Dragon Rider

This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters.

Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.

Chapter 7

Author's note: Someone asked me how I can write this stuff so fast. Have you ever written a story, and there was a part of it that you had planned out way in advance, a part so fantastic that you just couldn't wait to write it? Well, THIS IS IT! I've been dieing to get to this part! It's going to be so much fun to write! I might be depressed after finishing it, 'cause of the let down afterwards, you know, except that I have ANOTHER really great moment planned for a few chapters later! WOW! Here we go! …...

KSC, Complex 39

The launch crew had started to prepare to drag the mobile launcher back to the safety of the VAB. They were now in the process of pumping the fuel from the Falcon's tanks. Atom's brain was working at full speed trying to figure out a way to get the launch back on track. If the mobile launch pad with the Falcon were moved back to the VAB, it would take another eight hours to return it to Complex 39B for launch. There had to be a way around that.

Atom stood in front of the computer screen showing the expected track of the storm. The hurricane was bearing down on the cape. In a few hours the most damaging winds would be on shore. The current forecast now had the storm slowing down after that point. The dirty back side of the storm would take even longer to pass by than the front side that was now approaching. But there was something in the data that caught his attention. He picked up the mouse, and clicked on the scaling controls to zoom in on the view. The outline of the storm now appeared clearer. Atom zoomed the image some more. There! The outline of the storm was now clearly superimposed on top of the tracking map, and he could see exactly how the storm would pass over the area. He set the map in motion, and watched as the storm passed directly over Complex 39B! Suddenly an insanely bizarre idea entered his brain. He remembered the lecture Sally Furth had given his science class. No, it wasn't possible, or was it? Atom cross checked the storm track against the cycle of launch windows. One of the launch windows corresponded exactly with the passage of the storm directly over the complex. Crazy like a fox! But first he needed to solve the problem of the eight hour transit time to get the mobile launcher back into position. He remembered the sight of the television antenna towers in the distance, they were guyed in place with heavy cables anchoring them to the ground.

Atom opened his chest panel, and plugged himself back into the computer network. "Isaac?" he called.

The daemon replied, "Yes Atom?"

"Isaac, I need your help. Is it possible to somehow anchor the mobile launcher and rocket down so they can safely remain on station at Complex 39B until the storm passes overhead? Maybe with cables like the TV antenna towers?"

Isaac did some quick calculations. "Yes, in principle it would work."

Isaac projected a diagram in Atom's field of view. "If you attach some heavy cables at the three points I've marked on this 3D projection of the rocket and gantry tower, and anchor them to the ground at the three points indicated on the overhead map view, I calculate a 92% chance that the mobile launcher with the rocket and gantry tower will ride out the passage of the front side of the storm."

Atom had a photographic memory. Literally. He remembered the sight of the tall spun steel utility towers along US 1, and the large spools of steel cored power cables, he had seen from Simon's plane as they turned from base leg to final approach, a few days ago. He recalled the image of one of the wire spools and zoomed in on it to show the manufacturer's name and part number for the cable. Isaac quickly looked up the specifications.

"If you run two lengths of that cable for each of the three guy wires that I've indicated, they will be strong enough. Each of those spools holds enough wire for one double length of guy cable."

The second part of Atom's plan was now in place. All he had to do now was to put things in motion.

Atom ran to the launch director. "Please! Don't roll the rocket back to the VAB. I have an idea!"

Atom quickly explained his plan to anchor the rocket and gantry down so they wouldn't blow over in the wind. "I've got to run now and take care of this quickly before it gets too windy."

He then dropped his trump card on the table. "If we do this, we will be ready to launch the instant the winds die down in under 12 hours from now."

The director shook his head. "I've seen the storm track, the hurricane won't completely pass until at least 24 to 36 hours from now."

"But, we won't have to wait that long!" Atom yelled back, already running out of the building. "In 12 hours we will be underneath the eye of the hurricane. At that moment there will be a launch window. We will go then."

The launch director looked at the same computer info that Atom had been studying just moments ago.

"Great Scott!" he gasped. "I think that might actually work!"

Atom in flight

The launch director gave the order for the crew that had been prepping the mobile launcher to be towed back to the VAB, to stand down. They were going to do things Atom's way.

Atom flew toward US 1, retracing in reverse the flight path that Simon's plane had taken a few days earlier, when they had arrived. As he left Complex 39, Atom saw Simon taxiing his plane into the VAB, where it would be safe from the storm.

Atom located the pile of the tall spun steel tower poles, still lying along the side of the road. They would make perfect anchors for the guy wires, sorta like giant sized tent pegs. He flew down and scooped two of them up, one under each arm. It took all his flying skills, and a great deal of jet power, to keep to a straight path with the two eighty foot long poles in the wind gusts. He arrived back at complex 39B, and carefully dropped one of the two towers on the ground while picking the second one up by its thick end. He flew to several thousand feet in altitude, and then turned downward into a dive holding the steel pole like a jousting spear, to drive it into the ground at one of the three points indicated by Isaac. The pointy end of the tower penetrated the ground at a 45 degree angle aimed toward the rocket. Atom hadn't driven it home hard enough though, as nearly half of the tower remained above the ground. No matter, he already had figured out how to fix that later. Atom then picked up the second tower, and repeated the operation, this time only a third of the tower's length remained above the ground. He flew back to US-1, scooped up a third tower, and then returned back to complex 39B to plant it.

Now he zoomed over to the I-95 overpass he had seen under construction. The long heavy steel I-beam that was intended to support the overpass, still lay along side the road. Atom picked that up, and held it under his arms. He carefully aimed the end of the beam at the end of one of the steel poles sticking up above the ground, and hammered it with the beam. Again and again he used the I-beam as a pile driver, pushing the tower deeper and deeper into the ground, until only a few feet were visible. He did this again with the remaining two tower poles, and then set the mangled I-beam down on the ground.

Atom now made three more trips back to US-1, to commandeer three spools of the heavy steel cored power line cable. He unrolled the first spool and folded the length of wire in half, forming a double strand of heavy cable. Atom then made a loop in one end of the cable and wrapped it around the rocket at the first attachment point indicated to him by Isaac. He used his arm laser to cut a hole in the top of the nearest pole and threaded the free end of the double cable through it. He repeated the operation for the other two cables at the attachment points suggested by Issac. Finally he went from cable to cable, repeatedly adjusting the pull of the guy wires, until all of them were at the same required tension. The rocket and gantry tower were now anchored to the ground against the expected winds.

International Space Station

Aboard the space station the astronauts had broken out the blankets to keep warm. The remaining power had been re-routed to the life support systems to keep the CO2 scrubbers running. The astronauts had been in low spirits after the news about the aborted takeoff, and the onset of the strong winds that now prevented getting the rescue mission off the ground for another 24 to 36 hours.

Yuji Tanaka had been reading the latest news from the KSC, and suddenly his face brightened.

"You guys are not going to believe what's happening down there!" he shouted.

"What, did the storm change course so they can come rescue us?" Sally asked.

"No, it seems Atom has come up with a brainstorm. He's braced the launch platform against the winds with guy cables to give them a chance to launch the instant the winds die down in a few hours," Yuji replied.

"That's not possible," Sally sighed, "The storm will take much longer than that to clear the cape."

"No, you don't get it. They are going to launch right though the eye of the hurricane!"

June 9

KSC, Complex 39

Atom had worked into the night shoring up the launch platform against the winds. The KSC had emergency generators at the ready, but the power hadn't failed on the spot lights that illuminated the launch pad while he put the final touches the anchors.

The launch crew was huddled in the control building as the winds howled outside. In the distance they could hear the heavy steel doors of the VAB banging against their hinges. While the world's tallest single story building was designed to withstand the hurricane force winds, it had been damaged by the stronger of the storms in the past. According to the forecast, they would be able to start the countdown just after dawn. Meanwhile they would have several more hours of darkness to live though.

Having the eye of a hurricane pass overhead is a rather strange experience. The winds and rain of the storm beat down on you for hours, getting stronger and stronger. Suddenly, almost all at once, the rain stops, the sky clears, and the wind dies down. The sun returns, and it appears that the worst is now over. But mother nature is playing a very cruel trick. Depending on the storm's speed and path, the calm can last anywhere from just minutes to several hours. Eventually the sky again darkens, the wind and rain pick up, and you are once again back in hell. The backside of the storm hits you even harder than the front, and it comes back in an instant as the eye wall passes by. The crew of the cape were going to experience all this later in the day, for now they were patently waiting for their chance to send Atom on his rescue mission before the astronauts ran out of time.

As the dawn's first light slowly brightened the eastern sky, the wind speed indicators began to spin down. It seemed that the rain had slowed down, or even stopped as the view out of the thick plate glass window of the control building had cleared. The launch director had tried to get a few hours of rest on a daybed off to the side of the building. As the sun's first light appeared, he downed several cups of coffee to energize himself. Looking at the weather readouts on the terminal, he decided it was time to get started.

Actually, the crew had already began to prep for launch. They had already started pumping rocket fuel and liquid oxygen back into the Falcon's tanks. Atom was now flying around the rocket, removing the tie down cables that he had installed hours earlier. They now had two hours before the launch window, just barely before the storm's track would return the eye wall and the stronger winds and rain of the backside of the hurricane. As the rocket's systems were powered back up, the SpaceX crew quickly checked each one. Despite Atom's anchor system, they were worried about damage due to the winds, rain, and flying debris that the storm had brought. Atom flew about the rocket, visually inspecting it, and relaying back the high definition pictures, in several different wavelengths of light from his camera eyes, to the control room. Visually at least, the Falcon-9 and Dragon looked perfect.

As the count down continued, each of the launch vehicle's systems came on line. So far, it seemed that the rocket had survived the storm perfectly. The weather radar showed the approaching far end of the eye wall was still several hours away, as Adam had slowed his advance inland. Maybe the gods were going to smile down on them, this time.

With less than an hour to go, Atom flew up to the top of the gantry tower where the launch crew was waiting to help him get situated inside the spacecraft. Atom again lay down on the form fitting cot, and was strapped down by the restraining harness. The spacecraft's hatch was closed, and he waited for liftoff.

Atom listened as each system check in the countdown was completed. The clock had now passed the T-10 minute mark, and there hadn't been the slightest glitch. Back in the control room Elon Musk paced back and forth, he hardly believed what they were about to do. Still the countdown clock proceeded without missing a beat. Finally it reached T-1 minute, and the final procedures were being completed. Atom tried to relax. The clock reached T-3 seconds, and the nine Merlin engines again roared to life, this time as smooth as silk! Three seconds later the hold down clamps released their grip on the Falcon, and the rocket inched skyward.

The crew in the Complex 39 control room let out a yell. Atom was on his way. Elon Musk stood outside the building holding his hands over his ears to protect them from the sound of the roaring engines, just three miles away. Along side of him, Simon Green and Robert Levinson also watched the rocket rise above the ground. They all had tears in their eyes. The rocket got smaller and smaller in the sky, until it finally disappeared from sight. Suddenly the wind picked up, the sky grew dark and the rain returned. The three men ran back into the control building and closed the door. Adam's fury had returned.

Atom, aboard the Dragon Spacecraft

Atom felt the G forces build as the rocket gained speed. At liftoff the combined thrust of the nine Merlin engines was barely greater than the weight of the rocket, but as the engines consumed the contents of the fuel tanks the rocket weighed less and less, increasing the thrust to weight ratio. The acceleration slowly increased as the Falcon-9 rose above the ground. The vehicle reached "max-Q", or maximum dynamic pressure at T+75 seconds. By this point it had already broken the sound barrier, and had punched through the hurricane leaving Adam far below. It was now smooth sailing to orbit. After having burned for a minute and a half, the nine Merlin engines of the first stage shut down. There was a brief moment of weightless while the second stage was released from the first, and then Atom again felt the G forces build up as the second stage's single Merlin engine came to life.

The second stage burned for several minutes, before it too shut down. The vehicle had reached orbit. About ten minutes later, the second stage fired again to precisely adjust the orbit to one that would catch up with the International Space Station within one orbital period. Then the Dragon Spacecraft separated from the second stage and was on its own.

Atom loosened the restraints holding him down to the cot. He floated free in the zero gravity. Through a forward looking view port, Atom could see the ISS in the far distance. His spacecraft was slowly catching up with it. If he zoomed his vision to almost maximum magnification, he could make out the Dragon docking ports on the Harmony module. One of them was occupied by a Dragon Spacecraft from the last re-supply mission. The astronauts hadn't yet finished filling it with all of the cargo being returned to earth.

"Atom, this is mission control. Your Dragon spacecraft is now locked on to the flight path to dock with the station. We have you on radar tracking and under control. Everything looks perfect from here."

"Roger, mission control." Atom replied.

Over the next fifteen minutes the Dragon closed in on the station. It slowly positioned itself right behind the docking port. After double checking the Dragon's systems, the controllers on the ground began the docking procedures. Just as the Dragon's docking port touched the station's, a red light came on in the capsule. Ground control saw the same indication on their panels.

"Atom, we have negative lock on the docking port. We are going to back the spacecraft up and will roll it two degrees starboard, and try again."

Once again they repeated the maneuver, and once again the docking latches failed to engage. The tried several times using different approach speeds, but it would not engage. Finally they positioned the spacecraft so Atom could get a good look out the view port at the station's docking port.

"Atom, can you give us look-see at the docking port?"

Atom focused his high definition camera eyes at the space station, and relayed the picture back to earth.

"Atom, we seem to have a problem with the docking port. It looks like there is a chunk of space debris jammed into the docking clamp latches. We are thinking that maybe you will need to go EVA and clear it."

The necessary instructions were relayed up to Atom directly via the spacecraft's radio and the Bluetooth network link between it and Atom's internal computer interfaces.

"I understand what I have to do." Atom replied.

Atom activated the controls to pump down the atmospheric pressure inside the spacecraft so he could open the docking hatch from the inside to gain egress from the ship. He attached a tether line around his waist to keep him from drifting from the spacecraft. Atom then opened the Dragon's forward hatch, and pushed himself out into space. A quick burst of ion rocket power from his legs propelled him toward the Harmony module's docking port. Sure enough, there was a jagged chunk of metal jammed in one of the fingers of one of the docking clamps. Atom carefully worked it free, and then used the powerful grip of his fingers to bend the clamp's fingers back into shape. He relayed the image of what he was doing back to the ground, and they reported back that it now looked perfect.

Atom had a thought. He unattached himself from the tether, and flew away from his current position using his ion rockets. He orbited around the Harmony module photographing every inch of its surface. He then repeated the inspection for the Columbus and Kibo modules.

"What are you doing, Atom?" ground control asked.

"I'm looking for where the hull breaches are from the outside. I've already identified where Harmony was holed. It looks like I'll need two patches. I didn't see any breaches on Kibo or Columbus, but I'll relay the images back to earth for you to study."

Atom grabbed the floating tether, pulled himself back to the ship, and crawled back through the Dragon's forward hatch. He closed the hatch and locked it, to prepare for the docking maneuver. Once again ground control commanded the spacecraft to approach the space station to dock. This time as the two bodies touched, there was the distinct sound of the clamps engaging. Atom had made it to the station. Now he had work to do.

Author's notes:

In this chapter and the previous ones I had the SpaceX Falcon-9 launch facilities situated at Complex 39, which is the former Shuttle and Apollo launch site. In reality, SpaceX uses NASA launch Complex 40 for their launches, however NASA is looking to rent out Complex 39, and with their upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket (which is very nearly the size and weight of the Saturn V), it is not unlikely that SpaceX could one day occupy Complex 39.

Also, I had stated that the Merlin engines used electric fuel pumps, however they actually use turbine driven units. I needed to invent a quick and dirty fault that could be repaired in moments, so I took the liberty of artistic license to alter the facts in a way that wouldn't badly distort reality. Sorry about that Mr. Musk.

And, thank you SpaceX for posting the user's manual for the Falcon-9 rocket on line as a free download!

BTW, I'll also now give credit to the 1969 movie "Marooned", for part of my plot idea involving a rocket launch through the eye of a hurricane. I didn't want to mention it before now, 'cause that would have been a major spoiler. (But hey, I dropped enough hints in the early chapters!)

Also thanks to Dan Rush for his story the "fiery and the furious", which mentioned the use of certain hardware driven into the ground by the 'bots, which inspired a similar 'MacGyverism' for Atom in this story.