Starship Wuthering Heights

3. FLY ME TO THE MOON

THE MER-2 ENGINES roared into life and immediately subjected Tony and his four newly appointed crewmates strapped securely to their seats in the command module to a localised volcanic eruption. They felt a massive kick as the rocket let go of the beach.

"What's happening?" cried Susan. "Surely we're about to blow up!"

"Everything's fine," assured Tony. "We're up and running. Although you might think this rattling and shuddering disturbing, we're actually quite well insulated from the extremes of sound and vibrations caused by the rocket's engines. Expect your weight to double shortly. Then, as the mass of the rocket decreases due to the spent liquid-hydrogen fuel, expect your weight to quadruple. After just over two minutes, expect to be weightless momentarily as the rocket adjusts to prepare to reach an orbital speed from which it can break orbit and reach for the Moon. We will be accelerating towards the Moon, maintaining a 1G force. In other words, you will feel your normal weight. When we decelerate on approaching the Moon our weight will undergo a series of changes until we hopefully land on the Moon and feel a sixth of our weight. The moment we exit the rocket onto the mobile walkway we'll be back to our normal weight due to the lunar virtual gravity systems."

"That's all very reassuring," said Susan, "but at the moment, I feel like the occupant of a penthouse suite atop a skyscraper suffering an earthquake."

At 37 seconds after blast-off ...

"The engines are throttling down momentarily to reduce structural stress as we pass through maximum dynamic pressure," announced Tony.

Seconds later ...

"Now throttling back up to main thrust."

"What is that distant spine-tingling screaming sound?" asked Sylvia. "

"That's just caused by the rocket's slipstream," replied Tony. "We're punching through the atmosphere at tremendous speed powered by a barely controllable immense power. It won't last long, as will soon run out of significant atmosphere."

Minutes later ...

The roar of the engines quietened down, and the control module's rattling and shuddering died down in response.

"We have escaped mother Earth," announced Tony. "We are now on a moderate acceleration and deceleration flight plan to the Moon. We'll be there in eight hours. Even if the main engines were to fail us now, we'd still reach the Moon, we'd just take a couple of days to do so. And from what I can ascertain from the rocket's readings, the rocket is structurally sound with no sign of imminent compromise to structural integrity. Barring an unlikely serious mishap on landing, my mission has been a complete success. More than a complete success, because I brought back you four. Cindy will be surprised."

"Congratulations on an incredible effort—so far," said Sylvia. "I will hold back my full congratulations until we have safely landed. I would not like to tempt providence."

"We could spend these eight hours planning on how we will go about hitting back at the humanotics," said Sylvia, "but I think all discussions should be made as a team, and that team includes Cindy."

"I agree with that," put in Max. "But I'd just like to ask a handful of preliminarily connected questions of you, Tony. If your answers are favourable, it will enable me to think out a plan that will allow us to work completely safe from the humanotics and secure the HTH."

"Fire away, Professor Bostrom."

"Max will be fine. We're all on a first name basis here among friends. What is a title, if not a human concept bestowed by humans? Now that as far as we know, we and Cindy are the only humans left alive, such titles have possibly lost their authenticity. But back to my question. Do you have a modern starship hidden away beneath the lunar surface?"