P.S.S. Stardust

© 2011 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter One

Six huge vision screens faced an ancient and heavy oak desk, each one was currently showing a different image. At the moment their glow was the rooms only light as the various images combining to cast a ghostly white glow on the ancient figure sitting at that desk. Occasionally he would look up to stare at those images. When he did so, the vestige of a grey furred wolf was evident. Hour after hour passed as the window behind the wolf slowly brightened until finally he pressed a button on an intercom twice his age, a dark brown Bakelite button he chose was long worn with age. “Jerry, would you please come in now” a thin voice asked. A voice that had once been vibrant, filled with life.

“Immediately sir” came the reply a few seconds later. That voice though was strong, indicating that its owner was much younger than the wolf though it did sound like its owner had just woken up. A few minutes later the rooms massive, richly carved door opened, allowing a rather younger stag to enter. “Is it time sir?” the stag asked gently.

“Almost Jerry. Almost. Would you ring the kitchen and see if they have any chicken tortilla soup warm? I think I would really like some this morning.”

“Yes sir. The last supply ships are up sir? I fear that I fell asleep before launch.”

A dry chuckle came from the old wolf. “On time, or close enough. Rendevous is still three days away but they are safely up. There is but one last ship to fly before I am done.”

“Thank you sir. I’ll be back in just a moment.” Stepping out of the room the stag carefully shut that heavy oak door. His employer was very close to his last breath and preferred to keep a warmer environment than most felt comfortable in. Long ago Jerry had learned to endure the old wolfs scent, a scent of age, occasionally loose bowels and death. As he picked up the phone on his own desk he chuckled. Being the Personal Assistant to the worlds richest individual had its perks. It also had its downside and he had learned to live with both. Being privy to the wolf he was aware that within this month he would be looking for employment. Kirby Joe Landers, the richest man alive, had but weeks left in his life, a medical fact carefully kept secret. Of course the wolf was one hundred and two years old after all and no one lived forever.

Once he had been assured that the kitchen would supply Mr. Landers request Jerry returned to the office. His employer had moved by then, having taken his motorized wheelchair over to the East facing window. “Your soup will arrive in ten minutes sir, your night chief must warm it first. And how is today’s sunrise sir” he asked.

“Better than yesterday. There were no clouds yesterday” Kirby Landers answered. “I miss the snow but it is August. I won’t be around to see the next snowfall and Winter is an excellent time to die.” He chuckled, “Grounds frozen solid, make ‘em work to dig a grave.” His chair turned so that the two faced each other. “Margaret has to nuke the soup right?”

“Its Sally now sir” the stag corrected. “Cute little panda, Margaret retired last year and yes sir. She would prefer to warm it on the stove but time is of essence.”

“Good for her.” He looked up at one of the screens, this one showing twelve young girls struggling into spacesuits, spacesuits that would only fit them for at best another year in this arrangement. Still the suits were adjustable so they should last another seven years if their wearers grew at the projected levels. Those twelve girls were filling out, becoming young women. “They think that this is just a test run” he said softly. “That they will go through the entire countdown, then be back in their rooms by seven pm and home after the NASA bully boys launch out of orbit next Spring. I hated to lie to them Jerry, but one must do what one can. My Scientists are certain that we are going to lose China and India, did you hear?”

“Yes sir, the new pandemic. China corrupted the formulation for the vaccine like they do everything that they make. Miss-communication it was claimed. Bad instructions. But evidence has come out that it was simple greed like always. The difference in formulations saved them less than a penny a dose. Because of it they infected their entire country with a new version of the virus and it didn’t protect them from the old one. India, most of the Far East bought that cheap vaccine. Projections are a ninety percent fatality rate between the infected vaccine and the new pandemic. Those infected by the Chinese vaccine who survive, most will be sterile.” Finding his favorite chair the stag sat, looking out the window. “The stench of death will cover our globe for years. H1N1, mutated and back with a vengeance. Only people who had the H1N1 are immune, like those who had the Asian flu before them. Its been fifty years since that washed through the world and sixty year old people do not make good care givers sir.”

“No. No they don’t. Your family has been immunized?”

“Of course sir. Your own Doctor came to the house last Thursday. And the girls?”

Turning his chair around the wolf made his way back to his desk. Only then did he answer. “The same” he admitted. “Their families too, even the ones who reject inoculation as the Devils own handiwork. I can’t let my girls not have the very best Jerry now can I?” He opened a drawer in his desk, taking out a stack of envelopes. “See that everyone gets one of these today” he instructed as he directed his wheelchair towards the sitting stag. “Before noon. Being as I won’t be around for Christ Mass, I think Bonus time can be a little early this year.”

“Yes sir” Jerry agreed, accepting the rubber band wrapped stack, then sitting it in his lap. “Sir, you promised to tell me why your doing this” he waved his paw up at the screens now to his left. “Before you died. Since you alienated your entire family almost thirty years ago. We both know it wont be long sir.”

Kirby laughed, his weak laugh soon turning into a mild coughing fit. “All right son” he answered, once he managed to catch his breath (while making grasping motions as he did as though actually trying.) “I guess someone needs to know the full truth. For the obituary after all if nothing else. It started when I was eleven. My best pal, I forget his name now but his father had a radio. Now where I grew up that was a pretty big deal. Thomas, that was his name. Thomas. He died in some war or another. Every Saturday morning I’d go over to play and we’d listen to the Stardust Adventure Theater. It was a local program and local talent played all the parts. Stardust Breads sponsored it, they were the biggest independent bakery in my state. Going up against the big boys I guess. Every show they sponsored had a character or important item named Stardust. They already knew about product placement back then.”

Sally entered then, carrying a tray with his soup and a glass of ice water on it. After the panda sat the things down she curtsied (a rather difficult thing for a woman seven months along with cub) and left. Kirby sipped a few spoonfuls of his meal before continuing. “Well, one day the story was about astronauts traveling to Mars, in a ship called...” He paused, waiting.

“Stardust” Jerry filled in.

“Exactly. After that all I could do was daydream about going to Mars. Course, that never happened. But I did get rich. Stinking rich actually. That’s where the ships name came from. A old Japanese animated series called Rocket Girls is where I got the idea for young girls as crew.” He sipped more of his soup, then a bit of ice water through the straw provided. “And I’m a cubophile” the wolf abruptly admitted.

“Sir?” Jerry asked, abruptly startled. “A cubaphile? Since when sir.”

“Fourteen. Hester Jacobs was my first conquest. She was thirteen. By the time I was twenty I realized I wasn’t really that interested in adult women. Oh I liked them, but what really cocked my tail was an innocent, doe eyed young girl. I kept finding myself looking at the cubs.” He sighed, sniffing at his soup. “Twelve to fourteen seemed most attractive. I managed to never touch one again but it wasn’t because I cured myself. Like drinking, its something you never get cured of. Even now every morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Today I will not touch a cub’ and no, I never did. Its been close more times than I will ever admit, but I never did. And that’s why the girls are fourteen this month, or next.” He sighed again, looking up at the now suited girls on his screen. “And that is why they have never met me. You know Hiroko right, Engineering? She’s the Japanese Italian mouse. If she were to walk in here right now it would be a toss up wither I could keep control. She is my prefect girl.”

“Is that why she was selected sir?” the buck asked gently. “Because she’s your perfect girl?”

“No Jerry. No” the wolf answered. “One thing I had my paws completely out of was the selection process. You know the public rules of course. Intelligent, all their expected bits in place, healthy, female, no older than eight at selection, family medical history and such.” He sipped his soup again, glancing up at the screens. One was locked on the orbiting STARDUST.

The circular modular ship in low Earth orbit was surrounded in places by a cage meant to act as a safety net for those working on it. It looked like a 1950's space station on its side, with an elongated central stem. Another screen was on the last ship to launch. SPA-17, the seventeenth man rated heavy lift vehicle to launch. Of course the supply ships had been named SPB something. One hundred and seventy two had launched already. One hundred and sixty three had made it to their orbit. Nine had suffered problems. Lost in space. One had to be destroyed by ground control. It was making a bee-line towards Coca Beach at the time. Later someone had calculated where the exact impact point would have been. It had been the Mayors home. It would have been no loss the newspapers reported, he was a corrupt badger after all.

“A secret requirement was being yuri. The Japanese slang for lesbian. Course, how the Shrinks figured out a ten year old girl wasn’t interested in boys I’ll never understand. But they never proved wrong. We started with over three hundred thousand applications. Today I’ve got twenty four of the brightest girls in America. Twelve currently on the station, twelve going to STARDUST. There going out there Jerry. Not just to Mars, but every planet in the solar system that they can. Because in a very few years there won’t be enough civilization left on Earth to come back too. Not safely. What’s the projected death rate again?”

“Of those unvaccinated? Seven out of ten sir, worldwide. In the nations that managed to produce vaccine and distribute it its only three out of ten. There are always those who will refuse the vaccine, not react correctly or not be able to get it. Earths population is going to crash like a rudderless ship in a storm sir. I think I saw a final population estimate of some two and a half billion, taking into account the Chinese factor. That doesn’t count deaths by following war, starvation, greed and just plain giving up. Absolute final figures are less than a billion alive in twenty years. Six in seven dead. But what about the girls? What if they want to come back sir.”

Looking away from the screens the wolf shook his head no. “To what Jerry? Oh, the rich that survive will have safe compounds. For a few years. But other than a curiosity why would they want them. Everyone else will look at them as nothing more than slaves or breeding machines. If they don’t kill them as soon as they see them in the first place. Civilization will take a couple hundred years to rebuild. They will be dead by then of course, but there is frozen sperm aboard. Enough to last a hundred generations. All chosen to match their genotype. Their great-grandchildren will return to Earth. If they want too. There are fifteen landers in Lunar orbit that can bring down a total of sixty people. If they want to come down that is.”

“I see sir, so that is why the Stardust project was so oversized. But even the best technology of today cannot last two hundred years.”

“True Jerry” the wolf agreed, looking up at the image of ‘his girls’ as they worked. “Which is why the supply ships in Mars orbit.” He returned to his soup, obviously enjoying its peppery taste. “Remember the SPM research series twenty years ago? I think that the last was launched on your twenty-eighth birthday.”

Jerry shifted in his chair, feeling his tail quiver. Of course the old man would know that still it was a bit disconcerting. “Yes sir, it did. They were Mars surveying craft, I well remember the science that they sent back.”

“That three sent back” the old wolf chuckled. “They had multiple modules aboard. Each one triggered by the arrival of a new craft. The other eleven are still in orbit. Two were just classified as dead. Some glitch or another dooming both missions. Well, Mars has a habit of eating probes doesn’t it. Those eleven ships are sitting on Phobos. Between them they contain everything needed to set up a colony on Mars. With a two ship buffer in case of malfunction, along with the ability to get it down there and back up. Stardust contains everything needed to activate them. Along with eight of the nine missing SPB’s. Those eight contain fuel, food and oxygen. The last one should arrive in about three years if the numbers are right. And there is the station with STARDUST’s B team. Twelve bright young women who have been doing science for me. It has its own ion propulsion system, though that is a secret you understand. NASA think’s it’s a Dark Energy research module. It will activate exactly one week after STARDUST leaves, to orbit the moon for ‘research.’ NASA sold me the station years ago dirt cheap. They wanted to de-orbit it, I needed it for STARDUST. Mars awaits them too. But only Mars.” He returned to his food, carefully guiding the simple stainless steel spoon to his mouth.

“You’ve thought of everything sir. Haven’t you. Is your sperm aboard the Stardust?”

“There are no wolves in either crew Jerry. Yes, I could fertilize all twenty-four, but their children would only have a fifty percent chance of being fertile. Their grandchildren twenty percent. Their great grandchildren? That would be the last generation. I’m no fool Jerry. Genetic diversity is the only way to go. Before you ask why I didn’t send any males, that’s simple son. Twelve crew each ship. Twenty-four baby factories. Each male would mean fewer children. Less diversity. Before you ask the question. Yes there were more secret requirements. No family member in the last three generations over five foot five. No female member on either side for the last three generations with a genetic illness, cancer or bigger than a C cup. Same for the sperm donors. A deep rooted desire to have children of her own and an open mind. That’s why all those expensive trips around the world. Not just survival, archeology and culture but exposure to other religions and lifestyles. Those who didn’t ask questions or reacted badly.” He shrugged very slightly. “They were eventually cut.”

Grasping the envelopes as he stood the stag stepped forward, looking down at his employer. “Sir, I stand before you humbled. You really did think of everything.”

“Not quite everything. Carla was chosen to be one of the twelve. She was our best choice as Captain. Until we discovered her budding sadistic side. Suzie and Elizabeth were cut because they were too submissive to the others and Janet because she started liking pain. No Jerry, we didn’t think of everything. But we were flexible. Now look, their going out to the bus. They think they will be back tonight. Back to their rooms but their rooms are empty Jerry. Everything in those rooms was packed into the last SPB that left last night. Nothing to come home too. Their families are now well off and will be briefed just minutes before STARDUSTS main engine ignition. Seventy-four billion I was worth when Nancy died. Seventy-four billion. All into this program and another forty billion I made during the project. You know how much I have in the bank after those checks your holding are cashed? Seventy dollars and some change. Its really going to piss off my relatives who expect to cash in.”

He looked up at the screens again. “Those girls going on the great adventure Jerry. I wish I was going with them. You really should cash that bonus check today Jerry, yours is five hundred thousand dollars after all. With the rest, it adds up to a cool million. Now, they are about to be informed of their future. Shall we watch?”

“Yes sir.” Jerry turned to face those screens, realizing for the first time exactly what his employers dreams were.