One Giant Leap Page 3

  “Maybe I take time off and eat with you, time someone cook meal for Chi?” He shot back excited with the thought of having her there seated in his place where he could enjoy spoiling her. “Who knows to cook for Chi?” He jestingly called out to the street customers. Their returned banter proved that Chi had a massive family that all loved him dearly. At least half of those waiting for their meals shouted their willingness to cook for Chi causing a round of laughter to erupt on the street.

  * * *

  A short walk to the park found Shianne at her favorite place to relax while eating lunch. She sat on the lawn under the stately old Red Leaf Maple at the edge of the softball field. She had eaten here so many times in the past it was now her spot in the park, she read somewhere that President Lincoln himself planted the tree that shaded her. The massive trees shade cut the sun’s heat right at the edge of the game fields, she loved watching the kid’s ball games in the cool breeze while savoring lunch.

  ‘Little One’ She had been called that all her life. Dad had started it, he was tall at six foot and change and his two hundred thirty pounds carried well on his big frame. Shianne had never grown tall like her older sister and brother. She had only grown to the dizzying height of five foot five; then growth simply stopped.

  She never grew heavier than one hundred twenty pounds; but she was strong. Dad raised the family on a ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s in southern California. “Fresh air, sun shine and some good old rain are what you need to grow a crop of good kids.” That’s what dad believed in and he was a great teacher.

  All three of his children finished college early with stunning carriers in their fields of choice.

  For Shianne it was a double major: Astro-physics and Astro-engineering. She sailed through the courses graduating with two PhDs in five years. The professorship took her two more years to acquire as she worked the private sector. She was top dog in the space technologies research and development field. She loved the challenge of space exploration, of reaching for the stars. She knew the real answer to space travel was speed; so she focused on more powerful and more efficient drive systems. Pursuing the maximum limits that each design offered, she earned her Professorship for redesigning the thrusters for the shuttle program at N.A.S.A. changing Shuttle deployment for all time. Her second professorship was awarded by M.I.T. as an honorarium for exceeding forty five thousand miles an hour with her new thruster design.

  She was just beginning, a baby’s first step.

  He also demanded that they learned their way around computers while they were very young. He knew they would be a big part of their lives. He built a quiet room at the ranch christening it MarCom. Dad would laugh saying that he had.... “So much RAM in the room that there were no more left in the wild.” ‘He always was a ham.’

  As Shianne watched the game, she wondered if her age made it so difficult getting through to the old school boys. She was less than half the age of most of those who were now going to fund her work. The new concepts, and inventions she was bringing to market would change space travel, starting Earth on a new path to the future.

  She had found the Proton-Drive system in her dreams. Dad always said. “The truly great changes begin in dreams.” Other solar systems were in reach with this advanced thruster drive. Instead of hundreds of years to reach the closest star, it would only take a few months or even a few weeks.

  Unlike the “warp” drives we all grew up hearing about on TV and in the movies. This drive system was based on reality. If a ship accelerated from zero to light speed [One hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second] in a flash, all you would get is a fast ship filled with death. The G-forces would tear the crew’s bodies apart, shattering their bones.

  Shianne’s drive system was designed to collect free-floating protons and plasma as it traveled through space. She ignited it with nuclear waste and a magnetic plasma torch. The compacted burning fuel would cause a small controlled nuclear blast to start propelling the ship through space and start the proton collection. The energy collected would then be condensed and split into two Super-Condensed Energy Streams as it turned into a flow of raw plasma. The two streams would then be sent on a collision course through super conductive magnetic compactors that would turn the protons into microscopic streams of living plasma traveling at close to the speed of light. The impacting plasmas released energy and this energy would propel the ship forward. As the ship gained speed it would collect more protons to be converted to plasma. Once the needed nuclear feed power output was surpassed by the proton drive collection rate the ship would be running completely on self-sustainable power. This conversion to usable energy would speed up continually as the ship ate up space, causing it to reach ever greater and greater speeds.

  Once light speed was reached, no more than a few hours into the flight, with the crew pinned into their seats from the G forces, there would still be many questions to answer; just how fast would the ship go?

  What happens to time at those speeds?

  How will speed affect the human body?

  The only way to find out was to build the ship, launch it and fly it.

  With funding in place, she knew it would take just a few years to begin building the massive ship in Earth’s orbit.

  It had cost three billion to build the prototype for this drive system; she knew the money had been well spent. The ship named ‘The Breaker’ took to space like a fish to water.

  After a perfect launch and deployment from the Space Shuttle G-1, the unmanned one hundredth scale prototype, blasted off toward the Moon. It accelerated past the Moon, reaching this point in just nine minutes. Nothing known to man had ever gone so fast, and it was just stretching its legs. Breaker blasted out toward Mars gaining speed, in only thirty minutes it had reached the red planet, moving at fifty million miles an hour, and still gaining speed.

  The ship headed out into the void of deep space; programmed to reach a section of the darkest reaches of space that the astronomers could find. The Earth’s sensors where tracking its progress, everything was going just as Shianne planned.

  Then it broke through light speed; at that moment things took a turn.

  The ship simply vanished.

  One second it was there, then it was simply absorbed by space and traveling at speeds humans could not begin to fathom.

  It was greatest leap forward in all mankind’s history.

  We had finally achieved light speed.

  We were no longer bound to the planet Earth.

  Everyone was pleased with the test, the goal was reached, but even the homing devices the ship was equipped with just stopped working. Shianne had expected this. The ship was out performing all of Earths technology. It was breaking into a new reality… Life changed for mankind that day.

  Man achieved light speed. The universes where now going to open to exploration. Now was the time to join together as one people and take the next step.

  All greedy power hungry men would be banished, ending all of the petty wars trying to stop terrorists. Striving together as one people we would be unstoppable. The magnitude of this crossroads was equivalent to the dawning of the atomic age. Oppenheimer and his friends provided the technical foundation for the weaponization of atomic fuel for the military. A demand for weapons of mass destruction was the fear driven mind set. Now was mankind’s opportunity to be free of this unacceptable history. To fly into the cosmic community, into the outer reaches of deepest space; seeking peace wherever we travel.

  The fact was that Shianne designed the ship to utilize the waste of the nuclear industry, including spent fuel rods and decommissioned weapon grade nuclear fuels as the weapons of a war never used were cannibalized to give her the fuel she would need to power her massive ship in space.

  * * *

  The ship was programmed to fly out for one hour once it reached light speed, then slow to a stop and return to Earth. But it never showed up, that was six months ago and there was no sign of The Breaker. “It could
be orbiting the Earth now.” Shianne said. “But in what time, or plane of reality? We are not positive about anything traveling at, or past, light speed. We do know she went past the speed of light, now we need a ship to take a team of engineers past light speed, and return. To verify that vast space distances no longer hold us to this little rock… and we can get home without thousands of years passing us by here on Earth.”

  She was certain a manned mission could return to Earth. The crew would be able to control any unknowns that came up. To make this system a reality, it must return to the same time frame it departed from. It wouldn’t help if they returned years in the future or past.

  When asked who would pilot the maiden voyage, she responded “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

  Joshua also volunteered for the mission. He had come down for this portion of the meeting to show support for his sister and her program. He was looking forward to taking her into space and spending much more time with her. “If she wants it done right I guess I can spare the time.” As he stood before the committee in his dress blues, ribbons and medals splashed across his chest he teased her. “...then this committee will make it clear to the Professor exactly who the Commander of this mission will be.” He quickly side steeped and did a slight twist in proper martial arts fashion. Her punch missed as he continued backing away bringing his hands up in defense. “Because as you can see my sister will in no way take orders from me of her own free will!” All in the chamber laughed at their interaction, no one doubted this was the team that would command the mission.

  With the deep shade of the old red leaf maple tree helping to cool the scorching heat of the day, the baseball game had kept her in the park much longer than she expected. Fielding two long drives that landed at her feet, she could not remember the last time she had been involved in a baseball game in any way. Her throw reached second plate and she was complimented for her arm by the young basemen.

  * * *

  A meteor, the size of a VW bus, was hurtling through space on a collision course with Earth. It had been knocked out of its orbit in the asteroid belt thousands of years ago by the gravitational pull of a passing comet.

  It’s path and speed through the solar system kept it out of the astronomer’s sight.

  It was moving at twenty six thousand miles an hour.

  The early warning system at N.A.S.A. didn‘t pick it up because it was coming in from behind the moon.

  Mostly made of nickel and iron, impacts from other meters and time had compressed it into a hard, dense mass. It was not going to simply burn up entering Earth’s atmosphere. It was going to hit, and hit hard. The Earth’s only hope was stored water within the core of the meteor. As it superheated entering our atmosphere it would all turn instantly to steam and expand. With any luck the resulting pressures would blow the rock into tiny fragments.

  * * *

  As Shianne finished her lunch she was mesmerized by the sounds of joy coming from the kids as they battled it out on the ball field, it looked like a grand slam was in the making.

  Jimmy stepped up to bat, all he could think of were the words his father had just said to him… “Just keep your eyes on the ball, don’t be scared of it, it’s just a game, you will know when to swing, it will just feel right, then swing as hard as you can, and that ball will lose a pig skin. And remember to keep your eyes open Son.” He would have given him a kiss for luck, but the other boys were watching and he didn’t want to embarrass his son.

  It was a fast slider. He could see the stitching roll slowly around the ball as it dropped nearing the plate. It looked like the ball was in slow motion to him. He closed his eyes and swung with every ounce of power he had. His hands stung as the ball reported ‘CRACK’ off the tip of the bat. Sailing towards center field, the kids where rounding the bases like they were on fire, a small boy running his heart out at the rear.

  In a heartbeat everyone was on their feet cheering on the runners and shouting advice to the fielder coming in for the ball. The echo of the combined voices cascaded down the cement canyons surrounding the park. The shock of the roar stopped many people in their tracks looking toward the park wondering what was in play. Most of them knew the sound of a great play in the making and wished they were there to witness a play that could bring a crowd to its feet.

  Shianne found herself on her feet screaming. “Go. Go. Go. Run. You can do it. Go. Go. Slide, Slide.” The batter, a little guy no more than ten years old, brushed pass the catcher, hitting the dirt he touched home plate with his hand while sliding by, he had made a grand slam.

  The center fielder didn’t catch the high long fly ball that had flown straight to her. All the rest of the balls even hit in her general direction were plucked from the sky with ease sending another batter to the box. But this time she had to try twice to get the ball in her glove; it was as if the glove was repelling the ball. She ran towards second plate to close the distance on home, she got much closer than when she threw out three separate batters trying to outrun her solid throw as the ball reached home plate before them. This time it didn’t have enough behind it to beat the runner to the catcher, the ball skipped off the pitchers mound and sailed to home plate; God it was close!

  The at-bat team poured from the dugout, bunched up around the small boy lifting him to their shoulders, they carried him once around home plate cheering. It was his shinning hour, he was the hero of the day; he was the MVP of the game.

  The girl playing center field stood watching the festivities as her dad quickly walked out to talk with her. Shianne was so close she could overhear their conversation.

  “Sweetheart, I’ve seen you make that throw a hundred times, and you didn’t have to run half way to the plate to make it. What happened?” He asked mildly, but nonetheless, was truly confused by her performance. He began playing ball with his little girl when she was four years old, he knew she should have caught the ball with ease, and the throw to home plate was a piece of cake for her.

  “Daddy, I just couldn’t do it,” She answered, her face shining with pride. “It was the first time the little guy got a real piece of the ball, his eyes were squeezed shut when he swung. I was watching like you told me to. He gave it all he had, the look on his face was so cute, and I had to let him have it!” She gave her father a hug. “Now he will remember this day for the rest of his life, just like you’ve told me about your first grand slam… about a hundred times.”

  Shianne could see the center fielders father’s chest swell with pride. “You’re an old softy…. and you did the right thing. But in the pro’s you have to play for your team. Ok?”

  “Ok Daddy. But I feel like a winner right now, just look at him, that smile is infectious. He will never forget this day; today he’s a winner. He brought his team into this game with that hit. They might even win because of that play.”

  “You are a winner baby girl. You did just grand. Ice-cream?” He offered then swept her off of her feet hugging her as he spun her around. He put her down with a kiss and headed off the field.

  “Hey Dad? When you made your first grand slam, was a T- Rex the center fielder?”

  She called after him giggling.

  He stopped in his tracks and turned threateningly, teasing he pointed his finger at her… “Get it right; it was a Raptor playing center field. The T-Rex played first base.” He defended himself with his chin held high then did an about face and headed back to help get control of the celebration and get the game going.

  2 Earth in its Path

  Otto knew she was not pulling his leg now. The news was not painting a pretty picture of what was happening on the East Coast. He looked at Joshua’s schedule and he could tell he was headed to the Moon with a full load onboard. “Ya Dad, what’s Up?” He answered knowing his father would never call him at work unless it was important.

  “I need to know how fast you can get to Vandenberg and your sister is calling you.” Otto shot back as Joshua’s phone again rang to inform him of Shianne’s incom
ing call. “Pick her up and she will start explaining this. I have to start packing!” He Hung up and started to pack like he was never going to return here.

  “Packing?” Joshua exhaled wondering where he was going and answered his sister’s call.

  At twenty-seven years of age, Shianne was naturally starting to think of a family of her own and thoughts of having a family often filled her mind. The scene she had just witnessed made her feel the pain that most professional woman feel as their thirties grow closer.

  Was she building a career at the cost of her own family?

  In college she had gotten close to it once, she found him in her advanced Astro-dynamics class. For the first time in her college career, he had beaten her to a class at start of the semester. If there is such a thing as love at first sight, she had found it that day.

  He introduced himself right away. “Hi, I’m Rick Derek. My friends call me Freefall.” He extended his hand to her. She didn’t notice the other students entering class. Her world seemed to be reduced to just him. All her attention, all her thoughts, all of her being feasting on him.

  He was a Navy pilot and all man. A carbon copy of the perfect California flyboy, dark black hair, hazel eyes sharp as a hawk yet full of wonder like a child’s. Tanned to copper, six foot tall, one hundred eighty five pounds; his smile seemed stuck because it was always there.

  From the start he swept her off her feet. Their first date was after class was dismissed, after that they did everything together. He had a thirty-two foot schooner in San Diego they spent weekends on. They even took it out a few times, he introduced her to rock climbing and water-skiing.

  She took him to the family’s ranch where Rick learned a little horsemanship along with how to snowboard, and how to hunt with a camera. Quietly touching, Shianne spoke to him of allowing life to flow through you, around you, absorbing it with sunrise and moonrise. Feeling the life of all around them and knowing he was safe to trust.