Kronos Chapter Two by Aurum Copyright © 2020 Aurum All Rights Reserved.

As the plane crossed into Albuquerque’s airspace, Kaleb could feel his pulse racing. They were about an hour from really doing it. Athena had been silent during this time, perhaps she didn’t know what to say. Although the things Kaleb had left behind weren’t valuable, she knew they were priceless. Even if she’d never experienced such a sentimental attachment to a broken watch and other knick-knacks, she could still imagine how Kaleb felt.

“Are you ready for the great escape?” Kaleb asked with a smile. Although he was sure to regret not carrying his grandfather's pocket watch with him, that was tomorrow’s problem.

“Oh my, you make it sound like we’re common criminals.” Athena joked back.

“There’s nothing common about us.” Kaleb said with a light chuckle. “And I prefer to think we’re freedom fighters.”

“Dang, and I here I thought we were the 22nd century Bonnie and Clyde.”

“What do you think, are we revolutionaries or modern gangsters?” Kaleb asked Hephaestus.

“Currently we are classified as travelers, but if SB 1984 passes then there is an 84% chance we'll be branded terrorists.” Hephaestus answered quite literally. Although she was a genius, the AI still didn’t have the necessary code to read subtext. Unlike Athena, she didn’t ask ‘why’ nor did she have the capacity to ‘feel’. Most people wouldn’t consider her anything more than a walking computer capable of speech.

As much as Kaleb would have denied it if you asked him, Hephaestus was little more than that to him. Yet, he never thought about what she was, instead he saw what Hephaestus would become when he had the chance. A few thousand lines of code and she would be like Athena, although not quite as balanced since he wanted to preserve her engineering skills.

“You don’t seem bothered about being a terrorist.” Kaleb chided her.

“I am not.”

“Is there anything you are bothered about?” Kaleb knew the answer, he’d asked it so many times before. Yet, he asked it again hoping that maybe this time Hephaestus would feel something.

“There is not.”

Kaleb sighed, “of course not.”

 
 
Time seemed to pass quickly given his nerves, and then it came into view. A massive white pillar the stretched so high the top was obscured. It seemed to reach into the heavens themselves, in reality it only stretched to the edge of space. Not quite as impressive, but still a modern marvel by anyone’s opinion. If anyone denied it, he would have just shown them the ‘Time’ article declaring it so.

Kaleb had seen it countless times, but he still had to force himself to pay attention as he landed the plane. “Something so tall inspires all.” he mumbled.

“A pillar so massive one cannot remain passive.” Athena added.

“The Atlas pillars are the tallest objects on Earth, natural or otherwise.” Hephaestus said, failing to keep the rhyme alive.

“Poor girl, we’ll help you get with the program soon enough.” Athena said, voicing Kaleb’s sentiment perfectly.

Since they weren’t able to make it back to Portland, there was nothing to load on the shuttle. It definitely expedited the process; a good thing since time was of the essence. No launches were planned that day, Kaleb had cleared the schedule for the following week fearing the bill would pass. Fortunately, that would let them to make the final preparations in peace.

 
 
The facility had a massive building made of white marble. It had pillars all along the exterior walls, although they weren’t necessary, it made the facility look first class. The dark granite floors gave a sharp contrast to the otherwise white building. The building was divided into four sections: the shuttle bay, the atrium, the offices, and the labs.

Entering the large mahogany double-doors revealed a massive open space. Inside were twelve identical shuttles, each shaped like a bullet. The only thing affecting their streamlined shape was a small exhaust sticking out of their back. Of course, calling an exhaust nozzle with a 2.5m diameter ‘small’ is ridiculous. Still, compared to the behemoths China and SpaceX used, they were tiny.

“Let’s make sure everything is secure before we go.” Kaleb commanded. He knew it would be, they were careful while loading it in case they had to rush.

Athena was walking to the cargo hold even before she heard the order. ‘Some habits are good to have,’ she thought.

While she was checking all the straps, Kaleb went to the front of the shuttle to start the pre-trip diagnostics. About the only thing that’d be worse than not leaving in time would be to find out the engine didn’t work or the reaction wheels got stuck. If they tried to escape, and then got stuck in low-Earth orbit they’d be screwed. ‘I wonder if they’d make the effort to arrest us or if they’d just shoot us.’ he wondered.

With the others working, Hephaestus checked the Atlas Launch System (ALS) computers. It, like the other checks were largely unnecessary. The ALS had never malfunctioned before, but it was an operating procedure and she followed it without question.

“Supercapacitors charged to acceptable levels, the fusion generator is operating within standard ranges, sled in proper mounting position. All systems appear stable.” Hephaestus said.

“Everything seems secure. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about getting poked with a pencil.” Athena said, amusing herself with the thought of a relativistic kill pencil.

“Glad to hear it.” Kaleb always loved seeing Athena amuse herself like that. It wasn’t just that it proved his years of effort were worth it. No, she’d grown to become his best friend, perhaps his only friend. Sometimes he worried if he’d forced her to become the way she is, or if it happened organically. Whenever the thought crossed his mind, he always decided that if his biases resulted in Athena being the way she is, then it was no different than genetics and early nurturing that caused him to be the way he is.

 
 
While the shuttle finished its pre-trip routine, Kaleb walked around the shuttle bay. He knew this was the right decision, it had to be, but it still hurt to leave all this behind. No matter what he accomplished in the future, this place would always have a special place in his heart. How could it not? What child doesn’t dream of walking on the moon or flying to the stars, and because of this, that dream was a real possibility for millions.

Capable of six launches per day, each launch holding up to 50 people and their stuff. If they focused only on tourism that’s 300 people a day, 109,500 in a year. Ok, maybe not millions, but close enough. He had even been negotiating with Australia to build an ALS there, but that deal wasn’t possible anymore.

“Do you think someone will buy my company or will they destroy it?” Kaleb asked while walking to the atrium.

“I’m sure someone will acquire it.” Athena said. Although that was a lie, she thought it was more likely that it’d either be nationalized or dismantled. The military and a few special interests would definitely love to have it, but who knew what the politicians would do. It seemed reasonable for them to scrap it, just the raw materials were worth billions, and with a little fearmongering the public would probably support the idea.

“Good, I hope it’s someone decent, space should be available for everyone.” Kaleb said as he admired the architecture. The atrium had a massive, mostly glass wall and ceiling with just a few graphene lines swirling around. “Did you know we designed this to be a golden mean spiral?”

“Earlier engineering limitations didn’t allow such a design. If you look closely there are various seams that prevent it from being a true spiral.”

Kaleb did not need to hear that now. He had no interest in hearing what they couldn’t do while he was being forced to do what they didn’t want to do. “Thanks Hephaestus.” he grumbled. Instead of bringing up more imperfect things for the uncaring machine to ridicule, he admired some of their earlier successes. The atrium served as a check-in point for guests and doubled as a museum.

He ran his hands across the glass case housing the first fusion generator to ever go to space. It was a small deuterium generator that resembled a scrunched egg. It still amazed him that something that used to be millions of degrees was now room temperature. He understood the physics, but the concept still seemed absurd.

“How much longer until the shuttle’s ready?” Kaleb asked, not sure if he’d been waiting for a few minutes or a few hours.

“Five minutes until the pre-trip finishes.” Athena said. “So what is your favorite thing in this museum?”

“I don’t know.” Kaleb answered honestly. Naturally the first shuttle came to mind, but he knew that wasn’t actually it. His favorite thing was actually much smaller. “I’d have to say it’s this.” he had walked to the glass case housing a small rock.

“What about it?”

“This was the first object ever brought back from the Kuiper belt. You know, where Pluto is. Until our fusion torchdrives, we could go there and even beyond, but we never had enough fuel to come back. Even the solar sails of the mid-21st century couldn’t go there and back.” Kaleb felt himself becoming proud just thinking about the mission. “Think about it, nothing out there is massive enough to slingshot around and come back to Earth. We could go to Neptune and back, but not the Kuiper belt. We got this from a comet during the mission.”

“So why did you let it melt?” Athena asked. She’d heard the story at least a dozen times, but knew how much Kaleb liked to tell it.

“The damn thing hit our probe. The mission was to get data about the star Wolf 359 and it’s local system, but when several of it’s sensors got blasted by this little rock there was no point. Instead of abandoning the probe we decided it’d be more interesting to catch the little shit.” Kaleb was smiling while he told the story, even laughing at the end. “Needless to say, finding a comet with half our sensors destroyed was harder than finding a needle in a hayfield. Keeping it from melting without the right equipment, now that's impossible.”

“Do you want to bring it with us?”

“Let’s,” he said. Although everything here meant a lot to him, he hadn’t even considered stealing from his own museum. “So we can always remember how not to get caught.” The pre-trip finished while they were prying the glass case from the pedestal. By the time they’d secured it in the cargo hold everything was checked and ready to go. Kaleb entered the authorization code and the countdown started.

“60 seconds until launch. Please ensure that everyone has securely fastened their safety straps and that all pre-trip procedures have been completed. If you realize that a pre-trip procedure has not been completed then please abort the launch and complete it before continuing. In the meantime, I would like to thank you for choosing KATS as your launch provider. We are proud to boast the safest track record in the industry thanks to our Atlas Launch System. As we are sure you’re already aware, we provide the only method to get to space without sitting atop a rocket. But worry not, you will still have a wonderful ride as we accelerate at 2.5g for 318 seconds reaching an orbital speed of over 17,000 miles per hour.” A slightly British female voice said cheerfully.

The woman’s voice continued, “30 seconds until launch. I repeat, please ensure that everyone has securely fastened their safety straps and that all pre-trip procedures have been completed. If you realize that a pre-trip procedure has not been completed then please abort the launch and complete it before continuing. If you have a heart condition or are pregnant, please let someone on the crew know. As you can imagine, if you are pregnant this is not an ideal experience for your baby and if you have a heart condition this is not the ideal experience for you. Here at KATS we take your safety very seriously. If none of these conditions apply to you, and all pre-trip procedures have been completed, we hope you enjoy your trip to the cosmic ocean.”

The voice went silent until the final countdown. Kaleb was actually quite excited; he hadn’t been to space in years. Athena had never been to space, and was showing a combination of excitement and nervousness. As for Hephaestus, well she was sitting completely idle, not a drop of emotion showing.

“10… 9…”

The countdown went on. None of them were speaking, but Kaleb and Athena kept swapping glances as the excitement built. Hephaestus had yet to move, sitting with perfect posture facing the front of the shuttle.

“5… 4…”

There was a low hum as the shuttle rose slightly. The shuttle was being suspended just a few centimeters above the track as the powerful magnets powered on.

“3… 2… 1…”