April 4: A Different Perspective (40 page)

The
Dionysus' Chariot
dipped under the horizon ahead of the
Happy
. It was crossing the continent now at hypersonic velocity. It would be most of the way across, but still in the air, before the
Happy
caught up to line of sight again at orbital velocity.

"There are cruise ships and over-flights, very tightly regulated for air pollution and fuel spill hazards and once a fellow flew his own plane in and didn't have fuel to get home. A crazy person in a single, piston engine plane. They refused to sell him any fuel and made him take the plane back on a supply ship," Earth Control rambled on, Jed ignoring him.

The
Happy
came back over the horizon and established a link with
Dionysus' Chariot
again. "Everything on schedule, down to Mach 3 now, speed brakes out, tip up and engine start in three minutes." Jed told the crowd back on Home.

"You have to get permission even to sail through the Southern Sea in a private boat," the Earth controller asserted, still talking.

April wondered if Papa-san would ask permission to sail through? She doubted it.

The tip up maneuver was critical. The shuttle did not have sufficient control surfaces to pitch up in an abrupt stall. To pull up in a climb would take them far higher than they wished, before it was actually vertical. So the attitude jets on the nose were extra large to help it rotate, in theory. The plasma engine would not start for the tail balancing decent until it was near five degrees from the vertical. Thrust vectoring would let it balance on its tail from there.

"Here comes the rotation," Jed told them, drowning out something from Earth Control.

"We have ignition," Jed told them. But they could see the bright spark of it in the video feed.

"I'll be damned. It didn't blow up," Dave marveled from his seat.

"Shuttle indicates it has a target area and everything is working fine. It should be on the ground in less than a minute," Jed continued his commentary.

Everyone waited in tense, quiet anticipation.

"All three jacks down and locked. Engine easing off thrust. Number two jack extending to level it up and we have shut down," Jed said, very satisfied.

"That's the easier half of it," Jeff said, still tense. "That's a third of all the cash I had, sitting there. I really, really hope it lifts off OK."

"If it started in flight, there's no reason it won't sitting on its tail," Dave assured him. "It's a simple robust mechanism and we tested it lots of cycles."

"How long before it can take off again?" Gunny asked.

"As soon as the throat temperature drops to two hundred degrees a little robotic  arm will slap an aluminum disk over it. Then the drive chamber will be purged with argon and it will start pumping down. We have a vacuum canister that sucks about ninety percent of the argon out, then we have two small commercial vacuum pumps that will take it down to two-tenths torr, not a very good vacuum at all, but plenty low to start the plasma drive. Call it twelve minutes," Dave said. "We should be able to speed that up in the future."

"When does the robotic arm withdraw?" April asked.

"After the vacuum canister evacuates most of the drive chamber. Atmospheric pressure will hold the disk  on the opening then. Assuming it retracted before the in air engine start-up. If it didn't it was vaporized," Dave explained cheerfully.

"Thanks, I needed to hear that," Jeff complained.

"Though I doubt that happened," Dave added.

"Oh, good image!" April said excited. The cameras on the
Happy Lewis
showed a tiny dark obelisk poised in a wide stony area. There were shallow rolls in the gravel but no real ravines or boulders, just a few head sized stones widely scattered. You couldn't see any detail of the shuttle, but it was the only man-made shape on the plain.

"We'll lose telemetry in another four and a half minutes," Jed predicted. Earth Control was still babbling about something. "Do you acknowledge
Happy Lewis
?"

"I'm sorry I was involved with the drone. Acknowledge what, Earth Control?"

"Do you agree not to land on Antarctica again?" the controller repeated.

"Hell no. I might need to sit down there in an emergency. I'm not voluntarily giving up any rights. If you want us to join the Treaty Association make a formal request to the Home Assembly. They will probably tell you to go pound sand too," Jed predicted.

That seemed to stun Earth Control into silence.

"We'll be back in contact in about forty minutes," Jed told Earth Control. "
Happy Lewis
is ballistic, no maneuvers anticipated, com open on frequency, but no traffic for you, so out for now."

That might be taken for a hint to shut up, but not quite that rudely.

"I'm going to take a little walk in the corridor, to stretch my legs before we have to sit again," Gunny informed April.

"Let me join you," April begged. "The guys in the
Happy
have more room today."

"Is the shuttle Jeff's private vessel, or is it one of the things you three own as partners?" Gunny asked, out in the corridor.

"I'm not sure. I haven't asked Jeff how it was built. I mean, which company paid for it and holds title. Heather and I never try to rein Jeff in much. He seems to have good instincts. We do more suggesting of new things, than shooting down his ideas, except in the rare case he tries to bite off too much.

Gunny looked like he wanted to say something about that, but swallowed it.

"It must be a joint venture," April decided after thinking about it. "He said it took a third of all his cash. I don't think he has that much private money of his own right now. That's fine with me," she added quickly. "We've needed this for a long time."

"So you probably own a third of it," Gunny asked again.

"Yeah, but let me make sure. Why? Do you want to hire it? Even if it was Jeff's private ride, he's going to need to put it to work, profitably."

"Yeah, but I was thinking security work and I'd feel more comfortable talking to you about that sort of business."

"Time to go back," April said, stopping in the corridor. She didn't start back though, just planted herself hands on hips looking up at Gunny, who looked a little uneasy under her gaze, even from below. "Thank you, you big, rough, Shakespeare quoting man."

"You are, uh, welcome. But for what?"

"Because that told me you respect me," she said, satisfied and started back.

When they got back, the plot showed less than ten minutes before the
Happy
came back into line of sight with the
Dionysus' Chariot
again. April got a refill on coffee, but Gunny claimed he was jittery enough, holding up a hand with a fake tremor. The shuttle would lift seconds after a new com link was established and rejoin the
Happy
in orbit. This time they would be much closer though, within sight of each other if all went well. There were no passengers and the drive was more efficient at higher thrust, so it would climb out at twenty Gs.

The camera view was a rush of ocean, with occasional flashes of ice. Then there was land briefly, before it locked on the landing site and started zooming in. The image stabilized on a valley and the board showed a data link established. A bright pinpoint was suddenly visible in the distance, before they got close enough to see the actual black fuselage.

"Earth Control, this is the
Happy Lewis
again. You should be getting a automated update from our drone relayed through us. It is going to lift back to join us in orbit. Are you receiving the intended orbital elements?"

"Happy Lewis, we reject the requested orbital insertion. It was not approved by the ATS. All landings and take-offs have to be approved by the ATS. They indicate they wish your vessel to remain on site until they can dispatch a team to inspect for environmental damage and determine if it can be removed by other means." The shuttle drew a bright line climbing while he was still speaking.

"We refuse, Earth Control. We would alter our course for safety, for flight hazards and potential collision, but not for political stupidity," Jed explained. "Too late anyway, our vessel is in the air already, climbing out of lower level controlled air space even as we speak."

Indeed, the bright spark of the shuttle lifting grew brighter and more circular as it tilted away from the camera, climbing to their level as they caught up to it.

 "Yesss!" Jeff breathed.

"Didn't blow up
twice
," Dave said, smugly. "I can't wait to tear that thing down and see the surface wear and what kind of stress we put on the drive housing."

"Yeah, with a little luck we can reduce some of the weight of that housing. It's a pig now. But I'm just relieved to get it back."

"You think the Earthies had a fit about us landing there," Dave told him. "Imagine the horror if it had blown up like a bomb on lift-off and strewn parts and pieces a kilometer in every direction all over their pristine environment!"

"Good point. Well, we are clean away and they don't have any cause for complaint now," Jeff said.

"
Dionysus' Chariot
 just made a corrective burn," Jed informed them. "It has sufficient reactive mass to reach Home and everything appears to be operating correctly. I'm going to shut down this com feed if you are satisfied and we will follow her in."

"That's fine Jed, thank you. We're shutting down this party here. Thank your crew too."

Jeff shut down all but the plot that showed the two dots tight in polar orbit. They wouldn't change that until they were on the other side of the Earth.

"I'm going to the beam dogs' place and have a drink and I'm buying if anyone wants to come along," Jeff invited them.

Chapter 33

"That's remarkable," Nolan Gilroy said softly. He studied the drawing intently, but didn't touch it, as if he was scared he'd mar it. "What made you put a sweater on her?"

"The water is rough like there is a pretty good breeze and you mentioned it was in the fall. If it's bad I'll redo it." Lindsy offered.

"No, it's actually correct. She did have a sweater, but an Icelandic one, not a button up. I just assumed you'd copy the photo exactly, but you got it closer to reality, all on your own."

"Did you have a jacket on?" Lindsy asked. She'd put him in a windbreaker.

"No, I froze my butt off and she gave me a hard time over it," he laughed. "It's fine just like it is. I'll recommend you to some friends."

Lindsy  took that to mean he was accepting it as a gift, but when he carefully put it back in the portfolio he took his hand comp out.

"Let me swipe your port," he demanded.

Lindsy didn't look until he was gone. He paid her five-thousand EuroMarks. She wasn't sure how much that was in dollars, but EuroMarks were bigger, if she remembered right.

* * *

"Will you be able to continue installing the final systems and the acceleration couches, while you tear the drive chamber down?" Jeff asked, over a mug of local brew.

"Yes, but you want me to do a thorough analysis on that drive. Every kilogram I take off of the chamber is a kilogram of lift capacity, or better acceleration," Dave reminded him.

"If it x-rays clean and the outside passes a dye test, can you cut it down instead of starting from scratch. That was an expensive hunk of steel to lift to orbit."

"Sure, we'd have to fabricate new mounts, but that's cheaper than a hunk of die steel the size of a beer keg."

"Could you leave the mounts the same and just mill pockets on the outside and leave a grid of ridges on it to stiffen it?" Jeff suggested.

"Maybe, I'll run a simulation, that's going to be a high end analysis, it may take a couple hours to run. I'm not sure how you optimize the size of the pockets either. Where did that idea come from?" Dave asked, surprised.

"I saw it on some pix of old hot rod cars," Jeff admitted. "They used it to lighten all sorts of housings."

"You'll read just about anything won't you?"

"I've
never
been able to get into romances."

* * *

"Turn on the Earth news," Jon urged Jeff. "I've got CNN and the BBC both running."

"OK, I was sleeping. It's going to take me a minute to get up to speed." Jeff cheated by going in the bathroom first, donning his spex. He'd be out in a minute to see it on the big screen. He wasn't going to sit out there very long at all with a full bladder.

The scene in both views was of the UN chambers. "Emergency Meeting called by China," proclaimed one banner. "Invasion of protected territory," said the other. The Brussels building  was vast and dwarfed the old New York headquarters. The seats didn't appear to be packed for an emergency meeting. Jeff wondered what sort of quorum they needed to resolve anything.

"The robot freighter
Dionysus' Chariot
,"
the speaker was saying, "owned by a Home company controlled by Jefferson Singh, landed on Earth territory which all the permanent members of the Security Council have agreed to hold in trust and in common, as the heritage of all mankind. We have agreement in principle to this arrangement since 1959, from every legitimate Earth government."

"Point of Order! The representative from Madagascar shouted angrily, standing up. "There are forty-two members who are active participants in the Antarctic Treaty or have formally acceded to it, but there are between a hundred and ninety or two hundred nations in existence, depending on your prejudices and how you count. We strongly protest our nation and indeed three quarters of the world's governments being characterized as illegitimate. Carry on," he invited and sat.

 "Point taken. This arrangement has been agreed to by every
important
Earth government," he corrected. He was fortunate that looks can't literally kill. "While there is no previous UN resolution directly dealing with Antarctica, we feel the intent of the permanent members and supporting states, makes our will obvious."

Jeff kept his spex on and started the coffee maker, before taking to the sofa and activating the main wall screen. The fellow was still talking.