The Journey - Chapter 1
I've just finished the first draft of my new book which means the editing and revising stage begins. The book was originally titled "You Can't Get There From Here", but I thought that sounded too negative. The second title was "How Do I Get There From Here?" but I wasn't sure about having the title be a question. I'm now calling it "The Journey".
It is a story with four main characters, told through their own eyes, and each facing their own challenges.
The year is 2038 and Ryan (the son) is an astronaut candidate with NASA, hoping to be one of the crew members selected for a future mission to Mars. There are numerous obstacles to overcome to make the six month journey there, achieve the goals of the mission, and then make the return trip back home to earth. Emma (the girlfriend) has her own goals in life and has to decide what she's willing to sacrifice to be with Ryan. Lori (Ryan's mother) has faith that her son will achieve his goals, but is facing her own challenging journey. Matt (Ryan's father) is an engineer who is coming to the realization that there are some things in life that he can't fully understand and fix, no matter how hard he tries, and sometimes you just have to have faith.
Chapter 1
Houston, Texas
March, 2038
Ryan (the son)
As I stepped through the doors into the enormous presentation room, I realized I was embarrassingly early. The room was set up like a movie theatre, with a large screen at the front with about twenty rows of padded seats arranged in a semi-circle, slowly ascending to the entrance where I stood. I felt conspicuous standing there, so I quickly made my way to a seat.
I looked around and saw there were only three other people in the room, and they seemed to be the ones setting up the presentation. One of them caught my eye and started navigating his way down the row toward me.
“You must be our latest ASCAN,” he said.
I started to get out of my chair to greet him. “Sir?”
“ASCAN. Astronaut candidate. We really should have picked a better acronym, but it’s pretty much cast in stone now.” He held out his hand. “I’m Brian Duke, Head of Selection and Development for astronaut candidates.”
I distinctly remembered him from the last round of interviews I’d had, but I wasn’t sure he’d remember me. He’d let the other panelists ask all of the questions during the interviews, but it had been quite clear that he was the one in charge.
“You must me Beam,” he said.
“Yes sir, Ryan Beam.” As I shook his hand, I quickly realized how much power and control can be realized in such a simple gesture.
He waved for me to sit down and then sat in the seat beside me. “Sorry I wasn’t there to meet you on your first day. I trust my assistant, Judy, got you off on the right track.”
“Yeah, she was great. She gave me my schedule for the first three days. I didn’t realize how many medical tests there’d be at the start.”
He grimaced. “I think our doctors here like to start the poking and prodding as soon as you step through the door. Sometimes I think they enjoy it a little too much.” He gave my arm a reassuring pat. “So, have you found a place to stay here in Houston yet?”
“No, not yet. Judy arranged for me stay with one of the other astronauts, Tom Fitzgerald, for a little while until I get my own place and my stuff gets shipped down from Canada.”
“Glad to hear that. Tef’s a good guy and he’ll help you get oriented. He’s only about four months ahead of you in the program, so he’ll remember what it’s like being a new candidate. When’s your stuff supposed to arrive?”
“Probably in a couple of weeks. My parents are heading to Saskatchewan today to pack up my stuff and ship it down to me. Tef said there’s an apartment coming available in his building at the beginning of April, so the timing might work out great.”
“Just make sure you keep track of all of your expenses and submit them to Judy.”
I nodded my agreement. I didn’t know whether to tell my new boss about my girlfriend, Emma, because we’d never really decided whether she was coming down to Houston with me or not. We’d been going out for about ten months, so we were in that awkward stage of determining how serious our relationship was. I was tempted to ask Emma to come with me, but then realized she’d be left almost entirely on her own because my new job would mean long, exhausting days with little time left over for her. The guilt of having her follow me to Houston and then be miserable was something I didn’t think I could bear. On the other hand, I knew she was different than the other women I’d dated and I didn’t want my new job to be the cause of our breakup. I secretly hoped she would make the decision for us.
The doors at the back of the presentation center opened and a few more people streamed in. Looking around, I realized about a dozen people had slipped in while Duke and I were talking.
“I should get back to work,” Duke said. “We’ll be getting started soon.” He shook my hand again as he got out of his chair. “Nice meeting you, Ryan. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”
I watched him head down to the front of the room where he appeared to be giving instructions to the technicians. As I looked to my right, I felt the vibration as someone sat down in the seat on my left. It was Tef.
“Hey Ryan. Been here long?”
“No,” I lied. I didn’t want him to know how much of a keener I was.
“I see you finally got your badge,” he said as he grabbed the ID I had hanging around my neck. “Sweet Jesus, did they take this picture while they were doing your colonoscopy?”
I quickly pulled by ID back from his hand. My badge had my name, RYAN ANDREW BEAM, in big block letters underneath my picture, which definitely had a “deer in the headlights” look to it. My dirty blond hair and pale skin made me look like I should be in a body bag.
“Alright, let’s see yours,” I said as I grabbed his badge. THOMAS EDWARD FITZGERALD. His picture looked like it had been taken by a professional photographer. His dark brown hair and tanned skin made him look like a taller version of Tom Cruise from the Top Gun movie. “You must have paid someone to Photoshop it,” I said as I let the elastic strap quickly snap the badge back toward his chest.
“Don’t you have an old photograph that you could ask them to use on your ID?” Tef asked.
I pulled out my cell phone and started scrolling through the photo gallery to see if there was a suitable picture.
“Whoa, who’s that?” Tef said as he grabbed my phone.
“That’s me and my girlfriend, Emma.”
“How’d a guy as butt-ugly as you get a girl like that?”
It was something I’d wondered a few times myself. Emma’s short blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and athletic build turned a lot of heads when she walked into a room. The picture was one that had been taken of us when we were hiking, one of our favorite activities.
“Do you think it would work if I cropped my head-shot out of that picture and asked them to use it on my ID?” I asked.
Tef enlarged the photo on the phone, frowned, and handed the phone back to me. “Keep scrolling,” he said. “There’s got to be a better one.” He nudged my shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You older guys are just not as photogenic. I hear the skin starts getting a little saggy once you hit thirty.”
I tried to ignore the insult. It was true, that at thirty-four, I was one of the older astronaut candidates, but I figured my maturity was one of the reasons I was selected. Besides, Tef would be hitting the big three-oh in a couple of years himself.
Our sparring was interrupted by Commander Duke stepping onto the stage at the front of the room.
“Good morning, everyone. I’d just like to say a few words before the main event gets underway and explain what you’re going to be seeing today. The main screen behind me will be showing the audio and video of our Mars landing that will be same feed seen by the general public.”
Commander Duke pointed to some of the other displays. “The two monitors on the left side of the big screen will show the view of the control panel as seen by Commander Johnson as he navigates the lander down to the surface of Mars. It will be of special interest to those of you who might be sitting in his chair in future missions.”
“The two displays on the right side will show the view of the control panel as seen by Commander Thompson, who is in charge of lowering the payload to the surface of Mars. Again, this will be of interest to those of you who might be sitting in his chair in future missions. I’d like to point out this will be the largest and heaviest payload we’ve ever tried to land on Mars, which will become the base for future labs built on the Mars surface. So take a deep breath, because the excitement will be starting shortly.”
There was a brief round of applause as the commander left the stage. As I looked around, I could see the room was now filled with a mixture of young and old astronauts, some who had already been in space several times, and some, like me, who were still in training. I wondered if the others felt as nervous as I did.
The main screen suddenly came to life and I heard a voice that reminded me of Siri on my phone.
“This is NASA control. MarsLander-1 will soon be beginning its descent to the Mars surface. It launched from Cape Canaveral just under seven months ago to begin its journey of 480 million kilometers to Mars. Current speed of the spacecraft is approximately 20,000 kilometers per hour. Stand by for further updates.”
The room went silent and everyone’s focus turned to the screens.
“MarsLander-1 is now entering Mars atmosphere, which is about one percent of that on Earth, but it still generates enormous heat as the spaceship travels through it. The spaceship is protected by a heat shield during this stage of the descent.”
The image displayed on the screen showed what looked like a fire-ball travelling through the sky.
“They’ve just entered the seven minutes of terror,” Tef whispered to me.
I tried to imagine myself sitting in that rocket ship, trusting that the engineering would protect me. It seemed to go on forever.
“We are preparing for the straighten up and fly right manoeuver, where the spacecraft will jettison the entry balance masses in preparation for parachute deployment and roll over to give the radar a better look at the surface.”
There was a pause of several seconds.
“Parachute deployed. We are seeing significant deceleration and the spacecraft is currently travelling at 650 meters per second.”
The main screen was now displaying the view from the back of the spacecraft. There was an immediate buzz in the room because we could all see that the parachute was spinning wildly as it appeared that one side of it had a tear in it. The smaller screens showing the astronaut’s control panels showed multiple lights flashing red.
“Heat shield separated.”
The main screen showed the heat shield falling away from the Mars lander.
“Current speed is 600 meters per second at an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers.”
“That’s way too fast,” Tef said.
“Houston Control is reporting a problem controlling the speed of descent of the spacecraft. Automated control attempting corrective action. Current speed is 550 meters per second at an altitude of approximately six kilometers.”
“Take manual control!” someone shouted from the audience. I turned, but didn’t see who yelled it.
Suddenly the main screen went black. The other smaller displays remained active and we could all see that the spacecraft was not decelerating quickly enough. The screen showed Commander Johnson taking manual control of the spacecraft and engaging the emergency thrusters. Then all of the screens went black.
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
But we all knew there would not be any further updates.
It is a story with four main characters, told through their own eyes, and each facing their own challenges.
The year is 2038 and Ryan (the son) is an astronaut candidate with NASA, hoping to be one of the crew members selected for a future mission to Mars. There are numerous obstacles to overcome to make the six month journey there, achieve the goals of the mission, and then make the return trip back home to earth. Emma (the girlfriend) has her own goals in life and has to decide what she's willing to sacrifice to be with Ryan. Lori (Ryan's mother) has faith that her son will achieve his goals, but is facing her own challenging journey. Matt (Ryan's father) is an engineer who is coming to the realization that there are some things in life that he can't fully understand and fix, no matter how hard he tries, and sometimes you just have to have faith.
Chapter 1
Houston, Texas
March, 2038
Ryan (the son)
As I stepped through the doors into the enormous presentation room, I realized I was embarrassingly early. The room was set up like a movie theatre, with a large screen at the front with about twenty rows of padded seats arranged in a semi-circle, slowly ascending to the entrance where I stood. I felt conspicuous standing there, so I quickly made my way to a seat.
I looked around and saw there were only three other people in the room, and they seemed to be the ones setting up the presentation. One of them caught my eye and started navigating his way down the row toward me.
“You must be our latest ASCAN,” he said.
I started to get out of my chair to greet him. “Sir?”
“ASCAN. Astronaut candidate. We really should have picked a better acronym, but it’s pretty much cast in stone now.” He held out his hand. “I’m Brian Duke, Head of Selection and Development for astronaut candidates.”
I distinctly remembered him from the last round of interviews I’d had, but I wasn’t sure he’d remember me. He’d let the other panelists ask all of the questions during the interviews, but it had been quite clear that he was the one in charge.
“You must me Beam,” he said.
“Yes sir, Ryan Beam.” As I shook his hand, I quickly realized how much power and control can be realized in such a simple gesture.
He waved for me to sit down and then sat in the seat beside me. “Sorry I wasn’t there to meet you on your first day. I trust my assistant, Judy, got you off on the right track.”
“Yeah, she was great. She gave me my schedule for the first three days. I didn’t realize how many medical tests there’d be at the start.”
He grimaced. “I think our doctors here like to start the poking and prodding as soon as you step through the door. Sometimes I think they enjoy it a little too much.” He gave my arm a reassuring pat. “So, have you found a place to stay here in Houston yet?”
“No, not yet. Judy arranged for me stay with one of the other astronauts, Tom Fitzgerald, for a little while until I get my own place and my stuff gets shipped down from Canada.”
“Glad to hear that. Tef’s a good guy and he’ll help you get oriented. He’s only about four months ahead of you in the program, so he’ll remember what it’s like being a new candidate. When’s your stuff supposed to arrive?”
“Probably in a couple of weeks. My parents are heading to Saskatchewan today to pack up my stuff and ship it down to me. Tef said there’s an apartment coming available in his building at the beginning of April, so the timing might work out great.”
“Just make sure you keep track of all of your expenses and submit them to Judy.”
I nodded my agreement. I didn’t know whether to tell my new boss about my girlfriend, Emma, because we’d never really decided whether she was coming down to Houston with me or not. We’d been going out for about ten months, so we were in that awkward stage of determining how serious our relationship was. I was tempted to ask Emma to come with me, but then realized she’d be left almost entirely on her own because my new job would mean long, exhausting days with little time left over for her. The guilt of having her follow me to Houston and then be miserable was something I didn’t think I could bear. On the other hand, I knew she was different than the other women I’d dated and I didn’t want my new job to be the cause of our breakup. I secretly hoped she would make the decision for us.
The doors at the back of the presentation center opened and a few more people streamed in. Looking around, I realized about a dozen people had slipped in while Duke and I were talking.
“I should get back to work,” Duke said. “We’ll be getting started soon.” He shook my hand again as he got out of his chair. “Nice meeting you, Ryan. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”
I watched him head down to the front of the room where he appeared to be giving instructions to the technicians. As I looked to my right, I felt the vibration as someone sat down in the seat on my left. It was Tef.
“Hey Ryan. Been here long?”
“No,” I lied. I didn’t want him to know how much of a keener I was.
“I see you finally got your badge,” he said as he grabbed the ID I had hanging around my neck. “Sweet Jesus, did they take this picture while they were doing your colonoscopy?”
I quickly pulled by ID back from his hand. My badge had my name, RYAN ANDREW BEAM, in big block letters underneath my picture, which definitely had a “deer in the headlights” look to it. My dirty blond hair and pale skin made me look like I should be in a body bag.
“Alright, let’s see yours,” I said as I grabbed his badge. THOMAS EDWARD FITZGERALD. His picture looked like it had been taken by a professional photographer. His dark brown hair and tanned skin made him look like a taller version of Tom Cruise from the Top Gun movie. “You must have paid someone to Photoshop it,” I said as I let the elastic strap quickly snap the badge back toward his chest.
“Don’t you have an old photograph that you could ask them to use on your ID?” Tef asked.
I pulled out my cell phone and started scrolling through the photo gallery to see if there was a suitable picture.
“Whoa, who’s that?” Tef said as he grabbed my phone.
“That’s me and my girlfriend, Emma.”
“How’d a guy as butt-ugly as you get a girl like that?”
It was something I’d wondered a few times myself. Emma’s short blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and athletic build turned a lot of heads when she walked into a room. The picture was one that had been taken of us when we were hiking, one of our favorite activities.
“Do you think it would work if I cropped my head-shot out of that picture and asked them to use it on my ID?” I asked.
Tef enlarged the photo on the phone, frowned, and handed the phone back to me. “Keep scrolling,” he said. “There’s got to be a better one.” He nudged my shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You older guys are just not as photogenic. I hear the skin starts getting a little saggy once you hit thirty.”
I tried to ignore the insult. It was true, that at thirty-four, I was one of the older astronaut candidates, but I figured my maturity was one of the reasons I was selected. Besides, Tef would be hitting the big three-oh in a couple of years himself.
Our sparring was interrupted by Commander Duke stepping onto the stage at the front of the room.
“Good morning, everyone. I’d just like to say a few words before the main event gets underway and explain what you’re going to be seeing today. The main screen behind me will be showing the audio and video of our Mars landing that will be same feed seen by the general public.”
Commander Duke pointed to some of the other displays. “The two monitors on the left side of the big screen will show the view of the control panel as seen by Commander Johnson as he navigates the lander down to the surface of Mars. It will be of special interest to those of you who might be sitting in his chair in future missions.”
“The two displays on the right side will show the view of the control panel as seen by Commander Thompson, who is in charge of lowering the payload to the surface of Mars. Again, this will be of interest to those of you who might be sitting in his chair in future missions. I’d like to point out this will be the largest and heaviest payload we’ve ever tried to land on Mars, which will become the base for future labs built on the Mars surface. So take a deep breath, because the excitement will be starting shortly.”
There was a brief round of applause as the commander left the stage. As I looked around, I could see the room was now filled with a mixture of young and old astronauts, some who had already been in space several times, and some, like me, who were still in training. I wondered if the others felt as nervous as I did.
The main screen suddenly came to life and I heard a voice that reminded me of Siri on my phone.
“This is NASA control. MarsLander-1 will soon be beginning its descent to the Mars surface. It launched from Cape Canaveral just under seven months ago to begin its journey of 480 million kilometers to Mars. Current speed of the spacecraft is approximately 20,000 kilometers per hour. Stand by for further updates.”
The room went silent and everyone’s focus turned to the screens.
“MarsLander-1 is now entering Mars atmosphere, which is about one percent of that on Earth, but it still generates enormous heat as the spaceship travels through it. The spaceship is protected by a heat shield during this stage of the descent.”
The image displayed on the screen showed what looked like a fire-ball travelling through the sky.
“They’ve just entered the seven minutes of terror,” Tef whispered to me.
I tried to imagine myself sitting in that rocket ship, trusting that the engineering would protect me. It seemed to go on forever.
“We are preparing for the straighten up and fly right manoeuver, where the spacecraft will jettison the entry balance masses in preparation for parachute deployment and roll over to give the radar a better look at the surface.”
There was a pause of several seconds.
“Parachute deployed. We are seeing significant deceleration and the spacecraft is currently travelling at 650 meters per second.”
The main screen was now displaying the view from the back of the spacecraft. There was an immediate buzz in the room because we could all see that the parachute was spinning wildly as it appeared that one side of it had a tear in it. The smaller screens showing the astronaut’s control panels showed multiple lights flashing red.
“Heat shield separated.”
The main screen showed the heat shield falling away from the Mars lander.
“Current speed is 600 meters per second at an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers.”
“That’s way too fast,” Tef said.
“Houston Control is reporting a problem controlling the speed of descent of the spacecraft. Automated control attempting corrective action. Current speed is 550 meters per second at an altitude of approximately six kilometers.”
“Take manual control!” someone shouted from the audience. I turned, but didn’t see who yelled it.
Suddenly the main screen went black. The other smaller displays remained active and we could all see that the spacecraft was not decelerating quickly enough. The screen showed Commander Johnson taking manual control of the spacecraft and engaging the emergency thrusters. Then all of the screens went black.
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
“Awaiting further updates from the spacecraft.”
But we all knew there would not be any further updates.
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