Eric Flint - Threshold

Speaking as a military man, they've got Tinkertoys, Legos, and an Erector Set to hold 'em together." He pointed. "Look at their so-called 'habitat ring.' Looks like a bunch of tuna cans linked together with duct tape and silver straws. That's because what they've got are basically just standard Ares habitat cans, not all that much different from the ones Zubrin first drew up almost half a century ago. The whole central body there"-he pointed at the boxy gray skeleton in the middle of the screen-"that's just some beams to hold all the pieces together. They'll be using something like an inflatable tank to hold their fuel together, I'd guess, or maybe some reusable solid tanks. The point is, sir, that thing can't matchNike in any respect. Especially since you got us a second engine." The sight of theNobel, looking rather like the result of a high-school science project to create a model of a space station, had thawed the atmosphere considerably. Ken no longer felt that his job was immediately in jeopardy. "You mentioned that you thought this situation offers advantages, General Hathaway?" Jensen said.

"Explain." "If that thing actually works, sir, it takes a big load off of us. We've been committed to being their long-range support since the Institute got established, because there just wasn't anyone else available. Once they have their own ship working, we're free to work more for the United States' direct interests. Sure, we'll still be doing runs to Phobos Station and the Institute. We've got plenty of reasons to do so, and we'll have to help with the short distance ferrying anyway." Hathaway flashed a momentary smile at the realization he was now calling Earth-to-Moon orbit hops "short."

Before he could continue, one of Jensen's analysts spoke up. "What you're saying is they won'tneed us just to survive any more. They can send their own ship on their own errands, ferry their own supplies back and forth, and in general deal with all the logistical headaches we've had to handle the past few years. And welcome to them." Jensen nodded. "All right, General Hathaway. I understand your points. The reports from Mr. Keldering were perhaps overly alarmist. So you don't see anything to worry about in this situation?" "Nothing whatsoever, sir," Ken said. "We have a battleship and they have a rowboat. Let's just hope they don't spring a leak rowing back and forth-that would require us to rescue them."

PART II:

Plausible Deniability, n: positioning oneself such that one can permit actions to be taken which would be politically damaging, but in such a manner as to allow one to deny any knowledge of, or connection to, the actions in question.

Chapter 6 "Prepare for spin-up. Nike, are you on station?" Jackie waited for the response. "Around behind Phobos in case of disaster, yes, ma'am,"Ken Hathaway's voice responded. "I don't think you had to getthat far away, Ken!" Jackie responded in a nettled tone. "Probably not. But probably nothing bad's going to happen, either, and we're not betting on that. Nikeis the U.S. A's only major interplanetary vessel, and Uncle Sam isn't paying me to take risks with it." "Especially," she said, "for a rowboat." Hathaway clucked his tongue."Look, I don't control what the NSA says in public. Been me, even if I thought that, I'd have kept my own counsel." " 'Even if I thought that,' " Jackie jeered. "Ken, I'll bet you're the one who first coined that charming term. Applied to us, anyway." A diplomatic silence followed. Jackie smiled. She was pretty sure that Hathaway had, in fact, been the one to put the idea in Jensen's head that theNobel was a "rowboat." He'd used the derisive term himself in private, after all, when joking with his friends in Ares. He wasn't going to admit it, of course. Jackie was quite sure that if Hathaway had done so, he'd been aiming to relieve or at least deflect tensions between the current U.S. administration and Ares and the IRI. But the same political skill that would have led him to do so-you didn't get to be a general in the U.S. armed forces without such skills-would also keep his mouth diplomatically shut. "Sticks and stones may break my bones…"came Ken's singsong voice. Jackie chuckled. "Yeah, sure, I know. 'But words can never harm me'-and people who aren't really familiar with space travel usually don't realize how little appearances matter when it comes to deep-space craft that don't have to penetrate an atmosphere.

Still, I didn't like having my baby called ugly." "Well, sure. Are you ready?" "Almost. A.J.?" The sensor specialist's confident voice rang out."Every inch of Nobelis wired, Jackie. If anything happens, you'll be the second to know." "After you, of course." "Glendale squeezed a guarantee out of us on workmanship. I get the bad news first by a millisecond if we have to pay out." Jackie took a deep breath. "Fire laterals." The side reaction thrusters fired. They were powered by the central reactor, as long as reaction mass was available. The wavering pale line of superheated gases stood straight out at a tangent to each "tuna-can" chord. To protect the bottom of the cans, the side thruster vents were actually mounted a short distance farther out. Slowly, majestically, theNobel began to spin."Rotation started. Stresses all at predicted levels. No unexpected readings. Keep it going, guys."

A.J. was in his professional voice now, which she found immensely comforting. A pain in the ass he could be, but his skill and his ego combined to make him the best man for a job like this. He wouldn'tlet anything go wrong; it would be a personal insult. "Up to an interior acceleration of one-tenth g… closing in on a revolution per minute… still all green, no signs of stress. Wobble within acceptable limits. Might need to trim weight a bit on one side, though, I think someone missed a couple kilos somewhere… almost there… now!" The superfluous command coincided exactly with the automated cutoff of the thrusters. Nobel spun with massive dignity, generating exactly one-third gravity within its linked habitat cans.

"How are we doing, A.J.?" "Nobel, all green. You're well within tolerances. Minimal precession at this time. Orbital alignment optimum for main drive test." Jackie took a deep breath. The next set of maneuvers would stress theNobel to the maximum that any ordinary conditions would demand. If she survived that, she'd be fully spaceworthy and Jackie Secord would be the chief engineer for the only independent nuclear-powered vessel in existence. "Captain, all systems appear to be ready. We are going to try a main-drive burn." "Very good then, Chief," came the cheerful Australian tones of Bruce Irwin. As the first man to ever land (however disastrously) a manned vehicle on Mars, and one of the few interplanetary-qualified pilots, he'd been top of the list when Glendale was looking for someone to commandNobel . Well, actually, second from the top. Glendale had first offered the job to Jackie, to which she'd replied: "Jesus, no. I'm an engineer, and I don't want to move to management. I'll stay here in charge of keeping everything running." Jackie brought her focus back to the here-and-now. "Right, let's see what our lady's got. Nike, now that we're spinning fine, Nobel is going for a full main-engine burn.

Figuring on one to lift us up in orbit a bit, say twenty seconds at full." The entire set of maneuvers was meant to take only about sixty seconds of full burn. Nobel was lightly fueled right now, with only about a hundred tons of reaction mass-enough for two hundred seconds ofNobel 's maximum million-pound thrust at an ISP of around one thousand. The light load was important; by having a minimum of reaction mass on board, the effective acceleration ofNobel was maximized, which maximized the strain of the maneuvers. There was no point in testing her at low thrust if she'd break at high thrust, especially since high stress would, obviously, occur when the vessel was low on fuel-toward the end of a journey and therefore potentially as far away from help as it was possible to imagine. "Understood, Nobel. Nikeis standing by to initiate rescue in case of emergency."