09:29 (Paris Time)
Saturday, March 6, 1971 ‘C’
Air France counter, passengers terminal
Le Bourget Airport, Paris
France
Sergei Petrov walked at a vigorous step while pushing his baggage cart towards the Air France counter, where a dozen other prospective passengers were already lined up. Following with some effort while pushing his own baggage cart, Nikolai Chuikov finally had to implore his comrade in an halting voice.
‘’Could you cut your pace, Sergei? I am not young anymore.’’
Sergei, a small but sturdily built man in his forties with Eurasian features, twisted his head and smiled but cut his pace nonetheless.
‘’And I am supposed to be young, Nikolai?’’
The astronomer sighed with exasperation at his too physically fit colleague scientist while still pushing his cart.
‘’Well, I spend my days looking at stars while sitting at a telescope station, not as a geologist roaming the Siberian hills and forests.’’
‘’Your loss, Nikolai! Fresh air would do you good.’’
A greying man pushing a baggage cart and followed closely by a pretty young woman then cut Sergei’s path to insert himself in the lineup, prompting a protest from the geologist in his fair French.
‘’Hey, can’t you wait your turn, mister?’’
The man was about to shoot a reply when he looked with wide eyes at Nikolai Chuikov and exclaimed himself in French.
‘’NIKOLAI! What are you doing here?’’
‘’Trying to take a plane, like you, Jean.’’ Replied Nikolai in a sarcastic tone. ‘’What made you leave your astronomical observatory in the Alps this time?’’
‘’The promise of an even better observation point. And you? Where are you heading?’’
‘’To Los Angeles, along with my friend Sergei. From there, we are supposed to be transported to the Vandenberg Base of the American Military Space Command.’’
‘’You too?’’ Replied a surprised Jean Bertrand. ‘’Me and Miss Louise Morin are also heading there. Don’t tell me that you and your colleague here were also invited by the Americans to participate in their Mars mission.’’
‘’We were!’’ Said Nikolai before smiling to the woman following Bertrand while carrying a small bag. ‘’Are you also an astronomer, miss?’’
The brunette, who was in her mid thirties and was certainly pretty enough, smiled to the Soviet astronomer but shook her head.
‘’Hardly! I am a psychologist and I spend my time studying the dirty minds of men rather than looking at points of light.’’
Sergei Petrov grinned at that reply.
‘’Then, it will be a true pleasure to have you examine my mind, Miss Morin. Let me present myself: Sergei Petrov, geologist and ladies’ man.’’
‘’Please excuse his manners, miss.’’ Said Nikolai Chuikov. ‘’He’s a Siberian.’’
Louise Morin eyed the short but sturdy and fit geologist and gave him a warm smile.
‘’I never interviewed a Siberian before. I guess that I will have plenty of time to do that while we are on our way to Mars.’’
‘’Well, we better join the lineup now if we want to be on our way.’’ Reminded Jean Bertrand, who pushed his cart in the back of the lineup, quickly imitated by the three others.
Getting their first class boarding passes, paid by the American Military Space Command, and also checking in their heavy baggage, the four scientists proceeded next to a large passenger waiting lounge already half full. Putting his carry-on bag first on one of the benches of the lounge, Sergei then went to the large bay windows giving a view of the jet airliner parked outside in front of their lounge. The Siberian geologist admired for a long moment the Air France Boeing 717, an aircraft type which had been in service for eighteen years but which still had no equivalent in the USSR. The Tupolev 16 that he and Nikolai had flown on from Moscow to Paris had maybe one third of the carrying capacity of the Boeing 717, was slower and had much less range, on top of being noisy and uncomfortable. To the left and in the background, he could see as well a row of Convair MERCURY medium range airliners and a few more Boeing 717 wearing the liveries of various airlines, as much European ones as American ones. One lonely British Vickers VC-20 could be seen on the tarmac, a representative of a dying breed, as most British aircraft manufacturers and airlines had gone bankrupt over a decade ago, victims of a severely declining British economy and prestige. American-made jet airliners had been dominating the air transport industry worldwide for the good part of two decades, all thanks to the same young woman who had pushed hard to have some Soviet scientists included on the Mars mission despite howling protests from many politicians and media pundits in the United States. All in all, Sergei couldn’t wait to meet that Ingrid Dows, who was also universally known as ‘God’s General’.
Even though he had heard about the huge capacity of the Boeing 717, Sergei was astounded by the amount of people that boarded the plane with his group, with over 400 persons going in the airliner. Going to the lower forward cabin that housed the first class section, he was more than pleased by the plush, wide reclining seat awaiting him.
‘’Such decadent capitalist comfort for a simple man like me. My old army political officer would have choked with indignation on seeing this.’’
‘’Well, you might as well profit from that decadent capitalist comfort while you can, Sergei.’’ Replied Louise Morin, who took the seat next to him. Nikolai and Jean took the two seats facing them from across a folding common table and found out that their seats, apart from being very comfortable, could slide forward or back on rails thanks to small electric motors and could also be reclined electrically. With their group of four seats situated between the two aisles of the cabin, that made access to their seats very easy. Settling in, the four scientists stayed mostly quiet until their plane rolled away from the terminal, then took off from the main runway of Le Bourget. As their plane was climbing to its cruising altitude, Louise Morin smiled to Sergei and Nikolai.
‘’So, how come that two Soviet scientists were invited by the Americans to be part of the first manned mission to Mars?’’
Nikolai Chuikov, who was better connected politically than Sergei Petrov, weighed carefully his words as he answered her.
‘’I think that we owe it to General Dows. I heard that she faced some rather vocal opposition in Washington to her idea of having an international crew, and even more to inviting Soviets on top of that. I have to say that she possesses an openness of mind that is very refreshing indeed.’’
‘’And your bosses in Moscow? I know that they have up to now refused to send Soviet scientists as guest researchers aboard the American space station CONSTITUTION.’’
‘’Well, they did that because we have our own space station, MIR, in orbit. They couldn’t claim the glory of having a space station and then send people to a rival space station, no?’’
‘’Hum, I see your point there. What about the ship we will use to go to Mars? The Americans only told us that it was being completed in orbit at the CONSTITUTION space station. I am afraid that I am rather ignorant about space technology and don’t know how such a ship would look like.’’
Nikolai bent forward to answer here in a low voice, conspiratorial tone.
‘’That is something that many in Moscow have been wondering about. I had the chance to speak with a few leaders of our space program after I was selected for the mission. They told me that a number of nuclear rocket engines and large tanks full of liquid hydrogen have been sent to orbit in the last few months, probably to propel the Mars ship.’’
‘’Nuclear engines?’’ Said Louise, misgiving clear in her tone. ‘’Isn’t that going to be a high radiation hazard for us?’’
‘’With a competent space manager like General Dows, I am sure that the radiation hazard has been minimized as much as possible, notably by shielding. Dows is not the kind to put her space crews at unnecessary risks.’’
‘’What about the second giant space station the Americans launched in orbit just last month?’’ Asked Jean Bertrand. ‘’It is said to be an identical twin to the CONSTITUTION. Why would the Americans need two such space stations in orbit?’’
‘’Actually, I can easily see the usefulness of that second space station, which is called the USS LIBERTY, I believe.’’ Replied Nikolai. ‘’In the more than two years that the USS CONSTITUTION has been operational in orbit, the amount of astronomical and Earth observation done from it has been staggering, yet it never was able to satisfy all the requests from the scientific community around the World. From what a German colleague who worked on the CONSTITUTION told me, the two astronomical telescopes of the space station have been in use without respite, with teams of astronomers working round the clock in consecutive shifts. The observation schedule is so tight that it is said that some astronomers nearly went to blows while arguing about the priority of their pet projects. Believe me, Jean, that second space station will be plenty useful.’’
Their conversation was then interrupted politely by an Air France stewardess pushing a cart.
‘’Excuse me, lady and gentlemen. Would you like some Champagne? It is included in the price of your ticket.’’
‘’More decadent capitalist luxury for you, Sergei.’’ Said jockingly Louise Morin before smiling to the stewardess. ‘’We will have some Champagne with pleasure, miss.’’
The smiling stewardess then filled and passed to the four scientists flutes full of bubbly Champagne, then went to serve other passengers. Louise Morin raised her glass high and looked at her three male companions.
‘’Let’s drink to our future success on Mars, my friends.’’
‘’To success on Mars!’’ Said the four of them before taking a sip of their Champagne.
13:48 (California Time)
Arrival Hall, international passenger terminal
Los Angeles International Airport
California, U.S.A.
Despite the very comfortable conditions in their first class section, the two French and two Soviet scientists felt numb from their time zones jumping as they lined up to exit their airliner through a mobile gate tunnel. With their carry-on luggage in hand, they then took place in one of the lineups of passengers waiting to be processed at the customs counters. The first to walk to a custom counter was Sergei Petrov, who was a bit nervous about the welcome he would get: despite having been theoretically at peace with the United States for sixteen years now, the Soviet Union still had a frosty relationship with its main rival for World power, with vigilant fingers never far from the nuclear button. The customs and immigration officer who took his passport examined it carefully before raising his nose and looking at Sergei with a neutral expression.
‘’What is the purpose of your visit to the United States, Mister Petrov?’’
‘’I came on the invitation of your Military Space Command, in order to participate in a space mission.’’
‘’Oh!’’ Said the customs agent, apparently interested by Sergei’s answer. ‘’And where will you be heading, if I may ask? To the Moon?’’
Taking a conspiratorial expression, Sergei bent forward and answered in a low voice.
‘’To Mars!’’
The agent, showing surprise at first, then nodded his head and stamped Sergei’s passport before giving it back to him.
‘’Here you are, sir. Good luck on your space trip.’’
Relieved, Sergei thanked the agent and walked past the reception booth, stopping a bit further to wait for his three companions. Once they were all through, without apparent problems, they went down to the baggage carroussels hall under the arrival hall to retrieve their luggage. Thankfully, all of their bags showed up after a few minutes and they loaded them on two carts before proceeding to the customs inspection counters. To their surprise, they saw a young woman wearing a United States Air Force light blue uniform holding high a sign saying ‘MILITARY SPACE COMMAND GUESTS WELCOME’ and standing besides one of the counters. Sergei smiled on seeing the tall and very beautiful redhead holding the sign.
‘’Aaah, that’s the kind of welcome I like.’’
His smile of anticipated pleasure as he pushed his baggage cart towards the military woman changed progressively to stunned surprise as he got closer and could see her rank insignias: she was wearing the four stars of a full general! The three others, equally surprised, stopped with Sergei in front of the woman, who gave them a sparkling smile and spoke in a youthful voice, using French.
‘’Welcome to California, lady and gentlemen. I am General Ingrid Dows and I came to welcome you and bring you to Vandenberg Space Command Base.’’
She then repeated her welcome in fluent Russian. Sergei couldn’t help be hypnotized by her youthful beauty, as she appeared to be no more than maybe twenty years old.
‘’But, you are supposed to be in your forties, General.’’ He said in his more than decent but heavily accented English. Ingrid made a disarming smile at that remark.
‘’I am officially 47 years old but, since a certain miracle that happened to me in Palestine in 1953, when I was both healed and rejuvenated, it seems that my physical aging has drastically slowed down.’’
‘’God’s General indeed!’’ Said Louise Morin, fascinated by her youth. ‘’You know how many women would kill to remain young like you?’’
‘’Oh, just half of the United States’ population.’’ Replied jockingly Ingrid, a grin on her face. ‘’A French fashion photographer told me once that I would have made a great model. Instead, I went to go on as a fighter pilot and astronaut. You must be Doctor Louise Morin, I presume?’’
‘’Correct, General.’’ Replied Louise, shaking Ingrid’s hand and finding then her grip to be surprisingly strong. The three other scientists presented themselves to Ingrid before she waved a hand past the customs inspection counters.
‘’Well, I have arranged for you to skip the customs inspection procedure. If you may follow me, lady and gentlemen.’’
The group, still pushing their baggage carts, followed her past the counters, emerging in the hall where various friends and relatives of other passengers were waiting, then outside the terminal, where a long black limousine was waiting. Ingrid smiled to her guests while pointing the limousine to them.
‘’I took the liberty to rent a civilian limousine for this occasion. Let us load your luggage in the trunk, then we will be on our way.’’
Ingrid waited until they had loaded their luggage and were sitting inside the limousine, with the driver starting to roll away from the terminal, before speaking again, her expression serious.
‘’You are probably dead tired from flying through nine time zones, so I will wait until you had a chance to get a good night’s sleep before briefing you in detail about your respective roles in our coming Mars mission. I can however assure you right now that you were not invited by me only to give an international flavor to our mission. You are all considered top World experts in your respective fields and we will truly need the best for our mission.’’
‘’I would have one question for you, General.’’ Said Nikolai Chuikov. ‘’What is the set departure date for Mars?’’
Ingrid looked solemnly at her four guests as she answered the Soviet man.
‘’We will fly to orbit on May Third, then will boost out of orbit towards Mars on May Ninth. In the meantime, you will follow an intense training program to prepare you to work in space and will also have a spacesuit custom-fitted for each of you. I can already promise you the trip of a lifetime, lady and gentlemen.’’
08:09 (California Time)
Monday, May 3, 1971 ‘C’
Hangar complex of the First Space Squadron
Vandenberg Space Command Base, California
Hien, now a 23 year-old beautiful woman, emotionally hugged tight her adoptive mother one last time before she would get in the van due to transport her and the others to the C-2000 first stage transporter.
‘’Those two years in space will feel like an eternity to me, Mom. Please be careful!’’
Ingrid returned her hug, then looked tearfully at her daughter, who had taken some leave from her post as a diplomatic attaché at the American embassy in Taiwan in order to be present for her departure for Mars.
‘’I will miss you too, Hien. I will bring back some Martian souvenirs for you, I promise.’’
Ingrid then kissed her adopted daughter one last time on the cheeks despite the bulk of her spacesuit. She next got in the big van and sat down besides the eleven other passengers wearing spacesuits that were already inside. She made a last goodbye wave of the hand to Hien before a technician closed the back door of the van. Her heart was heavy as the van started to roll towards the huge C-2000 that would lift their spaceplane to high altitude.
Less than four hours later, with the huge bulk of the USS CONSTITUTION now visible in the darkness of space through the heat-resistant windshield of the USS ENTERPRISE, Ingrid went to make an announcement to the other passengers of the spaceplane. While they collectively possessed an impressive number of doctorates and diplomas, all of them were civilian scientists who were all space novices save for Edward Stokes, the geologist who had discovered water ice on the Moon. The flight to orbit, while nearly routine to Ingrid, had impressed, if not shaken, many of the scientists.
‘’Lady and gentlemen, our trip to orbit is near its end, with the USS CONSTITUTION now in sight. I can now break to you a little secret that has been kept from the rest of the World. We will be travelling to Mars on the USS CONSTITUTION itself, and not on some other ship supposedly built in orbit. The CONSTITUTION was in effect designed from the start as a true spaceship and only needed the addition of nuclear rocket engines and a filling up with liquid hydrogen to be ready for our trip to Mars. The other 44 crewmembers that will fly with us to Mars are already aboard the CONSTITUTION, having flown in during the last couple of weeks. As for the USS LIBERTY, now in Earth orbit, it will take the place of the CONSTITUTION and will continue its initial program of Earth and astronomical studies. However, like the CONSTITUTION, it is a spaceship and not simply a space station and it will eventually be sent on a deep space mission in the years to come.’’
Her announcement made Nikolai Chuikov exchange a stunned look with Sergei Petrov, sitting next to him.
‘’By the Devil! Chief Designer Korolev will choke to death on learning this.’’
After another half hour spent cautiously approaching the CONSTITUTION, the ENTERPRISE slowly entered the gaping exhaust nozzle of the port main booster engines of the spaceship, which was a full 21 meters in diameter, and connected its nose docking ring to the docking receptacle inside, which was surrounded by the rocket exhaust nozzles of the five F-1 booster engines of the port engine pod. The exhaust duct, its inside now illuminated by a number of lights, was now in effect a space docking hangar that provided protection against micro-meteorites and space radiations to the docked spaceplane. The pilot and commander of the CONSTITUTION, Colonel Edward White, greeted Ingrid with a handshake when she emerged with her kit bag from the large airlock connecting the docking receptacle to the locker room inside the port engine pod.
‘’Welcome aboard the CONSTITUTION, General. Your quarters are ready for occupation and I have two people at hand to guide your group to their respective cabins, plus four more who will take care of unloading the fresh supplies brought by the ENTERPRISE.’’
‘’Thank you, Colonel! We will follow you as soon as we can take off our spacesuits.’’
Walking carefully on the steel deck of the locker room, which was in zero-G condition, so that her magnetized soles could get a grip and keep her attached to the deck, Ingrid went to the large spacesuit locker bearing her name and opened it, then secured her spacesuit to the support bars and opened its back hatch. Taking out her head and torso first, she disconnected the tubes and wires linking the spacesuit to her body garment and cap, then grabbed the overhead bar of the locker and pulled herself out of her spacesuit. Taking off her inner soft helmet, with its integrated headset, headlamp and mini-camera, she stored it inside the locker before closing it. The other eleven passengers took a lot longer than her to get out of their spacesuits, not having her long practice at it. Recuperating her kit bag, Ingrid waited patiently for the others to be finished, while plastic cargo containers full of fresh foodstuff were taken out of the ENTERPRISE and then brought inside the adjacent old liquid oxygen tank of the main booster engines, which was now used as a food storage freezer. After ten minutes, the group was all ready and was then guided by Colonel White up a communication tube connecting the locker room to the main saucer section of the CONSTITUTION. Floating through two successive airtight doors and a connecting communication tube, the group finally went down a short tube leading to the fixed, median deck separating the two contra-rotating carroussels of the habitat ring, built inside the saucer hull section. Ingrid demonstrated herself how to get on one of the rotating carroussels, grabbing a padded vertical bar and swinging around it, landing with her magnetized soles on the thin steel deck plating covering the aluminum alloy structural deck.
‘’Do as I just did, my friends. The centrifugal force will then give you the impression of being in a gravity of 0.9 Gs.’’
The others imitated her one at a time and were then able to walk normally to join up with Ingrid, Edward White and his two guides. Nikolai Chuikov was nearly transfixed as he eyed the inside of the habitat carroussel housing, curving up out of sight in both opposite directions. Large backlit wall panels featuring huge photographs of various Earth natural vistas, along with potted plants and flowers along the walls, made the carroussel look nearly like a normal place. Approaching one of the flower beds and touching a rose, Nikolai found that it was actually a well-done plastic imitation.
‘’All this is incredible! And to be able to enjoy near normal gravity in space is truly fantastic. This should help us tremendously in making our trip quite comfortable.’’
‘’That was the idea, Doctor Chuikov.’’ Replied Ingrid, who then spoke to the group as a whole. ‘’I was called a number of not very flattering names by congressmen that had to approve my space systems budgets for insisting on a ship big enough to house such carroussels, but the boost to the quality of life in space for my crews, plus the extra anti-radiation protection, was a necessity in my mind, not a flight of fancy. The coming two years in space and on Mars for us will I believe more than prove the concept to be worthy of the expense and effort. I will now let you be guided to your respective cabins. Take the time to make yourself at home, then join the rest of the crew in the main cafeteria, on this carroussel. Each pair of cabin on the lower deck of this carroussel shares a common bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower stall. From now on, we will be using Universal Time, which is in effect the old Greenwich Meridian Time. It is presently eighteen hours and seven minutes, Universal Time. I will see you at the crew cafeteria at nineteen hours.’’
With the group then dispersing to their respective cabins, Nikolai Chuikov and Sergei Petrov were guided by a crewman to one of the staircases adjacent to the wall of their carroussel. Going down one level, they found themselves in a small vestibule on which three doors opened. The crewman guiding them pointed in turn at the doors.
‘’Cabin 25, to our left, is for you, Doctor Chuikov. The middle door is that of the common bathroom, while Cabin 26, to our right, belongs to Doctor Petrov. Know that the upper level of each carroussel can be used as a racetrack if you wish to exercise yourselves during the trip. For your information, each racetrack forms a loop that is 450 meters long. There is also a well-equipped gymnasium on Carroussel ‘B’, along with a sauna house and other facilities. You will find on one wall of your respective cabins a map of the ship and the list of facilities available. Have a good day, sirs.’’
The crewman then left the two Soviet scientists, climbing back the stairs to the upper level. Sergei entered his designated cabin and was agreeably surprised to see that it was much larger than he had expected. It measured a good four by three meters and included a wide captain’s bed, a sofa, a work desk and chair and a storage locker. Sergei smiled to himself while starting to unpack his things to put them in the locker and in the drawers under his bed.
‘’Decidedly, I am growing more and more fond of this decadent capitalist comfort.’’
Twelve minutes before nineteen hours, Sergei left his cabin after taking a quick shower and went to the crew cafeteria, situated in the same carroussel than his cabin, Carroussel ‘A’. Despite having examined the map of the ship before leaving his cabin, Sergei was astonished by the size of the cafeteria, a long compartment 24 meters in length and four meters in width, with a deck to ceiling height of three meters. Only the slight but noticeable curve of the deck and ceiling reminded him that he was not inside some building on Earth. Fixed tables, each with six fixed swiveling seats, lined one long wall of the cafeteria, while a lineup of service counters, refrigerators, ovens and distributing machines nearly covered completely the other long wall. The lighting was indirect and the walls and ceiling were painted soft pastel colors, giving the place the ambiance of a quiet restaurant, something reinforced by the low volume noise of music coming from overhead speakers. Right now, the cafeteria was nearly filled to capacity with over fifty people who were conversing quietly or waiting while sitting at tables. Sergei smiled to himself when he saw that the crowd included over a dozen women, most of them in their twenties or thirties and wearing American military ranks and insignias on their ship coveralls. He knew of course that these women would probably avoid him like the pest, in order not to appear to fraternize with a Soviet citizen, but a man could always dream, couldn’t he? His ultimate dream at present was already standing at the other end of the cafeteria, tall, slender, full of curves and with a young, angelic face framed by reddish-brown hair cut at the neck. Sergei sighed to himself as he imagined himself spending a rough Siberian winter with such a delightful woman. Repressing his libido, he then went to sit at one of the tables, opposite Louise Morin. Nikolai Chuikov and Jean Bertrand were also sitting at that table, along with two other men who were obviously Americans by their accent. Seeing him approach, Nikolai smiled to him and pointed at the two Americans.
‘’Aah, Sergei, here you are! Let me present you to Doctor James Vincenti and Doctor John Weston. Both are astronomers, with Doctor Vincenti also being the ship’s Chief Astrophysicist.’’
‘’Pleased to meet you, gentlemen.’’ Said Sergei while shaking hands with the two astronomers. Both of them were at the least in their advanced forties, as was nearly the norm for top astronomers, with Vincenti being afflicted with partial calvity. The latter gave a genuine smile to Sergei.
‘’So, you were selected for this trip to Mars: your reputation as a geologist must be a strong one indeed.’’
‘’I must say that I heard little about such praise, if there is some indeed. I am a field man and rarely come out of the hills and forests of Siberia.’’
‘’A rugged type, then? An excellent choice to study the soil of Mars in situ.’’
Sergei, sitting down at the table, let his mind float dreamily for a moment on the rocky red plains of Mars he was to go to.
‘’This job will certainly be the ultimate achievement in my career, Doctor Vincenti. Oh, I think that General Dows is ready to speak to us.’’
The others at the table that were sitting with their backs to Ingrid made their fixed seats pivot to face her, in time to catch her first words.
‘’Now that our mission crew is complete aboard our ship, I would wish first to thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for volunteering for this trip. To be away from your loved ones for a full two years represents a great sacrifice indeed. However, the rewards for this sacrifice will be immense in terms of advancement of science and pride, both national and personal. It goes to say that the eyes of the United States and of the World will be on us during our mission, while the medias will do their best to dig every bit of information about it and potentially turn it into a juicy or sensational coverage. By now, you are probably wondering why I am alluding to that aspect of our mission. Well, I will be frank about it: it is about the fact that we are a mixed sex crew engaged in a two-year voyage in space. Out of a total crew of 56 souls, including me, fifteen of us are female, or a bit less than a third of the crew. I chose personally every one of