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Ten Thousand Martians

Chapter I

    Returning to the bleachers with his third root beer that afternoon, Mark sat and looked through the humid air across the green field at the white and black monolith.  The Goliath rocket sat on the launch pad, poised for another attempt at making history.  It carried the first shipment of cargo for the crew that would retrieve it almost three years later.  For three days Mark had been sitting in these bleachers, but as it was the Goliath’s first launch, the engineers were being extra careful.  Two launches were announced, delayed, and then cancelled.  Perhaps number three would be the lucky one.  As everyone knew, the Boss didn’t like to take chances, so Mark wasn’t going to get too excited until he actually saw Goliath in the air.

    Looking for something to do to pass the time, Mark opened up his laptop and found a news website.  He clicked on the latest video report about the launch, interested in how the media was handling the three day delay.  It showed a reporter interviewing the CEO of Interplanetary Transportation Inc., Ian Flint.  This got Mark’s attention because there was just something about the Boss that at once excited and put a person at ease – something about the passion in his voice, the trustworthiness in his tone.

    “Mr. Flint, can you tell our viewers why it’s taking so long to launch your rocket, the Goliath?” asked the reporter somewhat accusingly.

    “Well, frankly we could have launched it two days ago with little risk.  In fact, most of my engineers advised me to do so,” replied Ian Flint.

    “So, what’s the hold up?”

    “As I’m sure you know, this is the very first launch of the Goliath rocket.  First launches usually get delayed.  It is also the biggest rocket ever built and key to our settlement initiative.  We don’t want anything to go wrong.  I personally called for the delay after hearing reports of a minor problem in our backup guidance system on the third stage.”

    “And the second delay?”

    “You see, that’s why I’m glad we delayed a little.  Yesterday, after a thorough review, we found that the primary guidance system was susceptible to a similar failure, but both have been fixed and we should be on our way to Mars within the hour.”

    “Well, there you have it folks, straight from the horse’s mouth,” the reporter said turning to the camera, “get ready to cheer at the liftoff of the first cargo flight for the first permanent colonists of Mars!”

    Turning back to her guest the reporter thanked Mr. Flint then asked, “Any closing comments for the millions of viewers watching this historic event?”

    “I’d just like to thank all those who have believed that we could do this and who have lent their support to our effort.  Today marks the end of a long hard struggle to fund, design, and develop the vehicles for our settlement program.  It also marks the beginning of another struggle – the struggle to populate a new world.  I want to tell all the young people watching this today, ‘you can live on another planet!’  When I was a child it was just a dream, but it is your future if you want it.  On to Mars!”

    Mark loved hearing Ian Flint speak.  What he said wasn’t that creative or new, but he said it with such feeling!

    Sipping on his root beer, Mark browsed through the website’s information about Goliath.  There were always corrections to be made, and Mark loved doing it.  He found the first mistake almost immediately.  They had mixed up the lifting capacity of the Goliath.  Instead of listing how much mass it could put into low earth orbit (LEO) as 200 metric tons it had used 106 metric tons – the mass of the vehicle without fuel.  He started composing an email to the webmaster immediately.  Bad information was just a pet peeve of his.

Half way through his email he heard thunder.  Looking up he thought, how can there be thunder on a sunny afternoon?  Then he saw everyone in the bleachers on their feet.  The Goliath had already cleared the tower and was rising slowly into the sky.  He had missed the countdown over the loudspeaker.  How could I zone out writing an email, he thought.  But, he folded up his laptop and enjoyed the view.  The Goliath, painted white and black in the fashion of the old Saturn V, was ten meters wide like the Saturn V, but kept that diameter almost all the way to the top where it smoothly curved into a blunt nose.  Strapped to the sides of the rocket were four slender liquid fueled boosters in pairs on either side.

The Goliath seemed too heavy for the four pillars of fire it was ascending on until one remembered the transparent flames of the first stage’s four engines.  Angling over the Atlantic, the Goliath thundered ever higher, ever faster toward its destination.  In a sudden flurry, all four boosters separated like the opening of a flower’s petals.  The rocket continued climbing, dropping the first stage into the sea, followed later by the second.  Within minutes the troublesome third stage had put Cargo Zero into an elliptical orbit around Earth.

For hours afterward the crowd of spectators milled about discussing the launch, space, and the future, but Mark had no time for this.  Rushing to his new destination, he marveled over the same things the crowd was discussing.  He had seen some Ares launches before, and he had seen some Energia launches on the television, but this topped them all.  The shear size and power of the Goliath was enough to awe, but the emotional element – this was a colony ship – was what inspired.  He knew that it was just a cargo ship, but it was proof that humans were going out into space to stay.  It was only two more years until the first settlers would set off to Mars.

Before he knew it, Mark had crossed the field between the bleachers and the launch control facilities.  After passing through two security checkpoints he entered the main building.  Looking up at the ITI logo, a black and white checkerboard pattern reminiscent of the old Saturn V, he shook his head.  Who would have thought that a private company would be the first to send settlers to another planet?  Well, he didn’t care who did it; he was just glad to be on board.

As he entered the observation room Ian Flint came over to him immediately.  They shook hands and smiled briefly before Mr. Flint rushed him over to a crowd of smiling faces.  He was now part of a group of thirty people facing another group armed with cameras.

“I present to you the pioneers of Mars!” Ian Flint announced ceremoniously.

The cameras erupted in waves of flashes and clicks nearly blinding all their smiling targets.  This was the thing Mark hated most about being on the team, and it was part of why he had watched the launch from the bleachers.  He also liked the bleachers because that’s where he used to watch launches as a kid.

After the pictures all the astronaut settlers talked among themselves until the Boss pulled them away one by one to meet a V.I.P., usually a congressperson or foreign diplomat.  While awaiting his turn at company PR, Mark talked to Rosalía Arellano and Vicente Marquez.  It was a while before he was called, but finally Mark was pulled aside.
“Me gustaría introducirle a Marcos Morgan,” Ian Flint said in fluent Spanish to the guest at his side.

“Presidente Fuentes, mucho gusto en conocerle,” Mark said recognizing the President of Mexico.