Blue Hope: (Book 2) (Red Hope) Page 32
Norman nervously straightened his tie.
“Five more seconds and we would’ve been dodging supersonic flying bits of rocket engine. Fortunately, we saw this problem a few times back in the 1960’s. We’ll have it fixed by the end of the day.”
The crew laughed incredulously. Chris turned to them and said, “And that is why you hire old-timers.”
CHAPTER 77
Alston family home
Fort Worth, Texas
Connie and the kids sat on their couch, transfixed by the images on TV. The Saturn V stood atop Launchpad 39A, with plumes of gasses escaping from the connection hoses. In two minutes, NASA would be launching a rocket to the Moon for the first time in a generation.
Connie decided to avoid the paparazzi and watch it from the comfort of her old home. She’d hired a contractor to come in several weeks ago and get rid of any evidence of the break-in. Their old home resembled how she remembered it in the happier days. She even had a new swingset installed.
As the countdown reached the final few seconds, Connie squeezed her children’s hands.
“T minus ten seconds,” the announcer said in his mechanical voice.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two…
CHAPTER 78
Launchpad 39A
Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral, Florida
One... Liftoff.
The pipes below the towering Saturn V gushed with cooling water spray. The engines ignited. An eruption at the bottom of this towering beast gave birth to seven and a half million pounds of thrust, pushing it toward the heavens.
The supersonic exhaust gasses turned the water instantly to steam, surrounding the Launchpad with clouds. The large steel gantries holding the rocket sprung away. The lockdowns around the base of the rocket let go. Every car alarm within ten miles burst to life — an applause of sorts for America’s return to space exploration.
Up, up it went, clearing the top of the tower in just a matter of seconds. The astronauts rattled in their seats, despite being heavily strapped down. Adam looked over at Sally — she was focused on the G meter.
“One point five G’s,” Sally yelled.
After just one minute, Sally happily reported, “We’re officially supersonic!”
Two minutes passed by and the acceleration decreased a bit.
“Center engine cutoff,” Sally said. However, the acceleration still continued for another half of a minute.
“Four G’s,” Sally reported, grunting under the stress of being pushed into her seat with 600 pounds of force.
The astronauts performed their anti-g exercises, breathing in and grunting.
A brief moment of silence took them by surprise as the first stage separated.
“Altitude two hundred thousand feet, speed six thousand miles per hour!”
Kaboom!
The J-2 engines of the second stage came to life, pushing them even faster. The second stage pushed hard.
Six minutes roared by in an instant.
“Passing through altitude one hundred miles. Just under sixteen thousand miles per hour,” Sally reported.
Stage two broke away and drifted behind the rocket. The third stage kicked in, pushing the Saturn V into Earth orbit, travelling nearly seventeen thousand miles per hour.
The third-stage motor shut down, but it did not eject. It would have a secondary use in a couple of hours.
“Gentlemen, we have arrived at our parking orbit,” Sally proclaimed.
Adam laughed. “Hard to believe that just twelve minutes ago, we were sitting on top of one of the biggest conventional bombs ever made. Now we’re orbiting Earth.”
In the meantime, the astronauts ran system checks. The medics back in Fort Worth Mission Control checked the medical readings on the astronauts. Aside from elevated heart rates, they were doing well.
Two hours later, the astronauts fired the rocket on the third stage yet again, letting it run for nearly six minutes. The entire assembly accelerated out to twenty five thousand miles per hour and left Earth Orbit.
“We’re on our way to the Moon,” Sally said.
For the first time since launch, the astronauts unbuckled themselves and floated about their tiny Command Module. For now, it was the only space they had to move around in. But that would change very quickly.
After running several system-integrity tests, they separated from the third stage, floating slightly ahead of it. The Command Module still had the large cylindrical Service Module attached to the back. That assembly did a 180-degree flip so that the nose of the Command Module was pointing at the top of the third stage.
Tucked in the top of the spent third stage was the Lunar Module — the spacecraft that was meant to take them safely to the Moon.
Adam grabbed onto the handholds and footholds to steady himself. He looked out the small window on the Command Module while maneuvering the joystick. The Command-Service Module assembly floated toward the top of the Lunar Module. He kept his targets lined up and moved forward.
Slowly.
Slowly.
Clunk!
“Hard dock it!”
Adam pulled a lever that locked the two spacecraft together, sharing a common access hatch between them.
“We can breathe a sigh of relief,” Tucker said. “The hard part of the launch is all over.”
A staticky voice came over the Command Module speakers.
“Crew, this is Fort Worth Mission Control, congratulations on your translunar injection. Can you spare a minute for a phone call?”
“Fort Worth, this is the crew of the Sky Turtle. We are available for a phone call.”
The crew of three laughed to themselves.
Sally put the microphone on mute.
“I hate the name Sky Turtle,” Sally said to the rest of the crew.
Adam grinned, “I know, I know – it’s my fault. They named it for my benefit because of the two Mars ships being named Little Turtle and Big Turtle. The good news is that the Command/Service module is named Sky Turtle, but the Lunar Module is called Moon Turtle.”
“Don’t remind me,” Sally said, rolling her eyes in disbelief.
“Hello?” a loud female voice boomed over the speakers.
“We hear you loud and clear, Madam President. This is the crew of the Sky Turtle.”
“To the crew of the Sky Turtle on your way to our only natural satellite, I want to thank you for taking on this challenge. I wish you Godspeed in reaching your destination and I hope the precious chemical cargo you are taking there comes back as something that can change humankind.”
Adam turned to his fellow astronauts and whispered, “No pressure, right?”
“Thank you for the good tidings, Madam President,” Adam said.
Two hours later, Fort Worth Mission Control disturbed the silence on Sky Turtle.
“Crew of the Sky Turtle, we have some information for you.”
“Roger that, Fort Worth, go ahead,” Adam replied.
“Sky Turtle, you’ll be passing through geosynchronous orbit and we’re tracking a few pieces of debris. They’re pretty small, but we wanted to make you aware.”
Adam looked at Sally – they both had the same concern.
“We copy you, Fort Worth, but is there anything we can do? Perhaps a maneuver to avoid the area?”
“Hold on, Sky Turtle.”
A minute of silence passed.
“No,” said the speaker. “Just keep on your trajectory.”
The crew continued unpacking items that had been strapped down for lift-off purposes. This included the foam-wrapped tablet computers that each person used during the mission.
Adam noticed that his tablet was updating. They had a wifi connection to the Command Module which had a deep-space antenna pointed back at Earth. Adam turned on the tablet and saw a curious message about NASA installing Ma
rTranVoc.
“Hmmm,” he wondered.
Then he smiled.
“Hey,” Adam laughed. “Do you want to learn how to speak Martian?”
CHAPTER 79
Rural farmland
Ohio
David Milan bought the farm. Literally. After his mother passed away, her will was read in front of David and his three siblings. David was left out completely. However, his older brother didn’t want to be a farmer and defied their mothers wishes, selling the farm to David. He couldn’t have been happier, but he never spoke to his brother again.
David surprised everybody by farming the land professionally and making a profit. He enjoyed every aspect of it, including modernizing the equipment with GPS and using targeted fertilizer spreading. He tried to share how happy farming made him, but his string of girlfriends never believed him. Nobody believed him, but it was true. Farming made him happy.
During harvest season, he drove the combine back and forth across the fields, working his way from the house to the row furthest away on the land. The last row abutted his apple orchard – a real treat after such a long day of work.
Today he would finish the harvest. This particular day was overcast with a continual threat of rain. As he drove the tractor past the orchard, he stood up and stuck his foot in the steering wheel and leaned out. It is precisely this type of behavior that leads to so many farm deaths. But David had done this many times before. He reached far out and grabbed an apple right from the tree and took a big bite.
What he saw next caused him to choke on his bite of apple. Underneath the tree was a white object, roughly shaped like a person. David hopped back in his seat and slammed on the brakes. He climbed down to the ground and walked across the remaining three humps of dirt and into the orchard. He ducked under some apple-laden branches.
There it was. No mistaking it. A white suit, covered in a light dusting of dirt and old leaves. It had been there a while. David clenched his jaw — a mixture of fear and curiosity. He was all alone, spooked by the creaking of the trees swaying in the light breeze — the smell of the diesel exhaust wafting down from the idling tractor.
How did I ever miss this?, David thought.
He approached the white suit carefully. It was definitely a space suit. The face visor was pulled down and cracked. David couldn’t see who, or what, was in the suit. He reached over and gently wiped the dirt from the chest, revealing a badge with some writing.
It spelled out: “Yeva Turoskova.”
CHAPTER 80
Sky Turtle
Twenty two thousand miles from Earth
“Fenoda,” said the tablet in a mechanical voice. The astronauts chuckled like children.
“I don’t get it,” Tucker said. “How could we possibly know how the Martian voices sounded?”
Adam wrinkled his brows in thought.
“In the Martian temple on Mars, we found a listing of their alphabet symbols right next to corresponding rumble strips. A series of serrated edges — it was really just a mechanical representation of sound. The Martians were trying to pass on the sound of their voices, too.”
“Here, let me try,” Sally said.
She tapped her fingers on the tablet, pecking at the touchscreen.
“Now… translate,” Sally commanded, pushing the translate button.
A mechanical male voice said, “Fenoda. Mayato poodroo Sally.”
“Can you guess what I said?” she asked coyly.
“Hello, Sally has diarrhea?” Adam joked.
Sally hit him on the back.
“No, goofball, I said, ‘Hello, my name is Sally.’”
Tucker grabbed his tablet and typed feverishly. He pushed the translate button.
“Ralto kvera nomia doo ral. Ralto kvera grelsh doo croot.”
Adam shook his head back and forth. “I don’t have a clue, Tucker.”
Tucker snickered to himself.
“I just Rickrolled you two!”
Adam sighed.
“Let’s see what else these can do. Let’s see, the tablets can obviously speak what we type in, but oh look!” Adam exclaimed. “They can listen to me speak and then translate automatically. I guess we don’t need to type.”
“Let me try that,” Tucker said.
He held his tablet up to his face and pushed the Listen button.
“Hello, my name is Tucker. I come in peace.”
When Tucker lifted up his finger, the tablet blurted out: “Fenoda. Mayato poodroo Tucker. May merno payache.”
Tucker chuckled with a subtle smile.
Ka-thunk! A noise rattled the entire capsule, echoing inside the Command Module.
All laughter stopped immediately.
The astronauts’ ears hurt for a millisecond as the brief sound caught them by surprise. It was like metal piercing metal.
The astronauts hurriedly checked out each other’s flight suits to look for blood. Adam looked out the window and saw a dusting of shiny metal bits floating away.
“You okay?” Sally asked, panicked.
“Yeah,” Adam and Tucker replied simultaneously.
A subtle whistling sound rose up. It was constant.
“Do you guys hear that?” Sally asked.
They didn’t speak, heads twisting all around to locate the source of the sound.
Adam noticed a red light pop up on an instrument panel. A pleasant mechanical female voice blurted out from the flight computer.
“Warning. Command Module is losing pressure.”
CHAPTER 81
Sky Turtle
Twenty three thousand miles from Earth
“Sky Turtle, this is Fort Worth,” roared the speakers, “We’re getting warnings down here that there is a pressure problem in the Command Module.”
“Roger that, Fort Worth,” Adam said nervously. “We heard a loud sound. Two, actually. The crew is okay, no injuries. But yes, the pressure gauges show a slight pressure drop.”
Sally and Tucker frantically tried to find the source of the whistling sounds, looking behind every cabinet and bulkhead.
“Sky Turtle, do you suspect a debris impact?”
“Uh, that’s a good hypothesis, Fort Worth. We’re trying to find the source of the leak right now. I doubt it’s a very big hole or we’d be dead already.”
Adam reached into the emergency repair kit and pulled out a thick sheet of rubber with adhesive on one side. He took scissors and cut out a small three-inch patch and handed it to Sally. She continued to search for the leak.
“It’s somewhere behind the control console,” Sally said. “Let me try to reach.”
She stretched her arm back there, but with so many bulkheads, she couldn’t find it.
“The hole must be tiny,” she admitted.
The speakers roared again.
“Sky Turtle, have you found the hole and patched it yet?”
“Negative, Fort Worth, it’s too small to find the exact location,” Adam explained.
“Well, you’re going to have to fix it. Even a slow leak will do you in over six days.”
“If we only had some smoke,” Tucker laughed. “It would tell us where the leak is.”
“Well, there is no source of smoke in this Command Module,” Sally replied. “Fire is the last thing you’d want.”
Adam looked at the cooler.
“Not exactly.”
Tucker and Sally looked confused.
“Howsabout we borrow a small chunk of that dry ice and plop it into a big drop of water. Instant fog. Like Halloween special effects.”
“Adam, protecting the crew from poor decisions like that is partially why I’m on this mission.”
Adam stared at her, a look of surprise on his face.
“Oh come on,” Adam begged. “We can reseal the cooler. Seriously, it would be no big deal. Two minutes tops.”
The awkward silence between the crew only highlighted the whistling sound coming from the leak.
“Two minutes?” Sally asked.
> Adam nodded. “Tops.”
“Fort Worth, we are going to attempt something to find the leak. We’ll let you know in a couple of minutes.”
Adam reached over to the cooler. One by one, he undid the clunky latches on each side. He removed the top half of the cooler and saw the layers of cubes embedded in the bottom. They were more jumbled than he remembered them in the training. He donned a glove and grabbed one of the small ice cubes. Adam floated over near the back of the console.
“Tucker,” Adam said, “bring me a bag of water and a pen, and Sally, you hold the flashlight up under the bottom of the console.”
Tucker handed him a bag and a pen. Adam slowly squeezed the water bag, producing a spherical, yet wobbly, ball of water. It was slightly animated. He stuck the pen into it so he could control its position somewhat. Then with a gentle push, Adam touched the dry ice cube to the ball of water. It instantly got sucked into the middle of the sphere, which immediately roiled with bubbles, producing a cloud of CO2. The cloud, lacking any buoyancy from gravity, hugged the boiling water-ball. However, wafts of the fog floated slowly behind the console and then turned sharply past the third bulkhead.
Sally shined the flashlight in that area. Sure enough, she saw a small hole the size of a BB.
“Okay, I’m going to reach in with the rubber patch,” Adam said, his voice straining. “Tell me when I’m close.”
Sally watched as Adam’s hand got close to the hole.
“Right there,” Sally confirmed.
Adam pushed the sticky rubber patch down onto the wall and the whistling stopped.
Adam let out a big sigh of relief.
“Please, no more excitement,” Sally said.
Before Adam pulled his arm out from behind the console, he asked Sally for the flashlight.
“What’s up?”
“Well, a piece of debris came into the Command Module, but we don’t know where it ended up.”
Adam took the flashlight and tried to estimate the trajectory of the debris.
“So if that hole was the starting place,” Adam deduced. “Then where did you go…” he trailed off.