Winter is here and my fingers are turning blue (brrrr). If only I could afford to head to the tropics for the next five months; pity I don't have the cash. But wait... what is this? It's an e-mail from a member of the Nigerian Royal Family asking for my help to transfer millions of dollars out of his country, and all he needs is my bank account details.
How could I lose?
Chapter 47
Desperate Times
"How?" Sarah gasped "How are we going to get them back?"
"We've got a fully operational Dream Chaser spacecraft sitting in Hanger 18" Blue stated.
"With none of the stabilisation fins fitted" Sarah pointed out.
"All three in the hanger and I'll get onto installing them right away."
"How would you transfer Luis and your sister onboard? If I remember rightly, the Orion docking mechanism isn't compatible with the Dream Chaser."
"We fit the External Aft-mounted Payload Carrier unit" Blue argued "It has a Universal Docking Adapter."
"Is the Payload Carrier in the complex?" Sarah wondered.
"I think it's still sitting in a shipping container, but I won't give up till we find it."
Sarah stoped protesting and slumped into a chair.
"We haven't even started extending the Railgun yet; you'd never survive the G-forces" she said after some thought.
"Nothing to stop us from firing at a safe velocity and using a Payload Assist Rocket to make orbit" Blue continued.
Sarah thought for a moment more before turning to Peter.
"Have you finished entering all the manifest data into the base computer?" she asked.
"All set" he smiled back.
"Check for the External Payload Carrier please" Sarah ordered.
Peter Moke pulled a chair up to a computer desk and began to type; a few seconds later he gave an un-wanted report.
"It's not here" he sighed "But we only found about eighty percent of the ships manifests so it's probably in one of the unlisted containers."
"But how could you find it without the container number?" Sarah asked "It would take months to go through every container on that ship."
"We wouldn't have to" Blue protested "If we check a container number and find it on the computer, then we know the EPC isn't in there; we only have to search the containers we don't have manifests for."
"That's still hundreds of containers amongst thousands on the ship" Sarah continued to find problems.
"We start in the area surrounding where the Dream Chaser was and work out from there. Look I know the odds are not good but I don't want to just give up and let my family die without trying to save them" Blue begged.
"Don't get me wrong Blue; I am NOT going to stop you" Sarah insisted.
"It sounds like you're trying to talk me out of it from my end" he replied.
"You may have surprised me at first but I'm just trying to think of all the problems we'll face so we can tackle them as we go and not get surprised by them later. If we're going into orbit to rescue Luis and Abby then I fully intend for all four of us to come back alive and un-injured."
"Four of us?" Blue gasped.
"You can't do this alone Blue" Sarah placed her hand on his shoulder "It would be hard enough for one person if the situation was close to normal, but this is all new and untried. We've never launched anything from the Railgun before except cargo pods and you know rendezvous and capture is not going to be as easy as it is on the simulator."
Even though he knew she was right, Blue had not expected such support for his plan.
"Thank you" he smiled.
Commander Sage had lost count of how many years had passed since his days on the aircraft carrier USS Ernie Jackson, but memories of his old posting came flooding back after he had jettisoned the nose capsule of the MTV with Luis and Abigail Dias still on board. However many years had gone by, it was also the same amount of time that had passed since he had been last called upon to do any wet work, and he had hoped those days were well and truly behind him. Now another decision had to be made; should he continue the survey or begin the return journey to Mars straight away? In the end, he decided it would be best if he reported in before taking any more action, but Olive Roux beat him to the punch when the communication system came to life.
It was difficult to have a conversation with the time delay over such a long distance, but he did his best.
"MTV receiving signal" he sent the first transmission.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?" Roux screamed "According to the MTV status screen, the nose section has been jettisoned with Luis and Abigail still inside and its hatch open!"
"It was necessary" Sage replied "Luis discovered the ship had not been sunk and was on the Indonesian shore near the Railgun. Adisa has been lying to you; they have the contents of the ship and must be planning to use it to invade Mars."
"What do you think April is going to do when she finds out two members of her family are dead? She is going to ask questions I won't... able... answer..."
Before Olive Roux could finish her argument, the signal died for a few seconds but when the video screen cleared, the visage of an elderly German gentleman had taken her place.
"What do you think you're doing Klein?" Sage sneered "You better get off this channel or you'll be in big trouble."
"Don't be ridiculous Sage" Florian sighed "I'm already in trouble, but you are the cause of it; and now we have to fix your mess yet again."
As he listened to Florian, a light came on inside Sage's head as he realised he was talking to a member of the Mars Deep Council. That was why Olive Roux was cut off; so she would not learn the truth about Klein.
"I hope you realise sir; I only did what I did to keep you all safe back on Mars" Sage said sincerely. "If Dias had brought word back about the ship, April would have found out her son was still alive and she would not have been the only person to be upset; this news could have been the start of a mutiny inside the Mars Base."
"Oh don't get me wrong Sage, we were not in a good position and I know something drastic would have to happen, but your choice of action has left us in a very difficult position. If you were to return to Mars now, everyone would be asking these questions; what happened on the MTV and why was Sage the only survivor?"
As soon as Florian made his point, Sage suddenly realised he did not have much time left as the Deep Council would not allow him to live. As the voice from Mars kept on talking, the commander grabbed the heaviest thing in arms reach and angrily smashed the video screen and the small camera above it.
"The members of Deep Council were already working on the problem the ships discovery presented, but now we feel we there is simply no other choice" Florian Klein's message continued.
In a few minutes, the members of the Deep Council would see Commander Sage lose his temper and smash the screen, but it would not concern them in the slightest. The time had come for the man who had killed on their behalf so many times in the past, to finally die himself. Not only could they not think of an alternative course of action, none of them really wanted to try.
"I would like to say we have been pleased with the work you have done for us in the past, but it would not be entirely true" Klein voice continued to echo through the MTV "so let's just simply say you did play an important role in the founding of the Mars Base and leave it at that for the sake of your place history. Goodbye Commander."
When Florian Klein had finished his speech, he pressed down on the touch screen built into his desk and sent a heavily encoded signal to the MTV. When the signal arrived a few minutes later, two things began to occur; firstly a series of valves began to open, venting the ships internal atmosphere out into space. As the air needed to sustain life slowly bled off, all of the hard drives and memory circuits in every computer system began to self wipe, leaving nothing behind but lifeless lump of manmade materials orbiting the Earth.
On one hand the problems of the Deep Council had been solved but on the other hand, Florian still had to tell April about the death of two more members of her family; it was a task he was loathed to do.
Back on Earth everyone was beginning to realise how difficult it would be to mount their planned rescue in less than a month; if they had a week would be nice, but they all had to face up to the deadline of only two short days. Sarah soon found she could not hope to coordinate the entire operation herself but she needed to be on top of everything as it happened. One portable two way radio was not going to be able to keep up, so she soon found herself being followed everywhere she went by a small crowd of people whose sole task was to keep in radio contact with each department head and pass messages between them and their boss; Sarah referred to this group as her own personal set of Uhuras.
"They've run out of room in the ships hold" one of them shouted as Sarah hurried to the fabrication centre. "They want permission to start stacking them outside on the beach."
"WHAT! No way in hell" Sarah stamped her foot "If there's another tsunami we could lose the lot. Get as many trucks down to the ship and tell them to bring the containers at least ten kilometres inland; that's a more acceptable risk."
"The team down the tunnel say it will take too long to remove their equipment" another followed.
"They don't need to bring anything out" Sarah replied as she sprinted "Just take it all past the end of the Railgun and stow it all in the empty section of the tunnel."
"Willow Pascal wants to see you about fitting the solid booster when you can spare a minute" another shouted after the chief.
"Tell her to make an appointment with my social secretary" Sarah snorted.
"Huh?" the confused Uhura gasped.
Sarah stopped running for two seconds and sighed "Tell Willow I'll be there in half an hour."
Although she tried to stay true to her word, it was close to an hour before Sarah had managed to sort out the most urgent problems being thrown at her and catch up with Willow in the main fabrication room, where she was overseeing the construction of four cross struts.
"About time you got here" Willow barked.
Whatever you want, make it quick" Sarah demanded.
"If I do, you'll waste even more time with suggestions we've already considered; so just shut up and listen and I'll let Peter give you the bad news."
She led Sarah to a computer in a side room where Peter Moke was working furiously at the keyboard.
"We've linked our computer to the one on Luis's capsule and we've worked out the best trajectory for you and Blue to rendezvous with him in the shortest amount of time, but there's a little problem; the Solid Rocket Payload Assist Motor won't get you to a high enough orbit."
"Could we use a second one in a two stage configuration?" Sarah asked.
"Four months to fabricate an untested structural faring says no" Peter answered "and before you ask, we did consider using modified cross struts but it made the craft too unstable; you'd start tumbling end over end as soon as you fired the lower stage."
"Please tell me there is some good news now."
"I wouldn't call it good Sarah, but it's not as bad as it could be" Willow tried to smile but could only come up with a half smirk.
"In order for a single PAM rocket to lift you up to a higher orbit where you can dock with the Orion, we need to hold off from firing it until you are in the upper atmosphere. This means we will have to increase your velocity before you leave the Railgun" Peter revealed.
"This higher velocity of yours; what sort of G's are we talking about pulling during launch?" Sarah asked nervously.
"Let me put it this way" Willow interrupted "I'd wear earplugs if I were you, to prevent your brain from squeezing out of your auditory canal."
"Please don't tell me we're looking at a no win situation here" Sarah sighed.
"It all comes down to weight" Peter noted "The heavier the ship, the more velocity you will lose before you fire the solid. Every additional gram equals more G's inside the Railgun; so every unnecessary piece we can strip out of the ship internally, gives you a better chance of surviving longer than thirty seconds."
"I've also asked for a list of the equipment you'll be taking to see what you can do without and the first thing that leapt off the screen and slapped me in the face, was the two person inflatable life rafts" Willow pointed to the screen "Life rafts... in space?"
"There is a very high chance we will have to make a water landing" Sarah revealed "There's no telling if we'll find a suitable runway."
"Well I suggest you take only one and use it as a floatation device for four people instead of a boat for two. Now how about the solar panels on the External Payload Carrier" Willow asked "I doubt you'll be in orbit long enough to need the extra power."
"We won't" Sarah agreed "Battery power will be more than enough so as soon as it arrives from the coast, remove them along with every internal cover panel; we only need the EPC for the universal docking adaptor."
"I'll see if I can shave some weight from the detachable hypersonic nose cone" Peter suggested.
"Anything you can lose without killing us is okay with me" Sarah admitted as several Uhuras vied for her attention.
Well things did not work out well with the Nigerian Prince so I guess I'll just have to endure the cold and be happy we don't have snow here, but wait... what is this? It's another e-mail from a company called West Excelsior Enterprises advising me to invest in their real making gold mining operation. With such bad spelling and un-readable sentence structure, they must be on the level.
So if you don't see a new chapter next week it will be because I am now rich and have moved to a resort somewhere warm and sunny (now where did I put my ukulele?)