Earthly Competition
The words ran through Arianna's mind ...now comes the story of Nine-fingered... "Ms. Casey, Ms. Casey!" Arianna disconnected her mind from the downloaded book. "We have arrived Ms. Casey."
Arianna picked up her bag and walked to the airspace door and out into the lunar walkway. The attendant led her down the walkway into the Lunar NASA Atrium. Both of them walked through to the elevator bank on the far side of the walkway. "You can leave, now." The attendant scurried away.
All major takeoffs were done on the moon because of the low gravity. The takeoff was seamless and soon the crew was in space. This particular mission was the second to Mars and the first to Olympus Mons, the biggest mountain or volcano in the solar system. "Activate nuclear propulsion system, John."
"Yes, Captain." John replied.
A nuclear bomb was dropped out of the back of the ship, and 200 feet out it exploded. The blast was caught with a thick steel pusher plate. Behind the pusher plate were multi-story high pneumatic springs that absorbed the impact, protecting the crew by stretching out the millisecond shock wave over several seconds cresting a smooth ride. The technology for an antimatter nuclear pulse propulsion craft was probably developed enough for use, but NASA was afraid of failure.
The crew had about 16 hours to do nothing once the nuclear propulsion system was activated. They amused themselves with recorded movies, TV shows and contact with the NASA base before getting some sleep.
With one hour left to go an alarm screamed and everyone woke up. "One hour to go Captain, we are on a steady pace, no complications," Steve, course manager, exclaimed with delight.
"So, everybody, the second mission to Mars is ours...and it's going well. We are some of the most important people in history." Arianna said with a burst of pride for herself and her crew.
"Preparing for landing Captain," reported Steve. Olympus Mons loomed up below them, massively wide and tall. Arianna activated the Lucky Imaging cameras on the ship and gave control of all but one to the computer, while keeping one for herself. These cameras first came onto the general scene after Cambridge astronomers took some of the best space pictures ever. She was zooming on Olympus Mons, gasping in awe. Something moved. Or she thought something moved. She glanced at the pictures currently being sent back to the Moon and Earth. The computer hadn't caught it. She glanced at the video camera screen shooting Mars. She rewound it, but didn't see it. Figuring she had only seen dust, Mars was the dustiest planet in the solar system so this made sense, Arianna kept what she had seen to herself.
When the ship had gotten within 10 minutes of Mars, John had switched to conventional fuel, giving him more precise control. "Everyone into space suits, prepare to walk on Mars!" Arianna said, excited but nervous about what she had seen. John and Steve followed the orders and Arianna followed suit. The surface of Mars was getting closer and closer.
"Mother of God! What was that?" Steve had seen a small movement on the face of the planet.
"I saw it before, but thought my eyes were deceiving me." Arianna said in horror. But she quickly changed her attitude. "Comrades! We have discovered life off Earth." With a voice command the computer aimed all its cameras at the place Steve had seen the movement. "Pull up, Steve, pull up!" John hollered. He leveled out into an orbit, but didn't pull up.
"NO! I am the captain. We go down."
"No, we should vote, this could be life-threatening," Steve contributed. "You can't throw us into the jaws of death because you're captain! Risk your life, but not mine!" Arianna looked at him with fury, but Steve stared her down. Finally she relented, "You're right. John?"
"We go up and report."
"Steve?"
"Yes, I think we should do that. Sorry Captain."
"Ok, fine. Let's get out of here. John switch to nuclear. Steve, head us home." The computer started beeping in warning. Arianna hurried over to the display. A high pitched squeal pierced the ears of the crew. EEEKK. "The wall is squealing!" Steve yelled.
"There is a tiny hole in the wall! Decompression! Patch the hole!" Arianna yelled. She ran to the supplies chamber. She tossed a welder to John. "Hurry!" They were in their suits, but the oxygen in them wouldn't last long enough to get home. "Done!" John yelled in relief. He ran to switch to nuclear. The first explosion went off and the shock wave met the pusher plates...CRASH! Something had hit the ship. A yard wide hole appeared in the wall. The computer squealed in protest. The air whooshed out of the cabin in half a second. The engines ruptured and the space craft hurtled toward Mars, the computer transmitting photo, video and audio data back to NASA until the last second when...
