Tuesday 23 February 2016

SOME MORE FROM THE PAGES OF 'REACH FOR MARS.' :

I couldn’t help it. I jumped to my feet, grabbed Dick’s hand, and shook it warmly while patting his shoulder,
“Good man! That is exactly what you and I are going to attempt to do.”
Courtney burst into tears. I looked down at her and then over at Melissa, but she was sitting there staring quietly down at her coffee mug. Nick stood up, walked over, and refilled his coffee mug.
“Drew and Richard, could I talk to you on the flight deck for a minute? We’ll be back shortly, ladies.”
Then he led the way to the flight deck and dropped into his chair as I dropped into mine. Dick leaned against the dashboard. Nick produced his flask and sweetened our coffees.
“Nine months in space? That is too dangerous. The odds against succeeding and surviving this mission just got astronomically too high. I do have an idea that may reduce the odds to acceptable levels, but you may think me mad.”
“That’s never stopped you before.”
“That’s true, Drew, and thank you for that remark!”
He looked out the flight deck windows and said,
“What about taking one of those?”
Richard and I followed his gaze, but all we could see was the Martian starships parked opposite us on the other side of the taxiway.

“You’re absolutely right, Nick. We do think you’re mad. For one thing, we don’t know if they’re even capable of flight—if they were, then why didn’t the Martians take them when they cleared out? We don’t know if they have fuel in them, and we can’t check because we don’t know what a Martian fuel gauge looks like, and even if we knew we don’t know what fuel they use. Oh, and we don’t know where the filler cap is, or how to open it either.”

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