spot, they noticed us and took up a defensive attitude. After we landed outside the village, a man approached us. He was carrying a short spear but in one hand only. He was dressed partly in skins with an undyed woven jacket. Kah and I got out of the shuttle and faced him, displaying empty hands.

"Good morning," I said in Centauran. "We come, in peace, to talk to you about your brothers who came from your other world."

He stepped forward and said, "You welcome, but you speak the ancient tongue."

"I learned your tongue from writings of your other world and from the others that escaped from that world. They only heard about you from us yesterday. They want to know if you would care to join them?"

"Big choice. Need time. You welcome. Eat here today."

"Kah and I thank you. The others in our party will remain on our ship. We cannot be eating too much of your food."

"Others come?"

"Thank you, but they will stay where they are and eat their own food."

He looked somewhat relieved at that. I guessed that food was not as plentiful locally as he would have us believe.

He led us to the clearing in the middle of the village. A number of logs surrounded the hearth there. Standing there were two men dressed wholly in skins. Faces of men, women and children peeked at us from behind the shelter of the surrounding huts.

"Meet Ker, Mog," our host said. Each man inclined his head as his name was given.

"I am Bill," I said, "and this is Kah."

"I, Sem," said our host.

"Sem," I asked," how many of you are there now?"

"Three two six five.. no! Three two six six. New baby, today!"

Sem indicated that we should take a seat on one of the logs surrounding the central fire hearth. Some of the women emerged carrying wooden plates with some sort of stew on them. Wooden spoons were provided. We ate

Ker asked, "Why you here?"

"When Kah's family came here, they saw your space ship and thought it had crashed. They saw no one alive. Up to now, they had no way of seeing if anyone lived here. Now they want to know if your people would like to join them, or, at least, visit with them."

Sem said, "Think: not ready."

"That may be, but if you don't make a start, you never will be ready. Why don't just some of you visit."

"Why you help? What's for you?"

"We want both parts of this colony to become better. Your civilization got sent back in time when you had to come to this world. We want to help you to catch up again. We want to help you to become more like us."

"How you help?"

"One way we can help is to leave a man here with a machine that enables us to talk over long distances."

Ker looked at Kah and asked, "What you think?"

Kah replied, "I think Bil is right. His offer is very generous. If you agree we'll do our best to mix with you in a way that upsets no one. It will benefit both parts of our colony."

"Agree! How?"

"We'll leave someone here to look after the distance talking gear. One of you can come with us to look at what Kah's people have done. Would that be agreeable to you?"

"Yes. Mog, you go?"

"Yes. I prepare. Wait."

He arose from his log and walked off.

I tapped my comms badge and said, "Brian, did you get all that?"

The reply made the locals jump.

"Yes, Bill. I will stay myself if you would be kind enough to send a shuttle to give me the equipment to establish a base."

"Yes, I'll do that. Computer, please ask Captain Chalmers to send us a shuttle equipped for a three-week stay. We'll bring the pilot back with us."

A moment later Brian emerged from our shuttle.

A few minutes later, Mog rejoined us, just beating the arrival of a second shuttle. Susan Chalmers exited the shuttle and stretched.

She grinned, and said, "I came myself. I needed the exercise of an away mission. Brian, you've got supplies, but they're only for five days. If you need a relief, let me know."

"Thanks, Susan. I'll be reporting in daily, in any case. I'm sure that Phyllis will want to know what's going on here."

I showed Mog into the shuttle and sat him in the front right-hand seat. Susan, Kah, and the four Marines entered behind us. I raised the shuttle to a height of five hundred feet and circled the village. Mog excitedly pointed out his landmarks.

"In which direction," I asked Mog, "is your other village?"

He looked down to the ground and gasped! "Not know!"

He had lost his sense of direction as we had risen. He looked out again and I could almost see the gear wheels turning in his brain. At last he related the view he could see from the shuttle with the image he had in his mind. He pointed in a southwest direction. I eased the shuttle in that direction as I watched his face. He pointed down at their other village as his face lit up with delight. Then, to my surprise, a pensive look came over his face. He gestured at Kah and said to both of us.

"How live together?"

Kah looked puzzled, but I think I caught on quicker as to what was in Mog's mind.

"When two different peoples meet, they usually find that they each have something that the others want. Moreover, your two groups have a common origin, and you both have had a common purpose. You will find that, with goodwill, you will both flourish."

"Thank you, Bil. We may need future reminders of that, but with your help, we'll make it."

"Agree!" said Mog.

#  39

## _The Long_ _Haul_

As we circled to land behind Kah's house, Mog was glued to the windscreen with wide open eyes taking in all the sights. I think it was the size of the town that amazed him. He had shown an interest in the fields of crops, but a field can only produce so much. It was the number of fields under cultivation that impressed him.

At last he spoke, "Must meet, Must join."

We left the shuttle, and Kah led us all into his library. The marines followed somewhat reluctantly, but Kah set them at their ease. Again Mog showed his amazement.

"Many books! You reader?"

"Why, yes," replied Kah, "don't you read?"

"Our people. One man reads. Trains next reader. Not me."

I think that was the most that I had heard him speak in one go, so far.

"Here, we teach all our children to read as well as teaching them many other skills. About three in one thousand can't learn."

"What thou sand?"

Remembering what Sem had told us, I said, "A thousand is one zero zero zero."

At that moment, Mel poked her head round the door.

"How many are there for the evening meal?"

Kah had a quick count and said, "thirteen." He looked at Susan, "you will stay for our evening meal, won't you?"

"Thank you," she replied, "that's very kind of you."

"Can you manage that?" Kah asked Mel.

"Yes, don't I always?"

Kah excused himself and took Mog upstairs. Later, when they had re-entered the library, we saw that Mog had been redressed from Kah's wardrobe.

Mog was still fascinated by the content of Kah's library, and he asked what they were all about. Some of the books belonged to Weem, and Mog gazed in wonder at some of the illustrations that they contained. Kah explained that his part of the colony had their own printer and a paper manufacturing facility.

There was a knock at the front door and Weem went to answer it. She returned with Horj and Ger. After they were introduced to Mog, Weem and Ger elected to go and help Mel with the evening meal.

It seemed that Mog found almost everything strange. He was continually watching others in order to enable him to conform to what he thought of as polite behavior. Eating at the table; he practised using the combination spoon and knife that the Centaurans used. He also did not speak, unless spoken to. All in all, though, I think that he enjoyed his first meal with Kah and his ladies.

Afterwards, Ger was interrogating Mog about the schooling children received on his island. I gathered that education was one of her responsibilities. He was interested in the range of subjects taught in their schools. Ger turned to me.

"Bil, you have observed one of our smaller schools. What do you think of our education system?"

"I think it's fine, as far as it goes... Or rather as far as I've seen it go."

"How do you mean?" she replied.

"Learning doesn't stop when a child leaves school."

"No!" chuckled Mog. "I am learning much now."

"We have full time 'schools' for young adults," I said. "Up to half our young adults attend such a school. I used to teach in one. People also go to school in the evening after work, and there are other ways to continue learning."

"Perhaps you could help us set up schools for adults? So far, we have not had time living on this world to do so."

"How do your people learn now? People such as your Healers?"

"They learn from people already doing the kind of work they are interested in. They work as apprentices. The whole system is run by Guilds. I think the time has come to move such learning into schools. Can you help us?"

"I can't myself, but I'm sure we can find someone who can help you. I'll put it on my list of things to do. By the way, how is Chris getting on at Krust?"

"I think that he is getting ready to send the Endeavour back to your world to get more materials."

"Perhaps I should go back with him to fetch some teachers for a young adult school."

"Oh! Would you? That would be wonderful."

I tapped my Comms badge. "Computer, is Captain Groves available?"

"Yes, Admiral. I have called him."

"Groves here, Admiral. What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for a lift back to Earth and I hear you're going soon. Is that right?"

"Yes, Admiral. We're booked to leave in the morning. Shall I send a shuttle for you?"

"Thank you. I'd be grateful if you would. Good night, Captain."

"Good night, Sir."

Ger looked at me and asked, "How long will it take for you to return to your world?"

"Now, let me see. It takes about nine of our hours. That translates into..."

"Five Hue and about eighteen Meg," the computer interjected.

"Thank you, computer." I grinned at Mer, "You see. Having a computer at your elbow can be useful."

"But isn't your computer away on your ship?"

"Yes it is, but it's also as close as this." I tapped the Comms box on my belt.

"That's interesting. How does it work?"

"I could say that It's beyond you at the moment. Alternatively, I could explain it in the terms used by students on my world that have reached that level of technology. What I will do, however, is to try and explain in terms that will carry some meaning for you. "

"Please do. Would that be rather like me trying to explain something to an infant?" Mel grinned.

"A bit," I chuckled. "I'll have to get the computer to help me. Computer?"

"Yes, Bill?" answered the computer.

"Do these people see the same visible spectrum as we do?"

"Yes. They see colors, but their visual range is moved slightly towards the lower reds compared with yours."

"Thank you, computer. Now Ger, we use something that is an invisible light. You can split up white light into a rainbow of colors. Now imagine there are colors that you can't see both beyond red and beyond blue. We use the colors a long way beyond red. We can make small changes in the brightness of that invisible light that copy the changes in sound. These vibrations mimic the vibrations of sound in the air"

"I see, I think, but how does it go through walls. Light can't do that."

"Yes, but light can pass through windows. Many walls are transparent to the invisible light that we call radio waves. Let me add that it took about two hundred of your years to get to where we are today. To change the subject, tell me how you see a school for young adults?"

"I see such a school covering much the same ground that they would get as an apprentice, but also going more deeply into what they are studying. Hopefully, they would be able to advance their studies beyond the current knowledge."

"That seems to be a pretty good description of the situation on my world. I'll see what I can do when I go home tomorrow."

"Thank you. I'll say goodnight now. Have a safe trip."

The next morning, after breakfast, I stood out at the back of Kah's house and watched a shuttle from the Endeavour land in front of me. Lieutenant Commander Shaw emerged from the rear of the shuttle and gave me a salute which I returned.

"I wasn't expecting the pleasure of your company this morning, Commander?"

"I was the least busy, Sir. The rest of them are completing the unloading of the containers so that we can fetch more materials for Lieutenant Commander Bollinger."

We found when we reached the Endeavour, that the preparations for take-off had been completed. They were only waiting for our arrival. Two of Lieutenant Commander Bollinger's Petty Officers, who would be acting as loadmasters when we returned to Earth, brought me up to date on the Seabees' progress.

When we got home, we found that it was late evening. So I sent Bob Mather an email saying that I would see him in the morning, and retired to bed. About a quarter past nine the next morning, I was completing the procedure of landing my shuttle on the back lawn of the White House and made my way to Bob's office.

Opening the door, I found myself face to face with Doctor Gentry who was sitting at Bob's desk.

#  40

## _HD 129357_

I was shocked to see Niels Gentry sitting in my friend's chair.

"Where's Bob?" I asked.

"He's on leave, a fishing trip, I believe. In the meantime, I'm filling in for him. Where's your report?"

"I haven't got one. I only got back late last night."

"Tut, tut," observed Doctor Gentry.

"Look here, Doctor, I came in to ask Bob to see if he could find an administrator to organize the staff to start the first University on Osmum. That's the inhabited planet around Alpha Centaurus, you know."

"I know, Admiral. I do read your reports. And now, the President asked to see you when you arrived."

He got up from behind the desk and grabbing my elbow escorted me to the Oval Office. It felt as if I was being frog-marched.

"He's expecting us," growled the Doctor at the secretary sitting outside. The Secret Service Agent outside the door opened it for us and we entered the Oval Office.

"Good morning, Admiral," said the President, smiling, "please sit down. Tell me, what brings you to see me this morning?"

"Apart from Doctor Gentry, you mean?"

"Ah, yes," he smiled.

"We need help in starting a University on another planet called Osmum. I told them that I would ask you for help in their project. I think that we should send them an administrator first. Perhaps a team. I should think that they would provide the teaching staff to start with, but they want to learn from us as well. It gives us an opportunity to send a representative to their planet."

"Good work, Admiral. I'll see that someone suitable is selected."

I didn't ask what 'suitable' meant.

"Another thing, Mister President, is that they have pointed us in the direction of another, more advanced, race, about a month's travel distant."

"You wish to go and investigate?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Very well. We'll try and sort out your other problem from here. We should have some answers for you when you return."

"Thank you, Sir." The Doctor and I left the Oval office. We walked back to Bob Mather's office before I left.

"I'll look into finding teaching and administrative staff for you, Admiral. What cultural stage are they at? I need to know that in order to judge what your teaching requirements will be."

"Thank you, Doctor, they are just preindustrial I should guess."

When I got back to the Holloman Base, I noticed that two more containers had been added to the Endeavour. One of them was a cold storage container. My arrival had been noticed and one of the Ensigns Crisp hurried towards me. After a narrow escape from tripping himself up, he saluted.

The Ensign said, "The Endeavour is ready to depart, Sir. Will you board now, Admiral?"

"Give me a few minutes to check my office. I'll be along shortly."

"Aye, aye, Sir." He departed at a brisk trot.

I crossed the road to the Control Tower block, where my office is located.

"Good morning, Sir" said Sergeant Murchison as I entered.

"Morning, Kate. Are there any chores that need looking at."

"There's nothing that urgent that we can't deal with. I've sent a load of material to Endeavour to keep you occupied on your trip into the wild blue yonder."

"Thank you. I'll see you in two or three months then."

I turned and left to make my way to the runway where the Endeavour was waiting for me. I climbed the steps and greeted the Marine stationed there to close the door behind me, and passed out of the airlock. I was greeted by the shrill cry of Bosuns' pipes. I wonder where they got those from.

I walked forward to the bridge to be greeted with:

"Admiral on the bridge!"

"As you were," I said. A most useful phrase!

We reached Osmum by what would have been evening back at Holloman Base, but was three megs past eight hue, (getting on for lunchtime), on Osmum. I got Ensign James Crisp to fly me from Krust to the capital. We landed beside Kah's 'hen' run, and I led Brian in through the back door.

"Hullo, Mel. Is Kah at home?"

"No, Bil, but I expect him home soon for the midday meal. Who are you, young man?"

"Ensign Brian Crisp, Ma'am."

"That's Brian to the people of Osmum, Mel," I added.

She chuckled, "You'll stay for the midday meal, Brian?"

"I'd be delighted, Ma'am."

"Bil, take him through to the eating room. He can help Weem."

After I had introduced the two youngsters, I could see that they were interested in each other. I decided to retire to the kitchen. Mel smiled at me.

"He is rather handsome, isn't he?"

"I wouldn't know."

I was saved from following up this conversation by the return of Kah. I was able to tell him that I had initiated the process of finding an administrator for his university. He was delighted and thank me profusely. The midday meal was excellent and I used the opportunity to ask Kah for more details about the visitors. One surprise was that Weem volunteered to join our expedition to HD 129357. Kah and I exchanged glances before he suggested that she might prove useful. In the interest of interstellar relations, I agreed, and told Weem that she had fifteen megs in which to pack.

Half an hour later, we were back in the Beagle taking off for HD 129357. During the next four weeks, I got down to the work that Kate Murchison had lumbered me with. There were a whole load of annual reports to endorse. In addition, there were a small number of suggested promotions to consider. The rest were reports of building of more craft in the Voyager class, of recruitment, and of training.

Aside from the paperwork we spent those four weeks in idle speculation as to what we would find and how we would react to our findings. The general consensus was that the aliens we would be visiting would be friendly and considerably more advanced, technically, than ourselves.

As we approached the system, we found that our usual practice of looking first for an asteroid belt was not productive. We could not see one. However, an exploratory crossing gave us a count of ten planetary objects. Their positions suggested that we were about thirty degrees above the star's ecliptic plane. Measurements based on this approximation also suggested that three of the planets were in the habitable zone. Selection of the home world was made on the basis of radio traffic. We were unable to recognize any of it as we had no notion of the type of coding they used, nor did we have any idea of their language or languages. The relative density of the traffic, however, made our choice.

We slowly approached this planet and as we entered their atmosphere, we saw a craft that looked like a tailless delta wing aircraft. It took up a position about a hundred and fifty feet in front of us enabling us to see the flashing lights panning across its stern. As we looked the lights turned into definite shapes. We read, 'PLEASE FOLLOW US'. It took a moment to sink in that the message was in our own language.

Susan told the helm, "Follow them, please."

"Aye, aye," he replied.

The craft led us down to a huge flat area surrounded by many large hangars. We could see a variety of craft where the huge doors were open. We followed our guide to a corner near to what looked like a control tower. We extended our undercarriage and landed. Two figures walked out of the nearest building and approached us.

Susan tapped her comms badge and said, "Ensign Yates, open up and greet our visitors."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am," came back the disembodied voice.

Then addressing James Crisp, "Ensign, escort our visitors to the bridge."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am," Brian said, turning and leaving the bridge.

A few moments later, which seemed to stretch into hours, James Crisp entered the bridge escorting our reception committee. The two people were about our height, were slimmer and their skins were somewhat pale, one might say it almost had a greenish tinge to it. They were dressed in what looked like dress uniforms. They looked around the bridge and then addressed me.

The taller person said, in almost perfect English, "Good afternoon, Admiral. We represent this planet. Consider us as immigration and customs officials. My colleague is what you would call a doctor. She needs to inspect you and all your crew. Is that acceptable to you?"

"Of course," I said. Tapping my comms badge. "Computer, please assemble the crew in the Mess deck lounge. There are to be no exceptions." I turned back to the visitors, "If you would be so good as to follow me."

I led the visitors up to Deck two, followed by the bridge crew. Other members of the crew were already assembling there.

"Please, line up on that side," said the doctor, "I will examine you one at a time and ask you to wait afterwards on the other side. Admiral, perhaps you would care to be first."

She produced a small hand-held cylinder which she passed close to the front of me while looking at a box held in her other hand."

"Thank you, Admiral. You are clear," she said. "Next please."

Her colleague led me away to the other side of the lounge while the doctor checked the rest of the crew in turn.

As Doctor MacTavish crossed over to me, I said, "how about that for a salt cellar placebo?"

She grinned, remembering what I had said when we first explored the Beagle, "I told you so!"

The male official addressed me, "Admiral, I must ask your crew to remain aboard until tomorrow so that we can set up a 'welcome' meeting. As for yourself, there is someone who wishes to meet you, if you would be so kind as to accompany me while the doctor explains the procedure to your crew."

We descended from the Beagle and walked across to the adjoining building. The official led me through a maze of corridors and staircases. We entered an office, which was more like a waiting room with chairs around the walls opposite the desk.

"Your contact will be here in a moment. Thank you for your patience, Admiral." He turned and left me alone. I sat down and thought about the string of events which had led me here from the mundane job of teaching in a somewhat backwater college.

The inner door opened and a figure emerged. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"What the...? Bob? Bob Mather? What are you doing here?

The End?

##  Postscript

_In the early part of the twentieth century, the theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, proved that nothing can travel through space faster than light,_

_Bill Axon is a lecturer at the University of Southern Arkansas. He shares man's dreams of going to the stars. That dream seems to be almost impossible because of Einstein's speed limit of about 186,282 and a half miles per second._

_However, the discoveries of a colleague, a Professor of Quantum Physics, are set to make that dream a reality. Read how that reality progresses and follow Bill Axon to the stars. Discover what and who he finds there._

_I would like you to let me know how you think he did._

_Having started to assemble the notes that I made in writing this series of tales.They will form the contents of the_ _'Bill Axon Companion'_ _. Should any reader be interested in a free copy, Please give your retailer a review of this tale and send me an email. The 'Companion' is in three sections._

_Section one is concerned with details that apply only to the Axon tales. Section two gives details of the actual galaxy. E.G. Nearby stars with stellar classifications F, G and K. These are the stars most likely to develop a sentient species._

_The third section describes some of the differences between the British and American languages._

_Michael Rawley,  
rawley@normist.co.uk_

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