Chapter 8: Liftoff

LATER THAT DAY

Alnus FOB, Alnus

If the scene from the launch viewing area had a festival atmosphere, then the situation at the 'launch control' couldn't have been more different.

Colonel Mullan checked his wristwatch and turned around to face the rear compartment of the HML's tractor. There, he opened a base panel and took out a modified KY-68 military phone handset. Normally, these would be attached to a land line and would provide secure communications all the way to the receiver, but this one had been modified to send a signal over the Japanese FOB's wireless line. True, this increased the chance of the signal being intercepted and decoded, but the military was trying to retire the KY-68 anyway and the information he was exchanging would be worthless to any foreign nation that got their hands on it.

After slipping an encryption key into the side of the unit, he a dialed number that he'd long-since memorized.

The phone rang a few times before someone on the other end picked up and said, "Key West."

"Seashell," Mullan replied. "This is Colonel Mullan, put me through to the General, please."

"Of course," said the USSTRATCOM operator, "please stay on the line."

It only took a moment, then, "General Barton, is that you, Rich?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're launching again? Damn, that was a quick turnaround."

Mullan smiled. "The guys at Lockheed Martin were more surprised that the first bird didn't explode on the launcher. Compared to the refurb job, they said that writing the new navigation code was easy."

"Glad to hear it. Now, I believe I owe you some letters… ah, here they are. Sierra, Zulu, Kilo, Tango, Lima, Hotel."

"Copy, that was Sierra, Zulu, Kilo...Tango, Lima, Hotel."

"Right, don't have too much fun."

"Thank you, sir." He returned the phone to its cradle and turned to face the men in the front compartment of the HML's cabin. There, Major Becker and another Missilier named Peters patiently waited his instructions.

It was different from the procedures that had been drilled into Mullan after years of working with Minuteman III in Nebraska. Normally there would be another round of authentication involved and Strategic Command would be the ones contacting him, instead of the other way around. Still, this was the system that General Barton had decided upon, and he wasn't about to complain.

"We are go for launch," the Colonel said, "Begin launch procedures."

Both men reached under their shirts, pulled out another pair of crypto-keys, and inserted them into the control panel in front of them. Becker pulled out a flight checklist, and the rest went like clockwork.

"Step one, insert launch keys-done" Becker said.

"Agreed," Peters chimed in.

"Step two, Targeting or Launch option selected-select Launch."

Peters typed on the keyboard in front of him, and an 80s-era CRT monitor blinked as the new option on the ancient GUI was selected. "Done."

They went through five more steps before Becker stated, "Step Eight, Enter Unlock Code."

Mullan repeated the code that Barton had given him. Even though the Midgetman out in the field was not armed with anything more dangerous than a dummy warhead, the Cold War era system was still locked down with all the old security procedures. That meant that it required the whole deal to launch; keys, codes, and finally…

"Step eighteen, in Launch action at this time. Hands on keys," Becker called, and looked up at a digital clock above his head. The keys in question were not the same code-keys they had inserted earlier; these were four knobs—two before each crewmember—spaced out so that it was impossible for one person to turn all four at the same time. "On my mark; three, two, one, mark."

They turned the knobs. "Hold!" Becker cautioned.

"ELC message sent!" Peter replied.

"And release! ELC message transmit?"

"Agreed."

Before them, lights began to illuminate all across the control panel. The computerized systems were now controlling the launch.

Mullan flicked on his radio and said, "Tell Dawson fifteen." That was roughly as long as it took from this point. In the viewing area, Technical Sergeant Schumer would be giving Carol the launch signal.

One last step; they all checked their seatbelts and covered their ears.

ONE HOUR LATER

The day had consisted of demonstration after demonstration, and while Carol was growing tired from waiting her turn, she had to admit that the JSDF and USAF could put on quite a show.

Weapons demonstrations, tank maneuvers, aerial acrobatics with the Phantoms. Hazama had even recruited Captain Hines and one of the Hawks to demonstrate a limited parachute deployment. Some of the Rondel Council members had screamed at the sight of men tumbling out of a perfectly good aircraft, and had applauded as the parachutes for the four jumpers unfurled. Cicero had been fast to point out, "And if you find that to be impressive, the Japanese dropped over a hundred men on Sadera that way to rescue us!"

Behind Carol, Foster let out a loud cough. Of course, she knew that the United States had access to similar technology, and could paratroop more than just men into enemy territory.

She had then proceeded to give the Council a similar model-rocket demonstration like the ones she had been running for the previous week, and together they had watched Mullan's Midgetman missile disappear into the late-afternoon sky. She had learned her lesson from the last launch and had moved the viewing area back by another few hundred feet, passed out binoculars, and had several JSDF soldiers go around offering hearing protection. When the rocket finally launched, it was met only with awe, instead of some of the fear that had followed the first launch.

This led to her presentation. They had set up a platform for her on base and, after a sweeping, panoramic movie on Japan, she finally took the stage. "Hello again!" She said, smiling to her audience. "Now that you've had the chance to see a rocket in flight, I'd like to take you through some of the accomplishments of American and Japanese space flight. It makes for an excellent story, and I hope that you'll find it interesting and entertaining.

"But, before that, why go into space at all? Let's begin by looking at some moving pictures captured by our last rocket launch."

She keyed a button on her controller and on the projector behind her the world suddenly exploded into few-which is to say that viewers had only a few seconds to see the Alnus Hill airfield before the rocket carrying the camera began to climb. The star-shaped base came into view next and quickly shrank as well.

As the rocket climbed and more features came into view, Carol pointed them out with a laser pointer. Granted, at that altitude the cities were either gray/tan dots or glowing lights. 'Italica," she said, pointing as the city appeared below. "There's the Dumas mountain range, and the Tuba mountains… and that glowing dot coming into view on the right side is Sadera."

After a few minutes, Carol paused the video. By this point, the camera was looking down from well over 80,000 feet, and it was possible to see much of the continent below. Various Council members crammed forward to get a closer look, a few whispering to each other and pointing. "This should illustrate some of the more obvious reasons for wanting to go into space," Carol said. "From up here, we can map the territory below, plan navigation based on geography, make assumptions about resources from geology, and both follow and predict the movement of clouds and weather."

She allowed the video to jump ahead a brief period of time and, after a flash, the camera switched positions to one pointing out of the rear of the nose cone. The stage behind it fell away, and the scene made the audience gasp.

From this altitude, they could see the curvature of the planet below. In the back, someone exclaimed, "Look! Passol was right!" Which lead to even more, louder discussions from the Council members.

"From this angle," Carol said, "we are able to collect information about the materials of planet's upper atmosphere. Light from your sun passes through the gasses near the upper layers, and the changes to the light are detected by machines in the rocket. We call this Spectroscopy."

She allowed the shot to continue for a few more seconds, so that the camera was now facing the heavens. Even though the sky had still been a fading orange at the time of launch, the stars were easily visible from the rocket's apogee. "Space also gives us instant access to the heavens, and more ways to learn about what's up there, unobstructed by the seemingly opaque atmosphere during daylight hours. From up here, we can see all kinds of interesting things.

"With this in mind, here's a brief look at how far NASA and JAXA have come in the field of space science."

The film that followed was what Carol liked to call a highlight reel, because it picked only the more interesting moments; Explorer 1, Alan Shepherd and John Glen, Kennedy shouting "we Choose to Go to the Moon," then rushing past the Gemini program and into Apollo.

Carol looked away from the screen to take in the audience. The Council and Senators were all enraptured by the spectacle, while most of the JSDF officers were a mix of bemused or bored. In the back, Itami seemed to be paging through a book, Lelei and Tuka were studying the images on the screen with rapt attention…

...and Rory turned to stare back at her, raising an eyebrow and adding a sardonic grin in return. Carol shuddered and looked away. Creepy.

The montage played on; early JAXA rockets derived from American Deltas, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and a plethora of Hubble photos.

The presentation ended to thunderous applause. Carol liked seeing this reaction, but a nagging voice in her head called out, the Kennedy guys left Russia and ESA out of the presentation again, and cut the Japanese down to twenty seconds. Admittedly, this was normal for NASA PR pieces, but she was so used to hearing some rocket fanatic in the back call her out on it that she almost expected it as the first comment.

Before opening the floor to questions, she had one last part of the presentation to deliver. "To give you an example of American-Japanese cooperation in space, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about a mission that I personally worked on, the Akatsuki Venus probe."

A photo-slide appeared of the probe. Like most deep-spacecraft, it was boxy with long rectangular solar panels and a big radio dish for signaling. Carol had never seen the real thing in person, nor had she been present when it launched. "The Akatsuki space probe was launched by the Japanese space agency about eight years ago on a voyage to one of the inner planets. Everything seemed fine for the initial part of the journey, until the probe ran into trouble. The main engine, the part used for speeding the probe up and slowing the probe down, had failed. In a desperate attempt to try and get to Venus on the second pass, JAXA and NASA collaborated on exploring the other engines on the probe, as well as sharing the calculations effort needed to make sure that any alternative engines were fired at the correct times needed to get Akatsuki back on target."

Above her, the scene changed to an overhead map of the inner solar system; the Sun in the center, and Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars displayed around it, along with their orbits. She pointed to each planet with her laser pointer as she explained, "This is what some of our solar system looks like. Much like your solar system, ours is made of a few rocky inner planets, and-"

"PREPOSTEROUS!" Came a voice from the audience.

Carol spun around, searching the assembly for the voice, and spotted a man standing in the second row. He was short, bald, and wide, and pointed at her at a staff topped with a combined symbol of a star and crescent moon. "The people of America and Japan are free to believe whatever they want about the heavens," he declared, "But do not for one instant assume that we are so stupid as to believe that that the skies of Falmart operate on as ridiculous a model as that!"

As Dawson scanned the audience, she was shocked to see that many of the Rondel Council members, and even some of the Senators were nodding their heads in agreement.

An elf (Carol could tell by the ears) a few seats down stood as well and pointed out, "But Nariv, the Americans and Japanese have demonstrated to us today that their grasp on natural philosophy is far more sophisticated than our own—"

"Toys, contraptions, worldly objects," Nariv spat. "Even if they have demonstrated a knowledge of combustion, flight engineering, and ballistics, none of these demonstrate actual knowledge of Falmart's skies, and none of them will get me to believe such a stupid concept as Mochrie's Heliocentric Theory!"

Those last two words hit Carol harder than the returning payload of one of Mullan's rockets. Holy crap, she realized, these people still think they're the center of their universe! They think their sun orbits around them!

"But-" the elf began.

"Passol's observations of a spherical world are true," Nariv said, "This is known."

Nods of assent.

"And if the world is not fixed by the proposed seeding point, then it cannot hold itself up and must be falling toward something, where it will inevitably crash and destroy the world, this is also known!"

Now shouts of agreement.

"And the planets above are suspended there by transparent spheres. These alter direction based on the Larok equations that are taught in intermediate astronomy classes. I recall that you, Flat El Coda, slept through those very same classes!"

Laughter this time. Carol looked to the other people in the audience, hoping that not the whole world had gone insane. Indeed, the Council members and Senators seemed to agree Nariv's ideas. Towards the back, Tuka was smiling as well, Lelei was as emotionless as ever, and even Greta and an unsure grin on her face, as if still trying to figure out the disparity between the knowledge of these academics and Dawson's lectures.

The JSDF, thank heavens, appeared far less confused. Soldiers grimaced and shook their heads. Mullan, towards the back, was halfway through a cigarette and had one hand up to his forehead. Professor Shirai stood next to him, and the astronomer looked like he was about to lose all composure. If Carol said nothing soon, he certainly would.

Rory was staring back down at her, directly, holding out a hand as if to say, Well?

"And another thing," Nariv added, "If anyone were so ridiculous as to believe Mochrie's Heliocentric Theory, wouldn't the moon be left behind as our planet travels? Or do you also wish to argue some imaginary invisible attractor principle—"

"That is such bullshit!" Carol spat.

This caught Nariv off guard. He froze for a moment, turned back towards the stage, and said, "What did you—"

"I called it what it is, ignorant bullshit!" Carol stated. She could feel the heat rising into her face, but she didn't care; this bastard was going down. "Since the people of my world began their forays into space, we have placed over eight thousand objects into orbit around our planet, suspended by that same attractor principle. Some of these objects even carried people—five hundred and forty-five of them! And a dozen of those went all the way to the surface of our moon!"

Nariv tried to get a word in edgewise, but Carol continued, "We have sent many probes to the neighborhood and surfaces of our planets, confirmed our findings with millions of observations, and built telescopes powerful enough to see the same sun-centric solar model around a hundred other stars aside from our own. I stand by Mr. Flat and his Heliocentric Model because I know—from experience—that it is the correct one! Not this fantasy ass-pull of a geocentric fairy tale."

This time, dead silence, then a peal of laughter from Rory who stood and said, "How delicious! In the past few weeks I have seen men tear others to shreds with arrows, swords, bullets, and bombs. It has been too long since I last saw two academics ready to gut each other with natural philosophy! Emroy is pleased, do proceed!"

Carol and Nariv similarly opened their mouths and raised their hands to start the argument when a member of the Rondel Council stood. "If I may," he said, "I am Alron El Tarinium, the Astronomy Director of the Council. Nariv is technically correct, in that he cites established natural philosophy—"

He saw Carol about to counter when he added, "however, there is no one here who can deny the complexity of the technology presented today by Japan and America. It is possible that, with technologically advanced astronomy instruments, that they have observed something that has eluded the astronomers of Falmart.

"Therefore, I propose that we resolve the matter of Mochrie's Heliocentricity Theory once and for all with an investigation. Flat, you have been studying the language of the Men in Green, correct?"

Flat nodded.

"Then you shall work with Dr. Carol Dawson and her colleagues to compile a report with irrefutable evidence that supports Heliocentricity. Since Dawson claims that Japan and America have already proven it to exhaustion, I shall give you one day, starting now, to compile the needed materials. If the presentation proves to be unsatisfactory, then we can close the book on Mochrie and the entire matter."

Tarinium turned back to the Rondel Council. "Do you agree that this is reasonable?"

The members of the Council nodded, to which the old astronomer stated, "It is decided, then. We shall return here tomorrow night for the report. Do not disappoint us, Flat El Coda."

This settled, the various residents of the Special Region filtered out of the open-air auditorium, leaving Flat and Greta to join Carol on the stage. "I shouldn't have said anything," Flat groaned, "If we lose, Alfie will never be able to take the shame—"

"We won't lose," Carol said. "I don't care if we have to stay up all night, Galileo was right, and I'm not going to give that smirking ass any chance to live down how wrong he was tonight."

"While Nariv could have been politer about it, the points he made are accepted as fact," Greta pointed out. "Carol, I wish I'd known, I could have warned you."

"It's fine, Greta. We've been teaching school students heliocentricity for three hundred years now, I'm sure that we can come up with a way to explain it to a bunch of old men."

"But your theories are based on the skies of America and Japan," Flat argued. "The Council will only accept information based on Falmart's skies, and you only have limited information on that."

"That is where you are wrong." The speaker approaching from the back of the auditorium was professor Shirai, who had a deep scowl on his face.

"Flat, this is Professor Shirai," Carol explained, "He's one of Japan's best astronomers, and he's been studying the skies of Falmart for months now."

"The skies of Falmart are indeed Heliocentric," Shirai said. "Not only that, I have accumulated the records to prove that this is the case using both Kepler's equations, and the methods available to Galileo to help us in proving the same."

Flat's eyes widened, "So… there's a chance?"

"A chance? Hah!" Shirai proclaimed. "If evidence is what they want, I will down them in evidence. If it is equations they wish for, I have all of them. If we must reinvent Falmart's perception of mathematics and astronomy from the ground up to eliminate this ludicrous geocentric premise, then I will gladly aid you in doing so! Come, let us begin immediately!"

The Japanese professor rushed away, the elf in quick pursuit and Greta, curious as ever, following quickly after him. As Carol was about to pass from the lit presentation space, a voice called out, "Dawson, hold up."

She turned around to see that Mullan was still leaning against the electric pole. His arms were folded and he seemed unhappy. "Did I do something wrong?" Carol asked.

"Yeah. I talked with Hazama on the way out. He's pretty upset about what you said, and I need to agree with him."

"But you heard what Nariv was saying," Carol pointed out. "Geocentricity? Invisible spheres? Come on."

"I don't disagree with you on the topic of science. You are the one with the doctorate, after all." Mullan let his arms fall to his sides as he added, "But right or wrong, you should've kept your mouth shut."

Carol shook her head. "I wasn't about to let something so idiotic—"

"Carol, the point of this whole event is to get the Rondel Council on our side. Starting a shouting contest with one of their astronomers gets us nowhere. Directly insulting their views on the world is even worse. So what if they're wrong? The whole idea here is to win a war, not rewrite the book on Astronomy in the Special Region."

Mullan sighed. "What's done is done. Ball's in your court now, and the fate of Pina's coalition is riding on you making a splash with this lecture tomorrow. But if I could make one last request? Whatever cultural junk they scream at you, regardless of how goofy it is, don't provoke them further."

Dawson watched him go. The hell with the war, she thought, isn't the whole point of us deploying here to start a space program? Isn't the purpose of my being here to educate the locals? If he doesn't want me to speak up when I hear something wrong, what DOES he want me to do?

She gave an irritated huff and rushed after the others. She didn't need Mullan's war, she now had her own battle to fight.

Author's note on fact and fiction:

The fiction: According to Takumi Yanai, the author of GATE, the geocentric theory and derision towards heliocentricity expressed by Nariv is really what the residents of the Special Region think about their universe. This information is detailed in passing between Flat and Itami during his trip to Rondel which occurs during Volume 5, Chapter 6 of the Light Novel. For those of you who have only seen the anime, this scene was omitted from a moment just before Lelei was about to present her thesis to an audience of academics, during which she was nearly assassinated.

The facts: Japan launched the Akatsuki space probe to Venus in May of 2010. In December of the same year, the probe failed to enter orbit around Venus when its main engine shut down early due to a valve fault. Japan did indeed gain a second chance at entering Venus orbit, and successfully did so in December of 2015 by using the spacecraft's RCS motors to complete the orbit insertion burn. While NASA contributed to the science instruments used on the probe, JAXA solved the navigation and propulsion problem on their own. Dawson's and NASA's involvement in the operation is just as much of a fan-fiction as your favorite nation storming the Gate with Japan after the events at Ginza.