America One: War of the Worlds (31 page)

“Sounds fine with me,” smiled Maggie. ‘I’ve never owned a city.”

The jeweler carefully touched, and then picked up the necklace. It was heavy. She brought out her loupe and carefully looked through it at the large stone in the center of the necklace display.

“My god! This is real. How big is the diamond?” the jeweler asked Maggie.

“Sixteen carats,” Maggie replied.

“Absolutely flawless,” replied the lady searching with her powerful jewelry loupe for flaws. “I have rarely seen a flawless diamond in such a high color, and never seen a diamond this size. There is nothing I could do with it, this necklace is far too valuable for a small shop like mine, but I might believe your asteroid story a bit more.” She handed the necklace back to Maggie trembling slightly. “I never believed I would see anything so perfect in my life.”

Maggie then took off her three-diamond wedding ring and gave it to the lady to view.

“Three perfect diamonds, as perfect as the large diamond. I could move this ring if you give me enough time, it is also worth a fortune,” the jeweler stated looking up at Maggie.

“Thanks but no,” replied Maggie, and took our one diamond out of the pouch Ryan had given her for retirement. “That is my wedding ring, but I’m interested in selling this one.” Jonesy also pulled out a similar pouch, and put a second diamond on the table.

“I want a lifetime’s worth of good eating and beer from this one,” he told the lady.

“Hmm! Even better,” she stated picking up Maggie’s diamond first. “I would guess a little over three carats, color a D or an E, and as flawless as the others by the look of it. I’ll give you my savings for it? You say it is from a real asteroid?” Maggie nodded. “You just to be happened to be in space, this asteroid floated by and on it was this diamond you picked up?”

“And this one, and about 10,000 more,” added Jonesy pointing at his, and totally screwing up the poor lady’s day. “If you are really nice to us, I’ll tell you a true story about space sharks.”

The grey-haired lady couldn’t afford both diamonds at the same time. She told Jonesy to come back in a few months, and she would look for potential buyers of stones so valuable. While they waited, the jeweler asked the group to look after her shop while she went across the road to the bank and withdrew everything she had.

An hour later the five walked out and to lunch in the best restaurant they could find. As it was very usual with fishermen, on land a large steak was the order of the day. Maggie had an attach case full of money, and was buying.

Three months later, and the time Jonesy was thinking about another visit to the “school teacher” looking lady in the jewelry store, the news about the attack on The Martian Club Retreat was relayed to both boat radios from high above.

“SB-V to Jonesy or Maggie, do you copy over?”

“Hi Lunar, you up there circling us like a seagull again?” replied Jonesy
.

“A little higher than a seagull, and yes, I’ve just taken the last two plasma engines up to the mother ship, and heading back to Nevada. How’s the fishing, over.”

“I eaten enough fish to last me awhile,” replied Jonesy who was packing his boat ready for a return voyage to Cairns for beer.

“Well, we are all missing you back at base. You and Maggie. The retreat was attacked a few hours ago. No deaths but Vitalily reckons they will be back very soon. It seems they really tried to destroy the base. Vitalily thinks that there were about 30 of their ships from the camera footage. Dad is up here in SB-III and on the intercom assembling everybody for Mars, over.”

“Thirty ships, that sounds like their whole force including those heading in from Europa,” Jonesy stated.

“Max Von Braun told us a few weeks ago that there is a second group of lights showing up on the area between Europa and Mars in Mattville’s globe room. There are 28 new lights, and it seems another 28 have just left the white planet a few days ago, over.”

“Lunar, that is a lot of enemy for Astermine’s fleet. Lunar wait one, Jonesy to Bob, how many days are we out from Astermine Island, over?’

“Full speed, 45 to 46 hours, over,” replied Bob from the other boat.

“Lunar, tell the island to get dinner ready for you. Do you have enough fuel to pick Maggie and me up?”

“I was hoping you would say that Mr. Jones. Affirmative, Mark and I could get down in about 17 hours, and wait for you. I believe we could get a top up from our island fuel tanks if we need a splash and go….”

“Have you left any Aussie beer for us on the island, mate?”
Mark Price Lunar’s co-pilot asked.

“Mark, I’m sure there is some, but stocks are low there, and we’ll take whatever there is, as well as any remaining cans on our boats. Bob and I were about to head down to Cairns to get a few tons of supplies, over.” Replied Jonesy.” Mark thanked the fisherman in advance.

With both boats at high cruise, they reached the island dock in 46 hours, and chatting to an aging Lieutenant Walls, who now was retired and in charge of the island, Jonesy and Maggie readied to hop aboard the shuttle waiting for them.

Maggie found the two astronauts in the pool being served cool drinks by the ever-present robotic waiter while Jonesy was tying down the boat for a long-term stay.

Lunar had told them about the second attack 36 hours after the first. The first one had been at dusk, the second one at dawn. Mark reckoned that the second attack had been timed to catch anybody on the base by surprise.

Jonesy said goodbye to Bob and the girls as Bob’s boat headed out and onwards to Cairns for supplies. Jonesy told Bob that his next return was for good, but he and Maggie had to rid the red planet of these little bad guys first.

Within an hour of docking
SB-V,
with every beer and luxury on the island on board, launched skyward and disappeared from view.

“Glad to have you back, Mr. and Mrs. Jones,” smiled Ryan seven hours later and as the sun set over the western Nevada horizon. “I was wondering if you could stay away.”

“Not with so many juicy targets to lock onto,” smiled Jonesy. Maggie winked at Ryan, then hugged Kathy.

“We have to finish what we started, and against that many odds, you need us,” she told Ryan.

“Is
America Three
ready?’ Jonesy asked Ryan feeling that he had been away for years.

“Mr. Jones you have been away for a short 3 months. The next opposition is still a year away, and the third mother ship just had its ninth section out of twelve fitted last week. Unfortunately, she will not be ready for the fight.”

“So what are we going to do for a year?” Jonesy asked.

“The plasma thrusters will be fitted and ready on
America Two
in about three to five weeks. Then she will need a month of tests. During that time, you can bring yourself up to fitness for space travel, and then begin battle training all our astronauts at the orbital build platform. Dr. Schmidt and his team are working on when we can leave Earth, but any departure in the next four months is out of the question. Since you are back Chief Astronaut Jones, Mr. Saunders is happy for you to take over again. I want the best space fighter astronauts you can make out of all our pilots heading over. This time, we are not coming back until the planet is secure, or we are all dead.”

Five weeks later, the plasma thrusters were ready for testing on
America Two.
The work had been completed as fast as possible, and for the last two weeks Jonesy had given lectures to the team of astronauts up on the build station.

The crew was already living in
America Two
, and had been since launching up 14 days earlier.

The astronaut team comprised of the oldies: Jonesy, Maggie, Allen and Jamie, Michael and Penny, and Ryan and VIN as backup pilots. Kathy Richmond did not want to fly into battle. She considered herself too old, and she preferred to learn how to back up her daughter Lunar, who was now official Captain of the mother ship.

The “NextGeners” were excited, and ready to go into battle mentally. Saturn Noble was NextGen Flight Leader, and the astronauts were her husband: Mars, Shelley Saunders, Jane and Jenny Burgos, Lunar’s husband Mark, Pluto Katherine and her husband Gary.

Pluto Jane Saunders and Hillary Pitt, both pregnant were now the flight trainers for the kids in flight simulators back on Earth.

Lunar Richmond and her father were both happy that Jonesy and Maggie had returned. Over time the astronaut numbers was dwindling somewhat. Penelope Pitt was Vice President in Washington. Kathy Richmond felt too old to fly, and most of the younger Nextgeners were going through marriage and parenthood.

The Third generation, the youngsters were still a couple of years away from getting their wings, and Astermine had seven children in flight training, not counting the Chinese boy.

This mission was certainly the last mission for the OldGeners. If they hadn’t slept for fourteen years, they would all be too old to fly, and with five shuttles still active, and the two new mother ships, there certainly wouldn’t be enough astronauts to fly the Astermine fleet for at least a decade.

What was opposite down on Earth, was that pilots of commercial aircraft, as well as fighter aircraft were being phased out, and replaced by robots. These robotic pilots were no more than lumps of machinery in the forward part of the aircraft where the cockpit used to be.

Jonesy had been shocked a week before he had launched back into space when he had seen a new videoed program from Boeing on the new pilots of commercial flight.

The program for the news networks showed new aircraft which didn’t have a flight deck or cockpit. Instead there were no cockpit windows, and the entire area where the flight cockpit had once been, was now full of electronics. These electronics, didn’t even look like robots, but square blocks of electronics that were computers which flew the aircraft. There would be no more human hands on in case something went wrong. Like the drones in the days of VIN Noble’s military career, these aircraft could be flown from the ground if necessary.

“No more pilot pay packets, eight hour flight maximum’s per day, or pilot unions, these new pilots an fly 24/7,”
stated the news feed Jonesy was watching with the kids, the third class of Astermine astronauts. Many of the older crew were also in watching. Television, or video streaming was back, stations were cropping up across the country, and once again news was 24/7 as well.
“Flights will be on time, no chances of pilot errors, and flight tickets will be cheaper again in the future. With the cheap tickets comes a higher cost for everything on board. At least the last remaining necessity will still be free on board all U.S. flights: going to the bathroom. Congress enacted a law today halting U.S.A. Air’s bid to charge passengers to go to the toilet during a flight. The airline has charged passengers for a month now, even on long flights, ten dollars a time to use the onboard bathrooms. In a unanimous vote, Congress deemed this as a right of any passenger to use free bathroom facilities on any mode of transport…”

“I would certainly be using the bathroom more if I had tin cans flying me round,” stated Jonesy, and making the youngsters laugh. “You guys might be the last known human pilots, so respect your opportunity.”

Apart for certain topics on the news these days, the news was mostly good. The new Chinese boy, Jon Lee Jong saw his parents in Washington on an official visit to the city, and being toured around by the country’s Vice President Penelope Pitt.

Relations with most of the world’s countries was on the mend. The USA and China had just completed a plan for ten years of growth together. Russia and the Republic of Korea with Korea whole again for the first time in nearly a century, were visiting each other. Israel were talking peace and assistance to much of the Middle East, and even the continent of Africa was on the mend.

Apart from communication satellites going up on a monthly basis, the only other machinery heading up into space were military “Watchdogs”, new cameras heading into orbit to monitor the planet for problems. These “Watchdogs” as they were known, were not only for military purposes, but also to survey the planet for every purpose one could imagine. Most of the “Watchdogs” made in Israel, Australia and Canada were sold to companies checking on acid rain, ozone, pollution and air and sea temperatures for weather.

As usual, some were armed and some were not, and as Astermine’s astronauts launched into Low Space Orbit, each time they had more and more traffic on their radar monitors.

“It’s getting like a Walmart parking lot up here,”
stated Jonesy as he and Maggie flew their old and faithful shuttle,
SB-III
into space for the first time since returning from Mars.

“What is a Walmart parking lot?”
several of the kids who were watching Jonesy’s launch telemetry on inboard and outside shuttle cameras from their classroom as he and Maggie headed into space.

“Something even I don’t know what it is,” stated Pluto Jane Saunders, their NextGen instructor.

“An old style American supermarket chain before the large stores and malls all became motels and apartments for communal living,” explained Dr. Smidt who was also in the classroom, and watching the video feed of the Jones’ ride into space.

“Right kids, I’m powering the thrusters down to 27 percent as we enter into our orbit. Young James Richmond Price, what is our altitude, and expected altitude, boy?”

“Current Altitude 93.7 miles, expected altitude 17 minutes into launch: 95 miles, Commander Jones, you are out by over 1 mile,” young James, now 12, replied.

“My cockpit computer states 16 minutes 47 seconds flight time, boy,”
stated Jonesy coldly.

“Flight time now 17 minutes, what is my altitude young Richmond Price?”

“Exactly 195 miles Commander,” replied the boy sheepishly.

“That is what accuracy means future astronauts,”
Jonesy lectured.
“For every mile you are out on any part of your flight means extra fuel usage to get you back in track, understand?”
stated Jonesy into his camera and monitor placed so he could see and hear the lesson. In turn the kids had direct to access to the astronauts as no helmets were being used on launches anymore.