John Ringo - Von Neumann’s War

“Yeah, well, at your age it’s the Space Academy actually and it’s only three days, but it’ll be a blast.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Great. I’ll come by Tuesday after school to help you pack. Well, let’s see.” There was a pause as her dad checked something. “It looks like our flight is first thing Wednesday morning and we’ll come back on Sunday.”

“I’ll call Tina and see if she wants to go. B’bye daddy, I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“Who loves you, baby?” Charlotte laughed and screamed at the same time as the Moonshot launched the two teens ten stories straight up at over three gees. At the top of the ride there was a split second of freefall that made her stomach lurch. Charlotte was fine but she hoped that Tina didn’t throw up all over her light blue astronaut flight suit.

“I’m gonna kill youuu!” Tina screamed as the freefall broke and the ride jerked them back downward.

Tina jumped from her seat the second the ride stopped and stumbled around, dizzy for a moment. Charlotte didn’t appear to be affected by the thrill ride so she held her friend’s arm and told the Space Academy instructor that she needed a break.

“Ten minutes, then back around by the Saturn V out front,” their instructor told them.

Charlotte nodded and led Tina by the arm under the rocket engines of the Saturn IB and to the picnic area not far from the ride.

“Wheeeww!” Charlotte wiped her brow. “That was cool. You okay?”

“Yeah, that was all right. I wasn’t expecting that thing to shoot off straight up that hard, wow!”

“Well, it’s called the Moonshot, you know.”

“Whatever,” Tina was finally catching her breath. “I could use something to drink.”

“Hey, I’ll get it, be right back.” Charlotte could tell that Tina was still a little pale and was just trying to be bold in front of her. That was Tina’s way. Charlotte had learned that years ago and just decided it was easier to play along than to call her on her weakness.

“Here ya go,” Charlotte returned with soft drinks and handed one to Tina who was looking at her watch. “We gotta get back.”

“You okay?”

“Hey, it’s me.” Tina punched her on the arm, causing Charlotte to slosh her soda on her hand.

Charlotte just shook her head back and forth muttering “Dingbat” under her breath.

At the front of the George C. Marshall Space and Rocket Center the rest of the teen Space Academy group had collected and was being shushed by their instructors. The instructor was going on about the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo program, then pointed to an elderly man with wild white hair and white fuzzy sideburns.

“Okay, now we’re fortunate enough today to have a very special guest here.” The head instructor shook hands with the white-haired man. “The man who designed and built the first commercial spacecraft, from Scaled Composites, Mr. Burt Rutan.”

“Thank you, Jan. Hi everybody.” Mr. Rutan began a short talk about how he had led his team of engineers to build a completely different type of space program than the kind that NASA had done. He talked about how exciting it would be to soon have hotels in space and tourists going to the Moon. He talked about his little composite spacecraft and how there were very few metal components on it. Then he asked if there were any questions. Charlotte raised her hand first and Burt pointed to her.

“Yes, umm, what do you mean by a composite spacecraft with little metal in it? Is it plastic or something?”

“That’s a good question. It isn’t plastic; actually it’s more like fiberglass. In some cases we take a fiber cloth made of something like the Kevlar that bulletproof vests are made of, then we paint it with an epoxy resin kind of like the epoxy glue you can buy. When that hardens, it’s lightweight but really strong. In other cases we mix up a resin and paint it onto a mold, let it dry, then repeat the process over and over until we build up enough of the material. The result is that the body and wings of the vehicle can be made cheaper, stronger, and lighter than, say, the body of the space shuttle orbiter. It’s called a composite because it’s just that, a composite of multiple materials — fibers, resins, and hardening agents.”

Rutan answered a few more questions from the group. One in particular from one of the know-it-alls in the group was funny.

“Mr. Rutan, on the first flight of Spaceship One your pilot released a bunch of Skittles inside the cockpit. That seems dangerous to me — what if they’d have gotten into the instruments?”

“Hmm, first of all, it was M Ms, I believe, and secondly they melt in your mouth not in your spaceship.” He chuckled.

Then there was Tina’s question.

“Hey, I gotta know something. You guys keep talking about this being the rocket that went to the Moon here.” She pointed at the giant Saturn V behind Rutan. “If that’s the rocket that went to the Moon there, how’d they bring it back and set it up here?”

“Dingbat!” Charlotte coughed.

“So far, Mr. President, Project Neighborhood Watch is going well,” Ronny said, trying not to yawn. Yawning in the President’s face was considered a faux pas. “I believe we’ve put together an excellent team, developed a logical plan, and are implementing it with no glitches at this point. We should hit our launch window of August twenty-first.”

“This looks good, Ronny. Are there any problems that the White House can help with?” The President continued to thumb through the Daily Brief.

“None that I can foresee, Mr. President,” Ronny replied. “But the engineering on this is going to be complex. If anything comes up, I’ll forward it to your attention.”

“Good. One more thing, Ronny.”

“Yes, sir?” the DDNRO asked.

“Has the situation on Mars, well, has it changed any?”

“Yes, sir, it has, but only for the worse. The change is more or less visible to the naked eye at this point, sir.”

“I see.”

Ret Ball: Well, friends. I will have to say that although I respected my good friend Megiddo’s insight, I never really and truly could prove he was right. But Hiowa Lend, our investigative journalist, has been investigating the Mars phenomena and she believes she has uncovered something startling. Go ahead, Hiowa, you are on the Truth Nationwide.

Hiowa Lend: Thanks, Ret, and that is absolutely correct. I recently hired several professional astronomers to make observations of Mars with their telescopes from professional observatories at three different universities across the country. And I can tell you definitively that Mars is indeed changing colors. The astronomers tell me that the surface color albedo has changed. The albedo is the measurement that astronomers use to describe the color and brightness of an astronomical object. And the astronomers I’ve talked with tell me that Mars has changed. Changed dramatically.

Ret Ball: That is astounding, Hiowa! Let’s get them on the air and let them tell us about it.

Hiowa Lend: Well, Ret, that is the catch. It seems that none of them will come forward and speak publicly due to fear of professional ridicule and being ostracized from the community.

Ret Ball: Isn’t that amazing? I mean, if something is a fact, it’s a fact. What harm could come of reporting it?

Hiowa Lend: Well Ret, none of my sources will volunteer to come forward, but I can assure you that they’re all well-respected astronomers.

Ret Ball: Perhaps Megiddo was right. What if this really is a CIA cover-up and a right-wing conspiracy?

Hiowa Lend: My sentiments exactly, Ret.