America One: War of the Worlds (22 page)

“So, crew, we expect to leave 101 crewmembers here, including the three new children,” continued Ryan. “I think we can take about 80 of you plus equipment, food and supplies in four shuttle loads. How we astronauts get back to earth is our problem, and at least we have radio communications with Nevada Base if we have a problem. I need some of you to stay here at the Retreat. Vitalily has offered to be the Martian Club Retreat Commander until we return. Max will be the new base’s commander. The Head of Security and I have decided that the three new children and Commander Fob will stay in the Retreat. We cannot take him back to earth, so Vitalily’s team will build a holding unit and keep him comfortable until our return. The reason is telepathically and he or the children communicating our travels to their headquarters. We will return as soon as possible and the new thrusters that are being discussed back on Earth could get us back here before the next opposition, I believe in less than 500 days. We will keep you informed from Earth, and I believe everybody in here will be safe as long as they live on the lower levels. Also there will be no more growth outside the base, so show the
Matts
when they arrive and do a fly past that nobody lives here anymore. If they land our Noble fighting robots will introduce themselves to them. The robots will be controlled from inside the base and the other dozen cameras already hidden so that you Vitalily can see what is going on outside. You will have eleven of the twelve robots. One is returning to earth with us. VIN Noble promised the Marines. Remember crew and leaders, these robots are as deadly to their aircraft as one of our shuttles is, they can hit a spacecraft ten miles away, and their craft have to get pretty close to be accurate on tiny ground targets. On top of the robots, we have our laser field guns, and every laser pistol will stay here on base. I don’t believe our robots will win the war, but they could deter a few attacks by the
Matt
ships. Everybody needs to vote whether to stay here, or to go. Meeting adjourned.”

Over the next hour, friends joined friends. Ruler Roo, Joanne and the two boys had to go to the new base, as all the Matts were going. Only
Tall People,
fighters were allowed to stay behind. Vitalily and his crew wanted to stay. So did several of the Mars crew who had made this base their home. Two of Max’s crew wanted to stay, and the final numbers were 83 and 18.

In return for staying Vitalily and the group of seven Russians at the base wanted some luxuries: a hundred cases of Russian vodka, other Russian luxuries and a hundred tins of caviar as payment for defending the base. Also they wanted to go home on the next journey

Ryan smiled at the order. If anybody could defend this base, it was the group of Russians who had built all the robots, the laser guns, and knew how to use them. It was a small cost compared to the billions invested in setting up the base in the first place.

The move was immediate, once the suits were recharged. Ryan gave orders for Jonesy and Mars Noble to head back to the tunnels with the first five crewmembers. Mars had done the run to the cavern before and would get them inside, each with a canister of supplies. Mars Noble reckoned he could do it in three hours, and then he and Jonesy would head up into orbit to fill up the shuttle’s fuel tanks from
SB-II’s
cargo bays, as Saturn as about to do from the cargo bays of
SB-V
. This would free up the shuttle’s cargo bays to be filled with gold once the shuttles came down. They first would land at the retreat, pick up crew and head over to the base. Mars would return with
SB-II
to help Max move the crew and supplies to the new base. All this had to be done in four days, or they would be late for the return flight to Earth.

Meanwhile Vitalily and crew were beginning work on a third carriage to join the train. It would be ready when Lunar arrived in
SB-V
the next day.

At least Ryan had half of the load of gold for Earth. He knew that on the next trip
America Two
would be joining the mission, and hopefully fly faster with new thrusters, which would give the crew time to return to Earth with a full cargo. Her twelve powerful laser guns would certainly double the firepower, and everyone knew that the return would be the start of the battle for the red planet.

Chapter 10
 
A New Plan

The crew were exhausted as the four shuttles, on full thrust, headed out of Mars’ orbit to where Earth would be in 179 days. They had passed their departure deadline by 27 hours. Twenty-seven hours meant 29 days of extra flying, and
SB-III
was about to have half her fuel supply sucked out of her by the larger shuttles.

Once that happened in a few hours, Jonesy would have about as much chance of getting back to Earth as Captain Pete and Dr. Nancy had aboard the “Office”. Actually he had less chance, he wasn’t as experienced as Captain Pete.

First, it was time for sleep, and most of the crew in the last two shuttles fell in exhausted sleep once Jonesy set the Flight Autopilot with the shuttles 25 miles apart.

The last four days had been a grind, especially for the spacewalkers on the surface carrying the gold into the empty cargo bays.

SB-V
had headed down with full fuel tanks, an extra 1,000 gallons of fuel in her rear cargo hold, and had spent twelve hours at the retreat with every inch of spare room being loaded with the new carriage for the train, and canisters full of plants, and shrubs. They packed in chickens and rabbits sedated in canisters with slow leaking bottles of oxygen to keep them alive. These sealed animal canisters needed to get into the cavern first. Lunar’s shuttle carried 20 crew members, and the entire chemist’s lab to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. She would need three more flights to take in everything needed for the new base to survive.

Max flew with her on her first flight, and he would have Vitalily helping him this time. Both men had practiced how to strap three canisters at a time in a triangular formation to each of the forward two carriages. They could take down a crewmember and 23 canisters in four trips within their three-hour spacewalk period leaving the canisters to be carried into the cavern on the fourth trip.

They managed this with only minutes of air time left in their suits when they returned to
SB-V
. Ryan wasn’t happy but the two men had carried one biologist, two dollys for moving the canisters, 23 canisters, all the animals into the cavern and had closed it down destroying much of the air pressure. It didn’t matter though as three hours later and with fresh suits, they destroyed the air pressure for the second time this time rolling in the second biologist and another 23 canisters full of plants and shrubs.

By this time the animals were in the command center, and safe. The first biologist who had exited the shuttle minutes before the fourth journey still had a fresh suit, had waited 110 minutes before the air pressure had regained enough strength to open the door to the globe room and command center. Then he had wheeled in the canisters one by one, and set up the animals in their fold down cages which had been packed with them into the canisters.

By the time the door closed to protect him from the next entrance, he had set up 100 meat chickens, 50 egg layers, 50 breeding chickens, 40 rabbits and 100 baby rabbits in their cages in the two rooms, and had only lost two chickens in the process. Now he had two hours to feed them before trying the door to allow in the second biologist.

By his time, the chemistry lab had been taken down the tunnel by Max who had taken over from Vitalily. The chemistry lab was 40 canisters, which didn’t need to enter the door until they were needed to be set up. Another 20 canisters of supplies were taken down, and three crew. Again the door was opened, and the three crew headed into the cavern with three canisters of water and food, and the radio.

These quick openings, Max knew would only take an hour before the pressure was safe again and it wasn’t long before the three crewmembers opened the inner door to enter the globe and command center.

Outside the tunnels the crew heading back to Earth were working three hours on, three hours off filling the refilling the shuttle’s cargo holds with the gold.

By the time
SB-II
arrived 24 hours later with Mars Noble aboard, two full cargo holds of suited up and ready to go crew, and every canister left in the retreat full of supplies. Since it wasn’t necessary to take water, or fuel, each protective canister was full of vital supplies, and personal items.

By the time the Burgos sisters flew in in
SB-II
,
SB-V’s
first cargo hold was full of gold, and thirty crewmembers were inside the cavern.

Jonesy was now alone as security in orbit while
SB-IV
arrived six hours after
SB-II
with another 20 crewmembers aboard to be transferred into the new base. This was her only flight to the tunnels, and once she dropped off the crew, Saturn launched her shuttle back into orbit.

The carriages were working nonstop. With Max, Vitalily, VIN and Mars working them, they went up and down every 20 minutes carrying canisters or crew. The canisters were piling up outside the cavern and in the tunnel towards the exploded hangar area. Here they waited until the crew arrived. The team carried down 4 crew at a time, two on each carriage. As soon as two loads of canisters were unloaded by VIN or Mars at the bottom of the tunnel, four crewmembers exited the shuttles and headed down the tunnel. They all had fresh suits on and waited like Joanne had first done for the second group.

Once all eight were there, and the earlier group of eight had exited the cavern into the safe globe room, the door was opened by somebody inside and all eight crew headed in carrying 8 canisters. Whoever was outside the door rolled in several more and four canisters each holding a spacesuit taken off by crew inside the globe room were rolled out. They were then tied onto the carriages and the next crewmember who needed a rest, headed up to wait out his three hour rest period.

Even with the exchanges, the available suits ran out, and it delayed the system for six hours while they were returned to be used again and again.

After 48 hours, 83 crew were safe inside the globe room and command center, and the final 80 canisters of supplies were left to be taken down.

As the canisters holding the suits had returned for the next person to wear, the canisters were refilled inside the cargo bays, or delicate items inside the shuttle atmospheres.

While Vitalily, VIN and Mars jockeyed the canisters down, every other available crewmember from the retreat, including all the Russians, loaded the gold.

SB-V
was finally full of her gold cargo 12 hours before their destination time limit, and then they worked in three-hour shifts to fill
SB-II
.

Down below, the carriages with the last canisters of vital equipment for the base trundled down, VIN and Mars rolled in canister after canister into the cavern through the opened door for a solid twenty minutes. The whole area round them in the tunnel was like a lake of air slowly seeping away.

They’d rolled in the last of the canisters as Vitalily arrived with the last six. These were quickly carried in and the door closed. VIN had used duct tape to keep the helmet sealed around the door panel, and the man who had opened the door headed up to the shuttles with the crew as he was returning to the retreat.

“There is only twenty percent air pressure left in the cavern Max,”
stated VIN.
“I wouldn’t open the door for at least 48 to 60 hours. We are out of here buddy. See you in a couple of years.”

They got a muffled response from Max, and the team headed up the tunnel, full of a sea of air bubbles heading in every direction, for the final time.

The bubbles moved so fast that they were escaping through the tunnel exits when the three men began lifting out the carriages one by one and loading them into the cargo hold of
SB-II
.

The larger shuttle, crammed full of people needed to return the retreat’s crew back to the base.

SB-II
was three quarters full of cargo when Ryan, who had worked outside as hard as any of his crew stated that enough was enough, and it was time to return to earth.

Both shuttles said goodbye to the tunnels, and the astronauts could see the area of the missing yellow ooze as high as 5,000 feet above the surface. They had moved about a tenth of the gold so far.

The two shuttles flew back to the retreat, unloaded the crew staying behind, and all extra space suits. They unloaded the train into the blue shield, squashed the two canisters holding the dissected robot soldier into the cargo bay, and within an hour of landing, headed up into the darkening sky of a Martian dusk.

Ryan and Kathy, who had worked as hard as the rest slept in the dormitory in
SB-V
, while Lunar accepted the Flight Command Autopilot, and with Shelley Saunders monitored the shuttle’s gauges as they drew away from the red planet.

Lunar’s husband Michael and Dr. Smidt had worked hard outside, and their eyes were red and had black bags, and were asleep before they had even left the Martian atmosphere twelve hours’ earlier. Michael was still sleep twelve hours later, and Lunar let him rest. She was proud of him.

There hadn’t been much time for goodbyes, and there were many friends staying behind. The sleeping areas were half empty, and there was a lot more room for the return journey.

Roo, Joanne and the kids were in the new cavern. Patricia the second medic was in the Retreat. Max was base commander, and Dave Black was happily returning to Earth board
SB-II
.

VIN was onboard
SB-V
, and Suzi was with Saturn in
SB-IV
. It had been a real rush, and most of the returning crew weren’t in the ships they were meant to be. Even Maggie was aboard Lunar’s shuttle fast asleep. She had been one of the last to get aboard, and she had worked as hard as any crewmember out there.