CHAPTER 12

It felt good to be back. Vandenberg was not exactly a place he would ever call home but, then again, what place had Jack ever awarded that title too? Right now he was doing what he loved most, aeronautical engineering, and if that was at Vandenberg then that made it the place for him. It was kind of like he was a kid and someone had just given him a candy factory with the instructions to make the biggest lollipop of all times!

Of course, construction would not actually be here at Vandenberg Air Force Base. In reality this place was kind of the final staging area. The final assembly would not take place anywhere under the sky. This ship, the ultimate dream car for Jack, was going to be put together in orbit. It was simply too big to be launched from Earth in one piece.

That was another one of the little tricks that the space program was going to have to learn from scratch. While there had been orbital assembly projects before, going all the way back to the long gone International Space Station (little more than a sick joke that was really a high tech condo for four), the men who had done those jobs had been few to start with, and were all long gone now.

It was a sad note that Jack tried to never think about because it always fired his Irish blood. The time between worthwhile space projects was usually so long that they had to retrain everyone from scratch. Anyone with experience in real world conditions were too old, or dead, by the time the next job came along.

Sure, you could train a whole new crop of kids out of a book but there was no substitute for experience. The situation would be the equivalent of playing a baseball game that was forty years long. By the time your cleanup hitter got to bat for his second time he was too old to run to first base.

Jack was really feeling that pinch at the moment. He was thankful that the responsibility for the crew team fell on Pete. Winston could have that job as far as Jack was concerned. After all, Jack was an engineer, above all else, and machines that flew were his realm. People were just never logical enough to suit his tastes. Yet there was no getting around dealing with them and even with a job that was mostly centered around a machine.

Right now, Jack would be happy to see more people like the guy he was currently with. There were just not that many left! Fortunately, Jim Morton had not retired yet. He had been a good shuttle pilot in his day. Jim was a lot younger than Jack and still plenty good for the task at hand. For that reason alone he had been quickly accepted for the Hermes crew but, for the moment, his contributions right here on Earth would be even more critical.

Naturally, Pete was a qualified and experienced shuttle pilot but Jack was not going to be able to use him anytime soon. That only left one other man who was available, had practical experience, and could fly the assembly missions. Even with Deke Winters having skills that were at a premium right now, Jack hesitated in using the guy. Deke had always been more politician than pilot.

Up till this project was announced, Deke had been flying commercial airliners when he wasn’t running for a congressional seat. No one would send him to congress but, they wouldn’t think twice about stepping on an airliner that the man was piloting. Jack had to wonder about people sometimes.

Of course, he had to wonder about his own good sense in this case. Jack was stuck with taking on Deke and the guy had already proven he was more interested in standing in front of camera’s than sitting in a pilots seat. Fortunately, flying shuttle missions was all Deke would do. There was no way in hell Jack was taking that guy with him to Alpha Centauri and that was just fine with Deke. The guy couldn’t get elected to Congress if he was going to another star.

The only bright spot, so far, was that the shuttles were in a lot better shape than the men who would fly them. The United States Government was a collection of agencies that were all habitually pack rats. They had more junk laying around, doing nothing, than one could find in all of the storage rental places on Earth. When manned space flight had been put on the back burner they had thankfully not scrapped the small fleet of orbiters they had.

The Venturestar 2A Orbiters were all sent here to Vandenberg and mothballed. What was even better was the fact that they were actually still in usable condition. All of that was owed to the efforts of one man. Larry Barlow was a civilian contractor that worked for the outfit that maintained the orbiters while they were collecting dust. Larry had even worked for the, now defunct, company that built those birds in the first place. He knew them even better than Jack did.

Considering the man’s experience, Jack had to wonder why it was that Larry chased him down with such a ridiculous question. Jack had not even been back long enough to actually get to his office when Larry found him in one of the hangars that served as a staging area. Larry had a thousand questions about a single memo that Jack had sent him before heading off to Kazakhstan.

Jack was only half paying attention too Larry as the man tagged behind him like a little lost puppy dog. After all, Larry was not the only one nipping at Jack’s heels. Of course, when Larry mentioned the three orbiters that had been pulled from the line it got Jack’s undivided attention. Those were the three that were destined to be the starships landing craft.

Finally Jack just ignored the guy with the inventory clipboard and growled at Larry, “what about them?”

Larry, as well as the small crowd, jumped. Larry recovered first and just shrugged, “well what is it you want me to do with them now?”

Jack would have expected that from these other clowns but not Larry. He explained it quickly, “we’re taking them with us Larry. If we go all the way to Centauri and don’t land it’s a wasted trip, you know? That one small step routine?”

“Oh,” Larry thought about it for a second and replied, “so you guys need one for each planet then?”

Of all the days that Larry could have picked to turn stupid, this was not the right one. Jack was quite gruff with him. Maybe Larry didn’t deserve it but at the moment Jack didn’t care, “no. We need one primary and two back ups.”

“Oh,” again Larry thought about it and replied, “so you figured out how to get them back into orbit after the landing?”

“Huh?” Now Jack was completely befuddled. What was Larry talking about? Unlike the first generation of shuttles, the Venturestar could take off like a normal airplane. The orbiters had been originally equipped with small, disposable, booster rockets that fit under the wings but, after having used the vehicles long enough, the shuttle pilots had figured out a few maneuvers that allowed them to reach orbit without any aid at all. The Venturestar had exceeded everyone’s best expectations. With that in mind it made this the most straight forward part of the mission.

“Larry,” Jack replied while rubbing the stubble on his chin and thinking, “we’re only going to land on Moe. That planet is a little smaller than Earth so it only has point eight seven gee. Now correct me if I’m wrong here but can’t those birds get back into orbit, throttled back, under those conditions?”

“Well sure Jack,” Larry replied without even giving it a second thought. Jack actually turned to walk off at that point. Then Larry added, “if you could actually get it back into the air that is.”

That got Jack to spin on his heels and walk right up to Larry, “say again?”

What had Larry thought of that no one else had? This was now vital, if not down right critical. Jack could think of nothing that should prevent those birds from taking off and landing on Moe. They had poured over the data from the OK probes and even found a good landing spot. The planet had a single continent that had maybe a third more surface area than Africa. Along it’s northern shore was a desert and the western edges had lots of seasonal lake beds that were not unlike the ones right here at Vandenberg. Jack knew those birds could take that kind of landing because he had done it before.

Larry agreed with that much but added, “what you didn’t see was all the work we had to do on them after that.”

Quite suddenly, Jack was developing a sinking feeling in the pit of his belly. “Ok, you got my attention Larry. What?”

“Jack,” the shoe was now on the other foot. Larry was explaining this to Jack as if the old shuttle pilot was now the rookie, “those under carriages are kind twitchy if you catch my drift. I’m not even going to go in to how much time I spent on them when you guys put them down on a real runway. I will tell you that every single time we dragged one off that lake bed out there, well let me put it this way, I didn’t get much sleep after that.”

If a feather had drifted along and touched Jack on a shoulder he would have fell over. He had to do something about this and soon. Jack decided to do what all commanders do when they were stumped. He ordered everyone back to work and fell back to his office to think the problem through. Unfortunately he was not alone when he got there.

“Red,” Jack said to the reporter who had made himself at home in Jack‘s office, “what the hell are you doing out here?”

Red Darby laughed. Why shouldn’t he? If Red had applied to the program through the regular channels they would have turned him down on weight limits alone. He seemed to be one of those kind of guys that had the luck of the wind though. Not long after he had been noticed sniffing around NASA, for a story, Pete had taken it upon himself to sick the FBI on the guy. As it turned out that only played right into Red’s hands.

Being that Red was a trade reporter in the aviation industry, he knew everybody that was worth knowing. Jack had figured right from the start that any number of people with Red’s contacts were going to figure out what was going on before the official announcement came. Red most certainly had. That was why he started waiving all kinds of flags around. That got him noticed and then he offered to trade his sources for a ticket on the mission.

Pete was hot under the collar when he discovered that no one had actually leaked anything. Red had just figured it all out by putting together two and two. After that, Jack wouldn’t let Pete back out on his promise. Jack had known Red for some years, although mostly from his writing, and liked the idea of having the guy along. Of course Pete was somewhat pacified by the fact that Red was a licensed pilot, and former military. For whatever reason, Pete was big on the latter.

“Oh hell Jack,” Red waived the question off, “I’m just goofing off. I tell you, I had to get away from that Doctor Mike before he gave me a heart attack on them bikes of his. An old codger like me don’t mix to well with that much exercise.”

Jack huffed out a laugh as he landed in his desk chair and began tapping away at his computer, “you volunteered for this, remember?”

“Well I did have an official excuse,” Red said as he pointed to the desk, “and it’s laying right there in front of you. I hopped the flight with that Saiid kid.”

After finding the right phone number, in his computer address book, Jack looked quizzically back at his unwanted house guest, “who?”

“The computer guy you wanted,” Red replied.

“Oh,” Jack replied as he picked up the phone and ignored the big envelop on his desk. Red was playing classified courier and that really amounted to a kid skipping out on science class. At least Red had no problem admitting it but now that he was out here Jack was going to get some use out of the guy.

That would have to wait though. Jack had another disaster to deal with right now. When Dee picked up on her end Jack promptly told her, “we got a big problem here.”

“I know,” Dee replied. “I just got it. I kind of expected you’d be calling.”

“What?” Jack suddenly realized there was another problem. He cradled his phone and picked up the envelop on his desk. He skipped all the written reports and went right to the photographs. They were obviously taken by spy satellites in orbit. The NSA and CIA had been watching the construction of the Japanese spacecraft around the clock.

The Unified Corporate Office in Tokyo was still claiming it to be a space station and not their actual starship. No one with any knowledge of space flight actually believed that, including Jack. Now there was no way they could hide what it was. The pictures clearly showed new pylon fittings. These could only be for one purpose. They were the mounts for bolting on a propulsion unit!

Jack’s eyes grew large as he looked at the pictures. He whistled and then asked Dee, “how in the hell did they manage this?”

Dee was frantic, “I have no idea Jack. I just find it kind of hard to believe that they’ve managed to overcome all the problems we’re having. They don’t have anywhere near the resources we do. Not in this area anyway.”

The word resources boiled down to one man by the name of Yurgani Vitosk. Jack had to ask, “so how are you two getting along?”

Dee answered that question without really answering it, “you know for the first time I think we might actually make the deadline. Maybe.”

Jack laughed, “he’s getting on your nerves isn’t he?”

“Jack,” Dee went on, “the only problem is that the deadline isn’t going to be good enough if the Japanese are this far along. I just don’t see how it‘s possible!”

“Lot of that going around right now,” Jack grumbled. “All right Dee, keep it up and I’ll get back to you.” Jack hung up the phone and looked at his visitor. In a flash Jack decided what to do with Red, “you’re hopping the next flight to the cape.”

Red laughed, “you mean I come all the way to California just so I can fly to Florida? Good to see the Government is up to speed as usual.”

“We got a stick of Air Force pilots taking a crash course in orbital aviation. I want you in on it,” Jack replied seriously and quickly.

“Ah hell Jack,” Red laughed the notion off, “I’m only instrument rated for single engine light aircraft now. I haven’t been behind the controls of a real bird since the war. I’m the last person you want hauling freight into orbit.”

“Not for that,” Jack stood up and prepared to get back to work. He knew that Red had flown C-130’s back during the war. That gave him experience that would be valuable later on. That was if he got the proper training now and Jack’s philosophy was that you could never have too many pilots around.

Jack explained, “I already told Pete that we start cross training everybody. That means if you’re going with us, which you have been so insistent upon, then you’re going to earn your room and board.”

Red laughed and waived, “oh hell Jack. If you’re going to lock me up in a tin can, and shoot my butt across a million miles of nothing, you’re not going to get any argument out of me about knowing the particulars of every little thing that’s going on.”

“Words of a true pilot Red,” Jack chuckled, “now get the hell out of my office.”