Ephemeris

21 : A Daring Gamble

The radio communications rustled and crackled. This is the flight director. Initiate launch status assessment.

Roger, initiating assessment. Launch status assessment running.

Assessment completed.

Launch verified.

A trice of silence cut the broadcast. This is flight. We have a go for launch.

Another muffled gurgling sound impeded the radio transmission. Go for engine start. Proceeding with the countdown. T-minus ten seconds, nine, eight, seven...

Engines standby, six, five, four...

Ignition sequence starts, three, two, one... Ignition!

Liftoff!

The thrusters roared and spat radiant blaze producing tremendous heat, blinding light, and thick smoke. It propelled the rocket ship through the air, using the backward discharge of the fuel liberated by combustion.

Tower cleared.

The people of Cape Canaveral—the scientists, engineers, and evacuees who took great pains to repair and reconstruct the rocket, held their hands together and looked up at the ascending rocket. Some summoned the blessed intercession, while some took hold of their sturdy confidence that the uncrewed spaceflight would be successful.

All the engines looked good.

The neighboring towns and cities witnessed the ascent. Few survivors were gnashing their teeth, for they thought the rocket was loaded with passengers, the rich, and the influential selected individuals who paid for their escape. But most of them sensed that it might be their last hope to never say farewell to the planet that had cradled them for years. Earth was a perfect planet, and we would never find another one parallel to it.

The trajectory is stable. An ear-piercing interference stifled the report.

Altitude and velocity are right on the line.

Performance is nominal.

The rocket left a curving stripe, a slash that sliced the clear skies in half. Half of the sky was under the sun's golden luminosity, but the other half was oddly out of the ordinary. The floating clustering chunks of landmasses, ruins of human civilizations, and tons of garbage made it difficult for Helios to reign. It was an impenetrable barricade of chaos drifting through the troposphere casting shade over the meadows below. Fortunately, the rocket slingshot around the disorder cloud, tearing the layers of atmospheric gases. It crossed the stratosphere, then the mesosphere, and another eighty kilometers up to pass through the mesosphere.

Prepare for stage one separation.

Mission Specialists Veneracion and Azad were in full astronaut gear, driving the space garbage vehicle away from the ISS. Dr. Gawthorpe and Dr. Reid gave the details of the complications of the delivery of Project V-022424. "Gale, we are lucky that the rocket flew," Dr. Gawthorpe started, "Now, as we had discussed a few days past, we needed to improvise to transport the large artificial gravity generator. Are you at the prime spot to capture it?"

Gale replied immediately, "Yes, Dr. Gawthorpe."

The two listened intently.

"Okay," she smacked her lips, "Again, we encapsulated your delicate machine inside an oval pod. The pod was made from scratch, but it was sturdy. After the second separation, the pod will automatically be unbolted, releasing your machine to space. The rocket ascended faster than expected because of the dwindling Earth's gravity. Consequently, the pod will be thrown into space at a variable speed. And that's all we can do to transport your valuable machine."