As the Heinlein comes to the end of its first mission with Kyle in full command, they come across an emotional surprise before attaining orbit around Mars. Enjoy.
CHAPTER 18
FIRST STOP: MARS
By Douglas DD
Assisted by Zarek Dragon
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24
<SS Heinlein>
0700
Friday was the last day the Capricorn operated between Earth and the Heinlein on a regular schedule. It had three round trips scheduled on Saturday with departures from Earth at 0600, 1000, and 1530 and from the Heinlein back to Earth at 0730, 1045, and 1615. These trips were of no concern to the Heinlein officers and crew who would be doing their shuttling on one of the Heinlein shuttles. The Capricorn transported the few Space Fleet personnel who were still working on the Heinlein.
After 1615 the Heinlein crew would be in total control of the ship. Only five Space Fleet personnel would be on board after 1615 and they would have no assigned duties. They would be overnighting in guest quarters and shipping home to Mars on the Heinlein the next day. While they had no duties, they let it be known that they would be more than happy to answer any questions when asked.
Kyle, Danny, Ronnie, Tommy, Koji, and Duskin were ready to leave their Earth home for their space home. They had no idea when they would return. That would be depend on what kind of mission(s) Space Fleet would be sending them on.
With the bulk of their personal gear already on the Heinlein, the six boys would each be taking a couple of carryon bags to the starship. The long good-byes had been said the night before, but that didn’t preclude Alicia giving each of the boys a long love hug as she fought off the tears. She had been saying these good-byes since she married Vincent Gordon, her first husband. But it never got any easier, especially with six active boys heading out and leaving her and her second husband, Greg Robinson, to have the big, quiet house to themselves.
A Space Fleet transit van was waiting in front of the house. The boys handed their luggage to Chief Arnie Harding who tossed the small bags into the back. After handshakes and quick hugs with Greg, the boys climbed into the van and were transported to the Tiberius Space Center.
When the van arrived at the Space Center, Arnie stopped at the entrance to the Space Fleet terminal. The van baggage was quickly unloaded and soon the six boys were seated in the waiting area ready to board the Holst as soon as it arrived. Its ETA was in just under twenty minutes at 0740.
Kyle knew that just under half of the crew had spent the night on board the Heinlein. Devin French, Kage Enzan, and Steve Boyer were the senior officers on board with Devin being the ranking officer and in nominal command of the ship. The bridge and engineering watches were manned by skeleton crews consisting of Heinlein and Space Fleet officers. Captain Ellis was still in official command until Kyle took over at 0900.
Except for the three senior officers on board the Heinlein, the boys of the senior staff were in the waiting area. In less than two hours their status would be that of full-fledged Explorer Program senior officers.
Kyle noted a boy wearing a Space Academy uniform entering the waiting area. Kyle pegged him at thirteen or fourteen and thought he was one cute looking cadet. He was surprised when the cadet walked directly to his seat and saluted. Kyle nodded to acknowledge the salute and replied to it by sticking out his right hand, which the boy immediately grabbed and shook, grinning as he did so.
“Captain, may I have a word with you?” the boy asked. Kyle nodded and the boy continued. “Sir, my name is Simon Saiz. You’ve probably seen my name on a few applications.”
“I have,” Kyle responded. “I gave them close looks, however…”
“Sorry to interrupt, sir, but there’s no need to go on. I know those who got the positions were far more qualified than I was.”
“Then what did you wish to speak to me about?”
“Sir, I know you have some of the best chiefs and assistant chiefs in the Explorer Program. I am nearly finished with my Academy program, and I would love to be assigned to the Heinlein so that I can learn from them and complete my program by the end of the quarter.”
“I understand, Simon. I’ll give your current file a detailed look. If I think you’re a good fit, I’ll consider you for any opening.”
“Do you have any openings now?”
“That’s where the problem is. At the moment the Heinlein has no openings. But one known fact about the Explorer Program is that turnover on ships is not unusual. If something opens up where you might be qualified, I will give your application my full attention.”
“That’s all I can ask for, sir,” Simon said. “It was the answer I expected and hoped for. And thank you for your time and patience, Captain Robinson.” He shook Kyle’s hand, turned, and walked away.
As Simon headed for the terminal exit, Kyle couldn’t help but be impressed with the cadet’s politeness and enthusiasm. With a name like Simon Saiz, he has to have built up a thick skin which should help him be a captain someday, Kyle chuckled to himself.
“Well, that was an interesting little visit,” Brad Kanye grinned.
“I liked him. Just reading a person’s file doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about him. He was friendly, polite, and able to express himself. I doubt much is going to open up in the near future, but I’ll be keeping him in mind should an opportunity come up.”
“Hey, that’s the Holst taxiing onto the tarmac,” Ronnie said.
“When did it sneak up on us?” Kyle asked.
“It landed just after Cadet Saiz grabbed all of your attention,” Mituti Tudupe answered.
“Your shuttle should be ready to board in about ten minutes,” Commander Julio Garcia said. Garcia was the officer in charge at the terminal.
“Thanks, Julio,” Kyle said.
There were twenty boys in the waiting area waiting to board the Holst. The Holst, Mozart, and Bach would be shuttling the crew members who hadn’t spent the night on the Heinlein. The goal was to have the entire crew on board by noon. The crew would be one person short. Nurse Scott McKay was serving on the Henry Hudson and would be meeting the Heinlein at the Spencer Planet Colony.
The Holst was ready to board in twelve minutes. Julio propped open the doors to the loading area and announced that the Gustav Holst was boarding. The senior officers boarded first as prescribed by Space Fleet protocol. Danny made sure to sit behind the pilots. Gabriel “Ace” Cardiff was the pilot and Lieutenant Shohei Suzuki, who had reported the day before, was the copilot.
Suzuki had arrived two days before on the Ender Wiggin which was in a parking orbit. He had been ordered to wait for his replacement before reporting to the Heinlein. His replacement was fresh out of his academy and Captain Dave Forbes wanted Shohei to help show the new ensign the ropes before leaving. Forbes was going to miss Shohei, who he considered his best astrogator after the chief and assistant chief astrogators.
Shohei had barely finished unpacking and stowing away his belongings when Devin told him he had been assigned to copilot the Holst on its first shuttle assignment of the day. The new astrogator was shuttle qualified and Danny had learned that, outside of the fighter pilots, Shohei was the best rated shuttle pilot on the Ender Wiggin. He had no qualms about having the new crew member be number two on the shuttle bringing the Heinlein captain to the ship. Ace Cardiff was Danny’s assistant chief pilot and Danny knew that Ace would be doing all of the piloting of this flight while Lieutenant Suzuki would be taking care of all the co-pilot duties. The shuttle protocols shouldn’t be any different on the Heinlein than they were on the Wiggin since they went strictly by the book.
Danny was pleased with what he saw during the brief flight to the Heinlein. Suzuki handled his duties with skill and confidence. This was especially true as the Holst entered the shuttle bay and berthed at its dock. If one didn’t know better, they’d swear Shohei and Ace had worked together on many flights.
After the Holst docked, Danny and Kyle welcomed Shohei to the Heinlein and praised his performance on the flight. The Heinlein’s newest crew member beamed with pride.
0900
The crewmembers assigned to the fourth bridge watch began arriving at 0845. Kyle and Captain Ellis met them at the bridge foyer for the elevator. Kyle said he wanted to enter the bridge with the entire fourth watch when they relieved the skeleton crew currently manning the bridge. Doug Devlin from Operations was the last to arrive as he stepped quickly off the elevator at 0854 hoping against hope that nobody would notice him. He thought for sure he would be one of the first members of the watch to arrive and was stunned that he was the last one. He was slowly figuring out that reporting five minutes early left close to the same impression as being late to report.
When Kyle and Devin had gone over the ship’s protocols with the crew, they both emphasized that early to a bridge watch meant early to the foyer. The relieving watch shouldn’t enter the bridge earlier than five minutes before the watch was scheduled with two to three minutes early being preferred. That ensured everyone would stand a complete watch. However, with the change of command commencing at 0900 Kyle wanted the fourth watch to be seated at their stations at 0900. The skeleton watch knew they were to leave their stations in time for the fourth to be seated on time.
The first trick of the fourth watch consisted of Brad, who would take the Conn, Manuel Perez (Astrogation), Ryder “Stallion” Colt (Communications), Ronnie Robinson (Engineering), Kareem Bashar (Information systems), Sammy Dansby (Security), and Lenny Groves (Operations).
Since the ship was in orbit , only a skeleton crew of three manned the third watch: Devin (Conn), Bret Gardner (Astrogation), and Nelson Mirah (Communications). Tommy Harper was at the science station, which was not assigned a regular crewman, where he was practicing the basics of using the main viewscreen. Space Fleet Commander Willie Parker was fighting boredom at Engineering. He would be the last Space Fleet regular to serve a watch as Captain Ellis would be turning the Heinlein completely over to Kyle and the ship’s regular crew.
Ellis and Kyle had signed the documents and gone through the ritual of change of command at the banquet. All that was needed now was for Ellis to announce to the crew over the PA that Kyle was now fully in command, which he did as soon as the clock hit 0900. Kyle then announced to the crew that he had accepted the command.
The ritual over, Brad told his watch that they would be spending the next hour performing various drills. “That should keep us all busy for the next hour and a half or so. After that we’ll cut down to a skeleton crew as we discussed earlier.”
Kyle walked out to the foyer with Captain Ellis. “Thanks for all the help and guidance you gave me the past couple of weeks, Mike,” Kyle said as he shook Ellis’s hand.
“It was a pleasure Kyle, and I mean that,” Ellis said. “I admit I was skeptical about working with a captain as young as you, but both your past record and the job performance you showed me during the trials told me that you are eminently qualified to command this ship. I wish you the best with your command.”
“Thanks.”
“And I hope you snag those who seem to be working to give you trouble.”
“I can’t worry about those guys much, at least not yet. But my most trusted officers are giving me a lot of help in dealing with the problem.”
Ellis nodded seriously and then grinned. “You know what showed me a lot of grit from you?”
“What?”
“The fact that you knew I was scheduled to relieve you tomorrow when you had your official launch, but you talked the brass into letting you take full command today.”
“I told them I wanted to be able to totally concentrate on leaving orbit tomorrow and that I wanted all the folderol to be over today. The crew and I need to give our launch our full attention tomorrow and we don’t need any distraction.”
“Smart thinking. That move is one of the many things you’ve shown me that said the first captain of this ship will do an excellent job. Before I take leave, I have something to share with you.”
“I’m ready to listen,” Kyle said.
“First a question. My understanding is that Chief Engineer Robinson is your stepbrother, correct?” Ellis asked.
“The process in our family is so complex that Ronnie and I have agreed to say we’re each other’s adopted brother.”
“That sounds good to me. Anyway, here is what I have to share with you.” Ellis then told Kyle something that gave him chills, it was so emotional.
“Wow, that is just totally amazing,” Kyle gushed.
“I thought about telling him, but then I thought it would be an excellent gesture if you told him as not only his commanding officer but as his brother.
I imagine that since he’s standing watch in the bridge, you’re going to call him out and tell him.”
Kyle thought about it and then shook his head. “Nope, I’m not going to do that.”
“What? Why not?” Ellis asked incredulously.
“You told me that it hasn’t been made big news yet, right?”
“Correct. When Admiral Mirah learned of the plan, he put a lid on the news except for those with a need to know. Since the decision was made two days ago, he appeared to have stopped it from spreading. Considering what they’re doing tomorrow morning, that order will pretty much be ineffective. But that doesn't explain why you don’t want to tell him since you and Ronnie both have a need to know.”
“Like I said, I’m not going to tell him. What I’m going to do tomorrow is show him,” Kyle grinned.
Michael Ellis put a hand on each of Kyle’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “I like it. I really like it. You keep impressing more and more, as a captain and now as a brother. I wish I could witness it, but I have four weeks paid leave time coming and I’m ready to leave this fine ship, meet with my dear wife, and take an entirely different kind of voyage.”
“Have fun cruising the Pacific,” Kyle grinned.
“Oh, you learned of my plan.”
“It’s tough to keep a secret on a starship. I’ll send you a video of Ronnie’s reaction.”
“Thanks. I’d love to see his reaction and hear about how you saw this all work out.”
“No problem. Bon voyage, Captain Ellis.”
“And bon voyage to you as well, Captain Kyle Robinson. Safe travels.” Michael Ellis turned and left via the main corridor. Kyle returned to the bridge where he sat in a jump seat and watched Brad and the watch go through the standard drills. Not for the first time, and definitely not for the last time, Kyle felt grateful he was able to get such a qualified group of senior officers, from his Sooloo friends Brad and Steve to Logan Wilson, the rookie Chief Science Officer, to Devin French, who was quickly working to make himself the best first officer in the fleet.
Kyle took the conn at 1020 to give himself a chance to run the drills as much as the watch. Tomorrow they would be heading to Mars and would be concentrating on their duties, which was why he wanted every watch to go through drills today.
He dismissed most of the watch at 1115 and gave the conn back to Brad. Brad, Manuel Perez (Astrogation), and Lenny Groves, who took Communications and Operations, were the only ones left on the bridge when Kyle left to meet Danny for lunch. On his way to meet his hubby Kyle couldn’t help but wonder how Captain Ellis ended up finding out about tomorrow’s surprise for Ronnie.
Kyle planned to tell Danny what he had learned from Captain Ellis, but not at lunch. He preferred to share secrets in the privacy of their quarters, especially since it was easy to inadvertently overhear conversations in the dining rooms.
He also needed to tell Devin before the day was over. He had learned from Hal, Dave Bowman, and Jordan Rivers, his captains on the Sooloo that a good captain shares everything with his first officer.
<Captain’s Ready Room>
(1430)
Kyle and Devin sat at Kyle’s desk going over the results of the bridge drills. So far the first trick of the fourth watch and the second trick of the first watch had gone through the drills. The first watch results were very good, but the fourth watch results were outstanding. Kyle and Devin agreed that this was more indicative of Brad’s experience than it was of any lack of competence by Mituti. Brad had manned the conn for most of the second watch and Kyle had put in some time as well. Mituti had the conn for the first watch.
Both Brad and Kyle had experience as senior officers on the Sooloo. Mituti was still getting his feet wet. All in all, things had gone well. The second watch would be holding their drills at 1500 under Steve Boyer and Devin would be running the third watch drills at 1800. Both were experienced officers, at least in the world of the Explorer Program.
Kyle and Devin finished their evaluations at 1450. They were scheduled to meet with Eric Garcia at 1515. Eric would be coming from Earth on the Mozart. Kyle and Devin were in the shuttle bay reception area when Eric stepped out the door. He was the first of the seven passengers on the shuttle to disembark. He grinned when he saw Kyle and Devin and shook hands with both.
They were soon in the Captain’s ready room. Eric was pleased to see that snacks of cold cuts and cookies had been set out along with a fruit punch. Kyle had ordered the food and beverage just before leaving with Devin for the shuttle bay.
The three exchanged small talk as they munched on their snacks. Eric had asked for the meeting and said he would set the agenda. The chances were this would be the last time the three would ever sit in the same room together, at least until all three were adults.
Eric was eighteen. As a result, he could move up from the Explorer Program to regular Space Fleet. While he would maintain his rank if he made the move, he would have to work his way to a command position. Nevertheless, he decided to resign as captain of the Endurance and start to work his way back up the ladder. He could also remain in the Explorer Program until he was 21 with the proviso that he could move to full Space Fleet status at any time if he wanted to.
His Space Fleet advisor told him that operations or astrogation would provide his quickest way up. He was told to figure on at least two years to work his way into a second or third officer position if he received high scores on his fitness reports. He was confident he would do it quicker. But before he did anything he applied for and a received a four-week leave. He would receive a new assignment sometime before the leave ended.
After munching a primo chocolate chip cookie, Kyle decided the time for small talk had ended. After all, he had a ship to command. “What did you want to talk to us about?” he asked Eric.
“Two things,” Eric replied. “First, I wanted to give you some words of wisdom, such as they are, but more importantly I wanted tell two of my favorite officers safe travels on their new ship.”
“I’m on your list of favorites?” Devin asked. “It wasn’t that long ago that I occupied an honored place on your shit list.”
“True, but you have to admit you’ve come a long way since the day you astrogated us to an interesting, if unplanned for, destination.”
“Yeah, thanks to that goofy looking little blond kid who’s sitting behind that big desk.” Kyle felt himself blushing.
“That good looking little blond kid showed off his leadership skills when he worked to help you turn your career around.”
“Devin was ready to make up for his mistakes,” Kyle said. “He wanted to be a good officer while at the same time he wanted to be cool and flaunt his disregard of protocols he didn’t care for.”
“Like keeping a written log of astrogation commands,” Eric grinned.
“Exactly.” This time it was Devin’s turn to blush. “But, damn, when the chips were down during our rescue operation, he showed what he was made of. And that’s the reason I chose him to be my first officer. We’ve only been working together for less than a month and I’ve got total faith in my Number One. And you had a lot to do with that, Eric.”
“Okay, enough patting each other on the head,” Eric said. “All I know from what little I’ve seen is that for a ship whose crew had just gotten together you guys have become a top-notch crew. Hell, even if you were a crew that has been together for a lot of months you guys shine.”
Kyle wondered how much Eric knew about the Guardians. He decided it wouldn’t be appropriate to mention them. It was a problem that he, Devin, and the most senior of his senior officers (i.e. Brad, Steve, and Ronnie) would have to solve with the help of Space Fleet.
The trio became silent, which told them nobody had anything new to add. The three of them knew the story behind Devin’s turnaround, Eric’s growth as a captain, and Kyle once again displaying his amazing leadership skills. Now it was up to them to continue to grow.
Eric was slated to hop a ride back to Earth on the Mozart at 1630. The trio headed to the shuttle bay where they were met by AJ Crowly who greeted the officers appropriately. “I will be your pilot,” he told Eric. “You’re more than welcome to leave a stack of credits in the tip jar.”
“My tip to you is to get me back to Earth in one piece as I have a piece of ass waiting for me,” Eric said.
“Hmm, far be it for me to stand in your way. Gilbert Kirby will be the copilot. We have the last of the Space Fleet personnel on board and are ready to head home to Earth.”
“We have some who live on Mars staying on the Heinlein for their trip home,” Kyle reminded him.
“Did you leave them a tip jar?” AJ asked.
“My tip is the same as Captain Garcia. Get his ass back to Earth in one piece.”
“Oh, I will, because until we tie up what happens to his ass happens to mine.”
The four enjoyed a good laugh and Eric followed AJ to the Mozart.
Kyle then asked Devin to accompany him to his ready room. After they sat at Kyle’s desk, Kyle told Devin what he had learned from Mike Ellis.
“That is awesome,” Devin grinned. “I know you’ve considered this, but it’s my duty to remind you that you might want to check in with Mars Traffic Control to get the proper guide path into orbit to allow us to get a closer look at the surprise.”
“This news is all so freaking new and awesome that totally slipped my mind. This is why having the best Number One in the fleet is important,” Kyle grinned.
“I don’t think less than a month acting as First Officer is enough time to come to that conclusion.”
“Well, if you’re not there yet, you’re well on your way.”
“Thanks, Kyle. That means a lot to me.”
Devin excused himself and left the ready room as Kyle sat at his desk contemplating how fast things seemed to be happening.
<Captain’s Quarters>
(1930)
Kyle and Danny spent the time after dinner enjoying time with Koji and Duskin. The young dads were sure that there would be times that they wouldn’t be able to give their sons as much time as they should, so they made sure to have fun that evening. The ship was in standard Earth orbit and the skeleton watches had trained for a night like this. While they didn’t expect any problems, they were ready to respond if needed. Kyle planned to drop in on the bridge a few minutes after 2100 to see how the fourth watch had settled in on their own.
They finished up with a rousing game of Rulers of the Galaxy, which Koji won, much to his surprise and delight. “Our little go-getter has become a ruthless game player,” Kyle said to Danny after they’d tucked Koji and Duskin into bed.
“He’s developing the needed skills and thick skin he will need in order to become a captain someday,” Danny chuckled. “Maybe you could take lessons on developing a thick skin from our son.”
“Mine is thick enough. If it got too thick, I wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy your smooth, sexy body.”
“You’re funny. But back to Koji, I hope he doesn’t influence Duskin too much in that direction.”
“It’s highly unlikely. Duskin doesn’t have a ruthless bone in his body, and I doubt very much he would know what to do with it if he had one.”
“I’m willing to bet he learned from Koji what to do with a certain bone that forms in his body,” Danny smirked.
“You are a dirty minded daddy, you know that?”
“I have to be to keep up with son number one.”
Kyle checked the time and told Danny he was going to take a quick gander at the happenings on the bridge. He was back fifteen minutes later, pleased with what he saw from the skeleton crew keeping the bridge watch.
The young husbands took care of their evening business, stripped, and took care of their bed business as Kyle showed Danny how a boy with sensitive skin can make his partner feel good.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25
<Captain’s Ready Room>
(0700)
Kyle had an early breakfast with Steve Boyer, whose watch ended at 0600. After eating, Steve retired to his quarters to get some sleep while Kyle went to his ready room to review the schedule for the day which was put together by Devin and Shasho. Shasho helped Devin with making the schedule as part of his learning his job as Captain’s Yeoman.
Kyle then wrote out his personal schedule, a job that Shasho would soon be taking charge of. He would be on the bridge by 0800 where he would contact Mars Traffic Control to inform them of a change in the Heinlein’s flight plan and to request a new flight path. After saving the ship’s schedule and his schedule into the cloud he loaded the new flight plan into his phone and headed to the bridge.
A skeleton third watch was manning the bridge when Kyle arrived. Devin French had the conn, but was working with Lucias Hayes on Heinlein protocols so that Lucias could take charge of a watch. Lucias was well qualified to command a watch, he just needed to be shown the differences between the Heinlein and his old ship, the Endurance, so he would feel totally comfortable in his new environment. Carter Bronson was at the Astrogation table and AJ Crowly was manning communications.
Kyle stood next to AJ and asked him to contact Mars Traffic Control and ask for the lead controller on duty. He did so and Kyle gave the controller his itinerary, which caused Lieutenant Curtis Anderson, the lead controller, to question him.
“Sir, your quickest way to a Mars Orbit is to follow one of the Mars-courses. Your itinerary takes you on a course to Deimos first.” Anderson spoke to Kyle as if he were a kindergartener asking permission to use the bathroom in the upper grade wing of his school.
Kyle was getting used to being talked down to and read the controller’s expression perfectly. “I understand that, but we have a minor mission to fulfill near Deimos before taking orbit around Mars,” Kyle stated firmly. “If you have any questions, please refer them to Commodore Tietokone or Admiral Bowman at Space Fleet H-Q. In the meantime, please send me a routing and schedule to fill my request.”
Kyle’s high pitched voice annoyed Anderson, but there was no question that Kyle Robinson was in command. “I will send something to you within fifteen minutes but I reserve the right to rescind it if your request isn’t backed by anyone at H-Q.”
“Roger that, Lieutenant. That’s all I ask for. EHC 1932 out.”
“Mars Traffic Control out.”
Fifteen minutes later Kyle received his requested routing from Mars Traffic Control. It read, “Earth Mars Route EM1.” That was the route they were currently following. “Deimos Route 1, Mars Route DM 2, Mars Orbit Slot 5. Contact Traffic Control at,” with the coordinates listed. Kyle looked over at Devin and the two exchanged grins. They had received exactly what they had asked for.
<Deimos Gamma Assembly Station, Bay 7>
(0730)
Ship SPT 2207 was securely tied down in Deimos Bay 7 which was one of three connected to the Gamma Assembly Station. The Station was one of four that orbited the Mars moon. The ship was in the final stages of construction. It was to be the first passenger transport with the new high speed warp engines. The aft end of the starboard side of the hull had a gaping opening where modular passenger cabins for Deck 4 were being inserted and then moved to their proper positions on that section of the deck. There was a similar opening forward on the port side of the ship where Deck 5 cabins were being installed.
The assembly bay was in essence a dry dock. At the moment it was airtight, but the bay had two large doors. When both were open the bay was exposed to the vacuum of space and the ship could be towed out of the assembly bay or modular sections could be moved into the bay. The bay was connected to a space station that housed an office, employee lounge, cafeteria, dormitory, and shuttle bay. The station had three assembly bays connected to it.
Three workers were attaching three metal panels to the hull, each with black lettering on it. They were somewhat confused by the job they had been asked to do.
“I know that these fucking panels have what is I guess is going to be the ship’s name on it, but I have no clue why,” Denny, one of the laborers, said.
“Plus, we’re putting up these spotlights to shine on the name,” Ulrich said.
“I’m a master shipwright, and now some asshole is putting up temporary crap so I can take it down the next day,” Elwood groused.
“Obviously the assholes at the main office got some kind of hair up their collective asses,” Denny said.
“Okay, guys, shut up and get this job done since there is a deadline,” Avery Jacobson, the job foreman told his charges.
“A deadline on a job that won’t even be used for a day,” Elwood murmured.
“And who the fuck is this guy the ship is being named for?” Ulrich asked.
“Hey, look at it this way—you’re still getting paid to do it,” Avery reminded them.
“Which shows how stupid the suits are,” Ulrich chuckled, setting off a round of laughter from the three laborers and the foreman.
Avery then told them what the job was about. “Well, why didn’t you tell us that earlier,” Denny said. “I’m now ready to have those panels on perfect. Hell, if I’d known we could have found some colored panels and some colored lights.”
“Opening the doors should expose the entire starboard side of the ship. We need to make sure that everything is set so they get the best view of it from that Explorer ship,” Ulrich said.
“And we should be able to see them fly by from the lounge in the station. I hope they stop to get the best look they can of our work, especially the dude we’re doing this for,” Elwood told them.
“Denny, did you say something about colored lights?” Avery asked.
“Yeah, I did, boss. I mean we have some in inventory I know, but can we use them to make that display look colorful? They aren’t big like the spots.”
“I’m going to get hold of Ivan and see if he has any thoughts on this.” Ivan Brodsky was the chief electrical engineer of the fitting project.
Ivan showed up in a few minutes. After being told the problem, he said he had some ideas and would put them right to work.
The job was done on time, of course. While the laborers were master complainers, they were also master shipwrights who knew how to do their jobs, even the dumb jobs, to the fullest.
“If you can, get word to that ship to flash their lights for us if they like what they saw,” Denny told Avery.
“Will do,” Avery grinned. He knew his boys would come through once they knew what was going on.
The workers knew that the bay would be evacuated at 1440 and the air would then be pumped out. They knew they’d have the panels in place by lunch. They also planned to stop work on connecting the modular rooms to the structure of the ship, which was their regular job, by 1400 so everybody would be off the ship and in the space station by 1440.
<Heinlein, 0900>
The fourth watch took over at 0900. This would be a full watch with Brad manning the conn. All watches would be full watches until the Heinlein established a standard orbit around Mars.
Kyle would take the conn at 1000, the hour when the Heinlein was scheduled to leave orbit and start its voyage to Mars. Space Fleet regulations stated that the captain would take the conn whenever a ship left or entered orbit.
Brad had the watch calibrating their instruments and instructed the engineering station to make sure that everything was in synch. Everybody knew the instruments were properly calibrated and that engineering and the bridge were synchronized, but these were necessary steps when a ship was leaving an orbit location it had occupied for more than 12 hours.
Kyle entered the bridge at 0945 and took the conn at 1000. The specific departure slot assigned to them by Earth Traffic Control was 1025. Kyle, with the assistance of Brad, who was acting in the role of first officer, had the Heinlein ready to leave on time, which is exactly what happened.
The starship eased out of Earth orbit with Astrogator Manuel Perez at the helm. His job was to line up the Heinlein with ETC (Earth Traffic Control) Route 3, which would have them moving in the direction of Mars. When they left ETC 3, astrogator Carter Bronson would take over ship navigation until they reached Deimos 1. Their estimated arrival time would be 1515. Kyle would give Mars control an exact time before entering the area controlled by Mars Traffic Control. As soon as their route left the control of Earth Traffic Control, Kyle turned the conn back to Brad and left the bridge.
The Heinlein was capable of making the trip from Earth to Mars much faster than their scheduled time, but a combination of factors, many related to safety, made a slower speed a more sensible move.
<Donald and Everett’s Quarters>
(1245)
“Things are going way too smoothly,” Don said to Everett as they returned to their quarters after lunch. He opened his uniform pants and pulled his cock and balls out of his underwear. He idly scratched his balls, commenting that there was no better way to ease tension than a good ball scratching. “I’d love to start a shitstorm somewhere,” he said as his cock started to stir.
“Like you said, that’s what we don’t want—especially since we still have Space Fleet personnel on board, even if they aren’t on active duty,” Everett pointed out. Everett was growing used to his cabinmate’s method of relaxing.
“I know, I know, we have to be good for a few more days, but that doesn’t keep me from wanting to make something happen. And you should air out your goodies before we have to go.”
“Look at it this way. The more days we wait gives Kyle more chances to fuck up. And you know if I do that, I will end up not putting it away until I get a good squirt of milk.”
“I like how you think,” Don smirked. “I truly like how you think.”
Everett wasn’t sure what part of his thinking Don was commenting on. “And now we better get going so we report to our science stations on time.”
Don sighed and reluctantly tucked his privates back into his pants. The two cabinmates, friends, and co-conspirators left their cabin for the Science Department.
<The Bridge>
(1500)
Kyle returned to the bridge at 1500 right at the change of watch. Steve Boyer was relieving Mituti Tudupe at the conn. Mituti reported the ship’s status to Steve and Kyle. He then left the bridge with the rest of the first watch.
Kyle radioed Mars Control that the Heinlein would be entering Route Deimos 1 at 1519. The viewscreen gave them a good look at Deimos and Mars. The Astrogation table showed that they were perfectly centered on the route. Everything looked routine until the Ares, one of the two Mars patrol ships, approached them about a half-hour away from Deimos.
The sight of the approaching patrol ship caused a wave of anger to crash through Kyle. He knew exactly why that ship was coming to meet them and it had to do with that idiot Mars traffic control chief who treated him like a helpless kindergartener. Before he could flick on his mic, the ship’s radio crackled with an incoming message.
“Mars patrol ship Ares calling Explorer ship EHC 1932.”
“EHC 1932 here,” Caden Jamison, who was manning the communications station, replied.
“This is Commander Rory Petrich, commanding officer of the Ares. May I speak to Captain Robinson please.” Rory was surprised by how young the communications officer sounded. Sheesh, the ship is manned by kids—I should expect them to sound young, Petrich thought. But he sounds really young. Rory would be even more surprised if he was told that Caden was only twelve years old. He knew Kyle was thirteen and figured he should have a little more timbre to his voice.
Here it comes, Kyle thought as he picked up his mic. We ran a perfect course to this point and now I’m going to hear how we’re six inches off our assigned track and I will have to face an inquiry. He felt himself getting even angrier. He was ready to jump to his defense before Commander Petrich had the opportunity to ream him out.
“This is Captain Robinson,” Kyle responded. But as he opened his mouth to tell Petrich he was exactly where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there the Ares commander took a different tack than Kyle had expected.
“The reason I came to meet you is that there has been a slight change of plans and they require the presence of a pilot if you are to completely enjoy what’s in store.”
Kyle took a deep breath, shook off his anger, and said, “That sounds interesting.”
“Is the person this show will be for presently on the bridge?” Rory was once again surprised when he heard Kyle on the radio. His voice was even higher pitched than that of the communications officer.
“Not yet. I was just about to call him to the bridge. I would like to point out that I am the only person on the bridge aware of what this detour to Deimos is about.”
The entire bridge watch looked at Kyle sitting at the conn wondering what the fuck was going on.
“Before you call him, give me a couple of minutes so our two ships are synched,” Rory said. “We will be turning our ship around. You will need to slow to minimum speed until both ships are facing the same direction. I will be sending you an electronic route to load into your astrogation table and you will follow it precisely. With the Ares as your pilot ship, you will be able to come within a hundred meters of the assembly bay.”
“Wow, that’s going to be amazing.” Kyle had been told when given his routing that the Heinlein would be passing within approximately 500 meters off the assembly bay where the ship they would be observing was being assembled.
“I know what you went through with my cousin this morning when you asked for your Deimos route,” Petrich said. “I just want you to know that assigning you a pilot is not because you’re an Explorer ship. It’s Space Fleet policy when a ship is placed on a route that is not a standard assigned route that places that ship closer than a one thousand meters to a ship or station. And I’ve rattled on long enough; call your officer to the bridge.”
As soon as Petrich signed out, Kyle called his brother Ronnie to the bridge.
“Kyle, I’m where I need to be—in engineering. We are slated to make some tricky speed changes on our current route,” Ronnie responded. And God only knows why my whacko little brother elected to go via Deimos rather take the obvious direct Mars route.
“I understand. I’m sending Scott Franklin your way. I know Kai Daniels is already there.” Kai was the assistant engineering chief and had almost as much service time as Ronnie.
“I’ll be right there.” Ronnie knew better than to argue with his brother the captain, at least publicly. He’d have it out with Kyle later and in private.
It took a surprisingly short time for Ronnie to get from engineering all the way to the bridge. When he entered the bridge his eyes went directly to the engineering station, which was empty since Kyle had sent Scott Franklin down to engineering.
“Sit next to me,” Kyle told his brother as he pulled down a jump seat.
“But somebody needs to be at the engin…,” he stopped when Reggie Boland entered the bridge and headed for the empty engineering station. Ronnie could see that Kyle was one step ahead of him all the way and sat in the jump sheet, accepting his fate.
Ronnie turned to Kyle and said, “Bro, you gotta tell me what’s going on.”
“It will all be answered in a few minutes,” Kyle said.
“Gee, be exact why don’t you.” Ronnie looked at the viewing screen and said, “What are we doing on the tail of that ship? Are you in some kind of trouble or something? Is that what this is all about?”
“Calm down, bro. Be patient; all will be revealed soon.”
Ronnie noted that his other brother Danny was as calm as he could be. Danny was manning the Astrogation table for the watch. He was concentrating on keeping the Heinlein on the course the pilot ship had laid out. He also knew what was going on. It was time for action and he could see both on the table and the view screen that the Ares was turning to shorten the distance to the assembly bay.
To confuse things even more Devin entered the bridge and stayed at the back. Kyle looked at him and nodded his head. Devin nodded back. He knew what was about to happen.
“Ares to Heinlein, over,” came Rory Petrich’s voice over the radio. Since the two shops had identified each other earlier they could now contact each other by name.
“Heinlein here, over,” Kyle responded. Kyle had told Caden that he would answer all communications from the Ares.
“Did you read over the plan I messaged you?” Rory asked.
“I read it three times as did my first officer and my ops officer.” Kyle had added a note about the mission to Steve when he sent him Rory’s message.
“As you can see, we are almost at space Station Gamma. It’s now imperative that you follow the color codes on your route.” Kyle knew that Rory would be repeating the instructions orally because he was required to do so as a pilot.
The Heinlein was creeping along behind the Ares as both ships edged closer to the space station and Bay 7. Kyle instructed Ronnie to look out of the view screen next to the engineering station which allowed him to see the oncoming bay and the ship inside of it.
“What do you see?” Kyle asked.
“It looks like they opened the bay,” Ronnie observed. “I thought those stayed closed so the bays could stay airtight while they assembled the new ship. And it looks pretty dark—almost like they turned off the power.”
The Ares moved past the new ship and came to a complete stop. The Heinlein stopped when they centered on the ship in the bay. The two ships were approximately the same length, but the passenger transport had more decks. Steve, who was manning the operations station, switched the view on the main screen from a forward view to a port view centering on the ship in the dark bay. At that point, Steve flicked the Heinlein’s running lights on and off.
Suddenly the bottom half of the transport’s hull was lit up by a red light running the length of the ship. The sight caused the crew on the bridge to call out loud wows almost in chorus. Before anybody could say anything the top half of the hull was bathed in yellow light. The lights then circled around the circumference of the ship, eliciting a chorus of oohs and aahs. At one point the colors changed to green and blue, then back to yellow and red, as the colors kept rotating around the transport’s hull. Even though Kyle, Danny, Devin, and Steve knew what the purpose of the detour to Deimos was, they had no clue the light show was going to occur.
“That is an amazing show, but does anybody know what’s going on, other than Kyle?” Ronnie asked.
Before anyone could answer, a bright spot coming from the Ares shined across the fore of the ship, revealing black lettering written along the bow. Ronnie was looking out of the side view screen and saw right away what the lettering said.
“OH MY GOD!!!!!!OH MY GOD!!!!!! LOOK AT WHAT THAT SAYS!!!” Ronnie shouted. “I DON’T BLEEPING BELIEVE IT!!!!”
“I can read it,” Caden Jamison said. “It’s a name but I don’t know who it is.”
“The name is Vincent Gordon,” Ronnie said hoarsely. He could barely get the words out. “Vincent Gordon is…was…no, is my…my…my father.” He fought back sobs and tried to say one more thing. “They’re gonna name that ship…name it…name it for…my…,” and then he broke down sobbing, the tears flowing, his body shaking.
Kyle went up to his brother and placed his right arm around his shoulders. Kyle didn’t try to hide the tears he was shedding. “It’s okay, Ronnie. It’s all good.”
“Yeah, it’s all good,” Ronnie finally blurted out. “I’m crying because I’m so fucking proud and happy and because I miss him so much. And because they’re going to name that ship for my father. For Vincent Gordon the hero.” By now everyone was in tears or close to it, even those who were hearing the news for the first time. “And that’s what the detour was about, so I could see it. So, I could see that name on that ship. Oh, thank you Kyle, you are the best brother a guy could have. The very best.”
“It wasn’t my idea bro. I just accepted it and followed through on it. It came from Hal, Dave, my dad, and Fleet Admiral Mirah. Your father was a huge hero who saved a lot of lives in that fire.”
Kyle was referring to a fire that occurred on the passenger transport Linda May Carlisle, which Vincent Gordon was assigned to. His quick action saved the lives of the kids in the ship’s school, but in the process of saving lives Vincent Gordon lost his own. And now, in honor of Vincent Gordon, Space Fleet’s newest passenger transport was going to be named for him.
“Be sure to thank everyone at Gamma Assembly Station and on the pilot ship for what they did.”
Kyle had Devin flash the Heinlein’s running lights off and on five times in thanks for a job well done. From there the Ares led the Heinlein to Mars Route DM-2. Rory Petrich wished the Heinlein safe travels. Kyle acknowledged and thanked Rory for his guidance. The Ares then sped off on whatever mission it had next.
Ronald Gordon Robinson stared out of the front view screen. As emotional as he was and as much as he missed his father, he had a feeling of peace as well. He would realize as time passed that the feeling of peace helped give him closure on the tragedy he had suffered as a young boy and helped him to feel closer to his father than he ever thought possible since he died.
Next: Marsh.