USFR Alpha
N 38°39'21.02" E4° 9'3.23" Altitude 643km
1400 GMT
September 1, 2140
Preparation was more of a work out than the actual run. A harness had to go over each shoulder so when he ran on the treadmill there was pressure on his legs. Though it was required of all personnel to partake in at least 2 hours of impact exercise per week as the highest ranking Marine he would set the example for the others. After a minute of struggling with the straps however, Captain Marco Roman Lidmann of the United States Marine Corps 5th Marine Spacecraft Wing gave up and buckled himself into the recumbent bike. Exercise in micro gravity was a constant necessity in order to maintain muscle strength and skeletal density.
After 2 years in the giant hamster habitat the 38 year old husband and father of two was ready to return to solid ground and open spaces. It had been a week since he had exercised on the treadmill but he didn't care. Soon enough he would be back on earth, running through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains which loom over the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Orbiting the earth at an altitude of 400 miles, the newly completed High Altitude Refueling Depot (HARD), christened the USFR Alpha I, was ready to start accepting craft that would make the voyages to Mars to begin the steps of colonizing the planet in an attempt to find a solution to the overcrowding of earth; nearly 20 Billion people now inhabited the 3rd planet from the sun.
A contingent of 13 Marines were on board the nearly 1.6 million square foot facility in their standard capacity of security force which had, in the past two years, fought off multiple attacks by the Chinese and Brazilians. Both countries allied against the United States and the United Russian Federation to gain control of the more than one-hundred-thousand tons of solid fuel stored in the holds of the depot. The last attack, three weeks prior, took the lives of two of his Marines and gratefully none of the 230 civilian contractors nor space agency non-combat personnel were injured.
In the mid 21st century all oil production had stopped and the depletion of the Lithium mines once again created a need for a fuel that was more readily available and highly efficient to burn. That fuel came from the laboratories of MIT and New Mexico Tech. A chemical cocktail of titanium and potassium combined with iron oxide. When ignited in an Osmium alloy nozzle it was a stable burn with high power output and a slow rate of decay. Unfortunately the fuel was not viable for personnel vehicle use, but the capabilities for space travel were limitless.
In the year 2110 a United States Space craft filled with less than 2000 lbs of fuel flew to the moon, 287,000 miles, and back in less than a day. The 50,000 mile per hour record was broken a dozen more times when, 10 years ago, 2nd Lieutenant Marco Lidmann made the trip in 1 hour and 30 minutes. A speed just over 382,000 mile per hour. Speed is limited only by navigation but would allow a craft to travel to Mars in just over 15 days.
A collection of forward facing sensors were essential in extreme speeds to avoid debris that litters the solar system. Super computers making millions of calculations per second could adjust to avoid the debris, but in order to navigate around anything larger than a small asteroid the speed must be slowed dramatically.
Marco drowned out all external stimuli with his music and his cadence. Staring forward his body peddling automatically his mind focused on a single story ranch style house with a lush green lawn waiting to be cut. Breathing heavily from the exertion, his head moved toward the disturbance on the Earth's surface. Looking through a 6” thick clear polycarbonfibre dome above the gym his eye was drawn to the Straight of Gibraltar. The direct sun usually reflected the cool blue strip of water separating the European and African continents. Now a large black mass of smoke pushed aside the cloud cover with incredible hostility. He stopped peddling and stared, sure his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The origin of the smoke cloud erupted in flame of orange and red. He struggled to grasp the magnitude of the explosion; the size of a large city, waves of water and air pressure radiated from the center of the blast. He stared in disbelief as another flare-up burst through the Mediterranean Sea. With it a massive wave of water raced toward Sardinia and Italy.
He unbuckled himself and floated to the top of the dome. A sense of dread possessed him and his skin rippled at the thought of what was taking place. Like a giant silent Movie playing itself out the wave increased with every visible inch as it neared the Italian coast.
“Anna!” he yelled through the passage, “Anna get in here.”
Anna Sokolov, a 26 year old Cosmonaut, flew into the gym,”What is going on?” she asked as she slide in next to Marco.
“I don't know.”
“Oh my God,” she said, wide eyes on the planet “Look, there.” She pointed to the Eastern Horizon.
Marco turned his head to see more black smoke rising into the atmosphere and across the landscape from more explosions. He turned back in time to watch the boot of Italy swallowed under the unforgiving wave of destruction. Unable to do anything he turned to look to the West. As far as he could see surging fire and billowing smoke rose from the ocean and began to cover the earth. Four more people joined them to watch the horrific spectacle below.
It took less than 30 minutes for the smoke and ash to cover the entire European mainland. When there was nothing left to see but the black smoke clog the atmosphere, Marco came to his senses and raced out of the gym toward the main bridge in the center of the half moon station. It took him a full 5 minutes to reach the center where he was met with a fury of activity.
Space agency personnel were strapped into computer terminals talking frantically in the various languages that represented the diversity of the crew. He sought out Admiral Vance P. Parrott, commanding officer of Alpha 1. The admiral was talking into a headset and acknowledged Marco as he floated into the large cylindrical room.
“But you can't give me any more information than that?” the admiral asked into the microphone. He listened for another full minute, then, “Yes sir I understand.” He took the headset off and a grim expression crossed his face. He looked at Marco, “Start assembling all personnel now, captain. It's as bad as it looks.”
“Aye, aye sir.” he responded and turned to relay the command to his Marines who would round up the remaining 230 souls aboard. When that was done he returned to the admiral's side.
“Nobody knows for sure but it appears the tectonic plates have had a cataclysmic shift.” the admiral began as Marco settled next to him, “There is a ton of chatter from all over about earthquakes, volcanoes and storms, like the Goddamn plagues of Egypt, but so far we have heard form all our stations except Japan and California. You saw what is happening in Europe. From what we have heard the faults have opened on many of the plates and magma is just pouring out. Dr. Garcia believes, and I agree, that the oceans are pouring into the fissures, super heating the water and erupting. The scale of it is unbelievable.” He stopped and choked, his expression even more grim.
Marco said nothing. His own thoughts were not on what the Admiral was saying. They were in that small ranch house with a woman and two young boys. He told himself there was nothing he could do. He had a job here and he had to concentrate on that now.
“Captain Lidmann,” the admiral paused, “Marco,” he said, swallowing his tears, “Let's get everyone into the auditorium. They need to know what we know and we need to keep everyone calm. We don't have a clue how this is effecting anybody on the surface. Communications are getting cut quickly. We are loosing ground stations like crazy. We are going to be cut off entirely in less than an hour, I have no doubt. Whatever happens down there we need to keep cool up here.” He rubbed his head, “If this is not some sick nightmare then we need to start making a plan. You good to go?”
“Yes sir.” Marco understood the double meaning of the question. No attempt would be made to contact the crew's families. He turned to leave but held short of the hatch and said, “Sir, I am going to set guards at shuttle points the gardens and food depositories. Just casual, unarmed.”
“Unarmed?”
“Concealed.” he conceded with a hint of a smile.
The admiral nodded his head in agreement. Marco flew from the bridge toward the first of the two arcs that made up the HARD. People were clinging to the walls and talking in whispers. All surmising about what was happening. He found two of his Marines about halfway to the first ring, gave them orders to gather everyone and moved on.
It took nearly an hour to get everyone into the auditorium. A ship wide search turned up few stragglers. Some were crying, some just in shock. All were scared. The palpable fear hadMarco face his own anxiety of the situation. When admiral Parrott's voice began to speak to the assembled, Marco slipped away and headed to the gymnasium.
His music player still floated in the middle of the room where he had removed it from his ears. Everything else was silent. He grabbed the ear buds and made a point to slip them back together into the pill shape in which they were stored. Slowly, with great reservation, he raised his head to the clear dome. The sight that greeted him caught a breath in his chest. The lampblack swirling color of death covered the expanse below.
“That's the West coast of the U.S.” said admiral Parrott as he made his way into the gym.
“How thick is that?” Marco asked.
“Thick enough to cut off communications. Nothing but static.”
“I'm sorry, admiral. I needed time, because now we're, we're alone and I had to,” Marco choked and the tears began.
“You will have your time, but not now. We have to work on our new objective. I have combined all departments within the station to work under one command. Continued efforts to contact the surface and break through that layer of smoke is the obvious purpose in light of this development. I need your leadership. I am promoting you to Lieutenant-Colonel and you will be the S2 officer in charge of security. Captain Klein will be S6 , communications, and I will act as S1, personnel and administration, until we can get a bearing on what we should be doing directly we should keep everyone working and their minds off personnel tragedy.” The admiral continued, “Give me your recommendations for a Logistics officer and let's start working on theses problems. The first of which is to get everybody calmed down and into a routine.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” Marco replied. He had something to focus on now and that is what he needed. He turned back to the dome and the destruction.
“I have a feeling, son,” the admiral said putting a hand on Marco's shoulder. “we are going to be here for a long time.”
