First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (9 page)

"Yeah,
whatever works," they replied in unison. Zubrin chuckled.

Testing:

"So
what is this all about?" Mario asked as he stood by Luigi. His
younger brother had a set of sunglasses on and was shielding his eyes
as he looked skyward.

"Drop
test. One quarter scale. We're testing the MAV sink rate, stall,
chute deployment, landing gear, and retro thrusters," he
responded. "Tomorrow we are doing the Hab, two days later the
SSTO." The first test flights with the rocket had gone over
well, without a hitch. They were still digesting the sensory data
now.

Mario
nodded. "Got it all planned out right?"

Luigi
nodded. "There's the C-5 now." He pointed. "Wish I had
my binoculars," he grumbled. He'd forgotten them in the car in
his excitement. A pair was thrust in front of his face. He reared
back and then took them. "Ah thanks," he replied.

"No
problem." He turned to see Betsy, the New Zealand geologist.
"Betsy right?" Luigi asked.

"You
should know by now," she teased. He sighed.

"The
Mario brothers are known for their engineering skills, not their
ability to remember names or their social skills," Wanda teased
hugging her husband. They'd gotten married in a small ceremony and
this was their honeymoon. Mario had teased her about having a real
honeymoon on Mars.

"Unless
it is game related of course," Mario responded, watching the
aircraft.

"There
she goes!" Luigi pointed. They all looked as the MAV fell.
"Damn, like a rock." Luigi watched through the binoculars.
"There is the drag chute... and the mains... Okay she's
slowing..."

They
watched as the craft swung back and forth like a pendulum and then
suddenly the chute fluttered off and it sank like a stone. "Damn!
It’s going to smear itself all over the desert!" Mario
groaned.

"Nope.
It was supposed to do that," Luigi replied, not taking his eyes
off the craft. He was surprised though that his brother didn't know
about this part. "Three... two... one... There's the retro's."
The retros fired, making a few blink away.

"Brighter
than I thought. I'm glad you brought doctors McKay, Newman, and
Hudson on board," Zubrin replied from behind them. Mario turned
and nodded to him then returned to watching the craft. Gently the
craft slowed to a stop in the air, then drifted to one side, tipped,
then straightened and drifted back.

"Well,
maneuvering works," Mario chuckled.

The
craft began to fall faster. "Looks like it is running low on
fuel though," Luigi cautioned. He should have known, the ham
handed twits in the control room had pushed it too hard grandstanding
and now it was coming down. The press was going to have a field day.

"Yup."
The craft's flares died out a few meters above the ground. It fell
like a stone. Mario winced as the landing gear pistoned until the
thrusters were crushed. "Please don't spring... Please don't..."
The craft came back up and bounced teetered then fell to the ground.

"Damn!"
Luigi dropped the glasses from his face and slapped his thigh with
his cap. He was going to ream some ass he vowed.

"Crap!"
Mario echoed.

"I
think that was more the fault of the crew then the craft,"
Zubrin observed. "They left it for too long and misjudged her,"
he sighed. "Going to catch some flack though," he said
shaking his head.

"Not
to mention we just lost a prototype and all its recording hardware,"
Luigi sighed. "Going back to Congress with our cap in our hand
is going to suck." He shook his head clearly frustrated.

Zubrin
patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It was a success
anyway."

...*...*...*...*...

Mario
scowled at the selection of tiles. "Why tile? And white?"
He shook his head.

The
psychologist stared at him. "We determined white is the optimal
color for the floor based on exhaustive case studies. The tile is for
easy cleaning."

Mario
grimaced. "You've obviously never cleaned tile then."

Betsy
Lawless grimaced. Mario looked over to her. She shrugged. "We
had tile in my home. It was a pain to clean; the grout sucks up dirt
and traps it," she explained.

"Yeah,
I know." He shrugged and looked over the trio of psychologists.

"Tile
is out. We're going to be in a dirty, grimy place folks, constantly
tracking dirt in."

One
of the psychologists started to protest but another sighed. "We've
done extensive studies; really it is for the best."

He
started to stand. "Wait a moment." Luigi raised a
restraining hand. "I'm going on the first mission and I happen
to agree with them, white is nice, but it is sterile. We are going to
live
in this place, make it a home for three years." He
looked over to the lead scientist. "Think about it. We want to
be at home in this place and I for one am not comfortable living in a
lab. White linoleum in the labs and airlock? Okay. But in the living
areas..." He looked over to Wanda.

She
nodded. "Right. Wood. Lightly stained," she replied with a
firm nod.

He
nodded. "That would work."

He
looked at the scientists again. "Wood? On a space craft?"
The elderly psychologist gibbered. "You’re kidding!"
He shook his head. "Out of the question," he replied,
vehemently waving his hands in chopping motions.

"Don't
be silly, not real wood, linoleum patterned to
look
like wood.
In fact, we could do bamboo too," Mario replied starting to
smile. "Would the Hans like that?" Mario asked looking over
to Luigi.

One
of the scientists started to rub his jaw. "Lightly stained you
say?" he asked.

"Yes,
a light grain, so it isn't so dark and depressive like the deep dark
stains. But enough contrast so it isn't blinding and too clinical,"
Wanda replied.

Betsy
nodded. "We can do it, we could do a different pattern in each
living quarters as well. Bamboo, or light pine, or light oak, a
different pattern for each Hab. We could paint the trim to match if
we wanted too," Betsy said.

The
female psychologist nodded. "I see that you want to make this
place a home, perfectly understandable." She looked over to the
others. "Touches of home are important for the mental health of
the crew," she reminded them. Reluctantly the other two nodded.

"We
can get it done like this." Luigi looked up from his tablet and
placed it in the middle of the table. After a moment the table
computer picked up his upload and the wall screen changed to show a
simulation of the interior of the Hab.

Luigi
picked up the tablet then scrolled through the hab, allowing them to
look around. "See? More homey," he replied.

Mario
nodded. "I like it." He smiled.

"Next
you'll want a fireplace I suppose..." One of the scientists
grumped.

Mario
chuckled, and then rubbed his chin. "You know, that's not a bad
idea come to think of it..." Wanda poked him. Mario grinned at
her. "No, the wood will work." He smiled.

...*...*...*...*...

“I
see you swapped one of the open rovers for a greenhouse,” Mario
said. Mario looked over the revised cargo list. “Three open
rovers and two enclosed ones. Good.” He nodded. “And with
the greenhouse we can have fresh food to supplement your rations.”

Luigi
nodded. “Yeah good point. Three years of TV dinners is not very
appealing.”

Mario
sighed. “Well, we can try to do some home grown meals. NASA has
spent the past forty years acquiring recipes and has tons of
manuals,” Mario grunted. He was still irritated that NASA had
spent forty years developing things for space flight but when it came
time to actually do it they wanted to throw everything out and start
fresh. It was like they didn't get the concept of getting the job
done!

“Were
going almost totally paperless right? Relying on the computers for as
much documentation as possible to save weight?” Mario asked
looking over the net. “Damn. Please tell me this data storage
here isn't a hard drive.”

Luigi
chuckled. “No, solid state hard drive. Basically a really big
ROM chip.”

Mario
whistled. “Sony is providing the Terabyte chips? Wow. I
couldn't fill a one Terabyte drive and we each get a stack of them?”
He shook his head.

“Well
we are going to have an AV library in the net and each person will
have their own materials,” Luigi replied and then pointed.
“We're not just going without paper; we're going to try to go
with only a handful of data backups too. We'll keep a back up of the
OS and diagnostics in a shielded vault just in case though.”

Mario
grunted. “Good idea. I wasn't too keen on being out there and
having a stray cosmic radiation cloud or solar flare wiping out our
data...” Luigi nodded.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"I
still can't believe you talked me into this," Mario grumped as
he hefted the plunger. He felt like a goof ball. Hell, he looked like
one. Every Halloween they did this, but now for everyone to see?

"Oh
come on, it will be fun, we used to do it for Halloween remember?"
Luigi teased.

"Yeah,
but for the cover art of Newsweek?" Mario sighed as the
photographer finished setting up her camera.

"Sure,
why not? It will create a stir for sure," Luigi smiled. Wendy
the public relations director looked a little concerned by the whole
idea. "Now come on, our public awaits." Luigi pressed the
fake mustache to his lip. "How do I look?" He wiggled his
lip, making the mustache go up and down, then teeter totter. Wendy
giggled, hand over her mouth.

"Here
take this before I use it on your head," Mario grumped. He
handed Luigi a rubber hammer.

"Okay
gentlemen, you’re going to stand side by side here, no please
put your foot up on the green ball, no your other foot." The
photographer manhandled them into position then took a tape measure
and measured out the lines. "A little more light here..."
She adjusted a few things then took the picture. "Okay we're
going to take a few more."

Mario
sighed. "How I let you talk me into this..."

Luigi
smiled. "Just shut up and smile bro." They did a fist bump.
Luigi's eyes were twinkling. “Just remind me to try to get
Wanda to dress up as one of the Princesses... Maybe we could get one
of the other ladies to double date?” Luigi teased. Mario
chuckled.

...*...*...*...*...

"Senator,
as we explained..." Luigi sighed. "Senator, honestly, the
money is not being wasted. It is going into the economy." He'd
been getting a lot of flack like this lately, mainly from Republicans
or Democrats who didn't have a hand in the construction of the
program.

The
senator frowned. "That money would be better spent on education
and on the poor!" The elderly democrat was a ferocious supporter
of the poor.... as long as they were in his state.

"Sir,
do you know what is happening in schools and colleges across the
country, across the world?" Luigi asked patiently.

The
senator sat back. "No. Why does that have to do with this?"

"It
has everything to do with this sir; we are providing an incentive, an
inspiration for all those young people. We are showing them they can
touch the stars." He waved to the ceiling. "Senator, we are
giving them one of the most precious things imaginable. A goal. A
dream. Man cannot live on bread and circuses alone. We have to dream,
to crawl, to walk, to fly."

The
senator smiled. "Very poetic."

Luigi
chuckled. "Try telling that to my English professor. Best I
could ever get in her class was a C."

The
senator chuckled. "So what happens when funding for your pie in
the sky plan begins to be diverted for more important things?"

Luigi
nodded. "Well, first we are spreading the cost among all the
nations of the world. Second, we are giving each of those nations a
stake in this. Each can have an astronaut or cosmonaut to walk the
red planet and return to inspire their next generation. Third..."
He waved.

"Senator
have you seen the polls? The people are going nuts about this. It is
one thing to talk about it, but quite another to do it. Hundreds of
thousands of people are employed in this. From the person who makes
the smallest pin or bolt to the guy or gal sitting in the cockpit."
He smiled.

"And
you plan on being in the cockpit," the Senator grumped.

"Well
sir, I will be in the ship, but no, not as a pilot," Luigi
smiled. The Senator harrumphed in irritation.

"As
to continuous funding, well we will have to make this pay for itself
so future generations will be inspired and take the next step,"
Luigi replied.

The
senator grunted. "Well, you did get my grandchildren to sit up
and take notice," he admitted. He chuckled. "Anything that
can get them to pay attention to things other then what is on the
idiot box is a good thing in my book."

Luigi
smiled. "I'd love to give you and your grandchildren a tour
sir," Luigi invited politely.

The
Senator sat back, eyes intent. "You've got a deal son." He
shook Luigi's hand then moved off to an aide.

Nick
came over and patted his boss on the shoulder. "Think we got
another vote?" he whispered.

Luigi
shrugged. "Maybe. Too early to tell," he replied quietly as
staffers surrounded the Senator.

Nick
nodded at the answer. "Well, his constituents will be happy;
we're planning on restarting the GM factory there to build the ground
vehicles."

Luigi
chuckled. "Whatever works." He glanced up to see the aid
whispering to the senator. The senator looked over to them then
waved.

"Looks
like he just got the news. Perhaps we should have the tour in the
factory?" Nick smirked. "With or without cameras so he can
show his voters he is getting them jobs?"