For
several years I did a Weekly Story where I – I bet you can’t guess – wrote a
story each week. They were usually
prompted by something that happened that week, like a political scandal or some
holiday. For the week of January 27,
2008, I wrote “Always With Us.” It is a story set in my Human Republic Universe
that remembers the astronauts who died in Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967. The original story is still on my website,
but below is a slightly revised version.
For
the week of January 26, 2014, I wrote “Two Apples for the Teacher” in
remembrance of schoolteacher McAuliffe who died in the Challenger accident
January 28, 1986. The website I had
posted that on is no longer around, so below is a slightly revised version.
I’ve
stopped doing my Weekly Stories, but hopefully someday I’ll be prompted to
write stories dealing with the Columbia accident of February 1, 2003, as well
as the Soyuz 1 accident of April 24, 1967, and Soyuz 11 accident of June 30,
1971.
“Always
With Us”
Afterwards,
many of the crews claimed the get-together was their idea, but really, anyone
with a calendar and basic math skills could have figured it out. Regardless of
who had the idea first, on January 27, 2167, three research vessels met in an
empty – but convenient – sector of space to mark the 200th anniversary of the
deaths of their namesakes. To make the meeting, the crew of the Virgil Grissom
– along with half-a-dozen Pentan scientists – broke away from cataloging the
primitive life forms on Angaraka. The Edward White II stopped mapping the
heliopause – where Sol’s influence finally yielded to interstellar space – and
the Roger Chaffee left off the mining survey of Sigma Ceti’s Oort Cloud.
The
three ships docked, and friendships were renewed or started. A short memorial
was held for their long lost comrades, speeches were made, and vast amounts of
food and alcohol were consumed; few of the crews went to bed alone that night.
But
one who stayed alone and missed most of the partying was the Captain of the Grissom,
Amuis. She had taken the watch so her crew could enjoy the festivities, and sat
on her bridge with only a bottle of Hades Beer as company. While her eyes
stared at the main viewer – which showed the ship’s status superimposed upon
the distant stars – her thoughts roamed over the past two centuries.
“I
thought I would find you here.”
She
was so caught up in her thoughts that Amuis had not heard John – the lead
Pentan scientist – roll onto the bridge in his space tank. She frowned at the
alien in his aquarium on wheels and said, “We should put a bell on that.”
Through
the clear front plate she could see John’s skin turn from the normal deep blue
to a confused green. “A bell?” he asked through his translator. “What for?”
Despite
her slight annoyance at being disturbed, Amuis had to smile. “It’s a common
threat adults make – at least it was with my mother – to keep kids from
sneaking around.” She then gave a large smile to show John she was only joking,
and was glad to see the green fade and be replaced by the scarlet speckles of
laughter.
“I
understand,” he said.
Amuis
nodded and asked, “So, why were you looking for me?”
“I
was recording my report on today’s activities and I had a few questions. Most
of the crew is otherwise engaged,” Amuis had to smile at that, “but I assumed
you would be here.”
Amuis
shook her head and took a sip of beer. For the past week the Pentans had been …
interrogating was too strong a word but it fit … the humans as to the meaning
and purpose of the celebration. The humans had even started a pool as to how
long the Pentans would keep asking about it; Amuis had twelve days. “Ask away.”
“After
the events of today, do you feel closer to the men you honored?”
She
was going to answer with an emphatic “Yes,” but she stopped herself. After a moment’s
thought she said, “I think they’ve always been close, just lost in the
multitude of countless others. But today, the spotlight was on them, so they
seemed closer.”
Turning
back to the viewer Amuis continued, “Before you came in I was thinking how
different, far-away their world was. At that point in time, humans hadn’t even
been to the moon.” Spreading her hands she said, “Now look at it. I’m a
third-generation Martian exploring the stars.” After a brief pause she added,
“And I’m sharing my thoughts with an alien.” Again John’s skin was covered in
scarlet speckles.
“Now,”
Amuis asked, “may I ask you a question?”
“Of
course.”
“Is
there anyone from the distant Pentan past you feel close too? Someone you would
like to honor?”
There
was just enough room inside his tank for John to swim in a tight circle. After
several laps he stopped and spoke. “For several of your centuries after we
first left our planet, we were confined to our star system. We knew if we were
to survive our star becoming a red giant we ourselves would have to leave. We
spent several decades hollowing out an asteroid and turning it into a
generational starship. However, before it could be launched our scientists made
the breakthrough of tunnel technology. Our great generational starship was made
obsolete.”
“What
happened to it?”
“For
many centuries it was used as an ecological testbed, until the structure began
to fail.” John swam around his tank a few more times. “I have often wondered
about my ancestors who were willing to set off to the stars, knowing they could
never return but also never to reach their destination. I must admit, it is an
alien concept to me.”
For
several moments, neither said anything. Then John said, “You should know, many
Pentans were worried that our contacting you would shatter your society. We
knew how long it took us to, as you say, come to grips with our technology and
many doubted you could handle the sudden change. However, we are amazed at how
far Humanity has come since we first discovered your species. You have done
more in a century then we did in a thousand years. There is no telling what the
future holds for you. Those men have worthy descendants.”
Amuis
smiled. “Such praise, coming from a species building themselves a new
homeworld.”
John’s
skin speckled in a grin. “Building a new world is easy. We only take pride in
that we are willing to see the eleven thousand year project through.”
“So,”
Amuis sipped her beer, “your generation starship was not in vain. It was just
the first version of your new homeworld.”
“Indeed
it was.”
“Where
is it now?” she asked. “Could we visit it? See how it’s faired over the
millennia?”
“I’m
afraid not,” John answered. “It was one of the first asteroids we collided
together to form the core of our new homeworld.”
Amuis
nodded and sipped her beer. “It will always be with you.”
John’s
skin took on a tinge of white sadness. “Indeed it will.”
After
a few moments, Amuis left her chair and knelt before John’s space tank. “Grab a
shrimp,” she told him. With his skin again a confused green, he reached into a
tiny cage and brought out one tiny, blue shrimp. Amuis held her beer bottle
against the front plate and after a second John mirrored the gesture with the
shrimp. “A toast,” Amuis said, “to those that will always be with us, no matter
what.”
“Two
Apples for the Teacher”
The news
anchor glanced down at his desktop then looked back at the audience. “And finally, in the last few decades the
robotic exploration of asteroids has become rather commonplace with missions
currently launching about once a week.
While most of the probes scout for resources to be mined or asteroids to
be colonized, some are for pure education.
Here with a story about one such probe, is TYN’s space correspondent
Robyn Spector onboard the Alexandria Space Station.”
The
view switched to a young woman floating before a window looking down on the
night side of Earth. There were a
scattering of city lights, but more prominent were the constant flickering of
lightning in vast thunderstorms.
Robyn
smiled and began, “In the mid-1980s, the American space agency NASA started a
Teacher in Space program. The idea was
to invigorate the country’s school children by having a teacher teach lesson
plans from orbit. This happens every day
now, but this was back before there were twenty crewed space stations orbiting
the planet and a lunar base. This was
even before the internet. Some of our
viewers may have to ask their grandparents what that world was like.
“The
schoolteacher chosen to go on the mission was Sharon Christa McAuliffe.” A
photo of a young woman in a blue flight suit holding a model of the space
shuttle appeared while Robyn continued to speak. “Sadly, she was never able to teach a class
from orbit.”
The
photograph of Mrs. McAuliffe was replaced by a video clip of a space shuttle
launching. “Shortly after the Space
Shuttle Challenger launched on January 28, 1986, a series of engineering
failures caused it to disintegrate, killing Mrs. McAuliffe and the other six
astronauts onboard.” The video clip reached its tragic end.
Robyn
returned to the screen. “After the
accident, all seven of the astronauts onboard received various honors: schools
and streets across America were renamed to honor them, and various planetary
features like craters were named after them.
Also named after all seven astronauts were asteroids.
“Asteroid
3352 McAuliffe was discovered in 1981.” Animated views of the asteroid’s orbit
and composition began playing, along with a few images. “It is an Amor Asteroid,” Robyn continued,
“crossing the orbit of Mars. More
interesting is that it is a very rare A-Type Asteroid, representing the mantel
of a differentiated parent body. At last
count, there were only 137 A-Type Asteroids known, and only one – 2021 DJ114 –
has been visited by spacecraft, and that was only with a flyby.
“So
last year when Lilium Space Systems decided to launch a probe to conduct an
in-depth study of an A-Type Asteroid, they chose 3352 McAuliffe. Deciding to honor the memory of Mrs.
McAuliffe, they let school children vote on the names of the crawler probes the
orbiting probe named Challenger would land on the asteroid: they picked Sharon
and Christa.”
The
animation switched to show the projected mission. “The Challenger probe is set to go into orbit
of 3352 McAuliffe in about an hour-and-a-half.
It will then begin a two month mission to map the 2.3 by 1.6 by 0.9
kilometer asteroid. With this
information – and some oversight from professionals – school children will then
decide where to land Sharon and Christa.
Once on the surface, the children will then control the probes as they
conduct their scientific studies. It’s
very possible that by this time next year, several scientific papers concerning
this rare type of asteroid will have been written by school children. Isabelle Ferry, CEO of Lilium Space Systems,
stated that, ‘Having school children be involved in missions like this is great
hands on training for the next generation of space engineers. And any mission going to 3352 McAuliffe had
to involve school children. That’s a no
brainer,’ she added.”
The
view returned to a smiling Robyn. The
space station had moved over to the day lit side of Earth, and behind her now
was the deep blue of ocean. “The two
crawler probes Sharon and Christa aren’t arriving empty handed. Engraved onto each one is an apple for the
teacher. Lilium Space Systems hope that
Mrs. McAuliffe would have approved.”
Nodding
her head – which caused her pony tail to float into view – Robyn finished with
“This is Robyn Spector onboard the Alexandra Space Station.”
