John Ringo - Von Neumann’s War

“Dr. Reynolds,” Fisher said, sighing and holding up his hand.

“Go,” Roger said, shaking his head.

“SPARCLE’s not off-the-shelf and has never been successfully tested,” Fisher pointed out. “What if it’s a dud?”

“Then it’s a dud,” Roger said. “If we have active recon, that would be good. If we don’t, we can live with it. Continuing…” he muttered, looking down at his notes.

“Although we’ll have had months to keep the batteries charged, just in case, we might as well also try and keep the solar arrays continuously tracking the Sun. I originally considered the use of radioisotope thermal generators, but haven’t found any available on such short notice. We could buy some plutonium from the Russians, but that might tip our hand and the nuclear power nuts would probably hear about it, increasing the media presence of the launch. So, solar power it is, again, unless somebody comes up with something brilliant in its place.

“It’s our plan that Percival will continue to keep its science instruments pointed at Mars with it in the center of the field of view. We’ll use the positions of Phobos and Deimos as part of our GN C knowledge. The positions of the two moons along with star tracker information should give us extremely detailed attitude determination capability. Once Mars is larger than the field of view of the main telescope system we’ll use star trackers for attitude determination and we’ll slew the main telescope objective side-to-side via the AD CS system in order to capture images of various targets outside the field of view. We’ll maintain this operation as long as the probe is in range of Mars. Again, if anybody has any clever and lightweight ideas that can be done quickly to increase mission operations time, please let us know.”

And the briefing went on.

The meetings lasted from eight-thirty each morning until past midnight each of the three days. By the end of the third day a very detailed spacecraft mission architecture and design were completed. Details of the WBS and the task team leaders were complete and each of the hundred or so attendees of the meeting left with multimillion dollar subcontracts and a list of near impossible action items to be completed by middle of the following week. All said and done, the Neighborhood Watch executive committee — which consisted of the DDNRO, the commanding general of the Redstone Arsenal, the director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the project scientist, Roger — were tired — very tired — but they were also pleased with their progress. The DDNRO had to brief the President by Monday and so the executive committee worked through the weekend developing the presentation for the President’s Daily Brief. Guerrero planned to deliver it in person. Roger planned to take a nap.

Charlotte could hear her mom’s angry voice through the walls of her room. She tried to surf the Internet and ignore the boisterous argument from downstairs, but it wasn’t helping. It was obvious to Charlotte that it was her dad on the phone — only he could make her mother that angry. Charlotte continued to ignore the heated phone conversation between her parents. To keep her mind off them she visited her usual favorite websites: the Space Telescope Science Institute, the MAPUG site, the SETI League, Kazaa, then the University of Colorado’s Athletic Department. Charlotte had hopes of getting a softball scholarship someday, but she was afraid that if she didn’t grow a few more inches during her junior and senior years in high school she wouldn’t be tall enough to be scholarship competitive. She then clicked through the physics department’s site and gave up. The noise was just too much.

“What do you mean it’s okay to miss a few days of school! Don’t you realize she’s worried about keeping up her grades for a scholarship and that finals are at the end of the month? No, you probably don’t because you never come around, do you?” her mother screamed into the phone. Charlotte could image in her mind’s eye her mother tapping her left foot and resting her right fist on her hip.

Charlotte’s instant messenger dinged at her.

Hello AstroGirl39, what’s up! The message was from Tina.

Hey DingBat101! My mom and dad are at it again! she typed.

600 miles wasn’t far ’nuf for those 2, huh : ).

“Damnit, John! You just can’t show up like that and expect her to drop everything just for you. She has a life of her own you know.”

Yeah, lots a luv between ’em. Charlotte shook her head as she typed.

Yeah, that’s how my parents were just after the divorce. It gets better.

How r u? Charlotte typed.

Got my braces adjusted today, so my mouth hurts. It looks like soup for a few days. Tina replied.

Sorry.

No big. U r lucky you got straight teeth.

Yeah.

Got news on the Michael situation!

Yes? Charlotte typed reluctantly but anxiously.

“Well, whatever! Just let her make the decision for herself.”

He asked my older brother if U were INTERESTED in anybody right now. So, R U ;-) ???

Oh My God! What did he tell him?

He said he didn’t think so. I told bro to tell him that U like him.

U did not!

I did.

“Charlotte! Your father is on the phone for you,” her mother yelled upstairs at her.

Call U later. Gotta go. B’bye.

Charlotte clicked X on the Internet browser and stretched out across her bed, knocking over the Louisville Slugger that was leaning on her nightstand, then picked up the phone, “Okay, I got it.”

“Charlotte, honey?”

“Hi Daddy, what’s up?” she asked.

“How’d the ccd camera work out for your telescope, slugger?”

“It works great, thanks! Odd thing though, I think Mars is turning gray or something,” she said.

“Hmmm,” John muttered. “Could have been atmospheric interference; perhaps it was lightly cloudy and you just didn’t notice.”

“Mmmm, nah, don’t think it was. What’s all the business with Mom about?” Charlotte asked, wondering at the comment. There was no way that clouds could cause the changes she’d seen.

“Yeah, about that, your mom just doesn’t understand sometimes about great opportunities and priorities. Listen, I’ve been down in Huntsville, Alabama, all this week — it’s a neat little town. I’ve got to run up to Denver and see Tina’s mom for a day or so, then it’s back to Alabama late next week for some meetings and I thought you might could go with me.”

“Dad, I’d love to see you, but why on Earth would I want to go to Hicksville, Alabama?” she asked.

“ Hunts ville, Alabama, and you’d be surprised what all is there. How’d you like to go to Spacecamp at the NASA Space and Rocket Center where they built the rockets that went to the Moon while I’m at work during the days? You’d have to miss about three days of school, but I could call your principal and talk to him about it. God knows it would be educational. Alice is coming down, too. I thought you might get Tina to come down and you two could go to Spacecamp together and hang out at the hotel pool, the space museum — they have some pretty cool rides. And there are a couple of malls a short cab ride from the hotel.”

“I’ll go if Tina goes; I’d probably get bored out of my head by myself in the daytime.” Charlotte thought that getting out of town now that Tina had spilled the beans to Michael that she liked him wasn’t such a bad idea. “Can we really go to Spacecamp?”