CHAPTER 8 – AN OLD ADVERSARY TURNED FRIEND
15:01 (California Time)
Wednesday, March 6, 1974 ‘C’
Arrivals terminal, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
California, U.S.A.
Lydia Litvyak, Hero of the Soviet Union, at age 22 in 1943 ‘A’, during WW2. Killed in air combat over Ukraine in 1943, with 12 certified air victories to her credit.
Lydia Litvyak was a bit nervous as she was about to get to one of the immigration and customs booths at the passengers’ arrival hall of the Los Angeles International Airport, more popularly known as ‘L.A.X’. The relations between the United States and the Soviet Union may have been relatively cordial at the present time, with no serious points of discord between the two countries, but it was not very often that a Soviet Air Force colonel showed up for an official stay in the United States, especially while wearing a Soviet military uniform, unless he or she was an appointed diplomat attached to the Soviet embassy or one of the Soviet consulates across the United States. When her turn came at the booth, the petite, 52-year-old blonde with curly hair and blue eyes, walked up to the wicket opening of the booth and presented her passport to the immigration officer while speaking in good but accented English.
‘’Good day, sir! I am coming to the United States to participate in an incoming international space mission. Someone from the U.S. Space Corps is supposed to meet me on arrival here.’’
The immigration officer glanced briefly at her before looking at her passport and then typed something on his data terminal. He read quickly whatever appeared on his screen, then stamped her passport and gave it back to her.
‘’A notice has effectively been passed to us to expect your arrival, Colonel Litvyak. The liaison officer from the Space Corps is due to meet you at the customs counters, after you recuperate your luggage. Have a nice stay in the United States, Colonel Litvyak.’’
‘’Thank you very much, sir.’’
Feeling less stress now, Lydia, also familiarly known as ‘Lilya’, walked past the control booth and headed towards the luggage retrieval hall, situated under the arrival hall. There, she retrieved her two suitcases from the luggage carrousel assigned to her flight, putting them on a luggage cart which she then pushed towards the lineup of customs checks counters. To her relief, a female American officer wearing the very distinctive and futuristic dark blue and black uniform of the United States Space Corps was plainly visible behind one of the counters, holding a sign in Russian that said ‘Welcome, Colonel Litvyak’. Her relief turned to surprise as she approached the said counter and could better see the face of the officer: she looked definitely familiar to her but she couldn’t place her exactly from where or when she had seen her previously. Pushing her cart up to that counter, she spoke to the female officer, who was standing next to a customs officer and who wore the ranks of a lieutenant colonel.
‘’Good day! I am Colonel Lydia Litvyak. Did I see you somewhere before, Colonel?’’
‘’You sure did, Colonel Litvyak!’’ replied the grinning tall woman, who looked to be about the same age as Lilya. ‘’Lieutenant Colonel Julia Miller, U.S. Space Command. We met in Danang, Vietnam, during the 1952 Christmas party held there, when you and other captured Soviet aviators were invited to share tables with little Vietnamese orphans. In fact, I was at the time the radar and weapons officer for General Dows’ F-83 fighter-bomber.’’
‘’And now?’’ asked Lilya, now smiling widely.
‘’Now, I am part of the designated Mars mission crew of the U.S.S. LIBERTY, the same mission you are due to participate in.’’
‘’And General Dows, is she going to also go on that mission?’’
‘’Oh gosh, no! She is way too busy right now to leave Earth for over two years. Our Space Corps is still quite young and there are myriads of things to take care of and projects for her to complete. Well, we could discuss this further once we will be in my official car and on our way to Vandenberg. No need to show your belongings to the good customs officer here: things have been smoothened in advance by General Dows.’’
‘’That is much considerate of her, Colonel Miller. I hope that I will be able to meet her soon.’’
‘’Oh, you will, Colonel Litvyak. Follow me, please!’’
With Lilya still pushing her luggage cart, the two women crossed the visitors’ hall and went out of the building, to walk towards a big black official car bearing military plates. Lilya couldn’t help smile with appreciation when she saw the very handsome military driver in Space Corps uniform waiting besides the staff car.
‘’Hmmm, did you choose your driver for his good looks, Colonel Miller? If he drives as well as he looks, then he probably would win a F-1 Formula race.’’
Julia Miller giggled, amused by Lilya’s remark, and designated with one hand the driver, who was keeping an impassive expression.
‘’This is Staff Sergeant John Bainbridge, General Dows’ personal driver when she is in Vandenberg. She chose him, not me.’’
‘’I see! General Ingrid Dows has a rather, uh, sulfurous reputation in the Soviet Union, on top of being justly known there as a redoubtable combat pilot and as a strategic and tactical genius.’’
Julia Miller grinned while shrugging.
‘’Hey, she still has the body and face of a beautiful woman of twenty, despite being 48. Who could blame her for taking advantage of that?’’
‘’I don’t! In fact, me and most other Soviet women are deeply jealous and envious of her.’’
‘’And so are American women! Let’s load your suitcases in the trunk and let’s get going! We have a good 200 kilometers to do to get to Vandenberg. Once there, we will drop your suitcases in your assigned room, then we will go have supper at the officers’ mess.’’
‘’Sounds like a plan!’’
Two minutes later, the staff car pulled out of its parking spot and started rolling towards the nearest entrance to Highway 101, which followed the California coast. Taking that highway and heading North, the staff car first went through Los Angeles as Julia and Lilya conversed with each other. However, Julia quickly realized that Lilya had difficulties not being distracted by the various sights of Los Angeles, something that she could easily understand: despite the fairly good present relations between the two countries, the Soviet citizens who were able to visit the United States, or even non-communist European countries, were still a tiny minority in their country. Thus, Lilya’s curiosity about the United States was only natural. Julia then gently put one hand on Lilya’s right forearm.
‘’You know what, Colonel Litvyak? Why don’t we talk business only after going through Los Angeles? I know that you spent months as a prisoner of war in Fort Worth, back in the 1950s, but that didn’t give you any chance to properly see my country. Let me describe to you the points of interest along our route. Is there something in particular about Los Angeles that you heard about and that would be of interest to you?’’
Lilya was left speechless for a couple of seconds by that unexpected show of personal consideration towards her. Soviet citizens were told from their youngest age to be suspicious of western capitalists. However, Julia’s question seemed to genuinely come from her heart.
‘’There is something that I read a couple of times, actually. As you may know, one thing that is most prized by Soviet citizens is to either possess or have access to a dacha, a secondary residence away from main cities which allows them to relax and spend some quiet vacation time in it. A popular alternative, especially for the less well-to-do citizens, is to spend some vacation time on the few beaches accessible to Soviet citizens. Unfortunately, due to our country’s geography, such beach areas are quite limited in numbers and are mostly situated in the Black Sea area. I was raised in Moscow, so never lived in sight of the sea. Los Angeles has a reputation for having nice beaches and I would love to be able to swim off one of those beaches on some fine day.’’
Julia smiled at that small confession and spoke to the driver.
‘’Staff Sergeant Bainbridge, how much spare time do we have to arrive for supper at Vandenberg, if you hog the speed limit?’’
‘’Oh, we would easily have a full hour to spare, Colonel.’’
‘’Then, get off the highway at the next exit and let’s pass by the Santa Monica Beach. We may also stop there for a moment.’’
‘’Understood, Colonel.’’
‘’You really didn’t need to do this for me, Colonel.’’ started saying Lilya, but Julia stopped her with a hand gesture.
‘’Colonel Litvyak, you are here as a guest of the United States in order to participate in an international space mission with a purely peaceful goal. You will soon go on a two-year space trip, so showing you the Santa Monica Beach is the least of the things we could do for you. You probably don’t know this, but General Dows spoke to me quite a few times about you, mostly to tell me about your exploits in the air against the Nazis and about the fact that the Soviet Air Force started using female combat pilots quite early in World War 2.’’
‘’Aaah, but you then have me at a disadvantage, Colonel Miller, as I know nothing about you.’’
‘’That’s corrected easily enough. And why not use our first names while alone? We are two senior officers with only one rank of difference between us. Call me simply ‘Julia’.’’
‘’Then, call me ‘Lilya’. So, what can you tell me about you, Julia?’’
‘’Well, I signed in as a military aviator just after World War 2, with the specialty of radar officer. I was part of the 99th Composite Wing, an all-female unit at the time, during the Korean War. Then, when the first F-83 fighter-bombers were being delivered, I became radar officer on General Dows’ aircraft and fought with her during the Indochina War. I am sure that I won’t need to tell you much about that war, Lilya, as you lived through it, like me and Ingrid. After that, I continued serving as the radar officer for General Dows during the Palestine Conflict and the Eastern Europe War. When General Dows got transferred back to the United States and got put in charge of our space program, she asked for me to join her Military Space Command, which I gladly did, although in higher positions than simply as radar officer. My first flight in Space was in 1962, as part of the crew of a SP-10 spaceplane flying out of Vandenberg. I flew many missions on SP-10s and also became a qualified spaceplane pilot in the following years. Then, in 1968, I spent a year on the Moon, at our Moon Base Alpha, followed in 1970 by six months in orbit aboard the U.S.S. LIBERTY. Well, that’s about it for me.’’
‘’Not bad! Not bad at all!’’ said Lilya, truly impressed. ‘’On my part, when I was freed from Fort Worth at the end of the war in Poland, I was returned to the Soviet Union and was then posted to a fighter squadron based near Moscow. As you must already know, I was selected to be part of the first Soviet space crew, thanks to my minuscule weight, along with Yuri Gagarin, in time to be rescued by Ingrid Dows after our VOSTOK II spacecraft malfunctioned while in orbit in 1957. My next flight in Space occurred in 1962, when we launched into orbit our first orbital space station, where I spent eight months in orbit. Since then, I have flown another three times into Space, mostly to do tours aboard our MIR space station. As you can see, you have accumulated a lot more time in Space than me, Julia.’’
‘’But that in no way diminishes your merit or competence, Lilya. Know this, but keep it to yourself for the moment: we will both be part of the crew of the Mars surface exploration crew which will land on the Red Planet during our mission. Ingrid wanted you to know that in advance.’’
Lilya couldn’t help push a happy yell on hearing that. She was going to be able to realize one of her most cherished dreams: to walk on Mars.
‘’Julia, you can’t know how this makes me happy. Uh, do you know if other Soviet cosmonauts will be part of that Mars mission?’’
‘’What? You weren’t told?’’ replied Julia, appearing genuinely surprised and confused. ‘’There are up to now fourteen other Soviets who will be aboard the U.S.S. LIBERTY with us. They are already in Vandenberg, getting familiarized with their mission equipment. I know that your government is paranoid about keeping secrets, but they could at least have told you that, no?’’
To that, Lilya could only shrug in resignation.
‘’Well, that’s the way we do things in the Soviet Union.’’
Some 25 minutes later, thanks to the dense Los Angeles road traffic, the staff car finally came to a stop in one of the parking spots along the promenade bordering the Santa Monica Beach. Lilya, having spent many hours in a passenger plane, was happy to be able to get out and walk a bit, Julia Miller at her side. While it was still officially Winter, Lilya found the temperature quite warm, being around fifteen degrees Celsius, while a fresh breeze came from the sea and a few clouds dotted the sky. The fact that there were quite a few bathers on the beach surprised Lilya, who looked at Julia.
‘’Isn’t the water a bit cold at this time of the year to go for a swim?’’
‘’Not really, unless you are really sensitive to cold. The seawater temperature stays pretty much steady all year long, going from a low of fourteen to a high of twenty degrees Celsius.’’
‘’That would be considered warm water on the beaches of Crimea. At this time of the year, the water there is between four and ten degrees.’’
‘’Ouch! Do Soviets swim in such cold temperatures?’’
Lilya gave Julia a sardonic look.
‘’Hey, we may be tough, but we are not polar bears. Yes, we could swim in such cold water, but it wouldn’t be for fun. However, many of my compatriots would agree with the sea temperature here. Also, this beach looks fantastic. I love it!’’
‘’Well, while we don’t really have the time today to go for a swim, I promise you that we will come back here in a few weeks, before we leave for Mars. Knowing Ingrid, she will probably want to come swim with us: that will give her a chance to parade around in her tiny bikini outfit.’’
Lylia giggled on hearing that.
‘’Ah yes, her bikini… Pictures of her wearing it on the beach in Danang made it to the USSR, thanks to a French magazine. It created quite a furor…and made many Soviet men drool.’’
‘’Oh, it also created a furor here, Lilya. We still have plenty of prudish or hypocritical people around in the United States. On the other hand, I was told that she was most welcome on French beaches and in naturist clubs in Germany.’’
Lilya made a face while wriggling her hand.
‘’And she managed to spend two years in Space with a bunch of men without causing a riot aboard the ship?’’
‘’Don’t get me wrong, Lilya: Ingrid may take her fun seriously, but she can also be deadly serious when she needs to.’’
‘’Like during air combat?’’
‘’Exactly!’’
They strolled along the beach for another five minutes, until Julia decided that Lilya’s Soviet uniform was starting to attract too much attention around the people using the beach. They thus returned to their staff car and drove back on Highway 101 towards Vandenberg, where they arrived after another two and a half hours on the road. As they were approaching the main gate of the base and slowing down, Lilya redoubled her attention, registering everything of interest she could see. She may have been on a friendly cooperation mission but the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence service, was certainly going to want to debrief her on her return to the Soviet Union. The first thing that attracted her eyes were the guards at the gate: they were military policemen of the U.S. Space Corps but they were also wearing some intimidating-looking sets of body armor and helmets and were heavily armed. They also appeared to be very professional in their demeanor. As the staff car rolled to a stop just short of the gate’s steel barrier, Lilya was able to better detail the outfits worn by the MPs. They wore what appeared to be bullet-resistant vests covered with many cargo pockets and pouches, plus wore helmets with visors which looked a lot more like motorcycle helmets than like military helmets. The MPs, some of which were women, also wore elbow and knee protectors and leather gloves with integrated steel knuckles. Their armament consisted of assault rifles, automatic pistols, bayonets and long black riot batons.
‘’Wow! Your MPs sure look quite intimidating, Julia.’’
‘’That’s the way Ingrid likes it. Deterring an attack is often the best defense. Besides, this base contains a lot of highly classified equipment and data. And I am not even talking about the squadron of intercontinental ballistic missiles based here, something which is certainly not a secret for you Soviets. We are actually more worried about peace demonstrators and religious extremists trying to either block the access points of the base or infiltrate it.’’
One of the MPs then asked them their identity cards, with Julia making sure then to explain the presence of Lilya in the car. However, they were able to pass the gate promptly and without incident, allowing Lilya to ask a question to Julia in a surprised tone.
‘’Religious extremists? Why the hell would they want to cause trouble at an American military base?’’
Julia sighed with visible frustration as she remembered what she had seen over a year ago.
‘’It all started when we publicly announced that life had been found on Mars by the crew of the U.S.S. CONSTITUTION. It apparently fired up hundreds of preachers and religious officials into calling us blasphemers and heretics because we supposedly contradicted and insulted their precious religious scriptures by claiming that there was life somewhere other than on Earth.’’
‘’The idiots! Can’t they make a distinction between religion and science?’’
‘’Apparently not!’’ said Julia philosophically.
After rolling for a few minutes inside the base, the staff car parked in front of the base administrative center, where Julia spent some twenty minutes to get a security pass, a room key and a meal card for Lilya, then went to a three-story accommodation complex attached to the base’s officers’ mess. Climbing the central staircase to get to the upper floor, Julia led Lilya to one of the doors lining the main hallway and unlocked the door, pushing it open and waving Lilya in.
‘’Your home for the next few months, Colonel. You have a mini-suite with private bathroom. I hope that it will be to your satisfaction.’’
Walking in and dropping her suitcases in the middle of the suite’s living room, Lilya looked around her and felt satisfied at once: the place was comfortably furnished and appeared to be of relatively recent construction. It was certainly much better than the bland, shoddily-built and poorly furnished apartments given to cosmonauts and their families in Star City, the space center situated near Moscow and where cosmonauts lived and trained. There was both a television set and an AM/FM radio in the living room, plus a telephone, while a plush carpet covered the floor. Going into an adjacent room, she found a bedroom with large windows and a large closet, plus a telephone and a radio/alarm clock resting on a bedside table next to a large bed. Going out of the bedroom and exploring the rest of the suite, she found a fully-equipped bathroom, plus a closet near the entrance.
‘’Very nice indeed! All your officers are lodged on this same standard, Julia?’’
‘’Senior officers.’’ corrected Julia. ‘’Junior officers have smaller suites, but they still have private bathrooms. Enlisted ranks have single rooms with a bathroom shared between two rooms. As for the married members, we have separate housing units for them on the base, complete with schools and daycare centers. The base has a small but well-equipped hospital, plus a small shopping center. There are also more shops and restaurants in the various agglomerations around the base. As a guest foreign officer from the Soviet Union, your pass will allow you to go mostly everywhere on the base, except of course in the sector containing our ballistic missile squadron. If you agree to it, we could now go to the Officers’ Mess and have supper there.’’
‘’I won’t mind that one bit, Julia. Lead the way.’’
Going down to the ground level but staying inside the building complex, the duo followed a series of hallways until they arrived at a large double door marked as the entrance to the officers’ dining room. As Lilya had expected, her Soviet Air Force uniform attracted nearly immediate attention on her from the diners present in the large room, but those diners quickly enough returned their attention to their meal after staring at her for a second or two. Lilya then followed Julia to a table where a man and a woman in uniform were eating supper. The man wore the rank of brigadier general, while the woman wore the rank of major general. Julia stopped at attention next to the table and spoke to the female general.
‘’General Meserve, this is Colonel Lydia Litvyak, who arrived at LAX at three this afternoon.’’
Both generals rose to their feet, with Meserve offering her hand for a shake to Lilya.
‘’Welcome to Vandenberg Space Base, Colonel Litvyak. I am Major General Gertrude Meserve, commander of this base. This is Brigadier General James Mathison, who will command the U.S.S. LIBERTY during its mission to Mars. You will be under his command for that mission, Colonel Litvyak.’’
‘’Pleased to meet you, General. Be assured that I came to the United States in a spirit of cooperation and friendship. I also wish to thank the United States for seeking the cooperation of the Soviet Union for this international mission.’’
‘’Well said!’’ replied Meserve. ‘’Have you eaten supper yet? If not, please sit down and join us, both of you.’’
Lilya and Julia promptly sat down at their table as Meserve waived to a mess steward. Lilya promptly received a menu which she then consulted with interest. Her eyes opened wide on seeing one particular item on the menu.
‘’You serve Beef Stroganoff here?’’
‘’Tonight, at the least.’’ replied Gertrude Meserve. ‘’The menu varies every day and often includes international dishes. The same goes for the enlisted ranks cafeteria. General Dows insists on having a high quality of food served in the bases of her Space Corps, like she did when it was still the Military Space Command. You won’t find typical army slop in our messes, Colonel.’’
‘’I can only applaud her attitude, General. I will certainly try your Beef Stroganoff, to see how good your cooks are with Russian cuisine.’’
‘’Oh, you will find that we have probably the best cooks in the American military, Colonel Litvyak.’’
Lilya and Julia promptly gave their orders to the steward, with Lilya then asking a question to Mathison.
‘’Do you have a firm departure date for the Mars mission, General?’’
‘’An exact date, no! However, the next launch window for Mars, when it will be closest to Earth, will be in the August-September 1975 period. We thus firmly want to launch in that time period. We will have seventeen months to train and prepare for that mission, but those months will be quite busy, that I promise you.’’
‘’And the goals for that mission, General? Will it simply repeat the first Mars mission, or will we concentrate on something else entirely?’’
‘’We actually want to build on what the first mission led by General Dows found on Mars. We will thus land again most of our surface crew in the same portion of Capri Chasma, in the Valles Marineris, already explored by the first mission. The main goals of the mission, apart from doing a detailed exploration of the system of caves and underground aquifers found by General Dows, will include the building of a base inside the biggest of the caves found, where it will be well protected from the radiations raining constantly on Mars. For that, the U.S.S. LIBERTY will carry prefabricated modules which will allow the quick and easy construction of a substantial base on Mars. The LIBERTY will also carry aboard one of its attached cargo landers a mini-submarine which will be used to explore the underground lakes and rivers found by the first mission. Finally, two heavy rovers will land in other parts of Mars, in order to widen our exploration zone.’’
Lilya, struck by those words, half-opened her mouth.
‘’But that would be a truly fantastic mission, General! I would certainly be most honored to be part of it.’’
‘’So will I, Colonel. While the specialized equipment and modules for our mission are being built and then sent to orbit, we will have plenty of time to train you on the various space systems found aboard the LIBERTY. We have some very sophisticated training simulators and ground replicas that you will be able to use here to that effect.’’
Most happy and satisfied, Lilya then grabbed her glass of water and raised it high.
‘’Then, I propose a toast to the success of our future mission. To Mars and back!’’
‘’TO MARS AND BACK!’’