Author Topic: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years  (Read 5451 times)

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Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« on: March 23, 2016, 02:12:40 PM »
Chapter 1 - News & Satellites


The article was posted in 'The New York Times' on Wednesday, March 19, 1969: Double Strike surprises US Government

When former President Kennedy announced free worldwide access to the new Trans Newtonian Elements silence was the answer from our Russian space competitors. Until late yesterday evening. Two unmanned satellites were launched targeting Moon and Mars. According to Russian Chief of Operations 2nd Rear Admiral Katalena Kobrin these new satellites are not only equipped with the first Trans Newtonian based engine, they are also equipped with Sensors to detect Trans Newtonian Elements from orbital scans. Results are expected within days of arrival on the target planets. If successful a full series of sensor satellites - which are prepared right now - will be launched to all the planets in our solar system. She said: "We are determined to be the first nation benefiting from the new technologies. Being able to refit our former rocket technology is proof of that fact. And we will continue to do this until all the world sees the superiority of Communism."

According to our contacts within NASA there are no plans to launch such satellites from Cape Kennedy in the recent future. "It will take all efforts available for next years launch of the planetary exploration via a manned ship," said NASA Chief of Operations Thomas Paine. "We believe this task will be accomplished more efficient and quicker this way. The new drydock build by Norfolk will provide our first stellar ship - which will also be the base for the following cargo and transport ships. It would slow our progress if we'd change our plans at this stage. If the Russians want to do their job through unmanned probes, no one will stop them. But our plans are different. And we have good reasons to."

We received no comment as of yet from the White House officials. But seeing that the Russians again went the quicker way one can only wonder if stopping the lunar exploration was the right step. Most people in the establishment are sure that we would have beaten the Russians to the moon with ease. Some will not like these new turn of events and President Nixon might get into trouble this early in office. Separating Space Operations from NASA to a separate Naval Organization staffed with people from the Military wasn't received well in the public and a counter to Kennedy's open politics - although NASA wasn't designed to cope with colonizing space - however no organization as of yet is. But the government will be held to their promise of building a colony on the moon in this century as our first base in space.

                ***
            
"Have you read that junk article in the Times?"
The Times slid over my desk and I looked up at Eve. She sat down not even thinking to ask if she was allowed to. Then she began watching me.
Since I already had read the article I didn't need to do it again. So I told here simply: "Yes, I have."

"Will the President do something about it?"

"Well, if he plans to, he hasn't told Public Affairs yet."

Joe Shons was only 24 years young. But the extraordinary situation of jumpstarting an organizational structure for the upcoming colonization of space has also jump started his career directly into the office of Public Affairs for the new Naval Space Forces. And as Head of Affairs he stood in direct contact with the Office of the President. Him saying that he hadn't heard anything yet could only mean that the new President did not understand the importance of space exploration.

"We need to do something about it," Eve said.
A brilliant idea was what she maybe was hoping for, but since I didn't agree with here reaction to the article, I threw the ball back to her. "Suggestions?"

She paused for a moment. "Joe, I wish Kennedy would still be in office. He would know what to do with the Russians."
I nodded and understood her frustration. Not all were happy with Nixons election and his rushing plan to colonize the moon - especially Eve because she was the one to make it happen. "Nixon will deal with them. He might be a bit arrogant - but that might be ideal for dealing with them." And after another short pause I added: "So, you think that we should change our operational plans?"

Eve Cole was equally young: just 24. And she also had benefited from the space programs jump start. But being the head of Operations - with no one around having any experience at all how to organize Space Operations larger than singular lunar missions - her wish was understandable, giving her team more time to set itself up and come up with colonizatioin plans - in spite of how capable she and her team was. Doing all things at the same time was too much, she felt. And Nixon's promises seemed to make her job that much more difficult. Of course she didn't want to show.

"No, we are fine with our plans. I just think that the Russians should get a real red nose from time to time. Don't like their arrogance."

I agreed. "They will. Once we have our first data from the manned missions I know that you will set us out into space as quickly as no other can - and they will get their red nose from that. - If not, we still can learn Russian, if you like."

"Oh you... ", she gleamed at me. "Maybe I should stay at the office this evening and do some work so that such a future could be prevented."
"Unfortunately you and I have dinner this evening, so our communist fate seems to be sealed."

A pause of silence followed.

"Are we still on for tonight?" I asked her.

She nodded and smiled - well, at least it looked like that for a split second. "As long as you don't bring any russian flags with you."

"Promise, I won't."

                ***
            
In Washington more people were concerned about the news from Russia as Eve might have thought. But in the end no one saw an alternative to continuing the actual plan. As Paine had said, any change would slow us down. And he was right.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2017, 04:15:38 AM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - The Story
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2016, 03:57:35 AM »
Chapter 2 - Survey Reports & Science Meeting

KGB Top Secret - Final Report of Project Initial Space Exploration, First Sensor Buoys

Sensor Probe Luna reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Apr 12th 1969 states:
2.2 Mill t Duranium (0,3)
3.8 Mill t Neutronium (0,4)
2 Mill t Corbomite (0,2)
8 Mill t Tritanium (0,3)
4.1 Mill t Boronide (0,2)
5.1 Mill t Mercassium (0,4)
6.1 Mill t Vendarite (0,3)
8.3 Mill t Sorium (0,2)
2 Mill t Uridium (0,2)
1.6 Mill t Corundium (0,3)
8.5 Mill t Gallicite (0,4)

Sensor Probe Mars reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Jul 21st 1969 states:
21.4 Mill t Duranium (0,3)
6.8 Mill t Neutronium (0,3)
3.3 Mill t Corbomite (0,2)
7.8 Mill t Tritanium (0,1)
4.6 Mill t Boronide (0,5)
9.5 Mill t Mercassium (0,2)
577.400 t Vendarite (0,4)
5.2 Mill t Sorium (0,3)
5.5 Mill t Uridium (0,2)
14.8 Mill t Corundium (0,2)
20.4 Mill t Gallicite (0,4)

On July 16th probes Mercury and Venus had been launched. They will be followed by probes for Phobos, Deimos, Ceres, Jupiter, Ganymede, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. By the end of that series our shipyards will be up and running so expansion to the solar system will go on as planned. Any further exploration can be done by manned spacecraft later. Findings are promising.

                   ***

Brezhnev's office was as calm and quiet as any head of states personal office room. So sitting here waiting for him to arrive could be an unnerving task - depending upon how long it took. Thoughts could run wild in the minutes (or hours?) one had to wait for the head of state. But Alexei Kosygin was accustomed to these kind of things. He had used similar tactics with his people in his own office every now and then.
His counterstrategy was easy: he usually dozed away not letting his thoughts go wild.

Brezhnev was the official head of the state and his superior. But some deemed him the more powerful person running the state - Brezhnev being the puppet for the outside world.
Well, no one would say it out loud - unless given the right amount of "fuel" to talk freely. And it could be a bad choice to give away such personal opinions. Unless you did like working in the 'summers' of Syberia.

Kosygin would not challenge Brezhnev in that way - although he disagreed massively with Brezhnev's politics. He knew that archiving his own goals would take time - probably decades - and destroying them by openly confronting the head of state - no, he knew better than that.

So he calmly waited for Brezhnev to come and tell him what he wanted to talk about. He dozed away and could not say how long it took Brezhnev to come to his office. He only recalls him closing the doors which woke him up. They greeted each other and Brezhnev took out a KGB File and handed it over. Kosygin read it.

"When will our colonization program begin?", Brezhnev asked.

"We estimate a first launch in 72. Some difficulties with the orbital construction platforms might slow us down. But no later than 73."

Kosygin knew Brezhnev well enough that he didn't like that answer. "Could we go quicker? We should make us of our foreknowledge over the Americans."

When the plans were put out to refit one of our Atomic Missile Bases to be used as a launch facility for a new type of TN sensor probe Kosygin knew that the goal was to increase the pressure upon the Space Program to rush the construction of colonization and transport ships. And he also knew that rushing this would bring no benefit, because for the upcoming decades neither Russia nor the USA would be able to put out any type of real military equipment into space to prevent the other side of also setting up colonies on the same system bodies. "Red Moon" - as the Americans liked to state would not be possible - even if we wished it true.
On the other hand this additional pressure was welcomed because it enabled him to push the research heads to come up with ways of building not only cargo space ships - but also military assets - as quickly as possible.

Kosygin just wanted to answer when Brezhnev said: "I know that we cannot prevent them from exploring space. But I don't need to like it either. We all know what is possible with this new kind of technology - and the one who researches them first might gain an advantage too large to compensate."

"That is why I pushed for more money to support our research. We need to expand that area.", Kosygin said.

"Money is the one thing we don't have."

Kosygin knew that much more of the refined TN elements could be sold on the open market. But Brezhnev had made it clear that from our national income a portion already to large was fueled by selling them. And Kosygin himself had made clear that his next five year plan would be to try to supply the national income by traditional means and not by selling vital aspects of our national treasure. Those income is a welcome one to rush the exploration of space. But what if the market prices drop significantly? Our nation is already in a debt and such a drop would kill our entire economy. "I know. You know my plans for the next five year cycle.", he answered.

"See to it that we can end this financial crisis. And let's hope that our new colonies will enable us to boost the economy as has been projected by the KGB."

This was an opportunity Kosygin could not pass. "Do you know why they have done those projections? I mean, it is not their job to do financial projections. Why are they interested in that?"

Brezhnev knew well about some issues Kosygin has with members of KGB. His way is seen as too liberal and some suspect that he might be an agent for the US to weaken our position. But he also knew that those were baseless accusations. Anybody being able to read reports of what Kosygin has archived and done in the past would easily see that. On the other hand such things could come in handy when people get uncomfortable. So why giving Kosygin relief of such nagging questions? No, Brezhnev would not give him that ease.

"I told them to." This was an outright lie. But seeing Kosygin's reaction was satisfaction enough. "See, any part of our society is part of the state. And the state needs to know if it works properly. If finances are only known to finance people, how should the KGB perform their duties of optimizing the state? So I set them up to build a subdivision which only checks on the finances. But they exceeded their performance and overshot a little bit. Don't worry, they won't run our finances in the future." He smiled - so did Kosygin. He knew that it was not Brezhnev's idea to start controlling finances. But granting him that emotional victory over himself would pave the way for a suggestion he wanted to plant. And the time had come.

"Do you think we should annex Poland?"

Brezhnev was confused. "They are already... ."

"I know. What I mean is that what we need are people and industry who do the work for us. Poland is the best equipped economy in our Satellite State range and we could utilize them to build ship components for us. And support us with more manpower. We still have a shortage and do need more people if we want to accelerate our expansion plans. We might tell the world that we are on the same industrial level as the US is, but we aren't."

Kosygin knew that Brezhnev did not like to give away the new TN technology to other states. But by offering to not let them construct whole industries but only components of ships - might something Brezhnev could agree to. So he waited. Being open about our real industrial power compared to the US might be wrong to admit with other leaders. But one thing about Brezhnev was that he honoured honesty. And getting us ahead of the US by lying to ourselves would not get us anywhere.

"I would say China might be a better partner for this."

"In the long run, I agree. But they will need at least three to four decades to be able to handle modern industrial standards. Too long for our actual plans. Much too long."

Brezhnev smiled. "You still think the Chinese will brake away from communism, don't you?"

"I don't know if they will. But I can see how they tread communism. But that is not the reason why I propose Poland. They have the industry needed - and that is what we need now."

Brezhnev knew that. "I will think about it."

And that was the most he would get from Brezhnev.

                   ***

On the next day a letter from Kosygin's office landed on the chief scientists desk, which was assigned to research cryogenic transports. She opened the letter and read: "Talked to Brezhnev yesterday. Need to speed up things. Do what you must to ensure success as quickly as possible. - Kosygin".

Bolodenka Punin was a calm person and knew that there was little she could do to accelerate the research. Not with that limited staff that was given her. But what could she do? Ignore Kosygin? For sure not. She would have to come up with a new strategy. Maybe... .

                   ***
            
Opening Speech Transcript of Planetary Survival Science Meeting, October 1969, Norway, Oslo
            
"Thank you all for coming to this event today. I'd like to thank the government of Norway to house this meeting in their capital city. Some of us might not like the average temperature in this country. But luckily we don't have to meet outside and can enjoy the warmth of this building.

Speaking of the environment. This is the topic of this meeting: We as scientists are concerned about the well being of our planet. Not only our planet but also of us as a people. And I am not talking about one of the nations - no, I am speaking about us as a people: humankind.

The last years have seen an increase in testing of atomic weapons - be they atomic or hydrogen based - all to ensure the safety of national states. But an alarming amount of reports has been gathered as to what these testing will effect in the long run. Today we have an average radiation rate of 500 - and we expect an increase to 540 or more until the end of this year. Yes, gentlemen an increase of more than 8%. But you might ask what are the consequences of that? Such low rates don't effect anything. Why bother?

Well, we have some studies here which state that this rate of radiation decreases human fertility. If you look at the birth rate of 1968, human growth has slowed down significantly to almost a halt. Right, 3.6 Billion people is quite a large number of inhabitants. But what will happen if we increase radiation levels to even higher rates? Maybe 1000? Statistics say that by that number we would start loosing more than 2% of human growth rate - which would put us at 2% decline every year. In only 50 years at a 2% decline world population would decrease to just 1.3 Billion people - a third of what we have now. 50 more years and we would be down to under 500 Million. These are unacceptable numbers, so we need to act now and stop nuclear testing. Let's hope that no atomic war breaks out, but even with these limited tests which are performed, we might end civilization as we know it.

I hope and pray that the nations of this earth will listen."
« Last Edit: September 03, 2017, 04:52:04 PM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - The Story
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2016, 05:19:55 AM »
Chapter 3 - Vietnam, The Burial & More Exploration Data

Oct-28 1969: Joint Chiefs White House meeting over situation in Vietnam

Participants:
President Richard Nixon
Secretary of Defence Melvin Robert Laird
Chief of Naval Operations & Chairman Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
Chief of Staff US Army General William C. Westmooreland
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt
Chief of Staff US Air Force General John D. Ryan
Commandant US Marine Corps General Leonard F. Chapman
Chief of Space Naval Command Admiral Columbus Vessey

One of the promises of campaigning Richard Nixon was to quickly end the Vietnam Crisis. He had thought that the military might of the US will be superior enough to make that promise and thereby reduce the amount of troops stationed in the asian theatre.
However, reality struck him when he had reached office. But being the uncompromising man he is, he secretly wrote to Ho Chi Minh telling him, that he would even nuke him and his little rebellious communist clan if they would continue attacking US troops in south Vietnam. He had set an ultimatum: November, 1st. All attacks must cease at that date or else all hell would brake loose.

But again Nixon was overruled by things which he quite could not get his head around. The peace movement in his own country got tired of the unchanged military presence in Asia and by mid of October a massive wave of peaceful, organized demonstrations swept over the country. Peaceful being the key element here. Public opinion literally destroyed Nixons secret talks by dismantling his military options. Maybe unbeknown to the peace movement, they might have prevented an all out atomic war by being what they were: peaceful.
Now it was the evening of November 2nd - and no softening had happened. Some in the presidential staff recalled Nixon shouting out unrepeatable damnations towards pubic opinion. Others say that such things were an exaggeration. What wasn't an exaggeration was, that Minh by that time was already dead for over a month. His party simply didn't want to budge. And the internal US peace struggle gave them the opportunity to do so.

So, when the joint chiefs met on that evening of November 2nd with the President and the Secretary of Defense, they had to solve a pretty complicated situation. However, this wasn't everything, they had to deal with.

After public announcement of the TN Elements by former President John F. Kennedy a document was handed to him, revealing the extend of the secret research which was already done with TN based technology. And whilst Kennedy had announced a peaceful cooperation of all nations, this document revealed that the US already had a developed TN based armed forces ready for action.

Not very fitting to the message he had just given.

So he arranged for this army to go into hiding. Plans were devised and treaties made that outlawed the development of TN based armed forces - at least on earth. So in the end the US had an army which they were not allowed to use. Which of course was not welcomed within the armed forces themselves as well as the political establishment. Projections as to how capable those new troops were, made it very tempting to put those treaties into the dustbin. But the loss of face - especially with this new and very strong peace movement - made that outright impossible.

Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer welcomed the President, Secretary of Defence and Joint Chiefs by stating: "We all know that the situation in Vietnam needs to be resolved quickly, and that our options to do so, have become limited and seem to decrease by the day. So the purpose of today's meeting is to evaluate all possible options which will reach the optimum of the following goals:
a) prevent a communist takeover of the Asian region
b) due to the announcement of President Nixon to reduce our presence in Asia come up with a plan that appeases the peace movement whilst giving us the opportunity to maintain the necessary political control in that region

So this might become a very long meeting. And not only because the North Vietnamese have passed the Presidents secret ultimatum, but also because we believe the Russians will act more aggressively in the future to strengthen their domain. We have seen the invasion to Czechoslovakia and did not react to that - which might strengthen the Russians to be bolder in the future."

Melvin Laird, Secretary of Defence: "We also know that the Joint Chiefs always over dramatized the Russian Bear as way more dangerous than he later has revealed himself to be. So can we for this talk stay to facts and not add psychological speculations as to what the Russians might do? The goal is to give the President real options how to deal with Vietnam and keep his promise to the people. We all have seen the strong voice the people gave to end the war. And we should not ignore that."

General William C. Westmooreland, Chief of Staff US Army: "Gentleman, I would like to bring in the options we have with our TN based armed forces. I know about the treaties and the prohibitions which are in place - and I bring this up because these troops could make it possible to archive all the set goals due to their superior nature. In the long run we would be able to maintain the needed presence in Asia with the most minimal troop requirements, whilst in the short run ending the ongoing war as quickly as possibe.

I have seen field tests of the new weapons and armour these troops have and how much more efficient they are. I know that Kennedy did not know about the Army's secret developments and he nearly collapsed when it was revealed to him after his speech. Our plans were to end the ongoing conflicts with these troops, giving us the option to go into space without ongoing wars. Now they collect dust in their bases and are useless until we do have colonies out there - where they are allowed to be used. Which frankly will earliest be in 10 to 20 years - and against which enemy? Mr. President, you offered the people a fast solution to the crisis. And here we have an unused army which can archive exactly that. Why not use them?"

Laird had hoped that this meeting would not take this direction, but it was as he had expected. The means are there, why not use them. He wanted to answer but Nixon was quicker: "We would not have this army, if the Armed Ground Forces had not created them in the first place. I don't know how your predecessor had managed to hide the creation of them from the establishment - but he somehow did and was punished for it in the end.
I know that they are very costly - but our sellings enable us to maintain them - which is why they were not dissolved in the first place. But let me tell you another point: since you don't know about what I wrote in that ultimatum, let me state, that I spoke of severe consequences if Minh would not be more willing to negotiate. I was even prepared to drop the bomb on North Vietnam."

Laird: "The Bomb?"

Nixon: "Yes."

It took a while for that to sink in. Nixon was even ready to nuke North Vietnam if they did not comply to his demands? Laird looked into the faces of all present. He was sitting in a room full of Generals and Admirals who were eager to use their means and a President who would nuke a small country on the other side of the world for fulfilling a promise to the voters. "I guess the peace movement did not have that in mind when they demanded an end of the conflict", was the thought that came to his mind. But he did not speak aloud.

Nixon: "Well, it does not look like we do have that option any longer, do we?"

For sure they didn't. They never had it in the first place. Laird was shocked.

Moorer: "Not if we don't want civil uprisings and an atomic counter attack by the Russians. The use of the Generals new ground forces would also pose an additional problem. Once 'space technology' is used on earth, there is no going back. The non proliferation treaty signed last year was used by the participants to inofficially talk about a non use of upcoming space technology in wars on earth. They might potentially be much more devastating than atomic bombs. Of course no additional treaty was signed but a secret memorandum was accepted by all participants to continue talks about this area. If we turn our backs on that, there will be no limits and the non proliferation treaty might also go into the dustbin. As much as I like being present in Asia with our troops, the solution must be archived with conventional means."

Nixon: "We need to stay there but also provide a plan to reduce troops."

General Leonard F. Chapman, Commandant US Marine Corps: "Rumor has it that the Russians and the UK also have developed modern TN armies. Do we know any intelligence about them?"

Laird: "Not that I am aware of." Everybody shook their heads. "If they do we would be prepared for that - due to the reckless move by the Army - which would be the ultimate irony. Which the use of these forces would also be. So they are a no go."

Finally the basic salvos were exchanged and Moorer took the leading of the discussion and he did a very well job. Laird was happy that the final result was a plan to reduce troops as Nixon was prepared to do. He would survive politically even so he did not fulfil his basic promise to the people to end the war, but his secondary, to reduce the presence in Asia.
This of course would leave unresolved their plans to reduce communist influence in the region. Some plans were made which were non military. The results would take some time to be seen if they were effective.

Some four hours later the topic was finished and Westmooreland brought another point to the discussion. "Earlier I mentioned the new ground forces at our disposal." He exchanged bandy looks with the others, signaling that he did not want to confront them again. "Since their organizational nature will mostly be similar to the way the Marine Corps is organized, I wanted to ask the Joint Chiefs if we should think about them being reorganized under the umbrella of the Marine Corps?"

Chapman: "We had a preliminary discussion about this point three weeks ago. In the end I think it will make no large difference in effectiveness weather these troops are organized under the Army or the Corps. What we should not do is split them up. Half of them as Army Troops, half of them as Marine Corps. That would make them ineffective. We shouldn't do that."

Laird: "I think we should keep that thought in mind and wait for practical field experience. When we have that, we might discuss this topic again. For the time being they should stay under the Army umbrella."

Since no one voted against that, this topic was solved quickly.

                   ***

Nov-30 1969: The Burial

It was a sunny day on that evening at Partsmorth Graveyard. Irwin Kita was the name on the grave. He had died in an accident three days ago, while working on a Grav Sensor Array - the first one of its kind. And the over 150 people surrounding the area were a tribute to the fact, that he was not only loved by his family and friends - but also his colleagues and team members from the science community.

Reed Bullis, his predecessor and good friend had given a remarkable speech in honour to Kita and his achievements. All in all it was a sad day in spite of the golden light the sun provided for this occasion.

Admiral Columbus Vessey approached Lt. Cmdr. Jarret Zoref who was standing under one of the large trees, watching the people disappear slowly in small groups. They looked at each other and Vessey joined into the silence of the moment. After a while he said: "How good did you know him?"

Jarret thought for a moment. "Only knew him from some meetings where the scientists brimmed over the endless possibilities of the new technology. I liked his calm way of approaching things. But always focused on the important point."

"Yes, we lost one hell of a man this week."

Jarret prepared for what would follow. The Chief of Space Naval Command did not approach the head of the intelligence service without reason or only for small talk. And it surely came. "Do your men know something about this accident?"

"Let's walk down that alley, shall we? Too many ears." So they began a slow walk.

"FBI has checked the surroundings of the incident. It looks like that the explosion came from the Grav Collector. But, as they say, it is too early for a final report. They haven't found any indications of external tempering with the device. Yet." They passed some smaller bushes from where two kids emerged, laughing. They stopped dead in front of the two.

"So where do you two come from?", Columbus asked them? "Hudson." said one. "Velazco." said the other.

Yes, kids from some of the other scientists. They of course would be bored to death by such an event. Jarret tried to guess how old they were? Maybe 6 or 7? "I should have known you being the Son of Thomas Hudson. You are the spitting image of your father.", Columbus said. "Now, go to your parents. The funeral is over and I think they might want to leave soon. I guess you don't want to stay here on the Graveyard?"

"No, Sir", the boy answered smiling. They looked at each other and were back in their world, one chasing the other. Columbus and Jarret continued their walk. "It is what it is," Jarret continued. "New technology and accidents happen."

"Yes, but it happened only eleven days after we received an internal memo from your intelligence office about the construction plans of the Russian ICBM Bases." Columbus said.

"We have looked into this and found nothing that the Russians have any knowledge about us knowing that construction plan. And those plans are nothing new. So even if they knew, why punishing us for it?"

"It is the Russians. Maybe just because."

They reached the end of the alley and turned to one side towards the exit of the graveyard.

"Jarret, can you inform your men that they should focus on the geological findings the Russians have made? We know that their probes did find minerals on the surveyed planets, but not which and how much."

Jarret nodded. "They already are on that. But those numbers are higher security - and I was wondering if it is worth stealing that - looking at the fact that we will soon know for ourselves. The launch of our ship is only month away and Luna and Mars are on their top list."

"You know the politicians. They asked us to get those numbers."

                   ***

KGB Top Secret - Additional Report of Project Space Exploration, Dec 21st, 1969

Sensor Probe Mercury reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Oct 16st 1969 states:
2.7 Mill t Duranium (0,3)
1.5 Mill t Neutronium (0,5)
3.6 Mill t Boronide (0,2)
3.1 Mill t Uridium (0,4)
2.3 Mill t Corundium (0,8)

Sensor Probe Phobos reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Nov 16st 1969 states:
571.200 t Duranium (1,0)
158.300 t Neutronium (0,5)
285.600 t Corbomite (0,9)
 56.000 t Tritanium (0,7)
162.800 t Boronide (0,7)
 85.700 t Mercassium (0,9)
 73.700 t Vendarite (0,7)
271.200 t Sorium (0,7)
200.000 t Uridium (0,6)
147.100 t Corundium (0,7)
 61.400 t Gallicite (0,5)

Sensor Probe Deimos reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Dec 16st 1969 states:
489.900 t Duranium (0,9)
 51.500 t Neutronium (0,7)
214.700 t Corbomite (0,6)
 52.500 t Tritanium (0,7)
 70.500 t Boronide (0,6)
 97.600 t Mercassium (0,5)
155.300 t Vendarite (0,5)
122.400 t Sorium (0,8)
 80.700 t Uridium (1,0)
 98.100 t Corundium (0,5)
 70.700 t Gallicite (0,4)

                   ***

World Report 1969

During this year, world population grew by 12 Million People, which is a significant drop, but in overall accordance of the last years development (68: +35 Mill; 67: + 47 Mill; 66: + 71 Mill). The overall atmospheric dust has increased by 10 points (from 50 to 60), and the average radiation rate increased from 500 to 540. Average surface temperature is 13.57 °C.
The United States of America grew by 4,5 Million people, 1,1 Million through immigration. United Kingdom grew by 2,43 Million people, and the USSR grew by 4,1 Million People. These three countries alone grew (without immigration) by 12 Million inhabitants - the same amount as world population - showing how serious the effects of the environment actually are.
Three major wars with outside involvement are still continuing (Vietnam War, Thailand Insurgency, Nigerian Civil War), but as of yet without involvement of any new TN Technologies. Since Russia, UK and US are all involved in those wars, it might only be a matter of time until new technologies appear on the Battlefield, despite the fact that there are rumors of agreements not to do so. One Civil War without outside involvement is heating up in Northern Ireland. We'll see how the UK will handle this conflict.
The Russian Invasion in Czechoslovakia from August 1968 (Prague Spring) seems to be a sealed case. No counteractions from the liberal sides came up and Czechoslovakia is again a close ally in the Warsaw Pact.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2017, 12:52:52 PM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - The Story
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2016, 10:15:46 AM »
Chapter 4 - Exploration, Espionage & A new Commonwealth

KGB Top Secret - Report of Project Space Exploration, Sensor Buoy Venus

Sensor Probe Venus reports massive TN Elements on Body. Final survey report dated Feb 16th 1970 states:
20.6 Mill t Duranium (0,5)
36.6 Mill t Corbomite (0,1)
22.8 Mill t Boronide (0,1)
29.0 Mill t Vendarite (0,1)
28.4 Mill t Corundium (0,1)

                   ***

First US Exploration Shuttle launches into space


Source: Deviantart, William Black

Code: [Select]
Explorer class Survey Craft    4 000 tons     55 Crew     315.4 BP      TCS 80  TH 5  EM 0
62 km/s     Armour 1-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 49    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 144 months    Spare Berths 0   

Honeywell C5 EP Conventional Engine (1)    Power 5    Fuel Use 8.84%    Signature 5    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres    Range 25.2 billion km   (4713 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

"This day, February 27 of 1970 will be remembered as the most important moment in the history of our way to the stars. Three hours from now Commander Rodrick Hamner will be the first Captain of an Earth Space Exploration Vessel to launch into deep space. Of course, his first target is not so far out. The Moon. But with his single visit he will gather more information about the moon as all of the planned Apollo missions would have gathered together. Three of the former Apollo astronauts will be among his crew: John Young, scheduled for Apollo 16, Buzz Aldrin, scheduled for Apollo 11 and Edgar Mitchell, scheduled for Apollo 14. Their mission: Lunar EVA and performing several of the planned Apollo geological mission experiments whilst the Explorer Atlantis will do its search for trans newtonian elements. But its mission does not end there. Whilst the Russians send out probes to evaluate the planets Atlantis will jump from planet to planet to see if there is more to them. If everything goes as planned the inner planets will be surveyed by the end of the year. And then Atlantis will fly out past the asteroid belt to visit our bigger sister planets which were formerly planned to be visited by the TOPS project.
Later this day we will broadcast live from Cape Canaveral where family and friends will participate in the official launch ceremony. Until then, this is Walter Cronkite for CBS and that's the way it is."

                   ***

The New Commonwealth - Declaration of Montreal

Several month of work went into an overhaul of the original Statute of Westminster. Whilst the Statute and the former Balfour Declaration were the Basis for the sovereignty of the Members of the British Empire, this overhaul would present the British Commonwealth with a united goal for the upcoming decades, if not centuries. Whilst most of its member states are not capable of mounting space exploration for themselves, the Declaration of Montreal would present them with two opportunities to participate in space exploration.
First: basic space technology would be granted to any Commonwealth Nation by the UK space program, to build and construct spaceports and spaceships for themselves. Thus colonies could be founded anywhere in the solar system by these countries.
Second: a refit program of the countries actual industry to modern TN Standards would be done by UK construction units and could thereby provide vital component construction for the space-faring nations. In exchange emigrants of these nations who wish to resettle to the colonies would be allowed to join in the colonization program.
On the day of our Lord, June 2nd 1970, the beginning of a new Commonwealth era is marked by a marvelous signing ceremony of the Declaration of Montreal.

Canada will be the first nation participating in this program and begin rebuilding its economy. But since this country is very low populated the effects will be minimal in the beginning.

                   ***

On Aug 5th, US Ambassador to the United Nations John F. Kennedy addressed the assembled body to inform about the findings of US Shuttle Atlantis.

"Thank you Mr. Chairman for recognizing the United States. Delegates of the Nations of this world. Earlier this year we set out to explore our solar system, finding possible sites for colonization and exploration. We had hoped much as to what we would find, but were surprised what we would find out about our neighboring planets and moons. We would like to share with the whole world what our probes have found so far:

51 Million t of TN Elements on the Moon, 13 Million t on Mercury, 138 Million t on Venus, 3,5 Mill t on Phobos and Deimos. We know that Earth contains 163 Million t of TN Elements. But all together the inner Planets and Moons alone enlarge that deposit by a total of 205,5 Mill t."

Applause from the ranks can be heard.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, people of the world, this are remarkable numbers and I personally can't wait to see how much more we will find in the outer systems. I will not pound on our Russian Members not sharing their findings with us. Although I would like to invite them to work together in this and not follow their own national interests alone. As we can see space has plenty for all of us. We don't want to take our wars to the stars. As you all know on January 27th 1967 a treaty was opened for signatures which would enable the members of the United Nations to peacefully explore outer space. It went into effect on October 10th 1967 but is as of today only ratified by half the members of this body. Since the trans newtonian elements have changed everything, the United States proposes to reopen the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) adding regulations about founding of colonies and mineral exploitation of the celestial bodies in our solar system to the Outer Space Treaty."

After a short discussion about this proposal and some arguments from members of the eastern block that such regulations are unnecessary a vote was cast and the proposal was overwhelmingly accepted. COPUOS would be reinstated and regulations should be made for extended peaceful exploration of space.

                   ***

During an exercise of the 129th US Brigade their leading Commander, Colonel Nestor Vallo, was killed on Oct 19th. He thereby is the first fatality of the new TN Armed Forces. But since their existence is not public his burial takes place without media coverage.   

                   ***

KGB Top Secret - Report of Project Space Exploration, Sensor Buoy Jupiter

Sensor Probe Jupiter reports massive Sorium inside the gas giant. Final survey report dated Oct 24th 1970 states:
159.8 Mill t Sorium (0,9)

                   ***
         
After a successful exploration of the inner star systems Atlantis had made its way to a smaller planetoid in the asteroid belt called Ceres. This marks her point of leaving the inner system - and also a welcomed one because Ceres is filled with TN Elements. We will see what the outer planets will have to offer.

US Final Report, Dec 20, Minerals on Ceres:
208.200 t Duranium (0,9)
 95.400 t Neutronium (0,4)
 88.100 t Corbomite (0,4)
126.500 t Tritanium (0,6)
 63.500 t Boronide (0,9)
 95.000 t Mercassium (0,8)
 64.600 t Vendarite (0,8)
 99.300 t Sorium (0,8)
 72.600 t Uridium (1,0)
166.500 t Corundium (0,8)
153.200 t Gallicite (0,9)

                   ***
         
CIA Report Foreign Activity - Top Secret

A change in procedure is needed. During our field operations two teams were killed (Mar 7th & Jul 28th) while non of the others were able to obtain any viable technology or information. According to MI6 Secret Reports the same fate went on for two of their teams (Feb 1st & Nov 20th). It is an option that the Russians eventually have some new technology to uncover spies. This needs to be verified and countered if possible.

Other reports indicate that the Russians are working on a basic rocket weapon system usable in space operations. MI6 indicated as much. As peaceful as we want to explore space, if the others don't we need to prepare ourselves to match them. Resources must be made available to research potential weapon systems for our space ships.

                   ***

World Report 1970

During this year, world population grew by 12,8 Million People, which is a surprising stabilization of last years developments. The overall atmospheric dust is stable at 60, but the average radiation rate increased from 540 to 570. Average surface temperature has risen from 13.57 to 14.00 °C.

Individual Country Developments

The United States of America grew by 4,7 Million people (218,2 Mill), 1,2 Million through immigration. United Kingdom grew by 2,57 Million people (60 Mill), Canada by 1,5 Million people (22,75 Mill) and the USSR grew by 4,26 Million People (194,4 Mill). These space-faring countries alone grew (without immigration) by 11,7 Million inhabitants - and make up most of the growth of world population.

The Commonwealth of Nations is now registered as a separate entity in word statistics and comprises over 895 Million People, 812 of which living outside of the UK and Candada.

Three major wars with outside involvement are still continuing (Vietnam War, Thailand Insurgency, Nigerian Civil War), although UK has withdrawn their armies from Nigeria and the land keeps stable at the moment. One Civil War without outside involvement is continuing in Northern Ireland.

Edward Heath is new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2017, 02:31:22 AM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2016, 03:38:41 PM »
Chapter 5 - Space Command Meeting & An unexpected war

High Level NATO Meeting - Exploring possibilities of Space Exploration

Another day - another task. But this day would be different. Time sometimes seems to be a strange creature. It can crawl and it can run - literally escape you. The time towards this day crept even slower than anything she experienced before. Eve Cole had the task of bringing the United States into space. All of a sudden she was thrown into a game she never anticipated she would be part of. Dreamt maybe. Operations and Logistics - another kind of strange animal - but one which she always liked. Throwing around numbers, trying to optimize the running of things as best as possible. Yes, definite her kind of animal. If it could be adopted it would be hers forever. But that other animal, time, no, this time it was her enemy.

Not only crawled it under the table, escaped her again and again where she thought that she finally had it. And, worse, it also began to be slippery. Like soap. Grabbed it and it jumped away again. But not laying still to be grabbed again, no it again went into hiding. It was like milking mice. if you would archive it, not much would come out of it. But most of you time you even did not archive it at all.

Frustrated as she was the real time she lived in became the exact opposite. Days went by, but felt like weeks. Weeks went by but felt like month. And worst was that her thoughts felt like living in pudding. Like she wanted to try to think faster but couldn't. Jammed up. "It must be possible" she thought. "It must be possible."

Two days before the final meeting she gave up. There simply was no way to archive the goal of building a settlement on the Moon. Not with our capacities and abilities. Not in this decade. Impossible. And the next two following. It simply wasn't possible. Construction department had given her some thoughts as to how they planned to construct houses on the airless surface of the Moon. Well, they were what they said. Thoughts. The technologies needed for permanent settlement in an airless surrounding weren't far enough. They might work for "small short term" space exploration vessels like the Atlantis - and that only if no disasters would happen to that ship. If anything happened out there rescue wasn't even a remote option. They knew that and had accepted that. But using this technology on the surface of the Moon would not work. 50 people on a spaceship - maybe. 12 Million on the Moon. No way.

So on the day she went to the NATO meeting, discussing a possible and manageable way to get to the moon with a permanent settlement by the end of 1979 she came there with no plan at all but to inform the high brass of the United States and United Kingdom that it will not be possible - even with their combined resources at hand. It had been her task to work out a way to make it possible - but she wasn't able to. "Joe?" she asked.

Joe Schons walked with her to the meeting room. It was the least he could do after watching her for weeks tormenting herself - watching her wake up at nights (if she fell to sleep at all), supporting her in whatever way possible. And, it was the thing he wanted to do. "You will do the right thing. I think it will work."

"Don't just say this because..."

"You know, I wouldn't." They arrived at the door. He hugged her. "You can do it. I know."

"Thank you." It felt good having him here. "See you later then."

She turned and went into the meeting room.

                   ***
   
"Twelve Million Colonists?"

Admiral Dewi Morys pronounced the word 'million' as if it would be a poisonous snake. "Yes, Sir, that is the minimum number we would need to maintain a workforce for 24 terraforming units." Eve Cole had begun explaining all the minimum necessities a colony would need. The upper limit was the maximum power output / efficiency relationship between the power cores and the terraforming units. Most efficient relationship would be between 23 to 25 terraformer units. The unfortunate part was, that 6 Million workers would be needed to run them. And that meant almost another 6 million people working to maintain the colony and grow enough food.

Dewi Morys, head of UK Space Division, shook his head. "If you say so, Miss."

"I have full confidence in the work of Miss Cole, Admiral." Columbus Vessey knew that the English royalty still had its problems with women in service - although he himself had put Ellen Hammond in his own staff - and even in the same position as Miss Cole was. So what the Admiral wanted to express was his dissatisfaction with the results Miss Cole had presented. No way to the Moon - not until a much better way was found to build infrastructure which would keep the colonists save from being sucked out into the airless surface of the moon - or alternatively automated terraforming units. He himself was disappointed because he thought that Eve would find a way to make their dream possible. He knew well that major technical difficulties would have to be overcome and that the wish of the politicians to be on the Moon within one decade was not realistic at all. And when Eve presented the numbers as to what was needed to make the dream possible, he understood, that it would stay a dream. At least in this century. 24 Terraformers, 3.600 Infrastructure Buildings, 25 Transport Ships, 10 Colony Ships, 13.600t of Duranium - the only thing that was not a problem was the amount of fuel which would be needed: a little over 7.500 litre of Sorium fuel. To construct the ships alone would take 10 years, and only if they would triple the size of shipyard capacity available. The two basic ship designs which Eve had developed were a stroke of genius, because they would be buildable in the same shipyard - she effectively got rid of retooling the shipyard again and again for this job - but time was simply against them. The next big problem was Duranium. Stockpile actually was some 6.300 t of it; and a yearly negative balance of 900t. Stock prices for Duranium had increased by 40% over the last month when the numbers were made public. Not only ours but the British and Russians as well. Impossible to come up with over 13.000 t of it within three years.
Worst of all, these were only the numbers for the US. She even developed an identical plan for the UK - and their reserves were only half of ours. And even when the UK would build an identical colony on the Moon - effectively having 48 Terraformers doing the job, the time to build a breathable atmosphere would be longer than 16 years. All this in spite of the fact that we would not be able to construct so many of them in three years. And only after a breathable atmosphere was reached an open expansion would be possible. Next impossibility would be to ferry 12 Million people on the Moon. Her projections showed that the ten colony transport ships would need 8 years for 12 Million people to be ferried over there. But that meant building them first, and then the transports for the actual infrastructure. But it had to be done the other way round, obviously.

Columbus stood up looking to each of the present persons. "I know well that this is not what we all had hoped for, but we have to face the projections Miss Cole has made as being true."

This was the moment. Eve had all of them at the point of disillusion. Colonizing the Moon was not the way to go. "Admiral," she began, "it is not possible to build a Colony on the Moon. Not in the time frame given us nor within the resources we have at our hands. But there is a way to build a colony." She waited a second that the surprise could sink in. "We simply build one on Mars."

Utter astonishment can hardly describe the vibes the room began to be filled with. Eve had presented to them that their nearest neighbour is impossible to colonize in this century. Now she said, that a planet which is not 300.000 km but, depending on the relative orbital position, between 80 and 380 MILLION km away from Earth, would be perfectly colonizable in this century. Morys began to doubt that the Americans could be taken serious at all.

"Mrs. Cole", Admiral Vessey began, as calm as he could, "I know you now for a little more than three years and have really began to appreciate your work for my office. Since I have never seen you make jokes about such serious topics and since I am confident that you haven't lost your mind, I assume you are making a serious proposal."

"I do, Admiral."

"Well, then you better explain." He sat down again and began to listen.

"Admiral Morys, Admiral Vessel, my dear colleagues, the main problem we have with colonizing the Moon are two: first, we don't have a save way to ensure survivability for the colonists if a catastrophe happens. It would take more than 25 years to develop save Infrastructure. Possibly longer. However that problem does not exist when colonizing Mars. The atmosphere is not strong over there, but our technology can be modified with ease to work in that environment to ensure complete safety - other than meteoric impact of course. Second, we don't have enough time to build the needed infrastructure and space ships to colonize the Moon as fast as we want to. The travel time to Mars gives us that time. We could reduce the yearly demand on Duranium to roughly 560t - which would be manageable by either UK and US to maintain over a period of ten years. Within ten years we would be able to build the needed ships to finish the build up of Mars, and within 20 years having 12 Million People over there, the needed 24 Terraformers and only 2.400 Infrastructure Units. After that time we finish the conversion of the atmosphere, basically the raising of average temperature. When that is finished, enough time has passed at which we should have come up with a plan to modify our Infrastructure to be save - and colonization of the Moon can begin. Ships and Terraformers will already be available - they just need to be shipped back from Mars to the Moon. Colonizing the Moon then within 10 to 15 years should be doable. At the end we would have two working colonies on the Moon and Mars - and free access to both planets for all who wish to settle there. We just need to work together building parallel colonies."

Commander Harry Coslett, Logistics Operator of UK overcame the shock first. "I like that plan."

Admiral Morys pinned him with his eyes. "Sorry, Sir, but I had the time to do some number crunshing myself and I always thought that the time frame which is given us is the one thing which makes all plans impossible. The effect of the longer runs to Mars would really give us the needed excuse to sell the slow build up to the public. It also puts this project well within the range of economic elasticity we could bear. Other than loosing the face of not going to the Moon first - I don't see any downside in the plan of Miss Cole."

Admiral Morys and Vessey exchanged looks. "Please elaborate", Morys invited her. Which is exactly what she did. After two more hours of detailed planning and "number crunshing" the plan was settled. It would be Mars first. Even the larger needed amount of fuel (7.500 flights at an average distance of 230 Million km at a fuel usage rate of 0,88l per hour and a flight duration of back and forth of 2.778 hours would mean 20.835.000 litre of Sorium Fuel) would be no problem because the US and UK together had a stockpile of 16 Million litre already and are producing over a million litre per year. It would limit possible build ups of automated mining colonies; but the prospect of having two working colonies within 4 decades, maybe before the turn of the Millennium - it outweighed any other short term shortcomings of other projects. That is, if the Governments of both countries would give a go to that plan.

                   ***

Jan 17th, 1971: High Level NATO Meeting - Discussion about Space Exploration Plans - Final Report

Attendants:
Admiral Columbus Vessey, Commander Naval Space Command, 37 years
Admiral Dewi Morys, Commander UK Space Division, 32 Years
Lt. Nathanael Krenke, Logistics US, 27 years
Lt. Cmdr. Eva Cole, Operations US, 26 years
Cmdr. Harry Coslett, Logistics UK, 26 years
Cmdr. Ellen Hammond, Operations UK, 29 years

After dismissing their Lieutenants and Commanders Dewi and Vessels spoke about the plans in private and gave their respective governments the following report:

Change in goals of Space Exploration program. Technological difficulties deny option to colonize the Moon within next 10 years. Needed technology would need at least 25 years to be researched. We support a research alliance where the UK will use their two topmost facilities to solve the problem of endangering the colonists through inept installations. During that time all research projects in the US will be shared with the UK due to them using their whole capacity to solve this one task.

In that 25 years we will start colonizing Mars. See attached file for detailed construction plans & schedule. Within that periode a fully working colony will exist on Mars for both nations and colonizing the Moon will be possible.

The only encounterable problem might be the general Duranium shortage we'll have here on earth within the next 5 years. Rushing the construction of more mining complexes is needed to not slow the program down by shortages.

Setting up our shipyards for the proposed ship designs will take up most of the year 1971. So when beginning in 72 we will be able to have functioning colonies by 1998.

                   ***

Jan 21th: The confidence in her abilities gave Eve Cole the strength to take on the upcoming task. US and UK leadership were impressed by her plans and rushed to adopt them. By February 4th the plans were granted. She could literally feel that she had learned much through this project. (Off Topic: On Jan 21th the Game Engine Reported to me, that Eve Cole increased her Operational Bonus to 40%. Since I had preplanned that meeting before starting to progress the time, it felt very fitting that I seemed to be in sync with the game engine ;) ).

                   ***

What happend also in 1971

The expansion of Space Exploration grabbed the people of Earth in this year of 1971. In June Australia joined the Commonwealth as a third nation with plans to establish colonies on the other planets. For the moment an increase of capacities was first order, but in time, the first colony would be established. UK would have finished its own research of cryogenic berth in 72 and would be able to start producing its own colony ships in the joint plan with the US. The US itself was quicker and finished cryogenic berth research on May 26th 1971. UKs Taylor Coles finished an engine optimization program and came up with a more effective way of using sorium fuel, which would make UK engines 10% more effective than before. The US finished more mineral explorations and overshot the USSR program by far. Their persistence to keep to the original plan paid off. Callisto, Eurpoa, Jupiter, Io, Ganymede and Praxidike were added to the planetary bodies on which trans newtonian elements were found. Especially Jupiter was a surprise because in the atmosphere pure sorium was found - but as a gas. Scientist had been ordered to begin researching possibilities of collecting the gas from Jupiter.
On June 27th, the USSR launched their first interstellar vessel. A cargo ship whose destination was not revealed to the public. Stanislav Voskresensky became the first Russian Captain of the Freighter Tantal.
August 10th saw another nation joining the space race. Poland announced to become the second communist nation in space. Although insiders leaked that their space program would be only an addition to the Russian Space Program - constructing parts and supplies - this would be used by Poland to enlarge their capacities to really become a member of the space community - in upcoming decades.
One month later on September 4th, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 1969 founded international organization, announced that they revisited the goals of the Organization and would jointly cooperate to bring Islam to the Stars. The presented opportunities through the United Nations Space Technology Program would be given to the member states and a subsequent increase of space technology would follow. Two nations who formerly were part of the Commonwealth renounced their partnership in the UK Space Program and joined the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and support their Space Program: Pakistan and Malaysia.

                   ***

The First Trans Newtonian War

In the late hours of October 8th an American Spy Plane took photos of the Russian-Pakistani border uncovering a surprising amount of troops on the Russian side of the border. The foreign minister of Russia was invited to the White House the next day and asked what that was all about? Since he could not give a satisfactory response the US troops were set into DefCon 4 condition and an emergency meeting of NATO was called in.
In the early hours of October 10th Russian Troops stepped over the border into Pakistan, beginning to overrun Pakistani troops. The world was shocked about this sudden turn of events. Out of the blue Russia had begun a war with Pakistan.
On October 11th the Russian Leader Leonid Brezhnev apologized to the world and reported of Russian intelligence reports about science experiments conducted by Pakistan which could endanger the survival of the world and that Russian troops were dispatched to prevent a catastrophe. The conducted experiments would set a large amount of radiation free into the atmosphere and cool down our planet significantly. This has to be prevented. Therefore the Russian Army was ordered to seize the whole Country and stop those devastating experiments.
Surprised by this apology it took the UN some time to respond. Since there was no scientific verification of the claims Russia had made, on October 13th the Russian attack was denounced as an illegal act of war against a sovereign member of the United Nations. But in these three days Russia had overrun almost one third of the whole Country.
On October 14th Russia presented measurements of Radiation which they had taken all over their country during the last 12 month. It was very clear that there was a distinct jump in radiation levels closest to the Pakistani border. The world was asked to look into their recorded values to verify that the source could only have come from within Pakistan.
Another report was given that a spy network working in Pakistan had successfully infiltrated the Pakistani research facility and was able to steal reports of the experiments. Several of them were linked to trans newtonian elements. The Russian Minister to the United Nations asked: "Why hasn't the world asked itself why Pakistan has changed their allegiance from the Commonwealth Space Program to the Islamic Cooperation? Their chances to go to space were way better when working together with the UK than they are now working with their friends of the same faith. What are the reasons behind this? Well, we know the answers now, don't we?"

                   ***

"What shall we make of this?", asked President Nixon.
The whole US Staff had come together to discuss how to react to the Russian Invasion of Pakistan and the story they now have presented to the world why they invaded. It was clear to them, that all of this must be a fabricated tale. Nothing in the experiments with the new elements suggests such a large amount of danger. The only way they are dangerous is when they are in their transformed state. But in that state they are so weak, that if you would want to weaponize them, you would have to build a bomb the size of the Empire State Building.

"There is even more to the whole story."

Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence spoke these works in a calm voice, which gave them the gravity, he intended to. "A week ago the Russians invaded Pakistan. They didn't invade Afghanistan or some other small country - they invaded Pakistan. A war hardened people with quite a large army. But as of today, within only one week, they overran almost 3/4th of the country. That is not possible with the conventional arms we know the Russians possess."

General Leonard Chapman: "You are saying that not only we but the Russians also created a trans newtonian supported armed forces of which we know nothing about?"

Helms: "I hate to say it, but it looks like that we missed some vital parts in the job we were given."

General William Westmooreland: "You have knowledge now that the Russians did what we did?"

Helms: "Yes, we do."

He pulled out several reports from Pakistani Armed Forces, observing the Russian Army conducting their attacks which showed equipment not unlike what the US now possesses. "General Westmooreland, can you recognize some of that stuff?"

Westmooreland was a trained military General so he did not cringe. But he instantly recognized what he saw. "This is not our stuff, but it looks like it."

Helms: "It looks like that the rumors about the effectiveness of Russian Intelligence are true. It looks like they must have stolen pretty much every type of equipment developed in your secret army program - and not only that, developed them into a functioning army."

Nobody really knew what to do with this. Be frightened about the Russian abilities? Be angry about their own ineffectiveness?

Nixon: "So they have broken the signed treaty of not using TN based technology in earth wars, right? Well, I would say we give that to the UN and get ourselves a permission to kick the Russians out of Pakistan with our own TN supported forces."

Westmooreland: "With all due respect, Mr. President, we would risk an all out atomic war if we would confront the Russians in the open."

Nixon: "No, we won't." The President very well knew that Westmooreland would like nothing more than to put his troops into action. That was, why he had created them in the first place. But Westmooreland seemed to be too perplexed that all of his secret technology was already owned by the Russians, so Nixon openly said what Westmooreland wanted, which gave him the desired reaction of Westmooreland denouncing his real goal. Westmooreland realized it the moment he had said, but it was too late. "The goal of the Russian Invasion", the president continued, "is nothing more than to strengthen their sphere of influence. They know that they won't be able to keep up with our space program or the growing fanaticism the world seems to be in to join into the space race. They would take a side place in this history - so they do need more resources than we have. This step of annexing Pakistan is just a first step of many to get the resources they need. They have seen how effective our survey program is - and they need to undo that lost round. Pakistan is just one step in that process. And since they don't want to risk an all out failure, they won't retaliate with atomic weapons if we would invade with our TN troops."

It took the Generals and Admirals a while to form a final plan, but in the end, it was taken to the UN as suggested. On October 25 Pakistan's army was defeated and on October 28 the UN gave permission to the US to liberate the country. The US troops were shipped to the Region. Russian planes tried to stop the assembly but were unable to. Many were shot down by American F-5 & F-8 fighters. And on November 15th the counterstrike began. Supported by the Air Forces F-111 a fierce battle over the freedom of Pakistan began. TN supported troops were fighting TN troops - and nobody knew what would be the result.
The fear of atomic retaliation raged through the countries but noting of that kind happened. Both sides threatened to use them if necessary, but only if the others did first. Since nobody did, they were kept in their launch tubes.

The war continued with no decisive victory on either side. But the time for the Russians ran out because the UK announced on December 1st that they also possessed a TN supported army which they had transferred into the region over the last two weeks and who would join the US troops from the following day onward. The next day first shots were exchanged between Russia and the UK.

Until on December 17th a ceasefire was agreed on over 1,5 Million people in Pakistan had died, and more than 44 industrial complexes had been destroyed, almost 8% of the countries production capacity. There was more damage to the country than to the armored troops. TN supported armor was very strong and no divisions or battalions had fallen yet - some were damaged but pretty minor. But that was not the reason for the ceasefire.
By that time it had become obvious that the raised nuclear radiation and dust levels were not a result of Pakistani experiments, but a result of dust given off of the Russian armed TN forces. Something in their armor seemed to give off radiation when hit by gunpower. And the effects were really devastating. A raise in almost 150 RL during those few weeks of war showed everybody that if the war would last longer than two or three month, the earth might become permanently unhabitable. UN Secretary General U Thant made it clear that if the weaponfire would not cease humanity would die as a whole. Both sides agreed and the weaponfire stopped in the evening of December 17th.

On December 18th Kurt Waldheim became the next secretary general of the United Nations. He thanked U Thant for his wonderful work and recent negotiations for a ceasefire in Pakistan and hopes to be able to continue the peace talks.

The world was not informed about this dramatic developments. They only knew that U Thant had arranged a ceasefire and that peacetalks would begin. The world would never know how close they had come to annihilation - at least not if peace could be maintained.

Heated discussions followed behind closed doors, uncovering all the lies the Russians had presented to the public about Pakistani secret experiments and that it only was a side effect of the TN armor after they had been shot upon by the Pakistani army. It was very well played because the measuring stations around Pakistan would detect the increased radiation levels generated by the Russian TN armies. General Westmooreland was furious when confronting his opponent on the other side during that talks about their sinister twisting of facts to their advantage. Only a valiant act from his colleagues prevented a fistfight in the UN office.

But in the end all sides agreed on one thing: we cannot allow earth to be destroyed. But since the Russians would not leave Pakistan without a fight, the hands of the Western Powers were bound. Either freeing Pakistan and loosing the world - or giving Pakistan to the Russians and saving the world. Through the finer arts of diplomacy a settlement was agreed upon that Pakistan would become a demilitarized zone not under direct control of the Russians but being bound to support their space program. The Russians agreed to rebuild Pakistani industry and even bring them up to TN levels.

The peace treaty was signed on January 12th 1972.

                   ***

A short jump back to November 8th

It was dark and misty at the drydocks in that particular town at the east coast of the United States. Nobody would expect any noteable person walking around here that late at night. So nobody would think anything about that figure in a coat who was walking down the docks. His walk was fast and quick as if he had a goal, but suddenly was halted by two people emerging from behind some crates.

"You have it with you?", one of them said.

The person could not see their faces. He grabbed into his coat and pulled a small bag out of it. He threw it towards the other man who was still standing 6 meters away. Without effort the other one catched it and looked into it. "Fine", he finally said.

"You have something to add?", the Person asked.

"No." the man said. "Everything was placed as you had asked - and by watching what's in the news, I would say, the US will get its war. As you had desired."

"I don't desire war.", General Westmooreland said. "Don't try to understand what is over your head."

The two man looked at each other, ignoring the insult. "You will not see us again. Never."

"So will you.", Westmooreland answered. He got what he wanted and had paid for it. So he turned and went back into the city. Yes, the war will begin and our troops will be officially recognized. He knew from the beginning who were the members of the Russian spy network and had set up a system to infiltrate them. Now that had paid off. Feeding them his construction plans would ensure his troops will be used, which they would not have if there was no equal enemy to fight them with. But incorporating radiating elements in those construction plans and feed these false plans to the Russians was the tricky part. Those two guys were part of that plan. Well, they would not see him again, that was also taken care of. Yes, his plans do work.
The Russians had made best of their defect armor - he gave them that. But in the end, his plans do work as planned.
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2016, 01:09:56 PM »
Chapter 5 - Appendix

US Survey Reports 1971

The US Probes discovered the following TN elements on this celestial bodies:

Io:
777.300 t Duranium (0,9)
 72.600 t Neutronium (0,4)
 73.000 t Corbomite (0,6)
190.300 t Tritanium (1,0)
 69.800 t Boronide (0,8)
 83.500 t Mercassium (0,5)
 73.900 t Vendarite (0,5)
256.650 t Sorium (0,7)
 56.600 t Uridium (0,4)
 95.400 t Corundium (0,9)
173.600 t Gallicite (0,4)

Europa:
893.100 t Duranium (1,0)
165.200 t Neutronium (0,9)
 95.200 t Corbomite (0,5)
 62.600 t Tritanium (0,5)
 71.900 t Boronide (0,6)
175.900 t Mercassium (0,8)
237.300 t Vendarite (1,0)
 79.050 t Sorium (0,8)
 69.700 t Uridium (0,9)
 81.700 t Corundium (0,5)
 87.600 t Gallicite (1,0)

Ganymede:
555.900 t Duranium (1,0)
 99.000 t Neutronium (1,0)
 91.300 t Corbomite (0,4)
195.000 t Tritanium (0,7)
121.600 t Boronide (0,8)
 57.200 t Mercassium (0,7)
 83.500 t Vendarite (1,0)
148.200 t Sorium (1,0)
 87.300 t Uridium (0,8)
 52.100 t Corundium (0,5)
 59.700 t Gallicite (0,6)

Callisto:
793.800 t Duranium (0,9)
 51.800 t Neutronium (0,7)
 62.900 t Corbomite (0,7)
 73.400 t Tritanium (0,7)
 72.500 t Boronide (1,0)
142.800 t Mercassium (0,6)
 71.100 t Vendarite (0,7)
182.550 t Sorium (0,7)
 62.000 t Uridium (0,6)
186.800 t Corundium (0,4)
182.600 t Gallicite (1,0)

Praxidike:
 29.450 t Duranium (1,0)
 81.836 t Boronide (1,0


World Report 1971

Despite the war and increased radiation by the Pakistan War world population had grown by roughly the same amount as last year: 8.5 Million people. 3.636 Million inhabitants were counted by the United Nations statistic office. Final estimates of the Pakistan War determined a loss of 1.3 Million civilian population overall. Average surface temperature went down from 14.00°C to 13.34°C. The average radiation level climbed up to 750, an alarming 180 points. Dust rate increased from 60 to 80.

Individual Country Developments

The growing space program initiated a fracturing of the Nations on Earth. More and more alliances were formed which were determined to go into space. The world had seen how fragile this could be in the short war for Pakistan. More fractions could lead to more wars - not what Kennedy had hoped.

United States: 222.69 Million People (+4.49, 0.9 of which through immigration)
United Kingdom: 62.21 Million People (+2.21)
Australia: 13.77 Million People (+0.67)
Canada: 24.08 Million People (+1.33)
Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 729.42 (+3.22)
USSR: 198.60 Million People (+4.20)
Poland: 33.96 Million People (+0.96)
Pakistan: 61.05 Million People (-0.25)
USSR Sphere of Influence: 103.50 Million People (+1.70)
Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 337,31 (+1.51)
United Nations: 1849.40 Million People (-11.54)

The short war in Pakistan wasn't the only armed conflict of 1971. There were still three other major conflicts around the globe: Vietnam War, Thailand Insurgency and the Civil War in Northern Ireland.

                   ***

The Face of the World changed after the short war in Pakistan. Further investigation made it clear that the radiation pollution was no general problem of the new technology but a specific problem of the Russian Army. The image of the Russian Nation weakened throughout the world. Endangering the world in such a way and blaming it on an innocent nation was too much - not only for the people of the nations but their leaders as well. Several trade agreements with the communist states were resolved, the whole eastern block became more and more separated from the rest of the world. Of course many Russian heads were chopped off due to this disaster, but that did not change much of the dislike of the rest of the world, if anything at all.
The Russians would surely rework their military technology and remove this flaw - but the world frightened that more than anything else. If there was no such danger from using TN supported troops, who would stop them from invading other countries? The Cold War seemed to have become even colder - and potentionally hotter.

General Westmooreland was pleased that his plans had worked out. He now legitimally could use his TN troops. Unfortunately his moles in the Russian Leadership were killed due to their "obvious incompetence" of not seeing the flaws in the stolen US designs - but they willingly accepted the sacrifice of their lifes. The cause had to be protected and the Inner Circle would provide new contacts for him very soon. Then they could contine with their plan.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2016, 01:59:58 PM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2016, 09:10:37 AM »
Chapter 6 - Russian Crisis and ...

As eventfull as 1971 ended, as uneventfull 1972 began. Well, sort of. One event made its premiere: Between January 21st and 23rd the first Star Trek Convention was held. The ongoing space exploration had jumped this television series to the front and was now in its 6th season, breaking one record after the other. What may have gone down as an unrecognized crazy idea of one singular television maniac has become a wordwide phenomenon. Gene Roddenberry's idea of a trek into space was surely nothing but a reinvention of the colonization of the United States itself - but obviously the people liked the idea - especially in light of it becoming reality. But not only for the US but the whole world. Will it though be a peaceful reality?

                   ***

Jan 6th: Final Russian Survey Report of Uranus

The report showed that this planet also has a lot of Sorium in its atmosphere (72.349.300t at a density of 0.8 ). The next two space probes were launched but an engine malfunction destroyed the Pluto Probe in its ascending phase. Launch of Ceres Probe worked like a charme. But all upcoming launches were halted until the cause of the explosion could be determined.

                   ***

Jan 27th: The New US & UK space goal announcement

"Today we as a nation are proud to announce the next step in our way to the stars."

President Nixon had chosen the starting day of the construction of the first manned 'Mission to Mars' cargo transport to announce to the world that Mars would be the desired planet for colonization.

"After the initial survey results had come in - and I might say one better than the other - we began to plan how to explore the vastness of ressources available in our solar system. We asked ourselves what might be the best way to reach out as quickly as possible. And the easiest solution with our current technology was not what most people would have expected - to colonize our moon. No, we will go to Mars. In a joint effort the United Kingdom and the United States will establish two colonies there to transform this thin aired planet into a liveable, breathable world so that we can colonize it for mankind. But the Moon is not left out, oh no. We know about the strong case for our Moon and will advance our technology while we terraform Mars. And when that step is finished, we will use our new expertise to settle on our closest neighbor - our very own Moon. But first things first. The step of colonizing Mars will take decades of course, but I am confident that together with our partners this endeavour will be worth while. Any nation will be able to reach out to Mars thereafter. Any nation who wishes to join in the space colonization program."

                   ***

Early in February in a US/UK science meeting 21 year young Chadwick Voller presented the idea of a pressurized water reactor as a possible source for energy production. But the establishment was satisfied with the energy reactors they had: Atomic Reactors. And since Vollers ideas concentrated around small lightwheight reactors, no need was seen to delve more into this technology. Vollers argued that with this technology a much faster engine drive could be created. Space flight was pretty slow and could use a boost. But his ideas were not accepted, as pleasing as they sounded. All resources were actually scheduled for the beginning Mars colonization and nothing could be diverted from that project - if they actually wanted it to be finish on schedule.

After the meeting he and Joseph Hutchinson, Head of UK Power & Propulsion research, met and Hutchinson said: "The engine designs you have in mind. How concrete are they?"

"Well, most of it depends on my ideas for a pressurized water reactor. If I can accomplished it, the engine will be constructable pretty easy."

"I like your idea, and", he took Vollers to a side and wispered: "MI6 has an unconfirmed report about the rockets the Russians used for their space probe program which mentions a special kind of small reactor. Those rockets were not propelled by atomic power but by something else. From what I have read, some of that stuff sounded like what you said today. Maybe the Russians already have such a reactor."

Vollers had an idea. "Do you think I can take a look at this report?" This was the question Hutchinson had hoped for. But he shook his head. "Sorry, I would need a special permit for that." He paused and continued in a different tone: "But my wife and I wanted to invite you and your wife to dinner this evening. Maybe we can discuss this a little further before we fly back to England?"

There was something in his voice that made Vollers agree to this. He did not regret it. Hutchinson showed him inofficially some photos of the Russian design plans. Vollers was sure that they looked like what he had in mind for a pressurized water reactor.

They enjoyed the rest of the evening. In the morning Hutchinson called his officials and confirmed that Vollers positively identified the Russian Reactor as similar to his design ideas, and a team was dispatched to secure the real design plans from the Russians. If they could provide them to Vollers he might be able to make it a reality. But Hutchinson was not interested in the reactor. He was interested in the engine idea. If he would be able to realize this "Vollers-Engine", it might give his career the boost he had hoped for.

                   ***

Mar 19th: Another Survey Report and another war

The final report of mineral concentration on Ceres was given to Leonid Brezhnev. It was amazing how much of these trans newtonian Elements were available in the solar system. All planets Russia had send probes to had those Minerals. He was wondering what the results would be when in '73 the first russian manned ship would begin to travel to all the minor planets, moons and asteroids. Would it be the same there? The actual amount of stuff already found could not be mined within the next three hundred years. What if the minor planets were as full as the bigger ones?

But that report dimmed in light of another report Brezhnev received on the same day. The situation in Vietnam had become worse and worse for the USA. Due to the Pakistan War the Vietkong had used the lack of focus on their country to overrun several provinces. More US troops were needed to ensure safety. But the promises Nixon had given to his own country was to reduce the war efforts - not increase them. So a decision had been made by the US Government which, as he read the report now, made Brezhnev furious. The US Trans Newtonian Troops which were still located in the Asian region had been redeployed to Vietnam to finish the Vietkong.

Protesting against this act did not help Russia in the slightest. Their troops were still out of order - so the USA had free reign to do what they wanted. They even deployed troops against the communist supported insurgency in Thailand. And three weeks later both countries were free from any oppositional forces.

Surely all of this had a political fallout. China protested against the unauthorized use of Trans Newtonian supported troops against conventional armies and demanded an international ban of such uses. They also tried to imply that there is still uncertainty of more radiation fallout - but no one went alongside this chinese argument. Science had shown that the problem was a Russian only problem and that a correctly developed TN Army would not lead to a problem with radiation fallout in combat. Some members of the UN Security Council argued that the existence of TN Troops might be a means to reduce warfare all over the world - if being limited to the two superpowers. China frowned at such arguments and words like "Puppets" flew through the room. Being at the mercy of the superpowers should be something we all never ever want happening, they argued. But de facto it was so. The two quick wars had shown this. Normal troops were no match for their TN counterparts.

The outcome was, that Russia became determined to come back into the fight as a global player. In April it was decided by the Politbuero that all available efforts had to be taken to make the troops ready again for war as quickly as possible.

                   ***

Apr 7th: Cause of the Rocket Crash

As it was first speculated, the problem originated from an error combination of computer data and engine control. This problem had occoured because of the great distance Pluto was away so it was decided that deep space exploration should be removed from the probe program and those planets later be explored when the manned space program was active. Since that would begin next year no one was really unhappy about this decision. The final four probes would simply be launched to the local moons.

                   ***

Apr 23rd: US Conclusions

In a High Level US Advisory meeting it was determined that the array of Russian transport ships were, according to the collected data, flying to Venus. No conclusion could be drawn what the Russians were doing there. Sensor range was simply too small - which lead to an advice which was put into the final report: increase in Sensor Technology must be commenced. But space is much vaster than the oceans of Earth and it was very different to detect fleet movements in space compared to listening for ships travelling on or in the water.

                   ***

What else is going on in the world?

May 2nd: Russia develops Active Grav Sensor Strength 10, putting them ahead of the United States.

On 4th of May Sierra Leone announced a change of space cooperation. They would not support the Commonwealth in their quest of exploring space any longer, but rather support the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. This traty was officially signed at the joining ceremony of Sierra Leone to the Organization.

                   ***

May 19th: The Launch

Nixon was pleased to be able to give a peaceful announcement this time. Surely the two short wars in Asia were a grandious military success but the opposition to using trans newtonian troops was growing by the day - and something different might soothe the people a little bit. So he went to the television room, got prepared and announced to the watching world: "Another day to be remembered. Today we will launch the first ship to colonize Mars - or as this program has become known: 'Mission to Mars'. Lt. Commander Saul Trillinger will be the Commander leading this mission and be Captain of the first US cargo vessel. In the next twelve years 34 more transport vessels and 10 colonization ships will follow him and finish this daunting task. The UK program is also already running and their first ship will join the efforts in November - and together Mars will be our first and prime colony."

An hour later the ship 'Achernar' launched from the Cape and began its long voyage to Mars.

                   ***

Jun 3rd: US gains an ally

Another win for the US Space Program. Japans Tenno Hirohito announced at an economic meeting that his country would join the United States in their efforts to explore space. Therefore the 'Pacific Space Cooperation' treaty had been signed by both countries, binding the US to deliver technology to Japan to be able to build parts & ships, whilst Japan will provide its construction yards to deliver new ships and parts to the US. Since Japan is quite a large and growing economic partner this surely will give the US space program an edge over their Russian counterpart.

                   ***

Jul 14th: UK ready to join 'Mission to Mars'

Tom Ross, British Scientist finished Cryo Chamber research. Although UK and US agreed on joining forces to colonize Mars, they did not join their respective research programs. Plans to join them are prepared but not in effect as of yet. Sharing technology with smaller countries is quite easy to arrange, but two partners on eyelevel do have some pride to overcome to use "the others high technology" or be free to share them with the partner.

                   ***

Jul 21st: Surprise

Short after entering the orbit of Venus Stanislov Veskresensky went down the main corridor to check on the cargo. He had to deliver another part of those new type of automated mining stations which would extract trans newtonian elements from normal matter - and all of this without having any people operation the machine.

Veskresensky did not know what worried him more - having this machine do its work without any manpower at all, or the fact that this new trans newtonian age would be standard pretty soon. He went to the left circle of the hallways because he wanted to take a look at Venus. He had made the trip to Venus four times now and it amazed him every time taking in the view from the windows.

"Captain?" A door from the lower engine deck opened and Gregori Fomin peeked his head through. "Are you checking on the cargo?"
Veskresensky nodded: "And... ." Fomin grinned and finished his sentence: "... taking in the view. As always." So he joined and they walked down the rest to the starboard side of the main hallway together. "Have you seen the new computer design?"
Veskresensky looked at his chief engineer. "The steering computer for navigation?" Fomin nodded. "Makes the Astrogator feel obsolete."

That was an exaggeration. Surely space travel had a special demand on navigational expertese. On the seas of Earth you could use the stars and/or magnetism to determine the bearing and position of your ship. But in space there were no such helpers but the stars only. Problem was that the stars were so far away that you literally could not calculate the difference in position between the orbit of Earth and the orbit of Venus or any other planet for that matter by looking at them. When not close to a planetary body precise calculations and recordings of the ships speed, acceleration and duration of flying at a given speed was needed to be able to say where you were in this vast emptyness. Computers are predistined for such a work. Humans can be good at that, but only if there were not too many variables included - and in either case humans were almost never error free. Sudden and unpredicted course corrections would lead to a massive number of calculations - and those were impossible to master if there were no accurate recordings of how the ship had moved. Such things as radar simply were of no use millions of kilometers away from any celestial body due to limited range. And equipping every ship with a fully developed astronomical telescope to be able to visibly see the planets of the solar system was equally unpractical.

During the early years of the Moon race both sides did all those calculations in their respective Control Centers and not onboard the lunar capsules. Although this might still be feaseable for travelling to the other planets as well - but only for as long as there were limited numbers of spaceships. And the numbers of spaceships would grow pretty quickly and pretty soon. So the only useable solutions was to equip the ships with the necessary components to calculate their position on their own. The first idea had been an astrogational section. But the demand to crew that were quite large. Computers were much smaller and better - so Computers were the way to go.
Such a new computer was planned to be reequipped during the next run of the "Tantal" transport vessel. But it would not make neither the master engineer and the astrogator or his team obsolete. It would change his area of operations a bit, but he would still be needed.

"There we are."

They had arrived at the left sideway of deck four and were rewarded with a full view of Venus. It was marvelous. The colors were more vibrant than anything you could see on Earth. The people there had photos taken by satellites or of the crews of the cargo runs to watch (although most of those pictures had been kept by internal security, because Russia did not want the rest of the world knowing where they operated). But those pictures could not reveal what the real thing looked like.
The ship approached the planet on the far side of the Sun and would circle around the planet to prepare for final descend into orbit. Therefore Venus looked like a shrinking oversized and colored moon sickle. In roughly three hours they would be in Venus shadow and reemerge on the other side roughly 30 Minutes later.

"I can understand why you love this view. It is indescribeable."

"It surely is."

Some flashes illuminated the hallway but Veskresensky and Fomin did not even recognize them. Only when they repeated Fomin looked to the left from where they came. He could see some illumination flashing somewhere behind the ship but could not figure out their source. Could they come from the engines preparing to reduce the speed of the ship? No, of course not. The ship hadn't even turned around to decelerate. They must have ... .

He was interrupted in his thought by the ships alarm. Veskresensky any Fomin looked at each other. Then a voice was heard over the intercom: "All senior officers immediately to the bridge. All senior officers immediately to the bridge. This is not a drill. Captain Veskresensky. Your presence is needed on the bridge."

Veskresensky and Fomin ran off through the hallway they just had passed through and hurried back to the bridge. After arriving there Veskresensky asked: "Status? What is wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Sir. At least not yet. If you want to take a look for yourself?"

Lieutenant Shura Sobolev pointed to the starboard windows. Fomin looked at them but did not see anything special. There were the stars and to the back side he could see metal and window lights. Until it dawned on him, what he really saw. That wall of metal moved. Had their ship been torn apart? No. His mind could not grasp the situation as quickly as he wanted to. He realized that there was not only one wall of metal, but three separate walls. And green and blue sparks went all over them like a bizarre form of lightning.

Captain Veskresensky was a bit quicker than Fomin and began giving orders: "Contact the Politbuero. They need to know this."

"We are unsure if our signals are getting through the interference."

"Explanation?"

Lt. Sobolevs voice was calm but his hands were giving away his nervousness. "Since they appeared all channels are filled with static noise." Fomin found his speech again. "These are spaceships."

"Yes", Captain Veskresensky confirmed, "and if these are no special secret US or UK designs I would say we just have encountered an alien race." He looked up to the window. "In our own solar system. Have you tried to contact them?"

"Yes, Sir, but no answer yet."

"Keep on trying. Course projections?"

"They seem to be drifting and if they don't alter course will pass us in five minutes and then crash on Venus within 7 hours, 23 Minutes."

"Closest distance?"

"Will be at a little over 600 Meters."

Veskresensky had enjoyed the view on Venus - like he always did. Now he would become a witness to quite another one. "Where did they come from?"

"There were flashes of light and then they appeared directly in the middle of them, roughly 4.5 km behind us. Ever since they seem to drift forward being enveloped in those bizarre flashes." 

Captain Veskresenskys throughts raced. The sparks were obviously no feature of the alien ships. They might simply be the result of a technical problem they have. Appearing out of nowhere, being surrounded by sparks of lightning. Maybe they have some kind of electronical jamming device which malfunctioned. Maybe they were observing his ship and their appearance wasn't planned at all. A frightening idea being watched and studied by those beings, without even being able to know about it.

"Are there any kinds of emmission other than the static coming from that ships?"

"No, Sir. Nothing at all. Except a huge wave of electronic interference there is nothing coming from them."

Several minutes passed. The ships flew by, but nothing happened or changed. The three ships continued to drift along their path and the sparks kept sweeping around their ships. After the alien ships had moved away almost six kilometers, a smaller ship emerged from one of the ships and began to circle around the hull, positioning itself on top of the other ship. There it stuck until several minutes later the electrical blizzard around the ship stopped.

"Looks like they are making some progress over there." Sobolev commented.

"Keep on trying to hail them. Ask if they need any help. If I am true and they are observers, they might be doing this for quite some time and maybe don't have any problems with our language."

Fomin asked: "Language?"

Captain Veskresensky turned to him: "Do you expect them to have Russian as their mother tongue?"

It dawned on Fomin that he never had thought about such things as language differences. Captain Veskresensky: "You should not watch this american television junk where humans and Klinoth speak the same language."

"It is forbidden to watch American TV." Fomin answered. Veskresensky grinned. "And it is Klingon, not Klinoth." He grinned back.

"So, you thing we have found ourselves some Klingons here?", Captain Veskresensky asked.

"They better be Vulcans or something similar. I guess we don't want to encounter a race of warriors, do we?"

"We would conquer them." Captain Veskresensky answered and the distinctiveness of the words surprised Fomin. He meant what he just had said. "Anything changed on the static emissions?"

Lt. Sobolev answered: "No. We are still trying to reach the politbuero but if we come through it will take up to five minutes to receive an answer."

"Keep trying."

Another hour passed and the small alien vessel succeded in freeing another ship of this electric sparks. Interestingly the first ship did not change its course after the sparks were eliminated, suggesting a bigger problem with their ships. Hails were still not answered - neither by the aliens nor by the Politbuero. It was strange for the crew of the Tantal being a spectator of some aliens having technical difficulties in their vincinity and not being able to help or contact them at least. Well, none of the crew would have thought to encounter aliens out here - at least not so quicky and close to Earth. But here they were.

Two more hours passed until the sparks on the last ship were removed. The aliens and the Tantal began to reemerge from the shadow of Venus. Until this point Captain Veskresensky had thought that the Aliens simply had not detected them because they were preoccupied by solving their own problems and having their sensors simply disfunctional. And he was confirmed because just after only one minute of being in direct sunlight again the first ship suddenly changed its course and began a curved flight which would bring it roughly into a 400m passby of the Tantal. Being in the shadow of Venus might have obscured their presence so close to the aliens. But the reflecting sun had given away their position.

"Well, here they come." Captain Veskresensky knew that his freighter could not do anything if the aliens would try to shoot them out of the sky. "Did we get any answers from the Politbuero?"

"No, Sir." came the dry answer from Sobolev.

"Then sound the impact alarm. Just in case."

Again the alarms echoed through the hallways of the Tantal - but it wasn't necessary. The alien ship flew by the Tantal and turned back to join the other two ships. The smaller ship had disappeared into one of them and all three of them joined up and began to ascend out of the orbit of Venus, flying back to the point where they had appeared. The Tantal lost contact to them when they disappeared behind Venus.

12 Minutes later the static noise disappeared from all channels - and another five minutes later a very interesting chat with the Politbuero began.

                   ***

Jul 22nd: What now?


Source: Deviantart, EastCoastCanuck

"So these are pictures of the alien vessels?"

In an emergency high level meeting Russian Leadership discussed the events of the last day. After it was agreed on that Captain Veskresensky did not hallucinate and the sensor data had been evaluated as genuine there literally was a moment of silence in the conference room. This turn of events was so far outside of what anybody had expected that no plan had been prepared for this case. But there was also nothing much that could be done. The aliens obviously had vanished again (left or took their hidden watching posts). And since the origin of them could not be determined no idea of how to handle them was found. Were they from our system? Then a full sensor sweep might detect them. But the Americans were almost finished with their sweep and no reports of any contacts had ever been recorded. Neither publically nor from the KGB.

So after some very long hours the following plan was advised: Space Operations should continue as planned. It was determined that the alien entcounter happened by accident and was unintentional by the aliens. If they so wished they would reappear and introduce themselves. If not there was nothing much that could be done about it. The sensor data of the Tantal indicated that the flyby of the one alien ship happened at over 500km/s - that was almost 10 times as fast as the Russians were able to fly - with much smaller ships. Militarily there would be no chance to counter any attacks. All plans should therefore continue as planned. The ships going to Venus should be set on active sensor scanning duty for the time being. Maybe something could be found.

A focus on developing better sensors and engines was also advised. Plans for weapons were already underway so no additional focus was set here. The world might think that space would become a peaceful place to conquer but the Russian leadership never had any intention to go into space without the right teeth to support their claims. And they were sure that the Americans would do likewise. Now they had even more reasons to do so.
Also for the time being no one outside the Russian Leadership was allowed to know anything about this alien encounter - especially the USA.

                   ***

More Reports and Researches

The USSR finished researching Cryo Transport Technology (Jul, 27th) and Magazine Feed Efficiency 75% (Sep, 12th)

Sep 26th: US Geological Survey Mission reports massive amounts of Minerals on Titan

                   ***

Oct 2nd: Russian Crisis

The ongoing rebuilding of the Pakistani country weighs heavy on the Russian economy, driving it back into depression after leveling out last year. Additionally 24% income loss is doing its toll and does not help getting the economy strong to keep up with the consequences of the war.

                   ***

Nov 27th: Joining colonization

The United Kingdom launched its first transport ship with Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Lyons at the helm, becoming the first Commander of the United Kindoms space fleet joining the 'Mission to Mars'.

                   ***

World Report 1972

Two quick wars and an uncertain future between the two superpowers - the fractioning of the Nations of Earth continues. First steps have been made onto other planets but Earth is still not healthy. The average surface temperature has dropped slightly to 13.27 °C, radiation levels have increased to 770; only a plus of 20. Compared to last year a very low increase. Although the people have become more and more concerned if there is a possible point of no return. World population has grown by 9.96 Million this year, roughly 1.5 Million more than last year. Dust levels have slightly decreased to 75.

Individual Country Developments

Pacific Space Cooperation: 334.20
   United States: 225.99 Million People (+3.3, 0.3 of which through immigration)
   Japan: 108.21 Million People (+1.61)

Commonwealth: 832.59
   United Kingdom: 64.23 Million People (+2.02)
   Australia: 14.92 Million People (+1.15)
   Canada: 25.31 Million People (+1.23)
   Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 728.13 (+1.31)

Russian Sphere: 406.48
   USSR: 201.76 Million People (+3.16)
   Poland: 35.42 Million People (+1.46)
   Pakistan: 63.42 Million People (+2.37)
   USSR Sphere of Influence: 105.88 Million People (+2.38)

Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 341,91 (+4.60)

United Nations: 1735.15 Million People (-7.65)

Gough Whitlam becomes Prime Minister of Australia in Decemer of 1972.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2016, 02:34:14 PM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2016, 02:55:42 PM »
Chapter 7 - Hope and Despair

January, 6th: USA finished Cargo Handling System (Aretha Gofman)

***

All seemed normal on this morning of January, 10th. But it was only meant to look normal to the outside watcher. The Russian Freighter Tantal landed after its remarkable journey and special contact at Venus. The crew was lead to a special debriefing. After the meeting an urgent message was prepared for the Politbuero. For the next three days the crew was held in a special holding area and briefed that nothing of this incident was ever to be told to anyone. Severe punishment would be the consequences. Most of the crew wasn't happy about this - but who would believe them anyway?

***

On January, 12th, the second slipway of the American "Norfalk Shipyard" was finished and construction of the first cryo transporter was begun.

***

January, 18th: Prime Minister Edward Heath joins the United Kingdom into the European Economic Community after French President de Gaulle gave up blocking UK membership, which he successfully did twice in the 1960s. 12 years after applying for membership and not without opposition in his own country this step will be on vote in 1975 by the people of the British Isles, hopefully silencing any opposition to joining the EU. Future will tell if Europe will become one united continent. Also joining with the UK are Denmark and Ireland.

***

February, 2nd: Diplomatic relations cooled down between the UK and USSR after the capture of a Russian Espionage Team under the leadership of "Fyodor Chernov".

***

February, 14th: After the wars of 1972 the US and RUSSIA ended their talks about forbidding and limiting the production of offensive and defensive anti-ballistic weapon technology. All plans to sign a mutural agreement in May, the so called Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), had been cancelled. On this day both sides issued a joint statment that there will be no more talks about limiting any kind of modern weaponry because of the gamechanging nature of TN Elements. The world was shocked to listen to these statements, fearing a possible new Cuban Missile Crisis for the Future.

***

On March, 28th US Brigade General Calliope Posada Meda was killed in an accident. At that time he was the Commanding Officer of the First Freedom Division HQ. Internal security was not able to find any evidence of an outside involvement.

***

On April, 3rd the Russian Geological Survey Ship 'Udaloy' was finished. Commander Shurochka Uspensky took command and embarked on the First Manned Russian Deep Space Exploration Mission. After a quick survey of the former probes locations and verification of their accuracy he proceeded to Jupiter and was able to find more TN Elements on its moons. He discovered on September, 1st, 17th, 21st, 29th and October, 7th TN Elements on Proxidike, Callisto, Europa, Io and Ganymede.

***

On April, 30th at 04:24 in the morning Russian Transport 'Theban' under Commander Nicolai Yakovlev detected a well known formation of three alien ships in orbit of Venus. They received a message from the Aliens who introduced themselves in perfect Russian as the 'Yoronn' and wished for a meeting on their ships. They at first were disappointed that Yakovlev was not the Commander they had encountered last time. But since a russian diplomatic delegation had to be shipped over from Earth anyway they could on the way pick up Captain Veskresensky and his crew. The next transport leaving earth would be the 'Tama' on the 15th of May and they could be at Venus on the 25th of June. So a meeting was arranged.
The 'Tama' met with the 'Tantal' on its way back from Venus on May, 23rd - which in and of itself was an interesting maneuvre - linking two freighters in space to exchange crews. But everything went well and the 'Tama' went to the prepared meeting. Veskresensky was a little nervous about it.

***

On June, 20th US Major Christin Framer, Commanding Officer of the 115th Replacement Batallion was killed in an accident, making US internal security a little nervous about the amount of accidents happening lately. But here also no evidence of external involvement was found.

***

The 25th of June, 1973 - Meeting the Yoronn

"Captain Veskresenky, Prime Minister Kosygin, Adjutant Dimitri Lezov, we welcome you aboard the Yoronn'Ar spaceship 'Lectenos Callar'. May I present to you the President's delegation: Senator Fallan'Ar B'sen, his second Senator Holan Marsani, as well as Flinej B'sen, the daughter of the Senator. Welcome to our spaceship."

"Thank you, Raut." Captain Veskresensky adressed his counterpart, following exact protocol as to how the Yoronn'Ar handle diplomatic talks. In short: Only one person is allowed to speak. Only the person who is spoken to is allowed to answer (in this case he as the first one spoken to). You cannot freely choose to whom you speak. A precise protocol depending on rank and mixture of the group has to be followed. Even worse, if spoken to it does not automatically mean you are the one who must answer. Depending on the topic your 'Designated Spokesperson' has to answer - or if not present, his superior. It could be quite a nightmare.
If perhaps adressing the wrong person (not following the given rank of people who should be allowed to speak next), one might rebuff him or her and cripple all further communication. That was why Veskresensky did not know if he would cause a major problem with what he had to say. Captain Raut had told him that he needs to adress every person who was mentioned indivudually, but only people of rank. Since he had not mentioned if Flini, the daughter of the Senator had a rank, Veskresensky was unsure if he needed to adress her. So he made a gut call: "Welcome Senator B'sen, Senator Marsani, and - I am not sure how I am to adress the daughter of Senator B'sen - so I do it according to the custom of my ancestors - welcome to you too, Flinej B'sen." Since Senator B'sen did not show any kind of reaction Veskresensky simply continued. "We thank you for the invitation to this meeting and I am honored to present to you the delegation of the Russian Politbuero, Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin and his adjutant Dimitri Lezov."

Senator B'sen moved forward but not as Captain Raut had told him towards Kosygin but towards himself. "I was told that earth customs are different than ours, but I see, respect and dignity are valued in both. Since it is uncustom on our world to adress the unranked persons like my daughter is, I thank you for showing her respect by adressing her." He opened his hand and held it towards the captain. "Thank you." Veskresensky was a bit unsure but he gave the Senator his hand. "I see, Senator that you also have learned about some of our customs."

Senator B'sen then turned to Kosygin. "Welcome aboard of our ship Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin and adjutant Dimitri Lezov. We have a small lunch prepared for you and your staff. If you could join us, we would be honored."

"Senator B'sen, I accept your invitation and would like to present to you a small token from our homeworld. It is called Blini where I come from. It is best described as an oakcake." Kosygin opened a small plate and showed the Senator. "Hmmm, a delicious small token? I will surely try."

Veskresensky and Raut exchanged eye contact. Obviously both did not like these formal things - but they had to happen. And he was happy that the daughter had not caused any incident. The two delegations left towards the dining room and Veskresensky and Raut and their officers were left alone in the corridor. After the doors closed a moment of silence followed. Then Captain Raut said: "I take it you don't like protocol either?" "No, Captain, I don't." Raut smiled. "Well, then I guess you are quite happy not to have to be where the Senators went to, right? So how about having a real meal together with us down in the mess hall?" Veskresensky had learned a lot about Captain Raut in the last 24 hours of 'diplomatic preparations'. They both were on the same wavelength, so anything between them went naturally easy. "Sure, Captain. I'm not that fond of your Queezes." Lt. Shura Sobolev leaned over to Engineer Fomin as both groups went down to a proper meal. "What is Queezes?" Fomin looked at him and smiled. "You can taste one, if you like." He grinned and left Sobolev who looked bewildered.

***

It took a while for the delegations to establish proper communications. Russia surely did not want to reveal the existence of the Yoronn to the rest of earth. On the other hand being offered several advanced technologies, but only if shared with the whole planet was tempting. In the end Russia decided for the long and slow way. Yoronn scientists would give ideas and a helping hand for the Russians to begin developing their own advanced technologies. After the discovery of TN Elements a whole new world seemed to open up with these new elements - but what the Yoronn explained to them was way beyond what they had imagined in their wildest dreams. And even if it would take Russia 50 or more years to develop all these ideas, they would be far beyond all the other nations by then - and finally be the prime nation on earth. This was worth the wait.
The Yoronn also offered limited trade, but this had to be kept most secret of all. It might come out eventually that alien life exists out there. But the longer it could be kept from the world, the better. The Yoronn said, that they had encountered some planets with primitive plant life and animals, but Humans were the first conscious species they have met. Well, met only after some 20 years of knowing about their existence. They had visited earth late in the 1930th but determined that it was not worth to investigate them further. They seemed to be intelligent but so warhungry, that no good could come out of this.
Earlier this year another incident had happened. A space probe was destroyed in another star system by an unknown nuclear explosion. This had raised support for the decision to contact Earth after their ships had become known anyway. If there are hostile aliens out there peaceful arrangements might be helpful in defending against those aliens.

Veskresensky asked Captain Raut: "So we are warmongering primitives to you?"

Raut laughed: "No offense, but yes, you are. If only half of what you told me about the Nations of Earth is true, then war seems to be pretty normal for you. You know, technology is one thing, but being able to use them wisely, is another."

"What happened when your first exploration mission returned to Yoronn? Were there others who thought, maybe we should go and meet these Humans after all?"

"Well, there were different opinions, yes. We never had encountered any other species out here - except as I have told you earlier this year - but animal life and vegetation on other planets suggested that it might be possible. So when we found you some thirty of your years ago, we literally did not know how to encounter you. In our history was only one big war we ever had - and that was over 9.450 rotations ago... ."

"Rotations?", asked Fomin.

"Yoronn has a rotational orbit around its sun of 28 of our days. It also turns around once these 28 days. So it literally is always day on one side and night on the other. One of our years is a little over 13 of Yoronn's rotations. So 9.450 rotations is roughly 725 years ago." Vesresensky explained.

"Yes, Captain," Raut continued. "And that out planet is always light on one side and dark on the other had lead to two different kinds of lifestyles which clashed. We soon realized how destructive technology can be and formed a council that should determine how to overcome this problem. A relocation plan was advised. Every Yoronn had to form a union with a family on the opposite site and frequently visit them. By this the others lifestyle was to be learned. It took a while and the wars continued for almost 20 years and not all union meetings were peaceful. But after time passed many Yoronn had become accustomed to live on both planetsides and saw no problem in the others any more. The wars ended and since then we live peacefully. Yes, people do have different opinions but never such strong as you seem to have."

Raut paused for a while. Since Yoronn are pretty proud of their family history and because his familyline was almost wiped out during those wars it always makes him thoughtful.

"So when we encountered you much of our history came up. We simply don't want wars and Yoronn die in them. And seeing how violent you can become without thinking about each other - most of us did not liked that. Some argued that we might help you in your differences - our actions during our war had prooven that they could be effective - but those voices were seldom and only sporadic. So we decided to declare your system quarantine zone. We went to explore other hyperlane chains and were happy with that."

"May I ask about those hyperlanes, Captain Raut?", Gregory Fomin asked.

"Always the engineer", Veskresensky teased him.

"Don't you think it be handy travelling instantly to other star systems?"

"It surely is. We'll see if we will do it in the near future."

Captain Raut smiled. "In time you might have your own hyperlane ships and we possibly can explore unknown systems together."

"We'll see", said Veskresensky and could not keep a smile. He would like this very much.

Raut continue. "Anyhow, as time passed some Captains voiced that it would easily be possible to avoid Earth at all because the hyperlane points in your system are mostly in the outer part of your solar system - except the one to us. But even that was far enough away to pass Earth unseen. As you know I was one of those voicing the wish to explore beyond your system. And finally we were allowed to do that. And I was picked to lead that mission. So I prepared as best I could and launched towards your system. The rest of the story you already know."

"You bumped into my cargo ship."

"Luckily not literally. My ship might have obliterated it. But yes."

Fomin asked: "What exactly had happened there?"

"You mean the blue sparks and the malfunctions?" Raut asked.

"Yes."

"Well, the exitpoint of the hyperlane to your system is very close to your second planet - Venus if I recall correctly?"

Fomin acknowledged.

"Hyperlane points are fixed and don't rotate around the sun like the planets do. So when we first visited your system the exitpoint was as we always experienced somewhere in the vastness of space. But on that particular day the planet was less then a million kilometers away from the exitpoint of the hyperlane. Somehow the gravity of the planet must have sucked the exitpoint closer to the planet - and affected it somehow. So when my ships left the hyperlane an electrical charge enveloped all of them and disabled pretty much everything on our ships. Since we then did not know what had happened, we began trying to reactivate the ship. But nothing seemed to work. After settling initial confusion we managed to get one shuttle barely up and running and with that we left the ship to try to find out what was wrong. Sub-Commander Milsra did some course projections and we realized that our ships were on a collision course with your planet Venus. We finally found out that the problem was a simple deflector overload and after we broke the feedback the energy left the ship into space. We repaired the other ships and finished repairs inside - when suddenly my first mate reported light reflections only some kilometers off port."

"That was our ship leaving the shadow of Venus - as I had thought. You recognized us because the sun reflected from our ship."

"Yes, Captain. But I then did not know what that light reflection was. So I decided to take a closer look. Since your ship was vers small and did not react to any of my moves I decided to take some photos and leave you. The only conclusion was either an unknown race or Earth having developed space flight within the last three decades. Both meant the end of my mission. And since my ships were still crippled by the electric charges I decided to limp home."

"I guess, the leaders of your planets were surprised by your soon return?", Fomin asked.

"You cannot imagine. We analyzed the pictures from your ship and recognized symbols from the languages you use - so we could rule out another race visiting your star system. Some discussions went on if we misread your former technological developments. But we didn't. We pretty literally ran into your first interplanetary spaceship. Some unusual kind of coincidence, I would say."

"Can you tell us more about the other incident?" Fomin asked.

"Not much. A similar mission as to mine was sent into another branch of the hyperlane system. They encountered two ships with one of their sensor boats. The two ships immediately turned and closed with maximum speed towards the sensor boat. Captain Gho'Shotegiph ordered an immediate retreat but the two ships were to fast and destroyed the boat with some kind of thermonuclear device. Gho'Shotepigh collected the other ships and left the system. We have yet to go back into that system and declared it off limits. Their ships were almost twice as fast as our fastest battle ships."

Veskresensky had heard this story some hours before. He still could not believe it at all. Not only had his world turned upside down last year when they had encountered Captain Raut's fleet - now they have peaceful negotiations with those aliens and might form a friendly bond with them - and next thing is that there is possibly another species out there even more stronger and possibly hostile. He suddenly felt small and insignificant.

On July, 16th the negotiatons were finished and both parties left to their home planets. The Yoronn zoomed away at an remarkable 1700km/s and left the Sol System two days later through the hyperlane jump point. For the earth delegation the long journey home began, which would end on October, 8th - a little over a month later than the Yoronn delegation landed on Yoronn'Ar (Earth Time September, 2nd) - but no one on earth did know about that, of course.

One interesting technology was gifted Russia - Mass Driver. They can be of enourmous help when collecting minerals from uninhabited planets. Research of that technology began in Russia on August, 21st.

***

September, 7th: An economic crisis in Australia forced the shutdown of any further Spaceport Constructions in their country. Five days later all Mining Construction as well as ordonance and fighter construtions have to be shut down as well. This has become a major crisis and might suck other countries in.

On the same day a Pakistani Space Command was formed. Sheihk Khaleen, Jabir, Ahmud, Din Khaliz and Hamid, as well as Mufti Majid Sulaiman and Ahmad proclaimed themselves as the new head of Pakistani Space Command and ensured their people that they will lead Pakistan to one of the prime space nations of earth. Unrest begins to surface in the country. For all this to happen the Russian Forces must leave the country.

***

September, 18th: In the 2117th plenary meeting of the United Nations in an Admission (A/RES/3050 (XXVIII)) the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany become full members of the United Nations Organization.

***

On October, 19th the economic crisis strikes also in Poland. All construction has to be stopped so avoid that the country will slither into ruins. An emergency United Nations Economic Council Meeting is organized. It is very clear from the numbers that most of the countries of Earth overextend themselves with the exploitation of the new technology. Some countries can keep their economy up by selling unused TN Materials on the open market and thereby reach up to 4 times the amount of money produced by their domestic industry. This could lead to major chaos if one of the major nations will continue to do this and reach a point where the sellings cannot be maintained like in Australia or Poland. A new economic order must be revised to prevent a worldwide collapse.

***

On November, 15th the United Nations declares the former state of Pakistan as 'Occupied'. Russian Military was not able to keep the country stable and a massive revolt rolled over it. Both military and civilian sector have broken together and crippled the whole economy. Street fights are everywhere and the Russian Leadership has threatened to use their TN Armies if peace and order will not return to the country.

***

Captain Agnano Viera Segura will be the first Captain to ship frozen colonists to the new American Base on Mars, now called 'Basulto Base' - after their first planetary leader. In a ceremony Darrick Basulto was announced to be the Planetary Leader of US Basulto Base. His expertise in Terraforming and Factory Construction makes him the ideal leader to build up this new world. Only 25 years young his cannot wait to arrive at Mars. His jouney will begin today, on December, 4th. Captain Segura will transport him an 9.999 other colonists to the base to establish the ground work over there, so many more can follow them.

"We know that Terraforming will begin at a later stage. But these steps we do now will set the ground for a quick buildup of Terraforming Installations so we can proceed as announced." Basulto said to the media. "Today 8 freighters, 5 from America, 3 from the UK, are transporting infrastructre to the both bases and soon the first humans will operate them. God with us."

***

On December 14th during the 2201st United Nations Plenary Meeting, in an unprecedented move the foreign minister of the USSR asked for special time to present a political statement to the general assembly. This statement was granted for the afternoon session. During that session he pronounced to the world the following words:

"Members of the United Nations Council. Thank you for granting the United Social Soviet Republic your attention. I can assure you what I will say is of the utmost importance to all of you. Last year has seen some devastating wars which included the involvement of United States Trans Newtonian Military Troops. But let me go back further. After the Cuban incident talks began to regulate the use of nuclear weapons - which should have resulted in the Anti-Ballistic-Missile-Treaty, a treaty which should have been signed in May last year, but that did not take place due to the increased tensions.
As a country we cannot accept unilateral actions by the United States like we have seen last year. There needs to be a balane of power - even if it is a not regulated one. So we tried to set a plan in motion in this body that would include a regulation of the use of TN Military Troops into the talks about Nuclear Weapons. However we were unable to succeed in establishing a useable protocol and all talks were ended officially in February of this year.

I don't want to play the blame game and point to the US or any other honorable member of this council and say, that we were unsuccessful because of their actions or positions. No. We had hoped that common reason would lead to a useable solution, but it hasn't. And since this was not reachable, we as a nation have decided to put in action the following plan.

Beginning with January 1st of 1974 the Soviet Republic will pledge all its nuclear arsenal to keep the worldwide national status quo. Any attempt of using non regular military troops to fight a war in one of the member councils will lead to a use of our nuclear arsenal on the TN troops used in that country. This, as it is our hope, will set an end to any use of Trans Newtonian supported troops anywhere around the globe."

Andrei Gromyko ended his speech and went back to his seat. You could hear his steps throughout the hall because all present members were in utter shock, paralized by these words. The eyes of the whole world turned to the United States. Fear of an atomic war increased. The upcoming years might become interesting.

Since the Foreign Minister of the USA was totally surprised by this statement no official reaction to it was given at the conference. However the phone lines to Washington began to glow. Literally.

***

World Report 1973

The fractioning of the Nations of Earth seems to continue. Nevertheless first steps into space are continuing and might be the only future mankind holds if current events will continue to develop. The average surface temperature has risen slightly to 13.43 °C, radiation levels have increased to 790, another plus 20. World population has grown by 12.46 million people, but mostly in the developed countries. Dust levels are still at 75.

Individual Country Developments

Pacific Space Cooperation: 330.55
   United States: 229.92 Million People (+3.93, 1.0 of which through immigration)
   Japan: 110.63 Million People (+2.42)

Commonwealth: 838.24
   United Kingdom: 66.31 Million People (+2.08)
   Australia: 16.10 Million People (+1.18)
   Canada: 26.54 Million People (+1.23)
   Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 729.29 (+1.16)

Russian Sphere: 416.10
   USSR: 205.06 Million People (+3.30)
   Poland: 36.87 Million People (+1.46)
   Pakistan: 65.85 Million People (+2.43)
   USSR Sphere of Influence: 108.32 Million People (+2.44)

Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 345.80 (+3.89)

United Nations: 1728.43 Million People (-6.72)
« Last Edit: September 01, 2017, 03:47:16 PM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2016, 05:27:13 AM »
Chapter 7 - Appendix
(Due to the nature of the event no specific date when it happened can be given.)

Some places are well known, others not so much. They might be distinctive - but that distinctiveness can be found in several places around the world. Which is why this one was chosen for the meeting.

General Westmooreland sat there on a bench, waiting. The letter had said to come to this place, but it did not tell him, when. As always. He knew from the past that his contact would show up when he appeared at the given place. He had tested that. Once he went directly to the place and on other occasions he waited for several days until he went. And his contact always would show up within the hour.

It was just another way of them saying, that they are in control. Interestingly enough, his contact never had asked him why Westmooreland had acted so differently to their letters. Well, it was obvious that he was testing them, and maybe by not asking him about it, they simply stated that he wasn't so important for them to bother with such minor details as him not liking being bossed around. So they gave him this little bit of control which was nothing more than a longer line of their control over him. As always.

Which was why he had asked for a meeting.

You were not supposed to do that.

But he got an invitation for this meeting. And he needed the help the Inner Circle could provide. No one in the US Government did know how to deal with the Russian Threats as of late.

Suddenly a shadow fell over his shoulder. "I am here, because of our good working relationship. My superior has asked me to kill you because of what you did."

Westmooreland ignored the threat. "I simply saved you the time contacting me - which you had to do anyway, because you surely have a plan how the US shall react to the Russians."

A hand fell on his shoulder. "As a friend, I know that you only submit to our - suggestions - because of the benefit for your career - and please spare me the speech that you do it for your country". The other one came closer. "But as a good friend I advise you not to overstep your bounds. Anyone is replaceable ..."

"Even you", Westmooreland interrupted. It took the other one a moment to continue, so Westmooreland grabbed the occasion. "You guaranteed me that your organization would bring the United States into the world leading position. But all your plans have dents and loops in them which cause more trouble with every step taken. Now we are facing nuclear annihilation - again. I gave your contacts the malfunctioning TN designs to play the Russians out of competition for the Space Race - but all we got was a war and an ever expanding enemy - and not only that, the Russians used their malfunctioning troops which almost poisioned this planet to its death."

The other one interrupted him. "Don't forget that it was your countries decision to continue using your TN troops to peace out all the other conflicts you were in - which cornered the Russians. Did you never contemplate, that they might punch back in this drastic way?"

Westmooreland was quick to grasp waht was not said - but this one took him by surprise. He turned around and for the first time in 20 years saw his contact eye to eye. He in turn was even more surprised by Westmoorelands reaction but his training kicked in immediately. He already had drawn his knife to slit Westmooreland when he heard him saying: "You don't know what is happening in Russia. And you did not innitiate us going to war with them. This is not your doings." he saw the knife and realized that this might be his ultimate error causing him loosing his life. But here he stood with an agent who works for an organization that claimed to be in control of world politics behind the scenes for the last centuries - and them not being in control what actually happened in the world. Westmooreland had experienced their control since they got in contact with him and how they managed to pull the strings to their likings. But those claims just had vanished into thin air.

Surprisingly the knife, as quickly as drawn, disappered in the same speed. "The Russians cleansed their ranks pretty thoroughly after the TN war desaster. Not only did they manage to pinpoint your contacts, they also cleansed far deeper. Unfortunately into our ranks as well. Yes, we actually don't know what is going on in their country. But the chaos is part of a plan to bring us back into the game." Westmooreland was surprised that the other one so openly gave away his real position. Then the other one surprised him again by stepping closer to him, whispering: "There is more to all of this. Something has happened last year - something big. If you have any contacts, good friends in the Russian Army, contact them and find out what you can. Report anything to me at once."

Westmooreland couldn't believe what he was hearing. So he nodded. Something had changed right there but he could not grasp it. It all happened too quickly. "Can you give me anything specific?" he asked. The other one stepped back and shook his head. "All we know is that there are only a handful of people who have shut this thing up so that no one can come close to it. We have seen the changes TN technology is capable of initiating, so our fears are for the worst. Whatever has happened the dragon has awakened - the Russians feel and act like they will inevitably become the leading world nation. So whatever they discovered must be big. They knew for the whole time of the space race that they are only a second grade nation compared to the US but they were willing to tease you as strong as they could. But now there is a real difference in their thinking. The threats are real. The US must fly low or you will be eradicated by them. Now is not the time for a fight. Go, leave."

The last was given with command authority, but Westmooreland had heard everything he needed for the moment. He turned and knew he was lucky to be alive - for now. However - he did not know if he would meet his contact again.

His contact took a short sigh after Westmooreland left. He opened a notebook and wrote 'job done' next to Westmoorelands name. Then he added another note: "Need to find out what is happening in Russia immediately."
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2016, 03:00:56 PM »
Chapter 7 - Another Appendix

December, 16th 1973: Extended Joint Chiefs White House meeting over situation in Russia & UNO
=============================================================================================

Participants:
President Richard Nixon
Presidential Counsel and Assistant John Ehrlichman
Secretary of Defence Melvin Robert Laird
Chief of Naval Operations & Chairman Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
Chief of Staff US Army General William C. Westmooreland
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt
Chief of Staff US Air Force General John D. Ryan
Commandant US Marine Corps General Leonard F. Chapman
Chief of Space Naval Command Admiral Columbus Vessey
Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms
United Nations US Ambassador John F. Kennedy

"Gentleman, I will not make a long introduction as to why we are here. We all know about the instable situation in occupied Pakistan and we all have heard Gromyko's speech at the UN council meeting. I also don't need to remind anyone of you that the President took those words very seriously, as he has expressed yesterday evening in his speech to the nation." Admiral Thomas Moorer took a quick breath before he continued. "However, those are not all our concerns. As if they would not be enough. The instability of some nations, in this case Australia and Poland, to handle a functioning economy in light of the new Trans Newtonian Era is not reassuring that this world can handle this new age in a good way, as former President Kennedy had hoped for." He nodded to the now Ambassador to the UN. Some people turned to Kennedy and those who knew him, could see the concern expressed in his face. "We now simply have the task to give not only this nation but the whole planet hope, that we as a world can survive this crisis. Therefore no idea is too far fetched, no opinion is to be kept back. If you have ideas how we can not only save this nation but the whole world, now is the time to present those ideas." Moorer switched off his microphone and John Ehrlichman turned his on. "Mr. President, Generals, Admirals, Director and Ambassador I have the task to order this meeting. As spokesman I will grant speech right so all can participate. We have set no time limit for this meeting. The limit will be a feasable result. So if you have not prepared for such a meeting, now is the time to get yourself what you need."

Nobody stood up. "As I had expected. Thank you, Gentlemen. First topic will be Gromyko's UN speech. Ambassador Kennedy, can you add something which is not in the official records?"

Kennedy: "No, Mr. Ehrlichman. My staff wasn't contacted afterwards and any attempt to get inofficial remarks were ignored."

Ehrlichman: "Alright. So anybody wants to state his opinion as to how we shall react to the Russian threats? Mr. President?"

Nixon: "Thank you, John. Yesterday I tried to play the situation down so the caused panik could be reduced. We have seen no such effect as of today. The people are filling up their bunkers again. So as you said, we need something to show the people that they can count on us. I always preferred a strong hand and see no reason to change that politic in this case. America is a strong nation and we need to act in such a way - otherwise no one would take us seriously and do what they pleased. That cannot be."

This was not was Westmooreland had hoped to hear. It would become a major task to convince the people that showing strength is the wrong way to go.

Ehrlichman: "Admiral Vessey."

Vessey: "Thank you, Mr. Ehrlichman. My expertise is as you know the newly formed Space Command and therefore I have no deep knowledge of international politics. I personally am worried what this new age has developed into and cannot understand why this is happening. All I know is that we need time to develop the space program because I think that this world can be united through this task. We have already seen some unified works with the United Kingdom because the task is simply too large for one nation, a fraction of a whole planet. So with all due respect, Mr. President, I don't think showing equal force to Gromyko's speech will get us into that direction. I might add, no offence meant, that our unilateral use of our TN troops to peace out the Asian conflicts, wasn't a short term smart move."

The looks of everybody went to President Nixon. Vessey was known to be open, but not that open.

Nixon: "As John has said, all can be openly said. Don't hesitate, like Admiral Vessey just has done. Simply don't let this turn into a mud fight. We don't need blame, we need answers."

Westmooreland, and possibly all present, sighed internally. Yes, there is still hope that free society can win if one Richard Nixon can take such a blow into his face without punching back. There must be a difference between the free world and a totalitarian state. Otherwise the free society is just a hollow ghost without life. And one of those differences must be freedom of speech and opinion. However hard it is for the others to endure or hear them.

Ehrlichman: "Admiral Zumwalt."

Zumwalt: "Thank you, Mr. Ehrlichman. And I think I speak on behalf of all present saying thank you, Mr. President, for those words. Now, from my naval point of view, I would like to know if we and our actions are the reason for the position Russia is taking. It might appear that way, but do we have any intelligence that can verify that theory?"

Helms: "Our people in Russia have found nothing. If there are other reasons motivating them we don't know about them. Our conclusion so far is that they are playing for time. We think that they might have a secret goal which they need time to develop and gain an advantage by that. But we have no indication that there is something like that. What we know is that security and secrecy has increased in the last 12 month pretty drastically. For what we know almost 23 people were killed during the last 6 month around the families of some of the freighter crews operating in space. Our speculation is that those crews witnessed something they spoke about and internal security is trying to stop the spreading of the word. But we have no idea what it could be."

Zumwalt: "Would be nice to know. So as it stands if we overreact we might get nuked, and if we do nothing, we might loose to something we cannot name. In the past the Russians tried to gain advantages through threats. I don't see anything different here. Surely Cuba wasn't a best case scenario, but it helped us when we drew a clear line. What would speak against this today?"

Westmooreland: "As Admiral Vessey has pointed out one reason for the Russians to strike at us is our unilateral action in Asia. That makes the today's situation very different to that of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It wasn't us back then provoking the Russians - they provoked us. Playing the strong card now, being seen by them as the aggressor, might bring us over the line of no return. Strategically we gained what we had hoped for entering those wars. Strategically we are in a good position for the new space race with the UK working together with us and Japan as an economic power horse in the backhand. I see no need to corner the Russians now, and possibly loose everything through an unnecessary atomic weapons exchange."

Nixon: "So how about not giving another public reaction but to simply move our troops in Asia towards the Russian borders?"

Westmooreland: "Sir?"

Nixon: "General, I don't like showing signs of weakness. So I was thinking of a way not to provoke the Russians but at the same time signaling them, that they cannot dance on our collective noses."

Westmooreland: "With all due respect, Sir, if I would be Leonid Brezhnev seeing the opponent I just gave a warning moving his troops towards my border, I would think very seriously of executing the warning I just have given."

Nixon: "I don't think so, General. All they said was that we are not allowed to use our troops in any other country. We are not to limit their sphere of influence with our troops. So we don't, we don't go into any other country. But doing nothing would be a sign of weakness. Brezhnev must know this, that we cannot sit here doing nothing while he laughs at us. As a sovereign nation he knows that we must react in a way that will show the world that we don't hide from people who threaten us. We established that in the past decades, so he knows, we will react the same today. I say, we do exactly that."

Ryan: "Sir, I must agree with General Westmooreland. Sure Brezhnev knows that we will not crawl under a carpet because he barks at us, but putting the same troops he does not want to be moved, directly towards his borders - I would think that the US want's to provoke a war rather then avoiding it."

Helms: "Maybe it is a good idea to play for time on our side? Acting out of the blind as we do now will not get us anywhere. My men are still under orders to find out what is going on behind the scenes in Russia. So it is only a matter of time until we find out. Somewhere the increased security will be breached. I see no disadvantage in waiting two or three weeks until we know more. Whatever they have up their sleeve cannot mature in such a short period of time."

Laird: "I would deem that as a wise... ."

Nixon: "General Westmooreland, how long would you need to prepare a transfer of your troops to northern Japan?"

A moment of silence filled the room. Some present looked at each other. Westmooreland asked himself what was going on. Why was the President so adamant showing strength? After a while Nixon asked again: "General?"

Westmooreland: "Well, the troops are not prepared for a larger move. Taking readiness time into account I would say six to eight weeks."

Nixon: "Do you all see that such a move would not be a harsh or rush one? There would be plenty of time trying to get more informations which we need to give a proper reaction. Until that time beginning to prepare our troops for movement cannot hurt, can it?"

Another moment of silence followed. Broken by a sudden move of Air Force General John Ryan. All eyes went to him as he stood up and began walking around the table, passing Wessey and Ehrlichman, straight towards the President. Nixon turned. Westmooreland suddenly saw what was going to happen. He jolted up and saw the knife in Ryan's hand. "Gen..." was all he was able to say until Ryan had for the first time sunk the knife into the left side of President Nixon. Ehrlichman jumped up and back a step, so surprised that in the first moment he did not jump to the Presidents aid. Ryan than sunk the knife in a second time. And a third. It was some type of longer knife. It must have gone deep into Nixon's chest. Westmooreland was half around the table as Ryan was sinking the knife into Nixon for the fourth time as the air was suddenly compressed out of the room. Leonard Chapman had grabbed his sidearm and fired it. Westmooreland turned his head to Chapman then back to Nixon and Ryan. What kind of nightmare was he into? But it wasn't Nixon who was shot, the bullet had hit Ryan who was flying away from the table. He had grabbed Nixon and jolted him with him. Both fell on the floor. Ryan paralized by the shot into his shoulder, Nixon unable to move because of his injuries.
Westmooreland reached Ryan and kicked the weapon out of his hand. Someone had run to the door and was shouting for a medic. Westmooreland grabbed Ryan and dragged him away from the President, punched him in the face. "Son of... ." But it was unnecessary. Ryan had passed out. Westmooreland turned to see... . This was the moment when he realized that is already was to late. Medics came through the door running to the President. But this battle was already lost. They just did not know it. Next came in some military police. They wanted to know what had happened. Zumwalt gave a short report. He finished with: "Can you send for Spiro Agnew, the vice president. He needs to be informed that the President is dead and he has to assume his new office as President of the United States."

***

Whatever the future holds, Westmooreland took the pause in which the medics took away the President and took care of Ryan, to think about what just had happened. There was only one solution. He went over to the medics who were trying to rescue Ryan's life. He kneeled down and looked Ryan in the eyes. "Why did you do that? - Why on earth... ."
Ryan closed his eyes as he had to take the strength to speak. "No", he began but broke up.
"Sir, he needs all the strength he has if he wants to come through." one of the medics interrupted Westmooreland. But he did not care if Ryan lived to see the day. He would most probably be executed anyway. He grabbed Ryan at his shoulder. Ryan flinched. "Sir!" But Ryan kneeled down to Ryan. "Tell me!", he ordered him.
Ryan took all the strength he had and began: "Must ... fly ... low ... ."
He cringed and his heart stopped beating. "Sir, please... ." But Westmooreland had heard all he needed to know. He made way for the medics to reanimate Ryan. Ryan. Another agent for the Inner Circle.

***

Two hours after the medical staff in the White House had confirmed that President Nixon was dead, the former vice president Spiro Agnew was sworn into office. As the news began to spread into the country, Westmooreland and some of the other Generals and Admirals were still in the White House. They had found a quiet place in the garden to let the events of the last hours sink in. One might think that their daily business leading the United States would be as far away from them as it can be - but they had begun to inofficially continue the talk that was so suddenly interruppted. Maybe it was a way of blending out what just had happened.

Helms: "It might have something to do with Venus."

Westmooreland: "You mentioned earlier the death of those crew families. Can you explain more?"

Helms: "We think, that the Russians might do something over there on Venus. Our analysts are tracking their ship movements and all but two flights fit perfectly into a delivery schedule to Venus. Both anomalies occured this year and the ships included are the 'Tama' and the 'Tantal'. The Tantal had a one day delay on a return flight and later on another flight towards Venus also one day of delay. The Tama had a delay of 23 days parallel to these two one day delay flights of the Tantal. Our guess is that on both flights the ships met in deep space and exchanged something. But why the Tama had such a long delay on Venus, we don't know."

Westmooreland: "Columbus, do our ships have sensors which could observe what might happen on Venus?"

Vessey: "No, we are happy that the first ships are save and work like a charme. But they are slow. Putting more wheight on them would unnecessarily slow them down. For observations we would need to create a new ship type."

Westmooreland: "Might be a good idea. Not on a short term but giving your planning team the idea that we do need a functioning spaceship fleet out there, similar to what the Navy can co, would be a good direction."

Vessey: "I agree. And Sir?"

Westmooreland: "Yes?"

Vessey: "Nothing."

Westmooreland looked at Vessey and registered the lingering question which was on Vessey's mind, and said: "Agnew will do the job. He might not be the best candidate, but he is more settled than Nixon. And, sorry when I say this right now, but the shock this is giving our nation will be a good reason for us not to do anything rush on the internationial stage - like moving our troops."

Vessey and the others nodded. They all suspected that maybe something bad had been prevented by this assasination - and Westmooreland knew it. Nevertheless is such an action by a rogue organization inacceptable. Westmooreland wasn't ready to think about fighting the Inner Circle. But he had grasped as to how far spanning they must be. Fighting them might be a very bad idea. But collecting information as far as he could, cannot hurt. At least he hoped so. But, seriously, he had no idea how to do this. One cannot walk around and ask people if they have contacts to a group that call themselves the Inner Circle. Who whould admit that?

***

Three days later Richard Nixon was given an appropriate burial. Agnew took over the office. He followed the plans from his leading staff not to provoke Russia. But a long and slow process of assertaining informations began, hopefully a final picture could be drawn.

Sitting on a bench he watched Washington and the White House from a distance. No one here knew his name. And this is how it should be. Yes, Westmooreland had seen his face, but that was no problem. At least not a big one. He grabbed his notebook and marked another task as finished. The note said: Putting one of our agents into presidential office. Check.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2017, 05:57:32 AM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #10 on: September 11, 2016, 09:03:32 AM »
Chapter 8 - The Asteroid

After the Russian announcement of using their nuclear arsenal against any troops which were enhanced by TN element driven technology and the following assassination of US President Richard Nixon the whole world felt like diving into a deep hole. Several weeks passed but the nuclear meltdown did not happen. The United States seemed to be stuck in mourning their President and no new threats by the Russians were made. Life became normal again - slowly but steadily. So far world economy seemed to be the only international victim of the situation. Already on its weak side it took a dive but began to level again in the second quarter of 1974. Nevertheless the USA began to push the heads of the world into thinking about reorganizing world economy to make it fit for the Trans Newtonian Era. Several countries, including the US were already heavily dependent upon selling their TN elements to keep national expenditures in check. There are examples of countries who's income was made up to 75% by the income of selling TN elements - which will ultimately destroy world economy if kept that way. Not only that, internatinal markets would be emptied of Duranium very soon. New sources of this material were desparately needed to maintain the actual production rate. Or otherwise slowing down on producing space technology. But who would slow down his own development when threatened with impending doom?

Meanwhile the Russian leadership made some important decisions. Since Pakistan was no valuable asset Russia decided to let them out of direct political control. A puppet government was set up and the troops were removed from the country. Of course nothing much was left by the Russians and the new leadership felt like thrown back into the middle ages. A country with almost no industry and ressources, also without a way to the open market; it would take decades to rebuild the country.

***

What else is happening in the Universe?

Jan-12: Captain Tapati Raut of the Yoronn was killed in an accident while his fleet was on refit duty. Captain Sirga Neticor took his command. Since Captain Raut was the inofficial contact person with the humans this loss would weigh heavily on the new relations. How would the humans react to a new contact? Time would tell.

Feb-20: As agreed with the Russians the Yoronn began constructing jump gates from their colonies towards the Sol system. Three systems would need to be bridged - each taking a year to construct. Also a science project was set up to generate genetic modified Yoronn which were more fit for human interaction. Whilst both species do need a similar amount of oxygen to live, the Yoronn are used to an average temperature of -10°C, whilst humans are happy at +14°C. A genetic strang would be created which would make the Yoronn fit for higher temperatures. Humans also do like twice the amount of gravity. The genetic strang would be designed to fit better to that environmental attribute as well. Expected span of the project is well over 25 years of research.

Mar-4: Harold Wilson took over the position of Prime Minister of the UK from Edward Heath.

Mar-17: USSR discovers minerals on Pluto

Mar-22: The new Mass Driver Technology of the Yoronn was put into action on Venus and Earth. After starting both machines on March, 20th the first mineral package was send on its way to Earth in the early morning hours of March 22nd. A giant block of 49 tons of TN Elements was shot at Earth at a speed of 1.344 km/s. At 16.30h US and UK sensors detected the massive asteroid on collision course with Earth. General warnings were given to the public. Quick calculations were made and it was determined that the asteroid would impact close to the Russian Space Center in Baykonur. A diplomatic warning message was send to the Russians but not acknowledged by them. At 20.22h the Asteroid hit the Earth at the calculated impact point. The world was in a freeze - but no messages came through the iron curtain. Surprisingly seismic stations did not pick up any shock waves of the impact - it was like that there hadn't been one. An hour later an international telegram was send to the United Nations by the Russian Embassador simply stating:

"Test of mineral transport slingshot successful. Please inform the nations of the world that 'asteroids' like today will be send from our base on Venus regularily to our collector near Baykonur."

***

Mar-26: After the world had gone to nuts over the arrogant Russians, but finally had calmed down, the US send their spy plane SR-71 to record the Baykonur collector.

"It looks interesting, doesn't it?"

Admiral Columbus Vessey and Director Richard Helms analyzed the photos taken by the SR-71.

"Indeed. And the Russians are sending 'packages' as promised. Although smaller ones. One might think that their first package was intentionally so large to shock the rest of us."

"Well, it worked with me", Vessey admitted. "Do we know how they have archives to mount such a large portion of kinetic energy to speed that 49t giant to over 1300 km/s?"

"No. But they obviously have made some interesting developments behind their curtain."

Vessey stood up and walked to the window.

"Don't worry too much, Columbus. This new age simply has more surprises for us as we had imagined."

Vessey turned around. "I thought you would be more worried?"

"You mean loosing five espinage teams within the last few weeks? And now this? A little, yes. But if I had something like that slingshot up my sleeve, I would do the same thing with them as they did with us."

Vessey began to pace the room. "I wish this cat and mouse game would end at some time."

"It is the Russians.", Helms sighed. "They love it so we'll have that probably for the rest of our lives."

"Have your teams found out anything yet?"

"No.", Helms admitted. "I don't think that this slingshot is all that they have, but it gives us an idea, why they have become so secretive."

***

May-4: An Australian Research Team finished research for large fuel storages for ships. The technology was shared within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Jun-21: The US 'Mission to Mars' program added the 3rd and final slipway to the shipyard. The construction program is now into full blossom. Also on this day Russia researched Gauss Cannon Fire Rate 1. It was the third finished project of Scientist Ghazan Sukhebaatar. He was honored in a military ceremony for his archivements.

Aug-11: The UK Logistics Officer for the Space Division Cmdr. Harry Coslett retires after suffering a severe medical condition. Cmdr. Amber Pollard took over his command.

Sep-8: The United Kingdom finished it's first Colonist Transporter, joining the US in transporting colonists to the joined base on Mars. Cmdr. Madison Pearson takes command of the ship.

Sep-24: Australia drops his economy again into debt. Whilst the US discussions are still underway world economy faces another crisis. The first days show however that the world is better prepared and the consequences are not as severe as they were last year. It took the Australian Government some time but on November 19 they succeeded in normalizing the economy. However much of their industrial production had to be shut down for the time being. On the first of November Poland also came into debt but their problems were covered be the restrengthened Russian economy, which did not suffer under the weight of the Pakistani occupation.

Sep-29: Jennifer Anderson is announced to be the Leader of the new British Colony on Mars.

Between September 25th and November 19th the US discovery ship found TN Minerals on Umbriel, Rosalind, Miranda, Uranus and Ariel. Especially Uranus was a Sorium-Rich Gas Giant. With all the other Sorium-Filled Gas Giants Earth would not run out of fuel sources soon. However extracting the Sorium was another topic. No technology was available yet and the research was focused on other areas at the moment.

Oct-10: The UK added their 3rd and final slipway to their shipyards for the Mars Mission. In a joint talk the two Moons of Mars were determined to be the bases for automated mining. UK would build mines on Deimos and US on Phobos. Both moons were rich in Duranium, which would help solving the worlds need of Duranium and speed up further constructions. Also a program was set up to invite workers into the UK and US to strengthen the economy. Much more workers were needed to have a fully functioning economy and a running space program. In the first three month of the program over a million people joined the UK and US and became their citizens. Millions more would follow.

Nov-16: In an attempt to counteract the US and UK workers program civilians from the Russian Sphere of Influence were 'invited' to join the Russian economy. At the end of the year almost 500.000 people had been added to the economy. However their lack of proper knowledge was a major slowdown so a bunch of new schools were set up to give the workers a proper education.

Dec-31: As an executive decision the Commonwealth of Nations was reorganized. Fundings were redirected to the Space Nations to support the upbuilding of space technology. Almost 1.400 Units of wealth were transferred to the UK and Australia. This reorganization program is part of the new world economy which was passed by the United Nations as an option for any nation of the world to adopt. If taken by the Nations it would strengthen world economy considerably - and make it more save from collapses. As of 1975 the US and some of the minor nations have started to adopt the new plan. Goal is to reach a save economy by 1980.

Additionally to counter the problem of Duranium shortages a refit of TN Mines had been done. Duranium will not be accessable in as large numbers as before but be more effective. Earth will loose over a million tons of refineable Duranium but the effectiveness of each tonne had been increasey by 10%.

Also as of January 1st 1975 Miki Takeo will be Prime Minister of Japan. He promised no change of plans. Space is the ultimate goal of the Japan Empire.
The Organization for Islamic Cooperation also is under new leadership: Hassan Al-Touhami, Egypt, will be leading the Organization. With the upcoming joining of Bangladesh, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Uganda, he can look to a promising future of the Alliance, although no member has as of yet made any significant progress in developing space technology.

***

World Report 1974

After the major crisis at the end of 1973 the world has cooled down and the new economy model seemed to give hope for the future. The steps into space are continuing and sometimes surprising. The average surface temperature has risen slightly to 13.88 °C, radiation levels have increased to 810, another plus 20. This is caused by the continued testing of nuclear weapons be the two superpowers. Due to their separateness this will most likely not stop in the near future. Nevertheless has World Population been increased by 19,7 Million People.

Individual Country Developments

Pacific Space Cooperation: 347.35
   United States: 234.23 Million People (+4.31, 1.25 through immigration)
   Japan: 113.12 Million People (+2.49)

Commonwealth: 844.59
   United Kingdom: 69.18 Million People (+2.87, 0.75 through immigration)
   Australia: 17.32 Million People (+1.22)
   Canada: 27.80 Million People (+1.26)
   Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 730.29 (+1.00)

Russian Sphere: 425.94
   USSR: 208.99 Million People (+3.93, 0.5 through immigration)
   Poland: 38.34 Million People (+1.47)
   Pakistan: 68.30 Million People (+2.45)
   USSR Sphere of Influence: 110.31 Million People (+1.99)

Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 432.45 (+3.15, 83.5 million through joining countries)

United Nations: 1638.49 Million People (-6.44, 83.5 million lost through leaving)
« Last Edit: September 02, 2017, 05:59:04 AM by TMaekler »
 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2016, 09:19:51 AM »
Chapter 9 - The new Face of Space, Part 1

Jan-7: Russia discovers Minerals on Titan

Feb-20: First Yoronn Jumpgate (Luhman Owa to Yosann Cir) in the Starline to the Sol system is finished. The two Construction ships jump through the gate and split up. One begins construction of the countergate, the other moves to the next jump point (Proxima Centauri) and begins construction. When that gate is finished the Yoronn will begin preparing the planned exchange base with Russia in that system.

Mar-11: The unknown aliens in Lacaille 8760 again attack a Yoronn Shuttle and destroy it

May-9: Russia researches missile ejection system 80%

May-28: The Yoronn Carrier Fleet 'Wesa Cir' embarks on a Combat Recconaissance Mission to Lacaille 8760. three Space Carriers, four Destroyers, four Defense Frigates and their accompaning ships set sail into unknown waters. The last time the Yoronn had to face combat was during their early forming years - so several hundreds of years ago.

Code: [Select]
Turon class Space Carrier    16 100 tons     244 Crew     1830.1 BP      TCS 322  TH 700  EM 0
2173 km/s     Armour 4-56     Shields 0-0     Sensors 15/15/0/0     Damage Control Rating 7     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.02 Years     MSP 558    AFR 264%    IFR 3.7%    1YR 183    5YR 2742    Max Repair 350 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Flight Crew Berths 35   
Hangar Deck Capacity 6375 tons     Magazine 90   

Waadlex M700 EP NP Engine (1)    Power 700    Fuel Use 162.05%    Signature 700    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 3 700 000 Litres    Range 25.5 billion km   (135 days at full power)

ASM S07 W6 20.000kms 81.3mkm (12)  Speed: 20 000 km/s   End: 67.8m    Range: 81.3m km   WH: 6    Size: 7    TH: 73/44/22
Thermal Sensor TH2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km

Strike Group
6x JA 17A Interceptor   Speed: 6334 km/s    Size: 8.84
6x JB 17A Bomber   Speed: 3097 km/s    Size: 9.04
2x Girraween Recon C1 Recon Shuttle   Speed: 2828 km/s    Size: 9.9

Code: [Select]
Pride of Kaladaan class Defense Frigate    12 500 tons     349 Crew     1692 BP      TCS 250  TH 700  EM 0
2800 km/s     Armour 4-47     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 46
Maint Life 2.22 Years     MSP 635    AFR 166%    IFR 2.3%    1YR 174    5YR 2604    Max Repair 350 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 318   

Waadlex M700 EP NP Engine (1)    Power 700    Fuel Use 162.05%    Signature 700    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 2 500 000 Litres    Range 22.2 billion km   (91 days at full power)

12cm C2 Near Ultraviolet Laser (7)    Range 120 000km     TS: 3000 km/s     Power 4-2     RM 3    ROF 10        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
CIWS 12000kms 4Shots 5Seconds (1x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 12000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Beam Fire Control 96000km 12000kms (1)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Reactor 18 (1)     Total Power Output 18    Armour 0    Exp 5%

S03 Missile Launcher 30sec (6)    Missile Size 3    Rate of Fire 30
Anti Missile Fire Control 50t 4.32mkm (1)     Range 4.3m km    Resolution 1
AMM S03 W1 23.300kms 10.2mkm (106)  Speed: 23 300 km/s   End: 7.3m    Range: 10.2m km   WH: 1    Size: 3    TH: 93/56/28

Anti Missile Active Sensor 50t 5.76mkm (1)     GPS 96     Range 5.8m km    MCR 627k km    Resolution 1

Code: [Select]
Justo class Destroyer    11 000 tons     282 Crew     1444 BP      TCS 220  TH 700  EM 0
3181 km/s     Armour 5-44     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 42
Maint Life 2.02 Years     MSP 1287    AFR 276%    IFR 3.8%    1YR 421    5YR 6314    Max Repair 350 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 342    Cryogenic Berths 200   

Waadlex M700 EP NP Engine (1)    Power 700    Fuel Use 162.05%    Signature 700    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 2 000 000 Litres    Range 20.2 billion km   (73 days at full power)

S07 Missile Launcher 1min10sec (6)    Missile Size 7    Rate of Fire 70
Anti Ship Fire Control   500t 81.96mkm (1)     Range 82.0m km    Resolution 10
ASM S07 W6 20.000kms 81.3mkm (48)  Speed: 20 000 km/s   End: 67.8m    Range: 81.3m km   WH: 6    Size: 7    TH: 73/44/22

Code: [Select]
Ogier Jumper class Jump Ship    16 100 tons     431 Crew     2307.4 BP      TCS 322  TH 1400  EM 0
4347 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 3-56     Shields 0-0     Sensors 48/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.13 Years     MSP 2717    AFR 259%    IFR 3.6%    1YR 799    5YR 11989    Max Repair 681 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 0   

J16200(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 16200 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Waadlex M700 EP NP Engine (2)    Power 700    Fuel Use 162.05%    Signature 700    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 2 750 000 Litres    Range 19.0 billion km   (50 days at full power)

Anti Ship Active Sensor  4.000t 45.07mkm (1)     GPS 6720     Range 45.1m km    Resolution 80
Thermal Sensor TH8-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km
EM Detection Sensor EM8-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km

Code: [Select]
Girraween Recon C1 class Recon Shuttle    495 tons     7 Crew     103.6 BP      TCS 9.9  TH 28  EM 0
2828 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 99%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 45    5YR 673    Max Repair 72 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.5 months    Spare Berths 5   

Waadlex M14 EP NP Jet Engine (2)    Power 14    Fuel Use 320.86%    Signature 14    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres    Range 5.7 billion km   (23 days at full power)

Anti Ship Active Sensor  4.000t 38.63mkm (1)     GPS 5760     Range 38.6m km    Resolution 80

Code: [Select]
JB 17A class Bomber    452 tons     2 Crew     79.4 BP      TCS 9.04  TH 28  EM 0
3097 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2.1
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 90%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 17    5YR 252    Max Repair 48 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 14   

Waadlex M14 EP NP Jet Engine (2)    Power 14    Fuel Use 320.86%    Signature 14    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 Litres    Range 1.2 billion km   (4 days at full power)

S07 Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 7    Hangar Reload 52.5 minutes    MF Reload 8.7 hours
Anti Ship Fire Control 5.000t 86.4mkm (Jet) (1)     Range 86.4m km    Resolution 100
ASM S07 W6 20.000kms 81.3mkm (2)  Speed: 20 000 km/s   End: 67.8m    Range: 81.3m km   WH: 6    Size: 7    TH: 73/44/22

Code: [Select]
JA 17A class Interceptor    442 tons     2 Crew     70.4 BP      TCS 8.84  TH 56  EM 0
6334 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 1.8
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 88%    IFR 1.2%    1YR 6    5YR 85    Max Repair 24 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 12   

Waadlex M14 EP NP Jet Engine (4)    Power 14    Fuel Use 320.86%    Signature 14    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 20 000 Litres    Range 2.5 billion km   (4 days at full power)

S03 Box Launcher (4)    Missile Size 3    Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes    MF Reload 3.7 hours
Anti Ship Fire Control  400t 12.21mkm (Jet) (1)     Range 12.2m km    Resolution 8
AMM S03 W1 23.300kms 10.2mkm (4)  Speed: 23 300 km/s   End: 7.3m    Range: 10.2m km   WH: 1    Size: 3    TH: 93/56/28

Jun-9: Russia researches Maximum Engine Power Modificator 1.25x

Jul-19: Shridath Ramphal, Guyana, takes the position of Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations

Aug-12: Election Day in the UK. The people had to decide if they wanted to stay in the European Economic Community. The vote ended with a 67.2% Yes and 32.8% No. Europe will continue to grow togehter, despite some naysayers, who even dare to say, that the UK will leave the Union one day... .

Aug-27: Carrier Fleet 'Wesa Cir' arrives in Lacaille 8760. For a detailed report see Appendix 'After Action Report of Commander Drudwyn Dyel, Commander of the Ogier Jumper'.

Sep-21: The geological crews of the 3rd Yoronn Deep Space Exploration Fleet arrive at Malaran'Ar, but have to wait until the Fleet returns from a mission. While they have nothing else to do they begin searching for minerals on Malaran'Ar and find millions of previously undiscovered tons of TN Minerals.

Oct-6: The Yoronn research Thermal Sensor Sensitivity Class 8. Research on a large scale sensor begins immediately.

Oct-27: The United States discover TN Minerals on Neptune

Nov-5: Malcolm Fraser becomes Australia's Prime Minister

Nov-18: Russia begins transporting Terraformers to the Moon. The world is wondering how they will man those stations without having a manned base on the Moon. But it wouldn't be the first surprise the Russians have pulled out of their outer space miracle hat.

Dec-5: The crippled 'Wesa Cir' Fleed arrives at its home base on Malaran'Ar. The production of the lost ships begin immediately. As first steps the reserve ships are ordered to join the 'Wesa Cir' Fleet.

Dec-7: After the first determination of what had happened in the Lacaille System new ship doctrines were developed by the Yoronn Navy. Not only has regular crew training to take place, but new technology for faster ships is needed. As long as we are not able to outmaneuvre the enemy ships we will not be able to determine how large a thread they are. The minimum ship speed for military ships is set to 8.000 km/s, for fighters to 16.000 km/s and a deep analysis for the malfunctioning sensors is orderd. Most of all we need to be able to detect enemy missiles way earlier if we want our ships to survive such encounters.
Also ordered is a high speed shuttle craft with 20.000km/s speed and a full extended passive sensor to sweep the enemy system. The in October developed new Thermal Sensors will give a good advantage and must be used in that sensor ship. Speed will be most critical to archive and it might take a decade or longer to develop such strong engines. Research into Ion Drives is pushed but will take time to finish and it is yet unclear how much boost we can get from that technology.

Dec-31:
The new economic rules and regulations have worked like a charme. The nations of the world begin to adopt the changes. Financial Centers are being build all around the world.
The first 300.000 people have arrived on the two Mars Colonies and are happy and well. Expansion of both bases is going as planned. First Terraformers will be shipped over beginning in 1977.
Burkina Faso and Cameroon have joined the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The Yoronn send their star charts to the Russian Leadership (see below) as a preparation for a larger negotiation planned for the summer of 1976.

***

World Report 1975

The world is still alive - however is has seen another increase in radiation levels to 830 (another plus 20). The big nations are continuing their atomic weapon testings causing more and more radiation leaking into the atmosphere. How long can the earth withstand this? The average surface temperature has risen slightly to 13.94 °C. Nevertheless World Population has been increased by 18,24 Million People.

Individual Country Developments

Pacific Space Cooperation: 354.41
   United States, Earth: 238.51 Million People (+4.28, 1.5 through immigration)
   United States, Mars: 0.17 Million People
   Japan: 115.73 Million People (+2.61)

Commonwealth: 850.37
   United Kingdom, Earth: 72.31 Million People (+3.15, 1.0 through immigration)
   United Kingdom, Mars: 0,12 Million People
   Australia: 18.60 Million People (+1.28)
   Canada: 29.18 Million People (+1.38)
   Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 730.16 (-0.13)

Russian Sphere: 435.39
   USSR: 213.16 Million People (+4.17, 1.0 through immigration)
   Poland: 39.84 Million People (+1.50)
   Pakistan: 70.75 Million People (+2.45)
   USSR Sphere of Influence: 111.64 Million People (+1.33)

Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 448.74 (+2.69, 13.6 million through joining countries)

United Nations: 1618.15 Million People (-6.74, 13.6 million lost through leaving to the Islamic Cooperation)

Quote
Yoronn After Action Report, Lacaille 8760 incident, Commander Drudwyn Dyel:

Our fleet arrives in the target system on Aug-27 at 0.01 hours (all dates and times have been recalculated to earth times). Fleet Captain Sindri Avitus orders the supply ships to stay at the jump point. I receive the order to switch my ships active sensors on. Although, a thought comes into my mind. Since my ship has two main functions, one of which is to jump the fleet between jump points, the other being the main active sensor ship for the fleet, I begin to wonder if that is a strategical error. If my ship is destroyed, none of the other ships will be able to jump back into savety. But oh well. We are not here to begin a war.
Fleet Captain Avitus orders two of the Recon Shuttles to take forward position 5 million km in front of the fleet and switch on their active sensor systems as well. In this formation we embark on the 21 day journey to the wreck of one of our shuttles.
Three days and three and a half hours later the sensors of Recon 1 pick up some strange behaviour. Something must be out there but it is not yet identifiyable. Some ten hours later a Nepal Class ship is detected by the Recon Shuttle. Because of the inexperience the sensor technician wasn't able to identify the ship earlier, so it had at that time crossed almost one third of the maximum sensor range of the Recon Shuttle. Fleet Captain Avitus orders a full stop of the fleet. Some minutes go by and it becomes clear that the enemy shis is closing in on the Recon Shuttle at 10.000km/s - way faster than our ships. Not even our fighters can fly that fast. Avitus orders two wings of his fighters and bombers to launch and recalls the Shuttle to come back to the main carrier. The whole fleet is set into motion returning back to the jump point as no hailings of the enemy ship get answered. They seem to be hostile all the way.
After it becomes clear that the enemy ship closes in at max speed two Frigates and two Destroyers are send to the Shuttle to protect it from enemy actions.
Nineteen minutes later (at 14:09h mission time) the enemy Nepal Class ship slows down to 2.800km/s, paralleling the speed of the Recon Shuttle, at a distance of 15 million km.
At 14:32h hostile missiles are detected 600.000km in front of the two Destroyers and two frigates. The Captains of the Frigates are quick and order their Anti-Missile-Defense Systems to begin firing on the incoming missiles. We all wonder, why the missiles were not detected by the Defense Frigates Anti-Missile-Sensors. They should have detected them at least at a distance of over 5 mkm. The crews of the Frigates manage to target the missiles but take almost 20 seconds for their actions - too late to prevent them from hitting the ships. One missile is shot down, the other 19 hit and one of the Frigates explodes.
After the first shock several escape pods are detected by our sensors. Captain Avitus orders a full retreat of the whole fleet and rescue of the escape pods.
Two minutes later 115 of the ships crew are aboard the other ships and the retreat begins.
At 14:38h, four minutes later, the Nepal Class ship begins to zoom away at 10.000km/s.
At 16:37h the contact to the ship is lost at a distance of 140 mkm.

I was thinking that we could return savely now, but on day 5 at 9:12h mission time the sensors on my ship were again disturbed by something out there. Something was following us. On day 6 at 0:46h mission time a Longsword Class ship of the alien race is detected at 401 mkm distance by our passive sensors. It is closing in at 6.377 km/s and has an active sensor of over 206 mkm (S252/R82).
At 6:02h Captain Avitus orders to shut down all active sensors. An hour and 40 minutes later he gives me the order to split up from the fleet and race at max speed to the jump point.
At 9:42h Lt. Gayatri Gero volunteers to start his recon ship and actively ping the enemy ship to lure it away from the fleet. A wing of fighters and bombers volunteer to accompany him.
At 12:24h the enemy ship stops pursuing the fleet. Expectations are that it again has begun launching rockets.
At 12:47h 100k away from 'Wesa Cir' Fleet rockets appear on the sensors. They again slipped all Active Anti Missile Sensors. Captain Avitus orders the full break up of the fleet. Turon 6 is hit by the rockets and destroyed. The rest of the ships disperse into all directions, nevertheless one Destroyer begins rescue operations on the life pods. One minute later more rockets are detected. One of them is shot down but the others dastroy Turon 5. Another minute later 12 more contacts appear close to Turon 4 and destroy it's main engine. Captain Avitus oders to abandon his flag ship. Another two minutes later Destroyer Justo 1 ist destroyed, another minute later Justo 2 and another Justo 3. The last destroyer begins to rescue surviviors. At 13:21h all survivors are collected and the ships continue their escape to the jump point.

At 17:38h a new set of missiles is detected at one of the Defense Frigates, some 650.000km away. All counter measures help nothing and within six minutes the three remaining Frigates are destroyed. Eight minutes later my ship arrives at the jump point. We begin jumping the supply ships into savety and wait for the remaining ships. Three minutes later Captain Avitus orders me to wait on the other side of the jump point. It does not matter if we loose the ability to see the position of the enemy ship at this point.

On day 7 the last ships and shuttles are destroyed by enemy rocket fire. Only one Attack Wing of 6 fighters manage to reach the jump point and jump to savety. We begin our long limping home.

Yoronn Star Charts:

 

Offline TMaekler (OP)

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Re: Space Race 1969 - Part 01: The Early Years
« Reply #12 on: October 08, 2016, 02:24:58 PM »
Chapter 10 - The new Face of Space, Part 2

Jan-25: UKs Taylor Cole finishes research into Pressurized Water Reactor and continues directly with Nuclear Thermal Engine Tech. He had worked together with US's Reed Bullis on the Reactor, sharing the Technology with the US.

Feb-10: Declan Duncan, Canada, finalizes his research into Magazine Feed Efficiency 75%; a system which was already available in the UK, and therefore in the whole Commonwealth. Unfortunately that project was started before the New Commonwealth Treaty was signed and this double research was never uncovered - until it was finished. Because of this the Commonwealth installed a coordination office for future research within the Commonwealth, so that such unnecessary doulbe research would never happen again.

After a careful study of all finished reseach, the following research results were shared throughout the commonwealth:
- Magazine Feed System Efficiency 75%
- Magazine Ejection System 70%
- Cryogenic Transport
- Pressurized Water Reactor
- Fuel Consumption 0,9l
- Geological Survey Sensors

Feb-18: The Countergate between Yosann'Cir und Luhman Owa is finished. The Yoronn construction ship proceeds to Proxima Centauri.

Feb-26: James Callaghan is the newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Mar-6: The Russian scientist Ghazan Sukhebaatar complets research into Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity 1

Mar-18: Aretha Gofman, USA, finishes research of Small Troops Transport Bay. As agreed with the UK this technology is exchanged against the UK Research of Large Fuel Storage

Apr-4: The Jump Gate from Yosann Cir to Proxima Centauri is finished. The Yoronn Construction ship jumps through and moves towards the Jump Point to the Sol-System.

Apr-6: Construction of the counter Jump Gate from Proxima Centauri to Yorann Cir is begun by the second Construction Ship.

May-1: Jump Gate construction between Proxima Centauri and Sol begins

Jul-2: Commander Teofil Karbowski, Poland, has been killed in an accident. Commander Ferdynanda Stanek takes over his office of Logistics, Fleet Headquarters

Jul-26, 12:09h:
The doors of his office opened. That shouldn't be happening - at least not unannounced like this. He turned and was more than surprised to see the head of NASA standing in the doors of his office.

"James", said Admiral Columbus Vessey. James E. Webb, head of NASA since February 1961, nodded and walked to Vessey's desk. Ignoring that Webb did not greet him, Vessey simply added: "Please, sit down." Webb did.

"Sorry, for this unsettling entrance, but I have to show you something - important."

Vessey sat down at his desk while Webb pulled a stack of photos and diagrams out of his briefcase. "You know that we at NASA are still running a satellite network and a program to explore the solar system with optical and other sensors. At least we try to with that little money we are still receiving." He stopped looked to Vessey. "Sorry, I don't want to sound complaining."

"I know", Vessey answered and smiled. Since the announcement of the new space era NASA - as a non military organization - had to step back from the front position and the military had taken over. Kennedy had fought this but he was not able to stop it. He did not want to militarize space and this step seemed to him to be the wrong one. Webb continued: "It is not what I had hoped for in the beginning of my time at NASA - but back then, none of us knew what was ahead of all of us. At least not if you weren't inside the most inner circle of the presidential office." Webb paused for a beat to give emphasis to his next sentence: "But what our satellites have found today might change the world as we know it - forever."

Vessey took a moment to realize what Webb just had said. "Change the world more than the TN Elements and the sudden possibility of space exploration?"
Webb turned a photo and gave it to Vessey. It was marked with the following numbers in the top left: 33°42'N 13°00'E. It was a black and white photo of a landscape with several hills and valleys. Overall a very bad quality and you could see black dots all over it, marking digital errors of the processing.

"Is that... "

"A face. Yes."

Vessey looked up. That was not what he wanted to say. He was about to say 'Mars'. "A Face?"

"Yes."

Webb had not realized that Vessey hadn't seen what was visible in the photo. Vessey looked down again and began searching...

Oh my... .


Source: Wikicommons, NASA

He did not know what to say. He grabbed his glasses and put them on to take a closer look. Yes, there was a face. "Is this some trickery of light and shadow?"

Webb grabbed another photo. "At first we thought so. That picture you are holding there was taken yesterday by Viking I. After we received the data and developed the photo, Miller thought, that we do have a colony on Mars and they could be there with a small jumper in seven hours. It felt crazy at that time but we thought, why not. So we called them. They have send us this photo from the site itself."

Webb gave him the other photo. It was a good thing that Vessey was sitting. "That is... ."

"Yes, a manmade structure." And after a pause. "Well, actually not manmade - but a structure."

"And this is on Mars?", Vessey asked. Webb nodded. "Oh my ... ."

"Want to join me, visiting the President?"

Of course, Vessey wanted to.



***

It was a strange meeting with the President. After seeing the first photos he called in several advisors and they began to talk about how to deal with this new situation. After a very lengthy discussion, the following road plan was decided:

a) Inform the United Kingdom of the findings
b) Form a united Xenology Team and send it to the site to evaluate the value of the structure
c) After finishing initial exploration announce the existence of ancient ruins on our neighboring planet to the world through the United Nations
d) Deal with the political fallout - which was sure to come

The last step would be unpleasant, because of the delay with which all of this would happen - but national interest outwheighed the absolute open policy. Sending an international exploration team into the ruins was a no go. Since the Russians already seemed to have an edge in Space Exploration it was argued that leveling the playing field was not unethical. And the world would know about this within some month - so no one worried much over this.

***

Jul-28: The combined Xenology-Team of US and UK research experts leaves Earth towards Mars aboard the SCS Arlington under Lt. Cmdr. Burt Millholland. Under the leadership of Lt. Cmdr. Carl Faggan, Major Ronald Penderton, Scientist Elinn Faggan and UKs Scientist Urs Pigrato and Ariana DeJones the first alien ruins will be explored.

Aug-30: Russia detects Minerals on Umbriel

Sep-5: Russia's Scientist Vanyusha Sidorov finishes Research into Terraforming Rate, increasing it to 0.0012 atm per year

Sep-9: Mao Zedong is dead. The leader of the Peoples Republic of China died and the country immediately plunged into a state of civil war. Hua Guofeng, who was Zedong's designated successor is murdered on the following day by an assassin of the 'Gang of Four'. With the help of several army groups the revolutionary group seizes power over the Communist Party and a week-long power struggle begins.

Sep-15: Russia detects Minerals on Rosalind, six days later on Miranda and another two later on Ariel

Oct-5: Lt. Cmdr. Carl Faggan and his team arrive on Mars and begin exploring the alien site.

Oct-8: US President Agnew opens to the astonished world, that an ancient alien ruin had been found on Mars. Exploration had begun three days ago. He shows several pictures and videos from the team around Carl Faggan exploring through the site. The so named "Cydonia Complex" seemed to be some kind of ancient city with a pyramid across the space of the face monument. "We began our exploration here at the Face", Faggans assistent and sister Scientist Elinn Faggan explains. "This site alone is so vast, that it will take years to comb through it; let alone all the other sites we have found here. Just look at that pyramid over there. Next to it you can see several smaller structures, almost looking like a City Square. If you turn to the other side you can see a tholus reaching over the plain. The sight from there must be spectacular."
President Agnew explains that a research center has been established in the US base. All available material will be handed over to the United Nations this evening and other nations are invited to join the exploration of this magnificent site.


Source: www.enterprisemission.com

***

Later that evening events weren't that pleasant for Ambassador Kennedy at the United Nations. Russia's Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Oleg Troyanovsky pushed him hard as to why the announcement of the findings hadn't happened immediately. "The dates show clearly that the US waited over two month to inform the world of the existence of the ruins", he grumbled. Kennedy explained: "We needed to send a team of specialists to the site to confirm that it wasn't some kind of optical trickery or a false report. Would you risk blaming your country before the world by announcing an extraterrestrial sites on our neighboring planet - and then it being just a hoax, a misinterpretation of photographic data?
No, Mr. Troyanovsky, we wanted to be sure as to what it is, before we announced it. The delay is due to the simple fact of the travel time the team needed to arrive on Mars."
But Troyanovsky insisted that the US simply wanted an advantage over the others to benefit from the found technology first - or even worse, withhold vital information for themselves.
"You sound like someone with experience in such matters, Ambassador Troyanovsky. Does Russia hold back technology you have found perhaps on Venus? We all wondered where you got that nice slingshot of yours." You could hear some mumbling and laughter from the other members. "I am not standing accused here, Embassador Kennedy, you are." With this Troyanovsky stood up and left the room.

After the meeting was finished Kennedy said to his assistent: "You think this world will ever unite as one world... ?" He frowned. "Let's pack our things. The President has arranged another meeting. I don't want to be late."

***

Another meeting was held while Kennedy was presenting the new information to the UN. General Westmooreland handed a copy of the photos to his contact man of the Inner Circle. This time they sat next to each other - no more need to hide faces. They even sat outside the UN main building looking at the parade of flags there. "What do you think the world will do after today?", Westmooreland asked. The other one skimmed through the photos. Then he looked up. "Thank you for this." Westmooreland smiled. "Ok then, what are you and your people going to do with this?" The other one still kept silent, but he grabbed something out of his pocket and gave it to Westmooreland, who looked at it. "What is it?" Is was a cold cylindrical roll made out of metal. "Press the top." Westmooreland did. The cylinder opened and a paper fell out. He grabbed and read it. "This is a construction plan. The Russian Slingshot." Westmooreland looked to the other one. "I will give it to Admiral Vessey. I think he will like it." Then after a pause: "Does it have a price tag?" The other smiled. "Nothing but the usual. Go pushing for a more agressive research of weapon technology. Your country will need it possibly sooner than expected. And this", he pointed to the paper, "give it to the UK as well." "Do you know from where the Russians have that slingshot?" A fresh breeze went through the flapping flags. "As you might guess, it is very likely that the Russians have found a similar ruin like yours on Venus. They will never admit, but be certain of it. All I can guarantee you is that they are quickly - very quickly - exploring new technologies, and if you don't keep up, they will outrun you." "I see", Westmooreland nodded.

***

Oct-18: The chinese civil war ends as quickly as it had begun. Jiang Qing and her three comrades Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen have taken over the political leadership and have begun to steer China into a new future. This is the first time that China is lead by a female. She made an interesting announcement during her inauguration speech: "Another topic is that of the new era the world is plunging into. The events outside our country were as interesting as what was going on here. As we have heard alien life exists out there in the galaxy. At least their ruins are out there and they need to be explored - and we as a country need to be prepared for this new frontier. I therefore have ordered that a comitee will be created which shall lead this country into space. Yes, we will become the next nation in space."

Oct-25: The Yoronn Deep Space Exploration Group C begins analysis of the EZ Aguarii System, a neighboring system to Lacaille 8760. Several wrecks were found earlier in that system but it was sweeped by one of the Carrier groups and no alien presence was found. After its arrival in the system the sensor data was compared by the computer to the data of the newly won data from the former encounter in Lacaille and it gave a warning that one of the wrecks was a destroyed Longsword class ship from the Lacaille Aliens. Fleet Captain Sigune Creela wondered what could have destroyed that ship. She send a priority one message to the listening post in Wesa Cir, so that Fleet Command does know about this fact. If the hostile aliens do know about the jump points... .

Oct-27: A major breakthrough in the exploration of the alien ruins on Mars has happened. Lt. Cmdr. Carl Faggan and his team were successfull in translating the alien language in the ruins. They called themselves the "Council of Amatsu-Mikaboshi". Overall 47 different installations were identified as recoverable. A whole brigade is put together to make them useable again. An interesting future is waiting for the Mars Colony.

Oct-28: President Agnew awards the (named after himself) Carl Faggan Honory Medal for Outstanding Performance to the whole science team under Carl Faggan. He felt a bit akward receiving a medal named after himself.

Nov-27: A crippled emergency message is catched by a Yoronn transport ship in the Luhman Indi System, indicating that there is a surviving recon ship in the Lacaille System. After a short debate a Jump Ship is send to the system to check if it is a real message and if the crew can be rescued. They are under orders to immediately return if it turns out to be a trick of the aliens.

Dec-12: In a celebrational ceremony China opens the First Space Exploration Center and begins researching TN Technology.

Dec-23: The Yoronn Ogier Jumper send to the Lacaille System confirms the genuiness of the signal. There is a rogue recon shuttle still in the system, but they have malfunctional engines. A rescue mission is started and the missing crew and ship are savely rescued. Sub Commander Krodha Acharya and his crew return savely to Malaran'Ar Military Base.

Dec-28:
"Two years? And a net worth of 2.400 Credits?"
"Yes, Sir. We need that shipyard to carry over automated mines to Phobos. According to my calculations... ."
"I have read them", stopped Admiral Vessey Lt. Commander Eve Cole mid sentence. "And I see that we will run out of Duranium reserves within the next 10 years, if we don't start mining another source - or find a way to mine ours here more quickly. But we, the United States, simply don't have the money. We have set up a new financial system to prevent the overuse and overextension of financial budgeting... ."
Now it was Eve's turn to cut her superior off: "Our economy is running at 75% to prevent us from loosing money. But we can use the unused 25% and stay within the limits we have set up within the United Nations Economic Agreement. We won't break the rules."
Admiral Vessey knew very well that they would stay within those limits. But the President had given orders that there is no way to go to the maximum limit if we ever want other nations to join those rules. It was simply a political decision - and he had to agree with Eve Cole - it was a bad one.
"Sir, we are currently building many more of those new financial centers. By the end of next year they will produce almost 300 Credits alone. The year after 450 Credits. With that extra money we can limit our overextension to under 20% of total budget - signalling to the world that we don't go to the maximum limit if there is no need. But the long run demands, we use the limit to give us a chance in winning this space race."

Eve Cole had good arguments - and Vessey knew this. That was why he had set an open line on his phone before Eve came into the room. The to her until this moment unknown listener to Eve's explanations said: "I now know, why you wanted me to listen to Mrs. Cole, Columbus." "Yes, Sir. I think that her reasons are valid and she had prooven herself to be a very good planner of our space program. The best." "I had read the reports of her construction plans back then when the spacedock was installed. They were genious, Mrs. Cole."
Eve was so surpised to hear this voice but she managed to say: "Thank you, Mr. President."
"So, what shall we do?", asked Admiral Vessey. "Well", came President Agnew's answer, "looks like we will start the construction of another space dock next year."

Dec-31: As announced by Jiang Qing China officially sets herself up as an independent space fearing country and will begin exploration of space with their own ships and crews as of January-1st, 1977.

***

World Report 1976

The world has seen another increase in radiation levels to 860 (another plus 30) due to the continued testing of atomic bombs.
Surface temperature has dropped to 13.55 °C. Nevertheless World Population has been increased by 24,21 Million People. Three more countries (Comoros, Iraq, Maldives (12.9 Mill People) have joined the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Individual Country Developments

Pacific Space Cooperation: 365.05
   United States, Earth: 246.41 Million People (+7.56, 4.2 through immigration)
   United States, Mars: 0.34 Million People
   Japan: 118.30 Million People (+2.57)

Commonwealth: 856.15
   United Kingdom, Earth: 76.76 Million People (+4.45, 2.3 through immigration)
   United Kingdom, Mars: 0,33 Million People
   Australia: 19.92 Million People (+1.32)
   Canada: 30.56 Million People (+1.38)
   Rest of the Commonwealth Nations: 728.58 (-1.58)

Russian Sphere: 444.99
   USSR: 219.53 Million People (+6.37, 3.1 through immigration)
   Poland: 41.35 Million People (+1.51)
   Pakistan: 72.22 Million People (+1.47)
   USSR Sphere of Influence: 111.89 Million People (+0.25)

China: 936.00

Organization of Islamic Cooperation: 464.02 (+2.38, 12.9 million through joining countries)

United Nations: 663.10 Million People (-6.15, 948.9 million lost through leaving to the Islamic Cooperation and separation of China)
« Last Edit: February 14, 2017, 03:46:02 PM by TMaekler »