The Rise of NASA Read online

  Copyright © 2020 by Emily Mercury

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  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

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  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2020

  ISBN--Not required. Digital Copy Only.

  www.emilymercury.com

  Red

  I was born to travel the stars; it’s what my mother and father had always said from the time I was young and could understand what my mission would be. What I didn’t know was I’d find a best friend in a human, a smart one. Decades would pass, time flowing endlessly, and he would age. His age would begin to show with the light flecks of gray hair, then his skin would begin to sag from the muscular man I knew fifty years ago, and last the light would go from his eyes on a deathbed created only for those who understood the stars.

  My journey begins on my home planet at the human age of 25. I stood watching my mother on a ship created by my father . It’s sleek curved lines disappeared from the front to the back. The black reflective paint glittered with the backdrop of the stars. The advanced technology in it’s systems would grow as I was traveling across the galaxy trying to find other life forms. It would advance into something more intelligent than a few clicks or beeps at me. She, R.O.S.E, would become my companion, taking care of my needs in our travels, and making sure I arrived safely in our adventures. I knew from the moment I sat in the captain’s seat that the ship was mine. The contour of the seat fit perfectly to my body.

  R.O.S.E flickered to life with the press of my hand on the panel located on the arm of the chair. In a series of beeps and clicks the ship roared to life. The quadrupole ion engines hummed from behind me. With a glance over to my mother, I found tears streaming down her cheeks, them being brushed away by her favorite handkerchief she kept with her all the time. My father’s arm was wrapped around her shoulders, tucking her into his side. I took in a deep breath, listening to the sound of R.O.S.E adjust engines for takeoff.

  I lean back into the comfortable black high back seat and look down at the panel. Pressing the green button; I close my eyes. I can’t watch the look on my mother’s face as I leave this world. The worry was written everywhere in her body language as I stepped foot on the ship. I understood it was a natural feeling for a mother to worry about her only son. R.O.S.E takes the pressing of the button and releases the braking system on my ship. I can feel the large movements of gravity holding me to my seat as we roll forward. I increase the ignition sequence, giving the engines more leeway to help the ship gain speed.

  My destination is anywhere I presume to go. I have nowhere particular in mind, except where I learned my skills as a navigator to check on the crew I left behind for a solo job on my home planet. Just a quick check I tell myself. I’m sure they are fine and have someone who can handle the job navigating their ship as best as I did.

  “My first destination is Dautrain, R.O.S.E,” I said to the AI. She responds to my voice by putting the destination on the holographic between the windows at the front of the ship. The large planet looks like a dusty moon in a huge solar system. Two suns rotate along the axis. Two moons shadow slowly, bringing darkness. I sigh at the sight.

  It felt like I lived there all my life amongst the gargoyle like creatures. I was different. Aqua skin with a galaxy like spiral tattooed on my bald head. Three chubby toes, one big, two small. I wasn’t built like them, strong and muscular. I was lanky with some muscle and was tall, almost seven foot. Them, they were like solid rock, and if you looked at them just right, they looked like they were made of stone. Each one I met had a different skin tone. From gray to a deep purple, some were somewhere in between.

  Those that I flew with, Captain Brazun and Frestall the engine mechanic, were like family. I would’ve stayed, navigating their ship for the rest of my life. If I could have. Even after they brought a human into the mix. So, I knew there was other life out there, many other beings, and when I turned 25, I was called back to my planet. My own mission was about to start.

  “You have been called forthwith to travel the stars, Rediktu,” the governor stated in front of a judge and jury. “We have studied your file and found your training to be acceptable. You chose to go off planet for navigational training. Do you find your training to be sufficient enough to run your ship in an emergency?”

  “Yes. I do,” I said. “I am able to read the star maps and find planets to escape to if I’ve received an option to leave.”

  I have now gone from navigator to captain of my own ship. Something I knew was coming daily as I flew Brazun’s ship around the galaxy, trafficking his load of valuables and humans. Now it was my turn to do something good in the life cycle. It’s what I knew I was destined for. Helping those who needed it. I sigh once again, looking out the side window.

  My mission may have been anywhere I wanted to go but with the title of my job, I had one restriction. I couldn’t go out of our galaxy. When I returned home for the mission, I knew what I was getting myself into because when I was on Brazun’s ship, I was tested. I was a mole put on a traffickers ship; I was there to make sure they followed the rules. I was being tested for my bars to have my own ship in the Intergalactic Crime Unit. A unit that not only helped those around the galaxy to become successful, but we caught the criminals that interrupted those time streams. In the end, we finished the job and watched a society thrive, even given our name.

  A billion choices. It all leads down to one. Where I decide to take my ship and go.

  I know my second family is fine and they can live without the visit for right now. I have my mission. As a captain, I want to see what successes I can help lead someone else too. Part of me wants to see what criminals I can find too. My slender fingers glide along the armrests of the chair. I want the destination I pick to be sufficient enough that with my help, they will succeed.

  “R.O.S.E, reconfigure the destination to Earth,” I said.

  I change my mind with the thoughts of what my old crew are doing. They are rescuing humans from being trafficked between races. They’ve got that handled and that is not what I want to do. I want to know Earth’s future so I can help change the outcome of major events. Twist time a little and the outcome changes; the outcome becomes more stable and secure.

  “What year would you like to go, Sir?” she asked me in a mechanical voice. “There are many millions of years you can choose from.”

  I pause for a moment, trying to figure out when I would like to land on Earth. I’m unsure.

  “R.O.S.E, tell me what their space flight program is and how it is doing now.”

  “It is the year 2018. There are many space programs around their planet. Though the three major ones are Russia, Europe, and the United States,” she informs me on the display. She continues to click and beep and display information on the display. “History shows they all reach space flight to a machine called the International Space Station. There are failures in each of their history.”

  “I want to focus on the United States,” I said as I stood from the chair. “Show me the history of their first flight to space.”

  I stand at the monitor, looking closely as the images and videos play. The first astronaut to make it to flight was Alan Shepard in 1961. He flew Freedom 7 for 116 feet and landed. The mission was marked as a success. As I watched the video for a second time, I noted how primitive the rocket system was that he had flown in.

  “R.O.S.E, bring up the news surrounding Mr. Shepard’s flight. Go back five years before and five years after.”

  A series of beeps and clicks sound out through the c
abin.

  I did think of Shepard’s flight as a success for the first man for the United States, but I wanted to read what drove their need for flying a man on a rocket. From 1957 with the appearance of Sputnik flying, to 1965, when there was the first successful multi-flight crew by the United States, it looked like the two superpowers were in a battle for a race to the moon. Who would land first?

  “Is there any information on who lands on the moon first?”

  The United States in 1969. However, it looked like the United States was struggling before then.

  The USSR, another superpower, flew Sputink in 1957. Then history changed. I was astonished by how fast some satellites were going up. It read like it was one right after the other, but I dismissed those. They were flying, but not with a man.

  In the end the starting point of human space flight went to the Russians with Yuri Gargarian. He was the first man to reach the stars.

  “R.O.S.E, what is the status of the United States in 2018 for the flight program?” I ask her. I needed to see what the United States was doing.

  “As recent as 2011, there was the last manned space flight in the United States. With the development of the International Space Station, any United States astronaut has to ride on a Soyuz unit to go into space.”

  “They are using Russian rockets?” I cut in. Something doesn’t seem right with her statement.

  “Yes, captain. They are flying from Russian soil,” she displays.

  The dependency status on another super power is puzzling. The United States had so much going for them in the years after Alan Shepard’s 116 mile flight. They were the first to complete a manned return, landing the craft.

  “Show me images of their current space system?”

  The images floated by on the screen, turning from one picture to another. The deaths of two crews celebrated every year. The video of civilian programs landing another reusable rocket, it tumbling to the platform in a ball of flame. The thought of another successful mission to the moon. It was like history repeating itself over again. Small successes intermixed with even bigger failures. It was a mess. It was a disaster.

  “Who has been the most successful operations manager, R.O.S.E?” I question her.

  I’m starting to notice where the United States was successful. Just before the Apollo missions and ending right after the missions to the outer limits of the solar system.

  “Duke Morgan, Director of Flight Operations. Astrodynamicist and Planetary Scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has many successes, captain. Would you like more information on this human?” She asked me.

  “No,” I say, turning to look out into the darkness. There are flecks of light everywhere in the distance. I look at each star, possibly a planet as a soft smile comes to my lips. Duke Morgan seems like a man I could get along with to help push the success of the United States anywhere it wanted to go.

  “R.O.S.E, take us back to 1957 and find Duke Morgan. We need to make this right. Stop the future dependency on a super power and help them to create a stable flight system,” I said.

  “Captain, I will no longer be able to make the decisions I do now. But I will grow with you toward the future. Are you sure this is what you want to take place?” she asked me, creating a few more clicks and beeps. “I will not advance at the rate of Earth years.”

  “Yes, R.O.S.E. Take us back. We will relearn each other in the process.”

  She types no more as my eyes go to the date and time at the bottom of the screen. Time starts to shift, my craft feeling still as the clock starts to wind down. My eyes shift to the pictures as we move through the years. The United States put a man in space on the SkyLab for 84 days in 1974. The first man to dance on the moon, Pete Conrad, in 1969. The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, in 1969. And in 1957, Alan Shepard made his first flight.

  We stopped on August 21, 1957. Two months before the launch of Sputnik.

  My eyes stayed on the monitor to see a picture of a young man down on one knee in front of a woman. I wondered how R.O.S.E would gather such a colorful intimate picture. I had stepped back in time to a place when NASA didn’t exist. It would be a year later, but my target was on the screen. The one that I didn’t even know would take this journey of success. I had to find out how he became who he was.

  “Keep an eye on Dautrain for me, R.O.S.E,” I said.

  It is not a suggestion. I needed to know what the decades would do to them as well. My plan wasn’t to stay with Mr. Morgan for his life. There is no voice from my underdeveloped AI now, just a series of clicks softly in the background.

  I moved to the navigation station and began to type in the star map the coordinates of Earth 1957. I’m millions of kilometers away from the planet on the map. Starlight speed will get me there in just under a few days. That will give me time to study Earth. To see how their society grows over the years in the future.

  Their space program has much to offer, more than they are getting credit for. I can’t change much on Earth without folding time in on itself and erasing their life, but I can change how their space flight program works.

  I set the coordinates for Earth, leaving R.O.S.E to navigate the ship.

  Walking down the gray grated floor of the hallway, I run the tips of my fingers along the sleek white metal walls. It is smooth to the touch except for the small rivets my fingers glide over from time to time. My father built this ship with his bare hands, invented the programming that would fly me to anywhere I wanted to go in time, and made it possible for his son to fly amongst the stars. I appreciated every curve, button, and window this craft was made of. It was because I was able to live out my dream, the destiny that was mapped out for me since I was a child.

  My hands dropped when I came to a small room. Dark except for the blue glow coming from the cryostasis machine. It had one singular oval shaped unit. If I went in now, I could program it to wake me up right before we made it to Earth. I decide to sleep for a day, collect my thoughts on how I’m going to proceed with the plan for Earth, and think about the second place I call home, Dautrain. Before I climb in, I set the unit to open two days prior to arriving to Earth. Then I climb in the machine, it offers a small hiss as the clear glass plate slides in place. The pod is tight and beginning to get colder as the seconds tick by.

  I can see the frost beginning to form on the edges of the glass and think about what I saw in the picture of Duke Morgan and his lover. The human paid no mind that he was properly asking for her hand in marriage. I could feel the iciness and chill run through my body. My eyes drifted close at the feel of my organs slowing their functions. I find myself drifting off to the happiness I see on both their faces from the picture. Love can do many things.

  ***

  I startle awake, my body jumping in the tight quarters to the sound of beeps and clicks, and the whoosh of the glass moving to release the pressure of the cryostasis unit. A day has passed and I am two days away from being at Earth with Mr. Morgan. I move, my joints stiff with the cold, and reach my arms up into the warm air of the room. I roll my wrists, then my elbows as the cold air drifts from the unit. The warmth begins to sink into my suit, caressing me like a newfound lover.

  I pull myself up to a sitting position and climb out slowly, stretching as if I were going to start exercising. Releasing the tension in my body feels good. I groan at some of the joints as they crack and pop. I make my way out of the room with the unit, down the sleek hallway to the bridge of the ship. My eyes take in what I’ve missed over millions of miles, and only a day into the future. My ship looks the same, but as I make it to the bridge, I can see the beginning of Earth’s solar system. A bright yellow planet is ahead.

  The navigator’s station has the star map up, Earth being the primary target within the solar system. I walk over, checking to see where we are. We are hovering at a giant yellow gaseous planet with an abundance of rings surrounding it. The map says it’s Saturn in Earth terms. I use my finger to scroll through the information on
the planet. Interesting. There is theory on it being one of the first planets in the solar system. That it knocked Uranus out to the orbit that it is in now. I could see the truth and change that theory, but I would create a fold in time I could never change back.

  I read over the distance between where I am and Earth, seeing the time we would arrive. It’s right what I expected it would be. Two days from where I’m landing and the day he proposes to his lover. That process I know I won’t change because I will wait.

  “R.O.S.E, where is Duke Morgan after he proposes to his lover?”

  I realize I won’t get much of a response talking from her, but she is smart enough to overcome the difficulty. She beeps over at the screen to notify me that’s where I need to go. I follow her sounds with a smile. She is smart and decisive, an asset to the ship. When I see where Morgan is going to be, my brows come together. R.O.S.E must understand my hesitation and she types on the screen.

  He was called into work in his laboratory. It is where he spends most of his time. He works as an aerodynamicist.

  The man I would meet in two days could take a ship like mine, revamp it, and make it fly better. I was excited at the prospect. I looked out at the yellow globe with rings around it; it filled up both windows because of its enormous size. Many planets could fit into that one. Hundreds of Earth’s. I shake my head, tossing the minor thoughts aside and look back to the picture of Morgan’s place of employment.