AMERICA ONE - NextGen II (Book 6) by T I WADE

Author:T I WADE [WADE, T I]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: America One, Space, Space Exploration, Asteroid Mining, Humans2Mars, Mars exploration, Space Travel
Publisher: T I WADE Books
Published: 2014-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

New Blood

A month after Saturn Noble had dropped Joanne back at Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington, the gold was well over half out and smelted into ingots when word came through that ex-President Dithers had taken his daughter’s suggestion to run for office.

The gold carrying had been back-breaking work. The crew of twelve carried and smelted gold until the colors orange and yellow made them ill. Two of the three shelves were empty and a dozen pallets of gold ingots stood out on the sand. The shuttles had already taken over 70 one-ton pallets down to the Dead Chicken.

To take a day’s break, Bob Mathews, Beth and Monica had taken up the massive aircraft for a test flight. Unfortunately, harm had been done to the instrumentation by the vacuum of the shield. Several systems were dead or didn’t want to work properly. After the test flight the crew reckoned that she should be flown back to Nevada and repaired. The air-refueling system could be operated manually, and so could a few of the dead systems.

Beth reckoned that she was pretty safe to fly, but a direct flight was all she was prepared to fly in her. Taking a load of gold wasn’t a problem for the aircraft, and Astermine got permission from Washington to fly the Dead Chicken into U.S. airspace.

Lunar Richmond also promised the sweating crew that once the gold was out and the second Matt craft flying again, nobody would need to visit this place in the desert ever again.

“Once we get to a hundred tons of cargo, I think you guys should fly into Nevada and get our old Chicken re-feathered,” Lunar told her crew over cold beers that night. It was a Saturday, and the next day was to be the first day of rest for two weeks. The crew were tired but strong. Saturn was now in charge of smelting, since she didn’t want to carry any more, and Captain Pete, who had been working on the shields in his mind while he worked, finally started jotting down requirements for shield production. It was time for him to return to Nevada and begin working on his research with the scientists there. “Just one more week, crew, and I think it is time to visit that fancy restaurant in Henderson, Bob’s Diner, again. We should only have a week or two’s work after that. Then it will be up to Bob and Johnny to open the hole so that we can get the cavern roof open. I think we will need both Mars and Roo for that mental attempt.”

The day off was fun. The crew played music and relaxed. But it was back to work on Monday, and they grinded like crazy to get 100 tons of gold for the Chicken to take over to the U.S. They completed the last pallet the next Saturday afternoon.

Lunar didn’t want anybody else in the Dead Chicken other than the crew. Two Australian air-refueling Airbuses arrived to help the C-5 across the Atlantic.

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