Days of Future Past - Part 3: Future Tense Read online

  Unfortunately the MCF had a tendency to give you gas, because of all the soy in it. A problem that Apollo admitted that he did not have the ability to fix, as it hadn't been part of the original program and he didn't have access to the knowledge or substances to try and correct that issue.

  But the nice thing was that there were some spices available, as those were also part of the program, so with a little imagination, the food really wasn't all that bad.

  The girls both ditched their sim lessons for the day and we drove out to the lake for a while. Groom Lake had been nothing but a hard lakebed in my time, but now it was a lake once more with the wetter climate.

  True it wasn't much of a lake, being extremely salty, but it was nice to lie out on a couple of towels by it in the sun and snooze the day away.

  The next day in the simulator I was finally able to dock successfully, five times in a row now that I'd changed my way of thinking about it. Oh, they weren't pretty, and they weren't quick. The autopilot could do it in a tenth of the time it took me, but it didn't matter. I was doing it and not damaging anything, and that was good enough for both me and Apollo.

  The next day he started training me on the lunar shuttle and lander.

  "Okay," he told me as I got into the simulator and buttoned it up. "You'll notice that all of the controls are almost exactly the same as what you used in the Phoenix."

  I looked around and sure enough, everything was set up the same. The only differences were the engine control panel and the throttle quadrant which only had two throttles.

  "We only have two engines?" I asked.

  "You really only need one. The second one is in case of failure, though you'll use both."

  "Okay, so just how hard is it to fly to the Moon?"

  "It's a lot easier than docking with a space station."

  "Really?" I said.

  "Yes, the Moon has its own gravity, so it will pull you right in. After you line up for your flight there, you just set the throttles for a one-half meter per second velocity, and then ignore it. You'll make a course correction when you flip over and decelerate. When it comes time to cut the engine you will be in lunar orbit.

  "After that it is simply the de-orbit burn, and then the landing burn.

  "Sounds tricky," I said.

  "It's easier than docking," Apollo said. "Everything behaves just like it should and there is no wind to throw you off course."

  I nodded, "Okay, let's get started."

  Two days later I had the trip there, the landing, and even the flight back, completely mastered. Another day to make sure my docking skills were still up to snuff and I was done.

  We were ready to go.

  "There is just one last thing I need to know from you," Apollo asked.

  "Yes?"

  "Where are you going?"

  That stopped me a moment. I thought Coyote had mentioned it, I guess I'd have to check with him.

  "I'll tell you tomorrow."

  "Sure thing, Colonel."

  I got out of the simulator and headed back to the room, the girls were already there. Apparently Heather and Sarah had gone out hunting some of the deer population that was now living on the base, and were just finishing up curing a bunch of meat to take with us. Neither one of them was a big fan of the MCF food, even with my using spices to improve it. I couldn't really blame them, I didn't like having gas either.

  "Okay," I said walking in the door. "I've checked out on everything. I guess tomorrow we can pack the rest of our supplies and get going."

  "You're done?" Heather asked.

  "And to Apollo's satisfaction?" Sarah put in.

  I smiled, "Yes, to Apollo's satisfaction, however I do need to ask Coyote just where we are going."

  "To the Moon?" Heather said grinning.

  "Ha ha. No, just where on the Moon."

  "You're going to the Mare Crisium facility of the United States Space Forces," Coyote said, suddenly entering the room from the bedroom.

  "I thought you said we had to go to the Jules Verne facility?" Sarah asked.

  "The Jules Verne facility still has active defenses. If you try to land there, you'll be shot down," Coyote pointed out.

  "So we land at the Mare Crisium facility," I said, "then what? Do we walk there?"

  "Hardly, it's almost a thousand miles away," Coyote replied. "There are surface vehicles you can take there. You'll need to be fitted for spacesuits. I would have Apollo get started on it before you go to bed tonight. You'll also need weapons."

  "What kinds of weapons?" Heather asked.

  "You'll be breaking into an armored facility."

  "Ah, those kinds of weapons!" Heather said with a smile.

  "Well, I hope they have some of those here," I said, then thought a moment, "Will I be able to gain access to the military facility?"

  "Yes," Coyote said as he stood up and padded out of the room.

  "Ever notice how he does not appear or disappear right before our eyes?" Sarah said.

  I started at that, "Actually, no, I hadn't. Do you think it means anything?"

  Sarah shrugged, "It just occurred to me."

  I shook my head, "Well let's get cleaned up and talk to Apollo about getting fitted for spacesuits. I'm a bit surprised he never suggested it in the first place."

  "Maybe because he didn't know we'd have to go out on the lunar surface?" Heather said. "We didn't think of it either."

  "Good point," I said with a nod.

  Getting fitted for the suits actually took a day. Learning how to use them took a second one. Each suit had a set of utilities to be attached to it, depending on if we were using it in space, or on the surface of the Moon. Most of it was minor stuff, like different shoes, different gloves, but the backpacks for each use were very different. The space ones had simple reaction controls on them with a control system.

  The Moon one was quite a bit lighter, and had a navigation system designed specifically for use on the Moon's surface.

  The trip to the base armory was pretty anti-climatic, when I compared it to the marine armory we'd raided back at Pendleton. There were a lot less weapons here of course, but I was able to replace both the gauss assault rifle and the railgun sniper rifle that I'd lost.

  They definitely had a good store of anti-tank rockets here, as well as the anti-aircraft rockets. We took thirty of the former, and ten of the later. There was also quite a surprisingly large amount of explosives and demolitions equipment. Apollo told me later that it was for 'decommissioning' test aircraft that they didn't want anyone to know about.

  Thankfully it only took us half a day to add that equipment to the shuttle's storage bay.

  So nineteen days after we got there, we trooped out to the Phoenix, which Apollo had towed out onto the tarmac and climbed aboard. We were all wearing flight suits, and had our flight helmets with their attached oxygen masks under our arms. All of our other gear was already packed and ready to go, including the weapons from our raid on the local armory.

  I sealed the aircraft door as the girls got into their seats and after putting on their helmets started plugging in their coms and hooking up their masks. I then climbed up front and into the pilot's seat, and putting on my own helmet got myself plugged in.

  All the electrical systems were powered up, as we were on ground power, so I got out the checklist, strapped it to my leg and started going through all of the pre-engine start checks on the list. Once I got through those I checked in with the girls to make sure they'd completed their checklists.

  Starting the engines was actually rather simple. The two jet turbines were primarily used for taxiing and during landing when the aerospike engines caused too many issues. I'd have to fire the aerospike rockets up for takeoff, and I'd shut down the two turbines once we passed forty thousand feet.

  Taxiing out to the runway I looked at our launch window timer on the navigation display on my cockpit console. The best time to launch would be ten hours from now, as that would allow us to fly the most efficient p
rofile. But I had no interest in waiting and for all the gear we were carrying, we were still rather lightly loaded. So we'd be flying a somewhat less efficient profile. Personally I didn't care if we were wasting fuel; I wasn't paying for it after all.

  I got us stopped at the end of the runway, locked the nose wheel straight ahead, set the brakes, and armed the igniters for the aerospikes.

  "Everyone secure back there?" I asked.

  "I'm good!" Heather called.

  "Ready," Sarah responded.

  "Okay, just understand, this isn't going to be like the simulator, and make sure you have those air sickness bags handy."

  "I've ridden horses worse than this, I can assure you!" Heather laughed.

  "Uh-huh."

  I looked a the clock, we still had a minute, so I did a last run through of my pre-launch checklist, just making sure everything was still where it was supposed to be.

  "Okay," I said and putting my hands on the throttles for the turbines I slowly pushed them up forward.

  "In five, four, three," I moved the throttles to one hundred percent, I could feel the wheels straining against the brakes as I released my grip on those throttles and put my hand behind the bar that would move all of the aerospikes throttles up together.

  "Two," I released the brakes and the Phoenix lurched forward.

  "One," I said as we quickly started to pick up speed.

  "Oh, that was nothing," Heather laughed over the intercom from her seat behind me.

  "Zero!" I said and slammed the bar all the way forward with my left hand while simultaneously starting to apply back pressure to the side stick I was holding in my left, my left arm actually sat in a braced channel so it wouldn't move during takeoff, because the initial thrust when twenty rocket motors all lit off at the same time was like being rear-ended on the freeway.

  With a loud explosion that you could actually hear in the cockpit, all of the engines lit off as one and I was pressed hard back into my seat as the remaining runway went by in a couple of seconds. I had to strain with my right arm to reach forward and hit the gear retract switch before I over sped the landing gear. Then I was pulling the throttles on the two turbines all the way down to idle, and lifting them over the gates into shutdown as I turned off their fuel lines and flipped the switch to close the inlet doors.

  All while making sure I was following the flight path being displayed on my helmet visor. By the time I had flipped that switch it was already starting to get dark up ahead of us in the sky and we were passing sixty thousand feet and passing mach three.

  "You were saying?" I grunted into the intercom as I listen to the both of them swearing in a most unlady-like fashion.

  "What the hell is this thing?" Heather said rather loudly.

  "A rocket, what did you think it was?" I laughed and looked at the mission director and the mission clock. Normally we'd be going up to five hundred miles to dock with the station, but it was several thousand miles ahead of us, so we were going into a much lower orbit, at a higher speed, so we could catch up. Then we'd perform a Hohmann transfer orbit to get within docking range of the space station.

  I watched the clock and the mission director as the time to engine cutoff started to count down. I went over the pre-cutoff checklist, I made sure that my batteries and both auxiliary power supplies were working, that the autopilot was now engaged, and that our flight radar was operating, as well as our 'identify friend or foe' system.

  The space station knew we were coming, Apollo told the main military system which had alerted the space station. The space station however did not possess an AI with the level of smarts that Apollo had.

  Zero came and the engine shut off, and just like that we were all weightless.

  "I don't feel so good," Sarah said a little weakly.

  "Heather, get your belts off and get over and help her! Just be careful, we're weightless!"

  I looked at my controls, and I turned the big master switch above my head to 'locked', just in case, and then I undid my own seatbelts and straps and pulled myself back towards the girls.

  Being weightless was definitely an experience, one I wanted to play around with. Until now, the only times I'd been weightless were during over the top maneuvers in an airplane, and I'd always been strapped into a seat, so I really couldn't enjoy it.

  But the idea of Sarah getting sick in her oxygen mask or worse yet, in the open weightless cockpit, had me a lot more focused on getting back there.

  I suddenly found out the reason for all the handholds as I stuck my foot in one, braced my other foot against the back wall, and then grabbing an airsickness bag with one hand I reached down from above Sarah and undoing her mask I put the open bag over her mouth as she started to puke.

  Looking around I saw Heather, who was flailing around helplessly as she drifted towards the back.

  Grabbing another bag, just in case I looked down at Sarah who was still puking in the bag, and I launched myself at Heather.

  I handed her the bag as I collided with her. I was glad that I hadn't pushed off too hard at least, and I was able to snag one of the seats in the back as we went by. I looked at her, and she was looking a little queasy, so I pushed her down into the seat. Connected her mask to the air supply station at it, flipped it to a hundred percent oxygen and put her mask up against her face.

  She had probably released it when she went over to Sarah. It was kind of hard to breath through one of them if they weren't plugged into a station.

  I dropped my own mask then.

  "Leave this on until you feel better. If you need to puke, use the bag. Once you feel okay, turn off the air supply here and go back to your seat. Okay?"

  Heather nodded and said something, but I couldn't hear it as I wasn't plugged in to the coms.

  Turning around I carefully pulled my self back towards Sarah. I'd always heard it said that freefall was a lot like swimming. Now I could tell that it was true, just without the water resistance.

  I got back to Sarah, who had tied off the bag and was panting now. So I gang-loaded her air supply too, putting it on one hundred percent and put her mask back up.

  "The pure oxygen will make you feel better," I told her. Then I pulled myself over to Heather's station and plugged in to her com line and air supply. As the cockpit was pressurized with a normal atmosphere, you didn't need to be wearing your mask or on one of the air stations, however if anything sprung a leak, you'd quickly need it.

  Plus, if you weren't feeling well, the pure oxygen was cool and always cleared your head.

  "So, how is everyone?" I asked.

  "Who's flying the ship?" Heather asked.

  "Charlie is."

  "Who?"

  "Our autopilot." I glanced forward at the mission clock display. We had ninety minutes yet until the next burn. "Don't worry; we don't have anything we need to do for a little while yet."

  "So when will we get there?" Sarah asked, looking a little better.

  "About three hours, plus however long it takes us to dock."

  "Do you know any spells for motion sickness?" I asked her.

  "Not right now," Sarah groaned and closing her eyes she pushed her head back into the seat cushions.

  "Tighten your seatbelts; it will at least make it feel like you're in gravity."

  "Okay."

  I looked back towards Heather, "How are you doing?"

  "Better. Just started my head spinning when I got out of my seat there and suddenly it felt like I was falling."

  I nodded, "Yeah, can't trust your senses much up here."

  "How come you're not sick?"

  "Oh, I've been through a lot worse than this. Trust me."

  I unplugged then and went back up front, but only to take my flight helmet and mask off and secure them to my seat.

  "What are you doing?" Heather asked when I drifted back past her.

  "I've never spent this much time weightless before," I said grinning at her, "I thought I'd take a few minutes to enjoy it, before I had to go
back to flying."

  "It is kind of different," she agreed.

  "Well, if you don't think you're going to be sick, feel free to join me."

  - 13 -

  "Oh, shit," I swore. We were currently in a synchronous orbit with the station, however there was a bit of a problem. The docking bay we were supposed to go to was occupied, and from what I could see, all the others were too.

  But that wasn't worst of it. The worst of it was that I think one of the docking segments for the station was completely missing.

  "What is wrong?" Sarah asked.

  "There is no room at the inn," I said and started to look at the station, something didn't look quite right. "I think it was damaged," I looked at the computer screen on my console and called up a map of the station. Sure enough, one of the docking arms was gone. Which meant four less docking ports.

  "Can you not just tell one of the ships already there to disconnect?"

  "I don't think that the autopilots are that smart. They have to be loaded from one of the main computers."

  "What about the station's computer?"

  "I don't know if it's smart enough," I said.

  "Well ask it, and see."

  I called up the station's computer on my console and interrogated it for current status. I got back a bunch of reports, but the one I cared about the most told me that two weeks ago a returning lunar craft had run out of fuel while approaching the docking ring on segment six, and crashed into it, destroying it as well as one other craft already moored there.

  The remaining craft coming in had docked to the remaining rings.

  I looked at the inventory of craft that were there, three were lunar shuttles, one of which I would definitely need. One was a crew module escape pod, solely meant to function as a last minute resort to abandon the station.

  I found it strange that it was still there, so I did a quick search and found out that two larger ones had been used back after the war.

  The next four were all sister ships to the Phoenix, none of which however had enough fuel to perform a braking maneuver to return to their home base, so they were stuck here. Of the last four ports, two were out of service and could not release the ships that were docked to them. As they were near the segment that had been destroyed I suspected some damage from the accident. The other two were repair tugs whose sole purpose was to work on the station, or nearby ships, and their docking rings were non-standard, so I couldn't use those.