Hello all. So, I've got this plotted in my spread sheet and I have at least ten more chapters. I started writing this as 'mental floss" to clear my head. I am primarily an HP fan fic writer, but I find this story compelling, and so apparently do you, my faithful ones. So I will continue, though perhaps at a bit slower pace. Partly because we're getting into some areas of science that I need to research and get my facts straight, but mostly because I have an HP story that is my central focus, and I'll be getting back on that, but fear not, Mark and Mindy will make an appearance every week if I'm able. And, yes, Hannah, Janice, and their friends will return.

Arrival

The astronaut and his wife travelled. On orders from NASA's media director they visited the great glassmakers of the world, explaining the plan and gathering even more expert advice on the design of the spacecraft systems. They visited China, Russia, India, the U.K., and all the other partners in the global project that Mars exploration was becoming. Corporate interests then came forward offering their help, and NASA was happy to have them on board.

The American glass maker, Corning, offered to build the majority of the foundry systems. Aircraft giant, Boing partnered with their rival Airbus to make the spaceframes and fuselages of the foundry and garage spacecraft. The Chinese National Energy Agency supplied everything involved with the nuclear fuel. From the raw fissionable material through the finished rods, they assembled and tested everything.

The first full melt foundry test happened eight months to the day after Mindy presented her concept to the Mars exploration team. Corning flew three completed crucibles to Nanjing. The test bed was a simple mockup of the foundry systems, though spread out for ease in analysis and alteration. A full batch of sand, that approximated the Martian sand as well as could be done on earth, was loaded into the hopper and the foundry systems were tested in sequence.

A few minor issues with material separation were addressed, and on the third day the furnace was fired. The melt was quicker than they had anticipated. Corning, in consultation with the Chinese nuclear team, had doped the ceramic with materials that conducted the heat far more efficiently while suppressing radiation migration. There was a small concern in some quarters that even a tiny amount of residual radiation left in the glass panels would be a public relations problem.

The entire melt process from crucible load to sample acquisition took four hours and twenty minutes, well ahead of the five Mindy had allotted. The blocks were ready for extraction from the crucibles an hour and fifteen minutes after the nuclear rods were withdrawn. A plate of titanium slid across the top of the combination crucible and mold, the entire arrangement was picked up and inverted, and the block slid cleanly free. The six degree bevel on the long axis sides of the crucible matched the arch of the Quonset structure, and it allowed for easy extraction of the block.

After the blocks cooled for three days in the annealing chamber they were examined. The light green, bordering on aquamarine, color was striking, that was the first impression they made. While quite transparent, the optical quality was not perfect, as the panels were not absolutely flat do to the nature of their manufacturing process. Testing revealed no significant increase in radiation content of the glass, and the panels were as strong and resilient as expected.

In the meantime, General Motors had come forward with an offer to build the rovers. As with Corning, Boeing, and Airbus, NASA agreed that G.M. could use the fact that they built the rovers in any public relations way they chose. There would be no corporate branding on Mars though. The only logos would be NASA, JPL, ESA, ISA, and CNSA.

The cost savings were enormous, and the fact that several large interests were building the components allowed the acceleration of their delivery and the construction of the two spacecraft. The completed spacecraft were launched on October the twentieth and thirtieth of twenty-forty-one during the Holman Transfer period prior to the one that would see the Ares Five crew take the Hermes back to Mars.

(*)

"We've got a good chute!" Carl at telemetry yelled. The assembled managers and engineers in mission control cheered, one in particular.

"We're at Mars, Min," Mark whispered in her ear as she wiped her eyes.

"Still have three minutes of terror," she whispered back.

"Decent imaging coming in, Guidance," Marie said from Mindy's old chair.

"Copy, Satcon. Put it up." Mindy answered. The giant display at the front of the room showed multiple windows, tracking data, a cross-section of the foundry spacecraft, a diagram of the Sun, Earth, and Mars orbits with a line representing the spacecraft's travel, and now a large window with the video feed from the spacecraft itself. Schiaparelli crater loomed in the image.

"Perfect trajectory," Carl said. "We're in the pipe five by five."

"Copy, Telemetry," Mindy said to Carl and looked back up at the screen. The heat shield was still clearly visible, tumbling toward Mars. It grew smaller and smaller until it was only as a few flickering pixels, then there was a large cloud of dust as it impacted into the crater floor.

"Decent engines firing," Carl announced, and scattered 'yeses' sounded throughout control. "Two hundred meters," he called, and they could see wisps of engine exhaust in the edges of the frame.

"One hundred." A smooth sandy crater floor lay beneath them.

"Fifty, beginning sky crane." Sand and dust began to be kicked up by the decent engines.

"Twenty, lowering," More sand.

"Ten." Mindy gripped Marks arm hard.

"We're down!" the room exploded in cheers and high fives.

"Still have another maneuver, folks," Brendan Hutch called.

"Copy, Flight," Mindy said. "Crane status, Telemetry?"

"Crane moving off, attaining altitude," Carl said. "Approaching target. Ten percent fuel. Descending, three percent fuel. Two percent. Contact!"

Mindy turned and hugged Mark, wept for a moment into his shoulder, and then collected herself. She had a job to do.

"Deploy the mast cam," Brendan called. "Satcon, I want a precise location and pics of the area on the next MRO and MGS passes. Telemetry, status on the foundry and the Com array when it's available." He turned to Mindy. "And congratulations, Guidance. Well done."

She cleared the lump in her throat. "Thank you, Flight," she said. "Now, let's get to work."

(*)

Annie Montrose had the greatest job on the Earth, most of the time, and this was one of those times. "Hello everyone," she said with a smile as she entered the press room. "Let's get started, Conner?"

"The Foundry and the Com link are down and safe, what do we know about the status of the Foundry?" he asked.

"Thank you, Conner," Annie said. "The Foundry com system has linked with Schiaparelli Com Base One and the two are reporting that their communications systems are fully functional. The Flight team is currently deploying the running gear. We'll know in an hour or so the condition of the mobility system." She smiled. "And once again I'd like to thank our partners, Corning Glass, and the Chinese National Energy Agency for their superb work and generosity in constructing the foundry components." She pointed to an older woman. "Janene?"

"Thank you, Annie," Jenene said as she stood. "What was Mindy Watney's reaction to the successful landing?"

Annie chuckled. "Mindy was doing her job as Guidance control, and her reaction was professional and mature," she snickered. "She only cried on Mark's shoulder a little after the Com base touched down."

The press room laughed as one.

"Charles?" Annie continued.

"What's the status of the Service Garage?"

"The Garage spacecraft is on trajectory and at speed with no reported problems," she said. "We expect the same performance from its landing system as we witnessed today." She smiled. "And, as with Corning, I would like to thank our partner, General Motors, for constructing the rovers to JPL's rather exacting specifications, along with the loader and material handling heads for the Service Garage spacecraft. Dana?"

"Is there any indication of radiation leakage from the foundry?"

"That was our biggest concern," Annie said. "The last thing we want to do is dump nuclear waste on Mars. The telemetry systems are reporting nothing but the usual background cosmic radiation we find at Mars. We have detected no Alpha or Beta radiation of any significance. Aseph?"

"The release says you were on target, how close to perfect were they?"

Annie chuckled. "Well, according to MGS and MRO data the foundry is eighteen meters from the center of its target ring, and Com Base One is so close to perfect the MRO can't resolve the discrepancy."

"Nice shootin', Tex," one of the reporters called out, and Annie laughed.

"That would be Mindy Watney and Rich Purnell that did the nice shootin'" Annie said with a smile.

(*)

"They are continuing to delude the population," The heavy man with the beard said.

"Agreed, as if mere mortals could climb into heaven," said an older, grey haired woman.

"These 'space' agencies are the work of Satan, with their made up pictures and videos. There are no planets to land on. They defile heaven with their machines. They serve the deceiver!" the younger man in the room declared.

"We must strike at their heart. We must take their face from them," the woman at the head of the table said calmly.

"All that serve the deceiver are grist for the mill," the young man said with venom.

"Amen."

(*)

Mindy snuggled into Mark's side. It had been a very good day.

"Ven looked happy," Mark said, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Everything survived," Mindy said smiling. "The garage is down and safe, the second com point is up and functional, and we'll be making glass in a month, "He's ecstatic."

"Did you see Rich today?" Mark asked.

Mindy nodded. "He was on the phone to Clara, but I gave him a hug and told him he was a god."

"She still on track for the move?"

"Yeah," Mindy said happily. "She's all over leaving Minnesota," she laughed. "Chief prosecutor for the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, Clara Pennington, Sounds good, huh?"

He laughed. "My wife the yenta."

"Hey," she said in a fake offended voice. "They did it all themselves, all I did was point Clara at Rich before the wedding." She levered herself up on her elbows and faced him. "And you've had a hand or five in that two."

"Mostly it's me and Chris asking Alex and Rick Rich's questions and then passing the answer along."

Mindy kissed him. "You've given him some pretty good advice on your own," she said. "And what you've passed along from Rick has been very helpful." She chuckled. "Clara's extremely happy with that part."

He snickered. "Well at least her initials won't be changing."

"Now you're the one being the yenta," she said laughing.

"Rich has been whistling at his desk with 'the grin'. You don't have to be psychic to figure out why."

Mindy chuckled herself. "Clara can't wait." She laid down on Mark's chest. "And I was right."

"You usually are," he said with a snigger.

"So are you," she said. "But specifically, I was right about Clara and Rich. They fit really well."

"Is that why she has 'the grin' too?" he asked, and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Mindy slapped his arm. "Don't be crude," she said, and then blushed and chuckled. "You're right, though." She chuckled again. "Thanks to you four. Clara says it's the best ever. Says he's got a ten …"

"You can stop there," Mark said. "I don't need an image of that when I'm talking with him."

"Took me a few days," she said rolling her eyes.

"Clara still having trouble with her sister?"

Mindy frowned. "Dannie needs to get over herself. Rich is autistic, so what!"

"Agreed," Mark said. "He's definitely on the spectrum, but once you understand how his mind works his less than polite demeanor makes sense. She just hasn't got there."

"She doesn't want to," Mindy said. "Sorry to break this to you, my love, but Dannie's been a bitch since she was seven."

"I'm having trouble figuring out how you really feel about Clara's younger sister," Mark said sniggering.

"She's a stuck up piece of shit that's extremely jealous of her older sister, does that clear it up for you?"

"Completely," he said and kissed her. "Well, dinner with Janice and Hannah tomorrow."

"I'm curious to find out if Pierre got Janice to go out with him again," Mindy said with a grin.

"You really are a yenta," Mark said smiling.

"I like seeing people happy."

"Even if they have to try to kill each other now and again," Mark said laughing.

"Janice has never had to shoot at Pierre," Mindy said as she snuggled back into his side. "That was only Hannah and Stan, and she intentionally missed." She chuckled. "Besides, Hannah made it up to him… a couple of times."

"How'd we wind up the closest friends of the stars of international espionage?" he asked shaking his head.

She chuckled. "Just lucky I guess."