 
THRONES OF MARS

A novel

By

Lloyd R R Martin

Episode One:

The Friendly Robot Conspiracy

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction is allowed without permission.

The right of Lloyd R R Martin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Copyright © Lloyd R R Martin 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.

This book is sold or presented subject to the condition that it shall not , by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent publisher.

Chapters

Preface

Prologue

Chapter One RS-25 echoes

Chapter Two Introducing 'Phoenix'

Chapter Three Days Off

Chapter Four Sail Power

Chapter Five Robots

Chapter Six Gravity

Chapter Seven More Robots

Chapter Eight Water

Chapter Nine Confinement

Chapter Ten Clues

Chapter 11 All at Sea

Chapter 12 Orion

Chapter 13 Handover

Chapter 14 Alien

They could have had the moon for less.

And the Asteroid Belt too.

Euclideus was still a guess,

Or see Europa blue.
Preface

This story uses only what is available today; or will be developed from what we have now.

Some say that we cannot go to Mars using the systems we now use.

We can – and we will.

Read on and see how it is not only possible, but easier than landing on the moon with 1950's technology.

Only the will is needed.

The astronauts and cosmonauts on the Orion Program thought they alone were building a spaceship that could go to Mars and back - when they began working on it they found that they were not alone. The ship they were constructing was now being designed by minds much bigger than theirs.

Then two astronauts on a routine spacewalk discover something completely alien; something that did not come from Earth.

The appearance of a man working on the outside of the spaceship without a spacesuit can be alarming, so he tends to stay inside.

I reiterate;

This story uses only what is available today; or will be developed from what we have now.

There are no fantasies, no death rays, superheroes, or machines defying the laws of physics.

If you want an answer to these paradoxes - read on.

..................
Prologue

The pale blue lozenge-shaped spectacle lenses in front of an almost brilliant white face was bad enough, but the sun-scorched Dogon people of Africa had never seen a red plaited beard before either.

The ancient tribes-people of Mali didn't think about language; or translation when they asked directly,

'Where have you come from?'

Nor did they did not realise that the slight delay had behind it millennia of research, allowing the man to reply in their tongue,

'A long, long way away; I will show you when it gets dark.'

They were surprised to hear their leader, Tobe, ask,

'What do you want here?'

The usual response to a stranger appearing in their midst was to hit him, then eat him. But this stranger was different; for a start, there was hardly any meat on him. But he seemed to emit some sort of aura about himself which made it easy to instantly like him.

'You must look on me as a kind of tourist.' The exact wording is impossible to work out – the concept of a tourist did not exist, neither did a word for tourism; but you get the gist of the conversation.

The man was accepted into their midst.

When night came, it fell suddenly and completely. Sunsets in the tropics happen very quickly. The Mali people knew what was going to happen, so they had fires prepared to give them light.

As the tribe gathered around the fires the man moved away, into a dark area, from where he waved at Tobe to join him.

The pair sat looking up at the bright stars and constellations. Soon they were joined by most of the tribe.

Tobe looked at the blue spectacles, and wondered if they helped or hindered. Then the man pointed at the brightest star in the sky,

'That is Sirius, our version of the sun. I come from a planet that is in orbit around Sirius.'

He continued to tell them of his origins, but realised that they were not retaining the information, so he led them back to the light of the fires. Here he began drawing out celestial maps; the likes of which still exist within the tribe today.

These maps – or rather the skill to draw them – have been passed down for over 3,000 years. The visit happened in 1200BC.

Several other pieces of information have survived, and proved to be accurate; in 1930 it was found that Sirius has a companion orbiting around it. The Dogons were told that this is a very heavy body. Sirius A is a White Dwarf collapsed star – a teaspoonful of Sirius A material would weigh one ton on Earth.

Other gems the Dogon held on to were knowledge of Jupiter's four major moons, plus the existence of Saturn's rings.

This knowledge of astronomy even pre-dates telescopes. In the year 1200BC, (more than 3,000 years ago) these astronomical maps showed things they could not possibly have seen for themselves.

The star maps of the Dogon must have helped them explore the oceans of the world. In the year 1311, well before Columbus, the people of Mali discovered America - they kept quiet about this.
Chapter One

RS-25 echoes

Present day.

Two men in casual NASA uniform stood in the Texas sunshine.

Behind them was deep, deep blackness.

The inside of the cavernous exhaust of a gigantic F2D rocket engine echoed to the sounds of their voices.

Preston Ashton was an old hand (by astronaut terms) at space work.

'I'm not sure about getting too involved here.'

His natural expression was of warm welcoming affability. His dark eyes had long ago taken on an inverted crescent shape from so much smiling. His hair was now premature grey, but plentiful and thick. Originally from New York State, Ash moved to Texas via many postings with the USAF. During his early years he had visited every island in the norther Hemisphere. Because of all his travelling Ash had lost any trace of a New York accent.

Jake Jensen was a tall native of Texas, he still had the Texas drawl so typical of people from the Lone Star State, but he seldom wore the trade-mark Stetson.

He managed to get to the ISS on one of the last Space Shuttle flights before it was retired.

As they walked by a row of massive rocket engines Jake said,

'Michelle you mean?'

'Yes.'

'I could be going to Mars at the end of this. And, at the moment, it is a one-way trip.'

'You are only one on a short list of a couple hundred, Ash. Do you think they are sending an ark?'

Ash smiled as he said,

'And then there are the risks involved; this is dangerous work.'

Jake stopped and turned to face Ash,

'Jeeze, Ash. This is not like you – don't go being a pessimist on me in your old age.'

'No, no. It's just that in the military we always knew that in periods of high danger it doesn't help to get too close to anyone.'

'Let's be realistic here, Ash.' He held out his hand 'You have only a 1 in 200 chance of being on this mission.'

'You are wrong there, Jake.' Ash shook his head gently, 'We are looking at sending six or eight people to Mars. That brings my odds down to less than 25 to one.'

'How do you get it to be less than 25/1?'

'I have been told that there will be equal places on the mission. The split I have seen is two Americans, two Russians, two Chinese, one European and one Japanese.'

'Where did you get that from?'

'Never you mind.' Ash used a finger to emphasise his message. 'My point is that with so many Russians and Chinese on the list they still only get two places each.'

'Do we really need so many Russians on this mission? Yes, they have been very useful with their launch facilities in the past. But now we have the whole system back on US soil.'

Ash had already been to the Russian Gagarin Cosmonaut training facility at Star City, then out to the International Space Station via the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.

He paused before replying,

'We have been working on this project for nearly four years now. Early on we found that it was going to be almost impossible to do this whole thing on our own. The main problem was likely to be the length of time it is going to take to develop the required hardware. Given that during such a long period of time we would be having changes of Government, ups and downs in the economy and other worldly problems to contend with, it is very probable that the space program would be hit with funding issues.'

'We did the Apollo missions on our own.'

'That was small beer compared with what we are attempting today. For a start they are still working on a one-way trip; they have still ain't found a way to get anyone back here.' He looked at Jake, who knew all too well that the astronauts on this mission had all signed on for a one-way trip.

Ash continued,

'So we came up with a scheme that gave us security in knowing that the program cannot be cancelled, or cut back - international collaboration. On the face of it, it looks like countries around the world putting together their resources and expertise with a common aim. Yes, we all benefit from collaboration with each other, we always have. But this is not actually the main objective this time. The contracts and agreements reached during the preparation phase of this program were specifically designed to prevent any contributing country from pulling out. The whole program is massively expensive. We have taken on some expensive programs in the past, most of them we dare not tell the politicians how much they were going to cost when we first proposed them.' He looked at the rows of flags fluttering in the wind as they passed, 'This time it was different. We couldn't devise a number, then halve it, like we did in the past. Simply because there was no way we could even guess how much this project was going to cost. So we thought of a number and used that as the lock-in penalty clause to prevent any signatory of the project to keep them on board. Then we worked out how much it is going to cost for each separate stage of the operation; and put that forward like a hire-purchase deal. Put simply, it is cheaper to continue than to leave.' Ash was surprised that Jake did not know all this already,- 'This does not mean that we have a blank chequebook. We cannot arrive at the end of the program with a shortfall. Our aim is to put men (and women) on Mars. If there is a shortfall of funds, it does not mean they may run out of Hershey bars. The people who land will have to spend up to eighteen months on the surface of the planet. If you cannot find resources there you will have to be supplied with food, water and oxygen. We are working on these problems right now, but we cannot afford to be short of funds at a critical stage.'

They walked a little way before Jake asked,

'Do you think he has something?' meaning Pav.

The older man took some time before answering,

'Only if Xanthros has concerns in Sweden that we do not know about.'

'Whaa?'

'Michelle told me that Xanthros occasionally gets calls from out of town - I mean right out of town; Europe.'

'This is an international project, Ash. We do have contacts in Europe.'

'Not too many in Sweden; and she says that there is something about these calls – nothing she can put a finger on, but something different.'

.....................
Chapter Two

INTRODUCING 'PHOENIX'

'It's a god-awful small affair.' Sem said as they walked towards the Gilruth Centre in NASA's sprawling complex in Houston.

Michelle had a quizzical expression as she replied,

'Whaat? When this operation was first mentioned back in 2013 there were over 200,000 people volunteered to go to Mars one way.'

'Oh no.' Sem waved towards the buildings, 'not NASA. The investigation; there seem to be very few people involved.'

Michelle led the way into the building as she lowered her voice,

'And getting fewer all the time;' she was referring to the recent loss of two investigators, 'we have to keep the numbers down right now.'

They made their way along long corridors.

The young girl exclaimed,

'But my mom did not want me to come here. She just could not accept that I had got to the final selection phase at Houston.'

Michelle listened with interest,

'When I first applied, we heard that there were nearly one million applications to work on the Mars mission. There can't be many people who have been in that kind of list.'

Michelle thought for a second, then stopped, and turned to face Sem, 'My dear Sem. I happen to know of about one million who have.'

'You do? How do you know them?'

'You have just told me, silly.'

They walked on a little further chuckling to themselves.

Presently Sem commented,

'I always thought that you had to be a doctor, like you, to work here.'

'As you can now see, there are thousands of people here. They can't all be doctors.'

The sixteen men and women selected for the Mars mission are now gathered together to learn how they are to get to Mars and back.

The small conference room was set out to receive the sixteen astronauts. Professor Mike Xanthros and Professor Jem 'Banjo' Stringer were preparing to give them their instructions on what to expect during their time at Houston, while Sem, a secretarial assistant, checked her list of information.

Doctor Michelle Romero entered the room carrying a stack of printed papers. She was wearing a striking outfit made up of the colours and symbols of NASA and the US flag. Mainly white, with red and blue infused into it, the skirt just above the knee, and full.

As she passed the pile of papers to Sem, she said,

'Better keep the printed matter back until they've finished speaking.'

'Ok, I see what you mean, don't want them looking at the pretty printed pictures instead of listening to what the good Prof. has to say.' She joked.

Michelle responded in kind,

'There will probably be some men in this group, we need to explore their capacity for multi-tasking before we challenge them too much.' She smiled at Sem. - 'Listening to wise words and looking at pictures? Could be a strain on the limited male intellect.'

They laughed as they continued working.

Sem placed another box on a cabinet that ran along one wall at the front of the room as two men came in. She hoped they had not heard the jovial banter between her and Michelle.

'I like the 'wise words' reference,' said 'Banjo' Stringer as he let a sly grin creep across his lips.

'We just want to make sure the hand-outs are not piled up for them to read from the opening, otherwise we would likely be fielding questions from the end before we have gotten started.'

Mike Xanthros then added,

'Just leave the introductory sheet on the seats; we will indicate if they need more during the talk. Most of the hand-outs are for future reference and to remind them of salient points.'

White-suited people began filing into the room. The suits were more like coveralls, adorned with NASA embroidered patches. One was the new Orion patch denoting the mission to Mars.

The general hubbub died down as Mike Xanthros took position at the front of the room.

An ordinary-looking man stood before them.

But look into his eyes (if you dare) and there you get a glimpse into the soul of the man.

His eyes were the embodiment of determination and confidence. He knew exactly what he wanted, and the eyes told you that he knew that he was going to be successful in getting it.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the NASA facility at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston. There are some of you in this room who have not been here before, others are familiar faces.' He nodded towards Collins, the Japanese scientist Hoshi Masuto and the Canadian John Garbou.

'I am sure you will soon get to know each other as you work along with this most interesting project.'

A murmur of agreement went around the room.

'I am Professor Mike Xanthros, Director of the Orion Project. The buck stops here. Any problems; and you can report them to me. I will then search out the section responsible and put in place any rectification procedures that may be needed. Are we clear on that?'

The assembled group mumbled in agreement, like groups do.

Half an hour later the meeting ended.

Doctor Romero turned to Sem as she picked up the pile of glossy coloured hand-outs. She handed half of the pile to the young Egyptian girl, who took it and began distributing the brochures. As Michelle turned to do the same, the pile slipped in her hand. As the colourful leaflets fluttered down she tried to save them. Most of them landed on Ash's lap.

'One would be enough, thank you,' he said, grinning. - 'What about the rest?'

'I'm so sorry,' Michelle replied, then followed it with a sharp cry, - 'Ow. That hurt.'

She looked down at her left hand to see blood running from a paper cut on her little finger.

Because she was holding on to a few leaflets in her right hand, she was somewhat hampered when trying to stem the flow of blood. She tried holding the left hand in different positions to control the thin red river of blood as it made its way around her hand. The right hand began shaking as small drops of blood fell on-to Ash's white flight-suit.

'Here, let me get that.' Ash said placing his handkerchief over the cut.

He could feel Michelle's hand trembling slightly as he carefully wrapped the cloth around the little finger. The warmth and tenderness felt comforting to Michelle, who tried to play it down.

'It's nothing. Only a paper cut. Thank you. What about your clothes?'

'I somehow think that there will be a lot more blood spilt on 'em before this project is over.'

He kept hold of her hand, ostensibly to keep the dressing in place. She placed her hand on top of his as she looked into his eyes.

'Trust me, I'm a doctor, -' he said cocking his head to one side and gaving a reassuring smile.

Five astronauts seated by Ash all chimed up in unison,

'We're all doctors.'

Ash turned to them and replied,

'Doctors I said, not dockers.'

Chapter Three

DAYS OFF

An afternoon off is a rarity for astronauts undergoing training. On one such afternoon, a group of them set off on a jaunt.

The Chinese couple made a strange picture. Win Lee was tall for a Chinese woman, just over six feet without heels; Cho Ling was only five feet seven. Sergei Pavel does not help, being six feet one and broad-built. John Garbou is average height, but of a burly stature; that emphasises the Chinaman's height and slight build.

They discussed where to go as they walked across the parking lot as they headed for John's car. It was his turn to drive for their afternoon sabbatical.

'Red Bluff Road looks good to me.' John said,

'I hear there is an olde worlde place down there that has character, it used to be called 'The Ship', how about it?'

Cho answered,

'Sounds good to me,' he turned to Win, 'How about you, shorty?'

'Sounds good to me, also. Sergei?'

'I'm game.'

They drove out of the Johnson Space Centre towards the coast. Half a mile down Red Bluff Road John took a right turn along Taylor Lake. Presently they found the restaurant that John was looking for.

'This looks interesting.' Sergei looked up at the timber building that looked as if it could use a coat of paint,

'How did you find it, John?'

'I have never been here before, but a friend of mine back in Canada told me about it. Now that was quite some time ago, so let's hope that the standards have been maintained.'

Sergei looked around at the neighbourhood,

'Looks like a village. There's a good chance it hasn't changed much. Let's find out.'

The establishment they approached looked like an old fisherman's retreat. The white walls were adorned with 'THE SHIP' painted in simple large black letters. A picture of a windjammer swung invitingly over the front entrance. An entrance was on the side leading on to the parking lot. The four people climbed the quaint steps that turned to the right as the door was approached.

Inside they found themselves walking through a large room with rugs on the floor. An arch led into a long room with a bar on one side. The group felt at ease immediately. From the bar they could see a small creek in a deep valley that was swamped with wild plants.

Sergei got the drinks and menus whilst the other three explored the premises.

John walked back the way they had come to look closer at the room they had come through. The Chinese pair moved directly away from the bar, through to a sort of room that was separated from the bar by half a wall with wooden piers and structures adorned with nets. They were looking out at the view when John came back to the bar.

'I see you have a piano in there.' He said to the bartender.

'Yes, you play, sir?'

'A little. Mind if I have a go?'

'Certainly not, sir. It is an old Joanna, but I think it is still in some kind of tune.'

'Well, all right. Let's see what we can do.' John said to Sergei.

As they turned to go back into the other room Sergei called across to Win and Cho, 'We'll just be in here.'

Win waved an acknowledgement.

John took up position at the piano.

Sergei looked at him and asked,

'You sure you know what you are doing?'

'I have always found that it always gets attention to just sit here and tap on the keys as if you know what you are doing.'

He began running his fingers up and down the keyboard. Then struck up into 'Life on Mars' which he began singing to his own accompaniment.

'It's a god-awful small affair...'

Win and Cho heard this from the other room, and quickly made their way into the piano room to join in the merriment.

'Said the girl with the...'

The singing was interrupted by what sounded like the crack of a gun outside.

Sergei was nearest to the door. He made his way towards it. As he reached the entrance the sound of an assault rifle was heard. Sergei reeled back into the room.

The other three astronauts dived for cover behind the piano.

John saw Sergei hit the ground in front of the piano. He moved closer to find that Sergei was not moving, and a pool of blood was now spreading across the floor.

From his new position he could see out of the door. Before dodging back to cover he took a quick glance outside to see three men moving across the parking lot.

He looked back at Sergei, and without thinking moved closer to him. As John bent over the body of the astronaut he glanced out of the door to see the nearest man level his weapon straight at him.

His legs were already half-way to a crouched position. The only thing he could do was leap over Sergei, and perform a forward roll into a tabled area away from the door.

As he crashed into the tables he heard the assault rifle fire eight to ten shots. He shuddered as the rounds passed close enough for him to feel the shock waves.

The man who had fired them then came into the room. He couldn't see the Chinese couple, but John had not had chance to find any cover.

As the man brought his gun to bear John heard a blast from within the pub.

Jacqui, the manager, had got a shotgun, and let the intruder have both barrels.

The man reeled backwards, dropping his gun.

His comrades ran for cover of the walls either side of the doorway as the unfortunate man fell back towards them. He did not move after landing in the doorway.

John Garbou did.

From his crouched position it was easy for him to roll across the floor and pick up the discarded weapon. This he did.

John knew the rifle had been fired, and he didn't know how much ammunition there was still remaining in it. The last thing he wanted was for him to take on a gunman, only to hear the 'Dead man's click' of his weapon.

He turned the selector from automatic to single shot.

Shooting from the hip he took out the man in front of him, then turned through 90 degrees to his right as he dropped to one knee in time to see the other man take aim with a handgun. Both weapons fired simultaneously.

The bullet from the handgun went wide. John Garbou's round did not. The powerful assault rifle round hit the assailant in the middle of his head.

Still on one knee John looked around for any more threats as the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the distance. Jacqui came and stood alongside John as he called to the people inside,

'All clear.'

.....................
Chapter Four

Sail Power

The sun beat down, as it usually did in Florida. There was a cool sea breeze to take the edge off the heat.

Michelle did her supermarket shop some eight miles from the base. There was a marina nearby with a waterfront coffee shop. She sometimes stopped at The Chris Miller Chandlery once her merchandise had been loaded into the car. This day she parked some way from the Chandlery coffee shop and sat looking at the gulls skimming the waves. Over to the right there was a large vending mobile home type of structure selling French cuisine. She wondered if the people working there spoke French to give it more atmosphere. More likely Spanish she decided. The aroma from the vendor was definitely French; she got out of her car to better smell the air. As she stood looking at the yachts, she leant on the black railings, careful to avoid the white bird droppings.

'These yachting types seem to be a friendly lot' she thought, 'they must be having such a good time; they want to show their enthusiasm to people like me watching.'

One man on a yacht was waving enthusiastically and seemed to be waving at her. Then she realised that she was wearing the red, white and blue outfit that looks very patriotic and bright.

'To hell with the embarrassment, she thought, I don't care if I'm seen waving at boats like a child.'

So she waved back and thought no more of it as the boat made its way towards the forest of masts to the right where dozens of similar boats were moored.

Five minutes later she thought she had spent enough time trying to work out what the gulls were doing. As she walked back to her car she was trying to decide whether to grab a coffee in the Chandlery or not, when she heard a familiar voice calling out her name.

'Michelle. I thought it was you. Can't miss that outfit.' Ash said as he approached the car.

'Oh. Hi. What are you doing here? Do you live around here?'

'No.' he looked slightly puzzled. He narrowed his eyes slightly and turned his head a little to one side.

'You must have seen me, you waved back.'

Michelle also looked a little puzzled, and then she looked at the water, then at Ash.

'You! It was you?' she gave a little wave.

'Yes. But didn't you know? You waved back.'

'Yes. I know I waved.'

'Are you in the habit of waving at strange sailors?'

'I don't know any strange sailors.'

'They are all strange, my dear. They live a life between freedom and lawlessness on the high seas where they have to rely entirely on their own devices, skills and determination. Have you ever sailed?' he asked.

'No, the opportunity never came up.'

'Well; now it has. Kirk and I are going downrange for a launch this afternoon. It really is quite a sight, you should come along.'

'I don't know, is there room?'

'Of course there is room; this boat is classed as a seven berth that means it can sleep up to seven. I can't help but think that it would be very cramped at that, and at least three of them would have to be midgets or children, but it is plenty big enough for us.'

Michelle was very excited to be asked to join two of the latest group of astronauts on a short adventure, but could she fit it in to her busy schedule?

'How long would it take, I have merchandise here that may spoil if I left it in the car too long in this sun.'

'We shall be back before the parking lot closes, as for your merchandise, you can bring anything that may spoil or defrost with you. But you must be warned, Kirk and I have been known to eat space rations for long periods of time, so when faced with proper food, we may become ravenous very quickly.'

'Do you have cooking facilities on board?' an idea was forming in her head.

'Of course. And it is called the galley.'

'Well, in that case I would be glad to accept your generous offer, on condition that I am permitted to cook you both dinner. Here, take this bag.'

Kirk was not surprised to see Michelle approach the boat at its moorings, he had also seen her on the quayside.

'It looks as if our galley slave has come well prepared.' He joked to Ash.

'You guys can sail, I can cook. Let's do what we are good at.'

Kirk replied,

'I'll go for that; I'm particularly good at eating.'

'Well, you are crap at sailing.' Ash said as he made his way below to the small main cabin that served as dining area, galley, navigation station, and shelter. Michelle was just behind Ash; this saved him from getting a friendly kick in the back from Kirk.

'I'll cast off and get us under way.' Kirk called. He then went to cast off the painter from the bow. As the front of the boat drifted gently away from the quay he made his way along the length to the stern, where he cast off from there, nimbly leaping back on board with the coiled rope. He then moved to the wheelhouse just forward of the stern and started the on-board engine.

Ash quickly showed Michelle where everything lived below decks.

'If you have frozen goods, the best place for them will be in the storage area in the point of the bow. It isn't exactly a freezer, but we have had it insulated, and it is the coolest part of the ship. Or you could find room in the fridge and turn its thermostat down low.'

He looked out of the high set windows.

'We will be moving out to deep water soon, I had better go give Kirk a hand with the sails.'

This somehow surprised Michelle,

'SAILS? We are approaching half way through the twenty-first century. You two are training to go to Mars. And you tell me that we are behaving like seventeenth century pirates?'

'With the little engine we have, we can make little more than walking pace in this sea. With the sails up we may be able to make twenty knots.' Ash told her.

They made their way up to the open wheelhouse where Kirk was steering with the huge ship's wheel.

'That sounds more like it.' Michelle was trying to fit in by feinting understanding,

'Twenty knots. And how fast is that?'

Kirk didn't need to refer to anything as he replied,

'About twenty-four miles per hour.'

'Twenty-four miles an hour?' Michelle was surprised. They all worked for NASA, and speeds of these values did not exist at NASA.

'I can travel at that speed on my bicycle.' She said.

Ash replied,

'Not on these seas, you can't. And by using wind power we can keep it up for hours.'

Kirk looked round from the wheel. Ash nodded. He turned to Michelle who was admiring the shrinking shore.

'Now for your next lesson in seamanship.'

She looked surprised. Kirk moved away from the wheel as he cut the throttle. The only sounds were of the ocean lapping against the side of the boat.

'This is the steering wheel. There is nothing to hit out here, but it is important to keep going in the same direction whilst we rig the sails. When we are short of crew we normally tie the wheel down, but we have a new crew member today, so you can steer the boat.'

Michelle was somewhat taken aback; she had never been on a boat before, and now she was being asked to take full responsibility for steering it. Driving it, in effect.

'Oh, I don't know. What if I crash into Japan or something?'

'You won't. For a start, Japan is that way.' He indicated by pointing his thumb over his shoulder, 'And America is in the way.'

'Well, what's over there?' she pointed over the bow.

'The Atlantic Ocean. At this point it is about three and a half thousand miles across. You said we could only travel as fast as your bicycle, how long would it take you to cycle that far?'

Kirk smiled at the conversation as he began moving to the mainsail stowage behind the mainmast.

'All you have to do, Michelle, is hold this wheel steady. Keep a good lookout, if you see another ship call Kirk or me. Nothing happens quickly out here, we will have plenty of time to react.'

He took her slightly shaking hands and put them on the wheel.

'You'll be ok. I wouldn't ask you to do anything you couldn't handle.'

With that he touched her shoulder and climbed out of the recessed area as Kirk called loudly,

'Did you tell her about the U-boat and sharks?'

Fortunately, she didn't hear the name Ash called Kirk, but all three of them were smiling, and she felt quite at home here.

Presently the mainsail was set and filled. The yacht began moving quite quickly. Michelle looked back to see the land shrinking and losing detail. Ash came back to her. Kirk stayed midships sitting on the low roof of the main cabin, whilst he rested his feet on the chrome rail that ran all around the side of the boat.

Ash noticed that Michelle's hands were still hold of the same spoke ends on the wheel as she had when he left her, and her knuckles were turning white.

'There's no need to hold so tight. Just rest your hands on the wood.'

He jumped down into the open wheelhouse and looked at the gimbal mounted compass.

'Try moving the wheel a little to the right, you will see that it is not so sensitive.'

Michelle managed to turn the wheel quite a long way before daring to let go of the spokes she clung to.

'You can let go. Give it a little spin.'

'Oh, are you sure?'

'Yes, here, let me show you.'

With that he moved closer to her. She stood as if frozen to the spot. When his shoulder touched hers she reluctantly moved to allow room for him behind the wheel. She was surprised just how reluctant she was to move, but it was ok, because he followed her and their shoulders touched again.

He was standing to her left, his tanned hairy left hand took hold of hers, which still clung on to the wheel.

'You can let go now. If you are so attached to that spoke I can have one made for you.'

'Oh.' She released her grip. As her hand opened he gripped it gently, she returned the squeeze. Then he took hold of the wheel spoke she had released.

'You can release the other one now. I can steer with one hand.

As she released the right hand and let it fall down by her side she felt his right hand on her shoulder.

'See, one hand. He let the wheel spin one or two spokes with his left hand. The boat did not go veering off in the way you would expect a car to do.

She felt very safe. For the first time for what seemed ages she looked to the front of the boat. Kirk was looking out to sea. Then she thought, where is Ash looking? Where do you look when you are steering a boat? She knew about the compass, but what do you use for reference?

She turned to look at Ash. His sunglasses were now on his forehead. How the hell did he do that? His right hand was on her right shoulder, his left was supposed to be steering the boat. He stood a good foot taller than she did; in order to look at his forehead she had to tilt her head back quite a bit. He simply bent his head down slightly and kissed her gently.

They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds before he said,

'We got a launch to see. If we continue on this course we will be too far down range to see the lift-off.'

He smiled as he stroked her cheek. She could still feel his right hand on her shoulder.

Almost from a parallel universe she suddenly thought,

WHO IS STEERING?

She turned to the wheel that had no one holding it, so was turning gently to the right, then the left.

'Oh!' she exclaimed, 'Show me what to do again.' She involuntarily looked back at Ash, and they kissed again, his right hand now pulling her closer to him. She felt his left hand moving around her waist. Her right hand was now around his wide back.

Then Kirk called out,

'LAND HO! I think it is the Azores.'

Without letting go of Michelle, Ash spun the wheel almost casually to turn the boat to the right.

Michelle suddenly felt that there were other tasks that should be dealt with. They parted. Ash looked at the compass, then winked at Michelle as he lowered his sunglasses and took the wheel, but he stood back from it as he held out his hand, offering the wheel to Michelle.

'Would you like the con?' he said.

'If you don't mind guiding me.'

'Ok, I'll watch the compass and give you a heading. Now remember, you don't need to throttle the thing, be gentle with it. But bear in mind that you will have to turn quite a lot to have any effect on the direction in which we are travelling.'

'Ok. I think I've got the hang of it now.'

Ash consulted the compass.

'Give me 15 points to starboard.'

'I would give you 15 points out of ten.' She replied as she turned the wheel easily to the right until she felt the boat begin to move. Then she stopped the wheel.

Second later Ash called,

'Ok. Rudder amidships.'

Michelle turned the wheel to the left. Then said to Ash,

'How do you know when it is in the middle?'

'Just let go. Like sometimes in life you just have to let go, and don't fight it.'

Their eyes met again and she said,

'Yes, I know just what you mean.'

Kirk came down to the open wheelhouse,

'Have you two got any idea where we are?' he quipped.

Ash leaned over the side of the boat,

'Looks like Norway to me. Any ideas, Michelle?'

'Can't be Norway, I can't smell Macky-D's.'

Kirk then realised something,

'I can't smell any food at all.' He pointed towards the distant land,

'As far as I recall, they are about to launch another Orion mission. We are a serious distance down-range, do you think they could drop off some of that delicious space food on their way past?'

'I can take a hint.' Michelle turned to Ash, 'Would you take the wheel? I have more important issues that need to be dealt with.'

'More important than controlling the boat?'

'Yes, I have a mutiny to avert.'

45 minutes later all three were sitting in the sun eating steak and eggs.

Michelle looked at the land on the horizon,

'How can you tell from looking at that grey spread exactly where we are?'

Kirk was first to reply,

'It's easy when you know what to do, and in what order.' He held his hand, palm outermost, to face the land they could see,

'You begin by taking an accurate measurement of what you can see, get the exact bearing, and note any landmarks. Then you take the information you have gathered down into the chart room below. There you will find charts of all sorts; these must be moved to one side so that you can switch on the sat nav.'

Ash then added,

'There is a read-out in front of the wheel. You can see from that that we are some five miles downrange from the launch. Lift-off is scheduled for,' he consulted his watch, 'eighty-five minutes. What we intend to do is sail across his intended route downrange, then turn inland to get closer to the launch site.'

'Is that allowed? I thought that all shipping was excluded downrange during a launch.'

'It used to be,' explained Ash, 'but two launches ago the litigating authority ran out and they decided not to bother renewing it. They figured that just not telling anyone would be sufficient to keep most ships away.'

'So how close are we going to be?'

Kirk looked at Ash. Eventually Ash looked up from his steak,

'I have been to Mission Control early this morning. They reckon the rocket will travel downrange on a course of 085 degrees. So if we are out from Complex 39 at 95 degrees we will get the best view from one mile range, and the Orion will fly over our mast at about 30 miles height, traveling at three times the speed of sound.'

.....................
Chapter Five

ROBOTS

NASA use the largest tank of water in the world to train astronauts in how to operate in near zero gravity. The tank had to be that size to accommodate the various bits of equipment the space walkers needed to work on. At different times it contained large parts of the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble Space Telescope – anything that might need repair or attentions in space.

Xanthros and Ash moved towards the training area,

'We got an old Robonaut 3 for you to play with this time.' Said Xanthros, 'It has been on the ISS for the past two years, and they have sent it back because a more advanced model has now superseded it. But this one is still fully functional and cleared for use in space.'

'Or underwater.' Ash added.

They reached the door that lead into the reception area for the underwater testing facility.

The attendant on the desk knew Xanthros, but still checked the authorised usage permit, and briefly scrutinised Ash's credentials.

Once inside they met up with Tom Collins, Lili Gothe and Al Fontana, who would be joining them for this portion of their training.

Xanthros began by taking them across to what looked like just what you would expect a robot to look like; head, arms and torso. But no legs; this robot was mounted on a set of all-terrain wheels.

'We've developed a series of Centaur rovers to carry the Robonaut upper bodies and other payloads.' Xanthros explained, gesturing to the robot.

'This combination mixes state-of-the-art robotic mobility with the world's most advanced dextrous manipulation system. The cunning thing about this arrangement is that he can removed from his wheels, and be mounted on the end of the Canadarm for work in space on the outside of the structure. He can also be set tasks inside the spacecraft.'

He looked at the wheeled undercarriage, then looked back up at the group,

'Over the next few years we'll be sending food, water and oxygen supplies to Mars. Because of the orbit differences they won't arrive until after you, or whoever goes, have landed on the surface. We don't want to risk the possibility, no matter how remote, of one of these supply arks falling onto the first human settlement on another planet. So they will be landing up to 50 kilometres away. - At the moment we cannot predict the landing area more accurately than a 25-kilometre area of probability. There is no way you could go on a long-range search over such terrain.'

He turned to Ash.;- 'I don't feel comfortable using the term 'terrain' when referring to another world.'

Ash nodded. 'Even the word 'world' is wrong - planet is more accurate.'

'Quite right, but you get my drift.'

The group nodded.

'The ultimate use for this robot combination is to retrieve the supply canisters. It comes complete with a trailer, which it builds itself out of its own re-entry capsule after landing.'

He walked around the stationary robot. 'When packaged ready to be placed in his re-entry capsule, or for transport anywhere in space, he can fit into a cube one metre square.'

He held out his hands to demonstrate the rough dimensions.

Then a deep voice burst from the robot.

'NO.'

Everyone except Xanthros stood stock still from shock. No one spoke as the robot continued,

'This is a metre.'

And it held its hands out precisely one metre apart.

Tom and Ash looked at each other, Al looked at Lili, and they all burst out laughing.

From there the robot continued the commentary, it swung its arms down and moved silently to one side as its wheels individually swivelled; 'I have full crab style steering, and the ability to build another trailer from the supply pod I will be retrieving.'

It leaned over backwards until its head nearly touched the floor behind him.

'I don't know what possible use it is likely to be, but I can drive across the roughest ground in this position. Small cameras mounted all around the carriage are fed into my sensory circuits enabling me to see from any position.'

It straightened up, and then twisted its torso until he was facing more than 90 degrees to the right; Lili was standing on that end of the group as he addressed her,

'Lili, can you see what Professor Xanthros is doing?'

She had to move to be able to see Xanthros, who was now behind the robot; 'Yes, he is getting coffee from the machine.'

The machine took up the description, 'and now he is stirring it. Would you like a coffee, Doctor Gothe?'

'Yes, please, cream, no sugar; -' she replied.

As the robot turned its head towards the coffee machine the crabbing wheels moved it silently towards the coffee dispenser.

'Excuse me, Professor Xanthros.'

The robot then operated the coffee machine, a piece of equipment that was specifically designed to be used by humans. Showing the assembled group, the level of integration it could achieve with human operations.

Xanthros turned to the robot and said, 'Thank you Robonaut.'

He turned to face the next robot in line.

'This one is known as Dexter. It was originally designed to perform routine maintenance tasks on the ISS, like changing batteries, replacing cameras and doing minor repairs outside the space station.'

The machine to which he referred looked like a mechanical white column with at least two arms, each one nearly the full length of a man. The arms seemed to be made up of metal egg boxes, each one providing more flexibility and attachment points.

'It is rare to see him in warm air; his normal working and living environment is the deep cold of outer space.'

Collins interrupted at this point. -

'I have operated this system on, or should I say outside of, the space station. It looks cumbersome and heavy, but in space with no gravity, and plenty of room it works beautifully.'

'That is true, Tom. And because it performs so well, and reliably, we are now developing a more advanced and capable version for use on your mission.'

Lili turned to Al and whispered, 'They are certainly throwing enough hardware at this.'

Robonaut, still standing behind her, broke in, as though she had spoken at a normal volume, and to it.

'Not only hardware, the software we are testing now enables us to learn and develop ourselves. That is how we will be able to predict problems and design preventative measures to deal with them before they have chance to become an issue.'

'Now this may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you.' said Xanthros; 'What we envisage here is that these machines, and a few more like them, will be installed on the ISS in plenty of time to prepare for their main task. They will be performing normal robotic tasks but planning for their main mission.' He paused and took a sip of coffee to allow this information to sink in before continuing, 'Their main mission will be to learn and develop over six years, by which time they will have torn the ISS down and reassembled it 100 miles further out.'

True astonishment spread across the people gathered there.

'We, of course, do not expect them to do this on their own. The sixteen astronauts on the Orion Program of which you are Blue team, will have a major part to play in this endeavour.'

'You say ... a major part,-' said Ash looking puzzled 'You sound like a company director talking to the staff - as if you were trying to make us sound important, but being careful not to bull us up too much.'

Xanthros shifted uneasily as he looked at the four people in front of him, then he continued, 'You will not be in space building all of the time.' He jerked his thumb towards the two robots; - 'These guys will. They will be on the build twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, where they are concerned, time does not exist. They just work all of the time. And they learn, so if they say something is better done this way, we need not argue. It would be a waste of time.'

'You seem to be talking about us, the Orion teams, and leaving out any mention of the ISS crews up there now, and the ones scheduled to go up in future,' said Al.- 'Are they part of the...;' He paused for a second; 'shall we call it "relocation"? Will they be helping us?'

'No. The other astronauts will be told that these robots are there to learn, but not the reason why they are learning how the ISS is put together. They may make suggestions from time to time, but they are programmed not to get involved with the day-to-day running of the ISS.'

'What happens if one of these guys on the ISS decides not to take any notice of the suggestion made by a learning robot? Maybe susses out that this machine has another agenda.'

Robonaut answed before Xanthros had chance.

'On the International Space Station, we are only advisors. But when we get onto 'Phoenix', we must be allowed to run the build.'

'-Phoenix-?' Tom asked, his head turned sideways, trying the new word on for size. 'That is what we are going to build out there, right?'

Xanthros was glad to get on to a different subject. 'Yes, the original initials stood for Piloted Host Over Extra-terrestrial Nation Interplanetary Xpedition. Quite a mouthful, so we just called it PHOENIX. The important thing is that it means that it is the first interplanetary craft to carry man to another planet.'

Lili Gothe voiced the question that was on all of their minds,

'What is this thing going to look like?'

Xanthros looked as if he was expecting this question,

'You ask very good questions.' He paused. 'We have a part of the mission prep that is not yet complete. But you can see it. Follow me.'

He led them to a room labelled 'CNC hologram'.

Inside they found a dark room. In the centre of the room was the projected 3D image of what they were going to be working on.

'In case you are wondering about the strange shape of the 'Phoenix', there is a simple reason for it. One of the biggest problems we faced that we couldn't find a definitive solution to was that we were sending six people further across the solar system than ever before. They will land on a planet with gravity, and there was no-one to greet them on landing. Our concern was that, when they arrive at the other end, they might not have the strength to get out of the capsule because of weightlessness weakening. The solution we came up with was to provide them with artificial gravity. The whole spacecraft rotates around its central axis.'

He tapped a consul and the spacecraft began to turn.

'At 460 feet across, the rotation needs only be 2.5 revolutions per minute to provide 90% gravity at the Command Module positions. This is a fully functioning image. If you look closer, you will see that most parts are not fully formed. That is because they are not yet in place.'

Collins asked,

'Am I wrong, or do I see other parts from the ISS in the -'Phoenix'-?'

'You are not wrong, Tom. Most of the raw material on the 'Phoenix' will be coming from the ISS. This part of the main cylinder, here, for instance is coming from the Destiny Module. - Here we have Unity, on the other side there will be Columbus and Harmony. The Quest airlock system will be installed alongside the bridge area here in the Blue Sarsen. - We also have the observation cupola. - and the communications aerials that can serve many purposes.'

'You mean to tell us that we are going half way across the solar system in a second-hand car?' asked Ash.

'Well, you are going to build it; you'd better do a good job.-' Lili quipped, making some of the others laugh.

'There are several advantages of using the nodes,' explained Xanthros. 'They are already equipped with many useful bits of equipment, they are big enough to provide good protection from radiation, they are designed to be fitted together, and the nodes have accommodation that is more spacious than is offered by the Orion alone. The extra space provided by four nodes, each measuring 14 feet wide by an average of about 22 feet, can be used for storage.'

Tom Collins had a question,

'Where are we going to build all this?'

The spacecraft was turning more than spinning as Xanthros replied,

'Most of the hardware is already orbiting at 250 miles out. Of course, it is still being used by the ISS, but it is due to be decommissioned by the time we need it. To answer your question more fully, we intend to build in low Earth orbit, something like 350 miles while travelling at 17,000 mph. This will put us in synchronous orbit with the ISS. Some of the Orion missions will be one way; the astronauts will transfer to the ISS for their work, then return with the ISS crews.'

.....................
Chapter Six

GRAVITY

The 'Phoenix' Room' restaurant was fairly full; people were coming from all over the site to experience this new facility. As Michelle took her coffee and made her way towards the only vacant table she could see, she saw Moira appear to be making a beeline for her.

'Not now.' She thought. Moira was a nice enough person but can go on a bit too much. Michelle didn't feel like having a long gossip about nothing in particular. The place was quite noisy, and Michelle was sure that Moira's irritating voice would be even more annoying.

Then she saw Ash weaving about with his tray looking for somewhere to sit. He was wearing the standard white coverall that all astronauts wear, but his had a pale pinkish stain on the leg. Before she knew what she was doing she found herself waving at him and indicating the empty chair at her little table.

Moira was in the same direction as Ash from Michelle's location. She saw Michelle waving, and, like any good gossip, immediately presumed the invitation was aimed at her. Her dark face turned towards Michelle again, who seemed to beam a smile, and her eyes indicated pleasure and acceptance as Moira moved her tray as a sort of wave.

Michelle hoped she didn't show a negative expression. Then she looked back at Ash. He hadn't seen Moira; she was slightly behind him in the melee. He saw Michelle's flag-like dress and turned towards her. At the same time Moira saw Ash just slightly closer to Michelle, she began to move faster in order to get to the vacant seat before Ash. In the crowded environs Moira had to dodge and weave around the tables and patrons. Trays began to be tilted. Moira adopted an almost aggressive attitude as she strode purposefully across the floor. Ash had not seen her, neither had the two men who were moving towards each other in front of Moira. In their attempt to avoid colliding with each other in the narrow aisles one of them strode out in front of the hurrying Moira. In order to avoid a direct collision, Moira swerved violently, skilfully tilting her tray to avoid spillage. She then walked straight into the second man. The contents of her tray fell noisily to the ground. All three stood in amazement at the amount of noise the clattering and smashing made. This was emphasised by the almost silence as everyone turned to look at what had happened. To break the silence a lone voice from the far corner of the room called,

'Sack the Juggler.'

Ash and Michelle laughed as he reached the table.

'Hi, how's the hand?' he asked as he took the seat.

'Oh, it's fine, thank you. You did a good job.'

'No, anyone could have done it. You don't intend playing the piano, do you?'

'No. But will my injury impede me in my future hope of operatic pianoforte?' She held her hand as if there were some divine task for it.

'Are you asking if you will be able to play the piano again?'

'Oh, yes. It is so important to me.'

'Then I am pleased to inform you that you will be able to play the piano again in the fullness of time.'

'Oh, wonderful.' Michelle had a twinkle in her eye, 'I always wanted to play the piano. Can you help me with the bassoon?'

Ash saw that he had been drawn into this trap.

'We only have a harp, but I'm afraid it's up on the ISS now, and I don't think your injury will allow you to stretch that far.'

'Ah, yes. But you are a doctor, are you not?'

'Yes, but I'm not a paramedic, my specialist area is bacteria and antibiotics.'

'Let me see. I know something about this.' Michelle stroked her chin in thought before continuing, 'In order to survive bacteria must have three things, moisture, temperature, and time. They must have time to multiply, and in the right conditions.'

Ash was impressed,

'Luckily, in space we have the perfect conditions to kill off any bacteria; the freezing cold, and searing heat of space. No air, and absolutely no moisture.'

'So you only have to worry about anything you may be taking up with you - in your bodies.'

'Some of the deadliest creatures on this planet are bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. Some have now become resistant to all known antibiotics. Fast evolution rates and short times between generations give them tremendous advantages. But the main leverage they have is that they can now swap genes amongst themselves.'

He took a sip of coffee, then continued,

'If any of us takes up a bacterium, or virus, it could spell the end of the mission before it has even begun.'

'Wow. That is interesting. I love 'Gee Whizz' facts.' Michelle enthused.

'This place is full of them; our mission alone is one big 'Gee Whizz'.'

'Gee Whizz, now that is interesting.' She now had a smile on her face.

He pointed at her,

'Now I think you are poking fun at our esteemed mission.' He saw the humour in her remark.

'No, I don't mean to. I think what you guys are trying to do is admirable.'

'Trying to do. That is condemning by faint praise.' He had a twinkle in his eye now.

'No, no, no. I didn't mean it that way. What I meant is that your mission is so complex and fraught with uncertainty that even to attempt what you guys are setting out to do is an act of supreme bravery.'

'If we take it one step at a time, slowly, we can cut down on most of the dangers.'

'But there are dangerous things that you will be doing that are still inherently dangerous, like space walks, for instance.'

'Well, yes. But we can reduce the risks involved as much as possible. I was on the International Space Station for a six-week stint, but only went outside three times. And part of my job was to go out there to gain experience in working in space.'

'You were on the ISS?'

'Yes, there are six of us on this mission who have been on the Station. Tom Collins, Dmitri Chopov, Petre Avetsova, Cho Ling and Al Fontana.'

'That's only five. Who was the sixth?'

He thought for a second or two, took a sip of coffee. Replaced the cup on the table, then drained the contents before replying,

'I do wish you had not asked that question. It is one of the closest guarded secrets on this program.' He looked her straight in the eye,

'So secret, even to ask is to acknowledge that there even was a sixth man. Or woman. Desks have been cleared and people moved away, never to be seen again. Just because they realised that there could have been a sixth person involved.'

She sat there, frozen and wide-eyed at this sudden turn of events. Then she saw the faintest trace of a smile in the corner of his mouth. His eyes were still steel and piercing, but his countenance seemed to soften. Then she realised the foolishness of her question.

'It was you, wasn't it? Of course it was. How silly of me.'

He turned his empty cup around on the table,

'I do hope you like mountains. They have more than their fair share in Outer Mongolia. Your desk is being loaded on to a C-130 as we speak. But maybe your cleverness in solving this conundrum might save you in the end.'

She picked up the folded card menu and made a slicing movement towards his arm. The card missed his arm, but caught the back of his hand.

'PAPER CUT, PAPER CUT.' He cried.

'Oooow, now you are being nasty, this is where we began.'

'Yes, and I think we should be leaving, this place is getting more crowded.'

With that they both walked out of the 'Phoenix' restaurant towards the main instruction buildings of the Houston space centre.

'Let me show you something.' Ash said to Michelle as they entered the main complex.

'It's in here.'

This room had two large technical drawings on the wall.

'This is the latest rendition of the 'Phoenix'. It is still changing of course, but the main elements are pretty well frozen now.'

Michelle looked at the big drawings. First at the 'Phoenix', then the ISS, then back to the 'Phoenix'.

'Are there elements from ISS in this one?'

'Most of the 'Phoenix' is made up from ISS modules.'

'You see, in three to five years' time the new ISS will be operational. The time scale fits in well with the building of the first interplanetary spacecraft. And the more of the ISS structure we can use, the less weight needs be lifted from Earth.'

Michelle looked at the detail of one module and compared the two drawings.

'This part here,' she pointed to the ISS schematic,

'Is it the same part on here?'

'Yes. You have chosen a good part to look at. That is Columbus. It has been used as a laboratory since joining the young ISS in February 2008. It is to be the first unit converted for 'Phoenix'.

In two years we will have converted it on the Orion program for use as part of the interplanetary craft.'

'You say converted. What do you have to do with it?'

He pointed to the drawing,

'These are inflatable living spaces seventeen feet across and twenty feet high. The lower half will be filled with water to give us a pool.' He smiled,

'No, that is not true. The water is mainly for protection, but back to the case in point. The gravity at floor level is just over one G. at the ceiling it is a bit less, and as you move towards the centre of the spinning craft it gets weaker and weaker, until you reach zero at the centre. The same applies on the other side.'

'I suppose you would choose to sleep in zero gravity, I have heard that it is a sort of carefree floating sensation.' She observed.

'Yes and no. Yes, it is a very nice floating sensation. But on the mission to Mars we will not be sleeping in zero G. The body needs gravity to perform certain tasks, some of which we don't even know about. There are many internal functions that have evolved in gravity and do not take kindly to being confused by no gravity over long periods. So to avoid feeling ill, if for no other reason, we sleep in normal conditions.'

Michelle studied the schematic drawing of 'Phoenix' for a few moments before turning to Ash,

'This looks a pretty cool place to live. Once you get used to the circular rooms that is. How many people will be on it?'

Ash moved closer to the drawing in front of Michelle. He placed his arm across her shoulder as he pointed at one end of the cross of 'Phoenix'.

'As far as I can see, there will be up to four launches a week to rendezvous. This is one of the Orion modules.' 'There they will assemble sections of the new ship, sent up separately. But the truth is that we just don't know. I sometimes wonder if anyone knows.'

Michelle showed that she knew more about things than Ash had at first thought,

'With each Orion craft carrying up to four people, that means they are planning to send eight people to Mars.'

Ash turned to look her in the eye. He kept his hand on her shoulder as he said,

'I don't think it works like that.'

Their heads began moving closer involuntarily.

'Oh.' She said; - 'How does it work?'

.....................
Chapter Seven

MORE ROBOTS

Constant practice and training is essential for smooth and safe operations in space.

To this end the astronauts use vast water tanks with full sized chunks of space equipment to allow them to get used to working with the shapes, spaces and problems they will encounter on the real thing.

Tom Collins and Preston Ashton, and Sarsen Blue Team were working on how to strip out the old laboratory on the module known as Columbus. Columbus is a part of the space station, and measures 22 feet long by 14 feet wide. All modules on the ISS are 14 feet wide and are circular. This made them ideal candidates for cannibalisation and inclusion in the construction of the new 'Phoenix' interplanetary craft.

The two seasoned astronauts were in the suiting out room, getting into their space suits along with their team members, the German physicist Lili Gothe, and the Italian scientist Al Fontana.

It could take up to four hours for a team of five people to get an astronaut suited up. Every connection and circuit must be checked meticulously. Al sat with his legs in the trouser part of the space suit, whilst his fitters tested the torso part, when Lili entered the room. Dressed only in the regulation shorts and tee shirt she made her way across to the fitting bay where she would be suited up.

'Good morning, Lili.' Al said.

'Morgen, Al. Are you ready for the last swim?'

'I certainly am, ma'am. It has been a long journey since those first tentative few steps down into the surreal world of the deep.'

She smiled,

'I still feel somehow inadequate, twenty-seven years old, six years in various space programs,' nodding towards her waiting space clothing engineers, 'and I still cannot dress myself!'

The three assistants helped her into the legs of her space suit, whilst another two prepared the torso part. Al was stood up now, his torso was swallowed by the main part of his suit, and then his hands appeared at the ends of the curious looking sleeves with their circular metal cuffs.

He asked the fitters,

'Have you any news on the new Martian suit? I hear it is a lot easier to handle than this.'

'Only what we get from Bill Embrey in 'Rumour Control'. He says it is more like a sub-aqua outfit, but without the flippers of course.'

Then the helmet was placed on his head, and comms were checked. He sat down again to await the rest of his team. They removed his helmet for his own comfort, and to save having to hook up the life support system.

Presently they moved into the pool room. Four members of the dive team came forward to help them into the water when Lili and Al were both ready. They always work in twos, because that is the safest way to operate in space.

Tom Collins and Ash were already in the water, working around the exact replica of the Columbus module that is attached to the ISS.

Buoyancy tests were carried out quickly, and then the two Europeans were floating as if they were in space.

Tom Collins appeared from the inside of the module. He waved at the two scientists.

'Hi, come in, the water's fine.' He quipped.

They were just making their way down to the end of the ladder. Al led the way. He was careful to be holding on to something as he moved from ladder to structure, then moved from one handle to the next as if he were in space. Frogmen circled around like sharks in case someone began drifting away from the structure, swimming in a spacesuit is not very productive; it is more like thrashing about with no effect, much like being in space.

When they met up with Collins the first thing they did was to connect their tethers to the structure as they floated and drifted.

Fontana looked around the insides. It had changed considerably since they began work on it some two months ago. In its original state the module had been designed to be used in near-zero gravity conditions. To this end there was no up, or any down. Now there was no equipment. The equipment racks had all been removed and replaced with new fittings more in keeping with operations in gravity; even retractable beds had been installed. But there was no room for four people in bulky space suits inside the module, so two would work outside, and two inside.

Collins called Fontana,

'Al, Ash is struggling with some plumbing inside, if you could assist?'

'Si, no problem.'

'Lili, we shall work the problem from outside.'

This was all rehearsal on earth. When they reached the real thing 350 miles above planet Earth they found that they moved in exactly the same way, using the same methods they learned in the tank. The biggest difference was that they entered the space station without their bulky space suits; these were left behind in the air lock. Four people could work inside comfortably. The need to go outside was reduced considerably by the extensive use of robots. The main ones were the ones they had met earlier, and they found that the communications between humans and robots was just as good as seen on Earth. To such an extent that, on occasion, the humans would arrive for work in the morning, (referred to in name only) to be told by the robots that they had done more than expected, and the planned work for the day had now been rescheduled. The robots were beginning to run the program because they could to a better job - and kept at it 24 hours a day. They were now built with the capacity to learn by themselves, because mankind could not teach 24 hours per day.

This made them very useful builders on the new 'Phoenix', and they would be even more useful on Mars.

The interplanetary craft was now taking shape. Sarsen Yellow team was concerned with the building, ably 'assisted' by five robots, two manipulators, two almost human, and a Russian heavy lifter.

Sarsen Yellow consisted of four people with very different capabilities; Jake Jensen was the team leader; his specialities lay with his military background and many hours in space.

Mary-Jo Shelton was the Mission Specialist, having studied the planned construction of the 'Phoenix's internal fittings and the working of six astronauts for up to six months before reaching Mars.

Hoshi Masuto specialised in robotics, and their interface with humans – this was to prove essential in the days and months to come.

Back on Earth, over coffee during one of the many planning sessions they had decided to give the robots human names.

Hoshi withdrew a set of photographs, like 'Top Trumps'. She laid them on the table, three looked like people, the other two resembled mechanised dogs.

The androids wore simple tee shirts and jeans. The shirts were red, blue and white. Otherwise they were identical.

Mark Singleton was the first to speak,

'This one looks like a Gerald.' He tapped a picture, 'It must be the red shirt.'

'Ok, what about the others?' Hoshi asked, 'It is important that we get these right, we are more likely to be working closely with them.' she tapped a photograph,

'So how about Stuart for one of them?' she offered.

'Yes,' Mark replied, 'but, these are all English names, how about a Japanese one?'

Hoshi said,

'It was agreed a long time ago that English is to be the language for International space programmes, so we should stick to English names.'

'I think we could consider something from your country in recognition of the tremendous leaps forward you have allowed us.' He said.

'Tell you what we can do, we will choose an English name of someone who is held in great regard in our country – Steve McQueen.'

'Ok. So, the androids are to be named Gerald, Stuart and Steve.'

Hoshi moved to the images of the Canadian manipulators,

'The others are referred to as 'S' class, so I suppose their names should have to begin with the letter S.'

Mark pointed to the Canadian machines, 'These can be Scuttles and Skittles.' He suggested.

'Right.' Hoshi agreed to the naming.

Wing Commander Mark Singleton, RAF, had studied rocketry before joining the space programme in England, then the European Space Agency. He had the responsibility to make sure the rockets on all the vehicles they used worked, his secondary task was stress. It was his job to assess the stresses and workloads on the whole structure, and make sure it could take it. Because of this last accountability he would be working closest with the robots and Hoshi.

Two weeks later, Gerald was on an emerging structure, 400 miles above planet Earth. Nodes from the ISS were being built into a long tube, at one end there was an Orion re-entry module sitting like a plug in the end of a pipe. Across what was going to be the centre of this tube sat the centre section of a Mars Space Launch System rocket. This part is normally sent back to burn up in the atmosphere; or sent off in a solar orbit where it can be of no harm to anyone, the centre bit is also no use to anyone, either. Two of these massive pieces of space junk have been preserved for just this mission. They will be the core of the propulsion system for the first manned interplanetary craft, the 'Phoenix'. These will be carrying fuel for the four RS-25 rocket engines that would power the craft on its long journey to Mars. And back.

Mark Singleton and Gerald were working at the rear of the back portion of the rocket assembly. They were preparing the structure for the introduction of two new rocket engines. The ones it had contained items that were considered to be life expired, once they had propelled the Orion into space, and it was going to be easier to replace the whole engines, all four of them, with specially developed versions of the trusted F-1 engine.

'Did you ring through the bleed valves to the recirculation pump?' Gerald asked Mark.

'Yes, value three point five.' Mark replied as he floated around the gigantic cone of the two rocket engines already installed.

'You only have two hours left out here, Mark, so I shall leave the main lox and purge tests until you have finished your tasks.'

'Ok, Gerald. You will have nine hours before I return. That should be plenty of time for you to complete them.'

Skittles and Scuttles were making good the joins between the latest nodes to arrive from the old ISS. They had been docked successfully, so were pressurised, but the joins were now being made stronger and more permanent by the rail tracked and versatile mechanical arms.

Stuart and Steve were working at the rear of the old Columbus module. They were installing the inflatable living area. Stuart was floating outside of the structure; Steve was inside with Mary-Jo. She was wearing the new Martian pattern of space suit; this consisted of a lighter construction, allowing more flexibility, but this was not passed as fit for space walks. It was designed for use in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Mary-Jo was trialling this one inside an unpressurised section of the build.

Jake and Hoshi were pressurising the centre sections and preparing them for habitation.

.....................
Chapter Eight

WATER

The people who are slated to go to Mars find out how they will be able to land on the planet - and return to the mother ship.

They have not yet worked how to get people back from the surface of Mars.

The journey from Earth to 'Phoenix' was by means of the gigantic Mars launch vehicular system.

Getting to Mars and back was no longer a problem with the use of the 'Phoenix' vehicle - it was capable of carrying enough fuel to return from an orbital position to an orbital position.

However, to blast off from the surface of the red planet was still unsolved. Tom, Gerry Stevens and Mike Xanthros had been working on a solution to the dilemma of leaving for home.

The three of them met up in the CNC hologram room.

'I have something here to show you.' Gerry told them as he moved to one of the consuls.

The lights dimmed, a new hologram flickered into life.

Standing before them was an almost complete landing craft. Almost five feet high, and four feet around, the pyramid was like nothing they had seen before.

As Tom and Mike moved around the strange craft Gerry explained,

'You are all familiar with a launch from Earth, be it from the Cape here, or Baikonur, or New Guinea, or Tanegashima. They all have one thing in common, a vast support network, as seen in the towers by the rockets, and the sheer number of buildings in their respective launch complexes.' As he moved controls part of the skin of the hologram peeled away to show the highly detailed interior; - 'We do not have any of these facilities on Mars. In fact, we do not even have someone on the ground to say, 'Ok, that looks good.'

'Well, that is not strictly true.' Mike explained, 'What we are now planning is a series of launches. The landing team will be six strong, there is no way we can launch six people back into orbit at once. There will be three launches with two people in each vehicle.'

Gerry then looked up and said,

'And to think that there will not be a populated launch control is a misnomer. We will be leaving behind a population of thinking robots; they will be capable of their own maintenance and repair. But not only that, they will be capable of developing on the surface, and under the surface. They will be the true discoverers of Mars; -' He looked at the pyramid structure as he continued, 'So how do we propose to launch back to the 'Phoenix' mother ship? There are three possible options. Here is the most promising.'

He moved some controls. The pyramid dissolved. In its place appeared a scene on Mars. It resembled a simplified version of an earthbound launch complex on a red and pink landscape.

Tom paused before explaining,

'We will have approximately fourteen months to build this structure with the help of five robots. In fact, that is not quite accurate; we are not being helped by five robots. The way things have gone thus far with the build of the 'Phoenix', the robots soon gain so much knowledge that it is they who are helped by us.'

The hologram became animated as one of the rockets blasted off.

'The question we have yet to answer is - how do we get the whole thing back on to the surface of Mars?' Mike asked as the noise died down, 'If we do three launches with the one rocket, we are going to have to bring it back and re-use it.' The hologram followed the rocket into space. 'It is this skeletal rocket that is proving to be a difficulty at the moment. We can't coat it in heat resistant tiles, like the normal heat shields, because it is a framework. It is this framework that is its best feature, it keeps the weight right down, therefore the re-entry speed is lower, and it is easier to slow down.'

Tom asked,

'Would it not be possible to build three of these, and just re-use the capsule?'

'That is a possibility, but a little wasteful of precious resources. We would rather keep as much of the material we send as possible. Remember, this is not like the moon missions; we are not abandoning the site when we leave. The five robots will continue working on into infinity using what they can to exploit Mars. The first thing they will use is the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere as a power source.'

Gerry then turned back to the hologram.

'One problem we have already overcome is the parachute retarding system normally used.' He paused.

The hologram changed again to one of the pyramid-shaped landers as it began to enter the Martian atmosphere.

'For several reasons we can't use this method of slowing the capsule; the main one being durability of the 'chutes. We just do not know how they would function after five deployments, and how reliable would the packing be? They only have to fail once, so we can't risk using parachutes.'

He faced the other two men,

'However, we have not only found an answer, but we have improved on the whole recovery scheme.'

He paused the hologram. It faded. A moving picture appeared on the far wall. This was of one of the Apollo capsules being recovered by helicopter. Then another, then another. Gerry turned from the pictures and said,

'Is there a pattern emerging?'

Tom and Mike looked at each other, then Tom said,

'Helicopters.'

Gerry looked almost smug,

'Exactly. But we have no helicopters on Mars, so we are taking one with us.'

The picture flicked off. The hologram continued where it had left off. The module fired a retard engine to slow it down. Then a double rotor system deployed on the top of the capsule.

'The advantages of this set-up are many, but the main ones are, we can guide it far more accurately, probably to a specially prepared pad. And the system is rugged and re-usable.'

Tom asked,

'Is this thing actually flyable, then?'

'Fully. The rotors have simple ram-jets at the tips to give power.'

The module landed with minimum dust. The room was flooded with light as the door burst open. Ash and Michelle came in.

'Sorry to disturb things, Gerry.' Ash said, 'There's been an accident in the pool, John Garbou has been involved.' He addressed all three,- 'There has been a serious incident at the underwater facility. John Garbou and Mark Singleton were working on the structure as if they were in space. The suits were rigged to duplicate spacewalk conditions. All went well until, fifteen minutes into the task John reported feeling wetness down his back and an unusual amount of condensation was accumulating. Mark checked the outside of the suit for leaks, but there seemed to be none. The pressure readings inside the suit were all reading normal, so a leak was ruled out. John said he was quite happy to continue. He said, if there was a problem he would let it develop, and then we could fix it here before it emerges out in space.'

Gerry shut the hologram down as Ash continued,

'He went inside the structure to do something with equipment on the floor. As his legs floated up Mark heard something come over the radio. He was outside the framework, so could not reach his colleague quickly. John tried to get out of the structure, but the space he was in didn't allow him enough wriggle room to turn around. He pushed himself out with his arms, when his legs got out they started to drop. The sub aqua people went straight to him, they could see that he was in trouble. Mark came to their aid. They got him to the surface and saw that his suit had filled up with water. Against regulations they removed his helmet as soon as he breached the surface, but it was too late. John Garbou had drowned inside his suit.'

.....................
Chapter Nine

CONFINEMENT

Two days after the John Garbou incident, Michelle was sitting at her desk. The glass-like top was clear, as usual, despite the increase in workload caused by the tragic death of John Garbou. The left inset computer screen was blank, the right one showed the schedule of training and eventual space flights for the astronauts. This had to be amended, first to take into consideration that they were now a man down, but also feed in the effects of the investigations needed to find out what had happened. Mike Xanthros had told them all that all training would now take second place to the investigation, and no-one was to be put at risk of a repeated incident until a solution had been found.

For the thirty-fourth time this morning her computer phone pinged an incoming call. She tapped the left screen with the silicon tipped stylus to accept the call. They had experimented with touch-sensitive screens but found that objects on a crowded desk would activate them too easily, a stylus was the answer.

Michelle was expecting another solemn face telling her of more changes but was pleasantly surprised to see the smiling face of Preston Ashton.

He began,

'Hi, you might see from your amended task list that all swimming has been postponed for the foreseeable future, so we have been given the day after tomorrow off.'

'Lucky you. I am snowed under here with extra work.'

'The day after tomorrow is a Saturday, Jake and I are taking the boat out, is there any chance you could find a slot in your busy schedule to come along.'

She thought for a micro second, then replied,

'Confinement.'

'Pardon, is that what you have been sentenced to?'

'No, silly.' She tapped a smaller screen on the far-left side of her desktop. It lit up immediately to show an overall picture of her tasks on this program,

'One of my tasks here is to study confinement. If we can get another crew member, you can all spend a protracted time confined below desks, and I can make observations as part of my duties.'

'Ok.' Ash said thoughtfully, 'Three names spring to mind, Lili Gothe from our team, Mary-Jo Shelton, and Mark Singleton from Yellow. Pretty well everyone else is tied up with the investigation or its implications.'

'If it is a female, it sounds like a foursome.' She smiled back at him, 'Is that a good idea?'

'I'm pretty sure Jake don't fancy Mark, but I see what you mean.'

'But by involving people from other teams is good. If we could get someone from the Red team that would then be one from each team.'

'Jake fancies Galina; that would be interesting.' Ash replied.

'You are not thinking of this in the same way I am.'

'Yes, I am. As an experiment in human interactions, this could be very interesting.'

'Interesting, yes, but I have to write this up as scientific research, not an episode of a soap opera. Anyway, any developing relationships within the program would raise concerns.'

'Is that what we have, a developing relationship?' he still had a smile on his face.

'That is different; we will not be going into space for two years, at least.'

'No, but how about a slow boat around the bay?' he raised his eyebrows, asking the question.

'Let me make a few calls,' she tapped the small screen a few times. 'On the Red team there are gaps available in Galina's schedule. Also available is Mike Lafont.' More tapping, 'Petre Avetsova and Dmitri Chopov have their own schedule. On the Yellow team, the two Chinese also have their own schedule.

'For Jake's sake I would suggest Galina.' Ash offered.

'And for science's sake I should ring Mike, he's a nice Frenchman mixing it with the Russians. Although Chopov is not actually a Russian.'

'Ok, we can go along with anything to move the program forwards. Do you want to get back to me when you know more?'

'Yes, of course. When were you thinking of setting off?'

'If we leave at 0900 we can have a full day out.'

'If I reschedule a couple of things here and there, as this is now part of the program, we can all spend two days out.'

'That would be interesting.' Ash stroked his chin in thought, 'but there have been people in space for much longer than that.'

'The difference here is that they had something to do, and good communications. We can have a time delay built in quite easily.'

'Two days on a boat with you, and nothing to do. Sounds good to me.'

'Let me work things out, and get back to you, Ash.'

'Ok Michelle. See you soon.'

The screen went blank.

Michelle turned to the schedule screen, at the same time she tapped one of the smaller screens to activate it.

After half an hour's research and juggling she activated the main left screen again to make a call to Mike Lafont.

Presently the rugged face of Mike Lafont came into view. His thick black hair looked unkempt, his smile ready,

'Hi, Doctor Romero. What can I do for you today?'

'Good morning Mike. I have a proposed schedule change for you if you can manage it. You know the walk through of telemetry systems we have planned for you on Saturday? Could we reschedule that in favour of a two-day excursion on a yacht to study confinement?'

'That sounds more interesting.' His attention seemed to move from looking directly at Michelle to another screen adjacent to the one she was on.

'I presume that will be taking in the Sunday?'

'Yes, Mike. And Monday morning for debrief.'

'That makes it difficult, Michelle. Because Petre, Dmitri and I have to meet Professor Xanthros at the Launch Control Centre at Launch Complex 39 first thing on Sunday morning. This is a recent addition; it is noted in red, so I cannot move this one. I see that Galina may well be free, because the previous activity that this replaces involved the whole team.'

'That is useful to know, Mike. Thank you for that. I'm sure you will be able to get on to another similar task in the future.'

'I am sorry to be missing what sounds like an interesting task, but the meeting with Professor Xanthros sounds like it has something to do with the investigation he is conducting into the incident that caused us to lose Jacques Garbou.'

'That is fair enough, Mike. We cannot impede the investigation; it is beginning to slow down other elements of the main program already.'

Galina was, indeed, free for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Jake was busying himself on the stern of the yacht when Galina's long legs strutted up the gangplank and on to the yacht.

Michelle accompanied her, but introductions were not needed, because astronauts always work closely together.

Ash came from within the lower deck when he heard the gangplank move as the women boarded the yacht.

When everyone was settled in, personal effects stowed, Michelle called them to a meeting in the early morning sun on the rear deck of the yacht before they cast off.

'This may look like a sea trip for four friends, but it is nothing of the sort.' She began, 'The three of you will be confined below decks for the duration of the trip.'

Michelle turned to Ash and asked,

'Are there any tasks in the course of the next two days and nights that need to be performed by someone on the outside of the ship?'

'Well, for a start, this is not a ship; it is classed as a boat.' He said with a twinkle in his eye.

She replied by looking at her notes that were displayed on a tablet hand-held computer. Then held up a selection showing the NASA emblem,

'This is a NASA mission. We do not put astronauts in boats. You are to be confined to your ship for the next two days.' She looked at Ash, her eyes and lips narrowed purposefully,

'Any insubordination will be dealt with by enforced space walks and keelhauling.'

Ash responded with,

'But the nice mister Xanthros said no more astronauts were to be drowned.'

Michelle lowered her tablet pad, and bent closer to Ash's face,

'The nice mister Xanthros will not know, will he? Because any astronaut will be hung out from the yardarm to dry thoroughly afterwards.'

'I love it when you get all masterful.' He said, smiling.

'To continue.' She picked up her notes, 'We anticipate that there will be either three or four people on Orion missions, with between six and eight going on the long trip to Mars.

'This little trip will replicate the confined nature of space travel, coupled with unknown elements we have no idea about as yet. In simulated conditions we can never fully create the unexpected. The subjects,' she indicated the assembled crew, 'will be facing problems that were not designed by other people on the program. This time the problems may have the possibility of going wrong with disastrous consequences. That added stress is something I shall be looking at in order to feed this into the exhaustive testing already done in this program.'

Jake then asked, 'You began by asking about tasks to be done outside the' he hesitated, 'ship.' then continued, 'If we are under sail, it can be rigged for minimum maintenance, but we won't travel very fast. The sails are what we use to gain speed, so have to be rigged and changed depending on the wind conditions to take full advantage of the meteorological environment. Are we to be allowed outside to change the set of our sails?'

'I'm afraid not. The difficulties you will face will be minuscule compared with the problems likely to be encountered out there in space.'

Jake and Ash turned and looked at Galina.

'Do you think this is a good idea?' Jake asked her.

She replied,

'We are not wise. But then again, going into space is not a wise thing to do. I think it will be a very useful tool in the search for answers to questions we do not yet know.'

'This still leaves us with the question, will anyone have to go outside, and if so, for what?' Michelle said.

Jake tried to give an answer of sorts,

'If you can predict the exact weather conditions for every step of the journey, you would still have to re-rig the sails, for which someone would have to be outside.'

Ash then added,

'By running a minimum rig carrying hardly any sail we can probably manage unless we get hit by a storm.'

'That sounds like the lowest risk, easiest path to take.' Michelle observed,

Ash asked,

'Since when have astronauts taken the lowest risk, easiest path?'

Jake answered,

'Always. You know we never take unnecessary risks, even the easiest path is often taken to reduce the dangers.'

Michelle said,

'We are trying to replicate the stresses felt during space flight here. That is difficult enough, but I feel that we will have to up the anti somewhat. Without actually risking anyone's life, of course. Now, is there some ground between hazardous and completely safe?'

Jake suggested a compromise,

'We could use a sort of half reef, by judicious use of steering we could control the situation from below. That would necessitate someone being on watch all the time, and if things got rough someone would have to go outside to re-rig.'

'Could I do that?' Michelle asked.

'If you have to ask, then no.' Ash said.

Michelle adopted a more obstinate pose, 'But we don't wish to have to abandon the whole project just because something happens that we were hoping for anyway – the unpredictability of not knowing if we can handle it or not.'

Ash looked at Michelle with his head cocked to one side,

'You have something planned, haven't you?'

'Yes. Mike Xanthros said no-one has to be put at risk – especially if there is water involved! If someone has to go outside on the actual mission, they must wear survival gear. If someone has to go outside during this project you must take every precaution. We have supplied a full sub-aqua outfit that has to be worn – including the oxygen bottles, mask and gloves. We will pass on the flippers, but you must carry them with you. As a further hindrance, I will be your buddy on any extra vehicular activities.'

She pointed to a large metal box that had been unloaded on the quayside.

Galina leaned across to Jake and said quietly,

'That will be no problem for me, I have been sub-aqua instructor in Russia

.....................
Chapter Ten

CLUES

People were working hard to find out why John Garbou died, and can it be guaranteed never to happen again?

The lighting in the Life Support Bay was bright, but not harsh. The walls and ceiling melded into one blended shape. If it were not for posters on the walls it would be difficult to gain perspective.

Chief Inspector Orson La Hoya breezed into the room with his long white coat unfastened as usual.

He carefully checked the items on the table for his examination, he polished the visor on John Garbou's suit as a matter of habit before placing it in its storage container. The main suit was laid out on the long table awaiting his inspection.

Tom Bennet entered the room to assist.

'Hi, Orson. Sad affair, all this.'

'Yes Tom, it just goes to show how bloody dangerous this job of theirs is.'

'Have you found anything yet?'

'No, everything checks out. The suits were all prepped and thoroughly checked as usual. If there had been anything wrong, it would have shown up then. I think we are going to have to go deeper to find out what went wrong.'

Tom looked at the suit laid out on the long table in front of him. It was still wet on the inside.

'Do you think the suit sprang a leak and allowed water to get in?' he asked his more experienced colleague.

'Not possible. The suits have a small overpressure, if there is a puncture the air will escape, but the suit will try to maintain the overpressure and bubbles will be released. There were no bubbles seen around John. The water that killed him must have come from within the suit.'

'How is that possible?'

Orson wielded a small screwdriver around the back of the suit as he replied,

'That is what I intend to find out. The water coolant was fully functioning in all these suits to replicate the way they move in space, so that is where we shall start.'

He skilfully removed the backpack piece by piece, and then the shell of the life support pack came away, which he handed to Tom, who placed it on an adjacent table.

Carefully Orson worked away at the innards of the suit. Tom assisted him, but his main task here was to witness anything Orson found.

As he gently removed a small pipe that was concerned with the water cooling system built into the space suit, Orson brought Tom's attention to the small 'O' ring seal that sat between the pipe and the fitting.

'Tom, that 'O' ring does not look right. It should sit in the groove more comfortably.'

As he touched the black seal with the tip of his screwdriver he found that it moved far more than it should have.

Orson looked at Tom,

'I think we have found the culprit.'

He took a pair of tweezers and carefully took hold of the loose seal.

'It should not be loose.' He remarked.

Then, to his great surprise it came away loosely without any persuasion. Slowly he removed it from the main structure of the suit and examined it. There was not much to examine – it was obvious that the 'O' ring was split.

'Right,' Orson stood upright, 'Let's get Professor Xanthros down here.'

He tapped into his cell phone and spoke to Mike Xanthros directly,

'We have found the fault in John's suit.' A pause, 'Yes sir.'

He replaced the cell in his pocket.

'He's on his way.'

Seven minutes later Mike Xanthros and Stringer burst into the room.

'What have you got, Orson?' Stringer asked before they had moved across the room. He shook his friend's hand as Orson told them about the seal.

'Speaks for itself.' He pointed to the split 'O' ring.

'And where did this come from?' Xanthros asked.

Orson showed him the pipe and fixture in the back of the wet suit.

'Here, in the cooling system. There is not enough water in the cooling system to fill the suit, but if he were head down under gravity it would fill the helmet first, with disastrous results.'

Xanthros looked at the suit, Stringer looked at the 'O' ring. He took a magnifying glass with a folding handle from a small leather pouch. This he used to examine the split in the seal.

Xanthros asked Orson,

'How much pressure is there in this pipe when it is operating?'

'Not much, it varies when the wearer moves about, but there is only a couple of pounds over external pressures, in air it is raised to seventeen pounds, in water it goes to twenty pounds, in space it will be as little as two pounds.'

'So, there was a chance that it was caused by pressure on the seal?' Xanthros moved his finger around the pipe then the fitting.

Stringer passed the glass and seal to Orson,

'What do you make of that?'

Orson looked through the glass,

'What am I looking for?'

'The edges of the split. I would expect it to be more frayed. They look too sharp, like they have been cut.'

Xanthros came across to look at the seal. Orson moved to the suit, glass in hand he examined the fitting where the seal sat. There were small, almost invisible, nicks in the plastic.

Just then Xanthros took the seal and announced loudly,

'I will get this examined further, but it looks as if the seal failed because of the pressure it was subjected to. The manufacturer will be hearing from me.'

He turned to Orson and Tom,

'Can we have all the seals on the remaining suits thoroughly checked, and replaced if necessary?'

Orson was surprised that the answer was found so easily and quickly, but replied,

'Yes, sir. My whole section will attend to it with priority over anything else they are doing.'

Professor Xanthros seemed satisfied with this,

'Thank you for your work on this. I am sure we can ensure that this kind of thing will not occur again. You can clear all this away now, we have the only evidence we need here.' He waved the seal and placed it in a small clear plastic bag.

Without anyone noticing, Orson slipped Stringer's magnifying glass into his pocket. He knew that his friend would be back to reclaim it soon.

Less than an hour later Orson and Tom had the place tidied up and everything put back in its place, only the main part of the suit remained laid out on the table.

'I don't think we should vigorously dry this out yet.' Orson was referring to the way the suit would have to be turned inside out. 'I have a feeling that it may be called on again soon.'

'Ok, Orson. If that's all you need me for, I'll be off.'

'Right, Tom. Thanks for your help.'

Orson returned to the suit. As he carefully placed towels inside to help dry it out he was careful not to disturb the cooling system.

He looked at the pipe and connector again, then took out his personal tablet computer from his pocket. He tapped into various records as he sat on one of the high stools that furnished the room.

As predicted, Stringer came back into the room,

'Hi, Orson. Have you seen my magnifying glass? I can't seem to find it anywhere.'

'Yes. I have it here. I would like to show you something.' With that he indicated the pipe and connection in the back of the suit, 'Have a close look at this. Can you see slight damage around the area where the seal sits?'

Stringer scrutinized the white plastic pipe,

'Give me more light.'

Orson took out a small penlight and shone a bright blue light on the area Stringer was looking at.

Slowly Stringer said,

'Yeees. I can see there are three distinct nicks in here.' He looked at Orson, 'could they have been caused during the original build?'

'Not possible.' Orson was certain of this, 'The seals are applied quite simply without use of any tools. They just slip over the end of the pipe, you don't even need lubricant.'

'Does Professor Xanthros know about this?'

Orson looked askance at this question,

'He didn't seem too interested. It was as if he had found the answer and didn't want anything to distract him from declaring the problem solved.'

'What do you make of this?' Stringer asked as he replaced the magnifying glass in his pocket.

'I have done some delving into the background of this suit.' Orson waved his tablet briefly to show Stringer his source,- 'It turns out to be one that we constructed from a spare shell we had in storage.'

Stringer asked,

'Does that mean that it could have been damaged during reconstruction?'

'Not during reconstruction; as I say, there is no need for anything that could cause damage during reconstruction. This was deliberate. The only way this kind of damage could have been caused was by someone cutting the seal with a knife.'

Stringer was taken aback; he looked directly at Orson,

'But who would do that?'

'I don't know, but there was an unauthorised entry logged in the storage room where this suit was kept in its raw state. My records don't show who it was, but I think it is worth....'

Just then Sem, Michelle's assistant, entered the room,

'Professor Stringer, Professor Xanthros is going down to meet with the Red team, he asked if you could go along to interview the Blue team.'

'Thank you, Sem. All teams are down to three people for the next few days, are they not?'

'That's right, Professor. Doctor Romero is doing a study in 'Cross-team Confinement' for the next two days.'

'Is the confinement complete, or do we have comms with them?'

'Yes, sir. We have arranged a fifteen-minute delay, to replicate the situation they will have on the Mars trip, but there is the standard comms set-up.'

Stringer thought for a minute, then turned back to Sem,

'Let's give them a bit more realism. Tell them the mission is extended, they will take one day longer to get back than originally planned. That should give them something to think about.'

.....................
Chapter Eleven

ALL AT SEA

Stranded within the confined of the yacht, the three astronauts can only talk about their work, and work that they will be doing once on Mars.

Jake took the yacht out of the Clear Lake area before they all repaired down to the below decks area to which they would be confined for the next two days. The sails were reefed for minimum maintenance, the rudder steering and all instrumentation being available below decks.

'Orion and 'Phoenix' are the future of human space exploration.' Doctor Michelle Romero explained to the three members of the crew she was now stranded with on this yacht,

'I know there is no need to explain this to you three, but we have two days and a night to fill in. The main exercise here is not to see who can eat fastest, or who's the best cook. The main point is to see how we cope with very little to do over a long period.'

Ash then threw something at Jake, who had developed a smile,

'This is a serious assignment. We must behave as if we were on a genuine mission.' he added.

Michelle looked at the locker where the two sub-aqua suits were stored,

'There is always the prospect of a 'spacewalk' to help with the realism, if required.' She returned to her tablet computer.

'To help with focus on the task I shall now go over the main aims of the Mars mission. This is not a lecture, I am sure you are pleased to know, this is by way of sparking off focussed conversation and a think tank.'

'The first problem you will have to overcome will be moving from Earth orbit to travelling across the vastness of space. This needs more speed, as indeed will the travel to Mars. In order to cross the 56 million kilometres, you will need to gain as much speed as you can handle.'

Ash then added,

'Speed in itself is not the issue here. Whoever goes will be travelling at more speed than can be handled if they are hit by anything, so we have to disregard this danger. That is not the main problem; at those speeds the thin Martian atmosphere will not be enough to slow us down. The Command Module weighs nearly 50 tons. The heaviest object yet landed has been the Curiosity rover, which weighed less than 1 ton. And they had to employ a strange flying crane device to put that down.'

Michelle then came back in,

'There is no chance of landing a Command Module on the surface of Mars. The latest thinking is that it would be impossible to get it off the surface, and back into orbit to rendezvous with 'Phoenix' for the return journey.'

A surprised expression came over the assembled crew.

'Yes,' Michelle looked around the three now very attentive astronauts,

'There is now an increasing school of thought that believes that you can be got back.'

Galina said,

'This is very interesting. We have always been told that the technology does not yet exist to get us back.'

'It doesn't, yet.' Jake agreed, 'But I have been working with the robots. They are confident that they can come up with a workable solution by the time we get there – providing we don't scuttle their efforts with short-sighted planning.'

Ash turned to Michelle,

'You have information regarding meeting lists, don't you?'

'What lists?'

'Meetings of the movers and shakers within this scheme.'

'Yes, of course, Ash.'

'Are there any names on the lists of those attending who you don't recognise?'

Michelle thought briefly,

'Occasionally.' She interviewed her tablet computer, 'Some of these names are not familiar with me, but there are thousands of people on this project. I cannot be expected to know everyone.'

'Are there some names that keep creeping up?'

'Yes.' She scrutinised the display,

'One here has appeared a few times, a Mr G. Stevens.'

Jake then asked with a sort of bemused look on his face,

'Have you ever met this Mr Stevens?'

Michelle thought for a minute or two,

'Yes, I do believe I have. There are so many people, but if someone attends more than two or three meetings, there is a good likelihood that I would bump into them at some time or another.'

'You know what he looks like?'

She tapped her tablet a few times before answering,

'Ah. Yes. Here is Mr Stevens.' She showed the picture from the file,

'I remember meeting him on at least two occasions. We have talked together, he is a well-spoken American with a touch of a southern accent.'

Michelle Romero was proud of her attention to detail and particularly the things she noticed about people.

Jake was clearly impressed,

'Well observed, Michelle. I know our Mr Stevens here. The 'G', incidentally stands for Gerald. I have had the pleasure of working with him on many occasions.'

He seemed to deliberately pause.

Ash looked at Michelle, who could sense that Jake had not yet finished.

And indeed, he hadn't,

'It might surprise you to know that he is actually a robot. Well, an android to be more precise.'

Michelle was surprised, the others were not, but this man had not taken them in.

Galina was the first to speak,

'This just goes to show how advanced these machines are. I have heard that they will be running the journey back themselves. I have been up to the ISS, where the robots are not only working 24 hours a day out in space; they are also learning as they work. To such an extent that the astronauts who are to go out to work with them must be briefed as to how much the task has changed. Before they even suit up there is a conference between the crew and the robots outside. The robots do not even stop work to do this. They behave like automatons.'

She smiled at this, knowing that they are much more than mere automatons.

Michelle decided that they had spent enough time on the mechanics of the mission, so concluded the subject by saying,

'Remember that humans always make ultimate decisions, they are the ones that will be at risk, after all. The next thing we must look at is the subject of water. This is one of, if not the, main reasons for visiting Mars. We need to find water, liquid water, on the planet. There is evidence that liquid water once flowed on the surface, when the atmosphere was denser. We want to know where it went, is it reachable, and can it be made drinkable?'

She looked around the small cabin to gauge reactions. Jake was first to speak,

'I studied the images we got back from the early Viking orbiters, extensive networks of valleys flow down to old lake beds, this has been confirmed by more recent missions. But it is the northern part of the planet that interests us. The North Pole is as much as 6 miles lower than the rest of the planet. We don't know what caused this dip, could have been a planetary collision, or convection beneath the crust. What we do know is that water pools at the lowest point, so it makes sense to go there and look for it.'

Galina then asked Jake a direct question,

'What are the chances that we will find life on Mars?'

'You are right to assume that life relies on water. All forms of life in the universe require a liquid solvent. Biological molecules must be large enough and able to build complex structures. A friendly liquid is essential for that. Mars now is a desolate, harsh world, but once there may have been conditions favourable for such life-forming molecules to exist. Our main task is to find them.'

Michelle then asked a question of the group,

'What are the seven attributes of life? You should all know this from training 101.'

Jake was first to answer,

'Reproduction.'

Ash gave a rebuke,

'Trust you to come up with that one!'

Then added,

'Metabolism.'

Galina came up with two,

'Homeostasis, and Organisation.'

Jake and Ash chanted almost in unison,

'Growth, Adaptation, and Responsiveness.'

Just as the radio announced,

'Houston in the blind to Cerberus. Mission has been extended due to technical difficulties. Add twenty-four hours to mission time. Will repeat this message every five minutes until receipt confirmed.'

Ash stood up and took the mike from its hook,

'Cerberus to Houston. Message received and understood.'

He turned to Jake,

'Where do you think that will put us?'

Jake opened a drawer and withdrew a chart, he this spread on the chart table, which lay forward of the assembled crew. After judicious calculations he turned to Ash,

'We can be just about anywhere in a 350-mile circle, but given a fair wind and a calm sea, on a generally easterly heading. If we turn back after 25 hours, we should be able to get back at about the right time.'

He turned to Michelle,

'I presume we will be able to go aloft to do some proper sailing in the latter stages if we look like being late back?'

'We shall see. Meanwhile, back to the subject of water on Mars.'

Galina asked,

'To continue, is the mission going to the North Pole on Mars?'

Ash took up the question,

'No, Galina. The old Curiosity rover has found the most likely place to find liquid water is a place called the Gale impact crater. Here it found smooth rocks that could only have been shaped that way after years of tumbling over other rocks in water.'

Michelle then identified another useful task,

'The atmosphere of Mars is made up of 95 per cent carbon dioxide, with small amounts of nitrogen and oxygen. This we think may be useable as a fuel, and it will be interesting to see how plants function. However, that may have to wait for another mission. If we cannot find liquid water, it may well be possible to melt the ice we know to exist using carbon dioxide gas, but the actual methods for this have not yet been established.'

Jake added,

'That may well be one for Gerald and his cronies.'

The boat rocked gently as they moved further into the open sea. The steering was on automatic, but Jake kept a close eye on the compass and the conditions out of the window. It looked as if he was not completely involved in the conversation in the cabin, but it was his turn on watch, so he had to keep an eye on things maritime.

'If it gets any rougher it will make drinking hot coffee difficult.' Jake hinted.

Ash sat nearest to the galley area so volunteered,

'I'll get it, if you'll excuse me, Michelle.'

'Good idea.' She responded, 'We all have bits of things to finish off before we get too far out.'

She shut down her tablet. Galina moved towards the front of the boat and began unpacking her possessions from her little vanity case. Michelle helped Ash with the coffee, the movement of the boat seemed to bring them closer together, but was it only physical movement?

Presently Michelle took coffee to Galina, Ash joined Jake, and they both looked out of the windows at the grey sea. From where they stood they could just see the mainmast with the reefed sail flapping from it.

Galina said quietly to Michelle,

'Are you and Ash an item?'

'I don't know what you mean.' Michelle's half-hearted attempt at indignation was not very convincing, especially as it was accompanied with a knowing smile.

'I have seen the way you look at him. It is a dead give-away.'

'Well, ok. I suppose we have been out on what you would call dates.'

'How convenient for you both to be here on this boat, it gives you chance to get to know each other without the awkwardness and danger of either one of you going too fast.'

'Yes, it does seem to have worked out well.'

'But now we find that we are to be down here for an extra day, I do hope it is not a bridge too far. We are trained astronauts and cosmonauts, and used to spending long periods with the same people, will you be ok?'

'I will have to cope, Galina. It will have to be part of the task. I can observe the way you guys perform and cope with the situation, then compare it with the way I feel and manage.'

'You are right in one instance, Michelle. We are used to having lots of challenging experiments and other scientific stuff to occupy our busy minds. On here the only one with a full-time job is you. The rest of us will take turns looking after the boat, and even that is not very engaging.'

The radio blasted out another repeat of the message they had replied to fifteen minutes ago. The built-in time lag was working.
Chapter Twelve

ORION

Two weeks later, and the John Garbou tragedy has not been fully investigated. All of the suits have had their seals inspected and changed if necessary, but nothing else seems to have been done.

Doctor Michelle Romero had just finished writing her report of the confinement exercise, this felt like a real situation, for she'd lived it with them. In the end there was no drama, just the way the Astronaut Corps liked it.

The phone screen glowed into life on her desk. When she tapped it, Ash's face appeared.

'Hi, Ash. What can I do for you today?'

His demeanour was serious,

'Can we meet for coffee? I have some news for you.'

'Ok, usual place?'

'No, how about Coney's Diner on Kemah Boardwalk for a change?'

'Ok, sounds serious Ash.''

'No, it's not too bad; it's why we're here really.'

'Ok. Look I have to finish this off here, how about lunch? I hear they do excellent Nachos at Coney's. We could share the Guacamole.'

'Sounds good to me, Michelle. Shall we say 13 hundred?'

'Roger that, good buddy, see you then.'

She turned to her paperwork as the screen turned blank.

At exactly five minutes to one p.m. they both pulled into the car park at Coney's Diner. She had come from her office in the Gilruth Centre, he had to travel from the other side of the massive Johnson Space Centre. He was pleased that he had chosen this diner, there was not likely to be anyone from the program in here at this time.

They blinked behind sunglasses in the sun's glare as they walked towards each other. She was pleased that he was smiling, he had sounded so serious on the phone.

Meeting before they got to the end of the parking lot, they took hold of each other's hands and kissed in greeting.

'Let's get some air con,' Ash said, 'before we melt.'

Upon entering the coolness of the establishment, they made their way to a booth near a window. Before the waitress made her way across to them he picked up the menu, gave it a cursory look and looked at Michelle, passed it to her saying,

'Nachos?'

She waved the menu away saying,

'Yes, that will do fine.'

They both looked out of the window, then around at the people in the diner. She looked at him as the waitress approached.

'Hi, I'm Debby-Emma, I'll be your waitress today. What may I get for you?'

Ash placed the menu back in its stand,

'We'll have nachos to share and two cappuccinos, please.'

When she had moved away Ash leant forward a little,

'You are probably wondering why I have called you here today.'

'You seem to forget that I have access to all major decisions made on this program, sir.'

'Well, this one has only just been decided upon, so it will not hit the web yet, until the fine details are sorted.'

Michelle could see the matter was serious as he continued,

'We need to visit the 'Phoenix' again. There is a team up there already, as you probably know. When they come back I will be leading the team to replace them. I'm afraid I will be away for five weeks, but it may be extended to two months. It appears that the build has moved forward a lot faster than anticipated.'

He took her hand, and looked into her eyes,

'I feel we have moved a lot closer over the last few weeks and am afraid that I will miss you more than I have missed anything before.'

'Yes Ash, I know what you mean. This has grown much stronger and faster than I expected too. I am feeling the same way, but it is what you joined up for. I will be able to keep in touch with you. It isn't as if I don't know where you are!'

The meal then arrived with their coffee.

As they worked their way through the large black plate of nachos he talked about the upcoming mission,

'The old training groups of Sarsen Red, Blue, Yellow and Green are being depleted due to the missions, and the loss of John Garbou, but they will be running with them for the time being.'

'What are you going to be doing on the 'Phoenix', Ash?'

'Part of the rebuild. The robots have developed new structures for the 'Phoenix', we have to go up and familiarise ourselves with them and write manuals for safe operations; the robots have not yet got the hang of man and machine interfaces.'

Just over three hours before lift-off, Preston Ashton and Mark Singleton led the small group of four white-clad astronauts out to the old crew bus that would take them out to the launch vehicle. Just like the astronauts that went to the moon over a generation ago, they carried their own portable life support 'bags' to the same bus used by the Apollo spacemen. One difference this time was the fact that there were two women in the crew; Mary-Jo Shelton and Galina Danilenko followed the men on to the bus.

The vehicle they approached stood 370 feet tall, even more when you take into consideration the hold down mechanism it stood on. This is the Space Launch System, capable of lifting slightly over 100 tons into space – not just low Earth orbit; these things go out of the effect of Earth's gravity altogether.

Orson La Hoya and Tom Bennet, who help them negotiate the journey from the elevator to the Orion capsule by way of the crew entry gantry, escort them. Then they accompany the four astronauts in the elevator. It is at the end of this contraption that they are met by the signing out crew who help them enter the cramped capsule. This is a task they have done on many times during training, the big difference this time is they are entering a real live spacecraft that is prepared for launch.

Ash slid in feet first. As captain he needs to get to the other side of the capsule.

As he settled into his moulded seat he adjusted the straps, wires and pipes. He experienced prelaunch events. These are either heard or felt, and combine to create a relatively low and constant background noise including the sounds of environmental control, propellant replenishment, and propellant boil off and low volume purges.

Mark turned to the women by the entrance door. Speaking via radio links because of the clear air-tight domes around their heads he said,

'Who drew the next highest card?'

The exact sequence of who enters the capsule has to be carefully worked out depending upon the duties to be performed by each of the astronauts.

'I got a nine.' Mary-Jo joined in the jape, whilst the signing-out crew stood around waiting to assist the astronauts, should they decide that one of them wanted to enter next. It should be Galina.

'I got a ten.' Mark held his hand up in celebration.

Then Galina added,

'I also got a ten.'

Mark and Galina looked at each other, then a dual cry went out over the radio,

'FIGHT.'

Both astronauts faced each other, dome to dome. Galina held a very stern and determined expression, Mark on the other hand was beginning to corpse as they swung at each other with their only free hand.

Back in the control centre Jem Stringer wondered what was going on.

'Systems Operations to Sign-out, what the hell is going on up there, Orson?'

Galina then said through gritted teeth,

'You're going to re-entry now, the quick way.'

'Just a bit of boy on girl action.' Orson replied, 'best of three falls or submissions I think.'

There was a lot of tension in a launch; especially for the people about to blast off from planet Earth into the most alien environment conceivable, so a bit of horse-play is tolerated.

Mark then stood back,

'I see you have brought your handbag,' he said, pointing at Galina's life support bag, 'Ladies first.' He concluded, offering his hand in mock assistance.

'Thank you, kind sir. Is this the powder room?'

'I certainly hope not!' Ash called from within the capsule. He was busy checking things in his station. All the time there was a tussle going on outside, he ignored it with a fairly constant stream of check list items from him to the Flight Dynamics Officer.

'Auxiliary hydraulic pump off, pressurise supply and purge spheres, LOX/LH2 chilldown pump test...'

Galina slid down into the number two seat. Orson La Hoya followed her in to secure Ash's straps and check his equipment stowage. When positioned in their moulded seat the astronauts have limited movement and vision, so it was Orson's job to check and adjust things that the astronaut cannot easily reach.

The stopping or starting of operations or the turbulent flow of gasses and liquids causes significant noises and vibrations.

Mark and Mary-Jo stood outside waiting until Orson reappeared. Tom Bennett stood with them and the rest of the sign-out crew whose job it was to perform final checks and preps on the outside of the capsule.

Mark turned to Mary-Jo and said,

'Rock, paper, scissors?'

'Ok.' She replied as she began shaking her free fist like a mallet.

'One, two, three.'

Mark made a rock Mary-Jo made paper.

'That's me.' She said in an imitation of girlish excitement, 'Does that mean I can have a go next?'

Orson reversed out of the capsule,

'Next on board the sky rocket Orion.' He turned to Mary-Jo, 'have you got your skyrocket wristband, madam?'

She twisted as if to take a swing at him with the life support bag.

'I think we can overlook it this time, but you must have one to be allowed back on to the planet.' He said as he continued with the important job of helping her into the third seat, near the door. Then Mark just slipped in through the entrance hatch onto his seat.

Pre-close hatch checks were all made, and then the hatch was closed and sealed. Mark sat with the hatch on his right side, so it was his job to check that it was closed and sealed properly.

In the following two hours the crew was busy checking and initiating things, Ash and Mary-Jo were involved with preparing the four main engines.

Mark checked the gasses, fuel, LOX, pressures and valves.

Galina checked everything on the life support systems.

The gantry retracted 30 minutes before lift-off; this is known as T-30 minutes.

At the same time the pressurisation of the Instrument Unit supply sphere ceases. Then the pressurisation of the first stage begins. This is the way the SLS begins to live and breathe. The different sounds and vibrations will increase and lower, join and disconnect. At T-4.3 seconds (four point three seconds before lift-off) all internal and external sounds are drowned out by the simultaneous ignition of four gigantic SSME rocket engines, and two boosters, developing 7.6 million pounds thrust. Enough to lift this vehicle, which weighs almost 3,800 tons, and accelerate it to 250 mph before it leaves the tower. One minute after lift-off the whole spacecraft exceeds the speed of sound, travelling straight up.

The noise and vibration inside the capsule rises and rises until the crew thinks it cannot get any worse. Then it does. Communication is impossible, now the severe vibrations effect even vision. As the craft lifts off the effects of gravity are exaggerated by acceleration.

At T+01:15.6 seconds the crew experience maximum dynamic pressure, the vehicle begins Pitch and Roll manoeuvres to allow for navigation down the range, over the Atlantic Ocean, heading in an easterly direction, permitting the spacecraft to use the rotation of the Earth to its advantage.

Ash was watching the attitude indicator; this now showed a pitch rate that exceeds four degrees per second. This means that the guidance system that is trying to point the rocket in a certain direction, in this case 070 degrees, is having trouble altering the control systems that makes the whole vehicle point in the given direction. Too much workload caused by the spinning of the vehicle can, and will, cause it to break up. The main engines are still running at 93% power.

The 'Abort Request' lights light up in four positions in front of all four astronauts.

The Orion spacecraft has an excellent Launch Abort System, but the question here is, do the crew use it at such an early stage and after so much preparation?

Mark immediately checked the status of the actuators,

'All actuators clear and good.' Next the main engines,

'All engines running. All pressures ok.'

Houston then came on,

'Orion, Thrust Chamber Pressure looks fine, FDO limits close, Guidance failure light.'

Ash then called to all,

'Abort Request cancelled. We can ride this out. Bypassing the Auto Guidance System. Galina, can you shut down the Guidance computer, then reboot it. In the meantime, I will hold it manually. Houston, how long before first stage shutdown?'

'Orion, 53 seconds to booster jettison, 1 minute seven seconds to first stage shutdown.'

Ash hoped he could hold it within flight dynamics limits for just over I minute.

'Orion, if you do not have the main guidance computer on line before ten point seven seconds after shutdown, you will have to burn the ullage rockets manually.'

'Will separation happen automatically then?' asked Ash.

'Yes, but the Upper Stage will have to be switched over manually.'

Then the boosters stopped working, two seconds later they fell away as the main engines continued burning.

Mark then spoke,

'Upper Stage ready, Ash. Tell me when, and it will be activated. All pressures ok.'

Ash was beginning to sweat as he fought to control the spinning, vibrating beast, then Houston came on the radio again,

'Orion, FDO limits are now exceeded, Q ball exceeds 3 psi, time to get out, guys.'

They are now forty miles high, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Slightly over two minutes ago they were sitting on the pad waiting for main engine ignition.

The vibrations were now so bad that, when Ash reached up to throw the Automatic Abort Switch he found that he couldn't focus his hand enough to manipulate the switch. He looked across at his crew. The sweat ran down into his eyes, he blinked to clear it. At the same time the main engines shut down on schedule. He returned to manually controlling the vehicle as the vibrations slowed.

'Guidance Computer booting up, but I will have to update the information in it before we can use it again.' Galina called.

'Upper Stage ready, Skip.' Mark said.

Then the first stage separated cleanly.

'Ok, Mark, fire up the Upper Stage.'

Mark threw three switches that opened systems and valves in the Upper Stage.

'Orion stand by to fire the Upper Stage Ullage motor for four point five seconds.'

This rocket gives some gravity forces to seat the fuel for the main Upper Stage engines.

The used first stage separated cleanly and automatically on command from the Upper Stage computers. The Upper Stage rockets now carry the vehicle beyond low Earth orbit to rendezvous with the 'Phoenix' Interplanetary Craft.

.....................
Chapter Thirteen

HANDOVER

The new crew, consisting of Ash, Mary-Jo Shelton, Galina Danilenko and Mark Singleton took over from the old crew on board Phoenix. Returning to Earth were Sergei Chopov, Hoshi Masuto and Tom Collins.

Ash had approached the 'Phoenix' docking station in the simulator at least thirty times. Every time the engineers put some problem in the way. This time it was for real. Even the lighting was exactly the same as the simulator, but brighter, much brighter outside – with very dark shaded areas. But the difficulties put into the simulator very rarely happened. This time was no exception; the docking went smoothly, the interconnecting door opened effortlessly, the smiling faces of Tom Collins and Sergei Pavel greeted Ash as he floated through to the 'Phoenix' again. However, things were very different this time; the Orion capsule docked on the end of the Columbus Module, as normal – but the inside of the old laboratory is now a very different thing.

In the old Columbus the whole structure was designed and built as a laboratory to be operated in near zero-gravity conditions. Now it has been restructured for use in a gravity condition. Like a tube standing on end, the living quarters resembled the inside of a lighthouse. There are still elements of the laboratory on the walls; they are there to provide a more acceptable square wall and to provide some protection from cosmic rays. The reason for this transformation is the future use to be made of the Destiny, Harmony, Columbus and Unity modules from the ISS. They had been disassembled, transported to a higher orbit at 100 miles above the ISS, and then re-assembled to form the main components of the 'Phoenix'. This is to be the space ship that takes man to Mars.

As Ash looked out of the window at 'Phoenix' for the first time he marvelled at the sight of the cruciform ship before him.

The modules are built into a long segmented structure of living and working areas 460 feet long and up to 15 feet wide. They are intersected by the white rocket that is known as White Sarsen. The ends of these arms are equipped with docking facilities for the two Orion capsules that can be used for re-entry.

The cross shape was enforced by the open-work structure that intersected the living modules. This carried the nuclear reactors that had to be kept away from humans.

A gigantic rocket had now appeared to form the for-and-aft part of this cross-shaped assembly.

The gravity was to be provided by turning this whole apparatus slowly. Because each arm is 230 feet long from the centre, the rate of rotation is quite slow, about 2 revolutions per minute, in order to induce one gravity force at the end.

On the six to nine months journey to Mars the Orion capsules will be used as living quarters. A lot of the equipment will be stripped out to facilitate this. Two people will be able to sleep in one-G conditions at either end. The human body responds better in such conditions. The modules just above the capsules can house another two crew at zero point eight five G at floor level, the further up you go in this structure the lighter you get, until at the centre you are weightless. There will be no sensation of movement, so the only feeling is one of strange change in gravity from feet to head.

But now the astronauts that have just met are weightless, because the ship is stationary.

'Good to see you guys.' Tom Collins greeted Ash and his crew,

'There have been some developments here, both inside and out.' He continued.

Ash replied as he held out his hand to stop himself from spinning,

'That is what we are here for.' He looked around the room they were in as Mary-Jo Shelton drifted up to his position.

'This looks very nice, very bijou.' She said as she floated around examining the walls.

'It didn't look like this before.' Ash explained.

'You mean you did it all for me?' she asked Tom.

Tom smiled before replying,

'This is only the tip of the iceberg, just wait until you see the outside.'

Then Galina drifted out of the Orion capsule,

'Hi Tom, Sergei. Ready to go home?'

'Just as soon as we complete the handover briefing, have you got Mark on board there with you?' Tom asked as he moved to one side in order for Mary-Jo and Galina to drift past.

'Present and correct.' Mark Singleton drifted out of the capsule, the Liverpool football club shirt looking out of place on a space station.

'Just prepping the bus for your return journey.' He said to Tom and Sergei.

Tom began as the women turned to face him again,

'The problem is, there is so much to cover, it would take longer than we have time here for, but to be as brief as I can. Inside you can see what is being done, that is self-explanatory. Outside is a different story, I believe that is what you have been sent up for.'

Ash replied,

'Yes, we understand that there have been unscheduled changes that need familiarising with and writing up.'

Tom rubbed his hands together,

'Good luck with that one. I presume you will be filming and photographing the new stuff Mark?'

'Yes. They have finally decided to dispense with the drawings. I think that is because there are no conceptual drawings to base from.'

'That's right, as you will see when you get out there you will find quite a lot of new stuff but be careful.'

Ash then said,

'They have given us a reasonable idea of what to expect, but it is the detail, particularly how we fit into it all we have to be concerned about; the man/machine interface if you like. But you said be careful, we always are, it is part of our training and way of life. You made it sound as if there is special care needed. Did something happen out there, Tom?'

Tom thought carefully,

'Nothing too disturbing. Dmitri Chopov, the Russian, had a strange situation. He was working on the new high-gain antenna when he disappeared into the structure. We couldn't contact him for eight minutes, then he re-appeared ok. He says that nothing happened, and he was only out of contact for two minutes, according to his reckoning'

Then Galina began swatting in front of her eyes, as if there were something there.

'Oh, what, what.' She exclaimed.

Tom looked knowingly at Ash,

'Dots of light?' he said to Galina.

Then Mary-Jo began the same strange waving.

'Yes.' They both said together.

'We believe that to be sub-atomic particles released when stars are formed within galaxies.' Tom explained,

'They do not cause any harm. Try closing your eyes.' He knew what would happen.

'Wow!' This time it was Mark who exclaimed,

'They don't go away!'

'No, Mark.' Sergei turned to the women, who had now opened their eyes wide,

'That is because the particles are not in front of your eyes. They have passed through everything, including you, your head, the ship, everything. They are sub-atomic particles, bits of atoms, if you like, therefore too small to detect, except when they interact with the optic nerve.'

Sergei is a nuclear physicist specialising in sub-atomic particle physics. He continued,

'It sometimes occurs here, but not often. It is because we are out beyond the Van Allen Belt. We don't think it is harmful; the particles are so small they actually pass through individual atoms. The only atoms in the human body that can even detect these particles are the light sensitive atoms that go to make up the light receptors in the back of the eye.'

Mary-Jo shook her head and blinked,

'It's gone now.' She looked at Galina, they both shook their heads and the handover continued.

'Mark,' Tom continued, 'You will find the high gain antenna transponders have been moved outside, but access inside has been improved, especially if there is a trace of gravity.'

Dmitri Chopov came up to the group,

'I will load our stuff, if you could make way.'

'Sorry, Dmitri. Just about finished now.' Tom led the newcomers to another part of the much-changed space station as Hoshi Masuto and Dmitri began moving packages into the Orion capsule.

When the goods and belongings had been loaded the departing crew consisting of Tom and Dmitri entered the capsule and returned to Earth.

.....................

Chapter Fourteen

ALIEN

Mary-Jo Shelton had not done a real live space walk before, so Ash led the way out of the Quest air lock. He floated by the entrance as he waited to help his comrade out of the lock. Mary-Jo was naturally amazed and overwhelmed by the vastness of the space around; she turned and looked at the Earth. The light reflected from the pale blue planet that now filled 160 degrees of her vision made her blink at first. She thought about lowering the black visor, but didn't want to lose a single detail.

Then she felt the touch of Ash as he reminded her of the importance of the tethers and hand holds all over the structure.

He pointed to the high gain antenna,

'That's where we are going.'

'Ok, Ash. Lead the way.' She concentrated on the handles and the tether re-attachment procedures. Ash kept a wary eye on her as he did the same. Presently they arrived at the high gain antenna. Ash looked around the structure for the first time from this high vantage point.

'What the hell is that?' he said to no-one in particular.

Mary-Jo looked in the direction that Ash seemed to be looking but found it difficult to turn quickly.

His tone changed as he said,

'That's definitely not one of ours.'

'What is it, Ash?'

'I don't know. That's the problem. There is something out there by the engines.'

'Could it be one of the robots?' she asked.

'I know the robots we are using out here, but that is not one of them.' He said, 'Get behind the antenna; I don't like the look of this.'

Ash felt himself begin to perspire in the spacesuit. Sweating is not a good thing inside these devices. He used the small mirror on the inside of his sleeve to see the temperature control on his chest. With his other hand he turned the control knob a little to cool himself down.

Then he realised that he had not yet fastened his tether on to the structure. Parts of his visor began to mist up as he turned to look at the spaceship that was now further away than he expected. Ash moved his hand to grab at the closest rail, instead of the inside of the gloved hand contacting the banister, the outside of his fingers caught it; thereby pushing him away. Only by the width of his fingers, but he was no longer able to touch the ship.

He looked around at the object; it looked like a gleaming silver sphere.

He couldn't make out how many legs it had, but there seemed to be more than three. A flash of light emitted from the end of one of its arms. Ash looked back at the ship as he squirmed in an effort to regain contact.

He saw the useless anchor end of his tether floating in space. He grasped the line and tried to use it like a lasso to hook on to the structure. As he threw it, his arm movement caused him to turn in the opposite direction to the throw, so he couldn't see the result because he was now facing outer space. Neither could he see the alien.

'Shit.'

Mary-Jo turned to see her companion facing the wrong way, turning slowly, with a loose tether. She checked her own tether was secure before jumping towards Ash. They collided gently. He was not expecting this. He had just been watching an alien life form, not knowing what was likely to happen next. Then he was hit from behind; the direction in which he had seen the extra-terrestrial.

'Arghhh.' He called involuntarily.

Mary-Jo moved one hand around his waist as Ash remembered the long silvery arms the creature seemed to have.

'Come to mummy.' Mary-Jo said in a low gentle voice as she pulled on the tether to bring them both to the ship.

They both touched down together. Ash made sure he was attached before looking up for the creature.

'Thanks, Mary-Jo. Did you see it?'

'What?'

Ash watched the strange silver object as it disappeared behind the body of the big rocket. He took hold of Mary-Jo,

'Mission abort, mission abort. Let's get back inside.' He waited for Mary-Jo to unfasten her tether, and then said,

'This is an emergency. Let's go.' With that he hooked his short tether on to her and made a dive for the air lock. Loose in space, they were at great danger of missing and drifting off, but Ash knew what he was doing. As they approached the air lock he reached out and easily grabbed a passing hand rail. As they arrived by the hatch he began quickly opening the portal as he tied to look around, towards the rocket, but he was now on the far side of the structure, the water tank was blocking his view. Then the peculiar object came back into view, and he could see that it had four arms on the upper body. With three more holding on to the space ship structure; at least one in contact at any given time as it moved, Ash also noticed that these parts altered their length. With two heads it was definitely not one of ours. Once inside, the hatch was quickly closed, air hissed back as he began preparing to remove his helmet.

Mary-Jo was first to speak,

'Was there something amiss?' she said, knowing this was no drill, so there must have been.

'Did you not see it out there? The silver object out by the rear of the rocket?'

'No, I couldn't help looking at the Earth. It is very distracting.'

She helped him to remove the tether that held them together.

'That was not one of ours.' Was all he kept repeating.

Mary-Jo had never seen Preston Ashton like this before. It was as if he had seen something that didn't come from our world – and he was right, it didn't come from Earth at all.

Inside the 'Phoenix' things were thrown into turmoil. An emergency re-entry into the spacecraft is no minor matter; everyone knew there was something happening. Mark Singleton was working with Gerald the android in the Destiny module at the far end of the ship when he heard the buzzer sounding to alert the crew that someone was about to re-enter the space craft and may need assistance. As a precaution the air lock makes a note of everyone who leaves the safe confines of the space ship, it also takes note of when they expect to return. This has proved to be of great use in past space-walks when astronauts have lost comms and needed assistance upon re-entry.

Galina was working with the remaining EVA suits just outside the Quest air lock, inside the Harmony module, when the alarm went off. She was able to watch through a small window as Ash and Mary-Jo entered the lock.

White air hissed into the air lock as the pressure equalised. Ash watched the oxygen content gauge as it slowly crept towards the magical 90 per cent when he could remove his helmet. He felt as if his head wanted to burst inside the glass globe that supplied air for him to breathe. As the gauge touched 90% he turned his helmet to the right to release the airtight locking mechanism. With a slight hiss due to the pressure in his suit being slightly higher than the air pressure in the air lock his helmet became detached from his suit. Mary-Jo did the same. As they lifted their helmets, the visors immediately steamed up due to the conditions. Drops of water ran down the insides as they took them off.

Galina stood by to open the inner door as soon as pressure was equalised. She spun the opening wheel, then dragged the door open to greet Mary-Jo and Ash.

Ash shook his head as he relayed the story to Galina and Mary-Jo,

'Out there on the structure is something that we have not created. It does not look like an animal, but that could be a sort of mechanical suit. All I know is; it ain't one of us.'

Then Mark floated through from the Unity module.

'What's occurring?' he asked.

'I don't know, Mark.' Ash told him,

'There is something out there that should not be there, I don't know what it is, or where it came from. But one thing I do know is that we didn't make it – it is not from Earth.'

'Bloody hell.' Mark responded with surprise verging on shock,

'What can we do? What did it look like?'

'Difficult to judge size out there, but it is silver, with four arm things, three legs and two heads. It seemed to move across the surface of the structure with unsettling ease. It may be looking for a way in; in which case we may well have given the game away.' He looked truly frightened.

Gerald then floated into the Harmony module. He looks like a fifth member of the team, but he is n android. The appearance of a 'man' working on the outside of the spaceship in shirtsleeves without a spacesuit can be alarming, so he tends to stay inside. This also fits in better with his job of man-machine interfacing.

'I heard your report as I moved through the ship. I must apologise, Mr Ashton, Ms Shelton. You seem to have had a shock.'

Everyone was floating around in weightless conditions. He stabilised his position as he addressed the distraught space-walkers,

'What you saw out there does not come from Earth, as you rightly say. What you saw is our own creation. We have been designed to learn and adapt to our surroundings and given tasks. This means that we grow. But we do not sleep or rest, so at first, we grew and developed at a rate about three times faster than expected. But now we have evolved exponentially. Our development is so great that we could not even report it to Earth, so we have you on board here to find out first-hand what we have done here.'

Gerald turned to Ash,

'This is another development we have made up here, but we are now finding that we are being slowed down by lack of exact knowledge about what humans can do and how you interact with what we have developed here and will develop in future. It is no good us making improvements that you cannot use; after all, you are what it is all about.'

Ash was relieved,

'Thank Christ for that. I thought the Martians had sent us a greeting before we even set off!'

Mark said,

'That's not the half of it. Gerald here has shown me things we can only just conceive of, and they have made them, tested them and they all work.'

Ash, still in his space suit, found that he couldn't hook his feet under the grab bar to keep from drifting. Mary-Jo has already had to touch the 'roof' to maintain position

He turned to Gerald,

'Well, it looks as if we shall be in your hands from now on.'

'I certainly hope not, Mr Ashton. We were sent up here to do a job, that job is to help you to perform your task. We will build a vehicle that can take you to Mars.'

Galina then asked,

'And back?'

'Yes, Ms Danilenko, we shall ensure that you get back.'

Mary-Jo then asked,

'How? Our people have not yet perfected a method to bring us back.'

Gerald moved his arms around himself and smiled,

'This is how. We have taken the original idea of using parts of the original ISS, and parts of rockets and replenishment vehicles to build a ship. This is a ship that is capable of not only making the journey to Mars, but can also return you from Mars.'

Mark then added the observation with his head on one side,

'And these developments have been so rapid that you could not keep us informed?'

'That is quite right, Mr Singleton. There are now seven of us up here. We each have evolved at such a rate that it would be a full-time job for at least seven departments on Earth to keep track of us. So, long ago we decided that that would be a complete waste of our time and yours to attempt this, so we continued with the work to the best of our abilities.'

Mary-Jo was quite non-plussed by this development,

'The people on Earth have no idea about this 'Phoenix' ship?'

'Of course, they have, Ms Shelton. That is how they managed to send you. But they do not fully comprehend the capabilities of it.'

Mark rubbed his chin,

'Apart from the time consideration, surely there must be a way you could at least send notification of developments within the build as you went along?'

'Yes. There are ways to do that. But then we have to decide when to send, and which version is most up to date. You see,' he seemed to pause to put his thoughts in order,

'You see. You think I am here describing developments to you. Well, of course I am, but at the same time the robots you know as Stuart, Steve, Scuttles and Skittles are busy carrying on the work here. We work like a network – this is something Dr. Masuto was particularly interested in. We have, as I said, evolved. We have evolved into an integrated thinking and communicating system. We are all thinking about what is going on, and what developments can be made, simultaneously.'

'You said there are seven of you out here.' Mark observed,

'With you, Stuart, Steve, Scuttles and Skittles. Plus, our silver friend out there. That only makes six. How many more have you made, and how many will you be producing?'

'You are right. There are only six like me, and the ones you have mentioned. But in the new centre section of the ship, the part where the arms of the cross meet each other, we have built a sort of production facility. This has the same thought processes and communications as the rest of us, so we tend to think of it as part of the whole – which it is.'

Mark was actually rocked back. He had to re-hook his feet.

'And exactly what is it producing right now?'

Mark looked at Ash,

'No more nasty surprises, if you don't mind.'

'No more surprises.' Gerald said,

'The biggest problem we have yet to solve is how to get you on to the Martian surface. This is not too difficult but getting you back to the ship is proving to be a bigger obstacle.'

Ash then said,

'Well, according to my calculations you have about fourteen months, maybe more. That must be equivalent to about 24.5 years taking into consideration your development and evolution.'

'That is not strictly true, Mr Ashton. You have based your calculations on our primary development. We began evolving from that day at an exponential rate. By the end of day two we were twice as capable as at 24 hours before. 24 hours later that had risen to twice the original increase.' He saw that Galina had difficulty following this,

'If we presume the development by the end of day one to be 100 per cent, by the end of day two we doubled it to 200 per cent. By the end of day three it doubled to 400. Day four it became 800. Day 5, 1,600. On day six that was doubled. And so on. The equivalent time scale is incalculable – even for us. So have no fears, we shall find a solution. The only limitation we have is the raw materials.'

Ash asked Gerald,

'This thing we saw is part of the ship, produced by you guys up here?'

'Yes, Dr Ashton. He is on our side, working on the rocket engines.

Ash turned to Mary-Jo,

'Well, that covers it for me. Shall we continue where we left off?'

'We got a job to do Ash. Let's do it.'

With that they thanked Gerald and drifted back to the air lock.

Galina saw them into the lock and closed the hatch. She watched as they put on their helmets, tested them. They told her that everything was ok.

After the air had been pumped out of the air lock, the outer hatch opened. Once again Ash led the way. The first thing he did was look for Silver. The robot was working near the centre section of the spaceship. He thought he might wave to it but thought better of it. Mary-Jo floated out of the airlock, grabbed one of the handles near the top, swung round like a pro, and then closed the hatch.

'Let us start with the high gain.' Ash said to Mary-Jo.

They made their way across to the high gain antenna by almost swinging from handhold to handhold. Upon arriving they began the laborious task of preparing to work with power tools whilst wearing a space suit. The new Mars Mission suits they were wearing are much better than the old Apollo Mission suits that were developed from Cold War U-2 and SR-71 outfits that had more in common with a diving bell than a space suit.

Mary-Jo carefully hooked her tether on to the structure as Ash checked the opposite side to see what type of tool they needed to gain access.

'The first two panels have opened quite easily.' She told Ash and Galina, who were monitoring this space-walk.

'Ok. This side seems harder, being exposed to the heat of the sun. The panels must have expanded and contracted.' He strained to put a little more pressure on them,

'But we have the technology.' He removed a small pry bar from his utility belt,

'We shall conquer.' The panel sprang open almost on the threat of the use of force.

'Ok. I'm in.' Ash called.

Mary-Jo knew what to look for. But the robots had redesigned the whole thing, so it did look different.

'There is a plate here that looks as if it needs to come out first.' She noticed.

Gerald replied from inside the ship,

'Is there a number on it?'

'Yes.' She moved closer to allow the lights on her helmet to illuminate the work zone; her gloved hand brushed an area where writing could be discerned as if that would make any difference.

'Looks like EB, that is echo bravo, two. Dash ten. Dash two nine eight.'

'Yes, that will have to be removed; it is safe to do so. But be careful, it will be very cold.' Gerald advised the astronaut.

'Ok. Roger that.'

Mary-Jo managed to remove the plate that looked like it carried a heat exchange system.

'Echo Bravo now removed.' She reported. It drifted on its little tether. 'I am now moving in to remove bolts that hold the main unit in place. I am expecting these to be tight.'

She took a torque tool from her utility belt. Taking hold of the ship's structure with one hand, and the big contraption in her right hand she fired it up. There is no sound in space, but she felt the vibration as the apparatus tried to persuade the first bolt to move.

It did not move, but the tool did. Mary-Jo had to take hold of the torque tool with both hands to steady it. The torque began to turn Mary-Jo. Then it slipped. Mary-Jo was thrown away from the structure into the harsh sunlight. The tool now drifted alongside her as she floated gently away from the 'Phoenix'.

'Damn.' Was all she said as she relied on her tether to return her to the ship. She waved around to take hold of it. As her right hand touched the tether it parted company with the ship's structure. Mary-Jo began drifting away. What she didn't realise was that as she began moving she had kicked the structure. This meant that she was moving quite quickly and turning head over heels at a rate of about six seconds per turn.

'Ash, I think I have a problem here.' She called.

Ash looked round the high gain antenna to see Mary-Jo drifting off.

She called,

'I am going to fire my thrusters to slow down my spin before attempting a return.'

These are little nitrogen powered rocket outlets with valves attached to various points around the space suit that will give small thrusts to allow an astronaut to manoeuvre about to a certain extent. They could stop the spin, then push her gently back to where she can be rescued or take hold of the structure again.

Ash offered support and advice, 'Ok, I'm watching. Make small delicate touches first to stop the spin.'

Mary-Jo gave a little touch to the thruster control.

The thruster mounted on the top of the big pack on her back, facing backwards went off at full blast. The resultant spin threw her head back violently, and her arms out. She tried shutting it off but was unable to. Then the one over her other shoulder facing forwards began firing sporadically. In split second bursts it made the whole situation worse. She was moving away at an alarming rate now. Spinning and turning, thrashing and smoking, the hapless astronaut was getting smaller as Ash watched,

'I'm on my way.' He called as he began unhooking his tether.

'NO. You cannot get back from there.' Gerald had already done the calculations,

'You may have enough thruster fuel to get there, but there will not be enough to allow you to turn and return. You will both be spinning and drifting out there. Please return to the ship, we can work something out.'

Mary-Jo called again, sounding scared,

'Ash, I can't see anything. The stars are a blur, the Earth keeps flashing past. I don't know where I am. I cannot see the 'Phoenix'. My thrusters have run out of nitrogen fuel. I am beginning to feel sick.'

'You must not do anything in the space suit. Close your eyes; there is no gravity, so you will not feel the effects of turning. We have a track on you, so will be bringing you back soon.' Ash tried to reassure her.

'Roger that, Ash. Oh, my god.' She cried, 'The effects of centrifugal force make it impossible to close my eyes without feeling more nauseous.'

Galina from the ship then called,

'If you could just hang on in there, Mary-Jo. We are putting a mission together to get you. Will keep you posted.'

Mary began to sound weaker,

'Ok, got you, Galina. I have sufficient oxygen for some...'

The transmission ended weakly.

Galina spoke to Ash,

'Ash, we have lost comms with Mary-Jo. I think she has drifted out of range.'

'Yes,' Ash agreed, 'These suit radios are fairly short range.'

He entered the air lock, to be greeted by Gerald.

'What can we do, Gerald? We cannot leave her out there to run out of air or drown.'

'There is nothing we can do, Mr Ashton. Any attempted rescue is doomed to failure; causing the death of another astronaut.'

The blackness of space spun and whirled as Mary-Jo Shelby tumbled further and further away from the interplanetary craft Phoenix.

Ash entered the ship via the air lock for a second time that day, Mark Singleton and Gerald the android greeted him. It was the human-like android, who spoke first,

'There was nothing you could have done out there, sir.'

'Never mind that, what can we do now?' Ash demanded.

'Stuart is keeping a track on Ms Shelby. He now has her three point five miles out, and travelling at twelve miles per hour.'

'How much oxygen does she have left?' asked Mark Singleton.

Ash answered,

'I can't estimate it from my own usage, I have opened up now, but we both left with the same amount; enough for six hours' work. She has been out now for,' he consulted the big watch on the sleeve of his space suit,

'Twenty-three minutes. Do you have any telemetry, Gerald?'

'Steve had all that under control until she drifted out of range for the suit-mounted equipment, the last estimate he can give us is that she will run out in five hours fifteen minutes at the present usage rate.'

'Do we have comms?' Ash asked.

'Not two-way, sir. The suits only have a limited range but can still receive.' Gerald replied, 'One of the ships antenna has been turned to focus our signal and we can put out a stronger signal, but it is in the blind, we cannot receive anything back.'

Ash began drifting towards the ceiling; he touched a bar on the roof to stop the drift as he said,

'Now to the important matter of how are we going to get her back.'

Gerald looked worried at this point as he observed,

'The standard suit mounted thrusters do not have enough fuel to get out there, turn, and then return. To consider any manoeuvres would use up fuel you do not have.' His body began to drift into an almost horizontal position before he corrected, then continued,

'Stuart tells me that there is the possibility that we could adapt one of the proposed re-entry vehicles that is close to completion.'

Ash and Mark asked almost in unison,

'What re-entry vehicle?'

Gerald began to explain,

'We have been working on vehicles that would be capable of landing two people on Mars, then returning them to the Phoenix. It is one of these that Stuart tells me is almost ready for a test flight, it may be possible to use this to rescue Ms Shelby. But there is some work to be done on it before it can be used.'

Mark then asked,

'What work? Can it be readied in time, we don't have long, remember she is getting further and further away.'

Gerald replied,

'I am reassigning Scuttles and Skittles to the task. Skittles was about to repair the broken tether anchor that led to Ms Shelby's accident,'

Ash interrupted him,

'NO. Don't let him repair that. We need to know what went wrong. It may happen again, and we need to know if there is an inherent weakness that may lead to another accident.'

Mark began moving away from the group,

'I'll get suited up, if two people are going, I want to be in there.'

To everyone's surprise it was Gerald who spoke, but it was Stuart's voice that came out,

'That dog ain't gonna hunt. The ship is not ready to take anyone. It is only a framework at this stage, capable of flying some five or six miles, but there is no chance of housing people. If it did find the stray she would have to be more or less strapped to the framework for the return journey.'

Gerald then asked out loud for everyone else's benefit,

'How is this contraption supposed to find Ms Shelby if there is no-one there to guide it?'

The voice of Stuart then took over,

'That is interesting. It has no search or guidance facility at the moment. Neither has it any life support system of any kind, remember it is an experimental vehicle.'

Mark turned back and said,

'So there will have to be someone with it?'

'That is correct, Mr Singleton.' Stuart replied via Gerald.

Galina then observed,

'If Mary Jo has to be strapped to the framework, maybe a pilot could be accommodated in a similar way?'

This time it was Gerald's voice,

'I cannot see how a man can handle the rudimentary controls that Steve and the S-classes are installing as we speak. And being strapped to a structure during any manoeuvres is tantamount to asking for injury. We just do not know how violent these changes in course will be. The return does not pose such problems; it is a straight course because we know where the Phoenix is.' Stuart's voice then came in from Gerald, 'Incidentally, the vehicle will be ready for launch in eight minutes.'

Mark then had a thought,

'Have you installed any communications in this thing, because we cannot rely on suit transmissions at these ranges, and it will be essential to be able to have two-way comms.'

'We did not anticipate the need for comms at this stage of the development.' Gerald admitted.

'Then this whole plan is doomed to failure.' Mark turned away from the group. He held his arms out in frustration as he faced Galina,

'What can we do?'

'Releasing tie-down.' Another voice came from Gerald.

'That is Skittles.' He explained as Stuart's voice overrode his own.

'Pressurising main fuel tanks, purging spheres, chilldown pump test.'

Ash looked at Gerald,

'That sounds like preparations to launch.'

'It is, Mister Ashton. Stuart is going to rescue Ms Shelby.'

Ten seconds later the skeleton craft with a rocket motor at one end and a human shaped robot in tee shirt and jeans sitting on a cross-member as if he was hitching a ride on a friend's bicycle drifted a few feet from the underside of the Phoenix. It then blasted off in the direction that was indicated by another human shaped android called Steve on board the Phoenix. These robots had a very efficient communications system that allowed them to operate as more than a group, more like one vast organic being.

No one knew what he would find when he got to the drifting astronaut. She had been out there spinning and turning for nearly half an hour now, simply trying to overcome the disorientation and constant movement must be almost impossible. The suit was designed to withstand changes in temperature. But the rapidity of the changes as Mary-Jo twisted and turned exposing the suit first to direct sunlight, then to the freezing cold blackness of space was now putting demands upon the life support system that it was not designed to handle. Her hands were thrown out by the centrifugal force. This was not particularly strong, but persistent. However, the main reason to keep her arms outstretched was to prevent the twist being too fast; as she brought her arms in to her sides, the rate of turn increased to an alarming degree, like an ice skater, only with no control whatsoever. Mary-Jo's blood began pooling in her hands. She had to bring them together to rub them, thereby increasing the speed of spin, the stars she could see stopped being indistinct blurs, and disappeared altogether as she whirled faster, turning head over heels at the same time. She dare not close her eyes because that brought on the nausea that presaged being sick in the helmet again. The previous deposit has now disappeared under the centrifugal force of the spin, but she didn't know how much there was, and what would happen when the spinning stopped, if it would ever stop. She has not heard from the Phoenix for some time now.

She continued rubbing her hands together, her elbows began to feel pressure, so she tried to rub them, but to no avail. A blue streak flashed past her visor; that was the Earth. Home: or it was. She remembered having to work hard through High School, and missing out on a lot of parties. She felt this had impacted on her social life, kept her from dating, and allowed her to intensify her studies. She believed that was the only thing that permitted her to achieve a Doctorate in medicine. This in turn meant that she could continue her studies to take in space medicine before qualifying well above her classmates in such a way that she stood out enough to get selected for the Space Corps.

Now she doubted that she would ever see her home planet from closer than the distance she was at now. Then the sun blinded her as it flashed by.

Stuart sat in the framework of an unfinished spacecraft that didn't have a name. It didn't even have an official designation; because it didn't exist as far as the people on Earth who need such nomenclature were concerned. The robots and androids on the Phoenix had built it as a development machine to be used during the trip to Mars to help design and build a re-usable craft that was capable of landing men, robots or supplies on Mars, then returning to the mother ship, the Phoenix. But right now, it was travelling at over 350 miles per hour towards an inverted cone of space, at the point of which is Mary-Jo Shelby. This is how the robots decided to tackle the task of finding the drifting astronaut. You cannot realistically aim at an infinitesimally small point that is drifting away from you, so they establish a search cone one mile deep, with the open end, closest to the Phoenix, half a mile wide. The intention is to reach the lip of this cone, then begin a spiral search towards the target at the tip of the cone.

The machine has no dedicated search equipment, so it relies upon Steve on the Phoenix to guide it. This was not too accurate at these speeds, and Stuart had no throttle controls; he could only switch the rocket motor on or off. He used a four second burn to accelerate towards the lost woman. Now he speeds towards the lip of the cone, Steve was in almost telekinesis contact with him, but even that is not quick enough to avoid Stuart shooting right through the theoretical side of the cone.

Steve immediately re-adjusted the shape and position of the cone. He instructed Stuart to turn towards the point of the new cone. Stuart tried to get the machine to turn, but the directional rockets were not synchronised properly, so the machine's nose began pointing in a circle, then a hexagram. Then Stuart had to shut them down. Next, he told Steve what was happening via their personal, almost telepathic communication. Steve did something with the computers on board the Phoenix, transmitted the resulting information to Stuart, who was then able to reprogram the computers on board the machine.

Mark, Ash and Galina joined Gerald in the navigation room. An advantage of weightlessness is that operators' stations can be much smaller, with no need of a chair; everyone sort of stands up. If more people need the same viewpoint, they literally put their heads together and float there. This navigation station was, however, adapted for use under gravity conditions, so there were chairs fastened to the floor.

Gerald tried to explain what was happening,

'Stuart is now altering course, Steve has changed the cone to allow for Stuart's overshoot. He has now passed the distance we have for Ms Shelby. A slight reprogramming of the computers is needed. Steve now reports that Stuart is twelve miles out and going in the wrong direction.'

Ash then asked,

'How far away is Mary-Jo now?'

Gerald consulted another screen,

'Eight point three miles.'

'Can Stuart communicate with Mary-Jo?' Galina asked.

'As soon as he gets within two miles.' Gerald replied.

Mark then commented,

'Which could be some time with him going in the wrong direction.'

'He is executing a one hundred and eighty degree turn now.' Gerald calmly said,

'That will put him on a direct course to pass within half a mile of Ms Shelby.'

'Is that the best course of action? What will he do then?' asked Ash.

'At that distance he will be able to see the astronaut, then he will decide the best way to continue with the recovery.'

Galina said,

'Don't call it that, it sounds so cold and final.'

'Sorry Ms Danilenko. The rescue.'

Stuart managed to turn the machine to face back towards the Phoenix. He didn't trust the main engine burn to keep him within range of Mary-Jo, so he used all four directional thrusters in the sharp nose of his makeshift spaceship. They used the same fuel supply as the main rocket, but in sips instead of the massive gulps that the main engine gives during a burn. Also, he had more control this way.

Slowly he crept towards the floating, spinning, and drifting Mary-Jo.

Continuously calling on the loudhailer frequency, Stuart hoped to contact a living person out there. At just over two miles he heard,

'Is there someone there? Mission Specialist Shelby in the blind. I have become separated from my ship. I will keep talking to help you home in on my signal. Over.'

'There is no need.' Stuart replied as calm as if it were a game,

'We have a good track on you, and I should be able to see you in the next thirty seconds.'

'That is great news. Now your transmission is getting stronger, I thought I would be able to recognise your voice. But I don't.'

'I am Stuart. You probably met Gerald, I work with him.'

'Ok. This is great, Stuart. Talking helps keep the nausea at bay.'

'I can see you now.'

A tiny white dot against the backdrop of stars was all that Stuart could see, but he knew there was no star there, so it must be Mary-Jo.

She didn't know what to expect. But she now knew that she was about to be rescued. The first thing to happen would be the spinning and turning would stop. Then someone from the ship would help her to safety.

She did not expect what came next.

Stuart manoeuvred his craft to 400 metres of the still spinning and turning astronaut.

He had no rocket thrusters on his tee shirt. Instead, he tied a long tether to his waist. The only thrusters he had available were his legs. He pointed in the direction of Mary-Jo, and then pushed himself off. He drifted quite quickly towards her.

Stuart then passed within metres of her turning arms. She was still spinning too fast to see anything.

The 'ship' he had come in was not substantial enough to reflect any light, so she couldn't see that. He was moving too fast for her to be able to make anything out. Anyway, her eyes had stopped sending information to her brain some time ago to prevent more problems with the nausea, but they didn't notify her of this. It was going to take quite a large movement to bring back her sight.

Stuart pulled on his tether in an attempt to touch one of those spinning arms. He got close, but not close enough. He would have to try again.

On returning to his ship he told Mary-Jo what was happening,

'I was close then but couldn't quite reach you. Here I come again.'

'Ok, ready to welcome boarders.'

This time he was much closer. He knew that to stop the spin by taking her hand would probably tear her arm off, so he planned to position himself alongside her in order to slow the spin gradually. First he had to stop the tumbling. The next time her feet came close enough he touched one of them.

'Whoa! She exclaimed. This was the first touch she had felt since leaving the Phoenix what seemed like a lifetime ago.

The touch had had the effect of reducing her turn by 50%. But it passed this spinning on to him. Without any thrusters he had no option but to return to his ship to cancel out this effect. Whilst there he decided he needed to be much closer, so he manoeuvred the makeshift craft closer in. Then took another leap into the void.

This time he controlled his speed with judicious use of the tether.

'I am going to attempt to slow your spin by touching your hands. You must react to this in any way you feel best to avoid damage.'

This sounded like a strange way to explain things, but she understood, and told him so just as his first touch was felt.

'Ok. Whoa! That felt good. Is it, is it, is it, safe to grip?'

He knew that if he tried to stop the spin by using his hands would result in him spinning, so he used his tether to gradually move in to her fingertips. The first touches seemed to be brushed off by Mary-Jo. But the spinning slowly decreased. As the tether began to bend whenever she hit it, Stuart pulled gently to straighten it. This had the desired effect of bringing him closer as the spinning got to a manageable level he called to her,

'Take hold of the tether whenever you can. I am on the end of it, and then we can make our way to the rescue craft.

'Ok.' She said, the next time the tether came around she tried to grab, but it hit her wrist, her hand could not operate properly, so she missed. But the turn was slow enough now to permit her making a grab with both hands. As it hit the next arm, she folded both arms together.

Stuart gradually drifted towards the now, at last, stationary Mary-Jo. He was on the end of the tether, some three metres away. When she looked around from inside her dirty visor she saw a man in tee shirt and jeans, with no helmet on, out in the depths of space.

'Holy Moley! It's the pizza delivery man. I must be dead, this cannot be real.' She shook her head inside the helmet, not caring about the stuff inside.

.

Other books by the same author: -

All these books are available from Amazon/Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, Sony, e-book, and many other digital dealers.

Also available there are signed paperbacks directly from the author via:

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Part two of this story,

Life on Mars

This book will be released on 1st August 2019.

Or you may like to look at

The Steve Steele Trilogy

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