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 I realised my concept of leadership and my very concept of ‘service’ was outdated.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.”