MarsX1

MarsX Series Book 1

D.W. PATTERSON

First Printing – June, 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover Image – ID 161808213 © 3000ad | Dreamstime(dot)com

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

To Sarah

“It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now. It is the first time in the four billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible, and that window could be open for a long time - hopefully it is - or it could be open for a short time. We should err on the side of caution and do something now.”

― Elon Musk

Chapter 1

He had been too young to see the beginning, but now at the age of thirteen he could see it continuing. St. Charles island in the Caribbean Sea, where he had lived since the age of three, was lucky to be near the orbital track of the Galaxy ships.

Whenever a trans-Mars injection burn departure window opened, which was every 24 months and 20 days, in the sky above St. Charles for weeks, a ship in its parking orbit intersects its departure plane, fires its rockets producing nearly two-thousand tons of thrust for the nearly ten-minute burn across the sky and rapidly departs causing a bright trail in the evening twilight. Then another and another, almost continuously, for two weeks until nearly two-thousand Galaxy-class spaceships are on their way to the fourth planet.

Robert Anderson was almost five feet tall now, slim with light brown hair. He had watched the aerial show before, since his father had bought him a telescope a couple of years previously. He would leave the condominium and take the scope to the edge of the golf course and set it up. The course at night was a dark area in a sea of lights and the only place close by that he could even catch a glimpse of the sky without light pollution. Luckily, his dad worked for the club and was given an apartment on the course's edge.

If the angle was just right, he could even see the body of the giant spaceship reflecting in sunlight. Since the first “show” he had read everything, he could about the Galaxy-class and the company that had built it.

Built by the MarsX company the upper stage of the rocket that Robert was watching boost its way to Mars was two-hundred feet long and thirty-three feet in diameter. Carrying almost two-hundred tons to orbit or two-hundred passengers, it was designed to put those payloads on the surface of Mars in six months.

Robert's research had found that the company was only twenty years old but that its predecessor was founded in 2000. And that it had already sent twenty-thousand tons of machinery and supplies to Mars and even now a machine on the surface was extracting oxygen and water from the atmosphere and storing them for future use by arriving Galaxy ships. The machine was also using some of the water it extracted and combining it with atmospheric carbon dioxide through the Sabatier process to produce methane. The nine rocket engines of a Galaxy ship ran off of eighty percent oxygen and twenty percent methane. So, a supply of fuel would already be available when a fleet arrived.

But the most important part about this mission was that there would be twenty people aboard one of the Galaxy ships and they would setup the first base on the planet, spending a year and a half there before returning on another six-month flight. Robert also knew that if everything went well there would be another fleet launched while the first crew was returning, and that new crew would be staying in a permanent settlement on Mars.

It was almost dark; the cool air of the evening was just settling across the course. Robert decided to try and see one more ship fire its rockets. He wasn't using the telescope but looking in the area he expected. Then he saw a flash, but it wasn't like before, this one flared up to a greater brilliance than before and then diminished quickly.

After watching until after dark he went back inside his house where his mom and dad were sitting in the dim light of the living room with the television on as they did almost every night after dinner. Their twin easy chairs reclined with only the small lamp on the table between providing light.

“Did you see anything Robert?” asked his mom, pausing the TV.

“Yeah, I saw several of the rocket's fire, and then I saw something unusual,” he said.

“What's that?” she asked.

“One of the ships seemed to ignite its rockets and then it flared up before going out,” said Robert.

“I wonder what happened?” she said.

“Turn the TV to that news channel,” said his dad.

His mom changed the channel remotely and after a moment a “Breaking News” alert appeared and the message that a MarsX rocket had exploded in orbit scrolled across the screen.

“That must have been what I saw,” said Robert.

“Oh no,” said his mom.

They watched a few more minutes, but no more details were given.

“Well, let us finish our show, honey,” said his mom.

“Okay, I'm going to my room,” said Robert.

His mom started the TV again as Robert left for his room.

His room was on the back side of the house on the second floor. He entered and turned on the wall switch which powered the lamp on the bedside table. His desk was at the side in front of the window that faced the house next door. Another window in the adjoining wall faced the golf course. That was where Robert sat many nights thinking.

He turned on his AI-assistant, called an Annie by most people, which stood for ANI or Artificial Narrow Intelligence. There were newer more powerful AI-assistants which emulated the human brain called Emmies, but they were still too expensive for him. He asked it to search for news about MarsX.

The Annie returned with the latest news. A ship had exploded, and it appeared to be the one carrying the crew members. MarsX was preparing to make an announcement. Robert waited and read other reports as the Annie displayed them. Then he watched the news announcement in which MarsX confirmed that one of their ships had exploded as it fired its rockets, and it did have the people aboard.

Robert had heard enough, he folded his Annie, turned the light off and went over to his window. From there he could look out onto the relative darkness of the golf course. Because St. Charles was known for its tourist trade, it was packed here near the ocean with hotels and resorts and their many lights had come on since twilight, so the seeing wasn't as good before. Only toward the zenith could he see stars and imagine the ships somewhere up there still firing their engines, heading into deep space, except for one.

Harold Graham had grown up in east Texas near the border with Louisiana but not near the Gulf. He was in the eighth grade, short, and a bit plump. School kept him busy, but many of his thoughts were about what was happening to the southwest of him on the coast. That's where MarsX was launching its rockets and when they went up at night, which they did quite often, he could see the long plume of flame, especially with binoculars.

Harold had watched them all, as the rockets boosted the Galaxy-class ships into orbit where they would wait for the right time to leave for Mars. He wasn't doing too good in school, but he could, and did, tell people everything they needed to know about rocket boosters and Galaxy-class spaceships. He had even figured out some of the math needed to calculate orbits and trajectories, at least that had helped him in math class.

Neither his mom nor dad were interested in space, they thought it a waste of time and money. His dad always ended up complaining about taxes even though Harold pointed out that MarsX was a private company and what government work it did was under contract and obtained by competitive bids. But his dad always replied that no one knew what influence the billionaire running the company had with the government, but he doubted it was all as above board as Harold thought. So, Harold gave up trying to convince him.

The only problem having a mom and dad so uninterested in space was that even though it was only a few hours' drive to see a launch in person; they had no interest in taking him. Still, Harold had figured out a way. He knew that MarsX was open for tours and sometimes that included seeing a launch, all he had to do was write a letter to get an invite. He could take a bus down and back if his parents weren't interested.

Two weeks later, Harold checked the mailbox on his way home from school. A letter with a MarsX logo on it was addressed to him. Harold dropped his book bag and tore into the letter. He was shaking a little by the time he got it out of the envelope. They thanked him for his letter and his interest in the company and that enclosed he would find an all-day pass to the MarsX campus and an invitation to watch the evening launch that day. He had two weeks to get ready for the trip.

He couldn't believe it, now all he had to do was get there. He ran into the small, white three-bedroom home to find his mom.

“Mom, mom,” he yelled.

“In here honey,” she called.

He rushed through the living room to the back of the house and the kitchen. This was where he usually found his mother and the room was the core of the family's life together. All important decisions were made in that room with the smell of whatever cake or pastry his mother had recently baked vying for their attention. It was the brightest room in the house.

“Mom,” he said upon entering, “I got an invitation from MarsX to watch one of their launches.”

“You mean in person?” she asked.

“Yeah, a VIP booth,” he said.

“I don't know honey,” she said. “How are you going to get there, your dad will be working, and I can't drive you.”

“I can take the bus and back, the same day” he said.

“I don't know if we have enough money for that, you know we spend everything your dad makes,” she said.

“I have money from my summer job mom,” he said.

“You'll have to ask your dad when he gets home,” she said and then turned to continue making dinner.

Harold went out front to wait for his dad. Another hour went by, and his dad drove up.

“Dad,” yelled Harold as his father was climbing out of his old truck in his work clothes which was usually a blue pullover with name tag, dirty and greasy from a day's work at the garage.

“What is it son?”

“Look,” Harold said holding out the letter.

His dad read the letter and handed it back.

“I don't know son, I can't take off work to drive you,” he said.

“I know dad and you won't have to, I can take the bus down and back,” said Harold.

“That might cost too much Harold,” said his father.

“I've got the money dad, left over from my summer job.”

“I don't know,” his father continued, walking toward their house. “What did your mother say?”

“She said to talk to you.”

“Well, you'll have to call us every so often to make sure you're alright,” said his dad.

“No problem,” said Harold. “So, I can go?”

His dad hesitated but when he looked at his son's eager face again, he agreed.