Well. It's out there. And I don't mean COVID. Orion is available on multiple book sites

CHAPTER 4 – THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT 

13 June 1970 

He met them at John’s Lunch on the Dartmouth side at noonish, not because of some military principle or protocol, but rather because the halibut tips and deep fried clams were great and the beer, Keith’s of course, was served icy cold. They filled the booth and needed an additional chair. The staff, friendly as always, noisily accommodated them. For a well-founded reason he looked at the diners in the adjoining booth and across the row. Locals. What could go wrong? Seriously?

It was planned for the three of them to leave together the day after tomorrow. He would follow a couple of days later.

Of course they had not seen each other since their return from the course and it took a few formal minutes getting reacquainted. And as usual, they insisted upon calling him sir or LT. It took a few tries and minutes but eventually they seemed OK with just ignoring the need to refer to him in any military way. From experience he knew that when needed it would resurface and indeed, would push its way to the front.  He knew their names, their units and jobs or at least, he thought he did. One was Navy, a Master Seaman Radio Technician; the other two were Radar Technicians (Nav Aids) Master Corporals from the air base at Dartmouth. All, to use a newish sort of phrase – were journeymen tradesmen. All newly promoted. All three had been expecting postings to units where their new skill sets would have been employed. So much for that. And all three had accepted the offer from their respective superiors, conditional upon passing medicals, etc. The usual.

They talked a while about the dead Americans. A couple of them had been nice guys, good drinking buddies, good story-tellers, hockey fans even - but not the Leafs or Habs, of course - who paid their share of the bar bill and had helped them eagerly when required with some of the more difficult and obscure details of the systems they’d encountered on the course. The others? They were about what you’d expect, eh?

Returning to themselves they told him something that was known to him, that none of them had ever worked on the APD and FPS radars, nor the somewhat weird communication equipment they had just seen. But as Alain - or Brain, as he preferred to be called for some reason – said, electronics is electronics, a tube is a tube, a magnetron is a magnetron, a servo is a servo, an ACU is an ACU, until Bruce, mercifully, put him in his place by reminding him about the existence of transistors and integrated circuits.

He hoped they were right. His own specialty was computer systems engineering, not radar and comms. And he hoped they would never learn that his nickname in military college had been Punch-card Hinnie. Who needed that? Really?

He’d better not get drunk with these guys; he might tell them himself just to get them to stop calling him LT, at least in bars.

The conversation stayed away from the personal, but he knew from reviewing their pers files that the Navy lad Alan was single with no personnel issues ID’d, so far. Alain was married; no kids; no issues obvious, so far. Bruce too was single and had no issues. Too easy. So much for them.

He shared nothing about his own experience in dealing with the Admiral’s offer that had, unlike theirs, not been held out before him to accept or reject, but rather been jammed down his throat. Swallowing it whole meant yes. Gagging and throwing it up in the Admiral’s face, a face he had served under before on the Cree meant ‘No, I accept that my career is over’. Yes.

The Admiral was not known for a kind, compassionate approach to personnel selection. Part of the price.

Not surprisingly, like him, they knew little of Orion, especially the means of propulsion, the mission and the duration. None of them seemed too concerned at this shortfall of possibly important information and frankly, as they reminded him cheerily, it was not their job to fly the ship, clanking bottles together at the end for emphasis. They were there to take care of the radars and communications systems and had been relieved to learn, as he had only recently learned, that they would be working on the ship with USAF techs, aka specialists, whatever that meant, on the systems they had just seen in Syracuse. 

None seemed too interested in what would be his main job, the programming, care and feeding of Orion’s two D-37C mainframe computers.

“So what do you know about Mars?” he asked from mere curiosity.

“Red, dead and dry, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica,” offered Desharnais. “For a long time, too. Millions of years.” Heinz nodded in agreement.

But it went on, of course. How could it not. Beer!

“Yeah. Things are different ever since that Mariner 3 thingy went by and took those pictures. No vegetation, no water even. Just cold thin air and lots of ice. No canals. Nothing to support life. Just like Medicine Hat. In February!” Desharnais

“BS! That’s BS. There’s a cover-up going on. The government wants you to believe there’s no life there because of religion. But it’s everywhere on Mars. Wait and see. You’ll see I’m right.”

“Bruce!” Desharnais sneered, “Give me a break. That’s BS and you know it. It’s about the money.” Mackenzie held his piece. Amused, so did Heinz.

“No, dude! Politicians are afraid of losing votes if they support looking for life. Not just Mars. Anywhere. There’ve been lots of radio stations set up to listen and communicate with the Martians. And even far away stars. Jupiter, too. Look it up!” Swinemar. Of course.

“Look it up where? Up yer ass?”

“The National Host.  The Gloom and Doom. The New Gawker.” Swinemar laughed, “Look. I’m just ‘effing kidding guys. I can’t believe you got sucked in by that shit. The oldest trick in the book and you fell for it. What a goof! Dummies. ‘Effing dummies. But not you LT!”

“Thanks Bruce. But that Mariner 3 thing never happened. They faked the whole thing.” They looked at him the wrong way. All of them.

“What? I mean what, LT?”

“Just kidding.” They had a laugh over that. Beer: The great intellectualiser.

Finished with the food and the basics they paid their respective bills and went outside. They parted with hand-shakes, followed by hand salutes and goodbye LTs. Ah, tradition. 

***

The next step for him? Pack a kitbag, sign his new will, pick up his papers and travel advance, say a final round of good byes and get to the airport. Simple enough.

Playing Catch-up. COVID, you know?

CHAPTER 3 – FILLING THE VOID 

9 June 1970  

Step 1 – Opportunity Knocks 

The records of interactions between heads-of-state via post and telephone and perhaps even intra-personal conversations are never documented and given the technical, personal and political difficulties of such, perhaps never will be. Suffice it to say that Prime Minister Camp did not initially appreciate the lateness of the call from not-a-personal-favorite-under-any-conditions, US President Barry Goldwater, but soon did. The offer to participate with little - indeed, virtually nil - financial investment accompanied by a potentially enormous gain in personal popularity was irresistible.  He waited until the am to call in the Minister of National Defence, who waited not a moment to call the Commander of MARCOM, who waited not a moment before he called the COs of Canadian Forces Base Shearwater and Atlantic Fleet Headquarters to give them direction. And so on, the words trickled down. And suffice it to say that the word was passed at more than the speed of rumour. Not a small achievement, even in the 1970s with all of its high tech wizardry. 

Step 2 – Opportunities are presented 

The same action as described below took place in a number of offices on several Canadian Forces Bases and indeed, with slightly altered circumstances in offices at Area 51, all within the same time span. The questions asked, the responses given, the manner in which the questions and answers which were given differed slightly of course, but the whole process could be characterised clinically, as follows: 

Member enters office of Superior and pays compliments. Is told to sit. 

Superior – “I understand you have just returned from a radar and comms course?”

Member – “Yes, sir.”

Superior – “How was it?”

Member – “Great, sir.”

Superior – “Something has come up. Something of national importance. You’ve heard about the USAF plane crash?”

Member – “Yes, sir. I knew some of those guys who were killed. They were on the course with us.  Can’t say I knew them very well though. Still…some nice guys.”

Superior – “Yes. Well the President of the United States has asked the Prime Minister if Canada can provide replacements. Your name came up. You’d be serving on that spaceship.  You know anything about that?”

Member – “Yes sir. They never stopped talking about it.”

Superior – “Well? Are you in?”

Member

1/ “Fuck yes! Oops. Sorry, sir! Yes sir!”

2/ “No sir! Family? You know? Sorry sir, but I just can’t.”

3/ “No sir. I am afraid of heights. Sorry sir, but I just can’t.”

4/“Fuck no! They’re all going to die! And they know it. Sir!”

Superior –

1/ “Great. Pack your kit. You leave tomorrow. And by the way, you’re being promoted. See your boss on the way out.

2/“Understood. Thanks for coming in. Let me know if you reconsider. They’re in a big hurry.”

3/“Understood. Thanks for coming in. Let me know if you reconsider. They’re in a big hurry.”

4/“Understood. Thanks for coming in. Let me know if you reconsider. They’re in a big hurry.”

Member – “Yes sir!”

 That was the easy part. Next came the hard part. 

Step 3 – The First Casualty 

It was not the first time they had had this sort of discussion. She knew (of course) what he did, who he did it for (always) and why he did it (usually). Often, but not always, it was based upon decisions and commitments made a long time ago, before they had even met that had to be lived up to. Extended duration temporary duty and postings to challenging places were a hard fact of life for them but something more to her. They marked the loss of a job (always), the loss of often hard-won friends (always), changes in schools for the kids (always), loss of the family doctor (always), the loss of everything in fact that made up what she called ‘home’, (always). You could get tired of that. His leaving was always tough. It never got any easier. There was always a price to pay. Loneliness, depression, increased stress. And the kids! No amount of telling, of rationally explaining the necessity, of focusing on the very importance of it could do it, especially for the younger ones. Eventually, (no always) they inquired: when is Daddy coming home? Up to this day there had always been a date, a point in time when he would be back. Back home. Sure, it was usually off by a few days, but somehow the kids had come to understand the vagaries of service life. You took it. You put up with it. You accepted it. That is, unless you were willing to, for any number of reasons, to walk away. That was always an option. Walking away was always a possibility. Many had. Many had not. Walking away was a decision never made without difficulties, without a price to pay. Friends, through a manner of sharing that was uncommon to many humans and inexplicable to most, who were almost family, helped. And sometimes they were more available, more predictable, more caring, more understanding and more supportive than one’s own family. Often they shared the difficult as well as the happy moments, like birthdays, anniversaries, promotions and postings. This bonded people. But sometimes, for some of them, it was not enough. This was different. There was no end of date for this. And like war, something she had seen, felt, experienced with and through him, there was a ‘probability of death’ in this.

She heard him out. She considered this one. This latest one.

It was tough.

Fed up. A good summary phrase. A good choice of words that spoke volumes and said little, revealed little.

Afterwards, she sifted through her feelings, all negative, seeking the cause of the negativity. Unlike war and foreign service tours, this time he was volunteering. He was choosing to walk away. Not from them. No. This time it was from her; from their family; from their relationship. And more. Fed up was a good expression. Well, this was her time to say goodbye. She would walk away.

In her heart of hearts she knew there was more love left for him. But love was not enough, she’d learned, to see the journey through.

There was an imperceptible event horizon that sometimes hid unimagined/unimaginable endings.

And he would have to live with it. With all that implied.

The price of paying court to Service.

Orion - Chapter 2

Next Chapter of Orion, as promised.

CHAPTER 2 – PERSONNEL ISSUES 

2 Jun 1970 

Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Stephen Edwards, Commander of the Orion looked around the briefing room and took a deep breath.  He had thought these days were over, these round table discussions where rank, fluffing and puffing, economics and personal need often trumped engineering, necessity and common sense. Here we go. Again. 

Launch day could not come too soon for him. He exhaled silently and called the assembled multitude to order, nodding respectfully towards the ranking person at the table, Colonel Ira Asner, who also happened to lead the USAF’s Interplanetary Expeditionary Force’s (IEF) Orion team. The Colonel called for a moment of silence in recognition of the sacrifice of the five Orion technical personnel, of Captain White, who had been the Orion’s designated Communications and Radar Officer and the so-far nameless crew of N13403. He offered that the cause of the crash, while unofficially obvious and awaiting official investigation by the NTSB was not on the table. He did offer that NTSB involvement had been unavoidable in this case, due to wide-spread public knowledge of the Orion’s existence, its mission and its imminent departure.

Once that absolute necessity was over, the discussion turned to the impact of all this on Orion. Captain White and the others, all Tech Sergeants, had been returning from a training course on the radar and special purpose communication systems used on Orion.  Their knowledge was replaceable of course; the systems, with some few exceptions, had been in use for years. Their bodies however, were not. They had been selected almost a year before and had broken the bonds of Earth – meaning they had settled family and personal issues – or in other words, had committed to the mission, been trained on the unique challenges of space travel and were ready to go.

That Captain White was double-hatted as Edward’s Executive Officer and had thus been chosen to be second in command complicated things a bit.  That he had been a personal acquaintance did it further. Captain White had served on an aircraft carrier, two in fact and was familiar with the way things were done on Navy ships, something most airmen were not. Potentially valuable things had been learned. And while it was never formally discussed, everyone in the room and especially him had realized that the size of the ship, its organisation and in some ways the very mission itself was more in keeping with Navy ways and means than the USAF’s. But this was the IEF. This was new. To everyone.

They moved on at Colonel Asner’s pace and direction. He summarised their situation:  the mission was due to lift off in less than 30 days. Delay was possible, but each day of delay increased the number of bombs required and therefore reduced the already questionable safety margin. The options were therefore simple:  go or stay.

Heads nodded. Everyone in this room knew that plans were afoot over at NASA that would dissemble the USAF’s IEF space program and by extension, Orion. It had always been a longshot. The price of delay could not be underestimated nor ignored.

Point made, they, or rather Colonel Asner moved on. He asked if there were any others on the radar course. No, it turned out, there had just been their group and some Canucks, three or four, maybe. Were other qualified personnel available and ready to assume their positions?

“No. There are not,” someone offered.

“Wait,” someone else suggested. “Yes, there are. Some back-ups are still available, working in the Area’s workshops. Not our first choice, but they’ll do. We’ll have to go through it with them, though.”

Someone else advised, “But not enough to fill all the positions. And there is no one available to replace Captain White.”

The inevitable point arose from all the others, yet remained unspoken: surely an officer could be replaced by an enlisted person who was skilled in the technical side of things, and maybe would or could in the end, be of more help?

“Yes, perhaps,” Asner replied. All around heads nodded in agreement until it came to Edwards.

“I need an Exec.” A plain and simple statement, but not well received by this mixed bag.

The inevitable point arose, this time from a chorus of voices, “Why?” 

“You have a skilled crew.”

“Yes. There’s no need for a co-pilot here.” Other’s nodded, quickly assenting.

Colonel Asner’s head nodded slowly in something Edwards hopefully reflected was other than agreement. No mystery there, he thought, to himself.

The inevitable answer was given by Edwards in a calm, leadership-styled voice mode that belied the outrage he actually felt at this intrusion, this rather late intrusion.

“The C of C. I need a 2IC. And if it was up to me, as you well know, I’d have at least one more technical officer. But we’ve already beaten that to a dry pulp.” He paused, hopeful the Colonel would end this. Nope

“So we need an Exec. And he is to be a communication and radar specialist, hopefully with a degree in electronic computational systems.”

Heads nodded sagely.  Yes. It sunk in. Finally. Yes, but you never knew when.

Colonel Asner looked down and then away towards the door.

“That’s it for now,” the Colonel announced. “Carry on as per the schedule. I’ll make a few calls and see if I can shake someone free. Meanwhile dig up those back-ups and keep things moving. Gentlemen.” A dramatic pause followed, “We are getting out of here. Make it so.”

As the others left he looked at Edwards from across the table. He shrugged his shoulders, tipped his head and lifted an ear and one eyebrow in succession.  Not a good sign.

Edwards sat back down. The meeting had been brief and to the point. Maybe a little too brief and too much avoiding the point for his liking, but done was duty.

New Book- Orion

Mar 20 2021

Well, it’s been a long time since I put anything new up on this site, except for revisions to some short stories – namely ‘Star Trek Crosses Paths with TCOM’. To that I added some inappropriate humour and made Spock more of a jerk, almost as much a jerk as Bones is and corrected a spelling mistake. Louise meets Kirk at a MHM costume party when she is dressed as Captain Janeway and she thinks he is Sam Aiken. When he doesn’t recognize her (after, she says to him in front of many people and out loud ‘and we did it in the Arboretum last night, twice’) flips him off and struts away from a startled Kirk. That’s something I’ve always wanted womenfolk to do to Kirk.

I also worked on ‘Earth Abides, but snow comes and gets you’ with a goal of expanding it into a full length novel, but that’s too difficult for me. You do it.

 And during this COVID thing I read Stewart’s Earth Abides (again). Very relevant. Very.  Plus Heinlein’s Space Cadet, Starman Jones and  Willy Ley’s 1958 Satellites, Rockets and Outer Space, the Signet Books cover of which was the pattern for TCOM1. Except Smashwords made me blot out the price (50 cents!!!)

Another project got in the way. I have just completed Orion, about the nuclear powered spacecraft Sam climbs into in both TCOM 1 (as a human) and 2 (as an AI). The story is a flashback to the 1970s of a different world than the peaceful, kind and cooperative world we live in today.

This novel takes place in the world I imagined in my first novel, The Colonisation of Mars (TCOM), in which humans (Americans) actually sent the nuclear-propelled spaceship Orion to Mars in 1970 (see Wiki entry for nuclear-powered spaceship for tech details).  Since this was seriously considered in the 1960s and was doused by President Kennedy (due to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty), key elements of history had to be changed as they were for TCOM1.  Namely the use of nukes in an extended WWII, the deaths of some politicians and election of others and a generally unfriendly, uncooperative international community (a total fiction, of course).  Plus a review of modern military doctrine publications re ‘leadership’ shocked the hell out of me.  I realised my concept of leadership and my very concept of ‘service’ was outdated.  Ah, the ‘70s!

So from TCOM1, as Sam saw it:

“From the ground the Leaning Tower of Mars looked a lot more imposing, a towering bullet-shaped monument to 1940’s vision, 60’s hope and 70’s technology, dashed by a bit of bad luck and maybe the lack of a good extreme temperature grease.” Orion starts with the visit of Sam to the site in 2043 and ends with his revisit in 2067.  The purpose of that is to have a different story play out (the truth), to be contrasted with the public’s understanding of the mission as recounted in TCOM 1 and 2.

The USAF is running the mission, but an accident causes the last minute substitution of some Canadian military members as replacement crew just days before launch.  One of the replacements is assigned to be the 2nd in command (Exec) and is in the Canadian Navy.  There is adventure, comedy, tragedy and a lot of discussion between characters re Sci-fi books, Sci-fi movies and lines are pulled from popular ones. Some are sarcasm; some are just this writer’s weakness for the 1950s and 60s. However, you are warned that there are no lobsters or bikini clad-women on Mars, nor a Santa Claus. At least not in Orion.

The book is in for editing and cover prep, etc. and should be available on Smashwords, i Books, Amazon, Lulu, etc. in a few weeks (Ha’h!).  Not for free. The reader sets the amount, including free.

An audio-book version is being considered, as is a 3D representation of the Orion that would allow the reader/listener to wander through the ship as the story unfolds.

I have decided to post a chapter a week here, so skipping the TCOM 1 portion (which you should actually re-read to see how the public was misled), here we go: 

Prologue

Science Editorial from the San Francisco Re-Examiner

(1 June 1970)

Weapons in Space – a Historical Perspective 

By now most of the world and hopefully everyone in America is aware of the impending launch of the USAF Orion nuclear-powered spacecraft from the Nevada Test and Training Ground en route to Mars with a crew of forty, including a number of scientists with specialties in space travel, space exploration and Mars. The mission, while being conducted by the USAF, is claimed to be peaceful. As the Secretary of Defense explained to yours truly at a briefing held at the San Francisco Naval Shipyards yesterday evening, attacking enemies from space is pure science fiction. ICBMs with their ability to strike within fifteen minutes or less from launch with extreme accuracy and with proven recall / redirection capability have seen to that, thankfully.

The use of nuclear bomb explosions (some four hundred are reportedly to be used) it is claimed will only marginally add to the global and particularly America’s background radiation level.  Were this a different world, one in which nuclear explosions have not been (and maybe never were) until recently an almost bi-weekly event, the increased levels might be deemed ‘significant’. However, their common use in the later days of WW2, in the battles for the liberation of Korea, between India and Pakistan, Chile and Argentina to ‘solve’ border disputes and by the USSR and in Panama for canal excavation and the currently on-going round of nuclear weapons testing in Nevada, Utah,  Siberia and China have made any delta probably insignificant. But not unnoticed.

Opposition from groups of persons opposed to this ‘desecration of Earth and its life’ have fallen on deaf political ears, here in America and elsewhere, and in particular, the USSR. There is simply too much at stake and too much at risk for global disarmament and an end to their use. The militarization of space is accepted by the great powers and has been since it became possible well over two decades ago. The price of freedom.

We may at some time in the future change our minds about this. One cannot foretell the future with any degree of certainty. If I could, I can assure you that I would not be Science Editor of this well-intended but small (in distribution, but not thinking) weekly newspaper.  Perhaps someday all of our planet’s co-inhabitants will be able to see, hear and perhaps feel the agony we are inflicting upon Mother Earth and more easily and perhaps more effectively share their opinions and feelings with each other and their respective governments.

Someday, perhaps, but not yet; not now. We’ll see how that goes.

Until then, Godspeed Orion.

Here’s to a successful mission and a safe return.

Godspeed.

 CHAPTER 1 – NTTG - MAYBE 

Latitude 37.14N

Longitude 115.30.40W

Common Name - Area 51

State of Nevada, USA

 1 June 1970

 It was a sunny day in Nevada, not all that all uncommon, thankfully. The scene is the Control Tower. The Tower Controllers, a Captain USAF Air Traffic Controller and a Technical Sergeant (TSgt) B-Stand are well into a routine day; a routine day in which test aircraft, some of which purportedly did not even exist took off and landed, sometimes routinely, but disturbingly and often, under less than ideal situations. For them, safety was not primary; risks were required; risks and the consequences were to be accepted, analysed, corrected for and appreciated. For the Captain, who had served at four Air Bases previously, this place was special. No. Just different.

The intercom buzzed with a call from the Senior Radar Controller in the Ground Controlled Approach Section out on the field.

“Incoming traffic, Tower. Call Sign November 13403. Lima – 188 Charlie. VFR. Heading 240, well below MDA. Coming to you on Tower freq.”

The Captain reacted, “Copy that. He hasn’t called in yet.”

He turned to the Sergeant, “A 188C? Not a lot of those puppies in our outfit. That one of ours?”

“Not listed, sir.”

Time passed as it must, but in the ATC world that is just tens of seconds, max.

“Well. Call home, friendly, will ya? And where the hell are you?”

They looked around expectantly and were not disappointed.

Suddenly, without warning the plane, with USAF symbols clearly marked, flew over at high speed a mere hundred feet or so above the Tower and banked sharply to the north, maintaining its low level.

“Shit! Some of those guys just do not get it,” said the Sergeant, shaking his obviously perplexed head.

“Yes. Not the first to buzz the area. They may need to restrict access to this whole area to keep out the sight-seers.”

“Yeah, but that guy’s no sightseer. He’s one of us!”

“Yes. Well regardless he’s off to see the Wizard of Orion. I don’t get it. Why? Why would you…”

“UFOs. They think we’re building UFOs here.”

“You’re joking.”

“Wait for it man. It’s coming. Big time. Don’t you read the papers, Cap?”

“You’re joking.”

“Yes.  I am, but they ain’t. And he ain’t the first. Last shift I sat three civvies flew in close without any clearance or notice. Didn’t even bother to give us a call-in. The Maj was pissed.”

Unhappily the Captain pulled his mike up to his face, “November 13403, November 13403. This is Tower Control. You are in violation of facility flight rules. Land immediately. I repeat. November 13403, you are to land immediately, runway 04. Cleared to land. No reported traffic.”

He waited a few endless seconds, then, “November 13403, respond. Respond.”

Well off to the north of the airfield several long miles away the monstrous Orion ship could be seen shining in the sun.  The aircraft, heading directly towards it and still low to the ground, went out of their sight.

Nothing heard, again, “November 13403, this is NTTG Tower Control, respond. Respond.” He picked up his binoculars and looked northwards.

Moments later a cloud of black smoke arose to the east of Orion.

The Captain sat down suddenly in his chair. There would be no response. From training, but not from any hope, he pressed the alarm.

“Shit!”

He pushed the button again and then picked up the phone to call the BATCO. “Hello Major.  It’s Captain Gifford here. We’ve just had a plane go down…out by the Orion site. Crash rescue is on their way…November 13403. Lima 188 Charlie… no idea yet but looks bad...no…never called in…wait one…FP says Syracuse Hancock New York…seven and crew of three…will do.”  He put the phone down. “Shit! How many times can you say shit!”

The Sergeant did not respond.

“Get Ops on the line and tell them we’re shut-down TFN.”

“Fifty one too?”

“Yeah. Them too.”

“Ack,” he paused. “You think the TSB will get to see this one?”

“You never know. You just never know. Get on it.”

“Will do.”

Glossary of Terms for TCOM Novels

After discussing TCOM 1 and TCOM 2 with friends (usually older than 65) it has become apparent that I've been living in another universe from them. They either don't know the acronyms or can't imagine them. OMG!! So here are the abbreviations, acronyms and weird words from TCOM 1 and TCOM 2

Ack - Positive Acknowledgement. See NACK

AI - Artificial Intelligence or Augmented Intelligence

AKA - Also Known As

ASAP - As Soon as Possible

A-types - AIs, for general management duties, their technology is generally unsuitable for outside service

ATV - All-Terrain Vehicle

BOD - Beneficial Occupancy Date

BTW - By the Way

B-Types - AIs, their technology is specialised for exploration/general purpose Worker Bees

C7 - a military rifle (Canadian version of the US Army AR-15), probably taken from Orion

C&C - Command and Control

C&S - Command and Status

CAO - Chief Administrative Officer

CB - Chasma Borealis

CERN - Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire

CHM - Command and Habitation Module

CPU - Central Processing Unit

CRT - Cathode Ray Tube, of the technological level of the Orion mission

CSA - Canadian Space Agency

C-types - AIs, their technology is specialised for the construction of Habs, roads, look-off, Condos, Wal-marts, etc

CV - Curriculum Vitae

dBm - decibel-milliwatts

DO - Duty Officer

DOB - Date of Birth

Ds - Diagnostics

D-Types - small AIs with limited intellectual capabilities, their design and construction specialised for inside maintenance, unsuitable for outside service

Emonths - Earth Months, approx half as long as Mars months

EMP - Electromagnetic Pulse

EMF - Electromotive Force

Epub - Electronic Publication

ESA - European Space Agency

ESMS - Environment Status Monitoring Systems

E-types - AIs, their design and construction specialised for inside domestic duties/services, unsuitable for outside service

ETD - Estimated Time of Departure

Eyears - Earth Years, approx half as long as a year on Mars

FF - Fast Fusion

FO - Fibre Optic (communications)

fread - functionally read, like MRI, except one’s thoughts, mood and intentions can be discerned

FYI'nA - for your information and action and, when desired, ‘effing a-hole

GDP - Gross Domestic Product

GM - Genetically Modified

GP - General Purpose (Computer)

GPR - Ground Penetrating Radar

to grok (verb) - how Martians understood others, each other and things, as per Heinleins' Stranger in a Strange Land

GUI - Graphical User Interface

Habs - Habitations suitable for humans to live in for extended periods of time

HSP - High Speed Port

HMI - Human Machine Interface

HUD - Heads-up Display

ID - Identity

IP - Internet Protocol

IR - Infrared

K - OK

LA - Los Angeles

LIDAR - Light Detection and Ranging

LOS - Line of Sight, on Mars, typically less than 4 km to the horizon

LP - Local Port

LSU - Life Support Unit

MAPI - Major Aresologic (Martian) Point of Interest

Matrix - the Internet

MEC - Mass-Energy Converter

M-E-M Converter - Mass to Energy to Mass Converter

MGPS - Mars Global Positioning System

MHM - Main Habitation Module

Milliseconds - one millisecond (.001) is one thousandth of a second

MGS - Mars Global Surveyor

MPD - Multiple Personality Disorder aka Dissociative Identity Disorder

NACK - Negative Acknowledgement

NSV - New Silicon Valley

OMG - Oh My God, I think

OMFG IFRZN RFC here in FVB TTYL - really? Oh My 'effing God. I'm Frozen. Really 'effing Cold here in 'effing Vastitas Borealis. Talk To You Later

OPI - Office of Primary Interest

PDA - Personal Data Assistant

PO - Piss-off

PO'd - Pissed off

POB - Place of Birth

POF - Point of Fact

POV - Point of View

PTB - Powers That Be

R&F - Rich and Famous

RR&F - Really Rich and Famous

RRR&F - Really, Really, Rich and Famous

RadMon - Radiation Monitor

ROAK - Reservoir of All Knowledge (Wikipedia)

ROV - Remote Operated Vehicle

RV - rendezvous

SatCom - Satellite Communications

SBP - Standard Business Practice

SCADA - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Sievert - a unit of radiation

SF - Science Fiction

SOB - yep, you're right

Sol - Earth's Sun

TBD - To Be Determined

TCP - Tenocyclidine, or did I dream it?

TMSN - Type Model Serial Number

TOC - Table of Contents

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object

VHF, UHF, SHF, and EHF - Very High, Ultra High, Super High and Extremely High Frequency

UP - Utopia Planitia

UT - Universal Time aka Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

VB - Vastitas Borealis

Visi-Stim or VisiStim - a 'virtual reality' system for human entertainment

VSWR - Voltage Standing Wave Ratio

WTF - yes, that's it

Music, Me and TCOM1

For me writing in general and in particular my first effort, The Colonisation of Mars (TCOM) has been a profoundly personal experience. Still, I am being educated by the experience. I cannot yet bring myself to call myself a 'writer'. For me, if you don't do it (or anything for that matter) for a living, you are an 'amateur'. I am therefore, an 'amateur writer'. It doesn't mean that amateur anythings can't do 'it' well (and better than some who are pros). Being a 'professional' anything is complicated and how well you do the core activity is only part of it. So is getting paid to do 'it' only a part of it.

The effect of the music I was exposed to, chose to listen to and have stumbled upon throughout my life has been another of those profound things.

There are numerous aspects of music in TCOM that manifest themselves in chapter titles, in direct references by Sam's sometimes drug and alcohol addled mind and inferences in the description of the events by the narrator. If you recognise the source these things are obvious but if you don't, they are possibly meaningless. Even less obvious are the snippets of lyrics that have been lifted from songs and dropped into the story, usually in total separation from any hint of music, again by the narrator. Why? Good question.

Certain of life's scenes, events, moments and actions beg for musical accompaniment. No? Well, they do for me! Just watch a Marvel movie!! Deadpool? Hard to tell what came first: the storyline or the musical score?

Music can move you. We all know that; we have all experienced it to some degree. Listening to some music while far from home in remote and often alien-seeming places has quite a different influence upon my writing than it does while I am comfortably ensconced in my home office. I know; I can see it in my writing. Sometimes when I've looked at it I cannot believe I wrote this or that. I wonder if maybe that is a common experience among writers of sci-fi stories, music and political speeches.

Mike Oldfield is not everyone's favorite but his musical works have definitely influenced my writing. I first heard his Tubular Bells Opus One (debut album, released on May 25 1973) on FM radio while staring endlessly (just like the song seemed to be) out the window of the long-since-demolished McLaughlin Inn in Resolute Bay in April 1976 while attending an Arctic 'Survival' course. 'Eerie' covers that moment nicely. I bought Tubular Bells on 33rpm vinyl in 1978, binge-listened to it (4x) and quickly lost interest in it. I never listened to the 'B' side. I didn't listen to it again until the mid-90s but since then I've re-experienced that Res moment whenever I've listened to Opus One. I bought Oldfield's Guitars (released in 1999), Tre3s Lunas (2002), a 'Collection' (2002), Songs of Distant Earth (2004) and Light and Shade (2005) all within a three month period in 2009. I listened to them on the road when I was writing the initial version of TCOM1 (2008-2011). The lack of lyrics (in most of it) allowed my mind to image Martian scenes without unwanted/un-needed/biased external influence. Try that with disco playing.

Pink Floyd has been an influence too (well, actually, mostly just Roger Waters), but (believe it or not) I wasn't aware of any of their 'stuff' except Comfortably Numb and The Wall (parts of it) until about 2004 despite their early career years lining up well with my youth. Their music is for me, about personal isolation, lost chances, lost time and regret. Hmmm.

Bob Dylan's 'Not Dark Yet' (1997), from Time Out of Mind (1997) is about the same things.

Shadows are falling and I've been here all day

It's too hot to sleep, time is running away

Feel like my soul has turned into steel

I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal

There's not even room enough to be anywhere

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain

Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain

She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind

She put down in writing what was in her mind

I just don't see why I should even care

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well, I've been to London and I've been to gay Paree

I've followed the river and I got to the sea

I've been down on the bottom of a whirlpool of lies (world full of lies, in some versions)

I ain't lookin' for nothing in anyone's eyes

Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

I was born here and I'll die here, against my will

I know it looks like I'm moving but I'm standing still

Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb

I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from

Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

For me, this single song summarised TCOM's main character Sam Aiken’s shared life on Earth and his isolation, alone, on a vacant and numbing Mars, for the last of his 'life'. I had a hard time resisting naming the TCOM chapter where the words were dropped (Life or Something Like it) after that song.

I have lately developed a fondness for "Melodic Techno", listening on YouTube. Usually lyric-less, it calms me, takes me where I want to go when writing, which is anywhere but here and allows me to imagine without being directed, as in directed to 'take the last train to Clarksville', or to 'love somebody, tonight' or 'get back to twerk!'

Back to TCOM. The all-pervasive ambient music (dare I say Elevator Music?) that is continuously there in the MHM (certainly), the Tube (certainly) and the Rollagon (possibly) is intended to subtly influence the Colonists' moods and actions. We are all aware that many 'expressions' from pop music have worked their way into everyday conversation. What? No? Well, they will have by 2040! Sam Aiken is, regardless, unable to escape the music of his life. Like all of us, he was exposed to, chose to listen to and stumbled upon music throughout his life, too. He suffers from several minor mental conditions (that are more common than most people believe): he hears voices and odd sounds; tastes words (piney, acid, bitter) and has the normal deterioration of memory that comes with aging. He is highly self-critical and unforgiving of himself; he suffers from being deprived of human companionship; the AIs are 'not enough, not enough'. 'His' music plays in his head continually, probably to drown out the multiple condemning voices he hears. When he goes off on a rant or gets hyper-emotional, you (I) can see 'his' music spilling onto the page. Given my life experiences with music it is perhaps not surprising that the main character of my first novel is like this.

The following is a list of musical references in TCOM. Many of the chapter titles come from what I was listening to when I wrote that part. There were more, but many were too personal to me or too vague to be easily understood even by a fan of that particular piece, so I took I them out. Page numbers are from the 2019 TCOM pdf version downloaded from Smashwords. Other ebook formats may differ slightly.

Pg 14 - '(Like) the club tie, the easy smile, the firm handshake, the sudden (a certain) look in the eye' from Dogs, Animals (1977), Pink Floyd - Roger Waters/David Gilmour

Pg 109 – Chapter title 'Light in the Tunnel', from Tom Cochrane and Red Ryder (1986), Tom Cochrane

Pg 146 - Chapter title 'Surfing', suggested by Surfing, from Guitars (1999), Mike Oldfield

Pg 148 - Chapter title - Four Winds, suggested by Four Winds, from Guitars (1999), Mike Oldfield

Pg 169 – 'running down 101' (or ‘running down 401’ for me), from The Barricades of Heaven, Looking East (1996), Jackson Browne

Pg 170-172 – Chapter title – Gethsemane and chapter theme suggested by Gethsemane, from The Old Kit Bag (2005), Richard Thompson

Pg 175 – Chapter title - Summit Day, suggested by Summit Day, from Guitars (1999), Mike Oldfield

Pg 179 – Chapter title - Maybe It's Alright After All, from Maybe It's Alright After All, Sonora (2001), Sonora

Pg 193 – Chapter Title - Any Colour You Like, from The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd

Pg 195 – Chapter title – Watching and Waiting, from To Our Children's, Children's, Children (1979), The Moody Blues

Pg 227 - Sorrow references - Sorrow, from A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), Pink Floyd

Pg 249 – Chapter title - Coming Back to Life, from The Division Bell (1994), Pink Floyd

Pg 263 – Chapter Title – Incantations, from Incantations (1978), Mike Oldfield

Pg 269 - Chapter title – To France, from Mike Oldfield Collection (2002)

Pg 269 – Emotion Blue, “I read your letter, it must have been a hundred times, before the words fell from the page” (Ocean Blues), from Tom Cochrane and Red Ryder (1986), Tom Cochrane.

- 'Nobody else could make him happy....', from You, from Best of Bonnie Raitt (2002), Bob Thiele

– 'The Untouchable One', “She's her own girl, her own design, she holds her head high, hides her scars just fine”, and “She's been through a lot, you can tell, as hard as it gets baby, she holds it well, don't try to change her, no, she will not bend.” from Tom Cochrane and Red Ryder (1986), Tom Cochrane

Pg 271 – Chapter title, theme of chapter, some text and lyrics, from Sky Blue and Black, from I'm Alive (1993), Jackson Browne. This one hurts.

Pg 274 – 'Miracle', from Divinity Burst (1993)

- 'star was light in a silvery night....' from Moonlight Shadow, Mike Oldfield Collection (2002)

- 'big money.....', from The Big Money, from Power Windows (1985), Rush

Pg 275 Chapter title – The Gate, from Mike Oldfield Collection (2002)

Pg 276 – 'isn't it strange how dreams fade and shimmer', from Moonlight Shadow, from Mike Oldfield Collection (2002)

Pg 277 Chapter title – Running on Empty, from Running on Empty (1997), Jackson Browne

Pg 279 – Chapter title – 'Clocks' and words, from A Rush of Cold Blood to the Head (2004), Cold Play and Keep Talking, from The Division Bell (1994), Pink Floyd

Pg 280-281 – theme and words, from Not Dark Yet, from Time Out of Mind (1997), Bob Dylan

Pg 289 – Chapter title - First Steps, suggested by First Steps, from Light and Shade (1995) Mike Oldfield

Pg 291 – Chapter title - Sunset, suggested by Sunset, from Light and Shade (1995) Mike Oldfield

Pg 292 – Chapter title - Coming Back to Life, suggested by lyrics of song of same name, from The Division Bell (1994) Pink Floyd’

Progress is not just a spaceship

Well, I went to Res 11 Mar 2019 and after getting turned around due to an aircraft malfunction and having to return to Iqaluit, got in on the 12th.

Nice weather - just a mere -28C, mostly calm winds and no new snow while we were there. Iqaluit was a stunner - so little snow that you can’t really (easily) go out of town on a dogsled/snow-mobile. The roads are virtually snow free. The rolling hills are largely snow-free too. Of course all that can disappear overnight and March is not spring. We’ll see how it goes. Lot’s of time for things to ‘get normal’.

Unfortunately the lack of trauma in Res resulted in no progress re what to write next, other than to work on Earth Abides but Snow…such as to make another version in which the world has for all intents and purposes, ended. Staring at the ice of Lancaster Sound and pondering crossing it, in any season, is a bit of an eye opener. I did that and it’s daunting to someone who wants to stay realistic in the stories.

In winter, you’d better be fully supported. In summer, you better be prepared to live off the land, for months. Not sure I need to do either right now. Well see.

Larry

Well it begins

Hello,

Well at long last I have put up my own website. Not that Lulu and Smashwords are not good places to publish, but I guess advertising is not their forte (nor do I suppose is it free).

So here are my two Mars books and a collection of short stories. And some photos of my Mars on Earth - Resolute Bay NU Canada

Among a number of life type issues I have been going through these past few years is what to write next.

Projects I am considering are:

TCOM 3 - the third and hopefully final installment. Who shall I model my book after? Sheckley or Asimov? Me?

Orion - about the ill-fated nuclear bomb-powered Mars mission from the mid-seventies? Started it in TCOM. Added a bit in TCOM2.

Earth Abides, but snow comes and gets you - a full length novel based on the premise of the short story avail here. But only an idiot (or a sadly desperate man) would try and walk out of Res. Still, apocalypse stories are so much fun to write. Just watch Deadpool 2.

Well, I am going up to Res in Feb for ten days and hope to come back with the answer. Res has always been a source of inspiration for me. Well see.

Well see.

Larry

24 Jan 2019 (do I actually have to put the date in or is it….