Chapter 5 - Space Command Meeting & An unexpected warHigh Level NATO Meeting - Exploring possibilities of Space ExplorationAnother 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 ReportAttendants:
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 1971The 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 WarIn 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 8thIt 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.
