America One: War of the Worlds Read Free Page A

crew could easily see the lessor age difference between the two men.
    Other than Max, there were none of the OldGeners aboard who hadn’t been to sleep.
    Jonesy looked well compared to two days earlier. Saturn, and Max Von Braun, surprisingly to Lunar, ran around the astronaut doting on him like nurses. She had never seen her friend Saturn in this state before. Saturn got him a cup of coffee, then a Danish, then began to look after her mother. Jonesy was then offered a second Danish by Max, and Lunar thought to ask Jonesy what his secret was.
    “Crew of Astermine, young, old, and not so old,” joked Ryan as everybody got what they wanted and sat around the Bridge full of crew. “First I want to thank our children, our Astermine children who returned to wake us parents. I want to thank young Max and his crew for looking after our children in our absence. At least we are still loved enough for our kids to come and get us, or, we are really needed down there on earth.”
    To Mars Noble, it seemed that Ryan seemed jollier than he had done in the past, and with the more senior members of the crew back he said nothing. Ryan had gone through a lot of personal hell on the red planet before he had gone to sleep.
    “It seems that we old fogies have really been asleep for fourteen years. I still can’t believe it, and now understand the surprises on the Matt faces when they found a new breed of people looking at them after centuries of sleep.”
    “If we had slept any longer, Saturn could have been older than me,” mumbled Jonesy enjoying his coffee.
    “Maybe we should have let you sleep another round or two partner,” remarked VIN Noble. “You were always grumpy when you woke up on our mining expeditions.”
    Saturn gave her father-in-law a mean stare, and VIN grinned at her and winked. VIN Noble, a Jones expert, wasn’t going to stand for any of the usual Jones family theatricals.
    “Thank you, as usual Mr. Jones,” added Ryan. He felt happy. Everybody had survived, it was good to see all the crew at their new ages of maturity, and the sleep must have done him good as he could put up with the Jones circus for a little while longer. “Lunar, that new shuttle, SB-IV is fantastic, so is this new mother ship. Kudos to you NextGeners…all of you. I saw a second new shuttle docked when we came in. How many ships does Astermine now have operational?’ he asked his daughter.
    “ America Two , SB-IV the shuttle that lifted you off the asteroid, her twin sister SB-V which brought up our new build crew last week, SB-I, II and III , Astermine I and II , and of course Asterspace III ,” Lunar replied.
    “Come now children, bring us up to date on everything please,” stated Suzi.
    “A good idea,” replied Ryan. “Lunar you have the floor, I’m dying for another cup of coffee, Kathy if you please?”
    For an hour, Lunar spoke to the crew about what had happened in their absence. She spent half of her time explaining how Dr. Nancy and Captain Pete had saved their own lives by returning to earth in Ryan’s office no less, and how they were nothing more than a stationary blip of their radars screens when they were found. Then she gave the floor to Mars Noble as Head of Security.
    Mars explained his angle of the fourteen years—the journeys to the red planet, the loss of his right arm, the caves he had found, what he had seen in the caves, and what he thought he had seen.
    “Running water?” asked Igor. “That’s impossible.”
    “As impossible as finding liquid water in Endeavor Crater, Igor?” suggested Jonesy.
    “A warm underground temperature? Matts in blue spacesuits, and without helmets?” Ryan asked.
    “Did you see any green plants in their habitat?” asked Suzi.
    “We will find out on our next journey to The Martian Club Retreat,” replied Mars Noble. “Look at what we have underground in our own base. We have crops, food, we have outdoor crops under the blue shields, and the gravity on the red planet