First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (13 page)

"Yeah,
I see where that happening too," Nick grimaced as he took a sip
from his cup. That last congressional hearing had been interesting.
"So, we're planning to get as much there as we can, and let the
teams stay as long as possible." Nick nodded. "So that
explains the tilapia research, the mushroom ranch, I get it now.
You’re planning a colony. Nice. Can I join? Fewer politicians
there to screw things up."

Mario
chuckled. "Oh, they have a long enough reach, they can mess it
up from long distance just fine."

Luigi
grimaced. "Don't remind me, we have another meeting on the hill
tomorrow," he sighed. His little bombshell had backfired, now he
was facing meeting after meeting.

"You
know you'll never get them to grant you the SSTO funding, why don't
you drop it in favor of another mission?" Nick asked.

Luigi
sighed. "We need it. With that we can take people and cargo to
and from orbit," he explained. Mario glanced at his brother. "He
knows," Luigi replied to his brother's unspoken question. Luigi
spread his hands apart.

"Knows
what? You're cockamamie plan? Not all of it, you have one heck of a
poker face and you keep to many cards close to your chest," Nick
said in disgust. He really couldn't believe... but no, Zubrin was
involved wasn't he? Zubrin wasn't the type for a single glorious
photo op. Nick sat back then sat forward fast as a thought struck
him. "Damn! That Transhab you had me mention in the briefing!
It's a space station module!" He looked over to Luigi and
whistled. "How did you get that!" he asked looking dazed.

"Rob
Bigelow sent it over to me gratis. Of course it has his logo all over
it and we have to credit him when the station is announced,"
Luigi smiled tiredly.

"Amazing.
And that extra payload you said, satellites and gear?" Nick
demanded.

Mario
nodded. "Four satellites and a core module for the station. Once
the satellites are released they will each move to geosynchronous
orbit. The core module will then dock with the hab and unfold solar
panels and radiators."

Luigi
nodded. "Then the ERV will do a test dock. The ground Mars
shuttle will also do it as well."

Nick
smiled. "Damn, I didn't know. Wheels within wheels within
wheels. This is...deep." He shakily took a sip. "Damn, all
gone. I need something stronger anyway for some reason."

Luigi
chuckled. "At ten AM?"

Nick
smiled an urchin grin. "It's five o'clock somewhere."

Luigi
laughed. "Next window the second group will launch. When it
does, we will have the makings of a permanent self sustaining Mars
base."

Mario
nodded. "He thinks big, hell we both do. Need all the space I
can get." He patted his belly.

Luigi
glowered. "You wouldn't if you would just lay off the pasta once
and a while."

Mario
grinned. "What's with you, that's a Mario tradition!" He
hammed the Italian line.

Nick
chuckled with them. "So, first crew gets there, they can stay
longer?"

Mario
nodded and then glanced at Luigi. "He catches on quick."

Luigi
sighed. "Never mind my brother; he has the charm of a goat
sometimes." Mario glowered. "Yes, some may elect to remain.
Since we are sending two of everything, they can take a later ship,"
Luigi continued.

Nick
nodded then turned an eye on Luigi. "You wouldn't be one of them
would you?"

Luigi
gave him an innocent look. "We have a deal; we do a fist bump on
Mars," Mario replied.

"Oh,
like that is ever going to happen," Nick sighed. The brothers
gave each other a small smile. Nick eyed them and then snorted
softly. "Well, with you two anything is possible. I'm in. Hell,
I've been in and didn't know it. Fish, shrimp, greenhouse, mushrooms.
I heard about a new food thing, not the algae, but a spinoff of the
whole stem cell thing..."

...*...*...*...*...

Luigi
sat across from the reporter and smiled politely. "Sir, isn't it
true were spending fifty Billion, that's right Billion with a B
dollars to send six people to Mars and back? Couldn't our hard earned
money be used somewhere else? Like to pay down the deficit?"

Luigi
cocked his head. "Well, first off it is forty five Billion at
the last count, and it that is to send
thirty six
people to
Mars,
not
a measly six." He looked at the reporter for a
minute as she nodded politely. "Now I want you to try a little
mental stretching exercise with me." He looked into the camera.
"You at home can try this as well. When man first built a ship.
Not the ones we have now, but the very first ship, what do you think
it cost? In man power? Energy expended? Safety? Reliability?" He
looked at the reporter who looked a little confused.

"Now
translate that into today's dollars if you can. The first missions
will be hard, using off the shelf technology taking three years round
trip. But after that, when we get the next generation of craft online
we will see a quantum leap in speed and amount we can transfer, for a
one hundred or even thousand fold drop in cost." He sat back.
"For the bean counters who are listening, it is costing about
one billion per person to send each of those thirty six people right?
Wrong. The first missions will cost ten Billion dollars. But tacked
onto the Mars mission is a gas giant project, fusion reactor
research, and six plasma ferries."

He
looked at the reporter and took a sip of water then set the glass
down. "Once we get the first plasma ferry in space it will cost
less than a million per person to get to Mars. Maybe less." He
shrugged. "We are doing everything in our power to make that
happen."

She
nodded. "Why? I mean, if the plasma drives are so important, why
not wait until the technology matures?"

He
smiled. "Because it may have a flaw. I doubt it will, I myself
have built one but it is a tricky thing. We want to test it a few
times to make sure there aren't any problems. That could take years,
so we are going to run the missions now, while we test," he
replied. He didn't like it, he wanted to go with the plasma drive
right off but he had been overruled so had to support the party line.

She
nodded. "Multitasking?"

He
smiled. "Yes, NASA is starting to learn how to walk and chew gum
at the same time. The gas giant project could go a long way to pay
for this program, and all future space travel."

She
nodded. "But that's a long way off and there are still a lot of
hurdles we have to overcome," she replied.

"A
few I admit, but we've modeled it extensively, we've built and tested
prototypes, and we've moved on to actually building the mission
hardware," he replied. The reporter looked a little
flabbergasted. "We don't fill a rocket full of money and shoot
it off into space you know. The money is spent buying the materials,
buying the tools to shape the materials..." he explained
patiently. Luigi waved. "Research, learning, production, all of
it is spread out over thirty states and twenty countries."

She
nodded. "So you’re really helping areas in your eyes?"

He
smiled. "Back in the cold war we saw the aerospace industry
thrive in the United States. The industries built air and space craft
employing thousands of people who put that money into the local
economy. But that was based on war; our model is based on peace and
exploration."

The
reporter nodded. “Fascinating. That's all the time we have for
today folks, back to you in the studio Brent..."

Nick
handed Luigi a cup of coffee as he got to the edge of the set. "That
went well," he commented.

Luigi
sighed. "No vision, not one of them has any vision." He
shook his head wearily.

"We're
working on it Luigi, give it time," Nick replied. Luigi nodded
as they walked out.

...*...*...*...*...

"Nick
about this article...” Luigi began.

“Honest
it isn't me or any of my people," Benny nervously waved the
article. Nick sat at his desk looking Benny over. He had a copy of
the article in front of him. It had made the morning news and
obviously more than one person was uncomfortable with it.

"Anonymous
sources Benny that means it could be anyone," Nick sighed.

Luigi
nodded. He was standing in the corner, arms crossed chin on his
chest. "Do we have any suspects?"

Benny
shook his head. "With my crew no, I don't think any would tell
their own mothers if we told them not too. Many like Julia and myself
are ex military."

Luigi
sighed and rubbed at his temple. "That doesn't help us much
then. I know about a dozen people knew about the cloning experiments
outside of the medical group," he said.

"Can
we go through the records? See if we can turn up something?"
Nick asked.

"No,
that wouldn't help much. Besides we can't discriminate because
someone is religious," Luigi sighed running his hand through his
hair. "What I am really worried about is starting a witch hunt."
He shook his head. "We don't need this crap."

He
looked over to Benny. "Have a chat with people about clearing
all discussions with outside personnel with the public relations desk
before
they talk to anyone. And send a memo out backing that
chat up so we they know we mean business."

Benny
nodded and looked at the wall clock. "Crap, I have a sim in two,
later." He turned and left.

"Think
it will help?" Luigi asked softly.

"I
doubt it. It could be anyone, a spouse using pillow talk with a
grudge, or a plant," Nick responded balling the paper up and
tossing it into his waste basket.

Luigi
shook his head. "Yeah. But a lot of what they are giving is
pretty detailed, some look like first hand." He looked at Nick.
"We could try feeding false information, maybe narrow it down?"
Luigi suggested.

"No,
we start doing that then we are proving we don't trust our people and
we start having all sorts of issues," Nick replied and shook his
head. "It could be anyone from a tech to a janitor. I'll keep my
eyes and ears open," he said. Luigi nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

"Stem
cells? Did I hear right? You want to bring unborn fetuses to Mars?
Why sir that's outrageous!" Luigi sighed as the Congress woman
ranted.

When
she wound down he raised his hand. "If I may ma'am, they aren't
human stem cells," he replied patiently.

"Now
see here, stem cells of aborted fetuses are gods children and must be
protected as such," another congressman dug in.

Luigi
sighed noisily this time. The congressman bridled. "No, I am
trying to explain, the cells are not
human
at all they are
animal cells." He felt like throttling Nick for this idea.

"From
animals you say?" the congressman asked as he sat back adjusting
his glasses. "That's a different kettle of fish all togetha,"
he drawled in his southern twang.

"Right,
the cells are an experiment in food growth. It was recently brought
to my attention that a food subsidiary mined the idea of stem cells
and coupled it with an idea from science fiction. They are using
these cells to grow animal parts for food consumption," Luigi
explained, trying hard not to grit his teeth.

One
of the congress women gasped. "I say, is that legal? Does the
FDA know about this?" the congress woman asked.

He
nodded. "Yes ma'am, the initial licensing went through a week
ago."

She
shook her head. "Y'all say that, but it is against the law of
god to mess with his creations."

Another
congressman sighed. "Beth, can we continue?" he demanded
patiently. He nodded to Luigi.

"Thank
you congressman. Now as I was saying, this equipment will allow us to
grow animal parts for study or consumption. We grow them on a plastic
substrate so there is no need for bone or other unused product. The
cultures have no brain tissue, so there is no problem with harvest,"
he explained. Several people nodded at this. “The idea is in
its infancy. It is also currently being explored for human tissue
replacement as well, I must admit. But it is just an idea; it isn't
currently on our launch list.”

"Okay,
I think that is a bit much to digest, why don’t we take a
recess and discuss this. Say till tomorrow folks? Good? Okay then.
Nine am folks," the congressman acting as chairman clacked the
gavel before any could object. Nick and Luigi managed to get up
before the reporters swarmed.

"Hard
sell Nick, you better not be selling me a canoe without a paddle,"
Luigi said after they had made their escape. He wasn't happy at all
that someone had leaked this.

"Don't
worry, it will be worth it. The tech is an outgrowth of cloning, but
it is viable. I even had a piece," Nick admitted. Luigi turned.

Nick
smiled. "Lemon pepper chicken breast. Gorgeous with just the
right flavor. You'll love it," he smiled.

"Only
you Nick," Luigi smiled then chuckled. "Medical science is
a bit above my pay grade, I stuck to the hard engineering and
astrophysics stuff," he sighed and shook his head. "Your
brief said chicken and beef... can it do pork and other things?"

Nick
grimaced. "Actually, pork yeah, but there is some sort of hitch
in the flavor. Turkey too. They haven't gone beyond the basics
though; I bet the greens will be all over it. Religious nuts too,"
he said and then chuckled.

"Vegetarians
too I bet. Vegans will be torn between a fit and a field day,"
Luigi observed. "It doesn't take a life, but it is flesh,
right."

Nick
chuckled. "Talk about your can of worms!" he sighed
suddenly. "I didn't think about the fall out this is going to
cause. Sorry I dropped the ball Luigi."

Luigi
gave him a look. "Oh, all is not lost; I just can't promise it
will fly. If we have to compromise..."