America One: War of the Worlds Read Free

daughter was on duty as Captain.
    “You sure can’t get claustrophobic in this fish bowl,” added her mother, her parents arm in arm and helping each other to walk.
    Slowly the “OldGeners” arrived. There was no rush, but the smell of freshly brewed coffee from the cafeteria above tempted the recovering crewmembers to hurry up.
    Commander Mars Noble entered helping his mother Suzi, who had said very little since she was revived in the cryogenic chambers two days earlier. As usual, and due to her permanent paralysis below her waist, she did not wear her prosthetic legs, and floated in with the guidance of her son.
    VIN Noble was behind them, and Lunar was quite shocked how young he looked compared to his son. Father and son only looked around fifteen years difference in age.
    “Guten tag all,” stated Suzi smiling at Lunar while she greeted the Bridge. Suzi was still amazed how all these teenagers she had left only a few days ago, it seemed, had all grown up. Lunar, like Mars and Maggie’s daughter Saturn were now adults, had children of their own, and she felt left out that she hadn’t attended the wedding of her only son to Saturn.
    “I think I could work in this Bridge for the foreseeable future,” stated VIN looking around in awe. “And this is your domain son?” he asked Mars.
    “Well for the time being, and until you want to fight me for the position of ‘Head of Security’, Dad,” smiled Mars. “The laser command center is far more complicated than you used aboard America One , but we could always arm wrestle for it.”
    VIN had been told by his son about the loss of Mars’ right arm, the same arm he himself had lost years earlier in the first Matt attack on Mars, and like boys, they had inspected each other’s metal right arms to see which one could respond to the mental commands from the brain. Mars’ more modern arm, made only a couple of years earlier down in Nevada, seemed to work better than his father’s, which was two decades old.
    Igor was helped in by Jenny Burgos on one side and her older sister Jane on the other. Poor Igor still looked pale and even though he didn’t feel up to it, there was no way he was going to miss the first briefing on the Bridge.
    Vitalily and Boris entered together looking like they had just awakened. They marveled at the Bridge, its size and the large view of space.
    Allen and Jamie Saunders entered with Michael and Penny Pitt. The astronauts looked better than poor Igor, and all four walked in unattended.
    Dr. Rogers and Nurse Martha were helped in by Shelly Saunders and Hillary Pitt. Both medics had been impressed at the medical service they had received from Dr. Nancy’s Personal Assistants, and told the growing group. Dr. Rogers had always been a softy for cakes and Danishes, often present with the pouches of coffee at these meetings, and couldn’t help himself heading over to the area where the snacks were floating on display.
    “Sorry, Doc” stated Lunar as she watched Dr. Rogers do his usual thing, helped over by Shelly Saunders “Made on earth, but frozen for the journey. We haven’t really tested the onboard kitchens for fresh cakes.”
    Finally the Jones family entered with Max Von Braun, one of the younger “OldGen” mechanics who hadn’t been asleep, and for the first time the young “NextGen” crew could see the real age difference between crewmembers of the same era.
    Max, the build crew member who had helped Mars Noble out of his crashed Matt spaceship on the red planet helped in his secret buddy Jonesy. They belonged to a secret society aboard ship few knew about.
    Jonesy still had trouble controlling his legs, but it looked like they were getting stronger. What was surprising to Mars and Lunar was that Max had been one of the young members of the crew who had headed out in America One on the odyssey decades earlier. At that time he had been 35 years younger than Jonesy. Now the age difference had changed to just 20 years, and the