Space Chronicles The Beginning

Chapter 4

Are physical forces alone at work there, or has evolution begotten something more complex, something not unakin to what we know on Earth as life? It is in this that lies the peculiar interest of Mars.

            - Percival Lowell -

The dawn of a new day began with a hazy California sun poking up from a desolate desert. This spectacular visual treat was accompanied by the keen of hawks circling above in a lazy summer sky while searching for careless lizards.

Inside the X-1001, the mood was decidedly more anxious. The idea of traveling to Mars in two days sounded like pure madness. This amazing new technology was unbelievable and NASA was wary of the implied dangers that were inherent in this new craft. They were accustomed to intricate and comprehensive risk analyses of any and all hardware. There was no doubt about it: the risk factor was immense, but the brave crew wouldn't miss it for the world.

"Houston reports that we are cleared for launch in two minutes, Angie."

"Thank you, Delphi."

"You are welcome, Angie."

Marty turned to look at George, Uma and Ferris. "We'll be accelerating to 2.4 million kilometers per hour. This will require about two hours. Please remain buckled up in your seats until the burn is complete."

"What's our ETA for Mars?" George asked with an almost imperceptible quiver of his lower lip.

"We should be in orbit around Mars by tomorrow evening. Mars will be in midday at our designated landing site."

George frowned. "That’s assuming we don't run into something."

"If we run into anything above a few dozen centimeters, we'll give Earth viewers one hell of a light show."

"Launch will commence in ten seconds, Angie."

"Acknowledged," Angie said before turning to smile at her crew. "Ignore him. He's just teasing."

The engines fired up and the ship began a swift trip down runway-3. Before the crewmembers could tense abdominal muscles, the ship had already shot straight up to the stratosphere. Images of the ground on the main screen rapidly shrunk to a blue-white globe with patches of brown. Earth's image quickly took up less and less space on the screen.

George's eyes widened. "Wow! We're really putting the pedal to the metal this time."

"Mars is a lot further than the Moon," Marty said. "The sooner we achieve full velocity, the better off we'll be."

"Why is that?"

Several loud bangs and a sound that resembled hail impacting on a tin roof interrupted the conversation.

"For one thing, there'll be less of that," Marty said. "When we're traveling at full velocity we cut down the probable attack angle of space debris."

"Assuming what velocity?"

"I think it's around 170 kilometers per second. Most meteors don't go above 113."

George blew a nervous breath. "Do you realize that we'll be going over 640 kilometers per second when we reach full velocity."

Marty laughed. "Hell, that's coasting. Theoretically, we should be able to approach 17.000 kilometers per second, although, I wouldn't recommend it in or anywhere near this solar system."

"What if this Antigrav of yours fails?"

Marty turned to look at Ferris and smiled. She was an African woman, and her complexion was darker than Uma's—a nice dark chocolate. She had large expressive eyes and an atypical thin nose but her lips were lusciously full. Obviously, she was a mix, of what he wasn't sure.