Expedition to a Dead Planet

Chapter Four

Setup

On the command ship HEINLIEN's tiny bridge her Captain turned to his Science officer. "Mr. Maxwell. Please begin all pre-landing launches. Coordinate with the fleet, lets not lose anything. Especially to math errors like NASA did, understand?"

Lt. Karl Maxwell nodded, opening a command channel to the other ships. Each had been named after a Science Fiction author of the twentieth century, just like the three freighter ships that had left Lunar orbit after them had been named after islands. "HEINLIEN to fleet, prepare satellite and probe launches to commence in ten minutes." While he listened to acknowledgments he carefully prepared his own launches. Not just Science Officer he reminded himself. Cargo Master, second Comm Officer, second in command, cook, bottle washer and backup engineer too. Everyone pulled two, sometimes three or five jobs. HEINLIEN carried a third of the expedition that would soon be down on Mars surface. Her actual crew consisted of exactly four people. 'This isn't some Star Trek ship or the Gallatica’ he thought as he worked. ‘We're too shorthanded for specialized jobs.' Fifteen minutes later he launched his load, settling back to monitor them.

HEINLIEN carried three communications satellites. Using their own small chemical engines each one would reach geosynchronous orbit, easily covering all of Mars surface. ASIMOV and NORTON carried penetration probes while E.E. DOC SMITH carried the landing beacons. SMITH would launch last, after the site had been confirmed. HAMBLY, CLARKE and HERBERT carried manned landers while VERN and WELLS carried half the supply shuttles and weather satellites and HOYLE carried probes for Mars two moons and the other half of those critical landers. Although to the average layman this sounded like a lot of equipment it wasn't. Mars Expedition was a grand scheme, but budget cuts had reduced it to the bare minimum of equipment needed. If anything failed it would leave noticeable gaps. That was why they were launching now, when there would be time to catch problems and maybe fix them before the unmanned freighters arrived in four months. Long before the fleet returned to Earth.

"All systems green sir" Maxwell reported, "We should be getting data from the first penetrators in about fifteen minutes. Robot landers in an hour, two at the most." He declined to state the obvious, of seven possible landing sites five were under sandstorms. They'd arrived late in the season so that there should not have been any storms but Mother Nature had her own timetable. They were now limited to two possible landing sites or begin eating into reserves in the hope the others would clear. Maxwell wondered what the expedition commander would decide.

"Very good, make certain that the expedition commander see's everything. I'll be in my cabin."

Maxwell simply nodded. 'My cabin' he thought. Unlike normal ships this Captain's Cabin wasn't much better than anyone else’s. More soundproofed though at a cost of actual space, hardly room enough to change your mind. There was nothing to do now but wait until data started coming in, data that would determine the fate of eighteen human beings.