“Who am I speaking to?” he asked into his headset.
“This is Jason Cummings, fueling specialist for Apollo,” the man said from Cape Canaveral.
“Jason, this is Hugh Evans. Do we have a second backup to the Ares launches besides the Apollo?”
“Uh, no sir, we don’t,” the young engineer answered, as Hugh looked over at his old friend and shook his head, wondering when people would look at the obvious before committing themselves to a course of action.
“Then if there are fuel leaks on the Apollo, could you fix them in the time frame we have before the mission would be scrubbed and the failure of Dark Star-which by the way is not an option-would have to be contemplated?”
“You know we couldn’t, sir, but for safety’s sake I suggest-”
“Listen to me very carefully. The safety standards for launches are all well and good, but this is a mission that has to come off. The president believes we have to have people up there and that means that everyone involved with Dark Star has just become expendable, are we clear on that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then we start pumping O and H into the Atlas at the appointed time, and that will be exactly thirty minutes after the Ares vehicles are airborne.” Evans started to slam his hand down on the COM switch, but then he looked over at the older engineer. He smiled. He reached out and flipped the connection off as easily as a light switch.
“Kids,” he said with a large smile. “You would think they were averse to flying by the seat of their pants or something.”
The engineer returned to his station as Hugh finally stood.
“Give me a go no go for launch of Ares I and Ares V. Ares I platform?”
“We have a go, Flight.”
They went down the list of telemetry stations until all but the shuttle’s final go no go questions had been answered. As Hugh looked at the last four command questions on the list, it was the final two that worried him far more than anything else.
“CAPCOM Dark Star 1?” he said, looking down at the console and concentrating on the last two questions on the well-thought-out list.
“CAPCOM, Dark Star 1 -Go-Flight.”
“CAPCOM Dark Star 2 -Go-Flight.”
Hugh looked around once the two grounded astronauts from the old shuttle missions called out their telemetry status and his eyes settled on the floor below, at all of the other telemetry stations and technicians that would see the missions through to the Moon. Then he asked the last question of the men who had nothing to do with the flights except for their very protection.
“ Hammer flight, are you in position and are you a go?” he asked, closing his eyes.
“This is Hammer flight one actual, we are orbiting and in position-we are a go.”
On one of the large monitors there was an aerial view of four F-22 Raptors as they orbited just above Monterey, California. They were in a position to attempt an intercept of any aircraft or missile that threatened the four flights.
“ Ticonderoga, are you mission-capable, over?” Hugh asked.
“This is USS Ticonderoga. We are at station and we are tracking, and we are a go for intercept,” came the reply from the most advanced Aegis missile cruiser in the world.
Hugh nodded his head, never in his life thinking they would need the military in such force for the launching of Americans into space. The world was a different place than it had been only a few weeks before.
“Vandenberg, they’re all yours,” Hugh said as he sat down. “Godspeed, Dark Star.”
The environmental suits had not changed much since the mid-seventies. With the exception of computer readouts, a video screen, a three-backup safety and oxygen system, and the input of a virtual reality display for mapping inside the helmet, Sarah felt like she was Buzz Aldrin.
As the twelve astronauts of the first leg of the Florida end of Dark Star prepared for their transport to pad 1-A, they all had thoughts rolling in their heads. They knew they were backups to the backups, but after what the commander of the mission had said earlier, they had all prepared as though they were the last hope of the nation in getting to the moon. The space shuttle Atlantis was waiting for its crew to board.
As Sarah was helped to her feet in the bulky suit, she looked over at her friends Jason and Will. She smiled as the helmet was placed on her head and she took what would be her last breath of earthbound air for the foreseeable future. She saw Ryan and Mendenhall do the same. As her eyes roamed over the rest of her crew, she settled for watching the always silent men of the 5th Special Forces Group that had been chosen from a larger group of volunteers for the hazardous mission. Unlike Mendenhall, Ryan, and herself, these men had the confident look of people who followed orders and yet were capable of quick thinking and fast reactions in difficult situations. Sarah knew they were just like Jack. She also knew that these men were going into a hostile environment that was just as deadly as any human foe they could ever face.
“Okay, people, give me a thumbs-up when you’re called,” said the ground supervisor and environmental specialist, “STS Atlantis Commander Johnson?”
The commander pointed his thumb in the air.
“STS pilot Walker?”
Sarah watched each man as they went down the line.
She watched the eyes of Will and Ryan as they waited their turn. Their stiffness in their suits made Sarah love them even more as it reminded her of two small boys in oversized suit and ties awaiting their turn at their first day of school.
“Mission specialist Mendenhall?”
Will raised his right thumb into the air almost too fast, but held it steady as he smiled back at Sarah.
“Lunar lander copilot and mission specialist Ryan?” the technician called, shaking his head as Ryan held up not one but both thumbs, and Sarah could have sworn she heard the muffled words, “We’re all going to die.”
“Gentlemen and lady,” the ground specialist said. “The ground crew wishes you luck and prays you have a safe journey.”
As they waited, the circle broke up. Men from the old days of the Apollo program, people who had done the preparation of astronauts in those heady days, swarmed the group of twelve and started shaking their hands and patting them on the back of their oxygen tanks. From the look in their eyes, Sarah could see that each of them would have traded places with anyone of the crew. She felt proud to have been trained by them in their environmental classes and she was happy to have known the men of the old school.
“Crew of Atlantis, crew of Dark Star 3, man the transport, please.”
As the group lined up to leave the prep building, Sarah paused a moment and looked at Will and Ryan.
“Don’t say it,” Will said. “I wish the colonel and the captain were here too. I would feel safer about having our asses lit on fire and shot off to God-knows-what fate if they were. But-”
“They aren’t here,” Sarah finished for her friend.
The three Event Group lieutenants smiled and Ryan gestured for Sarah to take the lead toward the end of the twelve-man group.
“Ladies first.”
Hugh Evans stood as the ten-second countdown for Dark Star 1 commenced. He closed his eyes for five of those seconds, thinking about Stan Nathan, the man who had been ruthlessly murdered in his own driveway just a week earlier. He opened his eyes and saw the giant Ares V. Then he looked at Ares I in the next monitor. Both platforms were brimming with the mechanics who would send Americans back to the Moon. In the distance he could see Discovery and Endeavour as they waited like NFL lineman itching to get into the game. The Dark Star mission was about to commence.
“Six, five, we have main engine start, four, three, two, one, we have solid booster start.”