Chapter 16

 

Alex looked up at the small jump ship perched atop the huge launch plane.

“We should give her a name,” Alex said to the crew chief.

“We already did; Freedom of the space ways,” he said with pride.

“I like it!” Wayne said with a smile.

“A good name,” Alex agreed.

Bruce Cuennen and David Christy approach the group, wearing space suits.

“How did they talk you into this Bruce?” Alex asks.

“It seems I have more space experience than most thanks to you.”

“Are you guys nervous?” Wayne asks.

“Let’s see, we have a modified plane, taking off from an underground runway, launching an untested jump ship with an untested booster rocket. Then we move on to the untested jump drive. If we survive all that, we can ride in an untested re-entry pod and enjoy a soft ground landing; then we can inhale a planets worth of germs, and be sick for weeks. What’s to be nervous about?” David said.

“What are you guys complaining about” said the launch plane pilot, “Try landing this huge plane in a little tunnel.”

Bruce looked like he wanted to vomit.

“I looked for you yesterday Bruce, I was going to buy you a drink.” Alex said.

“I hit the bottle shop right after the meeting let out.”

“If you gentleman are ready, lets get you mounted up,” said the crew chief, motioning them to move to the airlock.

The launch plane wound up its engines, and released its brakes. The roar was deafening as the sound bounced off the rock walls. Wayne looked up, and saw the roof of the runway; it seemed just meters above their canopy.

“What ever you do Alex, don’t look up.” Wayne said.

Sitting just behind Wayne in the Freedom’s cockpit, he of course had to look up to see the jagged rocks passing by the window.

“I really hope he doesn’t pull up too early.”

“I can hear you guys,” the pilot said over the intercom.

“Sorry.”

Suddenly the sky appeared above them, and the big plane began its long slow climb to the north.

“Nice job.” Wane says.

“Thank you.”

One hour thirty seven minutes later, they reached the launch altitude.

“The booster is pressurized and ready to fire,” Wayne says to the launch plane.

“Copy that, blow the bolts at the top of the arc.”

The launch plane breaks from the climb by applying a slight down elevator, giving the feeling of zero G. When the planes pitch indicator read level, the pilot shouted “Now!”

Wayne flipped the safety cover, and pressed the button, blowing the bolts. The little spaceship broke free of the launch plane.

Wayne pressed the pair of booster igniter buttons, and was rewarded by being pressed back into his seat hard. The boosters steering turned the little ship skyward, and it climbed into space above the North Pole.

Once the booster was exhausted, Wayne blew the bolts holding it to the Freedom.“Separation confirmed.” Alex said, watching a rear viewing camera.

“How you boys doing back there?” Wayne asked over the intercom.

“I’m not sure, but I think Bruce has passed out,” David says.

“I’m here,” Bruce says weakly, “I think a last night drunk was a mistake.”

Wayne laughed hard, and then said “You want to take it from here Alex?”

“Yeah.”

They switched spots, and then Alex lined the ship up for the first jump.

“I’m starting the main reactor.”

The new reactor was up to full power in two minutes.

“Charging the coil.”

Twang Lurch“Checking our location.” Alex declared to the intercom.

The computer displayed their numbers. “Not too bad.”

“And….” Wayne asks impatiently.

“Within thirty A U; Much better than our old scout.”

“That wasn’t so bad,” Bruce said.

“Your first jump, congratulations!” Alex said.

I am going to calculate our next jump. I want to put us the opposite side of Dirt from the moon. That will cut out the local traffic from spotting us.”

Twang Lurch“Open the valves.” Alex called as soon as the jump was completed.

Wayne un-strapped himself, and went the main compartment. The compressed air from the cylinder filled the cabin; the idea was to cool some of the heat from the reactor with the expanding gas. Unlike the scout, the reactor is kept inside the airtight compartment.

Alex watched the temperature gauge of the outer hull. “It’s working.” When the ship reached one atmosphere pressure, the ship started venting air to space near the reactor, the hotter gas dissipating into space. Once the outer hull was cooled, the process stopped, and normal air recycling started. Alex spent the time plotting their burn for a near Dirt pass.

“Just one burn, and then you un-strap and stretch,” Alex said.

Alex aligned the ship, and performed a small, but long burn.

“That’s it fellas, we are coasting for the next week.”

“Great, a week of zero-G,” Whined Bruce.

“What, you in a hurry to ride the death pod?” David teased.

The week passed slowly in the crowed little ship. Alex and Wayne got to know quite a bit about the two spies. Both had been born on shit hole, and both had been recruited out of the labor reformer movement. Both men were intelligent and capable, but were both worried that too much of their mission hinged on the fact that the ID cards they had would allow them access onto the base, and into the main frame.

“What if Space Corps modified the code on the readers?”

Alex assured them that the cards would most likely get them onto the base, but as he had never entered the base CIC, he had no idea if they would work there.

The men decided to try an army base first, as the security would be a little looser, and access their mainframe.

They all took turns watching the detection computer monitor for heat signatures or fast moving incoming missiles. The closer they approached to Dirt, the more nervous Alex became that someone would pick them up.

“You worry too much Alex. The design is made for a small radar foot print, anti-radar coating on the hull, and this bird is the size of a shuttle.”

“But we are going to pass very close. The transfer station might pick us up; hell even amateur astronomers might spot us.”

“Bah, we will be gone before either one can do anything.”

“And our radar footprint will be larger when we open the roof hatch.”

“Which is what, ten minutes before we jump back?”

As the time for the orbital insertion approached, the men suited up, and they pumped the cabin air out. Alex helped the men into the pods, and removed the safety rods that kept them locked to the launch springs. Wayne opened the roof hatch, and rotated the ship to line up the insertion. “Good luck guys,” Wayne said into the intercom just before the computer released the spring loaded pods, which shot out from the ship.

Alex ran forward as fast as his magnetic boots would let him.

“We have a problem” Wayne said on the radio.

“What, incoming?”

“The roof hatch won’t close, I have a red light.”

“Start the reactor, we can jump anyway. The worst that can happen is that the super field burns the doors off.”

“Has that ever happened?”

“On one of the early test models.”

“What happened to it?”

“No one knows; it never made the jump back.”

“Great! That makes me feel better.”

Alex tapped Wayne on the shoulder, and Wayne stepped out of the cock pit so Alex could sit down.”

His fingers seemed too slow working the keypad in his spacesuit. The faster he tried to go, the more typing errors he made.

Wayne walked back to look at the roof hatch.

The doors were almost closed, but seemed they were too large and were making contact with each other before reaching the closed position.

“I have good news, and bad news.” Wayne said.

The stressed out Alex swore aloud. Then said “Give me the bad news.”

“The doors are hitting each other and won’t close.”

“What’s the good news?”

“They are almost closed, not sticking way out.”

“Awesome, get back up here and watch for incoming!”

“Take a deep breath skipper.”

“How can you stay so cool?”

“Easy, I just don’t give a shit.”

Alex lined the ship up for the jump as soon as Wayne bucked in behind him.

“What’s the closest to a planet a ship has made a jump at?” Wayne asked.

“This will be it, I think,” Alex said with a worried look on his face.

“Great.”

“I thought you didn’t give a shit.”

“I don’t.”

Twang LurchBruce Cuennen screamed in terror when the re-entry pod fired its thruster.

He felt extremely claustrophobic in the cramped and dark interior. Things didn’t get any better when the little pod entered Dirt’s atmosphere. The ablative coating thundered away from the little pod in a fiery blaze. The six minutes seemed to take far longer than any given day of his life.

“We’re alive,” Wayne announces.

“Go look and see if we still have bay doors, I’ll find out where we are.”

Wayne unbuckles, and walks to the back of the ship. The doors were in the same condition as they were before the jump.

“Everything’s fine back here.”

“We are a ways off from shit hole. I’m working on our next jump.”

CLANK!

The entire ship rang with the vibration; the men felt it more than heard it.

“What happened?” Alex shouts.

“The doors just shut all the way. Did you do something?”

“Nope, I’m running jump calc’s.”

“What the hell.”

“The status light is green now.”

“I bet I know what it is.”

“What?”

“Thermal expansion. The doors were open to sunlight, and heated up.”

‘Really?”

“I’m not kidding. After the jump, we are much farther out from the primary; they cooled, shrunk and closed. Try opening them again.”

“Opening……now”

The bay doors opened.

“They opened okay, but there might be damage. Close them again.”

Alex toggles the switch, and the doors close.

“Smooth now. On my way back up.”

Wayne returns the cabin, and Alex says “Buckle in; I need to line up our next jump.”

Alex maneuvers, and once he was satisfied, hit the jump.

Twang Lurch“I may not be a navigator, but isn’t the sun supposed to be closer.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t tell with the guys here, but I want to do a little prospecting.”

“I thought those days were over.”

“It should be right in front of us.”

“What should be?”

“The Lucky Dragon. I calculated her position based on the auto pilot’s last course change. I got that from the DNE guy who set it.”

“You have a thing for derelict spacecraft, don’t you?”

Alex laughs. “Think about it. What’s she worth?”

Wayne thinks, and lets out a whistle.

“We turn her back towards Shit Hole. We claim her and….”

“We get rich.” Wayne said.

“It all depends on how things turn out in the near future. It will take what, five or six years for the Dragon to get back to local space.”

“Hell, we could refit her, and operate as an independent.”

“Maybe. Go active with the radar, forward only.”

“Okay.” Wayne sets the radar, and powers it up.”

“I have something, way out there.”

“Think you can dock us with her?”

“Does a fish poop in the water?”

“Fish do everything in the water.”

Bruce Cuennen crawled from the re-entry pod. The ground landing thirty miles from the city of Andros had been very hard. The air balloons popped a few seconds before impact, slowing the pod by increasing the air resistance. Bruce had lost conciseness at the first bounce; that was probably just as well, as the fifteen bounces and rolling to a stop may have made him feel even sicker. Bruce and David regrouped, and started the ten hour march to Andros.

Ten hours, twenty one minutes later Wayne completed the docking maneuvers, and engaged the magnetic locks.

“Who is going EVA?” Wayne asks.

“Up to you.”

“I can do it faster; I used to pilot one of these ya know.” Wane said with a snicker.

“I know, but I wanted to give you the option.”

“Help me suit up.”

Bruce accessed the public computer terminal, and found the name and directions to a motel that would suit their needs for the next two weeks; two bedrooms and a kitchenette. He used his universal ID card to pay for it, the first test of his card. ‘Mr. Smith’ obtained his room without a hitch or any questions. While Bruce was getting the room, David went to a drug store for supplies to get them through the estimated two weeks they would be sick getting acclimated to Dirt.

Wayne passed through the docking ring. “I see lights ahead. There must still be power.”

“That’s a good sign.” Alex replies on the radio.

“Opening the air lock. No air pressure inside.”

Wayne floats past the air lock, and pushes off in the direction of the bridge.

“I’m surprised to see power still up. The ships generator must be running,” Wayne said

“Makes getting around in there easier.”

“But the bad news is, the generator is using fuel. Fuel we need to turn this pig around.”

“Let me know when you get to the bridge.”

“I hope it’s not locked down.”

Wayne turned the last corner, and saw the bridge door had been blown open with explosives. He moved passed the ruined door to the pilots’ station.

“I’m in” he said.

“How does the fuel look?”

“Low.”

“Try and figure out how much burn time we have to work with.”

“Okay.”

Alex tries to connect to the Dragons computer via the data connection they had with docking ring, with success.

“I can access the Dragons computer,” Alex said.

“Good, sending the burn data to you.”

“Got it.”

Alex calculates the course and burn times.

“Sending the planned burn data back to you.”

“Okay. We ready for maneuvers?”

“Good to go if the docking ring can handle it.”

“It should be okay.”

Wayne rotates the big ship to the new heading.

“Ready for the burn?”

“Strapped in and ready.”

“In three, two, one…” And Wayne presses the button. The ship surges forward with a two gee burn.

“Abort!” Alex shouts over the radio.

Wayne cuts the burn short. “What’s wrong?”

“The reported mass for the Lucky Dragon must be wrong. It should have been about a one point five gee burn, my accelerometer read nearly two. I need to recalculate the burn.”

“Copy that. Standing by.”
Alex crunched the numbers for the measured acceleration, and sent them to Wayne.

“The good news is what fuel we have will do more.”

“Yup. Okay, let’s try this again.” Wayne said, “In three, two, one, mark.”

The ship completed the burn, and Wayne shut down the Dragons power system.

Once back aboard the Freedom, The pair undocked, and made a short jump to the location where the scout ship was parked. One tight beam message to the docking station and the rescue shuttle picked them up within twenty two hours.

 

 

 

Chapter 16